LocationsOn March 20, 2018, the UNDP’s Nordic Representation Office and The Danish Industry Foundation hosted a VIP event for the 15 participating companies in the newly launched SDG Accelerator programme, celebrating the innovative, brave and visionary business leaders who will work strategically with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
On a sunny afternoon, 15 Danish small and medium-sized industrial companies gathered in Copenhagen to begin their innovation journey with the SDG Accelerator programme. The event took place in Asia House on Indiakaj. In this building, Hans Niels Andersen founded the East Asiatic Company Ltd (EAC) in 1898 to conduct trade, shipping and industrial operations at home and abroad. The location was well chosen with an excellent view to the big harbour basins with a water depth of up to nine meters. Indeed, they were dealing with large ships as EAC traded with the Far East, which is also the case for several of the participating industrial companies in the SDG Accelerator.
The scramble for market share has become global. Whether it has to do with telephony solutions in Jharkhand in India or fish feed in Shandong, China, suppliers come from all over the world - also from Denmark. While BLUETOWN, one of the participants in the SDG Accelerator programme, works with internet solutions in India, another participant, Aller Aqua sells fish feed in China, among other countries. With the SDGs, the demand for sustainable solutions has been formalized, materialized and increased across the globe. This provides unique opportunities for Danish businesses - opportunities that require targeted efforts. Many Danish companies do possess the potential and necessary capabilities, and they have already expressed their interest and good intentions. Yet, at the same time, some difficulties remain when striving to turn the somewhat abstract SDGs into concrete actions that can be used to develop new sustainable business models.
The VIP event in Asia House marked the beginning of this work for the 15 participating companies in the SDG Accelerator.
The order of the day
Camilla Brückner, Director of UNDP's Nordic Representation Office, started the day by welcoming all participants, after which the 15 companies presented their respective businesses to the entire group. In order for the companies to come up with new sustainable and innovative products and services, it requires, among other things, the individual companies to gain access to new partnerships, at both national and international levels.
Following the presentation round, the keynote speaker of the day, Lars Tvede, took the stage and presented his views on future trends affecting Danish companies. Lars Tvede is a serial entrepreneur, investor, venture capitalist and author. He came across the fact that we are in the process of a global explosion in creativity and innovation, driven by artificial intelligence, the sharing economy, the Internet of Things, robots, and medical breakthroughs, just to name a few, and that Danish companies should take advantage of this. They can do so through the innovation process incorporated in the SDG Accelerator. In the succeeding workshop, the companies discussed why they entered the project and what they actually expect to get out of the programme.
At this point, one of the participating companies, RGS Nordic, presented their motivation for joining the programme, namely to contribute to the achievement of SDG number 11 (Sustainable cities and communities), 12 (Responsible consumption and production) and 14 Life below water). To do so, the company will handle and recover waste from construction (SDG 11), increase the value of waste recycling (SDG 12) and reduce marine pollution from industries through sewage treatment (SDG 14).
Similarly, another company in the programme, Plastix, aspires to help solve the plastic waste problem (SDG 12), reduce CO2 emissions (SDG 13), and reduce threats to marine life (SDG 14) resulting from, among other things, discarded fishing nets in the ocean. Plastix views the SDGs as an opportunity to take responsibility for turning plastic waste into new plastic raw materials, which in turn can contribute to creating sustainable development.
The SDG Accelerator works at different levels. Firstly, by identifying new business opportunities and the creation of profitable products and solutions that contribute to the fulfilment of the SDGs, and secondly by engaging management and employees' in the agenda. Consequently, the workshop put emphasis on the company's external communication about the SDGs as well as employee involvement in the agenda.
Full speed ahead to achieving the SDGs
By means of this innovation journey including 15 participating companies, UNDP and The Danish Industry Foundation aim to demonstrate that the SDG agenda and the 17 goals can be used for innovation, business development and new market entries. In this way, companies' commitment to sustainability can be accelerated. In this sense, the VIP event at Asia House was merely a kickstarter. The SDGs give rise to renewed hope for the future, and now we need to get to work and come up with concrete solutions that contribute to the achievement of the goals by 2030.
