Leading Change for Sustainability: Intrapreneurship in Action

This year, the StreetBiz Foundation and the Be a Nelson Movement enrolled eight Nelsons in the Open Society University Network (OSUN) Leading Change for Sustainability course. The program brought together more than 80+ students from eight countries, running from January 27, 2025, through May 30, 2025.

This was our first time participating. This course became a real catalyst for the circular-economy momentum within our organisation. The programme’s core aim was intrapreneurship. We sought to drive change from within the organisations we already serve. That lens shaped every assignment and conversation we had. Our participants were challenged to turn learning into practical value for the StreetBiz Foundation.

There were weekly online sessions where our team was paired with global peers and mentors, combining frameworks with rapid experimentation. True to our Triple “E” strategy  — Exposure ➜ Experience ➜ Education, the course delivered an international exposure, a hands-on project work, and structured learning that sharpened leadership and problem-solving skills. Crucially, it pushed the “Nelsons” to translate global sustainability insights into solutions that fit their own South African realities. For example, because waste pickers here are often overlooked and stigmatised, we applied a dignity-first approach inspired by global inclusive-waste lessons, public recognition as frontline environmental workers, care packages, simple safety kits and visible IDs, and neighbourhood awareness clean-ups that normalise sorting and care.

The headline outcome is the Access to Waste Management Capacity Building (AWMCB) project, conceived and developed during the course as an internal initiative to advance our circular-economy focus. The AWMCB’s purpose is straightforward: to clarify and guide community members to participate in local waste management. Early components include:

  • simple capacity-building modules (safety basics, sorting, micro-enterprise readiness, community clean-up walks),
  • lightweight toolkits with guides, checklists, and templates for community activations, and
  • a framework to identify local gaps (knowledge, equipment, coordination) and test small pilots.

AWMCB is intentionally a living prototype that will evolve through stakeholders’ input,  measured testing, and learning. That’s the entrepreneurial win. Our team didn’t wait for perfect conditions; they built a fit-for-purpose starting point that strengthens StreetBiz from the inside out.

The insights we learned from the course include gaining experience in how we translate learning to the practical support we offer the communities that we engage with, complementing ongoing initiatives such as our Mandela Day care packages, while keeping our circular-economy goal front and centre.

Most importantly, the Leading Change for Sustainability course has reinforced a mindset: sustainability is not an add-on; it is how we operate. By equipping eight emerging leaders to practise intrapreneurship, this OSUN’s course gave the “Nelsons” a concrete vehicle, AWMCB, to turn the goal into action. We’ll continue refining the prototype, inviting partners to co-build, and report back on what works in the communities so that small, consistent improvements add up to a measurable impact.