In 2017, the UN Global Compact and its 2030Vision partners reported that digital technology—particularly open source—would be instrumental in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), unlocking an additional $2.1 trillion in annual revenue for the technology sector alone by 2030. The United Nations introduced these 17 SDGs in its “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” described as “a plan of action for people, planet, and prosperity.” The SDGs build on the eight Millennium Development Goals as well as UN Global Compact’s measures of corporate governance in terms of the environment, human rights, labor, and anti-corruption.
We started the Linux Foundation Sustainability Initiative to understand how our projects map to these different dimensions of sustainable development. By capturing where and how our projects are having impact, we can see where the LF community can direct resources to broaden and deepen these efforts.
An extensive landscape review of all Linux Foundation projects, substantiated by interviews with experts in the community, illuminates a massive and diverse portfolio of digital public goods all contributing in unique ways to the SDGs. Alongside the efforts of the projects it hosts, the Linux Foundation itself creates the infrastructure – legal structures, funding, community development, governance models —that makes sustainable development possible.
