The involvement of the Spanish industrial sector in environmental sustainability and its impact on productivity

Since the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the pursuit of human well-being through development and planetary sustainability for a better future has become a global discourse (de Jong & Vijge, 2021; Naseer et al., 2025; Arora-Jonsson, 2023). The SDGs have catalyzed interdisciplinary dialogue and strengthened global commitment (Naseer et al., 2025) by emphasizing the balance and integration of economic, social, and environmental aspects (Sedovs et al., 2025). However, the assumption that all goals can be achieved simultaneously and harmoniously seems hasty and potentially ignores the inherent tensions between ecological and economic interests (Spaiser et al., 2016; Glinik et al., 2024). For example, land-use changes drivened by economic growth can lead to ecosystem degradation (Luo & He, 2023). Furthermore, biodiversity degradation and the climate crisis are often frame within the logic of global capitalism to encourage economic growth (Rosales, 2008; van Niekerk, 2020). Economic growth itself is ambivalent, on the one hand promoting development, but on the other driving environmental degradation. Today's realities also show that the consistent rapid increase in industrial and service sector activity has placed enormous pressure on the environment and natural resources (Sadiq et al., 2022). In this context, the SDGs can be seen as a promising normative framework, but their implementation ultimately depends on the ability to interpret and manage the tensions between goals. Governance plays a critical role in the success of sustainable development initiatives (Filho et al., 2023; Adebayo et al., 2025; Naseer et al., 2025). Good governance ensures that policies are effectively enforced, resources are allocated efficiently, and stakeholders are adequately engaged (Handoyo, 2024). Environmental sustainability is driven by appropriate physical planning and land use, as well as ecological or biodiversity conservation (Paudel & States, 2023). The successful implementation of the SDGs will depend on untangling the complex interactions between their goals and targets (Breuer et al., 2019). An integrated approach requires both to sustainability requires simultaneously realizing the potential of its key dimensions, as well as managing the tensions, trade-offs, and synergies between them. This is where an interdisciplinary approach in environmental science becomes essential. Such an approach focuses not only on calculating environmental degradation but also on dominant narratives and reconstructing power relations. Understanding environmental risk, for example, cannot be separated from the historical, social, and political context surrounding it. Environmental risk is not simply a neutral, objective entity, but rather a construct shaped by power, knowledge, and access to decision-making. Therefore, all decisions must strive to promote positive growth and balance within natural systems (Mensah, 2019) Environmental science offers a platform that integrates scientific discussion, policy action, and community aspirations to reposition development as a reflective and participatory process. The challenge extends beyond simply collecting more data or refining indicators; it involves innovating an ethical system robust enough to manage conflicts between values, priorities, and visions of sustainability itself. Herein lies the urgency: making environmental science a space for critical reflection. The diversity of local conditions presents both challenges and opportunities in the application of global sustainability frameworks, as discussed through the diverse case studies in this issue, from soil microbial dynamics in Bangladesh (Begum et al., 2025), to the transformation of livelihoods among illegal gold miners in Indonesia (Ardikoesoema & Karuniasa, 2025). Both studies emphasize that science-based solutions can be integrated into sustainable development strategies at various scales. This geographic and methodological diversity enables a deeper understanding of how principles of sustainability practices can be contextualized locally while still contributing to global goals. The Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development has been indexed by Scopus [JESSD Scopus Link] and presents various studies that demonstrate the concrete contribution of environmental science in achieving the SDGs through a multi-scale and interdisciplinary approach. The current 14th issue of the Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development presents a series of studies that demonstrate the concrete contribution of environmental science at various scales in achieving the SDGs through a multi-scale and interdisciplinary approach. The articles in this issue not only support these claims empirically and rigorously but also demonstrate, in practical terms, how environmental research can be translated into effective strategies for sustainable development at the local, national, and global levels.

This paper presents the Eco Industrial Park (EIP) concept, an environmental management tool that is being spread in many nations as an industrial model that can reconcile the three “Es” of sustainability – environment, social equity and economic efficiency – as it reorganizes industrial practices and activities in order to meet sustainable development goals. This mutual benefit results in more sustainable communities and environment, in the reduction of pollution, by products and waste discarded in the environment, increasing companies’ competitiveness and access to new markets. Although this is an emerging concept, there are many EIP projects being implemented, and many of them already operating in North America, Europe, Asia, Central and South America, including in Rio de Janeiro State (RJS), Brazil. This paper highlights the problem of waste generation increase from the industrial sector. All over the world, economic growth has increased resource consumption and environmental degradation. Industrialization brought wealth and development; however it has also brought many externalities. One of these externalities is the high level of by products and waste discarded by societies, being disposed in the environment without proper treatment and management. The objective of this paper is to present how EIPs can contribute to the reduction, reuse and recycling (3R’s) of by products and waste from the industrial sector. As a case study, this paper presents the Paracambi EIP, located in RJS, in which the methodology of the software Facility Synergy Tool (FaST), developed by the US-EPA, was a major tool used in order to develop by products and waste synergies among the different industrial typologies suggested for this EIP. Finally this paper presents an analysis and recommendations in the long term, regarding EIP development that may be implemented by the public sector in partnership with the private sector, communities and university.

The state of environmental sustainability considerations in mining

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Environmental Sustainability in Undergraduate Engineering Education Abstract There is hardly any industry sector in which the management of environmental sustainability is not of significant relevance. It is unfortunate that engineering and cognate areas of education has, for the most part ignored these vital issues. It is therefore, essential that all facets of engineering, design and manufacturing education take action on environmental sustainability concerns through appropriate strategies. This paper describes how, (a) an EU educational intervention has been devised to help promote environmental sustainability in engineering (and other); Small to Medium sized Industries (SMEs), as well as making the tutorials available to university undergraduate programs in selected Universities across the EU, and (b) the design and implementation of an undergraduate module entitled “Design for Environmental Sustainability”, in an Irish University. The EU intervention tutorials have been used to provide background support for the module. The module has been devised and implemented in several engineering and cognate programmes, which include engineering, product design, and technology teacher disciplines, to form a mixed cohort of students. In the context of engineering education this paper discusses the strategies used and the initial impact, of (i) the introductory program intended for SMEs and Universities, and (ii) the introduction and evaluation of the undergraduate environmental sustainability module. Key words/Phrases: Environmental Sustainability, pedagogical implications and evaluation. 1 The EU Interregional modules The self-paced intervention is a suite of PowerPoint modules, which were designed as a result of collaboration, between four regions of the EU representing industrial development agencies and Universities in each of four countries. These included Ireland, Greece, Germany and Finland. The EU funded research project was entitled Towards a Sustainable Future - Design Quality and Environment (DQE). As part of SME intervention, an intensive study revealed where knowledge deficits existed in SMEs. As a result, it was decided to design a suite of tutorial modules, which would help redress this deficit. Some of the modules, according to the strengths of the Academics involved, would be developed in all four regions and would combine to comprise the complete suite. Figure 1 shows a sample slide, on product life cycle management. All the PowerPoint presentations have appropriate teaching notes, explanations and further references attached. While the tutorials were initially designed for presentation use by expert tutors, it was decided that they could also be used as self-paced tutorials by SME personnel and undergraduate students. It was decided that these would be tested initially in the home universities of the design team, and would later be made available to other registered EU universities, as well as SMEs. The trials were conducted under a range of agreed criteria, in all of the Universities concerned. Peer evaluation was undertaken first in each of the four EU regions. Resulting from the peer evaluation, design modifications were made to cater for the clarity and accuracy of the material, the achievement of the stated objectives, and to determine how the modules might fit together as well as how they might be sequenced. All the tutorials in Table 1 are in the agreed sequence, with the exception of Tutorial 11 - What is DQE?, as this was compiled after all the others. This tutorial would therefore move to the front (see Table 1)

