The Sustainable Goals Token
Problem
A key challenge in the WEB 3 space is that there is not a user-friendly, transparent way to invest towards impact driven businesses and track/verify their impact for support or through investments.
Solution
Developing a platform/token for impact investing, directly connecting you to projects by tracking their impact, and evaluating their effectiveness over time with clear impact measurements.
Total to date
This is the total amount allocated to The Sustainable Goals Token.
About this idea
[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.
The Sustainable Goals token:
The objective of the Sustainable Goals Token (SGT) is to act as an enabler and investment vehicle facilitating investment in impact-focused projects or businesses. Thanks to the innovative Sustainable Goals Platform and Cardano’s technology, anyone with an internet connection and device can become an impact investor. They can connect directly to entrepreneurs worldwide, and not only measure their financial returns but also the impact of their investment.
Main Principles:
- A platform and native token that allows you to track, monitor, and support impactful projects, and allow anyone to support working towards achieving the interconnected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Assess, track, and verify/audit projects and companies on the SGT platform so users and projects can share data transparently to customers/impact investors, and have a ‘proof of SDG support document (A NFT designed and made by our carefully curated pool of #NFT4Good artists and partners)’.
- Emply and advocate for principles of Blockchain 4 Good, and best practices from the finance industry, and go beyond it with a clear code of Ethics, enabling users to have trust in our platform.
- Collaborate with teams across the Cardano community initially, and the wider Blockchain4Good ecosystem to deliver on the SGT platform.
- Actively report updates on the development of the SGT roadmap, and ways the platform is expanding through partnerships and ongoing progress.
SGT Mission:
A platform and token facilitating impact investing, using the advantages of blockchain and crypto, directly connecting you to projects you're passionate about to maximize positive social, environmental and economic impact, and get a return on intention and investment.
Why this matters:
"When it comes to the 2030 Agenda, we are all developing countries." - UN
There isn't a user friendly, transparent way to directly invest towards positive social, environmental and economic impact and make progress towards achieving all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) you're passionate about.
Investing in SDG's is investing in our future…
This should be accessible for any person all over the world, if we, as a global society, are to make the necessary and urgent strides to accomplish our Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
https://act.unfoundation.org/a/sdg-donate
At the moment via the Joint SDG Fund, people can donate their money and then the funds go towards SDG projects.
Currently, people can make a contribution to the SDGs and ‘Donate’ but there is not any transparent data and proof of impact leaving the donors in the dark and unsure if their contribution actually went toward an SDG, and how much of an impact their donation made.
With Cardano’s blockchain technology and its ability to enable trust, track and trace data transparently, the Sustainable Goals Token platform will work to address the gap in the market, and help close the financing gap needed to build a better world for all.
According to the World Economic Forum,between $5-$7 trillion USD is needed, annually to achieve the SDGs by 2030. The need for new solutions and ways to get more investment directed towards the SDGs is as urgent as ever.
Currently, “the world is in danger of missing crucial sustainability goals, but the provision of funding can get things back on track”... “investment is sorely needed, especially in emerging markets which tend to be disproportionately impacted by climate change”.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/the-sustainable-development-goals-can-get-back-on-track/
Providing such a tool for anyone to use, facilitating citizens and change agents globally in becoming impact investors will be revolutionary. Giving people the means to have insights and transparency into the actual impact their investments and chosen companies are having, will help catalyze and build greater momentum and trust for other more risk averse investors and institutions. Emerging markets and economies will become accessible to millions if not billions of potential impact investors who are either entering the digital economy for the first time, or are digital natives looking out for the next unicorn. Through tokenisation and NFTs, traditionally rather illiquid assets can become more accessible and tradable, unlocking new streams of funding and capital that can leveraged to solve wicked problems.
Today start-ups and impact projects face a big challenge: not being able to fund a project or working with a limited amount of funds leading to a high percentage of startups having their projects fail to progress at scale once they finally started to get their feet off the ground.
