The city of Bonn, Germany, has a long-standing commitment towards sustainable development. The city has gone through a comprehensive process to link the city’s 2030 Sustainability Strategy to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Strategy seeks to address the main challenges faced by the city in terms of providing affordable housing, expanding and maintaining green spaces, shifting to clean forms of transport and energy, and providing employment opportunities for all, especially for low-skilled workers. The SDGs can also help to institutionalise Bonn’s Sustainability Strategy and allocate adequate resources to its implementation. They also provide a holistic framework to manage trade-offs between climate, sustainable mobility and affordable housing goals, while striving to reduce inequalities.