Sustainable Lifestyles

OUR WORK.

Sustainable Lifestyles.

Our Natural Heritage, i.e. the environment we live in and the resources it provides us, is our home.

The land we live on, and the resources it provides us (marine resources, millenial olive trees, traditional agricultural practices & products) are all part of our identity. In the same way as culture and traditions, our environment shapes us and our ways of living - and yet it is endangered by the carelessness of many.

It is no secret that Lebanon has been destroying its natural resources at a frightening pace - through industrial and household pollution, disastrous waste management, non-existing urban policies, eradication of some species and the destruction of precious habitats and ecosystems. As the ongoing crisis sadly showed us, this puts our health, subsistance and food security at risk.

Heritage teaches us that good things are made to last. A sound management of our cultural and natural Heritage is therefore directly linked to the implementation of Sustainable Lifestyles.

That's why at Boukra, we promote Sustainablility through Heritage:

We use our cultural and natural heritage as a source of inspiration for innovative and sustainable lifestyles, based on the principles of a circular economy.
We demonstrate how already available resources can be used in an innovative and sustainable manner (upcycling, frugal innovation & nature-based solutions).
We promote a shift toward more mindful practices and conscious choices that will not only help us preserve our precious Heritage, but also improve the quality of our own surroundings and living standards.

WHAT WE DO:
While we began with small-scale recycling awareness projects, we now aim to broaden our action and invite people to adopt more sustainable ways of living and consuming.

We encourage and disseminate environmenally concious practices, especially among the younger generations
We promote awareness around sustainable waste management practices and the importance of consuming sustainably
We work with local designers to encourage and implement the circular production and consumption of goods
We support local food production and sustainable urban agriculture
We encourage Sustainable Tourism and the engagement with local communities
We promote the use and integration of traditional knowledge as part of innovative solutions to our society's problems.

Have a look at our projects below!

"It is today that we must create the world of the future".

- ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

OUR PROJECTS.

Recycling.

BEIT JEDDE RECYCLING STATION: We started our recycling program by installing a recycling/sorting station on our premises in front of Beit Jeddé, in Mtein. We invited the village's officials, NGOs, school representatives to an information session and encouraged neighbors to sort at source and bring their recyclables to Beit Jeddé, where they are collected by Cedars Environmental and brought to their recycling facilities (the bins, also provided by Cedar Environmental, are made of recycled ecoboards). The overwhelming positive response to this first initiative led us to extend the project to the whole village - not only our neighborhood - by collaborating with the Municipality.

'MTEIN RECYCLES' AWARENESS CAMPAIGN: With the help and support of the Municipality of Mtein and Mchikha, a weekly collection service of the recyclables was initiated in 2019. Interested households can now drop their sorted recyclables bags on their doorstep where they are collected by the municipal truck and brought to the Biclean sorting facility in Bikfaya.

In support of this initiative, Boukra organized a door-to-door campaign with a group of highly-motivated volunteers, in order to spread information and awareness about the importance of sorting at source and separating recyclables from regular trash.
In 2020, in an effort to reach an even broader audience, we extended the campaign to the Zaarour area.

We also created short 'how-to-sort' videos that were sent via whatsapp to the interested population.

CLEAN UP DAYS: On special occasions like Earth Day we gather motivated neighbors, friends and visitors to clean up a specific area of the village, demonstrating the importance of a clean environment for all.

Responsible Consumption
& Upcycling.

In collaboration with various NGOs and social enterprises, we organize regular events to encourage citizens to bring back their used items and help give them a second life instead of directly sending them to the landfill.

USED CLOTHES & FAST FASHION AWARENESS: Twice yearly, in collaboration with social startup Fabricaid, we organize a clothing drive at Beit Jeddé where the donated clothes are then either recycled or redistrubuted to those in need.

The landfiling of huge amounts of bad-quality, often unethically produced clothes has a disastrous social and environmental cost. To raise awareness about the consequences of "fast fashion" we organized a screening of the movie The True Cost.

E-WASTE: We also organize a yearly collection of used electronic items in collaboration with Ecoserv, informing people about the negative and potentially dangerous impact these appliances have if discarded in the environment, and the importance of properly disposing of them, dismantling and recycling them.

Sustainable Design.

We promote the notion of 'circularity', a philosophy where products are designed with a view of being reused -as opposed to the 'make-use-throw' approach that we mostly use in our linear economy. Therefore, we are teaming up with young designers who wish to adopt a sustainable approach to their work and are planning to launch our Sustainable Design Lab very soon.

Sustainable Tourism.

Because we want to encourage Heritage Tourism and the economic opportunities that it brings for local communities, we are working on creating the Boukra Heritage Routes: culture trails, designed with the help of locals, that allow visitors to discover a village or community in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way, and to support local crafts and traditions while visiting the monuments or natural wonders it has to offer.
We plan to involve municipalities, local guides, artisans, farmers, wine-makers in order to extend the benefits of this approach to the biggest number of stakeholders.

Urban Farming.

COMING SOON.

Times of crisis often mean a return 'back to the land', to its resources and its way of life. We believe that this shift can also take place within cities, making them greener and more productive - giving us the food that we need while creating bonds and an awareness around sustainability.