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187 Sustainability Topics For Research Papers In 2023

sustainability topics

If you are a student of environmental science or even technology, sustainability is a very important topic for your research papers. These topics help you study the impact of mankind on the environment and different options that are available to prevent further deterioration of the planet. There is a lot of scope for research on this subject, making it one of the most common topics for dissertation or thesis writing. Here is a list of some of the best environmental sustainability research topics that will help you get started on your research paper and project.

The topics below are practical and easy because you can find a lot of information about them. Whether you are writing an informative or argumentative paper, these topics are the perfect starting point for you.

Environmental Sustainability Research Topics

These sustainability research topics are suitable for in-depth data and analysis. They are ideal for lengthy writing assignments.

  • Draw a comparison between different non-profit groups that are dedicated to improving sustainability.
  • Can custom sustainable designs for classrooms improve learning?
  • Is adding better natural lighting a sustainable way of saving on energy costs in large organizations?
  • What are the different technological innovations that are focused on reducing environmental pollution?
  • Does veganism help protect the environment?
  • Are hand dryers instead of paper towels a good idea for public restrooms?
  • How is pollution related to a country’s GDP?
  • Why do developing nations find it difficult to start recycling programs?
  • What are some political challenges that the environment faces globally?
  • Is American politics affecting the environment?
  • What are the benefits of choosing a vegan diet?
  • Do developed countries have the responsibility of helping third-world nations become more sustainable?
  • Are your current local environmental policies effective enough?
  • Should high schools and colleges ban the use of plastic?
  • How does food consumption affect the environment?
  • Why is Sweden so different from other countries when it comes to protecting the environment?
  • What are some technological advancements that help us reduce waste?
  • Why have we failed to reduce food wastage across the globe?
  • Is better recycling technology the solution to reducing waste in landfills?
  • How are plastic straws a threat to the environment of the Earth?
  • Can increased taxes items meant for single-use reduce waste from piling up in landfills?
  • Why do some states succeed in banning plastic bags while others fail?
  • How is overpopulation related to pollution?
  • In the next fifty years, how will the population impact the environment?
  • Do we have enough natural resources to support the exploding population across the globe?
  • What role does the government play in improving food resources?

Easy Sustainability Topics For Research

These sustainability topics for research are commonly used by students because they are practical in terms of research and the availability of data.

  • Is banning plastic a suitable solution to reduce environmental pollution?
  • What are the options available to make cutlery sustainable?
  • Should metros ban the use of plastic straws completely?
  • Why is our ecosystem so dependent on sea life?
  • Does any carbon footprint come from farm animals and how?
  • Why is it the need of the hour to prevent waste from being dumped into oceans?
  • How does getting fair-trade certificates to benefit university campuses?
  • Why should we increase the consumption of local produce?
  • How does supporting local businesses improve sustainability?
  • Should food donation programs be imposed in cities?
  • How has the emergence of farmers’ markets helped various communities?
  • Is buffet-style dining beneficial or harmful for efforts toward sustainability?
  • How can taxes be used to improve sustainability efforts?
  • How can leftovers from hotels and restaurants be disposed of sustainably?
  • What are the various benefits of food programs for the community?
  • Explain the process of growing vegan produce and its effect on the environment
  • How have sustainability efforts been affected globally as a result of the pandemic?
  • Is zero-waste living ideal?
  • What does sustainability mean in the 21st century?
  • How is supporting local food markets sustainable?
  • How does the greenhouse effect change as a result of less meat consumption?
  • Does eating red meat improve the quality of the air?
  • What are some benefits of switching to a plant-based diet?
  • Should school cafeterias increase the options for vegan food?
  • How do slaughterhouses impact the environment negatively?
  • What if all restaurants switched to buffet-style meals?

Best Sustainability Topics For Research Papers

Looking for sustainability topics for research that can ensure better grades. Here is a list of some of the best topics on sustainability that you can choose from.

  • Give a detailed plan for a sustainable restaurant.
  • Why do large cities struggle with reducing air pollution?
  • Should cities make it mandatory to reduce food waste in community gardens?
  • What are some of the primary benefits of improving public transportation systems?
  • Should rainwater harvesting become compulsory for large buildings?
  • Has technology benefited or harmed the environment?
  • Will reducing our dependence on technology help sustain the environment?
  • Are smaller classrooms beneficial or harmful to the environment?
  • How has the pandemic affected the environment positively?
  • What is the negative impact of the pandemic on the environment?
  • Can reducing the number of school days improve sustainability efforts?
  • How do school campuses contribute to environmental deterioration? How can it be reduced?
  • What are the best ways to teach children about non-renewable and renewable resources?
  • What are some immediate changes that you can make in your life to become more sustainable?
  • Create a detailed sustainability plan for your family
  • Can maintaining a constant temperature at home reduce energy costs? Support your argument with data.
  • Chart out a detailed zero-waste living plan that can be implemented easily.
  • What is the relationship between community health and the environment?
  • Case studies of the impact of pollution on the health of people.
  • How do developing nations improve their access to water resources?
  • Can government policies truly help the environment?
  • Will creating better public spaces like riverbeds and parks improve sustainability?
  • What are some measures that can be used to improve access to clean water in developing nations?
  • What are some measures taken by Denmark to reduce food waste?
  • Discuss Sweden’s efforts to use waste for heating and energy.
  • How can we reduce pollution and improve the quality of care at the same time?

Environmental Research Topics for College Students

These sustainability topics for research papers are perfect for college students as they are most relevant and extremely interesting as well.

  • What are the best ways to deal with medical waste?
  • How has awareness about recycling improved sustainability efforts?
  • Is global warming false as some world leaders claim?
  • What are some ecological challenges that the US will face in the coming decades?
  • Will green universities improve students’ mental health?
  • How can growing your food help in improving sustainability?
  • What are the best measures that communities can take to prevent waste
  • What are the best ways to use landscaping sustainably?
  • Is gardening around the house a good way of improving the quality of air amidst growing pollution rates?
  • Should fireworks be banned?
  • How can we raise cattle sustainably?
  • How is the fashion industry impacting the environment?
  • Discuss the importance of sustainable fashion in the world we live in.
  • How can community gardens help cities become more sustainable?
  • How can you measure the success of a smart city by the well-being of its inhabitants?
  • What are smart cities? Can you provide examples?
  • How can digitization be used to pursue a sustainability agenda?
  • What are the various ecological dimensions of sustainability?
  • Should governments provide more grants for research on sustainability?
  • Discuss some sustainable measures that we can learn from our ancestors.
  • What is the impact of America’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement?
  • What are the Paris Climate Agreement and its important terms?
  • How can changing policies from a macro level to a micro level improve sustainability efforts?
  • What are the best measures taken by the UN to improve sustainability?
  • Greta Thunberg: The poster child of climate change or a publicity stunt?
  • The most impactful environmentalists over the last decade.

Sustainability Topics for All Levels

These sustainability research paper topics are perfect for you whether you are writing a high school paper or a college paper. They are versatile and easy to compile.

  • How will our carbon footprint impact the generations to come?
  • What are the different types of sustainability?
  • What does sustainability education mean?
  • How can your school or college improve its regulations to make the campus sustainable?
  • Are there any sustainability programs that have been implemented in your school or college?
  • Do solar panels on buildings help reduce energy costs?
  • What are the benefits of including sustainability education in the school curriculum?
  • How does non-plastic waste in the oceans impact the environment?
  • How to prevent the greenhouse effect from agriculture?
  • Should governments support and invest in more solar technologies?
  • How can a home become energy efficient with solar energy?
  • How does an improved ventilation system improve sustainability?
  • What are the measures taken by modern schools and colleges in improving sustainability?
  • How can modern classrooms make use of natural light for better sustainability?
  • How can we save on energy by setting systems off when they are still idle.
  • What are the various benefits of changing classroom timings to optimize the use of natural lighting?
  • Is it possible to apply a game theory to manage challenges with sustainability?
  • What is the difference between biocapacity and carbon footprint in various regions?
  • What are some challenges faced by companies when it comes to conserving energy?
  • Can you name some environmental groups that have been most effective in cleaning up plastic from the oceans and how they have achieved their goals?
  • What are some positive effects of reducing computer screen brightness?
  • Name some countries with the poorest environmental laws?
  • A case study of the most sustainable nations in the world.
  • The effect of plastic on the environment in detail.
  • What are some effective measures of saving water?
  • A study of oil spills and their effect on marine life over the last decade.

Environmental Project Topics

Have an environmental sustainability topic due? This sustainability topics list is all you need to present projects that grab the attention of your audience.

  • What are some barriers and drivers of sustainability research?
  • How does on-campus sustainable research help increase practical solutions for environmental sustainability?
  • Provide a business case to install new lighting systems
  • What are some lighting systems available today that are most sustainable?
  • Needs luxury led to an unsustainable environment?
  • What are the benefits of using electric cars?
  • The most impactful evidence to prove that global warming is real.
  • Do political agendas suppress sustainability efforts? How?
  • What are some of the major threats of climate change?
  • The importance of teaching children about sustainability
  • What are some of the most common examples of wasteful living that you see around you?
  • The relationship between undernutrition, obesity, and climate change.
  • Why has ice loss across the Himalayas become rapid over the last 40 years?
  • How quickly are we depleting natural resources?
  • How does the medical industry contribute to global warming?
  • What is the Lancet Countdown on climate change and health?
  • Does climate change impact the health of newborn children?
  • How has industrialization helped and harmed the environment?
  • The use of heating and cooling systems and their impact on the environment.
  • The harmful impact of the film industry on the environment
  • Celebrities who have successfully endorsed anti-climate change campaigns
  • KFC and the Amazon Rainforests: What was the chaos about?
  • How has the fast-food industry impacted the environment?
  • The contribution of the aviation industry toward global warming
  • What is a carbon tax and how can it help improve efforts towards sustainability?
  • Write about the development of waste streams over the last few decades.
  • Are newspapers viable in times of sustainability?
  • The importance of enhancing biodiversity to reduce environmental deterioration.
  • Can improving safety regulations for cyclists contribute to sustainability?
  • What are some of the most sustainable multi-national companies? Discuss their strategies.

Sustainable Development Topics

Development is a very important topic for research paper writing for students of environmental studies. Here are some sustainability topics for research related to development to help you get started.

  • How has economic globalization impacted the environment?
  • What is the relationship between autocracy, democracy, wars, and natural resources?
  • How does a finite environmental capacity impact political and economic development?
  • Changing human behavior and the use of natural resources.
  • Adaptation and mitigation policies to solve environmental issues.
  • The difference between the approach of a political institution and market-based requirements towards sustainability.
  • How has the automobile industry taken steps towards sustainability?
  • What are some effects of Green Technology on the economy?
  • What is the advantage of using Green Technology in organizations?
  • A detailed study of the Global Environmental Sustainability Framework to technology.
  • How can digitization be used to improve awareness about sustainability?
  • Is it practical to implement Green technology in developing countries? What are the best measures that can be taken?
  • How can construction become sustainable?
  • How can Green Thinking help improve sustainability?
  • What is the perception of green energy and sustainability in multinational organizations?
  • What are some sustainability policies that have helped developing nations?
  • The impact of digitization on sustainability
  • What are the current trends in Green Technology?
  • Should builders receive incentives for constructing sustainable structures?
  • Incentives for sustainability in industrial settings.
  • The most effective option for disposing of electronic waste.
  • How advancement in medical technology has impacted the environment
  • The relationship between motorsports and the environment.
  • Do large public events like concerts and sports events impact sustainability?
  • The impact of styrofoam cups on the environment.
  • Advancements in technology have contributed to sustainability.
  • Scientists who have contributed effectively towards sustainability.

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80 sustainability research topics for students to explore green campus issues

You’re planning your thesis, paper or capstone? You want to do a student research project with impact. We have outlined a range of sustainability research topics for you. The list specifically focuses on how to green your campus . Take action to make your university more sustainable!

Our list of sustainability research topics helps students investigate green campus issues.

Sustainability research topics: Education

Some sustainability research topics on education for sustainable development :

  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of different definitions of sustainability education? Which definition could your university adopt?
  • To what extent is sustainability education already implemented in the curriculum of your university?
  • What are the strengths and limitations of advancing sustainability education within your curriculum?
  • Where does your university stand with regards to sustainability education compared to other institutions of higher education?
  • What is the demand among students for more, different or better sustainability education?
  • How can existing sustainability projects on campus be used for educational purposes, e.g. visit solar cells on rooftops as part of engineering classes?

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  • What definition of sustainability research should your university embrace?
  • To what extent is sustainability research already practised at your university?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the institution’s sustainability research portfolio compared to other institutions of higher education?
  • What are the drivers of and barriers to sustainability research at your university?
  • How could sustainability research help students to study sustainability issues on campus and inform practical change projects?
  • What are the opportunities and costs associated with promoting sustainability research? What could a plan of action look like to strategically advance it?

Some sustainability research topics on community engagement and awareness:

  • What are the perceptions of and attitudes towards sustainability by students and staff?
  • What are ways to promote sustainable lifestyles among students?
  • To what extent are students and staff aware of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ?
  • How aware are students and staff about the institution’s sustainability ambitions?
  • What are the benefits and disadvantages of approaches to communicate the university’s sustainability efforts better?
  • What are the challenges to involve students and staff in the university’s sustainability efforts?
  • Which ways to increase the engagement of the campus community exist, for example by organising sustainability events ?

For inspiration, read our post on 10 projects to engage students on the SDGs .

Explore sustainability topics for research papers on different issues related to greening campus operations:

  • What are the opportunities and costs of improving the building insulations to save energy?
  • What lighting systems exist on the market that are more energy efficient?
  • What would a business case look like to install a new lighting system?
  • Where are the main consumers of energy on campus?
  • What innovative energy technologies are developed at the institution itself? To what extent could those be directly installed and tested in buildings?
  • What lux values are sufficient for work and study places so that places are appropriately lit without wasting too much electricity?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of different sustainable building standards?
  • Which building standards would be most appropriate to inform the institution’s sustainable building policy?
  • What are the costs and benefits associated with different types of green roofs?
  • On which buildings could green roofs be installed?
  • To what extent are catering and food products certified as organic or fair trade food?
  • How much and why do students attach importance to organic and fair trade products sold in the cafeteria?
  • How can students and employees be made more aware of the multiple benefits – e.g. health, environment, economics – of sustainable (organic, fair trade, local) food ?
  • How much are students willing to pay for more organic or fair trade products?
  • What types and amounts of waste are produced by whom and where at the institution?
  • How did waste streams develop over the last years?
  • What are innovative practices in reducing waste going to landfill or incineration? How could those be applied?
  • What are the costs and benefits associated with waste recycling ?
  • What options exist to switch from paper-based to more digital forms of working and studying to reduce paper consumption?
  • What are the environmental, economic, and social benefits and disadvantages of different options to advance more digital working and studying?

More sustainability research topics on campus operations:

Biodiversity

  • What species live at different campus locations?
  • To what extent do students, faculty and staff value this biodiversity?
  • What are ways to enhance biodiversity on campus?

Greenhouse-gase (GHG)

  • What are the pros and cons of different GHG accounting standards?
  • Which standard should the institution use to develop a GHG emissions inventory ?
  • Where are GHG emissions released at the institution?
  • How big is the institution’s GHG footprint?

Procurement

  • What does sustainable procurement mean in the context of a university?
  • How is procurement currently organised? To what extent are sustainability criteria already applied in tenders?
  • To what extent could the university implement sustainability criteria that go beyond the legal minimum to advance the environmental, economic and social benefits of tenders?
  • What are the largest consumers of water?
  • What is the direct and indirect water-footprint of the institution?
  • What are opportunities and costs to reduce water usage?

Transportation and mobility

  • How do students and staff currently travel to the university and as part of their study or work?
  • What is the environmental impact of these travel behaviours? How could the impact be reduced?
  • What best practices exist among companies and other institutions of higher education to reduce staff travel or incentivize different travel behaviours?

Behaviour change

  • What is the potential to reduce resource consumption through behaviour change?
  • What are the best practices of behaviour change interventions at institutions of higher education?
  • To what extent could these projects be also applied at your university?

Sustainability research topics on governance, strategy and reporting

Sustainability research topics on governance issues:

  • What does sustainability mean for institutions of higher education?
  • How does a comprehensive concept of a sustainable institution of higher education look like?
  • How could the university’s long-term sustainability vision look like? How could this vision be realized through a roadmap?
  • What are innovative ways to develop sustainability strategies for a university through a bottom-up approach?
  • What ethical imperatives would demand that institutions of higher education care for their impact on the planet, people and profit?
  • What are the responsibilities of institutions of higher education to contribute to global challenges, such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change?

Monitoring and reporting

  • What data is important to monitor the institution’s environmental impact? How can this data be collected and analysed?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of different sustainability reporting standards?
  • Which sustainability reporting standards should the university adhere to?
  • What are efficient ways to organize sustainability reporting within the organization?
  • What is the best way to communicate results among students, staff and outside actors?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of different methodologies (e.g. payback or Net Present Value) to calculate the financial costs and benefits of sustainability investments?
  • Which methodology should the institution apply?
  • To what extent could sustainability projects be financed through a revolving loan fund?
  • What are the possibilities to involve outside organizations through energy contracting?
  • What subsidies are available at the European, national and city level to develop a green campus?
  • How could the university use these financing options to advance its energy transition?
  • What are approaches to integrate negative externalities into the accounting schemes of the university?
  • What would be the opportunities, benefits and risks associated with establishing an energy company that’s owned by the university?
  • What are the best practices to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy projects at public institutions around the world?
  • How can incentive schemes be changed so that energy end-users directly benefit from reductions in energy usage?

We hope this list inspired you to find a sustainability topic for research papers.

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Sustainable Development Research Paper Topics

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In this comprehensive guide to sustainable development research paper topics , we explore the diverse and critical issues related to sustainable development within the field of environmental science. Sustainable development encompasses the principles of economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection, aiming to create a better future for present and future generations. This abstract provides an overview of the page’s content, including a comprehensive list of sustainable development research paper topics, expert advice on topic selection, and guidance on writing a sustainable development research paper. Additionally, we introduce our writing services, offering students the opportunity to order custom research papers on any sustainable development topic. Through this page, students can gain valuable insights and resources to contribute to the advancement of sustainable development research.

100 Sustainable Development Research Paper Topics

The field of sustainable development encompasses a wide range of interconnected topics that address the environmental, social, and economic challenges facing our world today. To assist you in your research endeavors, we have compiled a comprehensive list of sustainable development research paper topics. These topics span across various disciplines and offer opportunities for in-depth exploration and critical analysis. By examining these topics, you can contribute to the understanding of sustainable development and develop innovative solutions for a more sustainable future.

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Environmental Conservation and Biodiversity

  • The role of protected areas in biodiversity conservation
  • Sustainable management of forests and its impact on biodiversity
  • Conservation strategies for endangered species
  • Implications of climate change on biodiversity loss
  • Sustainable practices for marine and coastal conservation
  • Wildlife trafficking and its impact on biodiversity
  • The role of indigenous knowledge in biodiversity conservation
  • Strategies for promoting urban biodiversity
  • Ecosystem restoration and its benefits for biodiversity
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of conservation policies and programs

Sustainable Energy

  • Transitioning to renewable energy sources: Challenges and opportunities
  • Energy efficiency and its impact on sustainable development
  • The role of nuclear energy in achieving a sustainable energy future
  • Sustainable transportation systems: Innovations and policies
  • Community-based renewable energy projects
  • Energy access and sustainability in developing countries
  • The social, economic, and environmental impacts of fossil fuel extraction
  • Advancements in energy storage technologies
  • Smart grid systems and their contribution to sustainable energy
  • The role of government policies in promoting renewable energy adoption

Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

  • Assessing the effectiveness of international climate agreements
  • Climate change and its impacts on vulnerable communities
  • The role of renewable energy in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • Carbon pricing mechanisms: Prospects and challenges
  • Urban planning for climate change resilience
  • Climate change adaptation strategies in agricultural systems
  • Impacts of climate change on water resources and management
  • Sustainable cities and climate change mitigation
  • The role of education in fostering climate change awareness and action
  • Assessing the socio-economic implications of climate change policies

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems

  • Organic farming practices and their impact on food security
  • Sustainable agriculture and water management
  • The role of genetic engineering in sustainable crop production
  • Agroecology and its potential for sustainable food systems
  • Urban agriculture and its contribution to food security
  • Sustainable fisheries management and conservation
  • Climate-smart agriculture: Strategies for resilience and adaptation
  • The socio-economic impacts of agricultural subsidies
  • Sustainable food supply chains and distribution systems
  • Indigenous knowledge and sustainable agricultural practices

Social Equity and Justice

  • Social sustainability and inclusive development
  • Gender equality and empowerment in sustainable development
  • Indigenous rights and sustainable resource management
  • Ensuring access to education and healthcare in marginalized communities
  • Social impact assessment in development projects
  • Strategies for poverty alleviation and economic empowerment
  • Promoting social entrepreneurship for sustainable development
  • Environmental justice and equitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens
  • The role of social movements in advancing sustainable development goals
  • Promoting inclusive governance for sustainable development

Sustainable Urban Development

  • Urbanization and its impact on the environment and society
  • Sustainable urban planning and design
  • Green infrastructure and urban resilience
  • Transportation and mobility in sustainable cities
  • Affordable housing and sustainable urban development
  • Smart cities: Technologies and applications for sustainability
  • Urban governance and stakeholder engagement in sustainable development
  • Sustainable waste management in urban areas
  • Strategies for promoting sustainable consumption and production in cities
  • Sustainable tourism and its role in urban development

Water Resources Management

  • Integrated water resources management for sustainable development
  • Water scarcity and its implications for sustainable development
  • Water governance and institutional frameworks
  • Sustainable approaches to water supply and sanitation
  • Water pollution and its impacts on ecosystems and human health
  • Water-related conflicts and their resolution
  • Climate change and water resources management
  • Water footprint analysis and sustainable consumption
  • Indigenous water rights and traditional knowledge in water management
  • Innovative technologies for water conservation and management

Sustainable Business Practices

  • Corporate social responsibility and sustainable business models
  • Circular economy and its application in business practices
  • Sustainable supply chain management
  • Green marketing and consumer behavior
  • Sustainable finance and investment strategies
  • Corporate sustainability reporting and transparency
  • Ethical considerations in business decision-making
  • Sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation
  • Environmental management systems and certifications
  • Stakeholder engagement and sustainability in business

Environmental Policy and Governance

  • International environmental agreements and their effectiveness
  • Policy instruments for environmental conservation and sustainability
  • Environmental impact assessment and decision-making processes
  • Public participation in environmental decision-making
  • Climate change policy and governance mechanisms
  • Environmental justice and policy implications
  • Regulatory frameworks for natural resource management
  • The role of non-governmental organizations in environmental advocacy
  • Policy integration for sustainable development
  • Evaluation and monitoring of environmental policies and programs

Sustainable Development and Technology

  • Technological innovations for sustainable development
  • The role of information and communication technology in achieving sustainability goals
  • Green building design and sustainable architecture
  • Renewable energy technologies and their integration into the grid
  • The impact of digitalization on sustainable development
  • Sustainable transportation technologies and solutions
  • Internet of Things (IoT) and its applications for sustainability
  • Blockchain technology and its potential for sustainable supply chains
  • Big data analytics for environmental monitoring and resource management
  • Technological solutions for waste management and recycling

The field of sustainable development is vast and dynamic, presenting numerous avenues for research and inquiry. The comprehensive list of sustainable development research paper topics provided here offers a starting point for your exploration and provides inspiration for further investigation. As you embark on your research journey, remember to select a topic that aligns with your interests, leverage interdisciplinary perspectives, and consider the practical implications of your findings. Through your research, you have the potential to make a significant impact on the field of sustainable development and contribute to the ongoing efforts of creating a more sustainable and equitable world.

Sustainable Development Research Guide

As students of environmental science, you have a unique opportunity to explore the multifaceted field of sustainable development and contribute to the ongoing efforts in creating a more sustainable future. This page serves as a valuable resource for your research endeavors, providing a curated list of sustainable development research paper topics, expert advice on topic selection, and practical guidance on writing a sustainable development research paper.

Sustainable development is a critical concept in today’s world, addressing the complex interplay between economic growth, social well-being, and environmental stewardship. By studying sustainable development, you delve into topics such as renewable energy, climate change adaptation, sustainable urban planning, natural resource management, and much more. Through your research, you can analyze current challenges, propose innovative solutions, and contribute to the global sustainability discourse.

This page aims to inspire and guide you in exploring the vast landscape of sustainable development research. We understand that choosing a research paper topic can be a daunting task, considering the multitude of issues and perspectives within this field. That’s why we have compiled a comprehensive list of sustainable development research paper topics, categorized into relevant themes, to help you find an area of interest that aligns with your academic goals and personal passion.

Furthermore, we provide expert advice on how to choose the most suitable sustainable development research paper topic. We will discuss the importance of selecting a focused and researchable topic, considering the scope and depth of available literature, and ensuring its relevance to current sustainability challenges. Additionally, we will guide you through the process of writing a well-structured research paper, emphasizing the critical elements such as literature review, methodology, data analysis, and conclusion.

To support your academic journey, iResearchNet offers custom writing services, allowing you to order a custom sustainable development research paper tailored to your specific requirements. Our team of expert degree-holding writers is well-versed in the field of environmental science and sustainable development, ensuring that your paper is thoroughly researched, meticulously written, and aligned with the highest academic standards.

By utilizing our writing services, you gain access to in-depth research, customized solutions, and top-quality papers. We offer flexible pricing options to accommodate various budgets and short deadlines of up to 3 hours to meet even the most urgent requirements. Our commitment to timely delivery, 24/7 support, absolute privacy, easy order tracking, and a money-back guarantee ensures your satisfaction and peace of mind.

Choosing a Sustainable Development Topic

Choosing the right research topic is a critical step in the process of writing a sustainable development research paper. As a student of environmental science, you have the opportunity to contribute to the growing body of knowledge in this field and address pressing issues related to sustainability. However, with a multitude of potential topics to explore, it can be challenging to narrow down your focus and select a research question that is both relevant and impactful. In this section, we provide expert advice and practical tips to guide you in choosing sustainable development research paper topics. By following these suggestions, you can identify an area of interest, align your research with current trends, and contribute to the global discourse on sustainable development.

  • Identify your area of interest : Start by exploring the different aspects of sustainable development that interest you the most. This could be environmental conservation, social equity, renewable energy, or any other specific area within sustainable development.
  • Consider current issues and trends : Stay updated on the latest developments in sustainable development. Look for emerging challenges, debates, and innovative solutions that can form the basis of your research topic.
  • Conduct a literature review : Dive into existing research and literature on sustainable development to understand the gaps in knowledge and identify potential research areas that need further exploration.
  • Narrow down your focus : Once you have identified a broad topic, narrow it down to a specific research question or problem that you want to address. This will help you focus your research and provide a clear direction for your paper.
  • Look for interdisciplinary connections : Sustainable development is a multidisciplinary field, so consider how you can integrate different disciplines and perspectives into your research. This can lead to unique insights and innovative approaches.
  • Consider local and global contexts : Assess the relevance of your research topic in both local and global contexts. How does it relate to the specific challenges and needs of a particular region or community? How does it contribute to the broader sustainable development agenda?
  • Consult with experts and peers : Engage in discussions with professors, researchers, and peers who specialize in sustainable development. Seek their advice and gather different perspectives to refine your research topic.
  • Conduct a feasibility assessment : Evaluate the feasibility of your research topic in terms of data availability, resources required, and potential challenges you may encounter. Ensure that you have access to relevant data and research materials to support your study.
  • Consider the practical implications : Reflect on the practical implications of your research topic. How can your findings contribute to policy development, community initiatives, or practical solutions in the field of sustainable development?
  • Align with your personal and career goals : Choose a research topic that aligns with your personal interests and long-term career aspirations. This will not only motivate you throughout the research process but also enhance your expertise in your chosen area of sustainable development.

Selecting a research topic in sustainable development requires careful consideration, as it sets the foundation for your entire research endeavor. By following the expert advice provided in this section, you can navigate through the vast landscape of sustainable development research paper topics and choose one that resonates with your passion, aligns with current issues, and has the potential for meaningful contribution. Remember to conduct thorough literature reviews, consult with experts, and ensure the feasibility and practical implications of your chosen topic. With these insights and guidelines, you are well-equipped to embark on your research journey and make a valuable contribution to the field of sustainable development. Embrace the opportunity to explore, learn, and create positive change through your research efforts.

How to Write a Sustainable Development Research Paper

Writing a sustainable development research paper requires careful planning, critical thinking, and effective execution. As a student of environmental science, you have the opportunity to delve into complex issues, propose innovative solutions, and contribute to the field of sustainability. However, the process of crafting a research paper can be daunting, especially if you are new to the academic research landscape. In this section, we provide you with valuable tips and guidance on how to write a sustainable development research paper. By following these steps, you can streamline your writing process, effectively communicate your ideas, and produce a high-quality research paper that contributes to the ongoing dialogue on sustainable development.

  • Choose a focused research topic : In the field of sustainable development, there are numerous areas to explore. Select a specific aspect that interests you and aligns with your academic goals. Consider topics such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, urban planning, climate change adaptation, or corporate social responsibility.
  • Conduct thorough background research : Before diving into your research paper, take the time to familiarize yourself with existing literature, theories, and concepts related to your chosen topic. This will help you gain a deeper understanding of the subject and identify any research gaps or areas for further exploration.
  • Formulate a clear research question : A well-defined research question is the backbone of any research paper. It should be concise, specific, and address a gap or challenge in sustainable development. Consider the broader implications and potential practical applications of your research question.
  • Develop a strong thesis statement : Craft a clear and compelling thesis statement that encapsulates the main argument or purpose of your research paper. Your thesis statement should reflect the significance of your research and provide a roadmap for the reader to understand the direction of your paper.
  • Gather reliable and relevant data : As you embark on your research journey, it is crucial to collect data from credible sources. Rely on academic journals, reputable organizations, government reports, and scientific databases to obtain reliable and relevant information. Ensure that the data you gather aligns with your research question and supports your arguments.
  • Analyze and interpret data : Once you have gathered your data, apply appropriate research methods and analytical tools to analyze and interpret the information. Utilize statistical analysis, qualitative research techniques, or a combination of both to derive meaningful insights from your data.
  • Provide evidence-based arguments : In a research paper, it is essential to support your claims and arguments with accurate and up-to-date evidence. Cite scholarly articles, empirical studies, case studies, or real-world examples to reinforce your ideas. This will add credibility to your research and strengthen your overall argument.
  • Structure your paper effectively : Organize your research paper in a logical and coherent manner. Start with an introduction that provides context, states your research question, and highlights the significance of your study. Follow with a comprehensive literature review that synthesizes existing knowledge and identifies gaps. Then, outline your research methodology, present your findings, engage in a critical discussion, and conclude with a summary of your main points and potential areas for future research.
  • Write in a clear and concise manner : Effective communication is crucial in academic writing. Use clear and concise language to convey your ideas effectively. Break down complex concepts into understandable terms and ensure that your writing is accessible to a wide audience. Avoid unnecessary jargon or technical language that may alienate readers.
  • Revise and edit your paper : Once you have completed the initial draft of your research paper, take the time to review and revise it thoroughly. Pay attention to the clarity of your arguments, the coherence of your ideas, and the overall flow of your writing. Edit for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting errors. Seek feedback from peers, professors, or academic mentors to gain different perspectives and improve the quality of your work.

Writing a sustainable development research paper is an exciting and rewarding endeavor that allows you to explore pressing environmental issues and propose meaningful solutions. By implementing the tips and strategies outlined in this section, you can enhance the quality and impact of your research paper. Remember to choose a clear and focused research question, conduct thorough literature reviews, use reliable and up-to-date sources, organize your ideas effectively, and critically analyze your findings. Additionally, seek feedback from peers and experts to refine your work and ensure its credibility. With dedication, perseverance, and the right approach, you can create a research paper that not only showcases your understanding of sustainable development but also contributes to the broader discourse on creating a sustainable future for our planet.

