Our why and how
How we achieve our mission
Strategy
The Wyss Academy is committed to identifying and implementing local solutions to urgent global challenges. For this purpose, it breaks down the silos of research, policy, and practice, and offers pathbreaking opportunities for collaboration. In 2022, we started to pursue our strategy and to put in practice a detailed plan for our activities.
In the period between 2022 and 2024, three strategic goals are guiding our work. Being closely interconnected, they are equally important and essential in fulfilling our mission. These overarching goals comprise twelve key objectives that guide our projects and actions toward achieving concrete results in the coming years. Our strategic goals are also important vehicles for collaboration in self-managed and adaptive teams that connect business units and external partners and include different cultures. The implementation of these goals is ensured through our joint work streams.
Goal 1 – Demonstrating new pathways for mutually beneficial impacts
Our first strategic goal is to find solutions to conflicts between nature and people within twelve different landscapes around the world. We co-design pathways for the transformation of systems – such as food and energy – by promoting innovations that may be useful for other environments and at a global level.
We are convinced that the conservation of nature must go hand in hand with improving people’s livelihoods. Therefore, we want to create prototype solutions capable of transforming vicious cycles that lead to increasing environmental and social degradation into regenerative, virtuous cycles.
Monitoring and evaluating processes and failures ensures that we constantly learn and adapt. Lessons are shared among our regional hubs and across different networks.
Goal 2 – Inspiring a new social contract with nature
Our second strategic goal is to inspire a new deal between people and nature that encompasses civil society, the economy, and politics, from local to national and global levels.
This means that people and organizations from all parts of society increasingly understand that reconfiguring our relationship with nature is a vital survival strategy for humanity – and that we need to act now.
Our aim is to engage people from society, business, and politics in a science-based dialogue to establish a shared understanding of challenges and a common vision for the future. On that basis, we establish strategic alliances for systems change, share and scale up available solutions and pathways, and influence policy.
Goal 3 – Global enabler of innovations
Our third strategic goal is to establish the Wyss Academy as a global enabler of innovations that will help transform the relationship between people and nature in order to create a world that is more sustainable and just.
We believe that innovative solutions also require new and innovative organizations. The Wyss Academy has the opportunity to bring together interdisciplinary research and innovation teams, policy shapers, and action at the regional hubs within a single organization. It encourages these units to collaborate directly and in new ways, creating added value.
We want everyone to work productively and with joy in an adaptive and entrepreneurial spirit, focused on innovation and learning. Moreover, we share our discoveries, knowledge, and practical expertise with all our stakeholders, and create a culture of innovation.
Our aims are to build trusted partnerships, to become a key reference for sustainability science, and to be a role model in how we organize ourselves, how we implement innovation, and how we foster people and culture.
Values
Our values serve as a guiding star for our daily interactions at work and for taking decisions that affect the success and impact we strive to have as an organization, in collaborations and partnerships, and in our everyday work life. They are derived from the Wyss Academy’s mission and were defined in a number of iterations and consultations across the staff members, the directorate, and the board of the Wyss Academy.
We are convinced of their potential to shape our actions for the better. Through continuous reflection and adaptation of our behaviors according to our values, we can ensure that we stay on track in our efforts to achieve a more harmonious and sustainable relationship between human beings and nature.
Therefore, at the Wyss Academy, acting in accordance with our values is expected at all times. We especially respect them in our social interactions – formal and informal – with colleagues and partners, in meetings, throughout project design and implementation, and whenever we represent our organization.
People centered
We encourage and support diversity, wellbeing, and personal growth, promoting talent and fruitful partnerships.
Key features:
Respect | Empathy | Inclusion | Wellbeing | Meaningful relationships
Entrepreneurial
We courageously and responsibly harness opportunities and find innovative ways to accelerate our impact, while remaining adaptive and resilient in the face of challenges.
Key features:
Vision | Responsibility for actions | Adaptability | Efficiency and Effectiveness | Courage
Transparent and fair
We apply the highest ethical, scientific and technical standards throughout our work and communicate openly, truthfully and respectfully, exchanging and sharing knowledge for empowerment.
Key features:
Openness | Truth | Reflection | Justice | Empowerment
Impact driven
We strive for our ambitious goals collaboratively, with enthusiasm and perseverance, leaving positive imprints on the planet.
Key features:
Accountability | Evidence | Experimentation | Systems oriented | Transformation
Innovation oriented
In reaching out to others, we co-create with curiosity, discover, foster creativity, and communicate our successes and failures so that we can learn from them.
Key features:
Curiosity | Co-creation | Creativity | Prototyping | Learning