[00:19] Address by Tanya Dos Santos, Investec Global Head of Sustainability

[03:07] Address by Navid Hanif, Director of Financing for Sustainable Development Office, United Nations

[03:23] UN Human Development Report and the intellectual contribution to development thinking

[05:24] The Millenium Summit and the inception of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)

[06:10] The inception of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

[20:34] The interconnectedness of the SDG framework

[22:18] The ratification of the SDGs in the General Assembly Hall in 2015

[23:45] Barriers to achieving the SDGs

[28:41] Investec’s six core SDGs

[30:14] Address by Fani Titi

[31:35] Fani’s personal story and passion for human development 

[33:17] The global effects of Covid-19

[36:12] UN Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) and financing the SDGs

[39:30] Investec’s commitment to the Class of 2030

[42:06] Closing

[00:19] Address by Tanya Dos Santos, Investec Global Head of Sustainability

Tanya dos Santos: So, I am so excited to have a second chance at school again; it wasn’t my best experience the first time around, so I’m looking forward to rewriting history.

Sustainability, as a concept, is not new to Investec, we have been doing this for many years now. In fact, we produced our first Sustainability Report in 2002, and at the time, we called it “Our Journey to Sustainability”. It was really recognising that the key socio-economic challenges that you’re going to be looking at, were the challenges that we were experiencing in both of our core geographies. So, with our roots in South Africa, we’re very aware of issues related to poverty and unemployment and inequality. But then, with our businesses in the more advanced economies, we’re facing things like the impact of food security, recently, and covid, and climate change, and even just an overall threat to peace and justice. And this is exactly why it is the responsibility of all of us. These issues affect all members of society, so it is all our responsibility; it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, it doesn’t matter if you’re in a developed or a developing country, it doesn’t matter what career you’re in, we need to work together to reach the 2030 goals.

And there is no one more qualified to teach us about these goals, than Navid Hanif. In fact, Navid was a member of the World Summit on Sustainability, which took place here in South Africa in Johannesburg, back in 2002; and since then, he has held various roles at the United Nations, and at the moment, he currently holds the Director of Financing for Sustainable Development. And Navid it is with great pleasure, that we welcome you to our class, and to our launch today. The UN that I’ve experienced, has always been very formal, this is a classroom environment, so we’re a little bit more relaxed, you can relax with the students and the mentors. I have been extremely fortunate to learn from your gentle, but very determined perspectives on sustainable development, over the past two years. So, I’m really delighted that we have this opportunity to learn from you, to learn from the classmates, and for the class to hear the background to where this all came from. Why the SDGs? How did they come about? What do they require to a achieve? And why has the line in the sand been drawn at 2030, which is, ultimately, our graduation?

So Navid, welcome, and over to you.

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[03:07] Address by Navid Hanif, Director of Financing for Sustainable Development Office, United Nations

Navid Hanif: Tanya, thank you so much. Thank you for the opportunity to join such a distinguished group of people, and so motivated and driven, which has reinforced my confidence we can achieve the 2030 agenda, hopefully, on time.

[03:23] UN Human Development Report and the intellectual contribution to development thinking

Navid Hanif: It’s almost thirty-one years ago and, actually, it’s the same month of May in 1990, when the cold war had just ended. So there were no ideological debates on development. At least, they were just appearing at that time.

Two thinkers, one from India, one from Pakistan, Amartya Sen and Dr Mahbub ul Haq, they joined hands to produce the Human Development Report. The UN has always been an advocate that human beings should be at the centre of all development planning. So, the Human Development Report has a phrase I will always remember when they launched it, “People are the real wealth of nations, and human development is about enlarging their choices.”

So this is 1990, a breakthrough in development thinking. At a political level, intellectually, Amartya Sen had done his groundwork, but Dr Mahbub ul Haq came up with an index we call the HDI Index. So because of the end of ideological divide, the UN was then rating series of consensus on environment development in Rio, on population, on social development. While we were doing this, we were also confronted with series of crises; Esso crisis, Ruble crisis, and then comes the 1997 Asian crisis, and that’s where, I think, was a wake-up call, the Development model was not working for everyone. People were suffering, they were having very fragile sources of livelihoods.

