Sustainable Development Goals
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articles
Here’s why diversity is the best path forward for alternative fuels.
Click here to play podcast Today’s infrastructure, with its aging roads, bridges and ports, is arguably the largest hurdle for alternative fuels and the energy sources of tomorrow. Efficiency, technology and scale are also major barriers to the wider adoption of green energy. So what is the path forward? And how do we take an […]
Here's a road map to unlocking value while reducing your carbon footprint.
For decades, supply chain specialists focused on wringing every ounce of value or saving the most amount of time by optimizing the movement of goods. At the same time, sustainability specialists focused on reducing carbon emissions and environmental impact. In some cases, these two very different goals were aligned. But all too often, the objectives […]
Can businesses take the lead on transforming our society into a more sustainable environment?
Andrew J. Hoffman
| University of Michigan
Solutions to climate change require new types of aggressive thinking. While global treaties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are important, they are not enough. Eventually society has to go carbon neutral, and then it has to go carbon negative. Consider Kevin Butt, regional environmental sustainability director for Toyota Motor North America, and his charge to […]
Public-private partnerships could hold the key to a chronic problem in the United States.
Since the U.S. election, there has been a lot of discussion about rebuilding America’s infrastructure — namely, its electricity, transportation and water and sewage systems. Elected officials of both parties, academics, industry associations and other experts agree that the United States has underspent on infrastructure for decades, leading to a slow deterioration. According to the […]
Why climbing up the supply chain ladder can only benefit your company.
Many blogs in 2017 are going to start with some play on this obvious theme: We are living in uncertain times. For supply chains, you could argue that this is nothing new, as the complexities of global supply chains have always incorporated a high degree of uncertainty. BSR member companies know they need to manage […]
A Q&A with UPS Director of Facilities Procurement Bill Moir.
UPS recently announced plans to invest $18 million in solar power for eight facilities across the United States, part of the company’s long-standing commitment to sustainability and alternative energy sources. The Longitudes team sat down with UPS solar expert Bill Moir to discuss the investment and solar power’s potential for the future: First off, what is solar […]
How conserving water can slow supply chain disruption and garner future rewards.
Companies have come a long way in their ability to manage supply chain risk, but they urgently need to step up their efforts in one key area: water scarcity. The Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) 2016 Annual Report of Corporate Water Disclosure, published in November 2016, provides a wake-up call. A total of 607 of the […]
The CEO of the Nespresso Sustainability Innovation Fund points to the future of sustainability.
The circular economy is a shift from the current take-make-waste approach to a more resource-friendly, use-recover-regenerate model. Here, Guillaume Le Cunff, president of Nespresso USA and CEO of the Nespresso Sustainability Innovation Fund, explains why sustainability is important to the company and how UPS helps contribute to the movement. Why did Nespresso choose to be […]
A successful company is a sustainable company, which also allows it to keep up with the e-commerce boom.
Technology is transforming the retail landscape as we know it. According to Forrester, U.S. online retail sales are anticipated to exceed $520 billion by 2020. Globally, online sales are growing three times faster than GDP. Increasingly, online shopping is being combined with traditional shopping trips to brick-and-mortar stores. According to the 2016 UPS Pulse of the […]
How to successfully move past stereotypes in the workplace.
Stéphanie Thomson
| World Economic Forum
When it comes to closing the gender gap, we’ve made an immense amount of progress in a relatively short amount of time. But we’re nowhere near where we need to be. According to the latest Gender Gap Report, worldwide we’ve managed to close only 59 percent economic participation and 23 percent in politics. In some regions, it could take […]
Sustainable thinking could open the door to a new world.
Wayne Visser
| University of Cambridge
In September 2016, SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced that we could have human missions to Mars as soon as 2022. One side effect – apart from pushing the frontiers of space travel – is that such missions will challenge us to design and perfect various systems of sustainable production. The reason is quite simple: Mars […]
Why trust, sensitivity and empathy are the leadership qualities of the future.
Klaus Schwab
| World Economic Forum
Leaders have to be responsive and responsible. They must understand that we are living in a world marked by uncertainty, volatility and deep transformational changes. Many people are living in precarious situations and searching for identity and meaning in a fast-changing world. They want to regain their sense of purpose. It requires courage and commitment […]
Agricultural research and greater productivity can defeat global hunger.
Bjørn Lomborg
| Copenhagen Business School
Hunger has wracked humanity since time immemorial. Nearly every major society has been shaped by famine. One estimate suggests that China suffered drought or flood-induced starvation in at least one province almost every year from 108 BC to 1911. Yet the struggle against hunger is a battle that humanity could finally win. More cereals were […]
Basic core values can create a sustainable world, but it will be an uphill battle moving forward.
This has been a remarkable year politically. When looking at Brexit, the U.S. presidential election, the ongoing refugee crisis and crackdowns by some governments on civil society, it’s clear that faith in Western political institutions, globalization and our future is dangerously low. This landscape contrasts starkly with the exhilarating promise of 2015’s big achievements: the Sustainable […]
How do you tackle air pollution in cities? With WiFi-emitting birdhouses, of course.
Rachel Hallett
| Formative Content
It may be one of the world’s most bike-friendly cities, but Amsterdam could do more to improve its air quality, according to a report that grades efforts by European cities to cut transport emissions. The study gave Amsterdam a D+ rating last year. This was partly because, unlike other European cities, the Dutch capital has […]
What's holding you back from being a good corporate citizen?
