Sustainability Awareness in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Sustainability has become essential concerns throughout the world due the high damage to the environment. Education is one of the aware tool that have the ability to create initiatives to lead future generations to a new path in which sustainability in general can be attainable. This chapter is to investigate how education can play a major role in the transition from the current situation for developing countries toward sustainability, especially in the areas of energy generation and consumption. Also, this chapter examines common problems that have already been identified around the globe and attempts to make a contribution to the debate on the awareness of sustainability and its needs, especially in terms of the education of Saudi’s students and the general Saudi’s society based on age. The conducting survey questionnaires were designed to investigate Saudi students’ attitudes towards sustainability. This chapter highlights the great importance of educating the current and future generations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in order to avoid economic and environmental catastrophe. Additionally, this chapter has identified the knowledge gap pertaining to sustainability and sustainable development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The survey has 1821 participants were all Saudi nationals, mainly students with tertiary degree, students who are currently studying in universities in Saudi Arabia or abroad, and Saudi’s who participates socially. The results show that responded has a basic knowledge of sustainability, and sustainability has various opportunities such as create new jobs and improve corporate social responsibility. However, participants indicated the main risks are increase governance failure and increase litigation and compliance breaches (including environmental actions and environmental compliance failures).