GreEntrepreneurship - NEWSLETTER 2 - Jun2016 | Page 8

GOOD PRACTICE FROM SLOVENIA Reuse Centre, Ltd., Social Enterprise, a fusion of social entrepreneurship and creativity Reuse Centre, Ltd., Social Enterprise is the first social enterprise in Slovenia, established in 2012 primarily to address environmental and social problems. Reuse Centre developed a new model for the implementation of socially responsible entrepreneurship in Slovenia, which connects municipalities and public waste management companies, allowing the development of new green jobs and promoting resource savings in practice. Today, it has nine business units across the country. The main activities of Reuse Centre are: • Training and employing people from vulnerable groups with the purpose of returning them to the labor market and ensuring social safety. • Taking over still useful products (usable items that are brought to the Reuse Centre are reviewed, fixed, cleaned, and offered for sale at a nominal price. This includes furniture, sports equipment, textiles, household appliances, books and CDs, computer equipment, toys, etc.); • Processing, repairing, and innovatively renovating particular types of still useful products; upcycling; • Removal service; • Renovation and repair of equipment by agreement; • Environmental information and consultation, with demonstration of practical possibilities for conserving natural resources. Reuse Centre has an important effect on the general public, in raising environmental awareness, and spreading awareness that our planet has limited resources, which we must endeavor to conserve, recycle, and reuse whenever possible. The project also runs various practical workshops whose main purpose is to showcase the possible reuse of second-hand equipment and the use of waste materials to make new products.