Curated News
By: NewsRamp Editorial Staff
January 15, 2026

Hero Awards Launches AI-Powered Workflow to Turn UN Goals into Action Plans

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Original Source

TLDR

  • The Hero Awards' new AI workflow offers participants a competitive edge by developing practical solutions for UN goals, potentially leading to media recognition, startup opportunities, and award-conferring privileges.
  • The Hero Awards' seven-step workflow sequentially processes each UN SDG target through seven AI models, refining outputs with verification steps to create actionable plans in about three hours.
  • This initiative democratizes planetary stewardship by helping everyday people create practical solutions for global challenges, making meaningful change feel achievable and personally meaningful.
  • The Hero Awards uses a chain of seven AI models including ChatGPT and Claude to transform UN goals into evolving action plans, with Substack writers as first testers.

Impact - Why it Matters

This news matters because it represents a significant step toward making global problem-solving accessible to everyone, not just experts or large institutions. By leveraging familiar AI tools in a structured, three-hour workflow, individuals can contribute meaningfully to pressing issues like climate change, poverty, and inequality outlined in the UN SDGs. The initiative addresses a critical gap in sustainability efforts: the lack of clear, actionable pathways for ordinary people to engage. Furthermore, it enhances participants' skills and has demonstrated real-world outcomes, from media recognition to startup creation, proving that democratized innovation can drive tangible progress. In an era of complex global challenges, this approach empowers a broader community to develop practical solutions, fostering a sense of agency and collective responsibility that is essential for sustainable development.

Summary

The Hero Awards, an organization that has recognized individuals and teams advancing the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since 2019, has launched a groundbreaking new initiative. This program offers a guided, seven-step workflow designed for everyday changemakers, enabling them to convert each of the UN's 169 SDG targets into credible, practical action plans in just about three hours. According to CIO John Toomey and Education Director Amy Chang, the system harnesses the complementary strengths of leading AI systems—including a GPT on OpenAI's store, Google's NotebookLM, and Microsoft Loop—to create robust "solution-evolvers" that, alongside human judgment, continuously generate new approaches to global challenges.

The innovative protocol works by sequentially "priming" seven AI models with tested prompts to keep them focused on actionable solutions. The current highest-performing sequence includes Meta.ai, Claude Code, Copilot.microsoft.com, Gemini.google.com v.3, Perplexity.ai, Deepseek.com, and ChatGPT (v.5.2). As Sustainability Director Savithri Patel explains, this process blends human judgment with AI, moving ideas across multiple models to make them more grounded and practical while reducing vulnerabilities like hallucinations. The initiative aims to democratize planetary stewardship, with the first test participants being successful Substack writers, who were the largest source of new insightful project participants in 2025.

Completed solutions are archived on The Hero Awards' Academia.edu page for public review and improvement, and winners gain recognition across the organization's social channels, blogs, and press announcements. Awardees also receive the unique privilege of conferring the honor upon others. Beyond the deliverables, the workflow develops participants' analytical and creative abilities by exposing them to different AI "personalities." Preliminary data from a 2022 project showed significant impact: for every 100 completed procedures, 29 participants gained media traction, 14 were quoted in academic journals, 7 launched NGOs, and 5 founded startups. The organization encourages further engagement through resources like the UN Global Indicator Framework and platforms such as Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Source Statement

This curated news summary relied on content disributed by 24-7 Press Release. Read the original source here, Hero Awards Launches AI-Powered Workflow to Turn UN Goals into Action Plans

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