Order a Custom Sustainable Development Research Paper

Are you facing challenges in writing your sustainable development research paper? Don’t worry! Our professional writing services are here to assist you. At iResearchNet, we offer custom research paper writing services that cater to the specific needs of students studying sustainable development and related fields. Our team of expert writers is dedicated to delivering high-quality, well-researched, and custom-written papers that meet the academic standards and requirements of your institution. Here’s how our writing services can benefit you:

  • Expert Degree-Holding Writers : Our team consists of highly qualified writers with advanced degrees in various disciplines, including sustainable development, environmental science, economics, and related fields. They have the knowledge and expertise to handle research papers on a wide range of sustainable development topics.
  • Custom Written Works : We understand the importance of originality and tailor our papers to your specific requirements. Each research paper is written from scratch, following your instructions and guidelines. We guarantee plagiarism-free content and provide a plagiarism report upon request.
  • In-depth Research : Our writers conduct thorough research using credible and up-to-date sources to ensure the accuracy and relevance of the information presented in your research paper. They have access to scholarly databases, academic journals, and reputable sources to gather the necessary data for your paper.
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  • Timely Delivery : We understand the importance of meeting deadlines. Our writers are committed to delivering your research paper within the agreed-upon timeframe, ensuring that you have sufficient time for review and revisions.
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Ordering a custom sustainable development research paper from iResearchNet is a straightforward process. Simply visit our website, provide us with the details of your paper, including the topic, requirements, and deadline, and make the necessary payment. Once we receive your order, we will assign it to a qualified writer who specializes in sustainable development. Throughout the writing process, you can communicate directly with your writer and track the progress of your paper.

Upon completion, your research paper will undergo a thorough quality assurance check to ensure that it meets the highest standards of quality, originality, and accuracy. We also offer free revisions if any adjustments or modifications are needed. We are committed to your satisfaction and will work closely with you to ensure that your research paper meets your expectations.

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The Top 30 Global Sustainability Research Papers in 2019

In 2019, record-high global temperatures and climate change took central stage in global news headlines, culminating with a declaration from more than 11,000 scientists from around the world that a climate emergency exists on Earth. This declaration got people talking on social media and in the news, more so than any other scientific publication in 2019.

Altmetric annually ranks the 100 scientific papers that glean the most media attention as a simple measure of what sparks public interest. In 2019, they examined over 62 million media mentions of 2.7 million research articles. The altmetric score does not measure the calibre of the research or researcher.

At Future Earth, we used the list to identify the top 30 global sustainability articles. We were guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which recognize that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, combating inequality within and among countries, preserving the planet, creating sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and fostering social inclusion are linked to each other and are interdependent.

Taking a closer look at the top five, the rising threat posed by climate change (SDG 13) was a central concern in 2019 as reflected by this year’s top two papers. The health of our oceans (SDG 14) and global terrestrial biodiversity (SDG 15) also find their way into the top five, with the third ranked paper discussing increasing vulnerability to sea level rise and coastal flooding, while the fourth ranked paper examines the potential of global reforestation to mitigate the effects of climate change. Rounding out the top five, a global study between 1990-2017 analyzed the health effects linked to dietary risks (SDG 3). Together, these papers reflect the many connections among natural and human systems by highlighting just how important the life supporting SDGs (6, 13, 14, and 15) are to supporting healthy, equitable, and sustainable livelihoods on Earth.

Of the top 30, nearly half of the global sustainability articles are concerned with climate change, with another third related to health, nutrition, and climate. Papers discussing biodiversity and plastics also make their way onto the list.

Read on for the full top 30 of 2019 and see earlier lists here (January – April 2019 ), here (May – August 2019 ) and here (2018 in review) .

sustainability topics for research papers

The top 30 global sustainability articles in 2019, by Altmetric score:

  • World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency (November 2019) BioScience . Altmetric score: 10,966
  • Climate tipping points too risky to bet against (November 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 8556
  • New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding (October 2019) Nature Communications . Altmetric score: 7,135
  • The global tree restoration potential (July 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 6,356
  • Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 (April 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 5,868
  • Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers (April 2019) Biological Conservation . Altmetric score: 5,438
  • Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable foods (February 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 4,561
  • Committed emissions from existing energy infrastructure jeopardize 1.5°C climate target (August 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 4,434
  • Concerns of young protesters are justified (April 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 4,349
  • Global warming impairs stock-recruitment dynamics of corals (April 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 4,121
  • Eat less meat: UN climate-change report calls for change to human diet (August 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 3,861
  • No evidence for globally coherent warm and cold periods over the preindustrial Common Era (July 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 3,898
  • Decline of the North American avifauna (October 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 3,368
  • Earth system impacts of the European arrival and the Great Dying in the Americas after 1492 (March 2019) Quaternary Science Reviews . Altmetric score: 3,290
  • Spending at least 120 minutes in a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing (June 2019) Scientific Reports . Altmetric score: 3,249
  • Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release (April 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 3,014
  • The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change: The Lancet Commission Report (February 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 2,973
  • How fast are the oceans warming? (January 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 2,882
  • Acceleration of ice loss across the Himalayas over the past 40 years (June 2019) Science Advances . Altmetric score: 2,767
  • The 2019 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by climate change (November 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 2,752
  • 40 years ago, scientists predicted climate change. And hey, they were right (July 2019) The Conversation . Altmetric score: 2,724
  • Ice sheet contributions to future sea level rise from structured expert judgment (May 2019) PNAS . Altmetric score: 2,620
  • Dissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populations (October 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 2,584.
  • International humanitarian norms are violated in Hong Kong (December 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 2,538
  • Four decades of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance from 1979-2017 (January 2019) PNAS . Altmetric score: 2,494
  • Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers (April 2019) Frontiers in Psychology . Altmetric score: 2,312
  • Plastic Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles and Nanoparticles into Tea (September 2019) Environmental Science and Technology . Altmetric score: 2,305
  • White and wonderful? Microplastics prevail in snow from the Alps to the Arctic (August 2019) Science Advances . Altmetric score: 2,253
  • Arthropod decline in grasslands and forests is associated with landscape-level drivers (October 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 2,240
  • Nudging out support for a carbon tax (May 2019) Nature Climate Change . Altmetric score: 2,190

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130 Unique Sustainability Research Topics and Ideas to Focus On

Table of Contents

Sustainability is a theory that concentrates on satisfying the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations. Recently, a lot of sustainability projects are being carried out on innovative sustainability research topics. Mainly, for the preparation of an environmental study paper, you can prefer sustainability topics. Right now, are you looking for interesting sustainability topic ideas for your assignment? If yes, then continue reading this blog post.

Sustainability Research Topics

Sustainability is an interesting concept that maintains stability between the economy, environment, and equity. To conserve the environment, sustainability projects play a big part. Hence, based on the aspects of conservation, many academic institutes often ask the students to come up with a research paper on any sustainability topics.

Searching and finding the right research topic is a tough process. Usually, the topic selection needs more time and effort. So, to help you out, here, we have shared a list of exclusive research topics and ideas on sustainability. Go through it and find the right topic for your research.

Best Sustainability Research Topics and Ideas

Sustainability is a broad concept with many research areas. Some popular research areas in the subject include natural resources, energy conservation, sustainable transport, renewable energy, and green building. Other than these areas, you can also think about the latest environmental issues and generate unique sustainability project ideas. Don’t just narrow down your focus only on environmental topics. You can also apply the idea of sustainability in education, business, construction, or any other industry.

Sustainability Research Topics

Listed below are a few top sustainability research topic ideas you can consider for writing your research paper.

Sustainability Research Topics on Environment

  • Does veganism have a positive effect on the environment?
  • The biggest political challenges that affect the U.S. environment.
  • The negative effects of plastic straws on the environment.
  • Explore the most impactful environmental groups that clean up plastic in the oceans.
  • The effect of the world’s population on the environment.
  • Do smaller classroom sizes help the environment?
  • Are your local environmental policies effective?
  • Why do cities with higher poverty rates find it hard to begin recycling programs?
  • The effect of non-plastic waste in the oceans.
  • Name the countries that have the least environmental protection laws.
  • Are pescatarian diets better for the environment?
  • Will the reduced usage of technology help the environment?
  • How does government policy help or hurt the environment?
  • Technologies that help to control environmental pollution.
  • How does the Covid-19 pandemic affect the environment?
  • Should we reduce the use of technology to help the environment?
  • In what ways has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the environment?
  • Do smaller classroom sizes help or harm the environment?
  • In what ways does government policy help or hurt the environment?

Sustainability Research Topics on Education

  • Sustainable classrooms reduce absenteeism- Explain with evidence.
  • Behavior change interventions at institutions of higher education.
  • Do shorter working days in schools minimize energy use?
  • Discuss the demand among students for more, different, or better sustainability education?
  • Discuss the responsibilities of higher education institutes handling worldwide challenges, such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change?
  • The strengths and weaknesses of sustainability education.
  • How to use existing sustainability projects on campus for educational purposes?
  • Explain how modular classrooms can improve sustainability through the use of natural light.
  • Discuss the benefits of changing classroom hours to use natural lighting.
  • Do sustainable classroom designs improve learning in students?
  • Discuss the benefits of adopting sustainability education into the curriculum.
  • The definition of sustainability for higher education institutions.
  • Analyze the differences in sustainability education.
  • Do large classroom sizes harm the environment?
  • Modular classrooms and campus sustainability.
  • Describe the differences in sustainability education.
  • What are the benefits of adopting sustainability education into the curriculum?
  •   What are the strengths and weaknesses of different definitions of sustainability education?
  • Do modular classrooms improve campus sustainability?
  • What evidence is there to support that sustainable classrooms reduce absenteeism?

Food Sustainability Research Topics

  • How do food programs help communities?
  • Should cities order community gardens to reduce food waste?
  • The role of government in increasing food resources.
  • Discuss the benefits of buying food from local farmers.
  • Can your city host a food donation program?
  • Can restaurant cafeteria food leftovers be donated to homeless shelters?
  • Why is it necessary to support local food markets?
  • Discuss the most effective methods of growing your food.
  • How does the amount of food consumption affect the environment?
  • Analyze the global food scarcity problem.
  • Discuss the role played by resilient and sustainable food systems in the crisis times
  • How can agri-food research and development systems meet the 21 st century’s demand for food?
  • Discuss the usefulness of the synthesis of evidence for sustainable food system
  • Impact of vertical farming on food sustainability
  • How can effective management of organic resources impact agriculture and food sustainability?

Sustainability Topics on Waste Management

Sustainability Topics on Waste Management

  • Why should we keep waste from ending up in oceans?
  • Discuss the types and amounts of waste produced in educational institutions.
  • How government rules will affect certain waste types?
  • How do improved recycling technologies affect the waste that ends up in landfills?
  • What should people do in the community to reduce unnecessary waste?
  • The best way to reduce waste – landfills or incineration?
  • Discuss the best technologies to reduce waste in large cities.
  • Explain how Sweden turns its waste into heating.
  • Do taxes on single-use items reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills?
  • Explain how Denmark reduces its food waste.
  • Discuss the best actions to ensure efficient waste management
  •  How proper waste management can impact sustainability?
  • Analyze the role of 3Rs (Reduce-Recycle-Reuse) in sustainability
  • Why reducing the volume of waste generation in manufacturing plants is the first priority to ensure sustainability?
  • Analyze the concept and practices of sustainable waste management

Transportation Sustainability Topics

  • Compare hybrid versus electric cars.
  • Discuss the health and environmental benefits of biking to work.
  • Analyze how traveling has contributed to global warming over the last 10 years.
  • Is it a good choice for the government to invest in bicycle infrastructure?
  • Research the role of bike-sharing between campuses.
  • How to redesign a city to be walkable and bike-friendly?
  • Compare the costs and benefits of petroleum to biofuel or electric energy.
  • Are our taxi services helpful to the environment?
  • What should companies and institutions of higher education do to reduce staff travel or incentivize different travel behavior?
  • The benefits of incorporating public transportation systems.

Top Sustainability Research Paper Topics

  • How do “green universities” help the mental health of students?
  • How does pollution increase the level of sickness in people?
  • Should cities mandate the use of solar panels in larger buildings?
  • How to help developing countries maintain clean water?
  • Does buffet-style dining help or harm sustainability efforts?
  • How to improve the quality of air by reducing pollution?
  • Discuss the benefits of getting a fair-trade certification on university campuses.
  • Explain the connection between overpopulation and pollution.
  • Are paper towels more effective than hand dryers at reducing the spread of germs?
  • Does keeping the home at a certain temperature reduce energy costs?
  • How does gardening or landscaping improve air quality around the home?
  • How can cities create community gardens?
  • Game theory and challenges in sustainability.
  • How do the plastic floating balls reduce evaporation in reservoirs?
  • Should cities impose a special tax on single-use plastic items?
  • The effect of our carbon footprint on future generations.
  • The positive effects of reducing the brightness of computer screens.
  • Discuss the relationship between a country’s GDP and pollution.
  • Discuss the total energy saved by setting computers to shut off when they are idle.
  • How do solar panels make a home energy efficient?

Read more: Excellent Environmental Essay Topics To Explore and Write About

Excellent Sustainability Topics for Research Paper

  • Discuss the benefits of eating a plant-based diet.
  • Can employers save on energy costs by adding more natural lighting?
  • How much will climate change cost the different countries in the future?
  • What does it mean to be sustainable in the 21st century?
  • The consequences of a rising sea level.
  • Examine the sustainability policies in developed and developing countries.
  • Compare and contrast non-profit groups focused on advancing sustainability.
  • The importance of terrace or roof gardening.
  • Should governments invest more in solar energy technologies?
  • How does Sweden conserve their environment when compared to other countries?
  • On which buildings could green roofs be installed?
  • Explain how carbon footprint and bio-capacity differ in different countries.
  • Sustainable outdoor designs using recycled materials.
  • How do businesses perceive environmental sustainability and green energy?
  • Discuss the pros and cons of different Greenhouse-gas accounting standards.
  • The role of NGOs on green energy and environmental sustainability .
  • What options exist to switch from paper-based to more digital forms of working and studying to reduce paper consumption?
  • Can there be a balance between lifestyle and green technology?
  • Explore the opportunities and costs to reduce water usage.
  • How sustainable is the environment in the current and forthcoming eras?

Trending Sustainability Research Topics

  • Describe how the carbon footprint and biocapacity vary by nation and geography.
  • What are the major obstacles that businesses encounter when attempting to save energy?
  • What environmental organizations are most effective in removing plastic from the ocean?
  • How much plastic is in the ocean, in tons?
  • What benefits might lowering computer screen brightness bring about?
  • Which nations have the weakest laws enforcing environmental protection?
  • Why is it difficult to launch recycling programs in cities with greater poverty rates?
  • What are the main political issues harming the environment in the United States?
  • What advantages might public transportation systems offer?
  • Should municipalities impose solar panel requirements on bigger structures?

Wrapping Up

From the list of unique sustainability research topics recommended in this blog post, feel free to use any topic of your choice. In case, you need more sustainability topic ideas, contact us for assignment help . We have a team of talented academic writers to assist you in finding a good topic. Also, we offer help in preparing high-quality research papers on any subject topic.

To make use of our reliable research paper writing service , just submit the order form by filling your requirements in it. Based on your specifications, we will prepare and deliver the academic paper at a fair price without missing the deadlines. Remember, we are well-known for preparing top-scoring, plagiarism-free research papers. Also, as a part of our service, we provide unlimited paper revisions and 24/7customer support. So, without any hesitation, quickly place your order and get instant academic help from us.

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Top 101 Sustainability Research Topics And Ideas To Focus On

Sustainability is a theory, which concentrates on satisfying the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations. Recently, many sustainability projects are being carried out on innovative sustainability research topics. Importantly, for the preparation of an environmental study paper, you can prefer sustainability topics. Right now, are you looking for interesting sustainability topic ideas for your assignment? If yes, then continue reading this blog post.

Sustainability is an interesting concept which maintains stability between the economy, equity and environment. To conserve the environment, sustainability projects play a big part. Hence, based on the aspects of conservation, many academic institutes often ask the students to come up with a research paper on any sustainability topics.

Searching and finding the right research topic is a hard process. Usually, the topic selection needs more effort and time. So, to help you out, here, we have shared a list of exclusive research topics and ideas on sustainability. Go through it and find the right topic for your research.

Best Sustainability Research Topics and Ideas

Sustainability is a broad concept with many research areas. Some popular research areas in the subject include natural resources, sustainable transport, energy conservation, renewable energy, and green building. Other than these areas, you can also think about the latest environmental issues and generate unique sustainability project ideas. Instead of narrowing down your focus only on environmental topics, you can also apply the idea of sustainability in education, construction, business, or any other industry.

Environmental Sustainability Research Topics

  • What does the impact of non-plastic waste in our oceans mean for the environment?
  • What are the most impactful environmental groups cleaning up plastic in the oceans?
  • Which countries have the least environmental protection laws?
  • Is veganism good for the environment?
  • How bad are plastic straws for the Earth’s environment?
  • What types of technologies exist to help deter environmental pollution?
  • How effective are your local environmental policies?
  • Why do cities with higher poverty rates struggle to start recycling programs?
  • What are the biggest political challenges affecting the U.S. environment?
  • How will the world’s population in fifty years impact the Earth’s environment?

Sustainability Research Topics on Environment

  • Are pescatarian diets better for the environment?
  • Should we reduce the use of technology to help the environment?
  • In what ways has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the environment?
  • Do smaller classroom sizes help or harm the environment?
  • In what ways does government policy help or hurt the environment?
  • Discuss the importance of Green Building and Infrastructure in ensuring environmental sustainability
  • What is Green Economy and how it can bring environmental sustainability?
  • Discuss the 3R’s (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) of environmental sustainability
  • Discuss the relationship between environmental sustainability and climate change
  • Environmental sustainability and biodiversity
  • What are the responsibilities of institutions of higher education to contribute to global challenges, such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change?
  • Explain how modular classrooms can improve sustainability through the use of natural light.
  • How can existing sustainability projects on campus be used for educational purposes?
  • How is procurement currently organised? To what extent are sustainability criteria already applied in tenders?
  • To what extent could the university implement sustainability criteria that go beyond the legal minimum to advance the environmental, economic and social benefits of tenders?

Sustainability Research Topics on Education

  • Describe the differences in sustainability education.
  • What are the benefits of adopting sustainability education into the curriculum?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of different definitions of sustainability education?
  • Do modular classrooms improve campus sustainability?
  • What evidence is there to support that sustainable classrooms reduce absenteeism?
  • What is the demand among students for more, different or better sustainability education?

Educational Research Topics on Sustainability

  • What does sustainability mean for institutions of higher education?
  • What are the best practices of behavior change interventions at institutions of higher education?
  • Do sustainable classroom designs improve learning in students?
  • What are the benefits of changing classroom hours to utilize natural lighting?
  • Do shorter working days in schools help to reduce energy use?
  • Discuss the role of education in the establishment and protection of environmental sustainability
  • What are the most effective ways to promote sustainable lifestyles among students?
  • How students and staff could be aware about of the sustainability ambitions of their institution?
  • Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the approaches to communicate the university’s sustainability efforts better
  • How to organize sustainability events and programs within the college campus?
  • Why it is important for educational institutions to promote sustainable lifestyle and practices among students?
  • How much energy is saved by setting computers to shut off when they are idle?
  • Behavior change interventions at institutions of higher education.
  •   Do shorter working days in schools minimize energy use?

Transportation Sustainability Research Topics

  • Discuss the demand among students for more, different, or better sustainability education?
  •  Discuss the responsibilities of higher education institutes handling worldwide challenges, such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change?
  • What are the benefits of incorporating public transportation systems?
  • What best practices exist among companies and institutions of higher education to reduce staff travel or incentivize different travel behavior?
  • Compare hybrid vs. electric cars including the science behind it, the potential for success and any challenges/barriers.
  • Prepare a report on how traveling has contributed to global warming over the last 10 years.
  • Investigate the role of bike-sharing between campuses.
  • Compare the costs and benefits of petroleum to biofuel or electric energy.
  • How to redesign a city to be walkable and bike-friendly?
  • What are the health and environmental benefits of biking to work?

Transportation Sustainability Research Topics for Exam

  • Do taxi services contribute to the environment?
  • Is it a good choice for the government to invest in bicycle infrastructure?
  • Why it is important to build sustainable transportation system?
  • Why to use the means of public transportation instead of private transportation to ensure environmental sustainability and well-being?
  • Importance of using solar power and wind power in the vehicles
  • What are the best practices to follow business organizations and other institutions to reduce staff travel or incentivize different travel behaviours?
  • Discuss the three major modes of sustainable transportation
  • Smart Land Use Design for Reducing Vehicle Travelled
  • Smart Driving through Crowd sourcing
  • Evaluating the Likely Environmental Benefits of Green Routing and Intelligent Intersections
  • What are the ways to contribute to the sustainable transportation?
  • A reduction of the environmental impacts of transportation is a likely strategy for sustainability.
  • How can we improve the transport sustainability?
  • What are the specific challenges of the sustainable transportation?
  • What are the three crucial influences of transportation on the environment?

Food Sustainability Research Topics

  • How does the amount of food consumption impact the environment?
  • What can the government do to increase food resources?
  • What are the benefits of buying food from local farmers?
  • How do food programs help communities?
  • Can your city impose a food donation program?
  • Why is it important to support local food markets?
  • Can cafeteria or restaurant food leftovers be donated to homeless shelters?
  • Should cities mandate community gardens to reduce food waste?
  • What are the most effective methods of growing your food?
  • Research the problem of global food scarcity.

Food Sustainability Research Topics for Assignments

  • Importance of sustainable food systems and sustainable food industry
  • Organic farming and food sustainability
  • Scientific agriculture and its impact on food sustainability
  • Discuss the Sustainable Food Initiative of WWF (World Wildlife Fund)
  • What is climate smart food systems
  • What is social movements, institutions as well as governance?
  • What are the perceptions of and attitudes towards sustainability by students and staff?
  • What are ways to promote sustainable lifestyles among students?
  •  To what extent are students and staff aware of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
  • What are the best technologies on the market to reduce waste in large cities?

Sustainability Research Topics on Waste Management

  • In what ways do improved recycling technologies impact the waste that ends up in landfills?
  • Why is it so important to keep waste from ending up in our oceans?
  • Do taxes on single-use items reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills?
  • What can people do in the community to reduce unnecessary waste?
  • What has Denmark done to reduce its food waste?
  • Discuss how Sweden has been able to turn its waste into heating.
  • What are the types and amounts of waste produced in educational institutions?
  • How government regulations will affect certain waste types?
  • What are innovative practices in reducing waste going to landfills or incineration?
  • Developing an Efficient Waste Management Strategy

Interesting Sustainability Research Topics

  •  Why Recycling and Reusing Plastic is Vital to Waste Management
  • What can cities do to create community gardens?
  • How does gardening or landscaping improve air quality around the home?
  • Should cities mandate the use of solar panels in their larger buildings?
  • How do “green universities” help the mental health of students?
  • Does keeping the home at a certain temperature help reduce energy costs?
  • What can be done to help developing countries maintain clean water?
  • How can we improve the quality of air by reducing pollution?
  • How does pollution increase the level of sickness in people?
  • Does buffet-style dining help or harm sustainability efforts?

Amazing Sustainability Research Topics

  • What are the benefits of getting a fair-trade certification on university campuses?
  • Should cities impose a special tax on single-use plastic items?
  • What is the correlation between overpopulation and pollution?
  • How does the use of plastic floating balls reduce evaporation in reservoirs?
  • What is the correlation between a country’s GDP and pollution?
  • Are paper towels more effective than hand dryers at reducing the spread of germs?
  • Describe the impact our carbon footprint means on future generations.
  • How do solar panels make a home energy efficient?
  • Can game theory be applied to challenges in sustainability?

Wrapping Up

From the list of unique sustainability research topics recommended in this blog post, feel free to use any topic of your choice. In case, you need more sustainability topic ideas, contact us for  assignment help . We have a team of professional academic writers to assist you in finding a good topic. Also, we offer help in preparing high-quality research papers on any subject topic.

To make use of our reliable  research paper writing service , just submit the order form by filling your requirements in it. Based on your specifications, we will deliver the academic paper at a fair price without missing the deadlines. Remember, we are well-known for delivering top-scoring, plagiarism-free research papers. Also, as a part of our service, we provide unlimited paper revisions and 24/7customer support. So, without any hesitation, quickly place your order and get instant academic help from us.

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190 Excellent Sustainability Research Topics

Table of Contents

In recent times, sustainability projects have been playing a vital role in environmental conservation. Hence, a lot of academic institutes often ask students to explore and write assignments, essays, or research papers on sustainability topics. Have your professor also asked you to submit a research paper on sustainability? Are you struggling to come up with the best sustainability project ideas for your environmental study paper? If yes, then don’t worry. Especially, to help you in identifying the right research topic on sustainability, here, in this blog post, we have presented a list of 150+ excellent sustainability research topics and ideas. Go through the entire list carefully and choose any research idea that matches your university requirements.

What is Sustainability?

Sustainability is a concept that focuses on meeting the present needs without compromising the capability of future generations to satisfy their own needs. It is a balance between the environment, economy, and equity.

You Can Also Read – Outstanding Research Paper Topics for Students of All Spheres

Sustainability Research Topics

List of Sustainability Research Topics and Ideas

Sustainability is a wide concept that contains multiple research areas on energy conservation, natural resources, sustainable transport, green building, and renewable energy. You can generate a lot of sustainability project ideas considering the environmental issues and the costs involved. Not just environmentalism, the concept of sustainability is also applicable to business, education, construction, or any industry.

Listed below are the top sustainability research topic ideas the students can consider while writing a research paper or academic essay.

Environmental Sustainability Research Topics

  • What does the impact of non-plastic waste in our oceans mean for the environment?
  • What are the most impactful environmental groups cleaning up plastic in the oceans?
  • Which countries have the least environmental protection laws?
  • Is veganism good for the environment?
  • How bad are plastic straws for the Earth’s environment?
  • What types of technologies exist to help deter environmental pollution?
  • How effective are your local environmental policies?
  • Why do cities with higher poverty rates struggle to start recycling programs?
  • What are the biggest political challenges affecting the U.S. environment?
  • How will the world’s population in fifty years impact the Earth’s environment?

Sustainability Research Topics on Environment

  • Are pescatarian diets better for the environment?
  • Should we reduce the use of technology to help the environment?
  • In what ways has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the environment?
  • Do smaller classroom sizes help or harm the environment?
  • In what ways does government policy help or hurt the environment?
  • Discuss the importance of Green Building and Infrastructure in ensuring environmental sustainability
  • What is a Green Economy and how it can bring environmental sustainability?
  • Discuss the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) of environmental sustainability
  • Discuss the relationship between environmental sustainability and climate change
  • Environmental sustainability and biodiversity
  • What are the responsibilities of institutions of higher education to contribute to global challenges, such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change?
  • Explain how modular classrooms can improve sustainability through the use of natural light.
  • How can existing sustainability projects on campus be used for educational purposes?
  • How is procurement currently organized? To what extent are sustainability criteria already applied in tenders?
  • To what extent could the university implement sustainability criteria that go beyond the legal minimum to advance the environmental, economic, and social benefits of tenders?
  • Analyze the importance of Electronics Stewardship
  •  Discuss the importance of sustainable acquisitions and sustainable building
  •  Describe the significance of the Green Office Movement
  • Where can a university stand about sustainability education compared to other higher education institutions?
  • Discuss the importance of the implementation of sustainability education

Also, See – Top Environmental Science Research Topics

Sustainability Research Topics on Education

  • Describe the differences in sustainability education.
  • What are the benefits of adopting sustainability education into the curriculum?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of different definitions of sustainability education?
  • Do modular classrooms improve campus sustainability?
  • What evidence is there to support that sustainable classrooms reduce absenteeism?
  • What is the demand among students for more, different, or better sustainability education?
  • Discuss the concept of green economy and its impact on sustainability
  • Compare and contrast the waste management strategies of Woolworths Group and Tesco Plc
  • Which country has the most effective waste management policy?
  • Pollution-free disposal and recycling of trash
  • Why waste management is crucial for maintaining sustainability?

Educational Research Topics on Sustainability

  • What does sustainability mean for institutions of higher education?
  • What are the best practices of behavior change interventions at institutions of higher education?
  • Do sustainable classroom designs improve learning in students?
  • What are the benefits of changing classroom hours to utilize natural lighting?
  • Do shorter working days in schools help to reduce energy use?
  • Discuss the role of education in the establishment and protection of environmental sustainability
  • What are the most effective ways to promote sustainable lifestyles among students?
  • How students and staff could be aware of the sustainability ambitions of their institution?
  • Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the approaches to communicating the university’s sustainability efforts better
  • How to organize sustainability events and programs within the college campus?
  • Why do educational institutions need to promote sustainable lifestyles and practices among students?
  • How much energy is saved by setting computers to shut off when they are idle?
  • Behavior change interventions at institutions of higher education.
  •   Do shorter working days in schools minimize energy use?

Transportation Sustainability Research Topics

  • Discuss the demand among students for more, different, or better sustainability education.
  •  Discuss the responsibilities of higher education institutes handling worldwide challenges, such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change.
  • What are the benefits of incorporating public transportation systems?
  • What best practices exist among companies and institutions of higher education to reduce staff travel or incentivize different travel behaviors?
  • Compare hybrid vs. electric cars including the science behind it, the potential for success, and any challenges/barriers.
  • Prepare a report on how traveling has contributed to global warming over the last 10 years.
  • Investigate the role of bike-sharing between campuses.
  • Compare the costs and benefits of petroleum to biofuel or electric energy.
  • How to redesign a city to be walkable and bike-friendly?
  • What are the health and environmental benefits of biking to work?

Additional Transportation Sustainability Research Ideas

  • Do taxi services contribute to the environment?
  • Is it a good choice for the government to invest in bicycle infrastructure?
  • Why it is important to build a sustainable transportation system?
  • Why use the means of public transportation instead of private transportation to ensure environmental sustainability and well-being?
  • Importance of using solar power and wind power in vehicles
  • What are the best practices to follow for business organizations and other institutions to reduce staff travel or incentivize different travel behaviors?
  • Discuss the three major modes of sustainable transportation
  • Smart Land Use Design for Reducing Vehicle Travelled
  • Smart Driving through Crowdsourcing
  • Evaluating the Likely Environmental Benefits of Green Routing and Intelligent Intersections
  • What are the ways to contribute to sustainable transportation?
  • A reduction of the environmental impacts of transportation is a likely strategy for sustainability.
  • How can we improve transport sustainability?
  • What are the specific challenges of sustainable transportation?
  • What are the three crucial influences of transportation on the environment?

Food Sustainability Research Paper Topics

  • How does the amount of food consumption impact the environment?
  • What can the government do to increase food resources?
  • What are the benefits of buying food from local farmers?
  • How do food programs help communities?
  • Can your city impose a food donation program?
  • Why is it important to support local food markets?
  • Can cafeteria or restaurant food leftovers be donated to homeless shelters?
  • Should cities mandate community gardens to reduce food waste?
  • What are the most effective methods of growing your food?
  • Research the problem of global food scarcity.

A Few More Food Sustainability Research Ideas

  • Importance of sustainable food systems and sustainable food industry
  • Organic farming and food sustainability
  • Scientific agriculture and its impact on food sustainability
  • Discuss the Sustainable Food Initiative of WWF (World Wildlife Fund)
  • What is climate-smart food systems
  • What are social movements, institutions as well and governance?
  • What are the perceptions of and attitudes towards sustainability by students and staff?
  • What are ways to promote sustainable lifestyles among students?
  •  To what extent are students and staff aware of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
  • What are the best technologies on the market to reduce waste in large cities?

Sustainability Research Topics on Waste Management

  • In what ways do improved recycling technologies impact the waste that ends up in landfills?
  • Why is it so important to keep waste from ending up in our oceans?
  • Do taxes on single-use items reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills?
  • What can people do in the community to reduce unnecessary waste?
  • What has Denmark done to reduce its food waste?
  • Discuss how Sweden has been able to turn its waste into heating.
  • What are the types and amounts of waste produced in educational institutions?
  • How government regulations will affect certain waste types?
  • What are innovative practices in reducing waste going to landfills or incineration?
  • Developing an Efficient Waste Management Strategy

Interesting Sustainability Research Topics

  •  Why Recycling and Reusing Plastic is Vital to Waste Management
  • What can cities do to create community gardens?
  • How does gardening or landscaping improve air quality around the home?
  • Should cities mandate the use of solar panels in their larger buildings?
  • How do “green universities” help the mental health of students?
  • Does keeping the home at a certain temperature help reduce energy costs?
  • What can be done to help developing countries maintain clean water?
  • How can we improve the quality of air by reducing pollution?
  • How does pollution increase the level of sickness in people?
  • Does buffet-style dining help or harm sustainability efforts?

Amazing Sustainability Research Topics

  • What are the benefits of getting a fair-trade certification on university campuses?
  • Should cities impose a special tax on single-use plastic items?
  • What is the correlation between overpopulation and pollution?
  • How does the use of plastic floating balls reduce evaporation in reservoirs?
  • What is the correlation between a country’s GDP and pollution?
  • Are paper towels more effective than hand dryers at reducing the spread of germs?
  • Describe the impact our carbon footprint has on future generations.
  • How do solar panels make a home energy efficient?
  • Can game theory be applied to challenges in sustainability?

Captivating Sustainability Topics For Research Paper

  • What are the positive effects of reducing the brightness of computer screens?
  • Explain how carbon footprint and bio-capacity differ in different countries and regions.
  • Should governments invest more in solar energy technologies?
  • Compare and contrast non-profit groups focused on advancing sustainability.
  • What are the benefits of eating a plant-based diet?
  • Can employers save on energy costs by adding more natural lighting?
  • What does Sweden do differently from other countries regarding its environment?
  • What will be the consequences of a rising sea level?
  • How much will climate change cost the different countries in the future?
  • What are the pros and cons of different greenhouse gas accounting standards?

Excellent Sustainability Topics for Study

  • The importance of terrace or roof gardening.
  • What are the opportunities and costs to reduce water usage?
  • Examine the sustainability policies in developed and developing countries.
  • What options exist to switch from paper-based to more digital forms of working and studying to reduce paper consumption?
  • On which buildings could green roofs be installed?
  • Sustainable outdoor designs using recycled materials.
  • How do businesses perceive environmental sustainability and green energy?
  • How sustainable is the environment in the current and forthcoming eras?
  • Can there be a balance between lifestyle and green technology?
  • The role of NGOs on green energy and environmental sustainability.

Unique Ideas for Sustainability Research

  • What kinds and quantities of waste are generated at the institution, and by whom and where?
  • How have waste streams evolved in recent years?
  • What are some creative approaches to reducing waste sent to landfills or incineration?
  • What are the costs and advantages of waste recycling?
  • What is the best definition of sustainability research for your university?
  • How far has your university progressed in terms of sustainability research?
  • What are the institution’s sustainability research portfolio’s strengths and weaknesses in comparison to other higher education institutions?
  • What are the motivators and barriers to sustainability research at your institution?
  • How could sustainability research assist students in studying campus sustainability issues and informing practical change projects?
  • What are the benefits and drawbacks of promoting sustainability research?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of improving building insulation to save energy?
  • What energy-efficient lighting systems are available on the market?
  • What would a business case for installing a new lighting system look like?
  • What novel energy technologies are being developed at the institution?
  • To what extent could these be installed and tested directly in buildings?

Outstanding Sustainability Research Questions

  • What are some political challenges that the environment faces globally?
  • How do slaughterhouses impact the environment negatively?
  • What are the options available to make cutlery sustainable?
  • Why is our ecosystem so dependent on sea life?
  • How has the emergence of farmers’ markets helped various communities?
  • What does sustainability mean in the 21st century?
  • How can taxes be used to improve sustainability efforts?
  • How do school campuses contribute to environmental deterioration?
  • Chart out a detailed zero-waste living plan that can be implemented easily.
  • What are some immediate changes that you can make in your life to become more sustainable?

Brilliant Sustainability Research Paper Ideas

  • Describe how using natural light in modular classrooms might increase sustainability.
  • What proof is available that environmentally friendly classrooms lower absenteeism?
  • How much energy is saved when computers are configured to turn off when not in use?
  • What are the advantages of adjusting class times to take advantage of natural lighting?
  • To save energy, should school periods be planned around the seasons?
  • Can the problems of sustainability be solved via game theory?
  • Why is it difficult to launch recycling programs in cities with higher poverty rates?
  • What are the main political issues harming the environment in the United States?
  • What are the advantages of adopting a vegan diet?
  • What effects does improved recycling technology have on the amount of waste dumped in landfills?

Final Words

Out of the different topic ideas suggested above, feel free to choose any topic of your choice and craft a detailed sustainability research paper. If you are not satisfied with the ideas recommended or need expert Sustainable Agriculture Assignment Help with sustainability research paper writing, then get in touch with us quickly for assistance. We have numerous subject professionals on our platform to offer high-quality research paper writing help on any topics related to sustainability. Moreover, with the support of our well-qualified dissertation helpers online, you can also complete your sustainability academic paper according to your requirements in advance of the deadline and boost your overall grades.

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100 Exceptional Sustainability Topics for 2023

sustainability topics

Do you have an important environmental studies paper but are having trouble coming up with sustainability project ideas? Have you pored over your class notes and readings but have yet to come up with sustainability ideas you find interesting and challenging? This happens to a lot of students, especially when they are swamped with several other academic responsibilities to deal with.

Best Sustainability Topics For Your Research

We’ve put together 100 exceptional sustainability topics that can be used for a variety of situations. The list covers topics in sustainability for grade school, middle school, high school, college, and graduate school. Check out our list and see what inspires you. Our ecology topics may also come in handy.

Sustainability Topics for Students in Grade School

  • Describe the impact our carbon footprint means on future generations.
  • Describe the differences in sustainability education.
  • Explain how your school can adopt practices for a sustainable campus.
  • Does your school already adapt to a good sustainability program?
  • Does your school have solar panels on its buildings’ rooftops?
  • What are the benefits of adopting sustainability education into curricula?

Sustainability Paper Topics for Middle School

  • What does the impact of non-plastic waste in our oceans mean for the environment?
  • What effect do greenhouses have in growing our fruits and vegetables?
  • Should governments invest more in solar energy technologies?
  • How do solar panels make a home energy efficient?
  • Does your school have an optimized ventilation system?
  • Do modular classrooms improve campus sustainability?

Sustainability Research Topics for High School Students

  • Explain how modular classrooms can improve sustainability through the use of natural light.
  • What evidence is there to support that sustainable classrooms reduce absenteeism?
  • How much energy is saved by setting computers to shut off when they are idle?
  • What are the benefits of changing classroom hours to utilize natural lighting?
  • Should school terms be arranged around the seasons to conserve energy?
  • Can a game theory be applied to challenges in sustainability?

Sustainability Essay Topics for College Students

  • Explain how carbon footprint and bio-capacity differ in different countries and regions.
  • What are the biggest challenges companies face when trying to conserve energy?
  • What are the most impactful environmental groups cleaning up plastic in the oceans?
  • How many tons of plastic is there in the ocean?
  • What are the positive effects of reducing the brightness of computer screens?
  • Which countries have the least environmental protection laws?

Sustainability Dissertation Topics for Ph.D. Students

  • Compare and contrast non-profit groups focused on advancing sustainability.
  • Do sustainable classroom designs improve learning in students?
  • Can employers save on energy costs by adding more natural lighting?
  • What types of technologies exist to help deter environmental pollution?
  • Is veganism good for the environment?
  • Are paper towels more effective than hand dryers at reducing the spread of germs?

Environmental Sustainability Topics for Every Occasion

  • What is the correlation between a country’s GDP and pollution?
  • Why do cities with higher poverty rates struggle to start recycling programs?
  • What are the biggest political challenges affecting the U.S. environment?
  • What are the positive effects of switching to a vegan diet?
  • Should the U.S. take a greater role in helping third-world countries become sustainable?
  • How effective are your local environmental policies?

Interesting Sustainability Topics for Papers

  • Should college campuses ban the use of plastics?
  • How does the amount of food consumption impact the environment?
  • What does Sweden do so differently from other countries regarding its environment?
  • What are the best technologies in the market to reduce waste in large cities?
  • How does the use of plastic floating balls reduce evaporation in reservoirs?
  • Why has the United States failed to reduce the amount of food waste?

Sustainability Topics for Essays to Do Overnight

  • In what ways do improved recycling technologies impact how waste ends up in landfills?
  • How bad are plastic straws for the Earth’s environment?
  • Do taxes on single-use items reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills?
  • Explain why certain states in the U.S. have had success banning plastic bags?
  • What is the correlation between overpopulation and pollution?
  • How will the world’s population in fifty years impact the Earth’s environment?

Sustainability Hot Topics for 2023

  • Does the Earth have enough resources to support the population in the 21 st century?
  • What can governments do to increase food resources?
  • Should cities ban the use of plastic straws?
  • Why is sea life so important to the ecosystem?
  • How much of our carbon footprint comes from farm animals?
  • Why is it so important to keep waste from ending up in our oceans?

Topics on Sustainability for a Long-Term Project

  • What are the benefits of getting a fair-trade certification on university campuses?
  • What are the benefits of buying food from local farmers?
  • Can your city impose a food donation program?
  • What can you do to bring a farmers market to your community?
  • Does buffet-style dining help or harm sustainability efforts?
  • Should cities impose a special tax on single-use plastic items?

Topics about Sustainability for a Short-Term Project

  • Can cafeteria food leftovers be donated to homeless shelters?
  • How do food programs help communities?
  • How much land is necessary to grow vegan food products?
  • What can cities do to help families with children during the pandemic?
  • What does it mean to be sustainable in the 21 st century?
  • Why is it important to support local food markets?

Sustainability Projects Ideas for High School Students

  • What would happen to greenhouse emissions if people ate less meat?
  • Can we improve air quality by eating less red meat?
  • What are the benefits of eating a plant-based diet?
  • Should your school introduce more vegan food choices?
  • Are pescatarian diets better for the environment?
  • What are the negative environmental effects of slaughterhouses?

Sustainability Ideas for Schools with Large Populations

  • What would happen if restaurants served buffet-like meals?
  • How difficult is it to reduce air pollution in large cities?
  • Should cities mandate community gardens to reduce food waste?
  • What are the benefits of incorporating public transportation systems?
  • Should cities mandate the use of solar panels in their larger buildings?

Controversial Sustainability Topics for Grad-Level Courses

  • Should we reduce the amount of technology-use to help the environment?
  • Do smaller classroom sizes help or harm the environment?
  • What would happen if we reduced the school week from five to four days?
  • Do shorter school days help reduce energy use?
  • In what ways has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the environment?

Fun Sustainability Topics List to Try at Home

  • Develop a sustainable education program for your family.
  • Find a new change to make your home more sustainable each week.
  • Teach your children the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources.
  • Does keeping a home at a certain temperature help reduce energy costs?
  • How much food goes unused and ends up in your trash?

Sustainability Topics for Research Everyone Can All Do

  • How does pollution increase the level of sickness in people?
  • How does a developing country provide ample water resources?
  • In what ways does government policy help or hurt the environment?
  • Should cities create more public spaces (e.g. parks, riverbeds)?
  • What can be done to help developing countries maintain clean water?

Topics of Sustainability for Young People

  • Sift through your classroom’s trash and identify what can be renewed.
  • Discuss how Sweden has been able to turn its waste into heating.
  • What has Denmark done to reduce its food waste?
  • How can we improve the quality of care by reducing pollution?
  • What is the major ecological challenge the U.S. must face in the next 50 years?

Sustainability Research Paper Topics for Everyone

  • How do “green universities” help the mental health of students?
  • What are the most effective methods of growing your food?
  • What can people do in the community to reduce unnecessary waste?
  • How does gardening or landscaping improve air quality around the home?
  • What can cities do to create community gardens?

Need more assistance coming up with sustainability topics? Our team of research helpers can develop ideas for any type of assignment. From essays to dissertations, we’ve got you covered. Just let us know what you need and we will connect you with a pro that can work with you from the start to the end of your assignment.

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166 Trending Sustainability Topics for Your Research Paper

Sustainability Research Topics

Do you have a sustainability research paper but getting the right topic is proving challenging? There is no need to worry anymore because we are here to help. Here is a collection of the best 167 sustainability research topics for top grades. You can use them as they are or tweak a little to suit your needs.

How to Select the Best Topics of Sustainability to Research

Before we can look at the sustainability topics list, here are some useful tips to help you pick the best:

Go for the topic that you fancy. Only pick a topic with enough resources to be able to support your arguments. Consider a topic that is easily manageable. A trending topic will be a great option because every reader will be waiting for the solution you put through. Check other research reports to see gaps that researchers suggest for further studies.

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Interesting Sustainability Topics for Research

  • The impact of using disposable diapers on the environment.
  • Analysing the effectiveness of sustainable grazing systems.
  • Impact of non-plastic waste on the oceans.
  • Using gardening to improve air quality around homes.
  • Should governments invest in modern solar technologies?
  • Solar panels use in homes: How do they make them energy efficient?
  • How much energy can your school save by shutting down computers all the time when idle?
  • Should college semesters be organized based on seasons to conserve energy?
  • Banning plastics: Is it possible to avoid them completely?
  • Analysing the implications of carbon footprints on future generations.
  • Effects of global warming on polar wildlife: A case study of penguins in Antarctica.
  • Renewable energy alternatives: Are they the best options to the problem of environmental degradation?
  • Using fishing regulations to conserve the environment.
  • How effective are tax cuts in promoting the development of alternative energy sources?
  • Tracing the history of climate change on the globe.
  • What factors caused the failure of Kyoto Protocol?
  • The best ways to recycle different wastes.
  • Hunting as a sport: Analysing its risk to biodiversity.
  • Analysing the effectiveness of using local communities in conserving fragile ecosystems.
  • Natural disasters help stimulate economic growth: Discuss.
  • The pro and cons of the nuclear power as an alternative source of energy.
  • Ocean acidification: How does it happen, and what are the implications on marine life.

Easy Sustainability Research Paper Topics

  • Should we pass a regulation allowing only energy-efficient household appliances on the market?
  • Demonstrating why fast-growing consumerism is killing the earth.
  • Major ecological challenges likely to face Antarctica in the next 50 years.
  • Higher energy prices: Is it the sacrifice we must pay for cleaner fuels?
  • Using tax benefits to promote eco-friendly cars.
  • Declining avifauna in North America: What are the causes?
  • Assessing the loss of ice on the Himalayas over the last 50 years: What are the main causes?
  • Consumption patterns of water resources in different countries across the globe.
  • What are the best strategies for conserving the rainforests?
  • Recycling is one of the best strategies for promoting conservation: Why is it so difficult to enforce?
  • Causes of human wildlife conflicts and possible solutions.
  • Analysing the main causes of wildfires in Australia.
  • Cost-benefit analysis of shifting to organic farming.
  • South America tropical rainforests: Why it should be a responsibility for the entire globe.
  • Ocean spills: What dangers do they pose to marine life?
  • The effects of household and industrial wastes on the environment: A literature review.
  • Coral bleaching: What are the main causes and effects on marine life?
  • Shift to a paperless society: Is it possible?
  • Saving birds on the planet: What are the best strategies?
  • Ozone depletion in the earth’s atmosphere: Should we be concerned?
  • The looming risk of fossil fuel exhaustion: Is this the right time to develop and shift to alternative sources of energy?
  • Everyone should be involved in addressing global warming: Simple and effective home remedies for all.
  • The current shift in climate patterns: What are the main causes?
  • Can recycling help to address the greenhouse effects?
  • Mankind is the biggest cause of biodiversity loss on the planet.

Environmental Sustainability Research Topics about Forests

  • A closer look at the main types of forest resources.
  • The role of forests in water conservation.
  • Analysing the use of new forest management technologies to increase forest productivity.
  • What are the main alternatives to heavy reliance on wood in the developed countries?
  • Agricultural practices: Why it is a major cause of declining forest cover on the globe.
  • Road and rail development: Getting easier access to remote areas vs. forest destruction.
  • A closer look at the greenhouse effect as a result of deforestation.
  • Deforestation and soil degradation.
  • Deforestation and disruption to the hydrological cycle.
  • The big link between deforestation and loss of biodiversity on the globe.
  • The impact of selective logging on soil nutrients content: A case study of Argentina.
  • The impact of illegal logging in the rainforest.
  • Analysing the effectiveness of logging management in Canadian rainforests.
  • Social forestry programs in India: What is their efficiency in forest conservation?
  • Are the current laws effective in promoting forest conservation in the United States?
  • Comparing forest conservation laws in the UK and Canada.

Sustainability Topics for Research Papers on Waste Management

  • The importance of developing good waste management policies in companies.
  • Analysing the problem of solid waste management in cities: A case study of Lansing, Michigan.
  • The health impact of poor waste management in cities.
  • Recycling of plastics: Why it is so important to the success of any waste management program.
  • Why do most developing countries find recycling wastes a challenge? A case study of Nigeria.
  • Waste management in the future: What are the main expectations?
  • What are the implications of poor waste management on aquatic life?
  • What are some of the best strategies for managing electronic wastes?
  • Landfill emissions: What are the implications for the environment?
  • Poor waste management and its impacts on economic growth.
  • Comparing waste management policies of two US companies of your choice.
  • Integrating waste management into organization management to grow the culture of conservation.
  • Waste minimization at source: What are the best strategies?
  • Hazardous wastes disposal: Comparing the national policies used in Sweden to Brazil.

Hot Research Topics on Sustainability

  • Special benefits of switching to a vegan diet?
  • The impact of food you take on the environment.
  • Analysing the relationship between overpopulation and pollution.
  • World population in the next fifty years: How will it impact the earth’s environment?
  • Will the earth have ample resources to support the fast-growing population? Imagining the future.
  • At what point should conservation education be integrated into student’s curriculum?
  • Excess release of greenhouse gases: What is the impact on the environment?
  • A deeper look at five main actions that result in the increase of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere.
  • Should schools adopt more vegan food choices?
  • A demonstration of how the greenhouse effect works?
  • The Paris Agreement: A review of its impact in addressing the problem of global warming.
  • What is the importance of the sea to the ecosystem?
  • Is climate change real? Why some people do not believe in global warming.
  • The importance of getting fair trade certification for your company.
  • Why are hurricanes becoming more intense?
  • How does an ecosystem work?
  • Why do plants become extinct?
  • Imagining the world without bees.
  • What are the main elements of population growth?
  • What can humans do to prevent lions from getting extinct?
  • The impact of commercial fishing on the oceans.
  • The causes of the decline in food resources.

Sustainability Persuasive Speech Topics

  • What are the best strategies for achieving food security in developing countries?
  • Is it possible to convert a desert into a productive area?
  • What are the main threats to species diversity in the developing world?
  • How to curb environmental issues brought about by dams.
  • What are the main causes of desertification?
  • Why is the concept of sustainability more important today than any other time in the past?
  • Is it possible to achieve zero waste in your home?
  • Green construction: How does it work?
  • Globalization and its negative impact on sustainable agriculture.
  • What are the main challenges of achieving sustainability today?

Global Sustainability Topics

  • Using sustainable agricultural practices to promote conservation.
  • Analysing the dangers posed by invasive alien species.
  • What are the main threats to biodiversity in the 21 st century?
  • Compare the pros and cons of two renewable energy types.
  • How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the environment?
  • What strategies should be adopted to help developing countries for sustainable supply of clean water?
  • Is it possible to achieve maximum yields from farms without using pesticides?
  • Analysing the effectiveness of carbon emission trading.
  • Analysing the water consumption patterns in developed and developing countries.
  • Sustainable management of water resources: A case study of Rhine River basin management.
  • Transboundary resources management: A case study of migratory birds in the US and Canada.
  • Should the developed countries take a greater role in helping developing countries become more sustainable?
  • What are the most serious challenges impacting Europe’s environment?
  • Global warming: Is it impossible to address the problem?
  • Analysing the effectiveness of UNEP in protecting the environment.
  • What are the best strategies for managing fragile coastal ecosystems?
  • Should we consider using genetic engineering to reintroduce extinct species?
  • Do the benefits of using chemicals on farms outweigh their benefits?

Sustainability Topics for Essays on Environmental Laws

  • The importance of chemical safety regulations.
  • Analysing environmental protection laws in the state of Hawaii.
  • Air quality regulations in Germany.
  • What is the effectiveness of CITES in reducing the loss of biodiversity?
  • Comparing air quality in the developed and developing countries.
  • Should cities pass laws requiring all buildings to have solar energy?
  • When can a piece of land be declared a nature reserve in the United States?
  • Should we develop a single binding international environmental constitution for all countries?
  • A closer look at the history of environmental laws.
  • Comparing marine prevention efforts in Japan and Australia.
  • Why do some countries find it challenging to become green?
  • What is the connection between global free trade and environmental degradation?
  • Do all businesses have to integrate environmental laws into their operations?
  • Which nations have the least environmental protection laws?

Sustainable Development Topics

  • The importance of sustainable development.
  • Why do some nations ignore environmental issues?
  • Dam projects for hydroelectricity development: The impacts on biodiversity.
  • A closer look at serious problems of deforestation that cannot be fixed through afforestation.
  • How to make cities in developing countries safer and sustainable.
  • The best strategies for sustainably managing land resources: A case study of lion conservation efforts in South Africa.
  • Correlation between GDP and pollution: A case study of France.
  • Local environmental policies in your community: Are they effective?
  • Waste in large cities: What are the best strategies for cutting down waste production?
  • Food wastes in the United States: Why has it become so difficult to address?
  • Advantages of purchasing food from local farmers.
  • Buffet-style dining: How does it impact sustainability?
  • What should cities do to help families in times of pandemics?
  • Home sustainability in the 21 st century: Is it achievable?
  • A closer look at the negative impact of slaughterhouses.
  • Advantages of developing an effective public transport system in your city.

Environmental Activism and Sustainability Essay Topics

  • A closer look at the concept of environmental activism.
  • Comparing the goals and achievements of two non-governmental organizations, one in the US and another in Europe.
  • Ecofeminism: Is it effective in addressing environmental challenges?
  • Environmental movements: Why are they so important in promoting sustainability?
  • A deeper look at environmental justice.
  • The impact of environmental movements on politics.
  • Analysing the main achievements of nature activists: A closer look at the Efforts of Wangari Maathai.
  • A deeper look at apocalyptic environmentalism.
  • Comparing apocalyptic and emancipatory environmentalism.
  • Can volunteer organizations prevent ecological catastrophes?

Now that you have the best ideas, be they on sustainable development or architecture thesis topics in sustainability, the next step is writing your paper. This can be challenging because it requires comprehensive research, enough time, resources, and good writing skills. If you find it difficult to prepare your sustainability paper, we have expert writers waiting online to help. They have been in the academic writing field for a long time and amassed a lot of experience in preparing custom research papers for university and college students. We guarantee taht you’ll get the first-class services, including affordable prices and great customer support. 

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Research Article

Impact of the Sustainable Development Goals on the academic research agenda. A scientometric analysis

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Research Institute on Policies for Social Transformation, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Córdoba, Spain

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Public Policy Observatory, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago, Chile

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Department of Finance and Accounting, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Córdoba, Spain

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Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Social Matters Research Group, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Córdoba, Spain

  • Antonio Sianes, 
  • Alejandro Vega-Muñoz, 
  • Pilar Tirado-Valencia, 
  • Antonio Ariza-Montes

PLOS

  • Published: March 17, 2022
  • https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265409
  • Peer Review
  • Reader Comments

Table 1

Today, global challenges such as poverty, inequality, and sustainability are at the core of the academic debate. This centrality has only increased since the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whose scope is to shift the world on to a path of resilience focused on promoting sustainable development. The main purpose of this paper is to develop a critical yet comprehensive scientometric analysis of the global academic production on the SDGs, from its approval in 2015 to 2020, conducted using Web of Science (WoS) database. Despite it being a relatively short period of time, scholars have published more than five thousand research papers in the matter, mainly in the fields of green and sustainable sciences. The attained results show how prolific authors and schools of knowledge are emerging, as key topics such as climate change, health and the burden diseases, or the global governance of these issues. However, deeper analyses also show how research gaps exist, persist and, in some cases, are widening. Greater understanding of this body of research is needed, to further strengthen evidence-based policies able to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of the SDGs.

Citation: Sianes A, Vega-Muñoz A, Tirado-Valencia P, Ariza-Montes A (2022) Impact of the Sustainable Development Goals on the academic research agenda. A scientometric analysis. PLoS ONE 17(3): e0265409. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265409

Editor: Stefano Ghinoi, University of Greenwich, UNITED KINGDOM

Received: September 10, 2021; Accepted: March 1, 2022; Published: March 17, 2022

Copyright: © 2022 Sianes et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

1. Introduction

1.1. from the millennium agenda to the 2030 agenda and the sustainable development goals (sdgs).

To track the origins of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we must recall the Millennium Agenda, which was the first global plan focused on fighting poverty and its more extreme consequences [ 1 ]. Approved in 2000, its guiding principle was that northern countries should contribute to the development of southern states via Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows. The commitment was to reach 0.7% of donors’ gross domestic product [ 2 ] to reduce poverty by half by 2015. The relative failure to reach this goal and the consolidation of a discourse of segregation between northern and southern countries [ 3 ] opened the door to strong criticism of the Millennium Agenda. Therefore, as 2015 approached, there were widespread calls for a profound reformulation of the system [ 4 ].

The world in 2015 was very different from that in the early 2000s. Globalization had reached every corner of the world, generating development convergence between countries but increasing inequalities within countries [ 5 , 6 ]. Increasing interest in the environmental crisis and other global challenges, such as the relocation of work and migration flows, consolidated a new approach to development and the need of a more encompassed agenda [ 7 ]. This new agenda was conceived after an integrating process that involved representatives from governments, cooperation agencies, nongovernmental organisations, global business, and academia. The willingness of the 2030 Agenda to ‘leave no one behind’ relies on this unprecedented global commitment by the international community [ 8 ].

As a result of this process, in 2015, the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted the document “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” [ 9 ], later known as the 2030 Agenda. This new global agenda is an all-comprising strategy that seeks to inform and orient public policies and private interventions in an extensive range of fields, from climate change to smart cities and from labour markets to birth mortality, among many others.

The declared scope of the Agenda is to shift the world on to a path of resilience focused on promoting sustainable development. To do so, the 2030 Agenda operates under the guidance of five principles, formally known as the ‘5 Ps’: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnerships [ 10 ]. With these pivotal concepts in mind, the Agenda has established a total of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 specific targets to be pursued in a 15-year period, which reflects the scale and profound ambition of this new Agenda.

The SDGs do not only address what rich countries should do for the poor but rather what all countries should do together for the global well-being of this and future generations [ 4 ]. Thus, the SDGs cover a much broader range of issues than their predecessors, the Millennium Development Goals [ 11 ], and are intended to be universal on the guidance towards a new paradigm of sustainable development that the international community has been demanding since the 1992 Earth Summit [ 7 , 12 , 13 ].

Despite this potential, some criticise their vagueness, weakness, and unambitious character. Fukuda-Parr [ 14 ], see weaknesses on the simplicity of the SDGs, which can lead to a very narrow conception that reduces the integral concept of development. The issue of measurement is also problematic; for some researchers, the quantification of objectives not only reduces their complexity, but leads to them being carried out without considering the interdependencies between the objectives [ 12 , 13 ]. Other authors have identified difficulties associated with specifying some of the less visible, intangible aspects of their qualitative nature such as inclusive development and green growth [ 14 , 15 ]. Finally, Stafford-Smith et al. [ 16 ] state that their successful implementation also requires paying greater attention to the links across sectors, across societal actors and between and among low-, medium-, and high-income countries.

Despite these criticisms, the SDGs have undoubtedly become the framework for what the Brundtland report defined as our common future. Unlike conventional development agendas that focus on a restricted set of dimensions, the SDGs provide a holistic and multidimensional view of development [ 17 ]. In this line, Le Blanc [ 12 ] concludes that the SDGs constitute a system with a global perspective; because they consider the synergies and trade-offs between the different issues involved in sustainable development, and favour comprehensive thinking and policies.

1.2. Towards a categorization of the SDGs

There is an underlying lack of unanimity in the interpretation of the SDGs, which has given rise to alternative approaches that allow categorizing the issues involved in their achievement without losing sight of the integral vision of sustainable development [ 15 , 18 – 23 ]. However, such categorization of the SDGs makes it possible to approach them in a more holistic and integrated way, focusing on the issues that underlie sustainable development and on trying to elucidate their connections.

Among the many systematization proposals, and following the contributions of Hajer et al. [ 19 ], four connected perspectives can strengthen the universal relevance of the SDGs: a) ‘planetary boundaries’ that emphasize the urgency of addressing environmental concerns and calling on governments to take responsibility for global public goods; b) ‘The safe and just operating space’ to highlight the interconnectedness of social and environmental issues and their consequences for the redistribution of wealth and human well-being; c) ‘The energetic society’ that avoids the plundering of energy resources; and d) ‘green competition’ to stimulate innovation and new business practices that limit the consumption of resources.

Planetary boundaries demand international policies that coordinate efforts to avoid overexploitation of the planet [ 24 ]. Issues such as land degradation, deforestation, biodiversity loss and natural resource overexploitation exacerbate poverty and deepen inequalities [ 21 , 25 – 27 ]. These problems are further compounded by the increasing impacts of climate change with clear ramifications for natural systems and societies around the globe [ 21 , 28 ].

A safe and just operating space implies social inclusivity that ensures equity principles for sharing opportunities for development [ 15 , 29 ]. Furthermore, it requires providing equitable access to effective and high-quality preventive and curative care that reduces global health inequalities [ 30 , 31 ] and promotes human well-being. Studies such as that of Kruk et al. [ 32 ] analyse the reforms needed in health systems to reduce mortality and the systemic changes necessary for high-quality care.

An energetic society demands global, regional and local production and consumption patterns as demands for energy and natural resources continue to increase, providing challenges and opportunities for poverty reduction, economic development, sustainability and social cohesion [ 21 ].

Finally, green competition establishes limits to the consumption of resources, engaging both consumers and companies [ 22 ] and redefining the relationship between firms and their suppliers in the supply chain [ 33 ]. These limits must also be introduced into life in cities, fostering a new urban agenda [ 34 , 35 ]. Poor access to opportunities and services offered by urban centres (a function of distance, transport infrastructure and spatial distribution) is a major barrier to improved livelihoods and overall development [ 36 ].

The diversification of development issues has opened the door to a wide range of new realities that must be studied under the guiding principles of the SDGs, which involve scholars from all disciplines. As Saric et al. [ 37 ] claimed, a shift in academic research is needed to contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. The identification of critical pathways to success based on sound research is needed to inform a whole new set of policies and interventions aimed at rendering the SDGs both possible and feasible [ 38 ].

1.3. The relevance and impact of the SDGs on academic research

In the barely five years since their approval, the SDGs have proven the ability to mobilize the scientific community and offer an opportunity for researchers to bring interdisciplinary knowledge to facilitate the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda [ 21 ]. The holistic vision of development considered in the SDGs has impacted very diverse fields of knowledge, such as land degradation processes [ 25 , 26 ], health [ 39 ], energy [ 40 ] and tourism [ 41 ], as well as a priori further disciplines such as earth observation [ 42 ] and neurosurgery [ 43 ]. However, more importantly, the inevitable interdependencies, conflicts and linkages between the different SDGs have also emerged in the analyses, highlighting ideas such as the need for systemic thinking that considers the spatial and temporal connectivity of the SDGs, which calls for multidisciplinary knowledge. According to Le Blanc [ 12 ], the identification of the systemic links between the objectives can be a valuable undertaking for the scientific community in the coming years and sustainable development.

Following this line, several scientific studies have tried to model the relationships between the SDGs in an attempt to clarify the synergies between the objectives, demonstrating their holistic nature [ 12 , 17 , 20 , 44 , 45 ]. This knowledge of interdependencies can bring out difficulties and risks, or conversely the drivers, in the implementation of the SDGs, which will facilitate their achievement [ 22 ]. In addition, it will allow proposing more transformative strategies to implement the SDG agenda, since it favours an overall vision that is opposed to the false illusion that global problems can be approached in isolation [ 19 ].

The lack of prioritisation of the SDGs has been one of the issues raised regarding their weakness, which should also be addressed by academics. For example, Gupta and Vegelin [ 15 ] analyse the dangers of inclusive development prioritising economic issues, relegating social or ecological inclusivity to the background, or the relational aspects of inclusivity that guarantee the existence of laws, policies and global rules that favour equal opportunities. Holden et al. [ 46 ] suggest that this prioritisation should be established according to three moral criteria: the satisfaction of human needs, social equity and respect for environmental limits. These principles must be based on ethical values that, according to Burford et al. [ 47 ], constitute the missing pillar of sustainability. In this way, the ethical imperatives of the SDGs and the values implicit in the discourses on sustainable development open up new possibilities for transdisciplinary research in the social sciences [ 46 , 47 ].

Research on SDG indicators has also been relevant in the academic world, as they offer an opportunity to replace conventional progress metrics such as gross domestic product (GDP) with other metrics more consistent with the current paradigm of development and social welfare that takes into account such aspects as gender equality, urban resilience and governance [ 20 , 48 ].

The study of the role of certain development agents, including companies, universities or supranational organisations, also opens up new areas of investigation for researchers. Some studies have shown the enthusiastic acceptance of the SDGs by companies [ 22 , 49 ]. For Bebbington and Unerman [ 50 ], the study of the role of organisations in achieving the SDGs should be centred around three issues: challenging definitions of entity boundaries to understand their full impacts, introducing new conceptual frameworks for analysis of the context within which organisations operate and re-examining the conceptual basis of justice, responsibility and accountability. On the other hand, the academic community has recognized that knowledge and education are two basic pillars for the transition towards sustainable development, so it may also be relevant to study the responsibility of higher education in achieving the SDGs [ 47 , 50 ]. Institutional sustainability and governance processes are issues that should be addressed in greater depth through research [ 47 ].

Finally, some authors have highlighted the role of information technologies (ICT) in achieving the SDGs [ 23 ] and their role in addressing inequality or vulnerability to processes such as financial exclusion [ 51 ], which opens up new avenues for research.

Despite this huge impact of the SDGs on academic research, to the best of our knowledge, an overall analysis of such an impact to understand its profoundness and capillarity is missing in the literature. To date, reviews have focused on the implementation of specific SDGs [ 52 – 61 ], on specific topics and collectives [ 62 – 70 ], on traditional fields of knowledge, now reconsidered in light of the SDGs [ 71 – 73 ] and on contributions from specific regions or countries [ 74 , 75 ]. By relying on scientometric techniques and data mining analyses, this paper collects and analyses the more than 5,000 papers published on the SDGs to pursue this challenging goal and fill this knowledge gap.

This article aims to provide a critical review of the scientific research on SDGs, a concept that has emerged based on multiple streams of thinking and has begun to be consolidated as of 2015. As such, global references on this topic are identified and highlighted to manage pre-existing knowledge to understand relationships among researchers and with SDG dimensions to enhance the presently dispersed understanding of this subject and its areas of further development. A scientometric meta-analysis of publications on SDGs is conducted to achieve this objective. Mainstream journals from the Web of Science (WoS) are used to identify current topics, the most involved journals, the most prolific authors, and the thematic areas around which the current academic SDG debate revolves.

Once Section 1 has revised on the related literature to accomplish the main objective, Section 2 presents the research methodology. Section 3 presents the main results obtained, and Section 4 critically discusses these results. The conclusion and the main limitations of the study are presented in Section 5.

2. Materials and methods

In methodological terms, this research applies scientometrics as a meta-analytical means to study the evolution of documented scientific knowledge on the Sustainable Development Goals [ 76 – 81 ], taking as a secondary source of information academic contributions (i.e. articles, reviews, editorials, etc.) indexed in the Web of Science (WoS). To ensure that only peer-reviewed contributions authored by individual researchers are retrieved and that such publications have a worldwide prestige assessment, all of them should be published on journals indexed in the Journal Citation Report (JCR), either as part of the Sciences Citation Index Expanded or the Social Sciences Citation Index [ 82 – 84 ].

Following the recommendations of previous studies [ 85 ], it was decided to apply the next search vector from 2015 to 2020 to achieve the research objectives TS = (Sustainable NEAR/0 Development NEAR/0 Goals), which allows the extraction of data with 67 fields for each article registered in WoS.

As the first step, to give meaning to subsequent analyses, we tested the presence of exponential growth in the production of documented knowledge that allows a continuous renewal of knowledge [ 76 , 86 ].

As a second action, given the recent nature of the subject studied, it is of interest to map the playing field [ 87 ] using VOSviewer software version 1.6.16 [ 88 ], to know which topics are most addressed in the matter of SDGs. This analysis seeks an approach, both through the concentration of Keyword Plus® [ 89 ] and by analysing the references used as input in the production of knowledge, which can be treated as cocitations, coupling-citations and cross-citations [ 90 ], using the h-index, in citation terms, as discriminant criteria in the selection of articles [ 91 – 93 ]. This methodology will allow us to establish production, impact and relationship metrics [ 80 , 85 , 87 , 94 , 95 ].

Finally, it is of interest to explore the possible concentrations that may arise. Using Lotka’s Law, we estimated the possible prolific authors and their areas of work in SDGs, and using Bradford’s Law, we conducted a search of a possible adjustment to a geometric series of the concentration zones of journals and therefore a potential nucleus where a profuse discussion on SDGs is taking place [ 96 – 100 ].

3.1. Configuration of the academic production on SDGs

The results present a total of 5,281 articles for a period of six years (2015–2020) in 1,135 journals, with over 60% of these documents published in the last two years. The total of articles is distributed among authors affiliated with 7,418 organisations from 181 countries/regions, giving thematic coverage to 183 categories of the Journal Citation Report-Web of Science (JCR-WoS). Table 1 shows the distribution among the top ten JCR-WoS categories, highlighting the prevalence of journals indexed in green and environmental sciences and, thus, in the Science Index-Expanded.

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3.2. Existence of research critical mass

Fig 1 shows the regression model for the period 2015–2020, the last year with complete records consolidated in the Web of Science. The results obtained show significant growth in the number of studies on SDGs, with an R 2 adjustment greater than 96%. The exponential nature of the model shows that a ‘critical mass’ is consolidating around the research on this topic, as proposed by the Law of Exponential Growth of Science over Time [ 76 ], which in some way gives meaning to this research and to obtaining derived results.

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3.3. Establishment of concentrations

In accordance with Lotka’s Law, 22,336 authors were identified of the 5,281 articles under study. From this author set, 136 (≈sqrt (22,336)) are considered prolific authors with a contribution to nine or more works. However, a second restriction, even more demanding, is to identify those prolific authors who are also prolific in contemporary terms. Although SDG studies are recent, the growth production rates are extremely high. As previously shown, for the period 2015–2020, 64% of the publications are concentrated between 2019–2020. Based on this second restriction, for 3,400 articles of the 5,281 articles published in 2019 and 2020, and a total of 15,120 authors, only eight prolific authors manage to sustain a publication number that equals or exceeds nine articles. These authors are listed and characterized in Table 2 .

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The analysis shown in Table 2 highlights the University of Washington’s participation in health issues with Murray and Hay (coauthors of eight articles in the period 2019–2020), who are also important in the area of health for the prolific authors Yaya and Bhutta. The environmental SDGs mark a strong presence with Abhilash, Leal-Filho and Kalin. The affiliation of Abhilsash (Banaras Hindu University) is novel, as it is not part of the classic world core in knowledge production that is largely concentrated in the United States and Europe. It is worth noting that other prolific authors belong to nonmainstream knowledge production world areas, such as Russia or Pakistan. Professor Alola also deserves mention; not only is he the only contemporary prolific author producing in the area of economics, but he is also producing knowledge in Turkey.

In the same way, at the journal level, the potential establishment of concentration areas and determination of a deep discussion nucleus are analysed using Bradford’s law.

With a percentage error of 0.6%, between the total journal number and the total journal number estimated by the Bradford series, the database shows a core of 18 journals (2%) where one in three articles published are concentrated (see Table 3 ).

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Regarding the number of contributions by journal, Sustainability has the largest number of studies on SDGs, in which 689 (13%) of the 5,281 articles studied are concentrated. The Journal of Cleaner Production, indexed to WoS categories related to Environmental SDGs, is the second most prominent journal, with 2.7% participation of the articles (147). Both journals are followed by the multidisciplinary journal Plos One, with 2.2% of the total dataset. In terms of impact factor, the 60 points of the health journal The Lancet are superlative in the whole, which in the other cases ranges between 2.000 and 7.246. As shown in Table 4 , we have developed a “Prominence ranking” by weighting article production by impact factor. This metric shows The Lancet, with only 40 articles on SDGs, as the most relevant journal, followed by Sustainability, which becomes relevant due to the high number of publications (689) despite an impact factor of 2.576. These journals are followed by the Journal of Cleaner Production with 147 articles and an impact factor of 7.246.

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3.4. Thematic coverage

Concerning the thematic coverage, Fig 2A and 2B show a diversity of 7,003 Keyword Plus® (KWP), consistently connected to a total of 7,141 KWP assigned by Clarivate as metadata to the set of 5,281 articles studied, which presents a strong concentration in a small number of terms (red colour in the heat map generated with VOSviewer version 1.6.16).

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a) Keywords Plus® heatmap and b) heat map zoom to highlight the highest concentration words, data source WoS, 2020.

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Based on this result, a concentration sphere with 85 KWP (= sqrt (7,141)) is established according to Zipf’s Law, which is presented in 50 or more articles out of the total of 5,281. Moreover, a central concentration sphere of 9 KWPs (= sqrt (85)) can be found, with keywords present in a range of 178 to 346 articles out of a total of 5,281. These nine pivotal keywords are all connected in terms of co-occurrence (associated by Clarivate two or more to the same article) and within papers with an average number of citations in WoS that vary from 9.27 to 16.69, as shown in Table 5 . The nine most prominent key words in relation to the study of the SDGs are health, climate change, management, impact, challenges, governance, systems, policy and framework. These terms already suggest some of the themes around which the debate and research in this area revolves.

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The prominence of these keywords is obtained by combining the level of occurrence and average citations (see Table 5 ): on the one hand, the occurrence or number of articles with which the KWP is associated (e.g., Management, 346) and, on the other hand, the average citations presented by the articles associated with these words (e.g., Framework. 9.27). The final score (prominence) mixes both concepts, given the product of the occurrences and the average citations of each KWP in proportion to the mean values (e.g., (330 * 16.69)/(246 * 11.96) = 1.9).

3.5. Relations within the academic contributions

The coupling-citation analysis using VOSviewer identifies the 5,281 articles under study, of which only those found in the h-index as a whole have been considered (the h-index in the database is 81, as there are 81 articles cited 81 or more times). The bibliographic coupling analysis found consistent connections in only 73 of these articles, gathered in seven clusters. Such clusters and unconnected articles are represented in Fig 3 .

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Data source WoS. 2020.

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In simple terms, discrimination belonging to one cluster or another depends on the total link number that an article has with the other 80 articles based on the use of the common references. Table 6 specifies the articles belonging to the same publication cluster in relation to Fig 3 .

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Bibliographic coupling analysis can also be used to link the seven clusters that use common references with the field document title (TI), publication name (SO), Keyword Plus-KWP (ID), and research areas (SC). This allows the identification of the main topics of each cluster. As shown in Table 7 , cluster 1 (red) concerns environmental and public affairs; cluster 2 (green), health; cluster 3 (blue), economics; cluster 4 (yellow), health–the burden of disease; cluster 5 (violet), economics–Kuznets curve; cluster 6 (light blue), energy; and cluster 7 (orange), soil—land.

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3.6. Outstanding contributions in the field

The cocitation analysis identified a total of 232,081 references cited by the 5,281 articles under study. It suggests taking as references to review those that present 44 or more occurrences in the database (232,081/5,281). This method results in 34 articles that have been used as main inputs for the scientific production under analysis, cited between 44 and 504 times. A result worth highlighting is that one in three of these documents corresponds to reports from international organisations, such as the United Nations (UN), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), World Bank Group (WB) or World Health Organization (WHO). However, it is also possible to identify 21 peer-reviewed scientific contributions. These papers are identified in detail in Table 8 .

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The cocitation analysis yields the degree of relationship of these 21 most cited research articles. It is how such references have been used simultaneously in the same article. Fig 4 displays this information (to help readers, it has also been included in Table 8 , centrality in 21 column).

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According to the relationship level in the most cited article’s selection, the graph ( Fig 3 ) has been clustered in three colours: cluster 1 in red colour groups the highest articles proportion (9) published between 2013 and 2017 in 7 journals. These journals present an impact factor (IF) quite heterogeneous, with values ranging from 2.576 (Sustainability) to 60.39 (Lancet) and indexed in one or more of the following WoS categories: Environmental Sciences (4 journals), Green & Sustainable Science & Technology (4), Environmental Studies (2), Development Studies (1), Medicine, General & Internal (1), Multidisciplinary Sciences (1) and Regional & Urban Planning (1). Three of these articles are cited 130–150 times in the 5,281-article dataset and, at the same time, show a connection centrality of 95–100% with the other 20 articles in the graph, implying a high level of cocitation. The other two clusters group six articles each. The articles of cluster 2 (green colour) are included in a widespread WoS category set: Environmental Sciences (3 journals), Geosciences, Multidisciplinary (2), Ecology (1), Economics (1), Energy & Fuels (1), Environmental Studies (1), Green & Sustainable Science & Technology (1), Materials Science, Multidisciplinary (1), Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences (1) and Multidisciplinary Sciences (1). The research of Nilsson [ 101 ] was used as a reference in 176 of the 5,281 articles under study, showing a centrality of 100%. This great connection level is also featured in another less cited article [ 17 ] published in Earth’s Future. Finally, cluster 3 (blue) highlights six articles concentrated in three highly cited journals in the WoS categories: Medicine, General & Internal (Lancet) and Multidisciplinary Sciences (Nature and Science), whose IFs range from 41.9 to 60.4. In general, they are articles less connected (cocited) to the set of 21, with centralities of 30–90%. Two of these articles were referenced 140 times or more, although one was published in 2009. Thus, cluster 3 concentrates the references mainly in journals on environmental issues with scientific-technological orientation, as well as classic and high-impact WoS journals (The Lancet, Nature and Science). It is worth noting that some of these top journals may not be listed in Table 4 as they are not included in the Bradford’s nucleus, due to their comparatively low number of contributions published.

Finally, continuing with the thematic study, a cross-citation analysis was developed. Considering only the 81 articles that are part of the h-index of the total set of 5,821 articles under study, the citations that are presented among this elite article set are explored using VosViewer. The cross-citation analysis detects existing relationships between 37 of these 81 articles. Once the directionality of the citations has been analysed, a directed temporal graph is generated using Pajek 64 version 5.09, which is presented in Fig 5 .

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Fig 5 shows how these 37 highly cited articles are related to each other (the number after the name is the publication year), considering that some of these articles are cited as references in other articles in this set. The relationships between the articles in Fig 5 are complex and should be understood under a temporal sequence logic in the citation between two articles. However, some trends can be highlighted.

On the one hand, some contributions stand out for their centrality. Lim et al. [ 102 ] is connected with eight of the 37 articles (21.6%) on citing relationships, as is Fullman et al. [ 27 ], which relates to seven of the 37 articles (18.9%). Both authors researched health issues and are also coauthors of nine articles of the dataset under study. On the other hand, according to the SDG segmentation proposed, Hajer et al. [ 19 ] and Le Blanc [ 12 ] are recognized as seminal articles in social SDGs, since they contribute to the production of other subsequent articles in the set of 37. On the other hand, in health matters, seminal articles are Norheim et al. [ 103 ] and You et al. [ 104 ], two articles published in The Lancet whose citations also contribute to the production of the set introduced as Fig 5 .

4. Discussion

The main purpose of this paper was to develop a critical and comprehensive scientometric analysis of the global academic literature on the SDGs from 2015 to 2020, conducted using the WoS database. The attained results have made it possible to comprehend and communicate to the scientific community the current state of the debate on the SDGs, thus offering insights for future lines of research.

To achieve the objectives, the present study analysed a broad spectrum of 5,281 articles published in 1,135 WoS journals. A first aspect that is striking is the great diversity of topics addressed in these studies, which reflects the multidimensionality of the SDGs. Despite this, more than half of the articles are concentrated in two JCR-WoS categories (Environmental Sciences and Green Sustainable Science Technology), a percentage that exceeds 80% if the categories Environmental Studies and Public Environmental Occupational Health are added. Thus, on the one hand, the size of the body of literature and the broad spectrum of topics more than covers the four perspectives of analysis that are relevant in research on the SDGs, according to Hajer et al. [ 19 ]: planetary boundaries, the safe and just operating space, the energetic society and, last, green competition. However, on the other hand, results also highlight a strong focus on the environmental aspects of the SDGs, which undoubtedly concentrate the most contributions.

The Sustainable Development Goals constitute an area of research that has experienced exponential scientific growth, a tendency already suggested by previous studies [ 81 , 105 ], thus complying with the fundamental principles of Price’s law [ 76 ], which suggests the need for this exponential growth to manifest a continuous renewal of knowledge on the subject under study. The results of this study highlight a significant increase in the number of articles published in the last two years, given that six out of ten articles were published in 2019 or 2020. This tendency confirms how the SDGs continue to arouse great interest in the scientific community and that the debate on the interpretation of sustainable development is still open and very present in academia.

The variety of knowledge areas from which science can approach the SDGs demonstrates the different avenues that exist to address different research questions and their multidimensional nature, as anticipated by Pradhan et al. [ 17 ], a dispersion not far from the traditional fields of knowledge or the conventional dimensions of sustainability. Investigating the reasons for this dispersion in academic research on the SDGs may be a topic of great interest, as anticipated by Burford et al. [ 47 ] and Le Blanc [ 12 ], since understanding the phenomenon of development can only be achieved if the main challenges, both current and future, can be viewed holistically and comprehensively. Along these lines, Imaz and Eizagirre [ 106 ] state that the complexity of the study of the SDGs is undoubtedly marked by their aspiration for universality, by their broad scope encompassing the three basic pillars of sustainable development (economic development, environmental sustainability and social inclusion) and by their desire for integration, motivated by the complexity of the challenges and by the countless interlinkages and interdependencies.

This natural multidimensionality of the SDGs calls for strong cooperation and collaboration between researchers, universities, and countries. In this sense, the scientometric analysis provides good news, as more than a hundred prolific authors (defined as those authors who have published nine or more articles on this topic) have been identified, although these are reduced to eight in contemporary terms (2019 or 2020). This select group of eight authors who lead research and publishing on the SDGs (sometimes with dual or triple affiliations) produce knowledge for universities and research centres both in the global north and the global south: Canada, the U.S., the UK, Germany, Pakistan, Turkey, India, Benin, Russia and Cyprus. The protagonist role played by research institutes in countries in the north has already been acknowledged by previous studies [ 81 , 105 ]. However, the emergence of top scholars producing academic knowledge from developing countries is a more recent tendency, which underscores the pertinence of this analysis.

A closer look at the academic and research curricula of these authors leads to the conclusion that the study of the SDGs does not constitute a final field of research at present. These researchers come from very heterogeneous disciplines, so their approach to the SDGs is also multidisciplinary. To illustrate it with an example, the most cited article by Professor Abhilash of Banaras Hindu University (the most published contemporary prolific author along with Christopher Murray of the University of Washington), with 363 WoS citations in February 2021 alone, is on the use and application of pesticides in India.

In more concrete terms, following Wu et al.’s [ 23 ] classification as a frame of reference, the eight most prolific contemporary authors approach the SDG research problem from two main domains, one of an environmental nature (Abhilash, Leal-Filho, Alola and Kalin) and the other related to health (Murray, Yaya, Bhutta, and Hay). The most common journals where these authors publish on environmental issues are the Journal of Cleaner Production, Higher Education, Water and Science of the Total Environment. Health researchers, on the other hand, tend to publish mainly in the journals of the BMC group, The Lancet and Nature.

This wide diversity of academic fora can be clarified with the application of Bradford’s laws, which identified a core of 18 journals that bring together the debates and academic discussions about the SDGs. It is worth noting that the 18 journals that form the core are distributed in 16 different thematic areas or WoS categories: Development Studies; Ecology; Economics; Education & Educational Research; Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences; Environmental Studies; Green & Sustainable Science & Technology; Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism; International Relations; Medicine, General & Internal; Multidisciplinary Sciences; Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; Regional & Urban Planning; and Water Resources. On the one hand, this wide dispersion in terms of areas of knowledge suggests that research on the SDGs can be studied from different approaches and disciplines, which opens up a wide range of possibilities for researchers from different branches of scientific knowledge, as well as an opportunity for multidisciplinary collaborations. On the other hand, this heterogeneity might also hinder the communication and dissemination of learning from one field to another. The cross-citation analysis provided in Fig 5 suggests this possibility, as seminal works are related to thematic disciplines more than to the seminal contributions identified in Table 8 .

In this sense, it is interesting to analyse the top-cited articles in the database, as they provide a clear picture of the field of knowledge. One-third of these contributions are provided by international institutions, such as the United Nations Development Program or the World Bank, which provide analyses of a normative nature. This prevalence reflects some weaknesses in the academic basis of the analysis of the SDGs as a whole from a scientific approach, an idea reinforced when the most cited papers are analysed. In fact, only six papers have reached more than 100 citations by contributions included in the database [ 4 , 12 , 24 , 29 , 101 , 107 ]. Not only were these papers largely published before the approval of the SDGs themselves, but half of them are editorial material, inviting contributions but are not evidence-based research papers. Highlighting the nature of the most cited contributions does not diminish their value but does speak to the normative approach that underlies the analysis of the SDGs when addressed not individually but as an overall field of research.

Regarding topics and themes of interest, the scientometric analysis carried out in this research identified a strong concentration around a small number of terms, as represented in a heat map ( Fig 2A and 2B ). All these topics constitute a potential source of inspiration for future research on the subject.

Through an analysis of the main keywords, it can be seen that the studies focused on the traditional areas of health and climate change. However, these keywords also provide new elements for discussion, as they uncover some other areas of study that have been highlighted by the literature. First, the appearance of the term Management as one of the main keywords reveals the importance that researchers give to the role of business in achieving the SDGs, as already suggested by Scheyvens et al. [ 49 ] and Spangenber [ 22 ]. Second, the need to address new governance processes and to seek global solutions, as suggested by authors such as Sachs [ 4 ], underscore the keywords Governance, Policy and Framework, all aspects deemed crucial for the achievement of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda [ 108 ]. Finally, other keywords such as Impact, Challenges or Systems are a clear example of the complexity and interdependencies that exist in research on the SDGs, considered an essential aspect by Griggs et al. [ 13 ] or Le Blanc [ 12 ]. The attained results highlight some of the connections between different domains of sustainable development by identifying categories and themes that are highly related in the groupings that emerge from the bibliographic coupling analysis.

In general terms, the holistic vision of development embodied by the SDGs has drawn the attention of very different disciplines, fields and areas of scientific knowledge. However, seven major areas of research have emerged: environmental and public affairs, health, economics, health-burden of disease, economics-Kuznets curve, energy and soil-land. These areas are not far removed from the current paradigm of sustainable development, where poverty or inequality are problems that are not exclusive to developing countries [ 5 , 6 ]. Thus, emerging issues that mainly affect first world countries, including urban planning, the impact of activities such as hospitality, sport or tourism, or education for development, are starting to stand out with increasing intensity, which continues to open new avenues for future research.

In short, the results of the scientometric analysis have provided a systematized overview of the research conducted in relation to the SDGs since the approval of the 2030 Agenda. Among other things, the critical analysis has identified the main trends with respect to the number of publications, the most relevant journals, the most prolific authors, institutions and countries, and the collaborative networks between authors and the research areas at the epicentre of the debate on the SDGs. As Olawumi and Chan [ 105 ] already acknowledged, the power research networks applied to the study of the SDGs offer valuable insights and in-depth understandings not only of key scholars and institutions but also about the state of research fields, emerging trends and salient topics.

Consequently, the results of this work contribute to the systematic analysis of scientific research on the SDGs, which can be of great interest for decision-making at the governmental level (e.g., which research to fund and which not to fund), at the corporate level and at the level of research centres, both public and private. Furthermore, the scientometric analysis carried out may provide clues for academics regarding future lines of research and topics of interest where the debate on the SDGs is currently situated.

5. Conclusions, limitations and future research lines

As could not be otherwise, all research in the field of social sciences has a series of limitations that must be clearly and transparently explained. The two most relevant in this study are the following.

First, although the study of the SDGs is a recent object of research, the rate of publication is growing exponentially, such that scientific knowledge is renewed practically in its entirety every two years. The only articles that escape this scientometric obsolescence are those with a high number of citations (h-index). This circumstance generates a temporal limitation in terms of the conclusions obtained in the present investigation, conclusions that should be revised periodically until the growth of publications stabilizes by adopting a logistic form, as recommended by Sun and Lin [ 109 ].

Second, the articles used as the basis for this research were restricted to those published in the JCR-WoS. This decision was made for two main reasons. On the one hand, the limitation was to eliminate potential distortions that could occur as a result of the constant growth of journals that are incorporated annually into other databases, such as ESCI-WoS (Emerging Sources Citation Index). On the other hand, it is impossible to compare impact indices if integrating other databases such as Scopus.

We are aware of these limitations, which for developing a more selective analysis imply assuming the cost of less coverage in exchange.

Regarding future lines of research, the analysis highlights how the study of the SDGs is failing to balance their economic, social and sustainability components, as it still maintains an overall focus on environmental studies.

This suggests the urgency of increasing studies on social SDGs, key topics on the 2030 Agenda including equity (SDGs 4, 5 and 10), social development (SDGs 11 and 16) and governance (SDG 17). These topics are part of the public discourse and currently a source of social pressure in many latitudes, but they are still research areas that are necessary to deepen.

Economic sustainability studies are more present, but highly concentrated, in health economics, as previously acknowledged by Meschede [ 81 ]. Academic research on the SDGs against poverty (SDG 1) and hunger (SDG 2) has not achieved such a prominent place as health. Even less so, the economics of technological development (SDGs 8 and 9), which are recognized as crucial for economic development.

Finally, the environmental SDGs do not achieve a balance among themselves either. Academic research has prioritized action for climate (SDG 13) and industrial and human consumption, mainly water (SDG 6) and energy (SDG 7). New research should be developed in the area of land (SDG 15), life under the sea (SDG 14) and sustainable production (SDG 12).

Supporting information

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Sustainability assurance practices: a systematic review and future research agenda

Saddam a. hazaea.

1 School of Accounting, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming, 650221 China

Saleh F. A. Khatib

2 Azman Hashim International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Ayman Hassan Bazhair

3 Faculty of Business Administration College, Department of Economic and Finance, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia

Ahmed A. Elamer

4 Brunel Business School, Brunel University London, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH London UK

5 Department of Accounting, Faculty of Commerce, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt

Associated Data

Not applicable.

Although firms increasingly publish sustainability reports, assuring such reports is relatively new. This study reviews the literature of sustainability assurance to evaluate the intellectual development of the field and provide recommendations for future studies. It also demonstrates the role of assurance to enhance the credibility of sustainability reports and corporate reputation. This paper systematically reviews 94 papers obtained from the Scopus database between 1993 and August 2021. Our study shows that there is an increase in the number of studies published in recent years. We also found that some countries have received limited attention, such as the USA. The scant literature examining sustainability assurance in private institutions and non-profit organisations should be reinforced. Likewise, the sustainability research also provides limited evidence on the governance debate. The vast majority of research is not based on theoretical grounds. The need for assurance of sustainability reports not only enhances the reputation but also adds more value to the organisation’s planning, monitoring, and accountability. We highlight several new research suggestions that may enhance the understanding of sustainability assurance practices.

Introduction

Sustainability is a topic of growing importance worldwide (Alshbili et al. 2021 ; Liu et al. 2021 ; Orazalin & Mahmood 2019 ). The effort of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on global warming and environmental laws and regulations has evolved rapidly in the last few years. The pace of change continues to increase to pursue a sustainable model of capitalism. Pressures from the community for better corporate behaviour has also increased due to highly publicised corporate environmental disasters (Kamran et al. 2021 ; Liu et al. 2021 ; Roberts et al. 2021a , 2021b ; Shad et al. 2020 ). This trend has increased the demand for more environmental information and activities. Likewise, concerns related to the environmental and social effects of business have led to increased demand and desire to apply transparency on the entirety of issues related to corporate behaviour (Kamran et al. 2021 ; Khan et al. 2021 ). Some researchers confirmed that organisations participating in sustainability activities and disclosure would enhance transparency, reputation, and branding, encouraging employees and increasing competitiveness (Agyemang et al. 2020 ; Alshbili et al. 2021 ; Elmagrhi et al. 2019 ; Hassan et al. 2020 ; X. Chen et al. 2020 ; Song et al. 2021 ). Yet, a nascent, but growing stream of research has criticised the transparency and suitability of these practices.

The importance of sustainability engagement on its three dimensions is widely presented in the literature (social, environmental, and economic). Environmentally, increased human and industrial impact on the surrounding ecosystems has resulted in environmental changes, which have developed into one of the most significant issues in this era. Hence, sustainability has emerged as a critical factor in achieving environmental balance (Yadav et al. 2021 ). The importance of sustainability is demonstrated via efforts to maintain the environment and conserve natural resources, all of which contribute to a better quality of life. All companies try to embrace sustainability because of its importance in preserving resources and creating value in use (James 2014 ). Burhan and Rahmanti ( 2012 ) claimed that sustainability benefits investment returns and financial performance by producing value and thus ensuring the stability of earnings. Socially and economically, sustainability practices lead to a reduction in spending by providing savings, which leads to the use of these savings in supporting economic activities and local addition to investments. Moreover, communities that have good development plans are more attractive to investment and investors. Besides, good sustainability strategies reduce costs associated with the personal aspects of the consumer’s health. In addition, sound strategies for sustainability contribute to increasing productivity by employees and the surrounding environment becomes more encouraging for production and research aspects.

A key component of developing and implementing a sustainability plan in a corporation would require a periodic review of that plan and its implementation. An extensive body of research has demonstrated the role of audit that reviews sustainability from the side of environmental management and performance, and the relation of the environment to other ethical, labour, and social aspects. The importance of assurance in emphasising sustainability has been commonly highlighted as the most important mean of mitigating the risk of environmental violations and ensuring sustainability engagement of corporations (Coyne 2006 ; Desimone et al. 2020 ). According to the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA 2021 ), audit functions add value to enterprises by strengthening risk management and improving the understanding of new emergent issues such as sustainability (Abdelfattah et al. 2020 ; El-Dyasty & Elamer 2020 ; Owusu et al. 2020 ). Additionally, Chiang and Torng ( 2015 ) argued that the audit component is the key point in the complete infrastructure under which the organisation’s interaction with changes in the environment can be managed. Ridley et al. ( 2011 ) argued that there is a growing recognition of the importance and necessity for organisations to report on issues related to sustainability, but the importance and value of such reports, which are acted upon impartially and independently, appear to be underappreciated by stakeholders. Hence, organisations have a rapid increase in sustainability assurance activities due to the need to monitor sustainability risk and activities (Fraser et al. 2020 ). Sustainability assurance includes three main characteristics: assessing the environment by using measurable standards and linking them to performance, relying on an audit team with sufficient accounting and financial experience and issuing reports of both types, internal to shareholders and external to the public (Nitkin & Brooks 1998 ). Sustainability assurance measures the value of organisations from three aspects: economic, social, and environmental (Coyne 2006 ). Trotman and Trotman ( 2015 ) reported that assurance is associated with sustainability in achieving accountability towards stakeholders.