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[05:24] The Millenium Summit and the inception of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)

Navid Hanif: And then, 2000, which is the year of the Millennium Summit, the UN presented the Millennium Development Goals; very basic, and I think, maybe, some of the Class of 2030 members have heard about those goals, 20. And they were to be achieved by 2015. Very modest, eight goals, focused on basic needs; halving poverty, increasing the education, reducing the number of people living in slums. So while the MDGs were being pursued, we were also witnessing, the crises were accentuating.

[06:10] The inception of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Navid Hanif: And now, I have to fast-forward to 2007. I think 2007 was a pivotal year, in leading the demand for the sustainable development goals; and I assume some of you know what happened in 2007. Thomas Friedman will say, iPhone was invented. That’s the year Vice President Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change got the Nobel Peace Prize. This was an acknowledgement at the global level. Our planet, if we do not address the climate change in a meaningful manner, is going to suffer significantly in the coming decades; and that means our own existence is at very high risk.

So in 2007, the new Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon also came onboard. He made climate change his signature issue. While we were looking at this challenge, here comes a financial crisis; the great recession, and we saw the fragilities of our financial system and the levels of exclusion, that we had never seen before. So climate change, financial crisis, and then the Arab spring. The voices and the noises were becoming louder and louder, from all over the world, that things are not working, too many people are being left behind. Then, the planet, that has very high risk, in terms of rising ocean levels. And after a long time, I saw all voices just calling on the UN, the civil society, academia, many governments, that the UN has to do something meaningful, to capture all dimensions of development, and not just poverty eradication, which is critical.

And then, also, came the time for Johannesburg + 10, and Rio + 20. In 2012, we were, again, going to Rio to look what we had accomplished, because we had adopted a document called, Agenda 21; and hardly anything was implemented to reverse our ecological decline. But I don’t want to just give this bleak picture, we had accomplished some of the MDGs, for which the deadline was 2015. The number of people living in absolute poverty, was halved; access to clean water had increased; a hundred million people were lifted out of slums; but that happened, merely in China and India.

So Rio + 20 in 2012, captured the key demands that the people were making of the UN. Inclusion and equality. Save the planet, we call it, People, Planet, Prosperity Agenda. It wasn’t easy, so there was an agreement to develop sustainable development goals in Rio, in 2012, but it wasn’t an easy undertaking. One of the colleagues just mentioned, what a complex goal, innovation in industrialising infrastructure. That is the nature of compromise; 193 governments, and millions of civil society organisations, and business, and academia, are negotiating. So from 2012 to 2015, it took us three years to agree on these seventeen goals, and I’ll come to those in a moment.

Initially, we thought we could have ten goals, but we could not capture all the complex issues. And there are actually three clusters of goals. Goals one to six, which are social basic needs goals. Goals seven to fifteen, production, economy, inequality. And then we have goal sixteen, about peace, security in societies, that have good institutions. And goal seventeen, about financing the SDGs.

So in 2015, the world came together because of the challenges we were facing since 2007, they were becoming very visible, loud and clear, they adopted these seventeen goals by 2030. And I mentioned in the MDGs, we agreed to halve poverty by 2015, in fifteen years.

There was data available from some countries in the ’90s, that they had managed to halve poverty in fifteen years; it was doable, achievable goals. And those numbers were used to come up with 2030 goals, targets and our indicators. They are very detailed goals, with every milestone measured, at least the desire to measure it in numbers that are presentable, verifiable, and can be used for a further plan.

So in 2015, September, these goals were adopted - I mentioned three clusters - and they’re supposed to bring humanity, as Tanya mentioned, to a sustainable path. So there is an intergenerational equity embedded in these goals; it’s not just my future, Tanya’s future, it’s our children’s and our grandchildren’s future, that has to be safe-guarded through these goals.

There is a famous French saying, that if you want to achieve a goal, three things have to come together: head, heart and wallet. Unless we deploy financing behind these goals, and change the systems that deal with financing all over the world, the shift to sustainable development will remain a mirage.

So, in July 2015, in Africa, in Addis Ababa, we also agreed on Addis Ababa action agenda, which is designed to finance sustainable development, with its seven chapters clearly outlining the actions that are required to shift the whole financial system, trading system, investment behind these seventeen goals; and that’s where companies like Investec, and many other members of the Alliance for Sustainable Development become critical; they have to initiate these actions in their own companies, in their own sectors, and then, all over the world, inspire that every rand, every dollar, every pound, is earned, saved, invested and spent, in line with the sustainable development goals.

