innovation for good life

We will visit Intel’s development center in Jerusalem, which features a project for the employment of Haredi female engineers and programmers. We will be introduced to the process of recruitment, placement and training, as well as to the business and social advantages and challenges associated with employment in the Haredi sector.

Bizmax is an innovative and first-of-its-kind initiative for Haredi male residents of Jerusalem, which operates as a business-community workspace. The center features a common work area, and additionally offers a comprehensive package of services, including consultancy, business development, workshops, courses, financing and loans, business lobby, cafeteria and meeting rooms. It further provides education, training and professional guidance for a successful introduction and inclusion of its members in the world of employment.

We will visit one of the companies residing at the Hebrew University’s “hi-tech village”, get introduced to the Jerusalem Development Authority and learn what the city offers the business sector, and why it would be worthwhile for companies to move to Jerusalem.

The city of Be’er Sheva is focusing on issues of employment, offering a variety of services to employers and residents. At the Circle of Life Centre, we will be acquainted with the services offered by the city to its residents on the subject of employment, and hear about different programs that respond to the needs of the diverse local populations.

We will visit the CDI for a presentation of interfaces between entrepreneurship, innovation and technology. We will tour the Healthy Aging Lab, where technological ideas and services for the third age are being tested. The lab is being established and will continue to operate in cooperation with Eshel JDC Israel, the Israel National Insurance Institute and additional partners. The lab will enable researchers, professionals, technologists, students, startups, public institutions and care providers to think, characterize project and work together in a common and multi-disciplinary manner to address the challenges of third age living.

The working environment will enable a linkage between the researchers and professionals and the day-to-day life of the third age population. The lab will focus on development, simulation and demonstration of digital and technological innovation to provide solutions for healthy aging, and coping with various complex challenges of this population in terms of welfare, health, family and community relationships, personal safety, employment generation, social involvement and so forth

Sadel Tech is a first of its kind technological project in the Arab society in Israel, established for the benefit of the Negev Bedouin community. Sadel Tech is an unusual attempt intended to integrate academic Bedouins in Israel’s technological industry. The project was founded with a social vision, and has a medium- to long term goal of hundreds being employed, generating substantial social impact on the community in which it operates. We will meet with one of the Bedouin entrepreneurs and will be exposed to the opportunities for collaborations available in both business and social aspects of the project.

The Human Spirit Campus serves as a center providing responses for psychological services for residents of Lod and its surroundings. We will meet with the director of an employment program for the Arab society in Lod and with a local Arab leader, and hear from both women about the challenges and opportunities in a city with Lod’s unique characteristics.

El Al is an example for a company operating a number of programs in cooperation with Tevet, in response to business needs. We will meet some of the programs such as “Starter” vocational training for professions in-demand, providing employers with skilled employees; and “Lamerhak”, which promotes qualitative employment for young Ethiopian-Israelis. The program offers its participants assistance with financing their studies, vocational training and work placement services. We will meet the professional team and some of the active participants in the programs.

We will meet with the company’s VP of Human Resources, who will describe the process of launching the “Career Track” project that addresses low wage employees, and responds to the recruitment, preservation and promotion of employees within the organization.

This initiative is part of the renewal scheme of Tel Aviv’s old central bus station area, and resides in a building for preservation which was formerly in the site of the station. HaRatzif is a center for urban renewal that seeks to identify and promote entrepreneurs and initiatives from within the community, with an emphasis on southern Tel Aviv, offering solutions of renewal for the close vicinity and the whole city.

A program for the employment of adults aged 45+, responding to need and the demands of the Israeli hi-tech industry. It features a training program for older engineers in collaboration with the Technion.

A project for vocational education and training for digital professionals – “Digital Talent “. The project is a cooperation of Google with Tevet and the governmental Vocational Training Division in response to a need in the Israeli economy. During the visit we will be hosted by The Library, which is a digital agency that employs and trains graduates of the course.

We will visit a hi-tech company that is actually a bank… not to be called a bank. This digital initiative presents an inventive approach to banking, with a completely different appearance and language to traditional banks; always available and providing swift, prompt service, while eliminating checking account commissions, faxing and hustle. A bank that is actually something else…

We will visit a workshop that produces electric boards and employs workers with disabilities, alongside youth on a work-study program

We will visit the unique urban shopping mall that serves as a platform for exercising sustainable living habits, for the benefit of its residents and visitors. Some of the great features to be observed at the Center: “Green in the City“, an educational producing farm of hydroponic vegetables on the roof of the Center; a waste separation and recycling center; an urban biodynamic beekeeping center; and a variety of additional examples of the extensive management of sustainability around the building.

