As we enter another month of lockdown, the Sustainable Goals can feel distant and quiet as the World focuses on the more immediate global situation at hand. However, it’s a good opportunity to look at other organisations that are working towards the same goals as us in order to sustain our motivation. One that really caught my attention was “Project Everyone”, this is an organisation whose mission is to bring about real change by 2030 in respect of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Their focus is largely based on the communications around the UN’s Sustainable Goals Project, working towards governmental change, driving discussions in the UN and, more importantly, keeping the entire mission alive and breathing, working behind the scenes and regularly updating their Social Media presence by offering support during the pandemic.
Of course, these are the same Sustainable Goals that we are working towards. The founders of Project Everyone are Gail Gallie, who has created campaigns for P&G, political parties and worked in marketing for the BBC. The other co-founder is Kate Garvey, who has worked in communication for the Paralympic Games, Live Earth, The Global Fund and also worked in politics. They are supported by SDG Advocate and filmmaker Richard Curtis (probably best known for writing and directing on films such as Notting Hill and Love Actually). Richard is also the name behind Comic Relief, something we all know and love as an annual celebration of ‘madness’, in the name of charity, here in the UK.
Most certainly a strong team of people!
They work with the UN, create campaigns, raise money and awareness. They support various active campaigns such as “Goalkeepers” founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, dedicated to accelerating progress towards the UN Global Goals. Alongside that, Project Everyone has called on the British Prime Minister to take a more conscious effort towards supporting the Sustainable Goals Project – sadly, the initiative to host the 2020 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow has had to be postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic.
Amongst the hard work happening behind the scenes, Project Everyone is doing a fantastic job keeping the public informed with missions, achievements and conversations around current topics.
For example, they managed to bring together a variety of famous faces in support of the goals who joined in to encourage more awareness and motivation. These faces included (the late) Stephen Hawking, David Attenborough, Jamie Oliver, Ed Sheeran and politically influential people such as Malala Yousafzai, who stands to increase quality education – see “We the People” YouTube video link below:
I remember when I became aware of the Global Goals Project back in 2017, they created a campaign where you chose a Sustainable Goal that you felt most passionate about and took a photograph of it. Through the power of Social Media, it didn’t take long before the Global Goals spread like wildfire and entered the public mindset. However, it’s difficult to maintain momentum in an ever-changing world. Fortunately, there are many companies such as Project Everyone, Global Goals, and our own What Can You Do (Earth) striving to maintain a finger on the ‘sustainability pulse’ over time.
The future feels uncertain for us, our children and the Planet. Covid-19 has taught us a lot about the importance of working together to battle something. It’s clear to me that the Global Goals can be our Golden Ticket ‘way out’ of the financially vulnerable situation we now find ourselves in. Global Goal 1, ‘No Poverty’ will be a common hardship we’ll face as a result of the lockdown. This could encourage countries to try to recover independently. But now, more than ever, we need to work together to tackle global poverty alongside all the other Global Goals.
Project Everyone projects a conscious business acumen, keeping current, conscious and purposeful in an operation that will take years to achieve. They have set their goal, 2030 which – can you believe it? – is only ten years away! It is powerful and necessary to have an inspiring goal at a time when there are opposing forces and deadlines, whether that be climate change, unnecessary infrastructure, animal extinction and so on. We should pay attention to organisations like Project Everyone, they are what they say they are:
‘A project for everyone’.
It is more than a glimmer of hope, it is an influential team trailblazing towards a brighter future. It’s organisations like this that provide the motivation whilst we navigate our way out of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
News-flash: We are excited that our “WCYDo App” (What Can You Do) will shortly become available to support you and your chosen Goal in a way that feels easy, doable and ultimately effective. Until then it’s inspiring to track the journey of people and projects such as ‘Project Everyone’.
We are grateful, excited and looking forward to what lies ahead.
Until the next blog, keep positive and continue to make healthy, and happy decisions for yourself and others!
If you have another project, team or person you know that is inspiring progress, please share with us.
Blog: Eliza Pitkin
May 2020
“tellus” is a Latin word meaning “Earth” e.g. Tellus Mater the ancient Roman Earth Mother Goddess
