scholarly journals Involvement of major Russian corporations with the fulfilment of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals: assessment of current achievements and development opportunities

Author(s):  
Mikhail L. Dorofeev ◽  
Irina V. Kryukova

Subject. Every 8-10 years, the global economy faces financial crises that slow down and drive back its development. The UN's Sustainable Development Goals were announced as one of the ways to smooth the cycles. Most countries are actively involved in the fulfilment of this global project. An important precondition for the transition to a sustainable development path is the participation of the corporate sector. However, under capitalism, solving such a problem is not an easy task since many items within the UN's Sustainable Development Goals are not profitable for corporations and do not contribute directly to capitalisation. In this regard, the study and search for opportunities to introduce the UN's Sustainable Development Goals into corporate practices is a very important issue which corresponds to the modern global agenda of economic development. The purpose of the study is to analyse the involvement of major Russian corporations with the achievement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals using open data based on corporate reports. The methods of the study included the analysis and synthesis of publicly reported data, grouping and expert assessment of published information related to the topic of the UN's SDGs in the annual reports of Russian corporations. Conclusions. The study revealed positive dynamics related to the involvement of companies with the achievement of the UN's SDGs. It is more pronounced in the areas where the UN's SDGs intersect the economic interests of corporations. It was shown that there is no uniform form for information disclosure, significant differences in the volume and quality of information presented in the companies’ reporting, and no common understanding of a number of goals by corporations. According to the results, most of the work aimed at fulfilling the UN's SDGs is carried out by Russian export companies with a predominance of private investors within the structure of business ownership. State-owned companies and companies focused on the domestic market are lagging behind in their development in this direction by all indications. As a recommendation, it was proposed to develop public reporting formats and better disclose the processes related to the fulfilment of the UN's SDGs.

2021 ◽  
Vol 93 (7s) ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
Katarina Balić ◽  
◽  
Helena Boljat ◽  
Gorana Mrčelić ◽  
Merica Slišković ◽  
...  

The UN agenda for Sustainable Development underlines the importance of balanced and integrated environmental, economic and social development through 17 goals. The role of the shipping industry in achieving the sustainable goals is recognized and highlighted by UN. As shipping companies are one of the most important stakeholders in the global economy and maritime transport, sustainable goals must be integrated into their continued operations and development. This paper aims to analyze the commitment of the largest shipping companies to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). From their annual reports for 2019 and 2020, an analysis of the commitment to SDG was conducted. The analysis shows that the majority of the companies comply with the SDG and embed them in their daily business processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8457
Author(s):  
Kaitano Dube

Many countries have fronted tourism as a tool for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their voluntary national reviews. Nevertheless, very few studies have examined how the tourism industry has been localising SDGs. Therefore, this study is borne out of that knowledge gap. A qualitative approach comprising the use of primary and secondary data from integrated annual reports was adopted. The study found some progress made by hotel companies in localising SDGs. It emerged that Cresta Hotels and the African Sun group of hotels are only at the inception stage of SDG localisation, focusing on several SDGs that respond to the socio-economic and environmental demands of the environments they work in. Given that most of the work under the SDGs only began inception between 2018 and 2019, there is still a long way to go before meaningful progress can be reported regarding SDG localization, with preliminary evidence showing that the hotel industry is likely to have made significant inroads when the SDGs lapse in 2030 if their efforts are not disturbed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study recommends continuous monitoring and support for the sector as the SDG framework offers a better and more focused sector to achieve sustainable and responsible tourism in Zimbabwe and Botswana.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (45) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
T. O. Zinchuk ◽  
◽  
T. V. Usiuk ◽  

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Claire Berning

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between business and sustainable development, particularly the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) as possible driving force for achieving sustainability. By following an inductive case study approach and referring to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, the sustainable undertakings of the Chinese MNE Huawei are explored. Published data on Huawei’s website and online resources like annual reports, news announcements, sustainability and corporate social responsibility reports are used for this purpose. The main findings indicate that Huawei can promote sustainable development internationally on three different levels: (1) products/services, (2) business operations and (3) social contributions. Based on these findings, a systematic framework is derived to help illustrate possible and classify existing MNE’s sustainability activities, as well as the related main stakeholders. This paper is useful for scholars and practitioners alike as it shows the compatibility of success in business with sustainability, as well as the potential of MNEs to contribute to sustainable development.             Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals, business, multinational enterprises, emerging markets


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 189-195
Author(s):  
Alexander Maltsev ◽  
◽  
Vera Maltseva ◽  
◽  

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-265
Author(s):  
Desti Herawati* ◽  
Rita Istiana

The emergence of the 4.0 industrial revolution requires university graduates to have 21st-century thinking skills that can support them to compete globally. However, the low 21st-century thinking skills of prospective teachers in the group of ways of thinking (critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision making) make the learning process should be able to train and develop these thinking skills. One way to train prospective teachers' 21st-century thinking skills is through the textbooks used in lectures. This study aims to develop textbooks based on socioscientific issues on the topic of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study used the RD research method with ADDIE design which is composed of 5 stages: Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. textbooks were applied at the implementation stage by involving second-semester prospective teachers who contract Environmental Knowledge courses. The instruments used in this study included textbook validation sheets and essay tests. The validation results were analyzed using descriptive analysis, while the essay test results were analyzed using SPSS. The results of the study showed that the socioscientific issues-based textbooks on the SDGs topic received a very good expert assessment and had met the standards of the appropriateness of the content, language, graphics, presentation, and socioscientific issues. Prospective teachers' 21st-century thinking skills in the group of the way of thinking  also improved significantly after using socioscientific issues-based textbooks. These indicated that the textbooks which have been developed were effective in practicing the 21st-century thinking skills of prospective teachers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 277-288
Author(s):  
Bogna Gudowska

The purpose of this article is to show the links between arts and crafts and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations. The UN aims to cover the most important challenges that humanity and the global economy must face in the nearest future, such as poverty, hunger, health, access to education, climate change or sustainable development. According to the author, arts and crafts, although it is a narrow field listed within the group of cultural and creative industries, can contribute to achieving the goals of the UN, positively influencing, among others on employment, fair trade and ethical production.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document