Far from being exclusively related to economic considerations, the advantages of Industry 4.0 applications also include environmental and social concerns. An increasing amount of scientific publications relate the implementation of the fourth industrial revolution paradigm to sustainability. Several studies reported opportunities of Industry 4.0 implementation particularly to the environmental dimension of sustainability, e.g., through improved logistics streams and lowered waste from production. The present research aims at providing evidence on whether manufacturing companies consider Industry 4.0 implementation as an advantage contributing to environmental and social sustainability in terms of lower environmental impact of production, as well as higher physical relief for workers and flexibility of work organisation. The results were an attempt to study such relations with company sizes, industry sectors, turnover and self-assessed levels of digitalization varying. The sample encompasses 65 companies located in the Marche region (Italy). The results show that overall the perception of economic opportunities prevail, while the association of a beneficial impact of Industry 4.0 on environmental sustainability is rather low across companies, regardless of their size, turnover and digital level. As for the statistically significant variables, the results suggest a strong association of the size and the digital level to specific Industry 4.0 related advantages, referring to the social and economic dimension of sustainability, respectively.

Proceedings from the United States Department of Agriculture and National Dairy Council Collaborative Research Planning Meeting Held August 24, 2016.

Resource curse hypothesis in COP26 perspective: Access to clean fuel technology and electricity from renewable energy

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is being used by manufacturing industries to improve operations, competitiveness and sustainability in a competitive industry. There is a demand for a study to investigate the impact of recent technologies (RT) and LSS techniques on environmentally sustainable (ES) manufacturing and financial management practices in Saudi manufacturing industries. The study intends to examine the influence of LSS and RT on the management of the Saudi manufacturing industries. A set of hypotheses is developed to address the study’s objectives. A survey methodology was followed to investigate the effect of LSS and RT on ES practices in Saudi manufacturing industries. The questionnaire content was prepared and validated with the assistance of seven experts. The author applies exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) to validate the responses. The author invited 277 food and chemical manufacturing employees across Saudi Arabia. A total of 205 responses were received from the participants with a response rate of 74.00%. The regression analysis found that the variables obtained were LSS (R2=0.73), RT (R2=0.58) and ES (R2=0.63). The findings confirm the significant relationship between LSS, RT and ES. The integration of LSS methodology with cutting-edge technology offers a comprehensive strategy for enhancing ES and financial management in manufacturing sectors through waste reduction, efficiency improvement and adopting new practices. In addition, the study outcomes can assist the researchers in extending their innovative ideas for implementing LSS in industrial sectors.

This study investigates the soft total quality management (soft TQM) dimensions that affect the environmental and social sustainability of Finnish small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), considering the company‘s business, size, and possible certificates as control variables. Sustainable business has been found to be key to the success of companies, so investing in it is essential for companies. With the help of extensive literature research, the TQM dimensions covering the entire business activity were determined, from which detailed issues were identified. To ascertain the level of implementation of detailed issues, the survey was constructed and sent to 6889 randomly selected CEOs in autumn 2020. A total of 271 responses were received. Based on prior literature and studies, 10 hypotheses were proposed. The collected data were analyzed using regression analysis. The results reveal that two practices—business management systems and human resources (HR) practices—were related to environmental sustainability, while only business management system was related to social sustainability. None of the control variables affected environmental sustainability; however, the industrial sector influenced social sustainability. The study presents recommendations for company managers and the government to support sustainable development, especially in Finnish SMEs. As a practical contribution, the study demonstrates the importance of designing and implementing business management systems for enhanced sustainability. Management should also appreciate that sustainability will not automatically be set at a high level upon certification; thus, the performance of operations and processes should be monitored.

