What good is saving the planet if people are destroying people? How are we able to care for people and planet if we have weak, dysfunctional or non-functioning democractic systems of governance? If there is no profit, how do we meet our basic needs?
We’re out here trying to transform the world to the good, or at least to the better than it is right now. Life is one big experiment, full of complexities and challenges, and we’ve always been ready, willing and able to rise to those challenges. So many seeds we have sown. Now it’s harvest time!
We invite you to join us this autumn at Diversity Mindset 2025. It’s a 7-week virtual summit providing you with: the space to delve deeply into the challenges of today; the time to get to root issues; the joy of bulidning your global community; and the chance to develop fresh strategies that will support the wellbeing, not only of the planet, but also of ourselves, personally.
Rooted in the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental social governance (ESG), Diversity Mindset has been designed to bridge the gap between us change agents/ changemakers tending to occupy either the environmental or the social camp. It is a strange way for the concept of “separate but equal” to play out in our work. Of this, we will have no more! It’s time to come together as a unified whole.
Diversity Mindset does the unusual. In the same educational and community space, environmental(ists) and social(ists) gather to create greater integrity within the ESG movement. Diversity Mindset does not reflect an ordinary approach to diversity. No indeed it does not. It reflects Abundant Sun’s dedication to bringing people together, from across our sustainable development aisles. We are constantly on the lookout for people who have the energy, the will, the gumption and the skill to find breakthrough ways of feeling, thinking and acting that will bring about real and substantial sustainable development improvements.
20 years ago, Abundant Sun designed, hosted and facilitated Diversity Mindset 2005. Goodness gracious, that was only one year after the advent of online global social media platforms. Times were different then. A little less complicated. A little slower. A little more peaceful. A little kinder. A lot more personal and personable. And still today, much of what we were trying to achieve by way of social justice and environmental sustainability has not been achieved. Some argue things have gone backwards and gotten worse. Yet, we remain hopeful.
Since 2005, we have continued to do our part of bringing together, where we have been able, ESG professionals, with a specific view of uniting the Es and the Ss. And as far as governance goes, we have kept our own on democratization, rather than just on corporate reporting and accountability practices. Much of this is covered in Jude’s book Dismantling Diversity Management: Introducing an ethical performance improvement campaign.
We have been hitting some serious bumps in the road, and now it’s time for us to pull over and take a rest break. We must figure some stuff out. To do that we need to slow down, afford ourselves the time and give ourselves permission to (re)acquaint ourselves with hope, happiness and pathways to a brighter future.
We believe that great things emerge when we bring great people together. The exciting thing is, we never know what’s going to happen when we do. This is creativity in motion and innovation in the making! We always trust the results will be inspiring and reassuring.
Check out our Diversity Mindset All-stars to get a flavour of the themes we will be covering, and weaving together. It will be taking place virtually over a 7-week period (29 October – 10 December). You’ll participate in 2-hour sessions during this time. If you cannot attend all the 7 sessions, fear not! We’ll be recording the presentations and posting them up on Abundant Sun’s JuJuBee platform. From there you can watch playbacks and re-runs as well.
For those of you up for an enhanced journey, there is also the possiblity of working together with our All-stars in a 2026 colab. This will run from January – June 2026 and provide us all with the chance to devise and work together on strategic initiatives that advance our cause. We need to get things done better, and we need to do this together.
Get your tickets here: https://diversitymindset.net/#tickets. Also, please know that we are doing this out of service. As community organisers skilled at collective action, we do this to help us all move mountains. Money is not our objective. So, if you are really eager to be involved, and find that the economics of the ticket price makes it difficult for you, then just let us know. There’s always a way around this. Don’t discount yourself, let us discount you! Don’t be shy. Get in touch, and we’ll adjust.
As we lead up to Diversity Mindset, we also invite you to grab a free ticket to a Wise About Life keynote conversation between Dr. Jude Smith Rachele & John Elkington – The Godfather of Sustainability. Jude and John discuss all the topics that we will have the privilege of spending time reflecting upon, discussing, and strategising around. Here is a link for you to secure your free spot: Register Here.
This article ‘A Brief History of Corporate Social Responsibility’ describes how business ethics is nothing new under the sun:
“The history of corporate social responsibility is one that actually spans over two centuries. This involves everything from philanthropic responsibility to environmental sustainability and all the intra-company workings in between, such as ethical labor practices. “
72 years ago, back in 1953, the phrase corporate social responsibility (CSR) was coined by American Economist Howard R. Bowen in his book Social Responsibilites of the Businessman. But thoughts and practices had long before this been in play, without the name and the acryonym. We’re all for less talking and more playing!
The past 20 years have been frought. We’ve had some wins, and yet overall, in the large scheme of things, it appears as though we’ve lost some ground. Let’s make the next century something to be proud of! We look forward to collaborating with you in 2025 and beyond.