Doing Well by Doing Good! This is the global trend in business, with climate change, the global crisis of institutions and values and the Second Industrial Revolution imposing new standards of corporate governance. Today – more than ever – information, money, work move at an incredible pace, and the environment changes in a way that we can hardly keep track of. In this ‘moving sand’, businesses are called upon to transform and, at the same time, to play a leading role, taking on a large share of responsibility towards society and in the case of the travel industry, transforming the way we travel.
More and more travel businesses are perceiving themselves as social leaders and investing part of their profits in society to solve problems where governments themselves cannot provide immediate solutions. Vision, innovation, extraversion, job creation, training of human resources at a time when the acquisition of digital skills is an absolute priority and, according to all surveys, vertically increases the confidence of employees and customers in the companies that adopt them.
Today we’re taking a look at 4 such startups. They are businesses with measurable social impact, due to the breadth and nature of the initiatives they take. In addition, we assessed the contribution of these travel startups through these actions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These travel startups are “pushing back” on problem-solving through sustainable development strategies and harmoniously combining social benefit with business profit.
ELPE Group
Energy for Life.. Traveling. For the sixth consecutive year, the Hellenic Petroleum Group’s “Energy for Life.. Travels” action is conveying to the younger generations the vision for a better planet. More than 9,000 students in remote areas of Greece have attended 312 environmental content workshops in 53 remote areas to date. Central to the program are the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, which aim at ending poverty, protecting the planet, sound energy management, responsible water consumption, promoting health and ensuring fair and equitable rights. In this context, 22 teams from schools in the region participated in a competition where they were invited to formulate written ideas for achieving the 17 Goals.
Greek TravelTellers
Greek TravelTellers, a story to tell from every tailor-made tour. The way this startup has transformed travel is quite unique. They have managed to develop a service that brings travelers closer to essence of what it means to discover Athens, giving them the opportunity to customize their tour in such a way that fits them while still getting an authentic experience of the city. If you’re traveling to Athens for the first time you can write your own story through the heartfelt tours offered by the Greek TravelTellers.
Attiki Odos
Eyes Open to the Road! For a decade Attica Odos SA and Attica Corridors SA have created training programs with a central focus on road safety awareness, fully taking on the cost of implementing them. In this context, the interactive seminar “Eyes On The Road” was launched in 2014 under the auspices of the Ministry of Education.
By June 2018 the program had trained more than 10,000 students in Attica schools and received the European Commission’s “Road Safety Excellence 2015” and has been awarded the “Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign 2015” at the Sustainability Forum & Awards 2015.
Nowadays the program runs through the online classrooms. So, with “Eyes on the Road: The e-Learning Edition”, addressed to Grade 2 and Grade 3 high school students, Attiki Odos SA aspires to introduce the culture of road safety in all schools of Greece in a creative and contemporary way.
MYTILINEOS
Engineers in Practice. MYTILINEOS renewed for the third consecutive year its commitment to assist in the employment and training of young scientists through the program “Engineers in Practice”. The company’s twelve-month paid work program in the metallurgy sector offered the opportunity to ten new engineers to work in the largest integrated aluminum and aluminum production and marketing unit in the European Union, claiming that they would be eligible to take action.
The program offers training in real working conditions, participation in complex and demanding projects, and ongoing evaluation and support by experienced company executives. It is noteworthy that in the two previous applications of the program all the engineers involved took up work in less than three months, and some of them joined the MYTILINEOS Metallurgy sector, covering organic positions.