Special: Standert Bicycles - Do what you love! And why community matters

08/25/17 • 38 min

GreenMe Podcast | Meet the Heroes of the Urban Green Scene

Finally, I'm releasing the mysteriously missing show no. 4 - an episode from the early days that has never appeared in iTunes before...! I'll explain you more about the story behind that in the intro. Tune in as Claudi spoke to a super bad-ass guest: Benedict from Standert Bicycles in Berlin Mitte. Benedict is a very essential part of the Standert team, a total road bike & fixed gear devotee - and a real Berliner! How about that?! Since they started out in 2012, Standert Bicycles have created an awesome Berlin brand around bicycles they want to ride themselves. Their combo of

Since they started out in 2012, Standert Bicycles have created an awesome Berlin brand around bicycles they want to ride themselves. Their combo of store, showroom, workshop and café works super well and has kind of become an open & chillaxed meeting place for the Berlin bicycle tribe. Bicycles are such an essential part of our lives. Of Berlin life! We could not imagine to live in this city without our bikes. For us, it stands for freedom, independence... and Claudi actually often has her best ideas while riding a bike! Plus, it fits perfectly into the eco- & health conscious mindset of many Berliners...

In this episode, you'll learn more about:

What is the story behind Standert Bicycles & why it is written with "-ert"
How a bike store turned into a hub for the Berlin cycling scene - What they do to grow a community & get people excited to ride together
Why it is important to build and sell only the things you love
What we need to do to help building a friendly & peaceful coexistence of cars and cyclists in Berlin

It’s always a good time for a bike, so make sure to pop by at Standert's store, even if it’s just for a quick coffee and a round of “awwwe” looking at their bikes. They’re super easy going and always up for a chat. Hop on your bikes (or the metro if you have to) and come over!

Check out the full interview including transcript on: www.greenmeberlin.com/podcast-standert-bicycles

As always, you can find all the details in the transcript, and of course, you can find them on the GreenMe BLN map: www.greenmeberlin.com/map

If you’re not in yet, sign up for the GreenMe Berlin newsletter and you’ll not only get notified when the next inspiring interview is ready. You’ll also get to download a Best of Guide to some of my favorite places (hint: Standert is in there, too): www.greenmeberlin.com/newsletter

Don't forget: it would be a huge help for me if you could hop over to iTunes and leave me a short review. Tell me how you like the show, it’s what I need to keep me going.

Thanks SO much for listening, hope you have a beautiful day - and remember to keep it green !

In this episode, you'll learn more about:

What is the story behind Standert Bicycles & why it is written with "-ert"
How a bike store turned into a hub for the Berlin cycling scene - What they do to grow a community & get people excited to ride together
Why it is important to build and sell only the things you love
What we need to do to help building a friendly & peaceful coexistence of cars and cyclists in Berlin

Check out the full interview including transcript on: www.greenmeberlin.com/podcast-standert-bicycles

As always, you can find all the details in the transcript, and of course, you can find them on the GreenMe BLN map: www.greenmeberlin.com/map

Don't forget: it would be a huge help for me if you could hop over to iTunes and leave me a short review. Tell me how you like the show, it’s what I need to keep me going.

Thanks SO much for listening, hope you have a beautiful day - and remember to keep it green !

Previous Episode

GMB012: FOLKDAYS - Empowering Remote Communities While Building a Business You Love

My guest today is Lisa Jaspers, a passionate social entrepreneur that inspires me so much! She ditched her secure job at one of the worlds biggest charity organizations to follow her heart and start her own ethical brand, FOLKDAYS.

FOLKDAYS is a Berlin-based fashion label that empowers artisans from some of the remotest corners in the world to make a living through their handmade crafts. Each time I walk into the store here in Kreuzberg, it’s like going on a little journey to far away lands and cultures. It’s spreading a very positive, colorful, dreamy vibe and takes me to places like Turkey, Cambodia, Nepal, India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, Palestine, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru - in total there are 26 artisans from 18 countries involved.

Every team member of FOLKDAYS is happy to share the unique stories behind each piece. Lisa even knows all artisans in person, as she travels out to those hidden corners, searching for the most talented craftspeople - and gives them a reason to believe into themselves and their incredible talent.

Apart from sharing the story of how this beautiful label was born and the “what, “how” & of course, especially the “why” behind FOLKDAYS, we also touched into some very personal topics.

You'll learn about:

How to get noticed as a social brand in an overloaded market like fashion
What it means to be a female entrepreneur - and why we need more of them
Why we need to learn to believe in ourselves & our skills (no matter if in Bangladesh or Europe)
Stories of travelling on the surface vs. travelling deep
What moved Lisa to the point where she wanted to stop travelling
Why you’ll never be a good entrepreneur if you’re a perfectionist
What’s so important about surrounding yourself with the right people
Why we are often our own worst enemy & How to keep up your energy as a small business owner
The importance of visual communication and storytelling for green brands
What are the next steps in the FOLKDAYS story
The advantages - and the challenges - of starting a sustainable brand in Berlin
What makes Berlin “Berlin” & the effects of living in peaceful chaos

You see, there’s a whole lot to get out of this! I had a blast talking to this inspiring woman and left the store full of motivation and new ideas - and I’m pretty sure you’ll feel the same.

