Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] were developed as a means, for all the nation-members of the United Nations, to find common ground and definitions for the objectives that can bring a sustainable society and economy, as well as a tool to measure their progress. As a result, sustainability has become a major objective for the contemporary economy and society, affecting the modus operandi of supranational bodies, governments, organizations, and corporations, among other stakeholders.
For this reason, Get Involved in 2020 decided to launch the “Sustainability Literacy and Perspectives” initiative to evaluate the impact of age, gender, and scientific background as well as the actual knowledge of sustainability issues on the perspectives and beliefs on sustainability. The way of materializing this initiative is with an annual online questionnaire, addressed to young Greek university students and graduates, aged from 18 to 29, and of various academic backgrounds. By doing so, Get Involved is also promoting the views and perspectives of the Greek youth on issues regarding sustainability.
Sustainability Literacy and Perspectives II
The Emerging Role of SDGs in the Greek educational system and everyday life
The key topics of the “Sustainability Literacy and Perspectives II: The Emerging Role of SDGs in the Greek educational system and Everyday Life” are: the role of Universities in promoting and informing on sustainable development [Goal 4: Quality Education], the level that sustainability affects consumer behavior [Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production] as well as the evolution of the sustainability perspectives. All 17 questions, both the knowledge and the more general ones, were focused on Greece and the domestic developments. The questionnaire was answered digitally and anonymously.
From all the examined parameters, only gender seemed to impact the samples’ perspectives on sustainability as well as how it is intercepted. A general cognitive deficiency was observed, as far as the knowledge questions are concerned, on contemporary socio-economic issues, such as the percentage of women that held senior managerial positions in Greece in 2019, and the ranking of Greece in the European Union on average greenhouse emissions per inhabitant.
Additionally, a significant mismatch was recognized concerning the inefficiency of Universities in informing and promoting sustainability and the extent that the sample believed that they should be informed and promoted.
Moreover, the active engagement of a firm with the Sustainable Development Goals was observed to positively affect the samples’ consumer behavior. Also, a strong preference for prioritizing the environmental pillar was noticed. Finally, for a second consecutive year, Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth was considered the most pivotal for contemporary Greece among all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
The current research was carried out by Get Involved for the promotion of Sustainability Awareness. For this reason, Get Involved is willing to communicate potential synergies for the promotion of this research, as well as to grant third parties and individuals, sharing the same goal, access to the data of the report.
