The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) embody the collective aspirations of the world’s peoples: peace, freedom, development and sustainability. The challenges associated with the struggle for attainment of these goals and objectives are as diverse and complex as the variety of human societies, national conditions and natural ecosystems worldwide. The problems to be addressed range from extreme poverty and pandemics to racism and refugee crises. Some of the best strategies and solutions to these problems emerged from unlikely places, ranging from the corporate boardrooms and halls of administration to the fields of civic engagement and the vortices of crises. Often, a single person is the dauntless driving force behind these innovative programs and courageous experiments that made all the difference to the poorest and most disadvantaged social groups. Somehow, they were able to turn the abstract goals and principles of sustainability into concrete programs and effective action. This book, the first of its kind, offers a platform that shares the individual experiences and personal studies of champions around the world that ‘make sustainability work’ in different contexts. In the trenches of practice, results are far from guaranteed, while sacrifice and obstacles are inevitable. These champions forge the paths forward – advocating ideas, mobilizing support and exercising leadership – in diverse nations, organizations and communities. In their struggle, they develop plans and solutions that inevitably involve adaptation, sacrifice, trade-offs and compromises that address the concerns of competing groups.

In the face of strong competitive pressure and a dynamic market, multinational companies in China are forced to innovate with extraordinary pace and inventiveness. Environmental sustainability is a vital benchmark, and is a key driver for the best companies in each sector – many of them allied with the WWF Climate Savers programme. Sustainable Champions shows how nine leading multinational companies - including Nestlé, HP, Tetra Pak and Sony - are dealing with environmental, supply chain and ethical challenges in China. The book illuminates some of their transformative practices, and the impact this is having on business in China and beyond. The concluding cross-case analysis of supply chain and environmental challenges faced by leading international firms presents key lessons for business and for sustainability champions. Sustainable Champions: How International Companies are Changing the Face of Business in China is essential reading for researchers and course leaders seeking on-the-ground examples of local environmental challenges, and any company doing business in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. With a Foreword by Simon Zadek, Distinguished Fellow, Academy of Business in Society, Visiting Scholar, Tsinghua School of Economics and Management.

The challenges associated with the struggles for attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and objectives are as diverse and complex as the variety of human societies, national conditions and natural ecosystems worldwide. Despite decades of economic growth and technological advances, our world is plagued by poverty, hunger, disease, conflicts and inequality, and many societies are under the strain of environmental changes and governance failure. Such global-scale challenges call for the SDGs to be translated beyond bold concepts and aspirational targets into concrete programs and feasible plans that are substantively valuable, locally acceptable, pragmatic and operationally implementable. In the pursuit of the SDGs, positive results are far from guaranteed. Success is uncertain. Instead, the path forward requires difficult learning, experimentation and adaptation by multiple stakeholders. Loss and sacrifice are foreseeable and often inevitable. This important book captures the lessons from ongoing struggles and the early successes. Productive failures and emerging practices are identified, analyzed and promulgated for interdisciplinary learning by, and for the inspiration of, like-minded individuals, organizations, communities and nations worldwide. They can also inform and enrich the curricula in universities, training institutions and schools to prepare future generations of citizens, leaders and activists with the ethos and values of sustainability and social responsibility. The book offers a platform for academics, practitioners and concerned global citizens to identify pathways forward on the immense challenges of sustainability.

The ambitious 15-year agenda known as the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015 by all members of the United Nations, contains a pledge that “no one will be left behind.” This book aims to translate that bold global commitment into an action-oriented mindset, focused on supporting specific people in specific places who are facing specific problems. In this volume, experts from Japan, the United States, Canada, and other countries address a range of challenges faced by people across the globe, including women and girls, smallholder farmers, migrants, and those living in extreme poverty. These are many of the people whose lives are at the heart of the aspirations embedded in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. They are the people most in need of such essentials as health care, quality education, decent work, affordable energy, and a clean environment. This book is the result of a collaboration between the Japan International Cooperation Research Institute and the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. It offers practical ideas for transforming “leave no one behind” from a slogan into effective actions which, if implemented, will make it possible to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. In addition to policymakers in the field of sustainable development, this book will be of interest to academics, activists, and leaders of international organizations and civil society groups who work every day to promote inclusive economic and social progress.

This book draws on the expertise of faculty and colleagues at the Balsillie School of International Affairs to both locate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a contribution to the development of global government and to examine the political-institutional and financial challenges posed by the SDGs. The contributors are experts in global governance issues in a broad variety of fields ranging from health, food systems, social policy, migration and climate change. An introductory chapter sets out the broad context of the governance challenges involved, and how individual chapters contribute to the analysis. The book begins by focusing on individual SDGs, examining briefly the background to the particular goal and evaluating the opportunities and challenges (particularly governance challenges) in achieving the goal, as well as discussing how this goal relates to other SDGs. The book goes on to address the broader issues of achieving the set of goals overall, examining the novel financing mechanisms required for an enterprise of this nature, the trade-offs involved (particularly between the urgent climate agenda and the social/economic goals), the institutional arrangements designed to enable the achievement of the goals and offering a critical perspective on the enterprise as a whole. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals makes a distinctive contribution by covering a broad range of individual goals with contributions from experts on governance in the global climate, social and economic areas as well as providing assessments of the overall project – its financial feasibility, institutional requisites, and its failures to tackle certain problems at the core. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of international affairs, development studies and sustainable development, as well as those engaged in policymaking nationally, internationally and those working in NGOs.

Jeffrey D. Sachs has shown himself to be one of the worldÕs most perceptive and original analysts of global development in his groundbreaking books, including The End of Poverty and Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet. Now, in this major new work he presents a compelling and practical framework for how global citizens can address the seemingly intractable worldwide problems of persistent extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and political-economic injustice. Sachs outlines the holistic way forward: sustainable development. This provocative work offers readers, students, activists, environmentalists, and policy makers the tools, metrics, and practical pathways they need to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. Far more than a rhetorical exercise, this book is designed to inform, inspire, and spur action. Based on SachsÕs twelve years as director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, his thirteen years advising the United Nations secretary-general on the Millennium Development Goals, and his recent presentation of these ideas in a popular online course, The Age of Sustainable Development is a landmark publication and a clarion call for all who care about our planet and global justice.

There is growing awareness among leading responsible management scholars and practitioners that understanding global wicked problems is insufficient in effecting lasting engagement and changed behaviors. Research indicates that to impact behavior, the mindset has to shift, which leaves the question: How do you shift a mindset? This book guides educators and practitioners, their students and colleagues to take action on finding urgent solutions to the grand challenges stated in the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. A Sustainability Mindset is a way of thinking and being that results from a broad understanding of the ecosystem, from social sensitivity and an introspective focus on our personal values and higher self, which finds its expression in actions for the greater good. By promoting a mindset shift, educators in very diverse contexts are laying the foundation for a resilient future. The book presents a collection of over 150 student voices depicting a transformative experience and a shift in their mindset. Seventeen educator/student teams of contributing authors from across five continents describe the activity that prompted those students’ reflections, and the conceptual frameworks that played a role in the selection of the learning goals and activities. The book is written with academic and corporate educators, reflective practitioners, consultants, coaches, trainers and students in mind, and is invaluable in guiding the process of developing a sustainability mindset among participants in the training process.