In order to meet the EU's climate and resource efficiency targets, changes in our daily-life behaviours, as well as business models, are urgently necessary. More insights are needed to make real changes based on research with a systems perspective. We developed a system dynamics model to analyse the environmental benefits of a transition from ownership-based to access-based household laundry activities

The production and consumption practices that follow the “take-make-dispose” flow have negatively impacted the environment over time. This has propelled the society to evaluate and seek sustainable development options, where Circular Economy (CE) emerged as a relevant concept. This embraced the accountability for reverse logistics of the end-of-life products, which is seen as a costly and complex effort

Recycling of construction and demolition (C&D) waste is one of the most effective ways to develop sustainable pavements. In this study, the feasibility of using ceramic waste as an alternative source for fine aggregate to improve the polishing resistance of cement mortar is investigated. The recycled fine aggregates used in this study originate from sanitary ceramic waste; the physical and chemical

Smartphone technology development has led to a phenomenal increase in its use worldwide, triggering the development of efficient and safe lithium batteries to support advanced smartphones. Lithium ion batteries have many advantages such as high energy density, long lifetime, small size, low weight, no memory effect, and a slow loss of energy. Since new lithium batteries have been continually developed

This paper wishes to add to the rich literature of studies exploring the reasons behind the energy efficiency gap. To this direction, it presents the results of a stated preference survey conducted on a representative sample of Greek households via computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) in the context of the “Consumer Energy Efficiency Decision making (CONSEED)” project. The survey was designed

Green supplier development (GSD) has emerged as an important green supply chain management activity since the supplier environmental performance is the overall greatest contributor to environmental issues in manufacturing industry. In order to successfully implement GSD, manufacturing firms should seek to identify barriers and remove them in the initial stages of green supplier development programs

The changes in native forest and grassland management regimes following European settlement, particularly fire exclusion, have prompted the growth of fire intolerant woody tree species such as eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana). Eastern redcedar is a native species that has encroached into the prairies and forests of the southern Great Plains of the United States. Over the past few decades, the

The quality of mechanically recycled plastics from WEEE is seen as one of the main bottlenecks for their re-application in high-quality products to enable a circular economy for these materials. Most literature focuses on the quality at the end of the value chain while significant potential to improve the performance of the entire value chain is seen by the quality assessment of input material of recyclers

The concept of a circular economy has been widely accepted by governments and industries. In Europe, the European Commission adopted the Circular Economy package in 2015. The Ecodesign Directive has been identified as one of the most suitable legislative tools for achieving some of the objectives in the package because it has the potential to translate the circular economy principles into specific

In 2015, the United Nations defined the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which include a target (12.3) on food waste. The target requires "by 2030, to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and to reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses". The target has increased awareness about the food waste problem and boosted research

Halving per capita food waste and reducing food losses along production and supply chains is one of the objectives fixed by the United Nations among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study employs a system-wide modelling approach, to simulate economic impacts of households' food waste reduction in 2030, focusing on the European Union. The paper provides market, food security, biophysical

Circular Economy (CE) is a growing topic, especially in the European Union, that promotes the responsible and cyclical use of resources possibly contributing to sustainable development. CE is an umbrella concept incorporating different meanings. Despite the unclear concept, CE is turned into defined action plans supported by specific indicators. To understand what indicators used in CE measure specifically

This study presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a rainwater harvesting (RWH) system and an air-conditioning condensate harvesting (ACH) system for non-potable water reuse. U.S. commercial buildings were reviewed to design rooftop RWH and ACH systems for one to multi-story buildings' non-potable water demand. A life cycle inventory was compiled from the U.S. EPA's database. Nine scenarios were

Circular economy strategies encourage, among others, concrete actions to extend the product lifetime. Product's repair and reuse, and component harvesting for reuse, all require the facilitated access to product components. Consequently, a reduction of the disassembly time and the related costs will increase the economic feasibility of product lifetime extension and therefore increase the viability

Durability plays a key role in enhancing resource conservation and contributing to waste minimization. The washing-machine product group represents a relevant case study for the development of a durability test and as a potential trigger to systematically address durability in the design of products. We developed a procedure to test the durability performance of washing-machines as a main objective

Substantial amounts of post-consumer scrap are exported to other regions or lost during recovery and remelting, and both export and losses pose a constraint to desires for having regionally closed material cycles. To quantify the challenges and trade-offs associated with closed-loop metal recycling, we looked at the material cycles from the perspective of a single material unit and trace a unit of