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This article discusses Cradle to Cradle (C2C) and circular economy designs including three key principles of C2C production as well as the so-called 9-R hierarchy of priorities in circular economy production. This article examines student assignments that apply these circular and C2C principles to the detergent brand Method, the refillable drinking bottle Dopper, and the packaging of Burger King. Product improvements identified by students include expanding transparency of the “invisible” aspects of production, such as the types of materials and energy used for packaging and transport, or the potential for take-back and repair. In the student analysis, it appears that the supposedly circular or C2C products have their shortcomings, especially when it comes to the first R of the 9-R hierarchy – Refuse or avoid making or buying new products. The larger lesson from these case studies is that the buzzword circularity might not be delivering on its promise of absolute decoupling of resource consumption from economic activity. Students are recommended to engage with tools, concepts, and approaches, such as critical thinking and degrowth strategies to provide insight into sustainable transformations for society.

In the past decade, palm oil has become the most produced and consumed vegetable oil globally. In view of the growing global demand for palm oil, promoting consumption of the most “sustainable” for...

The over‐exploitation of natural capital and unsustainable production practices has contributed to increased pollution, biodiversity loss, drought, and deforestation. The food and beverage (F&B) sector is one of the largest contributors to the Indonesian economy but it is also responsible for various environmental impacts. Implementing Environmental Management Systems (EMS) is one way to promote improved sustainable practices within organisations, particularly those within the F&B sector. This research investigates the drivers, barriers and incentives for implementing EMS and their causal relationships. Data were collected from 59 F&B companies in East Java, Indonesia. The results indicate that the implementation of EMS tends to be driven internally in an effort to enhance market competitiveness. There is a need for institutions to exert pressures to develop organizational capability to implement EMS. External barriers are significant impeding factors, while internal barriers do not have a direct link to EMS implementation. The moderating role of technical incentives underlines the need to improve infrastructure and policy to support EMS implementation. Theoretical and practical insights for governments and industries are also discussed.

The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) standard provides a guideline for an organisation to perform a continuous improvement to their environmental performance. In light of continued concerns over global environmental impacts and climate change, the ISO 14001 standard serves to demonstrate organisational commitment to sustainable production processes. The objective of our paper is to determine the thematic and geographical trends of published EMS research with a view of developing a coordinated and holistic research framework which can be applied to facilitate the adoption of ISO 14001 in developing and developed regions of the world. Drawn from a portfolio of 509 articles from the Web of Science database, this study investigates the global trends of ISO 14001 EMS research between 2000 and 2016. The results show a considerable increase in scientific publications; from 10 articles in 2000 to 58 articles in 2016. Three themes were identified from the analysis: socio-ecological (60%), economic implications (25%), and environmental aspects (15%). In addition to a concentration of articles towards the socio-ecological theme of research, it is found that the majority of the published research derived from Europe (40%), North America (21%), and China (11%). Articles authored by researchers from developing countries were poorly represented in the findings. In order to address the thematic and global imbalance of EMS research, a research framework is proposed that promotes multi-stakeholders inclusion (e.g. industry, academics, government, etc.), cross-country research collaboration and a focus on demand-driven approach for problem solving and policy-making.

The increasing intensity of food production in the past few decades have been considered as giving rise to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This includes the large energy usage, food waste throughout the supply chain, air and water pollution. The sustainable production concept can potentially reduce the food waste within the production process whilst maintaining economic prosperity. Indonesia is the largest GHG emitter in Southeast Asia. This research draws an empirical finding from the food and beverage (F&B) sector in East Java to explore the level of environmental awareness and companies’ engagement with environmental activities. Drawn from the survey of 59 F&B companies, this research examines the key opportunities and challenges for the companies to engage with sustainability. The stepwise regression analysis method was applied to explore the firm-level characteristics on the environmental awareness and practices. This research is concluded with a proposed strategy for Indonesian government to make a transition toward sustainable production within the F&B sector. It is suggested that Indonesia needs more collaborative efforts within its decentralized governance system to an inclusive and effective sustainable food production policies.

