I asked my colleague Danica to share her impressions from the Europe Company of the Year final which was held in Cagliari. Thanks Danica for sharing this. Happy reading, Daniela.
You’ll probably know the feeling very well – you are coming to an event and you are happy to be back again. This was exactly my feeling when I joined my colleagues, Jeannette, Ulrike and Daniela, from the Education team within HP’s Office of Global Social innovation. They were volunteering with me as members of the HP Jury at Junior Achievement - Young Enterprise’s( JA -YE) Europe Company of the Year competition in Cagliari, Sardinia this July.
We’ve been running the HP Responsible Business Competition in partnership with JA-YE for five years. Each year the competition includes two main awards: the HP Responsible Business Award and the Responsible Business Ideas Contest. The Responsible Business Competition is open to all students in JA-YE programs across Europe and this year 743 teams participated - almost twice as many as last year. Every school year, hundreds of HP employees work in schools as volunteers and teach young students how to establish responsible and sustainable businesses.
And do you know why I’m so glad to work with all these young people? Because I can see a lot of energy, enthusiasm and innovation. I can also see how HP is making difference. Every year, as a result of HP’s programs and the fantastic work of HP employee volunteers, more and more JA-YE students all over Europe are thinking about social impact, environment, sustainability, diversity and inclusion when they develop their companies. The HP Responsible Business Ideas Award was presented this year to a team from Russia, ‘Let’s help the Cedar Grove’, because they did an outstanding job at combining environmental education and sustainable development. The students had the idea of preserving an unprotected natural landmark near their town – a cedar grove - by organizing excursions for students and families. The students offered conservation activities and other entertaining and educational activities to raise awareness for the protection of the environment and a healthy way of living.
As usual, the work of the jury was very hard. We had to read 34 company reports , look at the stage presentations, visit the stands of all the companies and discuss their social responsibility ideas.
But it was worth the effort – we saw a lot of excellent presentations, innovative products and fantastic social responsibility ideas. At the end we judges had a hard time selecting the winner!
But we were happy to present the HP Responsible Business Award to Rewined”, a company from Malta, because we liked their concept for a sustainable and responsible company. This student company produces cheese plates from old wine bottles which would otherwise be scrapped. As the managing director of the company17 year old Andreas Borg Wirth said: “We were extremely pleased with this award, because to us, it was a confirmation that we had succeeded in carrying out one of our main goals. Being a responsible company entails taking what you have benefitted from your successes and sharing with the rest of society at large. In the brief nine months that Young Enterprise takes place in Malta, we underestimated the impact one small company can leave on society, but we are proud and glad to be the ones to leave our mark, and make a difference. We hope to have started a trend, and that more local companies will act in a responsible manner. Rewined is innovative in the way that we are reintroducing what was once thrown away, back onto our dining table. We have produced a revolutionary answer to a massive problem, being ignored by today's throwaway society. Rewined has attempted to involve all aspects of society; children, mothers, the environment. All attempts have been made to ensure that Rewined gives back in a considerable way.”
What a progressive view from a 17 year old student – a representative of the next generation of leaders. The list of positive experiences from Cagliari goes on - the Swiss student company Pno which utilized recycled material from bicycle inner tubes to produce pen cases and covers for phones and gave jobs to disabled people in sheltered workshops; or the German company, enerXchange focusing on energy savings and education about environmental issues or the innovative Italian company, Clean Beach Project, that produced paper made from 100% chlorine-free, locally-sourced algae.
The students are now enjoying their well-deserved holidays, but colleagues in the Education team are already thinking about the new school year and how we can get HP volunteers involved in our JA-YE programs again.
128 HP volunteers gave their support to JA-YE across 10 European countries this year. I hope I have inspired some more of you to start thinking about how you too can make a difference ...!
Danica Balazova
Health Initiatives & Partnerships Manager,Office of Global Social Innovation
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