Auckland University of Technology’s strategic plan, AUT Directions, lays out the University’s mission and the key areas of focus for the coming years to 2025. Sustainability is embedded throughout AUT Directions and is contextualised by AUT’s commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, Agenda 2030). These call on all countries to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. The SDGs include actions related to climate change, poverty reduction, gender equality, quality education, sustainable cities and communities, and protection of life on land and below water. Each goal has specific and measurable targets to achieve.

As a university, we are aware we have a specific contribution to make – through research, enquiry, analysis, discourse and debate, and through developing curiosity, critical thinking, and creative innovation in our students, acting on the understanding that all our graduates will be global as well as national citizens. We have a role in contributing to inclusive, public debate about the SDGs and, through collaboration, supporting positive change, organisationally and nationally.