Education for sustainable development and the SDGs - Resources for regional educators

About

This page, developed as part of the 2024 SDSN/ACTS Mainstreaming education for the SDGs peer support group, collates resources to:

1. Help HE institutions in our region who are at the start of their journey on mainstreaming education for sustainability, sustainable development (ESD) or the SDGs to get ideas and content to develop their own in-house educator resources, so they don’t have to re-invent the wheel.
2. Help HE educators in our region from any discipline or background, who are not ESD experts, to incorporate elements or content relating to sustainability, sustainable development or the SDGs into their teaching.

This is not meant to be a comprehensive compilation of ESD resources. You can let us know about other key resources via the Contact form.

Last updated: 7 July 2027.

Quick links

• Resources / toolkits developed by HEIs for their educators (In our region / Global)
• Other ESD(Gs) tools and resources for HEIs
• Disciplinary (E)SDGs guides (Engineering / Health / Law / Management)
• General SDG-related data and resources (Global / Australia / New Zealand / Pacific)

Resources / toolkits developed by HEIs for their educators

In our region

• WSU Educators Guide for Sustainability Teaching & Learning offers a practical teaching and learning framework and aims to support sustainability teaching and learning across the University and works towards fulfilling the University’s commitment to sustainability
• UNSW SDG Toolkit provides a platform for teachers to integrate sustainable thinking across our curriculum and education platforms, based on the framework established by the United Nations.
• UNSW SDG Knowledge System comprises databases of SDG Education examples and of SDG Action examples from across the world and across the SDGs.
• UTS Canvas Commons sustainability module and lesson plans: Integrating sustainability into your subjects provides practical materials and teaching activities you can adapt on sustainability concepts and the SDGs.
• VUW SDG Lesson Plans for New Zealand Teachers (1-8) aims to provide teachers with practical activities to fuel classroom engagement and discussion about the SDGs.
• UNSW ESD Community of Practice is a collaborative space that brings together academic staff, students, and members from external institutions to promote sustainability in education (all welcome to join).

Global

• University College Dublin SDG toolkit
• York University SDGs-in-the-Classroom Toolkit
• Newcastle University (UK) Working with the UN SDGs
• UBC Education for Sustainable Development from Kindergarten to University: An SDG Toolkit for Educators
• TU Dublin Sustainability Education Toolkit
• University of Kent ESD Toolkit
• MIT Climate Justice Instructional Toolkit
• Lund University course: Universities and the 2030 Agenda: Teaching, learning and acting on the SDGs

Other ESD(Gs) tools and resources for HEIs

• • ACTS Carbon Literacy Training is a blended learning experience, with self-study elements alongside 2 half days virtual training, and is relevant climate change learning for everyone.
  • Education for Sustainable Development Guidance (2021) published by QAA and Advance HE, this guidance provides a framework and guidance to help staff in UK higher education institutions incorporate Education for Sustainable Development within their curricula.
  • Advance HE ESD Curriculum Design Toolkit (2025) provides a structured approach to integrating ESD into higher education curricula and empowers educators to enhance their modules and programs with sustainability competencies aligned with the SDGs.
  • INCLIDES: Inclusive Commonwealth Learning for Interdisciplinary Development and Education for Sustainability (2025) is a short course and toolkit developed by ACU members that supports higher education educators in integrating inclusive pedagogies and ESD principles into interdisciplinary teaching.
  • Accelerating Education for the SDGs in Universities (2020) is a guide by SDSN to help universities, colleges, and tertiary and higher education institutions provide their learners with the knowledge, skills and mindsets to address the SDGs.
  • SDG Academy Library hosts over 1800 videos on the 17 SDGs that can be incorporated into classroom activities.
  • UNESCO Greening curriculum guidance aims to support countries, schools or individual practitioners to adopt a more action-oriented, holistic, scientifically accurate, justice-driven and lifelong learning approach to climate change.
  • UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development Goals: Learning objectives (2017) identifies indicative learning objectives and suggests topics and learning activities for each SDG. It also presents implementation methods, including course design.
  • All We Can Save teaching resources provides open educator resources to use the All We Can Save anthology collection in the classroom, and to embed climate truth, courage, and just solutions in education.
  • Gala learning platform provides open tools for collaborative learning.

Disciplinary (E)SDGs guides

Engineering

• Engineering for sustainable development: Delivering on the SDGs is a UNESCO report highlighting the crucial role of engineering in achieving each of the 17 SDGs.
• World Engineering Day for sustainable development celebrates the contributions of engineers and engineering to modern life and sustainable development.
• Engineering to meet the SDGs – resources from the Royal Society of Engineers
• ATSE Commitment to the SDGs

Health

• Planetary Health Education Guides & Frameworks from the Planetary Health Alliance
• The Pathway to Planetary Health for Dietitians and other health professionals from Dietitians Australia

Law

• Legal Guide to the SDGs provides a foundational analysis of the role that law can and should play in the achievement of the SDGs.
• The Human Rights Guide to the SDGs from the Danish Institute of Human Rights illustrates the human rights anchorage of the SDGs by linking them to international and regional human rights instruments, international labour standards and key environmental instruments.

Management

• Embedding Responsible Management Education (RME): Tools for Faculty, Staff, and Administrators (2025) is a tookit from PRME designed to support business and management higher education institutions in embedding RME into their teaching, research, operations, and partnerships.
• Management Education and the SDGs: Transforming Education to Act Responsibly and Find Opportunities from PRME outlines how business schools can support management education’s engagement with the SDGs.
• Curriculum for introductory course modules from PRME (launching June 2025), including syllabus, pacing guide, lesson plans, etc.

General SDG-related data and resources

Global

• United Nations Sustainable Development hub provides information and resources on the SDGs from across the UN.
  • Information and statistics on each SDG
  • Information collections on a wide range of topics relating to the SDGs and their implementation (such as disaster risk reduction, partnerships, desertificaiton, financial inclusion, mountains, national development plans, etc.)
  • UN publications on SDG progress and implementation
• SDSN Sustainable Development Report reviews progress made on the SDGs each year and provides a ranking, index and dashboard showing how each country and region are progressing on the SDGs.
• IISD SDG Knowledge Hub provides news, commentary and information on upcoming events relating to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development around the world.

Australia

• Transforming Australia SDG Progress Reports (2018, 2020 & 2024), prepared by the Monash Sustainable Development Institute, analyses Australia’s progress on SDG indicators across all 17 SDGs.
• Australia’s Report on the Implementation of the SDGs (2018) is Australia’s first “Voluntary National Review” (VNR) presented to the UN on Australia’s progress in implementing the SDGs.
• Treasury’s Measuring What Matters wellbeing framework, established in 2023, tracks Australia’s wellbeing through 50 indicators across five themes.

New Zealand

• SDGs.org.nz is a public good contribution by Victoria University of Wellington to monitor New Zealand’s progress towards the attainment of the SDGs, and to provide data and resources to support implementation.
• New Zealand’s first Voluntary National Review (2019) is New Zealand’s first VNR presented to the UN on NZ progress in implementing the SDGs.
• Aotearoa SDGs Summit Series, hosted every two years by HEIs in NZ, provide a platform for bringing people together to collaborate across sectors to drive meaningful change for the SDGs.
• NZ Treasury Living Standards Framework (LSF) Dashboard captures and measures many of the things that matter for New Zealanders’ wellbeing, now and into the future.

Pacific

• Pacific Data Hub serves as a gateway to the most comprehensive collection of data and information about the Pacific across key areas, including population statistics, fisheries science, climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and resilience, conservation of plant genetic resources for food security, public health surveillance and human rights.
  • 17 SDGs in the Pacific Dashboard holds data on the 132 Pacific Sustainable Development Indicators selected by the region to enable monitoring of progress against the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• Pacific Islands Report compiled a range of news items related to sustainable development from around the Pacific Islands region