The Strategy of Social Responsibility at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana Toward the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

The Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) located in Medellín, Colombia has been awarded as the first Latin–American University certified as a carbon–neutral institution, in response to the sustainability strategy that integrates the organizational culture guided by the University as stated in the Strategic Plan (2017–2025). The plan is the result of the work conducted by a unified social responsibility strategy among the different UPB schools, following the corporate social responsibility (Corporate Social Responsibility). Here, we illustrate several of the internal and external approaches the UPB has been carrying out in order to achieve its institutional Mission. Particularly, we outline the following strategies: (1) organizational culture, (2) UPB internal key actions, and (3) UPB external actions in support of the sustainable development goals. In addition, and as part of this process, the UPB configured five strategic focuses to enhance its research, innovation, and development activities, to generate a high social impact according to the humanist identity, but innovative in its pertinent impact. Recently, two of these focuses, the water, food and territory and the focus of energy, joined efforts to create a program entitled Habitat and Sustainability. The program aims to implement an interdisciplinary mobile laboratory that allows a dialog of knowledge between the communities’ traditional knowledge and the systematic knowledge generated in academia. Jointly and collaboratively, the mobile laboratory seeks to build solutions to social problems such as a more sustainable habitat that can improve the livelihoods of different communities. In a general glance, a special emphasis is given on the design and implementation of the UPB strategies that could help to foster closer integration of social responsibility and sustainability initiatives that could be scaled to other universities.