Sustainable Development Goals
and Current Sustainability Actions
at Politecnico di Torino
Giulia Sonetti and Patrizia Lombardi
Abstract Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015, the agenda of the 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represents a new coherent way of thinking
about how issues as diverse as poverty, education and climate change fit together;
it embeds economic, social and environmental targets in an holistic way. Implicit
in such SDG logic is that each goal relies on another, although there are no clear
ways to measure this intersection. International negotiations are obviously one trial
table of these trade-offs. Universities, with their broad responsibility in the creation
and dissemination of knowledge and their exceptional position within society, have
a crucial role to play in the achievement of the SDGs and in understanding the complexity underling them, since they can help to demonstrate the university impact on
society, shape an SDG-related education, build new partnerships, access new funding
streams, and redefine the strategic plan of a university. This paper explores the way
Politecnico di Torino maps its actions through the lens of a mission-based university,
where SDGs can restructure and update the whole knowledge transfer approach to
students and among staff. However, this transition is still difficult since departments
and administrative unites operate in silos and the leader’s agenda does not allow a
real flexible and adaptable model to feed in. Researchers and administrators also lack
tools to identify which interactions are the most important to tackle, and evidence to
show how particular interventions and policies help or hinder progress towards the
goals. Given the size of the task of achieving the SDGs, this mapping exercise provides interesting stimula for the academic sector to accelerate insights on the SDGs
complementarity and prioritization.
Keywords SDGs · University · Collaboration · Strategic plan · Sustainability
education
G. Sonetti (B) · P. Lombardi
Interuniversity Department of Regional & Urban Studies and Planning,
Politecnico di Torino and Università di Torino, Viale Mattioli 39, 10125 Turin, Italy
e-mail: giulia.sonetti@polito.it
P. Lombardi
e-mail: patrizia.lombardi@polito.it
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15604-6_16
247
and Current Sustainability Actions
at Politecnico di Torino
Giulia Sonetti and Patrizia Lombardi
Abstract Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015, the agenda of the 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represents a new coherent way of thinking
about how issues as diverse as poverty, education and climate change fit together;
it embeds economic, social and environmental targets in an holistic way. Implicit
in such SDG logic is that each goal relies on another, although there are no clear
ways to measure this intersection. International negotiations are obviously one trial
table of these trade-offs. Universities, with their broad responsibility in the creation
and dissemination of knowledge and their exceptional position within society, have
a crucial role to play in the achievement of the SDGs and in understanding the complexity underling them, since they can help to demonstrate the university impact on
society, shape an SDG-related education, build new partnerships, access new funding
streams, and redefine the strategic plan of a university. This paper explores the way
Politecnico di Torino maps its actions through the lens of a mission-based university,
where SDGs can restructure and update the whole knowledge transfer approach to
students and among staff. However, this transition is still difficult since departments
and administrative unites operate in silos and the leader’s agenda does not allow a
real flexible and adaptable model to feed in. Researchers and administrators also lack
tools to identify which interactions are the most important to tackle, and evidence to
show how particular interventions and policies help or hinder progress towards the
goals. Given the size of the task of achieving the SDGs, this mapping exercise provides interesting stimula for the academic sector to accelerate insights on the SDGs
complementarity and prioritization.
Keywords SDGs · University · Collaboration · Strategic plan · Sustainability
education
G. Sonetti (B) · P. Lombardi
Interuniversity Department of Regional & Urban Studies and Planning,
Politecnico di Torino and Università di Torino, Viale Mattioli 39, 10125 Turin, Italy
e-mail: giulia.sonetti@polito.it
P. Lombardi
e-mail: patrizia.lombardi@polito.it
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities as Living Labs for Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15604-6_16
247