Green entrepreneurship is the activity of consciously addressing environmental and social problems and
need and coming up with brilliant innovative entrepreneurial ideas that will bring a solution to them.
Do you already was thinking to become a green entrepreneur?
They view the villagers as the solution, not the passive beneficiary.
They begin with the assumption of competence and unleash resources in the communities they’re serving.”
– David Bornstein,
Co-Founder of the Solutions Journalism Network & Author
You don’t have to have a degree in something, a lot of money in a bank account and maybe business experience to start on something that could be your next large success.
Still, you need a plan and an idea.
Imagine that you are your own boss, haven’t the usual working time from 09 am to 5 pm and meanwhile you give a contribution to the environment.
If you change your mind, come back again to the educational tool, we will try to help you succeed with your idea. :)
Ask yourself these questions:
Identifying the strengths and weaknesses and analyzing the opportunities and threats that flow from them SWOT Analysis is a useful technique that helps you do this.
SWOT stands for "strength, weakness, opportunity and threat" analysis.
The goal of a SWOT analysis is to evaluate the past, present, and future of your company or individual career goals.
Your personal statement for a vision leads your life and gives the direction needed to dictate the course of your days and the choices you make for your career.
If you have a personal vision, you will:
To become a social/green entrepreneur, you should be aware as much as possible about your current surroundings (also the perspective from nature as a human) and conditions for starting business and state of your inner selves as well.
Through this activity, you should discover to what extent your characteristics, values, and beliefs, attitudes, strengths, and weaknesses, but also, your focus and mindset, all together and each of them separately, match with your social business idea and set of necessary skills for leading a green business.
The final purpose is to increase self-awareness, which is the basics for unlocking the potential as a green entrepreneur.
Follow the PowerPoint presentation, where you can find directions and questions to make your self-awareness of the entrepreneurial characteristics.
Take the following quiz to assess how innovative you are:
A career plan is a practical strategy that allows you to determine your skills and interests, set career goals, and put actions in place that will help you reach them.
Social entrepreneurship is run by people called social entrepreneurs, who aim at solving social, cultural, or environmental issues, often without the need to make profit.
The ultimate goal of an entrepreneur is to create economic wealth, while the ultimate goal of the social entrepreneurs is to fulfill their social mission.
Green entrepreneur is someone who starts and runs an entrepreneurial venture that is designed to be green in its products and processes from the very moment it is set up.
To be able to solve a problem for someone, we have to fully understand their challenges. It is important to keep in mind that the people we want to design for often don't know how to define their problems themselves. Once you have a good understanding of what drives your users, you'll much more effectively generate ideas.
The first phase is about creating a common understanding about the challenge in your team. This might include sharing personal associations, stories and definitions as well as a basic desktop research and a first brainstorming about the subject. This phase is the starting point for opening up the mind for the challenge.
When you are building a social enterprise, it is very important to be informed about policy in your country and in general in Europe.
What are the trends regarding social entrepreneurship in your country and in general in World/ Europe?
Click:
On the following links you can see what types of social enterprises exist in your country:
Networking is not only about trading information, but also serves as an avenue to create long-term relationships with mutual benefits.
You may have some doubts about starting a social enterprise, so it would be good if you are informed about the good practices of the enterprises in your environment.
We are suggesting questions, that you might ask its representatives and be helpful, motivating for you.
What is this phase about?
The observation phase is all about learning more about the people and the context of the challenge. It creates the fundament of your ideas and the further process.
Why is this phase important?
Design Thinking is a human-centred design process. Humans are at the centre of our process. The research in the observation phase allows the team to understand the problems the people are facing and their context. It's the phase of opening the problem space.
Define the problem or opportunity.
Although this seems obvious, the more accurately you’re able to describe your current or perceived problem or opportunity, the better chances you have of actually generating useful ideas.
Before you start, try to gather as much information about the problem as possible to get to the heart of the problem. Identify what you already know about it and what information is still needed.
The social and economic mission of one social enterprise must stem from the society we are trying to support and strengthen. Social entrepreneurs see opportunities in the challenges. Be precise in the problem you choose to resolve and how you will achieve this in the line of work.
