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In this final chapter, we explore the ever-evolving 21st century landscape where ethics drive community development toward resilience and progress. Drawing inspiration from the subheadings mapping our journey, we traverse international case studies spanning Canada, Brazil, Sweden, Kenya, China, Australia, Antarctica, and India. Through these global insights, we uncover the impacts of dynamic forces on communities worldwide, navigating ethical dilemmas and opportunities. We present strategies tailored to diverse continent-specific needs, explore inclusive governance models, and highlight the transformative power of ethical engagement. This journey underscores the vital role of resilience and concludes with a global call to embrace ethical approaches for inclusive community development and a sustainable future.

At the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit, the Club of Rome in collaboration with a network of global contributors issued a statement calling for nations to declare a planetary emergency. The statement calls for urgent action to prevent a global crisis due to the impact of human activity on the stability of the Earth’s life-support systems. Implications of the planetary emergency pose intriguing challenges for how managers address paradoxical sustainability challenges across spatial and temporal scales. In this chapter, the authors have two aims. First, the authors show that the planetary emergency is inherently paradoxical. To do this, the authors build an embedded view of the planetary emergency and argue that it is paradoxical due to key dynamics that emerge across organizational, economic, social, and environmental systems over time. Second, the authors advance paradox theory by exploring the paradoxical nature of the planetary emergency and propose a three-sequence framework for collective action including: (1) building a view of the planetary emergency across spatial and temporal scales, (2) collectively making sense of the planetary emergency, and (3) levering a paradoxical view of the planetary emergency to ensure effective action.

This chapter examines SDG 13 which deals with efforts to combat climate change. The chapter begins by outlining the targets related to this goal, the trend towards increased heating of the planet and failures to curtail carbon emissions. This is framed using criminological concepts such as state-corporate crime and carbon criminality. The major concern of the rest of the chapter is to outline a climate action plan. As part of this, it discusses a range of initiatives currently underway intended to pressure governments to take more concerted action around climate change. These include activist interventions and climate litigation. The chapter concludes by exploring the possibilities and obligations of global community action to address the most important issue of our era.

The purpose of this book chapter is to examine how sustainable developmental goal (SDG) implementation for sustainability transformation can be driven by the business practice of a multinational enterprise (MNE). It concerns sustainability transformation that takes place in complex environments with the engagement of different types of stakeholders from various organizations and domains. The chapter focuses on inclusive stakeholder orientation to move from a firm-centric to a societal perspective grounded in an ethical, macro-oriented, and network philosophy. The transformation is embedded in the global transformation agenda, the UN 2030 agenda, with its 17 SDGs. In this chapter, the authors assess MNEs’ role in implementing the SDGs by conceptualizing sustainability transformation practice in a business context of IKEA grounded in circular economy and circular society thinking. Implementing the SDGs strengthens the “challenge-driven transformative change.” Based on the theoretical and conceptual framework, the authors have constructed a matrix and contextualized the case of IKEA. It results in a descriptive analysis of MNE SDG implementation for sustainability transformation. The chapter has contributed a general model for a sustainability transformation practice in a business context embedded in circular economy and circular society thinking, which can utilize for challenge-driven transformative change. The new model has been redesigned for its new purpose. The model is constructed based on a new theoretical and conceptual framework and from the context of IKEA as a MNE acting as a globally integrated enterprise with a circular and societal transformation focus.

The purpose of this paper is to take up and contribute to understanding an important emerging theme in recent literature on global environmental change and socio‐ecological issues (including Slaughter's The Biggest Wake‐up Call in History): “positive reframing”. The paper also aims to deepen consideration of the potential for “overshoot and collapse” futures and related concerns by foresight practitioners.

The paper is based on, and presents, a thematic analytical literature review.

In total, four underlying drivers of increased reframing and four central themes in positive reframes are identified; mental “frames” informing and limiting foresight work need to be openly communicated and reflected on – such practitioner reflexivity is often missing in foresight work, such as in The Biggest Wake‐up Call in History by Richard Slaughter.

The paper includes discussion of the implications for futures practice, including the role of mental frames and reframing. The author suggests futures practitioners can play important new roles in challenging the recent re‐emergence of influential forms of environmental determinism and foresight practitioners need to be more wary of the potential for “narrative bias”.

Futures assessment is increasingly needed to guide policy and action in improving human‐environment relations. Barriers and opportunities to fulfilling this societal need must be understood.

The paper helps to deepen the consideration of “re‐framing” and environmental limits by foresight practitioners and theorists. In doing so, the paper also brings in new concepts from other fields (such as cognitive psychology and Science and Technology Studies) into the foresight/futures field.

The world is increasingly complex and the most serious challenges are global in nature. Questions to do with sustainable and equitable development, democratic change, terrorism and transnational crime, for instance, require collaborative action among governments, international organizations, corporations, universities, and nongovernmental organizations. This article, which describes 15 global challenges compiled as part of the Millennium Project’s 2002 State of the Future report, assesses the global and local prospects for humanity.

This chapter explores the gap between social expectations and actual sustainability performance in the business world and identifies the root causes of this discrepancy. The author reviews corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability, and their relationship with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This chapter also compares the connections and differences between the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the SDGs. The author analyzes possible solutions to bridge the gap, including renewing the social contract between businesses, society and institutions. This involves rethinking the role of businesses and institutions in promoting sustainability and creating new systems and structures that incentivize sustainable practices. This chapter concludes by discussing the pathway to a sustainable and inclusive world through systems innovation and change. When embracing a systems thinking approach, individuals and organizations can identify and address the root causes of unsustainability, and create more resilient and sustainable systems that benefit both people and the planet.