Implementing the SDGs – Transeuropean Project

The transeuropean project between eight project partner countries will work on implementation of nine socially-oriented Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Datamaran is collaborating in a cross–sector project designed to educate and implement the SDGs into core business strategy. Funded by the Erasmus Programme of the European Union, the project aims to leverage the different expertise within the group partners to create innovative solutions on nine socially-oriented SDGs. The project will run for two years, and produce a SDG Handbook at the conclusion.

Datamaran is contributing data-driven insights into the corporate reporting, regulatory and media trends associated with the SDGs. Earlier this year, Datamaran launched a Strategic Issues Radar system. This facilitates alignment of the SDGs with actionable business issues and related bench marking activities - further enhanced at the launch of Datamaran3 in October.  This capability is leveraged by their corporate, investor and consulting clients worldwide. 

SociSDG, under the name Social Innovation & Inclusion of Sustainable Development Goals - sociSDG, is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership focused on nine socially-oriented Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): No poverty, Zero hunger, Good health and well-being, Quality education, Gender Equality, Decent work and economic growth, Reduced inequalities, Sustainable cities and communities, and Responsible consumption and production.

The project consortium consists of nine organizations working in the field of adult education, sustainability and corporate social responsibility: Croatian Institute for CSR – IDOP (coordinator, Croatia), Datamaran (United Kingdom), Global Impact Grid (Germany), Homo Eminens (Lithuania), Kaleidoscope Futures (United Kingdom), LatConsul (Latvia), LUM Jean Monnet (Italy), Materahub (Italy) and Pontis Foundation (Slovakia).

The main objectives of the project are adult education, cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practice examples when it comes to nine socially-oriented SDGs. The project aims to show and educate businesses and other organizations about the importance of their impact on society, as well as urgency of measurement and implementation of social SDGs into business strategies.

It will also focus on the exchange of good practice examples of companies already integrating SDGs into their models by measuring their social impact and developing tools and methodology for its integration. Through five learning activities, project partners will also work on the development of educational material, such as webinars and the SDG Handbook, which will facilitate learning about SDGs.

The project has officially started with a two-day meeting in Zagreb, Croatia on the 7^th and 8^th of November. The first project activity will be a webinar “Stock Exchanges & The SDGs – Driving the Demand for Transparency” organized by project partner Datamaran, which will take place on December 1^st 2017. You can sign up to the webinar through this link.

You can connect with the project through the official Facebook & Twitter pages.

Datamaran is the award-winning AI-powered non-financial risk management platform. It combines Artificial Intelligence and human expertise to provide powerful, fast and reliable insights into the competitive, regulatory and reputational risks tied to emerging business issues. 

Companies worldwide leverage Datamaran for data-driven materiality and risk analysis - and ongoing issues monitoring. To learn more about how Datamaran can help you get ahead of emerging risks, get in touch with one of our experts through this link. 

Press release - SociSDG consortium invites you to support the Sustainable Development Goals! 16 February 2018

First Learning Activity within the sociSDG project took place from February 12th until February 16th 2018 at the Steinbeis University Berlin, Institute Corporate Responsibility Management. Its participants were members of eight renowed European organizations in the field of SDGs: The Croatian Institute for CSR (coordinator, Croatia), Global Impact Grid (Germany), LUM University (Italy), Pontis Foundation (Slovakia), Homo Eminens (Lithuania), Materahub (Italy), LatConsul SIA (Latvia), Datamaran (UK), Kaleidoscope Futures (UK).

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy inclusion, peace and prosperity. To address and tackle social, economic and global issues, and help countries, governments and societies in combating them, SDGs define global priorities and aspirations for 2030 for the planet to "eliminate extreme discrimination, poverty and put the humanity on a path of sustainability." In order to help companies and contribute to the realization of the SDGs, the UN created ''The SDGCompass," as stated "it presents five steps for companies to maximize their contribution to the SDGs." Still, this is only the beginning and we all need more knowledge. This project wishes to be a part of the solution.

SociSDGs is a project focused on achieving greater awareness and knowledge of adults, companies and decision makers when it comes to the measurement and implementation of social SDGs in business strategies, as well as the overall matter of sustainable development connected to the SDGs.

Considering the fact that the primary goal of the project is adult education and the exchange of the best practices between project partners when it comes to the social SDGs, a five-day learning activity was designed in order to understand and raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goal SDG11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

It was impressive and inspiring to listen to solutions for making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable:

