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This paper uses directional distance function DDF in order to analyze a group of environmental performance indicators (EPIs) in doing so, selecting desired and undesired inputs and outputs and taking as variables the analyze of glass, paper, cardboard, light packaging and other waste. In a second phase an analysis is generated with five socioeconomic factors (Built for this paper); population density, tourism, the economic activity of the municipality, the economic level per inhabitant and education. As a result, we are able to observe the influence and effects of ecoefficiency on urban waste management (EUWM) in 143 Spanish municipalities. The result panel data is generated via a “Tobit Model” regression analysis showing that tourism and education are the significant independent variables in model. The study shows that a local administration does not need to have a high economic level or be highly populated to reach a good level of eco-efficiency. It is not the money that causes a level of eco-efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green public procurement has been considered an important policy instrument on the path toward realizing sustainable consumption and production. Additionally, universities are important to the promotion of sustainable consumption through their positive effects on students and other stakeholders. This paper analyses the contribution of universities to sustainable consumption through Green Public Procurement initiatives, from both external and internal perspectives. From an external perspective, how universities express their “green” image outwardly has been analysed. The results show that 21.5% universities have put into practice different initiatives related to green procurement (having a public procurement manual), and 72.5% of them have a department in charge of environmental subjects. From an internal perspective, how universities currently position themselves in terms of green procurement policies has been analysed. The results reveal that universities generally include environmental criteria in the public procurement contract specifications and that they regularly organise awareness and media campaigns. The results reflect the perceptions of people in charge of promoting green initiatives inside the universities; however, they may or may not be involved in their institution's mission. The value of this paper lies in its contribution to the knowledge of how initiatives implemented at higher education institutions can contribute to sustainable consumption using theoretical and practical approaches. The biggest obstacle was the difficulty in locating the different initiatives at universities' websites and also in the lack of uniformity for the comparison, dissemination and communication of environment-related activities. The conclusions show that green public procurement is a relatively new activity in Spain, especially in relation to sustainable consumption; however, it needs to be studied thoroughly because it can prompt policymakers to increase green practices through the adoption of measures that actually contribute to sustainable consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic crises pose challenges for the provision of public services but may also open up opportunities for social learning about how to achieve a sustainable society. The main research question addressed in this paper is: can economic crises catalyse social learning for a sustainable society? The hypothesis of the paper is that social learning emerges in association with the reduction of consumption levels that follows degrowth or with the reconfiguration of infrastructure management practices and sustainable innovation that could lead to a transition to sustainability. Following this, we empirically examine whether the crisis has led to social learning about the sustainable provision of public services in two similar municipalities in the north of Spain after the economic crisis of 2008. We develop an interpretative analysis of individual experiences of learning from the crisis using a set of qualitative interviews with individuals who were involved in key decisions about public service delivery during or immediately after the crisis. The analysis suggests that there has been a broader cultural change, which is challenging institutional models of regional development, that there has been a drive towards greater resource efficiency and that some opportunities have opened for entrepreneurs to develop sustainable innovations. The findings support the view that the crisis may have fostered learning responses that could lead to either degrowth or a sustainable transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depopulation is a major challenge for many rural inland areas, as is the case in a considerable number of rural municipalities in Galicia (north-western Spain). The pandemic had a considerable impact on internal migration in 2020, but it was far from being anywhere near high enough to reverse the ongoing trend of population decline, highlighting the need for further action. Thus, this paper has a twofold objective: firstly, to propose an index of rural sustainable development for the rural Galician municipalities, and secondly, to identify the factors related to it. In so doing, a composite index stemming from the Benefit of the Doubt methodology has been proposed in the first stage, an index built from four-dimension factors– economic, demographic, social, and environmental. The empirical evidence of this index has been compared with three additional ones (namely, common weights, super-efficiency, and geometric mean and logistic normalization models). In the second stage, the relationship between the composite index and a set of exogenous