Glassolina and The EverGreens won a national competition organised by the British embassy to Cairo, to represent Egypt at the world’s largest green business ideas competition, Climatelaunchpad, to be held in November 2019 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Thirteen Egyptian companies presented their business ideas before a four-member panel at the British embassy and the winners were announced last Thursday. The panel was made up of Laila Eskander, former environment minister and chairperson for CID Consulting; Ashraf Tawakkol, founder of the design company Fourty Nine; Neveen El-Tahri, chairperson of Delta Inspire; and Amr Abd El-Megeed, regional programme manager at CEDARE.
The winner of the global competition will receive a cash prize of €10,000. The runner-up will get €5,000, and the third-place winner will win €2,500. Through this programme, Inspire Egypt and the British embassy collaborated with the Egyptian enterprise YouthinkGreen to bring the international competition to Egypt.
In August, YouthinkGreen offered an intensive two-day boot camp for Egyptian startups on how to develop and present their ideas.
“My advice is that for us to challenge the definitions of what entrepreneurship is and what profit is. I must not just look at the money at the end of my annual statement. I must look at the well-being of everybody around me because we live in one planet,” said Laila Eskander.
“I am proud that we launched Inspire Egypt three years ago. It has given us a chance to encourage young Egyptians who are working on brilliant and innovative ideas to solve Egypt’s challenges. The UK remains committed to investing in Egypt’s future,” said the British ambassador to Egypt Sir Geoffrey Adams.
Earlier, the UK and Egypt have developed a political call for action at the UN Climate Action Summit. The two countries are calling on global leaders to join them in taking immediate action to protect people, economies, and the environment against the increasing impacts of climate change.
The UK Secretary of State for International Development, Alok Sharma, and the Egyptian Minister of Environment, Yasmin Fouad, jointly presented the declaration, which provides a strategic framework for enhancing resilience and adaptation to climate changes.
