Today, society is shifting away from just economic measures of development to human-centered measures and value- based indicators. The SDGs are not just aimed at government but many other strategic actors, including civil society. Nested structures of responsibility for implementation will be required as some things are just not possible to achieve only by policy. A key challenge for engaging civil society in delivery of the SDGs will be to take the very impressive process and translate them into a language that people will identify with and adhere to. Additionally, it is important to recognize that a large part of humanity simply will not care about the goals and will be motivated by forces that work counter to them so new strategies must assume such. In this paper we explore the role of global cities in the global governance architecture, specifically with regards to the implementation of the SDGs in Global Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. We then provide a case study of Abu Dhabi by applying the Sustainability-Oriented Innovation Index for Airports©, with regards to the international airport's capacity to align sustainability strategies through three unique lenses of environmental, social, and technological innovation. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how the collaborative responsiveness, reflexivity, and adaptability of a city and its respective airport breeds the kind of legitimacy called for by citizens and solidifies the role of cities in today's global governance architecture as a main actor for the implementation of the SDGs.