New Challenges for Sustainable Organizations in Light of Agenda 2030 for Sustainability

Sustainability is one of humanity’s most daunting issues at present. Increasing population, escalation of anthropogenic activities, industrialization, modern agricultural practices that pollute water, air, and soil around the world, and ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions mean that sustainability is now in doubt [1]. In response to these critical concerns, the world has come up with several initiatives including Agenda 2030. Agenda 2030 is a commitment to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development worldwide, ensuring that no one is left behind by 2030. Its adoption was a landmark achievement, providing a shared vision towards sustainable development for all. Its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets aim to end the plethora of development problems and deliver a better universe [2]. The SDGs are principally linked to country level implementation, but they are the most inclusive and all-embracing participatory global development policy [3,4,5,6,7]. To actualize Agenda 2030, it will be necessary to involve governments and parliaments, the United Nations system and other international institutions, local authorities, indigenous peoples, civil society, business and the private sector, the scientific and academic community, and all the peoples [2]. Agenda 2030 is a partnering-centered global development agenda aimed at developed and developing countries and cannot be achieved without the contributions of the private sector and other participating constituencies [7]. Organizations have important roles to play in SDGs delivery [5,6,7,8,9]. Relatedly, corporate sustainability has become a critical area of debate in academe and practice [10,11]. Recent research studies show that organizations are responding by paying more attention to sustainability issues including accountability and embedding environmental plans into their corporate strategy. However, rightly integrating corporate strategy with SDGs and improving corporate sustainability practice entails unlocking new knowledge on corporate environmental sustainability know-how. The purpose of the Special Issue entitled “New Challenges for Sustainable Organizations in Light of Agenda 2030 for Sustainability” is to explore new findings and approaches associated with sustainable culture in light of Agenda 2030 for sustainability, thus extending and developing previous academic and managerial knowledge. It encourages submissions investigating—but not limited to—the development and application of innovative and sustainable territorial and organizational models both in profit and in nonprofit organizations. It also welcomes articles that address ethical, legal, technical, territorial, and organizational aspects to support sustainability both inside and outside the organization. Finally, it favors studies that are novel and applicable, capture best practices, and reflect the state-of-the-art.