• The Learning activity was opened with the screening of segment from a film Closing the Loop.
• Thomas Stellmach, planning expert from TSPA, an UN-Habitat founding member and urban coop berlin eg, presented the project partners a new perspective on the urban planning and how human scale raises together with the urban development
• Yannis Salavopoulos, MBA, managing director at CAPITALS Circle and Global Sustain, showed us sustainability management tools and drivers for disaster prevention and recovery
• Alessandro Zito from Materahub presented the project consortium the sustainable community practices adopted in Latin America after the occurrence of natural-anthropic disasters
• Nadine Kuhla von Bergmann and Gian Marco Morigi on Urban Change Agents from Creative Climate Cities, moderated an interactive and useful workshop on Drivers of SDG11 along which the partners discussed UCAs with focus on relevant key performance impact measures to enhance their scaling and proliferation
• Azra Sulejmanpasic and Goran Ladisic from Freewa shared with project partners their contribution to sourcing free drinking water all around the world with the help of their Freewa App
• Professor Kosta Mathéy, PhD, showed the project consortium revolutionary examples from European architectural urban renewal and revitalization (URR)
• Jaka Ćosić from GIS Cloud, presented project partners new ways how geospatial technology is helping us build more sustainable, resilient and responsive cities and communities all around the world
• Learning activity included a visit to the EUREF-Campus, a Berlin example of sustainable and smart home base for companies, start-ups and initiatives working in the fields of energy, sustainability and networked mobility.
• Partners also had a chance to see Infarm, an indoor farming venture based in Berlin - innovative, full of passion and at the forefront of urban agricultural sustainability initiatives.
• The learning activity also features a tour of Prinzessinnengärten, a new urban place of learning where local scan come together to experiment and discover more about organic food production, biodiversity and climate protection help project partners to understand how to adapt to climate change and learn about healthy eating, sustainable living and future-oriented urban lifestyle.

During the learning activity, a webinar on the SDG11 has been held with speakers Abhay Adhikari, PhD, Aristide Athanassiadis (Metabolism of Cities) and dr. A.R. Jachnow, Head of Urban Strategies and Planning (USP). Webinar provided information about measuring social impact of companies in regard to SDG11 and their integration in the business models.

Press release - Second Learning Activity in sociSDG project took place in Zagreb!

30 May 2018

Second Learning Activity within the sociSDG project took place from May 21st until May 25th 2018 at the RRiF College for Financial Management in Zagreb. Its participants were members of nine renowned European organizations in the field of SDGs: The Croatian Institute for CSR (coordinator, Croatia), Global Impact Grid (Germany), LUM University (Italy), Pontis Foundation (Slovakia), Homo Eminens (Lithuania), Materahub (Italy), LatConsul SIA (Latvia), Datamaran (UK) and Kaleidoscope Futures (UK).Considering the fact that the primary goal of the project is adult education and the exchange of the best practices when it comes to the social SDGs, a five-day learning activity was designed in order to cover different aspects of SDG 2: Zero Hunger and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

Considering the fact that the primary goal of the project is adult education and the exchange of the best practices when it comes to the social SDGs, a five-day learning activity was designed in order to cover different aspects of SDG 2: Zero Hunger and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

• All participants took part in a Workshop: Towards Sustainable Production andConsumption, led by prof. Wayne Visser, PhD and Indira Kartallozi. The workshop focused on Leadership and Innovation in Food and Agriculture and the Energy, Waste and WaterNexus. This workshop raised awareness of sustainable consumption and production by focusing on innovation in waste, energy (SDG 7) and water (SDG 6) management in the food and agriculture sector. The workshop succeeded in sharing knowledge of best practices from around the world in waste, energy and water management in the food and agriculture sector, and introduced key concepts like circular economy, life cycle analysis, footprint assessment and block-chain management in the supply chain.
• Giulia Netti, PhD student from LUM University presented to the project partners how companies are measuring and implementing SDG 12 on the example of Illycaffè.
• Ezio Pinto, Marketing Director from Di Leo Pietro, talked about the use of palm oil in the biscuit sector.
• Antonello Ferrara, Innovation Leader from Apulia Distribuzione, explained sustainable retailand consumption trends.
• Biljana Borzan, member of the European Parliament and Parliament's rapporteur on resource efficiency talked to project partners about the importance of reducing food waste, stimulating food donation, and improving food safety and quality throughout EuropeanUnion.
• As a part of roundtable on Food Innovation, prof. Dubravka Vitali Čepo, PhD presented her project Valorization of olive waste in sustainable food innovation – NutriOliWa.
• Prof. Božidar Benko, PhD, explained to project partners the benefits of hydroponics as a sustainable alternative to soil gardening.
• Prof. Zdravko Matotan, PhD, presented how Podravka is implementing sustainable development into its strategy and why is it important to work on preserving biodiversity of vegetable species in Croatia.

During the Learning Activity, participants organized two webinars. First webinar focused on the topic of SDG 12. Prof. Wayne Visser, PhD, from Antwerp Management School presented some of the main problems and opportunities in implementing responsible consumption and production patterns, while Gianpiero Menza, PhD, from Bioversity International talked about the impact of agriculture biodiversity loss on agriculture value chains, risks for agri-food companies and opportunities for change. Presentations were followed by a Q & A and discussion.

Second webinar focused on the topic of SDG 2, in which prof. Zdravko Matotan, PhD, from Podravka, explained how companies are implementing the SDG 2, while Marie Populus from Infarm – The Urban Farming Company, talked about the future of sustainable food production.Presentations were followed by Q & A and discussion.