USP’s Environmental Policy in the SDGs Approach
417
The sustainability variables incorporation process developed by the university
towards society is an important agent of transformation. Thus, the goal of this study
is to correlate USP’s sustainable actions adherence through its EP and PPs, with all
SDGs, seeking examples developed in the university that might be replicable in the
surrounding communities.
2 Literature Review
2.1 The Agenda 2030 Civilizational Aspirations
It has been observed that the planetary life support systems have been under stress
in the last century (Rockström et al. 2009), beyond the safe boundaries needed for
a truly civilizational human species advance. Among the many complex sustainable
development challenges, such as plastic pollution ubiquity (Shen et al. 2020), biodiversity loss (Cardinale et al. 2012), and coral reefs bleaching (Beyer et al. 2018), the
substantial synergic hazardous potential is the climate crisis (Hoegh-Guldberg et al.
2018; IPCC 2019). Recent studies, as the one on the Amazon rainforest deforestation
(Lovejoy and Nobre 2018) has shown that many climate tipping points have already
started (Lenton et al. 2019), and it is currently uncertain the effects it may cause, as
well as the potential disruption, on the global climate.
Therefore, several initiatives and policies have risen as an international response
to a problem that transcends the Nacional State barriers. It is important to highlight
the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also
known as the Rio Summit or just ECO-92, and later on, Rio +10 and Rio +20.
These conferences have leveled the sustainability debate to a political level never
seen before, creating frameworks and directives for the civilizational agenda we are
pursuing today.
Since 2012, the United Nations have been coordinating a widely participative
process on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and therefore, continuing the
social advances (Mitra and Rodriguez-Fernandez 2010) obtained by the Millenium
Development Goals (MDGs) to give the environmental crisis a higher attention
profile.
The SDGs are the most advanced framework available for civilizational progress.
In its 17 goals and 169 targets, most of the humanity challenges have been
approached, from poverty eradication to gender equality, from biodiversity preservation to main political and cooperation goals.
The SDGs framework is complex and should be approached as one interconnected
agenda with many systemic synergies (Nerini et al. 2018). Nevertheless, education
plays an important role in turning this tide, and can be considered a focal point
as well as an accelerator. The Higher Education Institutions have the responsibility
417
The sustainability variables incorporation process developed by the university
towards society is an important agent of transformation. Thus, the goal of this study
is to correlate USP’s sustainable actions adherence through its EP and PPs, with all
SDGs, seeking examples developed in the university that might be replicable in the
surrounding communities.
2 Literature Review
2.1 The Agenda 2030 Civilizational Aspirations
It has been observed that the planetary life support systems have been under stress
in the last century (Rockström et al. 2009), beyond the safe boundaries needed for
a truly civilizational human species advance. Among the many complex sustainable
development challenges, such as plastic pollution ubiquity (Shen et al. 2020), biodiversity loss (Cardinale et al. 2012), and coral reefs bleaching (Beyer et al. 2018), the
substantial synergic hazardous potential is the climate crisis (Hoegh-Guldberg et al.
2018; IPCC 2019). Recent studies, as the one on the Amazon rainforest deforestation
(Lovejoy and Nobre 2018) has shown that many climate tipping points have already
started (Lenton et al. 2019), and it is currently uncertain the effects it may cause, as
well as the potential disruption, on the global climate.
Therefore, several initiatives and policies have risen as an international response
to a problem that transcends the Nacional State barriers. It is important to highlight
the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also
known as the Rio Summit or just ECO-92, and later on, Rio +10 and Rio +20.
These conferences have leveled the sustainability debate to a political level never
seen before, creating frameworks and directives for the civilizational agenda we are
pursuing today.
Since 2012, the United Nations have been coordinating a widely participative
process on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and therefore, continuing the
social advances (Mitra and Rodriguez-Fernandez 2010) obtained by the Millenium
Development Goals (MDGs) to give the environmental crisis a higher attention
profile.
The SDGs are the most advanced framework available for civilizational progress.
In its 17 goals and 169 targets, most of the humanity challenges have been
approached, from poverty eradication to gender equality, from biodiversity preservation to main political and cooperation goals.
The SDGs framework is complex and should be approached as one interconnected
agenda with many systemic synergies (Nerini et al. 2018). Nevertheless, education
plays an important role in turning this tide, and can be considered a focal point
as well as an accelerator. The Higher Education Institutions have the responsibility