Food waste has formidable detrimental impacts on food security, the environment, and the economy, which makes it a global challenge that requires urgent attention. This study investigates the patterns and causes of food waste generation in the hospitality and food service sector, with the aim of identifying the most promising food waste prevention measures. It presents a comparative analysis of five case studies from the hospitality and food service (HaFS) sector in Malaysia and uses a mixed-methods approach. This paper provides new empirical evidence to highlight the significant opportunity and scope for food waste reduction in the HaFS sector. The findings suggest that the scale of the problem is even bigger than previously thought. Nearly a third of all food was wasted in the case studies presented, and almost half of it was avoidable. Preparation waste was the largest fraction, followed by buffet leftover and then customer plate waste. Food waste represented an economic loss equal to 23% of the value of the food purchased. Causes of food waste generation included the restaurants’ operating procedures and policies, and the social practices related to food consumption. Therefore, food waste prevention strategies should be twofold, tackling both the way the hospitality and food service sector outlets operate and organise themselves, and the customers’ social practices related to food consumption.

The recent Southeast Asian haze crisis has generated intense public scrutiny over the rate, methods and types of landscape change in the tropics. Debate has centred on the environmental impacts of large-scale agricultural expansion, particularly the associated loss of high carbon stock forest and forests of high conservation value. Focusing on palm oil—a versatile food crop and source of bioenergy—this paper analyses national, international and corporate policy initiatives in order to clarify the current and future direction of oil palm expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia. The policies of ‘zero burn’, ‘no deforestation’ and ‘no planting on peatlands’ are given particular emphasis in the paper. The landscape implications of corporate commitments are analysed to determine the amount of land, land types and geographies that could be affected in the future. The paper concludes by identifying key questions related to the further study of sustainable land use policy and practice.

The rise of palm oil as the world’s most consumed vegetable oil has coincided with exponential growth in palm oil research\ud activity. Bibliometric analysis of research outputs reveals a distinct imbalance in the type of research being undertaken, notably a\ud disproportionate focus on biofuel and engineering topics. Recognising the expansion of oil palm agriculture across the tropics and\ud the increasing awareness of environmental, social and economic impacts, we seek to re-orient the existing research agenda\ud towards one that addresses the most fundamental and urgent questions defined by the palm oil stakeholder community. Following\ud consultation with 659 stakeholders from 38 countries, including palm oil growers, government agencies, non-governmental\ud organisations and researchers, the highest priority research questions were identified within 13 themes. The resulting 279\ud questions, including 26 ranked as top priority, reveal a diversity of environmental and social research challenges facing the\ud industry, ranging from the ecological and ecosystem impacts of production, to the livelihoods of plantation workers and smallholder\ud communities. Analysis of the knowledge type produced from these questions underscores a clear need for fundamental science\ud programmes, and studies that involve the consultation of non-academic stakeholders to develop ‘transformative’ solutions to the\ud oil palm sector. Stakeholders were most aligned in their choice of priority questions across the themes of policy and certification\ud related themes, and differed the most in environmental feedback, technology and smallholder related themes. Our\ud recommendations include improved regional academic leadership and coordination, greater engagement with private and public\ud stakeholders of Africa, and Central and South America, and enhanced collaborative efforts with researchers in the major\ud consuming countries of India and China.

Peatlands provide a wide range of ecosystem services, the most important of which are terrestrial carbon storage, maintenance of biodiversity and protection of water resources. Exploitation of UK peatlands may be detrimental to these services, but scientific understanding and quantification of the effects is currently limited. This paper considers the possibility of imposing a levy on the exploitation of peatland, which would be used to fund high-quality prioritised research into the impacts of such human interventions, thereby enabling improvements to environmental management during the development process. The viability of the concept was explored with a group of peatland stakeholders. The group included most of the significant stakeholders with an interest in development on peatland, including regulators, developers and consultants. Qualitative and semi-quantitative responses were gathered by direct consultation with individuals and using a questionnaire to determine group responses. The latter were generally positive. Offered a choice of research funding mechanisms, stakeholders responded most positively to a levy. Whilst other funding mechanisms were also viewed positively a levy (in the form proposed or with some modification) was regarded as equitable by a large majority and workable by a smaller majority. Developers were reluctant to pledge full support to the proposal but recognised the importance of a number of the concerns that it was designed to address.

