LITHUANIAN STUDENT COMPANY WINS 2009
HP RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS AWARD
JA-YE Europe Company of the Year Competition
Brussels, 6th July 2009 – HP Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA) has presented the 2009 HP Responsible Business Award to the Lithuanian student team, ‘Greblys Company’, for their ‘Recycle Waste’ educational products, during the 20th Junior Achievement Young Enterprise (JA-YE) Europe Company of the Year Competition, hosted by Young Enterprise Netherlands in Rotterdam.
The HP Responsible Business Award, which was launched four years ago, is designed to encourage students to take social and environmental responsibility into consideration as they build their own enterprises. It is given to the student company who does the best job at integrating a strong financial performance, social responsibility, environmental excellence and innovation into their business plan and operations.
The winning student company, ‘Greblys Company’, created a suite of educational tools including a book and computer games which are designed to help young children learn the basics principles of recycling in an easy and enjoyable way.
“We saw there was a big problem in Lithuania, and indeed the whole world, where there is lots of rubbish being thrown away;” explains Aidas Malakaussas, President of Greblys. “We think it’s really important to recycle as much waste as possible so we wanted to do something to improve the situation and encourage young people to recycle more in the future. It’s amazing that we’ve won this award and we’re speechless!”
The Greblys team received HP products for winning the award which will support their endeavors to further grow their business.
“HP has teamed up with JA-YE to contribute to entrepreneurial education and social and environmental thinking in schools across Europe. A strong social and environmental strategy is a key success factor for all companies and is more and more expected by customers” said Gabi Zedlmayer, vice president, Corporate Marketing and Global Citizenship, HP EMEA. “We would like to help future entrepreneurs and support start-up companies find new ways to balance the economic, social and environmental aspects of running a business most successfully.”
The HP Responsible Business Award is a result of the ongoing cooperation between JA-YE and HP. For over a decade, HP and JA-YE’s joint activities have included support for enterprise education programmes and special events through cash and equipment donations, as well as the participation of HP employees as volunteers in local JA-YE programmes.
“We are grateful to HP and its 143 volunteers for their support given to JA-YE across 10 European countries. The dynamic interaction between students and volunteers promotes hands-on, experiential learning and brings classroom concepts to life, resulting in meaningful experiences for both student and volunteer.” said Caroline Jenner, CEO of JA-YE Europe.
The Award is part of the HP Responsible Business Competition, an extension of the existing JA-YE annual Company of the Year Competition which gives students aged 15-21 across Europe the opportunity to prepare for working life through the experience of running their own company. More than 100,000 students have benefited from the HP Responsible Business Competition since its inception in 2006. The Competition is also promoted to students in European member states as part of the “Your World – Your Business” campaign recently launched by the European Commission in collaboration with JA-YE. More information is available at http://www.responsible-business.org/ and at www.ec.europa.eu/enterprise/yourworldyourbusiness/
Notes to Editors
JA-YE Europe Company of the Year Competition
July 2-5, Rotterdam, The Netherlands - Event hosted Young Enterprise Netherlands
Student companies from 32 European countries, winners of their national competitions, were considered for the award at the 20th JA-YE Europe Company of the Year Competition. Nearly 400 participants took part in the event and in total over 226,000 secondary school students have set up JA-YE student companies this academic year in Europe, offering everything from clothing and accessories for construction workers, a solution to secure private car parks, an interactive manual for education, re-useable multi-purpose bag to a mini-hole punch. These projects are being promoted by JA-YE Europe to help develop the entrepreneurial spirit in the EU, thereby boosting the creation of jobs.
JA-YE Europe (www.ja-ye.org) is Europe’s largest provider of entrepreneurship education programmes, reaching 2.9 million students in 38 countries in 2008. Funded by businesses, institutions, foundations and individuals, JA-YE brings the public and private sectors together to provide young people in primary and secondary schools and early university with high-quality education programmes to teach them about enterprise, entrepreneurship, business and economics in a practical way. The JA-YE Company Programme is recognised by the European Commission Enterprise Directorate General as a ‘Best Practice in Entrepreneurship Education’. JA-YE Europe is the European headquarters for JA Worldwide.
HP, the world’s largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com/.
Media Contacts
Penny Perry
JA-YE Europe
Tel: +41 (0)79 368 9761
penny@ja-ye.org