The sustainable development challenge was started in Kelowna by the Global Citizens Events and over the years partners such as GECCO, and Impact Toolbox has joined forces with them to work together to implement the challenge because we believe young leaders are critical to addressing the UN’s 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. In the spirit of Goal # 17: Partnerships for the Goals, we know that together we can do more than alone.  This project has served many youths in Kelowna and has produced many youth-led projects that has significantly contributed to the SDGs.

Student teams (grades 8-12) have been working on a “Project & Pitch” to address one of the 17 UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Students were asked to choose a goal they are passionate about and partner with a Kelowna-based organization (but the organization can work locally or globally). The six teams you will be mentoring have been invited to continue with the Challenge in Phase 2.  They are working on their Written Proposal, live Pitch, and slide deck. They will present their Pitch on February 23rd before a panel of judges and a live audience at the Rotary Centre for the Arts. The top team will receive up to $5,000 in funding, and the remaining teams may receive a portion of their budget from implementing their idea!

The United Nations defines sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It means ensuring development is sustainable by ensuring that it fulfils present needs while not destroying the prospects for fulfilling the needs in the future.

This definition has implied an understanding of sustainable development as an intergenerational equity relay race of sorts, where the needs of humanity are expressed in a generous commitment to the ethical exploration of the human capacity for development and growth from generation to generation. In the simplest terms, it means ensuring that we develop our communities and use resources effectively to ensure our children and those who will come after them will not lack vital resources. It is the development that can continue indefinitely and a paradigm where society interacts with the environment without damaging the available resources for the future.

Other Definitions of Sustainable Development

• Gasparatos et al. (2009) define sustainable development as an approach that provides a more significant holistic consideration of economic, social and environmental needs through equitable and sustainable use of resources.
• Geissdoerfer et al. (2017) call it the balanced integration of economic accomplishment, social inclusiveness, and environmental resilience to benefit the current and future generations.
• Mensah (2019) defines sustainable development as ensuring a balance between economic growth, environmental integrity, and social well-being. Recent scholarship has also included cultural and institutional sustainability.

Hence, sustainable development is not just a theory or political rhetoric but an ambition that requires drastic, urgent, and precise actions. Human’s peaceful, healthy existence on earth and our prosperity depend on ensuring the ideals of sustainable development. 

Sustainability

This could have two meanings. Sustainability is the continuous availability of resources required for human activities over a long period and can also mean environmental protection and climate stability. It is the capacity to endure over time by enhancing social and natural flourishing, vibrancy, resilience and adaptation and the dynamic equilibrium that allows human activities at full potential to meet human needs without irreversible adverse effects on the environment. Simply put, sustainability is protecting the environment and managing every resource at our disposal effectively to ensure we don’t run out of them.

“Sustainable” in “sustainable development”

From our understanding of sustainability above, we can infer that “sustainable” points to the continuous availability of the resources required to promote social well-being and economic growth. It also emphasizes environmental protection, climate change prevention, and the availability of a continuous clean energy source to power socio-economic activities. Sustainable development is social-economic growth that is “sustainable” in all ramifications.

Sustainable development requires a careful balance of three pillars. They are economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection. 

• The social equity/wellbeing pillar promotes solidarity and cooperation among people and communities. It could also include citizens empowerment, accessibility, participation, cultural identity and institutional stability.
• The economic growth pillar stands for improved quality of life through economic self-determination and self-development of people and societies. Economic sustainability indicates a production system that helps meet present consumption rates without compromising future needs.
• The environmental sustainability/protection pillar ensures the preservation of natural resources to maintain the optimal functioning of the earth’s ecosystems.

Sustainable development depends on a clear understanding of the possible trade-offs and a delicate balance to ensure the ecosystem’s longevity, the livelihoods it supports and the economic engines that power it.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework is a goal-based global policy agenda based on sustainable development and its pillars. It consists of seventeen goals and 169 targets expected to be achieved over fifteen years. These global goals and their targets help transform the ideals and principles of sustainable development into a series of actionable objectives. It was named after 2030, the expected date for its attainment.

It is the successor to the Millennium Development Goals (which targeted developing countries explicitly). It is a consensus on the universality of the problems of extreme poverty, straitened access to education and good health and the avoidable human threats to the environment. It is a resolution of 193 countries of the United Nations, formalized on September 25, 2015, at the United Nations sustainable development conference in New York.

According to the United Nations declaration of the 2030 agenda, the SDGs will build upon the achievements of the MDGs while seeking to address unfinished businesses.  The 2030 agenda is universal, transformative, and indivisible. By universal, it is collectively owned by all countries of the world, notwithstanding their levels of development. 

 The Goals

The lines between development and sustainability are blurred, just as the interconnectedness of these goals becomes prominent as one moves from one goal to the next. The figure below illustrates a classification of the goals into five interrelated categories inspired by Katherine Richardson (Professor, University of Copenhagen).

• Meet critical needs: The project addresses an apparent problem(s) or need(s) that is a root cause. The team understands the issues deeply. 
• Innovative: The project is unique and different from existing solutions
• Be sustainable: The team has thought about the future of the project and its continuity
• Potential for large-scale impact: The project can contribute meaningfully to the chosen SDG goal(s). 
• The team can deliver (support, commitment, and passion).