#CloseUp: Ministry of Environment x Darom
The last but surely not least participants of #GovTechChallengeSeries are the Ministry of Environment of Lithuania and a non-governmental organisation Darom.
Together they aimed to solve a challenge of how to ensure that the consumers could get reliable, actual and easily accessible information on green, healthy products. Let’s read an interview with Aurimas Saladžius from the Ministry of Environment and Ignas Brazauskas from Darom on how they tried to tackle this challenge!
Tell us more about your submitted solution for GovTech Challenge Series 2.0 and how could it solve a social or public sector problem?
We think that today’s means of informing the public about environmental protection rarely creates a substantial incentive to make a practical contribution to environmental sustainability. We also believe that buying green is a challenge due to the lack of reliable, relevant and easily accessible information about green products and services.
Why is it important to create innovative solutions that could be applied in the public sector?
Innovative solutions are especially valuable when common solutions are not working, or when there is a need for better or easier way to do something. That’s equally important in the public sector as it is in non-public sector.
Do you have any tips for other creators who want to work with the public sector?
Public sector has its downsides, such as that it is a lot more bureaucratic, and the processes might take longer. That could be mitigated by planning some things upfront. You should always look for opportunities to carry out some parallel processes at the same time (instead of one after the other), that way you can cut through some red tape requirements at once and the result can be achieved way faster.
Tell us more about your submitted solution for GovTech Challenge Series 2.0 and how could it solve a social or public sector problem?
Our challenge was how to connect green consumers with green products, and how to inform consumers about the impact of different products on the environment. Our solution is a green platform for users, who will receive information about the product before buying it, and also the information on what to do with the product once it is bought – i.e. recycle, reuse, share, etc.
Why is it important to create innovative solutions that could be applied in the public sector?
Public sector is a key player in various fields, including environment. Innovative solutions will allow resources to be used more effectively, including such resource as information. Knowledge management is a key task of many of the innovative solutions proposed to the government.
Do you have any tips for other creators who want to work with the public sector?
Our key insight is to gather all the key stakeholders of certain organisation in one room, and let them talk. Let them formulate some aspects of the product that they need. Also maintain these close relationships and help the grow. Become friends with people working in the public sector.
