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Purpose: The study of sustainability within universities is recognized as essential for debates and research; in the long term, the "sustainable university" concepts can contribute to sustainability from a larger perspective. This study aims to propose a conceptual model for evaluating the students' sustainability considering their interactions with the university and the environment. The proposed model is titled Sunshine model. It is applied to students of the La Salle University, Peru. Design/methodology/approach: The model combines academic performance, happiness and the ecological footprint to quantify university students' sustainability. A structured questionnaire survey was elaborated and applied to get the raw data that feeds the three methods. The students' average grades evaluate academic performance. Happiness is quantified by the happiness index method, and the ecological footprint is measured by the demand for food, paper, electricity, transport and built-up areas. Results are evaluated under both approaches, overall group performance and clusters. Findings: The proposed model avoids misleading interpretations of a single indicator or discussions on sustainability that lack a conceptual model, bringing robustness in assessing students' sustainability in universities. To have a low ecological footprint, the student needs to need up to 1 planet for their lifestyle, be considered happy with at least 0.8 (of 1) for happiness index, and have good academic performance with at least a grade of 7 (of 10) in their course. Regarding the case study, La Salle students show a high academic grade degree of 7, a high level for happiness index of 0.8 and low performance for ecological footprint by demanding 1.8 Earth planets, resulting in an "environmentally distracted" overall classification for students with 2019 data. From a cluster approach, 81% of evaluated students (n = 603) have low performance for ecological footprint, whereas 31% have low performance for indicators of recreational activities of happiness. Changing lifestyles and making more recreational activities available play crucial roles in achieving higher sustainability for the La Salle students. Research limitations/implications: The happiness assessment questionnaire can be subject to criticism, as it was created as a specific method for this type of audience based on existing questionnaires in the literature. Although it can be seen as an important approach for diagnoses, the proposed model does not consider the cause–effect aspect. The decision-maker must consider the sociocultural aspects before implementing plan actions. Practical implications: University managers can better understand why university students have high or low sustainability performance and provide more effective actions toward higher levels of students' sustainability. Originality/value: The proposed model, Sunshine model, overcomes the single-criteria existing tools that access the sustainability of universities. Rather than focusing on university infrastructure, the proposed model focuses on the students and their relationship with the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study of sustainability within universities is recognized as essential for debates and research; in the long term, the "sustainable university" concepts can contribute to sustainability from a larger perspective. This study aims to propose a conceptual model for evaluating the students' sustainability considering their interactions with the university and the environment. The proposed model is titled Sunshine model. It is applied to students of the La Salle University, Peru. Design/methodology/approach: The model combines academic performance, happiness and the ecological footprint to quantify university students' sustainability. A structured questionnaire survey was elaborated and applied to get the raw data that feeds the three methods. The students' average grades evaluate academic performance. Happiness is quantified by the happiness index method, and the ecological footprint is measured by the demand for food, paper, electricity, transport and built-up areas. Results are evaluated under both approaches, overall group performance and clusters. Findings: The proposed model avoids misleading interpretations of a single indicator or discussions on sustainability that lack a conceptual model, bringing robustness in assessing students' sustainability in universities. To have a low ecological footprint, the student needs to need up to 1 planet for their lifestyle, be considered happy with at least 0.8 (of 1) for happiness index, and have good academic performance with at least a grade of 7 (of 10) in their course. Regarding the case study, La Salle students show a high academic grade degree of 7, a high level for happiness index of 0.8 and low performance for ecological footprint by demanding 1.8 Earth planets, resulting in an "environmentally distracted" overall classification for students with 2019 data. From a cluster approach, 81% of evaluated students (n = 603) have low performance for ecological footprint, whereas 31% have low performance for indicators of recreational activities of happiness. Changing lifestyles and making more recreational activities available play crucial roles in achieving higher sustainability for the La Salle students. Research limitations/implications: The happiness assessment questionnaire can be subject to criticism, as it was created as a specific method for this type of audience based on existing questionnaires in the literature. Although it can be seen as an important approach for diagnoses, the proposed model does not consider the cause–effect aspect. The decision-maker must consider the sociocultural aspects before implementing plan actions. Practical implications: University managers can better understand why university students have high or low sustainability performance and provide more effective actions toward higher levels of students' sustainability. Originality/value: The proposed model, Sunshine model, overcomes the single-criteria existing tools that access the sustainability of universities. Rather than focusing on university infrastructure, the proposed model focuses on the students and their relationship with the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Municipal solid waste (MSW) management drives fundamental future shifts. • An innovative and integrated biorefinery (2IB) is evaluated. • Detailed technical information on the 2IB is presented. • An emergy return of about 20 sej is made available to society by investing in 2IB. • 2IB emerges to be a powerful technological alternative to manage MSW. The rampant municipal solid waste (MSW) generation caused mainly by people's lifestyle has required technological solutions to deal with this global issue. This paper assess an innovative and integrated biorefinery (2IB) to manage MSW. The 2IB is rooted in the circular economy concept, and it differs from any other currently existing technological route in managing MSW due to its integrated processes that receives both inorganic and organic fractions at the same time, besides unveiling an innovative aspect related to thermoplastic production. Due to its scientific-based advantages, the emergy accounting (withy 'm') is considered as method to quantify the 2IB environmental performance, comparing the results with alternatives MSW management facilities. Results show that 2IB has similar performance for the three traditional emergy indicators (m-EYR of 1.17, m-ELR of 5.73 and m-ESI of 0.20) compared to incineration and landfilling, indicating low yield, moderate load on the environment, and unsustainable. On the other hand, the emergy return indicator (ERI of 20.33) indicates higher performance for the 2IB, in which for each solar emjoule (sej) – the measure unit of emergy – invested it generates a return of about 20 sej that becomes available as benefits for societal development. From an emergy perspective, results support that 2IB should be considered as a powerful technological alternative to manage MSW. This study contributes from a theoretical perspective with discussions on the emergy accounting procedures applied on systems located at far right side of energy hierarchy, while contributing from a practical perspective by providing technical information about the 2IB that supports decision makers towards more sustainable MSW management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bamboo has being used as alternative raw material for construction, reinforcing fibers, paper production, among other applications. Although its recognized potentials as raw material, there are doubts about its environmental performance compared to traditional wood-based products, including paper production, which hinders bamboo-based paper plants in large scales. This study aims to assess the environmental performance of producing office paper from bamboo. Emergy synthesis (with 'm') and global warming potential indicators are calculated and compared with the traditional eucalyptus paper-based production. Results highlights the importance in including the renewability fractions of each input resources into emergy calculations for production systems with high human-labor intensity such as the bamboo agricultural production. Office paper produced from bamboo has similar renewability (28%), moderate environmental load (3.23 vs. 2.49), and emergy unsustainability (0.34 vs. 0.60) compared to paper produced from eucalyptus, but bamboo showed lower performance for global efficiency (568 vs. 442 sej/ton paper), emergy yield (1.09 vs. 1.49), and emergy investment (10.79 vs. 2.05). Focusing on global warming potential, office paper produced from bamboo releases 98 kgCO 2 eq. /ton paper compared to 56–267 kgCO 2 eq. /ton paper for eucalyptus. Notwithstanding, bamboo-based office paper demands four times more land area of agricultural production than eucalyptus, but it has a positive social aspect by requiring higher amount of direct human labor. This work shows the advantages of using eucalyptus rather than bamboo in producing office paper from an emergy and land demand perspectives, while global warming can still be considered inconclusive. Future efforts should consider a