Greenpreneurs 2019 is well underway with the 15 selected teams now deepening their skills to develop their green enterprises. The entire program will run over 12-weeks, from June to September 2019.
As part of the support and development phase of the Greenpreneurs program, the selected shortlisted candidates are continuing to develop their businesses through weekly webinars, with modules designed to equip them with the know-how necessary for their ventures, including modules on Impact Modeling, Lean Product Development Financing, and many more. Webinars consist of interviews and question-and-answer sessions with experienced professionals in green entrepreneurship, to grant the opportunity for teams to ask questions directly related to their start-ups.
Each of the selected teams also received a mentor to guide them throughout the process, and subject matter experts to provide the teams with the knowledge necessary to scale-up and improve their projects.
The Greenpreneurs program is spreading its wings to GGGI’s country offices. For example, in the UAE, GGGI partnered with the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment in April this year to launch a competition under the theme of sustainability to focus on generating solutions for tackling challenges related to climate action, the circular economy, green cities and sustainable food and agriculture.
This year, GGGI’s Pacific team released the Guides to Green Entrepreneurship in Fiji, Kiribati and Vanuatu, which are part of the Greenpreneurs program. The Guides are designed to support local entrepreneurs in developing and launching green businesses to help them achieve climate change and renewable energy targets and meet adaptation needs in Fiji, Kiribati and Vanuatu.
Aside from the global virtual program and competition run jointly with Student Energy and the Youth Climate Lab, the Greenpreneurs program also includes national programs in a number of GGGI Member countries, including the UAE, Viet Nam, the Philippines, Mexico, Rwanda, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Kiribati.
GGGI Country Representatives are also actively involved in promoting and supporting the Greenpreneurs program in their countries. Juhern Kim, GGGI’s Country Representative for the Philippines, said he is “happy to support Isdabest’s journey (isda=fish in Tagalog) to empower fisherfolks while developing business acumen and devising sustainable fishing method.”
Dagmar Zwebe, GGGI’s Country Representative for Uganda, has also been supporting the program as a mentor this year for the FashionsKimuli team, which she described as being “Such an inspiring young, skilled and motivated team. Looking forward to support where I can as a mentor.”
The next step of the program, after the completion of the online webinars, consists of virtual presentations from the fifteen teams, giving each team 5 minutes to pitch their project and provide information relating to the budget, impact forecast, and lean social canvas on their business ideas.
The winners of the competition will be decided after an assessment from a diverse panel of high-level green growth professionals through a weighted scoring system. The scoring system will factor in feasibility, quality of evidence, balance of social ventures and for-profit initiatives, and participation in idea support phase of the Greenpreneurs program.