This dilemma has caused many organizations and impact-related projects to discontinue their services or fail. We aim to eliminate this challenge.
The SGT Platform:
The SGT Platform will be a gateway for people to find inspiration, motivation and guidance in their journey of empowerment and inspire a whole new way for investors and global society to think about impact investing and contributing to the SDGs. A way fitting for a paradigm shift of global proportions, and with consequences that will ripple through time touching generations to come. If our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are to live in a world of prosperity, we must plant the seeds now for them to feel the shade from our heating planet, and only home.
Everyone should have the opportunity and ability to support such projects, not just government, multilateral and multinational organizations, and NGOs. This is how we will get the needed funds into the hands of people on the ground making an impact, this is how we start to close the gap on the SDGs today with the help of Cardano’s blockchain technology.
Sustainable Goals Platform :
The main objective of the Sustainable Goals Token Platform (SGT) is to act as an investment vehicle, enabling everyone to make a contribution toward an impact-focused project or business, and be incentivised and rewarded for doing so.
The Sustainable Goals Token (SGT)
A utility token designed for facilitating the transfer of value and providing a means of funding impact projects transparently on Cardano’s public and open source blockchain.
The SGT Platform will enable and facilitate the exchange of value, transparently, at competitive rates for any company and impact investor. Companies applying to be listed on the SGT Platform will be audited and evaluated by our expert team and will receive a diagnostics as to whether they are truly integrating blockchain technology, and are aligned with our SGT values and code of Ethics as an impact-focused organization. With the use of Cardano’s technology, nativetokens & NFTs, the creation and transfer of value will help overcome the challenges and hurdles of Web 2.0 and status quo legacy systems, in favor of the realization of the promise of Web 3.0 and the 4th Industrial Revolution, accelerating the movement of driving power to the people and pushing it to the edges.
Evaluation:
- Sustainability Diagnostics (Questionnaire)
- In-depth analysis on current impact tracked using our open access monitoring and evaluation assessment framework
- Stage to develop a company/Project account and start on-boarding process.
- A full and deep sustainability evaluation process - by SGT team
- Bring project teams through impact evaluation journey, as modeled in our Catalyst proposals ‘F7: Research in applying frameworks’, F8 Impact Measurements Tool Whitepaper Research’
- Enable and facilitate company impact growth over time and support with community growth and communication with high quality, quarterly update reports produced for diverse stakeholders such as potential investors
(Example of Quarterly Impact Evaluation:)
How could the Cardano technology be leveraged to build new solutions for positive impact valuation and monetization?
- Actors capable of defining criteria (standard) on what an impact means in different context (education, carbon cycle, biodiversity, etc) and/or geography
With our SGT platform we will be able to provide and define what impact means and how different business on Cardano are measuring and creating impact through their operation
- Services and methods to issue impact credentials in a decentralized way with a peer-to-peer and expert review process
Our service will allow businesses and SPOs to measure their impact in a decentralized way where they can report to consumers and have an evaluation of their business activities quarterly to share with the public.
- Certification bodies for analyzing and validating the data points provided by impact-oriented projects
We will help keep open source data for analyzing and validating the KPIs of different impact oriented projects helping them bring more trust.
- Mechanisms to give a financial value to impact - reflections on tokenizing impact
We will be able to give financial value to the impact of projects by providing a bridge for investment from anyone to flow into these projects, and from the impact evaluation we will be able to track and compare impact to financial value.
- On-chain tools for recording impact proofs and bringing more transparency and traceability
This tool will allow the Cardano and greater blockchain community to get access to quarterly impact evaluations of companies building on Cardano, and get ‘impact proofs’ sharing the changes in impact. Allowing a new form of trust to be found when supporting or investing in an impact oriented business.
- On-chain marketplaces to connect impact-oriented projects with potential buyers (corporations, states organizations, funds) for their impact proofs
Our SGT impact platform and tracking/tracing mechanism will help provide transparent data to potential buyer/investors helping connect projects to the people. Giving them true impact oriented data on how they are measuring and creating impact in the space.
