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AbstractSistema Ser is a private health care organization that originated in the volunteer work of its founder and director, Dr. Jorge Gronda, who, over the course of 15years, established structures that turned his personal initiative into a sustainable enterprise. At the time of the case, Dr. Gronda is considering how to lead his organization into its next important development step, further scaling SSer's social impact. The case's core issue is whether or not Dr. Gronda should maintain SSer's current service portfolio but geographically expand the organization in order to reach a large number of remote BOP communities with primary health services, or if SSer should broaden its range of services to cover additional medical procedures offered in San Salvador.

Significant changes in society were emphasized as being required to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, a need which was further intensified with the emergence of the pandemic. The prospective society should be directed towards sustainable development, a process in which technology plays a crucial role. The proposed study discusses the technological potential for attaining the Sustainable Development Goals via disruptive technologies. This study further analyzes the outcome of disruptive technologies from the aspects of product development, health care transformation, a pandemic case study, nature-inclusive business models, smart cities and villages. These outcomes are mapped as a direct influence on Sustainable Development Goals 3, 8, 9 and 11. Various disruptive technologies and the ways in which the Sustainable Development Goals are influenced are elaborated. The investigation into the potential of disruptive technologies highlighted that Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0 are the most supportive development to underpin the efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The study proposes the scenario where both Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0 are integrated to form smart cities and villages where the prospects of achieving Sustainable Development Goals are more favorable due to the integrated framework and Sustainable Development Goals’ interactions. Furthermore, the study proposes an integrated framework for including new age technologies to establish the concepts of Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0 integrated into smart cities and villages. The corresponding influence on the Sustainable Development Goals are also mapped. A SWOT analysis is performed to assess the proposed integrated approach to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. Ultimately, this study can assist the industrialist, policy makers and researchers in envisioning Sustainable Development Goals from technological perspectives.

This study investigates the nexus between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in Italy in the 1970-2007 years. The unit root tests results point out that our four variables are integrated of order one. Cointegration analysis reach contradictory results. However, the long-run estimations reveal that, if renewable energy consumption increases by 1%, real GDP decreases by 0.23%. The Toda and Yamamoto approach shows that exists a unidirectional causal flow, running from renewable energy consumption to aggregate income, in line with the "growth hypothesis". Moreover, these results are confirmed by Granger causality tests. While forecasts applications set out that VAR forecasts represent an improvement on simpler forecasts in more than half the comparisons, for each variable. In fact, VAR gives more accurate forecasts, over-performing the mean, RW, and AR methods.

Abstract We collect a household level panel dataset to estimate the price elasticities of electricity demand for different types of urban households in Bangladesh. We use an instrumental variable estimation strategy which exploits exogenous variation in average electricity prices induced by a value-added-tax shock. The results indicate significant heterogeneity in price elasticities by electricity consumption levels. We conduct a number of simulations under alternative policy scenarios to illustrate how incorporating the heterogeneous nature of price elasticities into pricing policy can help decrease electricity demand-supply mismatch and inequality in electricity consumption. The results have important policy implications for developing countries aiming to address major energy issues by implementing tariff reforms.

In Medellin, Colombia, electricity prices follow an unusual system of rising block prices. The stated objective of the policy is to redistribute income. In this paper we calculate the degree of redistribution achieved relative to that of a horizontal price schedule. We also calculate the efficiency cost of discrimination. The data come from a survey of over 1000 residential users of electricity.

COVID-19 has changed the permeability of borders in transboundary environmental governance regimes. While borders have always been selectively permeable, the pandemic has reconfigured the nature of cross-border flows of people, natural resources, finances and technologies. This has altered the availability of spaces for enacting sustainability initiatives within and between countries. In Southeast Asia, national governments and businesses seeking to expedite economic recovery from the pandemic-induced recession have selectively re-opened borders by accelerating production and revitalizing agro-export growth. Widening regional inequities have also contributed to increased cross-border flows of illicit commodities, such as trafficked wildlife. At the same time, border restrictions under the exigencies of controlling the pandemic have led to a rolling back and scaling down of transboundary environmental agreements, regulations and programs, with important implications for environmental democracy, socio-ecological justice and sustainability. Drawing on evidence from Southeast Asia, the article assesses the policy challenges and opportunities posed by the shifting permeability of borders for organising and operationalising environmental activities at different scales of transboundary governance.

The added value coming from involvement of stakeholders in changing attitudes and cultures towards a more sustainable-oriented society has been repeatedly emphasized in documents of the European Union. Those documents emphasize the advisability of creating a more inclusive system from the early planning stages and for the whole process with regard to the development of EU policies, involving the stakeholder as a referring partnership both at the national and regional levels. This paper focuses on a case study related to an Italian region where the local partnership has been involved during the setting up of the Rural Development Program 2014–2020 and where a participatory approach has been applied. In order to create an effective output coming from these open consultations, a participatory approach has been carried out using a dynamized Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis (SWOT Analysis). The results presented here come from a specific thematic table where experts and stakeholders discussed a specific priority focused on innovation, training and advisory in rural areas. As expected, sustainable innovations and services as well as training courses need to be improved, while financial resources addressing those issues need to be increased.

Small island developing states (SIDS) are distinct from other developing countries: they are particularly and comparatively more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Efforts to understand national-level vulnerability in these countries are limited. This paper helps to fill this gap and has two main aims. First, it identifies trends in national-level climate change adaptation among SIDS in the Caribbean region. Second, it identifies the limits to adaptation at the national level in these countries. In applying a resilience lens, and using summative content analysis techniques and semi-structured interviews with 26 senior policy-makers, this paper finds that Caribbean SIDS are primarily adapting to changes in hurricane, rainfall, and drought patterns. It also finds that most adaptations are being undertaken in the coastal zone and the water and agriculture sectors, and that there are many factors limiting national-level adaptation. The most commonly reported limit is financing, though not all policy-makers agree that financing is a limit. These findings are important for national SIDS governments and international donors and agencies that will be better able to identify and fill gaps in their adaptation actions and financing. This paper’s findings also highlight the importance of depoliticising climate change and prioritising good governance, improving SIDS’ access to international adaptation financing, and making the road to a climate-resilient future by walking.