With a passionate crew unfold throughout the globe, our imaginative and prescient is all about fostering a extra related and compassionate world by means of transformative worldwide experiences… AND to attain this imaginative and prescient sustainably.
Honeybee Management
Based on analysis by Harvard Enterprise Faculty, corporations with sturdy sustainability practices outperform their friends by way of monetary efficiency, danger mitigation, and buyer loyalty.
A examine of two,250 world corporations discovered that these specializing in sustainability had a 46% increased return on fairness in comparison with their opponents.
So, it seems, doing good can be good enterprise! In 2023, we had a Sustainable Management evaluation carried out by the Institute for Sustainable Management. This Institute evaluates corporations to see if their operational and strategic practices are “honeybee” (sustainable) or “locust” (not sustainable). Based on the report, CIS Overseas runs as a honeybee firm. So, it seems, doing good can be good enterprise.
Integrating the UN SDGs into Operations
One space we wished to enhance on was to combine the UN Sustainable Growth Objectives (UN SDGs) into our technique. In 2023 we signed the CANIE (Local weather Motion Community for Worldwide Training) Accord and dedicated to a five-year plan. A CIS Overseas worker advised that we create a part-time place to maintain us accountable to this plan and protecting us accountable and we carried out this nice thought.
This employees place has allowed us to map our operations to the UN SDGs by adapting the Discussion board on Training Overseas’s rubric. The evaluation confirmed that our operations are aligned strongly with 5 of the targets:
- #3: Good Well being & Properly-being
- #4: High quality Training
- #5: Gender Equality
- #8: Respectable Work & Financial Development
- #10: Diminished Inequalities
Now we’re growing a quarterly monitoring system and specializing in areas for enchancment to attain the best impression.
Revolutionary Applications and Scholarships
Our sustainability initiatives are pushed by the assumption that worldwide experiences can empower college students to create a optimistic world impression. We’re not simply sending college students overseas; we’re creating change-makers.
Our “Inexperienced Campus” analysis device assesses our worldwide accomplice establishments based mostly on their dedication to sustainability. We function high performers on our web site, serving to college students and advisors select places that prioritize sustainable practices. As well as, our “Go Inexperienced Scholarship” incentivizes college students to volunteer and be part of campus golf equipment whereas overseas, and take part in significant actions in the direction of fostering environmental and cultural stewardship.
Empowering College students with Sustainable Residing Guides
“Sustainability” is now a searchable tutorial space on our web site, so college students and advisors can discover related coursework overseas. There are on-site guides for every of our places, that includes a sustainability part that lists native water consumption traits, recycling strategies, transportation choices, and locations to buy native meals and classic clothes. College students have the instruments to dwell extra sustainably whereas of their host communities.
Selling Sustainability Via Outreach and Training
We try to share our work so others can profit from the rubrics and programs we create. We communicate at worldwide conferences, collaborate on periods, and host blogs on our web site. We preserve sustainability matters on the forefront of inside discussions by means of displays, retreats, and brainstorming periods.
In Early August, our employees gathered for our annual retreat in our dwelling workplace in a refurbished manufacturing facility constructing in Massachusetts, the place we use LED bulbs and bamboo bathroom paper, supply regionally for all meals, reduce single-use plastics, and study from each other tips on how to dwell in the direction of our imaginative and prescient.
Via these initiatives, we hope to introduce scaleable change for our area, have enjoyable alongside the best way, and assist others to observe go well with. Be a part of us!
In regards to the creator: Kris is President & CEO of CIS Overseas, an progressive schooling overseas firm devoted to making a extra related and compassionate world. Kris entered the sphere 17 years in the past from the non-profit growth world, holds a MPH from the College of Michigan, and served as a group well being agent within the Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa. She is the creator of a best-selling private ethnography based mostly on her Peace Corps expertise, and co-author of a memoir of a Holocaust survivor. She is a founding board member of the World Management League. Her two grownup kids had no alternative however to go overseas and have studied and volunteered in 9 nations. She deeply believes within the transformational energy of worldwide experiences.
