No abstract

The industrial sector plays a vital role in economic development; therefore, there is a necessity to integrate sustainability into industrial development to maintain the economy and avoid any degradation impacts on the environment, and thereafter on society. Thus, do Bahraini companies have sustainability reports and if so, are these reports based on GRI guidelines? Has the status of their sustainability reports been analyzed? This research aims to examine the sustainability reports of companies by analyzing the status of sustainability aspects in their materiality matrices to assist in identifying and prioritizing the most significant sustainability issues for advancement in their future reporting and to improve their environmental performance. This study employs a content analysis approach and analyzes 11 reports from the period 2016–2020 for three companies in Bahrain’s large industrial sector. The study reveals that the companies using materiality analysis in their reporting benefit from better monitoring and measuring of their environmental performance, and from implementing SDGs. Furthermore, the study indicates that the utilization of a materiality matrix as a reporting tool can define and improve report contents by considering stakeholders’ views, consequently, improving the quality of the sustainability reports. The study concludes by proposing a set of recommendations.

Sustainable development in Bahrain is considered one of the national core objectives in the Government Action Plan. Bahrain has enacted environmental legislation and adopted the National Environment Strategy. This study examines the appropriateness of the current environmental legislations in the context of SDGs. To achieve this goal; a scoping review was conducted to assess their compatibility. The study revealed that the successful integration of SDGs with the current environmental legislations can be carried out by recognising the challenges highlighted in the 2030 Agenda. This study suggests the quick-updating of the current environmental legislations in line with SDGs. There is still room for improvement, and more comprehensive and sustainable approaches need to be developed in the environment dimension to stay on track to reach the SDGs. The policies should factor in the possible linkage opportunities to develop a holistic management approach in the implementation, considering the international conventions’ obligations. The study can be deemed as the first attempt to examine the consistency of the SDGs with the national environmental legal framework, which can be employed to enhance the sustainable practices. Moreover, the study develops a simple framework that can assist in reviewing, keeping the legislations and strategy consistent with the SDGs.

Urban areas—cities—are not simply geographic areas for human gathering but are a locus of economic production, cultural and social interactions, and ecological development. Therefore, cities create positive development values when planned and managed on a sustainable footing by considering institutional, governance, environmental, political, economic, coherent policies, cultural, and social conditions and requirements. Sustainable urbanization has multiple benefits including creating more employment opportunities and better incomes, hubs for innovative solutions by attracting competencies, enhancing land utilization efficiency, improving infrastructural performance, providing better services (e.g., education, health, water supply, and electricity), economic growth hub, acting as knowledge centers, better social and cultural life, and providing better living standards. While the impacts of rapid unsustainable urbanization are water stress, scarcity, and high consumption, sanitation wastewater, water pollution, air pollution, climate change, noise pollution, cultivated land depleted, urban sprawl, dust, solid and hazardous wastes, destruction of biodiversity, high energy consumption, traffic congestion, soil pollution, and deforestation. Thus, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—and its sustainable development goals (SDGs)—and New Urban Agenda are key transformative power toward sustainable urbanization development; this development is not at the expense of the environment while leading to prosperity and improving quality of life.