Stefanos Kamperis of Staramaki on Nature Based Solutions & building resilient social economies
02/29/24 • 33 min
"I've realised that being close to nature gives you a different understanding of what growth is, of what a meaningful life may be."
Is it possible to tackle climate change and soil-degeneration with a nature-based solution while at the same time building a resilient social economy for an existing remote community and for those that migrate there? Yes.
Staramaki is a Social Cooperative Enterprise based in Kilkis Greece, which produces straws from the stems of wheat as an alternative to plastic straws which, despite the ban, are still omnipresent and for paper straws that often contain harmful PFAs and are typically shipped in bulk containers (containing mostly air) from Asia.
"The wealth created by the company is distributed in an equal and fair way. The salaries of everybody in Staramaki is the same, no matter the position, no matter the experience."
Born out of a reaction to the Greek crisis and from a new perspective arising from moving back to his rural roots, this is the story of the impact Staramaki co-founder/manager Stefanos Kamperis and the like-minded collective that formed around a simple idea. The collective both set up a resilient NGO to tackle the rehousing and integration crisis stemming from the mass migration that at one point had 25,000 people walking barefoot through Kilkis village each day - and resulted in one of the most progressive organisations in Greece, currently producing over 3m natural straws per year.
"Without Impact Investing, it's almost impossible for a social enterprise in Greece to find the investment necessary for it to grow"
With social enterprises struggling to raise vital growth funding, we were delighted, along with our investors, to enable the highest funding round for a social enterprise in Greece to help Staramaki build resilience and acquire new machinery to expand production.
"It's something that money cannot buy. It's passion."
https://www.nespresso.com/gr/en/
#Ikigai #valueeconomy #circulareconomy #naturebasedsolutions #socialenterprise #impactinvesting
Other useful impact industry resources:
Ellen Macarthur Foundation
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/
SDG Goals
Social Value International
https://www.socialvalueint.org/
UNDP / Duke University free course: Impact Measurement and Management for SDGS for enterprises and investors
Impact Measurement & Management - investment best practice:
Global Impact Investing Network
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
"I've realised that being close to nature gives you a different understanding of what growth is, of what a meaningful life may be."
Is it possible to tackle climate change and soil-degeneration with a nature-based solution while at the same time building a resilient social economy for an existing remote community and for those that migrate there? Yes.
Staramaki is a Social Cooperative Enterprise based in Kilkis Greece, which produces straws from the stems of wheat as an alternative to plastic straws which, despite the ban, are still omnipresent and for paper straws that often contain harmful PFAs and are typically shipped in bulk containers (containing mostly air) from Asia.
"The wealth created by the company is distributed in an equal and fair way. The salaries of everybody in Staramaki is the same, no matter the position, no matter the experience."
Born out of a reaction to the Greek crisis and from a new perspective arising from moving back to his rural roots, this is the story of the impact Staramaki co-founder/manager Stefanos Kamperis and the like-minded collective that formed around a simple idea. The collective both set up a resilient NGO to tackle the rehousing and integration crisis stemming from the mass migration that at one point had 25,000 people walking barefoot through Kilkis village each day - and resulted in one of the most progressive organisations in Greece, currently producing over 3m natural straws per year.
"Without Impact Investing, it's almost impossible for a social enterprise in Greece to find the investment necessary for it to grow"
With social enterprises struggling to raise vital growth funding, we were delighted, along with our investors, to enable the highest funding round for a social enterprise in Greece to help Staramaki build resilience and acquire new machinery to expand production.
"It's something that money cannot buy. It's passion."
https://www.nespresso.com/gr/en/
#Ikigai #valueeconomy #circulareconomy #naturebasedsolutions #socialenterprise #impactinvesting
Other useful impact industry resources:
Ellen Macarthur Foundation
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/
SDG Goals
Social Value International
https://www.socialvalueint.org/
UNDP / Duke University free course: Impact Measurement and Management for SDGS for enterprises and investors
Impact Measurement & Management - investment best practice:
Global Impact Investing Network
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Åsa Skogström Feldt of Ikea Social Entrepreneurship on supporting social entrepreneurs, circularity, theory of change, IMM & purposeful careers
"There is this bridge between philanthropy and business that cannot be filled by foundations"
Since 2012, IKEA Social Entrepreneurship has partnered with and supported social entrepreneurs to create a positive impact for vulnerable and marginalised groups around the world.
Join Åsa Skogström Feldt for a wide ranging conversation including how Ikea SE optimise various approaches to supporting social entrepreneurs to become financially sustainable, how to implement a systems change approach to circularity from global conglomerate perspective, the importance of Theory of Change, using qualitative approaches for Impact Measurement & Management, careers advice, the key to beating stress and more!
#ikea #ikeasocialentrepreneurship #circularity #theoryofchange #socialimpact
https://www.ikeasocialentrepreneurship.org
Inclusive Loops: The Crucial Role of Social Enterprises in the Circular Economy
Other useful impact industry links:
Ellen Macarthur Foundation - How to Build a Circular Economy
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/
SDG Goals
Social Value International
https://www.socialvalueint.org/
UNDP / Duke University free online course: Impact Measurement and Management for the SDGS for enterprises and investors
Impact Measurement & Management for investment best practice:
Global Impact Investing Network
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Ellinor Schweyer of FASE on Social Venture Capital, how to attract impact finance and social entrepreneur success stories
"The relationship between entrepreneurs and investors is like a marriage. You really have to be certain that on the human side of things you are also aligned".
In the world of impact finance it’s easy to focus a lot of attention on the myriad challenges: How to source and support the most impactful enterprises; how to find like-minded investors with skillsets aligned to the entrepreneur business; how to design innovative, smart and patient capital models; how to assess the impact of enterprises; how to help enterprise growth and valuation in parallel with impact; etc.....
But how often do we also step back to celebrate the impact of social enterprises that are going from strength to strength as a result?
Ellinor Schweyer, Co-Founder and MD of Munich based impact finance advisors FASE, which was born out of the original social entrepreneurship funding organisation Ashoka, tells of their success stories ranging from a triple-win solution to detecting breast cancer, to insuring the health of previously uninsurable field workers in developing nations, and making civic sports clubs sustainable to reliably provide a priceless framework that so many teenagers benefit from.
Ellinor also delves deep into the best approaches to bootstrapping a social enterprise to be sure of attracting impact funding- and on the importance of choosing wisely when it comes to committing to the right investor 'marriage'. As well as her thoughts on:
The corporate saturation that led her to jump into impact and careers advice for those looking to switch to impact finance
Impact finance vs VC start up failure rates
The challenges thrown up by the positive reality of Impact investing becoming trendy and attracting an increase in venture funds
Using Ashoka Impact metrics to measure Impact
The FASE approach to structuring debt, mezzanine financing, social bonds and impact ROI
How to stay healthy in an age of climate anxiety
"Impact is not equally defined and often in impact investments you still see that the brain rules over the heart"
https://www.discovering-hands.de/international/page-international
#SocialVentureCapital #matchmaking #impactsuccessstories #impactfinance #ashoka #SocialEntrepreneurs
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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