Achieving Sustainable Development Goals Using Modern Technologies Including AI

Dear Colleagues,

While the world is seeing increasing emphasis on sustainability, there have been tremendous developments in various new technologies. Big data, Internet of Things, Cloud computing, and artificial intelligence technologies are being applied in businesses, societies, governments and in personal lives to achieve significant benefits. When properly developed and applied, these technologies can support sustainable development (Goralski and Tan, 2020) and achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (Vinuesa et al., 2020). Data processing of environmental data (e.g., on recycling or reusing) and analysis can bring out huge opportunities for optimization of resources and suggest interesting patterns. AI can help in identifying and enabling new cleaner technologies. Some remarkable uses of technology for supporting sustainability have been noted in the literature. For example, there are a number of studies that used these new technologies for reducing food waste in food supply chains (Ramanathan et al., 2024a,b). However, the possibilities are virtually endless. Technologies can support sustainable development across many spheres. They can help improve sustainability in businesses, for example, by supporting recycling, remanufacturing, and reusing components. They can support sustainable procurement (Modgil et al., 2026), sustainable logistics (Chen et al., 2024) and supply chains, sustainable precision agriculture (Ramanathan and Ramanathan, 2026), optimizing energy efficiency, developing smart/sustainable cities (Al-Raeei, 2025), and many more. Social inclusion, which is one of the three pillars of sustainable development, is also possible, for example, by reducing food waste and sharing the saved food with the needy. By supporting all three pillars (economic, environmental, and social) of sustainable development, modern technologies including AI can help achieve all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

At the same time, we should be cautious of the risks associated with using these smart technologies for sustainable development (Toderas, 2025; Yigitcanlar et al., 2020). For example, using these technologies can infringe on privacy. More data availability and use of sophisticated technologies can invite opportunities for bias and discrimination. Some of these technologies, especially AI, are considered very resource-intensive, contributing to high levels of carbon emissions (Toderas, 2025; Wu et al., 2022).

This Special Issue aims to explore opportunities for sustainable development through the appropriate use of modern technologies, including AI, in any sector—production, logistics, retail, society, government, and many more service sector. We encourage authors to link the use of modern technologies to the achievement of appropriate sustainable development goals in their respective field of study.

We invite contributions involving qualitative, quantitative, mixed, modelling approaches to understand how these technologies can support achievement of one or more SDGs. Data can be collected using primary data collection methods or via secondary data (e.g., social media data). We welcome papers that are deemed theoretical, empirical, computational, or model- or application-oriented. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Modern technologies to solve social issues such as poverty reduction, water management, education, sanitation and health.
• Linking modern technologies to circular economy approaches and low-carbon systems.
• Interplay of technologies with national growth, competitive advantage and sustainable development.
• Technologies that support sustainable agriculture and precision farming.
• Role of technologies in shaping sustainable cities, desertification, restoration of degraded lands and soil.
• Technologies, automation and AI on productivity, resource generation, waste and optimization.
• Impact of AI on the job market.
• Impacts on climate change, biodiversity monitoring and conservation;
• How can new technologies help in developing and exploiting renewable energy opportunities?
• How can modern technologies be effectively managed by individuals, governments and societies to achieve SDGs?
• How can smart technologies help logistics and supply chains to achieve SDGs?
• Can modern technologies help sustain the transformation of developing nations with respect to three pillars of sustainability?

We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions.

Prof. Dr. Ramakrishnan Ramanathan
Prof. Dr. Usha Ramanathan
Guest Editors

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