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In the Anthropocene era, characterized by sustainability and environmental challenges, the Metaverse emerges as a virtual alternative with the potential to reduce the ecological footprint while enhancing human experiences. However, the development of Metaverse encounter unprecedented technical, social, and ethical challenges. Bioinspired technologies, referring to those developed with inspiration from the biological world, have demonstrated successful applications across various fields and show potential in addressing challenges within the Metaverse. This paper explores the integration of bioinspired technologies with the Metaverse, focusing on its social and ethical implications. It proposes a conceptual model for a bioinspired Metaverse, elucidating how bioinspired technologies may shape the evolution of the Metaverse through four dimensions: Enhancement of User Interaction, Promotion of Digital Inclusivity, Advancement of Sustainable Development, and Guidance of Ethical Considerations. This paper makes a significant contribution by adopting an innovative context - the bioinspired Metaverse - that facilitates a deeper reexamination of the relationship among technology, nature, and human society through interdisciplinary discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability-oriented innovation is a developing area in the academic literature, and existing measurement models are either lacking in scope or they have not been validated. Following an extensive review of existing academic literature, this paper addresses this gap by developing a new sustainability-oriented innovation scale. The scale includes elements from the triple bottom line, which incorporates social, environmental, and financial considerations. Environmental considerations are further broken down into carbon footprint, pollution, and materials life cycle. Notably, we also separate capability (could we do it), evaluation (do we measure it), and performance (do we put it into practice in our products and services, and operations). As a holistic model we also include strategy, partnerships, and demand. The validity of the scale was tested first through a pilot study with 23 respondents, and second through a survey study with 202 respondents. Scale evaluation tests confirm the consistency, convergent, and discriminant validity of the new sustainability-oriented innovation scale. Both exploratory and confirmatory analysis results confirm that the theorised scale is a good fit for the data. The contribution of this paper is a comprehensive, validated survey instrument to measure the capability of organisations to deliver sustainable innovation. [Display omitted] • We develop a new scale for measuring sustainability-oriented innovation. • The new scale is suitable for a wide range of organisation types. • The new scale separates capability, evaluation and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of human activities on environmental degradation, focusing on the roles of urbanization, economic growth, energy intensity and renewable energy within the STIRPAT framework. To this end, the study adopts the ecological footprint (EF) as the environmental indicator. Employing Panel Quantile Regression, the study analyzes data from 31 OECD countries spanning the period 2000–2021. The findings reveal that renewable energy consumption and urbanization exert significant negative influences on the EF, with urbanization proving more effective than renewable energy usage across all quantiles. Both economic growth and energy intensity contribute to environmental degradation, and the impact on the EF escalates with higher quantiles. Additionally, the causality test results demonstrate a two-way causal link among urbanization, economic growth, energy intensity, renewable energy use, and EF. Finally, based on the empirical results, this paper suggests that an energy revolution should be carried out to promote the sustainable use of energy. Meanwhile, the high-level urbanization is suggested to reduce the EF through the aggregation of living production to achieve sustainable development. [Display omitted] • Sustainable use of energy can help curb environmental degradation. • Urbanization more effective than renewable energy consumption in suppressing EF. • Economic growth inhibits environmental quality. • This study employed the quantile regression method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite the heightened urgency of curbing carbon emissions around the world, the healthcare sector in general, and the pharmaceutical sector in particular have received very little attention from the sustainability community in terms of their contribution to the global carbon footprint. In this paper, we conduct an analysis of the overall contributions and the historical emissions trends of the pharmaceutical sector, as well as an industry-specific comparative analysis of the major pharmaceutical companies in the world. Surprisingly, our analysis reveals that the pharmaceutical industry is significantly more emission-intensive than the automotive industry. We also use a previously published mathematical framework linking national target emissions to the target emission intensity of the pharmaceutical sector to derive the emission intensity of the pharmaceutical sector required for the US to meet its reductions commitments per the now defunct Obama-administration commitments at the 2015 Paris Agreement. We identify the excess emitters among the top-15 Pharmaceutical companies, from those that are leading the pack with their emissions improvement efforts. The results are quite instructive as we find a far greater variability amongst the Top-15 pharmaceuticals than the Top-10 automotive companies, suggesting a very disparate set of environmental practices within the industry. The paper should elicit further in-depth studies of the environmental performance of the pharmaceutical sector and help inform policy makers, business leaders and academicians on how to help curb this unwarranted level of emissions in this important and growing industry sector. Graphical abstract We conduct an analysis of the overall contributions and the historical emissions trends of the pharmaceutical sector, as well as an industry-specific comparative analysis of the major pharmaceutical companies in the world. Surprisingly, our analysis reveals that the pharmaceutical industry is significantly more emission-intensive than the automotive industry. We also use a previously published mathematical framework linking national target emissions to the target emission intensity of the pharmaceutical sector to derive the emission intensity of the pharmaceutical sector required for the US to meet its reductions commitments per the now defunct Obama-administration commitments at the 2015 Paris Agreement. We then use the same framework to identify the excess emitters among the top 15 Pharmaceutical companies, from those that are leading the pack with their emissions improvement efforts. There again, the results are quite instructive as we find a far greater variability amongst the Top 15 pharmaceuticals than the Top 10 automotive companies. Image 1 Highlights • Assessment and comparative analysis of GHG emissions of Top-15 global pharmaceutical companies. • The pharmaceutical industry emission intensity is about 55% higher than the automotive's. • There is a great level of variability in emissions (up to 5x) between peers with comparable revenues. • We calculate the intensities and maximum emissions required to comply with the Paris Agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since sustainable scheduling is arousing increasing attention from many manufacturing enterprises and energy consumption is a core problem regarding sustainability, the purpose of this paper is to develop an energy-efficient scheduling method to fulfill material delivery tasks in mixed-model assembly lines. In this research, the objective of minimizing the energy consumption is jointly integrated with the operational criterions when executing material delivery tasks. Owing to the NP-hard nature of the considered problem, a Taboo enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization (TEPSO) algorithm is developed to solve the multi-objective problem. Several improving strategies are applied to enhance the performance of the proposed TEPSO in order to obtain a stronger local search capability and faster search speed. The performance of the proposed TEPSO algorithm is evaluated by comparing with two other high-performing multi-objective optimization methods. Computational experiments are conducted in order to test and verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed TEPSO algorithm. The achievements reported in this paper might be inspiring for further studies on energy-efficient production scheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a response to the increasing threat to sport events from climate change and expectations around climate change mitigation, sport event managers increasingly engage in environmentally-related initiatives that aim to reduce GHG emissions. One of the major contributors to GHG emissions at large sport events is spectators' travel and, thus, their associated modal choices. Building on the Sport Logistics Framework (SLF) and using the case study of Rapid Vienna, the largest football club in Austria, this study investigates spectators' modal choice to systematically assess the total GHGs emitted by spectators at a professional football home game. Data was obtained from two sources: a) an extensive data set collected on Rapid Vienna season ticket holders, and b) three surveys at home games which, together, constituted 3317 valid responses. The calculation of the GHG emissions resulted in 99,548 kg GHG emissions per home game or 6.0 kg GHG emissions per spectator. It was also found that 42.4 per cent spectators arriving by car emit 71.6 per cent of GHG emissions, while in contrast, 52.8 per cent of spectators using public transport emit 27.1 per cent of GHG emissions. The results also indicate that the possession of an annual public transport ticket seems to determine travel behavior, i.e. the majority of spectators with an annual ticket are using it, while spectators without a ticket are using a car. As such, this paper not only provides an opportunity