基础模型（FMs）是大规模预训练的人工智能（AI）系统，已彻底改变自然语言处理和计算机视觉领域，并正推动地理空间分析与地球观测（EO）的发展。它们有望在各类任务中实现更好的泛化能力、可扩展性以及仅需少量标注数据即可高效适应。然而，尽管地理空间基础模型迅速普及，其在现实世界中的实用性及其与全球可持续发展目标的契合度仍缺乏深入探索。我们提出了SustainFM，一个基于17项可持续发展目标的综合性基准测试框架，涵盖从资产财富预测到环境灾害检测等极其多样的任务。本研究对地理空间基础模型进行了严谨且跨学科的评估，为理解其在实现可持续发展目标中的作用提供了关键洞见。研究发现：（1）尽管并非在所有任务中均表现最优，但基础模型通常在多种任务和数据集上优于传统方法。（2）评估基础模型应超越准确率，纳入可迁移性、泛化能力及能源效率等关键指标，以确保其负责任的应用。（3）基础模型能够提供可扩展的、以可持续发展目标为导向的解决方案，广泛适用于应对复杂的可持续性挑战。至关重要的是，我们倡导从以模型为中心的研发转向以影响为导向的部署模式，并强调能源效率、对领域偏移的鲁棒性以及伦理考量等指标的重要性。

Foundation Models (FMs) are large-scale, pre-trained artificial intelligence (AI) systems that have revolutionized natural language processing and computer vision, and are now advancing geospatial analysis and Earth Observation (EO). They promise improved generalization across tasks, scalability, and efficient adaptation with minimal labeled data. However, despite the rapid proliferation of geospatial FMs, their real-world utility and alignment with global sustainability goals remain underexplored. We introduce SustainFM, a comprehensive benchmarking framework grounded in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals with extremely diverse tasks ranging from asset wealth prediction to environmental hazard detection. This study provides a rigorous, interdisciplinary assessment of geospatial FMs and offers critical insights into their role in attaining sustainability goals. Our findings show: (1) While not universally superior, FMs often outperform traditional approaches across diverse tasks and datasets. (2) Evaluating FMs should go beyond accuracy to include transferability, generalization, and energy efficiency as key criteria for their responsible use. (3) FMs enable scalable, SDG-grounded solutions, offering broad utility for tackling complex sustainability challenges. Critically, we advocate for a paradigm shift from model-centric development to impact-driven deployment, and emphasize metrics such as energy efficiency, robustness to domain shifts, and ethical considerations.