Me and My Research
Responsible Communications for Sustainable Development
I am standing at the crossroads between communications best practice and sustainability best practice. Hoping to weave a strong connection between the two, allowing all stakeholders to be informed of the impact that their decisions have on sustainable development.
Bridging these two sectors, allowing them to build on each other’s strengths, will provide deep insight into how the SDGs relate to one another, to society, and to organisations - and ultimately provide individuals and organisation with actionable insights into how to improve this impact. The SDG framework was initially developed to track progress on a national and international level. My solution bridges the gap between global impact and the impact that happens in people's everyday work and personal lives in a systematic and programmatic manner - whether through better informing the decision made across the lifecycle of a project, or the choices we make staring at the supermarket shelves.
Serintago, my AI driven platform, brings together the SDGs - in all their dimensions - and a suite of tools to manage projects, funds, and larger organisational related initiatives such as annual and sustainability report production. It aims to do so in a way that re-uses and exposes data points to allow consumers and decision makers alike to better understand the impact of the companies they source from, the impact of the individual product or service they sourced, and the overall impact of the choices they make in their lives.
About Me
The following section focuses on a broader overview of the past 10 years, to focus on my research in the last 5 years and Sertintago, please see the 'My Research' tab above.
I explored the many facets of visual communications throughout the years. In high school I chose to specialise in visual communications, not pursuing higher education for a master’s degree until much later. That being said, I started working on a freelance basis and was co-awarded the prize for best conference poster at 18 - this poster showcased academic research in public health. Another big win for a young budding entrepreneur.
I have always loved the arts; alongside photography and design I also enjoy playing music and sketching - whether it be illustrations of a landscape or a UI prototype for the app I am developing. I am also a big nature lover, having grown up amongst one of France's largest, managed forests. I have always taken great care with nature, always striving to better inform myself on sustainable practices and more responsible choices. I often found myself exploring the wonders this world and mother nature has to offer. Whether late into the night when I give astrophotography a try, or early into the morning when I need a morning sunrise on top of a mountain, you are usually quite likely to find me basking in the great outdoors during my free time.
As a testimony to my work this person recently revealed to me that my work and strategy remain in use years later. When COVID hit I saw an opportunity to step away from the corporate world and help establish some local businesses' online presence. Wanting to later expand my services I chose to pursue a master’s degree in management and digital communications.
You can head over the to 'My Research' tab above and find out about the reasoning and evidence behind Serintago's approach to sustainability management. As I validate the prototype and MVP I will be sharing more insights into my 'Go-to-Market' journey, and the value and insights that Serintago is able to provide to organisations and individuals.
About My Research
This section focuses on research conducted in the last 4-5 years. This section relates mostly to Serintago and provides evidence justifying how and why Sarintago is beeing develloped
I still remember my first introduction to the SDGs, my school was hosting a Model United Nations Conference and, during my research, I had come across the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and the SDG Framework. At this moment I wasn't fully aware of the extent of them, not even having come across the indicators which were published later, let alone did I understand the breadth of impact and importance these 17 goals would play in (my) life.
Beyond my initial introduction, I didn't get much opportunity to learn about the SDGs until much later. In the meanwhile, I had somewhat vaguely tried to incorporate them into my ways of thinking, on a very high level. When I started working at INSEAD things changed. First during my internships, where I discovered the world of academic research, and had my first look at sustainability focus research papers. From this point onwards I started integrating much higher-level knowledge of sustainability and business.
After my internship I continued researching and reading sustainability focused journal articles, and I discovered the work of the UNGC and other supra national organisations aiming to translate sustainability and SDG concepts into actionable insights for businesses and individuals. I discovered the full extent of the SDGs and the beauty hidden of their structure and framework. I began to seem more than goals, targets, and indicators; I began seeing links amongst the goals, interdependencies which I later started researching in more depth.
There are some notable sources that have been points of reference in my work over the past few years. Some notable sources and foundational research to the concepts that have enabled me to create Serintago, and devise a comprehensive approach to communicating sustainability without compromising on the integrity and intricacies of the framework:
- A/RES/70/1 (2015) - UN,
The 2030 Agenda itself;
- Map the interactions between the Sustainable Development Goals (2016) - Nilsson et al.
