This essay is the result of numerous interviews, decades of scientific research, and abstract mathematics of climate change about the possible end of the world as we know it.  We’re told that it’s worse than we could possibly imagine and whatever we fear, we’re “barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possibl ...

The sustainable development principle drives environmentally destructive neoliberal economic growth that exploits and degrades the local ecology. Despite well-meaning intentions behind sustainable development, it facilitates exploitative economic development activities that exacerbate systemic inequalities and injustic ...

Sustainable Development Goal 9 is to “build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”, according to the United Nations.  For SDG 9, the UN has defined 8 targets that specify the goals and 12 indicators that represent the metrics by which the world aims to track ...

„Der Natur und Umwelt eine Stimme geben!“ – So oder ähnlich könnte man das Anliegen der 1998 unter der Schirmherrschaft der UNECE geschlossenen Aarhus-Konvention umschreiben.  Auch Österreich ist diesem internationalen Abkommen beigetreten, das es sich zum Ziel gesetzt hat, die Durchsetzung des Umweltrechts mit Hilfe d ...

To hinder environmental damage and obtain a protective order or injunction in most civil law systems, danger in delay must be asserted for the enforceability of proceedings. To initiate legal proceedings, a 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘢 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘦 case must exist, requiring the claimant to present evidence and show the likelihood of success on the ...

The divergence of ESG ratings creates uncertainty and represents a challenge for decision-makers, including investment managers and regulators. This ESG rating divergence makes it difficult to evaluate the ESG performance of companies, funds, and portfolios, which is their primary purpose. It also decreases companies’ ...

Speaking for humanity, Bezos claims that we don’t want to live in a “retrograde world” where we’d have to freeze population growth.  Elon Musk says colonization on other planets is a necessity to ensure that the human race survives.  Richard Branson is again exploiting astronomical business opportunities with commercia ...

Financial markets are the principal means for financing socioeconomic activity and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Governments and financial market regulators define the parameters and incentives within which market participants make investment and financing decisions and operate, while the provide ...

Climate scenario analysis is a key tool for evaluating complex physical and transition risks of companies and communities.  This raises questions about the credibility of transition plans and long-term risk management processes that do not apply the scenarios.  Limited standardization and transparency make it difficult ...

While ESG and SDG are complementary, they cannot be used interchangeably to identify the sustainability of companies and their contribution to social development and the planet.  Where sustainable investors aim to invest in companies that contribute to sustainable development, there is disagreement on how best to measu ...

Sustainability postpones social, environmental and economic disasters in attempt to meet present economic growth while minimizing the impacts of current socioeconomic development for future generations.  Although sustainability is widely considered a positive concept, it has numerous weaknesses that make it unsustainab ...

The practice of participatory sensing for environment monitoring has rapidly evolved over the years. There has been a steady growth of citizen-based environmental monitoring projects that aim to build partnerships, knowledge-sharing platforms, awareness, and ultimately environmental resilience. Citizen science has resh ...

New Zealand is ranked highly on the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), which assess performance on six dimensions of governance: voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. Moreover, New Zealand has long ...

New generation life cycle assessment (LCA) methods and tools can positively influence the environmental impact of the built environment and help mitigate the effects of climate change.  They continuously learn from real-time data while allowing for effective operation and management strategies of buildings and district ...

The circular economy (CE) is an optimal pathway to sustainable development and companies, governments and academics have formulated various proposals to measure circularity.  Ideally, circularity metrics indicate how well circularity is applied to the whole life cycle of products and services in terms of society, the e ...