Promoting climate protection, energy efficiency and energy transition

By | Actions, News | No Comments

Climate change is already a reality but we have to do our best for climate protection and energy transition. The social enterprise Wind of Renewal / Anemos Ananeosis (WoR) has a strong commitment to building a better world through social and green innovation, green and social economy and the cooperative business model. It was constituted in Greece in 2014 for the promotion of social cooperative and responsible economy, social entrepreneurship, green-circular economy, eco-social innovation, intercultural dialogue and the protection of environment.

       

 

We promote Energy Transition

Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal participates in two programs of European Climate Initiative and promotes

a) education and awareness of 200 teachers from 73 school from Athens and the participation of thousands of students in order to raise awareness about climate and reduction of energy consumption in schools @EUKI_Climate

  

b) The training of 11 Greek young people (at the same time  11 young people in Spain) is aimed to obtain professional qualifications for young people to promote the energy control in schools and other buildings to implement the innovative natural climate systems and practices that will transform schools into zero-emission buildings @EUKI_Climate

 

In collaboration with the partners of Graeducation program we have recently  trained, more than 100 teachers of primary schools and professors of the secondary education on renewable energy sources topics focus in vocational education of Green skills and professions field.

We want to make our innovative WELCOMMON HOSTEL, a new Hostel in Athens with social and green impact more energy efficient as well as a demonstration center for energy efficient systems, a zero emission building, a training center for energy transition and climate protection in collaboration with different organizations, research centers, energy cooperative, financial institutions. With the WELCOMMON HOSTEL we are combining two “different” aims: sustainable tourism, green and social innovation with green transition, social inclusion, art, intercultural dialogue.

We have so far invested more than 250.000 euro for the renovation, refurbishment based on reuse-upcycling and to acquire equipment for the hostel, but we must invest more resources for the decoration and the rest of the equipment, for energy efficient systems, and an infrastructure for a better environmental and energy performance

What is the WELCOMMON HOSTEL

Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal is renting since August 2016 this building with about 3.200 square meter, which was until the end of the year 2013 a public clinic. We fully renovated the building already twice. Once at autumn 2016 to be for 1,5 years a model center for accommodation and integration of the most vulnerable refugees and then again to become an innovative, functional and esthetic Hostel with a social and green impact.

The whole renovation based on the idea and the awareness of re-use and up-cycling, not only to reduce renovation expenses but also for ecological issues. Beside the fact that we did relevant changes for the lightning, changing the old lamps with new LED lights, there are double windows and some insulation, we regulated the boiler, the temperature of the waste gases and other mechanical systems, to reduce energy waste. However, the building is old and remains energetically wasteful and ineffective. The result is negative both as for the climate and for the expenses of the heating, cooling and electricity.

Challenge:

For environmental and economic reasons we are immediately looking to modify the building to a zero emission building and to operate as a center of education and training in green issues and activities and also as a place to demonstrate energy efficient technology and present renewable energy sources in the city of Athens.

Needs:

We are looking for donations and programs to support our plan and companies, which are willing to provide to WELCOMMON HOSTEL their technologies of energy reduction and renewable energy sources on buildings in order to be able to transform it into a zero emission building. In return, we demonstrate the technology to our guests and cooperation partners from all over the world, who visit us to see our work. Thousands of people and organizations, schools, students, businesses will have the opportunity to be introduced to these technologies and practices in an open center for demonstration.

Needs:

Find resources to create the space for training and to create a spirited team and partners who will be able to use the organized energy experimental workshops which can take place at Welcommon Hostel and can also take place in the professional orientation of pupils, in order to familiarize the students or any interested parties in renewable energy sources, and energy efficiency.

Promoting of circular green economy

Under the concept  “Discussing and taking the initiative for the green/circular and social  economy and the innovation” we are organising a variety of workshops, public events and day workshops with the participation of universities, teachers social – vocational institutions, social – economy enterprises, social media such as:

  • Changing the productive and economical model: circular/green economy, climate change and energy transition, energy–efficient techniques, energy cooperatives, energy neighborhood, etc.
  • Science and technology. What are the changes and how do they affect the productive, economic and social model: green chemistry, green design, green products and green infrastructures for climate change, the digital technology and the economy for the society, the environment and the sustainability.
  • A new social policy based on social and green innovation and on social investments: the role of innovation and social economy against the housing crisis, red loans and the energy poverty, alternative finance tools to support smaller and bigger projects with social and ecological impacts, re
  • What is the future of the city in times of climate change, the risk and the mass movements of population? The climate change in the city and other changes are needed to make cities resilient.
  • How do new tourism models affect the cities (like Airbnb and mass tourism), which models for housing and social inclusion of vulnerable groups can strengthen the neighborhoods and the cohesion of the city? How will the energy poverty politics could support the social and green innovation?

