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This chapter explores a pathway towards achieving a sustainable and inclusive future through the implementation of systems innovation, systems leadership and systems change. The author highlights the importance of understanding complex systems and identifies several models that can be employed to drive systems change, including the iceberg model and multi-level perspective. The author stresses the significance of systems leadership and innovation in creating a sustainable and inclusive future. This means that leaders and managers need to shift their mindset from reductionism to systems thinking. Reductionism views complex systems as a collection of separate parts that can be studied independently. In contrast, systems thinking acknowledges the interconnectedness of all parts and how they influence each other. When they embrace systems thinking, leaders and managers can make systems innovation and drive systems change to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth. Achieving a sustainable and inclusive future requires a collective effort from individuals, organizations and governments. It demands a comprehensive understanding of the interdependencies and interactions within complex systems, as well as a willingness to adopt new ways of thinking and leading. This chapter presents a compelling case for adopting systems innovation, systems leadership and systems change as critical components in building a sustainable and inclusive future.

The technological revolution is fundamentally changing our lifestyle, work, and communication. There is still no accurate information about the future of this great transformation, but one thing is quite clear: the speed of the transformations in terms of scale and complexity, like a storm, will go through all aspects of a society's life and change all the current paradigms. One of the expectations from the fourth industrial revolution will be the expansion of smart cities in accordance with sustainable development criteria. In order for a city to be truly smart and innovative, city officials must pay attention to elements such as renewable and clean energy such as the internet of things, smart networks, smart parking, and smart transportation. In another sense, there must be a balance between economy, environment, and society in order to build a strong, sustainable, and flexible smart city that will survive the test of time. Of course, based on the 7PS model, the dimensions of culture and education are very important and fundamental for high sustainability. Researchers and those involved in the implementation of smart cities have explained the main indicators to identify these cities, which include some of the following items: For example, smart building, environmental protection, smart garbage collection, digitization of all government affairs and administrative work, widespread use of smartphones and electronic devices, complete, convenient, and universal access to the internet, car sharing service and online taxi. Other important indicators include the intelligentization of the traffic system and urban planning, citizen participation, economic ecosystem, optimization in electricity, water and energy consumption, development of electric and electric public transportation fleet, quality control and management, and reduction of air pollution. In this chapter, the theory of i-Sustainability Plus and i-Comprehensive Strategic Urban Plan is introduced as the beating heart of the ubiquitous blue-green smart city design. In such urban areas, it is all about the combination of real life, virtual reality, and in addition the future of clean technologies. In general, it can be said that sustainable smart cities are a solution to combat the challenges of urbanization.

Early studies projected potential societal, economic and environmental benefits by the widespread deployment of Autonomous and Connected Transport (ACT) promising a significant reduction of transport costs and improvement in road safety. An effective way of assessing ACT impact is via simulations, where results are largely affected by the scenarios defining the ACT development. However, modelled scenarios are very diverse due to the huge uncertainty in ACT development and deployment. This chapter aims to shed light on the different ACT simulation scenarios and sustainability aspects that should be considered while developing or reporting the simulation results. To this end, this chapter discusses the various simulation approaches, what the required (or the typically utilised) pipelines are, and how some components are more important or less important than in ‘classic’ modelling and simulation approaches. Special focus is dedicated to the uncertainty related to ACT operational parameters and how these will impact transport modelling. To address said uncertainty, an analysis of current approaches to scenario building is provided, as the chapter guides the reader through different methodologies and clusters them in relation to the desired indicators. Finally, the chapter identifies and proposes Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are useful when applying simulation tools to assess ACT scenarios. These KPIs can be used for simulation scenario development to test particular sustainability aspects of ACT deployment and relevant policies.

The global economy is facing a steep challenge from volatility, risk and uncertainty associated with climate change, pandemics, regional conflicts and trade wars which are unprecedented and overlapping. These crises are leading to macro- and microeconomic imbalances. The immediate effects like rising inflation, shortage of energy and fertiliser, food insecurity, loss of jobs and poverty are looming large, leading to existential threat. It is evident that decades of progress are at risk and pursuing sustainable development goals (SDGs) requires dedicated and customised efforts by the governments and other relevant actors, especially in the low- and middle-income countries (LMICS). The concept of circular economy is considered to bring a paradigm shift by reducing the dependence on natural resource extraction and decoupling economic growth from use of natural resources. Bioeconomy is another emerging field which deals with the use of renewable biological resources such as biomass to produce renewable biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower for economic, environmental and social benefits. Circular bioeconomy (CBE) lies at the intersection and is defined as the production of recoverable biological (waste) resources and the conversion of these resources into high-value-added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products and bioenergy. It has been estimated that the economic opportunity for the sector to complement or even substitute conventional ones is estimated to be USD 7.7 trillion by 2030 for food and feed waste products, and energy. CBE is perceived as a pathway for development and has the potential to target different SDGs directly like 6, 7 and 12 and SDGs 2, 3, 11, 12, 13 and 15 indirectly. This study explores the linkages of CBE with the SDG goals and provides recommendations to stimulate the sector.

Climate change places significant pressure on the tourism sector by altering environmental and socio-economic conditions that influence tourist behaviour and the attractiveness of destinations. Rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events affect tourism supply and demand. On the supply side, climate change threatens tourism infrastructure, natural attractions, recreational opportunities and accessibility of destinations. Coastal destinations are particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise and coastal flooding, which can damage tourism assets. On the demand side, changing climatic conditions alter visitor comfort levels, health risks and the seasonality of destinations, influencing tourists' choice of destinations. In addition, small island destinations face unnecessary risks due to their economic dependence on climate-sensitive activities such as beach and nature tourism. Adapting the tourism sector to climate change requires reducing vulnerability through diversification, green infrastructure, ecosystem conservation, community-based adaptation and policy support. Mitigating tourism's contribution to climate change requires minimising energy use, switching to renewable energy, improving efficiency, reducing long-haul flights and promoting sustainable consumption and production. Collective and concerted efforts by all stakeholders are needed to transition to a climate-resilient and low-carbon tourism sector that continues to provide socio-economic benefits while minimising its environmental footprint.

This chapter compares the current biodiversity practices of higher education institutions (HEIs) and their learning effects of the Global North and South. It particularly explores the HEIs’ strategies targeting biodiversity and ecosystem services preservation. In order to answer the research question, a qualitative content analysis of published sustainability reports of the systematically selected HEIs was performed. The Times Higher Education (THE) was used to select HEIs. The results show that biodiversity reporting and management is still in its early stages in HEIs from both the Global North and South and could benefit from further research and suggestions for improvement. One implication for the HEIs is that they could increase public awareness and knowledge of biodiversity through the integration of this topic into their curricula, more research projects on biodiversity, and operations on and off campus.