OUR PROJECT: In our educational work with children, spend a lot of time on topics such as fair trade, sustainability and global learning. Team members and the children’s parents are involved, too. We were certified as the first “fair KiTa North Rhine Westphalia” in the Münster area in June, 2014, and we are interested in helping more kindergartens become “fair KiTas”. Therefore, we successfully organised an information event for other institutions. Within the steering committee “fair trade Gronau”, we organized a stall at the Christmas market to advertise “fair giving”. Our various actions and activities can be found online.

OUR AIMS: We reach our kindergarten children, their parents and caregivers, other kindergartens, the public and, through our network, also other institutions like schools, associations etc. We know that children in elementary education (kindergarten) can deal with global learning and take on board what they learn.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: We reach many people with our activities and encourage them to reflect, change and improve ... We influence what our children learn early on and involve parents, caregivers and educational staff. Fair purchasing, fair trade, things I myself can change, connections I can make– all this can be imparted to young children.

More information: www-drk-kita-gronau.de

OUR PROJECT: “Mobilising students for change” is about getting primary/secondary students to demand change in the school’s water management policy. We want to implement the idea of collecting rain water in a tank or cistern and re-use the water in the school toilet flushing system and for watering the school’s trees and plants. In the meantime, we want to raise awareness about the scarcity of water in Malta, as the island suffers from water scarcity, since it is surrounded by the sea.

OUR AIMS: First we want to give the necessary information about the idea to all school teachers and see who are interested in joining the core-working group and in mobilizing students. Then we will design lesson plans so that activities can be implemented and form part of a campaign for change in the school water policy, for example an art exhibition related to water consumption/management. Finally, we will create a school petition, get the children to sign it and give it to the school administration to demand change in water sustainability practices. We also want to carry out other activities to raise awareness amongst the children, for example documenting water consumption and sustainability, putting recycled water bottles in toilet cisterns to raise the water level inside. We will combine that with a fundraising campaign for the school to have money to implement the rain water conservation projects.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT:  Our contribution is to get students to learn about water consumption and water sustainability and to mobilise students to lobby for sustainable water management within their school.

OUR PROJECT: We will introduce fair trade products at the Valentin-Heider Secondary School - specifically: we want the vending machines and the snack shop within the school to be redesigned so they only sell fair trade or local products. Lunch in the cafeteria is in the process of being changed from frozen food to food freshly cooked of local, seasonal products and fair trade products. We founded a fair trade working group existing of students. The working group aims at preparing and implementing delicious and innovative food ideas for the cafeteria and the snack shop. We also want to implement a partnership between the Fair Trade AG and "Greenality", a sale of fair trade and organic cotton clothing. 

OUR AIMS: We want to create consciousness about fair trade among the students and their social environment; to make fair trade products available to all students; to create a monopoly for fair trade products in our school and to motivate students to consume fair trade in their leisure time as well.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: * sustainable: educating the generation currently growing upabout global trade and raising personal consumption awareness - *fair: creating a platform to increase the sales of fair trade products - *ecological: reaping benefits through sales of regional and seasonal produce in school - *social: engaging a group of young people in the education of their classmates in their spare time

OUR PROJECT: Leila Vienna - Vienna's first lending and borrowing-shop - is a physical platform to borrow goods of all kinds. As in a library, you can become a member and borrow things (and contribute things). Especially suitable for the pool of things to borrow are items that are needed for special occasions or situations and are not used every day. Examples are tools, travel accessories, children's clothes and toys, sports or gardening tools. We have already collected more than 300 articles and lent them out to more than 60 members.

