Towards Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in Academia: A Case of Good Practice

Since the adoption of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) program for 2030, achieving sustainable development relies on mobilizing all actors in the territory: the government, local authorities, civil society, but also businesses and the world of education, particularly higher education and research. In this article, we explain how universities are major actors for change in favor of the SDGs and should be considered by other actors as essential partners for achieving them, and how engagement for sustainability should be integrated into the university's activities and decisions. We have adopted a descriptive and comparative approach to explore the meaning given to SDG practices, in light of theoretical declarations and speeches. At the same time, we examine how universities must also integrate the SDGs into their own operations in order to become one of their main beneficiaries. We illustrate this point with a best practice case study of the Euromed University of Fez, whose design and functioning integrate the SDGs from its creation and explain how its users appropriate them daily in their activities to derive the best benefit. Using a qualitative analysis approach based on data collection that encompasses all its missions and vocations, we arrive at the result that this university transparently reports on its progress in sustainability and concretely asserts its role as a key actor in its community. In particular, it continuously raises awareness among its stakeholders about the SDGs, supports them through training and communication, and encourages them to adopt responsible and exemplary practices sustainably.