The European Sustainable Development Week (ESDW) is an initiative to facilitate the organization of activities that promote sustainable development and make these efforts visible on a common platform. The recently adopted global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) articulates key issues that call for urgent action at all levels and by all stakeholders. The ESDW contributes to this ambitious, universal and transformative agenda by promoting the organization of bottom-up activities that have a thematic link to and support the SDGs. As such, the ESDW aims to raise awareness for the 2030 Agenda in Europe and calls upon local stakeholders to actively engage with sustainable development, in general, and the SDGs, in particular.
Activities will be able to be registered and viewed on this website. This will be a tool for organizers to promote their project and attract higher participation. Furthermore, they will gain access to promotion material (logos, posters, banners etc.) on the site, highlighting their participation in a concerted European effort for sustainable development.
The ESDW will act as an umbrella for existing national sustainable development weeks in France, Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic and will trigger new initiatives, activities and events in EU Member States and other European countries. To encourage inclusiveness and diversity, the registration for organizers is open to all forms of government agencies, research centres, educational institutions, museums, foundations, community organizations, associations, businesses and NGOs, as well as individual citizens, etc. The central criterion for eligibility to take part in the ESDW is that the proposed project / initiative addresses one or more dimensions of sustainable development and is not exclusively profit-oriented. This could include, but is not limited to: conferences, exhibitions, markets, film screenings, community activities, sustainable business initiatives and education projects.
The Environment Ministers of France, Germany and Austria have jointly presented the initiative of organizing an annual, European-wide sustainable development week at Environment Council on the 28th October 2014, where it was welcomed by the Commission and several Member States. Subsequently, the ESDW will be coordinated by the ESDN Office at the Institute for Managing Sustainability at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria.
