Stephan Schmidheiny understands the duties of the entrepreneur in society in a holistic way. He sees his own success in business as giving him a chance and a responsibility for fostering the freedom of the individual and of society within a market framework.

In 1994, Stephan Schmidheiny founded AVINA STIFTUNG, with the goal to take on the tradition of philanthropic activities of the Schmidheiny family in its native Switzerland, and to promote sustainable development in Latin America.

In 2001, when the AVINA network in Latin America had reached a critical mass, Stephan Schmidheiny established Fundación AVINA in Panamá. The meanwhile 24 AVINA offices, which are distributed all over the Latin American continent, organizationally belong to Fundaciòn AVINA.

In 2003 Stephan Schmidheiny founded VIVA Trust , which in 2008 has taken on the responsibility to finance the AVINA network in Latin America. Until then, AVINA STIFTUNG was the main funding source for the initiatives of the Latin American sister organization.

Today, AVINA STIFTUNG and Fundaciòn AVINA are organizationally and financially independent from each other. They continue however to jointly encourage collaboration between Latin America and Europe.

Furthermore, Stephan Schmidheiny is also the founder of Fundación FUNDES and of the WBCSD, World Business Council for Sustainable Development , with which he has published the bestseller "Changing Course".