Shenzhen is a national sustainable development innovation demonstration zone, with the theme of innovation leading the sustainable development of megacities. This manuscript studies technological innovation, production efficiency, and sustainable development and explores the impact of their relationship on Shenzhen. The benchmark test shows a significant negative correlation between the inefficiency of production, labor levels, investment levels, technical levels, and socioeconomic status. From 2001 to 2019, the production efficiencies of 21 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong Province were used as the research object. The Cobb–Douglas production function conducted panel stochastic frontier analysis and TOBIT regression, and the conclusion was robust. The mechanism test found that the economic growth of Guangdong Province, including Shenzhen, is still dominated by labor and investment. Its production efficiency has been dramatically impacted after 2008, and the increase in production inefficiency may be affected by the crowding-out effect of a four-trillion investment. Finally, based on the Tobit regression, we found that the rise in the labor force, capital input, technological level, and socioeconomic development level could reduce Shenzhen’s production inefficiencies by 3.6%, 20.2%, 2.5%, and 4%, respectively. There is still a long way to achieve sustainable development; however, Shenzhen’s technological innovation and mega-city reform process will provide valuable insights for other regions.

Gold is a vital strategic resource, and it plays an irreplaceable role in maintaining national financial security, enhancing currency guarantee capabilities, and serving as a country’s last means of payment. Gold plays an essential role in several fields that are vital to sustainable development. In 2020, an ultra-large-scale gold deposit spanning land and sea was discovered in Sanshan Island-Jiaojia Belt, Laizhou Bay, China. Its owner, Shandong Gold Group, also established Sanshan Island as a new ecological mine model. Applying a difference in differences-structural vector autoregression (DID-SVAR) approach, our research found that the whole biodiversity of Laizhou Bay decreased by 0.27% purely due to gold exploration in Sanshan Island-Jiaojia. In the long run, gold mining will have an apparent 2.9% adverse effect on marine products, and fishing for marine products will have a 2.1% adverse effect on marine products themselves.