Introduction

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) provide the blueprint for a better and more sustainable future, and everyone can contribute. 

Here we show how APM has been tracking its progress against the goals. 

What are the UNSDGs? 

The UNSDGs are a set of goals to tackle major world issues by 2030. 17 goals (and 169 subgoals) were chosen in 2015 by all 193 UN member states. 

The world’s progress against the UNSDGs  

Progress has unfortunately been poor in many areas.  

It is estimated that just 12% of the goals are on track to be achieved by 2030 and over one-third have experienced no progress (or have regressed).   

The projects professional’s role 

Project professionals must often overcome significant hurdles while delivering sustainability projects or while trying to prioritise sustainability in practice. 

That said, it's clear the profession can be a much bigger part of the solution. A recent survey of project professionals shows: 

• For 53%, embedding sustainability in projects is no longer a choice  
• For 31%, sustainability is no longer a peripheral concern but a central strategic pillar 
• For 73%, there is acute awareness of how important sustainability is to achieving long-term success 

APM's progress against the UNSDGs  

Here are the 17 goals: <<image>> 

Sitting behind each of the goals are 169 sub-goals.  

At APM, we have been tracking our progress in three areas:  

• Our everyday practice 
• The content and support we give to membership and the profession more broadly 
• How we use our networks for impact  

From the 17 goals, we can show APM’s progress against four of the goals in particular. 

Goal 4: Quality Education. <<Image >>

Sitting behind the headline goal are 10 subgoals. We can show progress against 4.4, ‘By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship’. 

We can show our progress against this goal through our provision of qualifications and apprenticeships: 

• Qualifications: over 235,000 have sat an APM exam since 2002.  
• Apprenticeships: since 2011, we’ve had 22,000 project management apprentices 

Goal 5 - Gender Equality. <<Image>> 

There are nine subgoals here and we can show progress against 5.5, ‘Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life’. 

At APM we can celebrate the fact that: 

• Over half our board is female  
• Our two most recent board chairs are female 
• Our outgoing and new President are female 

Goal 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production. <<Image >>

Here we have 11 subgoals and we can show progress against 12.5, ‘By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse’. 

At APM, we have made a commitment to become a carbon neutral organisation by 2050, if not sooner. With the support of an external organisation, our carbon footprint was measured at 217.24 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2022 which is considered low for an organisation of our size. 

Goal 17 - Partnerships for the Goals. <<Image >>

There are 19 subgoals here and we can show progress against 17.17, ‘Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships’. 

One example of this is our climate literacy partnership with the Construction Industry Council (CIC). Together we are aiming to: 

• Build climate literacy across all disciplines of the construction industry 
• Promote a common language for sustainability in the built environment 
• Support the development of a globally freely accessible online training programme 

Not long now... 

The UNSDGs will run until 2030. Until that point, we will continue to track our progress against the goals, so do check back for updates. 

APM's progress against the UNSDGs  

Here are the 17 goals

Sitting behind each of the goals are 169 sub-goals.  

At APM, we have been tracking our progress in three areas:  

• Our everyday practice 
• The content and support we give to membership and the profession more broadly 
• How we use our networks for impact