What's in It for Me Right Now?

We were fortunate enough to attend the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative Conference (HESI) held at the UN Headquarters in New York City this week. Organized by Ola Göransson, Sustainable Development Officer at DECA, the impressive list of speakers included UN officials Maria-Francesca Spatolisano (DECA) and Stefania Giannini (UNESCO), academic thought leaders Ángel Cabrera (Georgia Tech) and Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi (Nelson Mandela University), among others.

The guiding principles for these annual conversations are lofty: ensure the right to quality education throughout life and strengthen education as a public endeavor and a common good. At Global Education Destinations, we actualize these principles in Buddies Without Borders Online Forums and BWB Club Local Actions. Teens and schools are invited to join the Forum debates to earn internship and leadership opportunities. Everyone is invited to vote for their favorite Local Action Projects (the Best Club receives a scholarship for the new school year, and the voting ends at 11:59 PM on Friday, July 21.)

Meanwhile, the most intriguing remarks for us in the conference came from DebraRowe (HESI Education for Green Jobs Action Group). The reason is what's happening outside of the UN buildings: most people are simply too preoccupied with making a living to pay attention to global goals. Indeed, public good and global goals are nice, but "what's in it for me right now?" Without everyone's buy-in, Sustainable Development Goals will forever be an agenda for politicians and academics.

For our next Forum competition, we are calling global leaders of Corporate Social Responsibilities to join our quest for identifying the best Green Job Producers. We will challenge teens to conduct case studies on how socially responsible corporations are connecting profitability with their SDG missions. Amazon, Microsoft, Coco-Cola, Mercedes Benz, Nike Sore, IBM, Cisco, Tesla, Apple, Google, Facebook, Toyota, Samsung, Louis Vuitton, Disney, BMW, Honda, Gucci and IKEA, you are called upon to step up and engage your future influencers / employees / customers on a deeper level. We want to know your CSR practices, and we look forward to working with you on securing the workforce and fan base for Green Jobs so that public good and global goals are relevant to everyone on a personal level, right at home.

Join us! It is good for you!