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This special volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production is built primarily upon articles submitted for the 4th International Workshop Advances in Cleaner Production held in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2013. The 54 articles underscore the urgent need for changing from unsustainable production and societal patterns to sustainable ones. They provide many new approaches to help industries, governments and society to speed up the transition to sustainable patterns. The authors focus on defining and solving problems with special emphasis upon sustainability strategies: raw material replacement, renewable energy, technological developments, product, and policy changes. The central roles of improved corporate management for sustainable societal transitions are explored, with an emphasis upon stakeholder empowerment in promoting implementation of new cleaner technologies within companies, industrial sectors, supply chains and countries. Some authors improved assessment tools for environmental accounting at the biospheric scale. Some authors underscored the need for cooperation among governments, industrial sectors and companies to accelerate the integration of Cleaner Production into policies and practice. Multiple examples of successful integration of CP in national and local policy structures, exemplified how focused work in key industrial sectors is delivering multiplier benefits within and among companies and in the community, at large. The authors documented numerous benefits of holistic integration of local, regional, national and global efforts to accelerate the transition to sustainable development and societal well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This special volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production is comprised of articles presented at the 3rd International Workshop Advances in Cleaner Production held in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2011. The content underscores the recognition of the pressing and inescapable need for making changes from unsustainable to sustainable production and consumption patterns. The 48 articles from 15 countries provide different, but complimentary approaches to help industrial and societal sectors in advancing on their paths towards sustainability. Initiatives and challenges are included, which systematically address problems affecting raw material changes, technological modifications, product and policy changes. The findings range from proposals for alternative uses of wastes, substitution of raw materials for environmentally friendlier substances, optimization of industrial processes by source reductions of wastes and emissions and documented economic and environmental advantages of a wide array of initiatives. The roles of operational and managerial practices are also stressed, highlighting the role of diverse stakeholders as promoters of implementation and internalization of innovative cleaner technologies within companies. Systemic assessment tools are employed and experimented with in order to more effectively evaluate the environmental performance of systems on the biosphere scale. The methodological procedures and proposals presented can help in the design and management of production systems, for governmental and corporate policy development, for implementing and monitoring CP Programs, prevention and mitigation strategies, and evaluation of the outcomes of CP initiatives in the production and service sectors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This special volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production was built principally upon articles submitted for the 5th International Workshop Advances in Cleaner Production held in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2015. The 43 articles emphasize the imperative need for shifting from unsustainable production and societal patterns to sustainable ones. They provide many new technological and/or management related approaches to help industries, governments, and society to speed up the transition to sustainable patterns. Efforts on defining and solving problems with the special accent upon a sustainable solution for the use of raw materials and energy, technological advances, product and policy changes are presented and deeply discussed. Improved corporate management for sustainable societal transitions is discussed, highlighting consumer empowerment in sponsoring implementation of innovative cleaner technologies within companies, industrial sectors, supply chains and countries. Multiple examples are provided relating the successful combination of cleaner production in policy structures, illustrating on how the focused work in production sectors is delivering multiplier benefits and creating conditions to facilitate a “leapfrogged” path toward SD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The life of a product begins with the initial product design concepts; the costs and potential impacts of a product are heavily influenced by the final design, the production processes, the economic and environmental costs of all raw materials. Additionally, both of these factors are very much affected by how the products are managed during and after consumer usage. Thus, there is an urgent need for a tool to facilitate the integration and assessment of environmental and economic demands into the product planning and development processes. The introduction of environmental accounting based on emergy as a tool to assist in product design is proposed. This complementary tool may be inserted into the conventional design methodology to facilitate in the selection of materials and processes as well as in the actual design of the products. To illustrate the application of the proposed method for material selection, PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles and aluminum cans for beverage packaging are compared. Despite the exceptional condition of aluminum recycling in Brazil, results show that the best option for beverage packages is the PET bottles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]