SPHERA and the Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainability and regeneration are important and integral values at SPHERA; these pillars strongly influence any decisions we make both in our projects and with regards to our team, always taking into consideration the environmental, social and economic factors at play. In this way, we seek balance and the greatest possible positive impact. This motivates us to work with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to amplify this positive impact.
The SDGs as indicators for sustainability
The SDGs were established in 2015 with a 17 goal agenda, all interconnected with the participation of the 193 members of the United Nations, who are expected to take action in the face of climate change and inequity. This agenda, known as the 2030 Agenda, is intended to serve as a guide to protect the planet and prioritize well-being for 2030. (Howard-Grenville, et al., 2019).
The SDGs, together with the 2030 agenda, aren’t only a guide for governments, but for every person on the planet. We all play an important role, both as individual people as well as companies and organizations in public and private sectors. Businesses should not only be contributing, but leading this actions.
The SDGs aren’t the first guidelines to address matters related to sustainable development; they stem from a number of UN Climate Change Conferences, the UN Global Impact and the UN Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and developed through looking for initiatives and suggestions that were left unaddressed.
“Sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
The SDG Agenda at SPHERA
At SPHERA, we are motivated to work with the SDG agenda in order to align ourselves with these efforts, and thus, better understand how these local efforts can generate the synergies that are required for a global collective effort.
The Sustainable Development Goals that we most implement at SPHERA are: Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, and Sustainable Cities and Communities.
SDG #3: Good Health and Well-being
SPHERA fosters this goal by offering flexible schedules with different entry hours alongside the Let My People Go Surfing policy, which seeks to promote more balance between life and work. This policy comes from the idea of being able to go surf when there is a good wave and reorganize the work day around this. This has been a part of SPHERA since day one.
Much of our focus on wellbeing is directed towards our office facilities. We’ve installed bike racks and showers to encourage exercising during business hours, we have ultra-filtered water and organic fruit that is delivered to the office every week, a large plant wall, a lot of natural lighting and outside views. Additionally, we have sensors to measure indoor air quality and use B Corp certified organic products to clean, checking that that they have low count for volatile organic compounds.
Our office is LEED Platinum certified, which is the highest level for LEED version 4. We were among the first in the region to obtain this certification level.
SDG # 4 Quality Education
At SPHERA we work on the Quality Education SDG from the inside out. One of our priorities is to budget a yearly amount for each team member to pursue professional development and education opportunities in different areas of interest related to our mission and work.
We also organize a recurring program that is open to the public called ‘Rush Hour.’ Here, we invite different people to give a presentation or take part in a panel in their area of expertise, usually related to sustainability and regeneration from different work fields. Our intention with these Rush Hours is to learn something new, generate conversations about things that feel important to us and create a sense of community and connection.
Through SPHERA Learning Center, our blog, our goal is to constantly incorporate different ideas, concepts and resources - some resources created by us, others tools that we have used over the years and we think are very valuable to share. The idea is that it continues to grow as a space to promote the exchange of ideas and tools to facilitate sustainable processes that go beyond the specific projects that we work on.
SDG #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
This sustainable development goal is our starting point for all of our services at SPHERA. Here is where we ensure that the designs and operations of buildings promote improved changes at small and large scale. Over time, we have been able to identify certain trends and strategies that have been contributing to better buildings and constructions.
Our focus on sustainable cities and communities has different approaches with regards to project recommendations and strategies. We first study the context to better understand the environmental and community oriented priorities of any given site. Second, we make sure that the jobs and people involved have fair pay and corresponding insurances. Third, the technical aspects of the recommendations we provide are concrete solutions based on science and specialized digital tools that serve to support the project goals.
We also work on certification processes, such as LEED, EDGE, LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE, WELL, and TRUE, which are external systems used to evaluate the design of a project, the proper use of materials with low environmental impact, and later on, the performance and consumption of a project on a day-to-day basis.
Lastly, and just as importantly, we make it a priority to be in constant collaboration with community projects.
Measuring Impact
Currently, there are several tools to measure the implementation and compliance with the SDGs. B Lab’s SDG Action Manager is one of them. This tool, created by B Lab and the United Nations Global Impact, allows companies of all sizes and anywhere in the world to measure and improve their progress and commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals.
The SDG Action Manager is a tool for establishing a starting point, understanding and measuring impact, and lastly, establishing goals and monitoring improvements that are related to the challenges facing humanity in this decade. It works in the same way as the B Impact Assessment, confidential and free to access.
Using the SDG Action manager helps to understand what kind of actions can be carried out by connecting the mission of the company with the SDGs with which it is most aligned. Beyond working on every SDG on all levels, what’s important is to understand what is already being carried out and how it can be done in a better way. In other words, companies have the choice, stemming from the evaluation, to build out their priorities in the short and long term.
Overview
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as a guide to better understand how we can protect the planet and prioritize well-being as goals towards 2030. At SPHERA, we are motivated to work with the SDG agenda to better understand how our local efforts can contribute to this global work and also amplify the positive impact we can have as a company. The Sustainable Development Goals that we work with at SPHERA are: Health and Well-being, Quality Education, and Sustainable Cities and Communities.