Know Your SDG Goals

It’s Global Goals week
Global Goals week is all about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, (or SDGs). At 2 Minute our charitable work and business partnerships support progress towards 7 of the goals.

Do you know your SDGs? Have you ever wondered what they are, whether they're relevant to you and how you can work towards them? Here’s all you need to know about SDG's, why they're important and how 2 Minute can help…

Sustainable development goals are a big part of the United Nations agenda for sustainable development. The agenda is a plan for peace, prosperity, and the planet.

Sustainable: (adjective) something that can be maintained at a certain rate

Development: (noun) the process of developing. Growing, becoming more advanced or maturing.

The goals are a call for countries to work together to improve all our systems, so that (amongst many other things) we don’t deplete resources or create more waste than we know what to do with! This is about making sure we have a positive impact on people and the planet. There are 17 goals in total. You can see them all here. At 2 Minute we think they’re important for us all and particularly useful for businesses and organisations and here’s why:

They’re positive. This is pro-active and about making something happen together.

They’re global – the UN is pushing for these to be the basis of decision making around the world.

They’ve been developed with input from organisations and businesses, so businesses around the world are already invested in them.

At least one of them of them will be important to each person in your team.

They’re a BIG part of primary school education, so children will know more than you unless you keep up!

They give you a framework to think about the impact your organisation is having and make sure that your development is a positive force.

Trust is important. Ethical products are increasing in popularity, with spending on ethical products and services nearly 30% more in 2020 compared to 2019.

Consumers are becoming more informed with research, transparency, and the rise of accreditations like B-Corps. Even where businesses are supplying other businesses, shoppers are becoming savvier and want to understand supply chains. Apps like Good On You are putting knowledge into the hands of the consumer and helping consumers hold businesses to account.

There are some criticisms of the goals. Progress is difficult to measure and the 169 targets that measure progress aren’t necessarily evenly balanced - some say they focus on economic development over protection of the planet. This can skew results so that countries can seem more ‘sustainable’ than they actually are, so it’s worth bearing in mind if you are looking at the UN progress reports.

The SDGs are still a super useful framework and starting point to help everyone to make positive changes. Here at 2 Minute we help businesses and organisations to work towards 7 of the 17 sustainable development goals.

Here’s our key goals, how we work towards them and how we can help you:

3 - Good Health and Wellbeing

What we do: CSR days and litter pick and beach clean station stations invite people to get out, get active and get the positive boost from doing something great for the environment. The health and wellbeing benefits of time outside in blue and green spaces are huge!

4 - Quality Education

What we do: 2 Minute Beach School educates and inspires young people to care for our planet and encourage others to do the same.
We know that our thirst for knowledge doesn’t stop as we get older, so our talks, campaigns and CSR days inspire us all to take action for the planet by explaining the facts in easy, accessible chunks and linking it to achievable actions.

11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities & 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production

What we do: We’ve activated communities to clean up their local area and reduce their impact through our campaigns and stations.
We educate people to be informed consumers and we work with businesses to inspire them to take steps to produce and consume more responsibly.

13 - Climate Action

What we do: Campaign to reduce plastic consumption: Plastic pollution is climate change. Plastic is made from oil and fossil fuels are burnt through extraction, production and transportation.
AND The ocean is a vital carbon sink, so by keeping pollution out the ocean with our #2MinuteLitterPick and #2MinuteBeachClean campaign we are working towards to healthier ocean that can capture carbon for effectively.

14 - Life below Water & 15 - Life on Land

What we do: Inspire thousands of people to pick up litter and plastic pollution every day.
Litter and plastic damages habitats and traps and entangles wildlife causing injuries and death. We know that most litter is made of plastic. When plastic is exposed to ocean conditions it breaks down into microplastic, which animals mistake for food.

…And this is just the tip of the iceberg, there’s so much more which we would love to uncover by working with you. To find out more about the work we do towards SDG goals and how we can work with you have a look at our website.

And we'd love to hear from you; What do you think about SDG’s and how are you making steps to make progress towards them? Add your comments on socials @2minuteHQ or email us: 2minutenews@2minute.org

Filed in: