At Austin Community College (ACC), the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are more than a framework—they’re part of how students, faculty, and staff learn, work, and grow. Bringing the SDGs into your courses helps students connect classroom learning to global challenges while building skills, confidence, and a sense of purpose.
Why This Work Matters for Students
Integrating the SDGs provides students with opportunities to connect classroom learning with real-world issues, while developing skills that will serve them long after graduation. Students gain knowledge, build awareness, and discover a sense of community as they explore how their actions can make a difference.
Key benefits of SDGs for students include:
- Gaining sustainability skills that prepare them for today’s workforce
- Building systems thinking and global awareness
- Fostering community, belonging, and purpose
Why This Work Matters for Faculty
For faculty, teaching through the lens of the SDGs can make courses more engaging and relevant while connecting students to pressing global issues. Faculty also benefit by joining a growing network of colleagues and showcasing the sustainability-related learning already happening in their courses.
Key benefits of SDGs for faculty include:
- Engaging students with real-world issues
- Equipping students to tackle complex challenges
- Joining a network of sustainability-minded colleagues
Putting the Sustainable Development Goals Into Action
ACC classrooms are already putting the SDGs into action:
- Geographic Information Systems students in professors Sean Moran and Braniff Davis’ Service Learning classes have mapped a majority of trees across the ACC District, creating interactive maps to support future campus planning.
- Professor Franklin Marciales has woven all 17 SDGs into his Hospitality courses, helping students explore the connection between tourism and sustainable development.
- Sustainable Agriculture students in Professor Hunter Eichmann’s courses have built and maintained a Pollinator Garden at the Elgin Campus, creating a vital habitat for local pollinators.
Faculty are invited to identify the SDGs that already align with their courses and be featured on the growing SDGs Course List. Participants will receive the “Teaching Sustainability Champion” badge in Suitable upon completion.
Ways to Engage
- Submit your course for sustainability-minded students to find.
- Access the Sustainable ACC Faculty Hub for more information and resources related to the SDGs.
- Checkout a UN SDGs Soccer Ball from ACC Libraries to use as a tool to engage students in drawing connections between course content and global issues.
- Integrate a hands-on project from the Campus as a Living Lab project list, in partnership with the Office of Experiential Learning.