variables that affect rural development has been analyzed, the data confirming that the rates of female immigration and occupancy in the hospitality sector favors sustainable development, whereas the distance from the provincial capital hinders it. This paper paves the way for an assessment of the potentialities of each territory, and the evidence found allows actions to be supported that generate sustainable progress in rural Galician municipalities and that are useful for tackling this complex problem. • A new rural sustainable development index based on four dimensions is proposed. • Strengths and weaknesses for each Galician rural municipality are identified. • Environmental factors constitute a driver of rural development in Galicia. • Social aspects (i.e., health, education, services) stand out as main weaknesses. • Policies to boost social care and attract childbearing-age inhabitants are paramount. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates the importance of a balanced approach to sustainable development through the analysis of needs-based workshops in Granada, a Spanish city hit hard by the recent economic crisis. The workshops followed Max-Neef's Human Scale Development proposal that highlights the interdependence of social, economic and environmental systems and stresses the centrality of participatory processes and human needs satisfaction. This understanding of human development aligns with the approach to sustainable development popularised by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, which called for the satisfaction of the needs of both current and future generations together with a balanced articulation of the social, economic and environmental dimensions of development. In practice, and even more so in times of economic crisis, governments are seen to prioritise the economic dimension over the environmental and the societal dimensions through their primary focus on policies to foster economic growth. However, people experiencing unemployment and poor economic prospects may not be in favour of this unbalanced, economic-driven approach. In Granada, participants in needs-based workshops did not emphasise the importance of economic prosperity and job creation when discussing policy goals and interventions to improve needs satisfaction. Economic interventions, such as providing universal coverage of basic needs, were seen as interdependent with personal and institutional transformations aimed at empowering workers and promoting citizen participation, and with environmental initiatives concerning the conservation of local natural spaces and the spread of urban gardening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wine is the main economic resource in the 'Area of Jerez', located in the south of Spain. It is one of the most important wine tourism destinations in the world. However, its sustainable production process, so strongly influenced by climatic conditions, can be clearly affected by the phenomenon of global warming. The ageing process of "Sherry wine" takes place in buildings known as 'Cathedral warehouses', an example of Nearly-Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs). For centuries, they have been used to provide specific ecological conditions for biological ageing without any type of mechanical heating/cooling system. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of climate change on this production model. For this, the annual thermal behavior of a representative winery was monitored during several years. The first energy simulation model of this type of buildings was developed and validated (daily R2 = 99%; hourly R2 = 97%). Finally, the model was simulated by modifying the outdoor climatic conditions (9 years training data sets) for a climate change scenario, applying the 'morphing' method for the transformation of the weather data. The results show that, by the middle of this century, the average outdoor temperature will increase by 2.3 °C (in summer up to 3.6 °C). As a consequence, the temperature in the ageing zone would exceed the comfort limit for 19% of the year, (up to 34% in hot years). For 2080, the prediction is even worse (average value of 27%). As a result, the microorganisms responsible for this unique process could not maintain their activity. This fact will force the sector to face a harsh reconversion through the adoption of new mechanisms and strategies, which endangers the economic sustainability of an entire region dedicated to this practice. Beyond the specific case, the work highlights the need to evaluate the future behavior of NZEBs through simulation. [Display omitted] • Assess the impact of climate change in a Near Zero Energy Building. • "Cathedral warehouses" will lose their usefulness by the middle of this century. • Comfort limits will be exceeded 19% of the year, interrupting biological ageing. • The economic sustainability of an entire region would be endangered. • The need to evaluate the future behavior of Near Zero Energy Building is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called Coal Decree (Royal Decree 143/2010) and subsequent Royal Decree 1221/2010 have modified the historical use of coal trends in the Spanish economy since 2010. The use of domestic coal in Spain's electricity sector will be promoted by the Royal Decree until 2014. This energy strategy on the one hand and political decision on the other were advanced under the flag of energy security and the fulfillment of the 9th Principle of the International Council of Mining and Metals (ICMM), which specified that sustainable development in mining areas should maintain, among other things, employment. The mutual understanding between the government and the local mining industry is confronted with vast criticism at the institutional, firm and social levels