West celebrates Sustainable Development Goals Day 2022
At a historic United Nations (UN) summit held in New York in September 2015, 193 Member States agreeing on 17 global goals, known as the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs), and setting out an ambitious agenda for prosperity of our planet and its people by 2030.
The summit noted a call to action upon governments, the private sector and individuals to collaborate in achieving these goals, aiming to promote economic growth, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and strengthen universal peace and freedom. West has committed to seven of these goals and in celebration of seven years since their adoption of the SGDs by the UN, our offices around the world celebrated SDG Action Day which takes place annually on the 25th of September.
Celebrations included a fun activity throughout the day where employees had to locate ESG Committee members, each representing an SDG which West has adopted, be briefed on the purpose of such goal and how it relates to our work at West. For example regarding SDG14: Life Below water, West supports students and early career researches via a Seagoing Science Bursary run by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), (you can read more about this in our latest issue of Waypoints Magazine) as well as the Blue Marine Foundation (BLUE) and the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) to initiate and support the development of a Management Plan for the Namibian Islands’ Marine Protected Area (NIMPA)- Africa’s second largest marine reserve. At the end of the day we gathered for cupcakes and a quiz which revealed key SDG related facts.
The seven SDGs adopted by West are:
SDG3: Good Health and Wellbeing
SDG5: Gender Equality
SDG8: Decent work & Economic growth
SDG13: Climate Action
SDG14: Life Below Water
SDG16: Peace, Justice & Strong institutions
SDG17: Partnerships for the Goals.
The initiative was well received by all, who showed a great deal of interest in the goals, what West is working on both internally and externally and to find out more on how they can each contribute to positive change. A number also shared how they already are very ESG conscious in their daily lives, from consumer behaviours to diversity and inclusion.
It is worth noting that the SDG Day was celebrated between World Peace Day held annually on the 21st of September and Zero Emission Day on the 22nd of September.