for academics and managers to benchmark the data in order to identify initiatives to reduce the impact of GHG emissions, but also allows for the systematic measuring of the environmental impact of fan and spectator travel. • Fan travel to professional football games is a major contributor to GHG emissions. • We assess fans' modal choices and their carbon footprint at a football home game. • The home game emits a total 99,548 kg GHG emissions or 6.0 kg GHG emissions per fan. • We found that 42.4% fans arriving by car emit 71.6% of GHG emissions. • The study allows for benchmarking and systematic measuring of fan travel behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the second part of a two-paper series on framework development and application demonstration of the Inclusive Impact Index (Triple I), a single-index of sustainability assessment. This Part II aims to exemplify findings obtained from Part I, which developed a full-scale framework for estimation of Triple I, based on the current context of life cycle sustainability assessment. The entire life cycle of inedible vegetable oil-derived biodiesel production and use in cruise ships in Ha Long Bay, was used as a case study for the demonstration. Furthermore, this paper also examines the sustainable potential of several blends of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. (Roselle) and Vernicia montana L. (Trau) biodiesel. Consequently, implications for sustainable biodiesel policies in Quang Ninh Province have been introduced. Under Triple I, the sustainable potential of different biodiesel systems in Ha Long Bay was examined with respect to impacts on ecological footprint, biocapacity, ecosystem quality, human health and the economy. Several biodiesel-petroleum diesel blends were considered in this paper involving B5 (5% by volume (vol%) biodiesel), B10 (10 vol% biodiesel), B20 (20 vol% biodiesel) and B100 (neat biodiesel). Triple I gages the sustainability of all biodiesel blends as alternatives to petroleum diesel. The findings suggest that the application of B10 and B20 blends are most appropriate, as they were the most stable and equivalent in terms of economic, environmental and social impacts, particularly in the case of B20. Since B100 has considerably high sustainable potential but longer Triple I payback time compared to the three lower blends, this study proposes a consideration of B20 and B10 for short-term and B100 for long-term biodiesel application pathways. Results of Triple I are in line with previous studies, and this confirms the precision of Triple I as a sustainability assessment index. On the other hand, by quantitatively revealing what and how an individual factor and its changes can affect the sustainability of a biodiesel system, Triple I has proved its superiority to other indexes. Nevertheless, due to the absence of social impacts in the Triple I estimation, this study recommended for a further development of the Triple I framework to contemplate evaluating social aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities around the world have launched greening initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint and to become more sustainable. At the same time, they have also sought to use these initiatives to position themselves as climate change leaders and green champions. This paper focuses on the City of Vancouver's Greenest City 2020 Action Plan as urban policy strategy to reduce carbon emissions. Based on interviews with actors and experts involved in the development and implementation of the plan, the paper evaluates the role green leadership aspirations play in shaping urban climate change policy and how policy makers and stakeholders use policy to position the city and its greening initiatives locally and globally. In particular, it analyzes the role of competitive positioning and green leadership in sustainability initiatives and change within and beyond urban boundaries. While leadership suggests increased buy-in of residents and those involved in the implementation of the strategy and multiplication effects through learning within the region and between (peer) cities, it can also pose challenges as the interest in meeting leadership claims can impede more radical change through specific targets and implementation strategies and challenge other sustainability objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several attempts have been made to harmonize guidelines for environmental footprints of food and beverages. For example, the food Sustainable Consumption and Production Roundtable, the Leap partnership, and the Environmental Footprint project, in particular within the Cattle Model Working Group. Despite all these activities, there are still many issues unresolved. This paper gives an overview of five important reasons why it is so difficult to reach consensus within the sector. In short, the issues are: 1) how to allocate deforestation to land use activities; 2) how to assess agricultural emissions profiles; 3) how to make regionalized water scarcity assessments; 4) how to choose the functional unit of food and beverages; and 5) how to deal with multi-functional processes in agro-industry. Recommendations as motivated in this paper are, in summary, to: 1) use the method to calculate the amount of land use change caused by increased pressure from growing areas per crop in each country; 2) always calculate agricultural emissions using at least an intermediate level of detail with the option to add more detail; 3) use good quality irrigation and crop evapotranspiration data, and at least country specific water scarcity factors; 4) report the environmental footprint results per unit of economic value besides per unit of mass or volume to enable fairer comparisons; 5) and apply economic allocation in all multi-functional agricultural and agri-industrial processes based on realistic prices calculated as multiple year averages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiesel is an alternative and renewable fuel which majorly addresses energy problems. Worldwide energy security will remain vulnerable until dependency on fossil fuels is reduced, due to its uneven distribution, and carbon footprints. Biofuels in general and the biodiesel in particular, are good alternatives to produce renewable energy as compared to the fossil fuels. The biodiesel production from inedible bioresources not only reduce import dependency but also be effective in rural developments. Biodiesel from such feedstocks via biotransesterification would provide a better solution to 'Blending Program' in developing countries where contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by primary sector (agriculture) is significant. Biodiesel production utilises lipases (triacylglycerol hydrolases) as biocatalyst for transesterification. This review paper provides global scenario of biodiesel production along with types of renewable feedstocks and their productivities. It also describes various processes and their operations to produce biodiesel using lipases derived from diverse microbes. This paper presents critical review on the processes, operational parameters, techniques, and overall methodology for biodiesel production to not only improve yields and productivities but also the quality to bring sustainability. Use of biodiesel for industrial and economic activities in developing countries, is also an effective way to reduce carbon emission and hence global warming. Overall, this review paper is a comprehensive summary with critical analysis for biodiesel production technologies developed including stable enzymes, inedible renewable feedstocks, reactor and their operational conditions to produce quality biodiesel using novel integrated processing technologies and downstream processing developed in the recent research. Economic analysis is very important for sustainable biodiesel production. Optimized process design necessary to bring process and techno-economic sustainability is presented in this review based on feedstocks, solvents and catalysts used. [Display omitted] • Biotransesterification to produce quality biodiesel. • Inedible renewable feedstocks and their utilization in global and Indian scenario. • Optimum parameters for biotransesterification production using free and immobilised lipase. • Reactor configurations supporting biotransesterification. • Biofuel sustainability using biodiesel with desired quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many tools have been developed to support the Front End of Eco-Innovation (FEEI) to design more radical product/service concepts. Although it is widely recognised that designers need to extend the consideration of key stakeholders in the value chain, few studies analyse the impact of the integration of the 'stakeholder' notion into eco-innovation practices. This paper aims at understanding how the 'stakeholder' perspective can usefully be integrated into eco-innovation sessions. In addition to an extended literature review of existing eco-innovation tools with a stakeholder perspective, this paper adopts an original “research scenario” perspective through a collection of case studies, with various participants, cultural backgrounds, and industrial or academic contexts. Through a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) framework, the paper analyses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the integration of the stakeholder notion into eco-innovation tasks. This research highlights the different ways to consider stakeholders at the FEEI stage, from stakeholder identification to the analysis of the different types of stakeholder value. Moreover, the need to adapt the stakeholder approach according to the type of FEEI tool user is emphasised. Stakeholder typologies can be reduced to a few key unfamiliar stakeholders during the ideation process with industrialists, while the number of stakeholders can be more exhaustive in an educational approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate assessment of the sustainable development level is crucial to providing reasonable and effective management recommendations. However, analysis with a single scale can only reflect the sustainable status at a specific level. In this study, a multi-scale analysis of sustainability was conducted via the three-dimensional Ecological Footprint (EF) model