Partnership for Sustainability and Youth Engagement

SpareBank 1 Østlandet and Development Goals Forum: Partnership for Sustainability and Youth Engagement.

SpareBank 1 Østlandet wants to make the financial industry more sustainable in collaboration with the Development Goals Forum (DGF) and the Young Sustainable Impact (YSI) through the Innovation Programme.

The Innovation Programme is a two weeks project by DGF that brings young people and industries together to find sustainable solutions for real problems.

“What the bank wants out of the programme is to create a dialogue with bright, young people who can give us inspiration, advice on how we can get better, and feedback on what we do,” says Karoline Bakka Hjertø, Head of Sustainability at SpareBank 1 Østlandet.

The case for the programme is: How might SpareBank 1 Østlandet build tomorrow’s best value propositions through connecting green savings with a consumption-based and personalized CO₂ footprint platform?

The participants of the programme will solve the case facilitated by YSI and DGF.

Partnership for Sustainability SpareBank 1 Østlandet is devoted to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the SDG goal number 17 Partnership for the Goals. Hamsika Premkumar, the CEO of Development Goals Forum, shares her thoughts about the partnership, “SpareBank 1 Østlandet has excelled with a strong sustainability commitment, and we greatly appreciate having the bank as a partner.”

It is not the first time DGF partners with SpareBank 1 Østlandet. Last year, during the Development Goals Forum 2020, SpareBank 1 Østlandet and DGF worked together for the Innovation Camp. The previous case focused on innovation and concept development of the new mobile banking service for youth aged between 13 to 18.

Young People and Innovative Solutions The goal of the Innovation Programme is to promote youth engagement and cross-sectoral collaboration to build a sustainable future for all.

Young professionals offer a fresh outlook on problems, while established professionals have in-depth knowledge and experience to guide and advise the process. By bringing young professionals and companies together, the Innovation Programme allows for cross-generational collaboration that leads to an outside-a-box approach to finding solutions for a more sustainable world.

This year the programme has 16 young professionals from diverse educational and professional backgrounds that will come together to help SpareBank 1 Østlandet to find the right long-term solutions for the case.

The teams will present the solutions during the Development Goals Forum 2021, and 3 of them will win cash prizes.

Achieving sustainability goals demands collaboration from all sectors of society. The partnership with the bank is a way to involve young creative minds to collaborate and innovate on ideas to find solutions to sustainability goals. DGF brings the knowledge, network, and experience to foster innovation.