<p>Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires reliable and scalable approaches to monitor change. We present a perspectives piece that reviews how passive acoustic remote sensing can contribute to tracking nearly half of the SDGs, especially when coupled with the growing research, education, and natural resource management communities built around it. Notably, acoustics remains a comparatively neglected remote-sensing modality alongside mainstream remote sensing approaches used to map forest extent, condition, and change. Here, we synthesize the current state of passive acoustic remote sensing across diverse geographies and sustainability applications. Specifically, we argue that passive acoustic remote sensing is well suited to address the following: good health and well-being, affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities, responsible consumption and production, life below water, and life on land. Meanwhile, passive acoustic remote sensing is complementary to the following: quality education, climate action, and partnerships for the goals. We conclude by describing existing networks and observatories that can be galvanized to form a global partnership to track certain SDGs through space and time, while acknowledging the need for standardized acoustic indicators and coordinated monitoring networks.</p>