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Since the economic crisis in 2008, the world has seen a partly negative shift in social progress, highlighting that current economic models and practices do not guarantee long-lasting societal and human wellbeing. Economic models and business practices are deeply intertwined; thus, businesses play a major role in the advancement of social sustainability, and academic research can offer support in navigating the complexity of this issue. However, social sustainability tends to be under-researched. This article summarizes the discussion in general business management, product development, and supply-chain management, and from this suggest a research agenda to help in guiding systematic change in business organizations towards social sustainability. The article identifies ten main challenges and offers five recommendations to move the field forward, namely, a more explicit engagement with and discussion of social systems-science based ideas, and a more explicit determination as a field to converge on key pieces leading towards a clearer definition of the concept. Lastly, it recommends that research needs to focus on how to overcome fragmented organizational structures, how to achieve true integration into existing processes and tools, and how to support organizations to become more dynamic in working with these issues. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland., open access

Cisterns Program aims to mitigate drought impacts through strengthening the adaptive capacity of vulnerable inhabitants in Brazilian Semiarid (BSA). Cisterns promote the ability of farmers to adapt to climatic stresses in long run. This article discusses the impacts of the Rainwater Harvesting Program (RHP) on the livelihoods of women in BSA. Policy implementation has been assessed from capacity building and social mobilization to the construction of infrastructure that guarantees rainwater harvesting for human consumption and productive uses. Based on semi-structured interviews applied to case studies in Paraíba, Pernambuco and Ceará states, this article discusses how the gender perspective can improve adaptive capacity. Results from the case studies indicated important changes in female autonomy, greater independence related to water access, resulting in extra time for other activities, including education. Moreover, the availability of water for production has strengthened productive capacity leading to greater food security and well-being. Lastly, it was also reported a sense of economic independence related to income generation from improved production capacity., El Programa Cisternas tiene como objetivo mitigar impactos de la sequía mediante la capacidad de adaptación de los habitantes del semiárido brasileño (BSA). Este artículo analiza los impactos del Programa en los medios de vida de las mujeres. La implementación de políticas ha sido evaluada desde el desarrollo de capacidades y movilización social hasta la construcción de infraestrutura de captación de agua de lluvia para consume humano y usos productivos. Basado en entrevistas semiestructuradas aplicadas a estudios de caso en los estados de Paraíba, Pernambuco y Ceará, este artículo discute cómo la perspectiva de género promove impactos socioeconómicos y mejora la capacidad de adaptación. Los resultados de los estudios de caso indicaron cambios importantes en la autonomía femenina, promovidos por una mayor independencia relacionada con el acceso al agua, lo que resultó en tiempo adicional para otras actividades, incluida la educación. Además, la disponibilidad de agua para la producción ha fortalecido la capacidad productiva y ha conducido a una mayor seguridad alimentar y bienestar. Por último, también se informó sobre una sensación de independencia económica relacionada con la generación de ingresos a partir de la mejora de la capacidad de producción.

The Cisterns Program aims to mitigate drought impacts by strengthening the adaptive capacity of vulnerable inhabitants in Brazilian semiarid (BSA) regions. Cisterns promote farmers’ ability to adapt to climatic stresses in the long run. This article discusses the impacts of the Rainwater Harvesting Program (RHP) on the livelihoods of women in BSA regions. The policy implementation is assessed in terms of capacity building, social mobilization, and the construction of infrastructure that guarantees rainwater harvesting for human consumption and productive uses. Based on semistructured interviews in case studies in Paraíba, Pernambuco and Ceará States, this article discusses how the gender perspective can improve adaptive capacity. The results from the case studies indicate important changes in female autonomy and increased independence related to water access, resulting in extra time for women to dedicate to other activities, including education. Moreover, the availability of water for production strengthened productive capacity, leading to greater food security and well-being. Last, a sense of economic independence related to income generation from improved production capacity was also reported.

Durante os anos 2000, foram instituídas políticas de promoção do acesso à água no Semiárido brasileiro, como componentes de uma estratégia mais ampla de redução da pobreza e da insegurança alimentar. Apesar da sua abordagem intersetorial e integrada com as políticas sociais, a multiplicação de arranjos institucionais e de programas com lógicas distintas de implementação tem aumentado seu nível de fragmentação. O presente artigo analisa o processo de articulação do Programa Cisternas com outros programas de redução da pobreza rural, identificando fatores que contribuem para sua integração programática e institucional. O estudo avalia os mecanismos existentes de coordenação em nível nacional, e inova ao discutir o papel informal de gestores municipais e técnicos extensionistas na coordenação de programas durante o processo de implementação. Foram mobilizados dados primários e secundários, incluindo entrevistas com gestores federais e locais, e executores envolvidos na implementação do programa.