A substantial number of prior research has documented that the interest of organisations in all countries has increased in sustainable development, which required an increase in the need for sustainability auditors and the application of assurance standards (Coyne 2006 ; Handoko et al. 2020 ; Silvola & Vinnari 2021 ). While there are some specific mandatory sustainability reporting instruments across the world, there are few regulations around sustainability reporting and none regarding sustainability assurance practices (Desimone et al. 2020 ). The assurance providers’ professionalism, independence, and quality of assurance statements have all been called into question in terms of their content analysis of sustainability reports and assurance statements. Furthermore, as sustainability assurance is costly, assurance statements mostly consist of theoretical reflections rather than field investigations. Sustainability assurance has, therefore, received growing attention from academics in recent years. Despite this trend, to date, relatively few review studies exist discussing the role of assurance in achieving and assuring sustainability practices (Csutora & Harangozo 2017 ; Qingliang Tang 2019 ). Our study, therefore, aims mainly to evaluate the prior studies that discussed assurance and sustainability topics to answer three main research questions.

  • RQ.1 . How was the research related to sustainability assurance developed and investigated?
  • RQ.2 . What is the current evaluation of previous studies (focus and criticisms)?
  • RQ.3 . How do future research on the role of assurance in sustainability can be identified?

In order to address these questions, a systematic literature review (SLR) method was followed to collect relevant studies from the Scopus database in the sustainability assurance area. Following Khatib et al. ( 2021b ), a search string was developed with limited keywords identified after reviewing studies that discussed assurance or accounting with sustainability (i.e. Ridley et al. 2011 ). A final sample of 94 studies was included in the current study, which explicitly discusses assurance and sustainability.

A nascent, but growing research stream has focused on assurance and sustainability in recent times due to the desire of institutions to use assurance functions in assessing sustainability risks. However, a dearth of research on certain developed and developing countries was found. For instance, only one study in the USA has been found in the sample literature despite the large impact of assurance and sustainability on its economy. This indicates that there is a need for more research investigating sustainability assurance in both developed and developing countries. The review also reveals that the need for assurance of sustainability report does not only enhance the reputation of institutions but also can add more value to the organisation’s planning, monitoring, structure, and accountability. Furthermore, a significant number of practical works relied severely on archival data, pointing to the need for more reliable and valid hand-collected research, although some constructs that influence sustainability assurance cannot be easily observed using archival databases (e.g. psychology, culture, and preference of auditor). This study provides several other recommendations for future research directions.

Our paper contributes to this field as the first study, to our knowledge, that relied on SLR to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the sustainability assurance literature. This research is useful for many stakeholders such as management, auditors, regulators, and researchers as it provides insights into the intellectual development of the sustainability assurance fields. Also, it shows the great importance of assurance and its contribution in enhancing the practice of sustainability to the extent of the stakeholders’ desire and confirms that there is a major role for assurance in emphasising sustainability as the most important means contributing to mitigate the risk related to environmental violations. Lastly, based on our SLR and the synthesis of research, this study outlines several avenues to be addressed in investigating sustainability assurance in future. In doing so, we build possible future research queries for the interactions of internal and external assurance, audit committees, and other types of assurance. The resulting future research avenues tie the study of assurance and sustainability to avoid perpetuating the divide and parallel examination endeavours.

The rest of this article is prepared as follows. The “ Methodology ” section summarises the methodology applied in this research including journal selection and content analysis. In the “ Results and discussion ” section, we present and discuss the results of the sample literature evaluation. The “ Future research avenues ” section highlights several suggestions for future work. We end with a conclusion in the “ Conclusions and recommendations ” section.

Methodology

The systematic literature review approach is popular in management, finance, and economic fields (Hedin et al. 2019 ). Systematic literature review (SLR) can provide significantly unbiased results compared to traditional narrative review (Hazaea et al. 2021b ; Kotb et al. 2020 ). Subjective and biased results can be reduced, and the investigation status is improved in the topic being discussed using SLRs (Massaro et al. 2015 ) as it limits scholars’ preference during the identification of the sample literature. Studies based on the SLR can confirm the transparency of the analysis with the possibility of replication (Easterby-Smith et al. 2015 ), and it differs from traditional reviews in that it follows strict and explicit rules in the way it is prepared (Massaro et al. 2016 ).

According to Kotb et al. ( 2020 ), Zhao et al. ( 2021 ), and Massaro et al. ( 2016 ), studies based on SLRs required the following steps: determine the protocol to be used for the review and identify the databases from which the research sample can be obtained (e.g. Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ProQuest), determine the research questions to be answered using previous studies under investigation, determine the type of studies to be investigated and specify the time period, measure the impact of the article based on predefined rules (e.g. use the Google Scholar or Scopus citation to determine the high article impact among the readers), define the analytical framework for the studies, and use the developed framework to critically analyse prior literature to show the intellectual development of the field and highlight gaps by analysing previous steps to provide some avenues for future research. This approach was also used in several recent SLR studies (i.e. Hazaea et al. 2021a , b ; Zamil et al. 2021 ; Zhao et al. 2021 ).

To avoid errors in implementing SLR, we followed some studies that discussed topics similar to the current study (e.g. Ascani et al. 2021 ; Khatib et al. 2021b ; Nerantzidis et al. 2020 ; Widmann et al. 2021 ). The data collection was conducted in August 2021. We relied on the Scopus database to obtain the sample literature as it is the largest indexed abstract database compared to the others (Nerantzidis et al. 2020 ; Yahaya et al. 2020 ). As shown in Fig.  1 , two keywords were utilised to search for studies related to the topic under study, namely “Audit*” and “Sustainab*”. It should be noted that the use of asterisk helped us to look for other similar terms such as auditor, auditing, audits, sustainability, sustainable. These keywords were used to search in the title, keywords, and abstract of the literature. The initial sample of studies hit the number of 3683 studies. Then, this sample was limited to studies that were published in the English language (result in 3577 studies) and in journal or conference proceedings (result in 3102 studies). Since all research included in the sample literature are carefully evaluated, publications in non-English languages were excluded due to our lack of language skills. Given that assurance and sustainability are the main focus of the study, we limited the search to studies that were published under the “ Environment Science” OR “Business” OR “Management” OR “Finance” OR “Economic ” subjects which significantly reduce the sample literature to 716 studies. Finally, we screened the titles and abstracts of the final number of documents, and articles that are irrelevant to assurance and sustainability were excluded, resulting in 150 articles. After a thorough analysis of all publications that directly addressed sustainability assurance, a final sample of 94 research was included in this study.

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The flow chart of the sample collection

Research questions

Our questions are based on three basic criteria: (i) knowing the current status of the studies under investigation, description, and objective, (ii) direct criticism of current studies, evaluating and identifying gaps, and (iii) guide future research to cover the gaps. According to extant research (i.e. Kotb et al. 2020 ; Nerantzidis et al. 2020 ), for studies based on SLR, three questions should be included. In this study, the first question provides an investigation of how the studies that discussed assurance and sustainability have evolved. According to Dumay and Garanina ( 2013 ) and Tsalavoutas et al. ( 2020 ), this question can be addressed through several points such as assessment of the most influential paper, regional distribution, quality of journals, the affiliation of authors, research setting, and research instrument. The second question can be answered by analysing the main research topics, the theoretical basis, and evaluating the previous literature results (see, Khatib et al. 2021a ; Kotb et al. 2020 ; Massaro et al. 2016 ). The third question is addressed by highlighting the avenues for future work during the process of addressing the first and second questions.

Results and discussion

Descriptive analysis, yearly trends.

In Fig.  2 , it seems clear that the number of studies that discussed assurance and sustainability during the period 2015 to 2021 has increased significantly, especially in 2020, where the number of published studies was 15 articles. The increase in studies that discussed assurance and sustainability in the recent period may be due to the desire of institutions to use audit functions in assessing sustainability risks. Besides, the financial crises added momentum to the demand for stricter rules and regulations, more transparent disclosure, and greater management accountability. Fraser et al. ( 2020 ) emphasised that there is an increase in the trend of sustainability assurance by institutions and organisations due to the need to use assurance functions in monitoring sustainability risks and their activities. Similarly, Ahmed ( 2016a , b ) emphasised that as a result of the increase in social responsibility in all aspects, including the economy, the interest of auditors in the social responsibility of companies increased. Therefore, the increased orientation by the auditors led to the necessity of conducting research related to this activity.

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The yearly trend of the published documents

In general, the interest of stakeholders has increased in the implementation of sustainability activities in addition to the interest of regulators and their encouragement for institutions in developing sustainable activities because of their importance to various economic aspects (Mensah 2019 ). For instance, Ridley et al. ( 2011 ) argued that sustainability assurances contribute to governance, risk management, and control of organisations in emerging markets. Consequently, we argue that increasing stakeholder interest in sustainability activities leads to increased consideration of the importance of assurance in improving sustainability activities, which requires further research to better understand the complex nature of the relationship between sustainability and assurance aspects, especially post COVID-19 crisis.

Regional distribution

In this section, we evaluated the geographical distribution of the sample literature. The investigation showed that the studies were distributed among 24 countries only, while 15 studies were cross country, and 23 were non-regional studies (Table ​ (Table1). 1 ). Due to the limited studies that belong to every country, we followed Ascani et al. ( 2021 ) and utilised the continental classification. Table ​ Table2 2 shows that China is the most investigated country in our sample with five articles [5.32%]. This could be attributed to the recent sustainable development policies taking place in China (Ascani et al. 2021 ). For example, a study by Tang ( 2019 ) showed that the most important factors that increased the practice of carbon assurance in China are the rapid expansion and development of carbon enterprises and the government’s encouragement of these enterprises. Canada came second with 4 studies, 4.26%, such as Nitkin and Brooks ( 1998 ), which discussed the experiences of Canadian companies in public and private sectors in integrating sustainable development management with preparing reports as an essential part of their business. The study indicated that the majority of companies operating in Canada do not review their environmental sustainability as the reports and practice of sustainable development auditing are not mandatory. In addition, the study results indicated that the practice of sustainability audit is based on many factors, the most important of which are legal responsibility before the state, corporate commitment, transparency associated with the audit process, and general awareness of environmental issues.

Regional distribution of the sample studies

NA , North America; SA , South America; GCC , Gulf Cooperation Council; EU , Europe

The top 10 leading articles in the sample literature

SLA , sequential logit analysis; ML , multiple regression; OLS , ordinary least squares

The results highlighted that some countries were investigated only three times in prior research, namely Malaysia, Romania, The UK, Taiwan, Australia, Indonesia, and Spain, while the rest of the countries were subject to less than two studies. Moreover, some researchers were interested in evaluating the role of economic and cultural differences by conducting cross-country research (15 studies). For example, a study by Guidara et al. ( 2021 ) aimed to assess the relationship between the effectiveness of assurance standards and sustainability by using a sample from 125 countries. Al-Matari and Mgammal ( 2019 ) reported that multi-country studies can provide basic and important insights that enable researchers to understand the subject under investigation from various cultural, social, and political aspects.

Furthermore, we grouped the sample literature into several categories based on the content distribution of the studies. We found that Asia ranked first in the number of studies with 23 articles (e.g. Charumathi & Krishnan 2011 ; Chiang & Torng 2015 ; Tang 2019 ), followed by Europe with 21 articles (Serbănică et al. 2015 ; Watson and Emery 2003 ), then South and North America with six articles (i.e. Oliveira et al. 2011 ; Rubenstein 2001 ), and Oceania with four articles, and Africa with 2 articles. Interestingly, there is only one study from the USA despite its large socio-economic impact. This indicates that there is a need for more research investigating sustainability assurance in both developed and developing countries that received less attention in the literature.

Leading research

Table ​ Table2 2 presents the most influential research studies that have an impact among sustainability assurance scholars based on the citation matrix provided by the Scopus database. The result revealed that the study conducted by Simnett et al. ( 2009 ) is the most influential research with 567 citations. The study determined the factors related to the voluntary purchase decision, selection, and confirmation of the assurance provider. It also revealed the importance of assurance in supporting the need for companies to enhance credibility and selection of the assurance provider. The study used a sample of 2113 companies in 31 countries, and the results showed that companies that aim to enhance their credibility with regard to stakeholders and aim to develop and build their corporate reputation often get confirmed reports of their sustainability. In addition, the study results indicated that the assurance provider might not be definitively linked to the audit profession. Likewise, a study by Rennings et al. ( 2006 ) also has another influential research with 315 citations. This study investigated the interrelationship between economic performance, technical environmental innovations, and environmental management and assurance scheme. It found that environmental process innovations are positively affected by the environmental management systems (Rennings et al. 2006 ). The reason may be that this paper was published long ago and it has been suggested that old studies may get more chances to be cited (Ascani et al. 2021 ; Kotb et al. 2020 ). The study conducted by Casterella et al. ( 2004 ) ranked third with 169 citations. This study analysed competition strategies that can create a sustainable environment in Big-6 audit firms and the impact of non-specialist auditors on that. The reason behind its impact among researchers may be because it was conducted in the world’s largest economies, in addition to the fact that this study was published a long time ago. In this context, we believe that studies published in high-impact journals and implemented in a strong economic region may have a significant impact among researchers as a result of the prevailing belief that research results are strong.

Distribution of the sample publication upon journals

Table ​ Table3 3 describes the sample of the studies under investigation based on the sources of journals in which the sample studies were published. We focused on studies that discussed assurance and sustainability and obtained 94 studies that were analysed. Following Chen et al. ( 2018 ) and Hristov et al. ( 2021 ), journals were divided into three categories. The first category is the journals categorised in the environment and sustainability; the second category is the journals categorised in accounting, operations management, and performance; and the third category is the journals categorised in general management. Table ​ Table3 3 shows that the second type included the largest number of 39 research articles, where this type was classified into five categories. Managerial Auditing Journal ranked first with 6 research papers, followed by International Journal of Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory and Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal , 2 research papers for each journal. This confirms the extent to which audit functions are related to sustainability, especially that the research published in the first three journals, the majority of them after 2010 which indicates the interest of researchers in this field. In the second place came research published in the journals of environment and sustainability, where Business Strategy and the Environment has published six research papers, which ranks first in publishing research related to sustainability and topics related to management such as accounting. This indicates that this journal is a pioneer in publishing research related to management and the environment. Followed by the Journal of Cleaner Production with five research papers, then the Journal of Business Ethics that includes five research papers, and sustainability 4 research papers. These journals emphasise the important role that assurance plays in ensuring sustainability. Remarkably, most of the journals indicated in the table are among the best journals in assurance and sustainability, which confirm the importance of this research. Another interesting thing that confirms the growing interest in sustainability assurance is the presence of research published in the post-2017 period in journals with high impact among readers and pioneers in the disciplines of assurance and sustainability.

Distribution of the articles sample by journals

The analytical framework

Theories applied in the literature.

Through the general analysis of the 94 studies included in the investigation, the investigation shows that there are only 44 studies that relied on theories and were distributed as follows: agency theory (3 articles), stakeholder theory (2 articles), legitimacy theory (2 articles), institutional theory (2 articles), other single theory (11 articles), and mixed theory (24 articles). Table ​ Table4 4 (A) shows the theories that were used in the studies under investigation, either individually or with other theories. Agency theory was used in 15 studies (see, Annuar & Abdul Rashid 2015 ; Wang et al. 2020 ). The analysis also shows that stakeholder theory has been used in 13 studies either individually or with other theories. Wang ( 2017 ) applied stakeholder theory to investigate the association between the characteristics of firms including the characteristics of the audit committee (AC) and disclosure of sustainability reports. The result showed that there is a positive association between characteristics of AC and disclosure of sustainability reports. Legitimacy theory was used in eight studies (e.g. Fernandez-Feijoo et al. 2018 ). The results showed that ensuring sustainability can be achieved to a large degree and a high level when the financial auditors belong to the Big4 audit firms. The institutional theory was used in 4 studies (e.g. Silvola & Vinnari 2021 ) where this theory was used as a basis for verifying the role of the agency and the management style in achieving sustainability assurance and the role of auditors in achieving this. The results showed that the refusal of the institutional work of other agents by the auditors might help in ensuring the achievement of sustainability.

Analytical framework of the literature

* Other theories including stewardship, relational, chaos, transition management, fraud diamond, planned behavioural, the media setting agenda, social political theory, capability, social cognitive, industrial organisation, cost theory, organisational ecology, general system theory, ethical and corporate cultural theory, activity system theory, critical political economy theory, and carbon audit theory, grounded theory, and sustainability theory . General/other and non-applicable: including Big4, Big6 and IIA member, etc .* Other specialist assurance: carbon assurance, social assurance, environmental assurance, government audit, financial audit, and firm audit

Resource dependency theory was also used in four studies. It should be noted that 24 studies used mixed theories (i.e. Rika 2009 ) where the aim was to investigate the incentives that call for the use of environmental assurance in the Fiji public institutions. The results showed that external and internal factors necessitated the use of environmental assurance, including the request of international organisations and the United Nations, in addition to the new laws in the country. The study results indicated that this could be explained by using the institutional and legitimacy theories.

It should be noted that the theories have been directed from three aspects: economic (critical political economy theory), social (ethical and corporate cultural theory and social-political theory), and psychological (theory of planned behavioural) and this reinforces the necessity of building research based on theories, which contributes to the development of research work. Thus, expanding the adoption of the theoretical basis in assurance research by using new theories based on economic, social, and psychological aspects enhances the audit functions towards sustainability assurance.

Interestingly, 50 research articles did not apply a theoretical framework in evaluating the topic (Kaziliünas 2008 ; Oliveira et al. 2011 ; Serbănică et al. 2015 ). It is worth noting that it might be difficult to understand the outcomes of any study that is not based on a theoretical basis (Nerantzidis et al. 2020 ). According to Beck and Stolterman ( 2016 ), studies which are not based on theories may be insufficient in providing insight into the topic in question. This is one of the limitations of previous studies under investigation and we, therefore, encourage future studies to consider this issue.

Stakeholder theory

The theory of stakeholders is one of the most important theories used as a major research approach related to sustainability management (Wang 2017 ). Numerous studies have established that stakeholder theory is a critical component in explaining sustainability and preparing financial reports (Belal & Roberts 2010 ; Reynolds & Yuthas 2008 ). The stakeholder theory assumes that corporations should take into account all the different expectations surrounding their business. Additionally, it emphasised the need for the management to identify the nature of the environment surrounding the performance of their institutions, including the regulation of the association between internal and external stakeholders. According to Hermawan and Gunardi ( 2019 ), stakeholders may affect the performance of companies through the impact of social ownership, profitability, financial leverage, and the independence of those authorised in the management of these institutions from the disclosure of social responsibility. This is consistent with what is supported by the stakeholder theory. In the sustainability assurance literature, this theory is used in different studies with a different framework such as the risk of CSR and auditors (Brooks et al. 2019 ), carbon auditing (Qingliang Tang 2019 ), sustainability development and corporate governance (Suttipun & Saelee 2015 ), and corporate sustainability and social assurance (Gao & Zhang 2004 ). The significance of stakeholder theory is that it guides stakeholders in general to commercial firms’ proper thinking. However, it does not incorporate the ethical concepts essential for managers to deal with some issues, such as those relating to the natural environment that do not clearly and directly involve individuals within commercial institutions (Orts & Strudler 2002 ). Despite the extensive application of this theory in research, there is still a dearth of literature on the subject.

Agency theory

It was applied in 15 studies. The agency theory is related to the conflict of interest resulting from the separation of ownership (Fama & Jensen 1983 ; Hazaea et al. 2020 ; Hazaea et al. 2021a ; Khatib & Nour,). Agency theory is concerned with investigating problems that arise for one party in terms of decision-making and implementation of activities (Al Amosh and Khatib 2021 ; Eisenhardt 1989 ). The literature under investigation used agency theory to explore many areas such as auditor gender and crash risk (Wang et al. 2020 ), sustainable development and the type of gender of the member of the audit committee (Bravo and Reguera-Alvarado 2019 ), the impact of corporate governance on sustainability (Cancela et al. 2020 ; Suttipun and Saelee 2015 ), and the impact of audit committees (ACs) on corporate sustainability (Buallay and Al-Ajmi 2020 ). Although this theory is frequently used in the sample research articles, the interpretations are deemed inadequate. Especially with new and modern topics, given that the basics of this theory are old (Bendickson et al. 2016 ), some studies consider that the agency theory ignored many human motives while focusing only on the aspect of self-interest and human behaviour (Alshbili et al. 2019 ; Chariri 2008 ; Elamer et al. 2019 , 2021 ).

Legitimacy theory

According to Rika ( 2009 ) and Zamil et al. ( 2021 ), the theory of legitimacy is one of the most used theories in research related to environmental accounting. However, there are many problems to apply and follow this theory, such as the necessity of economic work under conditions of competition, continuous and great pressure from stakeholders, in addition to fragmented social values (Neu et al. 1998 ). Tilling ( 2004 ) argued that the legitimacy theory could contribute significantly to providing a strong and systematic mechanism for the non-standard social and environmental accounting disclosures provided by companies. According to Zyznarska-Dworczak ( 2018 ), the legitimacy theory explains the behaviour of institutions in developing, implementing, and communicating corporate social responsibility programs and policies. This requires achieving the corporate social contract through the adoption of CSR that affects various activities, including assurance and sustainability activities.

In our sample, eight studies have applied this theory. Buallay and Al-Ajmi ( 2020 ) discussed the extent to which the features enjoyed by the audit committees have an impact on the sustainability reports of banks in the Arab Gulf countries based on four theories, including the theory of legitimacy. The study results showed a non-positive correlation between the financial experience of members of the audit committees and sustainability reports. Moreover, it indicated the importance of the positive role of the independence of audit committees members and the frequency of their meetings in determining the level of disclosure. The results also revealed the positive impact of the quality of auditors, and the size and the age of the bank on sustainability reports. Other seven studies have applied this theory (Boiral et al. 2019 ; Fernandez-feijoo et al. 2017 ; Hermawan & Gunardi 2019 ; Suttipun & Saelee 2015 ; Qingliang Tang 2019 ; Velte 2018 ).

One of the limitations of the theory of legitimacy is its consistency and vision that the processes associated with reporting and confirmation are formed through the pursuit of social legitimacy, while the processes related to the principle of achieving transparency and the application of the issue with stakeholders are neglected (Boiral et al. 2017 ). Thus, the legitimacy theory may be limited in its ability to explain how assurance-related service providers can confer and explain legality in scientific terms compared to specific ethical issues and behaviour associated with their audit activities (Boiral et al. 2019 ).

Institutional theory

The use of institutional theory includes the benefit of social and environmental accounting research from the point of view of different approaches and lenses (Bebbington et al. 2008 ). The institutional theory provides stronger results and interpretations than the theory of legitimacy, as it considers all the practical and internal factors of the subject under discussion. Moreover, it helps researchers to benefit from the theoretical interpretation that includes abundant information (Adams and Larrinaga-González 2007 ). Four studies from the sample discussed in this study used the institution theory. Rika ( 2009 ) used institutional theory to discuss the motivations for using environmental assurance in public sector organisations. Silvola and Vinnari ( 2021 ) discussed and clarified the role auditors play in promoting and ensuring sustainability among society. Despite the relevance of this theory, several studies have demonstrated that it is ineffective when multiple operations exist due to the external and internal environments of multinational corporations and large companies (Krajnovic 2018 ).

Methods applied in prior studies

The research methods that were followed in the previous studies were divided into five methods, including questionnaires and other empirical, annual reports, interviews and case studies, review and non-empirical research, and mixed-method studies. As shown in Table ​ Table4 4 (B), the review and non-empirical research is widely applied in the literature with 32 articles. These studies have discussed the sustainability assurance reports in public sectors (Handoko et al. 2020 ), corporate social responsibility assurance (Morimoto et al. 2004 ), application of environmental assurance (Westlake & Diamantis 1998 ), and internal audit and sustainability (Victoria Stanciu 2014 ). According to previous studies, the demand for sustainability report audits enhances the image of an institution and adds value to organisations’ planning, structure, monitoring, and accountability.

In our sample, 32 studies used archival data indicating that there is a great interest in conducting research based on realistic data from the reports of institutions or companies listed under the stock exchange markets. Ghani et al. ( 2018 ) reported that the samples that are used from firms reports have strong and accurate characteristics. Although many constructs (philosophy, culture, and preference of auditor) cannot be easily observed from an archival database, a significant number of practical works relied severely on archival data pointing to the need for more reliable and valid hand-collected research. Similarly, qualitative research has also received less attention from scholars where seven studies only have applied this method; out of these six articles, five studies have utilised interviews (Annuar & Abdul Rashid 2015 ; Boiral et al. 2020 ; Rennings et al. 2006 ; Silvola & Vinnari 2021 ), while the other two studies were case study research (Coetzee et al. 2019 ; Watson & Emery 2004 ). The investigation highlighted the lack of studies based on primary data (interviews and questionnaires) compared to secondary data. Future studies may use this method as one of the most important ways to obtain data in the social philosophy, culture, preference, and economic aspects (Roopa & Rani 2012 ).

Organisations focus

Concerning the unit of analysis, the literature was classified based on the sector under investigation as it might be useful in highlighting the parties interested in achieving effective sustainability assurance. This classification was applied in several previous studies (e.g. Guthrie et al. 2012 ; Kotb et al. 2020 ) as it helps to identify the institutions in which the assurance and sustainability research was conducted. Table ​ Table4 4 (C) shows that the (general/other) classification is obtained in most prior research with 54 articles where the study did not specify the type of institution that was investigated. Moreover, other studies focused on the public sector institutions (18 studies) and listed firms (13 studies). Some factors may help in obtaining data from the public sector due to the desire of the government sector to encourage researchers and accessibility to the information of listed corporations. Surprisingly, one study discussed the role of assurance in promoting sustainability in the private sector and this warrants future investigation. Furthermore, future studies may examine the role of assurance in promoting sustainability, relying on data from non-profit companies.

Sustainability definitions

The extensive and various literature on sustainability suffers from missing common agreement on accurate definition of sustainability as highlighted by several scholars (i.e. Chancé et al. 2018 ; Elkington 1998 ; Kuhlman & Farrington 2010 ; Munier 2005 ). Sustainability consists of three dimensions: the environmental dimension, the social dimension, and the economic dimension. Likewise, Ackers ( 2011 ) stated that sustainability assurance depends on three principles: the social principle, the environmental principle, and the economic principle, which require measuring them using specific indicators or criteria in accordance with the particular sustainability guidelines. Yet, some studies have proven that sustainability can be defined through two dimensions: the environmental dimension and the welfare dimension. Others, Kuhlman and Farrington ( 2010 ), argued that the separation between the economic and social dimensions is not logical because they are one concept that aims to achieve the welfare of the community. Thus, we categorised the research as follows; (i) environmental, social, and economic, (ii) environment and economic, (iii) environmental and social, and (v) environmental.

Results in Table ​ Table4 4 (D) show that the most comprehensive definition of sustainability received the largest number of research, which reached 52 papers (e.g. Guidara et al. 2021 ; Paterson et al. 2019 ; Slobodyanik & Chyzhevska 2019 ), followed by environment and economic with 23 studies. Moreover, some studies discussed sustainability from an environmental and social aspect with 16 studies, while three studies focused on the environmental aspects only. For example, Tang ( 2019 ) focused on the Chinese carbon audit institutions and showed that the most important factors that increased the practice of carbon assurance in China are the rapid expansion and development of carbon enterprises and the government’s encouragement of these enterprises.

Thematic and content analysis of sustainability assurance research

The investigation showed that previous studies had examined a wide range of aspects related to sustainability assurance. These studies have focused on internal audits (7 articles) such as the role of internal audit functions (Desimone et al. 2020 ; Soh and Martinov-Bennie 2015 ), perceptions of internal auditors towards sustainability development (Desimone et al. 2020 ; Gray et al. 2014 ; Shih et al. 2006 ), external audit which discussed in one article (Ahmed 2016b ), ACs (13 articles) such as characteristics of ACs (Al-Shaer and Zaman 2018 ; Buallay and Al-Ajmi 2020 ; Zaman et al. 2021 ), the experience of the member of ACs (Velte 2018 ), environmental assurance (10 articles) such as (He et al. 2015 ; Rennings et al. 2006 ; Nacanieli Rika 2009 ), and other specialist assurance (14 articles) such as financial audit (Canning et al. 2019 ), social audit (Gao and Zhang 2004 ; Zenad and Hasaballah 2020 ), carbon audit (Csutora and Harangozo 2017 ; Y. Zhang et al. 2019 ), government audit (Slobodyanik and Chyzhevska 2019 ), and audit in general (54 articles). However, these themes have been less examined in the literature, and more work addressing them is needed.

Internal and external audit and sustainability

The investigation indicates that seven articles have examined the relationship between internal audit functions and their role in achieving sustainability, while only one study investigated the role of external audits and their role in promoting sustainability. Table ​ Table5 5 summarises the objectives and results of studies in this area. The literature primarily from the accounting field has reported that the internal audit functions have worked to enhance and ensure sustainability and to provide some services such as assurance and consulting, which is consistent with international sustainability programs (Ridley et al. 2011 ). Internal audit functions help achieve sustainability by investigating data, investigating the validity and consistency of reports, and building trust with management, investors, employees, and stakeholders (Anagement et al. 2015 ). This is in line with the guidance provided by the Institute of Internal Auditors to enable internal auditors to ensure and facilitate consulting services for all aspects of sustainability (Ridley et al. 2011 ). Soh and Martinov-Bennie ( 2018 ) reported that management support and external reporting of sustainability information are key factors associated with internal audit’s involvement in sustainability assurance and consulting activities.

Sample of studies on the internal and external and sustainability

ML , multiple regression; CAEs , chief audit executives; IAS , internal audit service

However, dealing with environmental management to guarantee effective CSR practices is still the most vital challenge that faces internal auditors (Deloitte 2018 ), as they need to support the management by providing the necessary recommendations to improve activities and implement the plans set by the institutions. Hence, organisations should promote and practice rigorous assurance by experts who have sufficient experience to carry out their work (Victoria Stanciu 2014 ). The sample literature revealed that the presence of risk assessment by internal auditors, industry, and internal audit function age are important factors in the sustainability audits involvement (Desimone et al. 2020 ). However, auditors believe that they should be more involved in green information technology activities, as their current involvement is limited to the traditional role as assurance provider, not as facilitators or consultants (Gray et al. 2014 ). Future studies may discuss the role of internal audit and external assurance in ensuring sustainability from several aspects, including the characteristics of internal, external assurance members, their independence, financial and accounting expertise, and salaries, as well as their relationship with the top management team and AC. For example, it has been highlighted that the interrelationships between internal auditors, external auditors, the board of directors, and audit committees have a crucial role to play in sustainability assurance (Buallay & Al-Ajmi 2020 ). Furthermore, it has been found that the transparency of the adjustment to auditing policy as a response to COVID-19 is incomplete at best (Auld & Renckens 2021 ). The question that remained unanswered is how will economic conditions impact private sustainability assurance post-COVID-19 crisis?

Audit committees (ACs) and sustainability

The investigation suggested that a major research area has been the ACs as part of corporate governance with 13 studies. Table ​ Table6 6 presents sample studies on the role and effectiveness of the characteristics of members of ACs in ensuring sustainability. The literature highlighted that the characteristics of the ACs such as independence and the size of the committee, in addition to the financial and accounting experience, are closely related to ensuring sustainability. It can be said that the ACs contribute to improving sustainability reports through the extent to which members of the committees enjoy the required qualities (Bravo & Reguera-Alvarado 2019 ). However, the results of a study by Buallay and Al-Ajmi ( 2020 ) concluded that some characteristics of ACs are negatively related to achieving sustainability such as financial experiences of the members of the ACs which negatively correlated with the sustainability practices and disclosure, while the independence of members of the ACs, and frequent meetings are positively associated with ensuring sustainability. Also, the size of the committee is found to have an inverse impact on sustainability disclosure (Adegboye et al. 2020 ). The independence of AC members and gender diversity among auditors is positively related to ensuring sustainability, while there is a negative correlation with the size of ACs (Adegboye et al. 2020 ). The research was taken a step further by Pucheta-Martínez et al. ( 2021 ), who evaluated the moderating role of gender diversity on the impact of ACs, which appeared to be statically significant. Due to the inconclusive findings of the prior studies on the role of AC attributes in sustainability assurance, future investigation is highly warranted in this area. Table ​ Table6 6 summarises the objectives and results of some studies in this area.

Sample of studies on the audit committee and sustainability

ML , multiple regression; GMM , generalised method of moments

Other types of assurance and sustainability

Table ​ Table7 7 shows the studies that discussed other types of sustainability assurance such as carbon disclosure assurance (Kumar et al. 2021 ; Qingliang Tang 2019 ), shariah audit (Sulaiman & Alhaji Zakari 2019 ), social assurance (Gao & Zhang 2004 ), environmental assurance (Watson and Emery 2003 ), and auditing firm (Bostan et al. 2021 ; Coetzee et al. 2019 ; Ghani et al. 2018 ).

Sample of studies on other type of assurance and sustainability

Social assurance

The concept of social assurance is one of the types of audits that are concerned with monitoring, evaluating, and measuring general social (Carroll & Beiler 1975 ). Social assurance is defined as a set of organisational procedures that undertake the tasks of evaluating the social performance according to the expectations of firms and stakeholders (Elkington 1997 ). In general, social assurance can also be viewed as a function of examining the dynamic processes that organisations follow to enhance and improve the social performance from planning, inclusion, reporting, and stakeholder involvement (Zhang et al. 2003 ). According to Gao and Zhang ( 2006 ), the role of social accounting in ensuring and promoting sustainability lies in the extent of consolidation and complexity of relationships with stakeholders, which enables the establishment of the competitive advantage of the company based on sustainability. Several social issues involved in the assurance and/or consulting activities of corporations include customer privacy, product responsibility, donations and sponsorships, community impacts and relations, human rights, supply chain issues, training and education, employee retention and turnover, and occupational health and safety. Researchers argued that governance and environmental issues are the greatest current and future importance of assurance activities, while social issues appeared to be overlooked (Soh & Martinov-Bennie 2015 ).

Environmental assurance

It could be argued that environmental assurance is one of the voluntary activities of companies (Radu et al. 2012 ). According to Dhariwal ( 2013 ), environmental assurance is one of the management tools that enhance the overall environmental performance of corporations. A study by Khodjaeva ( 2019 ) demonstrated the importance of environmental assurance as a tool that contributes to increasing and improving investment attraction and working to reduce the destructive resources of the economy.

Similarly, Watson and Emery ( 2003 ) suggested that environmental assurance is a set of sub-reports (corporate responsibility reports) that express many activities of organisations. With regard to environmental assurance, it has been found that there is a strong correlation between environmental assurance and CSR (Watson and Emery 2003 ). Thus, environmental assurance may contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals when viewed through the lens of a policy orientation that emphasises the importance of preserving the environment while balancing economic development needs. Thereby, it contributes to the development and planning processes’ non-negative impact on society via the environment. Additional research is needed in this area.

Carbon assurance

Carbon assurance is one of the new jobs that have been practiced in many developed countries such as China ( Zhang et al. 2019 ). Chen and Mei ( 2012 ) pointed out that carbon assurance is one of the branches of environmental assurance and it shows how countries can adapt to shifts in economic development, which contributes to strengthening and improving national auditing. Similary, Tang ( 2019 ) referred to carbon assurance as an extension of the comprehensive and general idea of sustainability or environmental assurance. Likewise, his study showed that there is an increase in the application of carbon auditing due to the economic development in some countries. This necessitated the application of this carbon auditing to work towards achieving a balance between growth in domestic products and the protection of the ecosystem, considering that carbon auditing is a tool through which innovation governance can be managed, transformations management and sustainable technical, social, and organisational transformation.

It should be noted that the carbon assurance differs from the traditional audit assurance, which depends on processes that cover revenues and expenses, review of laws, financial expenditures, internal management and reports, while carbon audit covers the audit of carbon derivatives and what is related to it. In the sample that discussed the carbon audit, studies were limited to China and India. Therefore, the economic development and industrial transformations in these two countries are among the most important factors that necessitated the application of this type of guarantee. Interestingly, there are no studies on the application of carbon insurance in countries such as the USA and Eastern countries of Asia, which are also experiencing industrial transformations, which may require the application of this type of assurance.

Sharia assurance

Sharia assurance is one of the most important aspects practiced in Islamic institutions including Waqf institutions. It is the most important way to measure the level of commitment and compliance with Islamic law principles. According to Khalil et al. ( 2014 ), the Islamic Waqf institutions contributed positively to achieving economic and social development in some Islamic countries such as Egypt, Kuwait, and Malaysia. Furthermore, only one study observed that the practice of Sharia assurance contributes to adopting advanced governance and Sharia assurance mechanisms, which contributes to facilitating and promoting sustainable development and economic growth (Mohammed et al. 2020 ). In Table ​ Table7, 7 , we presented the objectives, results, methods, and type of audits of some of these studies.

Future research avenues

Several topics were identified for future research based on the SLR of sustainability assurance literature that may be explored via novel theoretical approaches or empirical methods. The investigation revealed that sustainability assurance is a recent topic and there has been growth in the number of published studies addressing this topic in the last few years. In terms of the geographical distribution of studies, the review showed that China is the most investigated market regarding the role and importance of assurance and the extent of the need for sustainability assurance in institutions. However, due to the lack of research on some markets, there is a need for more research investigating sustainability assurance in both developed and developing countries that received less attention in the literature. Guidara et al. ( 2021 ) called for further work on emerging economies with significant challenges facing auditing practices. It may be instructive to conduct in-depth investigative studies in European and Arab countries, in which available studies were few. It would also be interesting to conduct analytical studies on the Chinese and American cases, which have not been adequately studied according to the results of our study. Researchers could also discuss environmental assurance and carbon assurance, especially in countries that enjoy great economic development. Comparative research utilising data from different legal jurisdictions would be useful in helping the intellectual understanding of institutional and legal environment influence sustainability assurance (Al-Shaer & Zaman 2018 ).

Surprisingly, only one study has discussed the role of auditing in promoting sustainability in the private sector, which warrants future investigation. Also, future studies may discuss the role of auditing in promoting sustainability, relying on data from non-profit companies or waqf institutions (Sulaiman & Alhaji Zakari 2019 ).

Moreover, it has been found that empirical studies based on questionnaires and interview tools are very limited, pointing to the need for more research using these approaches. Future studies may use the survey method as one of the most important ways to obtain data in the social philosophy, culture, preference, and economic aspects (Ghani et al. 2018 ; Roopa & Rani 2012 ). Al-Shaer and Zaman ( 2018 ) argued that utilising interview techniques would provide in-depth insights into the role of auditing relating to sustainability in certain organisational settings. It is necessary that academics continue to employ suitable techniques to attenuate endogeneities issues, though we are inspired by the growing attention paid to methodological concerns of endogeneities.

From our SLR, another area with negligible prior research is the development of a theoretical framework (e.g. Ruiz-Barbadillo & Martínez-Ferrero 2020 ). Studies that are based on theories may provide results and insights with strong contributions to the understanding and development of the topic. To expand theoretical perspectives to explore the relationship between audit and sustainability and to show the important role of sustainability audit towards stakeholders, we encourage future research to consider applying theoretical grounds in further exploration of the sustainability audit topic. In light of the current conditions and as a result of the environmental changes that occurred during the COVID-19 crisis, studies can be expanded to discuss the importance of sustainability assurance in such crises.

Furthermore, our review showed that the absence of studies devoted to investigating the impact of internal and external auditing. It seems that there is an expansion in the studies that discussed the characteristics of members of the ACs on sustainability. Future studies may discuss the interactive role of internal and external audits in ensuring sustainability (Al-Shaer & Zaman 2018 ), in addition to the possibility of discussing the characteristics of audit members. For example, Wang et al. ( 2020 ) highlighted the need for more work on the role of auditor gender preferences toward sustainability practices. Also, it has been reported that the growing call for assurance and the expanded risk of auditor’s litigation during the COVID-19 epidemic would increase the’s effort and working time of auditors. How will the growth in demand influence sustainability auditing post-COVID-19 crisis in terms of fees and assurance quality?

On the other hand, and in light of the great need to monitor sustainability activities, assurance activities may be one of the basic tools for this, which requires the development of assurance standards in line with the needs of stakeholders in achieving sustainability. Few studies discussed this topic, perhaps the most recent of which was published in a Sustainability Journal by Fraser et al. ( 2020 ). The question that wants to be answered is whether the common standards can achieve the stakeholders’ goals in achieving sustainability in light of the increasing need to implement sustainability activities and in light of changing environmental conditions such as a COVID-19 crisis or there is a need to issue other standards that go along with these environmental changes. Future studies may look into this area with a focus on the possibility of conducting investigations with regulators, audit and sustainability institutions, and stakeholders.

In considering context and process, researchers can unravel different dimensions of auditor attributes, such as auditor tenure (assurance providers), opinion, market competition of assurance, assurance qualification, audit rotation and unpack how they affect sustainability activities and disclosure (Chiang & Torng 2015 ; Ruiz-barbadillo & Martínez-ferrero 2020 ; Tahinakis & Samarinas 2017 ).

In addition, there is a need to better account for audit sustainability systems as a result of environmental changes that stop the practice of audit systems in their natural form such as the COVID-19 crisis which has affected all economic sectors (Castka et al. 2020 ; Johnsson et al. 2020 ; Khatib & Nour 2021 ). For instance, is resilience operational linked to changing audit methods and procedures, or should some solutions complement the work between traditional audit systems and new systems implemented in light of environmental changes in a way that ensures the achievement of sustainability? Hence, this is another area that needs more studies to consider for the impact of auditor resilience on audit quality.

Conclusions and recommendations

Sustainability is a rapidly growing topic among firms, society, and academics. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of empirical and review studies discussing the role of assurance in achieving and assuring the sustainability of institutions. This study, therefore, followed a systematic literature review to provide a comprehensive view of the role of audit in achieving sustainability by using a final sample of 94 studies.

The study revealed that the need for audits for sustainability reports does not only enhance the reputation of institutions but also adds more value to the organisation’s planning, structure, monitoring, and accountability. This paper adds to the existing literature on the audit and sustainability of corporations by offering a comprehensive review of the existing literature. It highlights the role of auditing in enhancing the practice of sustainability to the extent of the stakeholders’ desire and confirms that there is a significant role for auditing in emphasising sustainability as the most important means contributing to mitigating the risk related to environmental violations. In general, the results showed that the role of audit in promoting and ensuring sustainability is crucial, especially if the audit characteristics are different. The findings may help strengthen the understanding of parties such as regulators, practitioners, and potential investors on the intellectual development of the sustainability audit field and allow the development of new and remarkable empirics in future research.

The current sustainability assurance standards need to be revised to enhance the professionalism of assurance practices. As a result of different aspects/research subjects of sustainability assurance, auditors should clarify the criteria used and systematically refer to established standards that enhance the credibility of their verification and the readability of assurance statements, as without such standards would there be great variability in the wording used within the conclusions and assurance statements. Furthermore, the revision of assurance standards should involve stakeholders who are deeply concerned with improving the quality and reliability of sustainability assurance, irrespective of the commercial and procedural aspects of these standards.

Similar to other studies, this research is not without limitations. We utilised several keywords to identify the sample literature in the Scopus database as it is the wide abstract indexing source of peer-reviewed articles. Future research, however, could consider other databases such as Web of Science, ABS, and ABDC. Moreover, the search method applied in this study was restricted; therefore, the results of the search string used in this paper may not cover all documents in this area. Hence, similar studies in future could add other related keywords to the search string such as environmental performance or disclosure.

Authors contribution

Saddam A. Hazaea: methodology, data collection and processing, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. Jinyu Zhu: data collection and processing, visualisation, writing—review and editing. Saleh F. A. Khatib: data collection and processing, visualisation. Ayman Hassan Bazhair: writing—review and editing. Ahmed A. Elamer: supervision, writing—review and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data Availability

Declarations.

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

1. Details of the majority of the 94 studies selected are included in this investigation. The rest of the articles are available from the first and corresponding authors or other authors upon request.

Contributor Information

Saddam A. Hazaea, Email: moc.liamg@297ihdas .

Jinyu Zhu, Email: nc.ude.efuny@yjz .

Saleh F. A. Khatib, Email: [email protected] .

Ayman Hassan Bazhair, Email: as.ude.ut@riahzaba .

Ahmed A. Elamer, Email: [email protected] .

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Blue and Green Tomorrow

5 Great Topics for Research Papers on Global Sustainability Issues

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Are you being asked to write a research paper for school? If you have the autonomy to choose your topic, you should consider writing a research paper about sustainability and environmentalism.

Environmental concerns have become much more critical in recent years. In 2021, 50% of Americans felt that the environment should be the top priority, while only 42% felt the economy should be the top priority. In 2010, 53% of Americans wanted to prioritize the economy, and only 38% favored the environment.

Since Americans are more concerned than ever about the state of the environment, they want to hear research about various environmental issues. Therefore, you should use your research paper to educate them further. You can also hire WriteEssayForMe to create it for you.

Tree restoration ideas and opportunities

Tree restoration has become a vital topic in environmental circles. It shouldn’t come as a surprise because trees are vital to our ecosystem. They play an essential role in regulating carbon dioxide and making sure that we get sufficient oxygen in the atmosphere.

You could consider writing a research paper about new ideas for tree restoration . One of the most popular recent research papers in the sustainability field gave a comprehensive overview of this very subject.

However, you could consider taking a much more specific approach. For example, your research paper could cover one of the following research topics about tree restoration:               *

  • Whether trees should be planted across large geographic areas or whether it is acceptable to concentrate them in one area
  • The types of trees that should be prioritized in tree restoration programs
  • Necessary investments to ensure tree restoration programs are successful

There are so many possible things to focus on in a research paper about tree restoration. You will want to make sure that you identify a unique topic in this area, because there are so many possible things to cover.

Renewable energy challenges in the developing world

Developing economies are making many significant contributions to the rest of the world. Some of them have already made significant new technological advances. However, developing economies are also beginning to have much larger carbon footprints.

This means that and they will need to make investments in renewable energy and other sustainability changes. But, unfortunately, this is going to be a lot easier said than done because developing economies face and number of major logistical challenges as they try to scale their efforts to Investing renewable energy.

You may want to write a research paper about renewable energy issues in the developing world. There are a lot of different approaches that you can take. For example, you could focus on this specific country and the steps it can take to improve its focus on renewable energy. You could also talk about the importance of having more developed nations invest in renewable energy projects in those countries. Another topic might be to discuss the different forms of renewable energy that might be most effective in various regions of the world.

Insights into the economics of green business

Green business has become a very important topic in recent years. Over 60% of consumers have said that they will be willing to pay more for a better product for the environment.

Unfortunately, despite the apparent benefits of sustainable businesses, companies with a focus on environmentalism tend to struggle. Harvard Business Review talked about this in their article The Elusive Green Consumer.

Green entrepreneurs need to understand the nuances of their business models if they hope to be successful. You could consider writing a research paper about the economic issues associated with running an eco-friendly business. This topic would be a multidisciplinary paper that would be cover both environmental and economic issues.

Unexpected impacts of climate change on different species

There is no denying the fact that climate change is starting to impact animals in very concerning ways. One of the most well-known examples is the threat of extinction that polar bears face as ice caps continue to melt. They are even having to change their diet .

However, there are a lot of lesser-known examples of different plant and animal species being affected by climate change. For example, some frogs have reportedly started being born with different shaped skulls, and other animals are finding that their skin is starting to have a different hue due to evolution in response to climate change.

This is a very serious topic that has not gained enough attention. However, you might want to delve into it with your research paper.

Countries facing the greatest food scarcity due to climate change

Scarcity has become a much greater concern in recent years. The United Nations has said that the human population might not be sustainable by the year 2100. This concern is due to both climate change hurting the food supply and massive population growth.

Some countries are absorbing all of the impacts on their own. You could write a research paper about the varying effects of climate change on different countries. Some people might be more inclined to take action if they recognize how concentrated the problem is in some parts of the world.

Consider your research paper topic carefully if you want to talk about environmental issues

Many environmental issues have become concerns in recent years. This leaves you with many different possible topics for a research paper.

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The trends of major issues connecting climate change and the sustainable development goals

  • Open access
  • Published: 12 March 2024
  • Volume 5 , article number  31 , ( 2024 )

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

  • Yi-Lin Hsieh 1 &
  • Shin-Cheng Yeh 1  

This study aims to explore the research trends and patterns of major issues connecting climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by employing a bibliometric analysis. The study has found that there is an increasing number of research and policies in various countries committed to finding and implementing strategies to solve climate change issues. The countries with the most research in this field are China, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, with Environmental Sciences & Ecology being the most published domain. The study has identified 19 clusters intersecting with climate change and SDGs, with the top five clusters in terms of proportion related to agricultural and food systems, water and soil resources, energy, economy, ecosystem, and sustainable management. This study also presents the trend changes of research topics intersecting climate change and SDGs every 2–3 years. Especially in the recent two years, with the convening of COP26 and COP27 and the advocacy of Net Zero and CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) of the EU, important topics include renewable energy, protection of ecosystem services, life cycle assessment, food security, agriculture in Africa, sustainable management, synergies of various policies, remote sensing technology, and desertification among others. This shows an increasingly diversified range of important topics being discussed in relation to climate change and sustainable development goals.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

1 Introduction

1.1 background.

Climate change has emerged as a pressing global issue that poses significant challenges to human societies and the environment [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. Climate change is primarily due to human activities, particularly the extensive combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. These human activities generate a substantial amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, leading to global warming.

Global warming, a persistent increase in Earth’s average temperature, is the most significant manifestation of climate change. This change in climate has led to numerous severe effects, including an increase in extreme weather events [ 2 ] (such as storms, floods, and droughts), the melting of glaciers and ice caps, a rise in sea levels, and changes to ecosystems [ 4 ] and agriculture [ 5 , 6 ]. If left these impacts unchecked, these impacts could have disastrous consequences for human societies and the natural environment.

In 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The goal was "to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system," and it required countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with their responsibilities, abilities, and specific circumstances. The first substantive agreement of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol [ 7 ], was signed in 1997, requiring industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to below 5% of 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. In 2009, the UN hosted a climate change conference in Copenhagen in an attempt to reach a new global agreement; however, the meeting ended without a clear agreement and was considered a failure [ 8 ]. The Paris Agreement [ 9 ] was signed at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2015, with the goal of keeping global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To achieve this, countries agreed to submit nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to reduce emissions and to review these goals every five years. These agreements and meetings highlight the challenges of combating climate change, including in science, policy, economics, and justice. A key issue is how to ensure economic development and poverty reduction while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These challenges and issues are intimately related to sustainable human development.

The Brundtland Report, “Our Common Future [ 10 ],” was released by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987. The report first introduced the concept of “sustainable development,” defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The Rio Declaration [ 11 ] and Agenda 21 [ 12 ] were both signed at the Earth Summit in 1992. The Rio Declaration included 27 principles on sustainable development, while Agenda 21 was a global action plan aimed at achieving a balance between the environment and development. In 2000, the United Nations established eight development goals to be achieved by 2015, known as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which included reducing extreme poverty and hunger, improving levels of education, health, and gender equality, and ensuring environmental sustainability. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, which outlines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a blueprint for achieving a more sustainable future for all [ 13 ].

Among them, SDG13 (Climate Action) is directly related to climate change, with the aim to "take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts". SDG13 encourages all countries to respond to climate change, strengthen their resilience and adaptability to its impacts, and integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and plans. The goal also emphasizes enhancing education, raising people's awareness of the threats posed by climate change, and increasing institutional capacities to handle climate change. It also refers to global participation and cooperation in addressing these issues. This includes development assistance to help developing countries enhance their capacities to deal with climate change.

The goal of sustainable development is to achieve balance in social, economic, and environmental dimensions, a principle also known as the “triple bottom line [ 14 ].” Under this framework, it is not only necessary to ensure economic growth and social justice but also to ensure the health and sustainability of the Earth's ecosystems and resources. Therefore, addressing climate change is an integral part of achieving sustainable development. On the other hand, accomplishing one or more sustainable development goals is also a way to address climate change issues.

1.2 Research frontier

Addressing the issue of climate change faces many challenges and obstacles, including political challenges, economic factors, technological challenges, social and cultural barriers, and issues of inequality. Firstly, policy makers need to strike a balance between short-term economic benefits and long-term environmental sustainability. Political disagreements and national interests can also hinder the achievement and implementation of global climate agreements [ 15 , 16 ]. Secondly, transitioning to a low-carbon economy requires a significant amount of funding and investment. Many economically backward countries may lack resources to implement necessary changes [ 17 ]. Thirdly, although renewable energy technologies have made significant progress, these technologies still can't completely replace fossil fuels in many cases [ 18 ]. Fourthly, human lifestyles and consumption patterns need to undergo major changes, which may face resistance in many societies and cultures [ 19 ]. Lastly, the impacts of climate change are not equal globally. Some of the poorest and most vulnerable countries and communities are often the most affected, yet they lack the resources and capacity to cope with these changes [ 20 ].

There are numerous studies related to climate change, and these studies encompass a wide range of issues. Issues related to climate change and sustainable development goals [ 21 ], for example, the water-energy-food (nexus), has been extensively studied in relation to climate change in the past [ 22 ]. In this issue, systematic analyses, comparisons, interpretations, and governance recommendations have been proposed, along with in-depth exploration of sustainable development goals and appropriate management models [ 23 , 24 , 25 ].

The connection between climate change and the SDGs is evident, as the impacts of climate change have the potential to undermine the progress made towards achieving these goals [ 166 , 167 ]. For instance, climate change has direct implications for SDGs [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ] related to poverty reduction(SDG1: NO Poverty), food security(SDG2: No Hunger) [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ],energy(SDG7: Affordable and clean energy) [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ], clean water and sanitation(SDG6: Clean water and sanitation), and sustainable cities [ 44 , 45 , 46 ] and communities(SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities). People must take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, including enhancing the resilience and adaptive capacity of nations to climate-related disasters, and integrating climate change measures into national policies and planning(SDG13: Climate action). Therefore, understanding the trends and patterns of research on the interlinkages between climate change and the SDGs is crucial for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to identify gaps and prioritize efforts in addressing these challenges [ 47 , 48 , 49 ].

However, many topics still require systematic research to formulate sustainable management strategies. For instance, key decisions from the COP26 held in 2021 included the formulation of long-term low-carbon development strategies, strengthening actions to reduce non-CO2 greenhouse gases (such as methane), and enhancing the intensity of nationally determined contributions (NDC) targets for 2030 [ 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ]. Comprehensive assessments are needed on how countries can gradually reduce coal burning and phase out fossil fuel subsidies, as well as establish rules for the international carbon market [ 54 ].

In order to follow these resolutions, the majority of countries around the world are currently formulating net-zero emission management strategies. Net-zero emissions mean that the greenhouse gas emissions produced by an organization, city, region, or country are balanced by the amount they offset, thereby contributing zero to global warming [ 55 ].

When systematically formulating net-zero management strategies, there are several important topics that need to be considered, such as energy transition (requiring investment and policy promotion to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy) [ 56 , 57 ], green infrastructure (constructing low-carbon, green infrastructure, such as green buildings and public transportation systems) [ 58 ], green finance (encouraging and guiding financial institutions to invest in low-carbon technologies and industries, and incorporating climate risks into their risk management frameworks) [ 59 ], carbon pricing (establishing and implementing carbon pricing systems, such as carbon taxes or carbon trading markets, to reflect their true environmental costs), and international cooperation (climate change is a global issue that requires cooperation among countries to share resources and technology).

It involves multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These strategies need to take into account trade-offs or synergistic effects, including the balance between economy and environment (energy transition may lead to job loss in certain industries, but it may also create new job opportunities. Appropriate policies are needed to mitigate the impact of this transition) [ 60 , 61 , 62 ], fairness (wealthier countries have more resources to reduce emissions, while poorer countries may rely more on fossil fuels. To resolve this inequality, international aid or other mechanisms may be needed) [ 63 , 64 ], cross-sector collaboration (many solutions will require cooperative work between different sectors or industries, such as energy, transportation, construction, finance, etc.) [ 65 , 66 ], technological innovation and application (from improving energy efficiency to developing clean energy, and designing and implementing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, technological innovation plays a key role in achieving net-zero. Of course, this also requires resource input and a suitable policy environment to incentivize and support) [ 67 , 68 , 69 ], behavioral and cultural change (to successfully achieve net-zero, it may be necessary to change public behavior and values, from dietary habits to travel methods, and attitudes towards energy use. This may involve education, policy guidance, and public participation) [ 70 , 71 ], and ecological restoration and protection (forests, oceans, and other natural ecosystems are important carbon sinks of the planet. Protecting and restoring these ecosystems can provide important offset strategies, while also helping to protect biodiversity and enhance ecological resilience) [ 72 ].

Strategies to address climate change include mitigation and adaptation. The aforementioned net zero is a mitigation strategy, while the formulation of adaptation strategies to manage and respond to climate change also requires systematic consideration. This includes disaster prevention and post-disaster recovery, water resource management, adjustments to farming and livestock practices, urban planning and design, protection and restoration of ecosystems, and policy and legislation among other topics. Additionally, research suggests that enhancing the ability to manage extreme weather events can reduce economic, social, and human losses, and ultimately decrease borrowing from lending institutions. The vulnerability to extreme weather events, disaster management, and adaptation must become part of the long-term sustainable development planning for developing countries [ 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 ].

In this process, there indeed exist many challenges, echoing the previously mentioned obstacles faced in tackling the issue of climate change. These include technical, policy-related, economic, social, and cultural aspects. Therefore, people must take a systemic and holistic approach, implementing solutions to climate change from the framework of sustainable development.

Currently, there are over ten thousand academic papers discussing the relevance of climate change or one or more Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There are numerous ways to summarize, integrate, or categorize these research perspectives. Common methods include convening expert meetings [ 77 , 168 ] or using literature mining software [ 73 , 74 , 78 , 169 , 170 ] such as VOSviewer, Microsoft Excel, and Biblioshiny, to conduct structured reviews of the interrelationships between Climate Change (CC) and SDGs.

The discussions at the expert meeting revealed the synergies and trade-offs between climate change and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the impact of climate change (CC) on the achievement of the SDGs [ 77 ]. Using literature software, the bibliometrix package, and R library, it was found that precipitation, drought, and evapotranspiration are the main climate terms most focused on under the topic of climate change [ 79 ]. Moreover, an analysis using Microsoft Excel on published journal articles found that gender equality, climate action, and global health are the key words most focused on in studies related to the Sustainable Development Goals. Some researchers also presented the evolution of themes over the years, and the co-occurrence maps of key words in the context of climate change and sustainable development practice, and found that there have been many research studies in these areas, but there is still a need for more in-depth study [ 80 ].

However, as highlighted in the background, after the 2015 Paris Agreement and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals were proposed, researchers worldwide are called upon to perform comprehensive and systematic analyses, categorizations, and discussions of the results presented by these literature analysis tools. These efforts aim to aid researchers and policymakers in addressing climate change and its related problems, as well as formulating suitable strategies for these issues, all from a perspective of sustainable development. These areas continue to require further in-depth research, and bibliometric analysis can serve as one effective method in this regard.

1.3 Research questions

The research question of this study is to examine the trends of major issues connecting climate change and the SDGs, as reflected in the literature [ 81 , 82 ]. In particular, the study aims to identify the most prominent Clusters and sub-Clusters related to this intersection and to understand the evolution of research in this area over time. This examination will help uncover potential gaps in knowledge, as well as highlight areas in need of further investigation or policy intervention.

Additionally, when systematically analyzing the issues and sub-issues of climate change within the framework of sustainable development, we still do not have a clear understanding of how many important issues related to climate change have emerged since the United Nations announced the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, as well as the proportion of these issues in the research or which fields is leading in these areas [ 75 , 77 , 83 ]. The policy-making and research processes have not had sufficient literature to help understand the varying degrees of correlation between these issues to aid policy-makers or researchers in making appropriate strategies. Moreover, one indicator of the current situation in various countries is the development status of how researchers or research institutions in these countries view climate change within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, but there is limited academic research on the issues connecting climate change and the sustainable development goals [ 84 ].

This study poses four questions:

Q1: What are the main research topics at the intersection of climate change and sustainable development goals?

Q2: How have the research trends at the intersection of climate change and sustainable development goals developed?

Q3: What are the main research countries at the intersection of climate change and sustainable development goals?

Q4: What are the main research fields at the intersection of climate change and sustainable development goals?

1.4 Methodological approach

This study employs a bibliometric analysis to systematically review and analyze the body of literature on the connection between climate change and the SDGs. Bibliometric analysis is a quantitative method that employs statistical techniques to analyze and classify large volumes of academic publications. This method has the advantage of providing a comprehensive and objective overview of the research landscape [ 85 ], as compared to traditional literature reviews and other classification methods, which may be subject to biases and limited in scope [ 80 , 86 , 87 ].

1.5 Significance of the study

The findings of this study will provide valuable insights into the trends and patterns of research on the interlinkages between climate change and the SDGs, helping to inform future research agendas and policy interventions. By identifying the most prominent Clusters and potential knowledge gaps in this area, this study can contribute to a better understanding of how climate change and the SDGs are interconnected, thereby supporting the development of more effective strategies to address these pressing global challenges.

1.6 Potential applications

The results of this study can be applied in various ways. For instance, the findings can be used by researchers to identify research gaps and opportunities, guiding the direction of future studies. Policymakers and practitioners can also use the insights gained from this study to prioritize efforts and allocate resources more effectively in addressing the challenges posed by climate change and achieving the SDGs. Furthermore, the study can contribute to the development of interdisciplinary research, as understanding the complex interconnections between climate change and the SDGs requires the integration of knowledge from multiple fields and disciplines.

In conclusion, this study aims to explore the research trends and patterns of major issues connecting climate change and the SDGs using a bibliometric analysis. The findings will provide valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.

2 Methodology

2.1 literature mining tools.

This study analyzes and categorizes literature using the two tools. The first one is called Content Analysis Toolkit for Academic Research (CATAR), the other one is called VOSviewer.

2.1.1 The benefits of using CATAR for literature analysis

CATAR is designed to help researchers analyze scholarly literature with academic value. CATAR is particularly effective in multidimensional scaling (MDS) and hierarchical agglomerative clustering (HAC) [ 88 ], which can be used as one of the presentation directions for research outcomes. MDS is a technique that presents n documents on a map according to their similarity [ 89 ], where documents with high similarity cluster in close proximity to each other, while those with low similarity are located further apart. HAC is a type of document clustering [ 90 ] that does not require users to specify the number of categories and can iteratively group the most similar documents or categories into larger groups, gradually organizing all documents from the bottom up. In particular, the complete linkage method can group files that are highly similar to each other into the same group. Therefore, if two files cite common bibliography, they will generate a coupling relationship, and the more bibliography they share, the higher the correlation will be, and the more likely they will be classified into the same category.

