Economy Of Sustainability Research Articles

Special issue on thin-films for sustainable manufacturing

Sustainable manufacturing is the creation of products using technologies capable of decoupling the factors that may adversely affect the environment. One such technology is thin film coating, extensively used for various commercial applications. Achieving energy and resource efficiency, cost reduction, short process chain of manufacturing and long life for tools and products are some of the benefits of using thin film coatings. This technology significantly contributes to strengthening all three pillars, that is, environment, economy and society of sustainability. This special issue aims to highlight some of the critical application areas of thin film coatings under sustainable manufacturing, focusing on machining.

National policy instruments for restoring the post-war economy and factors of sustainability of the Ukrainian economy

Although Ukraine’s economy is still suffering from the negative effects of Russia’s full-scale invasion, questions are already arising about the possibilities of ensuring its post-war recovery, so it is important to study the policy instruments to achieve an effective recovery. The purpose of the study was to analyse the existing public policy instruments and identify those that would allow for the most effective recovery of Ukraine’s post-war economy. The main research methods used were analysis, forecasting, and abstraction. The study examined a large number of policy instruments that could be used in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine’s economy. They covered both financial and social components aimed at facilitating recovery and ensuring long-term stability. The paper provides a comprehensive overview of the policy instruments and their characteristics, emphasising the importance of their use in the post-war period. Special attention is paid to the issues of economic stability, which was also proposed to be achieved by working on two separate components: economic and political stability, and recommendations for achieving them using certain state instruments were provided. Economic diversification is highlighted as a separate factor that plays an important role in the long-term development of the country and is a critical part of building the resilience of the Ukrainian economy after the war. The work brings new knowledge to the analysis of public policy instruments, which will allow to build a more effective strategy for rebuilding the Ukrainian economy in the post-war years

A four-level hierarchical framework for reviewing infrastructure sustainability assessment systems

Infrastructure sustainability assessment (ISA) has become increasingly important for achieving sustainable development goals. ISA systems are widely adopted by different stakeholders such as governments, architects, engineers, and academics to assess the manner in which sustainability is incorporated in infrastructure projects. However, a systematic understanding of ISA systems is lacking, and the multifaceted and complicated features of such systems were overlooked in the literature. Thus, this study aims to develop a four-level hierarchical framework (covering the levels of contexts, methods, measures, and results) based on the dialectical system theory, and to use this framework for a comprehensive review of international ISA systems. Fourteen existing ISA systems were reviewed, and six were carefully selected and examined in detail. An enhanced five-pillar concept (i.e. technology, economy, environment, society, and institution) of infrastructure sustainability is proposed to evaluate the measures included in the ISA systems. The results show that dialectics exist within, and encounter challenges at, all four levels of the systems. This study suggests four recommendations to improve the ISA systems: enhancing the balanced concept of sustainability, advancing the promotion of ISA systems, pursuing user-friendliness, and considering the synergies between the assessment components of ISA systems. The developed framework with its dialectical considerations provides a new approach to understanding the complexity and dynamics of ISA and will help raise practitioners' awareness of the dialectical connections in ISA systems and support practitioners’ management practices. In addition, the five-pillar concept of sustainability is beneficial for stakeholders in appraising infrastructure more comprehensively.

Identifying key factors that encourage vegetable intake by young adults: using the health belief model

PurposeAdequate vegetable consumption is fundamental to a healthy balanced diet; however, global compliance with recommendations is poor which is particularly important for young adults as they form food consumption habits. There is a growing interest in the circular economy of hospitality and sustainability of current dietary patterns in light of climate change and an expanding global population. The food value chain needs to be considered both vertically and horizontally where the research and development (R&D) investment is optimised by being “joined up” and not fragmentary; in addition, consumer trade-offs of health vs for example sensory appeal are taken into consideration. The purpose of this study was to identify factors predicting acceptance of vegetable dishes by young adults and present a roadmap that can be used for dish development and healthful marketing.Design/methodology/approachThis study used the health belief model (HBM) as framework to investigate key factors that encourage vegetable intake by young adults using an online questionnaire sample of 444 enrolled in undergraduate programs at universities in Brazil.FindingsStructural modelling showed that vegetable consumption frequency was positively influenced by Health concerns, Naturalness and Self-efficacy (including cooking skills), whereas Sensory factors and Familiarity demonstrated a negative loading that might be related to unpleasantness.Originality/valueGlobally, there is a strong need to promote the consumption of vegetables as a public health policy priority but also to ameliorate barriers to action that could be facilitated by availability, dish development and healthful marketing in hospitality operations.

