Key Sustainability Challenges Research Articles

Applying water risk assessment methods in mining: Current challenges and opportunities

An increasing number of methods have been developed for guiding water risk assessments in different commodity sectors. With water being a key sustainability challenge in mining operations, these methods may help investors and downstream industries to respond to rising demands for responsible sourcing and investment practices. However, their fundamental predictive accuracy in the mining sector needs to be resolved. This study tests the ability of three assessment methods to adequately reflect water-related risks of a mining operation based on a case study approach for six copper mines. Findings indicate that the methods show potential to support water stewardship strategies. However, a number of constraints arise from variable degrees of evaluation subjectivity, subject generalizations as well as constraints in input data quality. Recommendations based on these findings include suggestions on the development of a mining specific assessment approach and the refinement of assessment language.

Sustainability‐Ready Evaluation: A Call to Action

AbstractEvaluation is at the cusp of two urgent challenges: indigenous evaluation and sustainability. How we respond to these challenges can dramatically affect the future of evaluation. A sustainability‐ready evaluation will be transformative. It will be an evaluation that recognizes that human and natural systems are coupled, and that evaluation portfolios are now and will increasingly be affected by our connections to natural system forces including climate. Sustainability‐ready evaluation will be an evaluation that reaches well past the intervention to important public policy goals and to key sustainability challenges. Evaluating coupled human and natural systems will be challenging. Fortunately, technical barriers do not prevent us from starting to infuse sustainability into evaluation; the barriers are social and associated with the worldview and vision of evaluation. To facilitate the development of sustainability‐ready evaluation, this paper provides an initial checklist and references to useful resources. Absent transformations to become sustainability‐ready evaluation will lack relevance for many of the current and future key issues of our times. Fields lacking relevance are themselves not sustainable.

Knowledge infrastructure and safe operating spaces in social–ecological systems

Maintaining safe operating spaces for exploited natural systems in the face of uncertainty is a key sustainability challenge. This challenge can be viewed as a problem in which human society must navigate in a limited space of acceptable futures in which humans enjoy sufficient well-being and avoid crossing planetary boundaries. A critical obstacle is the nature of society as a controller with endogenous dynamics affected by knowledge, values, and decision-making fallacies. We outline an approach for analyzing the role of knowledge infrastructure in maintaining safe operating spaces. Using a classic natural resource problem as an illustration, we find that a small safe operating space exists that is insensitive to the type of policy implementation, while in general, a larger safe operating space exists which is dependent on the implementation of the “right” policy. Our analysis suggests the importance of considering societal response dynamics to varying policy instruments in defining the shape of safe operating spaces.

Food waste management innovations in the foodservice industry

There is growing evidence that a significant share of global food is thrown away, with concomitant detrimental repercussions for sustainability. Reducing food waste is a key sustainability challenge for the food service industry. Despite the significance of this issue to the global foodservice industry, the link between innovation practices and food waste management has received limited attention in the academic literature. This paper uses innovation management and social constructionism to investigate interrelationships of food service provisions and innovations in waste management. It is based on the evaluation of food waste solutions and innovations that combine strategic dimensions of waste management with practice-driven initiatives, including incremental (processes and technologies) and radical innovations. The paper presents a range of waste management initiatives, showing that their implementation in the foodservice sector varies depending on management’s beliefs, knowledge, goals and actions. The concepts discussed here could help practitioners to become more aware of the factors that drive the adoption of food waste innovations.

Carbon amendment stimulates benthic nitrogen cycling during the bioremediation of particulate aquaculture waste

Abstract. The treatment of organic wastes remains one of the key sustainability challenges facing the growing global aquaculture industry. Bioremediation systems based on coupled bioturbation–microbial processing offer a promising route for waste management. We present, for the first time, a combined biogeochemical–molecular analysis of the short-term performance of one such system that is designed to receive nitrogen-rich particulate aquaculture wastes. Using sea cucumbers (Holothuria scabra) as a model bioturbator we provide evidence that adjusting the waste C : N from 5 : 1 to 20 : 1 promoted a shift in nitrogen cycling pathways towards the dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), resulting in net NH4+ efflux from the sediment. The carbon amended treatment exhibited an overall net N2 uptake, whereas the control receiving only aquaculture waste exhibited net N2 production, suggesting that carbon supplementation enhanced nitrogen fixation. The higher NH4+ efflux and N2 uptake was further supported by meta-genome predictions that indicate that organic-carbon addition stimulated DNRA over denitrification. These findings indicate that carbon addition may potentially result in greater retention of nitrogen within the system; however, longer-term trials are necessary to determine whether this nitrogen retention is translated into improved sea cucumber biomass yields. Whether this truly constitutes a remediation process is open for debate as there remains the risk that any increased nitrogen retention may be temporary, with any subsequent release potentially raising the eutrophication risk. Longer and larger-scale trials are required before this approach may be validated with the complexities of the in-system nitrogen cycle being fully understood.

