Have you ever wondered what role ecovillages and social enterprise play in sustainability?
Within Ecoprise and its initial research phase through 106 interviews and 16 focus groups, insights from ecovillages, social enterprises, and sustainability educators were collected providing a deeper understanding of their practices and challenges in the field of sustainability and environmental, social, cultural and economic regeneration.
During the research, key questions focused on uncovering the unique practices of ecovillages and social enterprises, the accelerators and challenges they encounter in implementing sustainability practices, and the impact of these practices on the environment and local communities.
In addition to the interviews and focus groups implemented by project partners in Italy, Lithuania, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal and Serbia, workshops were held during the Ecoprise International Camp arranged in August 2024 in Sweden at the 2024’s European Ecovillage Gathering. The workshops were aimed at filling information gaps for this SWOT analysis and at gathering insights from participating ecovillages with long-standing practices. The insights from these workshops were also integrated into the SWOT analysis, enhancing the overall understanding of best practices from experienced community members.
All the research results were gathered in the SWOT analysis “Social Enterprises vs Ecovillage Experiences”. This analysis evaluates strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the organisations researched and seeks to identify missing skills and competencies that could help social enterprises to move towards a more sustainable business practice.
Also, the SWOT analysis identifies valuable and transferable sustainability practices that the new professional figure of the Ecoprise designer can adopt, highlighting potential opportunities and risks associated with them. This new professional will support the upskilling of established or aspirant entrepreneurs into “ecopreneurs”, as specialized entrepreneurs, able to apply more sustainable approaches to their professional practice, focusing especially on regenerative acts and approaches.
Strengths and weaknesses of the interviewed ecovillages, social enterprises and educational institutions, were grouped thematically into the categories of environmental, social, cultural and economic regeneration. Opportunities and threats section draws on the research insights that shed light into the struggles faced by the research participants and potential opportunities existing for the Ecoprise designer in this field. This role requires a mix of skills, knowledge and expertise required in order to recognize and organise solutions for social enterprises seeking to move towards deeper sustainability regeneration.
What emerges from the SWOT analysis is that the threats faced by the Ecoprise designer are diverse and span across environmental, social, cultural, and economic pillars of sustainability. These threats highlight the complexity and context-specific challenges that could impede the effectiveness of this role.
The SWOT analysis is also the baseline for the development of the Ecoprise prototype and skillset for Ecoprise designer which will include a description of the Ecoprise entrepreneurial model and professional profile.
Would you like to learn all the latest news about Ecoprise? For more information about the project and the SWOT analysis, contact Simona Palumbo: simona.palumbo@cesie.org or visit https://ecoprise.eu/. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
About the project
ECOPRISE – Future-oriented social entrepreneurship through Ecovillage Design is a project funded by Erasmus+ KA2 Partnerships for Innovation- Alliance 2023.
Partners
- CESIE ETS (coordinator, Italy)
- LAND (Italy)
- Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Portugal)
- GLOBAL ECOVILLAGE NETWORK OF EUROPEEV (Germany)
- UNIVERZITET U NOVOM SADU (Serbia)
- UAB THEORIA (The Critical) (Lithuania)
- EUROTRAINING EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION (Greece)
- ReadLab Brussels (Belgium)
- CSI CENTER FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION LTD (Cyprus)
- GRANTXPERT (Cyprus)
- Mazoji Bendrija Zaliasis judejimas (Lithuania)
- ECQA GMBH (Austria)
For further information
Read more about the project, visit https://ecoprise.eu/ and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Contact Simona Palumbo: simona.palumbo@cesie.org.