quantitative and qualitative analysis of human labor availability in both systems, as well an economic analysis to support discussions towards more sustainable office paper production from different raw materials. • Environmental load of bamboo and eucalyptus for office paper production are compared. • Bamboo has lower emergy performance than eucalyptus. • Including the renewability fraction of labor and services better reflects emergy results. • Bamboo paper emits 98kgCO2eq/ton, eucalyptus paper emits 56–267kgCO2eq/ton. • Bamboo paper needs 4x land compared to eucalyptus and requires more human labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The evaluation is based on a new inventory generated by a big-data analysis of online food delivery network. • The study evidenced that food packaging account for 15.7% of the total urban waste generated in JJJ. • Food delivery providers should improve their way of packaging to avoid a further growth. • Food delivery service platforms should improve environmental protection mechanisms. Controversies on food delivery services environmental impacts have been sparked due to the growth of this economic sector. This study focuses on the environmental impacts generated by packaging waste related to urban food delivery services. In particular, the Python based web-crawling and sample survey methods are used for big data mining, and LCA-based environmental impacts evaluation and Kernel density analysis methods are combined to determine the positioning trend of food delivery service providers and expansion direction of environmental pollution load in Jing-Jin-Ji region (North China). Results indicate that (1) food delivery service packages presently account for a very small proportion (<0.1%) of municipal solid waste (MSW). However, this study also evidences that food packaging accounts for 15.7% of the total MSW generated in this region. Even if this growing market sector might have a relatively low impact, households' lifestyle might affect the results. (2) In terms of consumption quantity, plastic bags are the most used packages, accounting for 35.08%; wooden chopsticks account for 32.21% and plastic boxes account for 27.43%. Among all environmental impact categories resulting from the process of production of packages, greenhouse effect is the most distinct one. Paper boxes generate the most serious environmental pollution. (3) The distribution of environmental pollution loads resulting from food delivery service packages positively correlates with the distribution of food delivery service providers in Jing-Jin-Ji. Shijiazhuang has the highest degree of pollution resulting from food delivery service packages with the interrupt value ratio of 80%, followed by Baoding City and Chengde City, which have the interrupt value ratios of 65.1% and 48.6%, respectively. Finally, as bridges between food delivery service providers and consumers, food delivery service platforms should improve their environmental protection mechanisms. Meanwhile, the government should define a standard concerning food delivery service packages to consolidate the concept of environmental protection in the society to change the ways people consume, in order to achieve a harmonious co-existence between resource utilization and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability assessment is a fundamental step to support decisions towards sustainable development, and several procedures to assess the sustainability of antrophic production systems have been suggested. However, most of them lack a scientific-based construct supporting their conceptual model of sustainability, which usually results in a choice of indicator(s) without criterion that can best represent a fraction of the larger and deeper concept of sustainability. This work proposes a novel framework, named Sustainability Assessment Procedure for Operations and Production Processes (SUAPRO), supported by the PDCA four-step management method (plan, do, check, and act) and the five sectors sustainability (5SEnSU) model. Grounded on scientific bases, SUAPRO provides the steps for a sustainability assessment, including its contextualization (objectives, functional unit, boundaries, energy diagram), the choice of indicators based on the 5SEnSU model, the quantification step including goal programming as a multicriteria tool, and conclude the first cycle with a sensitivity analysis. To illustrate an application of SUAPRO, the road and railroad transportation options for soybean in Brazil are considered as a case study. Results show that the railroad mode has better performance as for the Sustainability Synthetic Indicator (SSIS of 3.6 ± 0.4) than the road mode (SSIS of 4.0 ± 0.3). Towards a SSIS improvement, the sensitivity analysis highlights that public policies or even private actions should be mainly focused on reducing the e m ergy invested in the railroad system, while the road transportation option claims effort in reducing its global warming and acidification potentials. SUAPRO is the main contribution in this work, as it tries to overcome shortcomings as usually found in scientific papers aiming to assess the sustainability of antrophic systems. The subjectivity inherent in any multicriteria method is present as the main limitation, thus all criteria used in choosing weights must be clearly presented. Unlabelled Image • A new framework for assessing sustainability is presented and discussed. • SUAPRO is suggested to overcome existing inconsistencies in sustainability assessments. • The 5SEnSU model, goal programming, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis support SUAPRO. • Road and railroad soybean transportation options in Brazil are used as case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MATOPIBA is a Brazilian region with 73.2 million ha that has been facing a change in its land use due to agribusiness expansion over the last thirty years. The sustainability-related issues of this land use change raise doubts since it may result in advantages and/or disadvantages for social, economic and environmental aspects. This work assess the sustainability of MATOPIBA by means of a sustainability assessment procedure for operations and production processes (SUAPRO), covering the period 1990–2018 by including both the phases before and after agribusiness expansion. Expressed by the sector sustainability indicator (SSI) from SUAPRO, results show that MATOPIBA's sustainability macroeconomic and social (as the provider function) sectors are increasing along years, while environmental and social (as the receiver function) sectors are worsening. Focusing on MATOPIBA's overall sustainability, the sustainability synthetic indicator of system (SSIS) showed the worst performance for 2000 (4.71) and the best one for 2010 (3.63), while 1990 and 2018 obtained intermediary SSIS values of 4.17 and 4.51. The obtained pulsing behavior for SSIS does not support a conclusion about whether MATOPIBA's overall sustainability is increasing or even decreasing over time, claiming for future efforts to include additional data after 2018 year. Notwithstanding, there is a potential to achieve the maximized SSIS of 1.65 whether the identified actions for improvement were implemented. Besides providing subsidies for decision makers towards a more sustainable MATOPIBA, this work innovates by using nightlights satellite images as a proxy in obtaining data for modelling the SUAPRO. [Display omitted] • Thirty years of agribusiness expansion is affecting the sustainability of MATOPIBA. • The SUAPRO method is applied to assess gains and losses from agribusiness expansion. • MATOPIBA's sustainability has a pulsing behavior over 1990–2018, with best performance for 2010. • The sensitivity analysis provides subsidies for public policies towards higher MATOPIBA's sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A method for quantifying the limits to growth of cities is proposed. • Emergy accounting is introduced to assess the limits to growth. • Results claim for more studies considering larger time-period under analysis. • The proposed approach offers a new perspective to assess the limits of urban growth. Abstract Cities are important urban productive systems whose main goal could be considered the supply of innovation to generate economic growth. However, as well as all social organization managed by scale economies, cities eventually tend to reduce or even stop growth. In this scenario, public policies are essential to avoid the potential collapse of society. The sustainability of cities has been studied through different methodological approaches, but few scientific works assessed the limits of their growth. This paper explores the potentialities of emergy accounting in contributing to the discussions about the limits of growth for urban productive systems. The cities of Araraquara, Bragança Paulista, Campinas, São Paulo and Taubaté were considered as case study due to their socio-economic importance in São Paulo State, Brazil. The time period ranges from 1999 to 2011. Results from the dynamics of "empower" (in seJ/yr) indicate that all assessed cities have the same development pattern, and differences are related to their current development degree. All assessed cities showed an efficiency increase estimated by the conversion of input materials and energy (measured in seJ) into outputs of goods and services (measured in $). However, a stabilization of efficiency was not observed along the studied period. This result suggests that the hypothesized limits to growth do not exist, were not reached, or even the time period considered was not long enough to allow for observing a stabilization pattern. The methodological approach used in this work contributes to assess urban productive systems through a macro-perspective approach using an input-output model of systems functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of information and communication technology (ICT) sector on the global energy consumption and CO 2 emissions tend to grow. ICTs have a fundamental role in collaborating for a sustainable development by providing services in an efficient way, however, its own structure should also follow sustainable principles, for instance, by consuming lower energy amount. The quest for sustainability of ICTs