Impact Hub Berlin Co-launches the Place for Sustainable Business in Berlin
This week the German Sustainable Business Association (BNW), Social Entrepreneurship Network Germany (SEND) and Impact Hub Berlin GmbH proudly launched the Place for Sustainable Business in Berlin (Ort für Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften) — a project funded by the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Business that helps businesses in Berlin transition towards more sustainable practices, increases the visibility of sustainable business and promotes cooperation to shape tomorrow’s economy.
Over the next two years of the project, the BNW will be working closely with companies to provide advice and information to improve their sustainability efforts, and SEND will connect them with companies across the city who can help them reach their sustainability and impact goals. Making the most of our expertise, Impact Hub Berlin's role will be to make sure that sustainable businesses have an active community and place to work from, as well as aid them in strategic partnerships with larger companies.
Together, we can connect Berlin-based companies with sustainable and innovative startups that help them achieve their personal impact goals.
The perfect match, made in Berlin
Anyone familiar with our work knows that successful impact-focused business is core to our mission. As a result, we could not be more excited that the Senate trusted us to help shape this project, and recognise the value our diverse network can provide the project. Using our space in Neukölln as a base, our sustainability-focused startups have access to the support and network to build innovative solutions for people and our planet.
One of the key philosophies of our work at Impact Hub Berlin is collaboration. Our world is facing complex challenges that need to be approached from many different angles. Our partnerships with large companies in the city provide a mutually beneficial groundwork to create real, actionable change on a local level — they can support our innovation projects so that startups can accelerate their impact.
As well as offering advice and support for sustainable startups, Impact Hub Berlin is also providing subsidised rates for seats in our 3,500m2, circularly-built coworking space in the heart of Neukölln. We know that support offers and professional work infrastructure are often not affordable for sustainable early-stage companies, and we want to empower them to access that.
"In order to promote networking, inspiration and collaboration among sustainable businesses in Berlin, the project offers subsidised workplaces and support services in our co-working space,” said Leon Reiner, Founder and Managing Director of Impact Hub Berlin. “This gives young businesses in particular the support they need to become successful in Berlin and make the city more sustainable.”
Our Ecosystems
Our ecosystem model is a carefully crafted set of activities focused on enabling collaboration and supporting innovation partnerships. Building on years of experience, we developed activities proven to engage different actors who share a common theme. Together, they partner as a community to increase environmental and social impact. Through strategic partnerships, corporations are able to gain access to a network of dedicated startups working in high potential impact areas.
Our sustainable food ecosystem is supporting the transition towards a circular food and agricultural value chain, acknowledging the systemic nature of the entire food system.
Our Green Tech ecosystem is dedicated to leveraging technology to solve environmental challenges such as climate change and ways to protect our natural environment.
Circular economy is our ecosystem dedicated to circularity — the idea that we can reuse, repurpose and recycle all resources to create less waste and drive sustainable consumption across all industries.
Our DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion ecosystem) is creating products and services that ensure nobody is left behind. Through innovation, workshops and collaboration, our DEI ecosystem is building towards a more inclusive and equitable future for everyone.
Our Programmes
Impact Hub Berlin’s regular incubation programmes for impact startups target early stage ventures ready to take their idea to the next level and focus on collaboration as a key practice of success.
For example our Circular Together programme which is currently in its fourth round supports pre-seed startups invested in the circular economy by placing mutually beneficial partnerships and individual support at the centre of the programme. The goal is to make our startups partnership-ready so they are able to build strategic relationships with big business, and businesses themselves are able to gain access to our continuously growing Circular Economy ecosystem.
Feeding the City — another of our incubation programmes — focuses on bringing sustainable food solutions to life. Over the course of the programme our startups learn to transform their ideas into a fully validated and tested product or service. This programme gives early stage startups the confidence to take on the huge challenge of transforming our food industry towards a more sustainable and regenerative one, all while harvesting the power of collaboration.
Impact needs support: Why do we need collaboration?
It’s vital that businesses look for ways to bake impact into their economic activities if we want to make any real progress towards climate neutrality. Over 75% of CO2 emissions produced in Germany are caused by business, and the transformation towards a more sustainable economy is a central issue for climate and environmental protection.
However, according to figures from the German Council for Sustainable Development, less than 1% of companies operate in a holistically sustainable manner, despite there being a huge amount of potential. Support is urgently needed so that companies can begin to move towards a more environmentally friendly future — which is where the Ort für Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften comes in.
When businesses make sustainability and/or social impact a key issue, it has proven to benefit many aspects of the organisation — including the bottom line. This is especially true as more consumers are now seeking out sustainable ways to spend their money and are more likely to support businesses with sustainable business models.
“Sustainable companies creating climate-friendly products produce social-ecological added value. Within the framework of the project, we foster cooperation that shapes tomorrow’s economy and brings these sustainable products into the supply chains of classic companies” explains Michael Wunsch, co-founder of Social Entrepreneurship Netzwerk Deutschland (SEND).
Why should businesses partner with Impact Hub Berlin?
Through the project we will encourage and support partnerships between classic Berlin companies and early-stage sustainable companies.
Benefits of being part of this project:
- Ability to uncover trends, innovations and disruptions to turn inclusive and sustainable innovation into your competitive advantage.
- Grow your visibility in the sustainability space and become a trusted partner to entrepreneurs and innovators.
- Support the most promising impact ventures and engage with hands-on entrepreneurs, startups and changemakers.
- Work with ventures in your field and create partnerships to accelerate your innovation agenda.
Our Ecosystem approach helps provide a platform and support to connect businesses with all the stakeholders needed to accelerate inclusive and sustainable innovation projects. Our Ecosystems are Circular Economy, Sustainable Food, Green Technology and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
Hear from our startups
Fimo Health x TK
Fimo Health — a startup that provides a data-driven approach to help improve the quality of life for people who suffer from fatigue — expanded their partnership with Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), one of Germany’s biggest public healthcare providers. Through this collaboration, TK customers are able to get reimbursable access to apps that help them manage symptoms of Long Covid and multiple sclerosis (MS).
Good on You x Klarna
The world’s leading app that allows you to rate ethical fashion brands, Good on You, has teamed up with Klarna to help their users curate shoppable Sustainable Collections through the Klarna app. The collections will bring greater transparency about sustainable apparel to consumers, helping them to discover and make informed shopping decisions with actionable insights.
