Sustainable Development Goals Reflection - Case Study Example

Reflective Portfolio

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Part A: Reflection and Impact on the Behaviour4

Part B: Evaluation6

Conclusion9

Appendices15

• Introduction

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) refer to the new and general set of the goals along with the indicators and targets of the member states included in the United Nations. This will be used for the purpose of framing the programmes and agendas, in addition to the political policies for the upcoming 15 years. The SDGs have, therefore, expanded towards millennium development goals or the MDGs. This was agreed by all the member countries in the year 2001. There are altogether 17 goals under MDGs, which include ending of poverty in all kinds of forms. This is followed by ending the issue of hunger along with achieving food security, promotion of sustainable agriculture, along with enhancing nutrition. The third goal of the MDGs is ensuring healthy life and supporting wellbeing of the people (Ford, 2015).

The fourth goal is ensuring education to all, which is followed by gender equality as the fifth goal. The sixth goal is achieving sustainable management of water and sanitation. The United Nations also focuses on accessing affordable and modern energy. It also helps in promoting sustainable growth and developing infrastructure for industrialisation. The organisation also concentrates on reducing inequality among nations and making human settlements safer and sustainable. It ensures sustainable consumption pattern and takes necessary actions with respect to climate change. In addition, the organisation emphasises conserving oceans and marine resources. Protecting, restoring, and promoting of terrestrial ecosystem is one of the goals. It also ensures promoting inclusive and peaceful societies to maintain sustainable growth. The organisation also concentrates on strengthening the implementation and maintenance of global partnership (UNDP, 2015; FAO, 2015). The objective of the study is to reflect on SDGs.

• Part A: Reflection and Impact on the Behaviour

Based on my understanding, I believe that SDGs are the goals that focus on the sustainable development of people along with the society that we live in. The above mentioned goals are to be attained by the year 2030. I further believe that that these would help in eliminating situations such as hunger and poverty (Citiscope, n.d; Thomson, 2015). Through the proper understanding of the SDGs, it can be stated that United Nations has been significantly concentrating on the development and growth of the people along the nations all round the world. This has largely focused on highlighting and maintaining of the sustainable growth with respect to the wellbeing of people. The understanding of the SDGs has visibly changed my attitude along with my behaviour.

Doing social good helps inspiring people, which further assists in reinforcing positive behaviour within people. Hence, this can lead to the enhancement of the actions that are taken by the community which can in turn significantly trigger a change with respect to social norms along with the regulations, ultimately helping in achieving legislative changes (United Nations, 2017). This has facilitated me to focus more towards the sustainable development in the community that I live in to promote the need for good health and wellbeing of the people. Having an adequate knowledge towards the SDGs helped me to be more responsible towards the environment. I believe that being responsible towards the environment has aided me to change my attitude towards the growing issue of climate change that is happening all round the world.

I further believe that the governments are responsible for maintaining and the overseeing the objectives and goals, as the businesses across the world can have a negative impact on the overall progress of maintaining SDGs (PWC, 2017). Hence, in my opinion, the government needs to emphasise on the right conditions relating to the business based on the sustainability. Hence, in this context, it has assisted me to align organisational goals with SDGs. Therefore, I have been able to understand along with respond to various risks, as well as, opportunities. Furthermore, it has also facilitated me to work to significantly understand the overall relationship between the government, business, and the societies. Additionally, the understanding and learning of the SDGs have enabled me to stay positive, which further has helped me and the company to create economic, environmental, and social outcomes. This has thus motivated me to focus on following and maintaining SDGs within the organisation.

Furthermore, having a proper knowledge of the SDGs has also changed my behaviour for sustainable future. In addition, it has also encouraged the company that I work in to focus on maintaining relevant SDGs within the organisations. This has assisted me to authenticate the current efforts along with sparking new as well as, modern ideas. In addition, the implementation of the SDGs in the organisation has enabled me to be more innovative towards my approach of completing the tasks related to the business operations. Therefore, it has changed the way I do things with the organisation.

Based on the learning of SDGs, I have utmost faith in the work that the Unite Nations has been doing along with member states. I further have learnt that the United Nations is significantly focusing on several areas, which include poverty alleviation, peace building, and democratic governance. Additionally, this particular organisation also concentrates on the overall integration of SDGs within the national development policies and plan. Based on my understanding, I believe that poverty is one of the most significant and growing issues all round the world. In addition, I also believe that the organisation along with members is significantly concentrated towards overcoming the mentioned issue.

Hence, in my opinion, the initiation of SDGs by the United Nations is an important step towards the wellbeing of the society and people. In addition, I also believe that the initiated SDGs are also essential for the purpose of achieving sustainable development and growth towards the environment. I also consider that the SDGs can significantly help in providing benefits to the organisation. The 17 goals are, hence, focused on sustaining the planet and the people that live in it. Besides, the second most essential goal under the SDGs is the issue related to growing climate change, which at present has become the greatest threat for mankind and the planet. Hence, in my personal opinion, it is essential to reduce the rate of green-house gases and other harmful emissions either from factories or automobiles. Thus, the governments need to focus on developing and implementing steps and processes for overcoming the issue of climate change all round the word.

• Part B: Evaluation

Based on the above discussion, it has been apparent that the SDGs set out by the United Nations are focused on enhancing lives for the future generations by different sustainable ways. These ways fundamentally comprise eliminating monetary inequality, promoting innovation, addressing the issue of climate change, removing poverty and facilitating every community member to enjoy peace as well prosperity (Jones et.al., 2017). It is expected that the SDGs including ‘quality education’, ‘sustainable cities along with communities’ and ‘affordable as well as clean energy’ among others not only have a strong impact on the development of economies, but also on an individual career or employer (Clark, 2017). My career aspiration is to work with a state-owned petroleum business corporation located in Qatar named Qatar Petroleum (QP). The company generally deals with manufacturing, exploring and selling a wide assortment of products that comprise crude oil, fertilizers, fuel additives, natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and synthetic fuels among others (Qatar Petroleum, 2015). While performing a detailed research about QP, I found that the company designed a sustainability framework based on the cornerstone of sustainable development. This particular framework emphasised increasing stakeholder involvement along with responsibility, developing effective strategies as well as mechanisms of performance management and ensuring greater level of commitment towards maintaining sustainability (Qatar Petroleum, 2015a). This type of behaviour of QP has propagated the interest for me to select the company as the future employer.

The demonstration of QP as a community partner and strong concern over the underlying environment is not a new phenomenon. Gibb’s model of reflection (Gaynor, 2013) is thereby taken into concern in order to assess the ways through which the SDGs might be related to the roles to be performed or the company itself. The various elements of this particular model have been discussed hereunder with respect to the case of QP.

Description

I observed that QP adopted the decision of discontinuing the planned Al Karaana petrochemicals project. This decision was made by the company after undergoing a thorough assessment of commercial quotations received from engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bidders. According to these quotations, the capital costs are high and it is not feasible to undertake such sort of project wherein climate change issue is largely prevailing in Qatar’s oil and gas industry (Shell, 2015).

Feelings

I personally feel that the above decision undertaken by the company about not to continue with the projected Al Karaana petrochemicals project may hinder the fulfilment of two SDGs i.e. industry, innovation along with infrastructure and climate action. The reasons behind this hindrance fundamentally encompass high costs and the issue of climate change. I think that the decision of not continuing the stated project is a feasible one for a company such as QP, as it is involved in sponsoring various programs that entail environmental workshops and removal of marine debris among others. In addition, the company is also engaged in developing oil spill along with emergency response preparedness systems, proving effective in addressing the climate change issue by a certain level (Qatar Petroleum, 2015).

Evaluation

As per my understanding, the reaction of the people towards the decision adopted by QP about not continuing the projected Al Karaana petrochemicals project can be a mixed one. For instance, one section of people can think that the company is not effective enough in order to undertake this project. On the other hand, another segment of the individuals might believe that QP should make an attempt to continue the project at least; as this has the capacity to address the major problems identified i.e. huge costs and climate change issue.

Analysis

The decision of not continuing with the projected Al Karaana petrochemicals project might prove QP’s operational incompetency, hindering its long-term success in the respective industry within the nation. I think that a lack of effective leadership practices is one of the reasons for which the company has adopted this decision. Under such circumstances, transformational leadership theory can be applied so as to derive positive or favourable results on behalf of the company with respect to the planned Al Karaana petrochemicals project. According to this specific form of leadership style, the SDGSs of industry, innovation along with infrastructure and climate action can be fulfilled by understanding the needs of the respective industry (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014).

Conclusion

If I was present during the incident, I could have accepted and continued with the project because I know that the company has the potentiality to evade negative actions resulting from the same by having huge environmental concerns and performing distinct sorts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions.

Action Plan

In order to improve things for the next time, I must undergo training about learning distinct sorts of CSR and/or ecological issues that have a strong influence on the performance of a project. This training program may also encompass identifying the ways through which the SDGs such as climate action and industry, innovation along with infrastructure can be fulfilled.

• Conclusion

I learnt about SDGs that these goals emphasise sustainable development of the individuals and the respective communities wherein they live. Fulfilment of these specific SDGs is likely to support in eliminating certain unfavourable conditions that comprise starvation and poverty among others. I believe that the SDGs of quality education, no poverty and better health along with well-being have a strong influence on my behaviours of becoming more kind to the community member and finding out the ways to develop their lives. I have a desire to work with QP, as the company is fundamentally concerned with managing various ecological issues and developing the societal conditions as per the expectation level. I duly considered Gibb’s model of reflection in order to assess the impacts of gaining knowledge about SDGs on my future career at QP. Based on the findings retrieved from this particular model, QP showed incompetency in undertaking a project due to higher costs and climate change issue. Under such circumstances, I believe that performing practices of transformational leadership and aligning SDGs with the operations could help QP to show its competency in the respective industry.