The Kalkalpen National Park, in collaboration with regional initiatives and the private Scheuchfoundation, organized a competition to promote sustainable entrepreneurship and economic development in the region while exploiting the potential of the National Park.

The goal of this competition was to find new ideas, products and services in connection with nature and national park, to professionally develop and market them. National parks are not just nature conservation jewels, they are also instigators for the identity beyond their borders and powerful engines for sustainable economic activity in their region. Young entrepreneurial ideas with high environmental benefits from sustainable tourism, health, agriculture, food and wood were sought. Private individuals and associations as well as start-ups and companies from the national park region were able to take part.

8 winners from over 50 submissions
From 50 submissions, 8 winners were identified who have taken part in a five-month start-up program. Here they worked intensively on the further development of their ideas, products and services. They were accompanied by Impact Hub Vienna, a Viennese team that specializes in start-up companies. At the end of the five months, the winners again faced a jury, who then decided who got the prize money.

The prize money ended up with the following business ideas:

"Fruit caterpillar”: a device that wants to enable an efficient, cost-effective harvest of the fruit ofscatteredorchardswithout fruit injury

"kalkalpen.wild": Local venisonis to be established as a premium brand. Wildlife in the region in and around the Kalkalpen National Park live in an exceptional habitat. Due to the structure of local agriculture, these animals usually never come into contact with pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and other chemicals that are otherwise widely used in agriculture. Because of the use of lead-free ammunition and the natural habitat of the animals, themeatis particularly of very high quality.

"Spreissl": sale of sustainable fire wood from the National Park region in environmentally friendly, reusable packaging

The culturall and scapep reservation association Steyrtal received a special prize for the project "mountainmeadows", which wants to reactivate and preserve the former mountain meadows in order to promote today's endangered biodiversity of these habitats.

The National Park brand and the many sustainable economic contributions that have been placed in the competition are a sign of the beneficial symbiosis of business and nature.

Source: Kalkalpen National park