The topic map of this study was generated by CATAR using multidimensional scaling (MDS) technique to calculate the relative relationships between categories in a two-dimensional space and draw the topic map accordingly. In the map, circles represent a group of documents classified into the same cluster, with the size of the circle indicating the number of documents in the group, and the distance between circles representing the strength of the relationship between the groups. The closer the circles, the higher the relevance between the topics. The color of the circle represents the classification result in the next higher level, and if the circle is composed of dashed lines, it indicates that it cannot be clustered in the next level [ 91 ].

2.1.2 The benefits of using VOSviewer for literature analysis

The second tool used in this study is VOSviewer, which is a visualization tool characterized by its technical robustness and relatively simple usage. It allows for a detailed examination of bibliometric maps. In the network visualization maps produced by VOSviewer, each label is represented by a colored node, with node size determined by the frequency of use of the item. The higher the usage frequency of an item, the larger its label. In addition, the thickness of the nodes and connecting lines indicates the co-occurrence frequency of the labels. Nodes with the same color have stronger connections [ 74 , 84 , 85 , 92 ].

As keyword co-occurrence network analysis is one of the most effective methods, a large number of studies have used VOSviewer for topics such as climate change or sustainable energy [ 91 , 93 , 94 ], helping researchers quantify trends in research Clusters and future research directions. This study use keyword co-occurrence network analysis in Vosviewer.

2.2 Explanation of data background

2.2.1 the selection of the database.

The data source for this study is the Web of Science (WoS) academic database by Thomson Routers. Analysis of citation data in WoS has shown greater consistency and accuracy than other databases such as Scopus and Google Scholar, [ 95 ] thus this study only analyzed journals included in WoS.

2.2.2 Boolean operators

The background setting for downloading data from WoS was as follows: TS = (climate change) AND AB = ("sustainable development goal" OR "sustainable development goals" OR SDG OR SDGs). These documents are focused on the Cluster of climate change, and the mention of SDGs in the abstract refers to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs aim to address major global issues, including poverty, hunger, inequality, and climate change. Therefore, if a document related to climate change also involves SDGs, it may explore how to link climate change with sustainable development goals to achieve a more sustainable future. Such research may investigate the impact of climate change on sustainable development goals or how to address issues related to climate change by achieving sustainable development goals.

2.2.3 The status of literature download

In order to understand the research trends up to December 31, 2022, a total of 2533 articles were downloaded for analysis. On the other hand, when downloading data from the WOS database, it was found that the closer it was to 2022, the more literature discussed CC and SDGs. In order to understand the research trends every 2–3 years and appropriately distribute the number of articles for analysis, research from 2015 to 2017, 2018 to 2022, and 2021 to 2022 was also downloaded. A total of 177 articles were from the first three years, 955 articles were from the middle three years, and 1401 articles were from the last two years.

3 Results and discussion

The research results are presented using the analysis results of two tools, CATAR and VOSviewer. The two research tools are distinguished by date. The data analyzed by the CATAR tool dates from 2015 to 2022, and this tool carries out a comprehensive analysis of the literature. The data analyzed by the VOSviewer tool is divided into three parts: 2015–2017 (the first three years), 2018–2020 (the middle three years), and 2021–2022 (the most recent two years), to understand the development trends of the research field. In addition, CATAR also specifically presents the main research fields and research countries of the literature as academic references.

3.1 Results and dicussion of bibliographic coupling analysis by using CATAR (2015–2022)

Using CATAR for bibliographic coupling analysis and multiple hierarchical agglomerative clustering, 19 clusters (A-1 to A-19) were obtained at the fourth level, with 1220 documents participating in clustering. The characteristic vocabulary of each cluster is shown in Table  1 (with a default threshold of 0.01), and the degree of association is shown in Fig.  1 , (with a threshold set to 0.02). Furthermore, the top five clusters in terms of proportion are related to agricultural and food systems, water and soil resources, energy, economy, ecosystem, and sustainable management, with a proportion of 53% of the documents in this level. The first cluster has the highest proportion of 34%.

figure 1

Maps of the clusters (2015–2022)

In Fig.  1 , clusters 10, 11, 15, and 17 are in green, clusters 4 and 14 are in blue, and clusters 12, and 16 are in yellow. These colors indicate that they can continue to form clusters in the next level and suggest that these topics are worth exploring as they are related to each other. Dashed circles represent clusters that cannot be agglomerated in the next level.

Referring to Table  1 for the keywords condensed in each cluster, appropriate names for the clusters are assigned. The results are shown in Table  2 .

Through the research results of Fig.  1 , since the circles represent the knowledge content contained in the cluster, considering factors such as circle color, circle size, and the intersection and union of circles, a systematic discussion is conducted below.

3.1.1 The relationship about A-10, A-11, A15 and A17 (color green)

In the green circle, A-10, A-11, A-15, and A-17 are four significant topics. The critical issues intersecting these four topics, this study discovered, include "Adaptation and mitigation strategies", "Integration of knowledge and collaboration", and "Urban and community context".

The four Clusters collectively highlight the importance of both adaptation and mitigation strategies in response to climate change. Cluster 10 emphasizes the need to understand and address the health impacts of climate change as an adaptation measure [ 88 , 89 , 96 ]. Cluster 11 focuses on building resilience in coastal areas, which is another form of adaptation [ 97 ]. Cluster 15 covers various aspects of climate change adaptation strategies, including public health, particularly sanitation issues, large urban environments, and the application of green and blue infrastructure. It emphasizes the importance of considering these issues from both local and global perspectives [ 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 ]. Cluster 17 centers on mitigation strategies such as achieving carbon neutrality through renewable energy sources [ 95 , 97 , 103 , 104 , 105 ].

Clusters 11 and 17 highlight the importance of integrating knowledge from various sources and fostering collaboration between different stakeholders. Cluster 11 emphasizes the role of knowledge integration in sustainability governance, while Cluster 17 involves surveys and research on carbon balance and renewable energy, which require collaboration among experts from various fields.

Cluster 10, 11 and 17 explore the impacts of climate change and sustainable development within urban or community settings. Cluster 10 investigates the relationship between climate change and health in the context of planetary health. Cluster 15 addresses the role of green and blue infrastructure in promoting sustainable development within mega-urban areas. Cluster 17 focuses on achieving carbon neutrality in cities or countries, which has direct implications for urban and community sustainability.

3.1.2 The relationship between “ocean conservation and coral reef biodiversity” (A-12) and “corporate cultural sustainability” (A-16) (color yellow)

The relationship between "Ocean Conservation and Coral Reef Biodiversity" and "Corporate Cultural Sustainability" is closely connected to climate change and ongoing sustainable development [ 106 , 107 , 108 ]. Many companies recognize the importance of environmental sustainability, particularly in the context of climate change and sustainable development. They incorporate this into their business strategies, which includes supporting ocean conservation and preserving coral reef biodiversity through environmentally-friendly practices, philanthropy, or partnerships with non-profit organizations. Examples of this include adopting sustainable practices and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting innovation in products, services, and technologies that contribute to ocean conservation and coral reef biodiversity protection, and collaborating with various stakeholders, including customers, employees, investors, and local communities, to address the challenges of climate change and support ocean conservation and coral reef biodiversity preservation [ 109 , 110 , 111 ].

3.1.3 The relationship between “ecosystems and land degradation” (A-4) and “urban infrastructure and governance” (A-14) (color blue)

First, Climate change poses threats to ecosystems and land, including extreme weather events and unstable rainfall patterns. Ecosystems play a crucial role in land conservation, water resource management, and biodiversity protection. Disrupting ecosystems increases the risk of land degradation, adversely affecting agriculture and ecological environments. Protecting and restoring ecosystems are key to achieving sustainable development goals [ 171 , 172 ].

Second, rapid urbanization necessitates large-scale infrastructure development. The expansion and management of urban infrastructure are directly linked to land use. Poor urban planning and management can lead to improper land use, overdevelopment, and environmental deterioration. Effective urban governance should emphasize the sustainability of land use, including land planning and environmental regulation. Sustainable urban infrastructure and governance help reduce the risk of land degradation while achieving sustainable development goals [ 173 , 174 , 175 , 176 ].

Therefore, the relationship between ecosystems and land degradation and urban infrastructure and governance should be viewed comprehensively. The expansion and management of urban infrastructure should fully consider ecosystem protection and land degradation prevention. For instance, urban planning may include the preservation of green spaces and natural conservation areas to promote ecosystem health. Moreover, urban governance should emphasize the involvement of multiple stakeholders to ensure that land use and infrastructure development align with the principles of sustainable development. This necessitates interdisciplinary research and policy formulation to ensure effective management of land resources during the urbanization process while safeguarding ecosystems to address climate change and achieve sustainable development goals.

3.2 Ranking of countries by the number of published papers, citation count, and publication year

The overview analysis through CATAR is used to present the top eight countries in terms of the number of published papers. Considering that each piece of literature might be co-authored by multiple individuals, the analysis results are presented using Fractional Count (FC). FC means that all the co-authors are counted as a single author. For instance, a paper co-authored by two individuals is counted as one, and the contribution of each author to the paper count is 0.5 and 0.5, respectively.

The results of the FC statistics are shown in Figs.  2 and 3 . We can observe that within the defined scope, the number of papers has significantly increased since 2015. The top eight countries in terms of the number of published papers, from most to least, are the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, India, Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa. If we only look at 2022, the top eight countries from most to least are China, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, Germany, and Canada.

figure 2

Statistical analysis of the top eight countries in terms of the number of papers published, and their publication years, using Fractional Count

figure 3

Statistical analysis of the top eight countries in terms of the number of papers published in 2022, using Fractional Count

3.2.1 The number of articles interpreting climate change issues from the perspective of sustainable development goals

By observing the results presented in Fig.  2 , two pieces of information can be identified. The first piece of information is that, whether the data time is from 2015 to 2022 or only looking at 2022, China, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia are all in the top five. The reasons for this include several factors:

The first factor is economic influence. These countries are significant pillars of the global economy, and their policies and investment decisions have massive impacts on the global economy. For instance, China is the world's largest manufacturer and largest emitter of carbon dioxide, while the United States, as the world's largest economy, holds significant sway in driving global climate action.

The second factor is population size. India and China are the two most populous countries globally, and their decisions will have monumental impacts on global climate change. In countries with large populations, the need for sustainable development is particularly pressing [ 112 , 113 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 121 ].

The third factor is influence in science and technology. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia hold leadership positions in the field of science and technology, including research and development in climate science and environmental technologies. Their innovations and solutions can have significant impacts on the global climate change issue [ 115 , 116 , 117 ].

The fourth factor is policy and international leadership. These countries play critical roles in global policy and international affairs [ 122 , 123 , 124 , 125 ]. For instance, the United Kingdom was the host of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), and the United States also plays a leading role in driving the global climate agenda.

3.2.2 The increase and decrease of the number of papers published by each country

The second piece of information is that regardless of the country, the number of publications generally shows a growing trend from 2015 to 2021. The sharp increase in relevant literature published by China and India in 2022 indicates that addressing the challenges brought about by climate change and achieving sustainable development goals are issues of concern to these countries [ 126 , 127 , 128 ].

3.3 Number of publications on the relationship between CC and SDGs by field

As shown in Fig.  4 , the top eight fields and years in terms of the number of publications can be seen. We can observe that since 2015, there has been a significant increase in literature discussing the relationship between CC and SDGs. The field of Environmental Sciences & Ecology has consistently had the most publicated documents every year, followed by the field of Science & Technology—Other Topics.

figure 4

Number of publications on the relationship between CC and SDGs by field

3.4 Tracking the research development trends on climate change issues from the framework of sustainable development goals every 2–3 years

The literature mining tool, Vosviewer, was used to perform co-occurrence word analysis on authors. Due to the small number of articles from 2015 to 2017, the clustering result is shown in Fig.  5 . The clustering results for 2018–2020 and 2021–2022 are shown in Figs.  6 and 7 respectively. The larger the clustered keyword, the more frequently it is mentioned by authors. Keywords of the same color indicate a higher degree of association, and are likely to discuss important topics.

figure 5

Keyword relationship diagram for climate change and sustainable development goals from 2015 to 2017

figure 6

Keyword relationship diagram for climate change and sustainable development goals from 2018 to 2020

figure 7

Keyword relationship diagram for climate change and sustainable development goals from 2021 to 2022

3.4.1 Keywords and topics related to climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals during 2015–2017

During 2015–2017, it is found that research keywords regarding climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals mainly include "Ecosystem," "Climate change adaptation," "Disaster risk," "Reduction," "Public health," "Renewable energy," "Resilience," and "Water security." The topic discussed during this period is mainly "The impact of climate change on public health and its adaptation strategies." This topic covers the mutual influences of various aspects including environmental ecology, climate change, and public health, emphasizing on how to reduce disaster risks and improve public health levels through the protection and management of ecosystems to adapt to the challenges brought about by climate change. On the other hand, the development of renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and the establishment of water security strategies also contribute to coping with climate change [ 129 , 130 , 131 , 132 ].

3.4.2 Keywords and topics related to climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals during 2018–2020

During 2018–2020, the research trend in discussing climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals partially continued from the previous period, and the number of keywords increased. On the other hand, from a broader framework, the research trend shifted towards cross-disciplinary approaches to tackle and adapt to climate change issues and explored how to achieve this goal by protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development [ 133 ]. The most widely addressed topics represented by keywords of different colors include the following top four: "Efficient use and management of food supply to water resources", "Sustainable ecosystem management and land use under climate change", "Adaptation strategies and sustainable development strategies for agriculture under climate change", and "Development of renewable energy" [ 134 , 135 , 136 , 137 , 138 , 139 ].

3.4.3 Keywords and topics related to climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals during 2021–2022

By 2021–2022, the research trend showed that some keywords regarding climate change and the implementation of sustainable development goals continued from the previous stage, and the number of keywords also increased. During this time period, 'renewable energy' (marked in red) has become the most emphasized keyword against the backdrop of hot advocacy topics such as 'Net Zero' and 'CBAM' (carbon border adjustment mechanism). It particularly emphasizes how, in the process of pursuing economic growth, we can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and achieve sustainable development by improving energy efficiency and using renewable energy [ 140 ].This also echoes the resolutions of COP26 and COP27, which call for an increased proportion of clean energy, including renewable and low-carbon energy sources, acceleration in the research and development, deployment, and dissemination of low-carbon technologies, and emphasis on the importance of natural carbon sinks [ 133 , 141 , 142 , 143 , 144 , 145 ].

Other important keywords are resilience (in orange), ecosystem services; life cycle assessment (in blue), Africa; agriculture (in dark green), policy; adaptation; education (in purple), and Agenda 2030; Paris Agreement; synergy; bibliometric analysis; remote sensing; desertification (in light green).

These keywords are all related to the clusters of climate change and sustainable development, encompassing topics such as the protection of ecosystem services [ 140 , 146 , 147 , 148 ], life cycle assessment, agriculture in Africa, policy; adaptation, education [ 149 , 150 , 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 ], the global sustainable development goals (Agenda 2030), the Paris Agreement, the synergistic effects of various policies [ 155 , 156 , 157 , 158 ], bibliometric analysis, remote sensing technology [ 159 , 160 , 161 ], and desertification [ 162 , 163 , 164 , 165 ].

4 Conclusion

This study, through bibliometric analysis tools CATAR and VOSviewer, presents multiple research findings. First, both tools indicate an increasing number of links between climate change and sustainable development goals in research across countries. There is a growing body of research and policy dedicated to finding and implementing strategies to solve climate change issues. These strategies are often linked to sustainable development goals, highlighting the intersection between climate action and sustainable development.

Secondly, through CATAR, this study identified 19 clusters intersecting with climate change and SDGs (as shown in Table  2 ), among which the top five clusters in terms of proportion are related to agricultural and food systems, water and soil resources, energy, economy, ecosystem, and sustainable management, accounting for 53% of the documents. On the other hand, Fig.  1 also shows that some clusters are highly related (same color). Combined with Table  2 for further explanation, the key topics in the green block include adaptation and mitigation strategies, integration of knowledge and collaboration, and the urban and community context. The important topics in the yellow block are corporate sustainable development and biodiversity investment (especially focusing on the ocean). The important topics in the blue block include urban planning, sustainable governance, due to land degradation and the increased frequency of extreme weather events (such as droughts and floods) damaging ecosystems.

Thirdly, whether the data period is from 2015 to 2022 or just in 2022, China, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia are the countries with the most research on the link between climate change and sustainable development goals. This is due to their economic influence, population size, influence in science and technology, and policy and international leadership. Specifically, in 2022, the number of publications in China and India grew at the fastest rate, while the growth trend in the UK and the US was slightly slower. Furthermore, Environmental Sciences & Ecology is the field with the most publications.

Fourthly, by observing Figs. 5 , 6 , and 7 , we can see the continuation and transformation of key topics in literature discussing the link between climate change and sustainable development goals. In the early period (2015–2017), the focus was on 'the impact of climate change on public health and its adaptation strategies'. By the mid-term (2018–2020), topics expanded to include 'efficient use and management of food supply to water resources', 'sustainable ecosystem management and sustainable land use under climate change', 'agricultural adaptation strategies and sustainable development strategies under climate change', and 'development of renewable energy'.

In the later period (2021–2022), under the context of popular initiatives like net zero and CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism), there was increased emphasis on renewable energy, as well as protection of ecosystem services, life cycle assessment, food security, agriculture in Africa, sustainable management, synergies of various policies, remote sensing technology, and desertification among others. This shows an increasingly diversified range of important topics being discussed in relation to climate change and sustainable development goals.

The interconnections among the identified Clusters highlight the complex and interrelated nature of climate change and the 17 SDGs. Understanding these interconnections can help researchers, policymakers, and practitioners develop integrated and interdisciplinary approaches to address climate change and achieve the SDGs. For example, policies promoting agroforestry and sustainable agriculture can contribute to climate change mitigation, food security, and biodiversity conservation, thereby advancing multiple SDGs simultaneously.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that the clusters that have not been part of the coalescence (as shown in the dashed circles in Fig.  1 ) do not imply that these topics are unimportant. On the contrary, these topics could potentially become the focus of emerging research in the future, serving as a reference for future researchers to conduct in-depth studies.

Data availability

The literature data used in this study were sourced from the Web of Science database.

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Hsieh, YL., Yeh, SC. The trends of major issues connecting climate change and the sustainable development goals. Discov Sustain 5 , 31 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-024-00183-9

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2023 Stanford environmental research: A year in review

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Each year, researchers at Stanford produce hundreds of studies that advance our knowledge of environmental systems and generate innovative solutions to some of the most pressing energy, ecology, and sustainability challenges.

The  Stanford Environmental Research Year in Review , produced by the  Woods Institute for the Environment , provides a snapshot of key studies from scholars across Stanford’s seven schools. These publications demonstrate how Stanford faculty, students, postdoctoral scholars, and research staff are building connections between knowledge generation and scalable impact.

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This year’s review spans a wide range of topics that can inform environmental policies, technology, conservation, business, and decision-making, including:

  • Incorporating justice and equity frameworks into conservation and urban access to nature
  • Wildfire management, public health impacts, and policy recommendations to support the firefighting workforce
  • Climate-resilient approaches for designing marine protected areas and adapting to coastal flooding
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The examples highlighted in the Stanford Environmental Research Year in Review are far from exhaustive, but they illustrate the breadth and depth of expertise brought to collaborative partnerships at the university and beyond. In total, Stanford scholars produced more than 700 peer-reviewed publications related to the environment and sustainability in 2023.

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211 Business Topics For Research Paper [Updated]

business topics for research paper

Are you looking for intriguing business topics to explore in your research paper? Whether you’re a student delving into the world of business studies or a seasoned professional seeking fresh insights, selecting the right topic is crucial. In this blog, we’ll walk you through a diverse array of business topics for research paper. From management strategies to emerging trends like sustainability and digital transformation, there’s something for everyone. Let’s dive in!

What Are The Characteristics of Business Research Topics?

Table of Contents

Business research topics possess several key characteristics that distinguish them from other types of research topics. These characteristics include:

  • Relevance: Business research topics should address current issues, trends, and challenges facing the business world. They should be of interest to academics, practitioners, and policymakers alike.
  • Practicality: Business research topics should have real-world applicability and relevance to industry practices. They should offer insights that can be implemented to improve organizational performance, decision-making, and strategy.
  • Interdisciplinary Nature: Business research often draws from multiple disciplines such as economics, management, marketing, finance, and psychology. Topics should be interdisciplinary in nature, incorporating insights from various fields to provide comprehensive analysis.
  • Data-Driven: Business research relies heavily on empirical evidence and data analysis. Topics should lend themselves to quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method research approaches, depending on the research question and objectives.
  • Innovation and Creativity: Business research topics should encourage innovative thinking and creative problem-solving. They should explore emerging trends, disruptive technologies, and novel approaches to address business challenges.
  • Ethical Considerations: Ethical considerations are paramount in business research. Topics should adhere to ethical principles and guidelines, ensuring the protection of participants’ rights and the integrity of research findings.
  • Global Perspective: Business research topics should consider the global context and implications of business decisions and practices. They should explore cross-cultural differences, international markets, and global trends shaping the business landscape.
  • Impact: Business research topics should have the potential to generate meaningful insights and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field. They should address pressing issues and offer practical solutions that can drive positive change in organizations and society.

By embodying these characteristics, business research topics can effectively address the complexities and challenges of the modern business environment, providing valuable insights for academic scholarship and practical application.

211 Business Topics For Research Paper

  • The Impact of Leadership Styles on Employee Motivation
  • Strategies for Managing Multicultural Teams Effectively
  • The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Success
  • Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses on a Limited Budget
  • The Influence of Social Media Marketing on Consumer Behavior
  • Brand Loyalty: Factors Influencing Consumer Purchase Decisions
  • Ethical Considerations in Advertising Practices
  • Financial Risk Management in Multinational Corporations
  • Corporate Governance and Financial Performance
  • The Role of Financial Derivatives in Hedging Market Risks
  • Success Factors for Startups in Competitive Markets
  • Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Key Drivers of Economic Growth
  • Challenges and Opportunities in Scaling a Business Globally
  • Ethical Dilemmas in Business Decision-Making
  • Corporate Social Responsibility Practices and Brand Image
  • Balancing Profit Motives with Social and Environmental Concerns
  • The Business Case for Sustainability Initiatives
  • Renewable Energy Adoption in Businesses
  • Circular Economy Models and Business Sustainability
  • The Impact of Digital Technologies on Traditional Business Models
  • E-Commerce Trends and Consumer Preferences
  • Cybersecurity Challenges in E-Commerce Transactions
  • The Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace
  • Strategies for Promoting Gender Equality in Leadership Roles
  • Addressing Unconscious Bias in Recruitment Processes
  • The Impact of Remote Work on Employee Productivity
  • Flexible Work Arrangements and Work-Life Balance
  • The Role of Corporate Culture in Employee Engagement
  • Talent Management Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Top Talent
  • Performance Appraisal Systems: Best Practices and Challenges
  • Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives
  • Employee Training and Development Programs
  • Change Management Strategies for Organizational Transformation
  • Crisis Management and Business Continuity Planning
  • Supply Chain Resilience: Lessons Learned from Disruptions
  • Sustainable Sourcing Practices in Supply Chain Management
  • Inventory Management Strategies for Reducing Costs
  • Logistics Optimization for Efficient Operations
  • The Impact of Globalization on Supply Chain Networks
  • Strategic Alliances and Collaborative Partnerships in Business
  • Mergers and Acquisitions: Drivers and Challenges
  • Corporate Restructuring Strategies for Turnaround Success
  • The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Building Customer Trust
  • Reputation Management in the Digital Age
  • Crisis Communication Strategies for Managing Reputational Risks
  • Customer Relationship Management: Strategies for Enhancing Customer Loyalty
  • Personalization Techniques in Marketing and Customer Service
  • Omnichannel Retailing: Integrating Online and Offline Channels
  • The Future of Brick-and-Mortar Retail in the Digital Era
  • Pricing Strategies for Maximizing Profitability
  • Revenue Management Techniques in Hospitality Industry
  • Brand Extension Strategies and Brand Equity
  • Customer Experience Management: Best Practices and Trends
  • The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Business Operations
  • Machine Learning Applications in Marketing and Sales
  • Automation and Robotics in Manufacturing Processes
  • Blockchain Technology: Opportunities and Challenges for Businesses
  • Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Marketing
  • Data Privacy and Security Concerns in the Digital Age
  • The Role of Big Data Analytics in Business Decision-Making
  • Predictive Analytics for Sales Forecasting and Demand Planning
  • Customer Segmentation Techniques for Targeted Marketing
  • The Influence of Cultural Factors on Consumer Behavior
  • Cross-Cultural Marketing Strategies for Global Brands
  • International Market Entry Strategies: Modes of Entry and Risks
  • Exporting vs. Foreign Direct Investment: Pros and Cons
  • Market Entry Strategies for Emerging Markets
  • The Impact of Political and Economic Factors on International Business
  • Foreign Exchange Risk Management Strategies
  • Cultural Intelligence and Global Leadership Effectiveness
  • The Role of Multinational Corporations in Economic Development
  • Corporate Governance Practices in Different Countries
  • Comparative Analysis of Business Laws and Regulations
  • Intellectual Property Rights Protection in Global Business
  • The Influence of Cultural Differences on Negotiation Styles
  • Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions: Legal and Cultural Challenges
  • International Trade Agreements and Their Impact on Businesses
  • The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Sustainable Development
  • Corporate Philanthropy and Social Impact Investing
  • Microfinance and Economic Empowerment of Women
  • Entrepreneurship Ecosystems and Innovation Hubs
  • Government Policies and Support for Small Businesses
  • Venture Capital Financing and Startup Growth
  • Crowdfunding Platforms: Opportunities for Entrepreneurs
  • Social Entrepreneurship: Business Models for Social Change
  • Innovation Clusters and Regional Economic Development
  • Angel Investors and Their Role in Startup Funding
  • Technology Incubators: Nurturing Startup Innovation
  • Intellectual Property Rights Protection for Startup Innovations
  • Business Model Innovation: Disrupting Traditional Industries
  • The Impact of Climate Change on Business Operations
  • Green Technologies and Sustainable Business Practices
  • Carbon Footprint Reduction Strategies for Businesses
  • Environmental Management Systems and Certification
  • Corporate Reporting on Environmental Performance
  • Circular Economy Business Models: Closing the Loop
  • Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices
  • The Role of Renewable Energy in Achieving Carbon Neutrality
  • Smart Cities and Sustainable Urban Development
  • Green Building Technologies and Sustainable Construction
  • The Influence of Cultural Factors on Entrepreneurship
  • Gender Differences in Entrepreneurial Intentions and Success
  • Social Capital and Networking for Entrepreneurial Ventures
  • Family Business Succession Planning and Governance
  • Corporate Entrepreneurship: Fostering Innovation Within Organizations
  • Franchising: Opportunities and Challenges for Entrepreneurs
  • Online Platforms and the Gig Economy
  • Digital Nomads: Remote Work and Entrepreneurship
  • The Sharing Economy: Business Models and Regulation
  • Blockchain Applications in Supply Chain Traceability
  • Cryptocurrency Adoption in Business Transactions
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  • Smart Contracts and Their Potential in Business Operations
  • Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data Sharing
  • Cryptocurrency Exchanges: Regulation and Security Issues
  • Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and Monetary Policy
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  • Fintech Startups and Disruption in Traditional Banking
  • Peer-to-Peer Lending Platforms: Opportunities and Risks
  • Digital Identity Management Systems and Security
  • Regulatory Challenges in Fintech Innovation
  • Financial Inclusion and Access to Banking Services
  • Green Finance: Sustainable Investment Strategies
  • Socially Responsible Investing and ESG Criteria
  • Impact Investing: Financing Social and Environmental Projects
  • Microfinance Institutions and Poverty Alleviation
  • Financial Literacy Programs and Consumer Empowerment
  • Behavioral Finance: Understanding Investor Behavior
  • Risk Management Strategies for Financial Institutions
  • Corporate Fraud Detection and Prevention Measures
  • Financial Market Volatility and Risk Hedging Strategies
  • The Role of Central Banks in Monetary Policy Implementation
  • Financial Stability and Systemic Risk Management
  • Corporate Governance Practices in Banking Sector
  • Credit Risk Assessment Models and Default Prediction
  • Asset Allocation Strategies for Portfolio Diversification
  • Real Estate Investment Strategies for Wealth Accumulation
  • Commercial Property Valuation Methods
  • Real Estate Crowdfunding Platforms: Opportunities for Investors
  • Property Management Best Practices for Rental Properties
  • Real Estate Development and Urban Planning
  • Mortgage Market Trends and Homeownership Rates
  • Affordable Housing Initiatives and Government Policies
  • The Impact of Interest Rates on Real Estate Investments
  • Sustainable Architecture and Green Building Design
  • Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Tax Implications
  • The Influence of Demographic Trends on Housing Demand
  • Residential Property Flipping Strategies and Risks
  • Health and Wellness Tourism: Trends and Opportunities
  • Medical Tourism Destinations and Quality of Care
  • Wellness Retreats and Spa Resorts: Business Models
  • The Impact of Technology on Healthcare Delivery
  • Telemedicine and Remote Patient Monitoring
  • Healthcare Data Security and Privacy Regulations
  • Healthcare Financing Models: Insurance vs. Out-of-Pocket
  • Value-Based Healthcare Delivery and Payment Models
  • Healthcare Workforce Challenges and Solutions
  • Healthcare Infrastructure Development in Emerging Markets
  • The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Diagnosis
  • Precision Medicine: Personalized Treatment Approaches
  • Pharmaceutical Industry Trends and Drug Development
  • Biotechnology Innovations in Healthcare Solutions
  • Mental Health Awareness and Support Services
  • Telehealth Adoption and Patient Engagement
  • Chronic Disease Management Programs and Prevention
  • Health Information Exchange Platforms: Interoperability Challenges
  • Patient-Centered Care Models and Outcomes
  • The Influence of Healthcare Policies on Access to Care
  • Human Resource Management in the Hospitality Industry
  • Employee Training and Development in Tourism Sector
  • Quality Service Delivery in the Hotel Industry
  • Revenue Management Strategies for Hospitality Businesses
  • Destination Marketing and Tourism Promotion Campaigns
  • Sustainable Tourism Practices and Eco-Friendly Resorts
  • Technology Integration in Travel and Tourism Services
  • Cultural Heritage Tourism and Conservation Efforts
  • Adventure Tourism: Risks and Safety Measures
  • The Role of Online Travel Agencies in Tourism Distribution
  • Sustainable Transportation Solutions for Tourism
  • Food and Beverage Management in Hospitality Operations
  • Wellness Tourism: Trends and Market Segmentation
  • Airbnb and Short-Term Rental Market Dynamics
  • Wellness Retreats and Spas: Market Positioning Strategies
  • Community-Based Tourism Development Initiatives
  • Luxury Travel Market: Trends and Consumer Preferences
  • Aviation Industry Trends and Airline Marketing Strategies
  • Sustainable Event Management Practices
  • Convention and Exhibition Tourism: Economic Impact
  • Destination Management Organizations and Tourism Planning
  • Customer Relationship Management in the Tourism Sector
  • Online Reputation Management for Hospitality Businesses
  • Accessibility and Inclusivity in Tourism Infrastructure
  • Cultural Tourism: Heritage Preservation and Promotion
  • Agritourism: Farm-to-Table Experiences and Trends
  • The Impact of Climate Change on Tourism Destinations
  • Wildlife Tourism: Conservation and Responsible Practices
  • Wellness Tourism in Developing Countries: Challenges and Opportunities
  • The Role of Tour Operators in Sustainable Tourism Development
  • Virtual Reality Applications in Tourism Marketing
  • The Rise of Medical Tourism: Market Growth and Challenges
  • Responsible Travel and Ethical Tourism Practices
  • Event Marketing Strategies for Business Success
  • Sponsorship and Partnership Opportunities in Event Management
  • Technology Integration in Event Planning and Execution
  • Event Risk Management and Contingency Planning
  • Corporate Event Planning: Trends and Best Practices
  • Trade Show Marketing Strategies for Exhibitors
  • Sports Event Management : From Planning to Execution
  • Sustainable Event Certification Programs and Standards

How To Prepare Research Paper?