Make sure to swing by at the store in Manteuffelstraße in Kreuzberg as soon as you can. And until then, soothe your curiosity and wanderlust by checking out the beautiful journal on www.folkdays.com

Check out the full interview including pictures and show notes on: www.greenmeberlin.com/podcast-folkdays

If you enjoyed this episode, share it out with your friends - and I ALWAYS love to hear from you too. So send me any thoughts, questions or feedback. Either as a comment on www.greenmeberlin.com/podcast-folkdays, or message me on Facebook, Twitter, send me an Email, whichever you feel most comfortable with.

BEFORE YOU GO, I got a little secret to announce already: I’m teaming up again with my friend Ari from the Green Fashion Tours and we’ll be hosting our 2nd Circular Economy Tour + Zero Waste Dinner, this time in Wedding. It’s happening on the 17th August here in Berlin. If you’re interested in joining, watch out on www.greenmeberlin.com/events, as we’ll put all the details live over the weekend.

If you wanna stay up to date with the latest interviews, green events and fresh content from me and my explorations through Berlin’s green scene, sign up for my monthly newsletter. I got a little thank you if you do so, I’ll send you my little best-of guide to 7 of my favorite eco-minded places in the city. To get it, just go over to www.greenmeberlin.com/newsletter

Last quick shout out: As always, it would be a huge help for me if you could hop over to iTunes and leave me a short review... It’s what keeps me and the show going. Thank YOU!

Now, go out & have an amazing day. And remember to keep it green!

Next Episode

GMB013: soulbottles Berlin - a soul-driven startup against plastic waste

This time I unpacked the brain of Paul Kupfer, co-founder and CEO of soulbottles (@soulbottles) - an amazing Berlin-based social startup. What they do? soulbottles produces the world’s cleanest drinking bottles and is on a mission to give people all over the world access to clean drinking water and sanitation. How they do it? Well, by offering soul-lutions through making sustainability cool, fun and sexy. They basically create colorful designs that rock and put them on beautiful glass bottles. On top, soulbottles are 100% made in Germany and 100% free of plastic.

I’m very very passionate about clean drinking water, because it is a global issue absolutely solvable! There’s no technology barriers whatsoever, it’s linked to giving access to resources - and everyone of us can really help to make it happen... soulbottles is not only encouraging people to drink tap water & eliminating plastic waste. They also give 1 euro for each bottle sold to Viva Con Agua - a really cool charity that is improving access to clean water in developing countries. So it’s really a win-win-win. You win, because you have a cool, beautifully designed and durable drinking bottle that everyone around you will be curious about. soulbottles wins, because they can sustain their business and raise awareness for a cause they believe in. And rural communities - in this case in Nepal - win because they get access to clean drinking water.

To give you some numbers: Soulbottles has supplied 8.000 households with 40.000 with access to clean drinking water, donating 37.000 euros of their profits. It’s a story about social entrepreneurship. Of shaping the for-purpose economy. Paul and his co-founder Georg built a social business completely from scratch at the age of 24! I tell you, their journey is full-on fascinating.

Some of the highlights you’ll learn more about:

Why you don’t need to be a born business crack to build a social business from scratch
How a bottle of vodka can become the basis for a brilliant social enterprise
How moments of crisis (in this case the London riots) can change your life for the better
Why a “just see if it works” mentality is crucial to get you started - The meaning of “company” in our current system
Why raising money for clean water is much easier than for clean toilets
Who inspired Paul the most on his journey & the biggest challenge soulbottles had to overcome in the last 5 years
The current global state of clean drinking water & what plastic bottle producers have in common with the tobacco industry
A moment Paul is most proud of - even though he hasn’t been there himself
What Paul does that drives everyone in his team crazy
Where you should go to connect with the Berlin social startup scene
The realization that the biggest structures around us are human made

That is not all: we talked about a Kung-fu master in sales, Paul’s favorite secret spot in Berlin, the weird relationship Germans have with tap water, all the other amazing world changing projects that soul bottles is involved in and and and!

Oh yes, why are soulbottles made of glass? One reason: it tastes SO much better. Plus, glass is a great material that can be 100% recycled! Soulbottles are made from around 30-50% of recycled glass. You can read up everything about the production and materials used on their website, I drop it into the show notes - as for our interview, I rather wanted to extract those stories from Paul, that you can’t read up on the interwebs.Another great fact about soulbottles: it is a certified B-Corp! Actually, they’ve been of the first 100 companies in Germany to join the movement.

Another great fact about soulbottles: it is a certified B-Corp! Actually, they’ve been of the first 100 companies in Germany to join the movement.

NOW, please meet Paul Kupfer from soulbottles. Check out the full interview incl. transcript, pictures and all links & shownotes on: www.greenmeberlin.com/podcast-soulbottles

BEFORE YOU GO

Just a quick behind the scenes of GreenMe Berlin: over the last few weeks, we’ve been pumping all our energy into live events. We’ve been running a number of green guided tours through Berlin, visiting lots of exciting projects and bringing together a bunch of like-minded people. It really fills me with so much joy to build those connections. People from all different backgrounds learn about the eco-minded projects in the city, meet the people who run them and see how sustainability can be linked to so much passion and positive mindset. Check out www.greenmeberlin.com/tours

And if you wanna be part of one o...