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Sea purslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum) was cultivated for two 90-day sequences at two spacings, and with various soil amendments, to evaluate its potential to arrest the increase in soil salinity and sodicity associated with irrigation using paper- and pulp-mill effluent. Its phytodesalination capacity (PDC) with respect to Na ranged from 162 to 226 kg/ha in the first sequence and 167 to 250 kg/ha in the second sequence; the PDC is reliable even under drought stress. Addition of amendments, in particular pressmud compost, increased the average Na+ uptake by 38%, leading to the highest PDC of 250 kg/ha for a single crop sequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the impact of sales promotions that are featured in store flyers distributed by prominent retailers and their capacity to attract consumers to their establishments. A distinctive conceptual framework is introduced that scrutinizes the influence of ethically-minded consumer behavior, digital citizenship/literacy, and a retailer's orientation toward environmental sustainability and explicit ecological concerns. A quasi-experimental design was used to formulate four distinct scenarios from a possible set of eight, stemming from the combinations of three variables: 2 Retailer Positioning (green vs. without explicit ecological claims) × 2 Flyer Mediums (paper vs. digital) × 2 Discount Levels (5% discount vs. 30% discount). Through an online survey, a sample of 269 responses was garnered to gauge consumer reactions to these store flyers, evaluating their attitudes and receptiveness. The findings suggest that attitudes toward paper flyers were more favorable when presented by non-green retailers compared to their green counterparts. This can be attributed to a perceived inconsistency between a green brand positioning and the use of paper flyers. Furthermore, the propensity to transition to digital flyers was notably stronger for green retailers compared to non-green retailers, but this inclination was most pronounced when higher discounts were offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the tragedy in Ukraine deepens, it's clear that the world should end its dependency on Russian oil. It will be ironic, however, if nations disentangling themselves from this compromised energy source instead turn to another energy source with destructive impacts: harvesting and burning forest wood for fuel, which increases carbon emissions compared to fossil fuels, and degrades forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Sustainability Matters: Prospects for a Just Transition in Calgary, Canada's Petro-City" is a book by Noel Keough and Geoff Ghitter that explores various issues related to sustainability in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The authors cover topics such as urban planning, transportation, energy, equity, diversity, and governance. The book argues that Calgary's growth and development have been driven by land developers and business interests, resulting in a large ecological footprint and an unsustainable city. The authors propose solutions and draw on examples from other cities to increase sustainability in Calgary. However, the book lacks discussion on how to build political support for these proposals and appeal to a broader range of political values. [Extracted from the article]

A call for papers for a second Special Issue on environmental attunement in health, sport and physical education is presented. Suggested themes include notions of the environment and nature in research and practice, possibilities and challenges of translating environment, sustainability and nature from policy and curriculum documents into practice, and philosophical and theoretical links to emplaced and embodied learning. Submission instructions are presented.

This paper addresses the discussion on the Anthropocene in environmental education research. It aims to enrich and widen the debate about the appropriateness of humanist approaches to environmental education and sustainability. In response to criticism about anthropocentric responses to human-made environmental destruction, the authors introduce a version of Eastern humanism: Tu Weiming's 'Anthropocosmism'. This idea of a non-anthropocentric humanism embedded in the cosmic order is strikingly different from the anthropocentric separatism typical of Western humanism. Moving beyond a blanket condemnation of humanism, this paper explores what a specific, non-Western form of humanism may have to offer in response to anthropogenic ecological crises. The argument is developed that Anthropocosmism can help us fully recognize humans' exceptional ethical responsibility in light of these crises without falling into the mistake of Western humanism's dominant discourse that connects this exceptionalism to forms of human superiority over and domination of other-than-human nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper approaches climate change as a superordinate concern that should guide a holistic transformation of formal schooling towards integration and sustainability. The call for climate change education (CCE) has been amplified by international organizations and youth protestors alike, united by a shared concern for our planet. By combining CCE with principles of transformative learning (TL), the paper outlines a framework for transformative climate change education (TCCE). If climate change fits the description of a super wicked problem, this is also true of TCCE, which requires the simultaneous transformation of curricula, pedagogies, and assessment systems. The paper argues that the implementation of TCCE faces significant challenges because it disputes the underlying values of our transmissive educational systems. Those challenges are formulated here as a series of questions, which are followed by a discussion of sustainability pedagogies that help learners build capacity for understanding and acting on climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines how ideas of 'degrowth' might be used to reimagine sustainable forms of education technology. In essence, degrowth calls for a proactive renewal of technology use around goals of voluntary simplicity and slowing-down, community-based coproduction and sharing, alongside conscious minimalization of resource consumption. The paper considers how core degrowth principles of conviviality, commoning, autonomy and care have been used to develop various forms of 'radically sustainable computing'. The paper then suggests four ways in which degrowth principles might frame future thinking around education technology in terms of: (i) curtailing current manipulative forms of education technology, (ii) bolstering existing convivial forms of education technology; (iii) stimulating the development of new convivial education technologies; and (iv) developing digital technologies to achieve the eventual de-schooling of society. It is concluded that mobilisation of these ideas might support a much-needed reorientation of digital technology in education along low-impact, equitable lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision to implement a biogas production project involves the evaluation of multiple variables, such as the problem to be solved, the biodigester, business model, investment, and final products. An integrative literature review was conducted, in which 58 papers were obtained and relevant criteria for decision-making in biogas production projects from organic waste were identified. Three stages were considered in the analysis of the biogas production cycle: initial, plant, and final, as well as the economic, environmental, and social aspects that influence the decision. In general, the publications are dispersed over 30 different