Sustainable Development Goals
10 years ago, the United Nations set 17 goals to promote sustainable development. everwave demonstrates how every company can contribute to achieving them.
Global sustainability: the Agenda 2030
The United Nations brings together 193 countries with the shared goal of establishing and maintaining peace, strengthening friendship among all nations, and promoting economic and social progress. Within this transnational framework, the 2030 Agenda was adopted in September 2015 – a comprehensive set of goals for holistic sustainable development.
The Agenda includes the well-known 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are designed to shape global development in a socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable way. For the first time, a universally applicable set of goals combines development and environmental concerns.
everwave: a contribution to the SDGs
In addition to the member states of the United Nations, companies can also contribute to the implementation of the SDGs. Through its work, everwave is committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and promoting ecological, economic, and social sustainability.
SDG 8: Sustainable Economic Growth as an Opportunity for All
Sustainable economic activity includes, among other things, sustainable economic growth, full employment, and decent work for all. It also aims to support economic growth in less developed countries. Since its founding, everwave has created over 30 jobs – not only in Germany but also at cleanup sites in Cambodia, Thailand, and Albania.
SDG 9: Industry, innovation, and infrastructure
Sustainable industrialization and innovation should be supported, and environmental standards established as a foundation for economic decision-making. This is where everwave relies on innovative technologies: together with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, a specialized AI system was developed to detect and sort waste. Custom-designed waste collection boats remove the trash from rivers.
SDG 12: Ensure Sustainable Production and Consumption
Many natural resources are limited – to ensure sustainable development, consumption habits and production processes must change, waste must be avoided, and raw materials recycled. Still, far too much waste ends up in the environment. That’s why everwave cleans heavily polluted rivers, sorts the waste in specially designed zero-waste centers, and ensures a recycling process.
SDG 13: Implement climate protection worldwide
Climate change leads to extreme weather events such as hurricanes, droughts, and floods, requiring decisive action. SDG 13 calls for reducing emissions and minimizing environmental impact. everwave contributes to this effort by removing waste from rivers – protecting the environment while also reducing climate-damaging emissions caused by decaying waste.
SGD 14: Protecting life under water
As a source of food, raw materials, and energy, the oceans form the foundation of all life. However, rising water temperatures, marine pollution, and waste accumulation show that the oceans are under acute threat. A large portion of ocean plastic originates on land and is carried into the seas via rivers. To prevent further pollution of the oceans, everwave tackles the problem at its source by removing waste directly from the rivers before it reaches the sea.
Challenges until 2030
We have five years left until 2030 to achieve the SDGs. A look at the current progress shows that this will be quite challenging.
Four years after their introduction, in September 2019, world leaders at the SDG Summit in New York acknowledged that the SDGs cannot be achieved if current trends continue. Only if the international community and each individual country significantly increase their pace and level of ambition can the goals still be met.
In May 2022, seven years after their introduction, the European Union’s statistical office published an SDG monitoring report summarizing the EU’s progress toward the 2030 Agenda. The results were mixed: while the EU made progress on most SDGs – especially in fighting poverty, economic growth, full employment, and sustainable energy – improvements in other areas were insufficient to meet the 2030 targets. In fact, setbacks were observed in clean water and life on land.
The challenge lies in the fact that the sustainability goals are broad and universal, requiring implementation to be addressed in every UN member state and integrated across all national policy sectors. The next five years will show whether the SDGs can be fully achieved. everwave continues to work towards realizing these goals.
Sources
- https://unric.org/de/das-un-system/
- https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/schwerpunkte-der-bundesregierung/nachhaltigkeitspolitik/nachhaltigkeitsziele-erklaert-232174
- https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/nachhaltigkeit-strategien-internationales/sdgs-herausforderung-fuer-die-1
- https://www.2030watch.de/eurostat-bericht-2022
