---
title: "169to1 initiative reduces 169 SDG targets to one target in schools and communities; Only 16% on track for 2030."
sdDatePublished: "2026-08-27T18:07:00Z"
source: "https://education-for-climate.ec.europa.eu/education-for-climate-day-2026-group/topic/part-1-what-if-we-made-sustainable-action-simpler"
topics:
  - name: "sustainability"
    identifier: "medtop:20001374"
  - name: "education"
    identifier: "medtop:05000000"
  - name: "environmental policy"
    identifier: "medtop:20000423"
  - name: "scientific innovation"
    identifier: "medtop:20000736"
locations:
  - "United Kingdom"
  - "Turkey"
---


169to1 initiative reduces 169 SDG targets to one target in schools and communities; Only 16% on track for 2030.

Part 1 - What if we made sustainable action simpler

Hi everyone, apologies, back on the 20th August I submitted this in the wrong place, on the general topic stream, instead of correctly here. Also my project actually comes in two parts, and there is no way to facilitate this as two parts in one place on this platform.

So, it leaves me with no alternative but to publish as two topics. I will of course post back links and forward links, when I get a chance to edit the publications after the second submission. So, please bear with me for a few minutes whilst I fix this.

Much appreciated for your patience, and so to Part 1 of my project submission:

Part 1 - Sustainable Action Made Simpler

The advice on sustainability is always the same. Focus. Choose. Prioritise. Then you are left staring at 17 goals, with 169 targets sitting underneath, with no method for actually choosing one.

Almost nobody shows you how. So I decided to built the part that was missing, with four tools that take you from 169 targets down to one.

In this article, I will share with you the method I built to do it, from intention to evidencing your sustainable action.

But first let's roll the clock back.

Since 2015, we have probably all familiarised ourselves with the UN SDG Wheel. The colourful wheel that denotes the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and for a little over 10 years, many of us, have been presenting, educating and implementing sustainable action at goal level.

However to a trained advocate, teacher or chief officer of Sustainability, who know that sitting underneath those goals are 169 very specific targets with objectives that are then measured, almost in science script to 232 measurement indicators.

To put it simply, Sustainability in its many forms is overwhelming to the average person or the average student. And with time running out, figuratively, we have effectively four years to make an impression, deliver on these targets, and evidence the impact we have created.

The big question of course is how?

What if the goals were not the problem? What if our perspective or the way in which we communicate about Sustainability is? What if there was another way to deliver sustainable action, especially through education that wasn't overwhelming?

Many years ago, well , ok back in 2017, I examined many of those questions, when I realised what the UN was asking of the world, its governments and leaders and the general population. And I'm sure most of us were optimistic of the possibility of delivering change for the next 15 years; till the end of 2030. And of course every step of the way, every year those same countries, governments and leaders would gather for the annual COP conference.

But year on year a gap has been forming, one that is very difficult to bridge, between system dependent sustainable action to those actions that are and can be self-deliverable , by you and me at a local or a community level.

Roll the clock forward to June 2026, and the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the body that has scored every nation's SDG progress since 2016, led by economist Jeffrey Sachs, delivered its starkest verdict yet: only 16% of the 169 targets are on course to be met by 2030.

And there lies the reality, with the communication and education consistently at goal level.

If a school, a university or a business said we are going to tackle goals 2,5, 6 and 13, and you'd think great we are responsible for moving forward with just 4 goals, simple. No, what you were inadvertently doing was spreading yourself thinly across the responsibility of 30 targets.

To ask the average person, or student, or school to move or deliver 30 targets, you might say is Mission Impossible, and you'd be right.

Spreading effort thinly across all 169 targets to be then measured against 232 UN indicators, is an optimist's dream. However, that progress report did deliver one important headline. A call for 2026, where we no longer add more input, more responsibility , but to implement with fewer priorities , so that we can genuinely commit to real action.

That is exactly what my 169to1 initiative was built to do. We take all those targets and help young people to focus on one , the single SDG Target their school, group, community can genuinely move. Not another goal pledge. One SDG target they own, and act on .

So, back to the question of how? This is probably best explained in two parts. Part One is structure , creating a simple structure that takes a student on a journey of sustainable action, and it starts with 5 simple verbs.

1. Select, 2. Classify, 3. Activate, 4. Prove, 5. Track.

Now before explaining those steps, you will notice this is very much about communication or a point of using the right language. A step by step process that isn't confusing, and also delivers a sense of progression.

And the funny thing about language and how we communicate leads us to Part Two which is all about communication . Or as I like to call it; addressing the Tog problem .

Let's take a closer look at part one - structure.

Narrow 169 targets down to the one you are built to or capable of managing.

The SDG Target Selector tool reads all 169 targets against thirteen criteria. Thirteen things that defines you, your institution or organisation. The best part is that it functions like a very quick quiz, something that can deliver answer in one minute. What you get in return, are the five targets you are best placed to deliver or advocate for. From those five, you settle on one. No spreading yourself thinly across seventeen goals.

