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From Rhetoric to Sustainability Research Impact: Sustainability Assessment, Methods and Techniques to Action the Sustainable Development Goals

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 15355

Special Issue Editors

Australian Institute for Business and Economics (AIBE), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4067, Australia
Interests: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) SDGs and 2030 Agenda; Corporate Sustainability; Sustainability Reporting; Sustainable Resource Development; Extractives; Sustainable Livelihoods; Gender Aspects of Sustainable Development; Education for Sustainable Development; Sustainability Science.
Australian Institute for Business and Economics (AIBE), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4067, Australia
Interests: Labor and Social Economics; Economic impact analysis; Economics of professional sports; Human resource management; Workplace health and safety; Applied micro-economics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There has been a plethora of initiatives to operationalise the 2030 Agenda and achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). Yet, disconnected science practices from current sustainability trends are creating scepticism about the potential of academics to resolve important sustainability issues that compromise the wellbeing of all. Preliminary investigations identified that a few reasons for this were having a limited understanding of local research contexts; lacking an overall approach to sustainability; having limited knowledge about sustainability assessment, methods and techniques; and inadequacies in the higher education sector and collaboration processes amongst academics and practitioners to achieve sustainability targets (Franco, et al). Thus, the current research agenda needs to engage in more sustainability research impact practices that tackle real and contextualised issues across various sectors and hopefully achieve all SDGs. Together with theoretical basis for such exercises, this Special Issue contributes to sustainability science as it builds knowledge on how to resolve the apparent paradox between lack of knowledge on SDG operationalisation and localisation into the scientific research agenda.

Building upon the experience and lessons learnt by academics dealing with sustainability assessment methods and techniques, the aim of this Special Issue is to explore current sustainability research impact practices that tackle real and contextualised issues across different sectors and geographies whilst achieving the SDGs and overall 2030 Agenda. Thus, the key question we ask in this Special Issue is how do we as sustainability scholars study the operationalisation of SDGs and develop ways of understanding to achieve an impact in terms of both rhetoric and research?

Submissions that do not contain a strong component on sustainability assessment, methods and techniques for SDG operationalisation will not be considered.

Dr. Isabel B. Franco
Dr. John Mangan
Guest Editors

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 submissions that pass pre-check are 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 2400 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

  • SDGs
  • 2030 Agenda
  • sustainability science
  • research impact
  • sustainability assessment
  • sustainability methods and techniques

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 946 KiB  
Article
A Review of Corporate Purpose: An Approach to Actioning the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
by Dayana Jimenez, Isabel B. Franco and Tahlia Smith
Sustainability 2021, 13(7), 3899; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13073899 - 01 Apr 2021
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 10180
Abstract
This journal article explores Corporate Purpose as an approach to action the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It achieves this objective by presenting a review of existing literature on Corporate Purpose and SDGs from the disciplines of business ethics, management studies, economics and psychology. [...] Read more.
This journal article explores Corporate Purpose as an approach to action the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It achieves this objective by presenting a review of existing literature on Corporate Purpose and SDGs from the disciplines of business ethics, management studies, economics and psychology. The review showcases contributions exploring whether and how Corporate Purpose-led strategy facilitates the operationalization of the SDGs and proposes an emerging research agenda. This article employed an inductive approach methodology through grounded theory to develop a critical analysis of scientific evidence-based work for theory construction on Corporate Purpose. One of the major findings of this review is that to achieve the SDGs companies need to shift found from the “business as usual” approach, which perceives sustainability as an externality, to incorporating sustainability factors in the company’s underlying purpose. The article also (1) identifies trends in research outputs and reveals five major antecedents of the phenomenon (drivers to purpose), (2) identifies key gaps within the existing literature, (3) distinguishes three current approaches to Corporate Purpose and (4) elaborates on current theories of Corporate Purpose and SDGs linkages to identify opportunities and aid future research. In summary, this article unpacks Corporate Purpose mechanisms to action the SDGs and stimulates academic discussion of business transformational approaches to long-standing sustainability challenges. Full article
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22 pages, 9211 KiB  
Article
Criteria-Based Approach to Select Relevant Environmental SDG Indicators for the Automobile Industry
by Sergej Lisowski, Markus Berger, Justus Caspers, Klaus Mayr-Rauch, Georg Bäuml and Matthias Finkbeiner
Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 8811; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218811 - 23 Oct 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4433
Abstract
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be met without the private sector. In order to contribute to the fulfillment of the SDGs, companies have to identify their influence and select relevant SDGs. However, so far no research has been conducted on [...] Read more.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be met without the private sector. In order to contribute to the fulfillment of the SDGs, companies have to identify their influence and select relevant SDGs. However, so far no research has been conducted on the influence of companies or industries at the most concrete level in the SDG framework—the 247 SDG indicators. In this paper, a criteria-based approach to select relevant environmental SDG indicators for the automobile industry is developed. The three criteria—environmental impact, direct impact, and automobile impact—are defined. By means of a qualitative analysis, 31 influenceable indicators are selected and substantiated by an empirical analysis of the automobile industry’s impact. These indicators belong to 12 SDGs and demonstrate the broad influence of the automobile industry. The outcome of this study is a structured procedure for selecting relevant environmental SDG indicators. This procedure can be applied by companies and can also be adapted to other economic sectors. Finally, it is possible to quantify the level of influence of the selected indicators and thus measure the contributions of companies or economic sectors to the fulfillment of the SDGs. Full article
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