Sustainable Development Goals

Image above from THE 17 GOALS | https://sdgs.un.org/goals.

Visions of sustainability are critical, for guiding design targets, setting priorities, and measuring success (or how far you are from success). Some visions of sustainability are qualitative, others are quantitative. All of them involve many factors that are interconnected and interdependent. When you face challenging tradeoffs later in the design process, these visions will help guide your critical thinking and judgement. Sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs.

Usage

Sustainability comprises environmental (‘planet’), social (‘people’) and economic (‘prosperity’) values, also referred to as the triple bottom line.The United Nations developed 17 goals for sustainability. These goals create a comprehensive picture of what global sustainability could look like.

 

Benefits

  • You can easily think about the SDGs while using your existing design process, they are simply goals to consider or ideation prompts.

 

Limitations/Risks

  • The SDGs are not a design method, they are highly abstract goals made for governments and institutions, so it may be difficult to find ways to design for them.
  • Only 4 SDGs relate to the environment, most relate to social factors. 

Exercise

Resources