journals. The methodology used in most studies is empirical, quantitative, and descriptive, with data collected mainly from secondary sources. From the studies, 499 original criteria were identified, which were classified into one of four categories: economic, environmental, social, and technical, which cover a total of 39 sub-criteria. Economic and technical criteria were the most frequent in publications, while environmental and social criteria were less common and less prioritized. This suggests that there is a tendency to prioritize economic and technical dimensions over environmental and social dimensions in the analysis of the papers found. Finally, a preliminary decision-making model based on the findings is proposed. Implications: The integrative review of the literature on biogas and decision-making presented in this study holds significant implications for policy and practice in the field of sustainable energy production, organic waste management and decision making for public managers. By analyzing 159 papers and developing a comprehensive classification system, we have identified key sub-criteria for decision-making in various stages of the biogas production cycle. The predominance of technical and economic sub-criteria demonstrates the priorities of the current state of biogas projects and, at the same time, the need to promote balance between the technical, economic, social and environmental spheres in decision-making in order to achieve truly sustainable biogas projects. Policymakers can utilize these findings to promote the adoption of more holistic decision-making approaches that consider diverse factors, fostering the development of environmentally-friendly and socially equitable biogas ventures. This research provides valuable insights into aligning biogas production with broader sustainability goals and guides policymakers in formulating evidence-based strategies for the advancement of renewable energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the emergence of the concept of sustainable development, the Olympic Games have become a vehicle to demonstrate and promote the principles and practices of sustainability. The aim of this paper is to explain and evaluate how the application of sustainable development in the context of the Summer Olympic Games has evolved. Two processes have been influential in this change: first, the institutional expectations of the International Olympic Committee have encouraged greater responsibility towards the creation of legacies by potential host cities through the IOC Charter, the Olympic Agenda 2020, and the Olympic Agenda 2020+5; and second, the context and inventiveness of host cities has created new perspectives on sustainability to secure the event and raise its global profile. This paper will focus on the sustainability benchmarks established in London 2012 and evaluate whether these have been continued or extended in the subsequent editions of the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro (2016), Tokyo (2021) and Paris (2024). The changing discourses reveal the tensions between the IOC's agendas for the event, the motivations of the host cities and the realities of delivery in changing socio-economic and political circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framing climate policy actions to be acceptable by various stakeholders in cities poses a critical task for urban governance. Despite the proliferation of studies on urban climate change governance in the past decades, framing as a mechanism for agenda-setting in local policymaking has received little attention. This paper draws on the literature on climate change discourse to analyze the content of framing and its reasoning in the two municipalities located in the Arctic: Murmansk (Russia) and Tromsø (Norway). Using qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews, document reviews, and discourse analysis, the paper finds that climate change is absent in the political discourse in Murmansk. At the same time, Tromsø authorities recognize climate change as a global and a local problem and incorporate it into local policies. It also identifies three factors that explain the (non)framing of climate change by the municipal authorities: (1) local authority to frame climate issues, (2) local political party branches’ climate preferences, and (3) prior experiences with weather extremes and scientific knowledge. Given that cities in the Arctic are on the front lines of climate change, learning from their framing experiences, other cities across the globe can seize the opportunities for their efforts to address climatic impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public library serves as the point of convergence and the vector for information. However, the role of public libraries in promoting and contributing to the SDGs has been largely overlooked. This paper examines the strategic role public libraries can play in promoting SDGs and proffers key strategies for public libraries in promoting sustainable development. It is concluded in the paper that the public library that serves as the knowledge repository of the public owes the duty to ensure the dissemination of relevant information to educate, inform and mobilize the public toward collaborative efforts to save the growing cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing a green supply chain is becoming popular in the context of sustainable development. To address this academic concern, this paper designs a multi-product, multi-echelon green supply chain network (GSCN) from economic and environmental aspects. During the modeling process, the main challenge is to access the accurate probability distributions of uncertain parameters from limited historical data. To overcome this difficulty, this paper develops a distributionally robust design framework for bi-objective GSCN, where the distribution information of uncertain parameter is partially available and characterized by ambiguity sets. For the tractability, this paper discusses robust counterpart reformulation under Wasserstein-distance-based ambiguity sets. Finally, the obtained mixed integer programming model is resolved via commercial optimization software. To validate the proposed optimization framework, we design a meat supply chain network for a Chinese realistic food enterprise. The computational results demonstrate that the proposed distributionally robust model can provide reliable solutions compared with stochastic optimization method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A shift from memorable to transformative experiences is taking place in the emerging transformation economy. Experiences constitute the essence of the tourism industry. While the literature has recognized the link between sustainability and local food, how local food affects tourists’ perceived sustainability, service experience, satisfaction, and advocacy is little known. This paper contributes to filling this research gap by examining the relationship between local food and sustainability at Spanish destinations within the transformative service theoretical framework. We conducted a questionnaire on 1476 Spanish tourists to show that service experience, perceived sustainability, and local food, are fundamental to any tourist destination strategy. Data reveal that perceived sustainability is a determining factor of tourists’ service experience at the destination, and the perception of local food reinforces perceived sustainability. Moreover, tourists’ service experience significantly and positively affects satisfaction and, consequently, advocacy. The significance of safe experience as an additional dimension of the service experience is also shown. This paper contributes to the transformative service literature in the field of tourism by demonstrating the enhancing