The Sustainable Development Goals at a Crossroads: Social Work and the Pact for the Future

The <scp>SDGs</scp>: A change agenda shaping the future of business and humanity at large

To Achieve a Sustainable Blue Future, Progress Assessments Must Include Interdependencies between the Sustainable Development Goals

Open educational resources (OER) and some of the United Nations sustainable development goals

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Requires Transdisciplinary Innovation at the Local Scale

There are ongoing international initiatives on how to protect the environment towards sustainable development (SD). These initiatives range from those of the United Nations (UN) to those of other international organizations and institutions. At the level of the UN, these initiatives are mainly its conferences and summits, which may be considered as the UN SRJRS Process. The UN SRJRS Process refers to the cities in which various UN conferences and summits on the environment and development towards SD have so far been convened, namely Stockholm, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro and Stockholm. So, these UN conferences and summits are the (i) UN Conference on the Human Environment, held at Stockholm, in 1972; (ii) UN Conference on Environment and Development, held at Rio de Janeiro, in 1992; (iii) World Summit on SD, held at Johannesburg, in 2002; (iv) UN Conference on SD (Rio+20), held again at Rio de Janeiro, in 2012; and (v) the Stockholm+50, which was held again in Stockholm, Sweden, in June 2022. The UN SRJRS Process and their outcome documents and progressively ongoing strategies are aimed at protecting the environment in the course of development, so as to achieve SD in UN’s member states and territories around the globe, in the interest of humans and society at large. Desertification, which may arise from deforestation, is an environmental problem associated with forests. Internationally, forests are regulated by the UN Statement of Forest Principles, 1992, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992, the Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD), 1994, and other relevant multilateral conventions, as well as international agreements and efforts associated with forests. This study thus examines the UNCCD, 1994, as a worldwide shared vision and a comprehensive multilateral environmental regulatory mechanism, designed to combat desertification, through relevant implementation measures, such as policies, laws, institutional regulatory frameworks and practices in sovereign states and territories around the globe, so as to protect and restore the world’s land, towards a safer, more just and better sustainable future, especially towards achieving relevant goals of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are not specific to one industry; they help every industry achieve a sustainable future. This study aims to investigate the contribution of Sri Lankan tea plantation companies towards the SDGs and how tea plantation companies enhance a sustainable future for their organizations. The qualitative research approach is employed under an exploratory research design. A purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from ten factory managers using a semi-structured interview protocol. And thematic analysis is employed to analyze the data. The findings revealed that SDGs provide a universal and visionary framework for contributing to economic, social, and environmental factors and lead to achieving a sustainable future for tea plantation companies. The SDGs are relevant to tea plantation companies because those SDGs assign different weights to business practices. Goals such as no poverty, good health and wellbeing, zero hunger, gender equality, sustainable cities and communities, quality education, peace and justice, and strong institutions are important in the social dimensions. And also, affordable and clean energy, climate action, responsible consumption and production, life below water, life on land, clean water and sanitation are important SDGs in the environmental model. And decent work and economic growth, industry/innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequality, and partnerships are the SDGs for the economy. Further, the majority of the SDGs contribute to enhancing society and the environment. Intriguingly, it was revealed that the willingness of the shareholders to implement socially-oriented projects is a major problem in the tea plantation sector. There is a scarcity of literature grades in SDGs in tea plantation companies in the agriculture sector. As a result, this research has delved deeper into tea plantation companies in the agricultural industry.

Rwanda’s Off-Grid Solar Performance Targets

Advancing global health and the sustainable development goals through transdisciplinary research and equitable publication practices

Reforming fossil fuel subsidies requires a new approach to setting international commitments

Environmental and economical ethics collide: Business as usual after COVID-19 or shifting towards a planetary health perspective?

Addressing Grand Challenges Through Different Forms of Organizing: A Literature Review

The turfgrass sector does not produce food or feed, but it is nonetheless important for a more sustainable future in agreement with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as outlined in Agenda 2030 (United Nations, 2015). Among the SDGs strongly related to the turfgrass sector are SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production), SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 14 (life below water), SDG 15 (life on land), and SDG 17 (partnership for the goals). The present Volume 14 of the International Turfgrass Society Research Journal (ITSRJ) contains scientific and technical papers published in conjunction with the 14th International Turfgrass Research Conference (ITRC) to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark from 10 to 15 July 2022. The conference is organized by the Scandinavian Turfgrass and Environment Research Foundation (STERF) under the auspices of the International Turfgrass Society (ITS), and with ‘Development and Sustainability’ as the overarching theme. The ITS is a not-for-profit organization with the aim to encourage research and education in turfgrass science. Since its establishment in 1969, ITS’ main activity has been the ITRCs which are held every fourth year. The 14th ITRC was originally planned for July 2021 but had to be postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Research presented at the ITRCs were initially published as proceedings, but in 1993, ITS established ITSRJ with quadrennial volumes coinciding with the conferences. From Volume 13 (2017), the ITSRJ has been in digital format only. While ITSRJ is a fully refereed journal, its quadrennial status prohibits it from having an impact factor. For this reason, some of the papers to be presented at the 2022 ITRC have been published in special issues of Agronomy Journal (13 full papers; https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14350645/2021/113/5) and Crop Science (28 full papers; https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14350653/2021/61/5). The present main Volume 14 of ITSRJ contains 84 full papers and 37 short communications which have all been subjected to peer review by least two anonymous reviewers to ITS Standards and under the leadership of the seven Technical and 32 Associate Editors acknowledged on the following page. Nineteen Technical Papers are published in an Appendix to this main volume as they have not been subjected to a stringent peer review, but only a lenient check for language, avoidance of commercial aspects, and clarification of methods and results by ITSRJ Assistant Editor, Dr. Doug Soldat. Through a contract between ITS and the Alliance of Crop, Soil and Environmental Science Societies (ACSESS; ASA-CSSA-SSSA), who now partners with Wiley publishing company, authors, editors, and reviewers have enjoyed the great benefits of using Wiley's publishing platform for the current volume of ITRSJ. On behalf of the ITS, I would like to thank ACSESS and Wiley, and especially Ms. Elizabeth Gebhardt and Ms. Abby Morrison for their continuous support and collaboration during the 2-yr-long editorial process caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm looking forward to meeting the international turfgrass community at the 14th ITRC in Copenhagen. I consider each paper published in this volume of ITSRJ and in the accompanying ITRC issues of Agronomy Journal and Crop Science as important contributions to the fulfillment of the overall aim of the conference: The development of a sustainable turfgrass sector for the benefit of a global society.

BackgroundGlobal progress in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires significant national and international research efforts and collaboration. The current study aimed to provide policymakers, academics, and researchers with a snapshot of global SDGs-related research activity.MethodThis was a cross-sectional descriptive bibliometric study. SciVerse Scopus was used to retrieve SDGs-related research publications for the period from 2015 to 2019.ResultsIn total, 18,696 documents were found. The Sustainability journal ranked first (n = 1008; 5.4%) in the number of SDGs-related publications. The World Health Organization was the most active institution in publishing SDGs-related documents (n = 581; 1.3%). Most of the retrieved documents belonged to SDG 17 (partnership) followed by SDG 13 (climate action), and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production), while SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) had the least number of publications. The European region (n = 9756; 52.2%) had the highest research contribution while the Eastern Mediterranean region (n = 1052; 5.6%) had the least contribution. After exclusion of SDG 17, the SDG 3 (good health and well-being) was the top researched SDG for the African region, the Eastern Mediterranean regions, and the South-Eastern Asian region. For the region of the Americas, European region, and the Western Pacific region, the SDG 13 (climate action) was the most researched. The SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) was the least researched in the African region, the region of the Americas, the European region, and the South-East Asian region. In the Eastern Mediterranean region, SDG 10 (reduced inequality) was the least researched while in the Western Pacific region, SDG 5 (gender inequality) was the least researched. The most researched targets of SDG 3 were targets 7 (sexual and reproductive health services) and 8 (universal health coverage) while the least researched targets were 5 (substance use disorders) and 9 (death from hazardous materials). International research collaboration within SDG 3 between high- and low-income countries was inadequate.ConclusionThe analysis presented in the current study are useful for researchers, institutes, governments, funding agencies, and policy-makers. Countries in Africa, the Middle East, and South-East Asia need to increase their funding and research collaboration in the field of SDGs.

The world is currently striving to achieve the globally adopted sustainable development goals (SDGs). Exploring the role of technology in achieving the SDGs is critical for the decision-makers and will allow them to overcome any possible trade-off. In this work, the role of wastewater management in achieving the SDGs has been indicated. The analysis shows that wastewater treatment could contribute to achieving 11 out of 17 SDGs. The major contribution came from its ability to increase water availability (SDG 2: zero hunger and SDG 6: clean water and sanitation), enhance human health worldwide (SDG 3: Good health and wellbeing), providing a new source of income for smallholder (SDG 1: no poverty and SDG 8: decent work and economic growth), converting waste to energy (SDG 7: affordable and clean energy, and SDG 9: industry, innovation and infrastructure) and reducing the environmental impact of wastewater (SDG 11: sustainable cities and communities, SDG 12: responsible consumption and production, SDG 13: climate action, and SDG 14: life below water). The challenges related to implementing and assessing these targets were discussed as well. A set of indicators (guideline) were proposed to improve the contribution of the wastewater treatment facility to the SDGs. This study emphasizes on the significant influence of wastewater treatment on the United Nations' SDGs and targets worldwide.

Nourishing sustainability: Clinical nutrition's impact on climate change