in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Moreover, driving factors of sustainability were analyzed using the Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression model (MGWR). The conclusions include: (1) the development of YRD showed an unsustainable trend from 2014 to 2021, with per capita EF decreasing from 5.769 ha/cap to 5.283 ha/cap. The provincial sustainability is ranked as follows, from being the most sustainable to the least: Anhui Province > Jiangsu Province > Zhejiang Province > Shanghai City. (2) Based on dual indicators of EF depth and size, 41 cities were categorized into nine groups. The dominant type is always Medium size-Low depth (ML) and High size-Low depth (HL) type cities from 2014 to 2021. From the perspective of city scale, the sustainability of five cities weakened, while seven cities showed improvements. (3) Output value of primary industry (OVPI) and population (POP) were always the dominant factors affecting EF, but showed positive and negative correlations respectively. OVPI changes from north-south symmetric type to central symmetric type, while POP changes from central symmetric type to north-south symmetric type. This paper aims to comprehensively assess the sustainable development status from agglomeration-province-city perspectives, and its findings can provide a reference for similar regions with unbalanced development status between ecology and production. • The sustainability of the world-class urban agglomeration was assessed via the three-dimensional ecological footprint model. • More comprehensive and accurate analysis results based on multi-scale analysis. • The four patterns of influencing mechanism are revealed based on the MGWR model. • The combination analysis of dual indicators was adopted to classify the sustainability of 41 cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data centers are estimated to have the fastest growing carbon footprint from across the whole information and communication technology (ICT) sector. Evaluating the performance of data centers in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability is becoming an increasingly important matter for organizations and governments (e.g., for regulation or reputation purposes). It nonetheless remains difficult to achieve such evaluation, as data centers imply to take into consideration a wide range of dimensions and stakeholders. Even though a wide range of sustainability performance indicators exist in the literature, there is still a lack of frameworks to help data center stakeholders (spanning from data center owners, governmental regulators to engineers/field operators) to evaluate and understand how a data center performs in terms of sustainable development/behavior. Our research work proposes such a framework, whose originality lies in the combination of state-of-the-art sustainability metrics with the biomimicry commandments of eco-mature system, which enables holistic sustainability assessment of data centres. From a theoretical perspective, the proposed model is designed based on a benefit-cost analysis using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. This approach allows data center stakeholders for specifying their own preferences and/or expertise in the comparison process, whose practicability is demonstrated in this paper considering three data center candidates, which are respectively located in France, Germany and Sweden. • A new model for comparing data center sustainability performance is proposed. • The model makes use of state-of-the-art sustainability metrics together with biomimicry lessons. • The model is designed based on a benefit-cost approach using the AHP technique. • A comparison study is carried out with three distinct data center candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of scientific studies can help to improve sustainable solutions in the agri-food sector according to current European policy. The present paper aims to evaluate the carbon footprint, according to ISO/TS 14067:2013, of 0.5 kg of sweet cherries packaged in clamshell made in polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The research assesses the supply chain, from agricultural (from nursery to dismantling) to the processing phase in firms located in the Apulia region. Results show a global warming potential over a fixed period corresponding to 100 years equal to 0.584 kg CO 2eq , primarily deriving from agricultural management (0.442 kg CO 2eq) and secondly from fruit processing (0.068 kg CO 2eq). In the orchard phase, the main impacts derived from electricity consumed to pump groundwater used for irrigation and fertigation activities (15.84% of the total), transportation of manure (6.42% of the total), ploughing activity (4.83% of the total) and production of nitrogen fertilisers (4.28% of the total). Cherries processing in the collecting centre showed impacts from electricity consumption (5.57% of the total) and from waste deriving from damaged or non-conforming cherries (4.74% of the total). The PET clamshell production phase had an impact deriving principally from the use of PET granulate (0.0743 kg CO 2eq). The study highlighted that manure administration and pruning activities contribute to decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis showed that substitution of electricity-mix deriving from the Italian national grid with a photovoltaic plant lowered GHG emissions by 19%. The present study could contribute in providing suggestions to stakeholders and scholars in reducing GHG emissions and promoting more environmentally sustainable sweet cherry production practices. Image 1 • Increasing knowledge on the CF assessment of the sweet cherries supply chain. • A case study of sweet cherry production located in Southern Italy was examined. • Carbon Footprint assessment was applied to 0.5 kg of sweet cherry in PET clamshell. • Results show that GWP 100 is equal to 0.584 kg CO 2eq. • Main impacts deriving from agricultural activities (75%) and fruit processing (12%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palm oil industry has received criticism from various parties on the issue of sustainability and the greenhouse gases. Carbon footprint accounting are widely used as a metric of climate change impacts and the main focus of many sustainability policies among companies and authorities. However, carbon footprint accounting has limitation to represent sustainability as a whole and may resulting inaccurate selection of further mitigation. This paper evaluates sustainability and greenhouse gases simultaneously using an integrated palm oil mill carbon footprint accounting (POMCFA) and palm oil mill sustainability index (POMSI) method. The integration was performed via the adoption of data synchronization of the carbon footprint accounting and sustainability assessment. The analysis shows that highest carbon dioxide equivalent emission was contributed by palm oil mill effluent followed by diesel consumption and water consumption. In terms of sustainability scoring, the results show that the environmental aspect achieved the lowest scores compared to other aspects (social and economy). Weaknesses identified include diesel consumption, palm oil mill effluent and boiler emission. The assessment analysed in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent and sustainability scoring demonstrates its potential to provide comprehensive mitigation selection purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe 2020 strategy highlighted that sustainable consumption and production requires resource and energy efficiency. In terms of sustainability in energy, carbon footprint, conservation, efficient energy use, and emissions trading are some major concerns. Under the Kyoto Protocol, a trading market mechanism is developed as a policy of reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases in each country. Firms are always considering whether the investment cost on emission reduction matches the benefit. One possible practice is to look for energy savings that are able to offset additional costs from the sustainability investment. This paper aims to establish such a sustainability investment decision model, which uses dynamic programming for solutions to minimize cost. The purpose is to effectively reduce emissions produced during production through investment in energy-saving, high productivity equipment and allocation of production capacity considering emissions (or so-called carbon) trading market price, greenhouse gas emission credits or caps given by the government, inventory cost, and production cost. Management-oriented implications are proposed following analysis of the results of detailed numerical examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reviews a series of environmental indicators developed in the last years that were found suitable to be applied at corporate level for the evaluation of production processes and products. The indicators reviewed in this paper were classified into four main groups: 1) Indicators of Energy and Material Flows; 2) Indicators with a Territorial Dimension; 3) Indicators of Life-Cycle Assessment; 4) Indicators of Environmental Risk Assessment. Integrative and single index indicators such as the ecological footprint or carbon footprint were found as the most appealing for enterprises, although there is a need to advance in the field to combine the simplicity required at corporate level for tracking and reporting environmental data, and the scientific rigor and transparency necessary to make the scores reliable. Hence, for each of the indicators revised it was stated what they do and do not measure so that misleading information was not used for decision making at corporate level. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract Given the adverse societal and ecological impacts of oil and gas operations, health, safety and environmental issues are increasingly considered at all stages of petroleum production, especially in the early design stage. These developments stem from calls for greater attention to be paid to the integration of sustainability in organisations. Indeed, the legitimacy of organisations in the oil and gas industry is intrinsically tied to changing global societal expectations of corporate responsibility. As such, this paper is focused on exploring the progression of the sustainability logic through the societal and organisational fields, and the resultant change in an engineering design firm servicing the oil and gas sector. A framework was developed to draw attention to the role of institutional mechanisms in the institutionalisation of sustainability, and to examine discourse and control technique change. Concepts from neo-institutionalism provided the basis for the theoretical framework used in this study to analyse institutionalisation from macro as well as micro perspectives. The case study method was employed and analysis was conducted on multiple sources of data. Institutionalisation was found to be a recursive process involving the interplay of ideals, discourses and techniques across institutional realms. The study showed that while a modification of the sustainability ideal has caused loose coupling in the oil and gas organisational field, institutional work by reflexive agents in different realms is slowly bringing about tighter coupling through discourses and techniques. Techniques in the form of formal and informal management controls are seen to both affect and be affected by sustainability institutionalisation. Accordingly, the present study captures the complexity of the sustainability institutionalisation process through multiple levels of analysis, both within and between the societal, organisational field and organisational levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is one of the main causes of water consumption and degradation. Assessing its sustainability is important to determining how the current use of water resources can affect their availability in the future and to safeguard their quantity and quality. In this context, this research was designed to develop a simple approach for the evaluation of agricultural sustainability, based on coupling the assessment of the total water footprint (WF) of catchment-scale crops and in-stream monitoring activities. The study focussed on a Mediterranean agricultural watershed (Celone, southeast Italy). Results for the study period (July 2010–June 2011) show the total WF to be 79.9 Mm 3  y −1 , subdivided into 30.3% green water, 0.5% blue water and 69.2% grey water, thus highlighting the importance of grey water in agricultural water use. The grey WF estimates are highly sensitive both to leaching and runoff fractions and applied water standards, and they are affected by large uncertainty. Tomato is the crop having the highest total crop water use (CWU), which is equal to 2521 mm (286 mm green CWU, 412 mm blue CWU, 1823 mm grey CWU). Legumes relied only on green water (217 mm green CWU). The sustainability assessment of present water consumption, subdivided into the three WF components, indicates sustainable use of green water, fluctuating sustainability of blue water resources, depending on the season and the environmental flow requirement, and unsustainable grey water production and water pollution level for the Celone River. The methodology employed in this paper could be useful in watershed planning and management, helping farmers and decision-makers choose suitable crops for locally sustainable water use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent growth of the space sector, spurred by a surge in private actors, has led to a sharp increase in our ability to address societal challenges through space data. However, this has exacerbated an already critical situation in space: the proliferation of space debris and a critical expansion of space traffic which is leading to high levels of orbital congestion. In parallel, increased levels of spacecraft production and orbital launches are also heightening the environmental footprint of the sector. This might lead to a paradoxical situation whereby the use of space to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) becomes unsustainable from the perspective of both the Earth and space environment. This situation can be described as the 'space sustainability paradox'. This paper presents this concept for the first time and argues that existing policies and remediation actions are not a long-term sustainable solution for tackling this issue and may actually intensify the problem. This places an added importance upon addressing space sustainability in a more coherent, strategic and responsible manner, potentially based on the doughnut economic model of social and planetary boundaries. Doing so may prevent the sector from falling victim to a 'tragedy of the commons' type of scenario and avoid negative trends from becoming the norm. As a result, this would ensure that outer space can continue to be used by future generations to address societal challenges, without priming severe and enduring damage to the Earth and space environment. • Space sustainability is a growing but often misunderstood concept. • Sustainability from and of space are two finely balanced and interrelated issues. • Existing policies/remediation actions are not a long-term solution for sustainability. • A major paradigm shift is needed to enable space sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism places pressures on the environment through the services provided (accommodation, food, leisure activities, and transport), meanwhile it is particularly vulnerable to global warming as climate is a crucial component of destinations' attractiveness. As a result, research focusing on the impacts of tourism has increased significantly. Practitioners consult a plethora of frameworks and publications to environmentally assess tourism but none of the existing guidelines provides specific recommendations making difficult to obtain reliable results that can be properly replicated and compared. This paper discusses the use of Footprint family indicators in tourism through a review of studies that measure the Water, Carbon, and Ecological Footprint of tourists. Results show a lack of specific data, and an absence of consensus about the system boundaries and methodologies used for calculation. Food production and transportation are the main drivers of environmental burdens. The Footprint indicators help to understand the trade-offs between environmental effects which can be used to prioritize sustainability efforts in the tourism industry. Additionally, this study presents a critical analysis of the influence on the trip's Footprint of the services provided to different rated tourism experiences (high, medium, and low rated) and offers a reflective comparison on the pressure exerted by visitors and the local population. • Tourism Footprint studies lack trustworthy datasets due to gaps in specific data. • Lack of consensus on boundaries in tourism Footprint studies hinders result comparison. • Tourism Footprint studies generally ignore end-of-life environmental impacts. • High-rated vacations impose the highest environmental burdens. • Tourists exert more pressure on natural resources and ecosystems than residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the climate change context, consumers are often urged to reduce meat consumption because of associated greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is unclear if consumers would pay more for meat with lower carbon footprint, among other credence factors. This paper reports one of the first studies to identify willingness-to-pay for meat that has been carbon-footprint-labelled as an attribute. Four discrete choice experiments are conducted about meat preferences for beef, chicken, lamb and pork, on 1,200 Australian respondents. The results show that credence factors remain less important to most consumers than intrinsic meat properties. Carbon footprint is non-significant in the estimated mixed logit models. Latent class analyses reveal that only one (representing 21% of consumers) out of three classes places high importance on carbon footprint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The punitive environmental legislation set by the global community has shifted the direction of research involve in construction industry towards the utilization of secondary raw materials in designing and constructing new structures. Rice husk (RH) is a by-product obtained from the rice mill process whose generation accounts up to 200 kg per ton of rice. The existing literature showed the vast potential of using rice husk ash (RHA) as a replacement for cement or as admixtures. This paper aims to critically review previous studies on RHA as a waste material. The utilization of this waste in concrete contributes to nurturing more sustainable and greener development, thereby lessen carbon footprints and minimize solid waste disposal issues. A state-of-the-art-review of literature on the use of RHA is presented in this paper. The impact of RHA on the properties of concrete such as workability, density, compressive strength, flexural strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, durability properties as well as its impact on sustainability are compiled. In addition, the technical results are complimented with the microstructural analysis evaluated through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). From the data garnered, it is postulated that RHA beneficially enhance the mechanical strengths coupled with improvement of resistant to sulfate and acid attack. This paper advances novel recommendations and directions for future research towards the application of green RHA-based construction products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product carbon footprint has a profound impact on the sustainable manufacturing. Due to the uncertainty of product information, it is a crucial issue to estimate product carbon footprint for product life cycle. The paper is devoted to the product carbon footprint estimation model based on the unascertained mathematics theory. After the introduction of unascertained mathematics theory, the integration of the estimation data through unascertained number is discussed in detail. After the model of product carbon footprint for product life cycle is proposed, the estimation method of carbon footprint in the product life cycle based on the unascertained number model is discussed in detail. The product carbon footprint of a modular underactuated exoskeleton robot mechanism is given as an example to demonstrate the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a pragmatic framework to inform stakeholders about the sustainability of canteen meals. The