role of local food over visitors’ sustainable experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface charge density is a key factor that greatly enhances the performance of a natural-based triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), which is essential for future sustainable sensing and harvesting devices. This work introduced a conductive interlayer between a main frictional layer and electrode. This approach can suppress the charge recombination rate and improve the amount of charges produced during the triboelectrification process. Bacterial cellulose (BC) film was selected as a main frictional layer for the TENG. A conductive nanomaterial, i.e. silver flake, was incorporated into the BC film as an intermediate layer for enhancing TENG performance. As firstly reported, the maximum electrical outputs for the multi-layer BC structure could be found when using silver flake/BC composite (ratio 1:5) as an intermediate layer, which has 122 V and 8.2 µA of output voltage and current, respectively. This is higher than the output voltage and current of a single layer BC TENG by approximately 3 and 8 times, respectively. The maximum output power of ∼440 µW is achieved by connecting with a load resistor of ∼10 MΩ. This demonstrates an efficient strategy for designing a high performance energy harvester by adding an intermediate layer for the target of practical purposes in sustainable systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As cities increasingly adopt diverse ethnic, social, and cultural characteristics, there is an emerging logic for planning and policy to reflect this hyper-diversity (inclusion) while resolving the looming sustainability-related challenges. However, what is not adequately addressed in the current literature on urban planning – which could also solidify the justification for more citizen inclusion – is what happens when citizens are involved in planning from the perspective of sustainability. In response, this paper asks a key question: "What are the implications, in the case of urban foodscape, when citizens are involved in planning from the perspective of sustainability?" This question is investigated in this paper in the domain of urban foodscapes and through qualitative interviews, with the support of maps, in the Dutch city of Almere. A novel theoretical combination of just sustainabilities and social licence to operate (SLO) was utilised to frame citizen inclusion in foodscape planning. The findings showed that based on everyday practical experiences of food access in the city, citizens were more concerned about social interaction, the representation of food from cultural origins, and local food production. This theoretical combination, as a way of deepening inclusion, would help avoid the tendency of urban planning being used as an instrument for glossing over social injustice under the guise of citizen participation. This paper, therefore, argues that SLO can be a key pathway for actualising just sustainabilities in both urban planning research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundAimMethodsFindingsConclusionNurses, the largest healthcare workforce, are well placed to provide leadership in initiatives that promote planetary health. Yet, few practical examples of nurse leadership in the health sector’s response to climate change are evident in the scholarly literature.The aim of this discussion paper is to profile Australian nurses who are leading initiatives designed to champion planetary health and promote sustainable practice.The paper presents a series of case studies derived from interviews conducted in October and November 2023.The nurses’ experiences and insights, along with the challenges they have encountered, are presented as evidence of Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leadership.The case studies demonstrate that appointment of more nurses with climate and sustainability expertise will accelerate the implementation of responsive strategies that target waste management, emissions reduction and climate resilience across healthcare organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the complex interplay between economic development and environmental sustainability in the context of India's pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It examines the inherent contradictions and trade-offs involved, particularly in agriculture, industrialisation, and infrastructure sectors. The paper highlights how economic growth, essential for improving living standards, often conflicts with environmental objectives. The paper underscores the importance of integrating economic, environmental, and social objectives to achieve a sustainable and inclusive future for India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes and probes the plausibility of a framework to explain how business associations position themselves politically as trade-related sustainability obligations get stronger. An analysis of the submissions of EU business associations during a consultation on trade and sustainability indicates that firm-level and organisational characteristics explain well trade associations' political cleavages. The paper can provide new insights to help understand a major development in the EU and beyond. The EU is passing through an unprecedented shift in its approach to trade and sustainability as it is likely to rely on legal sanctions to enforce sustainability commitments in trade agreements. Understanding the position of EU business interests in that process is relevant to project the consequences of such shift. Besides, as sustainability provisions in trade agreements get stronger, associations may play an ever-important role in promoting their members collectively or in shielding them from reputational costs. Understanding their political positioning is thus key to understanding the very politics of trade and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyprus is a nation of great history, old and new, that makes up a controversial and often stressful environment in which social work is practiced. The intent of this paper is to highlight the Cypriot context and discuss how the Global Agenda is integrated in it. Drawing on the key objectives of the Global Agenda — promoting social and economic equalities; promoting the dignity and worth of peoples; promoting community and environmental sustainability; and, strengthening recognition of the importance of human relationships — the paper explores the challenges and barriers that social work in the nation faces in an attempt to promote the wellbeing and growth of communities, families and individuals. With consideration to the many and rich initiatives toward increasing social solidarity, collaboration and community engagement, the paper makes suggestions to overcome the challenges that prevent social work from fully committing to the agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the roles, objectives, and trade-offs in a two-pillar pension system consisting of tax-financed, public pensions and defined contribution, individual pensions. A pension system has many moving parts and our aim is to provide the reader with an understanding of how the parts interact and work together, a theme rarely addressed in the literature. In the first part of this paper, we give a qualitative overview of market failures, behavioural aspects, and distributional issues that form the background for a multi-pillar pension system design with mandatory components. In the second part of this paper, we present three thematic, quantitative analyses that illustrate fundamental relationship concerning wealth, inequality, insurance, and demographic changes. This paper also contains a detailed description of the agent-based model used for the analyses. The model is calibrated to Danish