Youth Groups Needed to Achieve the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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civic engagement, corporate social responsibility, haves, have-nots, globalization, personal social responsibility, service-learning, sustainability, sustainable development goals, United Nations 1. Introduction The concept of “sustainable development” has been discussed for many years, but the conception of the term was put forth in 1987 by the Brundtland Commission, formerly known as the World Commission of Environment and Development (WCED), which issued their magnum opus, Our Common Future. The term has come to mean, “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Our Common Future was this UN body’s assessment -- after much analysis, synthesis, expert testimony from industrialists, scientists, NGO representatives, and the general public -- of the dismal future within our commonality. In other words, the world is on an unsustainable path. This 1987 work led to the 1992 Earth Summit, formerly known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro. The result of the Rio meeting was “hugs and kisses” for all who attended from 172 countries, with 108 heads of state, and a final document: Agenda 21. Agenda 21 set forth the uniform marching orders to reverse the unsustainable path being taken with current development practices. The 1996 Kyoto Protocol on climate change followed, with less participation then the Earth Summit -- the United States did not participate for fear that participating would lead to a “reduction” it its way of life. The Protocol’s result was agreement that mandatory targets on greenhouse-gasAbstract
The quest to achieve “sustainable development” has been a quixotic, long-term goal for all people. Sustainable development has been defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Could it ever be accomplished? Starting with the three main pillars of “sustainability”: 1) social, 2) environmental, and 3) economic, which are often referred to as “people, planet, and profits,” a strategy will be proposed here. Some achievements have been made, but there is no larger initiative to face the planet than achieving “sustainable development” in a globalized way. The largest untapped force to achieve the mega-goal is Youth. After discussing more formally the three parts of sustainable development, the UN’s 17 goals of sustainable development, a proposition will be proffered which focuses on the energy of youth to be harnessed to achieve the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). This article will present an overview of existing business youth organizations, their work towards the United Nations 17 SDGs, and proposes a concept for a new organization: Business Youth for Sustainable Development (BY4SD). The establishment of BY4SD can accelerate the UN’s achievement of its 17 sustainable development goals.Downloads
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Published
2018-01-01
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All articles published in the International Journal of Business & Applied Sciences (IJBAS) are open access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