Blockchain-Based and Value-Driven Enterprise Data Governance: A Collaborative Framework

The traditional mode of cooperation between enterprises still suffers from major problems, including data privacy leakage, data falsification, and inefficient collaboration in data sharing. These challenges make it difficult for enterprises to ensure that their cooperative suppliers adopt sustainable practices in standards identification and operation processes. This paper proposes a “Value–Standard–Process” collaborative framework for blockchain-based enterprise data governance that helps ensure a high degree of data security, a high reliability of collaborative tasks, and a high transparency of value transformation. First, this paper proposes a new collaborative mode for blockchain-based manufacturing in the sharing economy, including the non-linear dynamic evaluation and value balancing mechanism of data with multiple attributes, a trusted data governance mechanism for blockchain-based manufacturing, and a smart contract generation mechanism for value-driven collaboration. Second, this paper explains these three components and the implementation of the overall framework. Third, this paper verifies the applicability and achievability of the proposed framework through experiments. Establishing the value-driven multi-level blockchain-based collaboration mode facilitates the effective flow of production factors and promotes trust in the digital economy of sustainability.

The Circular Economy: a Case Study Approach Case Study of the Production of Metallized Briquets and Their use in Steel Blast Furnace

Purpose: This article aims to bring information about the development and manufacture of metallic briquettes under the circular economy context. Method/design/approach: The methodology used will be the case study descriptive category, in which we have: the description, through the expertise of a metallic briquettes Brazilian company, the local context, according to current legislation in Brazil, information on the cost-benefit ratio of briquettes in steel production and putting an end to the international scene with regard to the so-called circular economy and tripod of sustainability. Results and conclusion: The metallic briquettes are particularly profitable to use in pig iron production. They are inside circular economy context allow to conclude that use of these briquettes as a part of charge in steel blast furnaces is according with tripod of sustainability. Research implications: The research contributes to practical application of metallic briquettes derived from the agglomeration of co-products in the chain of production of pig iron. From the theoretical point of view, this work contributed to addressing the scarcity of research involving transformation of solid waste into briquettes as a part of charge in steel blast furnace. Originality/value: The results obtained in this study are innovative and relevant to the scientific community, in the context of the use of metallic briquettes as a part of charge in steel blast furnace. The potential performance of metallic briquettes inside circular economy context allow to conclude that use of these briquettes is according with tripod of sustainability.

Responsibility for Life in the Economy of Sustainability

The responsibility for the survival of humankind is great. In concrete terms, this heavy burden lies above all in the behavior of the majorities in each community. So long as? Life must cross oceans of years and experiences. For this trip, we must believe that the majority of communities hold the responsibility on the issue of life in the future. Regarding the economy, the majority are the recipients of explicit or implicit messages concerning long-term sustainability. Messages that come from nature and are modulated by universal constants, no different from those affecting physics and matter. They are the same ones that allowed life on the planet. Sustainability for the economy in turn means having to follow the path traced for development, i.e., constant growth with the least damage to nature; a way that can accelerate the potentials and possibilities of knowledge. Leaving this classic line means falling into what we have called: the subworld. Because of this fall, the line of development rolls up on itself to become the cycle of the conjuncture; next to it often appear the two maidservants of the economic cycle, Inflation and Deflation. We have learned to get out of the long spirals of inflation in the 60s and 70s, now we face a new enemy, deflation. The struggle with deflation must follow the same line as that of getting rid of the game of inflation. Do not loosen monetary policy, but on the contrary keep it compatibly tight. On the side of the economy of sustainability, the survival of life is also achieved by winning the battle against monetary anomalies that nullify development potential. Not only. Because relations between communities and between different areas and continents worsened. On the other hand, in terms of good relations, we must look favorably on the leap forward in Southeast Asia and China, and on development prospects in Africa.

Recyclable and malleable thermosets enabled by activating dormant dynamic linkages.

