This informal CPD article ‘Integrating Sustainable Development Goals into Executive Curriculum: Benchmarking and Assessment Strategies’ was provided by Dr. Habib Al Souleiman of OUS Academy, a global education group with a commitment to diversity and global engagement. They deliver online education and operate across seven international locations.
The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development established seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a shared global framework for economic, social, and environmental progress (6). Higher education institutions occupy a distinctive position within this agenda: they educate current and future decision-makers, generate research that informs policy, and operate campuses whose practices model sustainable behaviour. For executive and professional development programmes in particular, the SDGs offer more than a thematic backdrop. They provide a structured vocabulary through which curriculum content, learning outcomes, and institutional performance can be described, benchmarked, and assessed over time.
This article examines how institutional performance metrics and global university ranking frameworks measure the impact of sustainability initiatives, and it outlines a practical structure that programme directors can use to map existing professional development courses to specific SDG benchmarks and to track annual measurement data.
How Ranking and Performance Frameworks Measure Sustainability
Several established frameworks now translate sustainability activity into comparable metrics. The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings assess universities directly against the SDGs, combining research indicators, evidence of institutional policies and practices, and outreach activities into goal-by-goal scores (4). An institution's overall result draws on SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) plus its strongest individual goals, which rewards depth of engagement rather than superficial breadth. Because the framework requires documentary evidence, it encourages institutions to formalise policies that may previously have existed only as informal practice.
A complementary approach is offered by the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), a self-reporting framework that awards credits across academics, engagement, operations, and planning and administration (1). STARS is notable for treating curriculum as a measurable asset: institutions inventory courses that include or focus on sustainability and report the proportion of departments engaged in sustainability teaching. For programme directors, this signals a broader trend in which curriculum mapping is no longer an internal exercise but a reportable performance indicator.
Guidance from the Sustainable Development Solutions Network similarly encourages universities to embed the SDGs across learning and teaching, research, operations, and governance, and to begin by auditing what they already do before designing new activity (3). UNESCO's learning objectives for Education for Sustainable Development add a pedagogical dimension, specifying cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioural outcomes for each goal that can anchor course-level assessment (5). At the same time, scholarly analysis cautions that sustainability teaching in universities remains uneven, and that declared commitment does not always translate into curriculum change, which underlines the need for systematic measurement rather than assertion (2).
Workforce development aligns with SDG
A Structural Approach to Mapping Executive Courses to SDG Benchmarks
Programme directors can adapt these institutional frameworks to the scale of an executive education portfolio through a four-stage structure.
Stage one is a curriculum audit. Each existing course, module, or short programme is reviewed against the seventeen goals and against their underlying targets. A leadership module addressing ethical governance, for example, may align with SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), while a module on workforce development aligns with SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). The audit should distinguish between courses that are sustainability-focused, where a goal is central to the learning outcomes, and courses that are sustainability-inclusive, where a goal is addressed within a broader subject. This distinction mirrors the categories used in STARS reporting and prevents overstated claims (1).
Stage two is the construction of a mapping matrix. Courses form the rows; SDGs and selected targets form the columns. Each cell records the strength of alignment, the specific learning outcome involved, and the evidence source, such as a syllabus statement, an assessment brief, or a case study. UNESCO's published learning objectives provide ready-made reference points for judging whether a stated outcome genuinely reflects a goal (5).
Stage three is indicator selection. For each mapped goal, the director defines a small set of measurable indicators: the number and proportion of courses aligned to the goal, learner enrolment and completion in those courses, assessment results linked to sustainability outcomes, and learner feedback on the relevance of SDG content to professional practice. Indicators should be few, stable, and clearly defined, because comparability across years matters more than volume of data.
Stage four is baseline setting. The first full year of mapped data becomes the reference point against which subsequent years are compared, in line with the audit-first sequence recommended in university-level SDG guidance (3).
Tracking Annual Measurement Data
Effective tracking depends less on sophisticated software than on disciplined routine. An annual measurement cycle typically includes a fixed data collection window aligned with the academic year; a single owner responsible for updating the mapping matrix; a short internal report comparing current indicators with the baseline and the previous year; and a review meeting at which gaps are identified, for instance goals with no course coverage or courses whose claimed alignment lacks assessment evidence. Where an institution participates in external frameworks such as the THE Impact Rankings or STARS, the internal cycle should be timed so that verified programme-level data feeds directly into institutional submissions, avoiding duplicated effort (1, 4).
A balanced perspective is important. Metrics can create incentives to relabel existing content rather than improve it, and no ranking fully captures educational quality (2). Benchmarking is therefore best understood as a diagnostic instrument that supports curriculum development, not as an end in itself.
Conclusion
Integrating the SDGs into executive curriculum is most credible when it is measurable. Global frameworks now provide tested indicator structures, and programme directors can translate them into a manageable internal system: audit, map, select indicators, set a baseline, and repeat annually. Institutions that follow this discipline gain not only stronger positions within recognised benchmarks but, more importantly, clearer evidence that their professional development provision contributes to the goals it claims to serve.
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References
1. Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. (2019). STARS technical manual, version 2.2. AASHE. https://stars.aashe.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/STARS-2.2-Technical-Manual-early-release-5.pdf
2. Leal Filho, W., Shiel, C., Paco, A., Mifsud, M., Avila, L. V., Brandli, L. L., Molthan-Hill, P., Pace, P., Azeiteiro, U. M., Vargas, V. R., & Caeiro, S. (2019). Sustainable Development Goals and sustainability teaching at universities: Falling behind or getting ahead of the pack? Journal of Cleaner Production, 232, 285-294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.309
3. Sustainable Development Solutions Network Australia/Pacific. (2017). Getting started with the SDGs in universities: A guide for universities, higher education institutions, and the academic sector. SDSN. https://ap-unsdsn.org/regional-initiatives/universities-sdgs/university-sdg-guide/
4. Times Higher Education. (2024). THE Impact Rankings 2024: Methodology. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/impact-rankings-2024-methodology
5. UNESCO. (2017). Education for Sustainable Development Goals: Learning objectives. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://doi.org/10.54675/CGBA9153
6. United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/70/1). United Nations General Assembly. https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda
