New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Initiative category

Identify the award category for which this initiative is being submitted
Shaping a circular industrial ecosystem and supporting life-cycle thinking

Email user
director@environmenteurope.org

Basic information
Initiative title
Environment Europe Executive Education

Full initiative Title
Environment Europe Executive Education Programme

Please provide a short, catchy description of your initiative to be used in communication towards the public.
Environment Europe Foundation, created by Dr Stanislav Edward Shmelev has produced an initiative that is submitted for the New European Bauhaus Prize. Since 2012, an executive training programme has been set up to educate future leaders in various aspects of sustainable development. As a result, Environment Europe organised 18 executive schools in Ecological Economics, focusing on Ecosystems, Green Economy, Sustainable Cities, ESG Investment, educating participants from 60 countries.

What was the geographical scope of your intiative?
Cross-border/international

Where was your intiative implemented?
Location 1
France

Location 2
Germany
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries
- Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Netherlands
- Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Belgium
- Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Italy
- Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Sweden
- Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Denmark
If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Environment Europe Foundation is headquartered in the Hague, the Netherlands.

Does your initiative address mainly urban or rural issues?
It addresses urban-rural linkages

Does your initiative refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)

Has your initiative benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your initiative won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Does your initiative has a minimum level of maturity? The minimum level of maturity is exemplified by stakeholder/ initiative promoter commitment to implement the initiative in practice and a clear methodology /approach.
Yes

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As a representative of an organisation
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project)
- Name of the organisation(s): Environment Europe Foundation
  Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation
  First name of representative: Stanislav
  Last name of representative: Shmelev
  Gender: Male
  Nationality: United Kingdom
  Function: Founder and Executive Director
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Fluwelen Burgwal 58, The Hague Humanity Hub,
  Town: the Hague
  Postal code: 2511CJ
  Country: Netherlands
  Direct Tel: +44 7729 733366
  E-mail: director@environmenteurope.org
  Website: https://environmenteurope.eu/
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: https://twitter.com/Environment_Art
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): @Environment_Art
- URL: https://twitter.com/Environment_EU
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): @Environment_EU
- URL: https://www.facebook.com/EnvironmentEurope/
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): @EnvironmentEurope/
- URL: https://www.instagram.com/environment.europe/
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): @environment.europe
In case my initiative is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my initiative in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
Communication with senior executives

Description of the initiative
Please provide a summary of your initiative
Environment Europe initiated and run an executive education programme in ecological economics and sustainability in the form of the executive Summer, Spring and Winter Schools in Ecological Economics and trained participants from 60 countries through its executive education programme as a result.

The 18 executive schools run since 2012 have been devoted to very different aspects of sustainable development: green economy, sustainable cities, ecosystems, ESG investment and new sustainable business models.

Representatives of such international organisations as UNDP, UNEP, ILO, IUCN, OECD, GGGI, companies like Shell and Deloitte, NGOs like WWF, environment ministries and leading universities took part as participnats.

As a result participants from 60 countries, including many EU member states have been trained. Representatives of Canada, USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Iceland, UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria, China, Jordan, Lebanon, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Thailand, Taiwan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia joined our programmes.

The impact of the initiative is hard to underestimate. With over 140 graduates that are now lecturers, PhD students, consultants, entrepreneurs, national part managers, UN staff, founders of investment funds all focusing on various aspects of sustainable development, we at Environment Europe have succeeded in fulfilling our mission to promote sustainable development globally.

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with 5 key words.
executive education

