Clothes Exchange Party

oikos Bayreuth is hosting another Clothes Exchange Party to reduce waste, and overconsumption.

More information (in German) here.

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oikos International

posted May 24, 2016

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Field Trip to QCP

oikos Maastricht will visit QCP, a company which has been granted funding by Esloo and Rabobank to develop practical solutions to “reduce this pile of waste by reusing it as an alternative to the expensive fossil based feedstock, and to complete the value chain for polymers making them circular and sustainable”.

For more information click here.

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oikos International

posted May 16, 2016

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Zero Waste Challenge

The aim of this challenge organized by oikos Paderborn is to generate as few waste as possible in the event’s week. Participate!

More information (in German) here.

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oikos International

posted May 16, 2016

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Learning about Circulation at the oikos CEE Meeting 2015

On a very warm, windy and pleasant Vienna day, the oikos CEE Meeting 2015 commenced. Participants travelled from more than seven countries to be united in learning more about the concept of Circular Economy and generate a flow of interesting perspectives and ideas to share.

On the first day the participants were escorted to the headquarters of Global 2000, a Vienna-based NGO working on sustainability projects. Linnéa Richter, a certified green cosmetics educator, introduced the group to the concept of sustainable cosmetics. First, statistics were introduced such as the fact that, on average, Europeans utilise 10-15 ‘beauty’ products per day. Second, she highlighted that it is difficult for the plastic used to package cosmetics to degrade and be recycled, thus, making the cosmetics industry unsustainable in nature. Third, the focus was shifted onto the ingredients that cosmetic products contain: adding onto the ‘unsustainable’ and ‘unhealthy’ factor. In order for the group to understand how easily one could avoid using commercial products and turn to using DIY products, Linnéa, guided participants to make their own deodorant and body butter. Participants were amused and surprised by how basic, fast and affordable it is to re-create mainstream products in a 100% natural fashion. The body butter was created out of apples, cinnamon, water and bee wax. The deodorant was composed out of oranges, lemons and baking soda. The results were colourful, pretty and participants took one sample of each product home.

On yet another warm second day, the first session was with Prof. Thomas Ertl from BOKU Wien – University of natural resources and life sciences Vienna. The topics of the session were the key elements in water cycles, the stakeholders and factors of efficient and sustainable water management. During the brainstorming, the participants had to answer the questions: How much water do we really use? Why does the water sometimes have no “cycle”? Who does actually need water? Who are the pollutants? Which is better for running the water services – private or public sector? the costs and revenues in water distribution services were also discussed. The second session was with Martin Wafler, from cewas and seecon international made us think about water as a resource. The session was full of interesting and valuable information, numbers and figures that we found unbelievably interesting and it was a natural start for passionate discussion. Participants were made aware of about strategies for saving water and one of the main conclusions was change in consumption habits. The most impressive information shared was the map of hot spots in Swiss water consumption that showed up that Switzerland imports goods mainly from regions in India, Russia and the Middle East. Mr. Wafler also talked about the water treatment and the difficulties of building a sanitation system. In the end it was an interesting workshop about the creating of the water, energy and raw materials flow chart.

Then the participants visited the biggest water bottling company in Austria – Vöslauer. At the company office, full of certificates showing of how sustainable the company is, they heard about the trends and figures in recycling and reusing of the bottles inside the company. The day ended with a visit to a thermal bath in the Vöslauer mineral water.

Day three started at Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien (WU – Vienna University of Economics & Business) where the participants were inspired by the brilliant lecture on “waste management” given by Mr. Benjamin Steuer (Circular Economy Researcher, WU). He enlightened them on how to convert the dangerous toxic waste into valuable energy resource which they then got to observe in action a bit later in the day, but also the hazards of how this is done by an informal e-waste recycling industry in China. The second speaker for the day was Elena Komarova from ALBA Group. And she talked about recycling technologies and the specific separation of materials that is essential for high-quality recycling. Very enriching was the discovery of green coal technology or in other words processing of residual waste into substitute fuel. ALBA is also turning used plastics into various forms of recycled plastics as recythene and procyclen which can be straightforward used for producing new products. Then was the visit to municipal department Die 48er waste management factory which served as a starting point for a waste management tour. The tour was aimed to give yhe participants a practical understanding of the lecture that was held earlier. The tour guide explained us the whole waste management processing system like how they convert waste (that smells really bad!) to bio-gas through the bio-mass incineration process. Overall, the tour enhanced the knowledge of the participants on waste handling. The different techniques of how the municipality is collecting and categorizing organic waste into kitchen scrap, gardens trimming waste and forest waste. These wastes are then later converted into bio energies in the form of bio-gas, soil enriching compost fertilizers, nitrate content for agriculture, which improves fertilization and plant health. Thus it clearly proves that the bio-gas plant is functioning in a sustainable manner, helping to eradicate 144,000 tons of carbon-dioxide annually and avoiding the risk of transmission of BSE diseases from animals to humans.

See you next year with more regional meetings!

