On May 6-12 in Kobuleti, "Local Democracy Agency Georgia" implemented a youth exchange project with Spanish partner organization "2 + 2".

Start-Up Green was designed to bring a greater understanding and responsiveness to social and cultural diversity, that is strongly connected with environmental issues and the process of saving our planet.

Many countries, particularly in the European Union, are moving toward using alternative and renewable energy sources, or “green” energy. But other countries, such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia are only just starting down the path of understanding the benefits of recycling and environmental conservation. That is why it was extremely important to convey to people from the Eastern partnership countries what opportunities exist to transition to green energy.Participants from EU countries such as Denmark, Germany and Italy could share their experiences of building a strong recycling and energy-efficient system.

43 representatives of the age of 18-30 from different countries (Armenia, Denmark, Georgia, Jordan, Italy, Spain, Ukraine) participated in the project.

Overall objectives of the project were to:

-To Provide participants with the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitudes on inclusion of young people in activities which are connected to environmental issues

-To Share experience and examples of good and bad practices by methods of non-formal education and learning from each other

-To improve the business skills and awareness levels of renewable energy and energy efficiency among participants

-Formation of new social-ecological habits for citizens of partnership countries

-To provide Knowledge about upcycling

-To Spread information about the Erasmus+ and stimulate future cooperation

-To Promote diversity and dialogue between different cultures

The topics of the activity included but were not limited to: Ice-breaking and group building; program presentation and expectation analysis; Erasmus+ and future perspectives; outdoor cleaning up; EU policy towards the climate change; environmental workshops; recycling and up-cycling; creativity in entrepreneurship; study visits; country presentations about the environmental issues; development of business plans or future Erasmus+ projects for green start-ups.

Coordinator Organization - European Ways, EW (Germany)

Host organization - LDA Georgia (Georgia)