De Montfort University's role as a global academic hub for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals means its role is far wider than just educating students and staff on the importance of the SDGs and sustainability.
DMU has outreach educational activities that include local residents, businesses, charities, community groups and refugee and asylum seekers as well as its large alumni community.
All of those outreach activities have sustainability and SDGs at their core and are aligned to one or several goals with an element of education with them.
All activities are centred on the university's purpose-built SDG Impact Hub in Heritage House close to Leicester city centre, which also hosts many of the events.
DMU's commitment to involving the wider community is now enshrined within its long-term Empowerment Strategy, which makes the SDGs and sustainability a cross-cutting theme embedded in all aspects of university life.
Working with the whole community on SDGs
The university has also been a global academic hub since 2019 for the UN SDGs with a commitment to involve the whole community.
This was first for SDG 16 Peace Justice and Strong Institutions 2019-2024 and then for SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities from January 2025-2028. The only university in the UK to be a global academic hub.
The head of the SDG Impact Hub, Associate Professor Dr Mark Charlton, said: “As a university, we have recognised the importance of the SDGs at a strategic and leadership level. The SDGs are part of our strategic vision.
“We have been working with our alumni and the wider community for the past decade across hundreds of outreach programmes during that time and all have an element of education on the SDGs.
“All our events and volunteering programmes are open to our alumni, who regularly take part in our outreach activities in Leicester.”
In 2025, DMU secured £1.3 million of National Lottery funding for a ground-breaking projects which aims to embed sustainability within the Third Sector.
The university is working with five community groups on the LEAF (Leicester Environmental Action and Future) project and thousands of their users educating people about sustainability and the SDGs.
All our community gets education on SDGs
It is hoped that this project will provide the template for voluntary organisations throughout Britain to embed the SDGs and sustainability with their groups.
DMU has also been working with asylum seekers and refugees since the Syrian crisis of 2015 and that work continues with Project Atefa, a programme aimed at changing the negative narrative around forced migration and displaced people through individual storytelling.
Dr Charlton added: “These programmes while helping communities are also about educating those communities on the SDGs.”
One of those outreach projects in 2025 has been Football for the Goals, a United Nations project that harnesses the popularity of sport to increase awareness of the SDGs.
DMU has been working with the city’s amateur football club Leicester Nirvana, which has 1,000 boys and girls playing regularly and operates in one of Britain’s most deprived communities.
Students and alumni have been at a series of club events helping out and also talking to the young footballers about climate change and the SDGs with inter-active games, competitions and quizzes.
Hundreds of other school children have been educated on the SDGs through events held under the university’s Widening Participation programme and the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre.
Dr Charlton added: “Everything we do here at the SDG Impact Hub and across the university generally is about educating people about the SDGs.
“The value of a physical space is important because community groups meeting at our SDG Impact Hub have their interest piqued by all the signage and literature and ask questions about sustainability and the SDGs.
“All our alumni events include an element of SDG education and the newsletter to the thousands of former graduates includes constant reference to the SDGs and our global hub status.
“It is the same with asylum seekers and refugees we work with, all those cannot fail to be aware of the SDGs and their importance – we make sure of that.”
DMU has always worked closely with its local authority, Leicester City Council on the SDGs and that was recognised with the granting by the UN of global academic hub chair status for SDG 11 in January 2025.
The council has itself made a formal commitment of support for the SDGs and in 2024 issues its Climate Ready Leicester Residents’ Guide to its 400,000 citizens. The local authority had previously declared a Climate Emergency.