This week on the Wardrobe Crisis podcast, Vogue Australia’s Clare Press sits down with Cameron Saul to dig into the UN’s roadmap for a sustainable future
“I think we’re all realising that the consequences of our daily choices are having increasingly dangerous implications in terms of the health of the planet,” says Cameron Saul, co-founder of Bottletop and new project Together Band, which launched on Earth Day.
Together Bands raise awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs, also known as the Global Goals. You know about those, right?
If the answers no, you’re not alone. Because despite the fact that Kanye once posted about them on Twitter, many people still haven’t heard of them.
A Glocalities survey across 24 countries from 2016 (one year after they were adopted by the UN General Assembly) found that while one quarter of people had heard the name, only one in 100 knew what they were all about.
“We want solutions. What most of us don’t realise is that there is a roadmap for a healthy planet, and that’s the Global Goals,” says Saul. “It’s an extraordinary framework for action and for scaling solutions, and helping us achieve that healthy future for ourselves, our children and our children’s children.”
Listen to the full interview here.
“So how do we bridge the gap between those who know and those who don’t? In UN circles, there’s tonnes of pins, everyone’s talking the Global Goals talk, then you walk out on the street and no one knows what they are.”
One obvious impediment is their complexity. This UN blog post, titled The Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World, begins: “End extreme poverty. Fight inequality and injustice. Fix climate change. Whoa. The Sustainable Development Goals are important, world-changing objectives that will require cooperation among governments, international organizations and world leaders. It seems impossible that the average person can make an impact. Should you just give up?” It concludes: OF COURSE NOT!
“Listen, 17 is a lot,” concedes Saul. “And they’re massive, so they feel like big lofty things. [The challenge is] how do I relate to that in my own life? What does that mean to me, and how could I possibly make a difference? But of course we can all make a difference,” he says.
“Our job as creatives need to find ways to engage people, make [the goals] tangible… and make people feel like they are part of the conversation.” As for us. “Pick the Goal that speaks most clearly to you and focus on that.”
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