Our vision
Being a key actor in accelerating systemic and transformational change
Our vision is a world where everyone understands sustainability, develops a mindset of sustainability, and becomes deeply committed to building a sustainable future via an accelerating planetary movement.
Our mission
Enabling sustainability in organizational practice and outcomes
Our mission is to equip organizations with tools and data that enables them to better design, deliver, and demonstrate the positive impact of their actions to improve the sustainability literacy of their stakeholders.
Our history
In 2012 in Rio, the idea of Sulitest was born during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, and it was then the beginning of the testing phase in correlation with the commitments of the HESI (Higher Education Sustainability Initiative) signatories.
In 2013, universities were the first users of the international Sulitest tool on the trial version. It was also at this time that regional commissions were created and produced their first sets of local questions. Based on the trial version, a new platform was born at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA, May 2016). From then onwards, Sulitest was recognized as an important driver of sustainability education, and continued to strengthen its collaboration with the United Nations (UN) organizations and the higher education community).
For the past decade, we have offered online tools to raise sustainability awareness, which reached over 350,000 people from hundreds of organizations across all continents. What we found, however, was the crucial need to measure the impact of the sustainability efforts the institutions we work with had.
This is why Sulitest has decided to strengthen its impact, and in 2023, we launched the first online certificate assessing sustainability knowledge. TASK™ provides comparable data and valuable insights for institutions, empowering them to better equip their stakeholders with the competencies to make positive change that is accessible and easy to implement, reliable and globally comparable!
Today, TASK™ is recognized by leading networks, accreditation and quality assurance bodies, and used by over 80 institutions in 20 countries.
Discover the TASK™ community
Contribution and collaboration for sustainability
Given the challenges humanity faces, we believe we must go "beyond our egos, beyond our logos", as we often discuss with our friends from GRLI (Global Responsible Leadership Initiative). No initiative can, on its own, solve the problems, and the Sulitest movement is just one link in a network of engaged actors, each playing a key role.
For decades, our two co-founders have been involved in numerous networks and initiatives (whether in academic networks, United Nations (UN) initiatives, NGOs, or structures in the social economy), because at the heart of the Sulitest movement is the mission to mainstream sustainability literacy. Therefore, we continuously strive to create connections and find synergies within this community of actors.
Creating a sustainability movement in Higher Education
The history of how Sulitest was born is also a history of how a new movement in Higher Education came to exist. In the Rio+20 Conference, our Co-Founder had a leading role in creating HESI– Higher Education Sustainability Initiative–, the first group within the UN system to focus on the needs, opportunities, and most importantly, the role of universities in driving the change we need for our society and planet to prosper.
Today, Sulitest is a co-chair of HESI – alongside UNDESA, UN University, and IESALC–, facilitating multi-stakeholder discussions, actions, and the dissemination of best practices.
Contributing to the 2030 agenda
A tangible implementation of HESI, Sulitest was recognized in 2016 as one of the first featured initiatives of the UN Partnerships for Sustainable Development Goals.As of 2017, Sulitest became a contributor to the review of the 2030 Agenda through the High-level Political Forum (HLPF). Since then, we have published annual reports showcasing the level of sustainability awareness worldwide.
Read our latest reportWe have also collaborated with several UN entities to create SDG-specific modules (a set of multiple-choice questions with learning feedback) designed to raise awareness about specific Goals. They are offered via our Awareness Test for any institution, free of charge. Available modules include: SDG Framework, SDG 7, SDG 11 (focused on Waste Management), SDG 12 (focused on Circular Economy), and SDG 14.
Facilitating dialogue
As part of our mindset of working "beyond our logos”, we are honored to be invited to speak at many events and to moderate insightful discussions around promoting sustainability literacy, developing a sustainability knowledge assessment, using data as a lever for change, and more.
Events:
- AABS 2025: Panel "Curriculum for Change: Advancing Sustainability in African Business Education"
- UN HLPF 2024: A conversation with Rankings, Accreditations and Academic Networks
Articles:
- Article for EFMD Global Focus magazine: "'Have Impact, You Will!' Turning Higher Ed Instructors into Jedi Masters of Sustainability Teaching"
- Article for EFMD Global Focus magazine: "Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so"
- Article for EFMD Global Focus magazine: "From Student to Changemaker: Building Sustainability Literacy Through the Learner Journey"
Our areas of expertise
Defining a common language
Sustainability, while commonly talked about, is still a contested concept. Conflicting notions, placing different relative importance to environmental protection, social welfare, or economic growth, often slows down tangible action.
As such, we developed a model of “sustainability knowledge” by working with academics and practitioners and engaging with the broader community in a year-long process.
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A unifying framework
To avoid “reinventing the wheel”, we conducted an extensive literature review of the many existing reports, tools, frameworks for sustainability and for Education for Sustainability (EfS).
Continuously, we produce referential documents describing how our tools align with competency frameworks like GreenComp, UNESCO ESD Learning Objectives, etc. This documentation can be found here.
Making sustainability measurable
Universities have long been valued for graduate employability and research output, often overlooking societal impact. Innovative rankings like QS Sustainability and THE Impact aim to shift this focus, but the challenge remains: how to measure the real-world outcomes of sustainability efforts beyond input metrics?
Our most tangible contribution to sustainability education is the development of our assessment tool. TASK™ addressed a pressing need – measuring sustainability knowledge, so the impact of an institution’s sustainability education efforts could be managed, improved and well-recognised. Besides offering this institutional insight, the TASK™ scores acts as a compass, helping test-takers to understand their strengths and areas of improvement.
Supporting faculty to make positive change
To further our impact, we engage in research projects to understand the levers, barriers, and opportunities to make education more relevant and more impactful.
Impactful Five (i5) Pedagogical Framework
We collaborated with PRME on the Impactful Five (i5) project, which promoted a pedagogical Framework to make learning meaningful, joyful, active, social, and iterative. In assessing how educators adopt the i5 Framework and what impact can be gained from it, we gained valuable insights into the barriers and value of improving pedagogical practice.
Understanding Faculty Engagement
Together with leading networks, we launched a global survey exploring the perception of how faculty engage with sustainability. The results offer insights into how to best support educators in this transition.
Since 2021, the Sulitest movement is carried by two vehicles: an association and a social business. Learn more about our governance:
Governance