The Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change are two important guides of action to intervene at the local level. The big question is how to implement those global goals at the local scale and specifically in a University Accelerator.
How local and scientific projects could contribute globally? In which way the SDGs could help management be profitable and resilient? How ventures and businesses with high technological and environmental impact could scale their communication to get more funds?
This document addresses how Aceleradora Litoral, a university accelerator from the Argentine entrepreneurial ecosystem, integrates the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for itself and for the companies and projects that are evaluated and funded. The support and advice carried out by Smartly, Social Entrepreneurship in SDGs during 2020 and the main adjustments and results obtained are described from a strategic point of view and at a communication level.
The full version of this case was published in Universities, Circular Economy, and the SDGs in the ALCUE bi-regional space, editorial of RedUE, FAEDPYME, and UDUALC.
SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Aceleradora Litoral (A.L.) was founded by Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Parque Tecnológico del Litoral Centro, and the Santa Fe Stock Exchange, configuring a unique experience of its kind in Argentina. It is a scientific-technological business accelerator, whose mission is to fast-track the growth and consolidation process in the market of companies based on scientific knowledge by providing capital, advice, tutoring, consulting services, and access to an extensive network of contacts, ensuring the protection and transfer of the intellectual property of these developments.
Smartly, Social Entrepreneurship on the SDGs is an internationally awarded social enterprise that leads the Localization and Communication of the SDGs within public, private, and academic sectors in Latin America and beyond. It’s also a partner and member of the Steering Committee of the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign.
During this work, Litoral Accelerator and Smartly showcase their partnership experience to localize the SDGs in a University Accelerator. In that sense, the opportunity arises to establish dialogues and open spaces for collaboration between multiple stakeholders at the local, regional, and international levels that contribute to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the year 2030.
Challenges
When the location of the SDGs is postulated by Smartly, a dynamic process focused on reorienting priorities based on a greater understanding of what the SDGs are and marking a path so that organizations, in this case A.L., could reflect from an organizational perspective, while drawing a transition process that would allow them to be part of a local, regional and global agenda. The UNDP SDG Impact Standards serve as a practical tool to drive investment in critical areas, taking action to try to address growing inequalities.
The challenge posed by Smartly is to generate the conditions so that the role of companies and investments in society have an impact at the center of each decision regarding consumption, employment, business, and investment.
The innovation path
While working together, Smartly and the Accelerator team, reflections were raised about the reason for being of the organization and the SDGs, in aspects such as:
Public access to information and communication.
SDGs and their presence in written language and reflected in verbality and actions.
SDGs and their relationship with the business ideas promoted and their effective contribution.
This exchange of ideas between Smartly and A.L. allowed, in practice, to carry out an effective localization exercise in SDGs with scaling, which is detailed below:
A.L. is inspired by SDG 17 Multi-stakeholder partnerships:
17.16 Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technologies, and financial resources to support the achievement of sustainable development goals in all countries, particularly developing countries.
17.7 promote development, transfer, dissemination, and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favorable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed.
17.17 encourage and promote effective public, public-private, and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.
A.L. strongly contributes to SDG 16 Peace Justice and Strong Institutions:
16.6 develop effective, accountable, and transparent institutions at all levels.
A.L. finds its significant goal in SDG 9 Industry Innovation and Infrastructure:
9.5 Enhance scientific research, and upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending.
A.L. promotes and contributes to SDG 8 Decent work and economic growth:
8.2 achieve higher levels of productivity of economies through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high value-added and labor-intensive sectors.
A.L. strongly contributes to SDG 5 Gender equality:
5.b Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women.,
A.L. reinforces and prioritizes SDG 4 Quality Education:
4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship.
In the context of Climate Change and the post-pandemic, it is necessary to strengthen the efforts on SDG 10, Reduction of inequalities, and in this sense, A.L. can generate a greater local impact:
10.b Encourage official development assistance and financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to States where the need is greatest, in particular, least developed countries, African countries, small island developing States, and landlocked developing countries, following their national plans and programs.
Innovation strategy
The adjustment of the evaluation criteria to the projects that apply to the accelerator, the adaptation of the website, and the presentation before different Investment Funds (such as the IDB) is the result of a year of joint work between A.L. and Smartly.
In order to consider the evaluation criteria of A.L., those who apply to the accelerator must be Startups or Sustainable Technology-Based Companies, of up to 5 years, based on scientific knowledge and clean technologies that work on the Sustainable Development Goals – SDG 2030. Likewise, they must be in any of these areas: Biotechnology, life sciences, human health, animal health, environment, agribusiness, and agro-ecology, fine chemicals, food technology, IoT, nanotechnology, and engineering.
