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Board of Directors and Patrons
The World Sustainability Forum was founded and is governed by a highly accomplished volunteer Board of Directors advised and assisted by a Board of Patrons drawn from the private sector, public sector, academic and research communities. (To review a profile of the directors and patrons click on their picture below). Born of the efforts of visionary leaders; aligned to the Earth Charter, the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda; the World Sustainability Forum is a summit of minds. It is an international NGO whose mission is to accelerate a just, humanitarian, and prosperous transformation to sustainable development. Development should be integral, that is, not limited to merely economic aspects but also importantly expressly include humanitarian, social and cultural factors. The fundamental mission of the Forum is to help pave the way for a new era of the people. The Forum shall help effect this great transformation at the speed that science demands, by identifying innovative solutions, creating new coalitions and making specific recommendations on global challenges linked to climate change, including peace and finance, the environment, health and more. Its vision is of a world where people live in prosperity and peaceful coexistence, conscious of their common humanity and their shared responsibilities for each other, for the planet, and for future generations.
A beacon illuminating pathways to a new epoch of the people, the Forum embraces the imperatives of life, universal human rights and responsibilities, and a culture of peace. In the words of Nelson Mandela, it shall "support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict and inspire hope where there is despair”. With the world teetering on the brink of historic reversals of hard-won progress, our vision is of a world where people live in prosperity, peaceful coexistence, conscious of their common humanity and their shared responsibilities for each other, for the planet and for future generations. To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities. We are at once citizens of different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world. The spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the human place in nature. As assumptions about the world's socio-economic operating system are overturned, international balance of power shifts, and scientific and technological breakthroughs promise to transform economies and societies. The Forum helps leaders from all walks of life resiliently respond to disruptive change and systemic crises. It works to ensure political and corporate legitimacy for the massive economic and social changes ahead science-based discourse must be normalized in our everyday thinking, socialised in our discussion and become the basis for action. Forum members and partners benefit from tailored engagement based on their corporate strategy. The deeper an organisation's engagement, the greater is its ability to shape the Forum agenda.
Each World Sustainability Forum community comprises select partner enterprises that are shaping and transforming their industries in strategic and socially responsible ways. The sustainable development governors' community comprises chief executives and chairpersons who provide leadership, define the sustainable development agenda and accelerate the transformation. The sustainable development communities provide a platform for chief executives and senior executives with strategic, business or regional responsibilities to shape the sustainable development and develop insights through Forum-hosted programmes and communities. |
The Forum embraces a theory of change recognizing that:
- By developing individual relationships with global leaders, the Forum can influence them to strengthen their commitment to ethical leadership and democratic multilateral cooperation.
- The Scientific community guided by democratic principles should counsel leaders concerning the actions to be taken, not only as advisors, but also to provide foresight; with knowledge to foresee and foresight to prevent.
- The Forum's global reputation will influence the terms of debate around protecting and strengthening democratic multilateral institutions necessary for a just transformation.
- The Forum’s relationships with leaders will be decisive in persuading them to maintain a high level of ambition in the transformation.
- The Forum's moral authority will create the space for science-based advocacy at the highest levels while challenging false narratives.
- When the Forum promotes science-based ideas, they will be listened to, and those ideas will gain traction more quickly.
- The Forum's advocacy shall inspire and strengthen coalitions and organisations working to accelerate the transformation to sustainable development.
- The Forum's interventions shall inspire and encourage world leaders to initiate, support and accelerate a just transition to sustainable development in their enterprises and countries.
Future-facing, systemic, global and impartial, the World Sustainability Forum is an international organisation for public-private cooperation committed to accelerating a just transformation. The Forum is the only global organisation bringing together the world’s heads of state, ministers and policy-makers, chief executive officers, experts and academics, international organisations, youth, technology innovators and representatives of civil society with the aim to accelerate a just transformation. We must come together to rethink our future before events move beyond our ability to influence outcomes.
The Forum is:
The Forum is:
- Impartial: It has neither ideological nor commercial interests. This does not mean that the Forum is neutral. It is committed to accelerating a science-based transformation to sustainable development in ways that are just, objective and measurable.
- Global: We bring attention to challenges that affect the transformation of global society. Because the world is a complex adaptive ecosystem, we believe that no issue is isolated – there are always effects and interdependencies, which we systematically and rigorously take into consideration.
- Systemic: We actively invite perspectives from all interested parties. We believe that the challenges of the transformation to sustainable development can only be achieved through engagement with all members of global society.
- Future-Facing: We focus on the long term, not the emergencies of the day. Success is measured not only in terms of immediate results - we understand that real progress takes time and fortitude.
To achieve its mission, the Forum leverages its convening power to engage the most relevant and knowledgeable leaders into peer-level dialogue to accelerate the just transformation.
We bring together our stakeholder communities for our Annual Meetings. The meeting takes place in June each year and is the world’s foremost summit for shaping global, regional and industry sustainable development agendas.
A second Annual Meeting, focused on entrepreneurship and innovation, takes place in East Asia.
In addition, the Forum organizes a Sustainable Development Impact Summit on alternate years in Mexico, Qatar and South Africa. These summits focus on enhancing global public goods and seeking innovative solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. To advance cooperation and explore more specific contexts, the Forum also hosts meetings in other key regions and countries around the world.
Powered by scientific insights, regional meetings and national strategy days provide focused engagement on the issues dominating regional and local agendas. An ongoing programme of workshops, seminars and meetings on issues relevant to each Programme provides opportunities to further drive action.
A number of Forum communities, (such as the Global Future Councils) are structured as “insight ecosystems” and supported by the Forum's knowledge platform. The Communities are designed to cultivate a systemic understanding of and approach to major issues and how these issues affect other global, regional or sustainable development-specific challenges.