When you will be thinking about defining the mission, take a consideration the green aspects.
Market research questionnaires are answered by customers or potential consumers, to understand their perception and opinion on a given subject, typically about a product or service feasibility, understanding consumer needs and interests, and pricing concepts.
Following are samples of some of the market research questionnaires
An Empathy Map is just one tool that can help you empathise and synthesise your observations from the research phase, and draw out unexpected insights about your user's needs.
An Empathy Map allows us to sum up our learning from engagements with people in the field of design research.
Fulfil the matrix and take a moment to reflect.
Or you still have some doubts?
Continue on the next fields, it will help you in context and direction of the idea.
Eco design can be explained as an integral project activity in which the focus is on the designer/engineer that by making decisions for design is mainly lead by the consequences on the environment, taking into consideration all phases of the lifecycle: from extraction of raw materials to the moment of removing of the product.
In this field, you can gain new knowledge about:
✔ Term and need of eco design; Analysis of the lifespan of materials and their influence over the environment; Eco data
For further information, you can see the:
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(The role in social entrepreneurship)
Making sustainable community means trying to use renewable sources without giving any harm to environment and giving bad impact later.
In this field, you can gain new knowledge about:
Getting to know Sustainable development goals - SDG’s; Getting to know Sustainable development goals - SDG’s; How to take an action.
For further information, you can see the:
PowerPoint presentations: Presentation #1; Presentation #2; Presentation #3
Methods of Generating New Ideas:
Even with such a wide variety of sources available, it can still be problematic to come up with an idea to serve as the basis for a new venture. The entrepreneur can use several methods to help generate & test new ideas, such as:
For more information:
Tool aims to create a systematic discussion when analyzing a goal during workshops or training courses.
The tool is suitable for discussing various topics where a comprehensive approach is needed.
The main purpose of the tool is to stimulate discussion to achieve a certain goal by identifying the benefits and challenges and perceiving their impact from four different aspects: political, economic, social and environmental.
The tool is recommended for teamwork.
More information you can find on following link.
Business Analysis is popular to many company owners with the functions to analyze, examine data, and figure out the most appropriate plan or priority for the company to achieve their goals. There are several analytical tools used to support businessmen to perform a business analysis.
You can choose on which you will work.
Describe the outcome yourself.
What holds you back to achieve it? Are there many obstacles? Time? Strength? Lack of courage?
In ideation we open up our thinking again. It is about turning the problem statement into design opportunities and generating many ideas without constraints in a structured way. We filter and evaluate them at the end, we select ideas to pursue in the following prototyping phase. Ideation is very collaborative.
Addressing a problem without ideas is not possible. It is important to explore different directions and come up with multiple ways to solve a problem.
In accordance with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Cleaner Production is understood to mean: The continual application of an integrated environmental prevention strategy in processes, products and services, with the aim of reducing risks for humans and the environment, to increase the company's competitiveness and guarantee its economic viability.
For further information, you can see the Power Point presentations:
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Тhe goal of the activity is to explore the best practice on eco-designed products/ services and after that conduct analysis through working on the matrix, by downloading the pdf format or use the jam board.
* You can make analysis as well for your own product/ service that you would develop.
If you want to inform more about analysis of the lifespan of materials and their influence over the environment read more on:
What is your footprint calculator? How many planets does it take to support your lifestyles?
Web quiz that consists of four different chapters with questions about personal habits. The first is about food, the second is about transportation and traveling, the third is about energy use in the household and the last one is about saving money. However, at the end of each quiz you will find your personal footprint result.
Just be honest!😊
The three R's stands for: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. This rule is part of the waste hierarchy which is a process used to protect the environment and conserve resources through a priority approach. The aim is to get the most practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste.
Make an evaluation for your daily habits for caring for the environment, and following the 3 R principle (reduce, reuse and recycle). Based on these answers, you will out your own monthly plan for realization and implementation of the principle 3Rs.
Business is a vital partner in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Companies can contribute through their core activities, and we ask companies everywhere to assess their impact, set ambitious goals and communicate transparently about the results.
Why do the SDG’s matter for business and how to follow these directions, read the PowerPoint presentations.
