ACORN
Sustainable Agripreneurship Competence for Rural Development
Follow current events of ACORN project here
Many small/microbusinesses in the field of agriculture struggle to make their products visible and find it almost impossible to compete against the big players in the market. Their competitors’ products are often mass produced and accessible, and they have the financial power to get the best placements, and to play right into the hands of the consumers. But what their competitors most often are not, is based on an authentic long-term sustainability plan.
As more attention is given to the Sustainable Development Goals, it is strategically important to take a serious look towards the development of new concepts, models, methods, and practices that will lead society towards becoming more ecologically sustainable and socially responsible, besides being economically efficient. The ACORN project consortium aims toward the creation of a concept that will develop a sustainable agripreneurship competence in small holder farmers in rural and outermost areas of Europe, specifically in Guadeloupe (France), Portugal, Czech Republic, and Denmark.
Sustainable development and environmental protection
The concept idea has its roots in the sustainable development dimensions; environmental protection, social equity, and economic viability, and is designed around the creation of a circular approach to everything from business development to the mind-sets of people.
The ACORN project will help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and especially create attractive, vibrant and sustainable rural communities, by developing end user friendly resources that will help smallholder farmers and artisanal producers residing in rural areas and island territories of the consortium acquire the competences needed to become sustainability agripreneurs.
Project results
The project results will be structured around a circular model based on the ideology of sustainability entrepreneurship: Sustainability Business Model – for the development of a sustainable business; Marketing – for brand core strategy; Networking – that involves the development of networking skills in order to find different ways of creating microbusiness collectives, development of sustainable communication skills and how to collaborate and engage; Relationship building & client feedback; Sustainable innovations – structured around design/innovation processes filtered through SDG dimensions. All the resources and inspirational audio-visual materials will be presented as an open online learning source on ACORN project learning platform.
The partnership of the 4 countries: Coneqt (Denmark), Spolek PELICAN z.s. (Czech Republic), Mindshift Talent Advisory Ida (Portugal) and COPPET Maryse (France) benefit from the geographical spread across Europe and from the diversity of the individual organisations. Thanks to diverse specialisations as well as cultures and contexts in general, ACORN project can bring both a unique national perspective and an interconnected European perspective.
Pictures from the Kick-off meeting of ACORN project in Copenhagen (February 2022)
Are you interested in more about this?
If you are interested, we are happy to come to you and present the project to you, organize a workshop for your employees, provide consultation on a diploma thesis, etc. Help us raise awareness of topics that really matter!
