29 SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities – Team 32

Team Reflection
We believe businesses have a significant role to play in contributing to social good by integrating sustainable practices, addressing social needs, empowering communities, advocating for responsible consumption, and driving innovation for positive impact. Businesses have the power to employ people in order to reduce poverty and that would lead to less crime and making communities safe. By businesses giving back to communities it is also known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and we believe that by businesses doing this and other types of contributions as seen in our COIL experience can lead to less unemployment, less crime, increase in economic growth and thus would make people live in safer, sustainable, resilient and inclusive settlements.
These businesses demonstrate how their activities and initiatives can lead to social good in terms of a variety of Sustainable Development Goals. In our case we analyzed how they contributed to SDG 11 by promoting sustainable infrastructure, enhancing access to essential services, reducing environmental impact, advocating for responsible consumption, and encouraging eco-friendly transportation. We noted that by integrating these efforts into their business operations, they contribute to building more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and communities.
As a group of university students interested in a sustainable future and that may become aspiring business owners, we are truly motivated by the stories we read on the AIM2Flourish page to have our own businesses to help empower communities and integrate economic, social and environmental issues to help reach the main focus of SDG goal 11, which is to make human settlements inclusive, safe and sustainable. This action will lead to an increase in profit margins for businesses and also reach the SDG goal 11.
From the stories we read, they provided us with a good sense of how a business is maintained and how it is controlled and we have learned some few things that can help us sometime when we have our own businesses in future. Their innovation, vision and mission statement gave us a clear description of the business without going further into detail was one of the effects we loved and learnt.
From our academic background, these stories definitely meet the assumption of what businesses should do, they provide an honest illustration of how businesses can align with the principles of the Triple Bottom Line and Corporate Social Responsibility. These stories demonstrate how businesses prioritize all three dimensions to achieve sustainable success. Initiatives such as providing free medical services, promoting environmental conservation and empowering marginalized groups reflect a commitment to social well-being.
We do believe that these examples will encourage us to seek out opportunities to integrate sustainability and social responsibility into our future careers, whether by advocating for change within existing organizations or by launching our own ventures dedicated to addressing pressing global challenges. These stories can empower us to envision a future where business serves as a force for good, driving meaningful change and contributing to a more sustainable and equitable world.
This cross-cultural experience made us get a deeper and realistic understanding and appreciation for the diverse ways in which businesses can contribute to social good while respecting local customs and traditions. It verified the knowledge we already had of how businesses approach sustainability based on the cultures in that specific country.
As a team, we made a concerted effort to recognize the various time zones and endeavored to arrange our meetings at times convenient for all members. In these meetings, tasks were allocated among team members to be completed individually. Nevertheless, we reached out to one another in order to ask questions on tasks to be completed if there was a misunderstanding. Despite each member working independently, there was a notable synergy resulting from the team’s collective contributions. We managed to complete each task successfully in a way that everyone in the group contributed to some part of the assignments.
In conclusion, our collaborative exploration of businesses contributing to our SDG through the AIM2Flourish platform significantly deepened our understanding of the intersection between business operations and sustainable development. This experience has been profoundly enriching, connecting directly to our academic knowledge on sustainability and corporate accountability. The stories we encountered were sometimes surprising, presenting innovative approaches that exceeded our assumptions of what businesses could achieve in terms of social responsibility. These revelations challenged us to think more critically about the role of businesses in society and the potential for enterprises to be a catalyst for positive change, especially concerning SDG 11’s objectives.
Our academic journey has laid a solid foundation, but engaging with real-world examples through this project has provided a practical perspective that will undoubtedly influence our professional paths. We leave this experience more aware, inspired, and prepared to use business as a force for good, leveraging the triple bottom line framework not just as an academic concept but as a guiding principle for future ventures. This cross-cultural team project has been a pivotal step in our journey towards becoming responsible business leaders committed to sustainable development and social equity.

Individual Reflections
● Vanessa
Participating in this virtual team project was an experience unlike any other group project I’ve been a part of before. I have always worked in team settings, but the dynamic here, as we were from different universities across various time zones, brought a new and exciting dimension to collaboration that I hadn’t experienced before. I was delighted to find our group to be extremely communicative and responsive. There was a constant flow of interaction within our group chat, which greatly motivated me. Inspired by our collective energy, I found myself eager to contribute, taking the initiative to organize meetings that suited everyone’s schedules across different time zones.
I have nothing but good things to say about my teammates. Lazaro, from my home university, was in constant communication with me, and we worked together seamlessly to produce our best work. Anele and Sizwe were also amazingly kind and helpful with their constant communication and readiness to collaborate. I believe I really enjoyed this work because of them and their disposition to accommodate everyone’s contributions and to assist with the project submissions. This team experience helped me see that with good communication and a shared commitment we can manage the challenges of cross-cultural dynamics and working across multiple time zones.

● Anele
At first, I was nervous. I remember during the first call I had with my group members, I could not keep my camera on for a long time as I was still shy even during the second meeting I had with them I was still shy. However, one of our team members, Vannessa, took up the role voluntarily of leading the team and that created a comfortable space where I was then able to come out of my shell. I now look forward to group calls with my team members. The shyness disappeared and can now go as far as texting some of my team members on their inbox.
Aside from feeling nervous and shy, I was also worried about possible communication barriers, as much as we would be using English I was mostly concerned about the different accents and pronunciations of words and how that can affect how we convey and receive the message, luckily I haven’t had any challenges with understanding my team members and I think everyone is mindful of how they speak and go to the extent of using simple English. In terms of holidays such as the recent Easter celebration, no one was offended by that. Taking into consideration of course the different beliefs we all have, we were disciplined enough to have our group call despite travelling to different locations for the holiday.
I don’t have many challenges regarding the time zone, except the scheduled time for the meeting is usually late in the afternoon in South Africa where I’m mostly exhausted from classes, however that has taught me to work around my energy levels and to be understanding that the time might not be convenient for me but can be for my other team mates in all this taught me to be considerate.

● Sizwe
Before the general meeting where every member of COIL was attending, I was so nervous and anxious. I was scared of the fact that we had to meet via video call and speak to everyone across different countries and we had to use English to communicate and English can differ to other countries and also the fact that I am not fluent in English made me doubt myself. So we were divided into groups and I was so scared to talk, even to switch the camera on, but my group members made it easy for me, I even enjoyed the meeting. So we decided to meet every Wednesday and I always get excited to meet my fellow group members, they became my happy place where we would just talk, take pictures, divide the work and casually check up on each other. I can now call them my friends from around the world. My team leader, Vannessa, who volunteered to be the group leader, is the true definition of a leader. She made it easy for everyone to engage as she was kind and patient. I remember there was this task we had to do and I was so afraid to ask for help, but I finally had the guts to ask Vannessa and Anele to help me and they gladly helped me understand. Honestly there is no other group I would prefer than this one.

References
Rendtorff, J.D. (2019), “Sustainability and Business Ethics in a Global Society”, Philosophy of Management and Sustainability: Rethinking Business Ethics and Social Responsibility in Sustainable Development, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 19-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-453-920191002

(2017, November 9). YouTube: Home. Retrieved April 3, 2024, from https://enactus.org/category/enactus-programs/