Sustainability
Awareness of SDGs
The SDG Challenge is our new annual initiative to build awareness and encourage action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It’s open to both youth and adult members of Scouts Australia, we encourage you to form a project patrol to tackle your own SDG Challenge.
In order to learn the baseline knowledge about sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across Scouts Australia, we surveyed 223 members in late 2020. It was great to get responses from all Branches. It was fantastic that 30% of respondents were current youth members. While we knew respondents would be more likely to already have some sustainability awareness, 97% reported some knowledge of sustainability and 74% were aware of the SDGs. The results provide great insights as to what matters most to our members, areas in which they are already taking action, and where we could provide more support for members for the SDG Challenge.
When asking what SDGs are concerning to the Australian Scouting community, the ones they knew the most about were more likely to be the ones they were most concerned with; notably SDGs 3, 7 and 13. The SDGs that they are least concerned about were often the ones that they did not know most about; notably SDGs 9, 16 and 17.
The three SDGs that were most concerning to the members participating in the survey were 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 13 (Climate Action). These are SDGs that already have existing strong backing in the global community. For example, Good Health and Wellbeing has many not for profit and government initiatives that are almost considered part of everyday in Australia, and action on these featured strongly in the Millennium Development Goals too.
The SDGs that are least concerning to the survey participants were 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). People may often associate these SDGs with larger organisations and governments, and are less likely to be identified with by general members of the community. While they are important goals for the government and large corporations, they are not exclusive to these organisations. Action towards these can be done at the community level too – it just is not a common occurrence to see.
The SDGs shown below are the what individuals within the Australian Scouting community think they could do a project. Notably SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and 9 (Industry Innovation and Infrastructure) did not feature a single vote.
Most of the Scouting community has learned about or at least heard of the SDGs, with 74 respondents stating that they can explain the SDGs to someone and 64 can see where they fit within the program.
