UN Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations (UN) has developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The purpose is sustainable transformation of societies across the globe.

The framework is an ambitious and important global agreement that challenges the modern world to change its systems into more sustainable systems. This agenda and the goals of the UN go hand in hand with the content of the course: sustainable production systems are a large and important part of this global sustainable transformation.

The 17 SDGs pinpoint major challenges in many different areas. Watch the video below from the UN to learn which these are.

The UN emphasises that the goals should be viewed as a whole rather than different parts. This means that changes we make to achieve one of the goals should not negatively impact the others. Therefore, it is discouraged to cherry pick and only describe positive impacts of, for example, a system while avoiding the negatives. We must always keep the big picture in mind.

Sustainable transformation is a complex and challenging goal. It is commonly characterised by tradeoffs. Information is often lacking, leading to many subjective opinions affecting development. As the 2030 Agenda gains more attention, there is a growing need for people to be aware of and actively strive towards achieving the goals.

Take a few minutes to consider how the sustainable development of production systems can achieve the global goals. What possibilities do you imagine there are? Do you see any immediate challenges or potential negative effects of modern developments?