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EUROPEAN SUSTAINABILITY ACADEMY

Leadership for positive impact

News 2018

TEDxDrapanosWomen hosted at ESA

ESA hosts the first TEDxWomen event in Crete on 30th November 2018.

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Further Details


GLOBAL SUSTAIN, Sustainability Forum Tour 2018, Crete 6th – 7th October.

Booking is now open for limited places on this impactful and deeply enjoyable sustainability leadership tour.

At ESA we are delighted to be partnering with Global Sustain to create a rich and immersive sustainable enterprise learning experience for managers and directors in business.

We are pleased to showcase successful sustainable enterprises in Crete such as award winning Biolea cold press EVOO and Dourakis Winery.

During this peer group knowledge sharing weekend, you will visit other thriving sustainable enterprises such as Fisika and Tzompanakis Blown Glass (beautiful glass art from recycled bottles) and hear about setting up and leading innovation in sustainable enterprise.

Other organised actives include visits to Technical University of Crete and world class Mediterranean Agriculture Institute Maich followed by some appreciation and reflection time at the beautiful Chania Venetian harbour.

Of course participants will get a chance to enjoy the beautiful off grid ESA biophilia feeling and Cretan catering hospitality which is above excellent.

Full Agenda

This will be a small group experience so book soon for this unique and wonderful sustainability weekend.


EUGREENWEEK 2018 partner event ‘Bamboo Bike Ride Crete’

EUGREENWEEK 2018 partner event ‘Bamboo Bike Ride Crete’ was a success “more than we could imagine”. See here for yourself.

 

 

May 21 - 25 ‘Bamboo Bike Ride Crete' was a ESA, official EUGREENWEEK partner event organised by Sharon Jackson to promote ESA's #MakeCretePlasticFree campaign. The event was designed to involve diverse stakeholders from local government, eco- activist groups, young entrepreneurs club, the general public and to collaborate with organisations interested in creating greener living and working practices in Crete. The full 5 day event consisted of open seminars, a 4 day bamboo bike ride from Rethymnon to Falasarna and a 'Trash Art' exhibition organised by Chloe Dimitriades at Biolea. The brilliant core team of ‘bamboo bike riders' consisted of Thomas Mönch and Sharon Mechta of Biotic Bikes and Spyros Petrakis of ΔΕΔΙΣΑ ΧΑΝΙΑ with guest rides by Suzanna Scott of Charma Beer-Cretan Beer, Anargyros Koutroumpas of Cleopatra's Sponges. The start was hosted in Rethymnon by Vice Mayor Pepi Biriiraki and Rethymno Tourism, thereafter local businesses The Olive Grove - Armenoi, Piperia-Klaives Salis - Chania and Fisika in Tavronites hosted the exhibition and rest stops along the route to give a wide range of people the chance to see the bamboo bikes and engage 'hearts and minds' about reducing single use plastic in Crete. For back up support, Mr, Stelios Mylonakis from Strata Tours provided transfer services.. The event created 480 impacts with diverse people including more than 100 school children who care about reducing plastic waste in the ocean. Not surprisingly Bamboo Bike Ride Crete attracted media interest with 3 TV broadcasts and 5 news articles in Crete and Athens. ESA is already planning BBRC 2019.


Bamboo Bicycle Ride Crete on NEA TV

Bamboo Bicycle Ride Crete was covered on NEA TV. Here are some video clips of their coverage:

ESA bamboo bikes on NEA TV

 

ESA bamboo bikes at biolea on NEA TV

 

Kostas Nitos from NEA TV covering ESA bamboo bikes


Bamboo Bicycle Ride Crete - day by day

Bamboo Bicycle Ride Crete, a video summary of each day.

Day 1

 

Day 2

 

Day 3

 

Day 4

 


Bamboo Bicycle Ride Crete for a Green Future

ESA is an official event partner for EU Green Week - Green Cities for a Greener Future. In collaboration with Biotic BikesBiolea and local municipalities of Crete, ESA is hosting a fun, educational event and the FIRST EVER Bamboo bike ride East to West of Crete.