Combining Bio-Cultural and Asset Based Approach Towards Sustainable Utilization of Catchment Resources

Water security is one of the key sustainability challenges in this modern era regardless of the level of development. While the problem keep on increasing year after year, man is a dominant player over hydrological system and also possesses powerful ways and means of utilizing hydrological resources and responds to hydrological dynamics in different ways. The utilization of hydrological resources is influenced by natural resources which are available in the aquatic system, communities’ culture and assets. These three main factors can be divided into two groups, namely, bio-cultural and community/ anthropogenic asset. Bio-cultural asset helps to understand ways in which man interacts with hydrological systems, which behavior (s) can lead to transformations of hydrological functions, and how man reacts to these changes. While, community assets help to understand how the communities can sustainably manage themselves by identifying and mobilizing the existing, but often unrecognized assets, and thereby respond to and create local opportunities for themselves instead of depending on resources from outside. In most cases, the bio-cultural and Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approaches have been used separately to study the involvement of people and their behavior towards water resource management. It is expected that integrating of these two approaches can be useful in understanding the links between hydrology and local systems; at the same time understanding how a community can restore and be resilient to the changes that occur to the aquatic ecosystems from a cultural, social, economic, political, and biological perspectives. The combination of bio-cultural and ABCD approaches can also, be a better strategy for identifying the parameters and functional relationships which can be used in socio-hydrological model simulation.

Democratic institutions and the energy intensity of well-being: a cross-national study

BackgroundEnergy consumption is necessary for human well-being, yet the growth of energy consumption also contributes to climate change and a range of negative externalities. Thus, a key sustainability challenge is to efficiently use energy consumption to promote human well-being. This manuscript contributes to the growing literature on the ecological intensity of well-being (EIWB) by modeling the relationship between democratic institutions and the energy intensity of well-being.MethodsWe use international data to understand how democratic institutions—understood as a combination of elected legislature, elected executives, and democratic competition—impact the energy intensity of well-being. The energy intensity of well-being is an adjusted ratio of energy consumption and life expectancy. We combine random-intercept mixed-effect models with entropy balancing constraints to create covariate balance between democracies and non-democracies.ResultsContrary to our expectations, we find that consistently null results suggesting that democracies do not leverage their energy consumption to improve well-being more effectively than other systems of government. Democracy and its subcomponents do not appear to improve, or reduce, the energy intensity of well-being.ConclusionsDemocracy does not appear to improve sustainability, operationalized as the energy intensity of well-being. On the other hand, democracies do not appear to do worse than non-democracies, suggesting democratization can spread without reducing sustainability.

Modelling sustainability of primary forest residues-based bioenergy system

Lack of access to modern energy, such as electricity, liquid fuels and gas, limits socio-economic development in developing countries, particularly in rural communities. Primary forest residues are potential bioresources for producing modern forms of energy beyond traditional biomass, which can be supplied to economic activities in the rural communities. However, variations in production of primary forest residues over time exacerbate sustainability challenges for developing sustainable bioenergy systems based on the residues supply chains integrated with timber production. A model is presented showing dynamics of primary forest residues, as bioenergy feedstocks, stemming from forest plantations management, harvesting systems, and stakeholder influence and interest along the bioenergy production value chain. Using a case study of the Viphya forest plantations established for timber production in Malawi, management and harvesting systems, sawmilling technologies, residues production and post harvesting management were assessed and key sustainability challenges along the residues supply chain have been identified. The decreasing stocks of mature stand over time results from over-exploitation for timber production, delayed replanting, high death rate of replanted trees and underinvestment in plantations management. An integrated framework for forest management and bioenergy production can promote sustainable harvesting of mature stand for timber and primary forest residues production through synchronization of harvesting and replanting of timber and establishment of thresholds for harvesting timber to generate residues at a rate that can match with the scale and rate of the bioenergy conversion. The framework can promote stability, availability and reliability of timber and primary forest residues supply for bioenergy production.

