Welcome to
Innovative entrepreneurs leading green businesses
KA220-ADU – Cooperation partnerships in adult education
2022-1-RO01-KA220-ADU-000085596 – Romania
Green practices
Adopting green practices is not only good for the environment, but it can also benefit a business in many ways.
Reduce costs
Implementing green practices can help businesses save money in the long run, for example, by reducing energy consumption.
Competitive advantages
Businesses that adopt green practices may have a competitive advantage especially in industries where sustainability is important.
Project objectives
Main objectives
The project aim is to increase the competences of trainers in the principles and good practices of implementing innovation in green economy.
Trainers, in turn, will empower entrepreneurs to take better environmental decisions, to understand the advantages of green actions, thus contributing to the greenification of economy.
The project will provide:
- an educational platform
- description of the features of green business and innovative practices in the business model
- a green business innovation canvas (GBIC)
- step-by-step guide to use GBIC
One of the focal points of EU policy revolves around the green deal, with the objective of setting national targets for local companies. Expanding on this objective, the project aims to specifically determine the essential characteristics that classify a business as environmentally friendly and sustainable. Additionally, the educational platform aligns with the European development directives by utilizing digital tools to improve entrepreneurial abilities in this field.
Educational platform
E-learning platform will be freely available for adult educational staff in the field of entrepreneurship, but also for entrepreneurs. The educational materials developed within the project include:
– Guide of good practices,
– How to use GBIC (Green Business Innovation Canvas),
– Short video materials to explain the green features and sustainable methods that can be included in a business.
Green practices examples
With the increasing urgency of sustainability concerns, entrepreneurs are actively developing sustainable solutions to tackle the most critical global issues. These businesses serve as tangible illustrations of how practical sustainable practices can be applied in real-life scenarios.
Green business innovation canvas
Green Business Innovation Canvas – GBIC is used to easily characterize and simply visualize all the innovative practices involved in different modules of the business model. GBIC can be used as simulator, providing a visual method to follow the points of a business model in which green features and sustainable processes can be inserted. In addition, the GBIC provides indicators to assess the effectiveness of green innovation implementation.
Challenges
Invest in education of entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs who possess the appropriate knowledge will be capable of recognizing opportunities associated with the green economy and executing prosperous businesses through the utilization of the Green Business Innovation Canvas (GBIC).
The project aims to address the following challenges in order to enhance the local/regional impact, drawing inspiration from successful experiences at the European level:
- Developing additional entrepreneurial resources for the adult education sector.
- Promoting greater awareness, knowledge, and understanding of the advantages associated with green and sustainable businesses.
- Actively involving entrepreneurs in fostering innovation for “go green” ventures.
- Strengthening the ability of entrepreneurs to engage in virtual spaces, encouraging the exchange of ideas, experiences, best practices, tools, and resources.
- Implementing an e-Learning platform that serves as a valuable tool for adult educators, enabling them to deliver courses, manage users, access educational materials, facilitate virtual group discussions, and assess progress.
Target Groups
Educators and Trainers
The target group of the project consists of adult educators and trainers working in the field of entrepreneurship, aiming to improve their green practices.
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of the adult education program in the field of innovation in green entrepreneurship are entrepreneurs and small business leaders who want to turn their face towards sustainability and environmental protection, or for the first-time entrepreneurs with limited experience.
Project motivation
The idea of the InnoGreen project comes from the fact that in recent years, more and more consumers pay attention to sustainability asking for eco-products, bio-foods, those production process is friendly with environment. Because customers are willing to pay for sustainable products and services, companies need to quickly adapt to their requirements and change their offers. In addition, the new energy challenge, and the introduction of green taxes in the near future are forcing companies to find solutions to become green. The main problem of entrepreneurs is to discover innovative solutions to change their production process, to find suppliers of eco-friendly raw materials, to identify collaborators who offer sustainable products and services, to detect green channels for supply and delivery, to gain recognition and classify their products as eco-friendly and services as sustainable. There are many EU-based businesses that have implemented various innovative ideas in various modules of their business model and offer environmentally friendly products and services. Unfortunately, many of these business examples remain unknown, and entrepreneurs do not have access to examples of businesses in their field that have implemented sustainable processes and have green proposition value. Another problem is that many entrepreneurs do not consider the business model valuable and does not pay enough attention to the possibility of introducing innovative aspects in it, which would help them to evaluate the effectiveness of their ideas and choose the best methods of transforming their business into a sustainable one.
Results
The project will provide trainers with an interactive tool that allows them to develop and visualize the business innovation model and evaluate the green characteristic features from business modules.
In addition, the project will prepare for trainers a pedagogical methodology supplemented with a list of practical methods used to increase creativity, along with functional experiences inspired by real green business cases.
Educational materials will be developed around the competencies’ frameworks of the EntreComp (the European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework) and Greencomp (The European sustainability competence framework).
Learned competences will directly contribute to the design and use of proposed business innovation model by the beneficiaries (the entrepreneurs) wishing to adapt their present or future businesses to the demand for green and sustainable products and services.
Co-funded by
the European Union
KA220-ADU – Cooperation partnerships in adult education
2022-1-RO01-KA220-ADU-000085596 – Romania
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
InnoGreen @cti.ugal.ro