Yale University
IN-24: Innovation A

In 2015, the Yale Office of Sustainability started a project aimed at helping understand how Yale teaching and research aligns with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This project serves three purposes: start to identify pathways for collaboration between disciplines; provide a rationale for thinking of higher education sustainability beyond operational commitments and student campaigns; and, identify the expertise Yale might lend to the process of achieving the SDGs. The pilot phase of the project concluded in the summer of 2016, and a revised program was launched that fall. There are over 4,400 faculty members at Yale and there are 17 SDGs, so the review process has required a team of dedicated student researchers over the course of two years.

Initial results show that every department at Yale has at least one faculty member whose scholarship relates to the SDGs, and the University has ample coverage for each SDG. This is to be expected in departments such as the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Sustainability is an integral part of the identities of some other departments, such as the Yale’s School of Management and Divinity School, so it makes sense that these have strong showings in the charts. The more compelling findings lie in groups such as the School of Drama and the Classics Department, which some may not instinctively link to sustainability. The School of Drama has faculty working on almost every SDG, for example, and inquiries have revealed that they have a robust set of internal initiatives related to wellness.