Empowering individuals with the knowledge, skills and motivation to take action towards the SDGs through social and impact entrepreneurship.
What are the Sustainable Development Goals?
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – or the Global Goals – are a set of 17 integrated and interrelated goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure humanity enjoys peace & prosperity by 2030.
The SDGs are the world’s blueprint to building a better world, and is a globally-recognized and adopted framework for sustainability. At Centennial Innovates and COIE, all our programming is grounded by the SDGs, and built to advance them.
Foundational Workshop: SDGs Deep Dive Interactive Keynote
Centennial College is proud to offer the SDGs Deep Dive Interactive Keynote, an asynchronous online course that can be completed at your own pace featuring a keynote from Steve Lee, founder of the Foundation for Environmental Stewardship (now Finance Engage Sustain) and youth activist. The course covers:
- The history of sustainable development
- The structure of the SDGs (17 goals, 169 targets, 231 indicators)
- Examples of each of the 17 SDGs implemented by a variety of stakeholders
- Interactive check-ins throughout
Course Outline:
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: History of the SDGs
- Chapter 3: The Structure of the SDGs
- Chapter 4: Good Health & Quality Education
- Chapter 5: Gender Equality
- Chapter 6: Clean Water & Energy
- Chapter 7: Decent Work, Infrastructure & Reduced Inequalities
- Chapter 8: Production, Consumption & Climate Action
- Chapter 9: Water, Land, Peace & Partnerships
- Chapter 10: Wrapping it up
Steve Lee introduces the SDGs Youth Training (full playlist here)
Participants who complete the SDGs Deep Dive training will receive a Statement of Recognition.
SDG Design Challenge: Global Goals Jam Canada
One of the most anticipated events every year, the Global Goals Jam Canada is purposeful, fun and actionable design jam that supercharges your changemaking and leadership skills!
About the Global Goals Jam:
The Global Goals Jam is a worldwide movement founded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Digital Society School Amsterdam in 2016. It was created to connect the design community with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (also known as the Global Goals) – the planet’s blueprint for peace and prosperity for all. The Global Goals Jam combines world-renowned Design Methods with international, cross-cultural and multidisciplinary collaboration to create direct impact for the global goals in their local context.
Any community can host a Jam, and in the last 6 years, the Global Goals Jam has grown to become a creative community of thousands in over 100 cities around the world. COIE’s SDG Innovation Lab has been hosting the Global Goals Jam Canada since 2020, with participation from changemakers across Centennial College, the GTA, Canada, and even around the world.
Marco van Hout, co-founder of Global Goals Jam, shares what makes the Global Goals Jam Canada at the SDG Innovation Lab special and unique.
COIE’s Global Goals Jam Canada brings together changemakers, social innovators, designers, developers, strategists, and enthusiasts from Centennial and diverse colleges and universities as well as community members to advance the SDGs through a unique weekend of experiential learning and impact entrepreneurship.
Over the 2-1⁄2 days, participants learn to apply a variety of leading-edge entrepreneurial methodologies in a safe, facilitated, and mentored environment, including:
- Design thinking, an iterative and human-centered design approach. COIE uses a model inspired by Stanford University and IDEO, thought-leaders in design thinking.
- Steve Blank’s Lean LaunchPad®, a methodology taught in over 200 universities worldwide and forms the foundation of the U.S. National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program.
- Sustainable Business Model Canvas, a business model development tool that integrates sustainable development into business planning.
- Agile methodology, an approach that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and iterative development
This activity is eligible for the Centennial College Leadership Passport.
Overview of the Jam:
Stage 1: Initial Alignment and Problem Identification
Supported by Subject Matter Expert mentors
- Attend the opening Plenary session with keynote speakers and get introduced to how the Jam works
- Meet your team and identify a problem worth solving, that the team agrees to work towards solving
- Set up team collaboration on your team’s Miro board
Stage 2: Problem Definition & Statement
Supported by Design Thinking Expert mentors
- Learn about Design Thinking and the double diamond design process model, as well as how to conduct Empathy Mapping to examine the problem from the point of view of the user and/or the affected.
- Define the problem from the point of view of the user to create your team’s Problem Statement and ‘How Might We’ statement, clearly identifying the specific problem and opportunity
Stage 3: Lean / Business Model Canvas Development
Supported by Lean/BMC Expert mentors
- Learn about Lean Methodology and the business model validation process, including components of the Value Proposition Canvas, the Business Model Canvas (BMC) and the Sustainable BMC.
- Define your solution’s value proposition by understanding the user’s jobs, pains and gains and create your products/services-fit.
- Build and prototype your Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Stage 4: Pitch Development, Practice & Presentation
Supported by Pitching Expert mentors
- Learn about pitching best practices and how to craft your story for impact.
- Finalize your team’s Business Model Canvas and build your pitch presentation deck and script
- Pitch your solution to a panel of eminent judges (3-minute presentation, 5-minute Q&A) and compete for prizes!
At its core, the purpose of this fun and purposeful weekend is to facilitate experiential learning that fosters changemaking and leadership skills while creating collective and actionable change towards the SDGs. While it is intense, the hands-on, team-oriented and thoughtfully mentored weekend program always leaves a significant and lasting impact on participants.