Sport and exercise psychology and the UN's sustainable development goals: Reflections and suggestions

Abstract

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and agreed that it is vital for current and future generations to pursue 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Science, education, and sport are seen as drivers and important enablers of sustainable development (SD). Yet, even though all professions are called upon to embed SD into their work to facilitate change, and even though sport and exercise psychology professionals could play an important role in this process, there seems to be only little awareness of the need to contribute to SD as a discipline. This paper aims at changing this by elaborating on the reasons why sport and exercise psychologists should care about SD and the SDGs; it explains how psychologists and their clients can benefit from using the principles of SD to guide their professional work and decision making. It will be illustrated how sport and exercise psychology professionals can promote sustainable physical activity and sustainable elite sport, and how they can contribute to the achievement of internationally agreed societal, and global goals as practitioners, as teachers, and as researchers. Furthermore, the normative dimensions of the concept of SD are being discussed.

Keywords

• Sustainable development goals
• Sustainability
• Societal accountability
• Normative values