framework consists of four parts: (1) an ecological scoring system, based on life cycle assessment results, to score the ecological impact of meals or their components, from which the customer can select to compose a meal; (2) a nutritional scoring of meals based on meeting nutritional criteria; (3) a scoring system to assess the efforts undertaken by the canteen suppliers with regard to sustainable production and management and (4) collected information on relevant topics in food sustainability not covered in previous parts. The framework has furthermore been customized for and applied to the canteen of Ghent University. In light of part 1, several methods to characterize the environmental impact of food products were benchmarked, pinpointing the ecological footprint, the amount of land needed for production and to sequester CO 2 , as most appropriate one. Moreover, the ecological footprint of harvested fish was newly characterized as amount of land indirectly needed for their growth in nature. This highlighted the much lower (2–15 times) ecological footprint of aquaculture than caught fish products, according to this method. The ecological scoring system was consequently based on the ecological footprint but also the carbon footprint due to its relevance, covering the discrepancy between meat, with relatively higher carbon footprint, and caught fish products, with relatively higher ecological footprint. Besides a promotion of more sustainable meals, following guidelines and conclusions were derived: (1) the ecological impact depends on more than just the main component, e.g. frying oil contributes the most to the ecological footprint of fries, and type of food, e.g. a portion ‘pangasius orientale’ (fish), has an about 30% lower ecological footprint than a portion ‘ratatouille vegetables’ (vegetarian); (2) lower salt content, which can mount up to >80% for a meal, to improve nutritional value and (3) provide a variety of portion sizes because nutritional demand varies. Although further improvement is needed, the framework is prominent because of the better characterization of environmental impact, its pragmatic coverage of various sustainability aspects through its four parts, feedback to all stakeholders and its easiness of application for a manifold of meals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are mainly responsible for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere and thus for climate change. The European Union (EU) set up a series of strategies and policies to facilitate the elaboration of climate change mitigation and adaptation of urban plans. To do this, it is necessary to measure the city's GHG emission level. The Urban Carbon Footprint (UCF) and its derivation, the Relative Carbon Footprint (RCF), represent the most appropriate tools for obtaining this important information. The present paper applies these indicators to a small city (150 000 inhabitants) located in Southern Italy, a novelty for academic studies, which usually concentrate on megacities. The study focuses only on CO 2 emissions, as these represent 90% of the total GHGs released in urban areas. The findings showed that in 2015 the total UCF was equal to 288 ktCO 2 , specifically deriving from electricity and natural gas consumption. Moreover, Residential, Industry and Tertiary are the most carbon-intensive economic sectors. The RCF was equal to 0.30; the city emission levels were lower than the national average. Therefore, the municipality represents a typical “net-consumer” community, dominated by homes with territorial emissions due to consumption and characterized by a low number of industries and an average income per capita that is 50% lower than the national one. Starting from these results, the study proposed an urban action plan according to the EU mitigation and adaptation policies. This plan could help the local government improve its environmental sustainability, even if more public city-level data is required for a more comprehensive analysis. Finally, it would be more appropriate for all actions to be aligned under a unique policy process to seize the opportunity to link the various local intervention policies from different fields, taking into account their existing funding, tools, processes, and resources. Capitalizing on the adaptation/mitigation connection will allow municipalities to leverage their climate change action efforts and accelerate progress toward their climate and energy goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) has recently become an attractive alternative in pavement engineering due to its potential for significant reduction in energy consumption and carbon footprint of asphalt industry; however, concerns have been raised regarding durability of material and potential to moisture damage due to lower mixing and compaction temperatures. Furthermore, steel slag which is mostly disposed in landfills as waste material could be an appealing option as substitute of natural aggregates for asphalt concrete (AC) production because of its adequate affinity with asphalt binder. The aim of this study is therefore, to assess whether the integration of basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steel slag into Sasobit WMA technology would indicate satisfactory performance in terms of moisture susceptibility. This paper also examines if BOF slag WMA mixture can provide acceptable mechanical performance to be used as a more sustainable approach for pavement construction. To capture short-term moisture damage resistance of BOF slag WMA, specimens prepared with two Sasobit dosages were subjected to two different testing methods. Modified Lottman test and boiling water test using an image analysis technique were performed to compare moisture susceptibility and stripping resistance of BOF slag WMA and HMA (hot mix asphalt) samples with conventional mixtures. Dynamic creep test, Hamburg wheel-track device and resilient modulus test were then conducted on specimens to evaluate mechanical behavior of BOF slag WMA in comparison with BOF slag HMA and another type of WMA mixture prepared with natural aggregates. Findings showed that BOF slag WMA provided significant resistance to short-term moisture damage and therefore, could be considered as durable bituminous mixture when compared to conventional asphalt mixtures. Furthermore, BOF steel slag HMA/WMA exhibited superior mechanical behaviors compared to limestone HMA/WMA mixtures, implying that steel slag could be an effective alternative as pavement material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Wastewater Treatment Plant consists of multiple equipment and processes to treat wastewater. The wastewater treatment process consumes resources and releases emissions that could potentially harm the environment. Due to the growing concern on the environmental impact of Wastewater Treatment Plants, much research has been done to assess its performance and optimize its processes towards cleaner productions. Yet to date, the study on quantifying the overall environmental performance of a Wastewater Treatment Plant has not been done. The objective of this paper is to develop a new green index as a unified overall quantitative environmental performance indicator for a Wastewater Treatment Plant and its associated processes. The developed green index is applied as an indicator to represent the multiple green elements of the treatment processes, and to benchmark the performance of the Wastewater Treatment Plant under study. The Green Index enables a facility manager to efficiently monitor, analyse and improve the performance of a Wastewater Treatment Plant in a cleaner production program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mineral resource extraction is often accompanied by severe environmental pollution and ecological damage, hindering mining economies from achieving sustainable development. This paper aims to promote the goal of cleaner production in extractive industries from the perspective of environmental management through a more accurate understanding of how human activities affect the extractive industries. This requires more granular data for environmental damage in mining. The article proposes an ecological threat assessment framework for mining to support sustainable processes in the extractive industry. It integrates biophysical variables, technical indicators, and human activity data. The study is based on data at the mine level with 17 indicators used to evaluate the ecological impact of 13960 mines in Guangxi, China, from 2008-to 2018 in four dimensions: economic and technical indicators of mines themselves, surrounding economic activity, geological and environmental vulnerability, and ecological status of mining sites. Data from multiple sources were used to assess, map, and monitor ecological impacts in mining areas, such as high-resolution satellite images, interview data, environmental assessment reports, and mining rights data. We evaluated the ecological impact level of each mine and the extent to which spatial heterogeneity of regional economic and environmental preferences affected the degree of ecological impact. The results show that growth in population income has changed environmental preferences and driven down environmental disturbances in mines. Reduced dependence of regional economies on the industrial sector has also contributed to environmental improvements. In addition, increasing environmental regulation has limited the ecological impacts of mining, but these environmental regulation impacts are regionally heterogeneous. The effect of laws and rules is lower in cities and regions dependent on mineral resources, where resource extraction companies have more bargaining power. The results of this study will inform environmental management in the mining sector and support sustainable development in the region. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of the utilization of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) aggregates in roller compacted concrete pavement (RCCP) mixes. Owing to the cost-effectiveness and fast-to-construct feature of RCCP, the utilization of RAP in this paving technology seems to be the next best option. In this paper, several issues and factors affecting the fresh and hardened properties of RCCP mixes due to the incorporation of RAP is discussed. Based on this review, it was observed that the type and age of RAP, the concentration of asphalt and agglomerated particles, gradation of RAP, compaction types and efforts, and the RAP replacement levels can significantly affect the strength and durability of RCCP mixes. From a sustainable point of view, most researchers recommended that up to 50% of RAP could be used to partially substitute natural aggregates in RCCP mixes. In a nutshell, the utilization of RAP in RCCP mixes would not only provide economic benefits but would also serve environmental benefits like reduction in the RAP stockpiles and carbon footprints, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite many studies in literature demonstrate the environmental sustainability of organic food, a debate is still open in the scientific community on the effect of organic farming on global warming and climate change mitigation. This paper aims to contribute to a more informed debate on the actual contribution to climate change in terms of GHG emissions of organic and conventional agriculture. For this purpose, the production process of an organic vs conventional wholemeal bread locally produced in central Italy by a small-medium bakery enterprise was compared and the carbon footprint (CF) was assessed by means of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. We found that the CF of 1 kg of the conventional wholemeal bread was 24% less respect to the same organic bread, with 1,18 and 1,55 kg CO 2 eq respectively. On the contrary, if the CF is assessed per unit of cultivated area (hectare), wheat organic cultivation showed a better performance in terms of GHG emissions than conventional by 60%, with 1,15 and 2,87 Mg CO 2 eq ha −1 respectively. The higher CF per unit of organic product is due to the lower yield per unit of area cultivated with organic farming and to the consequent attribution to a smaller amount of products of the GHG emissions generated in the field phase of the life cycle. Whereas, the CF per hectare is higher when conventional practices are applied due to the higher use of raw materials (higher seed density, agrochemicals for fertilization and plant protection) respect to the same organic system. Results of the study demonstrate that organic farming for wheat cultivation in Italy is a low-carbon agriculture with a lower contribution to climate change in terms of GHG emissions per hectare respect to the conventional wheat cultivation, although implications of the reduced productivity and the consequent need of more cultivated land should be considered. However, more research is needed to better explore the potential of organic farming and to improve organic food production, optimizing the balance between the use of resources and yields, to ensure sufficient organic food supply at global level. A more comprehensive assessment of the actual GHG emitted in the atmosphere from both organic and conventional agricultural systems can be provided when the CF is assessed per unit of area, in addition to the CF per product unit, especially if also the carbon sink of the agrosystem is included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is a very serious environmental problem. Universities, the most active organizations and locations for scientific research and social activities, have a responsibility to construct low carbon campuses and to play an important role in reducing CO 2 emissions. The concept and definition of a low carbon campus were proposed in this paper along with a comprehensive model. Tianjin Polytechnical University (TJPU) was used as a case study because of its innovative efforts in this aspect. The ecological footprint evaluation (EFE) and life cycle assessment (LCA) were integrated to evaluate a low carbon campus qualitatively; The ecological footprint index (EFI) was proposed for a quantitative evaluation. The EFI of TJPU was 0.61, which indicated that the low carbon campus of TJPU is classified as having strong sustainability. Last, effective recommendations were proposed based on data analysis to improve the low carbon campus; qualitative and quantitative evaluations were also discussed to enhance the progress of constructing low carbon campuses worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the search of sustainable practices in agro-food industry, it is compulsory to carry out the adequate assessment and further comparison of their resource consumptions. In this respect, environmental evaluations in industry often just focus on water or energy consumption, avoiding integrated indicators to measure the overall efficiency and environmental sustainability of processes. In this paper, the authors being aware of this lack of integrated indicators in the agro-food sector, have presented a new indicator, the Water and Energy Use Indicator (WEUI). It is operational, easy to interpret and communicate. Its main goal is to evaluate and further assess the global environmental performance of agro-industrial subsectors, and compare the overall efficiency of different industries. Additionally, the indicator allows to check if some proposed measures in an industry, apart from reducing their energy, water and resource consumption, leads to contribute or not to a higher level of environmental sustainability. Four complementary methodologies were adequately integrated into that single indicator: Water Footprint, Water Pinch, Life Cycle Assessment, and Exergy Analysis. Each methodology ranks the performance of a given industry with an index from 1 to 7 by comparing its operational parameters with the reference values within the corresponding agro-food subsector. The final indicator of the WEUI is then the weighted value from those indexes, and it is also ranked from 1 to 7, such as other European labels. Three case studies corresponding to diverse subsectors in the agro-food sector in Aragón (Spain) were tested, and one of these case studies (ready to eat meals) is presented here. Results show an index level of 5 (medium-high) for the WEUI at its present operation. Proposed improvement measures in the industry lead to a slight upgrade in the overall process of efficiency, due mainly to the water savings up to level 6 (high). An on-line tool for an easy calculation of the WEUI has been implemented. Up to now, 9 agro-food subsectors have been included in the tool, which is also adapted to available information in the companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental sustainability in the wine sector has become a priority, as a result of both the growing interest in environmental issues and the consumer's demand for more information regarding the environmental impact of the products they purchase. In this context, the use of carbon footprint as an indicator to assess and report the environmental burdens associated with wine production has gained a role of primary interest. The present study has the aim of improving the wine sector's sustainability by providing inventory data on wine production systems from a total of 18 wineries located in major wine-producing regions in Spain and the South of France. The main novelty of this paper is: the corporate carbon footprint approach, the greater number of wineries studied, the diversity of location of those wineries, the detail of data presented and the identification of the best reference flow for vineyards. Data was statistically analysed. Vineyard consumptions are usually related to the area of cultivation. However, although 1 ha of vineyard or 1 kg of harvested grape could both be considered good reference flows for vineyard processes, this study shows a greater standard deviation of average data calculated per ha rather than per kg. Impact results show a major contribution of the winery phase to the corporate carbon footprint (73%), mainly due to glass production for bottling (45.6% contribution) and electricity consumption (9.2%). In the vineyard phase, contribution comes mainly from diesel production and combustion due to field works (11.3%) and the use of phytosanitary products (6.0%). The results revealed that with the establishment of best practices and with optimized resource consumption, the corporate carbon footprint values can be reduced by almost 25%. The comparative results presented can be used as a reference that will enable wineries to compare their impacts to the average, to identify in which aspects they are within the average and which aspects they are outside the average and whether these aspects are significant to their carbon footprint. This may encourage wineries to adopt measures for Eco-innovation through carbon emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water footprint assessment is a developing method that is being increasingly applied to quantify water use, prioritise reductions, assess sustainability and provide information to achieve sustainable, efficient, and equitable water use. The objectives of this paper were to conduct a water footprint assessment of primary citrus production within the Lower Sundays River Valley in South Africa using local, high-resolution data and to examine indicators (water scarcity, pollution, efficiency, productivity and access) to determine the sustainability of blue, green and grey water footprints of a wet, dry and average year. Lemons were found to have the lowest blue and combined green-blue water footprint per ton of production across all climatic years, followed by soft citrus, valencias and navels. Valencias had the lowest, and navels the highest grey WF (relating to inorganic nitrogen). Lemons, despite their high crop water and fertiliser requirements, were regarded more economically efficient in comparison to valencias, soft citrus and navels, in that they provided higher net income and more employment hours per m 3 of water in comparison to other citrus crops. In an average season, lemons generated approximately 39% more income per m 3 of water than navels, despite navels being the dominant cultivar. Blue water consumption for citrus in the catchment was calculated to be 58.7 Mm 3 for an average season and 89.2 Mm 3 for a dry season. Due to an inter-basin transfer scheme, no physical water scarcity occurred, and both environmental and basic human needs are met. Water pollution levels related to nitrogen however, exceeded the assimilative capacity of the run-off in dry years. The area also experiences institutional and infrastructural scarcity and 14% of