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Statistical data, as well as public reports and comments from industry experts, show that the transition of local governments to the digitisation of internal processes has several challenges, mainly related to ensuring sustainability, reducing the impact on the environment, data security, and technical maintenance [2,3]. Therefore, it is essential to assess the situation in local governments and choose the most appropriate support system for Latvia's situation, which would not only be financial support. In public and expert discussions, different visions of the necessary support tools and benefits from the transition of local governments to the digitalisation of internal processes appear. One of the main benefits is reducing paper, which diminishes recycling and resource consumption [5, 6, 11]. The readiness of local government employees for the transition to digitalisation of internal processes has already been written about in previous studies. This study developed four possible scenarios for supporting municipalities in the transition process, and a group of seven experts was selected for their evaluation. The expert survey was conducted in June and July 2023. Five factors influencing the transition were offered for expert evaluation: Technical infrastructure, socialpsychological aspects, legal, security and data protection elements, financial resources, sustainability, and environmental factors. For each group of factors, three factors were suggested to be ranked in order of importance. Then, using the four previously developed support scenarios, the most suitable one was searched using the multi-criteria decision-making method, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The research uses expert surveys, analytical hierarchy process analysis, and statistical data processing methods. As a result of the study, the most suitable support scenario for Latvian municipalities was determined, moving to the digitisation of internal management processes and reducing paper consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Going green... So many projects to reduce environmental impact start this way and continue with the first task being to eliminate printed communication and go paperless and digital. All this is not driven by thoughtful environmental considerations, but by an aversion to paper-based communication that is wrongly anchored in the social consciousness. The authors draw attention to the misconceptions that people have about paper-based communication, showing that they are untrue and that they are often used to greenwash the digital world, thus distracting attention from the harmful environmental impact of their own processes. At the same time, they present the facts against the myths, citing scientific sources and reports, as well as their own research. They analyse the real environmental impacts of paper-based communication and the extent to which technology processes meet sustainability requirements. The world of print communication (including the modern printing industry) attaches great importance to sustainability. The Gutenberg galaxy has provided the basis for the development of human knowledge and culture for half a millennium and plans to continue to play this role in the future. It aims to meet the requirements of environmental sustainability, the circular economy and to work with the rest of the supply chain to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The authors detail and analyse these processes in their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the use of paper is, first and foremost, an essential factor for environmental economics and sustainability. Digital transformation is also one of the tools supporting the environmental economy, improving business efficiency and reducing costs in the following ways: reducing errors and processing times and increasing security and confidentiality. In the document on Digital Transformation Guidelines 2021-2027 (Cabinet of Ministers Order No 490 of 7 July 2021 on Digital Transformation Guidelines 2021-2027. https://likumi.lv/ta/id/324715), one of the visions of the action sub-action: Fully digitised and data-driven core activities of public administration (4.4.9.3) is "Public administrations and local authorities organise their work and cooperate exclusively digitally, using a single structured data space accessible to all authorities". Starting the digital transformation process and implementing an environmental economy requires planning, strategy development and a change of thinking in the company. For this reason, it is essential to understand the current situation and readiness for change. The aim of the study is to find out the preparedness of Liepaja state municipality companies to switch to a paperless municipality. The research highlights opportunities, weaknesses and recommendations for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high jewelry industry, and its supply chain, are considered complex systems that have positively affected the global economy as well as potentially harmed the environment and society due to its resources exploitation. As a consequence, consumers are increasingly demanding for sustainable processes that guarantee traceability through the extraction and manufacturing phases. The aim of this paper is to present and evaluate potential solutions for the traceability of high jewelry raw materials. First of all, this paper is intended to analyze how recent initiatives have demonstrated that the mining process is the most challenging one in terms of sustainability. Secondly, the paper focuses on Information technologies, including Blockchain-based technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Non-Fungible Token (NFT) and Near Field Communication (NFC). To address this issue, high jewelry companies and organizations have started integrating these technologies providing superior alternative in terms of verifiability, traceability, and security in comparison to paper-based methods. To this end, this paper offers a detailed overview of current methods of traceability for precious high jewelry raw materials, including gold, diamonds, and colored gemstones. In conclusion, the paper presents a comparison of different methods of traceability available, considering and evaluating opportunities and challenges for existing methods as well as potential new initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines sustainability reporting trends of 50 NZX-listed companies, focusing on their effectiveness, transparency, and accountability. As sustainability reporting remains largely voluntary, unregulated, and inconsistent, this study investigates the current status quo in ESG/sustainability reporting in New Zealand. As a result, it provides managerial advice on what currently constitutes effective sustainability reporting. This paper of qualitative nature explores reporting practices across five key criteria: report type, adopted reporting frameworks, type of adopted governance within an organisation, type of adopted assurance and trends in social disclosures. The findings point to improvements in the quality of sustainability reporting in New Zealand, however, find that most organisations fall short of international standards. The study underscores the necessity for a balanced disclosure of material issues, suggesting the adoption of the GRI and integrated reporting frameworks need to deliver a comprehensive picture of a company's value creation. Additionally, it offers key recommendations for making sustainability reporting more meaningful. This includes disclosure of both positive and negative impacts, data sources, methodologies, and key assumptions used. Furthermore, it identifies the importance of stakeholder engagement to assess and address organisational material impacts, the necessity to adopt clear measurable sustainability goals, and the use of third-party verification for the enhanced reports' credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is one of the basic necessities of life. However, water crises have become more frequent around the world as billions of people continue to suffer from a lack of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene. Water is a limited resource that has been in growing demand - with the world's population increasing and water-intensive economic development continuing, infrastructure of many countries is not fit to meet accelerating demand. With climate change and its variability fluctuations in rainfall and extreme temperatures occur, causing shorter rain seasons and longer dry periods - making water and its availability more unpredictable. These changes have a serious impact on lives and livelihoods. Water is essential in all sectors for the production of food, energy, goods, and services. Over the past century, global water consumption has increased at more than twice the rate of population growth. Many water sources are drying up, more polluted, or both. The European Environment Agency (EEA) defines water stress as a situation where there is not enough water of sufficient quality to meet the needs of the people and of the environment. Lack of water is a relative term, the amount of water that is physically available changes as supply and demand change. Water scarcity intensifies when demand increases and/or when water supply is affected by declining quantity or quality. Water, energy and food security are key to sustainable long-term economic development and human well-being. The water, energy and food nexus focuses on decision-making in the complex linkages between systems that produce, supply and use goods and resources. The purpose of assessing such linkages is to identify untapped potential of synergies, such as in the case of water- and energy-related measures and the consequent impact of coordinated measures in contrast to uncoordinated measures. Based on the application of scientific methods in relation to the investigation of sustainability in water resources (the "W" Matrix in the framework of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus) on the background of quantitative & qualitative sustainable development and CSR trends, the main aim of our paper is to assess sustainability in water resources in the context of the WEF nexus as well as in the light of the United Nations 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to formulate opportunities arising from the European Union Recovery and Resilience Plans. When documenting quantitative & qualitative sustainable development trends in the context of the WEF Nexus, our paper addressed the United Nations 2030 Agenda (alias "SDG diplomacy") as well as the NextGenerationEU Agenda (alias "Green Deal diplomacy"). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the maritime industry was shifting towards sustainable practices, focusing on minimising environmental impact and maximising energy efficiency. Fishing vessels are increasingly adopting hybrid energy systems to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels. However, finding the optimal hybrid energy configuration specifically determined for a certain vessel type, its technical specifications, and operational requirements remains a complex challenge. This paper presents the development of an user-friendly application called "HENSUS", i.e. Hybrid Energy System for fishing vessels. The application considers technical characteristics (such as engine power), and operative factors (fuel consumption, working time and average engine load). It contains a comprehensive database of energy sources, from conventional marine fuels to alternative ones (LNG, biodiesel, hydrogen etc.) and full electrification. Through a user-friendly interface, users can input specific vessel details and operational parameters. The application then processes this information to generate a range of optimal hybrid energy configurations. The configurations are evaluated based on the results of the life-cycle cost assessment, which also includes the calculation of carbon tax based on produced tailpipe emissions. The proposed application promotes the adoption of sustainable energy solutions in the fishing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compliance with EU environmental regulations and directives regarding effluent water quality discharged is seen as the main driver for the development of wastewater treatment technologies. The Water Framework Directive, the UWWT Directive, and the Nitrates Directive require the reduction of eutrophication caused by nitrogen and phosphorus emissions. In Romania, only approx. 54% of the population is connected to centralized sewage and wastewater treatment systems, meaning that approximately 8 million inhabitants are not connected to centralized sewage and wastewater treatment systems. However, while larger municipalities are getting closer to meeting EU standards and the sustainable development goal of Sanitation for all (SDG6), smaller communities especially in rural areas are lagging behind considerably. The discrepancy is explained by the high proportion and very low density of the rural population compared to the rest of the European countries (in Romania connecting a household from the rural area costs much more due to the large distances between properties). This does not necessarily mean that the rural population has no access to sanitation services as they switched to individual wastewater management solutions such as septic tanks or open pits, meaning that there is an urgent need for adequate solutions for wastewater treatment. Moreover, for the touristic accommodation facilities in regions with seasonal variability of occupancy (e.g. seaside/Danube Delta area) built in remote location, proper wastewater treatment solutions capable of dealing with peak flows and long rest period needs to be developed. The paper emphasizes on the design of a vermifiltration system installed for the treatment of the wastewater generated by a touristic building in Romania and the adequate treatment performances achieved in terms of organic and nutrient loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages architectural disciplines to explore possible development paths for abandoned extraction sites. With the growing importance attributed to the circular economy, dismissed quarries embody significant opportunities to compensate for the past exploitation of natural resources and, possibly, strengthen environmental equilibriums and local sociocultural distinctiveness. The example of the Lessinia quarries near Verona is assumed as the research case, with a method based on two key points. First, several site visits were carried out, fielding a participant observation approach. Secondly, remarkable architectural experiences were selected from the contemporary design culture to identify possible strategies to rehabilitate dismissed excavated sites. The results suggest the Lessinia quarries are paradigmatic of how the pursuit of sustainability passes through a process of attribution of meanings before the physical transformation of sites. The paper concludes by discussing and comparing these scenarios of development with the current legal framework, according to which exhausted quarries should be re-naturalized regardless of the inherent potential they expose at the date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental friendliness, energy efficiency and sustainability are very important issues in all aspects of human lives. This is particularly true for shipping, including all its modes like long-distance, short-sea and inland shipping, where environmental regulations have become very strict in the last decade. On the one hand, fishing vessels are slightly out of these regulations, but on the other hand greening the fishing fleets is highly promoted by the European Union funding bodies as well as by the local authorities, while at the same time fishing vessels are rather aged with low energyefficient fossil fuel-based power systems. This paper illustrates aims, activities and current outcomes of a network of scientists and fishery cooperatives oriented to improve environmental friendliness of fishing vessels in the Adriatic Sea. In that process, an extensive fuel consumption measurement campaign involving 10 fishing vessels (9 purse seiners and 1 trawler) is being conducted and is offering an insight into emissions of these vessels and their relation to the operative profile and benefit for the society expressed in amounts and type of the caught fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to understand how fashion design higher education programs are approaching fashion 'eco-design' initiatives and how or if this could influence the diffusion and adoption by the whole sector. Furthermore, this paper argued that online education, sustained by a lifelong learning perspective, would present a valid way to deliver and disseminate the knowledge about sustainable principles in business, technological, social and environmental practices, making them quickly available for professionals and companies and thus, promoting the competencies required to prospect meaningful changes in the sector. Part of broader research about fashion design education in the European Higher Education Area, this paper identified previously selected fashion design courses, delivered onsite and online, and analyzed their curriculum and syllabus, to determine how and if sustainability integrates the design project and development of fashion products. The results demonstrated that sustainability is articulated with the fashion design curriculum diversely with few programs presenting sustainability as a ‘design philosophy,' as a mindset for developing products and projects for the fashion sector. However, the findings of this study helped to acknowledge that sustainability, present either as a program strategy or as an approach for the development of fashion projects, form a competence complex and hard to measure since the market does not absorb it quickly and thus it is permanently and inevitably outdated. The ability to maintain fashion designer and companies updated represents the central advantage of an accredited online lifelong learning. Freed from the rigidity of traditional academic stages, calendar and physical limitations, online learning would be able to approach important themes, as well as adopt a prospective approach about sustainability in the fashion sector and then enable this knowledge to be easily accessed and diffused by professionals and companies in a flexible, adaptable and affordable manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the food sector on achieving the sustainable development goals is increasingly debated worldwide amid growing climate change effects and on the background of a lack of quickly responses on mitigating them. Initially, the state of the art is quantitatively analyzed for emphasizing the scientific evolution on food consumption in the context of sustainability and the main themes discussed by researchers. Further, several indicators on food consumption expenditures, daily calorie supply, emissions, waste are investigated at EU level by using secondary data analysis. The data is collected from