OUR AIMS: Our long-term social goal is to practice a new culture of working with material goods under the heading "Collaborative Consumption and Commons" and to communicate this via the lending and borrowing- shop. On the one hand, this includes high awareness and careful handling of these goods, and on the other hand  reinforced community relations instead of the now well-established model of pure private property. Thought through consistently, we want our club to moderate the insulating and often socially dividing dynamics of the current economic system and show a way out of the consumer and status-oriented throwaway society. Our project aims to be a platform to lend things especially to the immediate neighbourhood. However, as a communication platform, the effect should be further directed to all interested consumers. We want to encourage the establishment of additional lending and borrowing shops so that our model of collaborative consumption and the commons will spread further.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT:  using things together is a way to counteract the exploitation of limited resources, for our planet and the people's sake. This is ecologically necessary and socially urgent, if we do not want to risk a time of increasing conflicts over resources. For this purpose, the lending and borrowing-shop makes an important contribution to the neighborhood and encourages networking between members. Leila is a meeting place where people share, give, and borrow with joy. In terms of social sustainability, we regularly organize tours and workshops for school classes and other interested groups to get informed about the project “lending and borrowing-shop”, the processes and the philosophy behind it.

More information: leihladen.at

OUR PROJECT: RESTLOS GLÜCKLICH (meaning both "completely happy" and "happy without left-overs") is an awareness-restaurant in Berlin that will cook preferably with groceries which would normally end up as waste – wasted by supermarkets, farmers, wholesalers etc. It is a place that invites everyone to engage with the topic of food waste – just by eating together. It is a non-profit-restaurant where many volunteers will save food together.

OUR AIMS: We want to cook with groceries that would normally end up in the waste bin. But this is not only to save some weight from the waste bin: with our daily changing “Left-overs à la carte menus” we would like to offer delicacies to our guests and also stimulate them to rethink their own use of food. A visit at RESTLOS GLÜCKLICH shall remind every guest that food is given a second life and does not always have to be spotless and available in all variations. Our vision is a people’s restaurant where guests feel comfortable. No matter whether our guests are food activists, tourists, young or old, children or couples, we would like to create a place which lifts the topic out of its niche and makes it accessible to a broad audience.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: Every year, more than 11 tons of food are wasted in Germany. Farmers often cannot sell a third of their products to shops. Supermarkets dispose of flawless products because they need valuable storage space or products are going to expire soon. Also at home, every German disposes of more than 82 kg of food on average. From the point of view of the RESTLOS GLÜCKLICH team, this is far too much. We are convinced that we should better trust common sense rather than the expiry date and that food deserves more appreciation. That is why we want to open a restaurant in Berlin in autumn 2015 where we will give food a second chance.

More information: http://www.restlos-gluecklich.org/

 

 

OUR PROJECT: Greenhouse-Malta is a student NGO that does grassroot activism. In Malta, there are many private fruit trees (especially citrus and olive) in people's homes. They produce a lot of fruit, which, unfortunately, is wasted as either the tree produces more than the owners can eat or the tree belongs to an elderly person who cannot pick the fruit. The idea is to provide first of all a service where people can leave left-over fruit and secondly, if needed, a service where somebody goes to pick and collect the fruit from the trees.
We have already seen some interest from certain local councils and we will start by contacting and cooperating with them. Hopefully, they will advertise this service to their village or city residents. We will also get in contact with community centers such as a center for orphaned children or children in government's care, social centers and open centers for migrants and we will offer them the collected fruit so that the center's attendees can enjoy them.

OUR AIMS: We aim for less food waste, more specifically less fruit waste from private homes. On the one hand, we want to reach people who have surplus fruit. Therefore, we will advertise this with students (who will hopefully spread the word) and in some areas through the local council and notice boards, and in this way open it up for the general public.
On the other hand, we also aim to reach people who would benefit from more delicious fruit! In general, we want to give out the message that it is not OK to waste good food, and if you cannot make use of it all, sharing really is caring; both for people and the planet.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: Our project is sustainable because it will reduce waste and not waste any resources (such as water) that may have gone into producing the fruit. It will also indirectly promote consumption of more local fruit. It is socially fair as it will redistribute some resources from those that have in abundance to those that do not. Food is also a crucial basic need and hopefully, we will contribute to meet this need for some people; although our contribution probably will not be enough.

