Qatar University

College of Engineering
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

IENG 455 Sustainable Industrial Systems / Spring 2019

[CASE 1- UNITED NATION’S 17 SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT GOALS]

By:
Shamla AlMuraikhi 201508077.

Due on February 3rd, Sunday (14:00 pm, afternoon)

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CASE STUDY #1
1. Please briefly explain each of 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. In
addition, give two example of targets under each goal and explain them very briefly [20 points]

Point (1) No poverty: type of society element, means to have an economic growth that provides
sustainable jobs and promotes equality, for example “Donate what you don’t use “ Which mean
that there are so many people that have money, cloths and book that they don’t use or anything
that they are not using while some people can be in need for it and they can’t afford to get it.
Targets:
“1.1 By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as
people living on less than $1.25 a day”
which means that by 2030 there will be no extreme poverty

“1.2 By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages
living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions implement nationally
appropriate social protection systems and measure for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve
substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable”
which means by 2030 the goal of no poverty will be achieved in so many areas and it will cover
a lot of poor people

Point (2) Zero hunger: type of society element, means to end hunger and achieve food security
and improved nutrition
Targets:

“2.1 By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in
vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.”
means that at 2030 there will be no hunger and specially the poor people having good nutrition

“2.2 By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally
agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the
nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.”

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means by 2030 all problems related to the bad nutrition will be solved and by 2025 will look into
the problems related to the children under 5 years and pregnant women.

Point (3) Good health and well-being: type of society element, means to ensure healthy lives for
all people at all ages
Targets:
“3.1 By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births”
By 2030 reduce the number of dying mothers while giving birth to the proportion to under 70 for
every 100,000 live births
“3.6 By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents.”
By 2020 the number of deaths will reduce to half.

Point (4) Quality education: type of society element, to guarantee comprehensive and
evenhanded quality training and advance deep rooted learning open doors for all
Target:
“4.2 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development,
care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education”
Ensure that little boys and girls developed their education from preprimary so they are ready for
the primary level education

“4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills,
including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship”
Increase the number of skilled people for employment and having good jobs

Point (5) Gender equality: type of society element, to accomplish gender equity and enable all
ladies and young ladies
Target:
“5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere”
Put an end to all types of victimization all ladies and young ladies all over

“5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female
genital mutilation”

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Reject or eliminate all type of problems that harms the female such as forcing child on early
marriage

Point (6) Clean water and sanitation: type of environmental element, means to ensure the
availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Target:
“6.1 By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for
all”
by 2030 to have a safe and affordable water for drinking available to all

“6.3 By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing
release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater
and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally”
by 2030 to improve the quality of water by reducing the pollution and hazard

Point (7) Affordable and clean energy: type of environmental element, to ensure the access to
affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for all.
Target:
“7.1 By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services”
that by 2030 ensuring all can access to an affordable and reliable energy services

“7.3 By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency”

by 2030 the global rate of improvement in the efficiency will be doubled

Point (8) Decent work and economic growth: to advance supported, comprehensive and
manageable monetary development, full and gainful business and nice work for all
Target:
“8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men,
including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value”
by 2030 to achieve full productive and to be fair with all employees including the ones which are
with diasbilites

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“8.8 Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers,
including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment”
Protect the work rights and encourage a secure and safe working place for all employees

Point (9) Industry, innovation and infrastructure: manufacture resilient infrastructure, promote
inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Target:
“9.2 Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise
industry’s share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances,
and double its share in least developed countries”
Advance comprehensive and reasonable industrialization and, by 2030, altogether raise a lot of
business and total national output, in accordance with national conditions, and twofold its offer
in least created nations

“9.3 Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in
developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into
value chains and markets”
Increment the entrance of little scale modern and different endeavors, specifically in creating
nations, to budgetary administrations, including reasonable credit, and their reconciliation into
esteem chains and markets

Point (10) Reduced inequalities: to reduce inequalities between countries

Target:
“10.3 Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating
discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and
action in this regard”
Guarantee measure up to circumstance and diminish disparities of result, including by wiping out
biased laws, strategies and rehearses and advancing proper enactment, arrangements and activity
in such manner

