The broken link between man and nature needs to be restored. It is the greatest conundrum this generation didn't create but will need to solve in the next 20-30 years. At JA, we believe it is our responsibility to do our part and support that transformation through educational instruments. We need to become entrepreneurs in saving the ecosystems and our planet.
GREENT is a blended-learning program developed by JA Bulgaria that inspires high school students to become green entrepreneurs, by teaching them how to start and run an entrepreneurial venture that is designed to be green in its products and processes from the very moment it is set up. GREENT uncovers for students the indispensable significance of natural systems, the major global environmental challenges of today, and the principles of sustainable development. Through ample examples of real-world young green entrepreneurs and a seven-step process for sustainable business idea generation and prototype development, GREENT inspires students to take real action and contribute to solving the world’s pressing environmental problems. It prepares them to start their own green ventures or work as green “intrapreneurs” in established businesses. Since 2014, when GREENT started, more than 4000 students and 120 teachers from 7 countries have applied the program.
Recently we further developed GREENT with a high school pre-accelerator program and implemented it in Bulgaria and Norway in 2020-2021. We also offered a package of interactive webinar activities to support teachers. We formed a partnership network of mentors - eco entrepreneurs and nature conservation experts from Bulgaria - who work with the student teams. GREENT was institutionalized in some schools in Bulgaria as part of their compulsory curriculum in secondary grades. We are currently adapting the GREENT toolkit to serve the Just Transition process in Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro. Our main goal for the next years is to record high-quality videos to support the theoretical parts of the GREENT lessons.
Contact Vera Petkantchin at JA Bulgaria (vera.petkantchin@jabulgaria.org) for an introductory online meeting where you will get more familiar with the details of the GREENT toolkit. There are various options to obtain the content. In order to start implementing in schools you would need to organize a train-the-trainer event first.
