Progress report for
SDG Action Alliance
Achievement at a glance
Dr. Brooke Hansen was appointed as the Director in January. The Alliance co-sponsored the University of South Florida Sustainability Showcase at the Florida State Fair Feb. 6-17, 2020. At the fair, the SDG Action Alliance created and staffed a booth that promoted the SDG platform, graphics, icons, and interactive tools for teachers like the Go Goals game. SDGs like SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production were featured with a display of compostable alternatives to single use plastics.The SDG Action Alliance was the organizer of the Florida statewide Solve Climate 2030 global webinar organized by the Bard Center for Environmental Policy https://www.solveclimateby2030.org/ . On April 7, 2020, all the states, and several countries, participated in simultaneous Power Dialogs to bring all hands on deck, especially youth and students, to face our climate challenges head on. Educator tool kits were made available to promote the platform and #MakeClimateAClass. Recordings were made and can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHoKHTESDOZJ9PYTSR8Av2w.
The SDG Action Alliance website was established https://www.usf.edu/pcgs/about/sdg-action-alliance/index.aspx, Student led groups mapped the SDGs onto the Patel College of Global Sustainability for classes, concentrations and the yearly speaker series. Two internships were established for a Communications and Project Coordinator, held by Leah Mowery, and a Youth and Global Citizens Coordinator, held by Courtney Wright. The SDG Action Alliance Sustainability Film Series was established and a film was featured each month from July to December focused on one SDG https://www.usf.edu/pcgs/about/sdg-action-alliance/events.aspx. The Alliance also assisted with the data gathering and report for the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2021 Edition.
Challenges faced in implementation
The main challenges of launching the SDG Action Alliance in 2020 included: lack of start up funding and lack of knowledge and literacy about SDGs on campus and in the community. The largest challenge was trying to start the project during the Covid-19 pandemic, which only furthered the financial crisis at the University of South Florida.Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of the project include the entire 3 campus University of South Florida community, the greater Tampa Bay area encompassing five counties, and youth and students across the state.
Actions
We have formed a special Youth Outreach Program so that K-12 students in the Tampa Bay region can learn about and benefit from participating in the SDG platform. We have teamed up with the Gus A. Stavros Center https://www.usf.edu/education/stavros-center/ , located at the University of South Florida Tampa campus, to deliver teacher workshops on how to use the SDGs as part of the Sustainability Superheroes project: https://www.sustainabilitysuperheroes.org/sdg-ask-the-right-questions.html.We created an internship position titled Youth and Global Citizens Coordinator to expand efforts into local schools. At the end of 2020, the Patel High School was invited by the SDG Action Alliance to enter into a collaboration to mutually promote the SDGs in our respective educational institutions and in the community.
Surrounding communities are benefitting from the work of the SDG Action Alliance through student led projects that map the goals onto municipal Sustainability Acton Plans and Climate Resiliency Plans. A team from the fall UN SDG class at USF (taught by Dr. Hansen) collected data on the City of Tampa and prepared infographics, a white paper on “Why the SDGs for the City of Tampa” and virtualizations of the impact of adopting green infrastructure and reducing inequities in the City of Tampa. The final report will be presented to Whit Remer, Sustainability & Resiliency Officer for the city, in early 2021.
Finally, we are reaching out to diverse sectors of the USF community to educate about the goals and provide technical and consulting expertise about how to adopt the goals at the college, department, and organizational levels.