The Blue Planet - Sustainability Magazine (2022 Editorial)

Authors : Dr. Alison – Jane Hunter & Dr Kuntal Goswami

The Blue Planet is a multi-disciplinary magazine published by ACSDRI – Knowledge Press a publishing unit of the Australian Centre for Sustainable Development Research & Innovation (ACSDRI) – A Research Foundation.

This magazine aims to disseminate knowledge and propagate dialogue on the sustainability agenda to a mass audience. The magazine accepts topics related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), green innovation relating to SDGs, the circular economy, public policy, green projects, management, environmental science, and other related topics. The magazine has both print (ISSN: 2652-7995) and online (ISSN: 2652-7987) versions. The magazine welcomes scholarly contributions in the form of articles and reports from both academics and professionals.

In this edition, the magazine has eleven chapters covering a range of topics that contribute to the sustainable development agenda. The cover story introduces conceptual understanding of carbon accounting and sustainable finance. The article highlights that sustainable investment has grown by 55% between 2016 and 2020. Globally the cumulative value of sustainable investment is about $35.3 trillion in 2020.

The article by Lotti Fraser and Duncan Power educates readers about how the multi-dimensional approach of Dana Asia helping marginal communities in the Philippines to fight poverty and plastic waste. Dr Ritu Bhati’s action research grounded on the objectives of SDG-7, and provides a model on how to educate youth about energy conservation with an aim to bring about behavioural change among the younger generation.

Dr Jacob Deem provides insightful understanding of the power dynamic between government, citizen, and business, thereby educating on the level of freedoms and rights one can enjoy in a modern democracy. The collective authorship of Tarique Faiyaz, Dr Tari Vinaya Satyawan Savitri and Nabeela Siddiqui presents how India’s National Green Tribunal made a legal intervention to curb the menace of pollution of the rivers Ganga and Yamuna.

Attaining holistic sustainability is an aspiration of all communities of the world. Dr Kuntal Goswami, Dr Kazi Islam, and Winton Evers jointly provide insightful comparisons of all major contemporary sustainability frameworks and highlight the extent of sustainability practices among major organisations across the world. Dr Steve Andrews explains how the “Healing Sea Country Program” of Envirotech Education is empowering the Moreton Bay Island community to take environmental initiative into their own hands and create an accredited local environmental workforce.

Subhomoy Bandyopadhyay presents a case study showing how a multi-national organisation’s sustainable procurement objective is motivating its vendors to integrate and implement sustainability practices in its decision-making process and operation. In the article, Biofuels – The Renewable Energy Sector’s Sleeping Giant Andrew Ly argues that biofuels are generally made relatively easily from waste or by-products, thereby eliminating the need for ecosystem-destruction due to open-cast mining or drilling kilometres into the Earth’s crust for oil.

Mark Parnell, the ex-Green Senator of South Australia, reflects on the erosion of public participation rights as a retired environmental lawyer and member of parliament.

The final chapter is a photo-infographic series complementary to ACSDRI’s #biodiversitymatters campaign. In this edition, the theme highlights the interlinkage between climate change and biodiversity loss.

The magazine also illustrates nature photography to promote LOVE for NATURE. In 2022, ACSDRI conducted the #biodiversity matters Nature photography contest in association with VIBGYOR and GECCI. In addition, some generous photographers were also gifted, or the magazine acquired high-quality nature photography.

The contributors of the I LOVE NATURE – Photography Series are as follows:

We also take this opportunity to thank Mr Indranil Mukherjee from VIBGYOR – Photography & Videography (www.infovibgyor.com) and Abdul Hamid Tahir Hamid from GECCI – for their support and contribution. ACSDRI would also like to thank and acknowledge Kishan Chaniyara, BITNET Infotech and Arjun Toñacao, for the graphic design of this magazine.

Contact: BITNET Infotech, www.bitnetinfotech.com , Arjun Tonacao: tonacaoarjun.myportfolio.com

Co-editors of the magazine:

For future publications and collaboration, please contact:

Dr. Kuntal Goswami -Founder of ACSDRI & Co-editor of The Blue Planet – Magazine Registered Climate Active Consultant, Certified IPA Public Accountant, Registered Tax Accountant & ASIC Agent.

A Joint PhD (Australian National University-Charles Darwin University), Australia

E-mail: [email protected];
M: +61401646872 www.acsdri.com ;

Editorial

The magazine has both print (ISSN: 2652-7995) and online (ISSN: 2652-7987) versions. The magazine welcomes scholarly contributions in the form of articles and reports from both academics and professionals.

The magazine accepts topic related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), green innovation relating to SDG, the circular economy, public policy, green project, management, environmental science, and any other related topics. The objective of this magazine is to disseminate knowledge and to propagate dialogue on the sustainability agenda to a mass audience.

Attaining holistic sustainability is an aspiration of all communities of the world. Dr Kuntal Goswami, Dr Kazi Islam, and Winton Evers jointly provide insightful comparisons of all major contemporary sustainability frameworks and highlight the extent of sustainability practices among major organisations across the world. Dr Steve Andrew explains how the “Lost Island Project” of Envirotech Education is empowering the Moreton Bay Island community to take environmental initiative into their own hands and create an accredited local environmental workforce

Mark Parnell, the ex-Green Senator of South Australia provides his reflection as a retired environmental lawyer and member of parliament, on the erosion of public participation rights.