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
sustainable development

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
sustainable cities

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
green economy

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
ESG investment

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of sustainability and how these have been/will be met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
The key objectives of our initiative in terms of sustainability have been to train executives from all over Europe and the world in a broad range of tools and methods, policies and approaches to analyse, assess, manage and ultimately promote sustainability. The initiative is exemplary, because Environment Europe has focused on four specific topics: 1) Green Economy; 2) Sustainable Cities; 3) Ecosystems; 4) ESG Investment and Sustainable Business Models and trained participants from 60 different countries. Each executive school out of 18 was one week long and brought together the leading experts in sustainability and the participants creating intense professional training experience in sustainability, training in the key concepts, methods, approaches thereby reaching the objectives set at the start.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
The key objectives in terms of the quality of experience have been to offer immersive, transformative and unforgettable experience for participants trained in sustainability. The initiative has been exemplary because it allowed new friendships to be formed, professional interactions to take place, exchange of perspectives and opinions across cultures as diverse as Sweden and France, Ghana and Brazil, China and the US to happen. One of our participants from Ghana, who has since the course completed his PhD and raised 50mln USD for sustainable cocoa farming in Ghana wrote the following endorsement for our programme: "Seven years ago I was part of this wonderful experience. If you think it's time to boost your career then consider this course." Vincent Awotwe-Pratt.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
The key objectives in terms of inclusion of our initiative focused on giving the opportunity to participants regardless of their country of origin the opportunity to be trained with the leading experts in sustainability. Our initiative in this context has been exemplary because participants from 60 countries have joined our programmes. We have established a system of Scholarships for participants from the development world and young PhD students. This way it was possible to train not only the participants from most affluent countries, but countries in Eastern Europe: Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Albania, countries in Africa: Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, countries in Asia: India, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, China, Bhutan, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Papua New Guinea as well as countries in Central and South America: Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil. We have always went out of our way to accommodate participants with outstanding CVs who came from less privileged backgrounds, this way guaranteeing the richness of the dialogue. It has been tremendous experience to observe and stimulate the dialogue between representatives of Ghana and Germany, Brazil and France happening in the same room.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the initiative and civil society have been/will be involved in the initiative and what has been/will be the impact of this involvement on the initiative
The citizens benefiting from the initiative through taking part as executive school participants have been trained by the leading experts in various methods, tools, policies and dimensions of sustainability. After the schools completion, the alumni were able to join a vibrant alumni network run through our platforms on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn. The impacts of the participants involvement have been huge. Two of our graduates managed to raise over 50mln USD each on sustainable cocoa farming in Ghana and an ESG impact fund in London. Many have completed their PhDs, found jobs as lecturers and researchers, started to teach themselves thereby amplifying our impact further.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the initiative.
The Environment Europe executive education programme has been the result of creative collaboration of many different stakeholders at various levels. For example, through a successful partnership with European Environment Agency, we have received multiple times the speakers from the agency on subjects from sustainable cities to ecosystems. One of our regular speakers from the European Environment Agency has been Dr Stefan Speck. Our successful collaboration with WWF International resulted in Dr Marco Lambertini, WWW International Executive Director teaching at our executive schools on two occasions. Marcello Palazzi, one of the founders of the B-corp movement taught at the ESG summer school. Former senior executive of IKEA, Pia Heidenmark Cook also taught at our ESG Summer School. The representatives of the non-profit sector were also involved and Dr Joachim Spangenberg of SERI Germany taught on many occasions. We have enjoyed partnerships with leading universities in Europe including Prof. Arild Vatn (University of Life Sciences Norway), Prof. Peter Soderbaum (Malardalen University), Prof. Erik Dietzenbacher (University of Groningen), Professor Juan Martinez-Alier (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and many others teaching on multiple occasions. Representatives of business have also been involved and Guy Janssens (BNP Paribas) taught at the school too.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your initiative. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was
Environment Europe executive schools have been very interdisciplinary by design. The following disciplines and knowledge fields have been involved: ecological economics, ESG investment, new sustainable business models, urban sustainability, architecture, urban planning and design, sustainability certification, nature protection and ecosystems management, environmental philosophy, governance, input-output analysis, mult-criteria decision aid, econometric modelling, material flows accounting, ecosystem services. The way representatives of these disciplines interacted with each other has been facilitated by the senior team guided by Dr Stanislav Edward Shmelev, who supervised the planning of the executive schools, programming and invitation of professors and guest speakers. The unique combination of approaches created a tremendous added value because no programme of executive training of such magnitude and scope exists anywhere in Europe.

Please highlight the innovative character of the initiative, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the initiative
The truly innovative character of our initiative stemmed from the fact that a very compact residential session lasting one week could be a major point of career transformation, learning and international dialogue on issues of sustainable development. One of our participants remarked that our executive school focused on sustainable cities was 'an order of magnitude more exciting than a Masters at Oxford'. A major point of innovation was a rich interdisciplinary synthesis of the schools outlined above, the opportunity to interact with top experts, get exposure to the advanced analytical tools and methods of analysis and interact with peers in a safe space of the executive summer, spring or winter schools. One of the participants from France remarked that in the traditional university environment 'we don't even get to ask questions during the lectures'. Solid focus on Green Economy, Sustainable Cities, Ecosystems, ESG Investment and New Sustainable Business models added to the innovative character of the initiative. We have published a major volume that is currently used as a textbook at Harvard and Wirshatfs University in Vienna as a major deliverable of our project: Shmelev, ed. (2017) 'Green Economy Reader: Lectures in Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development' https://environmenteurope.eu/green-economy-reader-lectures-in-ecological-economics-and-sustainability

