Sustainable development goals

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were born at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio De Janeiro in 2012. The objective was to produce a set of universal goals to help focus action on solving the urgent environmental, political and economic challenges facing our world. Whilst significant advancements have been made, it’s important to note that only 16% of targets are on track and no country is close to achieving the SDGs.

Here, you'll not only explore what the SDGs are and why they remain important, but also learn how Monash is contributing to these efforts. Additionally, you'll find simple ways to reference or weave the SDGs into your teaching practice; in some ways teaching for the SDGs is more about how you teach rather than what you teach.

We invite you to take this opportunity to inspire your students and connect The Global Goals to the learning journey in your classroom.

As a framework, the SDGs were designed to encourage us to see the interconnections between issues, recognising that radical collaboration across disciplines, sectors, regions and countries is required to solve complex challenges. The SDGs can be used to explore the ways global challenges intersect, and how what we do locally can affect what happens globally. However they are also applied to local challenges; for example, they are commonly used by cities to track their progress on multiple issues. The SDGs help us build links between our own areas and a wider series of challenges facing our community and world - learn more about the history and development of the SDGs

SDGs and teaching

Watch Susie Ho, David Robertson and Tomas Zahora share their diverse experiences of referencing the SDGs within class or even integrating them into their teaching practices.

Key messages

There is no one size fits all approach.
Consider using the framework as a launchpad to help students see the interconnections between issues and the need for global and cross-sectorial cooperation.
Consider linking what you already teach to the SDGs. For many of us, rather than teaching comprehensive new content about say, the framework’s history, or details of specific goals and targets, it can be more meaningful to connect what you already teach to larger goals or to encourage reflection on intersections and action. This can boost the relevance of topics you are already teaching, connecting them to wider issues students are passionate about.
Thus, teaching for the SDGs is more about how you teach rather than what you teach. It doesn’t have to involve teaching additional content; consider the framing of particular content, activities, skills and connections. See the Educators Guide for Sustainability Teaching and Learning from WSU for more.
The IDGs can be taught alongside the SDGs. The IDGs focus on the inner and relational human skills that promote individual and collective action and agency.
Get creative and even join a community of practice.

SDGs at Monash

At Monash, the SDGs are embedded or referenced across diverse disciplines, encouraging students to consider how what they are learning may link or contribute to broader local to global goals and challenges. Referencing the SDGS, or even integrating them into your curriculum, can help students develop the skills and awareness to approach meaningful solutions to real-world issues in their studies and future careers. Since the SDGs cover the whole of the economy and affect all communities, they are relevant to any career or discipline. Explore these examples to find out more.

Creative Sustainability: An asynchronous studio unit

Delve into Dr Ilya Fridman's Creative Sustainability, an asynchronous online studio unit that engages students in practical project-based design tasks which explore creative thinking within environmental sustainability contexts.

Leadership for the SDGs

Discover how MSDI is using the SDGs framework to help different stakeholders, including policy makers, universities, and cities, advance action for sustainable development.

Sustainable development

Learn more about Monash's commitment to driving sustainable change and empowering its community to contribute positively through our campuses, research, education and leadership.

GIG, MIG and RED

Discover Monash’s flagship educational experiences, where students tackle SDG challenges worldwide. Collaborating across 10 countries with corporations, UN agencies, governments, startups, nonprofits, and communities, they create real-world impact.

Co-designing planetary health education

Explore FMNHS Planetary Health Education, best practice learning and teaching materials produced by the FMNHS Education Fellowship for use by all educators from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Science (FMNHS).

Monash Net Zero

In 2017, Monash made a commitment to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2030. The Net Zero campus living lab earned a UN Momentum for Change Award. Learn about the Net Zero Initiative, our world leading research and the partners working with us.

Monash PRME

Founded in 2007 with UN support, PRME promotes sustainability in schools globally, equipping business students with the knowledge and skills to drive change for a better tomorrow.

Getting started View

Sustainable Development Goals in practice View

As outlined, there is ‘no one size fits all’ approach to helping students see the relevance of what they are learning to the Goals. Each educator will contextualise the SDGs within their own topic and discipline. Here are a few ideas to spark your creativity but it is important to note that they are not designed to be prescriptive. They are merely ideas to get you started.

