UP Sustainability Caravan Advances SDGs through Luzon Leg

September 2025—The University of the Philippines (UP) Sustainability Caravan, led by UP-CIFAL Philippines in partnership with the UP System, continued its series of campus stops in September 2025, bringing the call for sustainable development to the University’s constituent universities in Luzon, namely UP Diliman (UPD), UP Baguio (UPB), UP Los Baños (UPLB), and UP Open University (UPOU). With the theme “Transforming the Future through Synergetic Sustainability,” the caravan highlights the role of higher education institutions in advancing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

At each stop, faculty, students, staff, and administrators engaged in lectures, workshops, and discussions designed to mainstream the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into UP’s teaching, research, and extension functions.

Held on September 11, the Diliman leg gathered participants at the UP Institute for Small Scale Industries, with messages of support from UP President Angelo A. Jimenez and Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Alyssa Peleo-Alampay. Discussions centered on embedding the SDGs across the university’s core functions and institutional practices, with participants identifying challenges such as resource constraints, documentation gaps, and fragmented initiatives. Best practices from De La Salle University also underscored the value of a whole-of-university approach. Workshop sessions highlighted concrete proposals for better campus sustainability, inclusive governance, and student engagement.

At the Balay Internasyonal Function Hall on September 17, UP Baguio hosted lectures and workshops focusing on the integration of the SDGs into indigenous knowledge, research, and community extension. Experts from Saint Louis University and Ifugao State University emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary approaches, localizing the SDGs in the Cordillera context, and balancing the university’s threefold mandate of instruction, research, and extension. Dialogues also explored ways to strengthen partnerships with communities, particularly indigenous peoples, and to promote grassroots-driven sustainability practices.

The Los Baños and Open University stop highlighted UPLB’s role as a benchmark for sustainable agriculture and UPOU’s innovations in open and digital learning for sustainability. Keynotes stressed the need for clear sustainability metrics, cross-campus collaboration, and stronger monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Batangas State University shared its best practices on institutionalizing sustainability governance and fostering “sustainability citizenship.” Workshops tackled waste management, curriculum integration, and inclusive access to quality education. The sessions concluded with a call for system-wide collaboration and open data sharing to strengthen sustainability initiatives across all UP constituent universities.

These caravan stops lead up to the UP Strategic Conference on Sustainable Development in November 2025. The series reflects UP’s commitment to align its academic and institutional strategies with the SDGs, ensuring that sustainability becomes a shared responsibility across the UP System.