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$ 1 : 16
For every $1 of value invested, One Young World Ambassadors deliver $16 of social value, based on a Social Return on Investment analysis of 42 Ambassador-led initiatives addressing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2022
SDG Impact Tracker
Interested in supporting impactful initiatives led by young leaders? Search this database of over 350 projects from the One Young World Community to find out more.
Live Through This
Live Through This - United Kingdom
Stewart O'Callaghan
OYW Funded Projects
Live Through This is the UK’s only LGBTIQ+ cancer charity, supporting and advocating for LGBTIQ+ people affected by cancer in a country with worse cancer outcomes than other nations. The organisation is queer patient-led and tackles the barriers facing LGBTIQ+ patients through peer support programmes, educating healthcare providers on the principles of equitable healthcare, and producing bespoke resources and information for both patients and professionals.
In addition to receiving valuable feedback and guidance from their mentors at Roche, Stewart was able to use the funding to create high-quality, inclusive campaign materials. These were exceptionally well-received and raised substantial awareness of the organisation’s work. These campaigns doubled traffic to the Live Through This website resulting in a new sign-up every week for the organisation’s peer support programme. It also allowed Live Through This to speak directly with leads of the UK National Health Service screening programmes to help them improve their understanding of and care for the LGBTIQ+ community.
Live Through This’ campaigns also include an educational component and its training programmes are recommended by 100% of attendees. Stewart also authored a booklet specifically to address the needs of the transgender community about their cancer risk and the screening programmes, which can be accessed via the Live Through This website. This booklet was shared with the British Association of Gender Identity Specialists, who have committed to using it in their network of clinicians. Lead2030 has allowed Stewart to work directly with Roche’s diagnostics team and also scale their work through the establishment of additional partnerships.
“Having the ability to engage with One Young World and accept the Lead2030 award, it puts this very under-represented topic in an international conversation. I felt good, supported by Roche, and I felt like they took the time to understand who I am and why I was doing what I was doing”
- 169K+ people reached through the Screening MOT and Best for my Chest campaigns
imagi
imagi is an EdTech gaming startup co-founded by Dora Palfi, which aims to abolish the gender gap in coding by empowering young children with skills, confidence, and community to develop an interest in technology. Originally focused on a direct-to-consumer approach, Lead2030 shifted imagi’s attention to working with educational organisations, including schools and non-profits.
Thanks to the Lead2030 funding, the organisation was able to develop a new platform that is a solution for schools. This platform allows teachers anywhere in the world to sign up and get access to classroom management skills and learning content. The content includes step-by-step lesson plans and tutorials for teachers. The result is that any teacher who is not an expert in coding can also teach programming to their students confidently. More than 400 educators from 53 countries have joined the new platform. Previously imagi’s content was exclusively in English but Swedish translations are now available.
imagi has also continued its previous solution; a mobile app where children can learn to code on their own through self-paced learning tutorials. In 2022, this app was used by 20,000 coders in 99 countries. Dora’s mentorship with Deloitte helped her narrow her focus to generate the greatest possible social impact. Lead2030 also gave Dora the opportunity to learn about impact and business metrics from industry-leading experts, helping to support imagi’s strategic shift away from a direct-to-consumer business model towards creating a community of educators.
“I got to attend a session with the other Deloitte delegates, where senior leaders from Deloitte were present. When you’re a young founder you don’t really get this big company experience. So for me actually, it was kind of unique to be able to have a look inside how senior leaders at a company think. We have had customer relationships emerge from having been at One Young World.”
20,000 coders in 99 countries created using the imagi's mobile app in 2022
Breathe Mongolia - Clean Air Coalition
Breathe Mongolia - Clean Air Coalition - Mongolia
Enkhuun Byambardoj
OYW Funded Projects
Breathe Mongolia – Clean Air Coalition is a non-profit organisation working to end Mongolia’s air pollution crisis. Co-founded by Enkhuun, it carries out its mission by arming people with the resources to protect themselves and their families against air pollution, building a community of allies to foster cooperation against air pollution, and holding decision-makers accountable through pollution monitoring. Breathe Mongolia hopes to prompt behavioural changes and policy improvements to tackle the air pollution crisis in the country.
Lead2030 allowed Enkhuun to expand her team significantly, with four new staff members. This has resulted in greater capacity for Breathe Mongolia to carry out its operations, and the organisation used the funding provided by AstraZeneca to kickstart its Let’s Take Action! project. Through this project, Breathe Mongolia works closely with 28 families to reduce their dependence on coal burning. Breathe Mongolia also supports and subsidises the families by installing air pollution sensors within households, while 67 children from areas most vulnerable to air pollution exposure have received neurodevelopmental assessments. The organisation operates a bilingual digital platform with educational material and actionable points to help people avoid the negative effects of air pollution as much as possible. Since inception, the platform has had more than 34,000 unique users.
Using the funding provided by Lead2030, Breathe Mongolia has been able to turn each of these action points into workshops for school children, impacting over 500 young people who are trained on air pollution science. Breathe Mongolia fostered seven new collaborations with organisations working in environmental health and climate change as a result of its participation in Lead2030.
“I think the biggest thing from Lead2030 has been just the visibility for our organisation; our projects and our mission. I think it's also built a lot of credibility for our organisation and for establishing new partnerships. I think last year was the most number of collaborations that we had with other organisations.”
- 500+ young people received workshop training on air pollution science
Social Mobility Business Resource Group
Social Mobility Business Resource Group - United Kingdom
Hisham Hamid
Business for Social Good
Hisham’s professional background is in chemical engineering, but he has been determined to foster a culture within bp that supports people from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.
Hisham’s work with social mobility in bp launched after the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, which he attended virtually. bp’s delegates are encouraged to go to the Summit with a project idea they can implement using the lessons they learn at One Young World, or develop an idea for a project at the Summit itself. Hisham had the idea for the Social Mobility Business Resource Group, and was able to make lasting global connections with other young leaders to help progress with the support of the wider team within bp.
bp has a strong tradition of supporting education, work experience, and apprenticeships, but last year, as part of his role in the Education and Employability team, Hisham supported the development of a framework through which bp’s social mobility initiatives could be focused.
Through the collective effort of many passionate individuals in bp, the Social Mobility Business Resource Group now has over 1,000 members with a structured presence and visibility across bp’s various work streams. The group has established regional chapters, and organises monthly educational sessions with regular opportunities for members to share insights and experiences.
They also have more formalised programmes such as mentoring, with over 180 people signing up for mentoring sessions of 6-10 individuals. These mentoring circles work through six curated workshops on leadership development and socioeconomic diversity together, building safe and reciprocal relationships throughout. This programme is designed to give participants the flexibility to tap into a wider group of professionals at their own convenience. Hisham and his team are also planning a Social Mobility Week at bp to foster representation, while also looking to develop the company’s external social mobility outreach significantly in the coming years. Last year, bp also completed its first full submission to the Social Mobility Employer Index with a published external ranking, to demonstrate accountability and to verify that its work aligns with cross-industry standards.
Whilst at the Summit, Hisham and the project team were also able to leverage a connection made with Forage (theforage.com), a San Francisco-based company that provides virtual job simulations and an opportunity for diverse candidates, particularly those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, to engage with world-leading companies. bp have since delivered a pilot with Forage, which centred on digital skills with over 1,400 candidates enrolling around the globe. This programme centres on four modules of self-paced learning. Hisham has been able to radically pivot his career from engineering, turning social mobility into his primary focus at bp.
“When I look at pivotal things that have happened in my career, One Young World is at the forefront of that. I wouldn't be working the job I'm working today if it wasn't for One Young World, and that's not a cliché, it's just a reality. It gave me the opportunity to pursue a passion of mine full time.”
siempact
siempact - Germany
Siemens Ambassadors
Ambassador-led Initiative
siempact is a grassroots movement within Siemens to create a positive impact for sustainability. As an umbrella initiative containing a significant number of projects, siempact is a democratic community and each member has full voting rights.
The idea for siempact was born out of the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, when Delegates from Siemens were determined to carry the energy of the Summit experience back into their company and create meaningful change. The founding members reached out to the One Young World Ambassador Community within Siemens and the initiative quickly developed into an intergenerational movement that has now grown beyond the One Young World Community in Siemens, and is open to all interested, passionate colleagues.