The events will take place once a week, from beginning of February until the end of 2019, at WELCOMMON HOSTEL in cooperation with many institutions.

Summer School for energy transition

We are planning a Summer School for Energy Transition in collaboration with a number of organizations and universities. This will take place on the first week of July 2019 in Sifnos (Greek island), with 20 young people from Greece, Germany and Spain. We will discuss topics on energy savings in buildings, energy audits, natural air-conditioning systems, traditional and contemporary bioclimatic architecture, energy transition, zero emission buildings, energy cooperatives, etc.  The summer school will be combined with public events and a workshop for energy cooperatives.

If you want to collaborate with Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal, please contact us windofrenewal@gamil.com. We will be glad to find the way for a creative cooperation.

Best regards!

Nikos Chrysogelos

www.anemosananeosis.gr

www.welcommonhostel.gr

www.facebook.com/welcommonhostel

www.facebook.com/daysofwelcommon

www.facebook.com/socialcooperatives

#Sustainability #Athens #cooperatives #SocEnt #innovation #social
#inclusion #withrefugees #WelcommonHostel @Social Cooperatives

#sustainabletourism #education #youth #Erasmusplus #volunteers #art

Contact us: info@welcommonhostel.gr or windofrenewal@gmail.com

If you want to support our social activities with a donation, our bank account is

ANEMOS ANANEOSIS / WIND OF RENEWAL

Piraeus Bank
IBAN: GR83 0172 0180 0050 1807 7868 253

Piraeus’s BIC code is PIRBGRAA

Social inclusion and green transition projects in the innovative WELCOMMON HOSTEL

By | Actions, News | No Comments

Social inclusion and green transition projects in the innovative WELCOMMON HOSTEL

WELCOMMON Hostel, an innovative hostel with social inclusion and energy transition vision

It is a demanding project, but we decided to risk. We created the WELCOMMON HOSTEL, an innovative hostel and also a social experiment in the center of Athens.   We decided to combine two “different” aims: sustainable tourism, green and social innovation with social inclusion, art, intercultural dialogue. And it seems, it works.

The WELCOMMON HOSTEL is a project run by the cooperative Anemos Ananeosis / WIND OF RENEWAL. We are part of the social change we want to see happen.

 

Social Program: non-formal education and social inclusion of refugees

Although the building is no longer a refugee hosting center and has been refurbished into a modern facility, two floors of the WELCOMMON Hostel are used as an open center for social empowerment and inclusion. Learning from each other is an important and interesting part of our social project. As many people with different knowledge and skills come together, we try to benefit from each other.

We offer in daily basis classes (e.g. for language, painting, puppet show, music etc) with the support of volunteers to about 50 refugees, migrants, local people, tourists; we work for the empowerment and training of our guests and design interactive workshops for the professional training and promotion of the abilities and qualifications of refugees, especially the young people, along with Greek nationals, in order to be able to find their way in our society and for the benefit of our societies (see attached a brief report about our activities with refugees).

The aim is to create also new employment opportunities for everyone in areas such as up-cycling, ethnic cuisines, culture, green / cyclic economy, energy efficiency and others. Our societies must not accept generations being lost, we must not leave young persons, Greeks, migrants, refugees behind.

Challenge:

We want to reach a satisfactory level of completeness of our WELCOMMON HOSTEL through our collaboration with sustainable tourism organizations, schools, universities, Erasmus groups, ethical enterprises, social enterprises and cooperatives, social and ecological groups.  We hope in 2 years to be able to finance 100% of the operation of the Hostel and more than 50% of our social and green projects, which are also very demanding. In 2019, we have to find the resources of more than 70.000 euro to finance part of our social projects’ costs.

Needs:

In order to maintain the social project and the proportions of the building used for the social activities (800 m2), as well as being able to develop our social – ecological projects and to have a valuable continuation, it’s necessary to have more support.