It’s the rising inequalities that can disrupt societies, and which could shake the foundation of our civilization, the way we know it, at least since the ’90s, in terms of the political systems and the economic systems that we have embraced; but those have to change, that’s what sustainable goals are all about. 

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The pandemic, actually, has made it even more clear, what, as we call it, it has served like an X-ray, to show the fragilities and flaws of our systems. So that’s another message that we need to achieve the 2030 agenda, with full commitment and determination, if we want to save the planet and ensure no one is left behind.

The last point I want to make, and that’s really for our youngest 2030 class members, that you will shape the future of humanity by, not only what you embrace in your education institutions, but what you believe in. And as of now, we see very encouraging trends among the millennials, generation Z, they believe that we need equity, equitable distribution of resources, and we need to act collectively to save people, planet and pursue prosperity. So I’m not absolving ourselves of responsibility, but we’re looking towards your generation to make this shift happen.

And once again, I want to commend Investec for this initiative, and looking forward to meet with all of you in nine years. Hopefully we’ll have a lot to share at that time, in terms of progress toward the 2030 agenda. When I ask students, what keeps you awake at night? This is what they identify as issues that they think about.

Let’s move onto the slide which shows how deeply connected the SDGs are and the six that you have chosen, actually, those could have multiplied effects on the completion of other SDGs.

Next slide. This is what I wanted to share with you, the foundation is the biosphere, then society has to be stable, functional, and then economy. So this is a very powerful depiction of people, planet and prosperity.

And one more, which is about connections. This is what I mentioned, we have a hundred and sixty-nine targets for the seventeen goals, and these are the connections among those targets, how closely knit the SDGs are.

Ryan Parkhurst: Thank you. Not sure if anybody’s got a question now. Otherwise, I’ve got a little question. Maybe you can explain a little bit, what it was like at the ratification of all of these; were you there? What was it like? What was the energy in the room like? Anybody of prominence was there. If you could explain that experience, that would be wonderful.

Navid Hanif: First, I mentioned, it took three years to agree on these goals; that required extensive, first of all, analytical work, and just a conversation among member States. And then, actual negotiations. It wasn’t easy, and that’s why I mentioned, we had to come up with seventeen goals to capture all dimensions of human existence and our pursuit for prosperity.

The moment these were adopted in the General Assembly Hall, in September 2015, it was a moment of jubilation and great promise; the world was coming together, all leaders were there with a deep commitment that we have to change our trajectory, we want to save our planet and get there. I think every prominent leader that I could think of, was there. In the GA Hall, we felt the energy and commitment to achieve. And one very striking thing, one of the leaders brought his grandchild to the signing of the SDGs, just to show this is not only for us, it’s for our future and the future of humanity.

So Ryan, it was an uplifting moment, and we started with great hopes, and commitment, and we haven’t lost it, we still believe this is the way humanity should progress, and this pandemic is a clear message, if we don’t do that... imagine if we were already enlisting in the health systems as agreed in the SDGs, we would not have been facing such serious consequences in many countries, if we had enlisted what we agreed to do.

So, great moment, but we still believe that, and as we saw in the G Hall, we see in many quarters of the world, and we just need to rally it and bring it together, and that’s what you are doing.

Ryan Parkhurst: Super. Thank you very much Mr Hanif.

Naomi, I’d like to bring you in here, I see your hand is, very politely, up; over to you.

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[20:34] The interconnectedness of the SDG framework

Naomi Schiff: Thank you. So I do actually have a question for Mr Hanif. It sounded to me, like there was quite a nice competitive atmosphere amongst the tutors; so I’d like to ask you, if you think there is an SDG that has a higher priority or, maybe, as your graph would have depicted, that, potentially, has more connections to other SDGs than other SDGs. I hope that made sense.

Navid Hanif: Naomi, excellent question. It’s very difficult to favour some of your children, right? So it’s a tough question to answer. But there are two challenges, which almost every leader brings, in his or her speech: that’s inequality and climate change. We should prioritise these, because, inequality, when you address it, it will address many SDGs.

The reason we are mentioning climate change, is because it’s happening faster than we expected, and inequality is disrupting societies in ways that we did not anticipate. So these are two challenges which are captured in the SDGs, but I would recommend we should show lots of energy and rigour in pursuing those.

Suresh Singh: That was a lovely talk, it was very sensitive and very beautifully projected. I just wanted to say to Malcolm, after that, because we’ve got climate change, there’s no competition; though we’ve got a hard thing to do, hey Malcolm?

