Costain, the smart infrastructure solutions company, is supporting the Future Generations Leadership Academy (FGLA).
The FGLA is an ambitious and innovative 10-month programme to support young people with opportunities to learn and enhance their skills, to ensure Wales has strong leadership today and for the future.
At the heart of the programme is the aspiration to achieve the Well-being of Future Generations Act (2015), a new and progressive piece of legislation that builds on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to require public bodies to think about the long-term impact of their decisions, to work better with people, communities and each other, and to prevent persistent problems such as poverty, health inequalities and climate change. The Act has attracted interest from countries across the world as it offers a huge opportunity to make a long-lasting, positive change to current and future generations.
Fourteen organisations including Costain, Transport for Wales and Natural Resources Wales have come together to support the Future Generations Leadership Academy (FGLA) over its first term, with David Jukes and Hywel Woolf representing Costain on the FGLA Advisory Board.
For Costain, the opportunity to be part of a pioneering leadership programme which translates the SDG’s into ground-breaking legislation demonstrates our commitment to being a responsible business and our recently launched Climate Change Action Plan. Building on our carbon reduction success to date and ensuring to place carbon and the wider climate change agenda at the forefront of our group strategy our Climate Change Action Plan sets out our industry leading long-term objective to become a net zero carbon business by 2035 at the very latest and help lead our industry to addressing its impact in this global climate crisis!
Jonathan Grimes, section engineer, Costain said, “I’m proud to be representing Costain on the Future Generations Leadership Academy and I’m looking forward to building long lasting relationships and collaborating over the duration of the academy with the other participants as we discuss how we envisage how we will work, live and play in the 21st Century and beyond, as well as outlining what skills are required to facilitate clean growth.”
Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales said: “Thinking long-term and creating policies that address the needs of future generations is core to developing the leadership skills within our public services in Wales. Across the world, we are seeing young people mobilise and act on issues such as climate change and it is important that our young leaders have a seat at the table so they can hold our current leaders to account. I want this Academy to provide the focus and opportunity for existing and future leaders to collaborate and develop policies that are equitable and sustainable.”