Sustainability, Research, Policies, and Practices

SDG Chart

Topic: Sustainability, Research, Policies, and Practices

Written for Dr. Abu Yousuf Mohammad Abdullah, Professor, Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka

Honorable Chair of today’s panel discussion, respected panelists, moderators, and dear participants, thank you all for allowing me to share my thoughts on Sustainability, Research, Policies, and Practices organized by the Social Acceptability Study Network of Aalto University. Being an alumnus of this prestigious university, I am honored and thankful for your kind invitation.

As a researcher of international business and circular economy, I have written myriads journals and research papers on economic policies and marketing practices. Referring to my humble experience in industry and academia, I want to emphasize that no research, policy, or practice is complete without a proper guideline of sustainability. The word ‘sustainable’ itself signifies whatever we do to advance civilization - that cannot harm our existence in the first place. Anything sustainable must improve the quality of our lives, protect our ecosystem, and preserve natural resources for future generations. 

In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, we cannot deny that rapid economic growth is upgrading our standard of living to a whole new level. But unfortunately, we are often compromising our environmental balance at the expense of a production-first economic culture. On the contrary, environmentally sustainable economic growth refers to economic development that meets the needs of all without leaving future generations with fewer natural resources than those we enjoy today.

Sustainability is measured by assessing the performance of three main principles: environmental protection, social development, and economic development. But regretfully, our world is still focused on economic development often ignoring the disastrous environmental impact we are going to face soon. Recently, greenhouse gas emission has hit a level high of all time, breaking all previous records. If emissions continue to increase, so will global temperatures and weather extremes such as intense heat and rainfall, ice melt, sea-level rise, and ocean acidification. We must cease the greenhouse gas emission rate by at least 50% within ten years, otherwise, the world will overheat "far in excess" of the Paris Agreement targets of 1.5 - 2 degree Celcius above the pre-industrial levels. 

Although the situation is seeming all bleak at this moment, proper policies backed by informative and factful researches can ensure sustainability in economic development. I think that is the point of arranging today’s seminar open to all global leaders, researchers, and policymakers. I want all policymakers present here to ask an honest question to themselves - is your economy on a sustainable path? Without considerable changes aimed at coupling a range of environmental goals with economic growth, it is difficult to revert the current triumph of harmful economic practices. As a panelist, today I will not present any to-do list before you. Rather, I would like to ignite your ideas, and I believe, tomorrow’s economic activities will be more environment-friendly and sustainable. Remember, the key to fighting climate change is creating a framework of subsequent and actionable plans, which will be consistent in all levels of government, industries, and social activities. So far, inconsistent policymaking has failed numerous commendable visions like Paris Agreement. We must understand, Europe is merely a part of the world. If a developing country keeps polluting the environment by industrial activities, that will collectively affect global warming. 

Today if you take one keyword from my speech, that would be ‘Consistency.’ Be consistent in policymaking, be consistent in sustainable economic activities and practices, be consistent in fruitful researches. We don’t want to reduce carbon emission like in 2020 when economic activities halted due to pandemic, and then scaled up two times in 2021 when everything started to be back in normal. Such sporadic or forceful upgradation to cease environmental pollution will never be sustainable, rather policies should focus on the consistent and steady development of a sustainable economy. I am sure my wise companions of today’s seminar can lead us towards that consistency. With that optimism, I am concluding my speech today.

Thank you once again for having me here.