Global plan to shift mindsets blocking sustainability goals

A PRESTIGIOUS GLOBAL LEADERSHIP initiative has been launched to speed up change to a world fit for the future.

The United Nations fears society will miss its 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) aim to shift the human mindset and behaviours which are blocking progress to a fairer, low-carbon world. Successful pilots have already been run across corporations including Google, IKEA, Stena, Volvo and Novartis.

Global Leadership for Sustainable Development (GLSD) is an ambitious strategy for transformation, supported by organisations including the United Nations Development Programme, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Lund University and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and led by an IDG Foundation. It creates an ecosystem of organisations across government, academia, civic society and the private sector to research and promote a framework of competencies and help embed them in workplaces and boardrooms around the world.?

The ecosystem was launched last week in Africa, bringing together representatives from countries with widely different values and levels of government action on sustainability. Research updated in 2023 indicates that, despite many nuanced differences, human belief systems vary across two main cross-cultural dimensions: the importance of religious doctrine and individual autonomy.

Innovating sustainability leadership

Contented, which also runs a hub for the inner development goals based in Birmingham, was the only private sector company participating in Tunisia from the UK. The company helps clients take sustainability beyond compliance to drive strategic performance and transformation. The team works with a company's top table to understand ESG, prepare for what's coming, mitigate risk and get organised around it. This can include carbon reduction, social value, biodiversity, and culture change, as well as helping monitor, educate and upskill the supply chain.

Unlike traditional consultancies – and in the spirit of the IDGs – Contented builds the internal leadership capacity of client organisations by combining technical delivery with training, coaching and mentoring programmes at all levels, walking alongside the board to guide and manage the whole process.

Based in Birmingham and London, with a growing network of associates around the world, Contented has been facilitating culture change programmes to support the sustainability agenda since 2005. It is the only private business among just six UK organisations to attend the kickstart conference, including Lancaster University, Scottish Nature, Natural Resources Wales, Public Health Wales, and the Alef Trust.

CEO Gerard Davies said that, as advocates for low carbon business, the decision to travel to Tunisia was a difficult one, made by the management team after intensive analysis and reflection. They consulted stakeholders and train and ferry timetables, and used a Balanced Score Card to weigh-up carbon impact and potential benefits to people, planet and profit, recognising the reputational value of attending a global train-the-trainer event. The board decided to send the CEO, adding three days and tasking him with delivering services that would add social value locally, as well as exploring opportunities to export services, including into India, Latin America and North Africa.

Tunisia, with 30% of land within the Sahara, attracts significant investment in wind, solar, geothermal, bio-energy and hydro/marine, with plans to sell green hydrogen abroad and generate millions in carbon credits. Last year, government invited bids for 1.7GW solar/wind farms, worth USD1.6bn.

The conference was hosted by Tunisian-Swiss investment banker-philanthropist Kamal Lazaar, and his eponymous foundation, who has built a retreat centre and is planning a village to encourage refugees from Africa to stay. He was joined by former CEO of BMW Foundation Markus Hipp who shared his insights on how to rapidly increase the power and depth of leadership programmes. The GLSD programme will proceed over six months online, bringing in more people and organisations over time.

As part of the programme, the national teams will prototype embedding the IDGs across their organisations, services and stakeholders. Contented will launch a series of sustainability accelerators in summer 2024.

Gerard added that the IDG leadership framework was already available to existing clients as part of its toolbox to help benchmark their organisational culture. “Staying at the forefront of techniques to facilitate inner development is key to the agility and performance of our company and our clients. But we do not take our responsibilities lightly,” he said.

Company representatives interested in participating may write to Gerard Davies at [email protected], subject line: inner development.