Impact valuation:
Through our impact evaluation process we will be able to measure and validate the tangible contribution of a project from a social and/or environmental point of view. Our new solutions of measurement, and traceability will enable new forms of trust with impact projects. With our governance model we will enable organized governance through the blockchain helping our solution be locally adapted creating a new approach/standard of impact measurement in the Web 3 space.
[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
The project brief states:
“How could the Cardano technology be leveraged to build new solutions for positive impact valuation and monetization?”
This is exactly what our proposal is focused on, helping bring a new level of trust through the impact verification and measurement of companies. While at the same time giving impact investors or current Cardano community members the opportunity to support the impact project building in the blockchain space through investment.
How could the Cardano technology be leveraged to build new solutions for positive impact valuation and monetization?
- Actors capable of defining criteria (standard) on what an impact means in different context (education, carbon cycle, biodiversity, etc) and/or geography
With our SGT platform we will be able to provide and define what impact means and how different business on Cardano are measuring and creating impact through their operation
- Services and methods to issue impact credentials in a decentralized way with a peer-to-peer and expert review process
Our service will allow businesses and SPOs to measure their impact in a decentralized way where they can report to consumers and have an evaluation of their business activities quarterly to share with the public.
- Certification bodies for analyzing and validating the data points provided by impact-oriented projects
We will help keep open source data for analyzing and validating the KPIs of different impact oriented projects helping them bring more trust.
- Mechanisms to give a financial value to impact - reflections on tokenizing impact
We will be able to give financial value to the impact of projects by providing a bridge for investment from anyone to flow into these projects, and from the impact evaluation we will be able to track and compare impact to financial value.
- On-chain tools for recording impact proofs and bringing more transparency and traceability
This tool will allow the Cardano and greater blockchain community to get access to quarterly impact evaluations of companies building on Cardano, and get ‘impact proofs’ sharing the changes in impact. Allowing a new form of trust to be found when supporting or investing in an impact oriented business.
- On-chain marketplaces to connect impact-oriented projects with potential buyers (corporations, states organizations, funds) for their impact proofs
Our SGT impact platform and tracking/tracing mechanism will help provide transparent data to potential buyer/investors helping connect projects to the people. Giving them true impact oriented data on how they are measuring and creating impact in the space.
Impact valuation:
Through our impact evaluation process, we will be able to measure and validate the tangible contribution of a project from a social and/or environmental point of view. Our new solutions of measurement and traceability will enable new forms of trust with impact projects. With our governance model, we will enable organized governance through the blockchain helping our solution be locally adapted creating a new approach/standard of impact measurement in the Web 3 space.
[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
- Hard to get developers
We have a strong community and that includes our numerous partnerships who will help and support us in finding the right people to build the SGT platform.
- Our timeline is too long
We will make sure to follow our timeline the best we can and with the support of our team and community members, we believe we will be able to get it done.
Cardano community and leadership, starting from Charles, is highly impact driven. The Cardano mission is to: Make the world work better for all.
Blockchain is a technology for impact - transparency, traceability, verification, and decentralization all lead to an impact on people's lives.
By providing the Sustainable Goals Token SGT. A platform and token facilitating impact investing, using the advantages of blockchain and crypto, directly connecting you to projects you're passionate about to maximize positive social, environmental, and economic impact. Where you get a return on intention and investment. We will be creating more awareness of these businesses and their activities. Helping build a sustainable and equitable world for all.
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.
Roadmap:
2022
Q1 & Q2 - Research and Version 1 of our Whitepaper
- July - Team Development, Figma of the platform, Continue final research
Q3
- August - Start MVP, finalize research analysis and update white paper to V2
- September - Impact evaluation framework integration
- October - Final research, and next stage of MPV - (testing, and evaluating)
Q4
- November - Final tokenonimcs
- December - Final framework for evaluation
- January - Final whitepaper release (including impact evaluation), Token Release info
2023
Q1
- February - Onboard the first 10 projects
- March - Conduct impact evaluation
- April - Start funding for processed, and accept projects through the SGT platform
Q2
- May - Fix bugs and problems from onboarding the first 10
- June - Public release date announcement and project submission portal developed.
