Greetings from Lisbon, also known as the capital of ‘seven hills,’ where for the past few days almost the complete SDG Monitor team has been working together in the same space. This gathering marks the second time the team meets face-to-face since the launch in November and what better way to work than by spending a few days in the city currently holding the title of the 2020 European Green Capital Award winner (1).
Even though we have incorporated work-from-anywhere (WFA) culture into the strategy of SDG Monitor, we still believe that it brings motivation and energy to the team to meet physically and work together in the same space every once in a while. Therefore, the idea is that the team meets roughly every 3-4 months in a "hosting" city, which normally is the current home city of one of the team members. We call these meetings strategy days. Of course, these trips are not only about work but also to get to know the team outside the Zoom meeting room. We believe that it is very important to add a social aspect to our way of working, namely, that the team members can socialize with each other and this way enhance employee wellbeing, one of the most essential building blocks of SDG Monitor. Each strategy days - meeting has a main theme and a well planned schedule where each time slot has a topic or activity. We hope that by the end of the meeting, the main objective is achieved or at least progressing.
We consider ourselves lucky at the SDG Monitor that we have the opportunity to operate from any place in the world, allowing us to travel to inspiring cities such as Lisbon. In fact, as mentioned earlier, Lisbon was chosen the European Green Capital of 2020 (1). The city was chosen as it sets an example of how sustainability does not exclude economic growth also when considering that the city’s sustainability journey began during an economic crisis (1). Lisbon has many commitments with many impressive achievements. For example, the city reduced its energy consumption by 28% between 2012 and 2017 (1). Also, the target of a 40% reduction in carbon emissions set to year 2030 was already met in 2016 (1). Lisbon is also an interesting city for SDG Monitor as the city advocates for innovation and entrepreneurship. In 2015, Lisbon was named the European Entrepreneurship Region (1).
All in all, we were satisfied with the results of the strategy days this time around and with this blog post we wanted to share with you how a work week at SDG Monitor can look like when having a WFA culture at the work place!
Sources
(1) Sustain Europe. (28th Dec 2020) Lisbon European Green Capital 2020,