WAALWIJK GOES FORWARD SUSTAINABLY WITH THE GLOBAL GOALS

The municipality of Waalwijk is actively getting started with the Global Goals! Our motto for sustainability: Sustainably Forward Together. As a municipality, we are therefore moving forward, hand in hand with the residents, companies and organisations in our society. We are still in our infancy with the Global Goals, but because of our grand goals and the actions we are taking to be successful in them, we believe we can be the Global Goals municipality of the year. We want to do more than just put a Global Goals label on existing plans; we want to build a new community!
 
The municipality of Waalwijk is currently setting up a powerful and long-term Global Goals network with the help of a number of passionate volunteers. We will let them be in the spotlight in this matter, while we will support them in the background. The purpose of the network is to bundle Global Goals-related initiatives in a Global Goals community and to facilitate collaborations and new ideas. To this end, an action plan is already in the making and there are two interested volunteers on board that we would like to keep as part of our team. In March we will start with a grand kick-off: A Global Goals network event where various initiatives and players can find each other and we can gain insight into what is available in the municipality, what they do and how we can facilitate. Our Global Goals flag day was also about informing and inspiring. We didn't just rise the flag, but also gave fun and informative workshops to employees, residents and companies. In addition, we introduced the Global Goals to our sister municipality Unna in Germany and they feature in our sustainability vision and upcoming environmental vision and programme budget. The Global Goals Action Plan also includes steps for implementing the Global Goals in our own organisational culture.

To get an idea of how we can best implement the Global Goals campaign, we attended the SDG Fest in Bonn, where we gathered information from various countries as well as from the VNG International and the municipalities of Utrecht and Rheden. We were also present at a Global Goals information meeting of the municipality of Oss and we obtained extra information from the volunteers in Oss, who are the driving force behind their Global Goals successes. Based on our research, an action plan is being drawn up, in which we focus on three key areas: our own organisation, residents (/social organisations), and companies. We want to inspire our own organisation, so that sustainable thinking on the basis of the Global Goals becomes the norm. For the other areas, we want to support initiatives where necessary and connect players to create true synergies. In this way, we will work with all Global Goals and use these goals to give a clear definition to a sustainable Waalwijk.