data, but the insights drawn from the model are of general validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper argues that there are unrealized benefits from a cross-fertilization between research on sustainable tourism and sustainability transitions studies. With the aim to stimulate such cross-fertilization, the paper identifies three contemporary streams in sustainability transitions studies that are particularly relevant for sustainable tourism: deep transitions, transitions in practice, and the geography of transitions. These three streams present complementary perspectives, which can help reach a more nuanced understanding of transition processes in the tourism sector. The paper concludes that while research on sustainable tourism can benefit from theories, concepts, and frameworks from research on sustainability transitions, research on sustainable tourism can support further conceptual developments in sustainability transitions studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy interventions for tourism sustainability transitions are carried out in destinations worldwide. Yet, how decision-making processes and strategies could adversely affect communities and regions is an increasingly raised question, particularly following the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism destinations. Drawing on the transitions and justice literature, this paper explores what sustainability policies and rapid government interventions signify for impacted tourism communities. This paper uses Boracay island in the Philippines as a case study, a destination which has been subject to an extensive policy intervention ordered by the national government from 2018 onwards. The Boracay case indicates that a short and radical policy intervention did benefit the island, but that it could have been more societally beneficial if principles and policies of just transitions were more explicitly addressed. Key findings of this paper, based on an analysis of stakeholder views collected through interviews, questionnaires, and policy documents, reveal that the structural absence of dialogue and limited socio-economic support measures resulted in an island community that felt substantially ignored, unfairly treated, and sceptical about future actions. With the just transition lens, this paper offers practical and methodological guidance in reconciling tourism sustainability transitions with justice challenges. We conclude that the just transition lens provides important insights and lessons for transitioning tourism destinations towards environmentally sustainable futures in a socio-economically responsible way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until the end of WW2, the Margaret River region (MRR) was a popular domestic destination based on cave explorations. A series of incremental innovations between the 1950s and 1990s reconfigured the destination into a thriving international tourism destination that offers diverse experiences based on wine, surf, and nature. Nonetheless, contemporary external and internal forces are stimulating another shift – one towards sustainability. Apart from the global pro-sustainability agenda, this sustainability transition in tourism is mainly driven by two emerging niches: eco-accreditation and grassroots organisations. This paper adopts the multilevel perspective (MLP) – a commonly adopted framework in the sustainability transitions research field – and combines it with a typology of tourism innovation to examine the evolution of the MRR as a tourist destination. The paper addresses the ongoing sustainability transition in the MRR and discusses both top-down and bottom-up initiatives that stimulate it. In order to provide a holistic view of this transition, the paper also pays attention to the first transition in the destination (i.e. from caves to wine, surf, and nature), and examines its influence on the ongoing sustainability transition. As such, this paper aims to help bridge the gap between tourism geography and the interdisciplinary field of sustainability transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While innovation is known to catalyse solutions to global sustainable development challenges, lack of engagement from stakeholders during conceptualisation and development may influence the degree of success of implementation. This paper presents a complete and novel engagement methodology, developed from value led business modelling approaches, for working with multi-sector stakeholders. The methodology can be used to determine barriers and facilitators to clinical practice innovations or translational research, within a country-specific context. The approach has then been applied in the Cambodian prosthetics and orthotics sector to provide a practice-based exemplar application of the framework. This approach seeks to ensure the suitability and sustainability of clinical practice and research programmes being implemented within a complex ecosystem. A theoretical basis, drawn from academic and business innovation sectors, has been consolidated and adapted for practical application to design, direct, and inform initiatives in low resource settings. The methods presented provide a way to both develop and articulate the mission, vision, and goals of any proposed change, and to effectively communicate these with stakeholders in a way that engages the personal and professional values that exist in their ecosystem. It provides a structured process through which meaningful conversations can happen, and a basis for relationship management with key stakeholders; intrinsic to enable a sustained legacy from research and development. The engagement from stakeholders during conceptualisation and throughout development can determine the success, or not, of any implementation and scale of innovation. This paper presents a conceptual stakeholder-led engagement methodology, developed from value led business modelling approaches, for determining barriers and facilitators to translational global healthcare research in a country-specific context, in this case the Cambodian prosthetics and orthotics sector. Subsequent research and development work in this area needs to carefully manage and negotiate influencing factors identified through the application of the described methodology, to ensure initiatives (whether research or wider national development work) are sustainable and successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Speculative Realism in Environmental Education and the Philosophy of Education" was a joint research symposium for the networks on Environmental and Sustainability Education (NW 30) and Philosophy of Education (NW 13), held at the European Conference of Education Research (ECER), 25 August, 2023, in Glasgow, Scotland. The symposium aimed to open up discussion on renewed interest in realisms in the field of philosophy, and what that might mean for education research and the field of environmental education research in particular. As backdrop, environmental education harbours strong democratic traditions as well as recognitions of relationships to a world that is composed by more than human positions and desires. The symposium then forms part of an ongoing discussion of how these positions are understood and intermingle in a rapidly changing world. The expectation of the event was to broaden discussion about the voices present in environmental education, human and otherwise, and sharpen engagement with established traditions within the field. In brief, three paper presentations and discussion by Graham Harman probed questions of: (a) the lightness and darkness of the objects of education, (b) who visibly desires which object in/as education, and (c) the risks of literalisms and correlationalisms in, for example, what is alluring to, and pursued