Ce contenu est disponible uniquement en anglais

Berytech, the Lebanese partner from STAND Up!, has kicked off the training sessions for 22 green projects selected in the textile and fashion industry. The capacity building phase will run from April until the end of June 2021 and starts with providing green business model training and following the Switchmed methodology, which has been developed by the Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP/RAC).

The training will be leaded by the trainer Maya Karkour, an Environmental Consultant, an Eco-Entrepreneur, and the Managing Director of EcoConsulting which co-founded in 2003 in the UK, and established in Beirut, Lebanon in 2008. Also, it will count on the expertise of Lynda Achkouty, an international certified business coach, serving entrepreneurs, small business and startups to grow and reach higher revenue. Finally, it will address Nourhane Moukahal’s knowledge, part of the MakeSense team (Lebanese incubator of social innovations), supporting early-stage entrepreneurs through ideation workshops, innovations, coaching sessions, collective intelligence, and design-thinking methodologies.

The capacity building phase will continue with Maya Karkour and Aya Hoteit, a chemical engineer, solution-oriented entrepreneur and multifaceted designer, to provide access to market and market validation workshops, textile technology trends and market insights, and go-to-market strategies in the textile and fashion industry. Market research techniques will be provided by Leen Taher, expert on research, benchmarking and data analysis at Heed. As for the last component of the capacity building, Nadia Moukaddem advisor at Eedama will be covering basic financials and access to finance sessions to the 42 entrepreneurs.

The entrepreneurs will then receive pitching sessions with the expert Andre Abi Awad in order to prepare them to pitch in front of a selection of jury members who will identify only 4 projects that will move to the second phase of the program ‘The Incubation Phase’ to receive tailored support from business and technical experts and mentors to further develop their projects.

The STAND Up! Growing Innovation Program is truly a one of a kind program in Lebanon and the Mediterranean region supporting circular fashion and textile projects and businesses. The 42 entrepreneurs in Lebanon who have been selected to take part in this program will highly benefit from the support that the program will provide them.

“Their projects will be implementing circular solutions in fashion and textile while creating a second life to existing material, generating employment, reducing cost, and more benefits on an environmental and social aspect,” explains Tala Saleh, Senior Programs Officer at Berytech. STAND Up! is an EU-funded project under the ENI CBC MED Programme.

What does the Switchmed methodology consist on?

It’s important to note that the capacity-building phase will incorporate the innovative SwitchMed Green Entrepreneurship methodology to help the entrepreneurs better shape their business idea and come up with a robust green business model, through TheSwitchers.org platform.

This methodology has been developed under the SwitchMed initiative that aims at achieving a circular economy in the southern Mediterranean by changing the way goods and services are produced and consumed.

To achieve this, the initiative provides a support methodology, tools and services tailored to the needs of green textile and fashion entrepreneurs and focusing on creating green textile and fashion opportunities for the Mediterranean region.