Sustainability and Climate Change

Financial institutions can make a significant contribution to sustainable economic development. Characterized as “green banking,” banks can foster environmentally friendly practices as well as socially responsible business practices. This study explores the adoption pattern of various green banking activities by different types of banks in Bangladesh between 2014 and 2019, and the extent of banks' contribution to achieving sustainable development in the country. The secondary data used in the study reveals that many commercial banks (private and foreign) have been practicing green banking since 2014 and have instituted green financing policies that are environmentally friendly and sustainable. However, the state-owned commercial and specialized development banks have been more reluctant to adopt green banking practices. The study proposes a framework for adopting green banking practices that will contribute to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), along with policy changes to align banking operations with the SDGs.

Driven by external pressure, enterprises have begun to recognize the importance of sustainability. However, current sustainability reporting systems require improvements to include ways of measuring sustainability. This article presents a framework of a sustainable balance sheet (SBS) that is an extended version of a traditional balance sheet. The conceptual tools of this SBS framework come from relevant parts of resource theory and Vatter's fund theory (Vatter, 1947).

Coastal communities in South Louisiana and worldwide are increasingly impacted by climate-related events such as hurricanes, floods, and rising sea levels. In addition, they have recently faced the burden of a global pandemic that may also be a consequence of climate change. In many under-resourced communities, nongovernmental community-based organizations (CBOs) represent the backbone of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about the pandemic's impact on the efforts of these organizations to support and sustain individual and community resilience to this event and to the disruptive impacts of climate change-related weather events.

Procedures embedded in the Rapid Assessment Procedure—Informed Community Ethnography methodology were used to analyze data collected from semi-structured interviews with 26 representatives of 24 different community-based programs in South Louisiana. The pandemic created numerous challenges to under-resourced community resilience by revealing the fragmented nature of community solidarity in adhering to public health guidelines; the lack of available social, political, and economic resources; and the influence of systemic racism and social determinants of health.

To address these challenges, communities relied on social connections and support; prior experiences with climate-related disasters and adversity; and the resilience building, supporting, and sustaining efforts of CBOs. These organizations have responded to these challenges through provision of new services, expansion of existing services, providing access to training webinars, partnerships with other CBOs, and initiatives to address broader social issues, while balancing the disparity between increased demand and reduced supply of services and increased reliance on technology that is not uniformly accessible to all communities and residents. In responding to the pandemic, CBOs have played a major role in addressing the threats to individual and community resilience needed to prepare for and respond to natural disasters and other consequences of global environmental change in underserved communities.

This study explores youth engagement practices in environmental activities. The evaluation is based on a survey; respondents consisted of 400 youths from two subdistricts located in Muallim, Perak, Malaysia: Slim and Hulu Bernam Timur. The data was analyzed descriptively to obtain the Cronbach alpha values, and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed using SPSS 22 software. The results of the EFA reveal four youth engagement practices: Purchasing Activity Practices (AAP), 3R Activity Practices (AA3R), Energy Saving Practices (APT), and Travel Mode Practices (AMP). These practices may inform environmental education and behavioral targeting to promote sustainability among youth in Malaysia and the evaluation provided in the discussion may be duplicated to assist in similar practices assessment in other areas.

The world faces significant challenges that require transformative changes facilitated by Sustainability Change Agents (SCAs). Universities around the world have explicitly taken up the responsibility of developing in students the skills and knowledge (i.e., competencies) necessary to be successful SCAs. While there is clear convergence around planning competencies, intrapersonal and implementation competencies have recently emerged in the literature. These competencies will have to remain effective even in the face of adversity, yet too little is known about sources of motivation for SCAs and how motivation can be maintained despite these inevitable setbacks. Since the needed transformations will be collective processes, motivation to be a SCA needs to be understood in the social and realistic context in which they would be applied. This study sought to gain specific insights into: 1.) What motivates students to be SCAs? 2.) How do these SCAs maintain their motivation in the face of setbacks? 3.) What can higher education institutions (e.g., universities, colleges) do to better support the motivation of SCAs? In order to gain insights into these questions, 83 aspiring SCAs were surveyed and their responses analyzed using qualitative content analysis. For this group of SCAs, the key source of motivation evolved from a focus on nature, learning, and individual behavior to a more social view with a concern for structural change. Moreover, social networks and intrapersonal skills helped to restore students' motivation following setbacks. Despite being university students, the SCAs surveyed had already experienced significant setbacks and, largely without institutional support, learned strategies to overcome them and maintain their motivation. Motivation and the skills, knowledge, and experience of how to maintain the drive for positive change in the face of setbacks is crucial in order for SCAs to be capable of supporting the critically needed transformations, and universities must play their part in fostering the SCAs' capability.

Using an industry survey data source, this study evaluates which institutions and entities are considered by the United States population to be more trustworthy to protect the environment. The results indicate there is not a singular institution or entity that is overwhelmingly trusted by the public to protect the environment. Indeed, a significant portion of the population trusts no one to protect the environment. Level of education and race are the most consistent explanatory factors for what influences trust. Additionally, generation, partisan affiliation, and regional location also provide keen insights for variation in trust levels.The findings suggest a lack of trust among the American population that should be alarming for developing robust responses to environmental problems.

This article reviews the environmental, ecological, and social impacts of current renewable energy technologies. Problems of these technologies are highlighted in terms of manufacturing, installation, lifetime, and end-of-life. What emerges are concerning issues that need to be urgently addressed as they potentially threaten the recovery of the Earth system and therefore also impact society. It is suggested that many of these issues have been overlooked because of our focus on carbon reduction, which, while important, may lead to a failure to deal with other equally concerning threats, and even exacerbate them. These threats are highlighted and then urgent priorities, in terms of policy, regulation, and research, are identified, paving the way to an energy future that does not threaten the functionality of the Earth system. Finally, key underlying themes are identified that may inform our decision-making as we move forward. If we are to aim for a truly sustainable future, in terms of economics, ecology, and society, this article argues that we must seek to aim higher than current practice and plan for a future that not only arrests anthropogenic climate destabilization and its threat to many species, including our own, but that builds the foundations for ecological recovery. Better-than-before is not good enough. We need energy technologies that minimize our impact on our planet.