Taking on the world, one SDG at a time

10 March 2023

Twenty students and five staff will be the University of Auckland Future17 trailblazers, taking part for the first time in a global education programme that focuses on sustainability challenges and bridges the worlds of higher education and work.   

With an emphasis on developing 21st century skills, students and mentors from universities across Europe, Africa, South America and Oceania team up with international partner organisations to collaborate on real-world challenges related to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This culminates in a showcase event where student teams present their proposed solutions to the partners — which range from corporate organisations to charities and NGOs. 

The Future17 challenges have just been finalised. For University of Auckland students and mentors, these include: 

• Working alongside a non-profit based in Canada, to develop a policy, aligned with global youth values, on embedding the SDGs into the fashion supply chain.  
• Creating strategies for a packaging company in India to encourage businesses to shift from single-use packaging to reusable plastic pouches. 
• Developing a fundraising strategy for a Pakistan university to deliver technology training to women living in remote areas. 
• Forming recommendations on how to launch into the US market a natural-dye product, made with waste generated through the manufacture of iced tea at a Sri Lanka factory.   

Among the 50-plus other Future17 challenges is one that will broaden the uptake of biogas digesters by Indonesian farmers. The digesters transform farm waste into gas for stovetop use, reducing the reliance on firewood. A secondary liquid fertiliser product is also created. Environmental thinktank su-re.co in behind this initiative, as well as two other Future17 challenges. The CEO of su-re.co is Dr Takeshi Takama, a University of Auckland alumni and business owner working on SDGs. 

At the University’s kick-off event held at the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Unleash Space on 24 February, the Semester One cohort of students and mentors met each other for the first time. Although they will be working in virtual teams with peers from partner institutions, it was an opportunity to check in with UoA Future17 staff and to build some local connections.  

Drawn from different programmes of study across several faculties, the students’ common passion for sustainability and desire to make an impact was evident from the outset.  Likewise, the mentors, who have different academic roles within the University, and who are participating as part of their service contribution, expressed their enthusiasm for this new initiative.  

“We’re excited that we get to do something creative; the teams are excited about the outcomes of the challenge, about what they’re going to produce. And we’re excited about the fact it’s going to be complex,” said Cody Mankelow, one of the University of Auckland’s Future17 mentors. 

As well as the opportunity to meet like-minded people from around the world, the group embraced the prospect of applying their specialist skills, with a dose of creativity, to tackle real-life sustainability problems and the chance to make a positive impact on the world.  

More information 

Future17 is currently offered through the Business School as a 15-point, stage three course, BUSINESS301. The initiative was launched in 2022 by the charity arm of higher-education thought leader and rankings organisation QS, in conjunction with the University of Exeter (England). The University of Auckland joined the programme in September 2022.   

To find out more about Future17 — including how to get involved as a mentor or propose a business challenge, aligned to the SDGs on behalf of one of the University’s partners — email future17SDGs@auckland.ac.nz or make contact with University of Auckland academic lead for this initiative, Andrew Patterson. 

Read about the SDGs, and sustainability at Waipapa Taumata Rau, on the University website.