Visual Displays of the Sustainable Development Goals in the Curricular and Extra-Curricular Activities at Nottingham Trent University—A Case Study

Abstract

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been fully embedded into the formal and informal curriculum of Nottingham Trent University (NTU), United Kingdom. In order that staff and students can recognize the 17 goals and 169 targets, visual displays have been used to act as cues and content providers in curricular and extra-curricular activities. This paper summarizes the different approaches taken to display the SDGs visually at NTU. All taught courses/programmes at the university address at least one of the SDGs and have the option to include their chosen SDG as an icon in both physical and digital course materials. Extra-curricular activities include the creation of thought-provoking installations of the goals around the estate, for example demonstrating the vast amount of plastic bottle waste contributing to ocean marine debris (SDG 14, target 1) linked holistically to competitions and workshop activities targeted at raising insights of staff and students and changing behaviour. This paper will offer detailed descriptions of the displays created at NTU, for example as part of Green Week and how these can be easily replicated at other universities. The paper will, therefore, be of interest to anyone aiming to adopt visual approaches to communicating sustainability messages in curricular and extra-curricular activities.