Integrated transdisciplinary technologies for greener and more sustainable innovations and applications of Cleaner Production in the Asia–Pacific region

Abstract

In the last decade, the integrated transdisciplinary concepts and technologies for greener and more sustainable innovations and applications of Cleaner Production in the Asia–Pacific region have been developed and implemented extensively. The endeavor to develop more precise, reliable, and cost-effective tools and methods to assess the sustainability of the desired products and processes from Cleaner Production have been achieved. Regarding the two conferences, the International Conference on Green and Sustainable Innovation (ICGSI) and the International Thai Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry Conference (ITIChE2015), these conferences were co-organized to bring experts and researchers together from within and outside the Asia–Pacific region to foster development of new research ideas on green and sustainable innovation. The selected articles from these events are included within this Special Volume together with articles from the Cleaner Production community outside these events. The papers cover a wide range of topics relevant to the Cleaner Production concepts and applications, especially for greener and more sustainable innovations and of applications of life cycle assessment, ecological footprint, and other environmental and ecological assessment tools for making improvements in agricultural products, biodiesel and biogas production, CO2 reduction and utilization, and expansion of usage of alternative and renewable energies. The examples of life cycle thinking-based assessment techniques, together with progress in innovative technologies and their applications, strongly reflected the improvements made in practical applications of Cleaner Production in the Asia–Pacific region, in recent years.