KEY CONCLUSIONS
New formats for sustainable
development must address a wide range of problems based on new values
“We need to think of
alternatives and shift towards a new, more sustainable formats. What we are
doing at Project Vertica is find solutions in five different areas of problems:
environmental issues, social problems, urban problems, where there is no connection
with nature, a lot of educational problems, and some aesthetic issues,” Simone
Rendeva, Founder, Project Vertica.
“We choose our values
through our actions. With everything we do, everything we choose to spend our
money on, we define what we stand for and the causes that we believe in. It is
a matter of responsible economic decisions,” Simone Rendeva, Founder, Project
Vertica.
“My mission is to rebuild
trust on the planet through financial transparency. The lack of trust is what
is going to put an end to the planet,” Gerardo Trevino, Chief Executive Officer
and Founder, Paybook.
It is necessary to leave
crisis management mode behind, and to build long-term projects for sustainable
development
“It is important that we
think in terms of a long-term goal. How do we want our cities to look years
from today? Otherwise we will be forced to live in a crisis management mode. We
better shoot for the stars so that we could at least get to the moon,” Simone
Rendeva, Founder, Project Vertica.
Traditional values must be
included in sustainable development programmes
“If we start thinking about
megatrends, I would like to talk, first of all, about the very human
nature-based megatrend: being married, getting a family, raising up children.
It could be a luxury thing for us in the modern Western world. We had talked to
the Under-Secretary-General before we started our session here, and he also
convinced us to go on with how we can deal with all kinds of megatrends,
starting from the point of view of the global population blow-up,” Halit Ünver,
Research Fellow, Institute for Applied Knowledge Processing.
Technology is an essential
element in achieving sustainable development goals
“We are all living in a huge
economic machinery, and this machinery sets us, individuals, to any function.
We are not sure what this function could be in the future, but what we are sure
about is that we cannot achieve world peace and global leadership if we do not
use technology. I want to think about us as the transformational leadership
programme for the 21st century,” Halit Ünver, Research Fellow,
Institute for Applied Knowledge Processing.
PROBLEMS
Climate change and the
collapse of natural ecosystems
“About 85% of the world’s
wetlands have already disappeared. Depending on where you live, between 40% and
80% of the water in your area is being used for the needs of conventional
agriculture. The current model that we are using is obviously not very sustainable,”
Simone Rendeva, Founder, Project Vertica.
“One of the challenges that
everyone talks about is climate change. Right now, we are thinking about
circular carbon economy,” Halit Ünver, Research Fellow, Institute for Applied
Knowledge Processing.
Disruption of the world
order created in 1945
“The world order is
agonizing. Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin built a
world order in 1945, and now we can see that the international world order is
changing. We see America putting itself first, we see China that wants to lead
the world, we see the division in Europe, and we see the greater influence of
Russia,” Teresa Astolfi, Head of the International Directorate, People’s Party
in the Congress of Deputies of the Kingdom of Spain.
“The world order of 1945 is
agonizing because global institutions seem to be in shock. The Fourth
Industrial Revolution is changing the way of life,” Teresa Astolfi, Head of the
International Directorate, People’s Party in the Congress of Deputies of the Kingdom
of Spain.
Lack of expansion of
sustainable development values
“We have not seen much will
for transparency from all over the world. Everybody is talking about
transparency and trust. It is not about technology; it is about values. Do we
really have the values, as a society, to deliver and adopt transparency?”
Gerardo Trevino, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Paybook.
SOLUTIONS
Actively promoting new
values; leading the formation of a new international order
“A new international order
is on the horizon. The young leaders must assume the leadership role in the
configuration of this new model. If we fail to do it, the result will be out of
our hands. I encourage you today to deliver and to take action,” Teresa
Astolfi, Head of the International Directorate, People’s Party in the Congress
of Deputies of the Kingdom of Spain.
Working in collaboration
with international organizations, governments and non-profits
“We cannot get very far
without the support of local governments, international organizations, and the
business. We are really looking forward to working and discussing with
community leaders, international organizations and politicians, to drafting out
programmes and policies to help facilitate this transformation,” Simone
Rendeva, Founder, Project Vertica.
Developing specific projects
“We created a platform to
deliver financial automation technologies to emerging markets, starting, for
example, in Latin America. <…> The transparency that we know today is
just a published report. We came up with the concept that we call augmented
transparency. It is the next generation of transparency, because we deliver the
information directly from the source of data without any single point of data
manipulation; we are replacing reports by live data. It is a new standard for
all organizations, including non-profits or even churches,” Gerardo Trevino,
Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Paybook.
“We gather one or two
hundred people for each game to clean up a certain area <...> Our Clean
Games are held in Russia; 300 cities have already participated. We organize
international games too,” Dmitry Ioffe, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Clean
Games.
Relying on like-minded
people for mutual support
“Our mission is to support
the projects, and to bring them to international level and to international
finance. We help entrepreneurs to grow and scale as quickly as possible. We
created a platform for young leaders, tech companies and investors to help them
understand each other,” Alena Yudina, Chief Executive Officer, Quantum Leap
Strategy AG
Using energy and potential
of young leaders
“Young age is an advantage.
Young people are not constrained within their past experiences. They are
generally more open by nature. It makes them more flexible, more creative.
<…> The way young people do things is different, and more productive and
more efficient sometimes,” Simone Rendeva, Founder, Project Vertica.
“Young age is what provides
energy to move forward,” Dmitry Ioffe, Chief Executive Officer and Founder,
Clean Games.
For more information, visit
the Roscongress Foundation’s Information and Analytical System at roscongress.org.
