Dear Colleagues,

Companies’ interventions have significant impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and societal well-being from national and international governments, organizations, and policymakers to local communities, individuals, and employers. These interventions have encouraged much more sustainable financial and business approaches (e.g., sustainable finance, green supply chains, green marketing, carbon taxes, and sustainability reporting) for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over the last few decades (Cohen, 2020; Fatemi and Fooladi, 2013; Gerstlberger et al., 2014; Hafezalkotob, 2017; Hassan et al., 2019). Thus, firms are increasingly engaging in innovative financial and business practices for sustainable development in order to corroborate their reputation and to generate positive impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems (Suriyankietkaew and Avery, 2016; Xu and Wang, 2018; Zhang and Chen, 2017).

Despite extensive research on sustainable behavior and companies’ financial and business performance in recent years (Alshbili et al., 2019; Alshbili and Elamer, 2020; Elmagrhi et al., 2018), more research is called for on how to utilize sustainable financial and business practices to advance the Sustainable Development Goals in general from the viewpoints of governments, firms, and customers. Specifically, given the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis, both firms and policymakers are calling for strong, sustained, cutting-edge research on sustainable financial and business practices for future biodiversity and ecosystems that improve the SDGs (Cohen, 2020; Hassan et al., 2020; Leal Filho et al., 2020; Sarkis et al., 2020).

Furthermore, in recognition of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, businesses and investors must make conscious efforts toward achieving transformational change through the SDGs. The “Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact” guides companies wanting to advance the SDG agenda by incorporating them widely into strategies and operations. The SDGs and the accompanying principles also require businesses to explore new business models in line with the supranational, regional, and national regulatory reforms in response to the SDGs.

The aim of this Special Issue is to discuss sustainable financial and business performance from a sustainable development perspective. It will set an agenda for future research and inform policymakers and managers about the opportunities and challenges that arise from sustainable financial and business performance and Sustainable Development Goals. We invite you to contribute to this Special Issue by submitting comprehensive reviews, case studies, or empirical (qualitative and quantitative) articles. Papers selected for this Special Issue are subject to a rigorous peer-review procedure with the aim of the rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.

The Guest Editors of this Special Issue welcome submissions that address issues including but not limited to the following:

• Sustainability and financial and business performance;
• Global reporting initiatives and corporate sustainability;
• Sustainable Development Goals;
• Sustainability and corporate governance issues and challenges;
• Financial and business practices to reduce climate change;
• Education on sustainable financial and business performance and sustainable finance;
• Sustainability reporting;
• Sustainable finance;
• Digital divide and the sustainability challenges facing businesses;
• Distributional consequences of piece-meal sustainability reforms;
• Taxation dimension to sustainable business models: tax considerations, initiatives, and challenges.

These issues are meant to be illustrative. Submissions from a wide range of disciplines, theoretical perspectives, organizational contexts, and regions on any topic that relates to the Special Issue theme are encouraged.

Dr. Ahmed Elamer
Prof. Dr. Khaled Hussainey
Dr. Ahmed Hassanein
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainability and financial and business performance
• global reporting initiatives and corporate sustainability
• Sustainable Development Goals