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After 7 months of ongoing activities, InCommOn's “Close the Food Cycle” project at the Municipality of Papagou-Holargos came to its end.

During this time, the InCommOn crew has been spreading the message of organic waste behavioral change through a series of actions, such as: workshops, awareness actions and campaigns, community building activities at neighborhoods & playgrounds, meetings with businesses, and more.

The project involved all parties of the local community (citizens/households, businesses, schools, Municipality) and its objectives were to:

♻ inform and engage the community about organic food waste and the correct use of the brown bin.

♻ develop tools so that the Municipality can continue the project and adapt it to other streams of recycling or increase the intensity of actions in the field of organic food waste.

♻ create a pilot system that can then be adapted and implemented in other Municipalities.

Another wonderful partnership for our Foundation! This time with The American College of Greece (ACG), where we support them on the kick-start of the following project.

ACG joins forces with Healing Lesvos and the University of the Aegean to implement the "Lesvos Mission Blue Project" (LMBP); a research initiative that engages science and society to protect, preserve, and revitalize the Aegean Sea. It will focus on promoting the conservation of the Mission Blue Avlaki Hope Spot in Lesvos and on establishing Mission Blue as a lighthouse of education, sustainable development, and social impact. Additionally, the first Citizen Science Hub in the North Aegean will be created.

A team of ACG students and professors visited Lesvos as part of field activities. During their stay they:

✔explored and made a first attempt of mapping the biodiversity of the island, namely: environmental and ecosystem services mapping, coastal plant identification, geological exploration, birdwatching, testing underwater equipment for the monitoring of fish populations.

✔established contacts and collaboration with the Department of Oceanography and Marine Research of the University regarding the future steps of the LMBP.

✔worked closely with Eleni Atsikbatsis, founder of Healing Lesvos and of the LMBP.

✔interacted on coastal monitoring activities with students of the Lyceum of Petra, where they also organized an educational activity on the SDGs with an emphasis on the most relevant to the project.

✔linked social and humanitarian issues with ecosystems of the island through exploring the migration pathways that bring birds and humans in the island of Lesvos.

Counting 1.5 years of being operational, Ecogenia has thus far achieved many of its key milestones, a fact that validates our primary intuition that this team is a winning team which can make great things happen! After the successful completion of the first two pilots in 2022 (Ecotourism in Dorida & Education in Chania), it’s time for the second iteration of the Ecotourism program;

as we speak, the new cohort members –"the fantastic 8️"– have already received 55 hours of training and they are now on the field, cleaning and opening trails. Last year, 7 cohorts –Ecogenia’s first trailblazers– managed to revitalize 5.5km of trail. This year, the aim is to not only maintain that piece of trail but also to add 10 more kilometers.

On top, cohorts & Ecogenia plan a Community Volunteer Day for June 17, will host 20 students from Tulane University for a media project, and much more! It’s worth mentioning Ecogenia’s long-term commitment to Dorida region which involves the revitalization of 60km of trail network, connecting several villages and stimulating a small ecotourism economy for the locals.

Our engagement with sustainable mobility begins and we couldn’t have a better ally on that rather than Cities for Cycling!

Cars are dominant on the streets, creating unfriendly livelihood for the citizens and impacting heavily on the environment. What if we could say no to the extensive car use and make room for alternative mobility solutions such as the bicycle?

After all, it’s a fact that the majority of the daily car routes in Athens are less than 2km. True, our city lacks the adequate cycling infrastructure, nevertheless a big part of the road network consists of narrow, low-traffic roads that you can safely bike to.

Cities for Cycling – an official member of the European Cyclists' Federation and the National Coordinator of EuroVelo for Greece – has a long course promoting the use of bicycle in the Greek cities and the development of cycling tourism through a series of actions and programs.

Now, it has designed a lovely project – that we’re proudly funding – called “Cycle into History and Art”; placing parking spots to museums, galleries & cultural destinations and providing directions for safe and easy connections between these places is a win-win for everyone:

+ for the reduction of CO2 emissions + for accessibility to cultural spaces through a fun ride + for our health and wellbeing + for community building and socializing + for economic development

Our special thanks to Spiros Papageorgiou who – with his optimism, deep knowledge and lust for cycling – made us feel that we can overcome barriers and help towards the expansion of micro mobility in Greece.

The annual conference Philanthropy 2.0 is coming up in a few days and Higgs has prepared a very interesting agenda for it.

The theme of the conference is the importance of social impact and its practical application. Key members from civil society organizations, charitable foundations, businesses, public institutions, universities and experts from Greece and abroad will share their knowledge and experiences on social impact as a growth driver for society and the country at large.

Happy to be co-sponsoring such a nice initiative, we look forward to it!

10-11 May 2023 | Serafio City of Athens | Free admission