This article explores the cost-effectiveness of riparian buffers for water quality improvement, focusing on three pollutants: nitrates, phosphorous, and sediments. The case study is implemented in the Cávado river basin located in northwest Portugal, where intensive dairy production is prevalent downstream. Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, two scenarios − 2.5 and 5 m width riparian buffers in agricultural areas – were simulated, which yielded significant reductions in pollutants. The cost-effectiveness analysis showed that sediment reductions, especially under the 5 m scenario, are the least expensive among the pollutants covered in this study. Our findings revealed that removing one kilogram of sediment could cost between 0.41 and 3.43 euros. Moreover, detailed calculations of opportunity costs at the municipality level provided nuanced insights into the economic implications associated with land conversion to riparian forests. The findings offer valuable policy recommendations, underscoring the multifaceted benefits of riparian buffers in achieving ecological and economic goals.

Implementing Green Finance (GRF) practices is crucial for promoting sustainable economic growth, especially in developing nations such as Pakistan. This research utilizes a mixed-methods strategy to analyze the factors affecting GRF adoption, framed by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A three-phase hybrid research design is employed. In the first phase, 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews (10 from China and 10 from Pakistan) uncover context-specific drivers and challenges. The second phase involves a quantitative survey, yielding 438 valid responses from Pakistan and 535 from China, analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to quantify relationships among the identified variables. The third phase applies Artificial Neural Network (ANN) analysis to rank their relative importance. The findings provide cross-national insights into GRF adoption, offering practical implications for policymakers and financial institutions aiming to enhance sustainable financing strategies. This study contributes original insights into the determinants of GRF adoption in emerging economies.

The global push for electrification has placed battery technology at the forefront of climate solutions, but this almost singular focus is creating a precarious economic and environmental bubble. This article presents a multidimensional analysis – encompassing economic, scientific, and anthropological perspectives – of the impending battery industry crisis. We examine the rise of a “battery bubble” driven by the electric vehicle (EV) revolution, using Granular Interaction Thinking Theory (GITT) to highlight how a narrow technological focus can backfire. Nickel, a critical metal for batteries, is explored as the first casualty of this bubble. Soaring demand for it and price volatility have led to severe environmental degradation and market instability. Drawing parallels to historical manias such as Tulip Fever and the Dot-com bubble, we discuss how hype and herd behavior inflate expectations of battery dominance, risking “immiserizing growth” – an economic expansion that paradoxically worsens social, economic, and environmental well-being. Finally, we propose a pathway to escape the battery bubble through a shift to an eco-surplus culture underpinned by the “semiconducting” principle of environmental-economic value exchange. This approach calls for reorienting our value system to prevent solving one environmental problem at the cost of exacerbating others. The analysis underscores the urgency of recalibrating climate strategies before the battery bubble busts, with potentially cascading consequences for global stability.

Amid increasing societal concern over environmental issues, enhancing corporate ESG information disclosure (ESGID) is essential for sustainable development. Grounded in institutional theory and the resource-based view, this study investigates how green public procurement (GPP) shapes ESGID. Using panel data comprising 8,239 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed companies (2015–2022), we employ a fixed-effects model to test the relationship. The results show that GPP significantly improves ESGID. Further analysis identifies internal control as a key mediating mechanism. Additionally, the moderating effects of formal institutions (equity incentives) and informal institutions (Confucian culture) are examined. Both factors strengthen the positive association between GPP and ESGID. This research enriches the understanding of ESGID’s drivers and extends the literature on GPP policy effectiveness. The findings offer meaningful implications for policymakers aiming to assess environmental policy outcomes and for firms seeking to enhance sustainable development practices.

Responsible tourism can bring benefits to tourists and host communities, and be a force for good. In Sub-Saharan Africa, nature-based tourism is increasing, driven by government desire for foreign exchange, revenue, employment, and regional development opportunities. However, host communities experience negative social impacts from tourism, including: exacerbation of local inequalities; injustice; human rights issues; loss of place identity, cultural identity and traditions; disruption to livelihoods; demographic changes; and increasing pollution, inflation, and cost of living. Using the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) conducted for a planned tourism facility in the Kalinzu Central Forest Reserve (a chimpanzee protected area) in Uganda as a case study and exemplar, we demonstrate the potential of ESIA to improve social outcomes from tourism infrastructure projects by minimising negative impacts and enhancing benefits. The ESIA process nominated mitigation measures and changes to project design that would improve outcomes for the project and its local communities.

