The Sustainability Challenge Foundation is an international Non-Governmental
Organisation registered in the Netherlands. It was established in 1994 by a
number of prominent individuals who had been closely involved with the
organisation of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro.
UNCED demonstrated how important cultural changes are taking place in the
public perception of sustainability. This is also apparent in the activities of the
World Business Council for Sustainable Development, in the European Union's
Fifth Environmental Action Programme and in innumerous initiatives in developing
counties.
The next step is to operationalise the concept of sustainability - and it is with this
goal in mind that the Foundation decided to create an annual executive
programme, International Programme on the Management of Sustainability
(IPMS), designed to attract individuals from around the world working at a senior
operational level on problems of sustainability.