We will visit the NTA Depot: the main operations center of the Tel Aviv metropolis future Light Railway’ Red Line, which is currently under construction. The center is being established in northern Petach Tikva, and is one of three pits from which the TBM (tunnel boring machine) have departed to dig and build the railway’s underground tunnels. From the Depot, the machines are digging their way west toward Tel Aviv. During the visit, we will hear about the dialog that was conducted with the local community, and learn about the intricate urban and environmental challenges facing this complex engineering project at the heart of the metropolis.

Leket is Israel’s largest food bank, and the only organization entirely committed to rescuing excess food and passing it on to the needy. With the assistance of some 55,000 volunteers annually and the organization’s devoted employees, Leket Israel conducts a variety of activities based on rescuing excess food: agricultural produce is collected from fields of farmers and packing houses; cooked food excess is collected from: IDF, hotels, catering companies; and excess of dry and chilled food is collected from food producers. The logistics center is the core of the organization, where the donated produce arrives and is collected. Leket volunteers and employees sort through the produce daily, and package it in boxes being transferred the very next day to non-profits throughout the country.

On the visit to the logistics center, we will experience the extent of the organizations’ food rescue efforts, and the manner in which such food can be utilized to support vulnerable populations and reduce the cost of living. We will tour the center, hear about the organization’s operations and learn more about food loss and its economic-social-environmental implications.

The bank’s Learning and Development Center is responsible for processes of training, culture and leadership, and implements several advanced programs addressing employee development as well as their engagement with the bank’s values. On the tour we will be introduced to the activities of the campus, focusing on the new project by “The Center for Financial Growth” – educating the public on proper financial conduct.

We will visit the new and exciting Delta factory site in Caesarea, which features an example of a modern, indulging and inspiring working environment. During our tour we will hear about the company’s concept of “the employee in the center” and how it is implemented and expressed by numerous activities, such as professional development and health and welfare projects, including an international award winning project.

Shikun & Binui together with global energy giant Enel, have recently won a tender of Israel’s Innovation Authority to establish an open innovation lab. On the visit we will hear about innovation processes and the company’s new fascinating collaborations. We will also visit the gallery, telling the Shikun & Binui as part of the history of Israel.

We will visit the Nesher Ramla cement factory and see why gray cement is in fact rather green. We will heat about the impressive RDF facility and learn about the advanced and efficient production processes; the use of alternative fuels (including those originating in our domestic waste); the use of alternative raw materials in place of finite natural resources; and the use of cement as infrastructure for green building.

We will visit the company’s innovative logistics center in the town of Shoham. On the tour we well encounter novel systems and facilities, including automated warehouses operating at -18^oc, and hear about the challenges of central distribution and supply chain operations of Israel’s largest retailer.

This is an opportunity to get reacquainted with the paper you discarded to the recycling bin at the office. Hadera Paper is the largest and oldest producer of all types of paper in Israel. On the tour we will see the process of paper collection for recycling, and get to know the stages of paper production with its innovative environmental aspects. Presently the factory is an innovation leader with the development of “the world’s most environmental” recycled paper, which has a production process in which no trees at all are involved, there is no bleaching process, there is diminished use of resources, etc.

There is a story behind every grain of salt… We will tour the visitor center that tells the history of the Atlit Salt factory. We will observe different bird species as part of the salt activity, balancing between industry and the environment. We will follow the route of salt, from sea to table, and the company’s activity to promote a culture of balanced salt consumption in Israel and around the world, and to minimize the use of sodium in processed food.

The rescue Center, operated by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, coordinates nationwide activity for treatment and rehabilitation of sea turtles, injured due to both natural circumstances and as a result of human factors. On the visit we will hear how the turtles arrive at the Center for treatment, learn about treatment operations, and see some of the turtles that cannot be reintroduced to nature due to their injuries, and live at the Center permanently. Additionally, the Center’s breeding project will be presented, acting to increase the population of sea turtles in the Mediterranean, and hear about efforts to defend turtle nests during laying seasons and throughout the process of hatching and the turtles’ return to sea. We will further heat about some unique and interesting collaborations that the Nature and Parks Authority forged with different business partners.

Strauss‘s FoodTech Hub, in collaboration with the Chief Scientist, is an incubator addressing investments in early stage pioneering technological initiatives that are relevant for the food industry, throughout the value chain. In promoting technological innovation, the incubator strives to ensure that industry does better and that better food is available for the world. The incubator provides a home for entrepreneurs and a habitat for new technologies.

We will visit the Shafdan wastewater treatment plant and “Third Line to the Negev” facilities. The Shafdan is the largest, most advanced wastewater treatment facility in Israel and the Middle East. It has seven member local authorities, and additional localities are connected and serviced by it. In total it serves a population of over 2 million people, in the densest, most populated region in Israel of Gush Dan – the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.

“Third Line to the Negev” is Mekorot’s flagship facility for reclaiming treated wastewater for agricultural use. The facility provides reclaimed tertiary-treated wastewater for the irrigation of all types of crops in southern Israel, and contributes to the blossoming of the arid region.