Sustainable Development Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure

This story first appeared on the blog ofCorporate Citizenship, a global business consultancy specializing in sustainability and corporate responsibility. Its series of articles aboutthe 17 Sustainable Development Goals is running here.

基础设施是现代文明的基础。我们最终依赖基础设施，为我们提供对在此规模和地球上密度所需的资源的访问。然而，存在明星融资缺口—there is currently a $1 trillion global shortfall on basic infrastructure investment worldwide as compared to what’s needed.

This seriously threatens our future prosperity and development. Sustainable Development Goal No. 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation, can help to overcome this.

Infrastructure has two dimensions—the physical asset, as well as the solution it provides us with to gain access to key services. Without adequate infrastructure, aspirations to achieve energy, water and food security are all meaningless. Once again, there is the need for systems thinking (a focus on interdependencies in a wider context, over time) when it comes to attainment of the individual Sustainable Development Goals.

三个关键趋势意味着我们现有的和未来的基础设施，以及依赖它的工业模式，有风险：

• An increasingly volatile climate as a result of climate change;
• A resource crunch—the global population is predicted to reach 9 billion by 2030, placing considerable pressure on the earth’s finite resources; and
• Government austerity.

Infrastructure traditionally has been seen as the domain of the public sector but there is increasingly a business case for intervention from corporates. As the above trends play out, the resources and expertise from business will be essential to shoring up future growth that is dependent on a robust infrastructure base.

To address the funding gap, we need alternative means of financing and collaborative public-private governance frameworks to provide innovative infrastructure solutions. This is not only about building new infrastructure but also about using our existing systems more effectively and efficiently. Some examples of companies stepping up to the challenge are:

• Google recently added (yet) anotherstring to its bow with the establishment of a new independent company (Sidewalk Labs) dedicated to innovating new technologies needed to improve urban life. The venture is to be headed up by the former deputy mayor of New York and former chief executive of Bloomberg, Daniel Doctoroff. The announcement accompanying the launch specifically singled out transit, cost of living (particularly housing infrastructure), energy use and government efficiency as areas of focus.
• 英国零售商玛莎Spencer recently launched a fund for small-scale renewable energy projects. As well as providing some much needed capital for such projects, the fund should help ensure that M&S’s sustainability plan is made relevant to local communities.
• IBM’s Smarter Cities, Cisco’s Smart+Connected Communities and Siemens Sustainable Cities are all programs designed to work with local governments to provide solutions to urban challenges—特别是那些与基础设施有关的人。
• Green Bonds are continuing to growas investment vehicles dedicated to sustainable projects. YES bank, India’s fifth largest private-sector bank, announced India’s first Green Infrastructure Bond in February. The bond issue raised $158 million, doubling its original target—with big interest from insurers and pension funds.

Providing finance and technical expertise for solutions to infrastructure problems could prove to be big business in the future. Companies, especially technology-led firms, have a wealth of resources available that can improve the operation of infrastructure assets by local governments.

Infrastructure also can make a sound long-term investment with stable and predictable cash flows that suit the horizons of pension funds and insurers. Increasingly, businesses and investors are growing wise to this potential and seizing opportunities. Without them, there would be no way of bridging the gap.

As part of the SDGs 2015 series, Corporate Citizenship is collecting practitioner views about the implications of the SDGs for business. Have your say andcomplete the short survey here.