An Open Letter to the “First Daughter” from the President of ICTP and co-founder of SUNx
Dear Ivanka
I want to start by “walking back” my last few months of Facebook comments on the style, morality, and substance of your father and his strategies. I misspoke.
I am writing because I see that on your recent trip to Saudi Arabia you managed to secure a donation of some 100 million dollars for your new fund for women entrepreneurs. CongratulatAll Usersions.
Also, I read (admittedly in liberal media) that another of your pet projects is climate change – and that you may be able to influence US policy on this (which would be great – go for it).
I have a small project that falls neatly into the sweet spot between your heartfelt interests and was wondering if there was scope for collaboration.
SUNx the Strong Universal Network wants to help Travelism (Travel & Tourism) destinations and all their stakeholders become more climate resilient through what we call Impact-Travel – measured, green and 2050 focused. If we could help move the sector progressively to a green growth, low-carbon, socially inclusive trajectory it would make a huge difference to the overall global shift.
With like-minded colleagues, we have created a robust plan to put learning centres in every country over the next decade, connected in the cloud and sharing innovations and response techniques between communities. Many of the solutions exist and others will flow from concentration on. the SDG and Climate targets (where I know you will be able to help your Dad reach the right answer for humanity)
We have a proof of concept center launching in the last quarter of this year in Belgium’s National Park in the Province of Limburg. Our work is self-financed to date and now we are about to look for Impact Investors who share our vision and belief in positive action to beat extreme climate change. Frankly, we need 2 million dollars to operationalize and my thoughts immediately turned to you.
What if we ensure SUNx Centres are manned (you know what I mean) only by women Curators and learners. Could you see your way to investing 2 million of the Saudi Arabian contribution with us? We have a payback schedule over 10 years and a return of 5% per annum.
Please let me know what you think – your new friend
Geoffrey Lipman