Business model: Scalable and potentially global. Global market size (TAM) is greater than 500 million dollars, in general with few exceptions. This condition allows the adequate development of this type of business.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): The startup must contribute to at least one SDG and demonstrate how it impacts or locates the SDGs in the proposal and development of the presented project.
Application methodology: To be eligible for the Accelerator, the startup must have a functional prototype, plus received investment or financing, certifications, leads, or demonstrable potential clients.
Value proposition: The business model that generates value from clean technologies and that contributes to providing solutions for social, environmental, and economic challenges. Identification of the problem that it solves and potential business impact.
Multidisciplinary team: Profiles of various disciplines and knowledge. At least one team member is dedicated exclusively to the new venture.
Technological Level: Technical checks that exceed the laboratory results. For example: MVP (minimum viable product) achieved, customer development in progress, etc.
Competitive Advantage: The intellectual property strategy must be foreseen and it must be possible, that is, if it is not yet protected, it must be possible to do so, or replace it with another condition that generates a competitive differential (entry barriers).
Each of these evaluation and prioritization criteria will be weighted by the management team and expert consultants, to be later validated by the Investment Advisory Committee.
The Aceleradora Litoral website displays each one of the companies in the portfolio with the location of the SDGs to which they contribute. http://www.aceleradoralitoral.com.ar/
Results
Two analyses were carried out, one of a qualitative nature, through in-depth interviews with the manager of Aceleradora Litoral and with one of its external advisors. On the other hand, a brief quantitative questionnaire for the companies was deployed, and analyzed by A.L. with the support of Smartly, from 2020 to 2023.
Qualitatively, the results obtained can be seen reflected in the words of Daniel Scacchi, Manager of Aceleradora Litoral, and Marcelo Grabois, External Advisor in Strategic Intelligence and Intellectual Property, of ITERA Technological Intelligence.
In the words of Daniel Scacchi: From the moment of the creation of Aceleradora Litoral, the SDGs have been implicit in it since its conception. In recent months of work and interaction with different actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, it has been seen that the central axis of project treatment is given in terms of SDGs and living up to the circumstances. Understanding the importance of the contribution to compliance with them and its incorporation at a personal and group level.
In the words of Marcelo Grabois: I have been able to appreciate how A.L. has evolved since its creation. The evolution of shared visions has made it possible to build bonds of trust and affection between the members towards the environment, and the actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
As of 2020, all the projects that were analyzed by A.L. with the guidance of Smartly, had to identify, according to the sector and business model of each of them, in which objectives and goals they can influence and develop activities and operations to contribute to sustainable development, locally and internationally.
Quantitatively, a brief survey was carried out on the projects -analyzed by Aceleradora Litoral, supervised by Smartly- and they worked with the SDGs. It has been observed that 92,3% of the projects have deepened the analysis of how they could contribute to compliance with the SDGs based on what is required by Aceleradora Litoral with the guidance of Smartly.
Learned lessons
It is important to highlight the commitment of the management of Aceleradora Litoral which together with their team was involved from the outset in training and advising on SDGs led by Smartly. Each area of the Accelerator was present at the meetings and actively engaged in the different topics that were addressed by Smartly. This strategic decision of A.L. to involve the entire team and to make them part of the SDG training process provided by Smartly was key for the commitment and involvement to be consolidated in the organizational culture, as well as, in the interactions with their deal flow.
Transforming management processes into more sustainable models that put people, the environment, and economic growth at the center of the scene is one of the biggest challenges in the face of the climate change crisis and post-COVID-19. In that sense, the projects of interest to A.L. are usually led by members of the scientific community and although there is a new paradigm of science for the development of sustainability, it must be reorganized and focused in terms of the SDGs. This takes time for work and training.
On the other hand, the interest shown by those who led these projects leaves the door open to a huge challenge: generating strategies to translate knowledge into concrete solutions, that contribute to the fulfillment of the 2030 SDGs. This fact pointed out by Smartly, also leads the resources of public and private investments to the type of projects of interest, contributing to the growth of markets and the supply of technologies and concrete solutions, resulting in a beneficial situation for the scientific community and society as a whole.
The entrepreneurial ecosystem is becoming aware of the SDGs and their application within new ventures. For many, the term SDGs brings to mind environmental issues like climate change and resource scarcity. These are important elements of the SDGs, but they encompass much more. They cover social issues such as a company’s employment practices, product and data security, and issues such as diversity, compensation, and business ethics.
*Article co-authored with Prof. María Fernanda Andrés (Universidad Nacional del Litoral and Business Director of Litoral Accelerator)
