My own journey into the “green” world began with Baterkáreň. The motivation was mainly self-realisation – a chance to create something meaningful and to express myself in a practical, creative way. We started very small: a tiny renovation centre combined with a small shop, open only about 15 hours a week. My colleague Jana and I took turns behind the counter. Over time, interest grew, and when the COVID pandemic ended, we hired our first part-time employee. Since then, the work has only expanded, and I have the feeling we have not stopped running.
Today we operate two sites and have almost 20 people involved – a mix of temporary staff and a few full-time employees. That brings a lot of responsibility: salaries, rent, goods, daily operations. We decided from the beginning that we wanted to do things as sustainably as possible, even if that makes everything more challenging. If we were a standard commercial drugstore, we would stock many more products and invest heavily in aggressive advertising. Instead, we work with a very limited range – for example, just a couple of cleaning products and fabric softeners from brands we know, use ourselves and can honestly recommend. Every product on the shelf has to make sense to us.
Financing such an initiative is a constant balancing act. As a non-profit and social enterprise, we rely on multiple sources. At the beginning, we applied for very small grants – our first one was €2,500 from ZSE. Later, a larger grant from the German foundation DBU, linked to the Ministry of the Environment, allowed us to run a Sustainability Academy. That support was crucial, because it funded several people over a longer period and gave us space to grow. Over time you naturally move from “mini grants” to larger ones, but that also means spending huge amounts of time searching for calls, writing applications, and reporting. On any given day I’m deciding whether to invest my energy in a €2,000 grant or in a €120,000 one – and meanwhile, the work of actually running the project never stops.
We also try to be part of broader systemic change. As members of the Climate Coalition, we contribute – when time allows – to commenting on legislation, adding our voice to petitions and consultations. In reality, with two operations and so many employees, I often end up buried in administration I don’t enjoy: forms, reports, new legal requirements for NGOs. It’s impossible to do everything you would like to do, and that is a constant frustration.
Despite all this, I see clear benefits in trying to work sustainably. We attract people – employees, partners, volunteers – who genuinely share our values and vision. Cooperation is not just about “hello, pay me money”, but about relationships, shared purpose and searching for meaning in what we do. That brings a different quality to everyday work.
We are not perfect. For example, we still travel by car to workshops when we need to take a lot of materials with us. We regularly review what we do and sometimes stop activities or products that don’t feel truly sustainable. It’s an ongoing process of learning and adjusting. For me, the important thing is the direction: to keep trying, to make conscious choices, and to show that running a business in line with green values is possible – even if it is demanding and full of compromises.