The first International Peat Congress (IPC) held in the tropics – in Kuching (Malaysia) – brought together over 1000 international peatland scientists and industrial partners from across the world (“International Peat Congress with over 1000 participants!,” 2016). The congress covered all aspects of peatland ecosystems and their management, with a strong focus on the environmental, societal and economic challenges associated with contemporary large-scale agricultural conversion of tropical peat.

Food production and consumption is one of the major causes of global environmental degradation. One way to address environmental impacts in the food and beverage (F&B) sector is via the adoption of environmental management systems (EMS). To date, EMS research has focused predominantly on countries and sectors based in the Global North despite growing recognition of the global extent of environmental impacts from food production and consumption. In order to widen our knowledge of this topic in an under-researched emerging economy, this study examined factors determining EMS adoption within the Malaysian F&B industry. Drawn from a survey of 42 companies, this research investigated the drivers, barriers, and incentives to the adoption of the internationally recognized standard, ISO 14001. Discrepancies between the perceptions of small- and medium-sized enterprises and large companies’ as well as different product market groups were observed. It was found that large companies tend to have better understanding of the EMS concept and the enhancement of company image and improvement of environmental performance were the main drivers to implement EMS. High implementation costs and the lack of knowledge on the ISO 14001 standard were identified as the primary barriers to EMS adoption. Tax relief for certified companies and training and capacity building were considered as the most important incentives. Strategies were proposed to improve the environmental performance of Malaysian F&B companies which can strengthen the competitiveness of Malaysian F&B products in the global food market.

Pristine tropical peat swamp forests (PSFs) represent a unique wetland ecosystem of distinctive hydrology which support unique biodiversity and globally significant stores of soil carbon. Yet in Indonesia and Malaysia, home to 56% of the world's tropical peatland, they are subject to considerable developmental pressures, including widespread drainage to support agricultural needs. In this article, we review the ecology behind the functioning and ecosystem services provided by PSFs, with a particular focus on hydrological processes as well as the role of the forest itself in maintaining those services. Drawing on this, we review the suitability of current policy frameworks and consider the efficacy of their implementation. We suggest that policies in Malaysia and Indonesia are often based around the narrative of oil palm and other major monocrops as drivers of prosperity and development. However, we also argue that this narrative is also being supported by a priori claims concerning the possibility of sustainability of peat swamp exploitation via drainage-based agriculture through the adherence to best management practices. We discuss how this limits their efficacy, uptake and the political will towards enforcement. Further, we consider how both narratives (prosperity and sustainability) clearly exclude important considerations concerning the ecosystem value of tropical PSFs which are dependent on their unimpacted hydrology. Current research clearly shows that the actual debate should be focused not on how to develop drainage-based plantations sustainably, but on whether the sustainable conversion to drainage-based systems is possible at all.

At the newly formed Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) based at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in Kuala Lumpur, the inspiration and philosophy is taken from the idea of inculcating a Japanese style of education into Malaysian engineering degree programmes. A central component of this approach is a human-centred curriculum with specific emphasis on soft skill development and the nurturing of strong environmental values. ‘Ningen Ryoku’ – translated as ‘Human Skill’ from Japanese – is a series of 2 credit courses which bachelor students will take alongside their core technical classes throughout their degree. This paper sets out the approach and practicality of the first Ningen Ryoku course for MJIIT Bachelor Degree Engineering Programme as it ran September 2011 to January 2012. Experience of the strengths, weaknesses and challenges of engaging first year students with largely non-technical knowledge and soft skills development are discussed. It is hoped this paper will serve as a platform for discussion on how Malaysian engineering departments can engage on student and human-centred issues.

An investigation has been made of the impacts of neoliberal reforms on water and sanitation development in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. Drawing inspiration from the sub-discipline of post-colonial geography, the paper begins by locating the foundations of water inequalities in the early urban planning policies of British colonialism. The paper goes on to make a critical analysis of the recently adopted water commercialization policy in relation to the historically embedded water inequality. Whilst prompting greater water conservation, commercialization is shown to lead to continued water and sanitation poverty and a widening gulf in the quality of water services between the minority water-rich and majority water-poor populations. It is concluded that in order to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals for water and sanitation, policy makers require a more sophisticated consideration of the spatially inscribed material inequalities that characterize many former European colonies in Africa.