The projects within siempact are completely self-driven and wide-ranging. They currently include:
- a sustainability scoring model focused on a consumer-product level
- an amendment to business travel practices so ecological sustainability is given equal consideration to economic and safety concerns
- an employability project aiming to scale digital learning resources, with a Work Readiness pilot programme planned in South Africa
- an initiative from the 2022 Ambassador cohort strengthening the attractiveness of the rail industry to women
- diversity breakfasts for members to exchange ideas and experiences
- an awareness campaign for corporate volunteering opportunities at Siemens
- a project tackling period poverty by providing free, sustainable menstrual products at Siemens locations and reducing stigma around menstruation
- an initiative seeking to embed the Inner Development Goals within the company culture.
- siempact is also a founding member of the Alliance 4 Corporate Change (A4CC), a forum for grassroots sustainability initiatives in companies based in the DACH region to foster cross-industry collaboration and share best practices. In 2022, the A4CC organised a cross-company panel on LGBTQ+ experiences during Pride Month, and an Earth Day challenge campaign. The A4CC focuses on sustainable pension fund investing, creating safe spaces, and regenerative retreats.
The company culture at Siemens supports the kinds of initiatives that siempact members have launched, as well as its grassroots structure. The movement currently has 56 active members and 81 passive members in over nine countries. The siempact newsletter regularly reaches around 300 people within the company. Both the number of siempact members actively driving impact projects, as well as the reach of siempact newsletter and events are growing on a monthly basis. In 2022, siempact also organised its own summit. By driving topics, including the following – technology with purpose, why sustainability is important, what members can do, and the potential role of AI in fostering purpose – siempact is accelerating a sustainable mindset into every facet of the Siemens organisation day-by-day.
“As a One Young World Ambassador you learn how to call it. You learn how to discuss. You learn that your actions do actually have an impact. On a personal level, if I look at my peers, where we were at One Young World in Munich and if I look at them now, I would say it contributed to tremendous personal growth, especially in becoming a leader.”
Smart Cheli
Pratiksha is the CEO of Smart Cheli, a female-led social enterprise that aims to balance the gender gap in STEM fields. Smart Cheli’s programme is targeted towards young girls between the ages of 8 and 18 years. The programme works by connecting education with STEM hands-on learning experiences in coding, critical thinking, and electronics. Pratiksha’s aim is to enhance critical thinking, cultivate the imaginations and problem solving skills of young girls, and expose them to STEM from an early age.
With backing and assistance from Bristol Myers Squibb, Smart Cheli successfully scaled their business over the course of the Lead2030 programme. The organisation plans to reach more than 500 young girls this year and has already grown its team with two additional staff joining the Smart Cheli team. The organisation has also extended its work with local government in Nepal, and updated its STEM kit with three new projects, bringing the total to five.
The funding Smart Cheli has received from Bristol Myers Squibb helped the team execute a new plan, and the mentorship they received sharpened their leadership abilities. The organisation is planning to develop a STEM lab in its own space where girls can come and experiment with STEM-related subjects and technologies. Additionally, Smart Cheli’s STEM kit has become more market-centric, which has contributed to the overall growth of the organisation and its social impact. Lead2030 has allowed Pratiksha to continue building her organisation and expand its long-term vision to increase the participation of young women in STEM fields.
“Being a Lead2030 challenge winner has helped me gain a new identity. It gives me exposure to other work. This identity helped me to connect with other organisations in Nepal. Overall it helped open a gate for new opportunities and scale up our initiative.”
- 500 young girls will be introduced to STEM subjects
You Got This!
You Got This! - Caribbean [coordinating region]
Tamara Tanis
Business for Social Good
Tamara Tanis was working at KPMG in the Cayman Islands in their financial risk department when she first learnt of One Young World. Passionate about mental wellbeing and cognizant of the pressures often associated with those working in financial services, Tamara set about enhancing and elevating KPMG’s pre-existing wellness initiatives in her aim to help remove the stigma surrounding mental health which is so evident worldwide.
Delegates to One Young World from KPMG create an initiative that they present to internal leadership as part of their application process. Tamara’s plan for an enhanced wellbeing initiative was warmly received and supported by KPMG internally, but also as part of a bigger, island-wide initiative. The initiative, “You Got This!”, now supports other mental health projects across the Cayman Islands through the means of awareness and advocacy. At the One Young World Summit in London, 2019, Tamara was able to develop her ideas alongside her peers from other corporate delegations.