“10.5 Improve the regulation and monitoring of global financial markets and institutions and
strengthen the implementation of such regulations”
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Enhance the control and observing of worldwide budgetary markets and establishments and
reinforce the execution of such directions

Point (11): Sustainable cities and communities: makes the cities and human settlements safe and
sustainable
Target:
“11.1 By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services
and upgrade slums”
to ensure that by 2030 it will reach all areas with suitable fees

“11.2 By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems
for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to
the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older
persons”
give access to protected, reasonable, open and feasible transport frameworks for all, enhancing
street security, quite by extending open transport, with extraordinary consideration regarding the
requirements of those in powerless circumstances, ladies, kids, people with handicaps and more
established people"

Point (12) Responsible consumption and production: to ensure sustainable consumption and
production patterns
Target:
“12.5 By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling
and reuse”
to reduce the generation of waste by recycling

“12.6 Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable
practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle”
to encourage companies to use the sustainable practices

Point (13) Climate action: to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Target:
“13.2 Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning”
Coordinate environmental change measures into national arrangements, techniques and arranging

“13.3 Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate
change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning”
to improve the education related to the weather and its impacts to reduce it

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Point (14) Life below water: to conserve the use of oceans and marine resource and sustainable
development
Target:
“14.1 By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from
land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution”
to prevent water pollution by 2025

“14.3 Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced
scientific cooperation at all levels”
reduce the impact of ocean acidification by enhancing the scientific cooperation

Point (15) Life on land: to protect the land and to manage the sustainability
Target:
“15.5 Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the
loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species”
to take urgent calls and actions to reduce the degradation of natural habitats

“15.6 Promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic
resources and promote appropriate access to such resources, as internationally agreed”
Advance reasonable and impartial sharing of the advantages emerging from the use of hereditary
assets and elevate fitting access to such assets, as globally concurred

Point (16) Peace, justice and strong institutions: to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for
sustainable development, and to provide access to justice for all.
Target:
“16.1 Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere”
Minimize all types of violence and deaths

“16.2 End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of
children”
stop abuse and all type of violence
Point (17) Partnerships for the goals: to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize
the global partnership for sustainable development like universities and governments
Target:
(Finance)“17.3 Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple
sources”
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Prepare extra money related assets for creating nations from numerous sources

Technology
“17.7 Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound
technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and
preferential terms, as mutually agreed”
Advance the improvement, exchange, scattering and dispersion of earth sound innovations to
creating nations on good terms, including on concessional and particular terms as commonly
concurred

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2. Please define each system terminologies listed below and give one example for each. Please
note that your examples should be related to United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals
as discussed in previous lectures [20 points]

1) Stock: “A stock represent a part of a system whose value at any given instant in time
depends on the systems past behaviour. The value of the stocks at a particular instant in
time cannot simply be determined by measuring the value of the other parts of the system
at that instant in time – the only way you can calculate it is by measuring how it changes
at every instant and adding up all these changes”
Example: carbon emission, greenhouse gas emission in the atmosphere

2) Inflow/Outflow: “Flows represent the rate at which the stock is changing at any given
instant, they either flow into a stock (causing it to increase) or flow out of a stock
(causing it to decrease).”
Example: inflow: emission coming from vehicles (increase carbon), outflow: forest plant
(decrease carbon)

3) Reinforcing feedback loops: “is one in which an action produces a result which
influences more of the same action thus resulting in growth or decline.” always positive
Example: immigration population loop (when the number of immigration to a country
increases the population in that country will increase)

4) Balancing feedback loops: “A balancing loop attempts to move some current state (the
way things are) to a desired state (goal or objective) though some action (whatever is
done to reach the goal).”
Example: deaths and population loop (when number of death increases the population will
decrease)

5) Non-linearity: “Nonlinear dynamical systems, describing changes in variables over time,

may appear chaotic, unpredictable, or counterintuitive, contrasting with much simpler
linear systems”
Example: economic growth vs time it’s not stable (not always increasing sometimes it
decreases for some time and then it increase) , also it could be non-linear exponential for
example birth vs increase in population it is not increasing linearly

6) Delays: “A delay can be characterized as an exponential delay because, in the simplest

form, the outflow equals the stock divided by the average delay, which characteristically
produces exponential decay”
Example: every system have delays oil degradation, health impact of pollution it will take
time to be observed