- July - SGT open to all
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.
Budget: 35,000USD
Creating platform V1: 20,000
- Finalize tokenomics and start-up resource (Website, media, promotion of product, filing the business operations) $5000
- Platform development - 375 hours X $35 = $15000
Impact measurement tool development: 142 hours X $35 = $5000
Team operations: $5,000
Token Release: $5,000
The total pot is 200,000 USD so we are asking for 17.5% of the pot, with a ROI that can have a far larger positive multiplier effect.
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.
The team is collaborating together on various projects and community activities for the last 6 months and more intensively for the last 3 months. This gives high confidence on the collaboration of the team also for this proposal.
Cole Bartlett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-bartlett
Is a recent UNITE 2030 Youth Delegate, a recent graduate in Economics & Sustainability, Founder of Sustainable ADA, Contributor for Positive Blockchains, Blockchain & Sustainability Researcher, & Social Entrepreneur, Ecoquest Education Foundation - Sustainability Research, B Impact Clinic part of UNH's Changemaker Collaborative - Kikori, Sustainability Splash Program Organizer, Bronze UNH Sustainability Award Winner
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-bartlett
Razali Samsudin:
14 years of experience as an interdisciplinary Educator from early years settings to postgraduate level, with a background in social sciences, humanities, and sustainability. Freelance Writer, Editor, Digital Economy, Blockchain, Sustainability and Impact Measurements Researcher (#Blockchain4Good, #Cardano4Good, #NFT4Good), Social Entrepreneur, Catalyst Proposal Mentor.
Wada UN SDG and Education Coordinator, Co-Founder of Sustainable ADA, Contributor at Cardano AIM, PositiveBlockchain, Cardano4Climate, Catalyst School and Adatruth.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/razali-samsudin
https://twitter.com/SustainableADA
https://twitter.com/Razlosophy
Yoram Ben Zvi - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoram-ben-zvi-446836
Has 20+ years of business experience working with technology companies (strategy, partnerships, investors). In recent years, Yoram is focused on combining impact and business. 4 years ago he left his comfort zone and worked for 2 years for an NGO Earthworm.org focusing on sustainable business models across agriculture supply chains. Yoram also constantly works with startups as an advisor and mentor i.e. GivingWay.com.
Led by Sustainable ADA
Sustainable ADA is a platform that promotes education, inspiration, and sustainable development. Sustainable ADA is helping connect the dots between Blockchain, Cardano, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and action on the ground by showcasing case studies of positive progress and potentially valuable opportunities to be unlocked. On our platform, we plan to share with the world sustainability media, content, and stories from the Cardano ecosystem! Acting as a bridge for the Cardano community, bridging people into a world where they are welcomed on their lifelong learning journey & invited into the Cardano community, ultimately enabling and empowering visitors to discover, acquire and nurture an appreciation of what blockchain is, its limitations, and its possibilities.
Supported by Cardano4Climate
Cardano4Climate.com (C4C) community includes over 200 members and growing. C4C is organizing weekly meetups and monthly events and collaborating with multiple impact communities (i.e. climateneutralcardano.org), companies (i.e. Veritree, Cardashift) and the Cardano founding entities(IOG, Emurgo, Cardano Foundation).
[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.
If we are funded we don’t have a plan to come back to Catalyst for this proposal. But you can never say never and maybe further down the road we will need to integrate something new to the platform and requires additional funding.
As we have a globally decentralized, experienced, multi-skilled and diverse team, working across timezones, and connected to various networks and communities, we can tap into our multiple connections and resources, to ensure we have a sustainable approach to managing our workload if we are to receive funding from Catalyst.