the population do not have access to piped water. Stakeholders and governments may use the results of water footprint assessments to determine the status of river basins, make evaluations for future water usage and the potential impacts of expanding agriculture and different management strategies. Including environmental and socio-economic indicators will also improve the integrity of water footprint assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource, economic, and environmental impacts are three major factors in the evaluation of industrial processes. All of them might imply certain contributions of ecosystems services. A comprehensive accounting of these factors is critical to sustainability assessment of industrial activities at the ecological scale. Ecological Cumulative Exergy Consumption (ECEC) analysis is a promising approach to address these issues. However, the current knowledge on ECEC is incomplete, especially in economic investment and environmental impact. In this paper, ECEC analysis is extended to quantify purchased resources and pollutant emissions of industrial production. Accordingly, an extended ECEC framework is proposed, integrating the resource, economic, and environmental factors. Furthermore, for better understanding of sustainability, a concept of Ecological Life Cycle Cost (ELCC) is put forward, revealing the relationship between the ECEC and traditional economic evaluation. Finally, a case study of China's raw coal production is used to illustrate the features of these proposed frameworks. The ECEC and ELCC analyses indicate the great ecological influence of raw coal which has been underestimated by the traditional assessment approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green purchasing in green supply chain management (GSCM) literature plays an essential role in achieving carbon neutrality by seeking to eliminate CO 2 emissions. Single organizations would, however, not aim at such a goal if it is to their economic detriment. GSCM research streams highlight that the successful implementation of environmental considerations leads to better economic performance in the long term. Therefore, this paper aims to identify and analyze suppliers that exhibit both environmental and economic success, indicating an effective and efficient realization of their sustainability measures. Given the long-term horizon of the research problem, we differentiate from previous microeconomic research by taking a macro perspective on sustainable supplier analysis, which investigates macroeconomic indicators focusing on firms' revenues. The above-described economic and environmental efficiency is analyzed in a multiple case study using sustainability reports from 66 OEM suppliers as well as data on their revenues and ratings on their carbon pollution measured by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). First, a text mining inspired quantitative sustainable SWOT analysis is performed to evaluate the long-term strategy of organizations. A subsequent data envelopment analysis aims to identify efficient suppliers and causes for their efficiency. The overall results not only outline sustainable suppliers but also give insights into suppliers that may become sustainable in the future. We further show that large organizations struggle with meeting environmental expectations, whereas low-to-medium-sized suppliers tend to be more economically and environmentally efficient.. Based on the results, we discuss implications both for management research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Coffee is an important global beverage, and has received significant attention especially in terms of the social and environmental sustainability of its production. This paper calculates the product carbon footprint (PCF) and conducts an analysis of energy usage for six alternative coffee products. The analysis shows that espresso coffee had the lowest impact (0.13 kWh and 49 g CO2 per serve), while canned coffee provided the highest impact (0.76 kWh and 223 g CO2 per serve). The latte had the second highest embodied energy impact, with 0.54 kWh and the highest PCF of 224 g CO2 per serve. On a per millilitre basis however, espresso coffee provided the highest impact (0.0048 kWh/mL and 0.8 g CO2-eq/mL), followed by canned coffee and the latte. This indicates that care must be used in the selection of an appropriate functional unit, as the ranking of PCF can be overturned according to the basis of comparison. The highest contributing factors were the emissions from milk, packaging (for the can) and the production stages of the green coffee beans. Despite only holding around 17% of the market share of consumed coffee, the canned coffee product contributes around half of the national carbon footprint from coffee consumption. Current commercial incentives for consumers to use their own cups were compared to carbon taxation and found to value carbon approximately three orders of magnitude higher than carbon market rates. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Battery demand is estimated to growth at a 25% annual rate, to reach a volume of 2600 GWh in 2030. Recovering critical raw materials from end-of-life batteries is now mandatory to limit the need of primary raw materials in the long-term. However, recycling of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is still in its early stage. Many technologies have been proposed, that consist of a combination of mechanical processing, often after thermal pre-treatment, ended up to hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical processing. All these methods have several pros and cons in terms of applicability, safety, environmental impact, eventual recovery efficiency of the components, and economic factors. In this frame, the evaluation of the sustainability of the proposed technologies plays a fundamental role in selecting the most suitable approaches able to support material supply for batteries, identifying the major solutions to optimize the end-of-life management strategies for LIBs, in the perspective of a circular economy context. However, LCA was developed to evaluate commercially mature technologies. This paper aims to propose and discuss, for the first time, the sustainability of 33 different technologies available in literature for LIBs recovery, even if developed only at laboratory level, by a screening approach, preliminary to LCA analysis. For this purpose, ESCAPE (standing for Evaluation of Sustainability of material substitution using CArbon footPrint by a simplified approach) tool based on the calculation of embodied energy and carbon footprint is used. Based on ESCAPE analysis results, this work shows and discusses the parameters that affect the technologies sustainability (thermal and mechanical treatments and chemicals and water use). The results, in accord with preliminary available LCA data, indicate that chemicals and ultrapure water consumption are the most energy-intensive processes drivers, showing that pyrometallurgy can limit carbon footprint and energy consumption in comparison to hydrometallurgy. Finally, by using the ESCAPE index, it is shown that some technologies may be improved for example by using industrial water instead of ultrapure water and/or by recycling the chemicals used for leaching steps. In summary it is shown that ESCAPE tool can be used in supporting eco-design strategies with the aim to facilitate the understanding of environmental implications of proposed LIBs recovery technologies and to focalize the research toward the more promising ones. [Display omitted] • Sustainability analysis of 33 technologies to recover spent LIBs is proposed. • The processes steps are evaluated in terms of embodied energy and carbon footprint. • LIBs recycling processes should aim for a better water management and leachants recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper introduces a new methodological approach of the ecological footprint explicitly addressing the sustainability of water supplies, which we call the water supply footprint (WSF). The WSF calculates the catchment area or water supply hinterland of a certain society and can serve as a strategic planning tool for local or regional water supplies linking the water demand with the water supply in a water supply footprint matrix. Based on regional water balances it estimates how much water can be appropriated for human use in an environmentally sustainable way. The proposed method is tested on the South East Queensland water supply in Australia, an area where water use restrictions are regularly imposed on the population. Applying the proposed method indicates that supply shortages may be avoided by considerably changing the organisation of water supply, thereby reducing and possibly even avoiding the necessity for large-scale supply side measures like additional sweet water reservoirs or desalination plants. In that way it is demonstrated that the WSF method is applicable at an early and strategic stage of water supply planning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In upcoming years, the number of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices is expected to surge up to tens of billions of physical objects. However, while the IoT is often presented as a promising solution to tackle environmental challenges, the direct environmental impacts generated over the life cycle of the physical devices are usually overlooked. It is implicitly assumed that their environmental burden is negligible compared to the positive impacts they can generate. Yet, because IoT calls for a massive deployment of electronic devices in the environment, life-cycle assessment (LCA) is an essential tool to leverage in order to avoid further increasing the stress on our planet. Some general LCA methodologies for IoT already exist but quantitative results are still scarce. In this paper, we present a parametric framework based on hardware profiles to evaluate the cradle-to-gate carbon footprint of IoT edge devices. We exploit our framework in three ways. First, we apply it on four use cases to evaluate their respective production carbon footprint. Then, we show that the heterogeneity inherent to IoT edge devices must be considered as the production carbon footprint between simple and complex devices can vary by a factor of more than 150 ×. Finally, we estimate the