Do you know what the Sustainable Development Goals are? Sustainable Development Goal is a term that was first coined by the United Nations in 2015. Sustainable development is not just about helping people enjoy their lives but also ensuring that they have enough to live on for generations to come. These Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, are 17 global goals set out to end poverty and protect the planet by 2030.
Goal 1: No Poverty - To end poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030.
What can you do about it? Your active engagement in policymaking can make a difference in addressing poverty. It ensures that your rights are promoted and that your voice is heard, that intergenerational knowledge is shared, and that innovation and critical thinking are encouraged at all ages to support transformational change in people’s lives and communities. Governments can help create an enabling environment to generate productive employment and job opportunities for the poor and the marginalized. The private sector has a major role to play in determining whether the growth it creates is inclusive and contributes to poverty reduction. It can promote economic opportunities for the poor. The contribution of science to end poverty has been significant. For example, it has enabled access to safe drinking water, reduced deaths caused by water-borne diseases, and improved hygiene to reduce health risks related to unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation.
Goal 2: Zero Hunger - End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
What can you do about it? You can make changes in your own life—at home, at work and in the community—by supporting local farmers or markets and making sustainable food choices, supporting good nutrition for all, and fighting food waste. You can also use your power as a consumer and voter, demanding businesses and governments make the choices and changes that will make Zero Hunger a reality. Join the conversation, whether on social media platforms or in your local communities.
Goal 3: Good Health & Wellbeing - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all, at all ages.
What can you do about it? You can start by promoting and protecting your own health and the health of those around you, by making well-informed choices, practicing safe sex, and vaccinating your children. You can raise awareness in your community about the importance of good health, healthy lifestyles, as well as peoples’ rights to quality health care services -especially for the most vulnerable, such as women and children. You can also hold your government, local leaders, and other decision-makers accountable to their commitments to improve people’s access to health and health care.
Goal 4: Quality Education- Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
What can you do about it? Ask our governments to place education as a priority in both policy and practice. Lobby our governments to make firm commitments to provide free primary school education to all, including vulnerable or marginalized groups.
Goal 5: Gender equality and women’s empowerment - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
What can you do about it? If you are a girl, you can stay in school, help empower your female classmates to do the same, and fight for your right to access sexual and reproductive health services. If you are a woman, you can address unconscious biases and implicit associations that form an unintended and often an invisible barrier to equal opportunity. If you are a man or a boy, you can work alongside women and girls to achieve gender equality and embrace healthy, respectful relationships. You can fund education campaigns to curb cultural practices like female genital mutilation and change harmful laws that limit the rights of women and girls and prevent them from achieving their full potential.
Goal 6: Clean Water & Sanitation - Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
What can you do about it? Civil society organizations should work to keep governments accountable, invest in water research and development, and promote the inclusion of women, youth, and indigenous communities in water resources governance. Generating awareness of these roles and turning them into action will lead to win-win results and increased sustainability and integrity for both human and ecological systems. You can also get involved in the World Water Day and World Toilet Day campaigns that aim to provide information and inspiration to take action on hygiene issues.
Goal 7: Affordable & Clean Energy - Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.
What can you do about it? Countries can accelerate the transition to an affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy system by investing in renewable energy resources, prioritizing energy-efficient practices, and adopting clean energy technologies and infrastructure. Businesses can maintain and protect ecosystems and commit to sourcing 100% of operational electricity needs from renewable sources. Employers can reduce the internal demand for transport by prioritizing telecommunications and incentivize less energy intensive modes such as train travel over auto and air travel. Investors can invest more in sustainable energy services, bringing new technologies to the market quickly from a diverse supplier base. You can save electricity by plugging appliances into a power strip and turning them off completely when not in use, including your computer. You can also bike, walk, or take public transport to reduce carbon emissions.
Goal 8: Decent Work & Economic GrowthHunger - Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.
What can you do about it? Providing youth with the best opportunity to transition to a decent job calls for investing in education and training of the highest possible quality, providing youth with skills that match labour market demands, giving them access to social protection and basic services regardless of their contract type, as well as levelling the playing field. This way all aspiring youth can attain productive employment regardless of their gender, income level, or socio-economic background. Governments can work to build dynamic, sustainable, innovative, and people-centered economies In particular, they may promote youth employment and women’s economic empowerment, as well as decent work for all. Implementing adequate health and safety measures and promoting supportive working environments are fundamental to protecting the safety of workers; especially health workers and those providing essential services.
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, & Infrastructure - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.
