Sustainability

Sustainability plays an important role in everything we do. This applies to both the help and support we provide in Nepal and to our business operations.

CO² compensation

4 Smiling Faces is co² neutral thanks to Plant N Boom and thus contributes to a better world. Our trees’ live in the area around Womakamumu in Sierra Leone.

Sustainable help and support

• Investing in girls and boys so that they can live independently and contribute to building their country is the most sustainable thing we can do. Moreover, we learn from experience that the scholarships not only have a positive effect on the recipient but also on their environment: it is proof that there are people who believe in them, that there are opportunities and that has a positive effect on their attitude and motivation.
• Our fundraising is aimed at sustainable help for learning paths where we can guarantee that there are sufficient funds for the entire school/study career of each pupil/student; we only take them on if we are sure we can afford to pay for all the costs involved.
• With all projects we do, we’ll choose the most sustainable route wherever possible. So no more gas bottles, but cook on solar energy if at all possible. 
• We encourage sustainable behaviour among our people in Nepal, which is not yet as well-known concept. But it is receiving more and more attention. We want to encourage this by also taking small steps such as: use of reusable shopping bags, freezer bags, storage boxes and things like that; don’t leave waste in public spaces; use of filtered water in reusable bottles and growing your own vegetables. 
• We encourage the sharing of knowledge and skills, collaboration and education. By participating in the realization of projects, knowledge, skills, and attitudes grow to develop. Furthermore, awareness and community spirit grow and self-reliance is improved.
• Cooperation – for example by distributing abundant goods – between the different homes is also important to prevent waste.
• If there is sufficient interest, we will provide sustainability training for on-site employees based on the ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) competencies as developed within ‘A rounder sense of Purpose’.

SDG’s

4 Smiling Faces contributes to the realization of the SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals). These are seventeen goals to make the world a better place by 2030. The SDGs have been agreed upon by the member countries of the United Nations (UN), including the Netherlands. With our activities, we work on these SDGs: