Climate change is the greatest threat we all face today. Whether it is rising sea levels, extreme weather events, global temperature rise, shrinking ice sheets, the world altogether collectively must act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, at this moment of speaking, along with the enormous threat of global warming, we have encountered a pandemic in the name of COVID-19. But one certain advantage emerging from the current global circumstances is that human beings are being tested on their collective understanding of how we are all connected on a global scale.The 'Collective Innovation to Fight Climate Change' project's vision is to support the successor of the European Cooperation in Education and Training (ET2020) for more ambitious benchmarks for adult education and for more social and sustainable future, where adult education can play a central role in achieving the UN SDGs and combating climate change. Hence, the goal of this project is to fight climate change through collective innovation and efforts and more specifically with all our objectives through the prism of educators, entrepreneurs, SMEs, employees, and/ or individuals altogether.The specific objectives of the project are:1. Educate educators on the topic of climate change and the UN SDGs and equip them with interactive training instruments to embed within their trainings --> via the Intellectual Output - Climate Change & Sustainable You Handbook (CU Handbook)2. Upskill entrepreneurs and SMEs owners/ managers on how to use the innovation management process in developing their sustainability strategies to contribute to the fight against climate change --> via the Intellectual Output - Innovating for Climate Change & Sustainability Toolkit (IC Sustainability Toolkit)3. Guide entrepreneurs and SMEs owners/ managers on becoming agents of change for their colleagues/ employees and transforming their business culture and values to eco ones --> via the Intellectual Output - Culture of Change. Climate Change Manual. (C Change Manual)4. Provide a user-friendly digital platform to educators, entrepreneurs, SMEs and individuals to measure their carbon footprint and provide valuable tips on how to help reduce the negative impact on the environment and support the fight against climate change --> via the Intellectual Output - Fight Climate Change Platform (Change Platform)In addition to the intellectual outputs that the project partners will produce, the project will organise two trainings complementary to the first three outputs and an international conference which will take place in London, UK. The project consortium consists of 7 partners from 5 countries (UK, Belgium, Spain, Greece and Bulgaria) - EPN Consulting; Worldview Impact Foundation; Creative District; International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation; IDEC; Center for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development and Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club. The partnership is made up of training organisations, NGOs, consultancies, associations - all supporting the target groups in this project: educators (consultants, trainers, coaches, mentors, etc.), entrepreneurs, SMEs.Although our consortium cannot fight climate change single-handedly, the current project creates a foundation for the partners to start a collective cooperation on the topic of climate change, leading to introducing collective innovation and tools to support the target groups, resulting in educating adults and raising awareness of how we all contribute to the negative impact on the environment, and how we all can minimize it to a certain extent.The innovative element in the project could be defined by the collective innovation approach envisaged, implemented through the intellectual outputs. Collective innovation is a connected, open and collaborative process that generates, develops, prioritizes and executes new ideas. Even though climate change is not a new topic, there’s vast information available for ‘consumption’, our project focuses on specific tools to support first - the partners in the project to embed climate change as part of their values and culture (and joint collaboration throughout long period of time is a good way to have a strong and stable way to approach this), transferring the elaborated materials to educators to be able to deliver this to their target groups, leading to exhaustive support to entrepreneurs and SMEs to design their own climate change and sustainability strategies, and second - introduce eco culture within their enterprises for their colleagues and employees, contributing to more knowledge about climate change within all those groups, who will be more alert on this subject as individuals. Thus, along the chain and collectively through the collective innovation of all, we can achieve widespread collection of human knowledge.

The S.T.R.E.E.T. project, started on the 1st September 2015 and ended on the 31st August 2018 and had the aim to define a new professional profile, Expert in Sustainable Mobility and Tourism, focused on two main fields: alternative mobility and sustainable tourism, which are opportunities for economic growth, local development and employment. The partnership included a Vocational Education Training Centre from Italy, a company in the transport sector from Italy, a Municipality from Slovenia, a consultancy in Sustainable Transport from the United Kingdom and a cooperation network of 25 municipalities with a touristic vocation in six alpine EU countries.The Project Idea: the general context in which the project took its idea was the need of a more integrated territorial development, taking into account peripheral and scarcely populated areas. These areas need to enhance their accessibility, foster entrepreneurship and enhance jobs creation, building strong local capacities. Thus, an effective mobility management could play a crucial role facing this territorial challenge.Nevertheless, although the profession is generally focused on urban contexts it can be re-qualified in terms of competences and expertise, tailoring on specific mobility needs of peripheral and mountain areas.Marginal areas can rely on tourism considered as a fundamental driver to maintain the economic activity of these territories. Strictly intertwined with the mobility field, tourism can trigger a sustainable economy based on the ecological capital, the agriculture and forestry field and the entire specific social capital.The new professional profile of Expert in Sustainable Mobility and Tourism, matching mobility and tourism under a sustainable perspective, will be able to work in peripheral, touristic contexts (e.g. Alpine Valleys) improving capacities for jobs opportunities in all EU regions.Another aim of the project was to foster entrepreneurship, in terms of knowledge and attitudes, which represents a key asset for a young person facing the labour market. For a not yet clearly defined profile, entrepreneurship can be an added value enriching basic skills with problem solving capabilities, autonomy and self-responsibility. Enterprising spirit and capability to design and suggest innovative projects and investments ideas are qualities appreciated in all sectors of the labour market, either private or public.The partnership designed and implemented a training programme addressed to