On November 6, 2025, we hosted a webinar exploring global insights and best practices for localizing the SDGs in Canada. The webinar featured a panel of city staff and changemakers from around the world, sharing how they have been working with the SDGs in their cities and the challenges, opportunities and strategies for integrating them into the work of the municipality.
Key takeaways from the discussion include:
- Start working with the SDGs by aligning existing initiatives and projects to them. Identifying how the city is advancing the SDGs may reduce the need to develop new initiatives, reporting, or financial resources to advance the goals.
- Networking, collaboration, and partnerships are essential to implementing the SDGs. Strong partnerships with the private sector, civil society organizations, and academia can help municipalities expand the impact of their programs and increase access to local data.
- Leadership and commitment to the SDGs from mayors is a catalyst for advancing the SDGs. However, top-down leadership needs to be paired with strong collaboration across the municipality so that the commitment to the SDGs extends beyond political mandates.
- Engage and consult with youth about their vision for the future. Art campaigns and school-based initiatives can build awareness about the SDGs and empower youth to be SDGs champions in their community.
- Talk about the SDGs using everyday language. Defining what the SDGs mean for each community can help people from different sectors, whether business, agriculture, or education, see how their work contributes to the global agenda.
While each community has “very different starting points and very different possibilities” for sustainable development, the panelists were clear: the SDGs are an important catalyst for action towards a more sustainable future.
Event Panelists
We were pleased to be joined by the following panelists:
- Mayor Berry Vrbanovic, City of Kitchener, Ontario
- Marcus Ljungqvist, Sustainability and Agenda 2030, City of Malmö, Sweden
- Nevana Srikissoon, Project Manager at eThekwini Municipality, City of Durban, South Africa
- Professor Pedro Neves, Global Solutions 4 U Consultancy
- Jon Beale (moderator), Program Director, Local Futures