FINALIST OF 2022

ACSDRI NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

IN ASSOCIATION WITH
GECCL AND VIBGYOR

Photography by

Bhaskar Nandi

Photography by

S.V.S RAO

Photography by

Sateja Rajwade

Photography by

Ashok Manjanath

FINALIST OF 2022

ACSDRI NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Photography By

Srinivas Mallela

Photography By

Sagar Shinde

Photography By

Katan Talati

FINALIST OF 2022

ACSDRI NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Photography By

Arvind Ahir

Photography By

Jayesh O Bhanushali

Photography By

Sateja Rajwade

FINALIST OF 2022

ACSDRI NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Photography By

Ashok Manjanath

Photography By

Deviprasad Rao

Photography By

Ashok Manjanath

FINALIST OF 2022

ACSDRI NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Photography By

Dr. Veena Sagar

Photography By

Dr. Veena Sagar

FINALIST OF 2022

ACSDRI NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Photography By

Deviprasad Rao

Photography By

Kakuloor Rohith Sai Goud

Photography By

Vinod Shalivahana

FINALIST OF 2022

ACSDRI NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Photography By

Bhaskar Nandi

Photography By

Sateja Rajwade

Photography By

Sourav Mahant

Photography By

Bhaskar Nandi

Photography By

Deviprasad Rao

FINALIST OF 2022

ACSDRI NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Photography By

Rupesh Chindarkar

Photography By

Ashok Manjanath

Photography By

Ashok Manjanath

FINALIST OF 2022

ACSDRI NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Photography By

Umar Belo Galadima

Photography By

Umar Belo Galadima

FINALIST OF 2022

ACSDRI NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Photography By

Sateja Rajwade

Photography By

Jayesh O Bhanushali

AUSTRALIAN

CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH & INNOVATION

About us

The Australian Centre for Sustainable Development Research Innovation (ACSDRI) is a not-for-profit research foundation with a key objective to promote research and education focusing on seventeen global Sustainable Development Goals.

OUR MISSION

To advocate for how to live within the ecological limits of this BLUE PLANET – Our ONLY Home.

ACSDRI publish research articles, books, and scholarly articles in our multi-disciplinary magazine–THE BLUE PLANET.

Our flagship campaign, #biodiversitymatters, raises awareness to protect, conserve, and enhance the natural environment.

We also regularly conduct research seminars and conferences on various sustainability topics to promote ecologically sustainable development values and principles.

Key highlights of our activities in 2022

Learning from 2022 Annual Seminar

Topic: Green Innovation & Sustainable Business Model-Pathway to Sustainable Development Goals

In the seminar, Darren Lutze, CEO of Inconmat (www.inconmat.com.au) showcased INNOVATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY in the construction and infrastructure industry. He mentioned that corrosion of steel reinforcement is one of the biggest problems in the construction industry.

It is estimated that Australia incurs about AU$ 13 billion per year to repair or replace existing infrastructure due to corrosion of steel reinforcement.

The risk of corrosion is likely to be aggravated further due to climate change. Darren Lutze educated the audience about Fibe Reinfored Polymer (FRP) Bars and Geopolymer Concrete, which are a couple of innovations in the construction and infrastructure industry.

Darren Lutze

Glimpses of the seminar

We also had a four-member panel discussion on Green Innovation Sustainable Business Model moderated by Matthew Wright-Simon. The panel members were Allys Todd (ValAi www.valai.com.au), Fiona Hancock (EY www.ey.com), Jacob Pickering (Bourkehood www.bourkehood.com), and Associate Professor Ashish Malik (University of Newcastle www.newcastle.edu.au).

All panel members put forward their intellectual arguments on how we can advance the Green Innovation & Sustainable Business Model – Pathway to Sustainable Development Goals.

Glimpses of the Seminar

Allys Todd advocated to encourage the spirit of start-ups and innovators because they are self-motivated, nimble, flexible, new, lack the burden of experience, and, most importantly, are not averse to risk and failure. Hence, large corporates need to support multiple start-ups and innovators to create an ecosystem of green innovators.

Fiona Hancock highlighted the lack of policy certainty in sustainability over the past decade or so. She mentioned that there is a need for more financial options to fund the sustainability agenda. Fiona also urged more transparency, disclosure, and standardization of sustainability reporting frameworks.

Jacob Pickering explained about innovation funding and tax incentives for R&D. Jacob elaborated on what constitutes R&D. It is not necessarily one needs to build a spacecraft or to invent a new drug to constitute R&D. It can be as simple as a company creating a new way to handle their waste products or a new way to save costs. R & D incentive is designed to help businesses to undertake this challenging work.

Associate Professor Ashish Malik educated the audience on how to bring about “Societal policy change” in general and in the context of how to move away fromthe business-as-usual situation towards sustainability. Assoc. Prof. Ashish mentioned that, in general, we need to address three key stakeholders to bring about any societal change: academia, industry, and government – which make a triple helix structure.

We must also figure out how to make these three stakeholders work together. The issue is that these stakeholders often cannot decode each other’s communication.

As a solution, Assoc. Prof Malik elaborated on a theoretical term called the “Quadruple Helix,” which means creating a community of practice or facilitators. These fourth-dimension groups can engage with the community to create a network and a sense of trust so that people can work together.

Alls Todd

Jacob Pickering

Fiona Hancock

The full video can be accessed from the link below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCBbFNs1zEs&t=1588s

Associate Professor Ashish Malik

Panel Discussion Moderator:

Matthew Wright-Simon

We also had the opportunity to listen to Councillor Franz Knoll,City of Adelaide and Craig Wilkins, Conservation Council of South Australia, Mark Parnell, Ex-Senator of Parliament of South Australia, and Winton Evers, EcoProfit.