²ÝÁñÊÓƵ is a global academic hub for the Sustainable Development Goals, which form a key cross-cutting theme of its The Empowerment University strategic plan.
Our 2024 report on all 17 SDGs will show what work the university has been doing through research and engagement in helping to meet those targets and raising awareness of the progress towards the 2030 aims.
Our reports start with the United Nations’ verdict on progress from their 2024 report on SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
UN PROGRESS REPORT ON SDG 9
Around 30% of the targets are on track to be achieved by 2030, with another 30% showing moderate progress on the 2015 baseline figures. There has been only minimal progress on another 15%, 10% show stagnation and another 15% actual regression from the 2015 levels.
The UN report states: “Manufacturing sector growth has plateaued at around 2.7 per cent, a level expected to persist due to the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions. The air transport industry is rebounding strongly. Small enterprises continue to face hurdles such as limited access to credit, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and the less developed countries; only around 17 per cent has access to loans or credit lines”.
²ÝÁñÊÓƵ NEWS ON SDG 9 in 2024
Host of events to mark decade of Leicester Business Festival
TOP tips on pitching, scaling up your business and innovation vouchers to kick-start new business initiatives were just some of the events being run by ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ as part of this year’s Leicester Business Festival.
The festival marked its 10th anniversary this year. It was set up to celebrate the work being done by businesses in the region, highlight its investment potential and create a platform for sharing best business practices.
²ÝÁñÊÓƵ is proud to have been part of the festival since the very beginning,” said Helen Donnellan, director of Research, Business and Innovation at ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ. “The festival brings together so many people – businesses, public sector organisations and universities all working together to support the development of our economy.”
Leicester Business Festival had more than 70 free events taking place across the two weeks.
Pro Vice-Chancellor calls for construction sector to focus on UN's Sustainable Development Goals
DE MONTFORT University Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Business Innovation, Professor Mike Kagioglou, has been unveiled as the new president of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB).
Throughout his year in office, Mike plans to use his platform as CIOB President to drive greater focus on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Speaking at CIOB’s annual Members’ Forum event held in Cape Town, South Africa, Professor Kagioglou said the sector needs to focus on targets like building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and fostering innovation. “In 2015 – what seems like a lifetime ago – the United Nations adopted the SDGs to guide how, as a global community, we tackle humanity’s biggest challenges,” he said.
Can old electric car parts bring green power to energy-deprived parts of Africa?
AN INTERNATIONAL research project plans to turn a growing global stock of old electric vehicle parts into affordable renewable energy for sub-Saharan Africa, where 50% of the population still have no electricity.
The £3.5 million project brings together UK based researchers from ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Leicester (²ÝÁñÊÓƵ), the University of Warwick, and Chatham House.
They are working in collaboration with universities, governments, and industries from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Namibia to address these pressing energy challenges.
The new project, Circular Microgrids: Circular Economy Pathways for Renewable Microgrids in Africa, led by Muyiwa Oyinlola, Professor of Innovation for Sustainable Development at ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Leicester (²ÝÁñÊÓƵ), focuses on repurposing electric vehicle components—such as lithium-ion batteries, power converters, and motors—for renewable energy microgrids.
²ÝÁñÊÓƵ RESEARCH ON SDG 9 in 2024
Development of enzyme-based bioprocesses for recycling and reuse of wool blended fabrics to support the textiles industry transition to a circular system
(Jinsong Shen et al)
Enzyme-based biotechnology has demonstrated its potential to provide innovative solutions to improve textile performance properties and reduce the negative impact of textile production on the environment. In this current research, enzyme-based biotechnology processes were explored for recycling and reuse of wool/bast fibre blended fabrics from post-consumer and/or manufacturing waste streams. Individual fibre components were separated and recovered for re-processing back into yarns for fabric production.
The current research has also demonstrated the potential to extract and reuse dyes from waste textiles for textile coloration. These research outcomes demonstrate potential opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of textile production and support the global textile industry transition to a circular system.
How and when do an organization's social sustainability orientation and green human resource practices enhance its sustainable performance?
(Muhammad Umer Azeem et al)
This study investigates how and when organizations’ strategic intent of social sustainability orientation translates into their sustainable firm performance. In doing so, we explain the mediating role of the collective affective commitment of employees and the moderating role of green HRM policies.
The findings from both studies provide support for our predictions and reveal that a key reason why organizations with a social sustainability orientation achieve higher sustainable performance is that their employees develop a shared belief that environmental conservation initiatives are both valued and expected. Moreover, this process is more salient in organizations that adopt green HRM policies. That is, green HRM policies reinforce that the organization is particularly concerned about social sustainability, therefore, employees become more committed to serving this cause.
Forest Fire Detection Utilizing Ghost Swin Transformer with Attention and Auxiliary Geometric Loss
(Francois Siewe et al)
Forest fires are a devastating natural disaster. Existing fire detection models face limitations in dataset availability, multi-scale feature extraction, and locating obscured or small flames and smoke. To address these issues, we develop a dataset containing real and synthetic forest fire images, sourced from a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) perspective. Additionally, we propose the Ghost Convolution Swin Transformer module to extract multi-scale flame and smoke features from different receptive fields by integrating parallel Ghost convolution and Swin Transformer.
Extensive experimental results demonstrate that our method provides a significant improvement in accuracy and real-time performance compared to state-of-the-art techniques.
Read the full Sustainable Development Goals 2024 report on all the SDGs here
SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure