On 20 October 2020, IDEA Consult became a partner of CIFAL Flanders. This is a training and expertise centre recognised by the United Nations on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). CIFAL has supported IDEA in recent years in drawing up a sustainability strategy and realising concrete actions. This led to the presentation of the SDG Pioneer Certificate on Thursday 16 November.

Peter Wollaert, director of CIFAL, praised the anchoring of sustainability in IDEA's strategy and organisation, the concrete projects, the critical self-reflection and the ambition to further deepen the sustainability strategy. IDEA's projects are both internal (an employee welfare policy, a bee hotel, solar panels, green mobility...) and external towards clients. IDEA is also initiator of the SDG Monitor where Flemish municipalities can read their position towards the 17 SDGs based on some 100 indicators.

To be continued

The SDG Pioneer certificate is obviously not an end, but an intermediate step towards an even more consistent sustainability policy and towards the next phase of SDG Champion within a few years. Bart van Herck, managing director at IDEA: "In the coming years, we want to focus even more on sustainability, both internally and towards clients." This will translate concretely into:

• A structural embedding of sustainability in the IDEA training package to employees;
• Thinking through sustainability in the concrete projects to clients. For example, in future IDEA employees will consistently advocate the involvement of relevant stakeholders in projects;
• The preparation of an annual sustainability report in which employees, managers and clients can see how IDEA is progressing in terms of sustainability;
• The further expansion of services to organisations that want to become more sustainable. We guide seven welfare organisations in Brussels on sustainability. Several Flemish municipalities and cities are already running a Pioneer trajectory with IDEA and CIFAL - the city of Harelbeke has even already started the Champion phase - but we also want to encourage other public organisations to set a good example."

Bart Van Herck: "The choice to be a sustainable organisation is one made by the employees themselves. So a big thank you to all the colleagues and especially to our sustainability team".