Among the upsides from a challenging year is the opportunity to progress initiatives to drive sustainability in the international mobility industry. FIDI’s 39 Club now plans to step up the action with some exciting new projects. Jackie Stouffer explains
While 2020 was, without doubt, a year of trials and challenges, it was – perhaps more importantly – a year of change. Change in our day-to-day personal lives, change in the way we approach our work, and change in how we plan to move forward in this ever evolving environment in which we now find ourselves.
Not all of the change we have endured in the past year may be something we want to hold on to, but I want to pause to reflect on a few of the positives that have happened over the past 12 months: people were able to see the peaks of the Himalayas for the first time in decades because of reduced air pollution (this is a pretty awesome change); many of us have increased flexibility in where and how we perform our work; and I think it is safe to say that we can all appreciate the little things in life a bit more than we may have done a year ago.
But it is useless to speak of changing for the better, unless there is also a plan to sustain this change. The three points mentioned above all have common ground in sustainability – in the environment, in your professional life, and in your personal life.
The goal of the FIDI 39 Club this year will be to promote and bring awareness of sustainability in every sense, ensuring that the upcoming generation of leaders in the moving industry are equipped and ready to bring forward positive, sustainable change to the FIDI community.
Leading up to the FIDI Conference in autumn 2021, the 39 Club plans to host a series of micro-events that focus on sustainability in all its forms – from promoting a healthy work-life balance, to ensuring a sustainable business plan, and driving forward a ‘Green Movement’ within the FIDI community.
The 39 Club believes that it is crucial to learn, adapt and evolve from all that the past year has brought. Teaching the upcoming generation of leaders how to incorporate the required flexibility and agility to adapt to continuously changing environments will be crucial to the future success of our industry.
These events will be run as a series of high-level interactive workshops, serving as a platform to discuss how sustainability can shape the future of a stronger moving and relocation industry. We will explore the transformative impact of sustainability on tender awards, financial liability, talent recruitment and retention, and how ‘design thinking’ can help us solve sustainability barriers in a practical and fast way.
Through these micro-events, followed by a hybrid 39 Club conference, we want to develop processes for a real-life challenge, and see how we can learn from other markets and be proactive, instead of reactive.
The 39 Club has already begun to take the first steps towards driving an industry green initiative, including creating a permanent Board position for the Global Green Initiative (GGI) Chair, as well as requesting the addition of green requirements to future FIDI Conference venues. More to come in the next FIDI Focus.
Pending the rollout of these micro-events, the 39 Club is also working towards the creation of an online column on the FIDI Focus website. This column will allow us to provide more frequent and up-to-date reports to members – as well as the FIDI community as a whole – than the traditional, print-only articles.
It’s looking up in 2021, and the 39 Club looks forward to guiding its members and FIDI Affiliates through a year of change!