Chemical recycling of polymers is critical for improving the circular economy of plastics and environmental sustainability. Traditional thermoset polymers have generally been considered permanently crosslinked materials that are difficult or impossible to recycle. Herein, we demonstrate that by activating 'dormant' covalent bonds, traditional polycyanurate thermosets can be recycled into the original monomers, which can be circularly reused for their original purpose. Through retrosynthetic analysis, we redirected the synthetic route from forming conventional C-N bonds via irreversible cyanate trimerization to forming the C-O bonds through reversible nucleophilic aromatic substitution of alkoxy-substituted triazine derivatives by alcohol nucleophiles. The new reversible synthetic route enabled the synthesis of previously inaccessible alkyl-polycyanurate thermosets, which exhibit excellent film properties with high chemical resistance, closed-loop recyclability and reprocessing capability. These results show that 'apparently dormant' dynamic linkages can be activated and utilized to construct fully recyclable thermoset polymers with a broader monomer scope and increased sustainability.

La grande transition

Due to the global environmental crisis and problems of climate change, but also the economic problems of neoliberalism and inequality, it is important to rethink our ideas about society, business, and economic organization in the context of a transition to a more sustainable society. Important themes of a political economy of sustainability are Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the philosophical underpinnings of governance and sustainability management. Reforming global economic and political institutions means finding new, creative, and imaginative solutions for managers, administrators, and members of government critically to evaluate our political economy and management concepts and values. It is important to rethink policies and strategies in the light of challenges of the global society. We will do this in what follows by focusing on important topics such as 1) The origin of our contemporary crisis 2) The political economy of the crisis 3) The transformation of governance for lasting change.

Political Economy of Sustainability: A Review of Sub-Saharan Africa's Literature

Political Economy of Sustainability: A Review of Sub-Saharan Africa's Literature

An Effective New Treatment of Fluoride-Containing Sludge Resulting from the Manufacture of Photovoltaic Cells

The circular economy and maximization of environmental sustainability are increasingly becoming the vision and mission of companies competing in present-day global markets. In particular, in the energy sector, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy has become the widespread mantra. One typical example is the deployment of devices which produce clean energy, such as solar photovoltaic panels and solar thermal panels, wind generators, tidal stream generators, wave power generators, etc. These are undoubtedly generating clean energy, but their manufacture creates hazardous by-products, the disposal of which results in increased environmental pollution. Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) is widely used in manufacturing of solar photovoltaic cells. In these processes, typically, crystalline silicon is precipitated from chlorosilanes, iodides, bromides and fluorides. Polluting by-products include deposition of a silicon film, formation of SiO2 powder and formation of toxic vapors of HF, SiH4 and PH3. Usually, these gaseous products are eliminated in a central scrubber, whose unwanted by-product consists in large quantities of hazardous fluorine-containing sludge. This article concerns an effective and inexpensive detoxification of fluorinated sludge, developed by the authors during research into the sludge collected from the scrubber of a PV cell manufacturing plant located in southern Italy.

Towards degrowth housing development? Lessons from a scenario-based gaming session in the Oslo region

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the potentials and barriers to the realisation of a degrowth scenario in housing development in the Oslo region. The point of departure is a previously designed radical degrowth scenario, which depicts a future housing development that is both environmentally sustainable and socially just. Through a gaming session with housing stakeholders in the Oslo region, I investigated the elements hindering or facilitating the degrowth scenario. This paper analyses the results of the gaming session using morphogenetic theory, theory of political economy of environmental sustainability and critical urban theory. The results of the gaming session reveal important structural hindrances to the scenario within the current housing model, which directly depends on the socio-economic structures of capitalism. The article promotes a debate concerning housing for degrowth and a reflection on the deep socio-economic conditions for degrowth transformation.

Understanding Circular Economy Trade-offs

With the increasing number of firms transitioning towards a circular economy, the theoretical and practical understanding of sustainability has been changing in depth and scope. This transition has fundamentally changed the way firms make sustainability trade-offs. The extant literature on trade-offs tends to focus on established incumbent firms that predominantly indulge in market-oriented decisions where economic priorities drive the deployment of scarce resources to “other” sustainability dimensions. In contrast to a market-oriented understanding, emerging studies on highly committed firms have demonstrated the importance of nonmarket-based factors that bolster the social, environmental, and political standings of firms. Such studies have cast doubts on our current understanding of the trade-off between different dimensions of sustainability. Aiming to inform the sustainability trade-off literature, we carried out a mixed-method study to explicate the rationale and dynamics of sustainability trade-offs.

Biomimetics: teaching the tools of the trade.

