Promoting sustainablility through my Future17 project

Konstantin Zametica is studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at LUISS Guido Carli. Konstantin writes about his experience on the groundbreaking Future17 SDG Challenge.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of opportunities for students to engage inactivism. Ideally, we’re looking for a platform that has a record which inspires trust, through their activities, goals and achievements. 

This is how I ended up taking part in a project which checks all the boxes mentioned: Future17.

What is Future17?

Future17 is a project in which university students participate together with companies or organisations which promote sustainable development on a specific task related to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The goal of Future17 is for students to work together with companies and organisations on a specific project related to one or more of the SDGs. 

Our Future17 project

Our project partner was Proxima Consulting, a consulting agency which helps businesses in New Zealand to be more sustainable. We needed to present to them an idea for a digital workshop which they could use to further promote the ideal of sustainable business practices to companies and businesses in New Zealand.

Each Future17 group, including ours, was assigned a mentor to guide us. My mentor was a university professor, so we were always in the best possible hands and she was always there to clear up any confusion and help us with next steps and to establish the general framework of the project. 

We ended up creating a prototype version of a 3D interactive workshop which was designed with the aim to make the subject of SDGs as digestible as possible, as we were aware that the complexity of this topic can be challenging.

Participants in the workshop we devised could learn about any SDGs they wanted to know aboutat their own pace. The workshop provided elementary content about each of the SDGs as well aslinks which would lead users to more material online if they were interested. It was imperative to let them have as much control over their experience as possible and not to drive them away with forced learning which would be counterproductive. 

Reflecting on my experience

Though I’m obviously biased, I’m sincerely proud of what I have achieved. Even though this project was designed exclusively with sustainable development in mind, it was necessary for me to adapt to many different challenges that I encountered during this time. 

For a university student who wants to become more active in these types of areas I really do think this is an ideal place to start. Somebody who also struggles with confidence in their abilityto communicate efficiently, write and creatively think is also recommended to participate in this project as this is a way to overturn those insecurities and make a positive change in the world while doing so. 

Having in mind all these benefits and wonderful challenges, I sincerely hope you give some thought to this project as it is certainly worth your time and a wise investment in the future for us all.