Her first step was developing a set of initiatives, partnering with KPMG’s Wellness Committee across the firm’s workstreams. While KPMG already had pre-established wellness drives, including access for every employee to local mental health experts, annual health checks and a range of in-office wellness facilities, the group organised their first Mental Health Awareness Month in 2021, bringing in psychologists and mental health experts to deliver workshops for KPMG’s employees, as well as offering training for employees to become mental health advocates.
Managers at the firm were taught how to spot the signs of mental health challenges, and You Got This! organised massage therapy sessions for employees. The initiative also distributed snacks and supplements at the height of KPMG’s busiest period. Tamara worked with leadership to secure a larger wellness budget, ensuring longevity for the initiative to run throughout the entire year and embed it into the future of the firm.
During the COVID-19 lockdown in the Cayman Islands, the You Got This! team organised online workshops and information sessions on mental health, with their dedicated Wellness Wednesdays. These projects all contributed to a positive atmosphere across the firm, and helped boost the morale of Tamara’s colleagues during what was a difficult time for many around the world.
Prior to You Got This!, KPMG was supporting local organisations in the Cayman Islands, particularly those working with young people. Tamara’s work has scaled this further, encouraging the partnership with community groups to sponsor a mental health symposium and organise panel discussions. The initiative has maintained partnerships with non-profit organisations and government entities to raise mental health awareness across the island. You Got This! has helped bolster the company’s dedication to mental health awareness, with over 400 people actively participating in its projects or attending presentations. Tamara hopes to expand the initiative across the Caribbean region.
“A lot of us went to the Summit that year thinking, okay, we want to really do our own non-profit with mental health. But I remember in one workshop with about 15 of us, we realised, well, many people are facing the same issues. It really pushed me to make a difference, and pushed me to be more of a leader in my career.”
NEXT
NEXT is a grassroots community within Zurich Insurance that was formed in the aftermath of the One Young World Summit in London, 2019. The initiative is focused on promoting intergenerational dialogue and SDG 17 - Partnerships for the SDGs - but its work also touches on other key areas around sustainability and social impact. NEXT has continued to expand its operations, with 10 different country hubs, increasing its reach and impact in the Asia-Pacific region in particular.
The team has steadily increased the range of topics discussed during their annual NEXT Virtual Summit, as well as increasing collaboration with external speakers. The event was well-received, with more than 100+ people in attendance in 2022.
At One Young World, NEXT led a workshop on how to launch and maintain internal movements within companies. This outreach has led to conversations and collaborations between the NEXT team and the I'M-Possible Movement at Holcim, as well as other One Young World Partners looking to launch similar communities within their companies. The NEXT team also organised a similar workshop which was open to everyone. They also provide feedback and support to the Z Zurich Foundation’s One Young World Scholars to increase their impact.
NEXT is collaborating with the World Economic Forum (WEF), and was selected as one of the winners of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship’s Corporate Changemakers Challenge. The collaborations with the WEF and Schwab Foundation include speaking opportunities at WEF events, and monthly sessions to determine the NEXT team’s aims and any challenges they may face in implementation. Creating a community is central to this collaboration. NEXT has built connections with the other winners of this award to further social impact and will be able to connect with various initiatives across the world through its work with the WEF.
NEXT is organising a Spanish-language series called ‘Conversatorio’ that will inspire and share knowledge with young leaders in the Latin American community. The first round in the series is centred around leadership and sustainability and will be co-hosted by Wom-en, an NGO that focuses on climate impact resilience with gender perspective that the NEXT team discovered through One Young World. They are also working closely with One Young World’s Coordinating Ambassador for Central America and Mexico, Isabel Menéndez, on the second round of the series.
“The Summit was a huge experience for me. At the beginning, I thought that people in corporate spaces did not have the chance to have a big impact because we are in another role. But by the end of the Summit, I understood that if we collaborate and we provide the knowledge or spaces, or the things that we have, we can not only have our own impact but also increase the impact of others.”
