Social developments[1] are a reason to work toward sustainable development goals, such as:
- Growing wealth inequality
- Climate Change
- Loss of biodiversity
- Growing polarisation in society
- War and refugee flows
- Epidemics/pandemics
Education is often explicitly looked at as the place where future citizens and professionals must learn the attitudes and skills necessary for a sustainable society. There are numerous initiatives within higher education to enable this sector to contribute to sustainable development in society. This includes the universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands.
The HU signed the SDG charter in 2019 and committed itself to the Sustainable Development Goals.