The Forum brings together decision-makers from across global society North and South to work on projects and initiatives that accelerates the transformation. Through collaboration between stakeholders with varied perspectives, our projects deliver concrete and resilient outcomes and make a positive impact at all levels of society.
Our portfolio of projects is aligned around the world’s transformation challenges and regional issues in the local context. They are designed to make meaningful and viable change.
The Forum has unrivalled expertise in convening leaders from its communities. This allows for year round engagement opportunities and interactions that span industry sectors, scientific disciplines, cultures, religions, and geographies.
We bring together our stakeholder communities for our Annual Meetings. The meeting takes place in June each year and is the world’s foremost summit for shaping global, regional and industry sustainable development agendas.
A second Annual Meeting, focused on entrepreneurship and innovation, takes place in East Asia.
In addition, the Forum organizes a Sustainable Development Impact Summit on alternate years in Mexico, Qatar and South Africa. These summits focus on enhancing global public goods and seeking innovative solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. To advance cooperation and explore more specific contexts, the Forum also hosts meetings in other key regions and countries around the world.
Powered by scientific insights, regional meetings and national strategy days provide focused engagement on the issues dominating regional and local agendas. An ongoing programme of workshops, seminars and meetings on issues relevant to each Programme provides opportunities to further drive action.
A number of Forum communities, (such as the Global Future Councils) are structured as “insight ecosystems” and supported by the Forum's knowledge platform. The Communities are designed to cultivate a systemic understanding of and approach to major issues and how these issues affect other global, regional or sustainable development-specific challenges.
The Forum brings together decision-makers from across global society North and South to work on projects and initiatives that accelerates the transformation. Through collaboration between stakeholders with varied perspectives, our projects deliver concrete and resilient outcomes and make a positive impact at all levels of society.
Our portfolio of projects is aligned around the world’s transformation challenges and regional issues in the local context. They are designed to make meaningful and viable change.
The Forum has unrivalled expertise in convening leaders from its communities. This allows for year round engagement opportunities and interactions that span industry sectors, scientific disciplines, cultures, religions, and geographies.
Accelerating the transformation, the Forum's strategy is simple and effective: bring together the most relevant leaders from all sectors of global society North and South, and identify the best ways to address the world’s most significant challenges.
The Forum is the catalyst for global initiatives, historic shifts, sustainable development breakthroughs, new economic thinking as well as projects and collaborations.
The Forum's work can help:
The Forum is the catalyst for global initiatives, historic shifts, sustainable development breakthroughs, new economic thinking as well as projects and collaborations.
The Forum's work can help:
- Enhance trust and support in the international democratic multilateral system.
- Encourage the resolve of world leaders to demonstrate ethical leadership on major global issues.
- Strengthen others’ efforts to de-militarize politics and end the threat posed by nuclear weapons.
- Enable discussions which emphasise a just transformation that benefits everyone.
- Voices and actions of transformation champions that they are brought to the fore of the international agenda, creating the political space for more ambitious action.
- Incubate and support science-based and innovative ideas to help create systemic change to support socio-economic systems fit for the future.
- Ensure decision-makers and influencers are more aware of science-based best practices and motivated to implement them.
As assumptions about the world's socio-economic operating system are overturned, international balance of power shifts, and scientific and technological breakthroughs promise to transform economies and societies. The Forum helps leaders from all walks of life resiliently respond to disruptive change and systemic crises. It works to ensure political and corporate legitimacy for the massive economic and social changes ahead science-based discourse must be normalized in our everyday thinking, socialised in our discussion and become the basis for action.
Forum members and partners benefit from tailored engagement based on their corporate strategy. The deeper an organisation's engagement, the greater is its ability to shape the Forum agenda.
Each World Sustainability Forum community comprises select partner enterprises that are shaping and transforming their industries in strategic and socially responsible ways. The sustainable development governors' community comprises chief executives and chairpersons who provide leadership, define the sustainable development agenda and accelerate the transformation.
The sustainable development communities provide a platform for chief executives and senior executives with strategic, business or regional responsibilities to shape the sustainable development and develop insights through Forum-hosted programmes and communities.
Forum members and partners benefit from tailored engagement based on their corporate strategy. The deeper an organisation's engagement, the greater is its ability to shape the Forum agenda.
- Community Engagement: The Forum cultivates a network of communities that extend beyond each member’s immediate peer group to enhance collaboration. Community engagement means connecting with young leaders and innovators, technology disruptors or entrepreneurs.
- Knowledge and Innovation Ecosystems: The Forum supports the development of dynamic, long-term partnerships among among businesses (including SMEs), policy makers, and research organisations to form dynamic global partnerships, and create favourable environments for creative thought processes and innovations to flourish. These are Knowledge and Innovation Ecosystems (KIEs) and each is dedicated connecting stakeholders within and across industries and regions with core thematic issues so they can collaborate on delivering positive change. KIEs include: Healthcare; Energy; Regenerative Economy; Advanced Technologies; Finance, Work and Well-being; Peace; and Education.
- Regional Engagement: Involvement at regional level offers extensive insights into a region’s dynamics, markets, policy-making and business communities.
Each World Sustainability Forum community comprises select partner enterprises that are shaping and transforming their industries in strategic and socially responsible ways. The sustainable development governors' community comprises chief executives and chairpersons who provide leadership, define the sustainable development agenda and accelerate the transformation.
The sustainable development communities provide a platform for chief executives and senior executives with strategic, business or regional responsibilities to shape the sustainable development and develop insights through Forum-hosted programmes and communities.