by, educators. In other words, what we care about in and as environmental and sustainability education, what is perceived/treated as peculiar, and what is treated as normal and perverse to the realities of education in the Anthropocene, all matter to the work of speculative realism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecovillages, communities in which people integrate self-built houses, shared facilities, organic farming, composting, and self-governance into everyday practices, serve as laboratories for ongoing experiments in sustainable living. While topics like sustainability, simple living, and making are well discussed in the HCI community, we aim to investigate what socio-environmental issues are identified in ecovillages and how and with which ethos makers address these issues in their making practices. In this paper, we present findings from an ethnographic investigation around sustainable making by focusing on the endeavours of three ecovillages and highlighting their ethos to draw out lessons for HCI researchers. We discuss the relationship between making practices and sustainability from four aspects: space, material, network, and meaning, and provide lessons and implications for the HCI community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa's urbanization rate has quadrupled from 14% in 1950 to about 44% in 2022. A variety of urban growth models have been used to measure and monitor urbanization, its drivers and implications for urban planning and sustainability. This paper reviews the performance of various Cellular Automata (CA)-based urban growth models and their implications for the urbanization processes in Africa. To this end, we employ a systematic review approach to identify the final 18 articles published in Web of Science-indexed journals until 2022. Our review found that the CA-based urban growth model has been successfully used in Africa to track the impacts of urban growth, assess different city growth scenarios and compare the performance of various CA-integrated models. Yet, most of the reviewed CA-based studies have focused on more urbanized regions of the continent. The result also reveals that integrating the CA model with other statistical methods improves its broader application and practicality than a conventional CA model. Our findings give planners, policymakers, and other urban stakeholders a more in-depth understanding of the challenges of unplanned urbanization and the need for meaningful participation from urban stakeholders in city growth and sustainable land use management that balances urban growth and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, bioplastics have been making great strides in a promising way toward mitigating the damage that traditional plastics cause to the environment. This article discusses the status of cellulose and starch-based bioplastics in detail. To provide readers with helpful information, a variety of processes are analyzed, including polymerization, injection molding, film casting, 3D printing solvent-free methods, and electrospinning, along with prospects and challenges. This research also examines the numerous applications of bioplastics, including medical equipment, food packaging, textiles, and healthcare appliances with sustainable innovative concepts. In the end, the paper highlights a future outlook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As experiments and models of participatory, sustainable living, ecovillages demonstrate how to enact just, cooperative, and regenerative economic and social constructs, as alternatives to 'unsustainable' capitalist economies and consumerist/individualistic lifestyles. Work is central to these enactments, which provides an opportunity to examine the learning that happens in these spaces, and how that learning may be applied for broader eco-social change. This paper reports on case studies of learning through enterprise work in two ecovillages in the USA. Analysis focuses on what is learned and how it is learned, the role of the learning environment and interactions within the ecovillage on learning outcomes and processes, as well as barriers to learning, and the transferability of learning outside the ecovillage context. Findings evidence a high degree of informal 'on the job' learning, resulting in both job-specific skills and knowledge, and general competencies in eco/ethical business management. Furthermore, participants imbue activities with shared values of ecology and equality, while interacting with oppositional broader market logics, and thus learn to 'trade off' – taking on some aspects of the mainstream economy (e.g. competitiveness, profitability, (self)exploitation), in exchange for 'the greater good.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to investigate how perceived sustainability and perceived natural rarity influence willingness to pay more for luxury. The mediating role of consumer desire for luxury was also examined. Results suggest that perceived natural rarity and perceived sustainability are positively related but distinct constructs. Perceived natural rarity was found to have a significant and positive influence on consumers' willingness to pay more, mediated by their desire for luxury. Similarly, consumer desire for luxury was also found to be a significant mediator for the relationship between perceived sustainability and willingness to pay more among consumers. This is the first paper to empirically test the relationship between perceived natural rarity and perceived sustainability. The findings provide innovative insights into the use of sustainable yet luxurious raw materials in the luxury industry, which can have significant implications for evoking consumer desires and purchasing intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major motivation for international travel is to experience cross-cultural interactions. Such interactions may occur outside the typical travel milieus. They can even take place prior to the actual travel to impact travel intentions. This paper focuses on cross-cultural encounters between the members of a community and the diaspora from a potential host destination who live among them. The research investigates the willingness of individuals in the community to travel to the diaspora members' home country for the first time after having established relationships with them. Affect control theory and relational exchange theory are incorporated into a structural equation model to examine these relationships – focusing on natives of India living in the United States. The study identifies individual warmth and trust formed between the Indian diaspora and their American acquaintances as highly significant factors that could impact the latter's travel intentions – that is, the willingness of Americans who have not visited India to consider traveling there to further experience the Indian culture. The study provides insights into sustaining the diaspora communities' cultural identities and underscores their intuitive role as cultural ambassadors outside their countries of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategies of outside air reduction, fan speed adjustments, and temporary system shutdowns can be effective ways to maintain or improve the preservation quality of a collection environment while reducing the financial burden and carbon footprint of a collecting institution. However, current criteria guiding safe implementation of energy-saving strategies focus on temperature and RH alone, which ignores risks posed by pollutants. This research aims to address this by monitoring indoor and outdoor-generated pollutants at four collecting institutions before and during implementing energy-saving strategies. Alongside temperature and RH loggers, continuous pollution monitors were located within the