Our project: First food cooperative in Innsbruck; autonomous purchase of food with commonly defined criteria: organic, regional, seasonal, fair; direct contact with the food producers; task sharing; self-organized; critical; awareness-raising; independent; connecting.

What do we aim for and whom do we want to reach: We are a coalition of people who have the common goal to autonomously purchase regional, organic and fair produced food directly from the growers. We like to: close the gap between food producers and consumers; raise awareness for effort of production, origin and seasonality of food and create a higher appreciation; counteract the negative social and ecological impacts of big business groups and become as independent as possible; undertake responsibility; dealing with food consciously. We want to address everyone who is interested in a conscious, sustainable use of food. But also the ones who did not concern themselves with the topic so far or are not interested in production, origin and processing our food – also they should be addressed and animated to think about it.

This is sustainable/fair/ecological/social....about our project and why: We purchase our products from regional growers and thereby ensure short ways of transportation. Furthermore we purchase in big amounts that are shipped in boxes or big trading units. Members of our association collect them by foot or bike at our store. We have personal contact with our producers and they get a fair compensation for their products. We avoid packaging as far as possible. Every member of our association works voluntarily in a working group that is responsible for a certain part. At regular meetings we make decisions together and discuss upcoming topics. We network with existing like-minded people/associations/cooperations. We are a colourful lot of humans with different age, origin and sexual orientation.

Our project: The Kostnixladen ("Costs nothing shop") is a place where things are given away, which the original owner does not need anymore and that would otherwise end up in the garbage. The store Kostnixladen is placed in the parish Gratkorn in an area that is accessible by private entrance from the street. There are: books, clothing, toys, tableware, decoration, CDs, DVDs, games ... The so called "fair divider for food" distributes food from shops that would otherwise end up in the garbage and also people who bought too much give it to the shop. All 20 employees work voluntary.

What do we aim for and whom do we want to reach: To raise the value of goods; Conscious use of what is available to us; Solidarity action by dividing instead of discarding, take as a gift instead of buying; Save things from the trash. The Kostnixladen has a very special character of interaction whereby the ecological aspect is striking. As a result, the desired awareness to the issue is achieved. Not to give the alms to the needy but to use of the resources of this earth carefully.

This is sustainable/fair/ecological/social....about our project and why: Things fomerly expected worthless become valuable again and do not end up in the trash. If people need something, they do not need to buy things because they are available in the Kostnix- store and, therefore, less new goods are produced. This counteracts exploitative working conditions, conserves the environment and resources and reduces transport of goods. Garbage is avoided twice - old things do not end up in the trash and packaging waste for new products is avoided. Social vulnerability is not a criterion. Anyone can take things when he/she needs it.

More information: https://kostnixladengratkorn.wordpress.com/

Our project: This regular (held every two months for three years), open event dedicated to Otwock community involves cash free exchange of books, CDs and DVDs. The crossing is  open for everyone regardless of age or economic status. You can also come and choose something for yourself, if you have nothing to give / exchange. Items that didn't find new owners are available in Klub Smok for people who did not make it to the meeting or donated to local libraries. Meetings are enjoying enormous popularity, and you can find there all sorts of items from fairy tales for children, copies of the literature of the early twentieth century, as well as foreign editions of European magazines.

What do we aim for and whom do we want to reach: The aim of the initiative is to reach the widest possible audience with books, movies and music, while giving them second life. Today culture is inseparable from incurring financial costs. This event is to show that anyone can have access to culture regardless of the financial status.

This is sustainable/fair/ecological/social....about our project and why: Our events promote free access to culture, and their non-cash nature also promotes social justice (everyone has access to it, regardless of social or economic status). Giving a second chance at life to those objects also operate in accordance with the principles of sustainable development.  We are trying to find new home for every book. If you do not succeed, for objective reasons, they are getting a special container for("paper waste") and are recycled.. Events are run cost free by volunteers.

