Yesterday evening I attended one of the best panel discussions so far in Austria. An incredibly competent panel presented the book Growth in Transition, at the Hauptbücherei (main library) in Vienna. The panel participants were well prepared, kept it short (I love that!), and some of them even seemed like they were having fun on the podium.

The panel consisted of Friedrich Hinterberger, Sustainable Europe Research Institute, SERI; Elke Pirgmaier, SERI; Elisabeth Freytag, Umweltministerium; Martina Schuster, Lebensmisterium; Michaela Moser, Armutskonferenz; and Philipp Reuchlin, World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The discussion was moderated by Johannes Kaup, Ö1, (does this guy have the perfect moderation voice – or what!?).

I thought some of the most interesting points in the presentation were these:

• The alternatives ways of measuring growth are very much the centre of the transition discussion. But we have to think about whether we need measurement at all. This urge to measure everything stem from an economics discourse, and perhaps we don’t need to measure, we just need to live whatever is most important in life. We are truly obsessed with measuring… and what good does the economics discourse really bring anyway?
• We have to ask ourselves if the world is really a better place if we have 24 biscuits instead of 12, when 1% of the population tends to take almost all biscuits, and let the rest share the bread crumbs – independently of how many biscuits there are. So, do we really need growth? Of course there has to be something – otherwise there’s nothing to share. But is growth the answer to that? Isn’t the sharing policies more interesting to look at?
• We need more regulations from governments, and we need it now and heavily, to make companies become more sustainable – fast. But still, the outcome of this process relies heavily of all parts of society – government, as well as the civil and business sector.
• Getting away from economic growth as we see it today is about changing norms and values – in short – we’re talking about culture changes. (And we know how challenging those can be…).
• We need to ask ourselves how much our current growth paradigm costs us in terms of destroyed eco-systems, unemployment etc. Perhaps it does really cost us more than it actually brings. (Staggering thought!)
• It can actually be more expensive to make it wrong than to make it right. An example of this is that it may prove less expensive to not pollute the water in the first place, than to pollute it and then have to clean it.
• Cities with closed water systems and free from waste were mentioned as a future necessity! Hello Zero Waste!

On the plus side of yesterdays’ panel I’d also like to mention that there were more women than men on stage. Especially for this country I would almost label that as a miracle!

On the minus side: the panel format was very traditional with small speeches rather than discussion, and most statements from the audience were incredibly boring, some even embarrassing. Just a hint! There are many new exciting formats for hosting presentations and discussions, and for avoiding monologues from people in the audience, where people even leave the room!

Enter: The Good Tribe!

xo,

Evelina

The Good Tribe’s initative ZeroWasteFest! on May 12 to 14 is getting closer! Tribster and up-cycling fashion designer Alexandra Poetz is the creator of the cooking aprons which you can see on Rupert Pessl’s photo below. Alexandra’s cooking aprons are ZeroWasteFest!’s symbol of combining things we already have in our vicinity with innovative, high quality design. The point of Zero Waste is to keep the things in the system, and up-cycling is the act of giving something old and used a higher value than it had before.

So, now to the German lesson! We need all your shirts (Hemden) and blouses (Blusen) that that are just sitting around in your wardrobe, or even in plastic bags in the garage waiting to be discarded to realize our aprons! Contact Alexandra directly if you want to help! We are grateful for every single donation. We need shirts and blouses of all sizes, colors, materials and shapes!

To show our appreciation, we will randomly select 10 donors of shirts and blouses for a Goodie bag give-away. Sweet! Please spread the message among your friends! Thank you!

Have a great Wednesday!

xo,

Evelina

A few weeks ago Michael (fellow tribster and former fellow study colleague) and I put a printed copy of our master’s thesis, Facilitating business relationships between social entrepreneurs and business angels, in the library at The Hub Vienna. Epic!

To me it’s not important to have a printed copy for myself, but to know that it’s out there and that somebody could pick it off the shelf, brows around and read a few pages is a mighty good feeling.

If you’d like to read it, and you’re not a frequent visitor to The Hub in Vienna, feel free to download our work here (PDF, 6,5 MB).

You can read more about our work here. And please, do connect back to us with your feedback, questions, and ideas regarding the thesis! We’re always very happy to discuss our work!

xo,

Evelina

PS. Must be the longest blogpost title so far! :)

Enjoy!

March 2: Michael is trying hard not to kill Alexandra with a safety-pin during our photo shoot for ZeroWasteFest! at Mangolds in Graz. Alexandra doesn’t seem to care much about the potential danger ;)

March 13: Captured a moment when Gayathri, Alexandra, Sandra and I were working together in The Hub Vienna. Even Pinky managed to sneak into the picture. I discovered that first afterwards. Working together with all these amazing tribsters, Michael also, makes me feel truly blessed!

March 18: Seeing my man in his element – earth – makes me so happy. Despite the dark looks, I can assure you he seemed equally happy as he watered the Arche Noah plants.

March 19: Makes me pretty proud to see our thesis among the other interesting books on the shelf in The Hub Vienna. Perhaps a step closer to actually publishing a book (or several!), which is one of my life goals.

March 23: Rupi is playing with Noah and Elias in the garden. Great day with massage at Spa zur Sonne, sleep and hanging out with Alexandra, Rupi and the boys. I think Noah and Elias love Rupi almost as much as I love him :).

Welcome April :)

xo,

Evelina

For the first time since five weeks I actually have a day at disposal with no particular plans. The last five weeks have been absolutely packed and crazy.

