- Sustainable Development Goals

Catalog description

Imagine the world in five years. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a part of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda to create a healthier, more peaceful, and prosperous planet for all. The international community created the SDGs as both a guide for future development as well as an urgent call to action to address today’s most pressing global challenges. All SDGs are inherently interrelated and difficult to unravel, for example, SDG13 Climate Action includes creating both: SDG11 Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG7 Affordable and Clean Energy. Moreover, many argue climate change is the result of severe global inequality and unsustainable consumption and production, addressed by SDG10 and SDG12 respectively. Nonetheless, the SDG framework breaks these global challenges down in a way that productively channels resources and focuses attention on more targeted solutions. This course will examine the creation, history, and evolution of the SDGs as well as the myriad solutions being implemented at the state level, and across civil society and the private sector to address the SDGs. Students in this course will explore an SDG of interest in-depth through a series of oral presentations & projects focusing on existing solutions to these pressing global challenges. Students will therefore gain both depth and breadth of knowledge about the SDGs and 21st century integrated sustainability value creation.