Eurostat and Faostat and it allows the comparison of these indicators in time and space. Overall, some results indicate reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from fuel combustion in the food, beverages and tobacco manufacturing, small increases of the area under organic farming, and rises of daily calorie supply per capita. However, the statistics is different on each member state. Finally, the paper suggests the critical points generated by each indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction creates environment for the use of the latest knowledge and trends in the field of smart and innovative solutions. One of the areas where it is possible and appropriate to use innovative approaches is the area of construction in the preparatory and construction phase. The construction site presents a constantly changing, dynamic place that is used for construction. Its layout is influenced by technological, time, cost, safety, environmental aspects and, last but not least, the surroundings of the construction site. Also, the conditions of construction site are determined by several participants in the construction (investor, contractor, local authorities,etc). Considering this, designing and updating site conditions is not an easy process. Therefore, it is appropriate to focus on the design of a Smart & Safe construction site solution by applying a universally compatible, cooperating virtual environment, taking into account the latest trends in the field of construction conditions and information technology. The aim of the paper is the analysis of the requirements of the construction site in relation to the construction site equipment; and the subsequent purposed of knowledge database´s levels for construction site equipment. Analyzes will provide a theoretical basis for the design of an intelligent construction site in a virtual environment. The proposal of a smart and safe construction site also contributes to the green sustainable design of buildings. Smart and safe site adjusts appropriately an operation of the construction site and eliminates the impact of the construction site on its surroundings, thereby affecting all three components of green design (environmental, social and economic). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is descriptive in nature and it is an attempt to recall the most probable scenarios of transport development in Poland against the background of other countries of the European Union. Having in mind the implementation of the EU assumptions associated with rationalization of energy consumption management and an increase in energy efficiency in motor transport in the time perspective, the premises have been the assumptions of the concept of sustainable development. There are two parts of the paper. Part 1 of the paper includes literature review focused on concept of sustainability, transport development and management area, as well as characteristics of road transport in European Union and Poland based on statistics data. The analysis of transport activities is founded on the environmental aspects. Particularly transport-related emissions, energy consumption management in road transport and the contribution of transport sector in energy expenditure in selected countries of the European Union in the past and nowadays were considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is focused on the issue of the economic evaluation of the revitalization of brownfields in the form of abandoned mining areas. The issue of the abandoned mining areas is in the Czech Republic the long-time social-economic problem, which it is necessary in the close future to solve in an appropriate way. There exist more possibilities, how the issue of brownfield can be solved, however not all possible solutions it is possible to consider as optimal from the whole society point of view. The main objective of the paper is to propose the methodological steps for the economic evaluation of projects oriented on the revitalization of abandoned mining areas, which allows assessing suggested solutions from the aspect of ecological and economic impact on the investor and on the region as well. The specific stress is posed on the assessment and the evaluation of the impact on biotopes, the attention is also paid to evaluation of benefits resulting from the revitalization project to residents of the region and tourists. Within the suggested methodological steps various approaches to the economic evaluation, known from the biotopes quality, roads and highways, trafficly significant water structure and developing regional projects evaluation, are combined. Suggested methodological steps are consequently verified on the case study of the revitalization of the former brown coal mine in the area Most - Ležáky in the northern part of the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the sustainability of technological transport, specifically the transport of materials by pipe conveyors. Environmental aspects must also be addressed as part of the solution to the sustainability of pipe conveyors. Pipe conveyors are suitable for the efficient transport of large volumes of bulk material with a minimum of environmental pollution. Closed rubber conveyor belts are a basic structural element of pipe conveyors. These types of conveyor belts have to resist a combination of factors such as abrasion, heat, frost, chemicals, oil, burning, ozone and ultraviolet radiation. These requirements are associated with an almost confusing range of test methods and quality standards set by the standard setters of the Committee of European Standardization and the International Organization for Standardization. The main purpose of the paper is to create a concept of product quality subsystem of pipeline transport with closed rubber conveyor belts, taking into account the factors acting on the conveyor belt during its operation with the specification of methods suitable for testing their quality. The principles of system analysis are applied by creating a system. After formulating the problem, the system is defined and the basic quality factors of the conveyor belts are identified. This is followed by a general analysis of quality factors and a synthesis of the knowledge gained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular design is gaining increasing recognition as an integral approach to address the environmental challenges posed by the linear "take-make-dispose" model. However, the effective implementation of circular design requires a comprehensive understanding of its complex dynamics and interactions within a broader systems context. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for circular design underpinned by systemic design principles. This framework aims to guide designers and stakeholders in creating holistic and regenerative solutions by integrating principles from systems thinking, design thinking, and sustainability. The framework emphasizes the importance of considering the entire lifecycle of a product or service, from material sourcing to reuse, repairing, re-manufacturing and recycling, while also accounting for the socioeconomic and environmental dimensions. It encourages the adoption of strategies such as changing value chains, shared ownership, product attachment and trust and material recovery to maximize resource sufficiency and minimize waste generation. Furthermore, the framework highlights the significance of collaboration among diverse stakeholders, including designers, manufacturers, consumers, and policymakers, to foster systemic change. It provides a structured approach to identify leverage points, assess trade-offs, and inform decision-making processes throughout the design journey. The application of this framework has the potential to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy by facilitating the creation of innovative and sustainable solutions. Future research should focus on empirically testing and refining this framework to enhance its practicality and effectiveness in real-world contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poultry meat and eggs are considered as one of the most popular food items all over the world due to their content of high quality nutrients including protein, lipids, vitamins, and minerals. During the past decade, many countries have increased their commercial production of these essential products to meet the increased demand by consumers, especially with the increasing populations all over the world. However, there is an urgent need to ensure sustainable poultry production for the local consumer. Using native plants in poultry feed is an innovative approach that can improve food security and promote sustainability in the poultry industry. Native plants have adapted to local conditions, are often more resistant to pests and diseases, and require less water and fertilizers compared to non-native plants. Additionally, incorporating native plants into poultry feed can diversify the diet of the birds, leading to better health and nutrition. The current paper focuses on the potential use of nine species of native plants in the state of Kuwait that can be used in poultry feed to enhance the local food security and sustainability. This work is under the umbrella of the Government Initiative (GI) Project (P-KISR-17) "Establishment of Model Farm Utilizing Modern Technologies for Local Production" (subtask 3.1: Poultry production). The goal of this GI is to reduce water and food vulnerability in Kuwait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability reporting landscape is evolving rapidly due to the expanding