Melina Taprantzi, Founder of Wise Greece on circular food innovation to scale impact from individuals to ecosystem
05/01/24 • 46 min
“We always provide food supplies that we would give to our children”
In 2013, in the depths of the financial crisis, when Melina Taprantzi visited a regional social grocery supplying food for the unemployed, the only thing that was available on the shelves was razor blades.
This stark reality was a turning point for Melina, who has since focussed her energies on building Wise Greece into a uniquely circular Social Enterprise that now supports over 100 small Greek farmers and food producers to grow and export 2500 food products - including award winning innovations such as salads in a jar and mushroom flavoured sweets!
Profits are used to buy food from the same producers to supply soup kitchens and charitable institutions across Greece, with over 180 tons of food donated to support over half a million people in need so far.
Have a listen to Melina’s incredible story in our latest podcast, with insights including:
How to design social enterprise business model generating positive compound Impacts from indivuduals to ecosystem
Equality lessons learned from over 20 years of being a woman on the workplace
Why being overreactive to natural disasters can have limited or even negative Impact
Tips for start-ups: Why having a brilliant idea is not enough; and how to genuinely bootstrap with limited funding
Investment opportunities across the Greek education, tourism, food, services sectors
Why social enterprises are part of the real economy
Why a career in impact is about enjoying the grind and celebrating every small win
Why being adaptable is the core skill that students (and all of us!) need to develop
And more - including how to send the finest herbs via postcard....!
“When I stepped into my career I stepped in as a ‘man’. After 10 or 20 years you get to discover your female side more.”
#food #foodinnovation #compoundimpact #equality #socialenterprise #womenintheworkplace #socialgood #circularimpact
Impact Frontiers
https://impactfrontiers.org/norms/five-dimensions-of-impact/
OECD wellbeing Index
https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/
UN SDGs
Social Value International
https://www.socialvalueint.org/
Impact Europe
Global Impact Investing Network
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“We always provide food supplies that we would give to our children”
In 2013, in the depths of the financial crisis, when Melina Taprantzi visited a regional social grocery supplying food for the unemployed, the only thing that was available on the shelves was razor blades.
This stark reality was a turning point for Melina, who has since focussed her energies on building Wise Greece into a uniquely circular Social Enterprise that now supports over 100 small Greek farmers and food producers to grow and export 2500 food products - including award winning innovations such as salads in a jar and mushroom flavoured sweets!
Profits are used to buy food from the same producers to supply soup kitchens and charitable institutions across Greece, with over 180 tons of food donated to support over half a million people in need so far.
Have a listen to Melina’s incredible story in our latest podcast, with insights including:
How to design social enterprise business model generating positive compound Impacts from indivuduals to ecosystem
Equality lessons learned from over 20 years of being a woman on the workplace
Why being overreactive to natural disasters can have limited or even negative Impact
Tips for start-ups: Why having a brilliant idea is not enough; and how to genuinely bootstrap with limited funding
Investment opportunities across the Greek education, tourism, food, services sectors
Why social enterprises are part of the real economy
Why a career in impact is about enjoying the grind and celebrating every small win
Why being adaptable is the core skill that students (and all of us!) need to develop
And more - including how to send the finest herbs via postcard....!
“When I stepped into my career I stepped in as a ‘man’. After 10 or 20 years you get to discover your female side more.”
#food #foodinnovation #compoundimpact #equality #socialenterprise #womenintheworkplace #socialgood #circularimpact
Impact Frontiers
https://impactfrontiers.org/norms/five-dimensions-of-impact/
OECD wellbeing Index
https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/
UN SDGs
Social Value International
https://www.socialvalueint.org/
Impact Europe
Global Impact Investing Network
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Krisztina Tora of The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) on building Impact Economies
“The paradigm shift embodied in the impact investment community is from Egosystem to Ecosystem”
Why should we be building Impact Economies across the world? And how can it be done?
This is the mission of The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG). Spearheaded by Sir Ronald Cohen, GSG are already enabling impact capacity building by establishing and supporting national impact advisory boards across 75 countries, including with our colleagues at the Hellenic Impact Investing Network (HIIN), here in Greece.
With a goal to harness influence, stimulate innovation and foster the building of impact economies, GSG also push for knowledge sharing and collaboration, a natural trait of the impact community and something that is close to our hearts at Investing for Purpose.
To hear more, Krisztina Tora, GSGs Chief Market Development Officer, tells the full story in this pod, including:
Why we need to develop impact investment globally and how local-to-global impact networks are key to the solution
The need to focus attention on early-stage companies
The stark differences between ESG and Impact investing
The importance of channelling capital flows into emerging markets and SDG aligned solutions
Why post-growth thinking is not comfortable, but is essential in an AI dominated future
The ABC definitions of impact categorisation
As well as the Impact community as a 'family', how we can all get better sleep - and more!
“Impact should become the driver for all decisions in business, investment, policy and consumption”
GSG Global Steering Group for Impact Investment
Hellenic Impact Investing Network
Impact Management Platform: ABC
https://impactmanagementplatform.org/?s=ABC
Impact Frontiers
https://impactfrontiers.org/norms/five-dimensions-of-impact/
OECD wellbeing Index
https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/
UN SDGs
Social Value International
https://www.socialvalueint.org/
Impact Europe
Global Impact Investing Network
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Vasileios Bontzorlos of Tyto on Barn Owls as a perfect agricultural nature based solution
"We can help the land, so the land can help us"
How to solve the problem of rodent infestations costing farmers in Thessaly, the breadbasket of Greece, more than EU100m each year, while mitigating overuse of rodenticides that harm biodiversity, ecology and human health? With the perfect nature-based solution, of course...
Spend some time in the home and in the fields at dusk with agricultural ecosystem expert Vasileios Bontzorlos to hear all about Tyto, the company that expertly researches, fosters and manages communities of wild barn owls across 100s of kilometres of farmland, while enabling a thriving and biodiverse ecosystem.
The question is, as the dusk light fades, will we see one of the elusive barn owls?...
Discussions include:
The myth surrounding the barn owl and why they are so connected to humanity
What it takes to change the mindsets and practices of rural communities
The true definition of Regenerative Agriculture
Why you should read E.O Wilson after Dawkins
How to pave the way for a career connected to nature
Why you might want to approach barn owl boxes with an umbrella...! And much more besides.
#naturebasedsolutions #barnowl #raptor #agriculturalecosystems #wildlifeconservation #ecology #communityengagement
"Barn owl populations locally move like a cloud"
Links mentioned in the podcast:
Alexandre Roulin
https://barnowl-research.ch/en
Richard Dawkins
E.O. Wilson
https://eowilsonfoundation.org/
Convention on Biological Diversity
Additional links
Investing for Purpose
Impact Frontiers
https://impactfrontiers.org/norms/five-dimensions-of-impact/
UN SDGs
Social Value International
https://www.socialvalueint.org/
Impact Europe
Hellenic Impact Investing Network
Global Impact Investing Network
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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