Sustainable development goals for positive organizations

Looking at our ecological, social, and governance challenges we need to change. We need a new narrative, a future-fit culture that is life-affirming and we need organizations with a positive purpose that solve our challenges. In this post, we look at your organization’s positive purpose. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can inspire all your decisions, actions, and interactions.

In this series, I explore several aspects of culture and what is needed to face our current ecological, social, and governance challenges and to become future-fit. My main focus is organizational culture, but also our global and societal cultures that influence organizations and vice versa. Organizations can play a crucial role to bring about change when they make their products, services, and actions sustainable and just. But their culture has an even deeper effect. Organizations can be spaces where people learn crucial new ways of thinking and doing, and where they find support and meaning. People take this new culture home to their communities and spread it. Organizations can help people learn and adapt as the world faces several transitions.

A future-fit culture provides the glue, the speed and trust, the shared identity, the narrative, the purpose, the core values and priorities, the key behaviors, and the openness to learn new skills needed in the VUCA-world, that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.

In my last post, I talked about a new story and culture that are based on interbeing - with collaboration, engagement, sufficiency and sharing, support, and counting your blessings. It aims for qualitative growth or personal and collective wisdom. This new story aligns very well with a positive culture, based on the four elements positive thinking, positive purpose, collaboration, and learning & autonomy. All positive cultures foster a positive purpose - and such a positive purpose can really inspire co-workers to go the extra mile. We all want to contribute to something bigger than ourselves and something more than money. Most people want to make a meaningful contribution.
(More on Developing a positive culture in my book)

Imagine that you and your organization work in a world with a story and culture based on interbeing. We are together and equal, with different roles. We inter-be. Humans take care of the planet and each other. Organizations exist for the common good and a positive purpose. We all do meaningful work and all lives matter. What do you see yourself and/or your organization doing? This can be a great topic for a workshop or large group dialogue. The question can be the start of a  new purpose for your organization that drives future performance and success.

Sustainable Development Goals

If you need inspiration, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) might help. Here’s the list:

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

For me, the most important important goal is number 13 - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. That’s because this is a condition for all other goals. Climate change, global warming, the deterioration of biodiversity - it impacts all of us and all of our organizations. This is the bottom line. We cannot run a healthy business on an unhealthy planet.
 

Positive purpose

But such a large goal can be overwhelming. The advice is to look at the many, smaller sub-goals that the UN provide and to customize those that resonate with your organization.

Many organizations can include the goals 8, 5, 9, 12 and 16 in their mission and let these positive goals guide all their actions. This goes for our consulting organization OCAI Online as well.

Goal 8 - Decent work and economic growth: we support our clients by assessing their organizational culture and leadership and helping them develop a (more) positive organization. Client organizations will thus promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
This also goes for goal 5, as we help our clients achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls - because that is a natural part of a healthy, positive culture at work.
While working on culture, leadership and organization development our consulting also contributes to goal 9 - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Very often, client organizations work to develop a more innovative, agile and sustainable organization that is ready to the future.
Our work to develop more positive, effective organizations also supports goal 12 - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. When working on a positive purpose - sustainability is always part of the package.
We also support goal 16 through our consulting with government organizations: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Though we work with organizations on culture, leadership, and change - goal 13 is the foundation of everything we do. It is our mission to raise awareness of the ecological, social, and governance (ESG) challenges and how organizations can play their part in the transformational change that is necessary for our markets and systems. We need a new narrative, a future-fit culture that is life-affirming and we need organizations with a positive purpose that solve the planetary challenges.

Working with culture, we always work on the narrative and identity of an organization, its positive purpose and “the way we do things around here”. 

Is your culture positive in goals, but not positive, life-affirming, inclusive, just and sustainable in its daily actions? Then you’re dealing with a paper tiger. It’s easy to be perfect on paper, in plans and policies. But the real proof is in the daily actions and interactions. That’s why I recommend to translate all purposes, goals, core values and mission to daily, palpable behaviors. What do we do? How can I observe it? 
Only if you can observe it - you embody the goal. Then you walk your talk. Beware of greenwashing and socially just, inclusive public relations, branding and blablabla. Make sure that you walk your talk.

For instance, how do you notice that your organization supports goal 13 - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. What are typical actions and interactions in your organizations that are life-affirming according to goal 13?
For instance, we:

• check all decisions against goal 13 as a criterion - does the decision/action alleviate or increase climate change?
• check the consequences of all decisions for all stakeholders - including the next generations and nature (who currently don’t have a voice)
• offer only vegetarian and vegan food options in our cafetaria
• print out as little as possible and work in a paperless office
• do not fly or travel for meetings as online video conferencing is the preferred way to meet - unless meeting in person doubles the outcome or impact
• have a habit of informal climate conversations between co-workers, it’s normal and in our DNA
• practice dialogue skills to talk about anything (no taboos or quick judgments) thus making the culture safe, innovative and constructive
• monitor our activities and all products and services for sustainability
• work with our supply chain to help them alleviate their impact on climate change
• do not use single-use plastics and throw-away paper cups in the building
• educate customers on how to best use our products and services (and how to repair, dispose, etc) to keep them operational and sustainable

Another inspiring exercise is to write a letter to your (imaginary) grandchildren. Ask your team to tell these next generations in the future how your organization contributed to the solutions. How did we steer away from climate disasters? What was the positive impact of your organization? Why were you happy to work here?
This creative exercise can bring new ideas and positive goals to light.

I invite you to organize a session to brainstorm about your organization’s positive purpose - inspired by the SDGs. Even if you feel discouraged every now and then, do not give up. Aim for improvements, for positive contributions to tomorrow’s world. Be part of the new story - a story that does not focus on short-term profits at any cost, but on the wellbeing of all life. Develop a positive organization.

© Marcella Bremer, 2023

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