This article discusses the impact of the dual ecological and digital transition on the demand for job skills, as well as the necessary transformations in education systems to address these changes effectively and equitably. The reconfiguration of production processes generates a growing need for digital, green and transversal skills. Digitization drives the demand for advanced technology skills, such as programming, data management, and artificial intelligence. At the same time, the ecological transition requires knowledge of renewable energy, circular economy, energy efficiency and environmental management. Both transformations also underscore the importance of soft skills such as adaptability, problem-solving and change management.

In Catalonia and Spain, the evolution of the labour market highlights the necessity for continuous, transdisciplinary training that incorporates these new requirements. To meet these challenges, innovative training strategies, active learning methodologies, and close collaboration among companies, educational institutions, and public administrations are essential. Finally, ensuring an inclusive transition is crucial to prevent inequalities and guarantee that social, economic, and environmental benefits are evenly distributed. The success of this twin transition will rely on the adaptability of education systems and their connection to labour market needs.

In a world increasingly aware of the importance of sustainability, transparency in business practices has become a priority. In response to this demand, the European Union issued the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in December 2022, introducing stricter requirements for sustainability reporting. This directive redefines how companies must disclose their impacts, risks, and opportunities in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters, and promotes greater transparency and alignment with international regulatory frameworks. This, in turn, enables investors, regulators, and other stakeholders to make informed decisions about an organization’s level of sustainability. The article analyses the CSRD directive, highlighting its main benefits and obligations for companies in preparing sustainability reports. It also examines the potential impact of the EU’s proposed Omnibus I directive, presented in February 2025, on the implementation and scope of the CSRD.

This article explores the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the labour market, highlighting its disruptive implications and the opportunities it can generate. AI is an advanced technology capable of automating both routine and non-routine tasks, and it is already transforming activities such as image recognition, complex system management, and language processing. In addition to the effects of polarization and increased wage inequality induced by digital automation, AI can also put highly skilled jobs at risk, as it can replace tasks such as inferential reasoning and information organization. However, while automation will reduce the demand for human work, it will also create new occupations based on emerging skills. The application of AI can also complement human work, improving the quality of results and expanding job skills. This opportunity to develop complementarities will redefine tasks and open up new job opportunities. However, the benefits of AI will not be distributed equally, increasing the risk of exclusion for vulnerable groups. To mitigate these effects, inclusive and active policies that encourage technological adaptation and reduce social inequalities are needed so that AI truly becomes a tool that enhances human expertise.

In recent years, interest in artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly increased. The availability of vast amounts of data, advancements in computing power, and the development of new methods and algorithms have enabled the training of more accurate and reliable models that can be effectively applied in real-world contexts. This growing interest has surged further with the emergence of new generative AI (GenAI) methods, which can synthesize text, images, video, audio, or code based on user input. The popularity of GenAI, along with the introduction of increasingly sophisticated versions that require more resources to create and run, has sparked debate about its long-term scalability. In this article, we will examine GenAI from a sustainability perspective, assessing its current impact and future projections, while identifying the most promising trends and technologies to enhance the long-term sustainability of GenAI.

This document analyzes the sustainability of the pension system in Spain within the framework of the welfare state. It highlights that pensions are fundamental for providing economic security and reducing poverty among the retired population. However, it warns about the lack of resources to meet long-term pension obligations, with an aging population and other demographic factors as the main challenges.

This paper underlines that the financial strains of the Spanish pension system are evident, with a constant increase in retired people and pension expenditure over time, while affiliations to Social Security have a more volatile behavior.

The document manifests the direct relationship between demographic changes, such as an aging population, low fertility rate and the precariousness of the pension system. It points out that demographic projections indicate a higher proportion of dependent people compared to active contributors, questioning the system’s ability to maintain adequate benefits.

To address these challenges, the paper proposes rethinking the welfare state and adopting sustainable public policies that promote an equitable distribution of resources and emphasizes the importance of increasing the retirement age, extending working life and linking pensions to life expectancy.

