Hero Awards Launches AI-Driven Protocol to Democratize UN Sustainability Goal Action

The Hero Awards has announced a new guided workflow that enables everyday individuals to create credible action plans for each of the United Nations' 169 Sustainable Development Goal targets using leading AI systems. According to CIO John Toomey, the protocol is designed for changemakers who can dedicate approximately three hours to produce significant impact, with the first participants testing the complete system being successful Substack writers. Since 2019, the organization has recognized individuals and teams advancing meaningful progress toward the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and with the rise of generative AI, it developed this methodology to make heroism practical, accessible, and predictable.

Education Director Amy Chang explained that the protocol yields multiple outputs including a GPT listed on OpenAI's GPT store, a continuously refreshed Innovation Engine built with Google's NotebookLM, and starting in 2026, a group collaboration tool based in Microsoft Loop. These components create 169 robust solution-evolvers that, alongside human judgment, continuously generate new approaches to the Goals and Targets. Sustainability Director Savithri Patel noted the absence of an obvious route for everyday heroes to earn recognition for sustained work on planetary challenges, prompting the creation of this process that blends human judgment with AI to make ideas more grounded, practical, and less vulnerable to hallucinations.

The workflow begins by priming each AI system with heavily tested prompts to maintain focus on generating actionable, real-world solutions. Each model then extends and refines the prior model's work, adding specificity, clarity, and verification steps as proposals progress. The current highest-performing sequence includes Meta.ai, Claude, CodeCopilot.microsoft.com, Gemini.google.com v.3, Perplexity.ai, Deepseek.com, and ChatGPT (v.5.2). In practice, one SDG target is given to the first model, with outputs handed sequentially through all seven systems to strengthen and stress-test the plan. Completed solutions are archived on The Hero Awards' Academia.edu page for review, reuse, and improvement by others.

Winners receive recognition across the organization's channels and gain the unique privilege of conferring the honor upon others who complete the protocol. Patel emphasized that the workflow not only improves deliverables but also develops participants' analytical and creative abilities by exposing them to different AI personalities with varying strengths and blind spots. In a 2022 preliminary project, the organization found that for every 100 completed procedures, 29 participants produced content gaining traction in traditional media, 14 were quoted in academic or professional journals, 7 launched NGOs or non-profits connected to their chosen Target, and 5 founded startups. The largest source of new participants in 2025 was Substack creators. Chang described this initiative as democratizing planetary stewardship and human flourishing, making change feel both achievable and personally meaningful through enjoyable work with familiar AI tools.