Abstract
These days, achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) through infrastructure development puts a particular emphasis, on the one hand, on the need to address current challenges and, on the other hand, on the obligation to focus on individuals' well-being and communities' success. Firstly, creating resilient infrastructure calls for the commitment to bring prosperity and stability all around the Globe, while centering on innovative sustainable technologies. Secondly, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization implicates immense efforts to support citizens' equal and universal access to information, reliable infrastructure, financial services, and markets. Thirdly, fostering creativity and encouraging innovation leads to enhanced use of successful scientific research results, while targeting efficient use of resources, clean and environmentally friendly technologies, and sustainable industrial processes. Hence, how can individuals and communities meet future challenges in terms of upgrading the industries and the infrastructure, while focusing on prosperity for all?
TopIntroduction
Nowadays, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) put a great emphasis on the analysis, on the importance, and on the role of infrastructure development (The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, 2019, p. 2). In this matter, it ought to be noted that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are making reference, on the one hand, to the need to address current challenges and are leading, on the other hand, to the obligation to focus on individuals’ well-being and communities’ success (The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, 2019, pp. 3-5). Firstly, according to renowned specialists at a global level, creating resilient infrastructure calls for the commitment to bring prosperity and stability all around the Globe, while centering on innovative sustainable technologies (McKinsey Global Institute, 2016). When discussing the implications of creating a prosperous society, it needs to be brought to the attention the fact that businesses are generally known to “take a variety of approaches in addressing risks”, and in the majority of situations seem to “view climate change as a “threat multiplier” that exacerbates existing risks” (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 2023b). Secondly, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization implicates immense efforts to support citizens’ equal and universal access to information, reliable infrastructure, financial services and markets, which implicates that in order “to ensure a thriving future, businesses, communities, states, and the federal government must prepare for climate impacts” (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 2023a). When thinking about the necessity of a secure future for all, with a particular attention showed to citizens, communities, and the environment, researchers pointed out that “businesses are concerned about climate risks beyond their facilities, and are working to collaborate with state and local governments to enhance resilience” (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 2023b). Thirdly, fostering creativity and encouraging innovation leads to enhanced use of successful scientific research results, while targeting efficient use of resources, clean and environmentally friendly technologies, and sustainable industrial processes (Lytras & Naeve, 2005; The New Climate Economy, 2016). When dealing with the crucial roles of creativity and innovation in business, in terms of dealing with the aspects required by the infrastructure development, the specialists from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions noted the fact that “every business will need to take steps to be more resilient to climate change”, which might even mean that the organizations might be in the positions in which they may need to make “small adjustments or large changes”, depending on the complexity of the cases due to be addressed (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 2023b).
In general terms, there are several keywords that come to accompany the need for infrastructure development, such as, for instance, the following ones: resilient infrastructure, inclusive industrialization, sustainable industrialization, innovation, business, quality, knowledge, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and global economic environment.
There are several notable questions that come to mind and that need to be addressed in a thorough manner, as follows:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Influence on Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: These days the technology has evolved in such a manner that individuals feel overwhelmed by its advancement and implications, which have obviously come to affect the daily lives of people and have, more likely, changed irreversibly the way in which individuals are working ( Šebestová & Popescu, 2022 ); hence, specialists are drawing attention to the fact that the advancement of such technologies might lead to more and more people losing their jobs, since their place will be, little by little, taken by advanced machines and highly skilled robots ( Ceccarelli, 2012 ; Thompson, 2018 ; Laukyte, 2020 ; Finkelstein, 2021 ; Eteokleous & Nisiforou, 2022 ); however, no matter how rapid the advancement of the new techniques and technologies will be, people should learn how to become irreplaceable at their places of work and, when necessary, should find new jobs where they should make sure that, through their actions, are unique and are performing in a way that makes them necessary to the well-being of the entire activity and community ( Šebestová & Popescu, 2022 ); due to the humans abilities of being creative and innovative, individuals will learn how to perform better and better at all times and will be able to improve constantly their skills, which should make them invaluable intangible assets to any organization.
