Some retail companies have been facing boycotts and negative criticism due to their association with sweatshop practices and human rights scandals. In order to deal with such criticism, it has become common for these garment sector businesses to implement corporate responsibility projects in countries in which their independent suppliers are located. These projects fall within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, more specifically on how the private sector can contribute to the achievement of the 8th goal, which is related to decent work and economic growth. In this sense, this work analyzes how the understanding of problems related to work processes influence the design and outcome of an initiative partially implemented by the private sector. A project implemented in Cambodia by H&M, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) was used as case study.

Global social injustice and inequalities remain deeply embedded in our globalized world, often explained as a consequence of the current economic structures and institutions. Therefore, there has been an increase in arenas that attracts mobilization of the global civil society to oppose the neoliberal economic globalization and combat social injustices and inequalities. The World Social Forum (WSF) is an example of an arena that emerged with these purposes. However, research shows that there are criticism regarding the character and function of the WSF. This literature study examines the reasons behind the criticism and compares them with the WSF’s charter of principles to see if the WSF is living up to its ideals. It also analyzes if the WSF’s principles are reflected in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. This is done through a content analysis and within the framework of social justice and transnational public sphere. The study concludes that the WSF does not live up to its ideals because of a lack in organizational structure, exclusive and elitist character, and also the inequalities and inequities that are reinforced within the WSF. Moreover, the study shows that the WSF’s principles can be found among the 17 SDGs in the 2030 Agenda which can indicate that the WSF has had an indirect role in influencing global development policies.

Increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases, aging, and population growth pose significant sustainability challenges to health systems. Especially the health systems of low- and middle-income countries are more vulnerable to the risks related to non-communicable diseases and demographic changes. As the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrates, the quality of health systems is vital to save lives, and even the most developed countries are not immune to the consequences of global health crises. The World Health Organization estimates that non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancers, and diabetes cause around 40 million deaths in a year, and 15 million people aged between 30 and 69 suffer from premature deaths mostly in low- and middle-income countries. The United Nations aim to address this problem through the Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 that stresses to reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and promote mental health and well-being until 2030. Poor quality health systems and inadequate access to healthcare services by the most vulnerable groups are some of the main reasons for premature deaths. Improving the quality of health systems through innovation and digitalisation is strategic to deliver essential healthcare services to the most vulnerable people. Digital health technologies such as mobile health applications for chronic disease self-management play a key role in improving the health status of individuals and the accessibility of healthcare services. Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (‘T2DM’) is one of the most prevalent non-communicable diseases suffered by almost half a billion people, and current developments in digital health technologies offer innovative methods for its treatment. Hence, this study investigates the effectiveness of a T2DM self-management smartphone application called DiaWatch and its potential benefits for the Sustainable Development Goals in terms of addressing the challenges of health systems. Methodology: Using the Technology Acceptance Model as an overall conceptual framework, a comprehensive literature review was performed to clearly define the objectives and methods for the study. Based on these findings, two sets of semi-structured qualitative interview questions have been prepared for collecting empirical data. Ten healthcare professionals working at a university hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, and ten T2DM patients using a T2DM self-management app called DiaWatch have been interviewed from mid-February to early-March. A thematic analysis has been carried out to analyse the empirical data collected through the semi-structured interviews. Results: Firstly, the results of the interviews with T2DM patients using the DiaWatch app suggest that the health status and chronic condition self-management experience of the majority of the interviewees improved since using the app and they adopted behavioural changes, such as being more adherent to the treatment, increased physical activity, having a healthier diet and measuring blood glucose level more regularly. The interviewees reported less dependency on healthcare facilities and increased accessibility of healthcare services, as they are tele-monitored by their physicians. Secondly, the results of the interviews with healthcare professionals highlight the benefits of digital health technologies for the health systems in terms of facilitating the job of healthcare staff, reducing the costs, and saving time. The interviewees state that tele-monitoring helps to decrease the number of redundant hospital admissions and screenings; however, data privacy and irreplaceability of face-to-face medical examinations are the main concerns before the acceptance of these technologies.