legislation worldwide. The new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is challenging European companies to restructure their business models and processes and to enhance their corporate reporting. Considering the increasing number of reporting requirements, this paper aims at providing critical analysis of the current employers' demand on sustainability competences needed for setting up the relevant reporting processes. The empirical research encompasses a review of published job offers related to the finance function in the organization to outline and summarize the specific requirements for sustainability knowledge and capabilities. The main findings of the performed analysis reveal that the new sustainability reporting regulations, their widened scope, and upcoming application deadline have impacted the accounting professionals, who should further develop their skill set to meet the emerging sustainability requirements of the employers. The latter have already started to recruit applicants with the needed expertise in the field of sustainability, environment, society and government goals and climate changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to sustainable pathways of economic development depends on the clear understanding of the sustainability principles, but it also needs ability to evaluate critically conventional professional practices and rethink them into sustainable one. However, the previous years of struggling for economic transformations have showed a serious issue - lack of action competence when it comes to the implementation of the sustainable solutions. The design thinking is a core of professional competency and high performance, but it must also incorporate skills to act and perform according to the plan. It is especially important for projects embedding sustainable solutions, which are often seen as a complicated and not profitable activity, demanding considerable investments. Moreover, this kind of perception is often demonstrated by all stakeholders - developers, businessmen and authorities. Thus, we believe that action competence must be a fundamental element of design thinking development in students. The most suitable platform for this is project-based learning, which should include a block of feasibility assessment and implementation planning. The paper presents the description of training methods and approaches for building the bridge between design thinking and action competence, based on the project-based courses delivered in Liepaja University and National Aviation University. The methodology of the research included three rounds of experiments, involving student works rating, student self-assessment and peer-review, which undergo analysis as well. The results of the work offer recommendations on the improvement of project design skills and action competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing interest of people to be informed at every step, to progress and overcome their limits, rapid developments have occurred in the field of IoT (Internet of Things) and miniaturized electronics. Thus, wearable power sources with high reliability and long duty cycles are required to power wearable electronic devices to meet people's needs and smart miniaturized electronics requirements. In addition, to make them truly wearable, these must be light, flexible, silent, low power consumption and adaptable to the human body. Textile materials can meet these requirements, and thermoelectric generators assembled from fibers, filaments, yarns, or fabrics (T-TEG) that allow the generation of thermoelectric energy (TE) from body heat represents a research topic of great interest today. Recent studies have demonstrated that T-TEGs have the potential to provide a sustainable and renewable energy source for a wide range of applications through the use of innovative materials and advanced yet simple manufacturing technologies. The choice of material is an important step in the manufacturing process, and it is essential to consider several factors such as thermoelectric efficiency, cost, processability and scalability. Thus, this paper outlines which methods, designs and materials have been chosen in recent years by researchers for the development and optimization of wearable thermoelectric generators (wTEG). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of many research projects and studies report that landuse/landcover change (LULCC) is a major driver of the changes in the hydrological processes within a watershed. Landuse induced landcover changes, e.g., urbanization, deforestation, have a direct impact on the hydrological regime of watersheds thus increasing their vulnerability to extreme hydrological events. In this research the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to study the landuse/landcover change impact on the hydrological dynamics within a watershed with respect to peak flow. The physically-based, semi-distributed hydrological SWAT model was applied over Vit river basin in Bulgaria. SWAT was set up with a meteorological information for the period 2015-2020 and the Corine Land Cover (CLC2012) dataset was used to classify the different landuse types in the watershed. The model was further calibrated and validated towards measured discharge data. The rainfall-runoff process in Vit river basin was re-modelled by having the calibrated SWAT model applied using the same meteorological input time series data and a future landcover change scenario. Future landuse/landcover change scenario was selected following the "Sustainable Futures for Europe's Heritage in Cultural Landscapes" project (HERCULES) open mapping platform. The results of the simulations with the CLC2012 and the future landcover shange scenario landuse datasets are presented in this paper. The future landcover change scenario simulated daily discharges were compared against the simulated with the CLC2012 dataset daily discharges. The results of the modelled surface runoff with the two landcover scenarios were also analyzed to evaluate quantitative and spatial distribution changes. Compared to CLC2012, the FLC scenario simulation results showed a tendency toward maximal peak flow increase, higher surface runoff and decrease of minimal streamflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The difficulty facing the food industry in the future is sustainability, a topic that has received a lot of attention in recent years. The recovery, recycling, and valuing of food by-products is one of the many methods suggested to encourage the development of a sustainable food system. The most abundant sources of bioactive chemicals and byproducts that can be used to create new functional ingredients for foods are found in fruits and vegetables. In this paper, the possibility of using by-products of wine industry was evaluated. Grape marc, one of the wastes produced during wine-making process is typically not utilized. In particular, the red grape marc flour (15% and 20% w/w) was employed to enrich white grape juice following a sufficient drying and grinding procedure. Then, the grape juice fortified with red grape marc flour was subjected to ultrasound treatment with amplitude of 50 and 70% for 3 and 6 minutes. In comparison to control samples, the enriched products bioactive compounds and chromatic attributes, as well as acidity, soluble content and pH were assessed. Overall, the findings indicate that fortification of grape juice with by-products improved nutritional quality and chromatic attributes without compromising product acceptability. It is possible to conclude that these examples might serve as a starting point for utilizing industrial byproducts and developing viable food with beneficial properties in a more sustainable manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy community, as a new mode of citizen participation in the European renewable energy market, highlights the close connection between energy decentralisation, territorial development, and the crucial role of local authorities in doing so. In the context of territorial development and keeping within the ongoing decentralisation processes, participation and sustainability is particularly important. Also, the very idea of promoting community energy, leads to the affirmation of an innovative system of energy governance, based on horizontal subsidiarity identifying these actors as the protagonists of a new local development, favouring forms of selfgovernment of particularly fragile territories and the most marginal areas. Since there is a common ground between the local authority and the energy community, this paper will also specifically highlight how local authorities are called upon to play an active role on the one hand, to pursue the public interest and the promotion of the common good. While on the other, the energy communities who have objectives and a juridical nature, makes them interests of the public authority. In fact, it can't be argued that from the perspective of the energy community being a non-profit organization, it is aimed at promoting the protection of the economic interest of its members, as well as promoting a wider environmental and social benefit, which also generally extends to the entire local community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although recognizing its importance for the global economy, and despite the positive examples within the textile and clothing industry, fashion's environmental and social impact is indeed highly negative. Even so, technological innovations in materials, processes, design, production, and distribution of fashion products, combined