Biomimetics is a known innovation paradigm of the twenty-first century with significant impact on science, society, economy, and challenges of sustainability. As such, it can be understood as a mindset for creative thinking and as a methodology or technique for effective knowledge transfer between disciplines, mainly biology and technology. As biomimetics is relevant to practitioners in various fields of application, understanding the teaching and training of biomimetics for different audiences is important. With this article, we aim to give a holistic view of teaching and training practices and opportunities. First, we offer a set of learning objectives based on an analysis of various courses worldwide and we give recommendations for the design of future curricula. Second, based on an audience analysis and interviews, we developed a set of personas of the users of biomimetics, and as such, we offer a deeper understanding of their needs for the design of the process, including tools and methods.

Economical Impacts of Tourism: An Outlook of Equitable Tourism in Udupi

Tourism is an industry which growing rapidly with the change in tourism product preferences (Jadhav & Mundhe, 2011). Tourism has immensely contributed towards the welfare of Socio-Cultural, Economic and Environmental development. (Saravanan & Rao, 2012). Sustainability as a concept is one of the major goals of United Nations. Development of Economical and Environmental parameters is vital to achieve the Sustainable development Goals. (UNGA, 2015). Local residents are major stakeholders in the development of tourism in their environment (Michael, Agnes, & Peter, 2013). This study aims to assess the perception of locals on equitable tourism components vis-a-vis Economical impacts and to evaluate if tourism in Udupi has augmented their lifestyle. This study also assesses if tourism in Udupi is a blessing or a curse to the community inhibited in the costal belt. The questionnaire was structured in a way to evaluate the perception of local community to sustain their living with respect to the impact of coastal tourism on their lifestyle in terms of better economy, jobs and other aspects of economic Sustainability. The sampling was done on a stratified random sampling with a sample size of 384. Tests such as One way ANOVA, Tukeys HSD Test and Standard Deviation. It was inferred that the locals have an attitude that with the development of tourism in their destination, Economic growth in could be achieved.

The Political Economy of Sustainability

Sustainability is a “contested” concept introduced at the beginning of the 18th century in German forestry circles concerned about sustainable harvests and rebranded in 1987 as “sustainable development” by the Brundtland Report, which defined it as harmonious economic, social, and ecological development that enhances both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations. However, after more than three decades of sustainable development, humanity is on an unsustainable path featuring rampant ecosystem damage, rising social inequality, and harmful cultural homogenization. This paper is a book review of Fred P. Gale’s Political Economy of Sustainability, a book published in 2018 by Edward Elgar Publishers. The book advances the innovative idea that the current lack of progress in implementation of the sustainable development goals is due to the narrow understanding by individuals, firms, states, and political parties of the values underlying sustainability. The book thus starts a much-needed conversation about economic values, a conversation ousted from the neo-classical economics discipline in the late 19th century by the marginalist thinkers who wanted to make it a positive science. The book identifies four elemental economic values—exchange value, labor value, use value, and function value—and argues that basing our socio-economic and political development on only one type of value with the exclusion of the others has led to the current dangerously unsustainable path humankind is on. Achieving sustainability value requires a balanced integration of all four types of values in all deliberations about socio-economic activities. How can this be accomplished? The author proposes a pragmatic solution in the form of a “tetravaluation” process, a dialogue involving multiple value holders able to reflexively negotiate and compromise until the pluralistic sustainability value is discovered and accepted by all the parties. The book challenges the unsustainable functioning of existing economic, political, and cultural institutions and invites a rethinking of their governance, which should deliberately embrace the pluralistic value of sustainability. The tetravaluation process has the potential to generate sustainable choices and inform better policy decisions able to protect at the same time the proponents of exchange value (consumers), the promoters of labor value (workers, producers), the beneficiaries of use value (communities), and the holder of functional values (the environment).

Interpretations of Prices by Russian Consumers: From Trust in State to Economic Autonomy

On the data of 63 in-depth interviews conducted in crisis 2014–2017 and post-crisis 2018–2019 and analyzed in the framework of sociological cognitivism and the new economic sociology, the article reconstructs semantic logics being used by Russian consumers when they interpret money prices. It is assumed that in a market society, reactions to prices are associated with an individual’s identity, while doubts about price legitimacy may give a key to threats and dynamics of social order. The text starts with conceptualization of the socio-cultural, political and identical embeddedness of consumers’ price perception and description of the field study performed in the methodology of grounded theory. After that, four empirically rooted logics of price interpretation — moral, demonstrative, market justice and prudence — get presented. Special attention is paid to the competition between these logics and the difficulties faced by Russians, when they attempt to master a more mature in terms of market price grammar consumer identity, corresponding to the post-crisis economy of prudence, individual responsibility and sustainability.

