On September 25th 2015, the 193-Member United Nations General Assembly adopted a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years. For the goals to be reached, everyone needs to do their part: governments, the private sector, civil society and people like us.
“There can be no Plan B, because there is no Planet B”
Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*
Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable institutions at all levels
Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
The objective of this program is to sponsor and support VR content creators ready to use their talents and abilities to strive for a better world. We are specifically looking at funding VR projects which directly support The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Virtual Reality allows us to explore our world with new perspective. Perhaps your project will break the mold for sustainable development, allowing engineers and project managers to virtually visit job sites around the world. Or maybe your storytelling talent will bring us to the front lines of war zones or inhospitable conditions, inspiring action from viewers. If animal welfare is your passion, maybe you’ll take us beneath the surface to educate us on the threats to oceanic wildlife. Whatever story you are looking to tell, we can’t wait to witness how your content brings the world closer to these collective goals.
We thank you for making our world a better place, and for supporting VR for Impact.
We are proud to present a showcase of our ongoing selections for the VR for Impact program. All of these projects strongly represent the spirit and mission of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Virtual reality not only has the ability to raise awareness and empathy in novel ways, but also to provide unique tools which have real world life-saving capabilities. Below are examples of these compelling projects.
“The potential for Virtual Reality to help us learn, understand, and transform the world is limitless. VR for Impact is a challenge to the VR community and content developers across the globe to help drive awareness and to solve the biggest challenges of mankind.”
The Sustainable Development Goals are not small objectives, but we don’t want the VR community to think small, either. Virtual reality can change the world, and the change starts with you - as a VR developer.
You might think that you, or your development team, can do very little to change the world through VR. We don’t think that’s the case. Many pieces of art that changed the world were created by one person. With the development tools available today, there has never been a better time to express yourself creatively, in a medium that’s brand new and charged with possibilities.
If you’re developing a VR title that promotes one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals, we want to hear from you.