with changing in consumption habits are slowly transforming the sector, with designers and brands adopting more sustainable, environmental and ethical practices, and opposing the planned obsolescence principle, formerly associated with it. However, these changes concentrate in highly developed regions, where influential fashion companies have the resources and knowledge to investigate and implement sustainable innovations. Furthermore, these changes take too long to be disseminated worldwide, especially in those regions where the fashion sector contributes to economic development and represents a way to participate in the global economy. This paper analyzes sustainable initiatives in fashion design sector that are already in place and presents the relation between fashion and sustainability in fashion design higher education programs and courses, delivered online by fashion design higher education in Europe. The results demonstrated that sustainability is nearly absent in the accredited online offer, but indicated it was present in non-traditional, open models of education. This paper considers that, without geographical limitations, online learning presents a huge opportunity to educate about current and future issues on fashion and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings are responsible from 25% to 30% of greenhouse gases production, contributing significantly to global warming. One approach to limiting greenhouse gas production is construction and operation of buildings according to the principles of sustainable construction. There are 113 certified buildings in the Czech Republic. 57% of the total consists of an office building. For this purpose, the LEED and BREEAM global certification programs and one local certification program, SB TOOL CZ, are used in the Czech Republic. The paper deals with the position of environmental certification of office buildings in the Czech Republic. Also impact of certification on the rent of office space is considered. A part of the paper is a case study containing an analysis of 139 office rent offers in the Czech Republic. The analysis also deals the impact of operating costs (service cost) in certified and noncertified buildings. The results suggest that, compared to buildings in the same submarkets, certified buildings have a rental price premium. A questionnaire survey is part of the research as well. The survey deals with priorities for the selection of office area. This survey is carried out for users of green buildings and it is focused to factors of certification. According to survey, multinationals prefer rent of office areas located in certified buildings as well as green solutions generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The approach of topic on sustainable development is a strong challenge for research and practical area. Related to this concept we remark multiple and various interest and, also, its use in all economic areas, in civil society, in quotidian life, in politics and strategies for development customized for each country. In essence, the sustainability concept was generated by awareness of need to solve economic, social and environmental problems occurred mainly in the last 30 years, as a direct consequence of the economic and social rapid progress achieved in almost all world's countries and in the European countries, too. We observed that in the East-European countries the policies and strategies of sustainable development are not similar to these of other European developed countries. Although the principles of sustainable development functioning are well known, disseminated and assimilated by corporate and administrative entities, it can be noticed that exist certain factors which disturb the implementation process and performance of sustainable development perceived as a comprehensive and complex concept. The present paper aims to identify the limitative factors and barriers for a real sustainable development achievement, through a critical analysis based on specific data as well as on causal explanations; we are interested to discover how is possible to eliminate the disruptive evidence and to highlight the recovery solutions. We propose to focus on East European countries from point related to sustainability implementation in real economic life of societies. The most of conducted papers have a strong theoretical character, the connection with practice being less obvious, due to: lack of interest, entrepreneurial concerns rather mercantilist, an inadequate indicators system. Our paper is based especially on qualitative arguments. Methodological, we use the analysis of concept significance in practical plan, and we associate the empirical ideas with arguments from analysis, synthesis and interpretation of sustainable development indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the government debt sustainability and stabilization in a small open economy. Sustainability of government's debt is one of the key priorities of almost every country. Under ideal conditions, government's debt should be sustainable at all times. For that reason, government should use debt stabilization tools to sustain the government debt or at least maintain it at acceptable level. Selection of appropriate stabilization tools depends on many different factors. Used research methods are systematization and generalization of the scientific literature and the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the primary and secondary data. At the end of the paper is brief review of the main results and findings concerning debt sustainability and stabilization in a small open economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our prior related paper titled "External Relations of the EU: Focus on the Atlantic Region", our attention was paid to the prospect of a macro-regional EU Strategy for the Atlantic Region (EUSATL) among the established EU macro-regional initiatives. As if the Atlantic Ocean stretching in hydrographic terms further to the north, the "Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas - [specified by the online version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica [8] as] the Chukchi, East Siberian, Laptev, Kara, Barents, White, Greenland, and Beaufort and, according to some oceanographers, also the Bering and Norwegian seas - are the least-known basins and bodies of water in the world ocean as a result of their remoteness, hostile weather, and perennial or seasonal ice cover". Derived from the Great Bear and the Little Bear constellations in the vicinity of the North Pole, the term "Arctic" relates to an unexplored potential of the polar region - now increasingly becoming a strategic geopolitical hub. As we have reiterated earlier, overall geostrategy of the EU seeks global stability, economic security and environmental sustainability, and, contrary to the occurring interpretation of „geostrategy" in security/defence terms, we continue to be prone to perception of geostrategy in the context of competitiveness driven by geopolitical and geo-economic developments that are shaped by the political and economic environment. Fulfilment of this follow-up paper's objective is, thus, complementary to the respective paper EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE EU: FOCUS ON THE ATLANTIC REGION - now we reflect on the prospect of a macro-regional EU Strategy for the Arctic Region (EUSARC) and it is the Arctic Ocean context in terms of multiple dimensions associated with overlapping regional initiatives that we wish to explore further in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the evolution of human society it is an undoubtful fact that technological advance has provided humanity request to raise its quality of life, registered trends anyhow pointing out that technical advances could bring not only desired impacts but also objectionable ones. For finding appropriate answers to recognized challenges the concept of sustainable development has been defined. By considering made progress in mobility field, the current vision is to succeed shaping human mobility not only on a global level, but also on a cosmic one. This seems to be possible by enlarging the idea of space technologies and making them available for so-called cosmic door openers. In this regard the mission of the coauthor of this paper can be mentioned, as being the only one Romanian cosmonaut, flying spacecraft into outer space. The crew consisting of Prunariu and Popov launched on May 14, 1981, aboard Soyuz 40 and docked with the space station Salyut 6, conducting experiments in the fields of biology, medicine, and physics. As a direct expected consequence of such remarkable events, humanity has begun to search for other suitable places on cosmic level for resettlements of human beings. Newer studies are concerned with Terraforming other planets for succeeding in shaping living conditions similar to those on the Earth. A main event in this regard is represented by the NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, whereby collected information will support the process of Terraforming other planets, its chances and challenges for assuring human sustainability being debated in this paper, as well as other curageous recent events will be emphasised. By a detailed inter- and transdisciplinary analysis of this holistic complex process and its sustainability, its containments will come up, following that maybe current sustainability understanding has to be updated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vulnerability, land use and sustainability are some of the main elements of major concern in