2021年10月7日星期四

HKIE Webinar – United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs)

The HKIE webinar named “United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs)” was held on 7th Oct 2021. The seminar aimed to share the 17 UNSDGs and Engineers’ role & contribution. Ir. Samantha Wing Man KONG (Sr. Engineer - Sustainability, Arup; Visiting Assistant Professor, PolyU) was the guest speaker and she explained sustainability in the beginning that included Environmental, Social and Economic factors. 


Then she briefed the sustainable development milestones since 1992. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000 and 17 SDGs was proposed and signed for adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.


After that Ms. Kong briefed 17 SDGs one by one. There are 193 member states involved in the SDG drafting process and have 17 goals and 16 targets totally.  It aims that a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure all people enjoy peace and prosperity.


Finally, she selected three goals to discuss in detail and they were SDG 5 – Gender Equality, SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth and SDG 10 – Reduced Inequalities. She asked three questions for our thinking that were “What can we do as engineers?” “How can we contribute?” and “How can we play a part?”


Lastly, she gave an overview that the SDGs separated into outcomes for society and for planet. She identified SDG 6, 7, 9 and 11 to be most relevant and highest impact for engineers. 


At the end, Ir. Samantha Wing Man KONG quoted “How Sustainable Buildings” from World Green Building Week 2021, 20-24 September for Building Resilience. It is important because buildings are responsible for 38% of global energy-related carbon emissions and 50% of all extracted materials. Four billion people are vulnerable to climate risks and 91% of people worldwide live in areas with air pollution.

Reference:

HKIE - https://www.hkie.org.hk/en/

UNSDGs - https://sdgs.un.org/goals

WorldGBC - https://www.worldgbc.org/news-media/how-sustainable-buildings-are-buildingresilience-and-driving-sustainable-development


沒有留言:

發佈留言