has been focused on data centers (DC) optimization through techniques of sharing infra-structures, which would result in energy efficiency increase, carbon footprint reduction, and reduction of e-waste material disposal. In this scenario, the cloud computing technique rises as the most promising one, often receiving the “green” label. However, this label is usually based on electricity consumption reduction and disregards several other important “green” label-related aspects. This work uses emergy accounting (spelled with an “m”) and direct energy consumption in calculating indicators of eco-energy efficiency for DC operating under traditional and cloud computing techniques. A traditional decentralized DC and a centralized cloud computing DC are herein considered for illustrating figures and for discussion. Results show that centralized DC is able to provide a virtual machine (VM) by demanding 51% less electricity than decentralized DC, and it consumes 87% less electricity to store a byte. Under an emergy accounting perspective, the centralized DC demands 45% less global resources than the decentralized DC to provide a VM while demanding 85% less global resources to store a byte. Although the assessed indicators point out better eco-energy efficiency performance for the DC using cloud computing techniques, labeling it as “green” could be considered as premature due to a lack of threshold which allows for categorizing a system as “green”. Nevertheless, the centralized DC evaluated should be promoted due to its better performance as for the considered indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A dam's failure losses and damages was evaluated by emergy-based procedures. • Three categories were considered to quantify losses and damages: (I) suppressed stocks in the mud passage and deposition areas, (II) social disruption, and (III) landscape. • The evaluated damages resulting from the tailings passage and deposition can be allocated on an energy hierarchy diagram to assist their spatial visualization. In 2015, the 'Fundão' dam's failure in Brazil released 44 million m3 of tailings that traveled 670 km in the 'Doce' river watershed crossing 40 municipalities and two states until reaching the Atlantic Ocean. Since then, a public civil action (PCA) is responsible for litigation processes, and recently established a value of US$ 43.8 billion to repair losses and damages, a value that brings doubts about its accuracy in expressing the loses and damages of the disaster. This claims for alternative methods for its monetary quantification than the current tradicional economic ones. Among others biophysical approaches, the emergy accounting appears as a powerful tool due to its donor side perspective that objectively quantifies value and recognizes energy quality. This study aims to use emergy accounting as method to firstly identify and then quantify the impacts of 'Fundão' dam's failure, considering exclusively the negative direct and immediate impacts. Three categories are considered to quantify loses and damages: (I) suppressed stocks in the mud passage and deposition areas (MPDA), (II) social disruption, and (III) changes in landscape. For all the three scenarios of turnover times (Tt), results show that about 98% of total emergy in the suppressed stocks are related to (II) and (III), while only 2% in average is related to (I). This discrepancy highlights the importance of accounting for (II) and (III) since they are often disregarded or not directly considered by traditional economic approaches. From a macroeconomic perspective, the highest total emergy-based dollars (emdollar, EmUS$) found for scenario #3 reached EmUS$ 149.18 billion, a value 3.4 times higher than the US$ 43.8 billion established by PCA. This higher value is equivalent to the annual emergy demanded by the Ecuador economy with 18 million inhabitants. Rather than providing an accurate monetary value for the 'Fundão' disaster repair, this study contributes for the advancement of discussions about using biophysical methods such as emergy accounting that allows tracking all numbers for objective verification as alternative to the traditional economic approaches in quantifying losses and damages of high proportion disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lignocellulosic ethanol is considered as a good alternative to increase the current amount of first generation ethanol produced, since it does not compete for land with food production. Biochemical technological routes have high potential to be adopted for lignocellulosic ethanol production, in which hydrolysis processes demand cellulase enzymes to convert cellulose and hemicellulose materials into fermentable sugars. Thus, an integral evaluation of lignocellulosic ethanol requires knowledge of the energetic–environmental costs of production of enzymes, which generally occurs off-site of biorefinery plants in specialized companies. The aims of this work are to assess the energetic–environmental costs of cellulase enzyme production and verify their influence on the lignocellulosic ethanol overall cost. For this, the production of industrial enzyme operating under submerged fermentation process was assessed by (i) emergy accounting, (ii) embodied energy analysis, (iii) and emission inventory. Monte Carlo simulation was used for uncertainty analysis. Results show that cellulase enzyme demands 4.06E14 seJ/kg enzyme and 1664 MJ/kg enzyme with a global warming potential of 21.90 kgCO 2-eq. /kg enzyme . These values are equivalent to 0.41%, 0.49%, and 0.02%, respectively, of the emergy, embodied energy, and global warming potential of lignocellulosic ethanol production, making their contribution to the overall energetic–environmental costs negligible when compared to other input resources of the ethanol production chain such as limestone and diesel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The end of the age of cheap oil and global warming are causing worldwide concerns about energy security and climate change mitigation. Recognizing that the continuous growth paradigm will not change at short to medium time periods, alternative energy sources to fossil fuels are being sought, in which a promising source seems to be that obtained from vegetal biomass. Specifically in Brazil, there are Conventional Ethanol Plants (CEP) using sugarcane, but due to the energy versus food debate and an increasing demand for ethanol, cellulosic ethanol produced by Biorefineries seems to be a viable option. The question is whether the Biorefinery is more sustainable than CEP. This work aims to assess the energetic-environmental performance of a Biorefinery scenario in Brazil, comparing its results against CEP and another alternative small-scale system. For this, a multi-criteria approach was considered through the following methodologies: Embodied Energy Analysis, Ecological Rucksack, Emergy Accounting and Gas Emission Inventory. Results show that Biorefinery scenario has better rating than CEP for the most indicators when the functional unit is mass of ethanol produced, but when dealing with overall system performance, the Biorefinery performance worse. Neither the Biorefinery nor CEP was superior for all indicators, showing the existence of a trade-off. On the other hand, the small-scale system suggests being the best alternative if the aim is to get higher energetic-environmental performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Environmental aspects have been acknowledged as an important issue in decision making at any field during the last two decades. There are several available methodologies able to assess the environmental burden, among which the Ecological Footprint has been widely used due to its easy-to-understand final indicator. However, its theoretical base has been target of some criticisms about the inadequate representation of the sustainability concept by its final indicator. In a parallel way, efforts have been made to use the theoretical strength of the Emergy Accounting to obtain an index similar to that supplied by the Ecological Footprint. Focusing on these aspects, this work assesses the support area (SA) index for Brazilian sugarcane and American corn crop through four different approaches: Embodied Energy Analysis (SAEE), Ecological Footprint (SAEF), Renewable Empower Density (SAR), and Emergy Net Primary Productivity (SANPP). Results indicate that the load on environment varies accordingly to the methodology considered for its calculation, in which emergy approach showed the higher values. Focusing on crops comparison, the load by producing both crops are similar with an average of 0.04ha obtained by SAEE, 1.86ha by SAEF, 4.24ha by SAR, and 4.32ha by SANPP. Discussion indicates that support area calculated using Emergy Accounting is more eligible to represent the load on the environment due to its global scale view. Nevertheless, each methodology has its contribution depending of the study objectives, but it is important to consider the real meaning and the scope of each one. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Energy from sources alternative to fossil fuels is being studied and interest in energy derived from vegetal biomass is increasing. In Brazil - mainly at Sao Paulo State -, sugarcane ethanol is being intensively produced on large-scales, giving rise to social and environmental concerns about its production. If ethanol production systems are to maintain a balance between economic, social and environmental aspects, a systemic approach needs to be considered in their assessment. Particularly, human needs other than energy must be taken into account. In this sense, the Integrated Food, Energy and Environmental Services Production (IFEES) on small-scale suggests an alternative approach. The aim of this work is to assess, in a multi-criteria way, the energetic-environmental aspects of a common IFEES found in Brazil and compare its indices against large-scale ethanol production. For this, embodied energy analysis, emergy accounting, ecological rucksack and gas emission inventory are used as tools. Results show that IFEES has better overall energetic-environmental indices than large-scale ethanol production. At the same time, IFEES produces several other by-products than just ethanol (i.e. food, forestry products and environmental services), although productivity of large-scale process is 25 times higher than for IFEES, if only ethanol is considered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Humanity's future depends on the preservation of natural ecosystems that supply resources and absorb pollutants. Rural and urban productions are currently based on chemical products made from petroleum, which are responsible for high negative impacts on the Biosphere. In order to prevent those impacts, efficient public policies seeking for sustainable development are necessary. Aiming to assess the load on the environment (considering the gratuitous contributions of natural systems—a donor's perspective) due to human-dominated process, a scientific tool called Emergy Evaluation has been applied in different production systems, including crops and farms. However, there is still a lack of emergy studies in the context of watersheds, probably due to the difficulty of collecting raw data. The present work aims to carry out an assessment of Mogi-Guaçu and Pardo watershed, through the combined use of Emergy Evaluation and Geographical Information System. The agricultural and natural land uses were considered, while urban areas were excluded. Emergy flows (expressed in seJha−1 yr−1) obtained for all agricultural and natural land uses were expanded for the whole watershed and the emergy indices were calculated. The results show that the watershed has: low renewability (%R =32%); low capture of natural resources through high external economic investment (EYR=1.86); low dependence on natural resources (EIR=1.16); and moderate load on the environment (ELR=2.08). Considering a scenario where sugar-cane crops, orchards and pasture areas are converted from conventional to organic management, watershed's emergy performance improved, reaching a new renewability of 38%, but it is still not enough to be considered sustainable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Society needs urgently good tools to understand the biosphere dynamics, become aware of Earth''s biophysical limits and make appraisals of environmental performance of human dominated systems. In this context, the Ecological Footprint (EF) was suggested as one of the most important tools. But, according to calculations based on Emergy Analysis, the indicators of EF could underestimate the problem of human carrying support. EF does not consider the work of untouched nature in productivity and ecosystems services. In order to improve the EF results, the present study suggests: (a) to include the ecosystems not considered in conventional EF i.e. tundra, deserts and areas covered by ice; (b) to consider the value of Net Primary Production (NPP) in Emergy units (seJm−2 year−1) as the base for the calculation of Equivalent Factors (EQF); (c) to account for the consumption of fossil energy used in collection, treatment and distribution of water for domestic use, for this the carbon emissions data (in tonCm−3 of water) were used. Introducing these changes to the conventional EF calculation and considering the Peruvian economy (in 2004) as the study case, the Biocapacity obtained was 14.31ghacapita−1 and the footprint was 6.68ghacapita−1. These values mean that Peru can support 2.14 times its population if the current life style is maintained, as opposed to the 4.0 times ratio obtained with a conventional EF calculation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

About one-third of annual global food production for human consumption is wasted, increasing the pressure on the environment in providing resources to support food supply-chains. Food waste reduction is of fundamental importance towards a more sustainable world, as recognized by the United Nations in the twelfth of its seventeen sustainable development goals for 2030. Among other practices, food donation appears as an alternative to overcome the existing social and environmental issues related to food waste, however, donation also causes environmental pressure by requiring additional energy investment on infrastructure and operational goods, while releasing gases to atmosphere, due to its processes. This work applies the life cycle assessment (LCA) method to evaluate the environmental impacts of plausible food donation scenarios in the 'CEAGESP' food distribution center in São Paulo city, Brazil, the third largest in the world regarding marketable food (about 3 million tons/yr). Under the concept of waste hierarchy management options, six scenarios for the CEAGESP's non-marketable food (37,652 tons/yr) were established, from landfilling as a baseline to a donation alternative. Results show that donation scenarios have the least environmental burdens for all nine LCA impact categories. Worst-case scenarios were obtained by landfilling the non-marketable food, considering electricity generation or otherwise. Differences over tenfold in comparative bases among the best and worst-case scenarios were obtained by fossil depletion, global warming, human toxicity, water and metal depletion LCA's impact categories. Results highlight the environmental advantages of donating the non-marketable food of distribution centres, which is aligned with the concepts of circular and regenerative economy towards a sustainable development that should be promoted by public policies. Regional variables as the Brazilian electricity grid based on hydropower plants have considerable influence in some LCA impact categories, especially when accounting for the avoided emissions, emphasizing the importance of carrying out this study for Brazilian conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this work, emergy analysis was used in association with the Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to improve the evaluation of family-managed farms that adopt either the ecological or the chemical production models. Three small farms, located in Amparo County, in São Paulo state, Brazil, were studied. One of them, Duas Cachoeiras farm, uses agroecological concepts for its agricultural production. The two others (Santa Helena farm and Três Lagos farm) use the conventional chemical model. In an attempt to improve the precision of the data used in emergy analysis, the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was incorporated to the GIS tool to calculate the topsoil loss in the farms. The GIS tool also allowed the calculation of the amount of rain water that infiltrates the ground and can recharge the aquifer. This percolated water is a system output and was incorporated in the emergy accounting. Another modification in comparison to previous emergy analyses was that the renewability factor of each input was considered in the emergy accounting. Results showed that the agroecological farm is more sustainable and can be used as a model for small farms in their transition to ecological agriculture. The GIS–emergy tools were used to compare the environmental performance of the four main productive areas of Duas Cachoeiras farm (annual cultures, orchard, forest, and pasture). These results demonstrate the emergy performance of each kind of land use and may be used in watershed planning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As a powerful tool for assessing cities development, the emergy synthesis considers the energy quality concept, which allows it to quantify all the effort provided by nature in providing resources, however, it usually demands a huge amount of data and still lacks a complete and updated database for long-term studies. Cities seem to develop according to fractals, building up parts that resemble the whole, which is also relevant in emergy theory and observable through night-time lights from cities that are used to investigate how energy use distributes as cities change. This work proposes an alternative method for estimating the fractal dimension and non-renewable empower density (NRED) of cities from satellite night-time images and assess the relationship between them. Nine cities in Brazil, selected through a cluster analysis, were considered as a case study. Results show a strong positive correlation (0.94 for Pearson index) between fractals and NRED, which can be of help in estimating each other for further studies. The method proposed is time and cost effective when compared to previously used methods based on red/blue/green (RBG) satellite images, representing a potential alternative for assessing urban expansion in spatiotemporal models and assessing cities limits to growth. • Nighttime satellite imagery is used as a proxy to estimate cities' fractal and emergy. • Urban expansion in spatiotemporal models is used to assess cities limits to growth. • There is strong positive correlation between fractal and emergy. • Cities evaluated are all at the growing stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The seventh edition of the International Workshop "Advances in Cleaner Production" (IWACP) was held at Universidad de La Costa, Colombia, in June 2018. Thematic sections were held for allowing theoretical discussions and practical activities, with the main goal of supporting discussions on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). Participants provided their perception on the allocation of UN-SDGs as relevant for managing the main forms of capital (environmental, economic and social) within two different sustainability conceptual models: a "traditional" model (representing the interdependence and substitutability among the environment, social and economic capitals), and the five sectors sustainability model (5SenSu). Results show an unbalanced distribution of SDGs among the capitals for both sustainability models, with social capital perceived as the most relevant across the SDGs. Particularly, the environment as a resource provider supporting societal development is perceived as relevant only for SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation). The main outcomes of the workshop emphasize the need for further efforts towards a more objective interpretation of policy goals in post Agenda-2030 initiatives. The SDGs must be clearly understood and have a scientific resonance to objectively support public policies. Sustainability models, such as the 5SenSu, have the potential to support a more balanced definition of sustainable