Projects

MEGA Generation has a rich portfolio of environmental, educational, and entrepreneurial projects.
It is from the variety of these projects and from the experience in organizing and managing them
that we draw our practical expertise from, which we then capitalize upon to deliver our services.
Moreover, as outputs of our projects we created a number of learning materials and digital tools,
which we now use to enhance the value we provide.

GreenTech Rangers was originally a pre-acceleration program for startups focused on sustainable development. The program combined various startup-oriented initiatives, namely workshops, eco-hackathons, boot camps, coaching sessions, and pitching competitions, into a comprehensive learning journey for prospective environmental and social entrepreneurs. Participants of GreenTech Rangers learnt how to discover their target customer, how to develop eco-innovations, how to register a social venture, etc.

Together with our partner Generator Hub and with the financial support of the Government of Sweden and the GEF Small Grants Programme, we organized three editions of the GreenTech Rangers program. However, during the last edition, we had begun transforming the offline program into a digital tool. So, nowadays GreenTech Rangers exists as an online learning-and-startup-building platform, which both entrepreneurs and managers of startup-oriented programs can use. The platform offers them digital space and features to experiment with green business ideas, prepare agile business plan for the chosen idea, track the implementation of that plan, document startup's progress, and learn environmental entrepreneurship on the go.

editions organized

workshops held

people educated

startups supported

digital tool created

ClimateLaunchpad Moldova is the national stage of ClimateLaunchpad, the world’s largest green business ideas competition. This competition helps promising entrepreneurs to develop their CleanTech startups through an online course, a boot camp, a number of follow-up training modules, and coaching sessions. After going through this learning journey, the participants pitch their green business ideas at the national final with the winners going forward to the regional and ultimately global final.

We began our experience with ClimateLaunchpad Moldova by joining its first edition back in 2015 as a participating startup team. There we presented our MEGA Game platform, got awarded as national winners, and pitched at the European Final of ClimateLaunchpad in Amsterdam. Since then, we had contributed to further editions of the competition by delivering training modules on customer discovery, market experiments, climate change and impact, and other topics. In 2019, we got involved into the fifth edition of ClimateLauchpad Moldova already as co-organizers together with Generator Hub and the organization EcoVisio. Finally, in 2020 and 2021, we took the lead of implementing the sixth and the seventh edition.

editions organized

trainings delivered

entrepreneurs trained

startup ideas raised

local winners fostered

Eco-hackathon is a weekend-long competition of ideas and solutions to address a variety of environment-and-sustainability-related challenges. The competition combines the advantages of a technology startup hackathon with focus on ideas, projects, and innovations in nature conservation and sustainable development. Besides those ideas, Eco-hackathon is also meant to create a proactive community of young professionals in different areas, who care about the natural environment and act to protect it.

Up until now we organized two eco-hackathons in the Republic of Moldova: the first one was done within the Hai Moldova campaign in 2016, while the second one happened as part of the GreenTech Rangers program in 2019. Besides general organization and management of those two editions together with our partner Generator Hub, we offered our participants continuous coaching and mentoring support in developing their ideas, solutions, and eco-innovations. We also delivered a series of informative trainings and practical workshops on various environmental challenges, different aspects of sustainable development, selected UN SDGs, prototyping, and gamification, as well as held interactive discussions on those topics.

editions organized

workshops held

people educated

ideas developed

innovations promoted

MEGA Game: The Game with Impact was an online project management platform with elements of gamification and e-learning. It was designed for connecting environmental organizations with volunteers and for assisting both sides in implementing nature conservation projects in a fun, engaging, and motivating way. The platform featured a map-based dashboard with environmental quests and missions for users to accomplish, a section with video trainings about nature conservation, and a leaderboard of top players.

MEGA Game was our most ambitious and most successful experiment in combining information technology and gamification with the domain of nature conservation and sustainable development so far. The online platform had existed for about five years, from 2015 until 2019, during which it helped 17 organizations from 9 countries launch and manage their environmental initiatives in collaborative and game-like manner. MEGA Game also assisted us in educating more than 130 young people on different aspects of environmental protection. For these and many other achievements, our digital creation received several international prizes and awards with the latest being the Energy Globe World Award in the category Youth.

digital tool created

trainings delivered

133

people educated

NGOs supported

projects hosted

MEGA Impact Championship was a gamified competition among youth organizations to resolve real environmental and social issues in particular locations. Innovation of the Championship was the use of gamification for stimulating organizations to create as much positive environmental and social impact as possible in a limited time. That was achieved with the help of our MEGA Game, where participants received their tasks, reported on results, collected points, and verified their positions in the leaderboard.

