SDSN USA Launches the 2021 United States Sustainable Development Report
On Tuesday, November 16th, 2021, SDSN USA launched the 2021 United States Sustainable Development Report , SDSN USA’s second report ranking the US states on their progress towards the SDGs.
The report highlights urgent results, with no state on track to achieve the SDGs by 2030, and every state having at least one Goal and at least 20 percent of its indicators moving away from, rather than towards, SDG achievement. In fact, in order to achieve the SDGs, states need to improve scores by an average of approximately 54 points in the next nine years, according to the report.
The launch of the report brought together an international audience to hear about the state of sustainable development in the United States and explore the data. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, President of SDSN, gave opening remarks, framing the results of the report in a global context. He shared that the US ranked 32nd in the world in the Sustainable Development Report that SDSN released earlier this year, far behind most other high-income countries. Moving forward, Professor Sachs calls for a renewed focus on all three tenets of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental.
Dr. Helen Bond, a co-chair of SDSN USA, spoke about her takeaways from the report, including the Leave No One Behind ( LNOB ) Index. By assessing each state’s progress towards these LNOB indicators, SDSN USA hopes to provide a pathway to considering equity and access across the goals. The LNOB Index in this report builds on past work by SDSN, including the In the Red report , released earlier this year. Unfortunately, the best ranked states on the LNOB Index, Vermont and Hawaii, are only about halfway to achievement.
Alainna Lynch, Senior Research Manager of SDSN and lead author on the report, shared the report findings, including an overview of the methodology, the state rankings , and US progress over time towards the 2030 Agenda. She also provided a snapshot of the results in a global context, with the US falling behind other OECD countries on measures such as maternal mortality and life expectancy.
Overall, the report shows the United States stagnating on the SDGs. As Professor Sachs states in the report’s foreward, “the message is sobering.” However, SDSN USA hopes this report can provide an entry point for stakeholders across sectors to engage in interdisciplinary problem solving to help the US reach its’ goals by 2030.
To view the full report and data for the 2021 United States Sustainable Development Report, visit https://www.sdsnusa.org/publications/sdr2021.
To watch a video of the report launch, go to https://youtu.be/7MLKDlN7Qwc.