Malcolm Preston: No worries, Suresh, we can nail that.

[22:18] The ratification of the SDGs in the General Assembly Hall in 2015

Malcolm: Might I just add to what Navid said about the signing and the feeling in the room; because I was very privileged to be right at the back of the room, in the back seats. What the thing is, to me, the most poignant moment was, they had Malala there; remember the Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban, and she was there representing with a hundred and ninety-three youth, representing the youth, and she was sitting in the gallery where I was, right at the back, and all the leaders were down at the front, and I don’t know if you remember this now, but it was a brilliant moment, because she started speaking with a microphone, and nobody could see her, because she wasn’t at the front, she was at the back, and she made every world leader turn around in their seat and look up at her, and it was such a powerful moment, to say, you’re in charge today, but it’s our future that is in your hands, and you need to take this seriously. It was such a powerful moment; it was absolutely brilliant.

So, Suresh, I’m looking forward to working with you on this, it’s going to be brilliant.

Navid Hanif: I’m glad you brought that up. You’re right, she was in the third gallery sitting high up there, but she really made an impact, and we felt it in the room, you’re so right.

Suresh: I was in the fifth gallery.

Navid Hanif: Thank you for bringing it up, thank you. A really high moment in global diplomacy, I must say, a very high moment.

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[23:45] Barriers to achieving the SDGs

Osa Mazwai: So Mr Hanif, thank you for the inspired, insightful words there. I think that it was quite positive to hear some of the more progressive stats that you gave to us, by country. But it’s no secret that there does seem to appear that there are quite significant barriers, and I think that, as a group, there’s also been a consensus that to achieve the SDGs, it should be a complete buy-in from everyone, and that doesn’t seem to be the case. And I’d also think that geopolitics should transcend such an important agenda item for human development. So given that we’ve got nine years to 2030, what is the shift in the paradigm, or in the thinking, that kind of makes us more optimistic about the kind of progress that we can see, whilst seeing us through to 2030? Thanks.

Navid Hanif: Ossa, we should have a conversation after this meeting, also. It’s a very deep question that you have raised. But let me talk to you about the moment we are in. For the first time in thirty years, poverty will go up, and then twenty million more people will become poorer. Hunger will go up. Incomes will go down, because of the pandemic.

Actually, in Latin America, in South America, their income level is already in the 2011 level, so they’re below 2015 baseline. So this is the moment we are going through in human history, modern history, I’m not talking about in the ’50s; because we saw significant progress since the ’90s.

So these are messages to all of us, that if people are excluded, just imagine millions of families in the developing world, and in some developed countries; their children, they will cease to live a middle class life. It’s a big loss for them, a generational loss, in terms of education, their chances of getting good jobs and having a good life. So this is, as I mentioned, the pandemic is also an eye-opener to us, that if we do not work collectively, there is a divergence coming our way; the developing world with even a greater gap than the developed world; but we live on one planet. The pressures on migration, the resentment among young people all over the world, you can’t just wish it away. It’s a very interconnected world. So I think the pandemic is sending a message, even more clearly, that we need to work together.

Now you ask me, geopolitics; well, we have seen a shift since January this year; more engagement, greater realisation, we have a common future to pursue. But at the same time, I don’t want to sound naïve. The geopolitical environment requires stronger leadership and collective action, and that’s what we are calling for, and appealing to every leader in the world. It’s very sad, three million people have already died. The pandemic is driving this point very strongly. If you do not vaccinate everyone in the world, you’re not safe. The virus will mutate, new strains will come, and your vaccines will be redundant.

So I think geopolitical shifts will not happen overnight, but things are improving since January this year. So let’s stay optimistic, but optimism can make you complacent, so that’s why we need to act, also, and that’s what you’re all about, that you’re all coming together to infuse new energy in your areas of influence in advancing towards the 2030 agenda.

Osa Mazwai: Thank you Mr Hanif.

Tanya dos Santos: So I think from Navid’s talk, and from the discussion, so far, you can see how interconnected all the SDGs are, and I am very happy to have a conversation with any of you, as you go through your journey, to discuss, which, I think, is the most prominent SDG.

