Welcome to the Generators for Sustainable Development (GSD) project’s collection of sustainable programmes. In this compilation, we highlight a number of innovative initiatives that exemplify the GSD Project’s commitment to promoting sustainability across sectors. Join us as we explore these impactful programmes, each contributing to a more sustainable and equitable future.
Smart Environment
Smart Environment
The Module “Efficiency, productivity, and wellbeing through conscious environmental choices” has been conceived and developed in the framework of the ESG SMART ACADEMY, a complete, modular, flexible and customisable online training programme offered by Smart Revolution on the ESG parameters. The acronym ESG refers to the areas of Environment, Social and Governance, three fundamental dimensions for verifying, measuring, controlling and supporting a company’s or organisation’s commitment to sustainability.
The Fresh News Cafe is a virtual inclusive learning space developed by English teachers of English Course Department at Folkuniversitetet Uppsala through Design-Based Thinking in the GSD project. It serves disadvantaged learners, particularly students with migrant backgrounds, and their parents. The project combines English language learning, social sustainability and media literacy in an intergenerational setting, promoting critical thinking and communication through the analysis of current news on Padlet.
The SDG Explorer programme was developed to create a learning format that increases awareness of sustainability on both a personal and professional level and can also serve as a starting point for developing one’s own ideas in the field of sustainability (SDGs). For this reason, a three-day course format was introduced to create a blended learning environment consisting of both theoretical and practical content.
Our project, titled “GroUp – Design Thinking Innovation Challenge” (‘Gro’ for Groningen University and ‘Up’ for Uppsala University) unites students from Uppsala University in Sweden and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in a collaborative innovation challenge.
The endeavor was selected for its contemporary relevance— working with the mental health of university students, working with the career paths of university students and building trust in science. We choose topics where a diverse group of students can collaborate together and create conceptual solutions within this short time phrame.
AONTAS, in partnership with Development Perspectives, delivered an advocacy programme for learners on Development Education with a focus on Sustainable Development Goals.
Participants examined and advocated for the needs of adult learners in the field of development education and created content for a #LearnersAsLeaders campaign. They were also critically reflected on their learning journey.
The project is SwedeQuest, a board learning game aimed at helping migrants and refugees learn Swedish through interactive play.
Background: The game was conceived as a creative solution to language barriers faced by newcomers in Sweden, addressing the need for a fun, engaging method for learning Swedish that also fosters faster integration into society.
The Module “Introduction to the Travel Security” has been conceived and developed in the framework of the ESG SMART ACADEMY, a complete, modular, flexible and customisable online training programme offered by Smart Revolution on the ESG parameters. The acronym ESG refers to the areas of Environment, Social and Governance, three fundamental dimensions for verifying, measuring, controlling and supporting a company’s or organisation’s commitment to sustainability.
The module at stake refers to the Governance area or SDG8 – Decent Work and it aims at providing an efficient solution to respond to employers’ duty of care as well as to the legislations 81/2008 and 231/2001, which already provide for the employers’ criminal and administrative responsibility for the protection and safeguarding of their personnel on business trips abroad, and to the more recent ISO 31030 on Travel Risk Management (TRM).
It has a duration of eight hours, divided into 2 sections of four hours each, and it is delivered online.
The Ambassador for Mobility course was developed as part of the SASSI LLC project. The project addresses the importance of optimising Europe’s labour resources for economic competitiveness and prosperity, in particular by extending working lives across the lifespan. Demographic ageing is identified as a key factor in the need to increase labour force participation in the EU. In order to maintain social support systems in an ageing population, age-friendly policies and practices are needed to facilitate the integration of older workers into the labour market. The SASSI LLC project aims to raise awareness of the need for career guidance in later life, stimulate action and provide skills development support for aspiring ‘olderpreneurs’ to contribute to the economic and social well-being of older workers.
Main objective of the Project is to promote equality between women and men by implementing measures to tackle gender segregation in education and the labour market. Women and men have different economic situations. This is due to the wage gap, which in turn is determined by occupational and sectoral segregation, as well as vertical segregation of the labour market by gender. Girls tend to study so-called ‘female’ specialisations, while boys choose ‘male’ specialisations. This problem is the focus of the Development of an Inclusive Labour Market 2021-2030.
The Project aims to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Social Innovation Fund to carry out strategic development in the provision of digitised non-formal adult education public services for the integration of socially excluded people into society and the labour market, and to ensure the effectiveness of these services, through the development of high-quality volunteering and the evaluation of the impact of the services.
Many of BLINC’s local participants live in a quarter called Weststadt, a relatively poor working-class area with a large migrant population and a rather bad reputation. However, the Westadt also hosts the Musa, which is one of the most vibrant cultural centre which hosts different initiatives and also the Weststadt-Conference as central planning body for the development of the quarter.
BLINC identified the various social initiatives as open spaces for development and as learning lab for its employees to engage creatively in new ways, within the own team, with their learners and with other civic institutions in the area, to create innovative learning opportunities, increase learning impact, cooperation and not least to create new cooperation perspectives. Eventually, also the reveal14 and 15 conferences were carried out at the Musa in the Weststadt-Quarter, hosting more than 150 international experts and guests for the 2-4 days’ events.
PROGRASS e.V. is an association that was founded in Eschwege in 2011. PROGRASS stands for an innovative and interdisciplinary concept which, taking into account ecological, technical and socio-economic aspects, pursues the development of a sustainable form of grassland management with the aim of preserving biodiversity and cultural landscape.
PROGRASS is part of a joint project of BLINC with the University of Kassel, in the context of which socio-ecological projects are to be developed from grass biomasses, which are not only intended to have a positive climate impact, but also regional civic projects.
These goals fit ideally with the COOL approach, as here, too, new ideas are to be generated in a participatory approach, which are to achieve local added value and at the same time have a positive effect on social relations in local communities.
2 members of the BLINC team designed a training concept for PROGRASS e.V. based on the design thinking approach for the regional development of products from ecologically produced biochar.
The concept was tested for the first time in 2020 with approx. 15 PROGRASS partners from DE, BE, FR and UK and implemented in 2021 with a group of 25 participants from SMEs and start-ups.
The aim of the project “Children participate in sports, families engage in sports, and the entire community is involved in sporting activities” is to promote the participation of children, their families and physical activity of their families and seniors through sports and educational activities. The special attention in the project is given for participants with fewer opportunities: those with low income, families at risk, single parent families, lonely senior citizen.
The project implementation team (partnership) in Kaunas communities carried out the following activities during 36 months:
The module “Train Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) in your workplace” has been conceived and developed in the framework of the ESG SMART ACADEMY, a complete, modular, flexible and customisable online training programme offered by Smart Revolution on the ESG parameters. The acronym ESG refers to the areas of Environment, Social and Governance, three fundamental dimensions for verifying, measuring, controlling and supporting a company’s or organisation’s commitment to sustainability.
The module at stake intends to raise awareness to the importance of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, resulting in more inclusive, diverse and gender-equal organisations. This topic was chosen because DEI are all part of the social aspect of Sustainable Development, which is very relevant, especially in the workplace.
