Firm Sustainable Development Goals and Firm Financial Performance through the Lens of Green Innovation Practices and Reporting: A Proactive Approach

The sharing economy is an umbrella term for different business models that seem to have a positive impact on sustainability. To achieve sustainable development, the UN has created 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an instrument and guide for countries and individuals. This paper sheds light on the relationships between the sharing economy, sustainability and SDGs through the content analysis of 74 papers from the database Web of Science that consider these factors through the topics of the environment, consumer values, business characteristics and urban impact regarding sectors such as mobility and accommodation. Results express that the sharing economy helps to achieve all SDGs. However, further research is needed because of the novelty of the topic and the existence of many gaps. The sharing economy has a positive effect on the dimensions of sustainability from the economic, social and environmental points of view.

To meet the sustainable development goals in rocky desertified regions like Guizhou Province in China, we should maximize the crop yield with minimal environmental costs. In this study, we first calculated the yield gap for 6 main crop species in Guizhou Province and evaluated the quantitative relationships between crop yield and influencing variables utilizing ensembled artificial neural networks. We also tested the influence of adjusting the quantity of local fertilization and irrigation on crop production in Guizhou Province. Results showed that the total yield of the selected crops had, on average, reached over 72.5% of the theoretical maximum yield. Increasing irrigation tended to be more consistently effective at increasing crop yield than additional fertilization. Conversely, appropriate reduction of fertilization may even benefit crop yield in some regions, simultaneously resulting in significantly higher fertilization efficiency with lower residuals in the environment. The total positive impact of continuous intensification of irrigation and fertilization on most crop species was limited. Therefore, local stakeholders are advised to consider other agricultural management measures to improve crop yield in this region.

The articles aims to substantiate the socio-economic, environmental, historical and cultural role played by green tourism and its contribution to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals based on current innovative trends and capabilities of tourism in the face of challenges posed by the ongoing crisis in global economy caused by the latest pandemic. The objectives of the research were to detail the theoretical, methodological and applied approaches to the development of green tourism, which is a market sector providing travel services. The definition of green tourism has been made more profound through connecting it with the Sustainable Development Goals, which is rather logical. The motivating factors for the development of green tourism have been analyzed taking into account the model of multifunctionality in agriculture and its importance in rural development policy. The nature of changes in the green tourism sector has been identified with respect to the peculiarities of the current global situation, when a pandemic is restraining the world tourism intensity, on the one hand, and is stimulating local tourism, on the other. It is worth adding that local tourism is mostly green and focused on the conservation of the environmental and natural resources, as well as sustainment of mostly rural areas. The research carried out shows that green tourism can become a driving force for economic growth in rural areas, a motivator for employment, a factor in preserving rural culture and traditions in a particular area. At the same time, the results of the research prove the existence of a link between green tourism and national economic, environmental, socio-cultural, intellectual, energy security due to the most typical development priorities of such tourism. On analyzing the experience of the countries that suffered the pandemic most, we have found some prospects for green tourism development. It is a new system of partnership between the state, business and civil society which can become an additional incentive to preserve the potential of green tourism. Thus, strategic guidelines for green tourism development based on institutional priorities, with the current economic crisis challenges in mind, have been designed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the progress in 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and policymakers have been challenged with the implications of conventional economic system in the market. At this point, it can be said that the adoption of the best alternative economic and business model for the marketplace is the new phenomenon during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, alternative economic and business models can reduce the carbon emission, environmental pollution, and global warming, but there is a still dark point in solving social issues globally. This study aims to give a brief framework for alternative economic and business models in the context of sustainability. This study presents the links between 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, digital economy, and de-growth. In other words, this chapter focuses on digital economy (digitalization) and degrowth model (degrowing). Accordingly, it is thought to give an up-to-date work for achieving sustainable development after the COVID-19 pandemic in the long term.

In 2015, the United Nations set up 17 sustainable development goals to transform the world. Sustainable supply chains play a key role in achieving these goals. In this article, the authors propose an interactive platform with communication systems and technologies to empower sustainable development participants actively engaging in managing sustainable supply chains and international soft landings. Specifically, this article illustrates how to develop an interactive “Flying High, Landing Soft” platform of wetland entrepreneurship to address the growing global problem of wetland losses. The interactive platform, grounded in the theory of digital nervous systems and equipped with social interaction technologies, and allows student entrepreneurs to participate in exploring and developing business solutions to maintain a healthy wetland and have positive impact on global sustainability development.

In a 2014 issue of Nature, members of our research group called for abandoning the gross domestic product as the key indicator in economic policymaking. In this new article, we argue that a new post–gross domestic product economy focusing on wellbeing rather than material output is already emerging in the Anthropocene, thanks to the convergence of policy reforms and economic shifts. At the policy level, the Sustainable Development Goals require policymakers to protect ecosystems, promote greater equality, and focus on long-term equitable development. At the economy level, the provision of services has outpaced industrial production as the key driver of prosperity, with innovative business models optimizing the match between supply and demand and giving rise to a burgeoning “sharing economy”, which produces value to people while reducing output and costs. The economic transformation already underway is, however, delayed by an obsolete system of measurement of economic performance still dominated by the gross domestic product–based national accounts, which rewards the incumbent and disincentives the new. We show that a different approach to measuring wellbeing and prosperity is the “missing link” we need to connect recent evolutions in policy and the economy with a view to activating a sustainable development paradigm for a good Anthropocene.

The United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to deliver an improved future for people, planet and profit. However, they have not gained the required traction at the business and project levels. This article explores how engineers rate and use the SDGs at the organisational and project levels. It adopts the Realist Evaluation’s Context–Mechanism–Outcomes model to critically evaluate practitioners’ views on using SDGs to measure business and project success. The study addresses the thematic areas of sustainability and business models through the theoretical lens of Creating Shared Value and the Triple Bottom Line. A survey of 325 engineers indicated four primary shortfalls for measuring SDGs on infrastructure projects, namely (1) leadership, (2) tools and methods, (3) engineers’ business skills in measuring SDG impact and (4) how project success is too narrowly defined as outputs (such as time, cost and scope) and not outcomes (longer-term local impacts and stakeholder value). The research study is of value to researchers developing business models that address the SDGs and also practitioners in the construction industry who seek to link their investment decisions to the broader outcomes of people, planet and profit through the UN SDGs.

This review examines the key 2019 expert reports on the digitalization of the global economy in the context of the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Noting the beneficial overall impact of digitalization on the implementation of the key SDGs in relation to reduced poverty and misery, and increased social equality and ecological balance, the authors of the reports focus on the challenges that digitalization poses. Among the most important are: the threat of increasing social inequality as a result of the new international division of labour, the hyper-concentration of the digital market, the growing digital inequality, the threat to information security, and the weakening of the regulatory capacity of the state. The authors of the reports note that digitalization is a controversial process that can both help to achieve the SDGs and unwittingly hinder their implementation. In order for digitalization to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, targeted and coordinated intergovernmental policy involving national and business stakeholders is important.

The paper aims at showing how innovations in agri-food business models influence the corporate sustainability of rural ecosystems, assuring the attainment of specific sustainable development goals. The purpose is achieved through a case study method, using a relevant farmhouse and agritourism “Anna dei Sapori” located in the Cilento Bio-District – rich of bio-cultural diversity and homeland of the Mediterranean Diet, Intangible Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO – in Italy. Results show as all corporate processes are managed according to agroecological principles, introducing useful innovations. The goal demonstrates the impact of this thrilling “philosophy”, based on a circular and holistic approach, on environmental, sociocultural, and economic dimensions of sustainability, and the achievement of specific Sustainable Development Goals and targets.