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This study aims to explore how the top 50 Australian companies are disclosing their commitment to addressing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) formulated by the United Nations (UN) in 2015. By investigating the nature and substantiveness of SDG reporting, this study provides exploratory evidence on how companies are taking the initial steps to addressing the SDGs.

A content analysis of SDG disclosures by the top 50 Australian companies was undertaken. This content analysis was guided by the KPMG (2018) SDG disclosure framework. Legitimacy theory was used to interpret the findings, establishing whether such disclosure was substantive or symbolic.

This study reports a moderate level of SDG disclosure among Australian companies. The top five most critical SDGs in Australian context are climate action, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, responsible consumption and production and industry, innovation and infrastructure. The findings also highlight that while the focus of Australian companies is on understanding and prioritizing SDGs, the measurement of SDGs performance needs to increase.

This study adds to limited literature on the corporate responses to SDGs by establishing how companies, especially in Australia, are addressing these goals through changes to their reporting systems, thereby communicating their strategic intent in relation to addressing these goals. A focus on symbolic legitimation through SDG disclosure by the Australian companies in this study reaffirms the findings of similar studies and suggests a need for more substantive SDG management and disclosure if these goals are to be adequately addressed by the corporate sector.

The findings of this study provide insights into the current practices and future prospects of corporate responses to SDGs. Policy implications could arise in relation to possible approaches for disclosing social and environmental information and the paper argues for a potential need for regulation of non-financial reporting.

This study contributes to the limited understanding of the corporate response to an urgent sustainability call made by the UN by providing evidence on how Australian companies are embedding, measuring and reporting the SDGs. The research goes beyond a descriptive analysis of SDG disclosure and assesses whether such disclosure is substantive or symbolic.

The increasing African population and economic growth leading to urbanisation continues to increase the need to redevelop brownfields as a strategy of encouraging sustainable development of cities, in particular in Ethiopia. However, the adoption of brownfield redevelopment in Ethiopia is at initial stage. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the framework based on grey-incidence decision-making approach to manage brownfields in African countries by taking Ethiopia as case example. The grey-incidence decision-making model integrates multiple factors such as economic, social, environmental, technical and associated risks and provides an effective decision-making and management tool for environmental practitioners and government agencies.

Questionnaires were used to collect data on terms and definitions of brownfield. The questions were prepared on the basis of currently used definitions developed by a number of developed countries. Moreover, this study utilises a grey-incidence decision-making approach to help in management and decision-making for the implementation of brownfield redevelopment projects (BRPs) in the remediated sites.

Standard definition of brownfield and essential guidelines for brownfield redevelopment is proposed for Ethiopian context. The research findings were tested and verified using literature data and survey from major stakeholders. In addition, the grey-incidence decision-making approach is applied for the evaluation of BRPs in the remediated sites. A framework is proposed to control future brownfields for African countries by taking Ethiopia as a case example.

This research stresses the significance of an urban structure to address sustainable development, and the need to consider redevelopment of brownfields and identify the potential for a specific government policy framework. This research provides the best opportunity for Ethiopia by devising an urban land policy and create a strategy to contribute social, economic, financial and environmental benefits. It also provides a foundation to solve environmental issues by involving all major stakeholders, including community citizens, environmentalists and government agencies, and it also serves as guidelines to transform brownfields into Greenfields; and finally, it contributes to achieve the 2030 UN global goals.

This article aimed to propose and validate a roadmap to enhance the insertion of social sustainability practices in logistics activities considering the scenario of companies operating in Brazil.

The initial construction of the aforementioned roadmap was based on a detailed literature review and the fine-tuning as well as validation of it was carried out through a Delphi process developed with professionals specialized in the area of logistics and sustainability.

As main results, it is highlighted that the validated roadmap includes actions ranging from meeting and adapting legal issues related to sustainability, through the initial diagnosis of the company, motivation and awareness of the importance of social sustainability, followed by encouraging the inclusion of social sustainability practices in logistic activities, and finally, the identification of opportunities for improvement and establishment of execution plans within the organization. The phases and actions of the validated roadmap converge towards restructuring and redefinition of the organizational culture oriented towards meeting sustainable guidelines, and also contemplate the dynamics of seeking continuous improvement throughout all levels and sectors belonging to a given organization.

The originality of this study lies in the fact that the roadmap focuses on the inclusion of social sustainability practices in logistic activities, since, according to the literature, social aspects are still relegated to the background when compared to environmental and economic aspects.