mechanical system and collection spaces. Additionally, energy monitors were installed on the mechanical systems serving the collection spaces to quantify the energy consumption prior to and during operation modifications. Initial results indicate pollutant levels remain stable during the test periods, and did not exceed baseline concentrations. In this paper, the lessons learned from this field research are addressed and practical implications for optimizing sustainable environmental controls are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper draws on a case study of newly constructed passive houses in Sweden and explores how architecture and the material influence everyday life. We suggest the new aesthetics as a potential theoretical tool for understanding user experiences of low-energy housing, an approach that considers how atmospheres are produced and consumed, by whom and by what means. We approach passive house designs as the materialisation of environmental sustainability, facilitating the fulfilment of long-term goals for energy efficiency and renewable materials. In our case study, apartment designs involving lofts, timber and extensive glazing sometimes conflicted with the passive house concept once the residents had settled in their homes. Some designs, for example lofts, failed to facilitate comfortable everyday life, while designs with renewable materials enhanced a homely atmosphere. We propose to acknowledge the labour that is required by the residents of these buildings to create thermal comfort at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the wider discourse on sustainability and housing by showing how the dynamics of temporality and care plays out in processes of renovation. We explore five empirical cases of renovation of rental housing estates on the outskirts of Gothenburg, Sweden. Our study draws on the analysis of documents, observations, and qualitative interviews with key actors. We consider renovation a caring practice, both in the practical sense of “caring for” and in the emotional and ethical sense of “caring about”. We argue that conflicts between stakeholders in renovation processes are better understood through attending to the ways in which notions of care are intertwined with the temporal organization of peoples’ lives and organizational processes. We conclude that unawareness or negligence towards the various temporalities involved in renovation processes provide obstacles for collective processes of caring and raising sustainability concerns in renovation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) have grown globally since the late 1990s to promote responsible consumption and production in the agri-food sector, although their expansion varies across countries and socio-economic contexts. Initially, the Fair Trade movement and development organizations established AFNs to address socio-environmental challenges faced by producers in the Global South. However, as cooperation and development agendas evolve, more Fair Trade and development actors are forming North-North AFNs (N-N AFNs) to tackle socio-economic imbalances in agri-food systems of the Global North, especially in the EU. Despite their prevalence, these initiatives and their structures lack extensive academic study. Drawing on Le Velly’s framework for the analysis of AFNs, this paper conducts an in-depth qualitative analysis of three N-N AFN initiatives in Belgium, Italy, and Greece. The analysis demonstrates that while these initiatives share common objectives in terms of fairness and shortness of the agri-food system, variations arise in terms of its accessibility and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, the findings emphasize that there is no one-size-fits-all model for N-N AFNs across Europe, as different organizational arrangements – such as farmers’ cooperatives, consumers’ cooperatives, and business partnerships – emerge in response to specific project goals within each national context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of artificial intelligence applications based on machine learning is creating not only many opportunities but also risks. The recent regulatory and political debate, at the international level, emphasizes the urgent need to develop appropriate statistical methods that can measure the safety and the risks of AI applications. In line with this emerging need, the aim of this work is to launch a call for discussion papers in the Statistics journal on safe machine learning methods. To this aim, we define which metrics to develop and an example of a recent proposal, along with its advantages and disadvantages [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change enhanced by human beings has become one of the greatest challenges humanity has faced in its entire existence. In this paper, an analysis is made of the variables that influence the environmental perception of the population of thirty countries —28 European countries, USA and China—, in order to estimate the most explanatory factors and identify the causes of the appreciable differences in awareness between States. The study is based on a representative survey conducted between 2021 and 2022 among more than thirty thousand people in the above-mentioned countries. After a first level of aggregate analysis to establish perceptual differences between States, a more detailed study is carried out which, after considering a wide variety of socio-demographic variables, leads to the conclusion that the population’s perception and awareness of the climate issue is markedly ideological. Nevertheless, within what is conventionally understood as awareness, it is possible to differentiate between multiple aspects: awareness of the seriousness, perception of impacts, predisposition to an eventual change in habits, support for government measures, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper describes the integration of geographic information system (GIS) technology in a high school environmental science classroom, specifically examining the impact of GIS technology on student engagement, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary learning for Education for Sustainability (EfS). This environmental science classroom utilized ArcGIS Online and StoryMaps to facilitate hands-on learning, enabling students to explore spatial relationships, analyze data, and communicate insights to foster engagement and critical thinking. This GIS technology promotes interdisciplinary learning by connecting essential environmental issues with location and other social factors. Students deepen their understanding of human-environment interactions by interpreting spatial data, empowering them to propose sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. Using ArcGIS Online and StoryMaps, students engaged in guided lessons, explored sustainability topics, and created their own StoryMaps based on the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The findings highlight positive engagement, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary learning impacts. Students demonstrated increased interest, understanding of complex issues, and developed analytical skills through spatial data analysis. The approach encouraged interdisciplinary thinking and expanded awareness of ongoing environmental challenges, supporting EfS goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability is an important issue that we all face, including higher education students. We assert that the transition into the contemporary higher education context needs educators to plan transition pedagogy that engages students with the world during their studies, instead of solely using curriculum as preparation for the future world of work. To investigate this, we explored how students position themselves in relation to sustainability as part of an assessment task in a first-year university transition course and whether this type of assessment provides opportunities for students to experience subjectification. Drawing on Biesta's ([2022]. World-Centred Education: A View for the Present. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group) conception of world-centred education, we applied a novel methodology based on dialogical self theory, developed by Hermans and Bartels ([2021]. Citizenship Education and the Personalization of Democracy. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. ), to analyse the data comprising student reflections on an assessment item oriented toward current sustainability issues. Our findings suggest that when students interact with their peers and encounter challenging content, conflicting internal positions can lead to subjectification and an intention for further action on real-world issues from the commencement of their studies. We propose that the principles of opposition, cooperation and participation provide a practical framework for educators and course designers to purposefully designate space for students to explore positions and practise the generative dialogue needed for thinking and acting in the world as subjects now and in the future. In analysing students' reported experience, our paper contributes to the discussion around implementing world-centred education and provides useful insight into how students engage with sustainability in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two different occasions in the twentieth century John Dewey and Maxine Greene stressed the point that educators should attend to 'what the known demands of us'. Following this dictum, from a critical perspective and with a constructive pedagogical spirit, in this paper we portray a new paradigm for values education that addresses the major challenges to the sustainable futures of young people in the third decade of the twenty first century as well as proposing transformative and empowering educational strategies. Employing the terminology of sustainability in its wider sense, we begin with a widely acknowledged diagnosis of the five major global risks – interconnected and interdependent – that endanger the sustainable future of humanity and nature: environmental, political, social, health, and cultural. We then move to suggest a constructive solution, proposing three conceptual pillars for repairing the world and laying foundation for a thriving sustainable future: (a) Ecohumanism as the paradigm for values education – merging the humanist concern for human dignity, social justice and democracy with the ecological concern for climate stability, biodiversity and environmental sustainability; (b) education of democratic personality and for democratic culture that is holistic and transformative; and (c) a threefold notion of activist pedagogy that addresses the element of cultivating personal agency, empowering political literacy and agency, and engaging students in experiential, holistic, and active teaching-learning experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of keeping livestock is very well suited to addressing the ecological, social, and economic aspects of the sustainable production of our food in school lessons. However, the production of animal-based foods is mainly outside the personal experience of children and young people. To derive relevant implications for teaching, this paper explores the following research question: 'What conceptions do elementary school students have about keeping fattening pigs and dairy cows on farms?' In more detail, this study examines students' conceptions of stock sizes, husbandry practices, and feeding of fattening pigs and dairy cows and how these differ between urban and farm students. For this purpose, six elementary school students (MAge = 8.8 years, SD = 0.4 ; 83% female) from Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia were interviewed. Three of the subjects were growing up on a conventional farm with fattening pigs. The study is informed by the Model of Educational Reconstruction. To elicit students' conceptions, we used semi-structured guided interviews, during which students made a drawing of a farm that they described in detail. The data were evaluated with the help of qualitative content analysis. The study results show a wide range of conceptions, ranging from naive and unbiased conceptions to clear conceptions of modern, conventional livestock farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of threats to their financial sustainability, this paper uses Resource Dependency Theory to explore the challenges being faced by a sample of 10 small new public universities in England. It discusses the responses being taken and prospects for the future in this segment of the sector. It concludes that some of the most important elements of income and expenditure are also areas where institutions have amongst the lowest levels of autonomy, including tuition fees, staff salaries and pension costs. It suggests that institutions are proactively seeking ways to both adapt their strategy and influence the environment in which they operate, including the introduction of new organisational forms, models for employing staff, the diversification into new programmes and markets, and greater use of domestic and international partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of more resilient and sustainable food systems depends on the integration of ecological and sustainability concepts into agricultural systems. One proposed way to achieve this is to shift to 'agroecology'. This concept appears promising, but there is a need to translate it in specific socio-ecological contexts, given that agroecological innovations develop locally and are responsive to local conditions. The objective of this paper is to examine the relevance of an Agroecological Transition for the Special Region of Yogyakarta (SRY), Indonesia, with an emphasis on farmers' perspectives and experiences. Data were gathered from policy documents, field observations and 34 semi-structured interviews with farmers. Findings indicate that although there is limited discourse about agroecology in current policies, some farmers and NGOs have developed agroecological niche innovations. It may be possible to up-scale these niches to a broader context, with planning policies having a potential role in supporting this transition. Furthermore, farmers identify that the planning system can contribute to food sovereignty and Agroecological Transition by preserving agricultural land, managing regional cropping patterns and supporting the development of urban agriculture. These insights broaden existing knowledge around the potential of sustainable food planning through agroecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As governments encourage circular economy (CE) initiatives, markets for waste recirculation are taking shape. But implementation is in its infancy and material circuits are emergent. Early food waste CEs shaped by commercial players emphasise capital investment, routinised forms of waged labour, processing sites distant from food waste sources, and transactional relationships. Less well understood is the potential for vernacular circularity beyond market-based, transactional frames. This paper reports from a collaborative research exercise with a non-profit community farm in nonmetropolitan Australia, seeking to connect with cafés to access food waste for composting. Cafés are a nexus of production and consumption, ubiquitous in the contemporary multicultural Australian context, and therefore ideal for grassroots CEs. Ten local cafes participated, reviewing existing food waste practices, motivations for circularity, and contextual factors including the regional setting. We