While global sustainability plans and goals keep on growing in ambition, people's skills and mindset remain stagnant. But in order for sustainability to thrive, we need to address personal skills and reimagine what our future demands of us.
The world changes rapidly, society’s needs, expectations and demands vary at unprecedented speed, information and data is ever-growing, population is at an all time high, and the climate crisis threatens to bring even more change.
So naturally, many questions come to mind: how are we going to adapt to all of it? Does our socioeconomic system need to radically change in order for sustainability to thrive?
And although these are necessary and important questions, we might be missing the point, and the beginning step to making any significant and global transformation, we need to focus on people’s mindset, values and personal skills.
Personal skills for sustainability beyond the workplace
When looking up for the necessary skills for sustainability it is awfully common to find skills directed towards sustainability management or leadership in the workplace. Not to say these are not important, as companies hold great responsibility for the future of the planet.
However, we can’t help but think that these business skills fall a little too short for individual action and responsibility towards sustainability, as they do not apply in all the necessary levels of a sustainable life.
In other words, we cannot change the world solely from the workplace, personal skills that benefit sustainable behaviors need to go far beyond that and reach people’s everyday lives in a more meaningful and personal way.
Developing skills for a more sustainable world
It should come as no surprise that developing good and healthy habits and/or skills can bring us peace of mind and a more sustainable and nourished relationship with the people and environment around us.
These are in fact, going back to what we mentioned before, complementary to many, if not all aspects of life, including our work life. But, how can personal skills be beneficial for sustainability and the environment?
The idea is simple, the world as we know it today, that being social interactions, consumer behavior, critical thinking etc. is radically different to many years ago. This means people behave, think and act differently based on how society, the economy or political institutions require of them.
Therefore, we could argue each time and place in the world requires certain skills from people as individuals and a society in order to maintain a healthy and sustainable world, environmentally and socially speaking.
Nonetheless, as mentioned in the very beginning of this article, at the current speed the world’s needs are changing, it has become increasingly difficult to adapt ourselves and our skills to the latter, making it almost impossible to sink in all the necessary information and act accordingly.
Inner Development Goals
It is precisely in this context that the Inner Development Goals are born, as a response to the lack of knowledge about personal and individual skills that could help us reach Sustainable Development Goals, as well as sustainability in general, at a much faster and efficient pace.
This initiative is born as a means to bring light to the skills we need to live a more purposeful and sustainable life for ourselves and for our relationship with the planet and those around us.
The bottomline idea of the IDG initiative is that, although the framework of goals needed to be fulfilled has been set by the UN’s SDGs, the necessary inner abilities to confront such complex challenges are very limited.
Among the skills or inner abilities found in the framework of the IDG’s initiative, we can find a range of them divided in categories, ranging from abilities for the relationship to oneself, cognitive skills, caring for others, social skills and learning how to drive change.
Small everyday actions go a long way
In DoGood we advocate for the importance of making small but meaningful changes in our everyday life in order to find purpose and a more healthy relationship with what is around us.
We also believe that working collectively can help us find that which alone may seem unattainable or useless. That is why we think the workplace is the perfect environment to find that collective eagerness to make a difference, both for the sustainability and purpose of the company and a more sustainable way of being for all employees.
Through our technology we help companies establish ESG impact objectives for employees in regards to the sustainability strategy of the company.
We are able to activate and track employees’ impact, creating engagement that translates into improved ESG metrics, reputational value and an overall positive impact for the environment and society.
If you want to know more about how we work to create a positive social and environmental impact, click here.
