Sustainable Development Goals with Tabitha Jayne

Tabitha Jayne joined us  to talk about sustainable development goals (STGs). But what is sustainable development? What are sustainable development goals?

An overview of sustainable development goals

Sustainable development is about business not being just about profit. It’s about looking after people and looking after our planet at the same time. In business, most of us will be doing some of this.

The sustainable goals have taken this idea and developed 17 ways that we can create a world that works for everybody. It’s a huge, aspirational goal. How do we make this transition successfully? These goals are steps to help us achieve this and have come out of the United Nations.

Sustainable business is a language that goes beyond barriers, beyond culture and beliefs, etc. It’s a language we can all understand. As a result, these goals are something Tabitha would keep at all costs. If she could save one thing from the UN, these goals would be it!

Kevin follows a guy called Daniel Priestley, who wrote Key Person of Influence. He talks about a person of influence, attaching them to one or more of the sustainable development goals. He sees it as the way forward for businesses. But how do you go about doing that?

Walking through the goals is not about picking up all 17. Otherwise, you’d be running around like headless chickens! It’s about finding one or more goals that speak to you. They’re designed to be interconnected. Therefore, by picking even just one, you are making an impact on other goals and a wider, good influence than you think.

What are you most passionate about? That links into how you pick your goals. It also links into another theme of the show. This is that you need to decide your passions in order to b successful. Follow what grabs your imagination otherwise you’re going nowhere.

Industry, innovation, infrastructure

The world is changing. Going deeper into these goals within your business can spark more creativity in what you do and how you run your company.

Why do we have division? Can sustainability influence this?

What a question! First of all, if you’re not part of the STG conversation, you can’t shape and direct and impact what is happening. If you truly want a world that works and you have a strong opinion on what it is, being part of this conversation is essential to you.

When it comes to if sustainability can bring about peace, this goes back to looking at inner nature or sustainability. There’s a perspective that what is happening in the world at the moment, is a reflection what is happening within us. It requires us to look at ourselves and ask where are we not at peace with ourselves. We must first look at that in order to  start creating peace in the world.

Interestingly, the football clubs in Scotland are taking on all 17 STGs in order to ensure football is giving back to its communities.

Gender and sustainability

Kevin thinks we miss the point when it comes to gender. There aren’t just physical differences. There are genuine differences of character that make men and women better at some things than others. However, that doesn’t mean one gender is better than another!

This has us moving onto political correctness as a whole. Tabitha thinks there is an aspect of political correctness that has got out of hand. Political correctness shuts down conversations that need to be had in order for us to be able to work together.

This is the biggest downside of the sustainable development business goals. There are certain perspectives embedded in these goals. If we, as small businesses, do no take ownership and speak up on these topics our voices are not going to be heard. What we need to remember is that small businesses take up 90% of the business market. We’ve got a heck of a lot more power than we think. If we are able to adopt these goals and apply them to ourselves, we can then contribute to this dialogue and help shift it.

Can we become evangelical about these goals?

We shouldn’t become evangelical about these business goals. That would suggest a complete blind bias and faith in them – it’s important that we need to be critical of them.

The beauty of sustainable development goals

See what you’re already doing and seek to extend that. The expectation is that the STGs are all about the climate. No, it’s more than that.

The beauty of the goals is that you can do one and be touching on the others simultaneously. As said before, they are all interlinked in some way.

For Graham, sustainability is about giving yourself every chance of success. Tabitha says it’s long-term thinking; if we want our businesses to be around for the long-term, we need to be looking at this and using sustainability to support and improve our businesses. We shouldn’t be making decisions that are good for the next year, but are beneficial for the next ten.

“Align yourself with something bigger”

Tabitha is a great believer in creating a better world through hope and inspiration. It’s one of the reasons she does her now podcast and track down people who are doing good. We need to hear about these things to counter the negative, destructive narrative we are seeing at the moment.

We have to realise that the earth is our biggest stakeholder in our businesses!

 

Ultimately, we don’t have time to be running around like headless chickens. We need to take a step back, get a hold of ourselves and ask what am I going to do and how am I going to play my role?

What does Tabitha’s business do?

Tabitha’s business almost has two separate things happening under the umbrella of creating a sustainable world.

1. Coaching with nature – it’s a way of bringing the natural world into how we’re thinking. As you plan to develop your business, you then do it in a way that is good for people, planet, profit. Additionally, coaching with her will mean you are tapping into the benefits of surrounding yourself in nature.
2. Sustainable development strategy.

If you’re interested in knowing more, click here. Thank you Tabitha!

The next 100 days podcast is sponsored by Linked Professionally and is brought to you by Kevin Appleby and Graham Arrowsmith