The Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) is a non-governmental think-tank type organisation which was founded in 1990 on the initiative of few members of the Polish Ecological Club. ISD works for the promotion and implementation of the principles and solutions which contribute to Poland’s sustainable development.
Our mission is to:
- build positive relations between socio-economic development and environmental protection;
- act in the interest of the present and future generations.
The activities of the ISD are focused on fulfilling the tasks typical for a think tank. Accordingly, the organization’s primary success is measured by the number of new ideas and concepts it has disseminated that have gained traction in its environment, shaped discussions, and evolved into independent projects. This aligns with the role of a so-called trendsetter. To date, the ISD Foundation has fulfilled this role very effectively, as an example:
- Dissemination of the practice and methodology for conducting social awareness studies in Poland, which are now used by institutions such as CBOS and the Ministry of the Environment. The Foundation continues to develop its expertise in specific target groups, such as tourists, students, and local government officials.
- Development and introduction of the definition of sustainable development into the Environmental Protection Law Act, where the definition remains in force.
- Promotion of Environmental Education Centers in Poland, including support for establishing a center in Ełk.
- Development of methodologies for strategic documents integrating sustainable development principles, such as:
- Regional strategies for the Green Lungs of Poland (1992–2001), recognized nationally and internationally.
- Alternative Transport Policy (1999).
- Alternative Energy Policy (2008).
- Low-Emission Poland 2050 (2012), in collaboration with the Institute for Structural Research and the Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies.
(All documents elevated national and regional policy discussions on sustainable development.)
- First ecological footprint calculation for Poland, later expanded to carbon footprint methodologies for Warsaw (2008), the Environmental Protection Bank (2011), and counties (2012).
- Initiation of discussions on monitoring the ecological impact of EU funds in Poland, now continued by the Polish Green Network.
- Introduction of „green jobs” into discussions on the economic impacts of environmental policies.
- Facilitation of NGO collaboration on climate protection, leading to the establishment of the Climate Coalition.
- Drafting of ecological tax reform proposals for Poland, later advanced by a working group at the Ministry of the Environment.
- Introduction of new social participation tools in Poland.
ISD Foundation have been recognised as first Polish and Central European think-tank (14th in Europe, 49th in the World) in the field of environment in Go To Think-Tank Index opinion pool of University of Pennsylvania since 2016 [2016 see>>] [2017 see>>][2018 see>>][2019 see>>]
The Institute is a member of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), CAN-Europe, Regional Center for Excellence in Sustainability Education Warsaw Metropolitan (UN certified) and takes part in the national NGO coalitions, e.g. the Climate, for EU Funds and Forum for the Animation of Rural Areas.
You can find out a little bit more on the EEB 2016 Annual Conference poster. OPEN PDF