To solve the energy crisis and protect the ecological environment has been the central concern of the sustainable development debate. The reproducibility and lower environmental impacts of bioenergy have attracted increasing attention in the debate. This research investigates the potentials of growing rapeseed in winter fallow fields across the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) to serve the goal of boosting

The tourism industry contributes significantly to the growth of the global economy and is considered to be strongly associated with a large amounts of water and energy consumption. In this study, the tourism water footprint (TWF) and the tourism energy footprint (TEF) of 138 sectors were investigated to examine the water-energy-food (W-E-F) nexus in the Chinese tourism industry from 2012 to 2017 by

China's circular economy has made notable progress since the 21st century and shaped various industry segments. Among these, ship recycling has been particularly outstanding as it evolved exceptionally fast and assumed an internationally leading role. In this article, we present field survey findings on recycling standards and recovery capacities regarding the material flows at Chinese shipbreaking

The growing demand for water, energy, and food caused by rapid population and economy growth, has posed severe challenges worldwide. Considering cereal is one of the vital foods and China is the principal cereal-producing country, this study selected cereal as the center and conducted energy and water footprint analysis of cereal production in China. The production of three main cereals (i.e., wheat

Along with outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2, the problem of biomedical wastewater disposal has caused widespread public concern, as reportedly the presence is confirmed in wastewater. Keeping in mind (i) available evidence indicating need to better understand potential of wastewater mediated transmission and (ii) knowledge gaps in its occurrence, viability, persistence, and inactivation

The sustainability of the ship recycling industry strongly linked with the global shipping market and international commodity flows. More than 80% of the End of Life (EoL) ships are dismantled in South Asian countries, namely Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Due to measures taken to minimize the propagation of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an international supply chain is broken to a historic

The Trans-Atlantic Research and Development Interchange on Sustainability Workshop (TARDIS) is a meeting on scientific topics related to sustainability. The 2019 workshop theme was "On the Role of Uncertainty in Managing the Earth for Global Sustainability." This paper presents the perspectives on this topic derived from talks and discussions at the 2019 TARDIS workshop. There are four kinds of uncertainties

Rigorous deployment of photovoltaic panels has resulted in an exponential increase in the volume of discarded panels, which impose serious and crucial challenges to the management of end-of-life (EoL) PV modules. Most OECD countries have not yet taken considerable steps to tackle this growing challenge. This paper projected the PV waste stream from the year 2001 to the year 2058, based on the historical

Herein, we investigated the relationship between water, food, and energy (W–E–F) in different regions of China to provide suggestions for sustainable and stable regional development of these resources. Based on the system theory, we constructed three relevant subsystems and analyzed the action mechanism between them. Furthermore, we constructed a network based on the super-efficiency data envelopment

Using The Measures of National Key Monitoring Enterprises for Self-monitoring and Information Disclosure (Trial) issued in 2014 as a quasi-natural experiment, this study has identified the effect of China's environmental information disclosure (EID) on economic performance at the corporate level by employing the DID model including the parallel trend hypothesis test, the placebo test, and the PSM-DID

The Covid-19 pandemic will leave a lasting impact on nearly every aspect of life in society and has also raised concerns on the contamination risks associated with waste management. This study presents a review on the main recommendations related to the management of municipal solid wastes during the pandemic. The recommendations were classified according to the target audience, and their applicability

For promoting a sustainable end-of-life-management for plastic packaging, mechanical recycling of especially post-consumer plastic packaging waste constantly gains more attention. To fulfill both industrial and consumer demands, and to increase the recycled content in new applications, high-quality recyclates are of prime importance. However, the odor contamination of post-consumer polyolefin recyclates

Food systems are plagued by the grand sustainability challenge of food waste, which represents a urging issue from economic, environmental and social point of view. dThe Circular Economy paradigm can open up different actions which are framed within the so-called Food Waste Hierarchy (FWH). In these regards, scholars recommend to leverage on those practices that are able to prevent the generation of

This study integrates customers’ intention to use recyclable express packaging by extending the theory of planned behavior. Prior studies are lacking to address the convenience, moral norms and awareness of consequences in the model. The use of disposable express packaging has become increasingly prominent because of the explosive growth in the number of express deliveries and this leads to the waste