The concept that businesses should both self-regulate and benefit their communities goes back to before the 1800s. In America, at the time, states had the right to invalidate a business’s license to operate should the business act irresponsibly. Shortly thereafter, in 1819, the Supreme Court ruling that corporations were legal persons (citizens) protected by the […]
Welcome to Sustainability Week on Longitudes.
Yes, the climate is changing. Greenhouse gas emissions are on the rise. And cities are becoming more crowded every day, among a litany of other urgent global issues. But this is also a moment of tremendous opportunity. Consumers, businesses and governments are putting their minds together to change how we power our increasingly connected world. […]
Truck platooning can reduce CO2 emissions and offer other benefits. But what will it take to make this more sustainable option a reality . . . and when?
It was the start of a new era in mobility. Earlier this spring, six convoys of wirelessly connected trucks, linked closely together in sets of two and three, embarked from three different European countries bound for the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. In each convoy, the trucks were lined up in platoons, one behind […]
We need sustainable solutions to big problems. But no one can do it alone.
For more than four decades, World Environment Day has symbolized the need for global action to protect our planet. At UPS, we are constantly working on ways to operate in a more sustainable manner and help our customers achieve their sustainability goals. World Environment Day is symbolic of our commitment to balance the risks associated […]
In a "circular economy," a manufactured product creates zero waste and boosts profits. Which companies are in the loop?
Tom Huston
| The Guardian
On Feb. 7, 2005, Ellen MacArthur’s sailing prowess peaked, as she broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the Earth. After speeding through the sea for 71 days, surviving only on limited rations of food, water, medicine and fuel, she was suddenly struck by the reality of what it meant to live […]
An evolving approach to sustainability reveals how everyone has a seat at the table.
We’re all familiar with today’s I-want-it-now culture. That mindset, however, is also seeping into the problem-solving strategy employed by leaders tackling some of the world’s most daunting dilemmas. We can ill afford to leave today’s issues to the next generation, especially the challenge of conducting global commerce efficiently and responsibly. More and more people see […]
The availability of fresh water is increasingly a defining strategic factor in regional and global affairs.
Sundeep Waslekar
| Strategic Foresight Group
This year’s World Water Day, on March 22, provides an opportunity to highlight what in many countries has become a grim reality: The availability of fresh water is increasingly a defining strategic factor in regional and global affairs. Unless water resources are managed with extraordinary care, the consequences could be devastating. Last year, the United […]
The aviation industry must work together to achieve sustainable growth, sharing the burden as well as the benefits.
Michael Gill
| Air Transport Action Group
With the Millennium Development Goals having now given way to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the narrative for development shifting further towards a range of sustainability issues, it is worth taking stock on how the aviation industry is contributing to achieving them. SDG 8: ‘decent work and economic growth’ and SDG 9: ‘industry, innovation […]
The current focus on technology within UN debates is heartening, but above all, the SDGs must remain resolutely people-centered.
Melissa Leach
| University of Sussex
Adrian Ely
| University of Sussex
This is part of a series on the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, in collaboration with the Stockholm Resilience Centre. This article focuses on goal 9 – Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Sustainable Development Goal 9 calls for resilient infrastructure and inclusive, sustainable industrialization, and also refers to the need to […]
We have ample scientific evidence that we are hitting the ceiling of our planet’s capacity to support world development.
Johan Rockström
| Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm Univ.
This is part of a series on the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, in collaboration with the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Size now matters: In a single human lifetime, we have become a big world on a small planet. This simple fact is as profound as Copernicus’s conclusion that the Earth revolves around the sun or Darwin’s […]
A growing realization that rising global temperatures are not simply an environmental concern provides reason to hope that world leaders are finally ready to address the problem in an effective way.
In the early 1990s, when I was Prime Minister of Norway, I once found myself debating sustainable development with an opposition leader who insisted that I tell him the government’s single most important priority in that field. Frustrated, I replied that what he was asking was impossible to answer. I concluded our exchange by explaining […]
Owen Gaffney
| Stockholm University
World leaders meet in New York at the end of the month to agree to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the successor to the Millennium Development Goals. But what are they and why do they matter? This blog is part of a series, in partnership with the Stockholm Resilience Centre, on the SDGs, where leaders […]
The success of the SDGs will rely on stakeholder partnerships, along with the strong backs and good hearts of volunteers from all corners of the world, including the private sector.
Eduardo Martinez
| UPS Foundation
“Sustainability” is a word used all too casually these days. As different stakeholders attach their own definitions and agendas, sustainability has morphed into a way of life for some, a strategy for others and a thinly veiled marketing gimmick for too many. But in September, when the United Nations launches its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), […]
We need a new model of logistics to ensure those city dwellers get what they want, when they want it – and in a sustainable fashion.
By 2050, two-thirds of all people will live in a city. This means roads will get even more congested. Air quality in those urban areas will likely worsen. And the demand for goods in megacities will further test already strained transportation networks. In some bigger cities, such problems have already surfaced. There are restrictions on […]
A sustainable future is within reach, but only if we put in place the policies that make it possible.
For the first time in years, a healthy dose of optimism seems to be in order. The global economy – a few trouble spots aside – is finally moving beyond the financial crisis. Technological breakthroughs have put renewable energy on a competitive footing with fossil fuels. And the international community seems poised to forge critical […]