Here is a link explaining how members of our team, who are actively working on previously funded proposals and supporting this proposal, shall manage their workload:
Work Management:
Cole Bartlett: Cole Bartlett | Work Load Managment
Razali Samsudin: Managing workload: RAZ
Yoram: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hz4uUg4oMJGWugGxblLRtiR5ODfQM5if15YrKnIan9Q/edit#
[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?
Yes[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?
Yes[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?
KPIs:
- Number of POC trials that can be run with impact-oriented projects
We will measure the number of proof of concept trials with our first 10 impact projects onboarded.
- Time required to validate the impact value
We will do this by tracking the time it takes to evaluate each company and the differences between the projects.
- How much financial value can be derived from impact-oriented projects
We will show this by comparing the value in a company to their actual impact evaluated with the impact measurement tool. Including evaluating the amount of funds distributed to certain projects.
- # of Onboarded Developers
People we bring onto the team and support development.
- # of partnerships
We will be tracking and sharing through our pages new partnerships to further help the success of the SGT platform.
[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?
What success looks like:
Novel and viable applications get built on top of Cardano attracting users. Integrations manage to pull in more adoption.
We will also reach success by reaching our mission to create ‘A platform and token facilitating impact investing, using the advantages of blockchain and crypto, directly connecting you to projects you're passionate about to maximize positive social, environmental and economic impact, and get a return on intention and investment’.
If funded, we will build the team and conduct the next stage of development and additional research for this innovative Dapp. It will be the first of its kind to attract new users and existing users deeper into Cardano's ecosystem, using ADA or SAGT to invest in the Sustainable Development Goals, and has purposes that are transparent and auditable via metadata, and NFT's. Smart Contract functionality will also help to make transactions cost effective.
IOG Strategic Impact Officer Dr. Mihaela and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Pollack discussed ways to support projects with real-world social impact in a system driven solely by return on investment, and how to reconcile these seemingly at odds objectives. Return on investment for 'priceless' work 'for good' can be achieved, and with this proposal, Sustainable ADA seeks to initiate action on this front! - https://youtu.be/ZTHK8ATPUmE
What does success look like?
We will be fulfilling Cardashift's ambition “to tackle one of the pain points of the impact ecosystem” The Sustainable Goal Token platform will minimize the ‘lack of financial attractiveness of impact projects’ helping bring more people to the impact investing space.
This is an impact oriented solution that plans to solve the current issues with trust and transparency when customers or community members are learning about or supporting a project.
Success for this challenge:
Our platform will help discover impact-oriented projects, create greater financial value out of their impact generation, and track and trace how their tokens or projects are making positive or negative impacts. In hand this will help increase transparency and traceability on the impact generated by a specific project, and be a very effective tool for anyone to be an impact investor or evaluator.
[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.
This proposal is a continuation of our proposal The Sustainable ADA Goals Token Research - https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/383615
These two proposals connect because after completing V1 of our SGT white paper. It will allow us to work with partners and professionals in the field to develop the proper resource to fulfill the next steps to create our Sustainable Goals Token Platform, and token release.
Also, this proposal is connected to the impact measurement tool where we will be integrating the same tools and research into the SGT platform. Found here (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/383628) and we plan to submit another proposal to finalize the tool for fund 9.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating
We seek to work towards the following SDG goals as part of this proposal:
- Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
- Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
- Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
- Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development
SDG subgoals:
- 4.7 By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture's contribution to sustainable development
- 10.2 By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status
- 17.16 Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries
- 17.3 Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources
Key Performance Indicator (KPI):
4.7.1 Extent to which (i) global citizenship education and (ii) education for sustainable development are mainstreamed in (a) national education policies; (b) curricula; (c) teacher education; and (d) student assessment
Team
Sustainable ADA / partners with 200+ team of active Cardano community members. Cardano AIM team (voter-tool, CA-tool, vCA-Tool, SDG Proposer Tool, SDG Search Tool). Global diverse multidisciplinary team of professionals: Catalyst, sustainability research. Fund 5,6,7,8 winners.