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7) Non-existent boundaries: within the system we have subsystems which doesn’t have
boundaries, they are highly interconnected
Example: In a country the economic of the country is highly interconnected with its
education quality

8) Policy resistance: not accepting the policy immediately, need some time to accept it or
digest it
Example: companies resisting to reduce their consumption and wastes

9) Escalation: in system some problems are escalated “At the heart of an escalation
dynamic are two (or more) parties, each of whom feels threatened by the actions of the
other”
Example: civil war social problems it will have opposite negative impact

10) Seeking wrong goals: “If the goal is defined badly, if it doesn’t measure what it’s
supposed to measure, if it doesn’t reflect the real welfare of the system, then the system
can’t possibly produce a desirable result. Systems, like the three wishes in the traditional
fairy tale, have a terrible tendency to produce exactly and only what you ask them to
produce. Be careful what you ask them to produce.” having a targets which are not
correct
Example: focusing on getting the country rich without education , it will cause a lot of
problems because if something went wrong they will not be able to fix it , so they should be
focusing on getting high level education in order to make the country rich

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3. After you completed the second question, please look at again17 Sustainable Development
Goals and create 5 different causal loops. For each causal loop, please start from assigned goals 3,
4, 8, 11 and 13 and come back to the starting point [10 points]

Hint: For example, the first loop 1should from Goal 3. After all interactions with some sustainable
development goals, it reaches back to Goal 3. This will be one complete loop example. Please also
do it for other selected goals such as Goal 4, Goal 8, Goal 11, and Goal 13. Feel free to use power
point or any other program to draw your loops.

First loop Purpose: achieving good health and well being

It starts from good health and well-being to increase the quality of education that will increase the
responsible consumption and production then will increase the decent work and economic growth
and will increase no poverty (which is a reinforcing loop)
It could also start from good health then decent work and economic growth and then no poverty
and it also a reinforcing loop
Purpose: achieving good health and well being

Goal(3):
good health
and well-
being

Goal(4):
Goal(1): No
Quality
poverty
education

Goal(8): Goal(12):
Decent work responsible
and consumption
economic and
growth production

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Second Loop purpose: achieving good quality education
It starts from quality education to increase the decent work and economic growth increasing the
good health and well-being to increase peace, justice and strong institution which will increase
the gender equality to increase the reduced inequalities creating a reinforcing loop

Goal(4):
Quality
education
Goal(8):
Goal(10): Decent work
Reduced and
inequalities economic
growth

Goal(5): Goal(3): Good

Geneder health and
equality well-being
Goal(16):
Peace,
justice and
strong
institution
Third Loop purpose: achieving decent work and economic growth
Starts from decent work and economic growth to no poverty then zero hanger to good health and
well-being to increase the quality education back to decent work and economic growth (
reinforcing loop)
Goal(8):
Decent work
and economic
growth

Goal(4):
Goal(1): No
Quality
poverty
education

Goal(3):
Goal(2):
Good
Zero
health and
hunger
well-being

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Fourth Loop purpose: achieving sustainable cities and communities
It can be divided into two loops the first will start from sustainable cities and communities to
affordable and clean energy to climate actions and back to sustainable cities and communities
while the other loop starts from sustainable cities and communities to climate actions then good
health and well-being to decent work and economic growth then increases the quality education
the responsible consumption and production and back to sustainable cities and communities,
however both of them are reinforcing loops

Goal(11): Goal(7):
Sustainable Affordable
cities and and clean
communities energy
Goal(12):
Responsible Goal(13):
consumption climate
and production action

Goal(4): Goal(3): Good

Quality health and
education well-being
Goal(8):
Decent work
and econoic
growth

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Fifth Loop purpose: achieving climate action
Starts from climate actions increasing the life below water then it will increase the clean water
and sanitation to increase good health and well-being which will increase the quality education
which will lead the increasing in affording and clean energy and back to climate action ( creating
a reinforcing loop)

Goal(13):
Climate
action
Goal(7):
Affordable Goal(14): life
and clean below water
energy

Goal(6):
Goal(4):
clean water
Quality
and
education
sanitation
Goal(3): Good
health and
well-being

REFERENCES

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/brochure/SDGs_Booklet_Web_En.pdf

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