Observatory / Green Entrepreneurship Training

Observatory

Observatory of Green Businesses

Green Dot Cyprus

Green Dot is a collective response by Cypriot businesses to form a responsible waste management chain system. The company itself was created by the initiative of Cyprus’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry and today numbers 923 members including 87 shareholding companies.

The items recycled fall into three main categories: Paper, PMD and aluminum cans. The company however does work with and manages other recycling systems, namely the wee electronics that collects and recycles electronic appliances and AFIS ltd that is involved in battery recycling, providing a holistic solution to sustainable waste management.

Since Green dot began its larger scale operation in 2007, more than 350,000 tons of waste has been recycled. This is no small accomplishment in a country of 750,000 people, having time and time again, exceeded its waste management goals. Green dot’s revenue mostly derive from charges placed with participating businesses/organizations and local authorities, as well as from the sales of recycled material.

Beyond recycling, Green dot Cyprus is involved in a number of other initiatives.

These initiatives fall within 3 main axons, those of Society, Environment and Economy, dealing with such matters as waste reduction, socioenvironmental impact, energy conservation, environmental accountability, green awareness raising and others.

Through it efforts, Green dot has received a number of awards and distinctions, including London’s stock market’s environmental award, the inbusiness entrepreneurship award, the EU’s responsible and inclusive entrepreneurship award and others. More than that however, green dot also sponsors its own environmental award aimed at promoting green entrepreneurship and environmental initiatives.

Size of business

Green dot is a large company with a profit for 2016 of about €1.5 mil. and with company’s assets reaching almost €5 mil.

Supports

When establishing the business, professional consulting services from a similar organization in Belgium were used to provide the necessary know-how. There was also close cooperation with the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as an umbrella organization in the Cypriot Industry.

Opportunities and plans for the future

Been one of the Key stakeholders in recycling, also helps the company lobby and navigate the complex environment of competing institutions charged with policymaking and delivery at the national level. Though a number of local and EU projects, as well as festivals, seminars, exhibitions and other such actions, the company intends to maintain its vision of inspiring trust in its abilities to improve standards of living. Its goals of aiding in accomplishing national quota of recovery and recycling, improving company capabilities and encouraging civil participation and voluntarism through simplified communication and processes, will continue to guide all Green dot activities.

As for Green dot’s future operational plans, always aligned with its goals and mission, include the upscaling and improving of the company’s ability to effect environmental, societal and economic upgrading of peoples living standards. This is a collective system that walks hand in hand with the framework, legal and societal, in which it operates so that as one expands so does the other and this, is what Green dot aims to serve. That is, to be a key stakeholder in the broader green ecosystem development.

Pitfalls and challenges

In the broader area of collective systems, there are institutional challenges and these were encountered by Green dot. These relate to things of broader policy in a more direct manner, such as the timely production of an institutional framework and, above all, the implementation of laws supportive and encouraging of recycling programs. Should Green dot have had to do it all over again, this time it was going to pre-condition the state to take all of the contextual necessary actions.

Moreover, as any aspiring entrepreneur must know, within a developing green business ecosystem, things, in general, moving agonizingly slowly and so they must be armed with patience and perseverance.