SUMMARYThere is a need for coordinated research for the sustainable management of tropical peatland. Malaysia has 6% of global tropical peat by area and peatlands there are subject to land use change at an unprecedented rate. This paper describes a stakeholder engagement exercise that identified 95 priority research questions for peatland in Malaysia, organized into nine themes. Analysis revealed the need for fundamental scientific research, with strong representation across the themes of environmental change, ecosystem services, and conversion, disturbance and degradation. Considerable uncertainty remains about Malaysia's baseline conditions for peatland, including questions over total remaining area of peatland, water table depths, soil characteristics, hydrological function, biogeochemical processes and ecology. More applied and multidisciplinary studies involving researchers from the social sciences are required. The future sustainability of Malaysian peatland relies on coordinating research agendas via a ‘knowledge hub’ of researchers, strengthening the role of peatlands in land-use planning and development processes, stricter policy enforcement, and bridging the divide between national and provincial governance. Integration of the economic value of peatlands into existing planning regimes is also a stakeholder priority. Finally, current research needs to be better communicated for the benefit of the research community, for improved societal understanding and to inform policy processes.

Rising commercial waste generation poses a significant environmental and public health issue, especially in rapidly expanding urban centres in developing countries. A commercial district in Malaysia was selected to explore the challenges and opportunities for minimisation of commercial waste. This research provides empirical data on commercial and food waste generation rates, the problems faced by waste producers, and the priorities for improvement. It is argued that whilst commercial waste offers opportunities for waste minimisation, current challenges related to amenity and public health such as pests, odour and littering, can be addressed by the provision of additional bins, grease traps and improved public areas cleansing. The study concludes that food waste plays a key role in the progression towards a more sustainable waste management system in a developing country such as Malaysia, due to its high generation rates, its contribution to public health and amenity problems, and its high potential for resource recovery.

Malaysia, with its rapidly growing economy, exemplifies the tensions between conservation and development faced by many tropical nations. Here we present the results of a multi-stakeholder engagement exercise conducted to (1) define conservation priorities in Peninsular Malaysia and (2) explore differences in perceptions among and within stakeholder groups (i.e. government, academia, NGOs and the private sector). Our data collection involved two workshops and two online surveys where participants identified seven general conservation themes and ranked the top five priority issues within each theme. The themes were: (1) policy and management, (2) legislation and enforcement, (3) finance and resource allocation, (4) knowledge, research and development, (5) socio-economic issues, (6) public awareness and participation and (7) rights of nature. In spite of their very different backgrounds and agendas, the four stakeholder groups showed general agreement in their priority preferences except for two issues. Respondents from government and private sector differed the most from each other in their priority choices while academia and NGO showed the highest degree of similarity. This ranked list of 35 conservation priorities is expected to influence the work of policy-makers and others in Peninsular Malaysia and can be used as a model to identify conservation priorities elsewhere.

Tropical deforestation remains one of the major global challenges of the twenty-first century driven to a large extent by the conversion of land for agricultural purposes, such as palm oil production. Malaysia is one of the world’s largest palm oil producers and has seen widespread conversion to oil palm from primary forest, including peat swamp forest (PSF). This study investigates the rate and extent of pervasive oil palm expansion in and around North Selangor Peat Swamp Forest (NSPSF) over the last three decades, exploring how land conversion has affected the region’s tropical forests, and assessing the relative success of PSF conservation measures. Time-series Landsat imagery was used to assess thematic land cover change and improvement in vegetation condition since NSPSF was given protected status in 1990. The results show a near tripling in oil palm cover throughout North Selangor, from 24,930 ha in 1989 to 70,070 ha in 2016; while at the same time tropical forest cover shrank from 145,570 ha to 88,400 ha. Despite concerns over the sustainability and environmental impact of such rapid oil palm conversion at a regional level, at the local scale, NSPSF represents a relative conservation success story. Effective land stewardship by government and non-governmental organization (NGO) management actors has limited illegal encroachment of oil palm around the reserve boundary. PSF rehabilitation measures have also markedly improved vegetation condition in NSPFS’s interior. These findings have broad significance for how oil palm agriculture is managed and especially for PSF stewardship and conservation, and the approaches described here may be usefully adopted elsewhere in Southeast Asia and around the world.