Courtney Sunna, AstraZeneca
Courtney Sunna, AstraZeneca - United States
Courtney Sunna
Leadership Biographies
Courtney began her social impact journey as a UN Youth Delegate for Innovation and Sustainable Development and Director at LEAP (Leadership and Executive Acceleration Program), a non-profit women’s leadership programme, where she built a social impact module in which the participants were paired with other non-profit organisations active in local communities to help them solve business challenges. It was at a LEAP session that Courtney first learned about One Young World.
Courtney attended the One Young World Summit The Hague, 2018, as an AstraZeneca Scholar. The Summit proved to be an unprecedented, eye-opening experience, giving her a new perspective on global issues as well as connecting her with a community of young change makers that she maintains to this day. At the Summit, Courtney met the AstraZeneca executive responsible for the company’s Scholarship Delegation. She proposed co-building an AstraZeneca One Young World Scholar Alumni Network. These conversations ultimately led to Courtney applying for a role at AstraZeneca.
Courtney now works as Director of Global Community Investment at AstraZeneca and leads on the company’s Scholarship Delegation to One Young World and Young Health Programme (YHP). The YHP is a philanthropic programme that combines community programmes, research, advocacy, and supports young leaders, working with over 50 non-profit organisations across 39 countries to catalyse change at scale. The YHP is AstraZeneca’s largest community investment initiative, and has directly reached over nine million young people worldwide.
As part of the YHP, Courtney launched AstraZeneca’s Impact Fellowship initiative, to enable young leaders to address health inequities and drive greater impact. The Impact Fellowship will enable 15 young health leaders from around the world to attend One Young World through a Scholarship. Each Fellow will receive grants of either $10,000 or $50,000 to implement a project within their non-profit organisation, in addition to receiving professional and leadership development opportunities including One Young World Academy passes, mentorship from AstraZeneca employees and Mini-MBA training to help them scale their impact.
Courtney is also broadening how the YHP considers health equity to ensure that the programme continues to respond to the unique health challenges that young people face, especially those living in vulnerable communities and settings. She also leads AstraZeneca’s global medical product donations, humanitarian response and relief, and equipment donations efforts.
“The Summit really is a life-changing experience and it absolutely shifted my perception on many of the global challenges the world is facing. It is inspiring to meet with so many passionate young people who have taken their ideas and turned them into life-changing initiatives that are making the world a better place. I hope to enable even more young leaders to have this opportunity as we all have the power to shape a healthier, more equitable future.”
Change Makers
Change Makers - Europe [main region]
Firmenich Ambassadors
Business for Social Good
Change Makers is a global initiative within Firmenich, founded by One Young World Ambassadors in 2016, to create change through mindset, action, and community. The group receives sponsorship from Firmenich’s executive leadership, and the core team presents to them four or five times a year. There have been 45 core members, all of whom are One Young World Ambassadors, managing a community of more than 500 Firmenich employees. The Delegates Firmenich sends to each Summit become the lead team of Change Makers until the next Summit cycle begins. Although the core team changes yearly, Change Makers actively maintains projects from previous years.
Change Makers has a consolidated goal each year, which is developed in consultation with senior leadership. In 2017, the team focused on fostering talent amongst young employees, providing them with opportunities for personal and professional development and visibility through mentoring and buddy programmes, community building, and the launch of a digital platform.
In 2018, Change Makers shifted focus to digital affairs, including digital initiatives and digital transformation. The project evolved to be more inclusive and diverse across all levels of the company, particularly broadening its age range, and organised sessions on the future of work. The 2019 iteration connected and collaborated with communities. The team focused on raising awareness within Firmenich on how employees could contribute to community-related initiatives. They organised external events, including an event with Cornell University on food technology, hosted workshops on wellbeing, promoted the Valuable 500’s disability inclusion initiative, and helped support 16 local communities through CSR outreach.
The 2020 core team integrated Firmenich’s business strategy alongside social initiatives. This resulted in development of PATH2FARM, which will trace Firmenich ingredients to ensure supply chain transparency through outreach to farming communities. Building on this, the 2021 team emphasised business transformation, embracing and assisting innovation within the company by participating on the company’s ESG Strategy for 2030 and China strategy. Finally, the 2022 core team re-engaged the Firmenich community following the COVID-19 pandemic by innovating their digital platform, creating a leadership development programme, and driving recommendations for ISCC Certification.
