Promotes products the beekeepers produce & organizes recreational educational activities about bees, rural products and the natural environment
About
The business was founded at the end of 2014, as an agrotourism company. The initial idea was to show tourists a unique experience in nature, through showcasing beekeeping, herb collecting and explaining the properties of the local herbs. They would arrange luxury services – for example, having brunch in a remote area with fresh and local products. Around 2018 they realized that schools were also interested. Schools reached out to them to have visits with the kids. The experience was really good, the kids loved it. Due to her experience as a biologist educating is something she is really passionate about so she decided to focus more on schools. Tourism and tourist agents were no longer their focus. That was a turning point for the company as they focused on having a better space, better premises to facilitate school visits. Their focus turned from luxury services to then focusing on education. This in turn had an environment turn – they now also had to think of their use of paper, paper cups etc. But nowadays the tourist sector is also interested in alternative agricultural services. Tourist agents are also interested in having Ecophysis be a part of their tours of Cyprus.
Sustainable Development
The core value of Ecophysis was doing something that is sustainable they wanted the Pure Hospitality of Cyprus to be shown. After 2018 they realized that they are more interested in Educations and young people vs tourists. Back then the tourist sector was not ready for sustainable agriculture. All their products and services promote a lifestyle near nature, preserving nature and on how we can handle herbs we pick up and bees. This all showcase the sustainability they want to promote. An important moment for the company was when they decided to go plastic free. They replaced the plastic bottles that they used for over 20 years with glass jars. Now they only have glass jars and all the systems that allows this transition (eg. washing machine for glass), their labels are also new to allow for the shape of the jars, be according to the law and have an attractive design for their clients. This process is more expensive, and it also adds to the working hours as it needs more attention and space to save them. But this was a decision they felt they wanted to make, and it also improves the quality of their products.
Sustainability Impact
Sustainability development definitely impacts the company in a positive way, guests are excited to explore sustainable places like our organization. Also the quality of our products with the glass jars is better and out labels are more attractive. However, with the change of jars to glass ones they also lost some clients who wanted plastic jars who felt glass jars was not convenient for them. The founders of the organization Georgia and Kostas are responsible for the implementation of sustainable development. Georgia (founder) explained that Kostas (co-founder) has the values and passions for sustainability while Georgia has the scientific background and is able to translate those values into practice.
SDGs goals and Sustainable development strategy
Goal 2. Zero Hunger: Promote sustainable agriculture through ethical beekeeping. Also honey never goes bad so they also educate people to understand that honey never goes bad even if it changes forms (eg. If it crystalizes it does not mean its bad, it is due to the weather – it is colder). Additionally, they hold workshops on collecting herbs. They believe that nature can offer more than we think, for example they teach which herbs can be found in your own back yard that are not only edible but also nutritious. Lastly, they also deal with a lot of kids that have nutritional difficulties but really like honey.
Goal 3. Good Health and Well-Being: Honey has anti-bacterial properties which is beneficial for the body. Through this they promote natural nutrition for your body as well as your skin with workshops on how to make your own balms which are great for the skin. Their educational workshops promote good health and well being through the connection of nature.
Goal 4. Quality Education: They are very focused on giving quality educational workshops. They do not charge a lot for the educational workshops such as: beekeepers for a day and how to make balms and ointments.
Goal 5. Gender Equality: The company follows a woman led structure, Georgia is a woman and the boss (Kostas embraced this and never had an issue with it). Through their company they promote female bee keepers as well as encourage girls to try it out in their workshops. In Cyprus there are only 3 or 4 women beekeepers and one of them is Georgia. Through these workshops they promote equal gender roles in children.
Goal 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth: Ecophysis is also promoting to young people that you can create a successful business in a village. When they were starting their business they felt strongly about wanting to develop something from a village, they did not want to go to the city. Vavla the village they ae based in only has 30 inhabitants. In this way they are helping the economic growth of the village by bringing people in through their workshops. In addition they are looking to expand their team and want to find employees from the nearby villages, helping people that want to stay in the village find jobs.
Goal 15. Life on Land: They are actively promoting the need to keep our natural vegetation in order for bees to be able to produce and thrive through their workshops. They encourage people to stop removing natural vegetation. It is important to understand that even in our own yards you can leave flowers for bees. It is important to stop ‘tidying up’ our gardens. They are actively trying to connect people with nature (eg. Stop using pesticides).
Strategy & Mission
When they started, they had a written strategy which was focused on tourism. Which is still relevant as every Sunday they have events that people can openly visit. However, this is something that in the future they will only be able to maintain if they have more employees. Before she started the business Georgia was working as a scientific officer for environmental organizations, so she had a lot of experience in researching and promoting SDGs strategies both in Cyprus and the EU, going to parliament etc. She was aware of all these efforts to protect the environment and be sustainable. This helped in having a strategy about sustainability without being conscious about it.
Innovative approaches &Challenges
The main challenge was profitability, some of the sustainable practices they have cost a lot more. Some of the new adaptations they want to include in their practices are also very expensive so it is not something they can do right now. For example to clean the water, to be able to re-use it but that is an expensive system that they need to look more into. Because they are in agricultural land they get water from the community but this is not sustainable it would be more so to be able to recycle water and use it for irrigation; thus not consuming drinking water for irrigation.
