SDGs in the Asia and Pacific Region

The Asia and the Pacific region is actively seeking ways to optimise the use and availability of its natural resources, which have been contributing to environmental degradation and hindering its sustainable development. This volume documents and promotes various initiatives showcasing the efforts countries in the region are making towards the implementation of the SDGs.

Prof. Walter Leal Filho (BSc, PhD, DSc, DPhil, DTech, DL, DLitt, FSB, FLS, FRGS) holds the Chairs of Climate Change Management at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany) and Environment and Technology at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). He directs the European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR) and the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme, the largest network of universities specifically focusing on research on matters related to sustainable development. Professor Walter Leal Filho has over 30 years of experience on sustainable development research and in excess of 700 publications to his credit.

Theam Foo Ng (Dr, BSc, MSc, PhD) is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Global Sustainability Studies (CGSS), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysia. Currently, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ng is a coordinator for the South East Asia Sustainability Network (SEASN) and Environmental Protection and Education Hub (EPEHub) as well as Active Mobility (E-bike) in USM. SEASN is a Southeast Asia countries network that incorporates higher education institutions and other related sustainability organisations which are committed to promote, engage and integrate sustainability in their teaching, research, community engagement and institutional arrangement.

He is also an advisor for Green Ambassador, EPEHub and Kung Fu Club. He leads the EPEHub programmes and activities in USM and is actively engaged with communities and NGOs in championing and promoting environmental protection and education related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate change, reduction of carbon footprint and waste management. He has conducted various talks and training workshops related to environmental sustainability and SDGs. In the programme of Master in Sustainable Development Practice, he is the course coordinator for Energy Infrastructure Planning. He has experience as guest editor, associate editor, section editor and reviewer for a few reputable journals/book series. His research interest is on environmental sustainability, education for sustainable development, machine learning, pattern recognition, computational intelligence and image processing.

Usha Iyer-Raniga is Professor, Sustainable Built Environment at RMIT University, Australia. Usha co-leads the One Planet Network’s Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme (SBC), United Nations 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (UN 10FYP SCP) aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 12. The work directly impacts SDG 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG 12 on Responsible Consumption and Production. Usha’s research supports empirical applications.

Artie Ng Professor Artie Ng (BSc,MSc,MBA,MEng, PhD, FCPA, FCMA, SrMIISE) has over 100 publications, including refereed journals, edited books, conference papers and consultancy reports. In particular, he has published with impactful international journals on sustainability, including Energy Policy, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal as well as Sustainability Science. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Accounting Forum, International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance as well as Social and Environmental Accountability Journal. Dr. Ng is currently the Dean of International Business University based in Toronto, Canada. He has served as Senior Research Fellow with the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy at the University of Waterloo as well as Adjunct Professor at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Ayyoob Sharifi is a Professor at Hiroshima University, Japan, where he works at the IDEC Institute and the Graduate School of Innovation and Practice for Smart Society. He is also a Visiting Professor at the School of Architecture and Design of the Lebanese American University. His research focuses on the intersection of urbanism and climate change mitigation and adaptation. He has served as a lead author for the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and an active contributor to the Future Earth global change research programme. His main goal as a scholar is to inform actions toward creating sustainable and resilient cities and communities.