The salaries of the volunteers’ coordinator and volunteers’ mentor as well a small part of the materials for the activities and lessons are funded by the non-profit association Respect for Greece and one foundation until the end of 2019. But this is a small part of the cost that in total is higher than 8-10.000 Euros/month. In order to be able to continue our work we have to find, very soon, donations, as two floors in the Hostel are not used for the guests/tourists but for the social inclusion activities.  The expenses of the social project are high:

  • the proportional rent cost for 2 floors – 800 m2- used for the social, cultural and ecological activities and the lessons,
  • hosting 10-12 volunteers in special rooms,
  • the activities as such,
  • use – consumption of materials,
  • need for supporting services, eg cleaning,
  • refurbishment of the rooms,
  • bills for water, electricity, heating and cooling

The philosophy, vision and mission of Anemos Ananeosis/Wind of Renewal and WELCOMMON Hostel

  • Our philosophy is that we want to be part of the social change we want to see happen. Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal has a strong commitment to building a better world through social and green innovation and the cooperative business model. We want to influence the direction of our society to become more sustainable and ecologically and socially fair.
  • Our visionis to bring close people from all over the world, to enable them to communicate, to be entertained and to explore the creative side of Athens. In the WELCOMMON Hostel we can introduce you to the world of Greece’s cultural, environmental and social organizations as well as of social economy. You can also contribute with your ideas and experience. It highlights the positive impact that cooperatives and social enterprises have on communities, revitalizing neighborhoods, making bridges between communities, social groups, newcomers and local people.
  • Our missionis to daily improve and develop our services, make our hostel more than convenient, friendly and live, artistic and social innovative. We can organise your study trip in the city and provide details about interesting social events and groups. We can also supply you with all necessary information on other Greek cities, islands or a mountainside, connect you with cycling groups, or let you know the secrets of culinary delights. This networking supports our model for the way out of the deep crisis.

Who we are

Anemos Ananeosis /Wind of Renewal has a strong commitment to building a better world through social and green innovation, green and social economy and the cooperative business model. We want to influence the direction of our society to become more sustainable and ecologically and socially fair.

We “promote” our WELCOMMON HOSTEL to Universities, schools, social groups, social enterprises and cooperatives, artists which plan to visit Athens. If they decide to stay in our hostel, they can discover the creative side of the city and at the same time support our social and green activities. Our guests can participate in workshops, art exhibitions, cultural events, social activities, networking, youth meetings, youth exchanges like Erasmus projects. We collaborate with a lot of eco- and social active groups in the city and we could connect our guests with groups that offer guided tours to cultural sites, alternative neighborhoods, “secret” corners, traditional shops, local and authentic places in Athens. We can plan the perfect tour for our guests.

Best regards!

www.anemosananeosis.gr

www.welcommonhostel.gr

www.facebook.com/welcommonhostel

www.facebook.com/daysofwelcommon

www.facebook.com/socialcooperatives

#Sustainability #Athens #cooperatives #SocEnt #innovation #social
#inclusion #withrefugees #WelcommonHostel @Social Cooperatives

#sustainabletourism #education #youth #Erasmusplus #volunteers #art

Contact us: info@welcommonhostel.gr or windofrenewal@gmail.com

If you want to support our social activities with a donation, our bank account is

ANEMOS ANANEOSIS / WIND OF RENEWAL

Piraeus Bank
IBAN: GR83 0172 0180 0050 1807 7868 253

Piraeus’s BIC code is PIRBGRAA

 

You stay in a hostel in Athens and you support social and green projects: this is our WELCOMMON HOSTEL

By | Actions, News | No Comments

WELCOMMON Hostel, an innovative hostel with social impact

The WELCOMMON HOSTEL is a new Hostel in Athens and also a social experiment. We are combining two “different” aims: sustainable tourism, green and social innovation with social inclusion, art, intercultural dialogue.

It is a project run by the cooperative Anemos Ananeosis / WIND OF RENEWAL. We are part of the social change we want to see happen.

With a lot of effort and hard work, we succeeded in creating an innovative Hostel in the center of Athens, which aims to promote sustainable models of tourism and at the same time provide the space for non-formal education and social inclusion for about 50 refugees daily. It is also a place for art and culture as well as for social and green innovation and economy.

 

 

We “promote” our WELCOMMON HOSTEL to Universities, schools, social groups, social enterprises and cooperatives, artists which plan to visit Athens. If they decide to stay in our hostel, they can discover the creative side of the city and at the same time support our social and green activities. Our guests can participate in workshops, art exhibitions, cultural events, social activities, networking, youth meetings, youth exchanges like Erasmus projects. We collaborate with a lot of eco- and social active groups in the city and we could connect our guests with groups that offer guided tours to cultural sites, alternative neighborhoods, “secret” corners, traditional shops, local and authentic places in Athens. We can plan the perfect tour for our guests.

