Have you ever experienced having limited access to healthcare? Worried about your ability to easily use public transport? Struggled balancing a career and childcare? Been treated as an outsider to the culture you live in? This game will get you there.

Let’s Play Equal is a light-hearted yet powerful board game designed to break taboos and ignite meaningful conversations about diversity and inclusion. It challenges you to reflect on what you know, think, and feel about yourself and others. By stepping into someone else’s shoes, you’ll experience firsthand how privilege—or the lack of it—affects life’s opportunities. Become aware of what you (don’t) know, think, and feel about yourself and others.

Let’s see how (un)fair life is

The differences that shape us can be beautiful, but they can also create barriers. Not everyone starts life on equal footing. Some face obstacles because of their ethnicity, disability, religion, or other aspects of their identity. And not everyone is so lucky to have a supportive family, friends, or a boss, and that everyone can be anyone. You will never know about the struggles of others, about their thoughts and feelings, until you ask and try to understand. They will never know about yours until you open up and speak up. As it is said in relationships, communication is key. Let’s take this key in our daily life and use it.

Let’s play, talk, and empathise

The social board game Let’s Play Equal is facilitating a safe and creative space to talk about life’s struggles and think about how we would react if we were in someone’s shoes when a life event occurred. How would you deal with first love in Sander’s shoes? How is Coco dealing with expectations of society after transitioning to be a woman? A normal day for us can feel like a struggle for Marja, who has a paralysed arm, don’t you think so?

These personas provide your team—up to 8 people—with a safe space to reflect on justice, (in)equality, diversity, and inclusiveness. Let’s break taboos and make eye-opening insights that can change lives. With a lot of self-reflection in oneself, as a team you can solve life struggles in creative and empathic ways. Nothing is controversial here. It is life and its situations.

Let’s Play Equal

Imagine a world where freedom of speech is really free, where everyone has the same opportunities, and differences are only making us glow. With the learning experience of “Let’s Play Equal”, you and your company can be one step closer to that world. By using the most unfair game in the world for a fair future for all.

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As a small-scale accommodation or locally oriented entrepreneur, taking steps to become more sustainable can be a difficult process. Not only is it difficult to determine the right energy-saving measures, the investments involved are often also high. How do you choose the right adjustments and what subsidy options are there for sustainability?

Determine which measures you want to implement

Even before you start looking at available subsidies, it is wise to first focus on which steps you want to take to make your stay or holiday home more sustainable. For example, divide the options into categories to create an overview. For this you can look at the different aspects of sustainable tourism , such as having renewable energy sources, minimizing water consumption or the reuse of materials. It is important to have a clear overview of the options so that you can make a smart decision and choose the best option(s) for your accommodation. For example, you can invest in ways to generate green energy yourself, but it may be wise to first see whether energy consumption can be made more efficient by means of insulation.

Grants and loans for sustainability

Have you decided which steps you want to take to make your accommodation or stay more sustainable? Then there are various options that can support you with this. Loans and grants are available at local, regional and national levels. Below you will find a selection of the most important and most accessible schemes.

National

There are various national schemes that you can benefit from when you invest in sustainability:

Subsidy to stimulate sustainable energy transition (SDE++)

The SDE++ is one of the best known schemes. This subsidy can be used for installing solar panels on the roof. It is currently not possible to submit an application. It will soon be possible to apply again for 2022.

Subsidy Scheme for Sustainability of SMEs (SVM)

This scheme is suitable for SMEs up to 250 employees. With the help of this subsidy you can engage energy consultants who provide tailor-made advice and provide insight into the options for making the company more sustainable. The consultants look beyond solar panels, but also investigate the options for insulating the walls, roof, floor and windows.

Investment subsidy for sustainable energy and energy saving (ISDE)

The ISDE scheme focuses on subsidies for private homeowners and business users. The subsidies can be used to purchase a solar boiler, a heat pump, connection to a heat network and for small-scale wind turbines and solar panels.

Energy Investment Allowance (EIA) for entrepreneurs

The EIA can be used when you invest in a business asset that emits less CO2. Thanks to the EIA, 45.5% of the investment costs can be deducted from the profit.

MIA and Vamil for entrepreneurs

The MIA and Vamil are also favorable schemes for entrepreneurs who want to invest in environmentally friendly equipment and techniques. Both schemes offer tax benefits and give you the opportunity to benefit from an investment deduction.