development goals across the different dimensions of sustainability. • The UN SDGs should be fundamentally aligned to one or more sustainability conceptual models. • Cleaner production experts of the 7th IWACP provided their perception on the 17 SDGs with sustainability conceptual models. • The SDGs are not evenly distributed among the economic, social and environmental forms of capital. • Social capital is the most representative among the SDGs, while environmental capital is relevant only for SDG 6. • Balanced and objective interpretations of policy goals in post Agenda-2030 initiatives are claimed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite efforts to evaluate sustainability within the Brazilian automotive textile sector, there is still a lack of specific measures quantifying the social, environmental, and economic aspects. Consequently, the shift from a traditional profit-centric post-industrial culture to a modern, sustainable-focused culture presents ongoing challenges. Addressing this, a question arises: how can a decision-support framework be developed to ensure a balanced approach to sustainability management, highlighting system limitations without compromising the sector's performance? Decision support models aim to equip decision-makers with tools for making informed choices aligned with organizational objectives and goals. The proposed procedure comprises four key stages: sustainability diagnosis, creation of an illustrative panel, simulation, and normal distribution. The initial phase, sustainability diagnosis, uses the 5 SEnSU model, integrating indicators selection alongside their objectives and targets. Utilizing Goal Programming at its core, the Synthetic Indicator System Sustainability outlines the sector's performance relative to its objectives. Results are then presented in a dashboard format, offering a comprehensive view of sustainability performance trends. Subsequently, a simulation phase implements more stringent targets to identify the sector's limitations without jeopardizing its performance. These results are modeled through normal distribution curves, drawing parallels between sustainability within the system and Statistical Process Control Assessment, ensuring adherence to legal and corporate standards. Illustrating the procedure with the Brazilian textile automotive sector revealed that while the sector maintains economic sustainability, its progress has negatively impacted the environment and society. This process helped pinpoint critical areas in sustainability management and proposed strategies for optimizing resources to meet organizational sustainable objectives. Moreover, this model elevates informed decision-making and advocates for a more conscientious and efficient approach to business management across this sector and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate about the negative impacts that production and consumption cause on the environment is in vogue. Strategies that point to a sustainable, healthy, and resilient path are being sought. One of these paths is the Circular Economy, which emerges as an alternative to reduce the socio-environmental impacts caused by the linear model of production-use-disposal, presenting opportunities to generate revenue, income, and wealth with circular processes. However, despite the circular economy being considered an essential strategy to improve overall performance toward sustainability in its three dimensions, recent research has shown that the predominant focus of circular approaches is on the economic and environmental dimensions. At the same time, the social aspects still need to be explored. This article addresses this problem, aiming to explore circular economy environmental, economic, and social elements in three economic blocs from 2000 to 2020 using the Five Sector Sustainability Model, establishing a baseline to co-create an equitable and regenerative future. The results showed that ASEAN in 2000 occupied the first position in the general ranking. The European Union had the best classification in the economic sector, and Mercosur was the best regarding social benefits. In 2020, while the European bloc was better positioned in the general ranking, the South American bloc occupied the last post in almost all sectors. Comparatively, the highest-ranked bloc in 2020 in overall sustainability is more in line with the UN SDG due to circular actions oriented towards the three fundamental pillars of sustainability. • CE advocates reducing dependence on finite resources. • The 5SEnSU model is used to monitor sustainability performance. • The sustainability of ASEAN, EU and Mercosur was analyzed. • Economic development influenced the environmental issues of the studied blocks. • EU is the highest-ranked bloc for overall sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that the current linear socioeconomic system, characterized by "production-use-destination," is unsustainable and the leading cause of the depletion of natural resources. In the search for sustainable development, several actions to preserve resources in use for as long as possible have been proposed in recent decades, such as cleaner production, ecoefficiency, industrial ecology, industrial ecosystems, industrial symbiosis, and the circular economy. Although circularity and sustainability are increasingly present on the agenda of academics, entrepreneurs, and government sectors, the relationship between the two concepts is still under construction. In this sense, this work aims to verify, using the Five Sectors Model of Sustainability, the relationship between circularity and sustainable development in ASEAN, Mercosur, and the EU, considering economic, social, and environmental indicators in the periods between 2000 and 2020. The selected indicators with their respective goals were applied and weighted through Goal Programming. From the primary and secondary data analysis, it was not possible to conclude that circularity alone guarantees sustainability, despite contributing significantly to sustainable development. However, the results obtained in the 5SEnSU model made it possible to verify that the EU has a superior performance for sustainable development of the other two blocks and that the impacts generated in the economic system (sector 3) of the analyzed blocks benefited social sectors (4 and 5) to the detriment of environmental integrity (sectors 1 and 2). Some challenges still need to be mitigated, such as those related to excessive consumption and waste discharge, so that a circular economy can effectively contribute to global sustainability. • The sustainability of three economic blocs – ASEAN, Mercosur and EU – is evaluated. • Circularity indicators are combined with socioeconomic indicators to evaluate sustainability. • Circularity indicators are organized using the Five Sectors Sustainability Model. • ASEAN and Mercosur still pursue progress in detriment of the environment. • Deficiencies that limit the blocs' ability to adopt a sustainable approach are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revegetation has significantly contributed to improvements in ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and soil retention. Yet, vegetation expansion in water-limited regions may generate conflict of water demand between nature and humans. Present studies are still lacking when it comes to identifying the permissible vegetation capacity, i.e. net primary productivity (NPP) threshold, based on the local water resources limits, and further proposing adjustment and optimization strategies to keep water use balanced in anthropogenic-biological systems. Under such a circumstance, this study assesses the difference between the actual NPP and NPP thresholds at regional and ecosystem scales in China. The results show that 8 out of 31 provinces have their provincial actual NPP above the regional NPP thresholds, mainly concentrated in northern China between 400 and 800 mm iso-precipitation line, i.e. North China Plain (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei), the middle reaches of the Yellow River Basin (Shaanxi and Henan provinces), and the Northeast China (Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning). Forest ecosystems dominate the difference between the actual total woodland and grassland ecosystems NPP and the permissible NPP thresholds in these regions, ranging from 67% (Beijing) to 99% (Tianjin). If the current vegetation intensity in these regions remains unchanged, the areas of woodland and grassland ecosystems should be optimized 0–48% and 0–100% of their present areas to balance the water demand between the ecosystems and humans, without considering the potential consequence of climate change and soil erosion. Although 23 provinces have their regional actual NPP below their permissible NPP thresholds, 6 out of 23 provinces still have their woodland and grassland ecosystems NPP above the corresponding NPP thresholds, mainly focusing on the Northwestern China north over the 400 mm iso-precipitation line, including Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Hainan, Shanxi, Gansu and Xinjiang. Forest ecosystems also dominate the negative NPP differences in these regions, ranging from 91% (Inner Mongolia) to 46% (Gansu). These reveal the hidden and potential pressure in the 6 provinces to balance limited water resources in the local anthropogenic-biological system. This study provides a method to assess the water-resources permissible NPP threshold and further proposes the specific adjustment and optimization plans for the areas with actual NPP above the corresponding NPP thresholds, which can provide guidance for ecological restoration program implementations in a more sustainable way. • This study assesses China's regional and ecosystems' NPP thresholds. • 8 provinces have the provincial actual NPP above the regional NPP thresholds. • Forest ecosystems dominate the difference between actual NPP and NPP thresholds. • We propose the adjustment plans for areas with regional NPP above the thresholds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soybean exports provide several advantages such as increased profitability, the agroindustry productivity and the positive image around the quality of products on the international market. In