A small event of Global dimensions!

Sustainable Development Goal Game at VHL in Velp

About 80 enthusiastic participants played the SDG Game coming  from all types of organisations and levels of responsibilities. Representatives of Municipalities of Arnhem and Velp and staff and students of Universities of applied sciences HAN, Artez and VHL University of Applied Sciences (VHL).

The power of this SDG Game became evident towards the end: without loss of economic progress we can still be protecting our natural habitat and secure social equity.

The participants in duo’s played in three parallel worlds. They were challenged to reach specific targets by 2030 from one societal value perspective: create economic value, combat poverty, spend leisure time, protect our natural environment and strive for societal equity.  And as in the real world the players have limited resources: money, time ( until 2030), ambitions to deliver results in projects.

During the first short play round of only 9 minutes the players exchanged the limited resources to reach their duo goals, sometimes to the costs of others. As in the real world……

An intermediate evaluation of ‘the state of the world in 2025’ showed that in all three parallel worlds the economic progress was more than excellent but to the costs of the ‘state of the natural environment and social development’. In fact again …. as in the real world……

At the start of the second round this situation was taken as the starting point for the ambitions for the last 5 years until 2030: would the players repair on their behaviour and use the ambitions to the betterment of the natural and social domains?

The power of the SDG Game became more than clear when the power of collaboration was used as a method to create a better balance between the three dimensions of sustainability, without loss of economic progress we can still be protecting our natural habitat and secure social equity.

During the reflection part of the SDG game fundamental questions were raised on the nature of our individual and collective role to create a sustainable future, in our personal and professional lives. Hopefully this event contributed to bring together individuals of all organisations in the vicinity of Arnhem and Velp to create a more sustainable world with the help of the SDGs.

A word of thanks to the four organising VHL students Sjuli, Emma, Annemarie, Lily