This was a call for research urging people to map the interactions between the goals, exposing the importance that approaching these goals in a certain way can either set off vicious or virtuous cycles;
- A/RES/71/3 (2017) - UN,
The approved list of indicators, further refining and providing deeper insight into how to achieve the goals, more actionable than before;
- Energy and the Sustainable Development Goals (2018) - Nerinin et al.,
This was the first piece of research (not the best) that I came across that used an industry as an example to understand and expose relationships and interactions between the Goals on a Target level;
- Localisation of SDGs through Disaggregation of KPIs (2018) - Patole,
This research proposed an indicator level approach to providing better localisation for the SDGs, introducing the concept that the SDG framework could be expanded to provide localised progress measurement and not just national level, first introduction to the concept of using organisational KPIs as proxies to track progress of SDGs;
- Mapping interactions between the Sustainable Development Goals: Lessons Learned and Ways Forward (2018) - Nilsson et Al.,
Here again Nilsson leads the way in how to approach the interactions between the goals, further cementing the concept that virtuous and vicious cycles exist and should be carefully considered when tackling the goals, here the research also suggests the need for a web based SDG platform to help track research and progress;
- A Guide to SDG Interactions: from Science to Implementation (2019) - ICSU, UN,
Here the UN worked hand in hand with academics and practitioners to create a comprehensive and actionable guide for organisations to understand the impact of these interactions and how to consider them when creating and implementing their sustainability strategies;
- Expansion of Sustainability Science Needed for the SDGs (2019) - Messerli et al.,
This article calls for the need for more SDG related research, it solidifies the link between Indicators and organisational KPIs for the enabling localisation and providing evidence for the interactions between the goals;
- Interactions Among Sustainable Development Goals: Knowledge for Identifying Multipliers and Virtuous Cycles (2020) - Pham-Truffert et al.,
Here we have another piece exposing the lack of research and the need for more SDG focused knowledge, they expose need for better policies in order to get data and produce research especially when considering the need for sector or industry specific knowledge, they further enforce the need for a platform to enable these interactions to be exposed and be actionable to practitioners;
- Macro-Level Studies of Direct and Indirect Relationships Between SDG 4 and the 16 SDGs (2020) - Lawrence et al.,
Here we introduce the concept of direct and indirect relationships, helping people understand that the vicious and virtuous cycles explained earlier can be extrapolated across various levels of direct or indirect impact, this not only solidifies the concept but proposes an experimental way to quantify these relationships on a target level;
- Implementing a Data-Driven and SDG-Aligned Performance Reporting Structure in the Program Budget of a Dutch Municipality (2021) - Van Gaalen,
This student paper takes the research mentioned before and studies the implementation of various processes and reporting metrics to align localised KPIs with the SDGs, further proving the viability of the previously mentioned, theoretical approaches;
- Synergies and Trade-offs Among Sustainable Development Goals Across Boundaries in a Meta Coupled World (2021) - Zhao et al.,
This paper - while it may sound a little overwhelming at first - proposes an evidence based approach to quantifying interactions amongst the goals on a 7 point Likert scale and on an indicator level, it uses existing relationships (identical indicators) as a point of reference to justify and hint at the foundations of a metadata system for storing these interactions;
- SDG Localisation and Multi-Level Governance: Lessons Learned from the Basque Country (2021) - Simon et al.,
While this paper doesn't particularly discuss any interactions, it solidifies findings and answers questions exposed by previous research, it proposes a framework for better localised voluntary reporting that allows for a top-down strategy to promote bottom-up action;
- Improving the Scopus and Aurora Queries to Identify Research that Supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (2021) - Rivest et al., this wonderful article was produced in partnership with Elsevier, the aim was to create better queries and research algorithms that would allow for better classification and retrieval of research based on its relevance to a specific goal.
Beyond academic research there are several innovative sustainability reports (too numerous to list) that have contributed to how I have approached the SDGs in Serintago. Market, policy, and trend reports published by think tanks and other private research organisations have also served great purpose; alongside those offered by the UN Global Compact and other governmental and non-governmental agencies.
Furthermore wider research, relating to application development, business reporting and management, as well as various aspects of Sustainability management in general has been centre stage in recent years. While Serintago aims to bring all aspects of organisation management - from investment relations to individual asset and deliverable assessment - under one roof, there are many interactions to consider, including ones that haven't yet been researched.
This research has ultimately culminated in several short papers being written, ones that I will aim to turn into a thought leadership series in the coming year with more academic research referenced throughout. For the time being, I recommend reading any of the above research papers as they each provide their own novel and foundational insights into how we can all tackle Sustainable Development. Serintago is my approach, this research doesn't mean it's the best or the right approach, it only suggests (strongly I might add) that the processes I have been implementing, and will continue to develop and improve, are all evidence based steps in the right direction. My hope is that bringing these various trains of thought and research together through my application development and AI work in Serintago will result in a tool that can help everyone, from consumer to CEO to Ministers and Government Representatives to make better informed decisions.
Serintago is currently in development, a functional prototype is available for demonstration purposes, and MVP will be available shortly for testing and validation with industry partners and practitioners. Should you be interested in testing the MVP please see the 'Get in Touch' page to send me a message!