contrast, Brazil is dependent on the purchase of non-renewable resources for the production of grain. The objective of this paper is to evaluate, using the Emergy accounting, if Brazil acquires real wealth when exports soybeans, comparing the Emergy of gross resources, through the relationship between the exported Emergy and the money paid by the importer and, also checking, whether there is an advantage in producing / exporting processed (bran and oil) instead of raw grain. Considering the year 2019, three indicators (EBR -Emergy Benefit Ratio, EER - Exchange Emergy Ratio, and OR - Opportunity Ratio) were calculated and the results show that Brazil benefits when it buys / imports non-renewable resources from the international market. The commercialization of grain and bran is, in general, disadvantageous, except when China is the importing country, but the commercialization of oil is advantageous in the studied period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquaponics is a food production system that aims higher sustainability by integrating advantages gained from aquaculture and hydroponic production. Aquaponics aims to mimic the biological process that happens in the natural environment in a controlled production system. As it can be applied to small scales, aquaponics is considered an important alternative for urban regions, which have low availability of agricultural land and water resources. Furthermore, the advantage is that it is located close to final consumers. Aquaponics has been labeled as an environmentally friendly food production system, but its demand for energy and materials cast doubt on its sustainability. A systemic understanding of aquaponics production systems is needed to determine the magnitude and balance between its potentialities and constraints, in which emergy synthesis appears as a powerful tool for this purpose. This study applies emergy synthesis to assess the sustainability of two different (scale and marketable products) urban aquaponics farms in Brazil, but differently from other emergy studies, ecosystem services and disservices are included in the analysis as an attempt to represent the system performance holistically. Results show that the type of materials used in aquaponics infrastructures has the highest influence on total emergy demand. Surprisingly, electricity and fish feed showed a low influence on the total emergy, reinforcing the idea that aquaponics systems have a more efficiency feeding management than traditional aquaculture systems. Besides producing vegetables and fish, the inclusion of ecosystem services highlights the importance of aquaponics for educational and tourism purposes. Finally, the obtained indicators from modeling scenarios revealed that replacing the water source and some materials deserves priority attention to increase the sustainability of urban aquaponics farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Students play an unequivocal role in sustainable universities as they are theorized to embody the mission of a sustainable university through a sustainable lifestyle and spread sustainability practices during their professional careers. Despite this, it is not well known how or why students come to embody a sustainable lifestyle. This study aims to better understand the relationship between happiness, academic achievement and sustainability behaviors among the student population in a Mexican higher education institution. Design/methodology/approach: In a questionnaire study, engineering and psychology university students at a large public university in northwestern Mexico answered questions regarding their environmental sustainability behaviors, happiness and academic performance. A stratified random sampling technique was used to obtain the sample population that best represents the entire population. After chi-square tests, it was confirmed that the three variables were independent of one another. Therefore, a series of correspondence analyses were conducted to examine clusters or patterns that could indicate relationships among the three variables. Findings: The main finding from this work was that the happiest and most academically astute participants were only slightly environmentally sustainable or not sustainable at all. The lack of environmental sustainability in students from one of the most top-rank sustainable universities in Mexico does not align with previous sustainability reports. External factors to the university, such as cultural values and extreme weather conditions, may have influenced students' sustainability behaviors. Research limitations/implications: As with any other questionnaire study, the provided data is subject to interpretation, judgment and bias. In addition, the environmental and happiness index used in this study are not free of criticizing, and some author had disputed its efficacy. Finally, this study's findings did not determine any causality or directionality between any of the latent variables. However, causality and directionally between environmental sustainability-happiness and happiness-academic performance have to be found in both directions. Practical implications: Despite the unsustainability of students in this study, this study has several contributions. First, it provides an evaluation of a sustainable university from the perspectives and behaviors of students. The views of students as they relate to the complexities and visions of a sustainable university have remained relatively underexamined. Second, these analyses point to specific sustainability-oriented challenges and inadvertent barriers (e.g. extreme weather patterns) toward the embodiment of a sustainable lifestyle. These challenges and barriers suggest that sustainable universities need to address the dynamic changes inherent in sustainable development. Finally, this study indicates that the link between happiness, academic performance and sustainability may be more complicated and driven by cultural and structural barriers. The issue of barriers, as they relate to sustainability behaviors, is highly relevant and presents important opportunities and questions for future research. Originality/value: This study provides an evaluation of a sustainable university from the perspectives and behaviors of students. Students' views as they relate to the complexities and visions of a sustainable university have remained relatively underexamined. Second, these analyses point to specific sustainability-oriented challenges and barriers as they relate to the embodiment of a sustainable lifestyle. These challenges and barriers suggest that sustainable universities need to address the dynamic changes inherent in sustainable development. Finally, this study indicates that the link between happiness, academic performance and sustainability may be more complicated and driven by cultural and structural barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current energy, water, and land (EWL) nexus research treats all resources equally, causing bias in complicated nexus studies. To make the analysis robust, we consider resource endowment and significance. Here, we provide a methodological framework where the urban industrial resource nexus strength is constructed and assign weights to resources according to policies, describing resource efficiency and representing it in ternary diagrams to assess the urban industrial nexus innovatively. Results showed that energy drives urban development under all weights, with energy resource efficiency exceeding 60%. From consumption-based accounting, energy continues to dominate most industries under physical weightings but emphasizes the significance of water and land. While, under economic weightings, land supplants energy's dominance in specific sectors. Setting weights helps understand resource interaction, establish synergy based on urban development objectives, and minimize robustness. Our findings provide quantitative evidence for assessing urban resource efficiency to highlight priority sectors for intervention in urban decision-making. [Display omitted] • A methodological framework for urban resource efficiency management is constructed. • Resource weights are considered in urban industrial nexus strength indicator. • Energy drives urban growth, but economic weights favor land in specific sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new conceptual model of sustainability is proposed: FIVE SEctor SUstainability (5SEnSU) model. • 5SEnSU model results in a multi-criteria decision making problem solved using the philosophy of goal programming. • 5SEnSU model is applied to the Mercosur countries for illustration purposes. The decision-making process towards sustainability is usually based on quantitative indicators, and becomes more complex the more indicators are considered. The lack of a clear criterion (i.e. a conceptual model of sustainability) supporting the choice of one indicator rather than others creates doubts about the real attainments of such studies. The holistic-based approach in choosing indicators to express sustainability claims for a multicriteria perspective. This work proposes a sustainability assessment tool based on the FIVE SEctor SUstainability (5SEnSU) model that is capable to show the relationships between humans and the natural environment, and the use of goal programming as a multicriteria method. The advantages of the proposed tool are based on clear criteria in choosing indicators supported by the 5SEnSU model, which recognizes the double functions (as a donor and receiver) of natural environment and society, as well the application of goal programming to obtain an easy-to-understand final indicator: the sustainability synthetic indicator of systems (SSIS). The countries that form Mercosur economic bloc were used as a case study to illustrate the application of the proposed model. Results have shown that Uruguay holds the highest sustainability performance among all Mercosur countries, although still demanding efforts from public policies to improve its national happiness level (K52 indicator), employment rate (K41 indicator) and total emergy flow per capita (K12 indicator). Instead of using a single criterion in choosing indicators, this work provides a scientific-based tool in choosing, calculating, and supporting