Signatory Spotlight: Grigol Robakidze University, Georgia

At Grigol Robakidze University (GRUNI), Georgia, sustainability is not only a guiding principle, it’s embedded across teaching, learning, and community engagement. Through its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Center, the university is cultivating responsible leaders and driving a cultural shift toward sustainability in Georgia and beyond.

Building capacity among educators is a cornerstone of GRUNI’s approach. In 2025, PRME Chapter Eurasia hosted an Impactful Five (i5) Workshop that trained 45 faculty and staff members in innovative, sustainability-focused teaching methods. Each participant received official certification, strengthening GRUNI’s ability to integrate sustainability and responsible management principles into the classroom. These efforts extend into the university’s graduate programs in Sustainable Business Management, offered as a 3-year PhD, a 2-year Master’s, and a 1-year intensive Master’s program, designed to prepare future leaders to design and lead sustainability initiatives across sectors.

At the student level, the GRUNI SDGs Club provides opportunities for hands-on learning through environmental cleanups, awareness campaigns, and project-based learning. To deepen experiential learning, the university also hosted a three-day Social Entrepreneurship Workshop as part of the SDG Olympiad 2025, an international competition organized by the University of Geneva. Students developed innovative strategies for achieving the SDGs using citizen science, artificial intelligence, and social media, and the finalist team will represent Georgia on the global stage in Geneva.

Beyond competitions, the Center regularly convenes public lectures, seven to date, engaging over 200 students in discussions on climate change, sustainable consumption, and responsible living. These sessions nurture SDG literacy and promote long-term behavioral change among participants.

GRUNI has also demonstrated the power of creativity in advancing sustainability awareness. The SDGs Awareness Competition invited youth to express sustainability themes through photography, video, and art, resulting in 38 semi-finalists, national media coverage, and impressive online engagement with nearly 10,900 likes, 880 comments, and 550 shares. Building on that success, The Big Wall Painting - SDGs Awareness Competition, organized in collaboration with Tbilisi City Hall and ArtOa, transformed city walls into colorful canvases for sustainability dialogue. These murals vividly portray Georgia’s sustainability challenges, using public art as a catalyst for awareness and action.

Recognizing that sustainability values begin in childhood, the SDGs Center recently released an SDGs Storytelling Book featuring 17 stories by 16 authors. These creative narratives introduce young readers to civic responsibility and sustainable thinking, cultivating emotional and cultural connections to the SDGs that can last a lifetime.

Integrating sustainability and responsible management principles into higher education cultivates future leaders equipped to drive meaningful change in business and society. GRUNI’s innovative programs and initiatives demonstrate that embedding the SDGs and ethical leadership at all levels of education can inspire a broader cultural shift toward sustainable development, both locally and globally. At the core, sustainability relies on innovation, innovative minds, and creativity. Leveraging arts, creativity, and innovation has been our motto and has led to increased SDG awareness and implementation within higher education.

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