Hitting the UN Global Goals with Bristol's Global Goals Centre

The UN Global Goals (also known as Sustainable Development Goals) are a framework for building a greener, fairer, better world by 2030. The kind of world we’d love to see.

The Goals inspire the work of our friends at the Global Goals Centre here in Bristol. We invited Project Lead Jenny Foster to tell us what they’re working on and how the local community can get involved...

The Global Goals Centre is a UK-based education charity creating exciting, engaging projects that inspire learning and action on climate and equality in our everyday lives. We are working to create the world’s first Education and Visitor Centre here in Bristol inspired by the UN Global Goals.

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These goals are the closest thing we’ve ever had to a world plan – every country is signed up to them and more and more businesses say they are working to achieve them. And they really demonstrate the interconnectedness of the issues. The strapline Leave No-One Behind is a vital way to ensure equalities and climate action are seen as inextricably linked.

The IPCC report highlights how vital it is that more people take action for a greener, fairer future now. The cost of living crisis is impacting the poorest the most. The great news is that living more sustainably often saves money too!

Our research with UWE shows how young people are increasingly anxious about climate change and feel disempowered and helpless. Our workshops enable them to find their voice and use consumer and collective power to take meaningful action for change – in their schools, families and communities.

However, there are 17 Global Goals and they can seem a bit overwhelming. Many people don’t know where to start, so we aim to make them highly relevant and give people plenty of affordable and easy ways to make a real difference in their communities. We have created a valuable online Resource Hub for SDG resources for teachers, businesses and the public. This Hub will enable more people to answer the questions ‘What can I Do?’ by getting ideas for behaviour change, joining community projects and taking action for systems change.

There are many brilliant organisations in Bristol working to achieve these Goals already. If you want to support them, check out our Bristol 17 campaign showcasing 17 local people, nominated by community organisations across the city, who are doing great work towards reaching one of the Goals. The one-minute videos are having wide engagement on social media (thousands per video) and are giving voice to some of our marginalised communities and amplifying their calls to action and encouraging people to volunteer in local projects.

As Ben, our hero for Goal 11 said, “People are more likely to do something about climate and stuff like that if they hear about it from people in their own communities.” So one of the most impactful things you can do is to talk about sustainability and call out inequality. You can Be the Change.

If you’d like to support our work, please do look at our website for ways to get involved, or donate to our projects.

But, most of all, be inspired and hopeful that a greener, fairer future is possible if we all play our part in our own homes and communities. And it will be so much brighter for us all!