Mapping Canadian Maritime Industry Initiatives to UN Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were designed as an urgent call for action by all countries to prioritize strategies that would lead to peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. Launched in 2015, these goals are intended to be achieved by 2030; we are more than halfway to that date yet the 2024 report reveals that only seventeen per cent of SDGs targets are on track to be achieved, nearly half are showing minimal or moderate progress, and progress on over a third has stalled or even regressed. These goals were not specifically intended to be applied in the maritime sector, but the maritime industry can take action in alignment with many of these goals to to contribute to a more sustainable and equitable future for all.

At Clear Seas, we were curious to find out how the maritime industry contributes to achieving these goals and what progress is being made in Canada. At the halfway mark to the 2030 SDG objectives, Clear Seas undertook a project to investigate how the maritime industry in Canada was supporting their achievement. The project was led by the Clear Seas research team, in collaboration with Green Marine, a non-profit organization that runs the leading voluntary environmental certification program for the maritime industry, with the support of the Association of Canadian Port Authorities (ACPA).

The analysis identified which of the 17 goals have the most relevance to the maritime industry, proposed a tool for mapping maritime industry initiatives and environmental reporting methods to the SDGs, and examined to what extent industry players were using SDGs in their reporting as of January 2024. Results of this study suggest that eight SDGs (Goals #3, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15) have the highest potential for the maritime industry to make an impact and that, out of the 169 SDG targets, just over one-third (61) are relevant to the maritime industry. Further, Green Marine certification contributes to 11 out of the 17 SDGs. Green Marine’s new Aquatic Ecosystems performance indicator for ports has the greatest correlation with the SDGs; 16 targets from 9 different SDGs are linked to the criteria for this indicator.

In this project, you will learn:

• How and why the UN Sustainable Development Goals were created
• How these goals relate to the marine sector
• Why referencing these goals helps sustainability reporting