Operationalizing Sustainable Development to Benefit People and the Planet

Last week, my colleague Emi Kameyama and I hosted a virtual session during the SRI (Sustainability Research + Innovation) Conference (https://sricongress.org/)?–the largest gathering for the global sustainability community. We were happy to share the findings from the National Academies of Sciences report Operationalizing Sustainable Development to Benefit People and the Planet.

During the panel, report co-chairs E William (Bill) Colglazier and Cherry Murray discussed key takeaways from the report and highlighted the role local communities play in achieving sustainable development, and localization matters when planning sustainability initiatives. Erin Bromaghim (Deputy Mayor of International Affairs, City of Los Angeles), Josh Tewksbury (Ira Rubinoff Director, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panamá), and Sandra López Vergès (Senior Researcher, Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies in Panamá) joined us on the panel and highlighted several on-the-ground examples of localization of sustainability goals. While the science is clear in many cases, a common thread across all presentations was inclusion of social scientists and of course the communities that would benefit from the interventions.

I hope that the audiences left with inspiration to develop and implement their own strategies to foster essential partnerships and coordination between sectors, regions and nations. We must keep science education and implementation locally relevant to advance sustainability initiatives to make the most significant impact.

You can access the November 2022 report here: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26654/operationalizing-sustainable-development-to-benefit-people-and-the-planet.