By doing so, the countries would directly and indirectly be resolving climate issues, preserving the planet and natural resources such as water and air.

"Building a sustainable future and cultivating sustainable ways of living will reduce pollution and protect habitats of plants," he said.

Speaking at the media launch of the first International Conference on Environment, Social Governance and Sustainable Development Agenda of Africa (ICESDA) in Kumasi, Prof Owusu-Manu said developing countries could achieve these through strong and effective collaboration between academia and industry.

He cited Rwanda and Cote d'Ivoire as countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, which were confronting sustainability issues hands-on in the right direction, adding that Ghana needed to emulate.

He said Ghana could conform to the Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) factors to explicitly measure sustainability performance to ensure responsible investments and commit to a social impact agenda.

"While businesses are making profits, they should take care of the people working in the business to thrive as well as protecting the planet through actions; our actions and inactions should not destroy the planet," he emphasized.

Prof. Owusu-Manu, who is the Chairman of the Conference dubbed "ICESDA 2024" scheduled to take place on 26th-29th March 2024 in Kumasi, explained that the programme would offer participants the opportunity to showcase their sustainable lifestyles, contributions and pathways in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals.

The programme would be held on the theme "Enhancing Environment, Social, Governance and Sustainability for Africa's Development".

The conference would bring teams from across the globe to discuss actionable insights on how to engage stakeholders in resolving issues for sustainable solutions in their business value chain.

Topics to be discussed would bother on sustainable innovations in the built environment ecosystem, social entrepreneurship and indigenous knowledge management.

Other topics would include food security and climate-smart agricultural technologies (precision agriculture and greenhouse agriculture), urban mobility, sustainable innovations in marine plastics, and textile and microfibre technology.
Dr. Christian Mensah Sewordor, Co-Chairman of ICESDA 2024, called on stakeholders to act through research to protect ecosystems and enhance sustainability.