Sustainability can mean different things to different people. For many years, the term “sustainability” was equated with environmentalism — people working to protect the planet from pollution, litter, and chemicals while trying to recycle and reduce their overall footprint on the planet. 

While the environment is an important facet of sustainability, it is not the only one. 

Penn State sees sustainability as starting with people. The goal of sustainability is to create a holistic approach to human health, economy, and happiness. A stable and clean environment is an important part of that vision, but so, too, are issues like ending poverty, creating dynamic community infrastructure, and guaranteeing gender equity. Only with all these components can we engender a sustainable future for everyone. 

Penn State has adopted the following as its formal definition of sustainability: 

Sustainability is the simultaneous pursuit of human health and happiness, environmental quality, and economic well-being for current and future generations.

At Penn State, we are aligning our sustainability efforts with a system of goals that has been agreed upon by the international community, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

The 17 SDGs serve as a guide to tackling the world’s most pressing challenges, including ending poverty and bringing economic prosperity, social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and peace to all countries and peoples by 2030.

Addressing the SDGs will require transformations in how societies and economies function and how we interact with our planet. Education, research, innovation, and leadership will be essential in helping society address these challenges.

Much of Penn State’s Strategic Plan is aligned with the SDGs. In particular, the plan aims to better the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s communities, making them more resilient and economically sound; aims to provide quality education that advances student success for all; promotes partnerships to achieve community success for all; focuses on fair and equal access for all to needed resources; and aims to disseminate and apply world-class research in a host of areas directly connected to the goals of the sustainable development goals. Indeed, in the Times Higher Education rankings–which use the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals to compare universities’ impacts through research, outreach, and stewardship–Penn State ranks 51st out of 2,152 universities globally and 4th in the United States in terms of its impact relative to the SDGs.

The university staffs several core teams that serve as consultants and coaches who guide and bolster sustainability at Penn State. These teams have expertise in a number of areas, including student and staff engagement, curriculum development, student-community projects, operations, research, and more. However, for sustainability to grow, the charge of fostering sustainability will also have to be advanced on the frontline of each unit, college, and campus. Thus, the Sustainability Councils embedded in most Penn State units also provide another key component of organizational support to advance sustainability at Penn State.

Throughout each of our daily lives, there are many small actions we can utilize to support the Sustainable Development Goals. In collaboration with WPSU and many other faculty and staff volunteers, the university has created the following video to illustrate how simple changes can add up to create meaningful positive impact. Enjoy!