Resilient Infrastructure: It is believed that infrastructure possesses a “cross-cutting relevance to all of the SDGs”, which implicates the fact that the development of infrastructure as well as the planning processes which are specific to infrastructure implicate all the aspects that surround the complex term of “sustainability”, namely all the three dimensions of this particular concept, “environmental, social, and economic”, which triggers particular concerns for certain areas that implicate innovation and great support, such as: (a) the institutions and the governance mechanisms that are specific to infrastructure systems need to be analyzed and reorganized, in order to center in a better and in a more profound way on individuals and on communities; and (b) the policy levels – known to be multifaceted, namely, “sub-national, national, international” – ought to be more involved in addressing and in promoting “multi-disciplinary cooperation and coordination”, in the attempt to achieve all the elements embodied by “the socio-economic Sustainable Development Goals” (United Nations Environment Management Group (UNEMG), 2019).
Development of Quality, Reliable, Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure: According to studies, both the infrastructure and the environment are very strongly connected, which implicates the fact that economic development, sustainable development, and individuals and communities well-being depend on the manner in which the government, the world leaders, and the managers are able to support “inclusive and sustainable industrialization (…) with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes” (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2023).
Investment in Infrastructure and Innovation: Sustainable development comes with massive investments in key areas, such as, for instance, in infrastructure, which are is linked to creativity, innovation, research and development, having the power to rely on the advances that exist in terms of technologies and technological progress ( Popescu, 2022c ); in this way, specialists believe that infrastructure development brings energy efficiency in our communities and is responsible for creating new and more diverse jobs ( Popescu, 2022b ).
Constructing New Greener Infrastructures: Researchers and specialists worldwide brought into discussion, on numerous occasions so far, the importance of using more efficiently the natural resources of the Planet, which led to the necessity to consider in a more serious manner “the reduction of environmental impacts and disaster risks”, while centering on “retrofitting or reconfiguring existing infrastructure systems and exploiting the potential of smart technologies” (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2023); based on the most recent studies, renewable energy sectors are registering an impressive growth in the last years, which is highly promising for the future of the ecosystems, as well as the well-being of individuals and communities.
New Model Based on Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are responsible for putting into discussion numerous key topics among which could be mentioned the Goal no. 9 represented by “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure” (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 2020); some specialists believe that this particular aim deserves a lot of attention, being seen as a crucial desideratum for the development of nations and the economic growth levels all around the world; in the same line with the aspects highlighted in the lines above, there is a growing need to invest in infrastructure and in innovation, since technological progress is the one being held responsible for finding valuable solutions to the economic and the environmental challenges and problems (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2023).
Sustainable Industries: These days, there is a growing interest in promoting sustainable development with the aid of technological progress, innovation, new industries, as well as new and highly developed information and communication technologies, with a particular accent put on the need of becoming more responsible, more resilient, and more sustainable, hence learning to adapt better to the problems faced by entrepreneurial initiatives ( Popescu, 2022a ); sustainable industries are the key to a better future for all, embodying vital elements, such as, for example, “equal access to information and knowledge, as well as foster innovation and entrepreneurship” ( Popescu, 2021 ; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2023).
New Challenges, Successful Communities, Stable and Prosperous Societies: These days, our society faces newer and more accentuated challenges than ever before in the history of mankind, the reason being that there are so many forms of industry these days that specialists are overwhelmed with their complexity as well as their implications ( Popescu et al., 2012a ; Popescu et al., 2012b ; Šebestová & Popescu, 2022 ); besides all these constant changes and challenges, individuals have to create a specific order of priorities in their mind in order to be able to plan their lives and their future better, especially in the context in which there are so many attractions and distractions in this matter; healthy communities as well as prosperous and stable societies ought to represent the aim of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet there are so many other challenges and threats that everything seems to be less predictable and less easy to control; all in all, these challenging times are meant to bring, in like manner, new opportunities to our Planet, since social responsibility and corporate governance should ensure access to better and more sustainable products and should implicate that more sustainable solutions ought to be found for a better future for all ( Hallegatte et al., 2023 ; Islam & Islam, 2023 ; Popescu, 2023 ).
United Nations (UN) Environment’s Sustainable Infrastructure Initiative: In this day and age, it has become crucial to focus on promoting and on obtaining resilient infrastructure in all the senses stressed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which has led to the belief that infrastructure systems require an integrated approach in terms of their analysis, their development as well as their planning; what is more, resilient infrastructure has brought to light the necessity to promote industrialization, creativity, and innovation in a sustainable and in a resilient manner, taking into consideration other critical issues, such as: inclusive growth, alarming levels of poverty especially in certain areas of the Globe, access to clean water and sanitation, and so on (United Nations Environment Management Group (UNEMG), 2019; Popescu, 2020a ; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2023).