This study aims to present theory, practice and original research findings to support the proposition that broad enquiry and problem-based learning (EPBL) approaches provide an appropriate pedagogical lens for sustainability educators to develop the knowledge and skills needed to work effectively within mission-oriented innovation policy (MIP) environments.

The research study comprised four elements, each of which used different research methods. The first element involved a literature review mapping the synergies between MIP and EPBL; the second element piloted the use of EPBL for undergraduate modules related to sustainability challenges; the third element involved external stakeholders in the co-creation of a postgraduate programme that brought together innovation and sustainability, with EPBL fundamental to the design and development; the fourth element curated and comparatively analysed international cases of EPBL in the context of MIP, and sustainability challenges in particular, highlighting the versatility of EPBL and the importance of creativity in EPBL design and implementation.

The systematic literature review reveals synergies between the key features of EPBL and defining characteristics of MIP, indicating the relevance of applying EPBL to support MIP. Two in situ pilots generated 13 recommendations on the benefits and operational challenges of applying EPBL. These recommendations informed the design and development of a postgraduate programme, involving a transdisciplinary consultation process with key industrial and societal stakeholders. Comparative analysis of four international case studies describing EPBL applied in practice in different international settings show there is no “one size fits all”. Instead, the application of EPBL to different sustainability challenges and for different learner groups demonstrates the versatility of the pedagogical approach and the creativity of the sustainability educators.

A discourse around the appropriate pedagogical methods and teaching/learning practice to equip the current and future workforce with the knowledge and skills to respond to MIP and global sustainability challenges is nascent but emerging. This paper makes a scientific and practical contribution to the discourse. The authors show how EPBL can underpin the design of programmes to provide learners with the knowledge and skills to support organisations working effectively within an MIP context, especially addressing sustainability challenges. The authors provide recommendations for educators seeking to embed EPBL within their curriculum and call for external stakeholders to proactively engage with educators to co-create programmes with context-specific outcomes.

Climate and environment-related financial risks could significantly and negatively impact the financial sector in future, particularly its financing to those sectors adversely impacted by the climate-related risks, low-carbon policies and the transition from traditional energy sources-based economy to a more sustainable system with alternative energy sources. The participatory countries of the Paris Agreement agreed to align finance flows with a low-emission, low-carbon and climate-resilient growth, in order to facilitate achieving the long-term climate goals. The financial sector, therefore, needs to play a proactive role in aligning financial flows. It is, therefore, of utmost importance to study low-carbon finance and climate-related financial risks. This chapter examine how climate change can affect the financial sector. It discusses the concept, nature, measurement of climate risks and climate-related financial risks and associated prospects and challenges in the assessment and the measurement of these risks. It also presents the green financing initiatives and role of central banks and supervisory authorities and their monetary and financial policies in enhancing green financing and redirecting finance to low-carbon activities. In the financial sector, the insurance industry is highly vulnerable to such risks. The banking sector is yet to witness the serious impact of these risks. With the slowing of global economic growth, appropriate policies are needed to encourage banks to provide increased green finance with an adequate profitability. Studies recommend that climate-related risk has a strong potential impact on banks’ loan default rate as well as on the financial stability, there is hence a need to incorporate climate-related criteria and the systemic risk arising out of climate change into banks’ decision-making process and risk modelling and management. There is a need for developing an appropriate methodology for assessing and reducing these risks. Moreover, observers also anticipate a need for cooperation between banking regulators and banks to develop and adopt best practices in the management of environmental risks. The environment-related risks will call forth a multi-country, or regional, research office to collect and compile the required data and undertake analysis to enhance the banking sectors’ understanding of, and capacity to address, potential systemic environmental risks. What is needed is to test the feasibility of incorporating forward-looking scenarios for assessing potential impacts of providing credit to environmentally unsustainable or sustainable activities on financial stability.

The present study aimed to develop the competencies of 21st-century learners by considering the characteristics of the education element in the curricula.

The study employed a qualitative research design and a content analysis technique. The research population consisted of 20 curriculum design professors selected via a snowball sampling method until data saturation was reached. The research instrument was semistructured interviewing. The content validity of the interview questions was determined according to 5 curriculum design experts' opinions. Four credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability criteria were used to increase the accuracy of qualitative data. The findings were analyzed using thematic analysis (structural-interpretive) through open, axial and selective coding.

Education characteristics in competency-based curricula were categorized into knowledge, skills, attitude and educational values. Knowledge includes pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and pedagogical technological knowledge; teaching skills include organization, facilitation, care and flexibility; educational attitudes consist of educational and pedagogical attitudes; and educational values include individual and group-social values.