In recent years, the increase in energy demand and carbon emission constraints have forced industry sector to improve the process efficiency with respect to environmental sustainability. Therefore, resource saving has become not only an added value, but a real priority for manufacturing in the Industry 4.0 era. Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a common practice for estimating the environmental impact of products during their life-cycle, and can be used more widely and easily if specific models focusing on each life-cycle phase are available. In this thesis, the manufacturing phase of machined products has been modelled by analyzing different process performance metrics. Both the economic efficiency and the environmental sustainability have been accounted for. The Specific Production Time (SPT) is proposed as indicator of the manufacturing productivity; the Specific Production Cost (SPC) is developed in order to quantify the direct and indirect costs related to the manufacturing process; finally, the Specific Energy Requirement (SER) and the Specific Carbon Emission (SCE) indices are proposed in order to assess the environmental sustainability of the manufacturing phase in terms of primary energy demand and carbon footprint, respectively. The models have been developed in order to be valid for conventional machining processes in which cutting tools with defined cutting edge are used. The models are also aimed at the identification of optimum process parameters which allow to minimize each specific goal. In particular, optimum tool life values can be computed as a function of the machine tool, the cutting tool, the metalworking fluid, and the workpiece material. As a consequence, optimum process parameters such as cutting speed can be selected with respect to a specific tool life criterion. The high-efficiency machining range (widely known in literature) has been extended by considering all the four optimal cutting speeds (or tool life values) that minimize each production indicator. Hence, a trade-off criterion is proposed and developed by the introduction of a holistic function which can assign different weights on each optimization target. This advanced optimization method is suggested in order to identify a unique value of cutting speed (or tool life) which can be seen as a compromise among the different criteria of time, cost, and environmental sustainability. Four case studies have been considered in order to apply the proposed models and are focused on the turning of two titanium-based alloys conventionally used for aerospace applications: a Ti-6Al-4V alloy and a Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb intermetallic alloy. A Graziano SAG 101 CNC turning lathe was used in the experiments in order to obtain inventory data to test the models. Various set of process parameters such as depth of cut, feed, and cutting speed have been tested in order to identify the coefficients of the Taylor's tool life equation which plays a key role within the proposed models. Three different cutting tools were used. Finally, four lubrication/cooling conditions were adopted such as dry, wet, Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL), and Minimum Quantity Cooling (MQC). Overall, the four case studies are presented in order to assess the influence of (1) process parameters, (2) cutting tool geometries, (3) workpiece materials, and (4) lubrication/cooling conditions onto the machining performance measured by the proposed models. The wide applicability of the developed models has been proved by the results related to the analyzed case studies. In particular, the results highlighted that the proposed metrics are suitable for a proper selection of machining conditions that enable at the same time resource savings as well as reduced environmental impacts.

It would be difficult to find an industry sector in which the management of environmental sustainability is not of significant relevance. It is unfortunate that engineering and cognate areas of education have, for the most part, ignored these vital issues. It is, therefore, essential that all facets of engineering, design and manufacturing take action on environmental sustainability concerns through appropriate strategies. They should endeavour to implement standards, such as the ISO 14001 environmental management systems or Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, as a foundation for sustainable engineering and manufacturing. It is vital that these issues are seriously addressed in engineering education. Most engineering degree programmes do not include a broad spectrum environmental sustainability module and many have little or no exposure to any facet of learning in this area. The environmental sustainability intervention at the University of Limerick has been two-pronged in that: (a) a number of self-paced tutorials have been designed, which are intended for use in a number of European Union Universities as well as for small to medium sized industries (SMEs) and (b) an undergraduate module entitled ‘Design for Environmental Sustainability’ has been devised and implemented in several engineering and cognate programmes. It is in the context of engineering education that this paper discusses: the strategies used; the initial impact of the introductory programme intended for SMEs and Universities; and the introduction and evaluation of the undergraduate sustainability module.

