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Tracking Sustainability through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Synergies and Trade-Offs

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Development Goals towards Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 April 2025 | Viewed by 1194

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change, 48940 Leioa, Spain
Interests: environmental economics and resources; climate change

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Guest Editor
Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF), University of Padua, 35122 Padova, Italy
Interests: agricultural economics; environmental economics; industrial economics; microeconometrics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The United Nations Resolution “The Future We Want”, adopted by the General Assembly on 27 July 2012 (UN, 2012), defined sustainability as three interconnected pillars (the environmental, social and socioeconomic). There can, however, be no long-term sustainability in the absence of a balance and equilibrium between these three dimensions. The challenge lies in finding a blend of the three to engender an equilibrium that can last across time. Scholars worldwide have and continue to strive to develop methodologies for the assessment of sustainability, as defined by this UN Resolution.

This arduous challenge is further exacerbated when the achievement of the UN sustainable development goals is intertwined with the task of defining and evaluating scenarios that encompass the sustainability equilibrium.

The sustainabile development goals aim to achieve prosperity and wealth while also protetcting the planet. Again, the achievement of sustainable goals implies the definition of sustainable equilibria that may generate both synergies (for instance, social sustainability might necessitate improvements to the quality of education) and trade-offs (such as, for example, those between economic sustainability and climate action).

In this context, it is important to conceptually define and empirically measure the synergies and trade-offs originated by the goals, in order to properly track sustainability and to enhance understanding and implementation.

This Special Issue gathers a number of peer-reviewed papers that address the issues described above. The selected papers should either (1) provide conceptual frameworks that highlight synergies and trade-offs between the SDGs and sustainability itself and/or (2) empirically evaluate the economic value of those synergies and trade-offs. Case studies may also be included.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome and research areas may include (but are not limited to):

  • Environmental sustainability and climate change;
  • Achieving the SDGs in the post-COVID19 era;
  • The SDGs and sustainable economic growth;
  • The SDGs and the zero hunger target;
  • The SDGs and sustainable production and consumption.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Anil Markandya
Dr. Laura Onofri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable development goals
  • synergies and trade-offs
  • UN three pillars of sustainability
  • economic sustainability
  • social sustainability
  • environmental sustainability

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

39 pages, 1538 KiB  
Article
A Life Cycle and Economic Assessment of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice for Environmental and Economic Sustainability
by Laura Onofri, Cristina Ojeda, Itziar Ruiz-Gauna, Francisco Greno and Anil Markandya
Sustainability 2024, 16(16), 6735; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16166735 - 6 Aug 2024
Viewed by 870
Abstract
This paper applies selected methodologies for the measurement of the environmental and economic sustainability of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (PGC) in Venice with a view to assessing the PGC’s sustainability and commitment to implementing selected SDGs. To assess environmental sustainability, a life cycle [...] Read more.
This paper applies selected methodologies for the measurement of the environmental and economic sustainability of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (PGC) in Venice with a view to assessing the PGC’s sustainability and commitment to implementing selected SDGs. To assess environmental sustainability, a life cycle assessment (LCA) has been carried out. The museum is conceptualized as a “firm” that produces several outputs and needs several inputs. The results provide the number of annual CO2e (and other pollutants) emissions linked to the regular activity of the museum. The environmental cost (in EUR), linked to the impacts obtained from LCA, has been calculated. To assess economic sustainability, a survey and econometric methods were used to value services directly generated by the museum, and input/output methods were used to compute the direct and indirect impacts on the local economy. Nonetheless, PGC visitors (those who travel to Venice with the main objective of visiting the PGC) contribute to around 1.2%/1.4% of Venice’s GDP. The results from input–output tables show that, although the final demand generated by the PGC’s own activities amounted to about EUR 620 million in 2022, the economic benefits of the PGC beyond this final demand are significant and very positive due to carry-over effects. Specifically, the PGC leads to an increase in GDP of around EUR 1.200 million, with a multiplier of 1.9. In terms of employment, around 8200 jobs are associated with the presence of the PGC. The net public finance revenue also clearly benefits, with a net income of around EUR 150 million in 2022. Comparing both the environmental and economic impacts of the PGC, one can conclude that the annual activities performed by the museum are highly sustainable, with the economic pillar strongly offsetting the costs generated using natural resources. The creation of economic value, therefore, is generated in respect of environmental boundaries, even if some minor flaws can be highlighted. The connection between museums and sustainable development goals is highly recognized. The findings show the PGC’s commitment to achieving and implementing selected SDGs, including SDG 4, SDG 11, and SDG 16, by implementing actions and strategies that are aligned with these goals. Full article
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