This page is the home base for the latest news on our sustainability projects in partnership with RadiciGroup.

May 2019: Our fourth project in partnership with RadiciGroup takes off!

Dear readers, I am glad and proud to announce a new project in collaboration with RadiciGroup.

Given the great results and accomplishments we gained the last year with the GYV SDGs Cup, we have decided to come up yet again with a competition among initiatives towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Almost 4 years have passed since the 2030 Agenda was established by the United Nations, in September 2015. Even though a lot of people in the world, from activists to leaders and entrepreneurs, are making great efforts to implement the UN Agenda, there is still a great deal of work to do. Even the largest efforts seem to never be enough!

As Millennials, we too have the responsibility to take care of our planet and take action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Through this new project, we at Global Young Voices hope to show support to the UN SDGs, as well as to anyone who is acting to achieve these goals.

Similarly to last year, the project will consist of a competition between young people committed to achieve one or more of the 17 SDGs. Their engagement can be based on projects, foundations, non-profit organizations, start-ups, the work of a single individual, groups of people and in general anyone who can provide us with valuable evidence of their commitment to the cause. This year, in order to give an innovative print to the competition, we will ask applicants to undergo an interview. But this is not the only new aspect of the competition… Stay tuned and discover all the surprises we have in store for you!

For more information, visit our dedicated page and if you find yourself satisfying the required criteria, do not hesitate to join the competition!

Sara Livio
Sustainability Project Marketing Manager

January 2018: After two successful years in a row, here is our third project in collaboration with RadiciGroup!

Dear readers, it’s with great pleasure and pride that I officially announce  that we will once again be collaborating with RadiciGroup to bring a third project to life.

Despite the great success of the previous projects, this year we decided to raise the stakes a little higher and come up with a completely new and exciting idea, always bearing in mind the importance of “sustainability” as our main focus.

Our experience, this past summer, with the Youth Assembly at the United Nations opened our eyes on a very important and ever increasingly urgent matter: the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2015, the UN set a list of 17 goals that aim at resolving the biggest social and economic development issues that aggravate the world. They include hunger, poverty, education, health, water, gender equality, sanitation, social justice, climate change and renewable energy. UN’s resolution consists in achieving all of these goals by the year 2030. It’s a very ambitious plan and time is already running out, but we strongly believe in the possibility of a better future, under all of these different points of view, and that’s why we at Global Young Voices want to show the world that there are people, young people like you and me, out there that are actually doing something to take a step closer to achieving these goals.

Therefore, with no further ado, I am excited to announce you that this year’s project will consist of a competition between young people who, through their work, aim at reaching one or more of the 17 SDGs. It can be projects, foundations, non-profit organizations, single people, groups of people, start-ups, anyone, as long as they can provide us with valuable evidence of their commitment to the cause. The aspiring applicants will have a span of time, that will go from February 9 to May 11, 2018, to send us a piece of writing and other multimedia content explaining the purpose of their work. After having collected all the applications, the content of the ones that will respect the parameters of the competition will be edited and then published on our social media platforms and on our website.

After that, the fate of the applicants’ stories will be in our readers’ hands; in fact, the one that will get the most likes by the end of August 2018 will automatically be the winner of the competition and will receive the monetary prize kindly offered by RadiciGroup. With that, we hope we’ll be able to help finance the winner’s initiative.

It’s a small step towards a big future, but nonetheless we want to show our support to the UNSDGs and use our voice to speak up for anyone who is taking action towards these goals. For more information, visit our dedicated page!

Marialuisa Aldeghi
Sustainability Project Marketing Manager

March 2017: The journey continues: Introducing our second project with RadiciGroup

I’m proud to announce to you, our readers, that a new project powered with RadiciGroup, is underway. Our first successful collaboration resulted in 12 meticulously written articles from 12 countries around the world. It only seems logical now that a second project is produced in line with GYV’s mission and under the same title, “Envisioning a sustainable future with youth.”

Young generations are now called to play a prime role in the transformation from the current predominant linear economy pattern, characterized by a “take, make and dispose” extractive industrial model, to a new sustainable business model based on the concept of circular economy.

Based on the idea that raising awareness among youth about their key role in the change of the business model is essential, we have decided to gear this project to shed light on the critical concepts of recycling, waste reduction and the circular economy.

To explain our way of considering the phenomenon of circular economy, I would like to quote The Huffington Post, which said in one of its articles on the circular economy, “Let’s assume you’re traveling at a set speed on a very, very long road, but one that does have an end. Assuming nothing else changes, you will eventually get to the end of the road. At that point, there is nowhere else to go. That is how a linear economy works. A linear economy is one that uses natural resources to produce goods. In contrast, a circular economy takes in goods at the end of their useful life cycle and uses them as the raw materials to either recreate them (like recycling paper) or new products (like tires becoming asphalt). When the ‘end’ is also the ‘beginning’ of another process, one can carry on infinitely, like a road that reconnects back to itself.”

The primary aim of our new project is to contribute to raising awareness among young generations about the fact that now is the time to embrace a new business model that is able to generate economic, natural and social capital.

To solve many of today’s fundamental challenges, it is crucial that this change in perspective takes place. GYV want to be paladin of this new way of thinking, living and doing business.

The project will consist of several national video reports focused on youth initiatives that put into practice the principles of circular economy and represent virtuous examples in the field of recycling and reduction of waste, starting May 2017.

Ready to imagine an economy in which today’s goods are tomorrow’s resources? Stay updated on the project by following us on our website and social media pages.  

- Alberto Curnis
Sustainability Project Lead

September 2016: Introduction to our first project with RadiciGroup

With great enthusiasm, we would like to inform you that in September 2016, Global Young Voices will launch a new project under the slogan "Envisioning a sustainable future with youth." The objective of this undertaking is to shed light on sustainability in all of its facets by reporting, from all around the world, on youths’ concrete activities, and lack thereof, directed at creating a more sustainable world.

The project was shaped in collaboration of RadiciGroup, an Italian company that operates in the chemical industry and that counts a strong international presence. RadiciGroup poses a lot of attention on sustainability and considers it "an important tool to foster business, innovation and corporate culture.” In this line, the company has decided to give concrete support to the project, which has the final objective of bringing youth closer to the concept of sustainability.

Global Young Voices’ mission is to bring forward informative content on issues tackled by the represented countries through the eyes of native youth. We are living in an era in which having at heart the well-being of future generations and tackling the misuse of resources have become priorities impelling us to immediate action. Thus, we consider the exploration of sustainability in all its forms of crucial importance to educate and sensitize young generations to the topic. We strongly feel that raising awareness on this topic will be the first step in the creation and adoption of a more sustainable lifestyle.

Therefore, "Envisioning a sustainable future with youth" springs from the ambition that the words written by young people will be able, (and this is the reason behind "sustainable"), to bring more and more young peers closer to the paradigm of sustainability.

Now, you will probably be wondering what this collaboration consists of concretely. The first phase of the project, from September 2016 to January 2017, consists of publishing a series of articles on the topic of sustainability, one every two weeks. They will be written by a selection of the best writers of Global Young Voices coming from different countries.

The project has a long-term vision, so this first activity will be followed by increasingly innovative and youthful initiatives that we will be kept a secret for the moment. For now, stay up to date by following us through our website and our social media pages!

- Alberto Curnis
Sustainability Project Lead