OECD Toolkit for a Territorial Approach to the SDGs

The Global Tipping Points Report, launched at COP28 on 6 December 2023, is an authoritative assessment of the risks and opportunities of both negative and positive tipping points in the Earth system and society.  A "tipping point" is that point at which a small change or a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change and make a big difference to a system.  A tipping point occurs when change in part of a system becomes self-perpetuating beyond a threshold, leading to substantial, widespread, frequently abrupt and often irreversible impact as well as possibilities of non-abrupt and reversible tipping points.  A "tipping event" describes the crossing of a tipping point and "tipping dynamics" the resulting changes that unfold.

There are sustainable cities, economics, construction, destruction, investing, operation, and, inevitably, consultants – “There is nothing, it seems, that cannot be called ‘sustainable’”.  A correct understanding of the term is important in the processes of policy-making and socioeconomic development as it has become a boundary term used for identification.  Its widespread misuse to further the political and financial objectives of the counterproductive and unsustainable development of our communities and societies across the world has become a major concern to all socioeconomic stakeholders. Concern about the misuse of the term was being voiced well before this article's appearance in 2007.

A reduction of environmental and socioeconomic impacts of products and services can be achieved through a circular economy as a critical enabler of the sustainable use of natural resources.  Systematic materials cycling for closed-loop resource supply chains and the integration of resource circularity with the SDGs is fundamental to the concept of the circular economy. Besides its importance in the ESG reporting of resource and solution providers, circularity is key for the SDG-targeted development of communities.  The importance of the circular economy is reflected in many goals and targets in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Even if CO₂ emissions were drastically reduced immediately, the global economy would still be heading towards a significant drop of 19% in GDP by 2050, according to a recent study published in Nature.  Scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) assessed future impacts of changing climatic conditions on economic growth and their persistence.  They estimate the damages due to climate change at six times – 600% – greater than the mitigation costs needed to limit global warming to to the target of two degrees, based on empirical data from more than 1,600 regions worldwide over the past 40 years.  Such forecasts of the macroeconomic damage caused by climate change are crucial to informing public and policy debates about adaptation, mitigation and climate justice.

Business models are being transformed by rising environmental concerns, Industry 4.0 technologies, and circular economy (CE) practices, which are the prevailing business considerations.  Keeping these considerations in view, this work looks into the role of Industry 4.0 technologies in the adoption of CE practices and their impact on the economic, operational, and organizational performance of firms.  Industry 4.0 technologies significantly enhance circular economy practices and found to positively correlate with environmental and operational performance, while the higher economic and operational performance boosts organizational performance.  The findings illustrate that CE practices have a significant positive effect on environmental, economic, and operational performance of the firms.

Circular economy principles for sustainable building design stress resource efficiency in construction to prevent and reduce construction and demolition waste and to re-use and recycle building materials and products.  This document informs the key participants in the building value chain about sustainable building design.  The document informs the participants in the building value chain about sustainable building design: (1) building users, facility managers and owners; (2) design teams; (3) builders and contractors; (4) product manufacturers; (5) deconstruction and demolition teams; (6) investors, developers and insurance providers; and (7) governments, regulators and local authorities.  It builds on the voluntary Common European Framework of Sustainability Indicators – "Level(s)".

Life-cycle cost (LCC) is the sum of all costs related to the life cycle of a building from investment to its deconstruction.  For a sustainable building, it is anticipated that the environmental impacts associated with the design, construction, and operation of this building are lower than conventional construction.  LCC is typically used for assessing energy efficiency or determining energy impacts in building projects.  Comprehensive life-cycle costing is recognized through life-cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), which comprises the three measurement techniques of environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA), environmental life-cycle costing (LCC), and social LCA (SLCA).  Despite the limitations of scope, LCC is an effective approach for assessing SDG-targeted sustainability outcomes.

This report published by MIT Sloan defines supply chain sustainability as “the management of environmental and social impacts within and across networks consisting of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and customers.” The five key takeaways from the report, which captures a turbulent world that continues to grapple with the complex goal of sustainability, are (1) Commitment to supply chain sustainability appears to be resilient to certain types of crises but vulnerable to others; (2) Sustainability commitments aren’t consistent across supply chains and around the world, (3) Pressure to increase supply chain sustainability comes from multiple quarters; (4) Pressure to increase supply chain sustainability comes from multiple quarters, (5) Many firms have no net-zero goals.

Despite overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change, climate denial is still widespread.  While much research has characterized climate denial, comparatively fewer studies have systematically examined how to counteract it.  This review fills this gap by exploring the research about counteracting climate denial, the effectiveness and the intentions behind intervention.  Through a systematic selection and analysis of 65 scientific articles, this review finds multiple intervention forms, including education, message framing and inoculation.  The intentions of intervening range from changing understanding of climate science, science advocacy, influencing mitigation attitudes and counteracting vested industry.  The review offers guiding questions for counteracting climate denialism.

Erroneously, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing is widely assumed to reward companies for helping the planet.  However, ESG ratings, which underlie ESG fund selection, are based on the impact the changing world has on companies’ profit and loss.  Asset managers have deliberately allowed the confusion to go unrefuted and even encourage it since ESG funds are highly popular and come with higher management fees.  The harm is that ESG investing leads policymakers to believe that the market can remedy the threatened environmental and socioeconomic disaster while only prompt significant government intervention can avert imminent climate catastrophe.

Sustainable practices can be implemented within supply chains to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).  Procurement and distribution processes can be reengineered by implementing sustainable approaches that consider the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability.  SDG-oriented supply chains demonstrate a positive relationship between sustainable development and supply-chain performance enhancement.  There are differences in the number of opportunities depend on the motivation for implementing them, industry and supply-chain processes, performance achieved, and SDGs pursued.  Companies have many opportunities to support the 2030 Agenda and enhance their market and organizational performance when aligning their supply chains with the SDGs.

A sustainable supply chain fully integrates ethical and environmentally responsible practices into a competitive and successful model.  End-to-end supply chain transparency is essential for companies to demonstrate corporate social responsibility.  Sustainability initiatives must extend from raw materials sourcing to last-mile logistics, product returns, and recycling processes.  Digital transformation and the increasing sophistication of digital supply chain technologies play a major role in the evolution of supply chain sustainability.  Big data management, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and security tools have brought unprecedented visibility and accountability to global supply chains.  Transparency and circularity characterize the sustainable supply chain.

To counter destructive non-linear system responses, tipping points, and spillover effects, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to transform the world towards societal well-being, economic prosperity, and environmental protection.  Achieving the SDGs, however, is challenged by the performance of interconnected sectors and the complexity of their interactions.  The SDGs are a holistic agenda intended to guide socioeconomic development policies and priorities, funding and government interventions at international, national, and local levels for their achievement.  With the increasing adoption of the SDGs at all levels, systems models are also increasingly used for the sustainable development and operation of communities in support of planning for sustainability.

Despite claims to the contrary, 97% of climate experts agree that humans are causing global warming.  In science, consensus is when the vast majority of experts agree on a fundamental principle.  In climate science, more than 97% of experts agree that CO₂ traps heat and that adding it to the atmosphere warms the planet.  Public perception of the scientific consensus concerning global warming is an important gateway into other enlightened climate-related attitudes, including policy support.  This article looks at summaries of the key studies and into the degree of consensus based on analyses of large samples of peer-reviewed climate science literature or surveys of climate and Earth scientists.  The slightly different methodologies used reached very similar conclusions.