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[28:41] Investec’s six core SDGs

Tanya dos Santos: But I do need to just let you know about how Investec came to their priority SDG. So we’ve already discussed how our strategy was looked at by geography, and we really looked at that interconnected nature between business, people, the economy, environment and communities. Our business strategy is based on the belief that we are not all things to all people, so Investec is not all things to all people, so we prioritised the seventeen SDGs, as I mentioned earlier, we have two core priority SDGs, which we believe are the most important socioeconomic issues facing the world today.

Firstly, climate change; secondly, inequality. Now, those are quite hard to impact, directly, so we then worked out, which ones can we, as a bank and a wealth manager, have the greatest impact, and that is our six core SDGs. And we wouldn’t be able to have done any of this, without the support of our leadership, and in particular our CEO, Fani Titi. Fani took this on, personally, he personally agreed to join the UN, he is one of only thirty CEOs around the world, that was invited to join the UN Global Investors for Sustainable Development, so we are very proud of this association, but we’re even more proud of Fani’s personal commitment to furthering these goals. So Fani over to you.

[30:14] Address by Fani Titi, Investec Group Chief Executive

Fani Titi: Thank you Tanya, and thank you Ryan. Let me just start off by thanking Navid and the UN, for the role that you play in marshalling the world towards the urgency that is required in dealing with the sustainable development goals. The UN has agency power, and the UN has convening power, and I think you have used that power to bring parties together, to bring countries together, leaders together, to bring different sectors of society, whether business, social elements of the countries that we live in, society as a whole, if I may say so. You’ve brought in, even the youth, as part of the drive towards achieving the sustainable development goals. So, thank you for prioritising human development as a central area of focus for the UN. Human development is possible, it is achievable, and it is doable.

[31:35] Fani’s personal story and passion for human development

Fani Titi: I stand here, in fact, sit here, with a sense of real possibility around what the SDGs can do.

Forty years ago, I lived in a shack in a small rural part of South Africa, with no real sense of hope about the future, and yet it was possible, even in those very challenged socioeconomic conditions, to break through and see the benefits of education, the benefits of economic participation, and as a consequence of it, we have been able to impact a broader society, through development. So it is doable, but for it to happen, we have to have a commitment, not only as countries, not only as businesses, not only as leaders, it will always take our collective action to make it happen, but at the end of the day, it will also require individual commitment, individual passion, and individual activism. So the collective cannot be without the participation of the individuals, the organisations that they represent, the countries they represent, the social courses that they care about. So it really is important that we continue to support the work of the United Nations in this most important of human endeavours.

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[33:17] The global effects of Covid-19

Fani Titi: We’ve obviously gone through a most challenging period over the last 15 months, where the world has faced the pandemic that is Covid-19. Obviously, the pandemic has indicated, once again, that the world is connected by the fact that the world is hugely unequal; we’re in a storm, we do not, necessarily, though, have the same resources to fight the storm. Those who live in poverty, and those who are affected more, by inequality, suffer the most. And Navid, you talked about the one area of connectedness of the world that is evidenced by the pandemic; the fact that the developed world has the resources to procure vaccines, but without dealing with the pandemic in poorer worlds, the expenditure on vaccines will come to naught, because if the pandemic continues to ravage the poorer countries of the world, because the world is connected, the mutations and variants will make the vaccines that have been developed at great effort and great cost, completely null and void. Climate change, equally, shows how connected the world is. So the pandemic, more than any other challenge we have faced in the last twelve, fifteen months, just indicates the urgency that the world has, to fight inequality, to fight injustices in society, no matter where we live, and no matter who we are.

So my central appeal, both, to the mentors, the teachers, the educators, and to the class of 2030, is that your role is significant in the effort to achieve the 2030 goals that have been set.

As I said, I grew up in poverty, so I’ve always cared about poverty, I’ve always seen the sheer possibility and opportunity, that comes out of pursuing human development, and what change that can make in the lives of families, in the lives of communities, in the lives of countries. That’s why, at a personal level, I have a burning passion and ambition to continue to get involved, to continue to use the power of Investec as an agent for change, to influence, not only policy, but to also use the resources that we have, to make a difference.

[36:12] UN Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) and financing the SDGs

Fani Titi: The reason I was excited when the UN formed the GISD, was that, as leading business leaders around the world, we could pool our resources, both in terms of capital, in terms of brainpower, in terms of influence, to bring the power of business to bare, on trying to accelerate the achievement of development of the sustainable development goals.