Based on the theory of social interaction and embeddedness, the structural equation modeling analysis method is used, taking social norms, education and publicity as mediator variables, and the role of information interaction patterns formed by network size and relationship strength on Chinese residents’ low-carbon consumption behaviors is analyzed. The research hypotheses are verified by a direct

Sustainable metal supply requires well-coordinated strategy and policy packages based on a sound scientific understanding of anticipated long-term demand, supply, and associated environmental implications. Such information, however, is highly fragmented among various case studies. Accordingly, this extensive review explores the projected long-term status of six major metals—iron, aluminum, copper,

In the European Union, the built environment is responsible for more than the 25% of all waste generated, highlighting the need to adopt circular practices. To indicate the level of circularity, common indicators mainly focus on: 1) the amount of virgin materials, 2) the amount of unrecoverable waste, and 3) the product lifetime. However, a holistic methodology covering the macro (material impact)

Home-stays represent a popular category of tourist accommodation in South-East Asia but their carbon footprint has not been systematically assessed. This hampers an understanding of the energy consumption patterns of home-stays, impedes identification of the main carbon hotspots in home-stay operations and prevents a comparative analysis of the carbon performance of home-stays against other tourist

As an essential mineral element to sustain human existence, phosphorus (P) is a non-renewable resource and in food production, there is no substitute for it. Increasingly P resource stress and runoff pollution have inspired the search for more accurate and concise P management. In this study, mass joint entropy (MJE), an indicator that is based on statistical entropy, was introduced to describe the

This paper examines the merits of using microbially desulfurized rubber to enhance theperformance ofbituminous pavements and promote recycling of scrap tires. To prepare microbially desulfurized rubber, we incubated crumb rubber obtained from waste tiresin medium with microbes from waste activated sludge. The concentration of sulfate was monitored during the treatment process and desulfurization was

This study evaluates the reductions in energy consumption of vehicle lightweighting, considering the effects of the end of life vehicles (ELV) recycling. For this propose, changes in the material composition of the body in white are assessed by an inventory analysis, including the entire life of the vehicle. The production phase is evaluated considering embodied energy values; the use phase through

The use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) as a replacement in new concrete has gained popularity worldwide as a method of reducing natural aggregate consumption. Many engineers, owners, and agencies are reticent to use RCA due to a lack of understanding on how the material will impact overall concrete properties. This lack of acceptance has been hindered by the difficulty of doing large-scale studies

Lithium and cobalt are key raw materials for the production of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). This study illustrates the evolution of lithium and cobalt metabolism in the LIB system in China by applying dynamic bottom-up material flow analysis. From 2000 to 2018, the consumption of LIBs increased from 1.4 kt (0.2 GWh) to 547.1 kt (102.9 GWh) in China. The cumulative consumption of lithium and cobalt

A new sustainability paradigm is emerging to benefit the triple bottom line. While scholars propose various circular economy business models, the opportunity to seize benefits from the organizational life cycle theory remains under-researched. In this study, we analyze circular economy practices adopted by close to 1,200 firms in the innovative and conservative stages of a firm's evolution from four

Several million tons of different types of wastes are generated every year globally and this is expected to increase in the future. Most of these wastes are dumped via landfilling or incineration which creates environmental concerns. One of the possible methods of utilizing these wastes is by incorporating them as alternatives to common concrete constituents. In this regard, foamed concrete could provide

Due to dense populations and consumerist dynamics, megacities generate a large volume of waste, which has resulted in pressure to develop effective waste management systems. Unlike other environmental issues, previous studies on waste management tend to deal with waste management as a mere public service, overlooking many other actors who are involved in, and responsible for, its life cycle. This study

The Geopolitical Supply Risk method, originally developed by Gemechu et al. (2016) and subsequently extended by Helbig et al. (2016a) and Cimprich et al. (2017, 2018), is aimed at incorporating supply risk assessment of “critical raw materials” as a complement to environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) within life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). In this article, we further extend the method

Food waste is a globally significant issue, contributing to financial losses and adversely impacting the environment across the supply chain. In developed countries, the issue is especially problematic among consumers. The present study conducted a novel, evidence-based and theoretically founded household food waste intervention designed to explore how a multifaceted educational approach could impact