The role of co-evolutionary development and value change debt in navigating transitioning cultural landscapes: the case of Southern Transylvania

Cultural landscapes and their social–ecological values are threatened by changing lifestyles, policies and land-use practices, making their appropriate management a key sustainability challenge. Drawing on five years of interdisciplinary research in Transylvania, we conceptualise the notion of a ‘landscape interface’ – the intersection between the ecological and social subsystems, which through time, shapes and is shaped by the local value system. The landscape interface is a source of system continuity and stability. In Transylvania, many locals still act according to the value system associated with a disappearing landscape interface, a phenomenon we term a ‘value change debt.’ We argue that the erosion of the old value system, together with the weakening of the landscape interface, threatens sustainability – whereas reconnecting social–ecological feedback and thus strengthening the landscape interface could foster sustainability. The new conceptual perspective proposed here could foster greater understanding of cultural landscapes, including the social dimension of human–environment interactions.

Development of Conceptual Model for Overcoming the Challenges of Road and Bridge Infrastructure Development: Towards Innovative Solutions in Benin Republic

Roads and Bridges (R-B) form the basis for transformation and communication, and constitute the most critical part in the national economic development drive. The population dispersion in Benin, with high density living in metropolitans, calls for continuing development and improvement on R-B under the current national government policies and strategic plans. As R-B infrastructure objects are complex engineering facilities, and their construction and maintenance require much special scientific knowledge, the sustainability development objective becomes a crucial issue. This paper discusses the initial findings results of a two-round interviews with a group of practitioners in Beninese R-B development, which were aimed at identifying existing perceptions on sustainability and the agreeable priority issues between stakeholders focusing on the development of R-B. By extensive literature study and consultation with the stakeholders, influencing factors and key sustainability challenges specific to R-B development has been identified and classified into five categories namely engineering, managerial, human development, political and cultural, and sustainability. Based on these findings, this study introduces an on-going research project aimed at integrating the different perceptions and priority needs of the stakeholders, and issues that impact on the gap between sustainability development foci and its actual realization at R-B project construction. The exploration is of benefit to develop an innovative conceptual model to overcome the main factors. Through adopting and implementing the strategies and action plan of the conceptual model, the study presents a practical and innovative solution to improve Beninese capacity towards overcoming the problems. Finally, the study summaries the research conclusions and recommendations necessary to facilitate the development of the present R-B tempo in Benin.

Utilisation of Innovative Technologies in Smallholder Farms: A Model for Sustainable Dairy Enterprise in Kenya

Dairy industry is poised to make significant strides toward a sustainable food system. Feeding the world efficiently and responsibly, while conserving the planet's natural resources, is a key sustainability challenge worldwide not only for dairy farmers but also for other food and agriculture sectors. In Kenya, smallhoder dairy commercialization programme's (SDCP) technical support component provided the beneficiary to the farmers with appropriate innovative technical skills and support to enable them to participate in and benefit fully from sustainable market-driven dairy enterprise. This study investigates utilisation of innovative dairy technologies initiated by SDCP for sustainable dairy enterprise development in Nyamira County, Kenya. The sample size was 220 smallholder farmers (109 men, 111 women; age range 27–77 years), which were drawn from 40 dairy groups in the programme area. Multistage sampling technique were employed. Interview schedule and focused group discussion were the main data collection methods. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as numerical counts, frequencies and percentages. The yes or no dichotomous was used to measure utilisation. The study reveals compost making (95.41%), polythene biogas digester (84.40%), organic fodder production-Tumbukiza (81.65%) and eco-milk packaging (74.77%) as most utilized dairy innovations among the respondents. Low cost market information system was the least utilised at 49.08%. The study recommends to the agricultural policy makers worldwide that the replication of these technologies among smallholder dairy farms so as to continue providing nutritious, hygienic and market-driven dairy products while optimising sustainable natural resource use. Digital application-low cost market information system, should be enhanced through professional groups to help address proliferation of unsubstantiated facts.

Redox stratification drives enhanced growth in a deposit-feeding invertebrate: implications for aquaculture bioremediation

Effective and affordable treatment of waste solids is a key sustainability challenge for the aquaculture industry. Here, we investigated the potential for a deposit-feeding sea cucumber, Holothuria scabra, to provide a remediation service whilst concurrently yielding a high-value secondary product in a land-based recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). The effect of sediment depth, particle size and redox regime were examined in relation to changes in the behaviour, growth and biochemical composition of juvenile sea cucumbers cultured for 81 d in manipulated sediment systems, describing either fully oxic or stratified (oxic-anoxic) redox regimes. The redox regime was the principal factor affecting growth, biochemical composition and behaviour, while substrate depth and particle size did not significantly affect growth rate or biomass production. Animals cultured under fully oxic conditions exhibited negative growth and had higher lipid and carbohydrate contents, potentially due to compensatory feeding in response to higher microphytobenthic production. In contrast, animals in the stratified treatments spent more time feeding, generated faster growth and produced significantly higher biomass yields (626.89 ± 35.44 g m-2 versus 449.22 ± 14.24 g m-2; mean ± SE). Further, unlike in oxic treatments, growth in the stratified treatments did not reach maximum biomass carrying capacity, indicating that stratified sediment is more suitable for culturing sea cucumbers. However, the stratified sediments may exhibit reduced bioremediation ability relative to the oxic sediment, signifying a trade-off between remediation efficiency and exploitable biomass yield.