We held two national editions of MEGA Impact Championship in the Republic of Moldova with each edition focusing on a different environmental topic. The first Championship in 2015 was dedicated to the issue of drinking water supply and quality in rural areas of Moldova, while the second one in 2016 addressed the theme of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in Moldovan forests. Within those two editions, besides interactive trainings, interesting challenges, and fun game-like activities offered to the participating teams, we managed to join forces with other local organizations and to implement two research expeditions, several waste cleanup activities, and a number of afforestation events in different regions of the country.

editions organized

NGOs involved

people engaged

ton of waste cleaned

700

trees planted

The Codru Quest was a research project dedicated to the topic of economic valuation of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the Codru forest and the protected area of the Codru Nature Reserve in Moldova. The main goal of the project was to estimate economic value of protecting the forest together with its biodiversity, as well as to educate people about that value. An additional goal was to publish a methodological guidebook about conducting an economic valuation study based on our research experience.

Financially supported by the Rufford Foundation, the two editions of the Codru Quest, which we organized in 2016 and 2018, resulted in a public dataset, a research report, and a scientific article, in which we presented the estimated economic value of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the Codru forest. The estimations were done with choice modelling technique and were based upon on-site interviews and online questionnaire covering 201 respondents. We also organized three educational expeditions to the Codru Nature Reserve for 20 young people. Finally, we described our practical experience in using choice modelling technique within the project in a publication entitled “The Codru Quest: Methodology”.

editions organized

expeditions done

201

respondents surveyed

people educated

publications released

Forest Ecosystem Services is an online course about benefits and services of forest ecosystems, as well as ways to protect those ecosystems. The course consists of ten video trainings (including introduction) organized into three parts: I. Economic Valuation of Forest Ecosystem Services, II. Strategic Planning of Sustainable Forest Management, and III. Stakeholder Engagement into Sustainable Forest Management. The course with its video trainings is open for anyone to watch and complete on its website.

Indeed, besides recording all ten video trainings and organizing them into three parts, we have also created a special website for the Forest Ecosystem Services course. Furthermore, in addition to the trainings, we have written and published a manual "Forest Ecosystem Services: Valuation, Conservation, and Sustainable Management", which complements the content of those trainings with additional explanations and examples. The manual can also be found, read, and downloaded at the course website. All information in both the trainings and the manual is based upon our background in Environmental Economics, our expertise in ecosystem services and their economic valuation, and our practical experience in conducting the Codru Quest research.

digital tool created

online course offered

trainings delivered

200

people educated

publication released

Water Map of Moldova was a research project designed to explore, document, and present the issue of limited availability and poor quality of drinking water in rural areas of the Republic of Moldova. Specifically, the goal of the project was to visit a number of villages in selected regions of the country, document water availability and quality in local wells, analyze the collected data, visualize them in the form of a map, and ultimately raise awareness about the issue in question amongst relevant stakeholders.

Together with INQUA-Moldova, a partner organization within the Water Map of Moldova project, we made four research expeditions to rural areas in southern, western, and eastern parts of the Republic of Moldova. During those expeditions, we had visited about 15 villages, where we had collected water samples from over 60 wells. After analyzing those samples in a laboratory, we visualized the resulting data on an interactive map of the country. The map now shows the exact location, where each water sample was taken, date of sampling, detailed chemical and microbiological composition of that sample, and our conclusion about whether water in that particular well is clean and suitable for drinking or not.

expeditions done

specialists involved

villages visited

samples analyzed

digital tool created

Hai Moldova is a national cleanup campaign focused on raising awareness about waste pollution. It is part of the global movement for a clean planet called Let’s Do It, World! The Hai Moldova campaign centers around the National Cleanup Day, a special one-day event when volunteers from the entire country clean up their cities, villages, and other territories of Moldova from waste. Besides this event, the campaign includes educational activities on the topics of proper waste management and zero-waste behavior.

We participated in Hai Moldova as volunteers back in 2011, even before establishing MEGA. In the following year, we joined the organizing team of Hai Moldova and contributed to another edition of the campaign with research, educational, and managerial support. After three years of “silence”, particularly in 2016 and 2017, we took leadership for implementing further editions of the campaign, now as the organization MEGA. In that period we not only continued the National Cleanup Day, but also organized additional awareness raising events, an educational summer camp, and a series of lectures in local schools. And we fueled all those activities with our knowledge and expertise on the topic of waste management and circular economy.

editions organized

3.5k

people engaged

waste bags collected

2.5k

waste bags recycled

local parks cleaned

Operation P.E.A.C.E. (Practical and Entertaining Adventure for Conflict-resolution and English-teaching) was the „codename” of the combination of Innovation Camp and Hackathon dedicated to education on conflict resolution and peace building through games and gamification. The purpose of the project was to help teachers of English from different countries to design and develop various kinds of educational games that would then be used by those teachers in seminars on conflict resolution and peace building.