Building Resilient and Meaningful Enterprises with the Sustainability Lens

The Sustainability Lens is a paradigm that combines indigenous knowledge, permaculture, solidarity economy and Circles of Sustainability into a four-quadrant tool that works with the Business Model Canvas to build more fun and sustainable solutions into every aspect of one’s enterprise – from start-ups to seasoned industry. It highlights the supply chain, human resource function, product development, marketing and customer relations and compliments approaches such as Lean Launchpad for innovation and Blue Ocean Canvas for value creation.

Improvement of diet sustainability with increased level of organic food in the diet: findings from the BioNutriNet cohort

Organic food consumption has steadily increased over the past decade in westernized countries. The aim of this study, based on observational data, was to compare some sustainability features of diets from consumers with varying levels of organic food. The diet sustainability among 29,210 participants of the NutriNet-Santé study was estimated using databases developed within the BioNutriNet project. Four dimensions (nutrition, environment, economy, and toxicology) of diet sustainability were assessed using: 1) nutritional indicators through dietary intakes and dietary scores, and BMI; 2) environmental indicators (greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative energy demand, and land occupation); 3) economic indicators via diet monetary costs; and 4) estimated daily food exposures to 15 pesticides. Adjusted means (95% CI) across weighted quintiles of organic food consumption in the diet were estimated via ANCOVA. Breakdown methods were used to disentangle the contribution of the production system (organic compared with conventional) from the dietary pattern in the variation of diet-related environmental impacts, monetary costs, and pesticide exposure, between the 2 extreme quintiles. Higher organic food consumption was associated with higher plant-food and lower animal-food consumption, overall nutritional quality (higher dietary scores), and lower BMI. Diet-related greenhouse-gas emissions, cumulative energy demand, and land occupation gradually decreased with increasing organic food consumption, whereas total diet monetary cost increased. Diet exposure to most pesticides decreased across quintiles. Diets of high organic food consumers were generally characterized by strong nutritional and environmental benefits. The latter were mostly driven by the low consumption of animal-based foods, whereas the production system was responsible for the higher diet monetary costs, and the overall reduced dietary pesticide exposure.

Sustainability indicators for manufacturing sectors

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to review the indicators for the three aspects (environment, economy and society) of sustainability (the triple-bottom line (TBL) perspective) for manufacturing sectors. In addition, this paper aimed to: document the sustainability indicators for manufacturing sectors; perform an analysis of these indicators to show their evolutional progress and maturity in terms of their consistent, repeated and standardized usage; and highlight the further work needed to make them mature and more standardized. Design/methodology/approach The following keywords were used to explore and find the relevant articles: sustainable manufacturing evaluation, sustainability indicators, life cycle assessment, tools for sustainability assessment, and economic and social evaluation in industries. To find articles within this sample, the major focus remained on the terms “indicators,” “metrics,” and “performance measures.” This paper systematically reviewed the studies and analyzed the different sustainability indicators from the TBL viewpoint. Following this, the documented indicators were critically discussed along with their evolutional progress and maturity level. Findings The results showed that solid waste was the least used and immature aspect in the environmental category, whereas the more frequently used and developed indicators were related to material used, energy used and air emissions. Economic assessment was most of the time limited to cost-based indicators. From a social viewpoint, most of the reviewed studies were based on workers and local community and society related indicators rather than consumers-based indicators. From a sectoral viewpoint, comparatively, studies for metal manufacturing industries were more focused on all three dimensions of sustainability. On an overall basis, of the 144 discussed indicators, almost 34 percent (49) were used just once. Comparatively, the usage of indicators was more mature in manufacturing activities of developed countries than developing ones. Moreover, the usage of indicators was more common at the product level than at the other levels. Originality/value Unlike previous sustainability indicator sets which were generally long lists of proposed indicators rather than applicable and measurable ones, this paper reported the indicator sets based on studies for manufacturing sectors. Moreover, in contrast to previous reviews on indicators which were mostly based on the environmental dimension, this paper included all three dimensions of sustainability in one comprehensive review while focusing on recent studies published from 2007 to 2017. This paper has explored the recent evolutional progress and maturity of sustainability indicators, and provided insights into their development in manufacturing sectors.