In its first major move to focus on entrepreneurship and unemployment, ImStaying NPC together with The Lions Den launches the #ImStaying Entrepreneur Movement. They aim to lower the unemployment rate by 5% over the next 5 years. Start-ups, entrepreneurs, business owners, those thinking of starting a business, those who want to create a second revenue stream or a side hustle, … [Read more...]
IT entrepreneur tackles e-waste one town at a time
Cracked mobile phones, leaking batteries, broken kitchen appliances, obsolete televisions… The twisted cords of toxic electronic waste are strangling South Africans. Seeing the danger, a North West entrepreneur has taken matters into his own hands, reports Rebekah Funk. As the use of technology grows at a seemingly insatiable pace, so too does the staggering amount of … [Read more...]
The road to ending plastic waste in SA
The South African Initiative to End Plastic Waste has already made important progress in its efforts to find workable solutions that will prevent plastic from polluting the environment. According to Plastics SA executive director Anton Hanekom, this initiative was formed earlier this year and enjoys the support and active participation of the entire packaging value chain – … [Read more...]
Entrepreneurs sought for growing Cape’s green economy
GreenCape and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF), in partnership with Invest Cape Town, an initiative of the City of Cape Town, invite innovators and entrepreneurs with economically viable green economy innovation business ideas to enter the FNF GreenPitch Challenge 2019. Entries are open from Monday 18 November until noon on Friday 29 November. “The FNF is … [Read more...]
Affordable housing designed with the environment in mind
A Western Cape design project that encourages innovation and affordable solutions in low-income housing is in the running for a prestigious US$85,000 award. Known as the Better Living Challenge (BLC), the project is in the finals for the Human City Design Award, organised by the Seoul Design Foundation. The winner will be announced on Thursday 26 September in Seoul, South … [Read more...]
IDC boosts young rural entrepreneurs
Siyabonga Tshabalala and Nomuntu Ndhlovu took the decision to leave their corporate jobs in Gauteng and go back home to their rural village of Steenbok in Mpumalanga, to start a business. Both aged 27, the pair now run SiyaBuddy, a recycling and waste management company that has now created 18 direct jobs and 541 indirect jobs in their community in the Nkomazi Local … [Read more...]
Young entrepreneur brings solar solutions to townships
Invented by social entrepreneur James van der Walt, the SolarTurtle recently scooped a win at the Inventors Garage at the 2017 SABC Education SA Innovation Summit, walking away with R10k. The SolarTurtle, converted from shipping containers, charges solar batteries that can be used on site or at home in low-income communities to power LED lights, charge phones or other … [Read more...]
Women entrepreneurs scoop top honours at energy efficiency awards
Women entrepreneurs in the clean energy sector walked away with top honours at a recent government startup awards ceremony held last night. Yolandi Schoeman won the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme for SMEs in South Africa, hosted by the Department of Science and Technology’s Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), as part of a global initiative that aims to identify and … [Read more...]
Journalists set off in search of African sustainability stories
On April 9th 2016, a 3-person team of mobile journalists will begin an epic 14,000 km trans-African cycling expedition from Cape Town, South Africa to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Travelling unsupported for up to 10 months, carrying all their equipment, the team will produce documentary shorts that showcase ordinary people doing extraordinary things for their community and planet. … [Read more...]
Limpopo-based recycling co-operative wins SEED Award
The Thinana Recycling Cooperative was recently announced as one of the winners of the 2015 SEED Awards. This cooperative comprises of five women who collect recyclable waste in the village of Senwabarwana (Limpopo). They use donkey carts and trolleys to collect used plastic bottles (PET), cans and glass. In partnership with the P.E.A.C.E Foundation, PETCO has played an … [Read more...]
Ordinary people mobilising to disrupt the fossil fuel industry
The business of unearthing coal, oil, and gas reserves to power the world is a multi trillion-dollar industry. But scientists say that in order to avoid catastrophic consequences, at least two-thirds of these reserves need to remain underground to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius. Ordinary people are joining forces to create a global grass-roots movement, geared … [Read more...]
Empowering communities in the heart of Tsitsikamma
PETCO proudly partnered with the Tsitsikamma Community Upliftment Programme (T-CUP) and the Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (PRASA) on another ground-breaking workshop which brought together 42 recycling entrepreneurs, representing 11 communities from the Tsitsikamma region. The 4-day PRASA entrepreneurship course ran last month at the Tsitsikamma National Park, … [Read more...]
Beading project empowers youth of KwaZulu-Natal
The iPhepa Bead project was recently started as a community empowerment project with a number of self-help groups of mostly women and youth from the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands of South Africa who are repurposing paper from glossy magazines, boxes, calendars, brochures and other paper, creating beauty out of waste. The jewellery is interspersed with glass, wood and seed beads and … [Read more...]
