Objectives
Promoting the Blue Economy, its ideology, principles and strategy for setting up business models, not just from the theoretical point of view, but also from various practical examples that have been realized till now.
Presenting main principles and strategies that can innovate existing business models and lead to the reorientation of existing cash flows within everyone’s reach, as well as unused assets.
Speakers
- Ivanka Milenkovic
General Manager of Ekofungi Ltd - Jovana Vunduk
Research And Teaching Assistant
Faculty of Agriculture, Univeresity of Belgrade - Igor Milosavljevic
Junior Assistant, System Ekofungi
Place
The Residence of the Embassy of Belgium, Krunska 16, Belgrade
Date/Time
November 28, 2017, 5:00-7:00 PM
1. Background – Understanding the Blue Economy
The Blue Economy began as a project to find 100 of the best nature-inspired technologies that could beneficially impact the economies of the world.
Prof. DR. Gunter Pauli wrote the book The Blue Economy, which was originally a report to the Club of Rome. On November 1, 2009 the Club of Rome members adopted the book The Blue Economy: 100 innovations, 10 years, 100 million jobs, as a Report to the Club of Rome.
This business model Blue Economy because our planet, the oceans and the sky are blue. Blue is the new green. The blue economy believes that sustainable business needs to be tailored to local conditions and developed on the local resources. It is a system that innovates the existing business models and allows the reorientation of existing cash flows and unused assets.
What gives the Blue economy a comparative advantage or additional quality in relation to the green economy, which is far more often mentioned, is the concern for the small local producers and consumers.
Thinking big is not necessarily better. The chances for success come from the small local business. Use what you have right there, in your region and immediate reach. Therefore, the Blue Economy insists on maximizing the use of the local resources, that usually get easily rejected. Perhaps the circular economy models are more accessible to a wider circle of interested parties, but we can also say that the Blue Economy idea and strategy are based on the principles of the circular business models with additional care both for the environment and for the people that, both directly or indirectly, participate in the organization of this type of business. The Blue Economy brings humans, natural systems, and the economy back into balance and could represent massive savings in material and costs, by ensuring a restorative and regenerative system which rebuilds natural, social and economic capital.
The Blue economy is not an altruistic project, carried by a group of enthusiasts. The blue economy now gathers hundreds and thousands of small, medium-sized and large enterprises around the world, whose sustainable business models are adapted to the follow the rules of nature, as The Blue Economy is an innovative approach for redesigning local economies by using locally available resources and technologies, in a way that helps waste reduction and is in harmony with the nature.
2. Participants
Ekofungi ltd. a small enterprise from Belgrade.With over 20 years of experience in cultivating mushrooms from waste materials, having realized waste to taste projects in the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, United States, Colombia, Belgium, Netherlands, etc. The daces-long experience has resulted in numerous projects, including growing the first mushrooms from coffee waste in Ekofungi facilities, whose essence is that the waste does not exist and that everything that is waste from one production process can become raw material for another process.
The mushrooms grown on coffee waste became one of the most popular Blue Economy innovations with around 1000 growers around the world.3. Objectivesa) Promoting strategic business model of the Blue Economy innovations with around 1000 growers around the world.
3. Objectives
- Promoting strategic business model of the Blue Economy – The overall objective of the workshop is to promote the Blue Economy, its principles, potentials and strategy for setting up business models, not just from the theoretical point of view, but also from various practical examples that have been realized till now. In view of this, the prospects, potentials and challenges of Blue Economy will be presented and discussed as well as the benefits of adopting a Blue Economy approach.
- Presenting main principles, possibilities and strategies of setting-up a Blue Economy business model – Presenting main principles and strategies that can innovate existing business models and lead to the reorientation of existing cash flows within everyone’s reach, as well as unused assets.
The Blue Economy starts from targeting the problem, through a pain analysis. The next step is the technique “Scan, screen, and implement”. In order to find business potential, the first step is to identify unhealthy business situations. Compared to classic problem solving, the probability of opportunities increases drastically.
The concepts of the Gunter Pauli’s Blue Economy and its strategies have some major global advantages:- sharing the abundance by lowering the prices, creating innovations, and jobs,- making a chain of ecosystems without waste,- making a chain of ecosystems without waste,- involving everyone,- creating new cash flows,- giving preference to what is locally available: money, waste, people, factories.Results of the Blue Economy There are more than 200 innovations up to now that have been gathered by Gunter Pauli and that are typical examples of the Blue Economy.
The Ekofungi mission is encapsulated by the motto – From Waste to Taste, and that motto represents the way they cultivate their mushrooms, using waste materials from various industries.The presentation will be combined/followed by a light dinner prepaired solely with the Ekofungi product – mushrooms grown on waste from various industries: straw, sawdust, paper waste, coffee dreg mixed with cardboard, textile industry waste mixed with sawdust, textile industry waste mixed with cardboard, and hard textile waste. Other practical examples – the way of turning construction and mining waste into stone paper, cappuccino cups with saucers made from recycled coffee grounds, will also be presented.This will be a nice practical example for the attendees, both SMEs and large enterprises, how to save money and generate extra revenue and how one revenue model can be transformed into a model that provides additional sources of income and employment.
4. Format
The presentation/workshop will be interactive, with short presentation, followed by a disscussion and combined with examples of best practice and practical applications of the Blue Economy, made by the Blue Economy practitioners/innovators.
A light dinner will be prepaired and provided by Ekofungi, made completely from their Waste To Taste product.
5. Language
- Presentation Language: English
- Presentation slides and handout materials: English