the last decades that can be translated in practice through efficient development and planning. The role land use plays is recognized worldwide due to the rapid and continuous urban growth and development, which determine the occurrence of new powerful forces leading to social, demographical, environmental, technological and governmental changes. The large number of disasters in recent years demonstrated that the most effective and accessible method of reducing the pressure exerted by natural and technological risks is to reduce the level of vulnerability of communities exposed to a particular hazard. The vulnerability of populated areas to natural and technological disasters is also exacerbated by the decades of inefficient spatial planning policies that did not incorporate hazards and risks. This paper is aiming to create a bridge between the existing vulnerability theories and their implementation in land use planning policies, by assessing the need of a new methodology that will incorporate vulnerability reduction into spatial planning. The paper focuses on a case study of a developing country in SE Europe, Romania, using high resolution data obtained from the Urban Atlas inventory. The discussion and results section illustrates the spatial development of urban and rural areas in Romania in the last years. Moreover, this section demonstrates the impact of land use changes on vulnerability and the need to develop future sustainable development policies that can support decision makers, coming from the public or the private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Poland there are 12 millions of households. Many people from these households, thanks to the changing legal regulations, pro-ecological actions, started to understand that their way of living and running their houses can have an influence on the natural environment. They began to think and act in an ecological way. The ecological way of living does not mean a large-scale operations, such as installing solar panels, building an eco-friendly, passive house. Simple activities such as thoughtful shopping, segregation of rubbish, economical use of water, electricity and heat, reusable packaging are enough to have an impact on the natural environment. Care for the natural resources, energy and health conditions enables harmonious coexistence with the nature. However, the most important thing is to understand such a need, and then develop a habit of living in an ecological way. It is worth to introduce the principle of 3R: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle into our everyday life. The purpose of the paper is to examine the experiences and habits of Polish residents in terms of running a household in an ecological way. The survey took the form of an online survey. The study was conducted in June-December 2017. Thanks to the survey, it was possible to take a look at the habits of Polish people in the aspect of eco-friendly housekeeping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For most of us, a home is more than just a collection of different rooms. For people, the home serves as a shelter from adverse weather conditions and provides a sense of security. We spend most of our time there, have fun with the nearest family, learn, work, rise children, we sleep, eat meals, we care about cleanliness and hygiene. Our home should be furnished and conducted in accordance with ourselves and our family habits. Many issues related to the ecology begin to play a large role in the topic of housekeeping. It is not only taking care of the nature, but also the potential savings associated with reducing the consumption of many products, which affects the overall home budget. It should be emphasized that running the house in the ecological way does not mean immediately installing solar panels or a windmill. We can find simple ways that will also affect the improvement of the natural environment and counteract the phenomenon of the scarcity in our neighborhood. Such methods, repeated every day, become a habit. The purpose of the paper is to introduce to the subject of ecological household, ecological awareness of households, simple ways of life to live and help the natural environment. The paper also contains an introduction to a survey related to ecological households in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctrine, legislation and jurisprudence have importance in defining typologies of biodiversity bioresources. Matters of doctrine mainly concern to philosophy of life and the complexity hypothesis practical-theoretical in the current global geopolitical order. Legislation and jurisprudence must be built on the basic of relevant conclusions of specialists in gender diversity of Earth's ecosystems bioresources. This paper will analyze the current and future opportunities for bioresources at the confluence with the legislation and jurisprudence, what can positively determine avoidance of major crisis. Among the risks to which humanity is subject, the food insecurity occupies a leading position. Currently, the biggest challenge is to feed a growing population, to insure health and collective welfare, without harming the environment and bioresources. The responsibility of the present generation is to ensure the right to food for future population, through a management efficiently, fairly and rationally of the Earth bioresources. Legal regulations that contribute to economic development and the prevention and combating poverty. The content of the paper provides students and researchers / specialists with the opportunity to be informed about the legal tools and mechanisms necessary for a good management and sustainability of the biological, land, human and material resources of the world agriculture, but also to the food security, in the actual environmental crises, global poverty, under-alimentation and over-nutrition of the world's population, etc. The importance of international cooperation is reflected in the need to adopt and promote tools and legislative measures, as well as implementing of new rules and legal norms comprehensible and easy to apply in safety and food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decades witnessed an explosive increase of the demand for digital data in the economy. This led to a significant growth in the number and the sizes of data centers. The energy used by the data centers has increased dramatically. This situation determined the quest for metrics that measures energy efficiency in data centers. A classical metric for measuring energy efficiency in data centers is PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness). It was introduced in 2006 by C. Malone and Christian Belady. It is defined as the ratio between the PDC (total power used in the data center) and PIT (the power used for the IT equipment). PDC is the energy requirement for the major IT components of the data center plus the energy for supporting the infrastructure. The infrastructure is composed by: power delivery components, cooling system components and other miscellaneous component loads, such as data center lighting. PIT is the energy requirements associated with all the major IT components of the data center, such as server, storage, network, and other devices (KVM switches, monitors, and workstations/laptops) used to monitor or otherwise control the data center. PUE is a very popular metric for measuring energy efficiency in data centers. It has advantages and disadvantages. The present paper proposes an analysis of new metrics for measuring energy efficiency in data centers. This thing is necessary in order to attain sustainability goals. A globally accepted metric on the energy efficiency of computer servers in business applications is still missing, despite a great interest from stakeholders. Some complementary metrics and new metrics for improving PUE are synthesized. This analysis can help researchers to identify the main trends of energy efficiency assessment in data centers. The paper provides also a comprehensive and critical survey of energy efficiency metrics in data centers. It motivates the quest for new metrics for the assessment of data centers energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the various developments regarding strategic management of raw materials on national, European and international levels. The problems linked to this subject are of increasing importance for the producing industry. Thus it is necessary to act quickly and pursue a sustainable raw material policy. The main purpose of this work is to analyze the possibility of fly ash utilization for the road construction and possible application in other industry branches with interest. The methodology used in the paper includes qualitative and quantitative data and practical laboratory work is done in order to analyze and test the chosen fly ash samples, to determine the chances of the application as well to find exothermal profile of the raw materials used. The application of fly ash as a supplementary material in road construction may increase desirable characteristics of the road including increased strength and mitigation of alkali silica reaction (causes serious expansion and cracking in concrete). The results obtained show that the possibility of fly ash application is a god opportunity for the reduction of industrial waste and increase the economic benefits for the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of investment projects and their impact on the beneficiaries represents a real challenge to the public and private entities, from the perspective of all resources involved and expected