found that food waste circularity emerges via divergent pathways related to enterprise type and scale, environmental values of actors, place embeddedness, and local relationships. These pathways reflect the place-based attributes and diverse sustainability values of residents and businesses in the coastal, industrial city of Wollongong, where the study is based. Contrasting distant, transactional circuits, are more-than-transactional food waste pathways, developed by microscale actors shaping vernacular material flows and "hacking" public provision of Food Organic and Garden Organic (FOGO) waste services to mobilise environmental values and community relationships. Overlooked by "big policy" more-than-transactional relationships bind producers, intermediaries and consumers in closer loops and, in so doing, enrich place and facilitate an ethic of care for soil and land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into the realm of green restaurants, which seamlessly combine environmentally conscious practices with culinary excellence. It scrutinized 106 reputable hospitality and tourism articles using systematic literature review methods. The analysis, featuring descriptive examination and topic modeling, revealed significant developments in green restaurant research and highlighted their potential to address sustainability challenges. Employing an adapted TCCM framework (Theory, Context, Characteristics, and Methodology), the review suggests new research directions, placing a heightened focus on the "characteristics" aspect to align academic insights with global priorities and industry requirements. This promotes actionable and collaborative strategies for eco-friendly restaurants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the influences and outcomes of He Kāinga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme over 25 years, and their impact on housing and health policy in Aotearoa and internationally. Working in partnership particularly with Māori and Pasifika communities, we have conducted randomised control trials which have shown the health and broad co-benefits of retrofitted insulation, heating and remediation of home hazards, which have underpinned government policy in the Warm Up NZ-Heat Smart programme and the Healthy Homes Standards for rental housing. These trials have been included as evidence in the WHO Housing and Health Guidelines and led to our designation as a WHO Collaborating Centre on Housing and Wellbeing. We are increasingly explicitly weaving Māori frameworks, values and processes with traditional Western science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction of food losses and waste is part of the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (target 12.3) and, consequently, is one of the EU’s political priority in the field of circular economy. In this framework, the target 12.3 of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development stated, by 2030, a not quantified reduction in post-harvest losses and a halving of food waste at the retail and consumers levels; while the EU Commission has recently set the target, by 2030, of reducing by 10% food losses occurred at the stage of processing and manufacturing and by 30% food waste occurred at the stage of retail and consumption. Food losses and waste should primarily be considered an expression of inefficiency of agricultural production processes determining several environmental, social and economic impacts. The quantification of food losses and waste is still an unsolved problem so much so that, in EU; currently available data are only related to the period 2020–2021 and, in many cases, are based on estimates and are not uniform in individual Member States. This makes reliable predictions of results achievable by the European Union particularly difficult. The aim of this paper is to analyze whether the plan of losses and waste reduction established by the EU Commission is able to both ensure the achievement of 2030 Agenda target 12.3 and to make a contribution to improving the sustainability of agri-food systems. In doing so, in addition to Eurostat data on losses and waste, the EU-Commission projections and the latest results of recent studies on environmental, social and economic impact of food losses and waste in EU were used, including indicators on hidden costs of agrifood systems developed by FAO. What observed shows that the EU-Commission reduction plan, if implemented, should result in a reduction of losses and waste inadequate for complying with the recommendation given by the target 12.3. Furthermore, the EU-Commission’s decision not to provide for losses reduction at the agricultural stage should significantly limit environmental benefits, given that much of the negative environmental impacts (GHG, land and water use, etc.) are ascribable to this stage as are, according to FAO estimates, hidden environmental costs. Besides limiting environmental benefits, the EU-Commission reduction plan, focusing only on the food losses and waste reduction in the final stage of supply food chain, could lead to negative social and economic impacts caused by a decline in the demand, which will reduce supply, jobs losses and GDP reduction. The conclusion on this, is that the reduction of food losses and waste is an issue that cannot be addressed separated but needs to be included in a wider program of integrated and complementary measures as a whole clearly aimed at realizing forms of circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the process of adapting the Carbon Literacy for Museums Toolkit to develop a course specifically for the archive sector, Carbon Literacy for Archives, Records and Special Collections. This toolkit was launched to the sector in spring 2024. It discusses why carbon literacy (CL) is important, covering the benefits, co-benefits and what CL is. It examines the impact of carbon literacy training (CLT) on greenhouse gas emission and energy use reduction, and why CLT is so effective in generating the transformational behavioural change that is needed to create a sustainable future.Este artículo revisa el proceso de adaptación del kit de herramientas Carbon Literacy for Museums para desarrollar un curso específico para el sector de archivos, Carbon Literacy for Archives, Records and Special Collections. Este conjunto de herramientas se lanzó al sector en la primavera de 2024. Se analiza por qué la formación sobre carbono (fC) es importante, abarca los beneficios, los beneficios colaterales y qué es fC. Examina el impacto de la capacitación sobre carbono (CsC) en la reducción de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y el uso de energía, y por qué CsC es tan eficaz para generar el cambio de comportamiento transformador que se necesita para crear un futuro sostenible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study surveys circular economy (CE) theoretical building blocks, conceptualisation, and practical implementation within the supply chain. A narrative review synthesises the knowledge and maps research in the CE field. There are six major building blocks: waste management, industrial ecology, bioeconomy, cradle to cradle, green supply chain management, and product-service system. The paper examines their role and their overlapping activity within the supply chain. This study also generates a database containing 43 circular strategies, based on different stages in the supply chain. Each strategy is marked by its contribution towards CE, such as resource conservation, narrowing the loop, slowing the loop, or closing the loop. The database can assist actors to implement possible circular actions and policy makers to formulate supportive legislation. This study contributes to the contention of CE and its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]