It started with our master’s thesis defencio, continued with The Good Tribe’s photo shoot together with Mangolds, me moving to Vienna, The Good Tribe’s global meeting week (all five of us working together on the same spot), facilitating two pitch training for Social Impact Award, networking and facilitating at Austrian Social Business Day, visiting Rupi in Langenlois, a tour to Graz, and a last (and very unexpected) week at university. In between I’ve been attending exciting meetings, answering emails and phone calls, working with ZeroWasteFest!, planning my Hired by Society year, planning for two weeks in Sweden in May, and spreading the word that our master’s thesis is done.

Wow, just writing this I feel it’s really been too much. Looking back at all these events – all of them fun, interesting, needed, challenging, and demanding my full attention – I guess it’s pretty normal that I now feel exhausted. Not to mention that the last three years in general, ever since Gayathri’s and my baby, The Good Tribe was born has been pretty intense.

Finding a balance between work-Evelina, who has a drive that is so incredibly strong, determined, and stubborn, and private-Evelina who needs to run, loves physical exhaustion, and finds rest and energy in spending time alone, as well as with her loved ones is truly one of my greatest challenges. After an amazing and simultaneously amazingly tough period like this I really need to remind myself of where I should draw the line, and stop work-Evelina from devouring all 24 hours of the day, all seven days of the week, and give private-Evelina some space – simply time to breathe, reflect and gather new energy.

This simple insight is however constantly compromised by a combination of that I love what I do, and do that I love, and a pressing feeling that I have to keep moving forward. I have my own business together with wonderful Gayathri and our amazingly dedicated and energetic team. I feel I’m on the right path, moving in a very interesting direction. How could I possibly take a step back now? Or perhaps that’s exactly the key. Gayathri and I have already built up something, and If I want to stay focused, filled with energy, and healthy I need to learn to take a step back by simply taking breaks and enjoying them.

Where do you draw the line between work and private time? How do you know it’s time to take a step back and take a break?

xo,

Evelina

This. Is. Epic.

One year of hard work have resulted in this hardcopy of Michael’s and my master’s thesis, which we will defend on Monday in Krems.

Do I look scared? Do I looked freaked out? I am. This is crazy. Awesome. And it makes me happy!

The hard work to prepare the presentation continues!

xo,

Evelina

Yesterday evening i stumbled upon this movie clip, shared on Facebook.

The movie clip is a trailer for a documentary called It’s a girl” – the three deadliest words in the world, which features the fact that 200 million girls are missing in world population – because they are girls.

In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide”.

Girls who survive infancy are often subject to neglect, and many grow up to face extreme violence and even death at the hands of their own husbands or other family members.

[...]

The film tells the stories of abandoned and trafficked girls, of women who suffer extreme dowry-related violence, of brave mothers fighting to save their daughters’ lives, and of other mothers who would kill for a son. Global experts and grassroots activists put the stories in context and advocate different paths towards change, while collectively lamenting the lack of any truly effective action against this injustice.

I’d like to add that I’m all for abortion and women’s right to decide about their lives and bodies. (Imagine that same sentence, but exchange the word women for men…) But to abort girls – because they are girls – is genderside – and a part of the same structural problem, which makes abortion illegal in many countries.

After having seen this video clip I’m most grateful that all day today will be about social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurial business models – my way of contributing to a better world. Without trying to make a difference I wouldn’t know what to do with myself!

Lots of love to all my sisters out there,

Evelina

It’s not every day I feature Brazilian adventurers on my blog. But it’s going to be more of that in the future!

This movie clip was put together by professional adventurer Diogo Guerreiro of Destino Azul, The Good Tribe’s partner in putting together an adventure education concept. The adventure eduction concept is a fusion of ideas coming from different people and will evolve around sustainability, particularly issues regarding Zero Waste.

A pilot, which will also become a TV documentary, will be shot during Diogo’s, and his partner Flavio Jardim’s next adventure, which starts in two weeks. My bestie and business partner Gayathri Rathinavelu is the driving tribster behind the concept.

Very excited to follow and be a part of the progress! Yet another piece of the Zero Waste puzzle!

Have a great weekend!

xo,

Evelina

Over at The Good Tribe we’re initiating a very exciting fashion up-cycling initiative. The name and other details are still a BIG secret! Nevertheless, we need your help to kick things off!

My very dear friend, Alexandra Pötz is fashion designer, member of The Good Tribe and in charge of the design process. She needs all your shirts and blouses for men, women, and children that you don’t need any more. All kinds are welcome!

If you have something to give away, please contact Alexandra on Facebook or send her an email, alexandra [a] thegoodtribe [dot] com.

Please, help us spread the word!

Thank you very much for your contribution!

Stay tuned for more info about the initiative :)

xo,

Evelina

PS. Oh! I almost forgot! We’re starting to spread the word about our next clothes swapping event, which will be held during the autumn in Graz. We’re looking for volunteers and partners for the event. Let me know if you’re interested in participating somehow. The photo on top of the article is from our last big clothes swapping. I pimped the photo with my new app love, the Pixlromatic for iPhone. This app also works to use directly on their website, great fun!

Chaska at Social Impact Award just sent me a tip to have a look at Girltank’s initiative 10 000 names in 100 days, which aim at gathering the names of 10 000 women social entrepreneurs and innovators in 100 days.

Read more about one of the initiators, Tara Roberts here.

Tara’s thoughts behind the initiative:

I began to wonder what would happen if [...] extraordinary young women from [...] diverse regions could pool their resources together and access a common collective of information and inspiration. Would their capabilities as leaders grow? Would their projects become stronger and more effective? Would they begin to work jointly and create even more powerful initiatives together?

The answers to these questions became Girltank.

So, dear fellow social entrepreneurs and innovators (under 30 – buhu!!) – sign up now! We need to improve our visibility. There seem to be nice prices as well! I have two questions though: What do they intend to do with all the names they gather? (Invite them to events, and their community?) And why have they used passport stamps in the graphic design? (What does that have to do with the topic?)

xo,

Evelina