This year, 2025, marks ten years since the United Nations launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a shared framework to guide countries, companies and society towards a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable world. Ten years seems like a long time, yet it is the time we have needed to prove something that was evident from the start: transforming the way we produce, consume and live together is a huge challenge, full of obstacles, but also of opportunities.

It is true that progress towards the 2030 Agenda has been uneven and that delays persist for many targets. According to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024, only 17% of the SDG targets are currently on track to be met by 2030, almost half show minimal or moderate progress, and more than a third are stagnating or regressing. Climate change, geopolitical crises and inequality, among others, remain major stumbling blocks. Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024

However, it would be a mistake to interpret this assessment solely in terms of failure. Because the SDGs were not designed as a pass or fail test, but as a common roadmap. They are a reminder that the world shares a common destiny and that, beyond our differences, we need a compass to guide us towards the same horizon.

This decade has also seen achievements that should not go unnoticed. Renewable energy has doubled its weight in the global energy mix in the last ten years, with particularly rapid growth in solar and wind power. In many countries, advances in health have led to significant reductions in maternal and infant mortality. And access to basic education continues to expand, with millions of children attending school who did not have that opportunity a decade ago.

These data are an unmistakable sign: when coordinated action is taken, progress comes. Perhaps more slowly than desired, perhaps unevenly, but they come. That is why the SDGs remind us that progress is not a question of a single actor or a single country, but the result of joining forces, step by step.

At Proden Group, we work with companies and organizations to define strategies aligned with the SDGs, convinced that every decision counts. Sometimes it seems that talking about sustainability has become an over-repeated slogan, to the point that the term is in danger of losing force. But that is precisely why it is important to remember the true meaning of this agenda: it is not about fads or communication trends, but about the need to ensure that our development is viable for present and future generations.

We cannot allow too many headlines to make us forget the bottom line: the SDGs are a call to unite capacities, talents and resources in a shared direction.

Five years away from 2030, it is not a matter of reaching that date with a closed list of achievements, but of keeping alive the collective ambition that inspired the SDGs. Because, ultimately, sustainability is not measured only in indicators, but in humanity’s capacity to act with vision and shared responsibility.

The SDGs are ten years old and we still have a long way to go. But if we have learned anything, it is that having a common agenda is in itself a transformative step. We are not starting from scratch, we are not walking alone, and every step – however small it may seem – brings us closer to a more just and sustainable future.

On this anniversary, rather than asking ourselves whether we have come far enough, we should be asking ourselves how we can continue to move forward together. Because, as in any long journey, what matters is not the speed, but the determination not to stop.