Please describe which elements of your initiative could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and contexts. This may involve, for example, aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings, etc.
Many elements of our initiative could be replicated. We could transform this programme into a Green MBA, start offering the programme in other countries, transform this programme into a training programme for individual governments, cities or companies. I have already successfully taught the course in Ecological Economics, which lies at the heart of this programme at various universities as a Visiting Professor including Sciences Po in France and University of Torino in Italy in 2022, University of Geneva in 2007, University of Versailles in 2008, University Paris Dauphine in 2009.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your initiative.
The methodology used in our initiative rests on the foundations of ecological economics, an interdisciplinary field aimed to address the most pressing sustainability issues of our time. The key methodological principles of ecological economics include: importance of multidimensional assessment of progress as opposed to the fixation on economic growth, the value of interdisciplinary synthesis in studying economy-environment interactions and a bigger picture industrial ecology approach in exploring intersectoral interactions within economic systems. Among the approaches that have been taught at the executive schools have been environmentally-extended input-output analysis, multicriteria decision aid, econometric analysis, multidimensional assessment of sustainability, urban sustainability benchmarking. The schools included discussion forums, analysis of environmental documentary films, policy assessments, interactive simulation games focusing on resource use, urban planning and climate change, and debriefing sessions.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the initiative addresses by providing local solutions
The initiative addressed the key contemporary global sustainability challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, waste crisis, urban unsustainability and business, government, urban and citizen challenges in the face of the crisis. Using a variety of approaches a plethora of local solutions have been examined and discussed in details: renewable energy, carbon taxes, landfill taxes, circular economy solutions, urban sustainability benchmarking, sustainability indicators, ESG investment approaches, B-corp certification, urban planning and design, multidimensional assessment of ecosystems and many more. Each solution has been presented in a form of a case study published in top peer-reviewed journal. Some of the case studies developed by Environment Europe could be found in the attached publications.

Please detail the scope of progress in the implementation of the initiative. This can include already demonstrated results/outputs related to the chosen Prizes category, and the already achieved benefits from the initiative for direct and indirect beneficiaries. This can also include a development plan of the initiative, with a particular attention to the steps envisaged in the year following the application, and including envisaged results and benefits from the initiative
The progress of this initiative has been spectacular. Not only we were successful in organising 18 executive schools training over 140 participants from 60 different countries. The learnings have transformed the participants' outlook and perspective, many have completed their PhDs since their graduation, many became lecturers, some changed jobs using the newly acquired skills. Two of our graduates raised 50mln USD each for sustainable transformation projects in Ghana and the UK. This particular example is a living testament to the amplification our knowledge, know-how, methodologies and tools and the external professors inspirational inputs that our participants from around the world have received. The vibrant network that has been created as a result of our programme includes UNDP, OECD, IUCN, WWF, ILO staff members, representatives of leading universities and companies, NGOs and government ministries.

Please provide documents that demonstrate the maturity level of the initiative and commitment to implement the initiative in practice (e.g.: evaluation report, final or mid-term initiative report, certification, publications, building permit, grant agreement, letter of support, partnership agreement, etc.)
PDF
PDF
If relevant, please describe how your initiative contributes to developing new competences, especially in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability.
In June 2022, the Council of the European Union (EU) adopted a Recommendation on learning for the green transition and sustainable development. We at Environment Europe have been working hard to make this happen since 2012 and the new competences we have offered our participants have been truly ahead of the time. The executive schools build the skills of our graduates from 60 countries to analyse and understand the key sustainability challenges of our time: climate change, biodiversity crisis, waste crisis. The students learned multiple approaches to address these issues including macro sustainability assessment, urban sustainability benchmarking, urban CO2 model, policy assessment tools, carbon taxes, landfill taxes, multidimensional assessment of ecosystems, B-corp movement, ESG investment and many more. The discussions with the top sustainability experts in Europe and beyond equipped the students with unique transferrable skills that allowed two of them to raise 50mln USD each for their projects on sustainable cocoa farming in Ghana and impact investment in the UK.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images or visual representations of your initiative to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below.
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By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

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Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed initiative has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the initiative and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their initiatives, initiative, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted initiative, initiative is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes