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Drawing on managerial innovation model proposed by Abrahamson (1991), this chapter tries to gain a better understanding of how the UN SDGs have impacted the practice of sustainability reporting of Spanish public universities. Data were collected from a variety of sources, such as: several email structured interviews with university managers, an examination of the Chancellor letters of sustainability reports of Spanish public universities, a detailed reading of some sustainability reports and a consultation of the website of each Spanish public university. The findings reveal that there has been an increasing number of Spanish public universities that have started to publish stand-alone sustainability reporting since the appearance of the UN SDGs. According to Abrahamson's framework, our findings reveal that governmental-policy forces have shaped the sustainability reporting landscape in the Spanish public university setting, and their behaviour is mostly explained by the forced-selection and fad/fashion perspectives.

Environmental degradation, economic and political threats along with ideological extremism necessitate a global redirection toward sustainability and well-being. Since the survival of all species (humans, animals, and plants) is wholly dependent on a healthy planet, urgent action at the highest levels to address large-scale interconnected problems is needed to counter the thinking that perpetuates the “folly of a limitless world.” Paralleling critical societal roles played by universities – ancient, medieval, and modern – throughout the millennia, this chapter calls for all universities and higher education institutions (HEIs) generally – estimated at over 28,000 – to take a lead together in tackling the pressing complex and intractable challenges that face us. There are about 250 million students in tertiary education worldwide rising to about 600 million by 2040. Time is not on our side. While much of the groundwork has been done by the United Nations (UN) and civil society, concerns remain over the variable support given to the UN-2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially in light of the negative impact of global biodiversity loss on achieving the UN-2030 SDGs. Ten propositions for global sustainability, ranging from adopting the SDGs at national and local levels to ensuring peaceful uses of technology and UN reforms in line with global socioeconomic shifts, are provided for consideration by decisionmakers. Proposition #7 calls for the unifying One Health & Well-Being (OHWB) concept to become the cornerstone of our educational systems as well as societal institutions and to underpin the UN-2030 SDGs. Recognizing the need to change our worldview (belief systems) from human-centrism to eco-centrism, and re-building of trust in our institutions, the chapter argues for the re-conceptualization of the university/higher education purpose and scope focusing on the development of an interconnected ecological knowledge system with a concern for the whole Earth – and beyond. The 2019 novel coronavirus has made clear that the challenges facing our world cannot be solved by individual nations alone and that there is an urgency to committing to shared global values that reflect the OHWB concept and approach. By drawing on our collective experience and expertise informed by the UN-2030 SDGs, we will be in a much stronger position to shape and strengthen multilateral strategies to achieve the UN-2030 Transformative Vision – “ending poverty, hunger, inequality and protecting the Earth’s natural resources,” and thereby helping “to save the world from itself.”

Humanity experiences challenges caused by gender inequality which further obstructs achievement of global sustainable development. Considering gender equality as human equality, this chapter emphasizes women empowerment's role in supporting global sustainable development. Based on literature review, this chapter aims to examine women empowerment's role in and contribution to UN SDGs (sustainable development goals). This chapter underlines that the gender inequality hinders and obstructs global sustainable development and achievement of SDGs. Furthermore, this chapter examines causes of gender inequality as they need to be identified and eliminated to achieve global sustainable development. Women empowerment plays a significant role in solving gender inequality related problems (e.g., health problems, education inequality, discrimination, crime, violence). Women empowerment achieved through supported gender equality can act as a multiplier factor in achieving synergy creation and influencing a sustainable future. This chapter highlights the influence of women empowerment and gender equality on all three pillars of sustainability. Furthermore, this chapter underlines the importance of women empowerment in all industries and politics for addressing the gender inequality problems. This chapter provides recommendations on how to enhance women empowerment to support achievement of all SDGs. Women empowerment based sustainable development policies can influence achievement of the SDGs. This chapter is expected to be useful to the academics and policymakers focusing on achievement of SDGs, sustainability, and sustainable development.

New mindsets and innovative thinking (ABIS, 2017; Moon, 2013, 2014, 2015; Moon, Walmsley, & Apostolopoulos, 2018) are needed to deliver on everything from good health and well-being to affordable and clean energy. This chapter reviews the latest trends globally to tackling pressing social and environmental problems (2016–2018), focuses on a sample of 100 projects, mapped against the UN SDGs and evaluated on their ‘innovation’ and scalability and selects 25 projects related to ‘circular economy’ solutions for a more in-depth consideration. The projects cover a range of applications including Buildings, Food, Energy, Transportation, Resources and Education. The key research question is: what strategic policy support is needed for enterprise & entrepreneurship education to develop the necessary multi collaborative and cross disciplinary mindsets and skills that such projects require? Reference is made to global risks and sustainability solutions, skills needed for the green economy and implications for enterprise development and entrepreneurship education. Findings reveal the need for new measures of eco and social mindset that will support the development of the creative and innovative solutions necessary for tackling the UN SDGs.

In this chapter, we analyze the contribution of two Iberian Foundations to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; Global Goals). In particular, we studied the case of Eugénio de Almeida Foundation, from Portugal, and Yuste Foundation, from Spain, between 2016 and 2018. To achieve the main objective, three specific objectives were defined: the first one is to understand if sustainability is present in the Foundations Mission, Vision and Values; the second one is to analyze how the activities developed by each Foundations contribute to the SDGs and relate these activities to the SDGs targets and finally to do a comparative analysis of the results of the two foundations. To reach these objectives, we use the case study method based on the analysis of annual reports and websites of the two Foundations and cross-referenced information about the mission, objectives, values and activities developed since 2016 with the specific targets of Global Goals.

This chapter shows that Iberian Foundations contribute to the SDGs, since its mission fits the SDGs as its activities have a strong social nature and aim at sustainable development in the regions where they operate and beyond. However, we do not find the reporting evidence because the Foundations do not provide sustainability reports, nor do they provide sustainability information in their annual reports and accounts, or on their websites.

The study will present contributions at several levels: literature and practice. It makes contributions to the literature on relationships between sustainability practices and sustainability report and the regulation and institutionalization of sustainability practices and reporting for SDGs. Also, our study contributes to a better understanding of the role of Iberian Foundations as partners in achieving the Global Goals and their contribution to the effective, responsible and transparent development of institutions for United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This chapter looks at the crucial role that local action plays in achieving the SDGs. It begins by revisiting the transition from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals and ponders the reasons why we should have faith in the prospect for successful goal attainment. Next, it demonstrates the importance of local responses to global problems and challenges targeted by the SDGs and discusses the motivation of local actors to contribute to the changes that need to be made in order to generate inclusive prosperity while protecting the planet. Finally, the chapter identifies some of the key barriers to local action and reflects on how we broaden the scope and improve the conditions for local people and organizations to initiate and drive change.

Sustainable development requires businesses to improve their positive and reduce their negative impacts. This chapter discusses how the impact of business on sustainable development can be measured and managed using the sustainable development goals (SDGs). First, it introduces two complementary approaches for measuring impact: a top-down approach that departs from the economic activities that companies undertake; and a bottom-up approach that defines the impacts of individual companies. Second, it argues that companies can manage their impacts on the SDGs through a nexus approach. Instead of treating SDGs as isolated silos, a nexus approach aims to advance multiple SDGs simultaneously (creating co-benefits) while reducing the risk that contributions to one SDG undermine progress on another (avoiding trade-offs).

Innovation ecosystems consist of independent and yet interdependent enterprises and actors. This constitutes a challenge for innovation leadership to set the direction to pursue UN SDGs. Enhanced insights and understandings of how collaborative innovation leadership can be conducted in practice are revealed in two cases conducted using a participatory action research approach. Hereby theory and practice are linked by the ecosystem participant actions to reach competitiveness of the offshore wind energy ecosystem compared to traditional/other renewable energy sources pursuing UN SDG number 7 of ‘affordable and clean energy’. The two cases are situated in ports in offshore wind energy innovation ecosystems, respectively in the Baltic Sea and in the North Sea. The first case contains complementary ecosystem participants with both leadership and expert positions. The second case contains both complementary and competitive ecosystem participants with leadership positions. The findings note that both cases can use collaborative innovation leadership through the point of origin in the guiding star of the value proposition at ecosystem level to go beyond their own enterprise self-interest. Next, collaborative innovation leadership is based in heterogeneities of both knowledge domains and individual and organisational behaviours for the innovative imagination of future needed initiatives for collaborative design-based sensemaking. A short-term challenge is present from reduced revenue in own enterprise from future needed initiatives. This short-term impact needs to be addressed for enhanced long-term robustness. The findings are summarised in a model for dissemination of collaborative innovation leadership in ecosystems to pursue UN SDGs in practice.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation at universities and forced a rapid transition to online education. Tecnológico de Monterrey leveraged its experience in online education to develop and scale a program of collaborative courses with international partners on the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The pilot program, based on Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), and focused on the UN SDGs, aimed to provide international experiences to students who were not able to study abroad due to economic reasons (SUNY Collaborative Online International Learning). The formula involves two professors who co-design and co-teach an online subject or part of the syllabus to their joint cohort of students, highlighting the relevant elements associated with those subjects’ contents included in the UN SDGs. However, generating enough courses that reached a considerable number of students and involved an international diversity of partners and topics, added layers of difficulty. For instance, not all academics were prepared to manage an online joint group of students or to introduce concepts of the UN SDGs in their courses. To solve these problems and scale up these courses, we created ‘Global Shared Learning – Classroom’ a program that addresses the necessary elements of faculty matching, joint planning of subjects, online co-teaching, use of technological tools, and the active participation of students. Today we have involved more than 18,000 students and 500 professors from 150 universities. This chapter shows how capacity building and complementary partnerships were built. It includes the elements to design, replicate the model, and overcome technology issues for other universities asking to be part of this program.