Saphenus´ growth in transition – a journey back in time

It was 15 years ago that a conference in Vienna shaped my future actions as an entrepreneur. Growth in Transition 2009, when targets were discussed in order to adapt incentive systems in national economies and also to achieve concrete measures by means of a broad public debate. The first approaches to solutions also had to be considered. These included things like money and the financial system, growth and resource use, social Justice and poverty, sustainable production and consumption and regional
aspects.

That was in some case astonishing for me, because people were already thinking about measures of wellbeing and social sustainability very early on. As a Saphenus entrepreneur, this is particularly relevant to me today. Because which metrics do I focus on in the SDGs? If I want to improve prosthetic care in a country like Tunisia, what impact does that have on environmental sustainability? From the company side as well as for me as an indicidual. And: is socially sustainable action at the expense of the footprint ok? Or is it just fuelling the size of the belief behaviour gap, ‘acting differently than talking’?

In any case, this conference in 2009 was the impetus for me to scrutinise sustainability and its metrics for consistency and sparked some passionate discussions in me and others about the right metrics.

Today I know that, above all, an impact on one of Saphenus‘ major goals can only be achieved if a systemic approach is taken. If phantom pain is to be reduced worldwide and the huge untapped market of people with amputations is to be reduced. In the next blog, I want to talk about the grand dame of growth in change, who I met as a journalist before I became an entrepreneur and who further developed my thinking about growth in change. Rita Trattnig.