results, on all fields. The economic efficiency of investment projects, initially considered, by many others, as one of the main criterion in evaluating projects process, cannot be a real guarantee of performance projects. At present is a need completing the process analysis and with other characteristics such as the level of strategic integration, sustainability and complementarity with the environmental and social challenges. The methods we use in the paper are some general and specific ones, for measuring the impact of the economic efficiency and performance projects. The aim of this paper is to identify some new directions of approach to substantiation and evaluation of investment projects, and the way they could be implemented in the context of issues prioritization and resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geographic origin of pollution is disconnected from its scale or place of occurrence, and some environmental problems could have impact easily on the entire planet. Currently it is noticeable a continuous agravation of pollution and a change in the basics of ecological problems. Local pollution is replaced by global issues such as climate change or biodiversity loss. The paper attempted to reveal the direction of policy measures that target sustainability within a global context. The paper makes an incursion in the field of policy measures aimed to correct the environmental relations of the contemporary society and assess the anticipative and the strategies of integration by referring to level of greening occuring throughout the economy and the social behavior. Therefore, many environmentally harmfull processes continued and still are continuing to date making the policy agenda more and more crowded and reliefing the urgency of action, which is one of the main concerns today. Meanwhile, in the economy there are symptoms of "greening", although confusion is still a significant issue among companies that attempt to change beneath the pressure of legal, financial, and information strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays the new trend in smart cities concept is to open all available data to wide range of users, consumers, society and authorities. The paper focus on energy reduction in the housing sector based on Directive 2010/31/EU and implementing ICT technologies in this area. This paper describes interpretation of long term energy monitoring data in the existing housing estate, within the pilot project in the city district of Nový Lískovec in Brno. The data sets represent selected concrete block of flats in studied area before and after retrofitting. The goal is to show an integrated toolkit with energy consumption and greenhouse gases reduction and other necessary information into an interactive user-friendly (ICT) web map application. The developed ICT web map application e-Sustainability would raise awareness among the inhabitants in studied area on environmental and energy issues and the role of ICTs in this field. The application is based on interactive map portal that uses GIS technology. This portal is not only for local energy management but also, regional intention. Users can continuously monitor information about energy consumption in prefabricated apartment buildings as well as values of temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide in the interior. The data provide visual information in an interactive map of the energy savings achieved through measures taken under the comprehensive regeneration of prefabricated houses. The real-time monitoring of the environment is also discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the report was to examine contemporary conditions for developing and promoting sustainability initiatives for companies in Russia. Namely, the working paper focused on international companies operating in Russia and transformational process of international sustainability initiatives being introduced for the emerging market. The methodology of the research included: analysis of work practices in terms of descriptive research, analysis of statistical and historical data, and comparative analysis of existing practices. The research also encompassed relational study in order to investigate the relationships between established and emerging corporate sustainability practices, as well as prediction study, carried out for establishing possible sequence of actions for the development and wide adoption of sustainability practices in Russia. The major findings of the report rely on the assumption that key international companies operating in Russia need to use benchmarking in transforming sustainability practices in terms of three main pillars: environment, social responsibility and human resources. As sustainability of these three pillars has already been adopted as integral part of strategy in the developed countries, the working model will be transmitted to the corporate levels of operations in Russia. Thus, the international agents can act as driving forces for promoting sustainability practices and their strategic implication to the level of national and business legal base. The main aim of the scientific paper was to provide distinct impact across Russian corporate sustainability practices as well as business and management research network. The delivery of the results and coverage of the topic will provide substantial background for further actions on adopting sustainability practices and changing strategic mindset in Russian corporate practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to ensure economic development and respect of the principle of sustainability, the European Union has introduced a number of innovations in the legal framework and thus provided a large amount of money to modernize the economy. The benefits brought by the new economic model (circular economy) are reflected in the reduction of harmful effects on the environment, increased resource productivity, job creation, reduced dependence on raw material imports, increased competitiveness of the economy and encouraging sustainable economic development. The aim of the paper is to analyse and introduce the circular economy concept and to propose measures, steps and methods to simplify the introduction of the concept into the economy. The paper is structured in such a way that after the introduction follows a call to recent literature. Then it proceeds with performance analysis of the circular economy implication in the countries of the European Union. Subsequently, the authors present the proposals of measures that could be used to implement the circular economy together with a short conclusion at the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concrete is one of the most important and useful materials in the construction sector, which, unfortunately, has an adverse impact on the environment. It is evident that correct procedures for designing concrete structures need to be created. The sustainability approach is a key conceptual principle to be considered in cement and concrete production all around the world because about 7 % of global CO2 emissions are produced by cement manufacturing. An indicator expressing quality, with regard to sustainability, is determined using information on concrete performance characteristics, service life and environmental impact, enabling the quantification and comparison of various cases. The paper deals with the environmental impact assessment of various concrete mixtures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Architecture plays an important role in an urban regeneration. The Urban development reflects an economic development. Environmental sustainability and sustainability of cities as well is nowadays a frequently questioned issue. There has been a case study carried out in the area of architecture in the Slovak Republic. The reason was a lack of a comprehensive view of the architecture in the Slovak Republic and insufficient support of this sector at the national level. There has been a survey - personal interviews conducted with the owners of architectural ateliers and studios. According to interviews, the value chain and the main value added activities have been described. The goal of this paper is to argue why and how value chain needs to integrate the social and environmental aspect of sustainable economic advantage. Architecture forms the environment, regions, cities, architecture completes the landscape. The architecture value chain in comparison with the other value chains of the other sectors has close links with the external environment. Architects develop their activities in line with their customers. Architectural studios and ateliers are mainly located in economic active places, or in the "natural" centers of the region. The primary source of uniqueness and added value is the human factor, the architects themselves. Every single part of the value chain of the internal environment can be a source of uniqueness. Paper describes more deeply the important sources of added value along the value chain. Paper also describes how the solving of the main problems as the intellectual property protection etc., of the architecture in the Slovak Republic can promote the value added of this industry. The explaining the importance of the architecture and defining the main value added of this sector should promote and produce the changes at the national level in this sector, mainly in the area of legislation and finally encourage operating in this sector and consequently promote the urban regeneration, sustainability of the cities and economic development as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable transport has become an important concept as a reaction to global climate changes. Climate change has always belonged among main factors in human society development. Recently such global changes have been gaining speed and strength. The main motor of these changes is increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions originated in energy, industry and transport sectors. This is the reason why the Czech Republic adopted a document called Climate Protection Policy. The aim of this policy is to reduce negative impacts by effective mitigation and adaptation measures and to support sustainable development of society. One third of GHG emissions in EU is produced by transport (transport is the second biggest source of GHG emissions after energy sector). Total volume of CO2 emissions produced by transport in the Czech Republic has been continuously increasing. This trend is related to increase in volumes of individual car passenger transport and of road freight transport. This paper focuses on the development of CO2 emissions from transport in individual regions of the Czech Republic. This paper presents development of CO2 emissions in connection with transport performances and it analyses this development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the whole world has been looking for the most suitable solution to deal with global warming and other environmental consequences caused mainly by anthropogenic activities. One of the potential problematic phenomena at present is urbanization, which subsequently has an impact on the enlargement of urban or suburban areas at the expense of green areas. Vertical vegetation systems are part of the blue-green sustainable infrastructure and have become increasingly popular in recent years. With the right design, the vegetation facades cool the building in the summer, warm it up in the winter and support the favorable microclimate in their immediate surroundings. Green facades can retain water at the point of impact and retain it in the substrate itself. The plants then gradually begin to regain and evaporate the water, which cools not only the building envelope but also its surroundings (they prevent the urban heat island effect). Vertical gardens with vegetation capture airborne dust, act as an acoustic absorber, and oxidize their surroundings. In addition, they protect the structure and insulation of the building, thus significantly extending the life of the facade itself. The paper aims at the characteristics of individual types of vertical green systems and the creation of a basic framework of multicriteria analysis for selecting the ideal system for a given object/construction. The multi-criteria comparative analysis evaluates the acquisition costs (investments), biodiversity, landscaping rate, landscaping intensity, maintenance requirements, improvement of the thermal comfort of the building, shape variability, and the durability of the vertical green system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for secure and reliable applications will increase due to the growing necessity for sustainably and independently produced energy. For example, the amount of energy generated by individuals at their homes will probably grow fast in the near future so requiring for easy-to-use and precise solutions. To transform and facilitate the processes related to energy sector it is possible to use blockchain technology. The aim of this paper is to evaluate and analyse different areas of blockchain application in the renewable energy sector. Using content, SWOT and PESTLE analysis, the results show that the main strengths and opportunities are confidentiality, immutability of recordings and potential involvement of each individual, while weaknesses and threats - scalability, compatibility and legal framework. Latvia is already using more (42.1%) renewable energy than in the European Union on average (22.1%) but in order to meet the binding targets for the Member States by 2030, the blockchain technology could promote development in this sector. The results of the study improves the scientific opinion on blockchain technology in sustainable energy field by identifying potential implementation benefits and challenges; thus, gathering the knowledge for easier moving towards real-life implementations and also highlighting the areas with the need for specific further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, many researchers have asked themselves whether it is possible to have a different economic model from the so-called linear one, i.e. to move from the linear to the circular economy. The linear economy is based on the concept that the goods we use must follow a life cycle consisting of three phases. The first phase consists of the extraction of raw materials (or production of agricultural products). The second phase is the transformation of the raw material into semi-finished products. The final phase consists of finished products used by consumers and finally eliminated from the economic process as “waste”. In today's world, the linear method of production and consumption has many limitations. It is no longer economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. The answer to the question is the concept of a circular economy. Human demand is growing at a rate that nature's capacity to renew its resources cannot keep up. This paper addresses these aspects and illustrates some examples of a circular economic model applied in Sicily in the citrus waste sector. In fact, Sicily, in the Italian economic system, assumes a role of primary importance with more than 215,000 farms and 1,281,000 hectares cultivated, equal respectively to more than 46% of farms and 55% of national areas. On the island, citrus growing plays a strategic role both in terms of employment and income, contributing in a significant way to the local development of the territories in which it is most widespread (Catania, Syracuse, Palermo, etc..). Citrus fruits produced in Sicily are mainly intended for consumption in the fresh state or processed by the industries into juices. The main byproduct of the citrus industry is citrus pulp, which the enterprise still often consider a today “waste”. The circular economic model in citrus waste has generated significant diseconomies of scale for production with significant income losses for the operators of the chain. Considering the importance of citrus processing in Sicily, this paper analyzed the waste and by-products of the citrus industry and identified technical and organizational solutions to improve the sustainability of the citrus supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensive development of the Arctic is the cause of degradation of the natural environment, including water resources. Water quality does not meet the requirements now шn the Russian Arctic. This is the reason for the need to assess the sustainability of water resources in this region. This paper provides a brief overview of existing approaches and frameworks to assessing the sustainability of water resources. It is shown that a multidimensional approach to the sustainability assessment of water resources is currently widespread. The indices offered by many authors are calculated on the limited amount of data available, but others are more specific. They are applied at the national, subnational, local and river basin levels depending on the end users and the presentation of the data. To assess the sustainability of the water resources of the Arctic river basins, it is necessary to use these indices on local or basin scales due to the mismatch between the boundaries of the basins and regions. The lack of data for the municipal level presents the greatest difficulty in assessing the sustainability of the river basins. The analysis performed on the example of WSI and WPI showed that for the Arctic rivers it is possible to carry out a sustainability assessment since 2006, when many of the data began to be in public domain. The data on water resources management is the most complicated to evaluate due to the fact that the development of this system started relatively recently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global Real Estate Transparency Index covers one hundred markets and is based on 186 variables. These indicators are divided into six parts - performance measurement, regulatory and legal frameworks, and governance of listed vehicles, market fundamentals, environmental sustainability and transaction process. The Index is one of the tools that helps to assess and compare markets across the Globe and give an idea of how investable the market is based on its transparency. Because transparency is critical to the operation of efficient markets. Within Europe, countries in the Central Europe region have shown the strongest advancements as they gradually catchup with their Western peers. Slovakia and Serbia are among the Top 10 global improvers, with Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Romania also progressing. Bulgaria in Southeastern Europe is in the last place. The aim of the paper is to cluster the countries across the world based on the indicators of the Global Real Estate Transparency Index and find out the countries with the common features. The Index 2018 covers 100 countries that were analyzed. The clustering K-means analysis and one-way ANOVA test for fulfilling the goal were used. It was found that the Czech Republic seems to be highly transparent in all the indicators, as well as its neighboring countries Slovakia, Denmark, Poland and Austria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]