The 6th seminar in the INVESTMED Sustainable Business Management series took place on Wednesday 30th March, via Zoom. The seminars, which complement the rolling 12-month training programme, have been well attended with participants from Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia, as well as France, Spain, Greece and the UK.  

The seminars, co-organised by INVESTMED partners EMEA and LUMSA University, bring together practitioners, academics, and panels of experts from across the Euro-Mediterranean region to explore and discuss real-life examples of training concepts in action.

The 6th session, held in collaboration with Beyond Group, saw a productive discussion of Social Innovation in Business. The transition to a more sustainable and fairer economic model means valuing not only the environment but also the integrity of people, ensuring that fundamental human rights and social inclusion are protected. Speakers Nadine Asmar from Leadership for Impact, Tamara Zakharia from UNICEF, and Cristian Bevacqua from Oxfam Italy explored the opportunities presented by social innovation in business models, and how it can promote creative and innovative processes to foster a prosperous and fair social transformation.

Previous seminars in the series have covered sustainable energy transitions and their role as a driver of the green economy, human-centred business models, and how businesses can integrate the concepts of circular economy, industrial symbiosis, and life cycle analysis into their operations. They have heard from a diverse range of distinguished speakers and pannelists from large, well-known institutions including UNIDROIT, UNICEF and Oxfam Italy, start-ups and success stories like Energreen, AKIS International and Simbiosy, and universities from Italy, Egypt, Norway.

Recordings of all the seminars are available on EMEA's YouTube channel at the links below. 

Sustainable Energy Transition

03/09/2021

Marzio Domenico Galeotti

Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan, and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Energy Transition as a driver for the Green Economy

21/10/2021

Prof. Dr. Mohamed Salah Elsobki (Jr.), Professor of Energy Planning, Cairo University

Business Models and the Human-Centred Business Model

23/11/2021

Marco Nicoli, Director, UNIDROIT International Summer School and Sr. Counsellor at Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) Foundation

How can your business integrate circular economy principles?

25/01/2022

Giorgio Mosangini, Team Leader, Green Entrepreneurship & Civil Society, Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production

Circular economy in the clothing and fashion sector

Mauro Manco, Energreen

Circular economy in the building sector

Víctor Falguera, AKIS International

Agro-food sector and bioeconomy in the Mediterranean

Industrial Symbiosis and Life Cycle Analysis in Business

15/02/2022

Verónica Kuchinow, Simbiosy

Industrial Symbiosis and the experience in Catalonia

Nelson Manjong, University of Norway

Life Cycle Assessment: from results to sustainable business decisions

Amos Ncube, Università degli Studi di Napoli Parthenope

Towards the circular economy and industrial symbiosis: driving business value from life cycle assessments – ReTraCE Project – Interreg Europe

Social Innovation in Business

30/03/2022

Nadine Asmar, Catalyst and enabler of Leadership for Impact

Introduction to Social Innovation

Tamara Sakharia, Innovation Portfolio Manager, UNICEF

UNICEF Innovation Portfolio

Cristian Bevacqua, Oxfam Italy

MEDUP Project

The next seminar will take place in May, and will discuss Sustainable Leadership – follow INVESTMED on Facebook to know when registration opens.

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The INVESTMED webinars form part of the project’s Sustainable Business Management Programme, which is open to current and prospective entrepreneurs from Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon working in the green economy, blue economy, and cultural and creative sectors. The seminars aim to complement the training content by bringing together experts in these fields from around the Euro-Mediterranean region.

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The INVESTMED project is co-funded by the European Union under the ENI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme 2014-2020. INVESTMED has a duration of 30 months, with a total budget of 3.8 million euros, of which 3.4 million euros are funded by the European Union (90%). It involves 9 partners from Tunisia, Spain, Lebanon, Greece, Egypt, and Italy:

·        Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises, BUSINESSMED (TU)

·        Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association, EMEA (ES)

·        European Institute of the Mediterranean, IEMed (ES)

·        Beyond Group / Irada Group S.A.L, BRD (LE)

·        Institute of Entrepreneurship Development, IED (GR)

·        Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta, LUMSA (IT)

·        Rumundu Social Promotion Association, RUMUNDU (IT)

·        Confederation of Egyptian European Business Associations, CEEBA (EG)

·        Spanish Chamber of Commerce, CCE (ES)