Let's build a better future with the Sustainable Development Goals

Three years ago, in September 2015, governments around the world agreed on a bold plan. A plan to transform our world into one where people everywhere can have a decent life, prosperity is shared and our planet is protected.

That plan was called Sustainable Development Goals. The United Nations has spent several years negotiating it, ending with 17 goals and 169 objectives, all of which must be achieved by 2030.

Because the construction and infrastructure sector builds tomorrow's world, it will play a critical role in determining if we can achieve them.

Implications for the construction and infrastructure sector

The construction sector builds places where people live and work, infrastructure for energy and water systems and transport systems that move people, products and raw materials between them.

The construction has to withstand social, economic and environmental impacts during the design and construction process , not to mention the acquisition of materials and services.

The companies that operate in the sector create buildings, infrastructure and places that can last hundreds of years, and a built environment that shapes all our lives.

That means that if we want to achieve the SDGs by 2030, now we must act now. The risks of inaction are too great, but the opportunities are many. For example, according to the United Nations Global Compact, the search for sustainable and inclusive business models could unlock economic opportunities worth at least $ 12 trillion per year by 2030.

How has the sector responded so far?

It is fair to say that until now, the built environment sector has lagged behind others in response to the challenge and opportunity of the SDGs.

There are some notable exceptions: Cundall, for example, has mapped its commercial impact against the SDGs. Siemens has turned Objective 11 into Sustainable Cities and Communities into a central element of its sustainability strategies. And Arup's 2016/17 report says that the SDGs provide "a structure that allows us to identify the problems in which each of our projects can have the greatest impact."

But it is clear that the SDGs have not been achieved by individual companies that work in isolation from each other. The level of ambition required, the challenges faced and the complexity of the systems that impact and are impacted by the SDGs means that joint action will be necessary. In the United Kingdom, United Kingdom stakeholders for Sustainable Development (UKSSD) are created to create a collaborative network, and there are other emerging partnerships worldwide. The impetus is clearly building. However, 58% of the people in Ecobuild had not heard about the objectives.

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