discussions on the sustainability of production systems under a more holistic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• City-centric global multi-region input-output models for Beijing and Shanghai are developed. • Factor contribution and critical path analysis are adopted. • Sector aggregation effect varies across sectoral datasets. Sector aggregation under the input-output framework may lead to deviation in results and the lack of detailed sectoral information, which hinder the targeted implementation of accurate sectoral adjustment policies. This paper explores the effects of sector aggregation on the embodied carbon emission of the residential consumptions of Beijing and Shanghai based on the city-centric global multi-region input-output (CCG-MRIO) model. Integrating with structural path analysis and structural decomposition analysis, the impacts of sector aggregation on the identifying of critical emission transmission paths and driving forces are also revealed. Three sector aggregation datasets are discussed to track the sector aggregation effect in 2012 and 2017. The findings show that the carbon emission results at 8 sector level better align with the results at the 22 sector level than those at 32 sector level. Moreover, sector aggregation will lead to the absence of some critical carbon transmission paths, some factor contributions on carbon emission also changed their directions at different sector levels. On the basis of clarifying the sector aggregation effect on embodied carbon emission, the research results provide a reference for similar studies to select the appropriate level of sector aggregation, to realize the goal of simplifying the calculation or gaining more detailed sectoral emission information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A methodological framework is proposed to analyze carbon inequality across BRI countries and regions. • The most severe bilateral trade carbon inequality existed between China and BRI West Asia. • Most of BRI countries and regions were negatively affected by global trade carbon inequality. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has boosted global trade and economic development. Carbon inequality embodied in global trade may occur across BRI countries and regions in the world. How to quantify this inequality is the key to achieving the green development of the Belt and Road. In this study, we constructed a methodological framework to analyze carbon inequality across BRI countries and regions under the global trade network. Results showed that nearly half of BRI countries and regions exported net embodied carbon emissions while obtaining net economic benefits. The most severe bilateral trade carbon inequality existed between China and BRI West Asia, whose bilateral trade carbon inequality index (BCI) reached 2.76. Except for Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and BRI West Asia, BRI countries and regions were negatively affected by global trade carbon inequality, with China and India suffering the most, whose global trade carbon inequality indices (GCI) were -2.06 and -1.26, respectively. This methodological framework can be applied to analyze the inequality of other kinds of ecological impacts embodied in trade on any scale. Furthermore, this study can provide policy implications for the green development of the Belt and Road. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We assess the stocks of three urban systems using emergy synthesis. • Materials and energy stored increase the size and complexity of the urban systems. • ABC developed and grown relying mainly on economic and social capitals. • Emergy Synthesis provides insight into the reliance of economic activity on natural capital. • Emergy Synthesis may guide the development of effective policies for urban systems. Abstract Environmental assessments of urban systems intend to help city managers to identify feasible measures towards the reduction of urban vulnerability and to the understanding on how cities are dependent on available resources. Through the emergy approach, city managers may recognize subcomponents from each building block that individually and collectively influence the municipalities' environmental performance. Internal stocks of the urban systems play an important role on cities functioning, and the interactions among economic, social and natural capital influence the municipal performance. This paper uses emergy synthesis to account for the internal stocks of the multi-urban system called ABC Paulista, the role of stocks in ABC development and growth. Three forms of capital (economic, social and environmental) were accounted for, which allowed describing the urban settlements according to their nature (such as service provider or industrial cluster). Results may assist policy makers in regard to urban aggregates sustainability and also in formulating policies for particular cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing sustainable development strategies and alternatives depends on placing human well-being and the environment at the core of policy efforts and developing accounting methods to determine whether countries are progressing towards increasingly equal well-being. In this work, emergy accounting was used within the five-sector sustainability model (5SenSu) for measuring resource use inequality. As a diagnostic proposal, the 5SEnSU model based on the theory of ecologically unequal exchanges and emergy synthesis were used to assess Mozambique's poverty traps. Inequalities were measured considering the flows of goods, energy, and money between the social, economic, and environmental sectors as representative of the national economy. The 5SEnSU model showed that the environment directly supports a large part of the Mozambican population and that the country has growth potential according to the natural environment over 38 sej/sej, which must be used to ensure sustainable and equitable growth. Mozambique also has the potential (23:1 in emergy units) to maintain carbon neutrality and preserve forests and soil resources while undergoing economic development and growth. Mozambique has carbon credit and a resource surplus but needs to develop mechanisms to improve economic sectors through cleaner and well-being-centered development policies. High inequality between the social sectors and the economic system exposed a high dependency on local environmental resources characterizing a condition of vulnerability. The reduction in the number of people living below the poverty line and the effective implementation of the sustainable development goals may be achieved by balancing the capacity of the economic system with the country's environmental/social capacitiy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lamb production in Brazil has the state of São Paulo as its largest consumer market, but due to competition for area with other agricultural activities, sheep farming in São Paulo underwent an intensification of the production system to achieve better economic profitability. This intensification can compromise the sustainability of the system. There is no research concerning about emergy evaluation on lamb production systems applied in Brazil, so this is the first paper to discuss the sustainability of lamb production systems using this method. Therefore, this article proposes to discuss the importance of considering environmental aspects in the economic analysis of production systems, aiming at the sustainable development of the sector. This study assessed the economic and emergy performance of three different sheep farms in Brazil managed under different levels of technology: Intensive, Semi-intensive, and Feedlot. Results show that from an economic perspective, the Feedlot system is more attractive (9,800 US$/yr for net profit) than Intensive and Semi-intensive ones, while emergy synthesis show that Semi-intensive system (30% for renewability) should be prioritized. On the other hand, when emergy is analyzed from an economic perspective based on Emdollars (Em$, with an 'm'), the economic advantage regarding the production cost of Feedlot on the Semi-intensive system becomes less evident. The Intensive system obtained the worst performance for economic, and emergy indicators. More than contributing to the discussions about the importance in considering a systemic perspective when quantifying the economic performance of production systems, this study also (i) establishes the most sustainable sheep farm system that could be supported in Brazil, and (ii) make available new unit emergy values that would enrich the existing emergy databases. • The synthesis emergy together with the economic assessment are performed for three sheep production systems with different levels of technology. • Intensive systems (Intensive and Feedlot) are economically profitable, but generate greater pressure on the environment. • Semi-intensive systems present less pressure on the environment, but are not economically viable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing economic and population growth has put immense pressure on energy, water and land resources to satisfy national and supra-national demand. Through trade, a large proportion of such a demand is fulfilled. With trade as one of its key priorities, the China Belt and Road Initiative is a long-term transcontinental investment program. The initiative gained significant attention due to greater opportunities for economic development, large population and different levels of resource availability. The nexus approach has appeared as a new viewpoint in discussions on balancing the competing sectoral demands. However, following years of work, constraints exist in the scope and focus of studies. The newly developed multi-regional input–output (MRIO) models covering the world's economy and its use of resources permit a comprehensive analysis of resource usage by production and consumption at different levels, and bring more knowledge about resource nexus problems. Using the MRIO model, this work simultaneously tracks energy, water and land use flows and investigates the transnational resource nexus. A nexus strength indicator is proposed which depends on ternary diagrams to grade countries based on their combined resources' use and