Companies responsible for product development (PD) and manufacturing play an important role in supporting society in achieving sustainability, and yet they do not always include full sustainability considerations in PD decisions. The social dimension of sustainability has been largely neglected in the PD field and there is very little empirical evidence of social sustainability implementation in general. The aim of this paper is to investigate how social sustainability is currently included in PD organizations and what their motivations are to do so. Results from a comparative case study approach with three organizations include rich descriptions across four dimensions: The scope of the work and their view of interdependencies with other social systems, their definition of social sustainability and the issues they work with, what guides strategic decisions, and how this internal work is structured. The results reveal that the three product development organizations are heterogenous in their approaches to social sustainability and that the more advanced approach shows a better understanding of the complexity of social sustainability and a broader perspective of its interdependencies, which goes hand-in-hand with a way of organizing that overcomes traditional hierarchies and allows for more collaborative and strategic work in this area. This systems perspective also drives what issues are included in an organization’s work; scope and definition of social sustainability become more encompassing and aligned. Finally, our study shows that social sustainability impacts connected to products’ lifecycles, when addressed, are done so by functions outside design activities, as opposed to product developers. A greater understanding of how companies currently approach social sustainability and what challenges they might face in integrating it in organizational and design related practices has been called for; our paper contributes to this but acknowledges that more work is need

Though many engineering schools are integrating sustainability in the curriculum, most are still struggling, especially with social sustainability. The aim with this study was to test a process created to help students work systematically with these issues. Results show that students in the study did indeed benefit from structured process support as their general knowledge level of social sustainability issues as well as their understanding of how to integrate them in a product assessment was very low. Reflections from teaching staff on how to further develop such a process are also shared., open access

A região do Semiárido, ao longo dos anos, foi alvo de uma transição de políticas públicas voltadas ao combate à seca para as políticas com base na Convivência com o Semiárido. Com base nesse paradigma, foram desenvolvidas políticas em vários âmbitos de modo a apoiar os agricultores familiares mais vulneráveis. Entretanto, diante das mudanças climáticas previstas para a região, preconiza-se a necessidade de um melhor entendimento das percepções sobre o clima, seu impacto nos processos produtivos e os ajustes realizados, de modo que possam ser identificadas as principais vulnerabilidades e os processos de adaptação que podem ser fomentados pelas políticas. Com base nisso, por meio de entrevistas qualitativas, buscou-se entender a percepção sobre esses tópicos por parte de 54 agricultores familiares de sequeiro na região do Submédio São Francisco. De modo geral, a maioria dos entrevistados relatou a percepção de mudanças no clima nos últimos 15-20 anos, assim como preocupação sobre o clima futuro. A última seca (2011-2018) causou perdas produtivas que, em sua maioria, levaram a ajustes reativos aos acontecimentos. Diante das declarações, foi observado que existe uma percepção sobre a necessidade de planejamento, de modo que alternativas de adaptação anteriores aos impactos possam ser realizadas. Entretanto, vários desafios limitam o desenvolvimento de uma cultura de adaptação, dentre eles os relativos à utilização e às limitações das políticas públicas. Por fim, discute-se a necessidade de se atualizar algumas estratégias promovidas pelo paradigma de Convivência com o Semiárido, de modo a incorporar a perspectiva das mudanças climáticas e possibilitar o aumento das capacidades adaptativas dos agricultores familiares para que esses possam antever os eventos (adaptação ex-ante) e não apenas responder aos seus impactos (adaptação ex-post).

Family farmers of semi-arid regions are especially vulnerable to climate change, due to the reliance on rain-fed production systems and the limited capacity to cope with and adapt to impacts. The Brazilian Food Acquisition Program (PAA), as an example of a food procurement program that also functions as a food-based safety net for vulnerable populations, is analyzed in a context of extreme drought in the Cariri region (Ceará state, Brazil). Limitations that prevent the full range of potential PAA benefits are examined as perceived by institutional actors involved with the program, while measures to foster the full potential positive impacts on beneficiaries are discussed. Findings indicate that more consideration of the importance of governance and institutional factors on the functioning of food acquisition programs, as well as the importance of the role of climate change on this equation, are essential for program sustainability, especially in a scenario of climate change.

O artigo discute os desafios das políticas públicas em promover a governança dos recursos naturais na região do Submédio rio São Francisco, em particular as interações por vezes conflituosas entre segurança hídrica, alimentar, energética, e socioambiental. A evolução dos processos de ocupação do território e de implementação de políticas públicas será apresentada numa primeira seção, com foco nos projetos energéticos e suas interações com a utilização de recursos hídricos e com questões produtivas e agrárias. A segunda seção apresenta os dados primários de investimento público na região, cujo alvo tem sido os projetos eólicos, e as interações interinstitucionais para a execução destes recursos. A terceira seção discute os riscos apresentados pelos projetos eólicos, no sentido de reproduzir os padrões desiguais de investimentos no território e aumentar a vulnerabilidade socioambiental, apesar do potencial destes projetos em promover a mitigação das mudanças climáticas.