Preparing a research paper involves several key steps, from selecting a topic to writing and formatting the final document. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to prepare a research paper:

  • Select a Topic: Choose a topic that interests you and aligns with the requirements of your assignment or research objectives. Consider the scope of the topic, its relevance, and the availability of resources for conducting research.
  • Conduct Background Research: Read up on books and studies that talk about the same things you want to research. This will help you see what people already know, find out where there are still things we don’t know, and make your research questions or ideas better.
  • Develop a Research Question or Thesis Statement: Formulate a clear and focused research question or thesis statement that guides your study. Your research question should be specific, relevant, and capable of being answered through empirical investigation.
  • Create an Outline: Organize your ideas and research findings into a logical structure by creating an outline for your research paper. Outline the introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion sections, along with any subheadings or subsections.
  • Write the Introduction: Begin your research paper with an interesting introduction. Share some basic info about your topic, explain why your study is important, and clearly state what you’ll be focusing on in your research. The introduction should also outline the structure of the paper.
  • Review the Literature: Conduct a comprehensive review of relevant literature to provide context for your study, support your arguments, and identify gaps in existing research. Summarize key findings, theories, and methodologies from previous studies in your literature review.
  • Describe the Methodology: Clearly explain the research design, methods, and procedures used to collect and analyze data. Include details on the population/sample, data collection instruments, data analysis techniques, and any ethical considerations.
  • Present the Results: Report the findings of your study in a clear and concise manner. Use tables, graphs, or charts to present quantitative data, and provide descriptive analysis for qualitative data. Ensure that your results are relevant to your research question or thesis statement.
  • Discuss the Implications: Interpret the results of your study and discuss their implications that are for theory, practice, or policy. Analyze the strengths and limitations of your research, address any unexpected findings, and propose recommendations for future research or action.
  • Write the Conclusion: Summarize the key findings and contributions of your study in the conclusion section. Restate your research question or thesis statement, review the main points that you have discussed in the paper, and highlight the significance of your research in advancing knowledge in the field.
  • Revise and Edit: Review your research paper for clarity, coherence, and accuracy. Ensure that your arguments are well-supported by evidence, your writing is concise and precise, and your paper follows the appropriate style and formatting guidelines.
  • Cite Sources: Acknowledge the contributions of other scholars by properly citing their work in your research paper. Use a consistent citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) and include a reference list or bibliography at the end of your paper.
  • Proofread: Carefully proofread your research paper to correct any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors. Pay attention to formatting details such as margins, font size, and line spacing to ensure consistency throughout the document.
  • Get Feedback: Seek feedback from peers, instructors, or mentors to improve the quality of your research paper. Consider their suggestions for revision and make appropriate changes to strengthen your arguments and clarify your writing.
  • Finalize the Paper: Make any final revisions or edits based on feedback and proofreading, and then finalize your research paper for submission. Double-check all formatting requirements and ensure that your paper is properly formatted and ready for submission.

Final Thoughts

Researching business topics offers a unique opportunity to delve into the complexities of the modern economy and explore innovative solutions to real-world challenges.

Whether you’re passionate about leadership, marketing, finance, entrepreneurship, or corporate social responsibility, there’s a wealth of knowledge waiting to be discovered. So roll up your sleeves, sharpen your analytical skills, and get ready to make your mark in the world of business research! I hope you find the best and most relevant answer to business topics for research paper. 

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March 12, 2024

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Valorization of depolymerized lignin using microorganisms

by NanJing Agricultural University

Valorization of depolymerized lignin using microorganisms

Lignin is an abundant natural polymer which is eliminated as a byproduct in the pulp and paper industry. A recent review article explored different microbial processes available for sustainable lignin valorization, yielding not only environmental but also economic benefits. The article was published in the journal BioDesign Research .

Researchers highlight the current advancements as well as challenges faced while using naturally occurring and engineered microbes to transform depolymerized lignin into valuable high-value products.

The increasing focus on transitioning to a low-carbon society has driven research towards developing sustainable solutions. Lignin, a natural polymer that is abundantly found in plant biomass, is traditionally discarded as a byproduct in the pulp and paper industry or burnt as fuel. However, in recent times it has emerged as a valuable feedstock for producing various eco-friendly value-added products.

The most used lignin transformation method employs a two-stage strategy involving depolymerization followed by refining to transform lignin into beneficial products. Various pretreatment strategies and depolymerization techniques, including oxidative, reductive, and thermal depolymerization, and chemical modification, decompose lignin into lower weight phenolic compounds , which were then refined into specialized and high-value chemicals.

Moreover, lignin utilization can be maximized by using microbes capable of degrading lignin-derived aromatics into value-added products.

Certain bacterial and fungal species such as Pseudomonas putida, Rhodococcus opacus, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, and Sphingomonas possess enzymes that enable them to directly utilize pretreated lignin or depolymerized aromatic compounds. Additionally, the expression of heterologous enzymes in model microorganisms like Escherichia coli allowed the transformation of lignin-based platform compounds into more valuable end products.

In a recent study, Professor Jianqiang Fan from the Technology Center, China Tobacco Fujian Industrial Co. Ltd. collaborated with Professor Zheyong Xue from Northeast Forestry University, Professor Anqi Chen from Jiangnan University, and Professor Jifeng Yuan from Xiamen University, to review the current progress in biological strategies for upcycling lignin using microbes.

Elaborating on the purpose of their study, Professor Jifeng Yuan said, "Furthermore, our review provides insights into the problems facing current biological lignin valorization while proposing further research directions to improve these technologies for the extensive accomplishment of the lignin upcycling."

The article highlighted the promising production of dicarboxylic acids, particularly cis, cis-muconic acid (ccMA), from lignin. Traditional methods involved chemical synthesis from petroleum-based raw materials, but synthetic biology offered an eco-friendly alternative.

Engineered strains of bacteria like P. putida, E. coli, and Amycolatopsis sp. were used to optimize the ccMA synthetic pathways, thereby synthesizing increased quantities ccMA from lignin-derived compounds. The researchers also discussed the use of engineered strains of P. putida and E. coli to synthesize adipic acid, a commercially important dicarboxylic acid, pyridine-dicarboxylic acids and beta-ketoadipate from lignin hydrolysates.

The study further explained the use of microbial biocatalysis for synthesizing vanillin from lignin-derived ferulic acid and the effective production of gallic acid through microbial fermentation of lignin-derived compounds. The review also explored the improved biosynthesis of phenolic acids (like 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid) and complex natural products including phenolic glycosides, coumarins, and flavonoids from lignin-derived compounds, using engineered microbial strains.

The researchers emphasized the simplicity and sustainability of direct processing of lignocellulosic hydrolysates by microbes into various molecules. They observed that lignin-degrading bacteria are widely distributed in natural lignin-rich diverse environments, and mainly belong to the phyla Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Archaea.

In conclusion, this study underscores the potential of harnessing microbes for sustainable lignin valorization, recognizing lignin's potential as a renewable feedstock. The interdisciplinary approach aligns with global goals for a circular and sustainable bioeconomy, emphasizing the importance of microbiology, chemistry, synthetic biology , and genetic engineering in unlocking the full potential of lignin for high-value chemical production.

Professor Yuan concludes, "The effective use of lignin can drastically increase the cost-effectiveness of the lignocellulosic biorefinery, leading to a more sustainable and circular economy."

Provided by NanJing Agricultural University

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A generative AI reset: Rewiring to turn potential into value in 2024

It’s time for a generative AI (gen AI) reset. The initial enthusiasm and flurry of activity in 2023 is giving way to second thoughts and recalibrations as companies realize that capturing gen AI’s enormous potential value is harder than expected .

With 2024 shaping up to be the year for gen AI to prove its value, companies should keep in mind the hard lessons learned with digital and AI transformations: competitive advantage comes from building organizational and technological capabilities to broadly innovate, deploy, and improve solutions at scale—in effect, rewiring the business  for distributed digital and AI innovation.

About QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey

QuantumBlack, McKinsey’s AI arm, helps companies transform using the power of technology, technical expertise, and industry experts. With thousands of practitioners at QuantumBlack (data engineers, data scientists, product managers, designers, and software engineers) and McKinsey (industry and domain experts), we are working to solve the world’s most important AI challenges. QuantumBlack Labs is our center of technology development and client innovation, which has been driving cutting-edge advancements and developments in AI through locations across the globe.

Companies looking to score early wins with gen AI should move quickly. But those hoping that gen AI offers a shortcut past the tough—and necessary—organizational surgery are likely to meet with disappointing results. Launching pilots is (relatively) easy; getting pilots to scale and create meaningful value is hard because they require a broad set of changes to the way work actually gets done.

Let’s briefly look at what this has meant for one Pacific region telecommunications company. The company hired a chief data and AI officer with a mandate to “enable the organization to create value with data and AI.” The chief data and AI officer worked with the business to develop the strategic vision and implement the road map for the use cases. After a scan of domains (that is, customer journeys or functions) and use case opportunities across the enterprise, leadership prioritized the home-servicing/maintenance domain to pilot and then scale as part of a larger sequencing of initiatives. They targeted, in particular, the development of a gen AI tool to help dispatchers and service operators better predict the types of calls and parts needed when servicing homes.

Leadership put in place cross-functional product teams with shared objectives and incentives to build the gen AI tool. As part of an effort to upskill the entire enterprise to better work with data and gen AI tools, they also set up a data and AI academy, which the dispatchers and service operators enrolled in as part of their training. To provide the technology and data underpinnings for gen AI, the chief data and AI officer also selected a large language model (LLM) and cloud provider that could meet the needs of the domain as well as serve other parts of the enterprise. The chief data and AI officer also oversaw the implementation of a data architecture so that the clean and reliable data (including service histories and inventory databases) needed to build the gen AI tool could be delivered quickly and responsibly.

Our book Rewired: The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI (Wiley, June 2023) provides a detailed manual on the six capabilities needed to deliver the kind of broad change that harnesses digital and AI technology. In this article, we will explore how to extend each of those capabilities to implement a successful gen AI program at scale. While recognizing that these are still early days and that there is much more to learn, our experience has shown that breaking open the gen AI opportunity requires companies to rewire how they work in the following ways.

Figure out where gen AI copilots can give you a real competitive advantage

The broad excitement around gen AI and its relative ease of use has led to a burst of experimentation across organizations. Most of these initiatives, however, won’t generate a competitive advantage. One bank, for example, bought tens of thousands of GitHub Copilot licenses, but since it didn’t have a clear sense of how to work with the technology, progress was slow. Another unfocused effort we often see is when companies move to incorporate gen AI into their customer service capabilities. Customer service is a commodity capability, not part of the core business, for most companies. While gen AI might help with productivity in such cases, it won’t create a competitive advantage.

To create competitive advantage, companies should first understand the difference between being a “taker” (a user of available tools, often via APIs and subscription services), a “shaper” (an integrator of available models with proprietary data), and a “maker” (a builder of LLMs). For now, the maker approach is too expensive for most companies, so the sweet spot for businesses is implementing a taker model for productivity improvements while building shaper applications for competitive advantage.

Much of gen AI’s near-term value is closely tied to its ability to help people do their current jobs better. In this way, gen AI tools act as copilots that work side by side with an employee, creating an initial block of code that a developer can adapt, for example, or drafting a requisition order for a new part that a maintenance worker in the field can review and submit (see sidebar “Copilot examples across three generative AI archetypes”). This means companies should be focusing on where copilot technology can have the biggest impact on their priority programs.

Copilot examples across three generative AI archetypes

  • “Taker” copilots help real estate customers sift through property options and find the most promising one, write code for a developer, and summarize investor transcripts.
  • “Shaper” copilots provide recommendations to sales reps for upselling customers by connecting generative AI tools to customer relationship management systems, financial systems, and customer behavior histories; create virtual assistants to personalize treatments for patients; and recommend solutions for maintenance workers based on historical data.
  • “Maker” copilots are foundation models that lab scientists at pharmaceutical companies can use to find and test new and better drugs more quickly.

Some industrial companies, for example, have identified maintenance as a critical domain for their business. Reviewing maintenance reports and spending time with workers on the front lines can help determine where a gen AI copilot could make a big difference, such as in identifying issues with equipment failures quickly and early on. A gen AI copilot can also help identify root causes of truck breakdowns and recommend resolutions much more quickly than usual, as well as act as an ongoing source for best practices or standard operating procedures.

The challenge with copilots is figuring out how to generate revenue from increased productivity. In the case of customer service centers, for example, companies can stop recruiting new agents and use attrition to potentially achieve real financial gains. Defining the plans for how to generate revenue from the increased productivity up front, therefore, is crucial to capturing the value.

Upskill the talent you have but be clear about the gen-AI-specific skills you need

By now, most companies have a decent understanding of the technical gen AI skills they need, such as model fine-tuning, vector database administration, prompt engineering, and context engineering. In many cases, these are skills that you can train your existing workforce to develop. Those with existing AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities have a strong head start. Data engineers, for example, can learn multimodal processing and vector database management, MLOps (ML operations) engineers can extend their skills to LLMOps (LLM operations), and data scientists can develop prompt engineering, bias detection, and fine-tuning skills.

A sample of new generative AI skills needed

The following are examples of new skills needed for the successful deployment of generative AI tools:

  • data scientist:
  • prompt engineering
  • in-context learning
  • bias detection
  • pattern identification
  • reinforcement learning from human feedback
  • hyperparameter/large language model fine-tuning; transfer learning
  • data engineer:
  • data wrangling and data warehousing
  • data pipeline construction
  • multimodal processing
  • vector database management

The learning process can take two to three months to get to a decent level of competence because of the complexities in learning what various LLMs can and can’t do and how best to use them. The coders need to gain experience building software, testing, and validating answers, for example. It took one financial-services company three months to train its best data scientists to a high level of competence. While courses and documentation are available—many LLM providers have boot camps for developers—we have found that the most effective way to build capabilities at scale is through apprenticeship, training people to then train others, and building communities of practitioners. Rotating experts through teams to train others, scheduling regular sessions for people to share learnings, and hosting biweekly documentation review sessions are practices that have proven successful in building communities of practitioners (see sidebar “A sample of new generative AI skills needed”).

It’s important to bear in mind that successful gen AI skills are about more than coding proficiency. Our experience in developing our own gen AI platform, Lilli , showed us that the best gen AI technical talent has design skills to uncover where to focus solutions, contextual understanding to ensure the most relevant and high-quality answers are generated, collaboration skills to work well with knowledge experts (to test and validate answers and develop an appropriate curation approach), strong forensic skills to figure out causes of breakdowns (is the issue the data, the interpretation of the user’s intent, the quality of metadata on embeddings, or something else?), and anticipation skills to conceive of and plan for possible outcomes and to put the right kind of tracking into their code. A pure coder who doesn’t intrinsically have these skills may not be as useful a team member.

While current upskilling is largely based on a “learn on the job” approach, we see a rapid market emerging for people who have learned these skills over the past year. That skill growth is moving quickly. GitHub reported that developers were working on gen AI projects “in big numbers,” and that 65,000 public gen AI projects were created on its platform in 2023—a jump of almost 250 percent over the previous year. If your company is just starting its gen AI journey, you could consider hiring two or three senior engineers who have built a gen AI shaper product for their companies. This could greatly accelerate your efforts.

Form a centralized team to establish standards that enable responsible scaling

To ensure that all parts of the business can scale gen AI capabilities, centralizing competencies is a natural first move. The critical focus for this central team will be to develop and put in place protocols and standards to support scale, ensuring that teams can access models while also minimizing risk and containing costs. The team’s work could include, for example, procuring models and prescribing ways to access them, developing standards for data readiness, setting up approved prompt libraries, and allocating resources.

While developing Lilli, our team had its mind on scale when it created an open plug-in architecture and setting standards for how APIs should function and be built.  They developed standardized tooling and infrastructure where teams could securely experiment and access a GPT LLM , a gateway with preapproved APIs that teams could access, and a self-serve developer portal. Our goal is that this approach, over time, can help shift “Lilli as a product” (that a handful of teams use to build specific solutions) to “Lilli as a platform” (that teams across the enterprise can access to build other products).

For teams developing gen AI solutions, squad composition will be similar to AI teams but with data engineers and data scientists with gen AI experience and more contributors from risk management, compliance, and legal functions. The general idea of staffing squads with resources that are federated from the different expertise areas will not change, but the skill composition of a gen-AI-intensive squad will.

Set up the technology architecture to scale

Building a gen AI model is often relatively straightforward, but making it fully operational at scale is a different matter entirely. We’ve seen engineers build a basic chatbot in a week, but releasing a stable, accurate, and compliant version that scales can take four months. That’s why, our experience shows, the actual model costs may be less than 10 to 15 percent of the total costs of the solution.

Building for scale doesn’t mean building a new technology architecture. But it does mean focusing on a few core decisions that simplify and speed up processes without breaking the bank. Three such decisions stand out:

  • Focus on reusing your technology. Reusing code can increase the development speed of gen AI use cases by 30 to 50 percent. One good approach is simply creating a source for approved tools, code, and components. A financial-services company, for example, created a library of production-grade tools, which had been approved by both the security and legal teams, and made them available in a library for teams to use. More important is taking the time to identify and build those capabilities that are common across the most priority use cases. The same financial-services company, for example, identified three components that could be reused for more than 100 identified use cases. By building those first, they were able to generate a significant portion of the code base for all the identified use cases—essentially giving every application a big head start.
  • Focus the architecture on enabling efficient connections between gen AI models and internal systems. For gen AI models to work effectively in the shaper archetype, they need access to a business’s data and applications. Advances in integration and orchestration frameworks have significantly reduced the effort required to make those connections. But laying out what those integrations are and how to enable them is critical to ensure these models work efficiently and to avoid the complexity that creates technical debt  (the “tax” a company pays in terms of time and resources needed to redress existing technology issues). Chief information officers and chief technology officers can define reference architectures and integration standards for their organizations. Key elements should include a model hub, which contains trained and approved models that can be provisioned on demand; standard APIs that act as bridges connecting gen AI models to applications or data; and context management and caching, which speed up processing by providing models with relevant information from enterprise data sources.
  • Build up your testing and quality assurance capabilities. Our own experience building Lilli taught us to prioritize testing over development. Our team invested in not only developing testing protocols for each stage of development but also aligning the entire team so that, for example, it was clear who specifically needed to sign off on each stage of the process. This slowed down initial development but sped up the overall delivery pace and quality by cutting back on errors and the time needed to fix mistakes.

Ensure data quality and focus on unstructured data to fuel your models

The ability of a business to generate and scale value from gen AI models will depend on how well it takes advantage of its own data. As with technology, targeted upgrades to existing data architecture  are needed to maximize the future strategic benefits of gen AI:

  • Be targeted in ramping up your data quality and data augmentation efforts. While data quality has always been an important issue, the scale and scope of data that gen AI models can use—especially unstructured data—has made this issue much more consequential. For this reason, it’s critical to get the data foundations right, from clarifying decision rights to defining clear data processes to establishing taxonomies so models can access the data they need. The companies that do this well tie their data quality and augmentation efforts to the specific AI/gen AI application and use case—you don’t need this data foundation to extend to every corner of the enterprise. This could mean, for example, developing a new data repository for all equipment specifications and reported issues to better support maintenance copilot applications.
  • Understand what value is locked into your unstructured data. Most organizations have traditionally focused their data efforts on structured data (values that can be organized in tables, such as prices and features). But the real value from LLMs comes from their ability to work with unstructured data (for example, PowerPoint slides, videos, and text). Companies can map out which unstructured data sources are most valuable and establish metadata tagging standards so models can process the data and teams can find what they need (tagging is particularly important to help companies remove data from models as well, if necessary). Be creative in thinking about data opportunities. Some companies, for example, are interviewing senior employees as they retire and feeding that captured institutional knowledge into an LLM to help improve their copilot performance.
  • Optimize to lower costs at scale. There is often as much as a tenfold difference between what companies pay for data and what they could be paying if they optimized their data infrastructure and underlying costs. This issue often stems from companies scaling their proofs of concept without optimizing their data approach. Two costs generally stand out. One is storage costs arising from companies uploading terabytes of data into the cloud and wanting that data available 24/7. In practice, companies rarely need more than 10 percent of their data to have that level of availability, and accessing the rest over a 24- or 48-hour period is a much cheaper option. The other costs relate to computation with models that require on-call access to thousands of processors to run. This is especially the case when companies are building their own models (the maker archetype) but also when they are using pretrained models and running them with their own data and use cases (the shaper archetype). Companies could take a close look at how they can optimize computation costs on cloud platforms—for instance, putting some models in a queue to run when processors aren’t being used (such as when Americans go to bed and consumption of computing services like Netflix decreases) is a much cheaper option.

Build trust and reusability to drive adoption and scale

Because many people have concerns about gen AI, the bar on explaining how these tools work is much higher than for most solutions. People who use the tools want to know how they work, not just what they do. So it’s important to invest extra time and money to build trust by ensuring model accuracy and making it easy to check answers.

One insurance company, for example, created a gen AI tool to help manage claims. As part of the tool, it listed all the guardrails that had been put in place, and for each answer provided a link to the sentence or page of the relevant policy documents. The company also used an LLM to generate many variations of the same question to ensure answer consistency. These steps, among others, were critical to helping end users build trust in the tool.

Part of the training for maintenance teams using a gen AI tool should be to help them understand the limitations of models and how best to get the right answers. That includes teaching workers strategies to get to the best answer as fast as possible by starting with broad questions then narrowing them down. This provides the model with more context, and it also helps remove any bias of the people who might think they know the answer already. Having model interfaces that look and feel the same as existing tools also helps users feel less pressured to learn something new each time a new application is introduced.

Getting to scale means that businesses will need to stop building one-off solutions that are hard to use for other similar use cases. One global energy and materials company, for example, has established ease of reuse as a key requirement for all gen AI models, and has found in early iterations that 50 to 60 percent of its components can be reused. This means setting standards for developing gen AI assets (for example, prompts and context) that can be easily reused for other cases.

While many of the risk issues relating to gen AI are evolutions of discussions that were already brewing—for instance, data privacy, security, bias risk, job displacement, and intellectual property protection—gen AI has greatly expanded that risk landscape. Just 21 percent of companies reporting AI adoption say they have established policies governing employees’ use of gen AI technologies.

Similarly, a set of tests for AI/gen AI solutions should be established to demonstrate that data privacy, debiasing, and intellectual property protection are respected. Some organizations, in fact, are proposing to release models accompanied with documentation that details their performance characteristics. Documenting your decisions and rationales can be particularly helpful in conversations with regulators.

In some ways, this article is premature—so much is changing that we’ll likely have a profoundly different understanding of gen AI and its capabilities in a year’s time. But the core truths of finding value and driving change will still apply. How well companies have learned those lessons may largely determine how successful they’ll be in capturing that value.

Eric Lamarre

The authors wish to thank Michael Chui, Juan Couto, Ben Ellencweig, Josh Gartner, Bryce Hall, Holger Harreis, Phil Hudelson, Suzana Iacob, Sid Kamath, Neerav Kingsland, Kitti Lakner, Robert Levin, Matej Macak, Lapo Mori, Alex Peluffo, Aldo Rosales, Erik Roth, Abdul Wahab Shaikh, and Stephen Xu for their contributions to this article.

This article was edited by Barr Seitz, an editorial director in the New York office.

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  5. The Top 30 Global Sustainability Research Papers in 2019

    sustainability topics for research papers

  6. (PDF) Scientific Attention to Sustainability and SDGs: Meta-Analysis of

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  1. 187 Sustainability Topics For Research Papers In 2023

    187 Sustainability Topics For Research Papers In 2023. If you are a student of environmental science or even technology, sustainability is a very important topic for your research papers. These topics help you study the impact of mankind on the environment and different options that are available to prevent further deterioration of the planet.

  2. 80 sustainability research topics for students

    Get inspired by our list of sustainability research topics to write a paper, thesis, or do a course project on green campus issues. ... We hope this list inspired you to find a sustainability topic for research papers. Learn more. 12 sustainability documentaries to educate yourself and get inspired; Green guide: 15 tips for a sustainable ...

  3. Sustainable Development Research Paper Topics

    In this comprehensive guide to sustainable development research paper topics, we explore the diverse and critical issues related to sustainable development within the field of environmental science.Sustainable development encompasses the principles of economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection, aiming to create a better future for present and future generations.

  4. Top 100 in Sustainability

    Top 100 in Sustainability - 2022. This collection highlights our most downloaded* sustainability papers published in 2022. Featuring authors from around the world, these papers showcase valuable ...

  5. Sustainability Research Topics

    This guide presents resources related to the themes of the 17 SDGs. Latin American and Caribbean Studies - Environment & Sustainability. This guide provides selected resources on the topics of the environment and sustainability as they relate to these regions. Each resource category provides sources on a regional and country basis. Earth Day 2023.

  6. The Top 30 Global Sustainability Research Papers in 2019

    The top 30 global sustainability articles in 2019, by Altmetric score: World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency BioScience. Altmetric score: 10,966. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable foods (February 2019) The Lancet. Altmetric score: 4,561.

  7. Research & ideas aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

    Research knowledge that reforms education, improves our built environment, and promotes sustainable practices while reducing widespread inequality. The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide an international framework to measure societies biggest challenges. This collection gathers freely available articles to support and amplify key themes ...

  8. Sustainability

    Research Open Access 11 Mar 2024 Scientific Reports Volume: 14, P: 5894 24-hour average PM2.5 concentration caused by aircraft in Chinese airports from Jan. 2006 to Dec. 2023

  9. Frontiers in Sustainability

    49,543 views. 8 articles. Aligned with UN Sustainability Development Goals, this journal explores innovations in how we produce and consume products, empowering scientists to be more involved in the sustainability discussion.

  10. 130 Unique Sustainability Research Topics and Ideas to Focus On

    Hence, based on the aspects of conservation, many academic institutes often ask the students to come up with a research paper on any sustainability topics. Searching and finding the right research topic is a tough process. Usually, the topic selection needs more time and effort. So, to help you out, here, we have shared a list of exclusive ...

  11. Top 101 Sustainability Research Topics And Ideas To Focus On

    To conserve the environment, sustainability projects play a big part. Hence, based on the aspects of conservation, many academic institutes often ask the students to come up with a research paper on any sustainability topics. Searching and finding the right research topic is a hard process. Usually, the topic selection needs more effort and time.

  12. 190 Excellent Sustainability Research Topics

    Out of the different topic ideas suggested above, feel free to choose any topic of your choice and craft a detailed sustainability research paper. If you are not satisfied with the ideas recommended or need expert Sustainable Agriculture Assignment Help with sustainability research paper writing, then get in touch with us quickly for assistance.

  13. 100 Best Sustainability Topics for Academic Papers

    Best Sustainability Topics For Your Research. We've put together 100 exceptional sustainability topics that can be used for a variety of situations. The list covers topics in sustainability for grade school, middle school, high school, college, and graduate school. Check out our list and see what inspires you.

  14. Sustainability Topics

    Integrated pest management. Intensive grazing. Kyusei nature farming or agriculture. Land use and sustainability. Life cycle and (environmental assessment or environmental impact) Life cycle assessment. Local food movement. Local food system. Local foods.

  15. (PDF) Sustainability: A Comprehensive Literature

    The organizations that develop and implement sustainable practices are recognized as a success in sustainability. This chapter aims to provide an outline for sustainability with strategies ...

  16. Sustainability

    Sustainability is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal on environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability of human beings, published semimonthly online by MDPI.The Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC), International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) and Urban Land Institute (ULI) are affiliated with ...

  17. 167 Sustainability Research Topics for Top Grades

    Interesting Sustainability Topics for Research. The impact of using disposable diapers on the environment. Analysing the effectiveness of sustainable grazing systems. Impact of non-plastic waste on the oceans. Using gardening to improve air quality around homes.

  18. Impact of the Sustainable Development Goals on the academic research

    Today, global challenges such as poverty, inequality, and sustainability are at the core of the academic debate. This centrality has only increased since the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whose scope is to shift the world on to a path of resilience focused on promoting sustainable development. The main purpose of this paper ...

  19. Bibliometric analysis of sustainability papers: Evidence from

    This section summarizes the 997 documents included in this study. These documents were published in Environment, Development, and Sustainability.In addition to the trend analysis, several bibliometric analyses were conducted to identify the most frequent research topics, the most productive authors along with organizations and countries, the most cited papers, the most co-cited reference ...

  20. Sustainability assurance practices: a systematic review and future

    In the second place came research published in the journals of environment and sustainability, where Business Strategy and the Environment has published six research papers, which ranks first in publishing research related to sustainability and topics related to management such as accounting. This indicates that this journal is a pioneer in ...

  21. Sustainability and Sustainable Development Research around the World

    Abstract and Figures. This paper reviews the existing research on sustainability and sustainable development around the world. It begins by defining the sustainability and sustainable development ...

  22. ESG Investment and Sustainability Reporting: A Systematic ...

    Abstract. Sustainable finance is an area of study that looks beyond the simple number of risk and return. It looks over the impact of investment on ESG, i.e., environment, society, and governance factors. This paper conducts a comprehensive review of research works on ESG and its disclosures using the TCCM framework and thematic analysis ...

  23. 5 Great Topics for Research Papers on Global Sustainability Issues

    One of the most popular recent research papers in the sustainability field gave a comprehensive overview of this very subject. However, you could consider taking a much more specific approach. For example, your research paper could cover one of the following research topics about tree restoration: *. Whether trees should be planted across large ...

  24. The trends of major issues connecting climate change and the ...

    This study aims to explore the research trends and patterns of major issues connecting climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by employing a bibliometric analysis. The study has found that there is an increasing number of research and policies in various countries committed to finding and implementing strategies to solve climate change issues. The countries with the most ...

  25. 2023 Stanford environmental research: A year in review

    A new report looks back at the most impactful environment and sustainability research from Stanford scholars in 2023. Skip to main ... This year's review spans a wide range of topics that can inform environmental policies, technology, conservation, business, and decision-making, including: ... The examples highlighted in the Stanford ...

  26. Integrated sustainability management and equality practices in

    The research was conducted between April 2022 and September 2022. Findings According to the data, the main topics within the sustainability structure can be classified as (1) "sustainability in teaching system", (2) "sustainability in research, development and innovation research, development and innovation (R&D&I) activities", (3 ...

  27. Sustainability

    Cities in the Global South are experiencing profound demographic shifts, rapid economic growth, and unchecked urban sprawl, resulting in significant transformations in peri-urban landscapes. This paper focuses on assessing the impacts of chaotic urban expansion in the peri-urban areas (PUAs) of Greater Cairo (GC), serving as a notable case study in the Global South. By analyzing satellite ...

  28. 211 Business Topics For Research Paper [Updated]

    By embodying these characteristics, business research topics can effectively address the complexities and challenges of the modern business environment, providing valuable insights for academic scholarship and practical application. 211 Business Topics For Research Paper. The Impact of Leadership Styles on Employee Motivation

  29. Valorization of depolymerized lignin using microorganisms

    Lignin is an abundant natural polymer which is eliminated as a byproduct in the pulp and paper industry. A recent review article explored different microbial processes available for sustainable ...

  30. A generative AI reset: Rewiring to turn potential into value in 2024

    It's time for a generative AI (gen AI) reset. The initial enthusiasm and flurry of activity in 2023 is giving way to second thoughts and recalibrations as companies realize that capturing gen AI's enormous potential value is harder than expected.. With 2024 shaping up to be the year for gen AI to prove its value, companies should keep in mind the hard lessons learned with digital and AI ...