Global Goals for Sustainable Development (universities)

On 1 January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Over the next fifteen years, with these new Goals that universally apply to all, countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.

The SDGs, also known as Global Goals, build on the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and aim to go further to end all forms of poverty. The new Goals are unique in that they call for action by all countries, poor, rich and middle-income to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and addresses a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection (source: UN.org).

This page has been designed to provide a framework for universities to start to understand how metrics link to specific SDGs with the hope that it will enable universities to connect business strategies and teaching with global priorities. Universities can as such use the SDGs as an overarching framework to shape, steer, communicate and report their strategies, goals and activities. This mapping exercise is the beginning of what we hope to be an ongoing and collaborative process, between sustainability professionals, academics, students and the wider community and the initial mapping was carried out in collaboration with the University of Worcester and University of Michigan, for further details about the project check out this page.