Breakfast talks: young green Baltic Sea Region entrepreneurs share their visions for a sustainable future
On April 29 CBSS-led Baltic Sea Youth Platform project, together with Youth4Nature held a Breakfast talks webinar, where young green entrepreneurs presented their sustainable businesses. Climate change has made more and more people think green and to find solutions that contribute to green entrepreneurship and impact the environment and society.
Blokgardens – Tuomas Ilander
“Grow something, recycle everything, waste nothing.”
Blokgardens is a company that helps people grow food in the urban environment. The idea for the green business came up when they started growing food by themselves and thinking, would there be an easier way to do that? The concept of a garden box came up and developed into a service where a garden box can be ordered and delivered in the spring and collected back in the autumn. These garden boxes are re-used, and therefore, everything is recycled and rotating. Customers can choose the size of their already planted garden boxes as well as their plants. Blokgardens offer already made plant combinations that are optimal to grow and support each other’s growth. One piece of advice Tuomas offers to young people who want to be green entrepreneurs: “It all starts from a team – get a team involved and people involved. Do not do it by yourself.”
Swimbe – Laura and Elena
“1 swimsuit = 1 m fabric = 220 g plastic waste”
Fast fashion is damaging the environment as 73 % of fast fashion is thrown out. Swimbe is a sustainable swimwear brand that offers personalized, custom-made swimwear made of sea waste plastic. The fabric made of fishing nets, carpets, PET bottles etc., feels and looks like regular swimwear but instead of using more of the planet’s resources, Swimbe is clearing water from waste that kills marine life to create beautiful swimwear for women of every size. They also have a zero-waste manufacturing process, which means creating accessories such as crunchies from the left-over fabric. Advice Laura and Elena gives to young people who want to start with their own sustainable business idea: “Be brave with your ideas, do not be scared! Start small and ask for help!”
Single.earth – Merit Valdsalu
“We make nature the new gold.”
Single.earth is making nature the investment of the future. The problem they want to solve is that nature is not protected as the economy is destroying it. They want to prove that nature can be monetized without being sold as a raw material. They started with the question; how could the economy support the preservation of nature? Now Single.earth is creating alternative business models for landowners that support sustainable land management. In this way, landowners can monetize their forests with minor selective cuts or no cutting at all. They aim to monetize the value of nature and make carbon and biodiversity tradable on a global marketplace between landowners and environmentally responsible businesses and individuals.