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Further Details


Women Innovators in Sustainable Enterprise (WISE) just went GLOBAL!

International Women’s Day 2018 brought with it the launch of Women Innovators in Sustainable Enterprise (WISE) GLOBAL learning and community of business support for women.

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Originally focussed on Women in Social Enterprise, WISE was founded between 2013 and 2015 as an EU, Lifelong Learning Programme, pilot project for 60 women in Greece, Spain and Croatia. Since the close of that pilot programme, at ESA we have been testing the interest in WISE around the world and found that although there are many start- up support programmes, there is a need for more skills development about the fundamentals of a profitable sustainable business and  maintaining a sense of ‘sustainable self’. WISE Global is updated and enhanced from the original pilot and blended with elements from the Growth through Sustainability (GTS) programme designed at Cranfield School of Management and from The Gateway (confidence building) programme designed for Cambridge University (Murray Edwards College). This new programme ticks all the boxes for what women in enterprise told us they need and want from a business skills development programme. WISE Global is a rigorously researched and designed, blended learning programme, which means 90% of the learning experience is online with the support of a virtual teacher, online mentors and a rich, diverse, global peer group for knowledge sharing and support. WISE is a programme ‘beyond start up’ that guides participants to be investor ready for the next phase of their business. Continued 1:1 business growth coaching and lifetime membership of the thriving global WISE community supports participants after the formal learning modules are finished.

Further details

Join our WISE Global Community at FB Women Innovators in Sustainable Enterprise


Bamboo Bicycle 'build and ride Crete' for a Green Future

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Between 17th and 25th May 2018, as part of EU Green Week, Green Cities for a Greener Future, in collaboration with the Bamboo Bicycle Club in London, ESA is hosting a fun, educational event and the FIRST EVER bamboo bike ride East to West of Crete. Riding over 302km, between Sitia to Kissamos, to encourage people to be part of creating change and #MakeCretePlasticFree #EUGreenWeek.

We are looking for Bamboo Bike Builders, Bamboo Bike Riders and Event Organisers to be part of the 'build and ride' team to build 4 BAMBOO BIKES at the beautiful ESA, off- grid, natural materials eco-building, in the Natura 2000 location of Drapanos, Apokoronas.

Would you like to sponsor a unique, one off, made to your specifications, personalised branded 'Made in Crete' Bamboo bike?

These Bamboo Bicycle bikes are NOT FOR SALE! You have to build them and enjoy the lasting pleasure of design and creation.

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James and Ian, co-founders of Bamboo Bicycle Club: Bike riding engineers, who after their own enthusiastic experiments in building bamboo bikes, decided to create a bicycling community with others who are interested in building their own beautiful, robust and environmentally friendlier bamboo bicycle frames.

Further details and how to join the team
Find out more, follow our FB event page


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Host your event at ESA     

Powered only by Cretan sunshine, ESA is a beautiful building rooted in the earth amongst ancient rocks and olive trees, surrounded by nature. Its construction is a leading example of sustainability in practice. ESA is an experiential and creative place where people feel enlivened, uplifted and creative. Great living and great learning happen at ESA. A perfect setting for:

Leading sustainable enterprise

Our passion is contributing towards co-created sustainable enterprise for positive impact on communities and the natural environment on a global scale. Leadership and entrepreneur issues of adaptation, resilience, authenticity, sustainable-self, values connected sense-making and the continued emancipation of women (WISE) to take up more leadership roles in the world are at the core of the ESA sustainability experience.

Make sense of sustainability

Crete is the sustainable destination of the past and of the future.

Home of the Minoans, one of the earliest civilisations on earth, nestled between Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Crete is rich with mythology, gastronomy, music, art and agriculture. You can have your own authentic experience of a sustainable lifestyle and feel first-hand the strong connection between nature and community.