A team of four graduate students from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University has won the "Impact Award" at the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Young Researcher Proposal Competition during the 18th Asia-Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering (APCChE) Congress held in Sapporo, Japan. The APCChE, an alliance of chemical engineering organizations in the Asia-Pacific region, is represented by the Chinese Chemical Society in China. This biennial congress is well-regarded in the chemical engineering community both regionally and globally. The 2019 edition, hosted by the Japanese Chemical Society, focused on "Chemical Engineering for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)." The competition was designed to encourage young students in the field of chemical engineering to contribute to the realization of the SDGs. The proposal call was announced online a year in advance, inviting submissions that either offered technical solutions to specific problems or developed metrics to assess the impact of chemical engineering on achieving the SDGs. The Tsinghua University team, consisting of Jiang Meng, Xu Minghao, Chen Xin, and Ren Zijian, was guided by Associate Professor Chen Dingjiang. They conducted extensive research, including literature reviews, theoretical studies, surveys, and interviews with experts from the Chinese Chemical Society, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, and representatives at the 2019 China Chemical Industry Park and Development Forum. Leveraging an environment-expanded global multi-regional input-output model, the team meticulously prepared a proposal titled "Analyzing the Impact of Chemical Engineering on SDGs at National, Industry, and Regional (Park) Scales" over the course of nearly a year. A total of 31 student teams from seven countries submitted their SDG research proposals. After a rigorous anonymous review by seven international experts, the Tsinghua team was highly recommended and invited to participate in the final selection at the APCChE Congress. The selection process included elevator pitches, interactive presentations, and a vote by nearly 300 stakeholders, including academics, industry professionals, government officials, non-governmental organizations, and local residents. The Tsinghua team received a high number of votes and shared the top honor of the "Impact Award" with four other teams. Jiang Meng, a doctoral student from Tsinghua, represented the winning team and all participating students in a speech at the congress forum. During the conference, the Tsinghua team also engaged in extensive discussions with experts and scholars. They took the initiative to contact the Hokkaido government, as Hokkaido was selected as one of Japan's first "SDG Future Cities," to exchange ideas on SDG-related topics. This experience deepened the students' understanding of the significance of the SDGs, and they expressed a commitment to integrating SDGs into their academic research and personal lives, recognizing their responsibility as engineering graduate students to contribute to sustainable development. Tsinghua University's Global Competence Development Guidance Center supported and partially funded the team's participation in the congress and competition, aiming to encourage broader student engagement in international affairs and enhance their global competence. The team hopes to continue exploring the connections between their field of study and the SDGs under the guidance of their faculty and the Global Competence Development Guidance Center, and to promote the SDGs among their peers. **Background:** The APCChE was established in 1975 with the goal of promoting the comprehensive development of chemical engineering in the Asia-Pacific region. The Chinese Chemical Society officially joined the organization in 2004. In 2015, all United Nations member states adopted the "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," which outlines 17 SDGs to achieve peace and prosperity for people and the planet. These goals are a call to action for countries worldwide to address challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, economic growth, and peace and justice, drawing on decades of work by the UN and its member states.