Sustainability Charter of the Azores
20-11-2020
The Sustainability Charter of the Azores is a Government initiative that has the mission to be an agent of change for sustainable development in the Azores through the dissemination, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the Sustainable Development Goals and encouraging the collaboration and formation of partnerships. It is a local action, with a global impact. Subscribing to the Charter is to undertake a public commitment with a responsible and transparent management, guided by the implementation of the sustainable development goals, with the eyes set in the future. With the government support, each regional organization, company and NGO that aims to subscribe the Charter, has free access to Forums, sustainability consultation and Workshops, where a specialized team guides them on how they can align their strategies as well as measure and manage their contribution to the SDGs. The Subscribing Workshops, that took place in every island, a specialized sustainability team and the Azores DMO, helps regional tourism (and other) companies and organizations to understand what are the SDGs and how integrating the SDGs in their core business will enhance the value of their corporate sustainability, and will help them discover new growth opportunities and lower their risk profiles, capitalizing a range of benefits. Since 2017 we could witness to a growing project. In the first public session of the Sustainability Charter of the Azores, 45 local companies voluntarily subscribed to the charter, identifying three annual public commitments aligned with the SDGs. In 2019 we can count with more than one hundred subscribers, which translates in more than three hundred sustainable public commitments. This is collaborative approach that involves a wide net of local stakeholders and the local community, working together to bring benefits to the environment and society, involving all aboard in this ship, sailing towards the sustainable future of the Azores.