Unlike our usual assignments, which take place behind closed doors within businesses to help them transform towards Future Fitness, this event has no non-disclosures or privacy concerns. We from SGA were invited to sharour expertise for the purpose of raising awareness and inspiring leaders across sectors and industries. 

Porto, Portugal

Source: Nick Karvounis, Unsplash

Against the picturesque backdrop of Porto’s historic centre, the Catholic University of Porto and Planetiers took the initiative to establish a physical platform/hotspot ‘INSURE-Hub’ (Innovation for Sustainability and Regeneration Hub) for the entire region of northern Portugal and Spain. This event was officially launched by the university’s Rector and President, the Director of the Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry, and the Vice-President of the Business School.  SGA has not been presenting in public live environments for some time due to Covid-19 measures. The event brought together Portuguese and international experts such as Gunter Pauli (best known for The Blue Economy and his sustainability fables); John Fullerton (impact investor best known for Regenerative Capitalism); both are Club of Rome members; and Tom Bregman (Future-Fit Foundation). 

“The goal … is for national companies to join international specialists, protagonists of ‘success cases’, to work ‘with a view to business sustainability’.” (Sérgio Ribeiro, co-founder of Planetiers, for Jornal de Noticias, 26-10-2021) 

As SGA, we would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to our Portuguese hosts for their hospitality, as well as for organising and inviting us to this event which was also extensively covered and broadcasted in the evening news that day, as well as in the digital print media . The detailed article can be found here in Portuguese. It quoted,  

“Edwin Janssen and Rüdiger Rohrig, presented provoking but inspiring results of a study carried out at European level on the real requirements for leaders at all levels to transform their business.” 

With the results of our study on strategic sustainability, SGA associates used this invitation to give a new push to how businesses could, or should, strategize in order to uphold their promise. Moreover, it was a great opportunity to impact the dialogue among academics, business leaders, policymakers, the media and to hear the positive feedback from the hosts and the many participants of the event. This event was extra special for us and all of those who participated to discuss the nexus between the sustainability and the business worlds.