The Strategy of Social Responsibility
at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
Toward the Implementation
of the Sustainable Development Goals
Ana Elena Builes Vélez and Paula Andrea Zapata Ramírez
1 Introduction
Universities have a great responsibility in promoting the necessary conditions for the
challenges posed by sustainable development to be overcome. Despite their budget
and administrative limitations, they have a strong and viable ecological argument,
understanding that they can reflect on possible ways of changing consumption practices procuring the conservation of natural resources. In this context, some nations
have already been developing programs and operating strategic actions to act toward
mitigating the degradation of environmental, social, and economic resources and
toward the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030. In
this sense, universities, because of their substantive work in research and innovation,
are called upon to find solutions to unsustainable practices and environmental problems to catalyze transformations responsibly. Consequently, and connecting with
the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana’s (UPB) goals of stewardship and academic
achievement both in and outside of the classroom, we have constructed a plan for
making the university campus more sustainable. The UPB is an institution with
83 years of foundation and has five campuses in several cities of Colombia, with
the main campus (headquarters) located in Medellin, capital of the Department of
Antioquia, located in the northwest of the country. The headquarter campus has an
area of approximately 20 ha and an average population, between fixed and itinerant,
of about 20,000 people. This community interacts in a variety of spaces: 25 buildings,
restaurants, sports areas, laboratories, cultural spaces, and gardens.
A. E. Builes Vélez (B) · P. A. Zapata Ramírez
Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Circular 1 # 70–01, Medellín, Colombia
e-mail: ana.builes@upb.edu.co
P. A. Zapata Ramírez
e-mail: paula.zapataramirez@upb.edu.co
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Integrating Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59975-1_29
439
at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
Toward the Implementation
of the Sustainable Development Goals
Ana Elena Builes Vélez and Paula Andrea Zapata Ramírez
1 Introduction
Universities have a great responsibility in promoting the necessary conditions for the
challenges posed by sustainable development to be overcome. Despite their budget
and administrative limitations, they have a strong and viable ecological argument,
understanding that they can reflect on possible ways of changing consumption practices procuring the conservation of natural resources. In this context, some nations
have already been developing programs and operating strategic actions to act toward
mitigating the degradation of environmental, social, and economic resources and
toward the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030. In
this sense, universities, because of their substantive work in research and innovation,
are called upon to find solutions to unsustainable practices and environmental problems to catalyze transformations responsibly. Consequently, and connecting with
the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana’s (UPB) goals of stewardship and academic
achievement both in and outside of the classroom, we have constructed a plan for
making the university campus more sustainable. The UPB is an institution with
83 years of foundation and has five campuses in several cities of Colombia, with
the main campus (headquarters) located in Medellin, capital of the Department of
Antioquia, located in the northwest of the country. The headquarter campus has an
area of approximately 20 ha and an average population, between fixed and itinerant,
of about 20,000 people. This community interacts in a variety of spaces: 25 buildings,
restaurants, sports areas, laboratories, cultural spaces, and gardens.
A. E. Builes Vélez (B) · P. A. Zapata Ramírez
Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Circular 1 # 70–01, Medellín, Colombia
e-mail: ana.builes@upb.edu.co
P. A. Zapata Ramírez
e-mail: paula.zapataramirez@upb.edu.co
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Integrating Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59975-1_29
439