“I've always had a passion for creating meaningful impact, and attending the One Young World Summit provided me with a structured framework to approach this goal. Through my involvement in large international organisations, I realised the power that individuals possess to drive positive change on a global scale. Being a part of the core team was a transformative experience, providing me with valuable leadership skills and opportunities to interact with top-level executives and the CEO. Attendees of One Young World, sponsored by my employer Firmenich, continue to hone their skills and apply them within the company. Overall, the Summit and my involvement in the core team has been a truly enriching experience that has helped shape my career and my approach to creating a positive impact.”
Barley Straw Pack
Barley Straw Pack - Belgium
Farida Bensadoun
Business for Social Good
Sustainability has been at the core of Farida’s work as a Global Packaging Innovation Engineer at AB InBev for many years. She has led projects to reduce AB InBev’s packaging material impact, making it recyclable as well as lighter. The Straw Pack project began in 2018 as a way of moving away from trees as a source of packaging material by using barley or wheat straw as alternative raw material.
Farida found that the One Young World Summit in Manchester, 2022, helped her consolidate her thinking on the necessity of cross-industry collaboration. Observing what’s happening elsewhere to draw lessons and inspiration from a broader range of sources was of great value. Farida also supported AB InBev’s 100+ Accelerator team in its work at the Summit.
The Straw Pack project uses alternative fibre materials to reduce AB InBev’s packaging dependence on trees. To ensure the project has as low a carbon footprint as possible, Farida’s team uses local materials. The novel pulping process for the straw developed by Sustainable Fiber Technologies (SFT) was used in combination with recycled fibres. The use of straw in packaging means that farmers in markets where the pack exists could potentially create an additional revenue stream, and might not engage in environmentally harmful practices like burning the straw.
The Straw Pack was piloted, with 10,000 units, on World Recycling Day 2021 in Colombia and Argentina to establish if the packaging fits AB InBev’s specifications, maintains its integrity and meets safety standards, in line with the company’s ESG strategy. The team followed this initial trial with a pilot in Canada and France to understand consumer desirability in different markets.
Farida works closely with AB InBev’s Procurement team, Shane Henderson and David Kramer, to tap into the company’s supply chains to find appropriate materials for the Straw Pack project. She also works closely with fibre specialist, Facundo Beltramino, to ensure that new packaging does not result in reduced quality. As project lead, Farida is heavily involved in conversations within AB InBev on both the commercial and research aspects of the initiative. This technology won Packaging Europe’s 2022 Sustainability Award and Best in Class – Package Innovation Sustainable Design and two awards of distinction at the PAC Awards 2023.
“I was very inspired by the Summit. I learned a lot, and on the sustainability front, you realise that sometimes, maybe you have to change your thinking a bit to account for things that you never really thought about. I think the Summit consolidated what I was thinking on the importance of collaborating.”
Ghislaine Ada, Barry Callebaut
Ghislaine Ada, Barry Callebaut - Cameroon
Ghislaine Ada
Leadership Biographies
Ghislaine pursued a career in the agricultural sector because she wanted to have the greatest impact possible. In her previous role in Barry Callebaut as a Continuous Improvement Lead, she led projects across multiple countries related to energy savings and producing high-quality chocolate with minimal waste.
Ghislaine’s experience at the One Young World Summit Bogotá, 2017, reaffirmed her commitment to sustainability. She found the event deeply inspiring and took that energy to help her transition into a new role at Barry Callebaut. At the Summit, Ghislaine learned important lessons on community development which she has integrated into her role as Country Sustainability Manager. Ghislaine is now in charge of leading Barry Callebaut’s whole sustainability agenda in Côte d'Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producing country.
The strategy she has developed focuses on three main pillars. The first is to secure the prosperity of farmers through initiatives aimed at greater income diversification while ensuring that their farms continue to produce good quality cocoa. The second pillar relates to community development, which involves guaranteeing the human rights of communities involved in cocoa production and assessing the community risk level related to hazards, such as child labour or a lack of women’s empowerment. Ghislaine’s team put in place context-specific remedial actions to address a problem once it has been diagnosed.