Islam emphasizes the importance of environmental care, as prescribed in its primary sources of Shariah, the Quran and the authenticated actions and words (Sunnah and Hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). While there is a vast amount of literature on environmental issues, the role of Islam especially in the context of corporate environmental sustainability has not garnered much attention. This study seeks to understand how the managers of public listed firms perceive environmental issues and how their perceptions contribute to environmental sustainability. As prior studies have shown that the industrial sector is a major contributor to environmental problems, it is important to examine the issue from the perspective of individuals that have the ability to direct firms in this sector. The findings of this research show that firms respond to secular coercive, normative, and mimetic isomorphic pressures from various stakeholders in matters pertaining to the environment. However, Shariah does not influence managers’ environmental beliefs and the way they drive corporate environmentalism. The ineffectiveness of existing secular institutions in being able to modify firm behaviour, from the mere meeting of minimum standards to the achievement of global best practices, shows an urgent need for an alternative approach to addressing environmental problems in Malaysia. Given that Shariah is a strong influence on important aspects of life in Malaysia, we propose a new Shariah-based framework for corporate environmental sustainability. The findings of this study provide support to governments and other relevant bodies involved in developing policies regarding environmental sustainability.

PurposeGreen innovation and sustainability are two contemporary initiatives that are gaining more and more attention from researchers, academics and industry professionals as they are considered important business strategies to improve environmental conditions and obtain better organizational performance. Besides, the growth of uncontrolled economic activities leads to an imbalance of economic, social and environmental values in different sectors. However, little is known about the mediating role that economic, social and environmental sustainability has in the relationship between green innovation and firm performance. Previous literature has focused on developed economies, but not on a developing economy such as that of Mexico. Therefore, this research aims to fill this existing gap by exploring the mediating effects of sustainability in the relationship between green innovation and firm performance.Design/methodology/approachA theoretical research model that theorizes, through ten hypotheses, the antecedents and consequences of the mediating effect of economic, social and environmental sustainability and the occurrence between green innovation and firm performance is proposed. The model is tested through PLS-SEM using data that were collected using a questionnaire survey that was distributed among companies in the automotive industry in Mexico. In total, a sample of 460 responses was obtained.FindingsThe results suggest that green innovation has significant positive effects on economic and environmental sustainability, as well as on firm performance, but not on social sustainability. The results also indicate that the relationship between green innovation and firm performance improves considerably with the mediation of economic, social and environmental sustainability.Research limitations/implicationsDespite the present study focused on an industrial sector that is commonly at the forefront of technological development, it was limited to a specific region of Mexico. Thus, its results must be taken with caution as more extensive results including other regions and nations will be required to further validate the results obtained from the present study.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study have important implications for both policymakers and managers of manufacturing firms in the automotive industry as they can be used as a basis to formulate better strategies and policies to enhance the capabilities of companies to develop innovations that could reduce environmental risks and other consequences of climate change.Originality/valueThe present study adds to the innovation and sustainability body of knowledge by analyzing and discussing the mediating role of sustainability in the relationship between green innovation and firm performance. It also generates new knowledge about the mediating effect that sustainability has on the relationship between green innovation and firm performance, particularly in the context of a developing economy such as that of Mexico.

One of the greatest challenges facing the world today is climate change. The need to consistently advance with environmentally sustainable practices in today's businesses is crucial, and businesses are demanded to be more environmentally sustainable every day. This study conducts an analysis of the literature on small and medium‐sized enterprises' (SMEs) environmental sustainability by carefully examining 122 studies from 58 journals published from 2013 to 2019. We investigate the trends in drivers and barriers of sustainability adoption to inform both SMEs managers and policymakers. Our results also classify the reviewed studies on the basis of their methodologies and show the distribution of studies across industry sectors and locations in order to set directions for future research on sustainability practices of SMEs.

This paper aims to analyze the attitude and the awareness of environmental sustainability issues within diverse Italian industrial companies. A survey has involved a balanced sample of companies operating in different industrial sectors. Considering the survey’s results it can be concluded that: (i) environmental sustainability is an opportunity and a current market requirement, (ii) environmental sustainability is not formalized, since specific methods and tools are not used in technical departments, and (iii) environmental decisions are mainly made by specific key figures (i.e. energy/environmental manager). This analysis can be considered as a useful starting point for the framework formalization of eco-design approaches and tools able to bring eco-design principles into the work of technical departments with the aim to foster the future development of green and sustainable products and services.