🎬 Multilingual subtitles
✍️ By: Team BC1.NL
The SDGs, Sustainable Goals for a Fairer Society
The Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, you hear the term more and more often, but what exactly does it mean? In this Kitchen Table Conversation, Sandra Pellegrom, the Dutch national SDG coordinator, explains what these sustainable development goals are really about. “In short, it's a set of goals that helps us build a sustainable, inclusive, and fair society together.”
What are the Sustainable Development Goals?
Seventeen goals adopted by all countries that are members of the UN. Seventeen sounds like a lot, but read them and you see it is a very clear agenda for a better world: a set of goals that help us create a sustainable, inclusive and fair society together.
Why now?
Because of what the agenda is called. It is known as the 2030 agenda, since that is the year we aim to get there, but the title of the UN text is 'Transforming our World'. That, says Sandra Pellegrom, is exactly the era we are living in: all the things we say we want to do better together, so our society becomes genuinely future-proof.
Why call the goals a compass?
Because a compass helps you work out where you want to go; it gives direction. With seventeen goals you agree together on where you want to end up and what you want to achieve. And they are the full picture: quality education, decent work for everyone, and more.
Entrepreneurs and their role in the SDGs
Goals like ending poverty (SDG 1) and reducing inequality (SDG 10) are weighty topics, not the kind of thing an entrepreneur immediately thinks, ‘right, I'll get to work on that.’ But Sandra points out that small business owners are often already working toward one or more of the sustainable goals without even realising it. And it matters, because society is increasingly asking for exactly this. Consumers expect companies to make progress in this area, and younger employees, too, are selective about which companies they want to work for.
Building a future-proof world, now more than ever
The UN gave its Sustainable Development Goals agenda the title “Transforming Our World,” with the aim of reaching those goals by 2030. In these times of coronavirus especially, more and more people are saying they want to change things to make sure our society is fit for the future. Weaknesses in our systems are surfacing, and with them, a shared sense that we want to do better from here on, taking better care of one another and of our planet.
