In September 2015, the 193 member states of the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Development Agenda called Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and associated targets.

The SDGs were formulated and driven by a shared global concern about the long term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of the planet. They cover a broad range of social and economic development issues, from poverty, hunger, health, and education, to climate change, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, urbanization, and social justice, all to be achieved by the year 2030.

Like all goals, the SDGs represent desired ideals and outcomes that will require coordination, resources, and management attention to achieve. Officially the SDGs represent the commitments of sovereign states (i.e., countries) but they can and should be endorsed and supported by other organizations, including sub-national governments, business, non-profits and academia. It is only through coordination and collaboration that the SDGs will be achieved. The UN itself encourages active partnerships and financial investments within and across sectors in order to leverage the collective resources, skills and talents of the individual organizations.

Achieving the SDGs will also require a significant amount of capital. Most of which is expected to come from governments, but a substantial portion is expected to come from private funding and private capital. A recent report by the Business & Sustainable Development Commission provides a compelling argument to attract private capital. It estimates that achieving the SDGs could unlock $12 trillion of market opportunities in energy and materials, food and agriculture, cities, and health and well-being alone and create 380 million new jobs by 2030.

"The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” ~Michelangelo

Successful achievement of the SDGs will depend on ingenuity, innovation, and collaboration between different organizations and stakeholders working towards a common cause. Through professional networks, strategic partnerships, and research, nGens will seek to target specific concerns and obstacles to develop solutions and approaches to sustainable development initiatives from its Think Tank and share them with our sustainable development networks.