Upon the request of the American Councils for International Education in Moldova we organized two editions of the Operation P.E.A.C.E. project. The first edition represented a summer camp for 30 English teachers from six different countries, where we guided our participants through the game design and development process. The second edition was organized as a hackathon for 20 girls studying IT, whom we trained in designing games and gamification applications. As a result of those two editions, five board games with two digital versions came into existence. 30 copies of those games were then distributed to schools and English clubs in six countries. Nowadays all games can be downloaded and played from the project website.

editions organized

workshops held

people educated

games developed

games distributed

G.R.E.E.N. (Garbage Recycling and Environmental Education Nationwide) was an educational and awareness raising project addressing the topics of waste pollution, waste management, and environmental entrepreneurship. The project was relying on the approach and mechanics of gamification and was designed as an activity game with a story. In that game participants of the project needed to complete a series of missions and challenges in order to collect experience points and ascend to the status of G.R.E.E.N. Agents.

G.R.E.E.N. was our first major project on environmental education since the establishment of MEGA. Together with a partner organization Medium we delivered trainings and organized game-like activities for pupils in three schools in the northern, central, and southern parts of Moldova. Additionally, we installed platforms for separate waste collection in all those schools and set up a recycling process for all suitable waste collected separately. Finally, as a “bonus level” of G.R.E.E.N., we hosted a summer school on environmental project management and entrepreneurship for top performing pupils from the participating schools. An outcome of the project was that a good number of its participants realized their own recycling initiatives afterwards.

trainings delivered

300

pupils engaged

100

people educated

waste bins installed

initiatives realized

CURIOS Moldova was an educational expedition around natural and historic monuments of Moldova combined with on-site capacity building activities about the surrounding environment. One objective of the initiative was to discover and explore natural ecosystems and sites of environmental and archaeological significance in the country. Another objective was to educate local youth about the importance of those ecosystems and sites and their protection through on-site demonstrations, trainings, and workshops.

Financially supported by Ashoka ChangemakerXchange and the Robert Bosch Foundation, the CURIOS Moldova expedition allowed 15 curious young people from three countries to discover, explore, and learn about various sites of environmental and archaeological importance in different parts of Moldova. During the four-day expedition full of exciting adventures and teambuilding activities, the participants managed to visit ten different historical sites and natural ecosystems, as well as gain knowledge about those ecosystems and practices in their protection. As a result, many of the CURIOS Moldova explorers got inspired to pursue nature conservation activities and ultimately joined other projects of MEGA mentioned above.

expedition done

natural sites visited

trainings delivered

workshops held

people educated

Would you like to learn more about any of our projects here?
Or do you need help and support with your own initiative?
If yes, you are always welcome to contact us.

MEGA

Generation

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Our Projects

GreenTech Rangers

Entrepreneurship, Climate Change

ClimateLaunchpad Moldova

Entrepreneurship, Climate Change

Eco-hackathon

Nature Conservation, Entrepreneurship

MEGA Game

Nature Conservation, Project Management

MEGA Impact Championship

Nature Conservation, Education

The Codru Quest

Nature Conservation, Project Management

Forest Ecosystem Services

Nature Conservation, Education

Water Map of Moldova

Nature Conservation, Project Management

Hai Moldova

Nature Conservation, Education

Operation P.E.A.C.E.

Education

G.R.E.E.N.

Education, Nature Conservation

CURIOS Moldova

Education, Nature Conservation

Would you like to learn more about any of our projects here?
Or do you need help and support with your own initiative?
If yes, you are always welcome to contact us.

MEGA

Generation

Our Contacts

11, Moscova Str., Chisinau, Moldova

hello@megageneration.com

+373 69675157

Our Newsletter

Our Projects

GreenTech Rangers

ClimateLaunchpad Moldova

Eco-hackathon

MEGA Game

MEGA Impact Championship

The Codru Quest

Forest Ecosystem Services

Water Map of Moldova

Hai Moldova

Operation P.E.A.C.E.

G.R.E.E.N.

CURIOS Moldova

Would you like to learn more about any of our projects here?Or do you need help and support with your own initiative?If yes, you are always welcome to contact us.

MEGA

Generation

Our Contacts

Our Newsletter

Would you like to learn more about any of our projects here?
Or do you need help and support with your own initiative?
If yes, you are always welcome to contact us.