So how do we settle on the one Target? Simple, we go to the next step.

See what you can deliver yourself, and what cannot wait. From your five returned targets, you can view directly, their Feasibility and Urgency conditions. The SDG Traffic Light Toolkit rates every target on two readings: how much you can deliver on your own, and how long it can wait.

Feasibility and Urgency, set side by side, so you begin where you count, rather than where it feels comfortable. You can see what is deliverable and within what timeframe.

We take it one step further by offering you one starter idea you can begin on Monday morning. But if you are curious enough to see a snapshot of the target's impact, we present 1-Minute Impact Snapshots.

A 1-Minute Impact Snapshot , can tell you:

1. What each target really means in simpler language and terms,

2. So you can see what else you can do,

3. What you can track, and

4. Understand what is at stake.

From here, we can provide guidance through our library of nine e-books I have authored, geared for Students, Teachers, Professionals, Sustainability Officers and Advocates, SME Business Owners, NGO Teams, and Youth Ambassadors.

Then it's over to you to...

Activate your sustainable action. But we don't leave you to get on with it. We provide regular guidance, tools and resources to aid students and teachers alike. Every module from our e-book series is consistent in delivering these things, I have attached SDG 13 Module as an example:

Utilising a transformative, inquiry-based pedagogical approach that shifts learners from passive awareness to active agency. The framework combines systems thinking with experiential learning by embedding real-world case studies, stakeholder simulations (such as the En-ROADS roleplay), and critical inquiry through 'The Big Questions'. Rather than treating a topic like climate change as an abstract scientific problem, the method uses place-based and justice-centered learning to help students analyse the local impacts of a global crisis and design actionable, equitable, community solutions.

And so to the last...

Turn the target into an evidenced and measured claim you can stand behind.

The SDG Impact Index tool puts the official UN indicators, all 232 of them into plain English and gives each target a Proof Point: one countable claim a student or their institution or organisation can produce and evidence.

Select, Classify , Prove . That is the method, and it stands on its own. But as the late, great Steve Jobs said many times before, maybe there's one more thing.

We also need to Track . How? With the ESG Pulse. It tracks the rules and laws as it moves, and we monitor 27 frameworks; including circular economy and product law, and deliver them in plain English in one place, so its easier for students to understand and learn from.

Legislation is not standing still. The EU rewrote the rulebook this year, with Omnibus I in force from 18 March 2026 and with roughly 31,000 entities taken out of mandatory CSRD reporting, but many still choose to report, to advocate their sustainable credentials.

The Pulse follows that movement for you. It shows which ESG frameworks apply to you, which targets each one helps you prove, and it keeps pace as the law shifts across the EU, the UK and Türkiye.

Select your target. Classify what matters. Prove your impact. Then let the Pulse keep Track of the current status quo, so nothing catches you out.

Now at this stage, I would normal talk about the delivery of digital credentials which are centered around a comprehensive rubric.

And for those schools and students who are involved with sustainability at a curriculum level, this delivers a record of achievement and certification at the end of the school term. I will talk about that another time.

So briefly, as I do not want to bore you, and I hope I still have your attention. Part 2.

You will note over the course of this article, I have highlighted the importance of simplifying steps, structures, and this should continue with the language we use. After all Sustainable action is more efficient if we are are honest and transparent . The big problem is often science script, technical vocabulary and jargon. Or as I like to call it the 'Tog' problem .

Sometimes, some of us may wonder why, after ten years of awareness campaigns, and curriculum for sustainability have we not moved anybody, or why we are only 16% on track, based upon the official report. Interestingly this can be explained by a man trying to buy a duvet.

Funnily enough, this gem came courtesy of the Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert, who has a routine about buying a duvet in Debenhams, now a defunct department store. The joke is not that he fails to understand the unit of 'Tog'. It is that he walks in knowing precisely what he wants, which is something soft and comfortable to sleep under, and the shop cannot accept that as an answer.

He is asked what tog he wants, having never heard of a tog. He points out, reasonably, that nobody taught him togs at school, where a good deal of time went on geometry and trigonometry, units he has never needed since. The vocabulary being demanded of him was simply never issued. So he asks what the choices even are, which nobody had thought to tell him, and he is offered eight, then ten point five.

Imagine a unit he cannot picture, now arrives carrying a decimal place, and he is invited to decide whether he would like half of one.

The budget question produces something worse than confusion. He names a figure, is then told that figure gets him feather, then in the same breath is advised to spend more because feather is the wrong thing to purchase.

The price he can afford has delivered him to the option that the expert then tells him to avoid.

Anybody who has watched a small organisation get pushed towards a cheap symbolic gesture, then criticised for making cheap symbolic gestures, will recognise the manoeuvre.

Then the routine stops being about bedding. The roles invert, and he starts selling the duvet to the assistant, working visibly harder at the sale than she is, until she reminds him which of them is supposed to be selling.

That is the sustainability meeting, or the previous COP conferences precisely. Somebody arrives wanting to do something useful, then spends the hour justifying a framework back to the pe