Business Youth for Engaged Sustainability to Achieve the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Abstract

Sustainable development is often defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Three main pillars of “sustainability” are “social, environmental, and economic,” which are often referred to informally as “people, planet, and profits.” Indeed, there is no larger initiative to face the planet than achieving “global sustainable development” amidst globalization issues and no larger untapped force than Business Youth. Many youth programs exist – Enactus, the Future Business Leaders of America, Junior Achievement, Operation Enterprise, United Nations Youth Unit – all striving toward the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include quality education (No. 4), industry innovation and infrastructure (No. 9), and partnerships for the goals (No. 17). Perhaps there could be no greater facilitator in this realm than the creation of a nonprofit organization, called Business Youth for Sustainable Development (BY4SD). An international business youth organization will have the energy to get it done by assembling the youth at business schools, state organizations, regional organizations, national organizations, and international organizations, which could help “shift the paradigm” for all. The concept of “sustainable development” was reborn in 2012 at the “Rio + 20 Convention” in Rio de Janeiro, where it was “christened” 20 years before at the 1992 Earth Summit. The concept, though, was born to the world in the 1987 book, Our Common Future from the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). This chapter will present an overview of existing business youth organizations, their work toward achieving the United Nations SDGs, and propose the concept and the need for BY4SD.