15. Adoption of the SDGs as a Reporting Framework at the Alma Mater Studiorum (University of Bologna) in Italy

Since 2016 the Alma Mater Studiorum—University of Bologna has been implementing an innovative strategy of measuring its performance through the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and its convoying 17 goals the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and related targets. As a large sized multi-campus system with over 86,000 students, the University has the need and the duty to harmonize the relationship between the environment and people. The SDGs have been therefore adopted as standards to measure the University’s sustainability through the publishing of an annual report, included within the broader frame of its Strategic Plan. This has provided an effective push to reshape institutional and management strategies, to better plan, monitor, and strengthen accountability to stakeholders. After investigating the context, the approach has been developed, the contribution will point out the identified challenges mainly connected to the availability of data. As findings, the reports on the United Nations (UN) SDGs exposed the value of identifying indicators able to provide comparable results for setting higher education institutions (HEIs) as central actors of change in the achievement of the SDGs. The emerging pattern shows a shift from a process of basic literacy on sustainability to a political action of inner dissemination of the culture of sustainability transitioning from a subsidiary report to a comprehensive “AlmaGoals” initiative.