Brief description:

A cross-border initiative pursuing job creation opportunities for disadvantaged people on the theme of ReUse-Design.

Region:

  • Internal EU borders

Countries:

Slovakia (SK) – Austria (AT)

Location:

AT: Vienna

SK: Bratislava  & Trnava

Type of project partners:

  • Non-governmental organisations (international/national NGOs)
  • Educational institutions
  • Public enterprises
  • SMEs
  • Other

Size (total budget including EU grants):

  • Over € 500,000

Main themes:

  • Employment, labour mobility and social inclusion
  • Research, technological development, innovation and ICT
  • Environmental protection, climate change and risk prevention

Keywords (Types of Activities):

  • Study visits, exchanges and networking
  • Research and studies
  • Marketing, promotional activities, awareness campaigns
  • Other

Keywords (Aspects of Good Practice):

  • Genuine cross-border dimension
  • Genuine cross-border impact
  • Innovative
  • Efficient
  • Good dissemination
  • Good sustainability

Background and Objectives

The project was developed in a period of high unemployment rates in the border regions of Austria and Slovakia and aimed at alleviating this by creating long-term employment opportunities with particular emphasis on the unemployed belonging to disadvantaged groups. Many disadvantaged people in the job market are confronted with long-term unemployment.

The project “RE:design:(net)WORK” links employment creation with environmental concerns, especially on waste management. Discarded objects are redesigned to become “cult” objects in everyday life, thus resulting in employment creation in the fields of acquisition of materials, design, production and distribution of ReUse-Design products under a socio-economic business scheme.

The project targeted organisations that seek to employ socially disadvantaged people and in particular the young, elderly, people with disabilities and immigrants. It involved companies that deal with waste management, designers and consumers.

Main Activities

The project activities included:

  • The creation of a catalogue of ReUse-Design type of products that can be produced with available waste material.
  • Introducing a business model for social economy enterprises to include all business processes such as training, production and distribution.
  • The implementation of this model in a Slovak-Austrian pilot business.
  • Award ceremonies in Vienna and Bratislava.
  • Evaluation of the employment impact, as well as the economic and ecological effects.

Main results

The project resulted in raising public awareness on sustainability in terms of a resource-efficient consumption of consumer goods. In the first year of its implementation, it conducted an online consumer survey in both Austria and Slovakia, which confirmed the interest among consumers in goods manufactured from waste material.

A number of successful products were designed and promoted throughout the project implementation period and during the second year a number of events were held involving the network partners and various social economy enterprises. The events also served as a forum for the network members to exchange lessons learned and experience gained from design to manufacturing and marketing.

Aspects of good practice:

The project “RE:design:(net)WORK” has manifested good practice across the board, engaging a range of partners from the cross-border region in an exceptionally innovative process which produced tangible results and stimulated other projects to emerge in the field of ReUse & ReDesign.

Start and completion dates:

November 2009 – December 2012

Partners/Contacts:

Lead Partner: Arge Reparatur- und Servicezentren GmbH
Brahmsplatz 1/3, A-1040 Vienna
http://www.arge.at

Project Management: Mag.a Silvia Mayer, Email: mayer@arge.at, T:. +43 (0) 699 142 74 905
Project staff: Mag.a Karin Pirolt, Email: pirolt@arge.at;  Saundra Stix, Email: stix@arge.at

KERP Centre of Electronics & Umwelt GmbH
Member of iPoint Group
Tech 21 / Iganz-Köck Street 10/Top 2.03
A-1210 Vienna
T: +43 (0) 1272 03 70-10
http://www.kerp.at
DI Markus Spitzbart, Email: markus.spitzbart@kerp.at
Mag.a Jutta Wiener, Email: jutta.wiener@kerp.at

BOKU University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, Institute of Waste Management
Muthgasse 107, 1190 Vienna
T: +43 (0) 1.3189900 – 319
http://www.wau.boku.ac.at/abf.html
DI Gudrun Obersteiner, Email : gudrun.obersteiner@boku.ac.at
DI Andreas Pertl, Email: andreas.pertl@boku.ac.at
DI Elisabeth Smith, Email: elisabeth.schmied@boku.ac.at

Design Austria
Museum Platz 1, 1070 Vienna
T:. +43 (0) 1.5244949-0

Mag Severin File, Email: info@designaustria.at
Catherine Beran, Email: beran@designaustria.at
Mag Nora Schischli, Email: service@designaustria.at

RepaNet oz (club RepaNet oz, civic club)
Mlynske nivy 56, 821 05 Bratislava
Tel: +421918632027
Lubomir Rabay, Email: envira@envira.sk
Andrej Sondej, Email: sondej@enviwork.sk

Labour Office Malacky
Záhorácka 2942/60A, 90101 Malacky

Waff PM GmbH

Wiener ArbeitnehmerInnen Förderungsfonds
Programm Management GmbH
Nordbahnstraße 36, A-1020 Wien
http://www.waff.at

Country: