Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead
When anthropologist Margaret Mead talked about changing the world, global population was less than 3.7 billion. Now, the population stands at 7.6 billion and growing! How small of a group do we need to promote sustainability? Or how big?
The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) wants to change the world. We’re taking on a piece of this “small group of thoughtful, committed citizens” with an initiative to reach 100,000 of them by 2020!
CSE has created the Sustainability Academy, an innovative online platform for organizations to maximize their Social Impact! The goal is to teach the language of sustainability, promote its common goals and explain its unifying principles, across disciplines and international boundaries. With the academy, companies can educate their staff, suppliers and other stakeholders in the field of Sustainability.
“Education is key to individual, corporate and global prosperity,” says Nikos Avlonas, president and founder of CSE, best-selling author and sustainability pioneer. He defines prosperity to include financial, social and governance (ESG) concerns and the triple bottom line – people, planet, profit.
Beyond the lofty objectives of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), corporations face EU directives on sustainability, mandates from ASEAN on sustainable energy, and a global fixation on limiting carbon emissions. Through education, organizations learn tools such as SROI (social return on investment) to help understand and calculate their Social Impact.
For start-ups, world-changing opportunities are even greater. The academy platform helps organizations support Social Entrepreneurship and young entrepreneurs who want to start careers and enterprises already focused on sustainability. Established corporations or new, building a common understanding, knowing key definitions, where to turn for advance guidance, how to report ones successes – these all add to financial performance.
We at CSE are practical dreamers – dreamers with results. Based in part on his work with the Sustainability Academy, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the largest community foundation in US and globally, honored Avlonas as 2018 Practitioner of the Year for Corporate Responsibility, together with Google, Inc., winner of the corporate award.
Innovative platforms such as the Sustainability Academy help us all become committed citizens who can change the world!
For more information on how you can promote the initiative or join in the effort, contact [email protected].