ECOTHON

What is Ecothon?

Ecothon (Eco-entrepreneurs’ Marathon) is a sustainable and innovative business model competition
that provides a selected group of startups in the ASEAN region with intensive 3-4 day training,
mentoring, and coaching programmes in making sustainable business strategies and IR pitching.

What is SCP?

Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) refers to “the use of services and related products, which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations”.(UNEP(LINK))

SCP is about doing more and better with less. It is also about decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, increasing resource efficiency and promoting sustainable lifestyles.

Since its pilot run in 2019 as part of the Republic of Korea(ROK)-Association of South East Asian Nations(ASEAN) Startup Partnership, Ecothon has been annually organized by the ASEM SMEs Eco-Innovation Center (ASEIC), hosted/supported by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups of the Republic of Korea (MSS, ROK), working in close partnerships with the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on MSME (ACCMSME) focal ministries as the co-hosts and Implementing Partners (IPs) nominated by the participating ASEAN Member States (AMS) and the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) as co-organizers.

Hosted By

Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) of the Republic of Korea supports innovation and enhanced competitiveness of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. (https://www.mss.go.kr/site/eng/main.do)

Organizer

The ASEM SMEs Eco-Innovation Center(ASEIC) was established in 2011 to promote
cooperation of green growth in Europe and Asia, with a particular emphasis on enhancing
eco-innovation of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in both regions.
Agreeing on the importance of SMEs as main engines of innovation and growth, Asia-Europe
Meeting (ASEM) member countries joined together to establish ASEIC as an international
platform for spreading eco-innovation principles and practices among SMEs and assisting
them in harnessing the new business opportunities that arise out of such principles and
practices. (http://aseic.org/)

Co-Organizer

The Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) is an official German Political Foundation.
It is entrusted by the German Parliament with a mandate, which lies at the core of the task of promoting democratic and sustainable structures worldwide.
This mandate involves the strengthening of the relevant institutions and persons, procedures and norms and the requisite attitudes enabling such development to take place.
For more information, please visit www.hss.de or www.hss.de/southeastasia