The new programme trains professionals to collaborate on UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The first SDG Professional Certificates were awarded to Hertie School students who completed the Global Public Policy Network (GPPN) Certificate programme in March. The programme is sponsored by the seven GPPN universities, and is a one-year training programme for students to collaborate on tackling the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
The Hertie School cohort included students Yilmaz Akkoyun, Felix Amelung, Angela Galeano-Colonia, Gaurav Ganti, and Shraddha Iyer Raghupathi, who collaborated on the project “Making sustainable choices: Labels for a world free of plastic”.
The students presented their project at the annual GPPN conference, hosted this year by Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. At the conference, all student teams – both certificate candidates and other teams of students chosen by the universities - presented their applied SDG solutions to a the leadership of the GPPN member universities. The topics were: good health and well-being; affordable and clean energy; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; peace, justice and strong institutions.
The Hertie School SDG Certificate project was aimed at helping develop a plastic-free label. The idea was to bridge the gap between the SDG framework and Corporate Social Responsibility programmes, creating synergies between consumers, businesses, and governments to fight plastic overproduction and overconsumption. Using small but scalable practices, such as the introduction of a plastic-free label, sustainable options should become more accessible to all.
GPPN is a partnership between seven prestigious universities in public policy: the Hertie School, The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University, the Institute of Public Affairs at the London School of Economics and Political Science, School of Public Affairs at Sciences Po, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, and the Business Administration School of São Paulo at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
Read more about the conference and other student projects here.