regarding: a) the disparities generated between electricity generation technologies; b) the increase of electricity market prices (The National Competition Commission reported the Royal Decree); and c) subsequent environmental harm. The Coal Decree has changed the gradual decrease of coal in the Spanish energy mix since the end of the 1990s. The environmental efficiency gains accumulated over the past several years would be lost as a result of this change of direction in policy. In the last fifteen years, the coal industry in Spain has been under pressure from political decisions that have forced the dismantling of the industry, a labor reconversion of mining areas, and the conversion of coal-fired power plants into combined-cycle gas power plants. This situation considerably reduced CO 2 emissions from coal combustion in Spain, improving the environmental efficiency of the entire economy for many years. Nevertheless, the implementation of the Royal Decree has changed these trends. This paper will examine the environmental consequences of the Coal Decree from 2010 to 2014 based on actual economic and energy demand requirements and actual electricity mix composition. A post-Keynesian energy AGE model to forecast energy demand and the derived CO 2 emissions will be applied to evaluate the change in the reduction of emissions observed in the electricity sector since 2005 and in the Spanish economy since 2010. The results will be compared to other alternative scenarios of CO 2 emissions evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Traditionally, energy balances in agrarian production have been used to calculate the impact of food on the Spanish economy in physical terms. However, this tool is clearly insufficient. Human diet has undergone significant changes in recent decades. Between production and consumption, previously non-existent or insignificant processes such as transportation, packaging, processing, distribution, preservation, etc. have come to the fore. This article aims to evaluate the energy cost of the Spanish agri-food (AFS) system in the year 2000 with a view to ascertaining the relative importance of each link in the agri-food chain. This information is essential when it comes to designing any strategy for sustainable de-growth. The results of this research show that feeding the Spanish population is an inefficient process: the Spanish AFS currently consumes 1408 PJ, while all of its residents combined consume only 190 PJ. Agrarian production is effectively the main source of this inefficiency (34% of the primary energy consumed), but not the only one: processes such as the preservation and preparation of food in the home (18%), transportation (17%) and packaging (10%) show that the way we feed ourselves is not sustainable. The paper makes a strong point that a fundamental transformation of the AFS is required. A move towards organic farming and corresponding new consumption patterns (i.e., local, seasonal food, less meat consumption) may considerably reduce resource use in the AFS and contribute to sustainable de-growth in Spain. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The implementation of urban sustainability practices is affected by political obstacles, and diverse political ideologies may defend different city models. Sustainable policy design could also be affected by several factors that cause the deflection of resources initially allocated to other groups that are contrary to the concerns pursued and have the power to veto sustainable plans by exerting pressure on the party in power. In this sense, the aim of this paper is to show the impact that political factors have on cities’ sustainability, and the effect of both on cities’ economic development. To do so, we used the 78 Spanish cities with a population over 100,000 studied by MERCO (Spanish Corporate Reputation Monitor) as regards their levels of sustainability for the fiscal years 2008 and 2009. Both relationships have been tested empirically through two dependence models using linear regression techniques. The results obtained show that political competition improves cities’ sustainability, while a leftist ideology has an inverse impact. On the other hand, a significant direct relationship has been observed between urban sustainability and municipal economic activity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Focusing on the sustainability challenge, a growing number of Universities are redefining their core strategies in order to adapt to the real social needs and expectations of their stakeholders. Beyond integrating sustainability into the University''s internal activities (curriculum, research, operations, etc.), the challenge seems to be integrating the University with the sustainable development paths of society. For the last 10 years the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) has tackled this challenge through an overarching strategic plan. The latest strategy, UPC Sustainable Plan 2015 has adopted a different focus, which was designed through a participatory approach, involving many internal and external stakeholders. This work aims to use a conceptual framework based on systems transitions to assess the systems change potential of a University strategy, in this case, the sustainability strategy of UPC. The main objectives of this paper are: to present the sustainability strategy participatory design process and its outcomes at UPC; to analyse the strategy change potential through a new transition/systems renewal method that is proposed; and to compare it with the UPCs previous environmental strategy; The work concludes that the systems transition potential is currently higher with the new strategy and discusses the elements that explain this finding. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]