Warsaw University of Technology Business School invited the Sendzimir Foundation to the first edition of Social Impact Lab addressed to the participants of the Executive MBA Programme.
The Sendzimir Foundation was among seven renowned Polish non-governmental organizations that were asked to present their social and environmental projects during the opening class in October 2020. Students selected projects to work on until June 2021 and besides the Sendzimir Foundation they will cooperate with the Center for Citizenship Education, Rak’n’Roll Foundation Win your Life! and the Joanna Radziwiłł Foundation Opiekuńcze Skrzydła.
The Sendzimir Foundation presented its latest project Climate Mitigation in Heritage Buildings. Team of seven students will develop a communication model that sheds light on the multi-dimensional approach to this issue and will encourage key stakeholders to initiate cooperation. The Sendzimir Foundation will provide them with the collaboration opportunity during activities realised under the project: an on-line course, workshops, a conference. Students face quite a challenging task to take into account in the communication model developed both the historical and cultural aspects of heritage buildings as well as their huge impact on environment (resulting f.e. from their poor energy efficiency). The potential of heritage buildings in climate change mitigation is yet to be recognized.
Social Impact Lab is being implemented under the supervision of Anna Radzikowska (business mentor, investor, social activist) and based on the Theory U – change management method, created by Otto Scharmer at the Presencing Institute (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The methodology enables implementation of social innovations through analysing the current situation and acting in response to emerging future possibilities. An important part of the process is a dialogue with key stakeholders and learning about their experiences before prototyping the solution.
You can read more about the Theory U method on the official website.
We also encourage you to learn about the effects of the Hosting Social Innovation project and the database developed with tools and methods to support social innovations.
Cover photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash
Photo by Kamil Szumotalski on Unsplash
