In conjunction with Sunway’s dedication in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Sunway University Student Council (SUSC) has organised the SDG Awareness Month to raise awareness and involve students in localising the SDGs. The initiative served to facilitate the deepening of awareness within the Sunway campus community. This is line with the mobilizing function of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), of which Sunway University is a member.

To conceptualise the SDG Awareness Month, SUSC had reached out to different parties to collaborate for the purpose of actualising this initiative. This month-long initiative was carried out in the month of April 2021 by pivoting towards 4 main SDGs — Climate Action, Gender Equality, Good Health & Well-being and Zero Hunger. Along with support from organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), GOMAD Bootcamp, YWILD Malaysia and the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development, the committee was able to bring together a wide range of expertise to empower the Sunway campus for responsible citizenship towards Agenda 2030. Members of these non-governmental organizations were invited as workshop leaders, guest speakers and judges — Sunwayians were able to attain a greater insight into the current issues that our society faces with regards to the quest for embedding sustainability into individual and organizational actions.

Overall, the event was well-received by students despite it being a fully-online initiative. The committee behind this initiative hopes that ‘The SDG Awareness Month was able to reach out to the Sunway community with the purpose of encouraging sustainability in campus and beyond!’

‘Small actions matter, because when 7 billion people do that one thing, it changes the world’ – Achim Steiner.