SEED South Africa Symposium 2015
Published 30 Jul 2015
Entrepreneurship: A solution for climate
change and green growth
27 May 2015, Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa
On May 27th the SEED South Africa Symposium 2015 was held in Johannesburg in cooperation with the 3-day International Conference hosted by the University of South Africa on “Innovation for Sustainability under Climate Change and Green Growth/Economy”. The conference brought together many international, national and local experts to contribute knowledge and practical solutions to the standing global challenge of climate change and the transition towards the green economy.
At the Symposium, over 100 entrepreneurs, practitioners, donors and policy-makers looked into how entrepreneurship can provide solutions for climate change and green growth. Debates highlighted the need for strong bridges to be built between social and environmental enterprises and academia for research, development, and innovation, as well as the importance of more supportive environments in facilitating the scale-up of social and environmental enterprises.
Social and environmental enterprises from across the country also presented inspiring examples of innovative, locally-driven, entrepreneurial approaches to sustainable development challenges in various sectors in the SEED marketplace. The marketplace, which was jointly hosted by SEED and the Industrial Development Cooperation (IDC), included SEED winners and other initiatives supported by UNDP Small Grants Programme, the Green Fund from the Development Bank of Southern Africa, PETCO and the IDC.
The Symposium offered a launchpad for important new activities:
- The SEED Virtual Exhibition, a new interactive multimedia platform which in combination with new in-depth Case Studies of past SEED Winners allows users to get to know SEED, its partners, and their work in supporting the growth of an enabling environment for social and environmental entrepreneurship.
- The SEED Special Recognition Award on the occasion of the 10 Year anniversary of the SEED Awards, through a public online voting system. The Award Winner will be presented at the SEED Africa Symposium 2015 in Nairobi.
- The announcement of two recipients of the SEED Accelerator Programme in South Africa which is supported by the Government of Flanders. GreenABLE and Botanica Natural Products, both SEED Winners from 2014, were selected for the Accelerator.