OUR PROJECT:  Our initiative (http://www.foodcoop.pl/) will promote direct cooperation between agricultural producers and consumers. We want to bring the country closer to the city - for the good of us all. We want everyone to have access to affordable and healthy food. To this end, we intend to create the first professional software called FoodCoop System for consumer groups, both purchasing groups, food cooperatives and other initiatives. FoodCoop System based on the idea of ​​Open Source system is free and open for everyone. It will enable people to submit and settle contracts with farmers. It is also designed to support local agriculture through the promotion of local purchases of tested agricultural products by organized consumer groups. FoodCoop system will run on computers and mobile devices. We want it to be intuitive, graphically well designed and  equipped with most needed features - all for the best possible user experience, which depends on access to healthy food from local farmers. The system will be made available in the public domain and in open source code. This is because we believe that it is a common good, which can contribute to significant social change.

OUR AIMS: We want to purchase directly from a farmer common, affordable and accessible to everyone. We want to improve the functioning of the food cooperatives and buying groups, so that they can grow faster. The system is directed to residents of large and medium-sized cities and farmers. The system will include Polish and English language versions

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: The direct cooperation of producers and consumers will allow us  to bypass intermediaries and ensure fair prices for both producers and consumers. We support small-area family farms, which contributes to the maintenance of biodiversity and supporting the local economy. Our group is guided by the principle of transparency and democratic decision-making. We ensure that remuneration for work (in the case of a commercial operation) were appropriate for the work done. Produced by our software is freely available, allowing less wealthy entities to develop and reach a broader audience. Small groups of purchase, and small producers were not able to buy / build a similar software.

More information: http://www.foodcoop.pl/ 

OUR PROJECT: Food Cooperative "Dobrze " is a dynamically developing cooperative initiative in Warsaw.The Coop was established in July 2013 by only three people. More people willing to develop the initiative joined after the first open meeting. In the beginning the Coop functioned as a non-formal group simply through organising weekly group purchases of healthy, eco food coming from local farmers. Throughout the first year of activity, regular meetings were held in a makeshift shop set up in spaces shared by some friendly NGOs. In the meantime the idea of opening a coop shop started to take shape. In August 2014 we opened Poland’s first grassroots coop shop since 1989.  It is located at Wilcza 29a street in Warsaw. The shop is managed collectively by all members of the “Dobrze” Food Coop Association – already 80 people and constantly growing.

OUR AIMS: We are here to support food production and distribution system, which fulfills the democratically defined needs of food consumers and producers, rather than being oriented on profit. We believe that communication and direct cooperation among consumers from urban communities together with producers belonging to rural communites contribute to strengthening the fabric of society and active citizenship, which are the base for a healthy democracy. We also believe that bringing these communities closer and allowing them to exchange raises awareness about the influence that food production has on natural environment. We put these ideas into practice through activities of our association. We get to the two lower level groups: 1) urban residents, 2) the villagers, farmers.
This is because we believe that the mode of production and distribution of food in society is inextricably linked to issues of ecology and democracy. We want low-income people to have access to healthy food, and the farmers to have the conditions to take care of the ecological functions of  their farms. We want food production and distribution, that is not profit oriented only, one that best meets the needs of consumers and producers, as defined by themselves in the democratic process. We believe that this agreement and direct cooperation of consumers, representing urban communities, and producers representing the rural communities, build social cohesion and civic engagement are at the foundation of a democratic order.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: We focus on building fair, built on trust relationships with people who provide our food. We want to create a community of reaching a common goal - access to healthy, seasonal, locally produced food , away from big business and the corporate chain of intermediaries. In addition to that we sell FT products. Our shop is owned, run and managed by coop members collectively. We are guided by collectively developed  principles by which we are looking for suppliers, as well as any other matter which is subject to social consultations and approved.
Each member has duty to work minimum three hours a month in the shop, as well as to pay a small premium. In this way we are able to reduce the cost of running a shop, keep prices low,   maintain long-term commitment of members and guarantee sustainability of our project

