Special Issue "Challenges in Overcoming Current and Future Sustainability Crises"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Marius Dan Gavriletea
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Business, Faculty of Business, Babeș-Bolyai University, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Interests: climate change; catastrophe risk management; sustainable development; insurance; terrorism
Prof. Walter Leal Filho
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research and Transfer Centre “Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management”, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany
Interests: sustainable development; climate change and energy; innovation and general life sciences
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Đula Borozan
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Economics in Osijek, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Interests: sustainability; energy; macroeconomics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, many challenges and barriers have arisen that have hindered progress in achieving sustainability (Ávila et al., 2019).

Universities have been identified as one of the biggest drivers of sustainable action. The main barriers existing in educational institutions are lack of funding and negative attitudes towards sustainability (Ulmer & Wydra, 2020). People often lack knowledge of the sustainability crisis and therefore fail to understand that sustainable initiatives may minimize future costs as well as provide a more stable environment. Furthermore, it is noted that initial practices are often implemented but not completed as more capital-generating initiatives are prioritized. Additionally, minimal government policies exist to encourage the implementation of sustainability at universities despite the immense potential of the institutions (Ávila et al., 2019).

The worsening of the climate change problem has further hindered the reduction of the sustainability crisis. Extreme climate events have threatened the food security of countries due to their effects on agricultural practices. This has further increased poverty in these regions due to decreases in subsistence farming and general reductions of national GDP (Mojid, 2020).

Additionally, the economic and political status of countries differ, causing inequalities in the sustainability crisis. Certain countries have more financial capability for achieving sustainability, whereas others do not, thus preventing progress. This barrier is more prominently observed in less developed/developing countries (Barua, 2020). Furthermore, corruption within the governing systems of countries can cause funds prioritized for sustainable initiatives to be appropriated. Recovering these funds is not always possible, causing the sustainability crises to worsen (Frolova et al., 2019).

Furthermore, already existing barriers have been exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has led to a diversion of resources, whilst worsening unemployment and poverty in many countries remain. The focus has been shifted from sustainability to the pandemic (Barbier & Burgess, 2020; Jones & Comfort, 2020).

Crises increase existing uncertainty, accelerate known risks, and create new risks, simultaneously imposing unprecedented challenges on leaders in business, government, and other spheres of our lives. However, they also open room for new, more creative and socially and environmentally improved business and socio-economic solutions as well as new ways of managing crisis situations.

By providing different and more comprehensive insights on a broad range of crisis-related issues, this Special Issue will produce a deeper understanding of the causes and consequences of endogenously and exogenously generated crises. It will also offer new creative and inspiring solutions for building more powerful resilience measures to crises and creating a better future in general.

References:

Ávila, L. V., Beuron, T. A., Brandli, L. L., Damke, L. I., Pereira, R. S., & Klein, L. L. (2019). Barriers to innovation and sustainability in universities: an international comparison. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 20(5), 805–821. doi:10.1108/IJSHE-02-2019-0067

Barbier, E. B., & Burgess, J. C. (2020). Sustainability and development after COVID-19. World Development, 135, 105082. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105082

Barua, S. (2020). Financing sustainable development goals: A review of challenges and mitigation strategies. Business Strategy & Development, 3(3), 277–293. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/bsd2.94

Frolova, I., Voronkova, O., Alekhina, N., Kovaleva, I., Prodanova, N., & Kashirskaya, L. (2019). Corruption as an obstacle to sustainable development: A regional example. Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 7(1), 674–689. doi:http://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2019.7.1(48)

Jones, P., & Comfort, D. (2020). The COVID-19 crisis, tourism and sustainable development. Athens Journal of Tourism, 7(2), 75–86. doi:https://doi.org/10.30958/ajt.7-2-1

Mojid, M. (2020). Climate change-induced challenges to sustainable development in Bangladesh. Paper presented at the IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science.

Ulmer, N., & Wydra, K. (2020). Sustainability in African higher education institutions (HEIs). International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 20(1), 18–33. doi:10.1108/IJSHE-03-2019-0106

Prof. Marius Dan Gavriletea
Prof. Walter Leal Filho
Prof. Đula Borozan
Guest  Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainability crisis
  • risks
  • crises management
  • challenges
  • resilience
  • pandemic

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Unpacking the IFRS Implications of COVID-19 for Travel and Leisure Companies Listed on the JSE
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7942; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147942 - 16 Jul 2021
Viewed by 441
Abstract
Purpose: The main purpose of this article is to study the IFRS implications of COVID-19 for selected travel and leisure companies listed on the JSE. The article investigates how these selected companies disclose financial information regarding the going concern, or in other words; [...] Read more.
Purpose: The main purpose of this article is to study the IFRS implications of COVID-19 for selected travel and leisure companies listed on the JSE. The article investigates how these selected companies disclose financial information regarding the going concern, or in other words; the sustainability of the company, revenue of the company, how the companies made estimations, and more, to account for the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their financial information. Design/methodology/approach: content analysis was used to analyse the financial statements of ten travel and leisure companies listed on the JSE. This analysis indicated what additional disclosures these companies have in the light of COVID-19. Findings: even though there is no specific IFRS standard providing guidance on the impact of COVID-19, the findings reveal that the companies took utmost care in disclosing information and the impact of COVID-19 in the financial statements. Companies cautiously considered the impact of the coronavirus on their financial results and provided the users of these financial statements with transparent financial information, regarding going concern and sustainability of the company, revenue, estimations, and more. Originality/value: a new economic crisis, different from any other economic crises, emerged as a result of COVID-19 and the IFRS implications such as, the effect on sustainability and going concern, impact on revenue of companies, financial estimations during the coronavirus pandemic, the effect of COVID-19 on the financial subsequent events and other financial statement disclosures is still unclear. This study is deemed of vital importance as the users of financial statements require all the necessary information about how COVID-19 has affected these companies, and whether or not these companies will be sustainable in the foreseeable future, as to enable the financial statement users to make informed financial decisions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges in Overcoming Current and Future Sustainability Crises)
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