China’s renewable energy policy is transitioning from feed-in tariff (FIT) to renewable portfolio standards (RPS) under carbon emissions trading (CET), yet the social welfare implications of this shift remain unclear. This study develops an electricity producer model under combined CET-FIT and CET-RPS policies based on alternative market structures and simulates their effects on social welfare. The results reveal that: (1) During early stages of renewable energy development, CET-RPS better promotes renewable energy expansion, while CET-FIT demonstrates superior carbon reduction; however, this relationship reverses in later stages. (2) A competitive market structure under CET-RPS proves more effective for reducing emissions, whereas oligopolistic structures excel in renewable production. (3) Social welfare under CET-RPS consistently surpasses that under CET-FIT, with oligopolies providing greater benefits. (4) Increasing the carbon quota under CET-RPS lowers on-grid prices and raises green certificate prices. These findings provide valuable insights for optimizing electricity structure and promoting low-carbon policy combinations.

Policy integration is a key strategy for promoting sustainability, yet recent research calls for more actor-centric approaches to understand it in practice. This article addresses this gap by theorizing on systemic, organizational and individual-level factors that influence how Swedish Sustainability Coordinators engage with critical tasks to integrate sustainability in local governance. Our framework demonstrates how sustainability and governance ideas and norms, organizational positioning, and individual role perceptions influence their use of five key action strategies to integrate sustainability: connecting, problem-solving, protesting, leading and subversive actions. By better understanding what conditions these actors’ courses of action, we add important pieces of the theoretical puzzle for understanding processes of policy integration, bring broader insights on local environmental governance, and promote critical reflection among practitioners.

The Chinese government initiated the Carbon Generalized System of Preferences (CGSP) to enhance traditional personal carbon trading (PCT) by fostering social equity and refining household carbon accounting. However, despite the CGSP’s potential, user attrition hinders its global replication. This research uses grounded theory to identify eight barriers to long-term participation and conducts adversarial interpretive structural modeling to highlight fundamental barriers, such as inadequate government support and a weak internal environmental locus of control. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis also uncovers combinations of barriers that, when addressed, are sufficient to ensure continued participation without necessitating the concurrent resolution of all challenges. As one of the few large-scale voluntary PCT implementations, insights from the CGSP help optimize its framework and promote global PCT adoption. Unlike previous studies focusing on drivers with regression methods, this research contributes to PCT literature by emphasizing barriers and their configurations.

Amid growing concerns about employee well-being and organizational sustainability, the present study examines how green human resource management (GHRM) influences employee health by integrating organizational change theory and the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion. A dual-method approach was adopted, combining structural equation modelling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), based on survey data from 417 employees in China. The SEM results indicate that green climate mediates GHRM effects on negative emotions, employee emotions mediate GHRM effects on employee health, GHRM influences health through chain mediation of green climate and negative emotions. The fsQCA results identify two distinct configurations leading to high employee health: (1) high levels of GHRM, colleague green climate, positive emotions, and low negative emotions; (2) high levels of organizational and colleague green climate, positive emotions, and low negative emotions. These findings highlight the complex, multiple pathways through which green management practices foster employee well-being.

Despite observations that Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) may be applicable to corporate strategic planning, there has been little evidence or investigation of its use in that context. This study investigated whether, why and how corporations might decide to adopt and use SEA, through interviews with 54 representatives of Canadian electricity utilities. Participants’ views on SEA were influenced by its perceived need, objectives and anticipated outcomes, as well as its likely applicability and effectiveness. Further questioning about possible public consultation through SEA noted concerns about the ability and need to engage external parties in corporate planning and other challenges, as well as views about its objectives, timing, participation, focus and outcomes. The study illustrates how SEA is viewed and potentially used in this new and different context, and contributes to SEA theory by providing a unique setting for evaluating its potential goals, timing, effectiveness, ‘strategicness’ and learning outcomes.