MY SIX YEAR SDG JOURNEY
And how it still drives my behaviour today
Celebrating six years of SDGs
Today on September 25th 2021 we celebrate the 6th anniversary of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Today I also celebrate my sustainable development journey that started around that time.
Driven by Entrepreneurship
I remember, early 2016 talking to Patrick van Weerelt when he started in his Bonn office of United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) to learn the world about the Sustainable Development Goals. It was a milestone moment for me still working for MKB Servicedesk at that time, together with Ronald de Snoo.
Dreamcatch canvas to fight poverty
It was early 2017 when, together with Agency No9 we launched the “Community of Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs” together with Oxfam Novib. It was still very early days, but we felt we had to support a good cause with the team. Oxfam also introduced us to the Dream catch Canvas as a tool to visualise the future by dreaming AND drawing it on a canvas. A methodology used to bridge language and cultural differences and to address the triple bottom line in a very basic, but powerful way. I’ve also featured it in my book Toptrends voor Ondernemers (Toptrends for Entrepreneurs)
Keynote speech at the United Nations in Geneva
In 2018 I was in Geneva (the photo in the header) to speak at a United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) conference. The topic of my speech was about the opportunity to activate Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to engage with the global goals. An opportunity to reach over 4 billion people via 500 million SME’s. Now that’s a moonshot dream to make an SDG impact. Please also check out my 2021 podcast on this subject here:
Ubiquity University
In 2019 I started working for Ubiquity University to launch the https://ubiverse.org global community for changemakers. There was another visit to Geneva with Peter Merry to be part of the launch of UNSDG Learn. The platform to learn about the #SDGs run by Elena Proden Paulyn Duman and the rest of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) team.
Sustainable Development in the Australian built environment
In 2020 another milestone moment in the middle of the global COVID-19 lockdown was (virtual) start of a project to align the Australian built environment with the #SDGs So cool to be working with David Morgan and Jeremy Rose and the SDG Align team.
We are on a mission to support behavioural change for those working in the built environment towards sustainable development together with Building Designers Association of Australia Chris Knierim Michelle Blicavs Association of Consulting Surveyors NSW Alisha Fisher Strata Community Association Australasia Alison Scotland
Enabling young people to imagine the future by addressing Futures Literacy
Early 2021 I was privaliged to join non-profit Teach the Future with Peter Bishop, Erica Bol Janine Nel and the rest of the amazing team to promote #futuresliteracy as a life skill for young people (age 12 to 25) and educators.
And on October 5th 2021 I’m a voluntary teacher for SDG Nederland and Coöperatie Leren voor Morgen to teach about the global goals in the class of my 10 year old (youngest) son. How cool is that!
Let’s built a sustainable future together! #act4SDGs