GEF NEWS Green Entrepreneurship Forum: the Co-Creation Workshop Green entrepreneurship is not primarily about starting a business but about taking responsibility for your life choices. Once you feel responsible for your environment, who you are and what you do, you might discover an opportunity or an opening in a market or you might just find a more sustainable process at work. It is this attitude of positive action that defines entrepreneurship to us.
Green Entrepreneurship (GreEn) An Introduction
17 practitioners and stakeholders 12 young GreEn Forum representatives 3 days of idea sharing, co-creation and partnership building 1 common goal Months of preparation came to a culmination in December 2010 at the Co-Creation Workshop, the first offline initiative of Generation Europe Foundation’s Forum on Green Entrepreneurship (GreEn). Twelve young leaders from around the world - all passionate about sustainable development, society and business - were selected from our online community to attend the three-day event at the Hub Brussels. Arnoud Raskin, the social entrepreneur behind Mobile Schools/ Streetwize, delivered an inspiring keynote speech to get the ball rolling. And then the real work began... Together with representatives and practitioners from the private, public and social sectors, the youth participants elaborated a collective vision of the initiatives needed to promote a sustainable future. The whole process and story of the working sessions was captured visually by Nick Payne, who managed to represent the flow of ideas and the atmosphere in a series of drawings, which we have affectionately come to refer to as ‘the harvest’.
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Young journalists from the European Youth Press were also present to report on the event. Their articles were published in an issue of Orange magazine dedicated to the GreEn Forum, which is available to read on our website. What finally emerged from the workshop were six awarenessraising actions. United by the common mission to identify what young people need to become active in the field of green entrepreneurship, the youth participants catalysed initiatives to answer these needs and expand the network for GreEn through action, learning and peer-to-peer contact. The good vibes reached a peak on the last day at the networking event, which was attended by around 60 guests who explored the harvest together with the participants and facilitators. Olivier Marquet, the Director General of Triodos Bank Belgium, gave the closing remarks. The Co-Creation Workshop was made possible by the generous support of our numerous partners and sponsors, notably including the Belgian Presidency of the EU and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry. We are always looking for new partners to help grow our initiative. If you are interested in green entrepreneurship, then one thing is for sure: the GreEn Forum is the place for you to discover and co-create! www.generation-europe.eu/forum