Discovery Experience: Thailand

Our first Discovery Experience was run in Thailand. Participants were taken on a facilitated journey that included visits to an industrial area to witness first hand the impact of industrial development and pollution on both the environment and local communities. From there the participants visited a coastal village suffering the effect of sea level rises, a business sponsored mangrove planting project aimed at restoring coastal biodiversity and to the best practice and the inspirational Evason resort. Impact partnered with NGOs to provide insight and real examples of how the corporate sector, government and NGOs are working together on sustainable development.

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DIscovery Experience: Singapore

Following Impact's involvement at the Business For the Environment Summit, this experience helped participants identify ways in which they could develop their businesses in an environmentally sustainable way. Participants explored some of the key environmental issues facing the world. Included in the journey was a visit to Pulau Ubin, one of Singapore’s last rural islands. Here participants learnt how business is working with NGOs and the government to conserve the island. They also heard from a multi-national pharmaceutical company about their project to protect the coastline and visited the Semekau landfill, the world’s first manmade “off-shore” landfill.

These visits were followed up with facilitated discussions to connect the experience with the real life business challenges that participants face, culminating in a vision session to transfer the ideas for sustainable development back to the workplace.

Discovery Experience: London, UK

Impact’s first UK Discovery Experience attracted a diverse range of organisations from Public, Private and Non Government sectors, and an equally wide range of participants responsible for HR, CSR, Internal Communications, Brand and Values. These included Premier Farnell, Sony, the Welsh Assembly Government, Save the Children, Simply Health and Sinclair Knight Merz.

The stimulating and thought-provoking programme helped individuals explore ways in which they could drive the sustainability agenda within their organisation. Fundamentally this was a programme about the participants working out for themselves and for their organisation how to make change happen to address the balance of People, Planet and Profit. The unique approach was based on dialogue, reflection and exploration rather than on ‘experts’ telling you either what do to or what to think.

During the two-day programme we had visitors from Sony, Veolio, E.ON, Salter Baxter, Giraffe Innovations and Impact who shared their thoughts, challenges and understanding of how they have tackled the sustainability agenda within their organisations.

In true Impact style we wanted to do things differently so we decided to ditch the normal and somewhat stuffy conference room for venues that supported social or environmental themes and spent time in city centre parks and cruising on the canals in central London.

Impact’s facilitators left the event feeling really inspired and excited about what they had achieved and how we could develop this offering for our clients. Above all, we learnt that linking sustainability and leadership in this unique format really works and makes sense to people.

Here are a few examples of what some of the participants had to say following the event:

“A great example of an organisation approaching things differently - so important if we are to effectively address the urgent global issues facing our planet"

"A challenging, thought provoking event that encouraged me to think about my own role in bringing about more sustainable practices"

“Practical experiences which were extremely useful in seeing how to talk the language on People, Planet, Profit”

“Clearer vision, clearer recognition of what sustainability means to me”

“So refreshing to attend a course where I am constantly asking myself what I can do differently and what it means to me”

All in all the Discovery Experience was a tremendous success, tackling a real, live issue that we believe many organisations are struggling with - bringing the sustainability agenda into the heart of the organisation by inspiring and influencing others to make change happen.

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