Sustainability in Business and Economics Articles
1. De Neve, J.E., & Sachs, J.D. (2020). The SDGs and human well-being: a global analysis
of synergies, trade-offs, and regional differences. Nature Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1-12
2. Bansal, P., & Song, H. C. (2017). Similar but not the same: Differentiating corporate
sustainability from corporate responsibility. Academy of Management Annals, 11(1),
105-149.
3. Hoffman, A. J. (2018). The next phase of business sustainability. Stanford Social
Innovation Review, 16(2), 34-39
4. Van Zanten, J. A., & Van Tulder, R. (2018). Multinational enterprises and the
Sustainable Development Goals: An institutional approach to corporate engagement.
Journal of International Business Policy, 1(3-4), 208-233
5. Österblom, H., Jouffray, J. B., Folke, C., Crona, B., Troell, M., Merrie, A., & Rockström,
J. (2015). Transnational corporations as ‘keystone actors’ in marine ecosystems. PloS
one, 10(5), e0127533.
6. van Zanten, J. A., & van Tulder, R. (2021). Improving companies' impacts on sustainable
development: A nexus approach to the SDGS. Business Strategy and the Environment.
7. Biermann, F., Kanie, N., & Kim, R. E. 2017. Global governance by goal-setting: The
novel approach of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Current Opinion in
Environmental Sustainability, 26, 26–31
8. Sterner, T., Barbier, E. B., Bateman, I., van den Bijgaart, I., Crépin, A. S., Edenhofer, O.,
... & Robinson, A. (2019). Policy design for the Anthropocene. Nature Sustainability,
2(1), 14-21.
9. Wiek, A., Withycombe, L., & Redman, C. L. (2011). Key competencies in sustainability:
a reference framework for academic program development. Sustainability science, 6(2),
203-218.
,Article 1: De Neve, J.E., & Sachs, J.D. (2020). The SDGs and human well-being: a global
analysis of synergies, trade-offs, and regional differences. Nature Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1-12
Sustainable development is defined as(Brundtland, 1987): ‘development that meets the needs of
the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs’.
There is an ongoing debate on whether sustainable development in practice can live up to its
normative promises of economic development, environmental stewardship and social equity.
Nevertheless in 2015 the SDG’s were developed.
● The SDGs are a comprehensive set of policy goals that aim to end world poverty and
hunger, address climate change and environmental protection, and ensure universal
access to healthcare, education and equality.
The paper explores the empirical links between sustainable development and human well-being
(subjective well-being).
● Discussions about moving away from GDP as measure for happiness and well-being
● Subjective well-being (SWB) measures are based on respondents’ self-evaluations of
their one life → reflect underlying well-being
● Subjective well-being measures are imperfect, but have an important role to play in
defining success
Measurements
SDG Index → measures countries’ progress towards achieving the SDGs
Population survey wherein participants evaluate their lives on a scale 0-10
SDG Index → split into 17 components goals, varying relationships with well-being are
analysed.
Main findings
- Higher SDG Index score correlates more strongly with higher SWB at higher levels of the SDG
Index Globally.
● In other words: countries with higher progress towards achieving the SDGs have higher
levels of subjective well-being
- Goal 12 (responsible consumption and production) and Goal 13 (climate action), are
significantly negatively correlated with SWB.
● Goal 12: suggest that countries which have a smaller per capita material footprint - and
are therefore performing well on SDG 12 - are associated with lower levels of SWB.
○ Can be explained by GDP. Countries with a higher GDP tend to produce and
consume more, which is usually associated with higher living standards.
1
, ○ Suggests that advancing on responsible consumption and productions may result
in a trade-off in terms of average self-reported well-being.
● Goal 13: In general, countries that have lower emissions—and are therefore performing
well on SDG13—tend to have lower levels of subjective well-being.
○ Countries that are more economically developed tend to pollute more while also
having higher well-being.
○ This suggests that the underlying measures for climate action are strongly
correlated with the level of economic development in the first place which, in
turn, drives the relationship with well-being.
However, there are countries that perform well in SDG 12 or 13 AND also in terms of well-
being. So a trade-off is not always necessary.
- All SDGs are important, however some SDGs are more relevant to well-being than others, and
reveals some inherent tensions that involve trade-offs between current and future well-being.
- Analysis shows that more complex and contextualised policy efforts are needed in order to
simultaneously achieve sustainable development and well-being.
● More cautious policy is needed to resolve trade-offs, allowing for sustainable
development that also optimises for human well-being.
● Implementing these policies requires intergenerational reciprocity, the idea that
we must act on the behalf of future generations, which has in turn been shown to
depend on the behavior of previous generations
- Relative importance of SDGs in terms of well-being varies across different regions,
highlighting the needs for differentiated policies.
● Link between SDG index and well-being at higher levels of economic
development is higher compared to regions with mostly developing nations.
● Economic activity is more important for well-being at lower levels of economic
development.
● As countries become richer the well-being of their citizens stagnates unless
further economic growth is more sustainable, for example, addressing inequality
and improving environmental quality.
- SDG 3 SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 9 (industry, innovation and
infrastructure) and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) have the greatest
explanatory power (10% or more of the variance)
- Research insights indicate that well-being is correlated with the long-term outcomes of
environmental policies, even if it is not necessarily positively correlated with the short-term
efforts required of such policies.
2
, - There are also intra-SDG trade-offs. SDGs might be conflicting with the well-being of current
generations.
Policy making:
1. Main goal: resolve the short-term trade-of by de-coupling human well-being improvements
from the consumption of natural resources
- outlier countries are performing well on SDG12 and SDG13, whilst also achieving high
levels of well-being, indicating that there might be pathways to improving well-being that
do not hinder environmental sustainability. — alternative model for developing countries
to avoid the Western carbon-intensive development path.
(e.g.: Germany has invested heavily in renewable energy infrastructure, providing ‘green jobs’
while simultaneously reducing emissions. The combination of carbon taxes and incentives for
renewable energy, combined with ambitious social policy, has allowed the Nordic countries to
transition away from fossil fuels, without punishing low-income families with higher energy
bills. Costa Rica is among the top countries for investment in new renewable power and fuels
relative to GDP, and has committed to achieving carbon neutrality starting from 2021)
Potential policies
- investment in public services to moderate private consumption
- harnessing productivity gains to reduce working hours
Problems with policy making:
1. Policiy efforts must be differentiated because the urgency of certain SDG is different
between regions (e.g.: Europe: reducing inequalities, Sub-Saharan Africa: rducing
poverty)
2. Mismatch between local governance structures and top-down frameworks:
- picture becomes even more nuanced at the local level,
- policy models or ‘best practices’ from elsewhere without a deep understanding of the
local context can often obscure effective policy-making
3
