News

Counting 1.5 years of being operational, Ecogenia has thus far achieved many of its key milestones, a fact that validates our primary intuition that this team is a winning team which can make great things happen! After the successful completion of the first two pilots in 2022 (Ecotourism in Dorida & Education in Chania), it’s time for the second iteration of the Ecotourism program;

as we speak, the new cohort members –"the fantastic 8️"– have already received 55 hours of training and they are now on the field, cleaning and opening trails. Last year, 7 cohorts –Ecogenia’s first trailblazers– managed to revitalize 5.5km of trail. This year, the aim is to not only maintain that piece of trail but also to add 10 more kilometers.

On top, cohorts & Ecogenia plan a Community Volunteer Day for June 17, will host 20 students from Tulane University for a media project, and much more! It’s worth mentioning Ecogenia’s long-term commitment to Dorida region which involves the revitalization of 60km of trail network, connecting several villages and stimulating a small ecotourism economy for the locals.

Our engagement with sustainable mobility begins and we couldn’t have a better ally on that rather than Cities for Cycling!

Cars are dominant on the streets, creating unfriendly livelihood for the citizens and impacting heavily on the environment. What if we could say no to the extensive car use and make room for alternative mobility solutions such as the bicycle?

After all, it’s a fact that the majority of the daily car routes in Athens are less than 2km. True, our city lacks the adequate cycling infrastructure, nevertheless a big part of the road network consists of narrow, low-traffic roads that you can safely bike to.

Cities for Cycling – an official member of the European Cyclists' Federation and the National Coordinator of EuroVelo for Greece – has a long course promoting the use of bicycle in the Greek cities and the development of cycling tourism through a series of actions and programs.

Now, it has designed a lovely project – that we’re proudly funding – called “Cycle into History and Art”; placing parking spots to museums, galleries & cultural destinations and providing directions for safe and easy connections between these places is a win-win for everyone:

+ for the reduction of CO2 emissions + for accessibility to cultural spaces through a fun ride + for our health and wellbeing + for community building and socializing + for economic development

Our special thanks to Spiros Papageorgiou who – with his optimism, deep knowledge and lust for cycling – made us feel that we can overcome barriers and help towards the expansion of micro mobility in Greece.

The annual conference Philanthropy 2.0 is coming up in a few days and HIGGS has prepared a very interesting agenda for it.

The theme of the conference is the importance of social impact and its practical application. Key members from civil society organizations, charitable foundations, businesses, public institutions, universities and experts from Greece and abroad will share their knowledge and experiences on social impact as a growth driver for society and the country at large.

Happy to be co-sponsoring such a nice initiative, we look forward to it!

10-11 May 2023 | Serafio City of Athens | Free admission

Meet Simon Meyer, Spyros Nompilakis and Tom Dietel: the fellowship of Blue Greece!

In the arms of P2P Lab, this team of three started off by creating Blue Greece; an Open-Source Hardware Collective working on Libre Water, collaborating with a community between Germany and Greece for solar drinking water systems that can be designed globally and manufactured locally.

Its mission is to overcome the limitations of linear innovation and build a trusted and engaging Open-Source Hardware ecosystem for globally holistic innovation in Small-Scale Solar-Powered Desalination that is affordable. So far, the team has designed Acraea – a Small-Scale Solar Desalination and Water Purification Prototype. All related info & videos around it are shared at this link.

Acknowledging the importance of Open-Source Hardware, its democratic principles and the ways it can benefit the world, we sponsored the kick-start of Blue Greece.

We’re pleased to announce our collaboration with Social Hackers Academy, a team of tech gurus that delivers comprehensive education in software engineering, providing students with all necessary hard and soft skills that lead to employment and a future-proof career.

Our grant is covering 10 scholarships for the 7-month Blockchain Development Career Track Program, offered to young people of the Association of Active Youth in Florina.

The Program has a holistic approach; it doesn't only include the teaching on Blockchain Development but also an employability course, community & pair-learning and a graduation project where the students will create their own blockchain development project, with the guidance and support of the SHA instructors.

Seeing the outcomes and measurable impact of the “Revegetating the Cyclades” project by the Cyclades Preservation Fund (CPF), gives us a big smile! The project:

- Span across 4 islands involving schools, cultural/environmental organizations, engaging parents, teachers, citizens, local authorities, private enterprises, creating meaningful synergies among them.

- Greened the school yard of the Foinikas Kindergarten in Syros, installed worm composting systems in 2 schools in Antiparos and Syros, and one more in the recently established Environment & Sustainability Education Center in Ermoupoli, Syros.

- Offered technical expertise for composting in a Vocational High School in Amorgos.

- Contributed to the revegetation of a remote area of the Environmental & Cultural Park of Paros, while cleaning it from garbage washed ashore by the wind.

The project was co-funded by CPF and our Foundation and took place from Oct 2021 until Dec 2022.

Having started its journey in the arms of Impact Hub Athens as a project-based initiative, Ten Million Hands is now passing to the next level, established as a civil nonprofit company and ready to take off.

TMH's mission is to raise awareness, inform, educate, and provide tangible solutions to make sustainability an everyday choice in our lives. It invites each and every one of us to become part of a society that enjoys the benefits of adopting responsible consumption and production practices.

The brilliant TMH team is moving forward and currently preparing exciting and useful things for us. Stay tuned to see them coming in the following months!

We’re super happy to be Ten Million Hands’ founding donors, thus continuing our support to this significant venture.

Allow us to introduce you to the newly established civil nonprofit company Stewards that is bringing Steward-Ownership in Greece. This is a successful proven model, adopted and operated by many organizations around the world. It harnesses the power of entrepreneurial for-profit enterprise, while preserving a company’s essential purpose to create products and services that deliver societal & environmental value and protecting it from extractive capital.

Bearing the vision of an economy that serves first and foremost the people while protecting and preserving the planet, Stewards will assist the Greek organizations embrace the Steward-Ownership structure, thus building a thriving responsible ownership ecosystem in Greece.

We were eagerly waiting for this terrific initiative to go live and we are so proud to be one of its founding donors, along with The Hellenic Initiative.

We’re closing this year’s posts with a really nice initiative by ELC Productions that we joyfully took part in some time ago. Documentaries, original songs, street art, videos, and podcasts; all created to enhance the ongoing project Genia 17 that is focusing on the UN Sustainable Development Goals agenda.

Our Foundation sponsored Ten Million Hands to become ambassadors of the SDG 12 - Sustainable Consumption & Production. Here’s a teaser showing the creation of the respective mural, and a link with the relevant video, podcast, interview and tribute.

Cheers, see you next year!

Five years ago, the emblematic building of the Municipal Market in Kypseli re-opened its doors, under the management of the Impact Hub Athens. The space was transformed into a meeting and reference point for the Athenian public, focusing on culture, education, social innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as the strengthening of the local economy.

Now Impact Hub Athens bids farewell to the Kypseli Municipal Market and for that it has prepared a memorable event for us; it starts with an interesting open discussion around the topic of the reuse of buildings (public and non-public) in terms that enhance the local economy and the life quality of the residents of an area. Later on, live performances and a party will follow.

Fri, 16 December 2022 at 18:30 | Rendezvous in Fokionos!