Regional

There are also regional options. For example, municipalities and provinces often offer specific schemes that focus on the energy transition and climate adaptation. For example, in Utrecht you will find the energy transition subsidy and in Overijssel you can make use of the Local Energy Initiatives Subsidy .

Curious about which regional subsidies you can make use of? Check the website of your province or municipality, or inquire about the possibilities by telephone.

Please note: specific conditions apply to most subsidy schemes. For more information, please contact the RVO.

Would you also like to get started on making your stay or holiday home more sustainable? Then we hope to have given you more guidance. We like to hear about the areas in which your accommodation is sustainable. Even more fun: rent out your sustainable residence or holiday home via Sustainaway! Contact us to get acquainted!

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At the start of the pandemic, it was a frequently recurring call: support local entrepreneurs! Catering and retail stores had to close their doors for the first time and were at a loss. Support your locals was therefore the kind of movement that received acclaim in all corners of society.

Fortunately, the pandemic became a little less severe and the shops were allowed to open again. Now a few lockdowns further, most entrepreneurs have had to close their doors again. But the society-wide trend to remain loyal to them seems to have weakened.

For the local restaurant, boutique or bookshop, however, little has changed compared to previous closures: every day that the doors have to remain closed, they experience a lack of customers. That’s why in this blog: tips to support local entrepreneurs, both as a consumer and in the position of accommodation owner.

Support local entrepreneurs with your buying behavior

The pandemic and associated measures are likely to disrupt your routines as well. But how nice is it to enjoy a delicious dish from your favorite restaurant, especially when there is little that is possible? Many catering establishments offer the possibility to order food and pick it up or even have it delivered at home! When you are on a sustainable holiday , this way of supporting local entrepreneurs is also the ideal way to experience that holiday feeling.

When you finally have time in the evening to read that one book, order it at the local bookstore. Then you will probably receive it even earlier, because of the longer delivery times around the holidays at the larger online stores.

Tired of the streaming platforms, your daily walk or shopping in one of the few stores that are still open? Discover new things at local entrepreneurs, such as the spice shop where you can scoop herbs from around the world in your own bags or go for a coffee to go at a barista you’ve never visited before. It makes your brain happy when you do new things and at the same time you support local entrepreneurs: win-win!

Do you want to support local entrepreneurs right now that they are closed, without currently using their services or products? Then support local entrepreneurs by buying a gift voucher for a haircut, a three-course dinner or access to the wellness. With your purchase you generate income for the entrepreneur while you yourself or someone else can enjoy it later when the store can open its doors again.

How can you support local entrepreneurs as accommodation owners?

Although you can help local entrepreneurs in various ways as a consumer, this is also doable as a host in the tourism industry. Do you rent out a house and offer your guests breakfast? For example, see which products you can score locally and support local entrepreneurs. From bread, to fruit, jams and dairy products, it is often available nearby and is also appreciated by guests. The same goes for flowers: do you want to surprise your guests with a beautiful bunch of flowers? Find a local florist and avoid large online flower shops. In this way, in addition to supporting local entrepreneurs, you also offer your guests something extra.

Can people book their holidays with you, but you don’t offer meals? Even then, there are plenty of opportunities to support local entrepreneurs. You may want to take the time to redecorate the property or the grounds around it during the low season. Then buy the supplies at the local DIY store or call that private craftsman for help.

Do you currently see no opportunities to help local entrepreneurs yourself? Support local entrepreneurs indirectly by, for example, sharing their posts on social media or recommending their products to your guests!

Why buying local can also be more sustainable

Is sustainability an important aspect for you when purchasing? Support local entrepreneurs and pay close attention to sustainability, then you might just create a win-win situation. Buying or offering local food to your guests helps to protect small-scale farmland, where more genetically diverse crops are generally grown. This is better for the fertility of the soil and contributes to maintaining our food security in the future. Make sure you buy fruits and vegetables that are in season. If you buy your tomatoes locally in the winter, the environmental impact may be disappointing, because they are then grown in heated greenhouses. Curious about what’s in season now? View the seasonal vegetables from the Netherlands .

In addition, products that are locally made travel fewer transport kilometers, usually emitting a lot of CO2 and other air pollutants. In addition, the fuel saved means less consumption of fossil fuels, which also leave their mark on the environment.

For example, local purchases not only contribute to sustainability from a social aspect, but can also have a beneficial effect on the environment. With the tips in this blog we hope to inspire you to support entrepreneurs in your neighborhood. How do you support local entrepreneurs?

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