Learning to Facilitate Sustainability: SDGs Intelligence Cards Training in Vienna

How do we move conversations about sustainability beyond simply explaining the 17 Sustainable Development Goals? The SDGs Intelligence Cards Training, organised within the Youth4GreenPolicy project in Vienna, focused on exactly this challenge: giving youth workers practical ways to turn sustainability topics into discussion, reflection, collaboration and action. The five-day international training was designed to prepare youth workers and young leaders to independently facilitate activities using the SDGs Intelligence Cards and later transfer these methods to young people in their own communities. 

Rather than approaching the SDGs as 17 separate topics to memorise, participants explored how the cards can become starting points for conversations about real challenges young people experience. The programme combined hands-on activities, peer learning, facilitation practice and structured reflection, with a strong emphasis on critical thinking and systems thinking.

Exploring sustainability through different perspectives

The training started by connecting the SDGs with participants' own experiences. Instead of beginning with definitions, participants selected the SDG they personally considered most important and discussed why it mattered to them. This simple approach immediately demonstrated one of the strengths of using cards in youth work: the same set of goals can lead to completely different conversations depending on the people in the room. 

From there, the programme moved into deeper questions about sustainability and the challenges connected to it. Participants identified SDG-related issues affecting their own organisations and communities and explored a scenario in which nothing had changed by 2030. They then considered what would need to happen differently and connected these larger challenges with realistic individual actions. 

This reflects an important principle for youth work: sustainability becomes easier to discuss when young people can connect global challenges with something they recognise from their own lives. A card about responsible consumption can lead to conversations about clothing or food, while another about sustainable cities can open discussions about transport, housing or public spaces.

From GreenComp to practical activities

The programme also introduced GreenComp competences and explored how they can be integrated into activities with young people. The training did not treat sustainability only as environmental knowledge. Participants worked with approaches that encouraged them to analyse connections, question information, imagine different futures, discuss possible solutions and consider their own role in creating change.

The five-day programme included activities on GreenComp, future visioning with the SDG Cards, climate misinformation, peer facilitation, workshop design, sustainable development debates, creative reuse and the Six Thinking Hats method. This variety showed that the same sustainability themes can be approached through debate, scenarios, creative activities, group problem-solving or reflection rather than through traditional presentations.

Practising facilitation, not only learning methods

One of the most useful aspects of the training was the opportunity to move from being a participant to becoming a facilitator. Youth workers did not simply collect new activities to take home. Through peer practice and workshop design, they had the opportunity to think about how activities should be introduced, how questions influence discussions and how reflection can transform an enjoyable exercise into a meaningful learning experience.

The training manual also highlights practical facilitation details that can make a significant difference. Facilitators are encouraged to ask participants to speak from personal experience rather than provide the "correct" textbook answer, to make broad sustainability challenges more specific, and to favour realistic commitments over ambitious statements that are unlikely to become action. 

For youth workers, these are useful reminders that the cards themselves are only the starting point. The real learning comes from the questions we ask around them, the different perspectives brought into the conversation and the space participants are given to challenge ideas and develop their own conclusions.

From global goals to local action

The training concluded with participants designing their own local workshops, preparing them to transfer what they had experienced in Vienna into activities with young people aged 16–24 in their home communities. This local follow-up is an important part of the Youth4GreenPolicy approach: the international training builds the competences of youth workers, who then create new spaces for sustainability dialogue with young people across Europe.

The SDGs Intelligence Cards demonstrate that talking about sustainability does not need to start with a lecture. Sometimes it can start by putting a set of cards on the table and asking: Which of these matters most to you, and why? From there, the conversation can move towards connections, disagreements, future scenarios, solutions and eventually action.

For youth workers looking for adaptable ways to explore sustainability, the cards provide something particularly valuable: a starting point rather than a fixed lesson. The facilitator can adapt the method to the group, the local context and the issue being explored, while young people remain active participants in shaping the conversation.

Youth4GreenPolicy – Engaging Youth Voices in Europe’s Sustainable Future

Project No. 101254165 — Youth4GreenPolicy — CERV-2025-CITIZENS-CIV

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.