The Green Institute is a think-and-do tank established in Bydgoszcz in 2009 by Beata Maciejewska, Dariusz Szwed

Dariusz Szwed

Dariusz Szwed is a Polish politician, feminist, activist. Chairman of Poland's Green Party – Zieloni 2004. Delegate of Zieloni 2004 to the European Green Party. Co-ordinator of campaigns "Green economy" and "Green energy"...

 and Karol Zamojski with its registered office in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

. The Green Institute is aimed at implementation of the green political and social thought and promotion of work delivered by the Green movement in Europe and in the world. It works for the benefit of democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

, it fights for the protection of common goods, human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

, civil society

Civil society

Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...

, freedom of every individual and self-determination of the society, as well as international cooperation and solidarity, world peace and sustainable business

Sustainable business

Sustainable business, or green business, is enterprise that has no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line. Often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies...

.

Aims

The Green Institute actively participates in numerous areas of public life: politics, education, culture. It promotes politics based on ecological, ethical ideas and social principles, spread of the green lifestyle and green philosophy. The Institute is a great supporter of Greens 2004. As a non-profit organization, the Institute acts for the benefit of the community. It strives to accomplish its goals in the country and abroad through:

• Issuing publications
• Running and financing programmes and campaigns that correspond to the priorities
• Organizing and financing seminaries, training sessions, conferences, debates, exhibitions, competitions and other educational events in the country,
• Co-operation with public and local institutions, cultural centres, non-government organizations, political parties, whose aims are similar to the goals of the Institute, as well as with any body concerned with the green politics,
• Networking at a local, regional and global level

Programme Council

• Dariusz Szwed
  Dariusz Szwed
  Dariusz Szwed is a Polish politician, feminist, activist. Chairman of Poland's Green Party – Zieloni 2004. Delegate of Zieloni 2004 to the European Green Party. Co-ordinator of campaigns "Green economy" and "Green energy"...
  
   - head of the Council
• Edwin Bendyk
• Ludomir Wojciech Duda
• Dorota Metera
• Mira Stanisławska-Meysztowicz
• Kazimiera Szczuka
  Kazimiera Szczuka
  Kazimiera Szczuka is a Polish literary historian, literary critic and television personality, known from the Polish edition of The Weakest Link....
  
  
• Ludwik Tomiałojć

Cooperation

• Heinrich Böll Foundation
  Heinrich Böll Foundation
  The Heinrich Böll Foundation is a German, legally independent political foundation. Affiliated with the German Green Party, it was originally founded in 1987 and rebuilt in 1997...
  
  
• Green European Foundation
  Green European Foundation
  The Green European Foundation is political foundation at European level funded by the European Parliament. It is linked to, but independent of, other European Green actors such as the European Green Party and the Green Group in the European Parliament....
  
  
• Spaces for Dialogue Foundation
• Green Light Foundation
• Research Centre on Future at Collegium Civitas
• Greens 2004

Activities

• Green City of the New Generation – a green manifesto showing that big cities are colossal laboratories of progress. Dariusz Szwed
  Dariusz Szwed
  Dariusz Szwed is a Polish politician, feminist, activist. Chairman of Poland's Green Party – Zieloni 2004. Delegate of Zieloni 2004 to the European Green Party. Co-ordinator of campaigns "Green economy" and "Green energy"...
  
   and Beata Maciejewska fix public attention to the necessity of implementing green ideas into life. This publication concerns the development of collective, pedestrian and cycle transport, expansion of energy-saving technologies and increase the increase the share of renewable sources of energy in the urban energy policy. The authors describe the way the public and creative capitals and the gender equality policy contribute to the urban development and address the global networks of co-operation between cities as well as alter global social movement. Stressed are also the necessity of climate protection on the local level (local climate policy) and networking for the benefit of global change. Issues mentioned therein involve global solidarity, responsibility, the need of implementing the policy of Green New Deal
  Green New Deal
  A Green New Deal is a report released on July 21, 2008 by the Green New Deal Group and published by the New Economics Foundation, which outlines a series of policy proposals to tackle global warming, the current financial crisis, and peak oil. The report calls for the re-regulation of finance and...
  
   will be the main scope of interest for the series of public debates planned in several polish cities. The publication was discussed during the Polish Social Forum.

• Green New Deal in Poland – this campaign encompasses a book “Green New Deal in Poland" and a series of public debates in several Polish cities with politicians and specialist in the given area. The book discusses Green New Deal in the world and in Europe, Green New Deal as a tool to stabilize economy, society and natural environment. It covers areas such as: green transport/mobility, electrically supplied vehicles, decentralized energy systems, smart grid 2.0, micro-generation, thermo-renovation, agriculture and sustainable development
  Sustainable development
  Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
  
   of rural areas, sustainable water and resource management, climate policy as a tool to modernize the economy and the society. Emphasis is put on women, their equal chances in the Green New Deal policy (employment, redundancy, the status in politics and business). The book examines the problem of energy efficiency, low-energy and autonomous building, ecological novelties, green technologies, potential of green jobs. Additionally, education and climate democracy are discussed through the “Green-New-Deal-lenses”.

• Sustainable development of metropolises and cities –the Green Institute actively participated in a series of debates addressing the issues of public space and infrastructure. Do disabled and elderly people feel as comfortable as young, fit man in the city architecture? Do woman and man experience city’s infrastructure alike? The debate organized together with Spaces for Dialogue Foundation and Fredrich Ebert Foundation took places in five Polish cities: Łódź, Opole, Bytom and Sosnowiec

• European Citizens' Initiative Handbook - the Green Institute participated in preparing the Polish version of "European Citizens' Initiative Handbook. Your Guide to the World's First Transnational Direct Democratic Tool". As part of the project it will organize conference and a series of workshops on principles of this new tool in the field of active citizenship.
• Common Agricultural Policy
  Common Agricultural Policy
  The Common Agricultural Policy is a system of European Union agricultural subsidies and programmes. It represents 48% of the EU's budget, €49.8 billion in 2006 ....
  
   beyond 2013 - the Green Institute organised a debate on various aspects of the CAP and developed a statement of Polish NGOs to the EU institutions

• BioBazar (BioMarket) - the main idea is to introduce and promote ecological products such as food, cosmetics, ecological devices. The Green Institute cooperated with the organizers of “BioBazar” and promoted this event

• Greening the Wikipedia – the Green Institute raises social awareness by creating entries concerning various aspects of green politics
  Green politics
  Green politics is a political ideology that aims for the creation of an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism, and grassroots democracy...
  
  in the Polish Wikipedia. This project consists in translating pages from/into English, Spanish and Russian so as to adjust them to the Polish context or transfer green know-how to other versions of the Wikipedia.

• Water Round Table (Wodny Okrągły Stół on Polish) - The Green Institute cooperated with Polish NGO Eko-Unia in a series of workshops concerning water policies, water efficiency and methods of mitigating climate change.

External links

• Green Institute Foundation
• Green City of the New Generation - download publication in Polish and English
• Green New Deal in Poland - download publication in Polish and English
• European Citizens' Initiative Handbook - download publication in Polish, English, French, German and Spanish