A mixotrophic algal wastewater treatment system capable of reducing biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), ammoniacal nitrogen (NH4+-N), and phosphate (PO43−-P) in primary effluent in a single step has been demonstrated previously. Downstream processing of the resulting algal biomass by hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) to recover its energy-content as biocrude oil has also been demonstrated. The current study

Climate change exacerbates the vulnerability of water resources, and water-energy-carbon nexus makes water management more complicated. This paper attempts to explore the water resource synergy management paths within urban metabolic system against the background of human actively respond to climate change. We hold that: (1) Climate change would aggravate water scarcity risk from a supply-based perspective

Printed circuit boards (PCB) are the most important and valuable building block of electronic equipment. This metallic fraction present in the PCB is one of the major economic drivers for its recycling. However, the separated nonmetal fraction (NMF) that accounts for approximately 70% of the total weight is usually sent to the landfills. Recently, physical NMF recycling has gained much attention, and

Food, energy, and water are critical resources for human well-being and an essential part of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus can create cascading effects that influence critical earth system processes. However, how to promote FEW nexus safeguarding within the planetary boundaries is still unclear. Based on global datasets of official SDG-statistics, an operating

Circular economy (CE) has gained momentum in the political, economic and scientific fields. The growing popularity of the concept is accompanied by some definitional ambiguities and conceptual uncertainties. In particular, the relationship and contribution of CE to sustainable development (SD) and thus to a more sustainable society is currently under discussion. The purpose of this paper is to contribute

The growing plastic waste problem has been highlighted by nature programmes like the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) War on Plastic series with the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2016 report estimating that by 2050, there could be more plastic than fish in the world's oceans. This has prompted the call for a shift from the linear model of tackling the plastic waste issue to that of a Circular Economy

This study aimed to assess the holistic impacts of climate change and irrigation management on food centric water-energy-land interlinkages in the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus specialized in agriculture. Accordingly, we analyzed the trends and variation in productivity, irrigation requirement, and energy input for paddy rice production, which is the representative crop in Korea, from 1990 to 2099

As a novel biobased compound material, Wood-Plastic Composites (WPC) has a high substitution potential for pure plastics. Although consumer attitudes towards biobased packaging and products have been measured in many cases to date, they have hardly been associated with WPC. This study was the first to survey the willingness-to-pay and factors influencing the purchase of WPCs in comparison to cardboard

Microplastics are ubiquitous and have been found in marine environments, organisms, salt, and even human bodies. Concern about the impact of microplastics on the ecological environment, as well as the threat of microplastics to food safety and public health is increasing among the society. However, there is currently no effective technical way to tackle and remove microplastics from the environment

Since 2008, South Korea has operated the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system, which collects and recycles waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Although the EPR recycled 305,050 tons of WEEE in 2017, approximately 62.5% remained in the informal sector, posing potential risks to the environment. This study is intended to provide information on consumer behavior regarding the discharge

The objective of this study is to provide an overview of Blockchain technology and Industry 4.0 for advancing supply chains towards sustainability. First, extracted from the existing literature, we evaluate the capabilities of Industry 4.0 for sustainability under three main topics of (1) Internet of things (IoT)-enabled energy management in smart factories; (2) smart logistics and transportation;

This article aims to assess the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) spread-prevention actions on water consumption, based on a case study in Joinville, Southern Brazil. Residential water consumption data, obtained through telemetry in two periods (before and after a governmental action imposing quarantine and social isolation), were analyzed. Complementarily, the analyses were also applied to the commercial

Flotation is a physicochemical process utilizing the difference in surface properties of particles for their separation. One of the common methods to study the surface properties of the particle is by using Inverse gas chromatography (IGC). It can be used to estimate the surface energies, surface energy heterogeneity, work of adhesion, and index of hydrophilicity of a given sample, thus predicting

Traditional approaches to reducing the CO2 emissions of cement production are effective yet insufficient, which has driven new research and innovations. A potential alternative that has been poorly explored is optimizing the physical and chemical characteristics of cement to enhance the dosage efficiency for concrete, which can reduce both cement consumption and CO2 emissions. This approach demands