Universities can be considered a key element in promoting sustainable development through education, research, innovation and social leadership. In this educational-focused article, we discuss the need to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to understand and address sustainability challenges. To do this, it will be very important to introduce sustainability – and also other related concepts – in university curriculums and, in particular, in Economic and Business courses, where future business leaders are currently being formed. For this reason, the article presented has a double objective, on the one hand, to answer this question: what are we teaching about this topic in universities and, in particular, in Economics and Business courses; and on the other hand: how are we integrating it into curriculum. The article reviews over time the main subjects that have covered this topic – from business ethics to ESG criteria, to CSR – and proposes different strategies to integrate this content into the curriculum.

The social responsibility of companies and organizations towards their stakeholders and towards the planet has been evolving and changing, as has geopolitics and the global economy based on the globalization of markets and capital. This article takes a prospective approach and presents the main challenges that companies and society currently face and the trends that companies and international think tanks are developing to face these challenges. Similarly, the European Union, with its taxonomy, requires companies a greater comply with the premises of the Green Deal. Civil society is also a key element when it comes to demanding more committed companies that can generate sustainable responses to global and local challenges. This involves having an education system that produces more aware and empowered citizens, capable of demanding companies to align their activities with sustainable development.

The confluence of different factors is creating a closer approach of enterprises to society. On the one hand, the business’s need to establish permanent channels with consumers requires companies to become open systems and, with that, the assumption of civic obligations towards society. On the other hand, the Earth’s crazy situation is generating a general danger alarm that urgently appeals to social agents’ collaboration and commitment, especially productive organizations.

To achieve this, powerful approaches such as social responsibility and sustainability are being implemented, created to generate a productive transition that is beneficial for everyone, society, companies and the environment. The action plan is already in place, with a pact approved by the UN General Assembly (2030 Agenda), with a consistent business governance pattern (ESG) and with realistic objectives (SDGs). This orderly and firm tour allows us to match the conservation of the planet, with the quality of life and social well-being of its people.

As States point out in the resolution of the 2030 Agenda, “we are determined to end poverty and hunger around the world by 2030, to combat inequalities within and among countries, to build peaceful, fair and inclusive societies, to protect human rights and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and to ensure a lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources”.

The main objective is to implement a new sustainable society that solves the serious problems that industrial society has brought us to. A fair and supportive community society that considers the health and concordance of humanity and its living environment. Ultimately, a society that uses freedom for people’s growth, equality to recognize each other as peers, and fraternity to care for each other.

The acceleration of climate change we are seeing is triggering one of the deepest and most threatening global crises to ensure a fair and livable planet for the more than 8 billion inhabitants and for the biosphere. The climate crisis is so significant and severe that climate emergency is already being discussed. We are in a global context in which the trespassing of planetary boundaries, particularly those related to climate emergency, has clear effects on our daily lives, especially in an uneven and unfair manner. Organizations, across their diversity, cannot circumvent the necessary debate on how they must adapt to the new climate emergency context and how they can contribute effectively to mitigation and adaptation, without falling into greenwashing. New metrics, beyond current green certifications, that can capture and incentivize the decarbonization and ecological transition of organizations will need to be found. Obviously, this requires a profound change in the continuous economic growth logic that transcends the individual wills of organizations and requires profound social, cultural and political-economic change in the priorities we have as a society.

We start with the Brundtland Report’s (1988) definition of the concept of sustainability to analyze key aspects and look at the essence of human nature. We realize that the way to meet people’s needs is key to optimizing their quality of life, integrating us back into nature and achieving the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The strategy that must be followed is the cooperation between the interested parties by bringing the places of residence, work and consumption closer to being able to have meeting spaces in the proximity of neighborhoods, but also within companies, public administrations and non-profit entities. Given that the purpose is to meet basic human needs in the consumer society we have built, we identify the quality of life indicators that allow us to analyze the sustainability of organizations and products throughout their lifecycle. The application of the quality of life indicators can be essential in our individual and collective decisions of everyday purchasing, both public and private, to raise awareness and to build a strong path towards sustainability. It will also help us design sustainable public policies, including public procurement.