Hydroformylation of vegetable oils: More than 50 years of technical innovation, successful research, and development

To address key sustainability challenges, it is now necessary to develop eco‐friendly alternatives to the use of petroleum resources. As such, the valorization of vegetable oils into added‐value products has become of major interest. While most of the reactions dealing with oils are related to their ester function, reactions have been developed to functionalize their CC double bonds. For example, the catalytic hydroformylation of vegetable fatty compounds enables the conversion of their CC double bonds into aldehydes. The reaction is atom‐economic and can be implemented under homogeneous, heterogeneous, or biphasic conditions. The catalytic hydroformylation of unsaturated fatty compounds has recently experienced a revival. The aim of the present article is to summarize current knowledge on the topic. The main salient results obtained since the 1960s are discussed and compared.More than 50 years of technical innovation, successful research, and development in triglycerides and FAME hydroformylation are summarized in this review article.

<i>Acacia etbaica</i> as a Potential Low-Cost Adsorbent for Removal of Organochlorine Pesticides from Water

The presence of pesticides in the environment is of great concern due to their persistent nature and chronic adverse effect on human health and the environment. Water bodies are subject to pollution by organochlorine pesticides, especially in developing countries, where water pollution is a key sustainability challenge. Hence, activated carbon is considered a universal adsorbent for the removal of organochlorine pollutants from water. Activated carbon from Acatia etbaica was prepared using traditional kilns with low investment costs. Pesticides such as aldrin, dieldrin and DDT were selected for adsorption because of their common usage in agricultural and malaria control activities and may occur in high concentrations in surface waters that are used as drinking water sources. The effect of the adsorbent dose and initial concentration were investigated. To describe the equilibrium isotherms the experimental data were analyzed by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The Freundlich model gave the best correlation with the experimental data. Activated carbon prepared from Acacia etbaica was found to be an effective and low-cost alternative for the removal of organochlorine pesticides from aqueous solutions. The preparation method allows the use of this material by local communities for effective remediation of pollution by pesticides.

New performance indicators for water management in tourism

Tourism is increasingly recognized as a significant water-consuming sector on local, regional and global scales. As a consequence, the efficient use of water resources is now considered a key sustainability challenge for the tourism industry. To date, most research has focused on direct (on site) water consumption, with tourism water management based almost exclusively on direct water use benchmarks. This paper argues that such an approach overlooks the complexity of ‘local’ and ‘global’ water use, with local water use affecting sustainable water use in the destination and global water use representing the sustainability of water embodied in goods produced elsewhere, including fuels and food. Focussing on tourism accommodation as the locus of tourism water consumption, conventional water indicators are reviewed and discussed, and knowledge gaps identified. New data accounting for food consumption are then presented for a case study of resort hotels in Rhodes, Greece. The results are used to develop a novel set of performance indicators suitable for resort hotels and other accommodation, considering water availability, planning and operation, as well as complexities of direct vis-à-vis indirect water consumption. The findings suggest a significant potential for water and related cost savings, indicating that holistic water management should be an operational imperative.

Improving management of small natural features on private lands by negotiating the science-policy boundary for Maine vernal pools.

Vernal pools are far more important for providing ecosystem services than one would predict based on their small size. However, prevailing resource-management strategies are not effectively conserving pools and other small natural features on private lands. Solutions are complicated by tensions between private property and societal rights, uncertainties over resource location and function, diverse stakeholders, and fragmented regulatory authority. The development and testing of new conservation approaches that link scientific knowledge, stakeholder decision-making, and conservation outcomes are important responses to this conservation dilemma. Drawing from a 15-y history of vernal pool conservation efforts in Maine, we describe the coevolution of pool conservation and research approaches, focusing on how research-based knowledge was produced and used in support of management decisions. As management shifted from reactive, top-down approaches to proactive and flexible approaches, research shifted from an ecology-focused program to an interdisciplinary program based on social-ecological systems. The most effective strategies for linking scientific knowledge with action changed as the decision-makers, knowledge needs, and context for vernal pool management advanced. Interactions among stakeholders increased the extent to which knowledge was coproduced and shifted the objective of stakeholder engagement from outreach to research collaboration and development of innovative conservation approaches. New conservation strategies were possible because of the flexible, solutions-oriented collaborations and trust between scientists and decision-makers (fostered over 15 y) and interdisciplinary, engaged research. Solutions to the dilemma of conserving small natural features on private lands, and analogous sustainability science challenges, will benefit from repeated negotiations of the science-policy boundary.

Lessons learned from stakeholder-driven sustainability analysis of six national HIV programmes

In light of the decline in donor HIV funding, HIV programmes increasingly need to assess their available and potential resources and maximize their utilization. This article presents lessons learned related to how countries have addressed the sustainability of HIV programmes in a stakeholder-driven sustainability analysis. During HIV/AIDS Programme Sustainability Analysis Tool (HAPSAT) applications in six countries (Benin, Guyana, Kenya, Lesotho, Sierra Leone and South Sudan), stakeholders identified key sustainability challenges for their HIV responses. Possible policy approaches were prepared, and those related to prioritization and resource mobilization are analysed in this article. The need to prioritize evidence-based interventions and apply efficiency measures is being accepted by countries. Five of the six countries in this study requested that the HAPSAT team prepare 'prioritization' strategies. Countries recognize the need to prepare for an alternative to 'universal access by 2015', acknowledging that their capacity might be insufficient to reach such high-coverage levels by then. There is further acceptance of the importance of reaching the most-at-risk, marginalized populations, as seen, for example, in South Sudan and Sierra Leone. However, the pace at which resources are shifting towards these populations is slow. Finally, only two of the six countries, Kenya and Benin, chose to examine options for generating additional financial resources beyond donor funding. In Kenya, three non-donor sources were recommended, yet even if all were to be implemented, it would cover only 25% of the funding needed. Countries are increasingly willing to address the challenges of HIV programme sustainability, yet in different ways and with varying urgency. To secure achievements made to date and maximize future impact, countries would benefit from strengthening their strategic plans, operational plans and funding proposals with concrete timelines and responsibilities for addressing sustainability issues.

Key trends in the resource sustainability of platinum group elements

Platinum group elements (PGEs) are increasingly used in a variety of environmentally-related technologies, such as chemical process catalysts, catalytic converters for vehicle exhaust control, hydrogen fuel cells, electronic components, and a variety of specialty medical uses, amongst others — almost all of which have strong expected growth to meet environmental and technological challenges this century. Economic geologists have been arguing on the case of abundant geologic resources of PGEs for some time while others still raise concerns about long-term supply — yet there remains no detailed analysis of formally reported mineral resources and key trends in the PGEs sector. This paper presents such a detailed review of the PGEs sector, including detailed mine production statistics and mineral resources by principal ore types, providing an authoritative case study on the resource sustainability for a group of elements which are uniquely concentrated in a select few regions of the earth. The methodology, compiled data sets and trends provide strong assurance on the contribution that PGEs can make to the key sustainability and technology challenges of the 21st century such as energy and pollution control.

Towards a ‘tourism for all’ policy for Ireland: achieving real sustainability in Irish tourism

The importance of tourism for all initiatives in contributing to the economic and social well-being of citizens has long been recognised by many European Union Member States. The European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee have acknowledged not only the social value of tourism for all in terms of personal development, well-being and social cohesion, but also its potential economic value in terms of revenue generation, job creation and regional development. This paper focuses on Ireland, where the concept of tourism for all is poorly understood. While social inclusion is explicitly on the national policy agenda, Irish tourism has tended to be viewed entirely through economic lenses, with little acknowledgement of its social value. Within the context of sustainable development, which is a stated policy objective in Ireland, environmental issues have received a disproportionate level of attention within the tourism domain. The core argument forwarded here is that unless Irish tourism policy-makers turn their attention to ‘making holidays available for all’, Irish tourism will fail to meet at least one of the eight key tourism sustainability challenges, as identified by the European Commission (2007) and further fail to realise the existing Irish policy commitment to sustainable tourism development.

The use of MFA indicators in the characterization of the settlement sustainability

One of the key sustainability challenges for the coming decades will be to improve the management of natural resources in order to reduce current levels of anthropogenic environmental pressure and respect the biological and physical limits and the carrying capacity of the planet. The first step towards meeting this challenge is an enhancement of the understanding of the material basis of our society. In the past 15 years, scientists in several research institutes have created a fast growing field of research, a new family of different methods, named material flow analysis (MFA). These instruments have an increasing policy relevance: international organizations (UN, EU, OECD) have encouraged member states to establish MFA accounting in their statistical programmes and urged governments and economic actors to use these tools. In this paper I present selected examples to reveal how the MFA approach and derived material flow indicators can be used for the evaluation of sustainability policies at municipality level.