Prelims

Half Title Page

SDG9 – INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Series Page

CONCISE GUIDES TO THE UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Series Editors

• Walter Leal Filho

  World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences

• Mark Mifsud

  Centre for Environmental Education and Research, University of Malta

This series comprises 17 short books, each examining one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The series provides an integrated assessment of the SDGs from an economic, social, environmental and cultural perspective. Books in the series critically analyse and assess the SDGs from a multi-disciplinary and a multi-regional standpoint, with each title demonstrating innovation in theoretical and empirical analysis, methodology, and application of the SDG concerned.

Titles in this series have a particular focus on the means to implement the SDGs, and each one includes a short introduction to the SDG in question along with a synopsis of their implications on the economic, social, environmental and cultural domains.

Title Page

SDG9 – INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

BY

LUIS VELAZQUEZ

University of Sonora, Mexico

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2022

Copyright © 2022 Luis Velazquez. Published under an exclusive license by Emerald Publishing Limited

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Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the text, illustrations or advertisements. The opinions expressed in these chapters are not necessarily those of the Author or the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80117-134-2 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-131-1 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-133-5 (Epub)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my professors, colleagues, former students, family, and friends, all my fellow adventurers on my tireless quest for sustainability. Moreover, I also dedicate it to those students worldwide who will become the agents of change needed to achieve inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and a better world.

Contents

About the Author

Luis Velazquez, PhD, is a Sustainability Senior Sustainability Researcher with over 30 years of experience as an Industrial Engineer. He holds a Doctoral degree in Engineering Science with a major in Cleaner Production and Pollution Prevention from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He has been a Sustainability Research Intern at several higher education institutions, such as the Center for Health and the Global Environment of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA; the Paulista University, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Holland; and the University of Applied Sciences in Zittau/Görlitz, Germany. Since 1993, he has served as a Project Manager in several sustainability initiatives in different countries. In addition, he has conducted several investigations in the Sustainability, Cleaner Production, and Pollution Prevention fields and the study of sustainable universities.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this book do not reflect the opinions or views of any organisation, agency, or program of the United Nations or any other international agency.

Preface

Although SDG9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure targets students and professors in the field of Engineering Management, it is also intended for those students, professors, researchers, and practitioners in related fields. It has been almost 30 years since I graduated as an industrial engineer from the University of Sonora in Mexico and practically the same time since Sustainable Development captivated me.

My quest for sustainability in the industry has been fascinating and challenging, as I have had successes and disappointments. During these three decades, I have had the opportunity to study sustainability at prestigious universities worldwide. Everything I have experienced has been valuable, but if I had to select the most valuable thing, without a doubt, it is the experiences shared with my colleagues and with students. I have collaborated with sustainability experts in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Arabia; everyone taught me so much about sustainability.

The invitation to write this book came from a researcher in Germany whom I consider an icon of Sustainability Science; however, my most significant spiritual motivation has always been the students. For them, I accepted the invitation, hoping that they will find inspiration to be agents of change and soon help achieve inclusive and sustainable industrialisation. The students have been an injection of enthusiasm and optimism at a most challenging moment of my career; therefore, a reason not to give up. While I do not consider myself a sustainability expert, writing about inclusive and sustainable industrialisation initially did not seem as challenging as it turned out.

The most challenging phase was gathering information about SDG9 because there appears to be a lack of reliable SDG9 information available and what exists is hard to find. The searching for information lasted months and sometimes was frustrating and futile. This fact is likely because progress towards SDG9 has not been as positive as it might be. It is not that the current SDG9 published literature is wrong, but the evidence is not conclusive. In general, though, information sources often offer qualitative information, and quantitative data are scarce. Moreover, there is no trustworthy or go-to source of information that indicates with certainty the progress towards the 2030 Agenda; therefore, generating insights about assessing progress towards the achievement of SDG9 was somewhat difficult; it was like piecing together a puzzle. This situation is not exclusive to SDG9; thus, several of the arguments expressed in the book might apply to multiple SDGs.

In the end, I have managed to present a comprehensive framework within which complex SDG9 issues can be understood to be adapted and applied effectively and efficiently in particular situations. Therefore, I hope that this book helps build qualified human resources to accelerate progress towards SDG9 by increasing awareness and knowledge towards a low-carbon and inclusive industrialisation.

Acknowledgements

I express my most profound appreciation to Dr Walter Leal Filho, Director of the Research and Transfer Centre ‘Sustainability Development and Climate Change Management’, Chair of Climate Change Management at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and Chair of Environment and Technology at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom for his kind invitation, and trust, to write this book. I also want to thank professor Mark C. Mifsud from the University of Malta for this invitation.

I am entirely indebted to my colleague Krystal Perkins, from the Department of Psychology, School of Natural and Social Sciences, Purchase College, SUNY, USA, for her support, inspiration, and guidance during the writing process. I would also like to acknowledge my colleagues in the Sustainability Graduate Program of the University of Sonora, who had helped me tune up the book’s content.

Finally, yet importantly, I would like to thank my lovely family and friends for their patient and understanding during the months I spent writing the book.