absolute carbon footprint induced by the worldwide production of IoT edge devices through a macroscopic analysis over a 10-year period. Results range from 22 to 562 MtCO2-eq/year in 2027 depending on the deployment scenarios. However, the truncation error acknowledged for LCA bottom-up approaches usually lead to an undershoot of the environmental impacts. We compared the results of our use cases with the few reports available from Google and Apple, which suggest that our estimates could be revised upwards by a factor around 2 × to compensate for the truncation error. Worst-case scenarios in 2027 would therefore reach more than 1000 MtCO2-eq/year. This truly stresses the necessity to consider environmental constraints when designing and deploying IoT edge devices. [Display omitted] • Production carbon footprint of IoT devices can vary by a factor of more than 150×. • Hardware profiles are helpful to tackle the heterogeneity of IoT devices. • Parametric framework allows to streamline carbon footprint of IoT devices. • Complex IoT devices can strongly impact the carbon footprint of the IoT deployment. • There is a critical need to apply life cycle assessments for IoT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst a backdrop of a global climate emergency, tourism continues to contribute to Earth's carbon footprint. In recognition of the negative environmental impacts of sport and event tourism, this study quantifies the carbon footprint of the 2019 National Collegiate Athletic Association Men's Basketball Tournament by considering the travel of fans and teams, food, waste, lodging, and stadium operations. The footprint is approximated at 210 million kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents. Broken down, this equates to about 500 kg per participant. Travel is responsible for nearly 80 percent of that total which underscores the positive relationship between distance traveled and greenhouse gasses emitted in tourism. This paper presents a valuable linear model by which carbon footprints can be calculated with accessible data. This will, in turn, allow for the democratization of sustainability models for industries and organizations to introspectively quantify their environmental impact as an initial assessment for internal purposes or comparison to outside audits. This study's results demonstrate the need to make mega sport-tourism events like March Madness more sustainable. However, this can only be done by tourism managers closing the environmental value-action gap that too often manifests as inaction. By leveraging quantitative frameworks such as this study's methodology, sport and event managers can more easily use readily available data to evaluate their event's environmental impacts and thus begin to actionably mitigate their negative contributions to global climate change in more targeted ways. • A novel, data-poor approach to carbon footprinting sport tourism. • A case study of emissions caused by tourism activities of participants and spectators of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. • Event and sport practitioners should implement more sustainable policies, practices, and models of tourism. • Sport and event practitioners can leverage this model with internal data to estimate carbon footprinting for their events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rammed earth (RE) is an eco-friendly building material and has been capturing special attention among researchers. Many of the recently studied RE additives are extremely resource- and energy-consuming. On the other hand, the usage of fly ash (FA), which is a sustainable replacement for cement, has been scarcely investigated in RE construction. In this paper, an experimental investigation was performed on the physical and mechanical properties of RE materials stabilized with the combination of cement and alkali-activated FA. This scrutiny consists of density measurements, pulse velocity tests, unconfined compression tests, and direct shear tests. Additionally, the carbon dioxide emission and unit cost of each mix were estimated using the available literature. Finally, a multi-objective optimization was performed using the response surface method to determine the optimum mixture. The optimization goals were the maximization of strength parameters in addition to minimization of cost, density, and carbon footprint. Based on the optimization criteria, it was found that 0.7% of cement and 6.5% of FA was the suitable stabilizer choice for RE contractors. Image 1 • Stabilization of RE with the combination of AAFA and cement was studied. • PVT, UCT, DST, economic, and environmental analysis were performed on RE specimens. • Mechanically, 5% AAFA plus 2.5% cement was the most effective stabilizer. • 7.5% cement was the most emissive and 7.5% AAFA was the most expensive stabilizer. • 0.7% cement plus 6.5% AAFA was the most optimum mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gas emissions related to food production in selected countries around the world in 2000, 2007, and 2014 were analyzed in this paper. In recent decades, many studies have suggested that greenhouse gas emissions mostly caused by agricultural production should be reduced. However, a low-carbon agricultural sector often involves a reduction in inputs, which may result in smaller production volumes. Nevertheless, the overarching goal should be to maintain food production at a sufficient level to meet the population's food requirements. Food production is particularly important in the context of the forecasted growth of the world population. In this situation, greenhouse gas emissions per product unit should be regarded as a key indicator that reflects the environmental sustainability level of production processes. Defined as such, environmental sustainability was examined across the entire food production system—referred to as agribusiness. This study calculated the emissions of major greenhouse gases related to food production and compared them to the GDP of agribusiness. The average ratio of the agribusiness carbon footprint to GDP in countries examined was nearly 2 kg of CO 2 equivalent/USD in 2000. This value kept decreasing during the study period, reaching 1.21 in 2014. A decrease in the ratio was recorded despite an increase in agribusiness greenhouse gas emissions, which validated the research hypothesis that an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from agribusiness does not necessarily reflect a decline in the environmental performance of agribusiness production. This is especially true for China and Brazil, whose greenhouse gas emissions related to food production increased considerably in the years examined in this study along with a clear decline in emission levels per unit of agribusiness GDP. This study is innovative, because the literature does not provide any similar calculations for the food production subsystem, especially regarding emission levels per production unit. This approach required the authors to integrate the calculation methods used in agribusiness production with those applicable to agribusiness greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, this study relied on consistent methods developed by the authors to calculate these values. The research adds to existing literature by calculating the carbon footprint for the entire food production system, and it argues that better environmental performance of agribusiness production can be achieved despite higher greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wine sector is highly vulnerable to climate change, especially due to the dependence of vine growing on climatic and environmental conditions. For this reason, adaptation and mitigation measures are important for the future of the wine industry. However, the process of adopting these measures by companies is not sufficiently known. The objective of this paper is to study the action against climate change by the wine sector in Spain, which has 13% of the world's vineyard area. Data capture was carried out through a survey of wineries. First, a questionnaire was designed and validated. This process included semi-structured and in-depth interviews with several winery owners. Second, the survey was conducted on a simple random sample of 87 Spanish wineries, stratified by region. Third, using a multivariate technique of factor analysis, the research found a set of 11 indicators describing the different types of measures adopted. In addition, a cluster analysis provided four different winery profiles. The first group comprises 37% of the wineries, whose sustainability actions are very focused on viticulture. The second group includes 22% of the wineries, which manage their activities according to widespread sustainability criteria. The third group is composed of 21% of the wineries, whose mitigation measures are only focused on energy. The fourth group includes 21% of the wineries, which are characterized by the absence of measures to achieve sustainability. Finally, the characteristics of the wineries and their responses to specific variables were studied, in relation to their belonging to the groups. The results show that the wineries of all the groups are aware of the existence of climate change and that it can seriously affect them. However, the adoption of measures is very variable from one group to another. Regarding the characteristics of the wineries, large companies and young professionals are positively related to the professional management of sustainability. The certification of organic production is frequent in the wineries, but it is not enough to guide them in their action against climate change. The calculation of the carbon footprint, which is not widespread, is associated with the wineries that systematically manage sustainability. In view of the results, some policies are suggested to favour the action of the vitivinicultural sector against climate change. Image 1 • A survey shows that Spanish wineries are aware of the risks of climate change. • Four profiles of wineries have been found, according to the measures they adopt. • The adoption of measures is limited and very variable from one group to another. • A wine sustainability is needed, covering both mitigation and adaptation. • Information to manage actions against climate change must be provided externally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]