  

Who we are: Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal

Anemos Ananeosis /Wind of Renewal has a strong commitment to building a better world through social and green innovation, green and social economy and the cooperative business model. We want to influence the direction of our society to become more sustainable and ecologically and socially fair.

The social enterprise Wind of Renewal / Anemos Ananeosis (WoR) was constituted in Greece in 2014 for the promotion of social cooperative and responsible economy, social entrepreneurship, green-circular economy, eco-social innovation, intercultural dialogue and the protection of environment.

The WELCOMMON Hostel highlights the positive impact that cooperatives and social enterprises can have in a society to revitalize neighborhoods and communities, social groups, newcomers, social groups, youngsters and locals.

We are a member of the European Social Entrepreneurs network for inclusive community tourism LE MAT EUROPE, which reflects on the triangle of “outstanding spaces, values, people”. We are also part of the Greek Youth Hostels Association as well as of the international network of hostels Hostelling International.

Additionally,  Wind of Renewal is a founding member of the Greek Forum of Social Entrepreneurship and member of REVES, the European network of regions, municipalities and social enterprises for the development of the social economy.

 

How you could support our innovative project

If you like our project “WELCOMMON HOSTEL”, please inform your friends, social networks, schools, universities, artists, organizations and institutions. We create job opportunities for unemployed locals, refugees and migrants in a cooperative environment and in diverse fields, while training in fields of sustainable tourism, energy transition, climate protection, social innovation and inclusion.

If one decides to stay in our hostel. one supports the sustainability of our project, the employment of young Greek, migrants and refugees, one can feel the history of Welcommon and can support our work for climate protection, energy transition, energy poverty etc

Challenges:

Although our program is highly innovative and carriers from all over the world visit us to get to know the business model that combines social entrepreneurship with social benefits, we did not get to have access to even a micro-credit. All the official banks refuse to give us a credit of 45-50.000 Euro on the grounds that we had no profit in the last years.

The key factors in making our program a success are:

  • Access to financial resources and funding for this first period of the operation of the Hostel, until we reach a satisfactory level of completeness and we are able to ensure the financial viability of the hostel. Until now we were not able to have such an access to micro-credits or other financial tools because of the difficult financial situation in Greece and the crisis of the Greek systemic banks.
  • Investments: We have so far invested more than 250.000 euro for the renovation, refurbishment and to acquire equipment for the hostel, but we must invest more resources for the artistic decoration and the rest of the equipment, for energy efficient systems, and an infrastructure for a better environmental performance
  • Hiring extra personnel from vulnerable groups (refugees, young and elder unemployed local people etc.) and training them for high-quality accommodation service and sustainable tourism in general, as soon as we are financial viable.

Needs:

(a) Our basic need is to make the Hostel in one year sustainable and subsequently the income of the Hostel is enough to finance its operation and additional programs of social impacts, benefits and inclusion as well as energy transition and climate protection. This means marketing the aims and needs of the WELCOMMON HOSTEL to networks and carriers, universities and schools, in order to consider our Hostel when they visit Athens to support our activities.

  • Communication about the innovative hostel and the activities we organize every day (we need a communication officer and campaigner, but we cannot afford the resources for this job position).
  • Cooperation with social networks, universities, Erasmus+ projects, cultural initiatives, environmental and youth organizations, special partners from the tourist ecosystem, experts.
  • Advertisement of our project through social networks

(b) We need immediately access either to some micro-credits or to donations to be successful and to pay back loans we were forced to take out from friends and partners as well as to fulfill the investments we still need. It would be also very helpful if groups, friends and partners that plan to visit Athens and stay in WELCOMMON HOSTEL would book timely and already pay for their accommodation now (prematurely). Every financial alleviation and donation is necessary for us, to withstand economically as long as it takes until we are sustainable from the incomes of the Hostel.

Best regards!

www.anemosananeosis.gr

www.welcommonhostel.gr

www.facebook.com/welcommonhostel

www.facebook.com/daysofwelcommon

www.facebook.com/socialcooperatives

#Sustainability #Athens #cooperatives #SocEnt #innovation #social
#inclusion #withrefugees #WelcommonHostel @Social Cooperatives

#sustainabletourism #education #youth #Erasmusplus #volunteers #art

Contact us: info@welcommonhostel.gr or windofrenewal@gmail.com

If you want to support our social activities with a donation, our bank account is

ANEMOS ANANEOSIS / WIND OF RENEWAL

Piraeus Bank
IBAN: GR83 0172 0180 0050 1807 7868 253

Piraeus’s BIC code is PIRBGRAA