This article is a collage of articles published on the oikos Vienna Blog, edited by Nimisha Ghorpade

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oikos International

posted October 6, 2015

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Roba Amiga: Social Entrepreneurship in Textile Waste Management

Abstract

 

The case focuses on Roba Amiga, a network of organizations devoted to collect, select and sell second-hand clothes in Barcelona and its surrounding, with the aim of creating jobs for people excluded from the job market as well as contributing to mitigating the environmental problem of textile waste. The case traces the history of Roba Amiga, leading up to two of the organizations in the network forming a Work Integration Social Enterprise and opening a new sorting plan that allowed them to grow and gain in efficiency. The case explores the alternatives for further growth and examines the advantages and disadvantages for the different organizations staying together under a common brand, even though they have slightly different priorities. It also leads to discuss the social challenges involved in the exporting of clothes to developing countries and to question whether Roba Amiga should be more concerned about this fundamental aspect of its business model.

AuthorsDaniel Arenas, Pablo Sánchez and Solange Hai
InstitutionESADE Business School, Spain
Competition Year2015
PlaceRunner up
TrackSocial Entrepreneurship
Key WordsTextile waste, second-hand clothes, export, WISE
CoursesCSR, social entrepreneurship, business and society
Target AudienceMBA, MSc
Permission RightsThis case is part of the oikos free case collection. Download a free online copy below.
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oikos International

posted June 24, 2015

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oikos Turns Water Pollutants into Compost

We are thrilled to introduce the first project of our newly established oikos chapter in Pune. The i-GREEN initiative, which aims to clean rivers in the region, has already brought positive outcomes.

People of Hindu religion worship the God by giving flowers as a gesture of offering the purest in mankind. They are busy and engrossed in their daily routine to give a thought to “What after the flowers are offered? What happens to these flowers once they dry off?”; The fact is, it finds its place either in a garbage bin or in a local water body/ river. Today, there are roughly 108,000 temples in India and the number keeps increasing day by day. In a city like Pune 16 tonnes of flowers are dumped every day and often end up in local rivers. It reduces the oxygen level in water, results in siltation and damages fauna and flora. Effects of this can be tracked down to disturbing in the whole food chain and significant decrease of the water quality.

oikos Pune “i-GREEN” has come up with a win-win solution. The i-GREEN vermicomposting project takes the input – disposed flowers (offered in the temples) which pollute the nearby rivers and delivers the output – nutritious vermicompost  which is used to pamper the plants growth. The whole process starts by collecting the flowers, which have dried off from temples. Flowers are sorted out and manure is mixed. Later, earthworms are added in this mixture and they start consuming the flowers. After several days, when the process is finished, the outcome is nutritious compost, which can be used instead of chemical fertilisers. The project delivered two positive outcomes:

1) It addressed the water pollution problem in the region through converting the pollutants (waste) into the compost (useful product).

2) It can ensure the nutritious plant growth 100% naturally and protect humans from chemical fertilizers, which are often used in agriculture and cause severe damages.

For more information, contact the oikos Pune team at info@oikos-pune.org

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oikos International

posted August 4, 2013

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TerraCycle

Case Abstract

In 2001 Tom Szaky, a Princeton freshman, founded TerraCycle in the hope of starting an eco-capitalist company built on waste – worm waste to be exact. Tom and his small team had little experience in building a business, but all possessed entrepreneurial spirit. Eventually, Tom dropped out of Princeton to pursue his dream of eliminating waste. Surviving on the goodwill of family, friends – both old and new – and a tremendous amount of dedication, the team had to constantly keep developing new ideas to keep the business from bankruptcy.

The company eventually moved into partnering with companies who would sponsor the collection of waste associated with their brands, and TerraCycle would transform that waste into affordable, high quality products. In 2006 Inc. Magazine named TerraCycle “The coolest little start-up in America” and Tom “The no. 1 CEO under thirty.”

By 2011 Tom had successfully built TerraCycle into an icon for environmental sustainability that was projecting US$16 million in annual revenues. However, sustained profits continued to elude the company, and though Tom was committed to eliminating waste, he was beginning to question whether TerraCycle had the right business model to achieve the triple bottom line.

Authors: Jan Lepoutre, Stuart Read, Philippe Margery
Institution: Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Belgium; IMD, Switzerland
Competition Year2012
Place1st place
Track Social Entrepreneurship
Key WordsEntrepreneurship, Effectuation, Strategy, Sustainability
Permission RightsAn inspection copy of this case is available here. This case can be purchased from ecch: Part A (IMD-3-2262), Part B (IMD-3-2263), Part C (IMD-3-2264), Part D (IMD-3-2275), Part K (IMD-3-2286) and Part "Outsmarting Waste" (IMD-3-2311).
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oikos International

posted June 30, 2012

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The ReUse People: Scrap to Sales

Case Abstract

This case discusses The ReUse People, an organisation that specialises in deconstruction of buildings, with the aim of reusing as much of the materials as possible, hence keeping them out of landfill. The organisation is facing a classical growth-related dilemma: should it grow organically, keeping most of the work in-house but hence limiting its growth rate, or should it “franchise” its deconstruction approach by certifying other companies in the deconstruction process? The mission of The ReUse People is squarely environmental, but the organisation is increasingly aiming to provide social benefits too by reaching out to community organisations and providing employment opportunities.

Authors: Charles J. Corbett, William G. Powell
Institution: UCLA Anderson School of Management (USA)
Competition Year2009
Place2nd place
TrackSocial Entrepreneurship
Key WordsDeconstruction of Buildings, Reuse, Managing Growth, Organic Growth, Franchising
Permission RightsPlease contact Charles Corbett for permission rights. This case is also part of the oikos Case Collection book (Volume 2): Case Studies in Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability published by Greenleaf.
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oikos International

posted June 30, 2009

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