Explore the tabs for examples

Policy
Science
business
Law
engineering
Arts

There is a huge diversity of ways that you could explore the SDGs. For example, you could refer to the intergovernmental processes, treaties or agreements that underpin and intersect with the SDGs and relate these to your unit content. If teaching international issues, you could discuss different perspectives on sustainable development across the Global North and South. Have efforts to support developing nations through international cooperation been successful? You could debate whether the SDGs and associated agreements have actually worked. What progress has or has not been made? What are the issues with intergovernmental processes?

The possibilities are endless for the social and physical sciences. For example, if exploring the role of evidence-based science in decision-making, you could discuss the ways that scientific bodies, like the IPCC and IPBES, create the evidence bases, syntheses for policy makers, and recommendations for UN agencies. International networks of scientists create the global evidence that underpin the targets and indicators for each SDG. How do these bodies work and what is the role of science in the SDGs? Science, research and innovation are widely promoted by the UN as crucial to achieving the goals. What are the challenges for incorporating science in action? And, why is science communication so important? You might explore how science is used and misused in negotiations. How could scientists better bridge the gap at the science-policy nexus?

Get creative and tailor to your own context and topics. There are many different provocations and reflections you could potentially explore. For instance, what are some different strategies that companies are employing to contribute to the SDGs and what is the relationship to CSR and ESG? What are the most successful strategies and examples? What are the major challenges facing corporations and SMEs? How roles can professionals, such as accountants and economists, play in achieving the SDGs? Furthermore, what role have businesses had in the history and evolution of sustainable development over the past 10 years? You can also explore shifts in consumer attitudes. Furthermore, how can we better measure and regulate action towards the SDGs, and avoid greenwashing?

There are many different aspects of intergovernmental negotiations to explore. Where to start? For example you could discuss the evolution of the SDGs and particular milestones that led up to their development including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). How did the SDGs come to be and why aren’t they legally binding? You could also discuss the critiques of the SDGs; are they actually effective in terms of driving change on the ground? Why/why not? How is litigation being used, and why are there so many litigators who are youth and or from vulnerable communities? You could also explore the legalities of intergenerational impacts and the rights of the environment and non-human species. Do rivers and mountains have rights? Of course there are many specific issues that may be of interest, like loss and damage and a just transition.

There are so many different ways you could teach for the SDGs, contextualising to your own particular discipline and topic. For example, what is the role of engineers in the transition to the clean economy? Which types of green technologies, processes and products are emerging in different industries today? Why do engineers have a central role to play in creating sustainable cities and production? How can engineering norms and practices have unintended consequences or trade-offs?

If teaching design, arts or social sciences, the possibilities are endless. For example, you could explore sustainability as a social problem. How might creative practices be inspired by these challenges? And, how can we use creative practices to reach the broader public, changing hearts and minds? Unsustainable practices disproportionately affect the world’s most vulnerable, such as Indigenous Peoples, women and girls, the LGBTIQ+ community, the least developed states, and those in poverty and conflict zones. Going forward, how can we design a just world? What sorts of social norms, conceptualisations and human behaviours need to be explored and challenged? Why is global cooperation and global inequality crucial? You could also discuss the ways in which human rights are at the heart of the SDGs. What key roles can the arts play in creating a positive and just world for all?

Frequently asked questions View

Draw inspiration

SDG Academy

Free, open educational resources from the world’s leading experts on sustainable development. This includes videos from UN leaders and world experts.

Getting started with the SDGs in Universities

A Monash guide to help universities, higher education institutions, and the academic sector globally to accelerate their contributions to SDGs.

Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)

Monash University hosts the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. You are welcome to join our seminars and community of practice on education for SDGs.

Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) Education at the UN

Learn more about the six elements of ACE: climate change education and public awareness, training, public participation, public access to information, and international cooperation.

Education for Sustainable Development at UNESCO

Access UNESCOs Education for sustainable development (ESD) resources to gain knowledge, skills, values and agency to address interconnected global challenges like climate change, loss of biodiversity, unsustainable use of resources and inequality.

Transforming Australia SDG Progress Reports

These reports and data dashboards from MSDI track how well Australia is progressing on indicators relating to all 17 SDGs in 2018 and 2020. The 2024 report will be launched soon!

The Inner Development Goals

This skills framework focuses upon the inner and relational skills required for action.

Transforming Australia – State of the Nation update

Hear from Professor John Thwaites AM and lead researcher, Dr Cameron Allen as they discuss Australia’s progress against SDG targets and key trends, and model pathways needed to accelerate progress and achieve the SDGs by 2030 and 2050.

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