What if we just made it simple?

One institution. One target. Five years. That’s it. After all sustainability is meant to be simple.

And then, what if we multiplied that one institution by 169,000?

That’s not the whole world. It’s just 0.01 percent of the academia, clinics, businesses, NGOs, youth programmes, councils, and cooperatives on the planet. But it’s enough.

Because change never starts with everyone. It starts with the few who choose to act, anyway.

I’ve spent the last two decades solving problems in places where no one was waiting for a UN roadmap. Schools trying to patch leaking roofs. SMEs juggling deadlines. Startups, clinics, and community groups just trying to make tomorrow work.

I’ve seen what happens when you give people systems they can actually use. And I’ve seen how quickly momentum spreads when action feels possible, practical, and real.

Let’s take a step back and consider the one key word, which so many individuals and institutions have struggled to define, so that it can be collectively or universally used across so many industry sectors. That one word is sustainability.

The difficulty in defining it across sectors stems from its deeply interdisciplinary nature, as well as political and economic interests that influence how it's interpreted.

So why is it so hard? Well, for number of reasons… 1. There are multiple competing priorities, 2. There are a lack of measurable standards, 3. There are always cultural and political interpretations, 4. There is ever the conflict between Short-term gains and Long-term thinking, and 5. It’s a moving target. What was considered sustainable 20 years ago (like biofuels or recycling) may no longer qualify today due to new evidence or unintended consequences. The goalposts shift as science, technology, and social awareness evolve.

Sustainability is hard to pin down because it’s more than a concept, it’s a negotiation between values, science, and power. It asks every industry to think beyond itself, beyond the present, and beyond profit. That makes it both essential and inconvenient.

If you're building anything that uses the word "sustainability," it’s worth defining it clearly for your own context — not just what it means, but what it requires.

So on that note…

What is Sustainability?

For the purpose of the 169to1 ecosystem, it was important to keep as simple but as effective as I possibly good. And so…

Sustainability is the process of living today,

so that tomorrow is protected.

That’s why I created 169 to 1.

Not as a campaign, but as a system rooted in clarity, structure, and honest follow-through. No fluff. No empty slogans. No performance indicators for vague intentions.

This isn’t about ticking boxes for global impact. It’s about making change visible, local, and measurable. It’s about doing it without spreading people too thin or burning them out.

Most global plans fail because they expect too much from too few. We are turning that around. We are asking just enough from enough people and giving them the tools to make it stick.

This is a personal journey for me, one that has spanned continents, and eight years in the making… better late than never.

The SDG generation

My daughter Daphne, like so many of the current generation; or as some same generation alpha, was born the same year as the SDGs. She’s ten now. By the end of this challenge, she’ll be fifteen. And one day, she’s going to ask me not just, “What did you do?” but, “Dad, how can I get involved?”

I want to give her a real answer. Something honest. Something that works. Something she can walk into and participate to build her future, and not just read about it.

That’s what this is. A starting point for a better legacy. One institution. One target. with Sixty months of real action.

No more waiting, no more wondering, but for one final thought…

The truth is… the world doesn’t need more awareness. It needs activation.

We don’t need a miracle; we need a method that we can rely on.

We don’t need 8 billion people to do everything; we just need 0.01% to do something: clearly, consistently, and courageously.

This is the math of hope. This is how we move from dead or dormant goals to living breathing action. From delay to actual delivery. Either way… the 169to1 initiative can deliver, for which the foundations are already in place. So, now it’s your move. So…

What’s stopping you from acting now?

Because history tells us…

It’s always the small things, done by ordinary people,  that end up building the world. And this world? Is still worth building. And who knows… maybe in 2031, I’ll be back here with you all, not to pitch a new idea, but to show you what one ripple became, and to invite you all to share your stories and your legacy for the future.

Thank you.