ABSTRACT Background Water is an essential requirement for the survival and development of people. It is estimated that 435 million people get their drinking water from unprotected wells worldwide. Water scarcity and chemical or biological aspects in water have been revealed, which can negatively affect health. This study aims to explore individuals’ experiences in drinking water with non-public water, hence individual wells. A further aim of the study is to explore authorities’ perspectives for implementing safe drinking water (SDGs 6) in Swedish coastal and rural areas.     Method In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were implemented to explore the experiences of 17 individual well owners and 4 authorities in non-public water use in Sweden. A thematic analysis was conducted to analyse the collected data.     Findings There were three main findings in the study: Firstly, concerns about water scarcity and water quality, mostly from families with children. Secondly, there was a feeling of exclusion among individuals due to lack of support from authorities and thirdly, a gap between existing assessment guidelines and the practices of individuals in terms of follow-up and benchmarking of the National health guidelines.   Conclusion The experiences of the individual well owners in Stockholm had some concerns due to water quality, the understanding, and implementation of the guidelines to safe drinking water. The authorities also highlighted the need for sustainable strategies. It concluded that multi-disciplinary approaches, communication, and community participation are necessary for a sustainable water strategy. These must be addressed globally as climate change impacts water supply and has a massive effect on rural and coastal areas. / <p>_{<em>We never know the worth of water till the well is dry (Thomas Fuller)</em>}</p> / The project “Evaluation of individual wells and systems”

This study analyzes and discusses sustainability reporting at Arlacompany which is one of the largest organic dairy producer in the world. Geographically its operations span across Europe, North America, North and West Africa and Asia. This study evaluates the company’s communication of its shared value creation and how it contributes towards the accomplishment of the Sustainable Development Goals. In order to do so, it analyzes two of the company’s annual Corporate Social Responsibility reports (2016 and 2019). A theoretical framework, combining Corporate Social Responsibility, Creating Shared Value, Triple Bottom Line and Legitimacy Theory is synthesized and applied to the subject matter. This research is a holistic single-case study, employing continuous literature review and a qualitative content analysis. The results of the research are presented discussing the merits and shortcomings of the company’s sustainability communication practices. It finds that Arla’ssustainability communication is heavily based on societal and environmental topics. Its main strategies of shared value creation operationalize the expansion and strengthening of markets and product quality assurance. The study also concludes that Arlaavoids the communication of sensitive issues such as animal welfare or greenhouse gas emissions emerging from farms. Finally, the study advocates for the benefits of failure reporting, both in terms of compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals and sustainability practices, arguing that this might lead to greater legitimacy and possible support from other stakeholders.

Scientists warn that the current rate of climate change will raise average global temperature by 4°C compared to 1990, although warming of +2°C will already have dire effects throughout the world. Therefore, the UN acknowledges SDG 13 (Climate Action) as one of the most important goals for the coming decade in order to fight climate change. Another focus of the UN is SDG 5 (Gender Equality), which is also an overarching goal but still lagging behind. Working on one of the goals can have a positive effect on other goals. Therefore a synergy can be created when investigating how climate change affects gender equality and how gender equality affects climate action.  The link between gender equality and climate action was already established by the UN at the Beijing Platform of Action in 1995. However, there has been little research into how government representatives understand how the goals are interconnected. These representatives are important in the drafting of new policy and keeping the UN accountable for incorporating gender into its policies. Hence, this thesis investigates how the relationship between gender equality and climate action is viewed by government representatives, as well as in national climate documents. A content analysis was performed on National Determined Contributions (NDCs) and climate change Gender Action Plans (ccGAPs). The results illustrate that the location and expertise of the interviewees impacted their opinions greatly. The interviewees based at permanent missions at the UN headquarter in New York were of the opinion that their government thought the link existed but acknowledged more should be done to convince other countries as the link was not taken for a fact. The interviewees working with the UNFCCC negotiations, however, said all member states agreed on the importance of including gender equality in climate action. Another finding is that only one-third of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) contained gender perspectives. Of these, one-third mentioned women as victims of climate change and two-thirds saw women as actors of change in climate action.  Establishing a firm agreement on the link between gender equality and climate action within UN bodies is important to expanding the impact of climate policies on both gender quality and climate action.

The purpose of this study is to examine the integration of gender and environmental policies in Stockholm municipality. The study seeks to address the integration of these policy areas as itbuilds on previous research that have already established that the integration of the two can support the achievement of sustainable development. However, as tensions and synergies between these policies are not that well-explored, this study adds to literature by identifyingtensions and synergies in terms of policy integration between gender and environment. The study seeks to answer to what extent these policies are integrated, what challenges, tensions,and possibilities to find synergies there are. This is done through a single case study and content analysis. The study presents a merging of the two theories policy integration and ecofeminism, which is divided into five themes and numerous codes for the analysis. Five policy documents from the municipality and eight interview transcripts with civil servants is analysed. The study found that there are some aspects of integration between the two already, but to a limited extent. It identifies tensions between gender and environment as well as structural and organisational challenges for integrating these policy areas. Moreover, synergies were identified between these policy areas. Some interesting findings of the data was that it indicated success to integrate these policy areas in some parts of the policy-process, whereas there were limitations to integrate in other parts. Therefore, the study concludes that there needs to be ensuring mechanisms for the integration in the whole policy-process and to take advantage of the synergies that appears. Hence, this study suggests that for future research it would be interesting to investigate other aspects of the policy-process. The study also concludes that the results can be extended to other municipalities or local governments that are facing the same challenges to consider many aspects while working in silos.