Which habits can you change by showing better discipline? Write them down. Which alternative behaviors might bring better results? What justifications you give for your negative or unneeded behaviors? What is the first thing you can do to get self confidence and set these habits under a better control?
Prototyping is about making ideas tangible. Transform your abstract idea into something concrete and testable by adopting a build-to-think attitude.
Please always keep in mind that prototypes are not meant to last. It is not about creating the perfectly designed solution but about quickly sharing your idea with others and getting feedback at an early stage. If your prototype is too elaborate and pretty, users might be discouraged to give you critical feedback since you have already put in so much work. Hence, the "quick-and-dirty" approach is often more fruitful.
First of all, you prototype to learn. Creating a prototype together as a team helps to develop a common understanding of what the idea is about and what needs and problems you are addressing. Through prototyping you gain empathy with your users and often discover hidden issues and possibilities. Last but not least, prototypes are a great (and cheap) tool to get feedback from users, in order to refine your solution.
Personas can be created by talking to users and segmenting various demographic and psychographic data to improve or create the product and marketing strategy.
The aim of exercise is participants to creates user persona- a character based on current (or ideal) customer.
Prototyping is a foundational process for developing a new product through the physical representation of an idea. Prototyping helps designers turn a concept into a functioning item.
To get more information about: What is a Prototype; Importance of Prototype, methodology, types etc.
Read the PowerPoint presentation.
After that, make a preliminary plan for making a prototype.
What is the purpose of eco-design products?
Make a checklist if your idea or already developed product/ service is on that direction.
Through usage of the Ecolizer, you can quickly and easily calculate the influence over the environment from your product. You can calculate the overall influence over the environment, but also the influence of each phase in the lifecycle of the product in order to be able to deal with the phase of the lifecycle with massive influence over the environment. As attached to the product analysis, you can also compare the results with one another.
Go to the following link to make a analysis: https://www.ecolizer.be/
*Read a description about using the “еcolizer“
Are you confident in your mission? Is there space and need for addition or change? Does your product / service have a positive impact on the community and the environment? Now is the time to think about it and finally define it.
“A mission statement is defined as an action-based statement that declares the purpose of an organization and how they serve their customer“.
By applying the concept of Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production, at the same time functioning as a social enterprise, the legal entity acquires the image of a socially responsible. But how to keep that image? What is the long-term vision, principles, and goals? How can it be clearly stated so that it can communicate with outside parties?
In this regard, prepare a policy for a socially responsible enterprise in which one of the practices with a positive environmental impact is following the concept of Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production.
Brand is the vehicle that propels a company's product or service into customer's lives and hearts. Brand creation may seem to be an easy process, but in fact, is a thorough procedure that needs to be addressed with special attention.
Read the Tips & Tricks to build your brand through PowerPoint Presentation
As moving through the process, its necessary to give a special attention to how competitors present themselves in terms of common visual elements, trends, industry-specific visual themes, brand personalities, etc.
In order to execute this, as part of the first steps of creation a brand, the participants need to create a careful competitor analysis.
You don’t have to have a degree in something, a lot of money in a bank account and maybe business experience to start on something that could be your next large success.
Still, you need a plan and an idea.
Check this step-by-step guide to use it as help for turning your large idea in a successful business.
After that, make your own business plan.
Pitching has become the standard means of communicating information for entrepreneurs. It began as a way of speaking with very busy individuals who needed to decide in a short period and has evolved to fulfill several needs a startup has in the long run –like raising capital, applying and competing in startup competitions, establishing partnerships, giving keynotes, selling products, applying for accelerator and incubator programs.
Because it has become an important part of the entrepreneurial journey, every individual who plans to start up a business needs to know how to structure his/her pitch and be compelling at the same time.
If you believe in your product or service, a good technique is to motivate yourself and remind yourself of all the happy clients you got, and tell yourself there must be also 100 more similar organizations waiting for your call.
You are ready to think about developing a green aspect for your social enterprise.
For further information about the topic, follow the link.
“You must never doubt your ability to achieve anything, overcome anything, and inspire everything, because the truth is, there are no superheroes. There is just us, and too often we are the ones that we keep waiting for.” –Shiza Sahid, Co-Founder of the Malala Fund
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