Unicaja Bancowith the Department of Sustainable Development of the Government of Castilla-La Manchathrough Fundación Impulsa and Asociación Ciencia a la Carta, launched the project “SDGs and science”, aimed at primary, secondary and baccalaureate students in the region. It is a science popularization initiative linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Agenda 2030, which will reach approximately 250 students.

A total of ten workshops are organized in schools and high schools in Castilla-La Mancha, where students can discover and work on the Sustainable Development Goals from a scientific approach. The goal is for them to understand, in a very practical way, how they can collaborate in their daily lives to achieve the 17 SDGs.

The program was presented today, during one of the workshops held at the IES Azarquiel in Toledo, by the Director General of the 2030 Agenda and 2030 Consumption, Ramón Lara; the head of sustainable development and CSR of Unicaja Banco, José María López; Alberto Arcediano, manager of the branch of Unicaja Banco at Calle Berlin in Toledo, and one of the coordinators and founders of Ciencia a la Carta, María José Ruíz, together with the head of IES, Jesús García, and the provincial representatives Sustainable Development, Tomás Villarrubia; and Education, Culture and Sports, José Gutiérrez.

The Director General of Agenda 2030 and Consumption, Ramón Lara, pointed out that “this project is part of the training and awareness objectives of the strategy of the Agenda 2030 of the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, which aims to make visible and convey the importance of compliance with the SDGs, in the three dimensions they cover: social, environmental and economic”.

José María López explained that Unicaja Banco “takes the SDGs as a reference for the management of its sustainability strategy”. “The relevance of informative initiatives such as ‘SDG&Science’ is that they bring the 2030 Agenda closer to young people in a practical way, demonstrating that the SDGs, in addition to being a global aspiration, can be integrated into daily life”, did he declare. .

Then, the first year students of secondary education took part in the workshop “We light up with the wind”, led by Ruth Domínguez Martín, industrial engineer and professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha and Brescia (Italy ), during which they discovered how to use wind and solar energy by assembling various models.

Through these workshops and linking them to the different SDGs, students will learn what electrical energy is and how clean energy works (SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy), they will learn about the existence of the main types of micro -organisms and how they interact with humans (SDG 3: Health and well-being, and SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy), experiment with healthy habits with “super grandparents” (SDG 3: Health and well-being ), discover the growing interest and participation of girls and young women in so-called “STEM careers” (SDG 5: Gender Equality) or discover the 17 SDGs through the behavior of birds.

This ‘ODS&Science’ awareness project is carried out in collaboration with Fundación Impulsa and is donated by Ciencia a la Carta, an association whose main objective is to promote scientific culture and which is made up of more than 50 scientists from the universities of Castilla- La Mancha and Complutense de Madrid, as well as the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC).

Sustainable development and CSR strategy to contribute to the SDGs

Unicaja Banco has joined the United Nations Global Compact and the Spanish Global Compact network and integrates the 2030 Agenda into its sustainability and CSR strategy, contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) most closely linked to its activity as a financial institution and with its social and environmental commitment.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted in 2015 by all United Nations Member States to address social, economic and environmental challenges, to improve people’s lives, end poverty, reduce inequalities, protect the planet and achieve peace and prosperity. In 2020, the so-called Decade of Action was launched, which calls for greater commitment from governments, institutions, companies and entities to drive the transformations needed to achieve the set goals.