Sustainability and sustainable production methods are becoming more important in the manufacturing industry all around the world. Within this trend, United Nations’ formulated 2030 Sustainable Development Goals are used as a target and guideline for developing a roadmap in manufacturing companies’ schedules. For this purpose, there are some existing methods used in practice such as Triple Bottom Line (TBL) management, which is based on the environmental, economic, and social aspects of sustainability. The purpose of this study is aiming to provide insights into the role of the TBL management approach in supporting companies to achieve the UN 2030 sustainability goals. As well as contributing to the ongoing discussions on the importance of sustainable practices in achieving the significance of the study. The findings of this study, gathered through a combination of qualitative primary and secondary data collection, show that there are some similarities and differences between the sustainability practices depending on the SDGs. Approaches of the companies vary with factors such as legislations, culture, and other formal and informal institutions of the country. It is found that most of the Dutch companies act more proactive regarding the SDGs whereas Turkish organisations are more reactive to change. It can be seen that Turkish organisations are very much still primarily focused on the economical perspective of TBL. Dutch organisations tend to prioritise the social and the environmental aspects more than their Turkish counterparts. It can also be identified that Turkish organisations tend to be incredibly focused on legislations, whereas Dutch organisations are more often moving towards their own visions and how they want to position themselves in the market. Even though there is a significant difference between the Dutch and Turkish organisations, it can be identified that the economical aspect plays a major role in both cases. Yet the way they work towards this differs strongly.

The current study aims towards a holistic utilization of agro-waste rice straw (RS) to synthesize nanosilica (SiNPs) employing the sol–gel method. The effect of ashing temperature was evaluated for the synthesis process. X-ray diffraction demonstrated a broad spectrum at 21.22° for SiNPs obtained using RSA-600, signifying its amorphous nature, whereas crystalline SiNPs were synthesized using RSA-900. The EDX and FTIR spectra confirmed the significant peaks of Si and O for amorphous SiNPs, confirming their purity over crystalline SiNPs. FE-SEM and TEM micrographs indicated the spheroid morphology of the SiNPs with an average size of 27.47 nm (amorphous SiNPs) and 52.79 nm (crystalline SiNPs). Amorphous SiNPs possessed a high surface area of 226.11 m2/g over crystalline SiNPs (84.45 m2/g). The results obtained attest that the amorphous SiNPs possessed better attributes than crystalline SiNPs, omitting the need to incorporate high temperature. Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue using SiNPs reflected that 66.26% of the dye was degraded in the first 10 min. The degradation study showed first-order kinetics with a half-life of 6.79 min. The cost-effective and environmentally friendly process offers a sustainable route to meet the increasing demand for SiNPs in industrial sectors. The study proposes a sustainable solution to stubble burning, intending towards zero waste generation, bioeconomy, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely SDG 13(Climate Action), SDG 3(Good health and well-being), SDG 7(use of crop residues in industrial sectors) and SDG 8 (employment generation).

The bioeconomy is a worldwide used strategy to cope with ecological, social, and economic sustainability challenges. However, we analyze current bioeconomy strategies and trends to point out potential sustainability conflicts and transition challenges. Our analysis shows that the bioeconomy is not sustainable per se, as mere input substitution may entail welfare losses. Instead, it requires further debates and actions to avoid exacerbation of ecological and social strains. Sustainability has to be the key concept behind the bioeconomy and predominantly requires (1) sustainability of the resource base and (2) sustainability of processes and products, especially by (3) circular processes of material fluxes, not least to gain consumer acceptance for bio-based products. Otherwise, the bioeconomy would only entail the substitution of fossil resources for bio-based resources potentially lacking the generation of additional societal and ecological benefits and contribution to climate mitigation. As markets alone will not suffice to fulfil this path transition towards a sustainable bioeconomy, we argue that innovative governance is necessary to reduce competitive drawbacks compared to fossil resources (enabling function) and to secure ecological, social, and economic sustainability requirements (limiting function).