Essex signs SDG Accord to fight global injustice and promote sustainability

As part of its commitment to playing a central and transformational role in supporting the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, the University of Essex has signed the SDG Accord.

The SDG Accord calls on the world’s universities and colleges to embed the Sustainable Development Goals into their education, research, leadership, operations, administration and engagement activities. 

Signing up to the SDGs commits Essex to achieving aspirational levels of sustainability for students, staff and the wider community.

We will also be looking to share best practice with other institutions worldwide and will report on our progress on the SDGs each year. Once a year we’ll report back to the UN High Level Political Forum.

We now complete an annual report on our work on the SDGs including our research and sustainability-focused courses. This led to Essex being ranked 76th in the world in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings and in the global top 25 for three SDG measures -  Responsible Consumption and Production; Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions; and Reduced Inequalities.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Professor Dominic Micklewright, who has led on our SDG reporting alongside Sustainability Manager Daisy Malt, said: “Our annual reports show the huge amount of work we do to support the SDGs across the University. “This is a collaborative effort and our students and staff are already involved in a whole range of projects. In the coming years we hope to take that even further and would love to hear feedback from our community about initiaitives they are involve in.

“At Essex we have an ambitious research agenda around these issues in the region and globally while we are also looking to integrate sustainability even more into our undergraduate and postgraduate courses.”

The SDG Accord is led by the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education (EAUC) and the Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS) on behalf of a global alliance of tertiary and higher education sustainability and student networks.