At Harvard University, Professor Fernando Reimers doesn’t see the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as just another global initiative. To him, they are a powerful mirror, reflecting what higher education is truly meant to be: a space for learning, research, and social engagement. But Reimers also warns bluntly that too many universities still treat the SDGs as “nice-to-have” rather than “non-negotiable.”
“We can’t afford to treat sustainability like a campus extracurricular,” he said. “It needs to be the common language we speak across disciplines and departments, inside and outside the university.”
Reimers was speaking at the “Time to Act” webinar, hosted by University World News and ABET, which brought together 300 participants from around the world—university presidents, senior faculty, administrators, and students—all grappling with the same core question: how can higher education truly drive sustainable development?
Dr. Debra Rowe, president of the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development, brought a dose of optimism. “The solutions are out there,” she said. “The key now is scaling up—moving from isolated campus projects to systemic transformation.” Rowe pointed to the wealth of open-access resources, course models, and toolkits available, but noted a lack of support networks for educators who want to apply them. To address this, she launched a new global support community during the webinar to help universities put sustainability theory into practice.
From Indonesia, Professor Ratna Lindawati Lubis shared how her students at Telkom University collaborate with local communities on upcycling projects tied to SDG goals. She encourages students to choose a sustainable development goal they care about—like early childhood education (SDG 4) or responsible consumption (SDG 12)—and build real-world solutions. Her students use freely available online tools and even post their work on YouTube to raise awareness.
Her key question to educators everywhere? “Are you ready?”
Lubis says the COVID-19 pandemic had an unexpected upside: it forced students to become more autonomous, to research online, and to engage in project-based learning. This shift, she believes, is helping to narrow the traditional Global North-South knowledge gap. “Technology is our bridge,” she said. “We can now have conversations we never could before.”
This hands-on, SDG-driven pedagogy isn’t unique to Indonesia. At Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, the institution is aligning its research and curriculum with the SDGs across the board. In the UK, King’s College London has embedded sustainability into every facet of campus life—from what’s served in the dining hall to what’s taught in the classroom.
“It’s not about memorizing the SDGs,” Reimers emphasized. “It’s about building the kind of real-world skills and empathy that empower students to act—whether that’s in reducing poverty, leading climate initiatives, or designing sustainable tech.”
Data from the webinar confirmed common roadblocks: over half the attendees cited lack of faculty training, while many flagged curriculum overload and weak institutional support. But Rowe shared a compelling counter: “I ask educators to take a concept they already teach, pair it with a sustainability issue, and redesign the lesson. In five minutes, the room explodes with ideas.”
ABET CEO Dr. Michael Milligan echoed that integration doesn’t have to mean expansion. “We’ve mapped ABET’s engineering accreditation criteria to sustainability competencies,” he said. “It fits. You just need to look.”
Milligan also rejected the notion that sustainability stifles innovation. “In fact, it inspires it,” he argued. “Our graduates are more socially conscious and more creative when sustainability is embedded from day one.”
One often overlooked factor? Leadership. Reimers noted that university strategies that align with the SDGs tend to foster collaboration and deeper social engagement. By contrast, he cautioned that when governments use universities as ideological battlegrounds—as in the U.S., Hungary, or Turkey—it kills innovation. “It puts us in a defensive crouch,” he said. “We can’t focus on social transformation if we’re fighting to protect academic freedom.”
And yet, examples of institutional leadership abound. At King’s College London, top-down commitment to a sustainable campus and curriculum is shaping the entire student experience. “They’re not just teaching sustainability,” Milligan noted, “they’re living it.”
Rowe added that sometimes, all it takes to shift momentum is visibility. “We contact university presidents directly when there’s a great sustainability story on campus. It raises the institution’s profile and motivates other leaders to take note.”
For systemic change to occur, she said, “We need to think beyond our classrooms. Work through associations, work through networks—reach the level where university heads make decisions.”
Reimers called for “visionary, courageous, and humble leadership” that looks beyond daily crises and focuses on long-term impact. “There are already champions in every institution. Leadership’s job is to find them, support them, and ask others to follow.”
In closing, Milligan reminded the audience that sustainability isn’t just urgent—it’s personal. “We’re making progress,” he said. “But time is not on our side.”
“The biggest barrier is short-term thinking. But our greatest hope? The students. Their entrepreneurial spirit, their curiosity, their drive to solve problems—they’re our best chance.”
Indeed, whether in a Mexican classroom, a Boston think tank, or a remote Indonesian village, one thread runs through: when students see that what they’re learning can make the world better, they care more, try harder, and go further.
And perhaps that, more than any toolkit or accreditation metric, is what will shape the universities of the future.