Ethics and Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing damage caused by climate change suggests that global environmental sustainability is an urgent problem. In other words, even if technology can be improved rapidly, consumption preferences can be changed, and populations begin to decrease, we cannot afford to wait for these processes. The literature has recently begun to emphasize the role of ethics in achieving global environmental sustainability. In particular, two main groups of environmental ethics can be identified: secular ethics and religious ethics. Secular ethics focuses on our responsibility to nature, our responsibility to future generations, our perceptions of the rights of humans and non-humans, and our beliefs in inter- and intra-generational equity. Religious ethics has a different focus in each religion. For example, we could say that Judaism focuses on stewardship, Islam focuses on trusteeship and parsimony, Hinduism and Buddhism focus on maintaining equilibrium, and Christianity focuses on love of neighbors.

The observed failures of international agreements on climate change suggest that the unsustainability of global society is a practical problem (i.e., one related to actual practice rather than to beliefs). In other words, it is not enough for an ethical principle or precept to be consistent and to be intended to move the world away from unsustainable practices; the principle or precept must also provide feasible (i.e., theoretically successful) and reliable (i.e., practically trustworthy) behavioral rules to achieve sustainability through the application of consistent ethical concepts to achieve realistic equilibrium conditions. Both the methodological and the applied literature support that sustainability is an interdisciplinary science.

This Special Issue will include papers focused on feasible and reliable ethical rules to achieve environmental sustainability: research adopting uni, multi, or inter-disciplinary approaches is welcome; research exploring secular or religious ethics is encouraged; and research focusing on global or local environmental sustainability is welcome.

Prof. Dr. Fabio Zagonari
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 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.

• Global and local environmental sustainability
• Uni, multi, or inter-disciplinary approaches
• Secular and religious environmental ethics
• Feasible and reliable ethical rules.