More information: www.dobrze.waw.plhttp://www.foodcoop.pl/

OUR PROJECT: PLACE FAIR aims to introduce fair trade and ethical consumption values to the fabric of the city. It could be any city - big or small. Place Fair is a wordplay. It invites you to take action. It is when a city *plays fair* through her people and their attitude towards how, what and why they consume. This project is a step towards Amarante becoming the first Fair Trade Town in Portugal. In the core of PLACE FAIR are five interconnected activities (two in progress, three in planning).
I. Open Bio&Fair Market:  From March 201 on - organized on Saturdays from 9:00 to 12:30 in front of Casa de Juventude da Amarante
II. Bio-dynamic agriculture: Starting in February, 2015, at the garden of Casa de Juventude da Amarante
III. Fair Trade Shop: In April 2015 we re-open the fair trade shop of Amarante
IV. Fair Trade Sunday in April and May at hotels, restaurants, cafes and V. The Human Mandala flashmob
We want to promote the establishing of Amarante's mandala through a flashmob with 50 people and encourage the dialogue on local and ethical consumption

OUR AIMS: Our short-term goals are: Raising awareness on fair trade and local ethical consumption; Encouraging people to consider urban agriculture as practice; Making fair trade products accessible through a network of trusted HoReCa partners. Our long-term goals (2-5 years timeframe): PLACE FAIR is one of the first steps in the efforts of preparing Amarante for Fair Trade Town certification. We want to reach citizens and guests of Amarante, schoolkids from the city and the region, partner organisations of Casa de Juventude da Amarante 

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: The project is built on three main pillars: * DOING: urban agriculture through the Mandala and open market, * PROMOTING: the dialogue on fair trade and ethical consumption by engaging the local community and re-opening Amarante's fair trade shop
* COLLABORATING: with the local business -  All of these points are applicable anywhere on the planet. Size does matter, though. And while for Amarante it is easier to organize a mandala due to her size and industry profile, for bigger or denser locations the solution may come in the form of a vertical or a rooftop garden. On the other hand, urbanized places have a clear top-of-mind advantage - the easy access to a more dynamic and vibrant business environment.

http://www.dobrze.waw.pl

OUR PROJECT: We, grade 10,  organised a project week about fair trade informing the 5^th grades of our school about the unsocial and unfair circumstances of orange production and about what everyone can do against it (workshop with games). We informed them that every 4th second a human in this world dies because of starvation, why it is like this and what everyone of us can do against it. We documented this workshops and produced two movie clips and a flashmob about “hunger” at the schoolyard. We showed the movies at our open day to all interested visitors and did also informed them with a power-point presentation. We also presented the movies and presentation in other classes.

OUR AIMS: We wanted to be good role models for the 5th graders and encourage them to become social and fair consumers. Doing this we also critically reflected on our own consumption behaviour and got a lot of new information. Furthermore we wanted to reach all pupils in our school and the visitors on the open day and sensitize them for the topic and make them think about it.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: Our project is social, because we take others – especially younger pupils – by the hand and show them how the world can become more fair and social with their and our help. It is fair because in our games and movies we reveal the unfair trade and working conditions. It is ecological and sustainable because in our filmclips we also pointed out those products and invited the other pupils e.g. to rethink their holiday flights and eat less meat.

We like to become a Fair Trade School, that’s why we now sell fair trade products at our school. We acted ecologically by informing our fellow pupils and friends not with a flood of paper but by movies and workshops. In our filmclips we suggest to rethink travelling by car etc to avoid climatic catastrophes under which innocent would suffer. In addition we suggest to purchase regional products to avoid long ways of transport.

 

 

OUR PROJECT: We promote Fair Trade, equal rights and that children with few money obtain good education.