The present research put three critical dimensions together: the competencies of the new-age learners from the perspective of the curriculum, which is the heart of the education process and is aimed at sustainable development, which is the priority of the countries today.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the discipline facilities management (FM) can be developed in a smart city perspective through considering the current and new FM services under the role of Urban FM, as well as governance structures that limit and enable it.

The approach is primarily theoretical by examining current literature around the ideas of Urban FM and Smart Cities linking them to observations in one city aiming to be a Smart City. This specific paper focusses on maintenance management, workspace management and energy management services in a Smart City perspective.

The results outline how Urban FM can fill the gaps that are apparent in city planning through connectivity to communities and neighbourhoods using the Smart City not only approaches of optimising data but also considers prominent governance structures of FM, Urban FM, City Planning and Smart Cities. The study addresses the limitations of what can be done when cities are not organisations, which make identifying the “core business” obscure and intangible but attempts to overcome this limitation by considering social value in communities and wider linkages to the city environment.

The paper sets out the potential of Urban FM in Smart Cities, but the findings are limited to primarily theoretical research and need further empirical examination.

The results indicate how facilities management can improve services in cities through the digitalisation of cities and the role of Urban FM. The study will be useful for municipalities in examining how to improve facilities, particularly in cities that aspire to be a Smart City and it is also important for policymakers in considering governance structures to meet sustainable development goals.

The study positions the discipline of facilities management in Smart Cities which has the potential to improve facilities in cities and the development of Urban FM.

Events are a significant component of Ireland’s tourism offering. They are an important source of economic activity and an incremental driver of social change and development throughout the country. However, the visual and physical impacts often created by event activities to the environmental and social resource base upon which, events depend, have begun to draw attention to the way events are planned and managed. Although the concept of sustainability has become the topic of much discussion and debate in event management literature, there exist many gaps in relation to its practical application in event management planning in Ireland. This is despite the statutory obligation of local authorities in Ireland to license events and to facilitate the process of planning for large-scale outdoor public events in Ireland. Yet, with the continued expansion of Ireland’s event industry, there is a fundamental need for an evidence-informed approach to planning for event management. Through the application of the European tourism indicator system (ETIS), the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of the national event industry in Ireland could be secured. This paper aims to examine and discuss the application of the ETIS as a possible tool to facilitate greater levels of sustainability and accountability within the events industry in Ireland.

This study used a quantitative content analysis approach involving a complete population sample of local authorities in the Republic of Ireland to determine the application of the ETIS within the legal process of planning for event management in Ireland.

While the findings have identified a basic provision for event management within a number of local authority legally required County Development Plans, none, however, were using the ETIS to monitor the impacts of events at the local level. This lack of data collection and benchmarking highlights the need for greater levels of sustainability and accountability within the legal process of planning for event management in Ireland.

This study suggests the ETIS as an easy, cost effective and viable solution to facilitate an evidence-informed approach to planning for event management at the local level. However, the lessons learned from this study may also have implications for destination planners and event managers outside of Ireland.

It is 10 years since the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) was founded and the development of the IIRC Framework has been adopted by thousands of organisations. This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the motivation for the preparation of integrated reports from a diffusion of innovation (DOI) perspective.

Three case study organisations operating in distinct industry sectors are investigated to ascertain the motivation for the adoption of integrated reporting. DOI theory was adopted as the theoretical lens to guide the research design. An interpretative approach is used to ascertain common themes from an analysis of semi-structured interview transcripts of senior managers and directors.

The findings from these case studies support the main tenets of DOIs theory. The evidence suggests that senior executive leadership plays a significant role in commencing the integrated reporting “journey”. This study finds evidence of DOI characteristics, such as relative advantage, compatibility and observability with respect to the objectives of senior managers. The main motivations for the production of the integrated report were to demonstrate leadership and innovation to stakeholders, overcome the perceived inadequacies of the disclosures required for traditional annual reports, to enhance transparency and to satisfy the changing demands of investors and other stakeholders.

This project captures the perceptions and views of preparers of the integrated report rather than its users. In addition, only three case study sites were investigated, therefore, generalisations would be spurious.

Other organisations yet to consider the production of integrated reports or to re-assess their stakeholder relationships, could use these findings to plan for their own future reporting obligations.

The organisations investigated were a superannuation fund, a multinational company and a charity. All are recognised leaders in their respective industries.