Using Citizen Empowerment to Promote More Inclusive and Sustainable Cities

If there is one thing Leonardo Maldonado knows best, it is how to build communities.

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by TwentyThirty, May 1, 2018
Inclusive and Sustainable Cities

This article originally appeared on TwentyThirty.

Leonardo Maldonado is the CEO of Gulliver, a private innovation agency. Until April 2018, he was Executive Director of Sistema B Chile. He is a serial and social entrepreneur and dedicates his professional life to promoting innovation and entrepreneurship.

If there is one thing Leonardo knows best, it is how to build communities. He is guided by the conviction that we are all dependent upon each other and thus responsible for ourselves, each other, and future generations. He participated in building five companies, a foundation, and a social movement – Sistema B.

Sistema B goes back to one central question: What is the point of an economy that gows financially but because of its very nature generates further inequality, uses up the water and other resources of the Earth, and deepens individualism and the exclusion of thousands of people? The answer: There is no point! At least, if you envision an economy where success is measured not only in terms of financial profit but in terms of the well-being of people, society, and the environment.

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This is why Sistema B seeks to build an enabling eco-system for companies in Latin America that use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems: so-called benefit or B corporations. Leonardo is also promoting the initiative Cities+B, which helps implement the Sustainable Development Goals on a local level. To rebuild the notion of community, Cities+B gets citizens and businesses involved with their city’s main issues. The goal is a more prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable city through empowerment and citizen participation.

Leonardo took part in the Responsible Leaders Forum Chile in December 2017 and is a member of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network.

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This article is presented in collaboration with TwentyThirty

TwentyThirty is an online magazine presented by the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. It sheds light on the social, political, and environmental challenges we face and features inspiring Responsible Leaders who are working to solve them. Follow their work on Facebook.