 

OUR AIMS: We want to reach equal rights. That every one has the rights he and she deserves. As for example with chocolate – there the workers are not treated equally and the chocolate is sold at a high price. But this price doesn’t go to the workers, they hardly get money they need for food and accommodation. Because of that the children can’t go to school and don’t get education. We want to change that by buying most things only with the Fair Trade label.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: Fair is sustainable in our project. Reasons see above.

 

 

OUR PROJECT: We drafted a binding directive for all employees of the parish set establishes eco-social criteria for any purchase. There is an annual audit that guarantees a process of continuous improvement. In case something is not purchased according to eco-social criteria one has to justify why.

OUR AIMS: We want to reach those who purchase goods for the parish in order to participate in the continuous improvement process. We also want to pass our practice on to other parishes, if possible also to the population in generell. Among other things, in March 2015 the EMAS-certified parishes of Austria and the environmental parish councils Styria (Steiermark) were advised by people of our team to create their own directive for their own parish or an adaption of it.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: We realise that products are more appreciated and bought less and less quickly. We promote a direct link between producer and consumer. There is a “Kostnixladen”, a shop where you shop for free.  We have a world map with fair-trade goods for the parish itself and for the parish population. We are EMAS certified and active in the Climate Alliance and we are constantly working to improve our environmental performance.

Read the directive: Beschaffungsordnung (in German)

OUR PROJECT: Our project is named “Fair Shopping” and is a possibility for online-shopping that we started at the beginning of 2014. Fair trade wine from South Africa and Chile, premium chocolate from Latin America, aromatic coffee- and tea-specialities from South-East Asia are part of our exclusive assortment. All specialities are not only fair trade but also organic. Those two criteria are crucial for us as operators of “Fair Shopping”. Fair trade products guarantee fair working standards and wages for the producers from peasant cooperatives in the so called "third world". Purchasing fair trade products is an important contribution to the improvement of living and working conditions of small-scale farmers. Environmental sustainability is equally important for the production. A sustainable livelihood improvement is – to our belief – only possible in harmony with nature. Organic and fair are the two keystones of our trade. This should be of more importance not only in regional but also in global trade. By our trade with organic and fair trade products we can make an important contribution as well as every citizen can through his conscious purchase.

 

OUR AIMS: Because this business model is very much based on mutual trust, highest transparency along the supply chain is crucial. In the “Fair Shopping”-Blog you can find information on product origin, climate in the region and fair trade ingredients for each product. A high fair trade proportion in the products is very important for us. Especially in mixed products like chocolate, which contains not only cocoa but also other ingredients, the fair trade proportion is fluctuating. We care for a preferably high fair trade proportion. Often more ingredients like sugar, coconut flakes and cinnamon are also fair trade. In addition we give an individual evaluation of the products’ taste. For each product category we have developed an own evaluation scheme which shall reflect the single flavours as precise as possible. All those criteria add up to a “Fair Shopping” total grade which is offered to our visitors in our own blog. With this concept we want to create more transparency and invite our fellow citizens to more conscious shopping. We are convinced that special taste adventures can drum up enthusiasm for fair trade. That’s why we make fair enjoyment come alive.

 

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT:  All our products are certified by the Fairtrade-seal and the European Organic-seal.  We purchase all our products with fair trade importers or from regional producers and traders from southern Germany and Austria. For the shipping we only use used boxes and filling material and we refrain from printing delivery notes and invoices which we directly send to our customers via email. We also refrain from using any type of printed media and marketing. All our activities are constrained to marketing campaigns. We report about our products and news from fair trade and we approach our clients in online portals and on our webpage. Thereby our business model is 100% paperless.

