Climate

Jigsaw Partnership :Community Interest Company.

Today, more than half of the world’s population live in cities, and by mid-century it is predicted that more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas. This sees cities at the forefront of sustainability, needing to meet social needs within our ecological boundaries. An overarching guiding roadmap to consider sustainability is the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals - the SDGs. These 17 goals cover all aspects of sustainable development, and cities have an important role to play as more than half of the targets will need engagement from local and regional authorities in order to be achieved. 

How then are these international goals integrated into local city planning and development?

In today’s episode we address this question, and explore how academia and cities may support each other in this endeavour. We talk to Roland Zinkernagel, a municipal PhD student who shares his unique experiences from working with sustainable urban planning in the Swedish city of Malmö, while also researching how the SDGs can be applied in a local city context.

Goals, targets, and indicators – Applying the Sustainable Development Goals in cities

There is a clear and urgent need to accelerate the implementation of sustainability solutions. We must move beyond simple conceptual understanding of solutions, instead experimenting with collaborators in contexts in order to improve effectiveness, share learnings with others, and avoid future mistakes that waste time. 

In this episode, we discuss nature-based solutions as a holistic approach addressing the why, what, who, and how to achieve sustainability through integrating nature in cities. PhD Student Björn Wickenberg shares his latest research on implementing nature-based solutions, including his three strategies for urban planners. Finally, we discuss skills – collaboration, experimentation, evaluation, and learning – in order to support implementation in the right configurations in the right context, as well as to minimize any rebound effects.

It’s not just a concept: a holistic approach to implement nature-based solutions

Businesses are an essential driver for sustainability, yet managers struggle to make decisions about their business model that actually improve their sustainability performance. In this episode, we meet Florian Lüdeke-Freund, Henning Breuer, and Lorenzo Massa, authors of the new book called ‘Sustainable Business Model Design’. They introduce the concept of sustainable business model patterns, to support practitioners eager to make sustainability work in their business context. A sustainable business model pattern is knowledge based on experience, which includes a statement of a challenge, and a suggestion for a solution to address this challenge, with the deliberate aim of creating sustainable value. Thus, patterns represent templates to be adapted from one context to another to support creativity and experimentation. We provide several examples of patterns, as well as ways that practitioners may use patterns in their context. This episode is the final episode of our fourth season – we will be back in September 2022 with a new episode every month! Until then!

Sustainable Business Model Design – Patterns to Make Sustainability Work

At a recent UN Summit the international development community officially ended the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Its replacement, a sprawling list of 17 goals with 169 targets, is according to some critics, like a utopian shopping list for the 21st Century. Nevertheless, as a declaration of intent it is hard not to be impressed by their scale or to find fault with their ambitions. Full employment, safe migration policies, ending preventable deaths and even a commitment to encouraging economic growth all while ‘leaving no one behind’. One key question is, will they work?  But there are broader questions about why there is an emphasis on sustainability this time round; whether they have become all things to all people.

And when we look at expectations of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), should we not take into account realistic appraisal of their predecessors, the MDGs. The evidence is far from clear whether they were successful. China, for example, had huge success lifting people out of poverty but generally ignored the MDGs. Aside from these complexities and the ambiguousness of many of SDGs’ stated aims, the most significant development in these new targets is that all countries - not just poor ones – are expected to meet them by 2030.  This has the effect of blurring the boundaries between the domestic and the international; developed and developing world; humanitarian crises and ongoing societal problems. While it is clear that some co-ordination between businesses, charities and governments is needed to meet the challenges facing humanity, will the SDG framework go beyond the MDG’s limitations or might other efforts like economic growth and more targeted poverty-reduction measures suffice? At the start of a new era in Development, how are we to judge what success might look like? Who is responsible for meeting it? And what should be prioritised?

Speakers
Daniel Ben-Ami
finance and economics writer; author, Ferraris for All: in defence of economic progress and Cowardly Capitalism

Anna Mdee
research fellow, Overseas Development Institute

Myles Wickstead
visiting professor (international relations), Open University and King’s College London; coordinator, Aid and Development: a brief introduction

Chair
Joel Cohen
judges co-ordinator, Debating Matters; freelance writer 

Do we need the Sustainable Development Goals?

Robert Piper is the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations Development Coordination Office in New York. Robert has a longstanding experience in international development, humanitarian response and peacebuilding at the United Nations. In this episode, he explains the role of the UN Development Coordination Office, the background to the Talent roster and what kind of profiles he is looking for. 
  - Working with the United Nations is an incredible privilege and it is a badge of honour to be part of the UN and it comes with a set of values. So, I think you join the UN in whatever capacity whether you are a peacekeeper, a development coordinator like me, or a humanitarian you join the UN with a passion for what it represents, says Robert Piper.

Helen Rasks album

Episode 9: Making an impact – how to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals?

The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieving a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The plan is that the world will have achieved these goals by 2030. Companies can have a critical role in reaching the goals, but are they ambitious enough or are they just “rainbow washing” – using the SDGs as colorful logos with no meaningful action? Guesting the pod are: Anna Kruip, Manager Environment and Climate at UN Global Compact, Filippo Veglio, Managing Director at World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and Antti Marjokorpi, Head of Forests, Plantations, and Land use Sustainability at Stora Enso.

The Sustainable Development Goals: from rainbow washing to transforming the world

Welcome to the podcast 'Advancing Sustainable Solutions', produced by the IIIEE at Lund University. The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) is an interdisciplinary research and education institute located in Lund, Sweden with activities focusing on the transition to low-carbon and resource efficient economies. 

In this podcast, we will share ongoing research and activities through engaging conversation that is relatable and applicable to our daily lives. In essence, we wish to support listeners in their journey towards sustainability.  Look for a new episode monthly!