sectoral weighting. Equal sectoral weighting is assigned. The analysis presented a sectorally balanced nexus approach. Findings support existing work by recognizing energy, water and land as the robust transnational connections, from both production and consumption points of view. Resource nexus issues differ from country to country owing to inequalities in industrial set-up, preferences in economic policy and resource endowments. The paper outlines how key resource nexus problems can be identified and prioritized in view of alternative and often opposing interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture production in Pakistan is one of the main economic and social sector. It contributes about 20–25% to the country GDP and provides more than 60% employment opportunities for rural peoples, playing a backbone role in the country economy and food security. However, sustainable production of the agricultural system is very important to address a societal concern for environmental impacts and nutritional value, while maintaining an economically feasible production system for farmers. Therefore, this study used various indicators based on emergy accounting method to analyze the sustainability of the agriculture production systems in Pakistan from 2001 to 2015 in four provinces namely Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan are investigated. The analysis indicates that (1) in all selected provinces the maximum portion among all inputs are purchase non-renewable inputs and purchase renewables input. Among in purchase non-renewable comprise inputs the largest portion are for labors, agriculture machinery and fertilizer inputs, while in purchase renewables comprise inputs the largest share are for water that used during irrigation purposes in all provinces. (2) In Punjab and Sindh, among purchase non-renewable comprise inputs the labor, pesticides and diesel were found decreased, while in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan the pesticides, diesel and electricity were found declined. The efficiency of overall output agriculture production in selected provinces are in the order of Punjab > Sindh > Kbyber-Pakhtunkhwa > Baluchistan. The output emergy share of the agriculture production increased by 66% in Punjab, 34% in Sindh, 110% in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 72% in Baluchistan in the study period. (3) The analysis of overall agriculture performance through emergy based indicators indicates that the NRP% (non-renewable portion) ratio for Punjab declined by 12% while for Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan increased by 1%, 8% and 1%, respectively. That is why the EIR (emergy investment ratio) value is lower in Punjab and higher in other selected provinces. (4) The ESI (emergy sustainability index) values were declined for Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan by 18.91%, 16.19%, 35.51% and 11.21% respectively, with average values of 0.51, 0.11, 0.22, and 0.21 indicates increased in Punjab than other provinces. We believe this study provides the policy makers and producers the understanding of the important drivers influencing agricultural system productivity and environmental, social and economic sustainability, and to create more adaptable and responsive management practices and strategies for truly sustainable agricultural production systems in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on LEAP and WEAP, this paper establishes the coupled model of energy and water in cities. With Beijing as a case, 26 scenarios are designed to explore the energy saving/water saving of different policies in Beijing in the future and its nexus effect, including the sensitivity analysis of the results. The results show that the total energy consumption in Beijing will grow slowly by year. Carbon emissions will peak in 2020, and fluctuate after 2035 it will slowly increase until 2050. Total water demand is stable between 3.6 and 4.1 billion cubic meters. According to the forecasted water supply capacity, there is no shortage of water supply and demand. The proportion of groundwater from the source of water supply fell to 27%, and the proportion of water in the South-to-North Water Transfer increased to 40%. The total energy saving of the "13th Five-Year Plan" water saving policy is 1.003 million tons of standard coal, which is equivalent to 8.165 billion kWh of electricity. The energy saving policy has reached 276 million cubic meters of water, equivalent to 140 Kunming Lakes. The energy demand of residents' lives, service industry, construction industry and traditional manufacturing industry has a good correlation with water demand value, which proved they are important water-coupled sectors. In terms of energy-saving/water-saving effects in different scenarios and recent/long range periods, the industrial structure optimization policy showed good energy-saving potential in the short-term, but the long-term energy-saving effect was not obvious, while it was accompanied by an increase in water consumption. The irrigation technology innovation and planting structure optimization scenarios in the agricultural sector have better energy saving and water saving effects in the short term. However, with the occurrence and further expansion of water shortage, the medium and long term the water saving effect is sill, while the energy saving effect is not significant. The sensitivity analysis shows that the parameters of the scenario such as economic slowdown, industrial structure optimization, development of public transportation, and planting structure optimization are more sensitive. For the synergistic effect of water and energy conservation, the synergy effect is more obvious in the energy saving scenarios of the service industry and the industrial sector. For the policies of the same department, the synergistic saving effect of the situation of improving energy intensity is obvious. From the perspective of the difficulty in policy implementation process and overview effects, the water saving and energy saving policies of the industrial sector face more difficulties while implementation. The external power regulation policy and the capital rising residents' wareness of water saving policy has good performance both in the difficulty of implementation and overview effects. • This paper establishes the LEAP-WEAP coupled model of energy and water in cities. • Beijing energy saving policy has reached 276 million m3 of water, equivalent to 140 Kunming Lakes. • Beijing water saving policy is 1 million tce, equivalent to 8 billion kWh of electricity. • Water and energy saving policies of industrial sector face implementation difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agriculture ecosystem is very important, complex and humankind largest engineered ecosystem providing essential ecosystem services as well as many disservices, depending on management and agriculture practices. Due to the complications, uncertainties, overestimations and double counting in ecosystem services accounting frameworks, (1) this study establishes a non-monetary "donor side" ecosystem services valuation methods constructing the emergy-based agriculture ecosystem services framework, propose the ecosystem services calculations method and classify the services into direct, indirect and existing services. (2) Further, it assess the sustainability of agriculture ecosystem nature's and human's contribution in the services through RNP% (renewability) and NRP% (non-renewability). Taking the case of agriculture ecosystem in Bahawalnagar, Pakistan, five agriculture cultivating ecosystems including wheat, rice, sugarcane, maize and cotton are selected for services and disservices valuation. (3) A total of eleven ecosystem services were evaluated in which four belongs to direct services category such as biomass increase, carbon sequestration, soil building and groundwater recharge; four are included in indirect services category (dis-services) such as human health and ecosystem quality losses due to greenhouse gases emissions, soil, water pollution and soil erosion increase; existing services includes climate regulation, agro-tourism & recreational, cultural and educational values. (4) The results indicate that the green revolution in agriculture ecosystem encourage and increase dependency of human inputs such as synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and energy which produces higher productions but on other side it produces dis-services which is harmful for humans and other ecosystems diversity. The method proposed by this study can deliver improved theoretical and policy insights to ecosystem services accounting for agriculture ecosystem, as the agriculture ecosystem is the major source of food but along with it drive's significant environmental degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Biosphere´s energy quality hierarchy is shown with the use of empirical data. • The results confirm linear, log-log, inverse relation between energy quality and energy quantity. • The hypothesis of Howard T. Odum in 1988 was supported by additional empirical data. The Biosphere is self-organized into a hierarchy of energy transformations. More dilute forms of energy (e.g. solar energy) are concentrated in biological structures and through socioeconomic transformation processes forming energy outputs that are able to perform higher quality work. To assess the hierarchy level of different forms of energy in the Biosphere, over 30 years Howard T. Odum introduced the concept of " transformity ", i.e., the amount of available energy of the same kind (usually solar energy) needed to obtain a specific output of available energy of another kind. Transformities represent energy quality and have been calculated for a broad set of energy forms and products, both natural and anthropic. In this paper, we report on this broad literature illustrating how the energy quality hierarchy of the biosphere works. This study leads to the definition of lower and higher energy quality thresholds supporting H.T. Odum's initial hypothesis of an inverse linear logarithmic relationship between energy quality and quantity. A model is proposed to obtain transformities from data on energy flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]