 

See the website: Fair einkaufen

OUR PROJECT: PLACE FAIR aims to introduce fair trade and ethical consumption values to the fabric of the city. It could be any city - big or small. Place Fair is a wordplay. It invites you to take action. It is when a city *plays fair* through her people and their attitude towards how, what and why they consume. This project is a step towards Amarante becoming the first Fair Trade Town in Portugal. In the core of PLACE FAIR are five interconnected activities (two in progress, three in planning).
I. Open Bio&Fair Market:  From March 201 on - organized on Saturdays from 9:00 to 12:30 in front of Casa de Juventude da Amarante
II. Bio-dynamic agriculture: Starting in February, 2015, at the garden of Casa de Juventude da Amarante
III. Fair Trade Shop: In April 2015 we re-open the fair trade shop of Amarante
IV. Fair Trade Sunday in April and May at hotels, restaurants, cafes and V. The Human Mandala flashmob
We want to promote the establishing of Amarante's mandala through a flashmob with 50 people and encourage the dialogue on local and ethical consumption

OUR AIMS: Our short-term goals are: Raising awareness on fair trade and local ethical consumption; Encouraging people to consider urban agriculture as practice; Making fair trade products accessible through a network of trusted HoReCa partners. Our long-term goals (2-5 years timeframe): PLACE FAIR is one of the first steps in the efforts of preparing Amarante for Fair Trade Town certification. We want to reach citizens and guests of Amarante, schoolkids from the city and the region, partner organisations of Casa de Juventude da Amarante 

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: The project is built on three main pillars: * DOING: urban agriculture through the Mandala and open market, * PROMOTING: the dialogue on fair trade and ethical consumption by engaging the local community and re-opening Amarante's fair trade shop
* COLLABORATING: with the local business -  All of these points are applicable anywhere on the planet. Size does matter, though. And while for Amarante it is easier to organize a mandala due to her size and industry profile, for bigger or denser locations the solution may come in the form of a vertical or a rooftop garden. On the other hand, urbanized places have a clear top-of-mind advantage - the easy access to a more dynamic and vibrant business environment.

http://www.dobrze.waw.pl

OUR PROJECT:We want to create a space for intercultural happenings in form of a "for free store" combined with a workshop and space for social get-togethers. The workshop shall be an alternative place of craftsmanship education by free skill sharing e.g. about upcycling, fine mechanics, arts and crafts. In the "for free store" we stuff (clothing, books, games, small furniture, …) that is not needed anymore and would otherwise increase waste can be chosen and taken by people who need it. There shall be further space as a room for get-togethers, gather ideas, exchange, joy of living. Furthermore, unknown artists have the possibility to show their works in the store.  Our project shall be located in Eastern Leipzig. Here we want to settle close to the Eisenbahnstraße that is shaped by multicultural diversity.

 

OUR AIMS: The space we create shall be open for everyone. We don’t have a specific target group. It’s important to us that everyone – no matter whether financially rich or not – has the chance to improve her/himself in our facility and to develop understanding for sustainable use of things, food and the world. We attempt to create a place where many different cultures are present and thereby further the understanding with and for “foreign” cultures. Since we are only 23 years old it is likely that the focus of our users is more on young people. But we don’t want to guide our plans in the direction of a certain age group.

 

OUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENT: Our project is sustainable because we save stuff, food (cooperation with foodsharing), materials (workshop) from being wasted. This contributes to decrease the amount of waste and supports a sustainable use of things. A further aspect of sustainability is the sharing of threatened skills and knowledge like the craftsmanship of wood carving because it’s barely useful today. We want to invite people who have learned a craftsmanship which is rare today to pass their knowledge to young people. One learns what the other knows. We are fair because our institution is open and useable for everyone. The planned store provides different dimensions of free economy for the users. This is to be understood on a material as well as educational level. The social aspect is that people who have a low income can profit from our system because they have things of daily need at free disposal that they could not afford otherwise. The whole approach can be put into the following words: Independent from the differences of skin colour, nationality, language, culture, religion or wealth, from gender or sexual orientation, there is only one humankind that has to be respected in each person of its members (quote: Das konvivialistische Manifest)

 

http://www.dobrze.waw.pl