As Navid said, passion is important, planning and execution is important, and to do that, you require the wallet as well; and business can be a great facilitator of the flow of capital to support development.

At Investec, we have redefined our purpose as an organisation, we’ve always espoused the idea of living in society, and not off it. That’s why we’re a business, and as Tanya indicated, we’re not everything to everyone, that we are integral to the societies that we live in, and that we can make a difference. So we have redefined our purpose to that of creating an enduring worth. That we make decisions, not for today, but for generations to come.

I have a grandson who I have to think about, every single day, that the world I leave for him and for his generation is a better world, more equal world, a world that is healthier in terms of climate, and generally, that the planet is habitable for generations to come. So both at a personal level, and at an organisational level, at a societal level, and having grown up in South Africa, a society that is unequal, a society where development has been a critical need, for quite a long time; Investec remains passionate and committed, to playing its role in supporting sustainable development goals; core to who we are, core to our philosophies and values, and core to our commercial success. We do not see our commercial success as separate to the role we can play in society, that’s why we talk about creating an enduring worth. While I indicated that we need a sense of multi-lateralism, different elements of society, different countries, different stakeholders like business, unions, and employees, young people with their passion, impatience, with their energy, at the end of the day, it takes that collective effort for us to be able to achieve SDGs. But at the centre of it, is our individual commitment. We can play a positive role in creating a greener world, a more inclusive world, a more prosperous world.

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[39:30] Investec’s commitment to the Class of 2030

Fani Titi: So our goal, as Investec, is to support the societies in which we live, to support our clients in their activities, and through those activities, to impact society positively. If you look at Davos 2019, before covid hit, you will find that there was a great commitment from business as a whole, that we have to be active in supporting a greener world, in supporting the efforts against climate change with the capital that we have in our practices, as businesses. You will also see that there was a greater acceptance that capitalism has to be multistakeholder, as opposed to only focusing on profits and shareholders. Investec, fundamentally, believes in the power of capital as a positive force for impact in society.

As a consequence of this commitment that we have, we seek to find, in everything we do, significance, purpose and meaning, and on every day’s efforts that we expend, we have to say to ourselves, why do we exist? Could we make the world better, because we exist today? So I’m particularly proud and thankful and grateful, that we could bring these different parties together, the important stakeholders that we have around the table, and that we could, together, commit to making the next nine years the most meaningful, the most impactful nine years, towards the achievement of the sustainable development goals.

Investec will play its part, I will play my part, I know my colleagues who are on this call, will play their part. We extend our hand of partnership to all of you; let’s get this done. It’s urgent, we don’t have much time; if we don’t do something about it, the climate will take care of us, inequality and instability, equally, will take care of us. It’s time for action.

Thank you very much. Tanya, back to you. Ryan, back to you. Again, thank you so much, all.

[42:06] Closing

Tanya dos Santos: Thank you. And I can’t express, enough, how grateful I am, to both, Navid and Fani, for joining us today. Fani, such powerful words, and they’re the same words that inspire me and many of my colleagues, every single day. It truly is in our DNA, this is what drives many of us to do what we do.

And I think it would be remiss for me not to mention, in particular, that this whole class has been brought together by some very special people, coming from one of our business units, Investec Wealth and Investment, and their belief is that they have a responsibility to preserve and to grow wealth; but not just wealth, as you’ve heard, also, to grow worth. So we are seeing, first hand, in this business, how responsible investing and sustainability has become increasingly important for our clients and our stakeholders. And the irony is that this is largely due to that higher consciousness of the new generation, who want to have an impact beyond profit and capital, that is greater and is more meaningful.  
So while I started this conversation referring to this, being a journey, our first report was called, A Journey to Sustainability, I’m not happy with those words, this is not a journey, a journey implies that we still have some time, in fact, it implies that we still have plenty of time. This is not a journey. 2030 is nine years away. It is our responsibility to cross that generational divide that we’ve been hearing about, to align the degrees of urgency across generations, and to focus on taking action here and now.

So it’s not just a one generation’s story, and this is not just our classroom, this is, rather, the classroom of the world, and now is the time for the world to take this learning to a much higher level of ambition. And if you take it to the classroom environment, we’re failing at the moment, we’re below 40%; 60% is not good enough, 80% is not good enough. I challenge all of you, tutors and mentors, to aim for 100%, because that is what this class needs. We need to aim for lasting impact, that extends way beyond the 2030 graduation.

Thank you.

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