Guest editorial

ABSTRACT

The SDGs include ending poverty, ending hunger, ensuring health and well-being, ensuring quality education, achieving gender equality, ensuring access to water and sanitation, ensuring affordable and clean energy, promoting decent work and economic growth, building sustainable industry, innovation and infrastructure, reducing inequalities, making sustainable cities and communities, ensuring sustainable consumption and production, taking climate action, conserving marine resources, halting biodiversity loss, promoting peace, justice and strong institutions and revitalising partnerships for sustainable development (UN, 2015). [...]despite the limited scholarly attention, the social marketing discipline has continually expanded its areas of practical application, from public health to poverty alleviation, environmental protection, healthy lifestyles and sustainable consumption and production (Truong et al., 2021). Drawing upon multiple sources of qualitative data, this study shows that when interdisciplinarity and a project-based approach are organised to create a meaningful learning environment wherein the SDGs are guiding principles, students as change agents can potentially generate beneficial and influential impacts at the individual, organisational and institutional levels. [...]the question of whether the Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs can be achieved depends on the efforts and commitment of many individuals and organisations who are working to make the world a better place for all.