The final pillar of Ghislaine’s work is environmental, and is to ensure that cocoa production is sustainable and does not come at the expense of Côte d'Ivoire’s natural habitats. To tackle this problem, Ghislaine’s team has developed a productivity package to discourage deforestation in the country. This involves selecting top-quality inputs and subsidising farmers. Ghislaine’s strategy also emphasises the use of non-chemical fertilisers and pruning, which can increase yields. Despite traditionally having a low adoption rate, farmers that take up this new practice through the Labour Group Project are likely to continue the practice past the first year and potentially increase their yields by as much as 40%.
These three pillars are guided by Ghislaine’s overarching objective of nurturing self-driven communities in the cocoa-producing regions of West Africa. Her sustainability strategy directly impacts the lives of 200,000 farmers in Côte d'Ivoire, their families and the wider communities around them.
“The Summit is a life-changing experience because, you know, sometimes we spend a lot of time just talking about all the negativity we have around us that we forget we are, we should be part of the solution, not part of the problem, and there is no small solution. There is no small contribution.”
NextGen Sustainability Council
NextGen Sustainability Council - Europe [main region]
Deepti Upreti, Martina Lösgen
Business for Social Good
Martina (Global Segment and Key Account Manager ACE & CV) is the acting Chair of the NextGen Sustainability Council at AkzoNobel. Deepti (Project Manager), currently part of this Council, is the representative of India. As part of this role, she leads one of the Council’s active projects. By building partnerships with other companies, particularly suppliers and customers of AkzoNobel, the team wants to help them set up their own NextGen Sustainability initiatives. Deepti and Martina were inspired by the One Young World Summits in London, 2019, and Manchester, 2022, respectively, and brought the motivation and learnings from these Summits back to AkzoNobel.
The NextGen Sustainability Council was founded by One Young World Ambassador Bob Dirks in 2020. It’s a network of enthusiastic sustainability ambassadors within AkzoNobel that facilitates knowledge and idea sharing. Members of the network proactively give their input and share concerns and ideas with AkzoNobel’s Global Sustainability Council. The Sustainability Council advises and updates the company’s Executive Committee on new developments, performance, and the integration of sustainability into their management processes.
The NextGen Sustainability Council offers members the opportunity to actively participate in sustainability projects, in alignment with AkzoNobel’s key sustainability ambitions that are focused on climate change, circularity, and health and well-being. This has resulted in stronger internal engagement in sustainability initiatives, as well as made grassroots knowledge available to senior leadership. The NextGen Sustainability Council’s 2022 projects touched upon topics such as circular economy, sustainability education, employee communications, and capability building, as well as building partnerships with other companies. The Council helps AkzoNobel’s sustainability team run initiatives and ensure that the company is reaching its sustainability goals while maintaining a degree of independence from the formal sustainability structures of the organisation. It also helps to make AkzoNobel’s sustainability messaging tangible to Deepti and Martina’s colleagues.
After supporting AkzoNobel’s external collaborative sustainability challenge where external partners were invited to work with the company in an effort to collectively reduce carbon footprint and tackle climate change - the NextGen Sustainability Council team realised that the structure of their initiative could be replicated across AkzoNobel’s suppliers and customers. Deepti has since led efforts to connect with other companies to build partnerships by using her platform from the Summit to pursue this objective. Deepti is also leading CSR initiatives in AkzoNobel’s GBS India office and says that her biggest learning from the Summit was that “You are never too young to lead and never too old to learn."
As Chair of the Council, Martina regularly engages with senior leadership at AkzoNobel to discuss the company’s sustainability strategy. This access has helped to guarantee that more junior voices within the organisation are considered when focusing on sustainability. The Council currently has 22 active members from across the world and different business units, with new ambassadors joining every year to help keep the Council’s ideas and messaging fresh.
“After One Young World, what has changed for me is my leadership. I’ve now the possibility to lead a team of more than 20 people. We are working on several topics to do small steps in improving our sustainability footprint within AkzoNobel. To work with a team of enthusiastic colleagues around the world gives me a lot of energy and helps me in my personal development.” - Martina Lösgen
Global Sustainability Network
Global Sustainability Network - United Kingdom
Nick Lawson, Neda Mirzaie, Joanna Jepson Reynolds, Matt Buckley
Business for Social Good
The Global Sustainability Network (GSN) at bp is an initiative developed and run by four One Young World Ambassadors: Nick, Neda, Jo, and Matt. Each had a personal interest in sustainability and were determined to help raise the profile of sustainability issues across bp.
They recognised the enthusiasm for the topic across the company, but saw individual employees weren’t always clear on how they could play a part. This presented an opportunity to bring employees together to harness this passion to deliver sustainable value, no matter their job title, seniority or geography.
The GSN launched on Earth Day in 2021. Its purpose: helping to build bp’s culture of sustainability, challenging traditional ways of working, and moving the dial on bp’s sustainability aims. This is done through events, training and creating opportunities to get involved in sustainability projects.
The GSN is now the largest employee-led group in the company, growing to over 6,000 members spread across 60 countries in just two years. This reach has given the GSN a fantastic platform to engage with leadership in bp – driving dialogue and helping to embed sustainability in how they work. This involves engagement across levels of the company including the opportunity to work with the bp CEO and leadership team.
The initiative has delivered in a big way – regularly hosting events for 1,000+ attendees, hosting workshops at the One Young World Summit in Manchester and leading 13 (so far) flow-to-work projects that directly connect employees to meaningful sustainability projects.
The GSN is still growing and will continue to connect employees with sustainability events, projects and opportunities. Ultimately, their aim is to play a key role in embedding sustainability in everything bp does and to help keep it front of mind in decision making.
“Since attending One Young World, we've all changed our careers and One Young World was a big enabler for this. We came back to bp with the drive to make a change, to be bolder in speaking to senior leaders and to challenge the ways we had always worked.”
Black Angel Group
Black Angel Group - United States
Khalida Abdulrahim
Business for Social Good
The Black Angel Group (BAG) is a collective of angel investors from Google and Alphabet that invests intellectual, social, and financial capital into early-stage companies around the world. In 2021, a group of Black Angel investors at Google launched the company’s first Angel Investing School to educate Black Google employees about angel investing and generational wealth-building as part of Black History Month. The initiative was well-received, and spurred the formation of BAG as an investor collective that has since grown rapidly. Though it is made up of investors from Google and Alphabet, BAG is not a Google or Alphabet sponsored organisation and exists independently.
When she attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, Khalida was working as a Responsibility Lead at YouTube, protecting users and advertisers from harmful online content and making YouTube a safer platform. One Young World struck Khalida as an opportunity to engage with people who work on the very issues she was trying to solve from YouTube’s digital safety perspective. At the Summit, she participated in sessions on disinformation and counterterrorism, which were directly related to her core job, and found the diverse stories and impact of her fellow delegates deeply inspiring.
To help young people get involved in the initiative, one of the BAG members initiated a fellowship programme designed to eliminate the typical entry barriers faced by young Black-identifying employees interested in angel investing. Khalida learned about this programme through the Black Googlers Network, an employee resource group for Black-identifying employees at Google.
The fellowship is designed to allow young people in the early stages of their careers to contribute their skills to BAG and sharpen their knowledge of angel investing without having to make the same financial commitments as full members. Khalida was selected as part of the inaugural class of fellows, and is now a Chief of Staff Fellow, collaborating closely with the collective’s leadership on developing BAG’s multi-year strategy. This involves maintaining and improving the collective's operational processes further.
BAG has been able to provide access to and education for an investment class that is often not engaged in by underrepresented minorities. In addition to being an angel investor collective, it also fosters a strong community spirit amongst its members.
“Being a part of The Black Angel Group fills me with the same sort of courage that I got from participating in One Young World, because I think inspiration can spur action. Seeing people like me, whether it is other young people at One Young World or Black leaders at BAG, making a difference in their communities gives me confidence to do the same.”
How to use to the SDG Tracker
Search for projects by the following case study categories:
- Ambassador-led Initiatives: qualitative and quantitative analysis of the social impact of projects which are led by young leaders in the Community.
- Business for Social Good: written case studies for initiatives ran by corporate partner organisations, led by young Ambassadors/employees.
- Leadership Stories: short biographies of Ambassadors who are growing into influential leaders for social good in some of the world’s largest companies.
- Covid Young Leaders Fund: detailed case studies of grant recipients from One Young World's 2020 funding opportunity for projects tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Lead2030: detailed case studies of the Lead2030 award winners and how their projects have generated impact from participating in the programme.