What can you do about it? Establish standards and promote regulations that ensure company projects and initiatives are sustainably managed. Collaborate with NGOs and the public sector to help promote sustainable growth within developing countries. Think about how industry impacts on your life and well-being and use social media to push for policymakers to prioritize the SDGs.
Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities - Reduce inequality within and among countries.
What can you do about it? Reducing inequality requires transformative change. Greater efforts are needed to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and invest more in health, education, social protection, and decent jobs - especially for young people, migrants and refugees and other vulnerable communities. Within countries, it is important to empower and promote inclusive social and economic growth. We can ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of income if we eliminate discriminatory laws, policies, and practices. Among countries, we need to ensure that developing countries are better represented in decision-making on global issues so that solutions can be more effective, credible, and accountable. Governments and other stakeholders can also promote safe, regular, and responsible migration, including through planned and well-managed policies for the millions of people who have left their homes seeking better lives due to war, discrimination, poverty, lack of opportunity, and other drivers of migration.
Goal 11: Sustainable Cities - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.
What can you do about it? Take an active interest in the governance and management of your city. Advocate for the kind of city you believe you need. Develop a vision for your building, street, and neighbourhood, and act on that vision. Are there enough jobs? Can your children walk to school safely? Can you walk with your family at night? How far is the nearest public transport? What’s the air quality like? What are your shared public spaces like? The better the conditions you create in your community, the greater the effect on quality of life.
Goal 12: Responsible Consumption & Production - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
What can you do about it? There are two main ways to help: 1. Reducing your waste and 2. Being thoughtful about what you buy and choosing a sustainable option whenever possible. Ensure you don’t throw away food, and reduce your consumption of plastic - one of the main pollutants of the ocean. Carrying a reusable bag, refusing to use plastic straws, and recycling plastic bottles are good ways to do your part every day. Making informed purchases also helps. For example, the textile industry today is the second largest polluter of clean water after agriculture, and many fashion companies exploit textile workers in the developing world. If you can buy from sustainable and local sources, you can make a difference as well as exercising pressure on businesses to adopt sustainable practices.
Goal 13: Climate Action - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
What can you do about it? There are lots of ways to help, for example: Weatherize your home and power it with renewable energy, invest in energy-efficient appliances, reduce water waste, eat the food you buy and make less of it meat, buy better bulbs, pull the plugs, drive a full-efficient vehicle, rethink planes, trains and automobiles, and shrink your carbon profile.
Goal 14: Life Below Water - Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.
What can you do about it? For open ocean and deep sea areas, sustainability can be achieved only through increased international cooperation to protect vulnerable habitats. Establishing comprehensive, effective, and equitably managed systems of government-protected areas should be pursued to conserve biodiversity and ensure a sustainable future for the fishing industry. On a local level, we should make ocean-friendly choices when buying products or eating food derived from oceans and consume only what we need. Selecting certified products is a good place to start. We should eliminate plastic usage as much as possible and organize beach clean-ups. Most importantly, we can spread the message about how important marine life is and why we need to protect it.
Goal 15: Life on Land - Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss.
What can you do about it? Some things we can do to help include recycling, eating a local-based diet that is sustainably sourced, and consuming only what we need. We must be respectful toward wildlife and only take part in ecotourism opportunities that are responsibly and ethically run in order to prevent wildlife disturbance. Well-managed protected areas support healthy ecosystems, which in turn keep people healthy. It is therefore critical to secure the involvement of the local communities in the development and management of these protected areas. As a result, startups that can demonstrate scalable reforestation strategies or other terrestrial ecosystems preservation technologies are of huge interest to governments and industry alike, each of which are eager to identify investment strategies that can prove to be sustainable from both an environmental and financial perspective.
Goal 16: Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.
What can you do about it? Exercise your right to hold your elected officials accountable. Exercise your right to freedom of information and share your opinion with your elected representatives. Promote inclusion and respect towards people of different ethnic origins, religions, gender, sexual orientations, or different opinions. Together, we can help to improve conditions for a life of dignity for all.
Goal 17: Partnerships - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
What can you do about it? Join or create a group in your local community that seeks to mobilize action on the implementation of the SDGs. Encourage your governments to partner with businesses for the implementation of the SDGs.
The ‘Five Ps’ model of Sustainable Development
At SunworxEnergy, we agree with the SDGs and want to work toward them based on an understanding of their background. We are making efforts in doing so by taking part in corporate activities that contribute positively for society as well as improve our corporate value over time
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