Sustainable Development: The elephant in the room

About Sustainable Development

For most of us, managing the continuity of our businesses through the many challenges and changes we face every day is front of mind. Increasing material costs, staff shortages, extreme weather conditions and an ever-increasing consumer demand for more sustainable ways of delivering products and services are just a few examples.

We all know that doing business for good is good for business, but how do we change our business model to really take action and make sure we benefit in the longer term? How do we measure the positive impact we make on the community and the environment?

However many business owners still get a lot of push back talking about sustainability let alone sustainable development with their suppliers and customers.

Why is that? Is it because we are afraid to call out the elephant in the room? Is it because a lack of familiarity with what the SDGs mean? Is it because the topic is just too remote from our daily life even though the trends are telling us to strategically prioritise action.

Taking business action to stop climate change, supporting local community to help build sustainable cities, fair and good working conditions to support good health, and reducing the gender salary pay gap are just five out of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Federal Parliament has recently approved the Climate bill, prioritising further alignment with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and a commitment to decrease carbon emissions with 43% of Australia supporting the trend.

SDG Align’s co-founder Willem Overbosch will talk about how to align your business behaviour with sustainable development, prioritising your strategic actions and leading your team and your stakeholders towards a sustainable future.

Session outcomes and deliverables

In this session you will:

1) familiarise yourself whit the Sustainable Development Goals

2) find out what sustainable development means to you and your business

3) prioritise your actions to help your business align with the SDGs

4) Learn from other small business owners on how they go on the Journey

About SDG Align

SDG Align is a Tasmanian based ‘for purpose’ Software as a Service platform provider, on a mission to make sustainable development a business habit.

The SDG Align toolkit is recognized as a winner in the 2021 Good Design Awards (Social Impact) and recently 2022 NSW Banksia Award Sustainability award finalist.

SDG Align started in 2020 and is co-founded by David Morgan (CEO), Willem Overbosch (Business development & IT) and Jeremy Rose (Business development & sales) and has a head office in Hobart.

About Willem Overbosch

Willem Overbosch is a Dutch serial entrepreneur and author, passionate about technology, futures thinking and sustainable development. In 2006 he founded the leading Dutch publisher MKBServicedesk.nl providing “how-to” content to business owners and aggregated data insights on business behavior to associations, academics and policymakers. His ability to think out of the box and translate complex issues into a small business context makes him a sought-after keynote speaker and expert on radio and TV. Willem recently immigrated to Australia and lives in Evans Head, NSW with his wife Milou and their four kids.