young unemployed or underemployed individuals available on the labour market. The training was developed jointly by the partners and it is in English in order to give a EU perspective. The training was on line and also included 4 study visits (“learning activities”) in the UK, Austria, Slovenia and Italy. The courses foreseen by the project were of 2 types: the Basic course and the Specialised course.The BASIC Course aimed at filling potential gaps among countries and participants on basic mobility management knowledge and skills, so that all participants could be considered at the same level. The training programme was available on line and open to all participants.It was accessible via the platform and was also used as a base to select participants for the training activity abroad.The platform had a close access (login and password) so that the partnership could monitor the learners and their participation, and it is going to be open at the end of the project. The SPECIALISED Course was focused on sustainable tourism mobility management in urban and non-urban areas/regions. A significant part of the course was the study visits/learning activities abroad for a group of selected participants (who have attended the basic online course). Learning Activities Abroad: after the online training phase, 21 students were selected to participate infour training activities abroad.The training sessions lasted five days each and were carried out in London (UK), Werfenweng (Austria), Bled (Slovenia) and Torino (Italy). The study visits were practical examples of how different areas with different socio–economic backgrounds approach tourism and sustainable mobility. In each visit there were also lessons on the theme of mobility management, transport and tourism. The partnership managed to teach 21 young people a set of skills transferred by professionals in the fields of Sustainable Mobility and Transport and did it in an innovative way as, thanks to the Erasmus Plus funding , the learners were able to experience the topics directly on the field of the partner countries. They were able to make connections, see real companies working on sustainable mobility and generate fresh ideas for their future profession. STREET used modern tools to disseminate the project and decided, after the end of the project, to open the Learning Platform and make it accessible to all as well as designing a manual (Toolbox) on the theme of mobility and transports issues.

Context/backgroundThe i2 SustainIT is a continuation of another project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, where 5 out of the 6 partners in this project had been participating in. The project is BASET – Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training with the overall objective to foster social entrepreneurship in Europe through elaborating, testing and providing a set of learning and training instruments to a large group of social entrepreneurship trainers/educators. The rationale behind continuing BASET in an enhanced form based on the outputs developed so far is the realisation that such a project focused on social entrepreneurship to provide a higher-scale of impact, will need a more sustainable approach and additional set of instruments to assist educators and investors, in the current project – mentors and investors. Therefore, considering the conclusions made from the so far developed outputs in BASET, the i2 SustainIT focuses on the fact that all target groups need to better communicate with each other and express their needs accordingly, and also that impact investment and sustainability are under-explored topics with significant added value to tackling social and environmental challenges.ObjectivesThe overall goal of the project is to maximise the understanding and transfer of knowledge on impact, impact investment and sustainability to tackle societal and environmental challenges. Project objectives: 1. Create a set of innovative educational tools for mentors and investors to enhance theirs skills and know-how to better support social entrepreneurs in their impact journeys in the incubation phase; 2. Establish an immersive digital incubator platform, with an open access of the knowledge base of the developed tools for impact investors and mentors, while connecting them with the social entrepreneurs and their early stage projects.Profile of participantsThe participants in the project are the partner organisations and the teams designated to the project as well as the participants in both trainings & international conference, including any focused groups planned that will take place during the project duration. The profiles of the partners complement each other in order to produce superior value for the implementation of the project and achieving the project results. The partnership includes six organisations from four countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Belgium and UK.ActivitiesThe following activities are planned: management plan and preparatory work; project execution; monitoring and reporting; evaluation of the results and quality assurance; executing and monitoring of the dissemination activities.Methodology The methodology of i2 SustainIT concentrates on a collaborative cooperation based on the commonly accepted rules, preliminary defined tasks and critical milestones, strict reporting and effective control through project management using online/ cloud platforms. The activities planned in the project follow the classical training cycle for adults: Identify needs; Design programme; Deliver training; Evaluate results.ResultsOverall, the outcome of the project is a set of tools and resources embracing the impact investment and sustainability ecosystems supporting mentors by training them in the design thinking approach to integrate in their assistance and investors to responsibly invest in social entrepreneurs for maximising social impact. Moreover, the project will provide the basis of mentors, investors and social entrepreneurs to have a virtual space – incubator, connecting all three groups and providing a platform for support as well as for investors to search for a pipeline of projects creating social impact. The project will produce 4 outputs: O1 – Impact Measurement Guidelines (IMGuide); O2 – Design Thinking for Impact Incubation Toolkit (DTi2 Toolkit); O3 – Impact Investment & Sustainability Handbook (i2 Sustain Handbook); O4 – Digital Impact Incubator Platform (Di2 Platform).Impact / Longer term benefitsSince the project is strongly focused on impact and sustainability, it provides direct positive impact in those dimensions through the the primary target groups nurturing the secondary target group and increasing the investments in social impact, which in the long-term will tackle the challenges we face in the 3 dimensions. Therefore, all the resources created during the project duration will eventually contribute to economic growth, reducing the negative impact on the environment and will foster the development of people, communities and cultures to achieve reasonable quality of life, healthcare and education across the globe. The digital platform that will be created will allow the development of such projects contributing not only to the life of the project after its end but will ensure durability of the project beyond by resolving importantfor the world issues.