Sustainability Problems Research Articles

Critical accounting as an indigenous project

We are all indigenous to the planet, our home, ‘earth mother’. In the practices of our hunter gatherer ancestors and Indigenous Communities everywhere, we can glimpse possibilities for human beings to act as reciprocal parts of the environment, actively nurturing our relations with nature and community, as vital to our mental and physical existence. Colonialism, and the roles of accounting within it, mark the beginning of a historical process that has decimated these possibilities, rupturing the bonds and connections that could exist between our environment and us. This history turned land and human labour into ‘objects of barter’ (Marx, 1976), oppressing humanity’s (‘indigenous’) socio-ecological agency, in the Global South, but also in the lands of ‘the colonizers’. A key task for critical accounting is to understand and facilitate the possibilities for all peoples to (re)gain these indigenous potentialities, in all of their plural and myriad forms. Rising to this challenge requires developing debates around decoloniality beyond territorial rivalries over the academic field. It asks us to focus our attention and energies on helping to understand and enact practical social transformations that may be critical to the problem of sustainability. This is therefore not a project to romanticize the past, or exoticize or essentialize certain cultures. Far from being a topic about which only certain people are able to speak, or have an interest, decoloniality as an indigenous project is a struggle for us all, one that has implications for critical accounting research and teaching, and how we think about our role in society.

GENDER EQUALITY IN THE POLITICAL SPHERE AS ONE OF THE COMPONENTS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

The article examines the topical issue of gender equality in general, and in the field of politics, in particular, as a component of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Within the framework of functional and neo-institutional approaches, the goal of the work was achieved – a comprehensive analysis of the principle of gender equality in politics through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals was carried out. Using general scientific, logical and empirical research methods, the following tasks were solved: the Sustainable Development Goals and their impact on the level of democracy were analysed; the relationship between gender equality and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals was investigated; features and mechanisms of guaranteeing gender equality in the political sphere and their impact on the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are revealed; the state and prospects of observing gender equality were clarified within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The article is characterized by scientific novelty, as it was the first time that gender equality in the structure of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, features and problems of its implementation were comprehensively investigated in the world. The results of the article are of practical importance and can be used in education for teaching such disciplines as international relations, political science, globalization, sociology, jurisprudence, international law, etc. In addition, the results of the study can be useful for improving gender legislation and initiatives aimed at achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in Ukraine, in particular, goals related to gender equality.

Sustainable hierarchical multi-modal hub network design problem: bi-objective formulations and solution algorithms

This paper presents a bi-objective model for the design and optimization of a sustainable hierarchical multi-modal hub network. The proposed model focuses on sustainability by considering economic, environmental, and social aspects of the decisions in a hierarchical network. A case of Turkish network for freight transportation is used to validate the proposed model. To solve the small-sized problems, the augmented epsilon constraint method version 2 (AUGMECON2) is applied. It can be inferred from the Pareto-optimal set obtained by AUGMECON2 that the effect of increasing the number of hubs after a threshold is marginal. The current contribution proposes two multi-objective genetic algorithms (NSGA-II and NRGA), which incorporate LP solving and Dijkstra algorithm. The results show the superiority of NRGA compared to NSGA-II in terms of solution time. Also, we present an alternative, more efficient formulation to the problem. Based on the alternative formulation, in addition to AUGMECON2, we use two exact methods, including Torabi and Hassini (TH) method and augmented weighted Tchebycheff procedure (AWTP), to find Pareto-optimal solutions for small, medium, and large-sized problems (including the case study). The performance of the proposed solution methods is measured using some multi-objective indicators. The results show the superiority of AUGMECON2.

ПРОБЛЕМЫ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ УСТОЙЧИВОГО РАЗВИТИЯ РОССИЙСКИХ РЕГИОНОВ В КОНТЕКСТЕ ГЕОПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ ТУРБУЛЕНТНОСТИ

The transition to sustainable development is considered as a response to global modern challenges and a tool for the resilience of the region as a socio-ecological and economic system, the potential for sustainable development, problems and prospects are assessed when changing the development vector «Turn to the East».

Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) in Environment: Contamination, Toxicity, and Carcinogenicity

Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) compounds which are widely used in industry have become a widespread and sustainable environmental problem for decades. PCB is chemically stable, low volatility, non-flammable, and high dielectric constant. Its main uses include heat exchange and dielectric fluids in transformers and capacitors, hydraulic fluids and lubricants, diffusion pump oils, plasticizers for plastics, and so on. PCBs are biologically magnified in the food chain and found in fish, wildlife, and human tissues. PCBs have been identified as contaminants in water, air, and soil, and are distributed up to the polar regions. According to epidemiological studies reporting blood levels of PCBs, the higher the level of exposure, the higher the blood concentration of PCBs, and the higher the environmental concentration or the longer the exposure period (or both), the longer the blood levels of PCBs remain elevated. PCB levels also correlate with race, place of residence (geographical), age, and dietary intake of fish in humans. PCBs have a very low potential to produce acute toxic effects. PCB exposure has been linked to having a particular skin rash commonly referred to as “chloracne”. Liver damage was the most consistent finding among the many laboratory animal species tested. Yusho refers to the epidemic of poisoning by consumption of cooking oil contaminated with PCBs and polychlorinated dibenzofuran. Mothers with Yusho experience stillbirth, abnormal skin pigmentation, or babies tend to be small when compared to the national average. Some PCB compounds are carcinogenic in a number of rodent bioassays, producing liver tumors. Based on the available animal data, PCBs should be considered potential carcinogens for humans. Keywords: Polychlorinated Biphenyl, pollution, contamination, toxicity, carcinogenicity.

Raúl Hernández Sánchez

As a young boy growing up in Chihuahua, Mexico, Raúl Hernández Sánchez was a fan of the iconic wrestler El Santo. In dozens of movies, the masked luchador battled multifarious foes, including evil scientists whose secret laboratories were filled with bizarre equipment and fuming beakers. Those scenes captured the boy’s imagination: “I was 8 years old, thinking, ‘I would like to be working there!’ ” he says with a laugh. Fortunately for us, the lab he now leads at Rice University is focused not on world domination but world preservation. “I’m trying to use supramolecular systems to tackle sustainability problems,” Hernández Sánchez says. His molecular assemblies are already showing promise in purifying water and helping generate hydrogen. Hernández Sánchez began studying chemistry at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education. But it was a summer internship at the California Institute of Technology, where he worked on a proton-conducting material used

Orthogonal turning of AISI 310S austenitic stainless steel under hybrid nanofluid-assisted MQL and a sustainability optimization using NSGA-II and TOPSIS

AISI 310S austenitic stainless steels are widely used in many industries, such as oil, gas, and petrochemical industries containing hot concentrated acids, due to their superior properties like corrosion resistance, high-temperature service, and creep resistance. However, a study on the machining of AISI 310 stainless steel has not been published in the scientific literature. It is known that the machinability of the austenitic stainless steel alloys, in which the AISI 310S alloy is included, is poor due to its low thermal conductivity, high work hardening, and built-up edge (BUE) formation. This situation causes sustainability problems by increasing the energy consumptions, the total machining cost and the amount of carbon emissions. The presented study investigated for the first time machining response and sustainability assessment in the orthogonal turning of AISI 310S stainless steel using three different cutting speeds and feed values, and five different cutting conditions such as dry, vegetable-based fluid minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), nano molybdenum disulfide (nMoS2) reinforced nanofluid MQL, nanographene (nGP) reinforced nanofluid MQL, and nMoS2/nGP reinforced hybrid nanofluid MQL, and a sustainability optimization was performed. Sustainability optimization was conducted to minimize the resultant force, surface roughness, carbon emission, and total machining cost using multi-objective optimization with NSGA-II (Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II) and multi-criteria decision-making with TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution). The resultant force, surface roughness, total carbon emission, and total machining cost were reduced by a significant, 56.8%, 86.8%, 30.4%, and 2.9%, respectively, under the nGP reinforced nanofluid MQL cutting condition compared to the dry cutting condition. As a result of sustainability optimization, the use of high cutting speed (220 m/min), low feed values (between 0.11 mm/rev and 0.14 mm/rev), and nGP reinforced nanofluid MQL method (N2-MQL) in the turning of AISI 310S stainless steel material provides the optimum surface roughness values, cutting forces, carbon emissions, and total machining costs.

Governance in regional sports organisations: An analysis of the Catalan sports federations

In recent decades there has been an increasing concern among stakeholders surrounding sport organisations regarding the implementation of governance principles and processes. It is believed that these can help them to overcome sustainability problems and to promote organisational success. This research aims to analyse the governance of Catalan sports federations (CSFs), an area that has not been analysed to date. The study, based on previous approaches in the sport management literature, proposes a model to measure three dimensions considered key to good governance in sport organisations: democracy and participation, ethics and integrity, and accountability and transparency, which are measured by quantitative performance indicators. 38 CSFs were assessed, and the results showed considerable room for improvement with respect to metrics in divergent areas of organisational governance. Six clusters were determined using the Hierarchical Ascending Classification, and statistical correlations were also found between the dimensions analysed and the size of the organisations. In addition to the interest for stakeholders in the context of Catalonia, the authors believe that this research supports recent calls for good governance in sport and can serve as a foothold for scholars to investigate other contexts.

Drivers and Hinderers of (Un)Sustainable Service: A Systems View

Making service provisioning significantly more sustainable is crucial if humankind wants to make a serious effort to operate within the boundaries of what the planet can support. The purpose of this paper is to develop a systemic understanding of sustainability in service provision and shed light on the mechanisms that drive unsustainability and hinder service providers in their efforts to be more sustainable. To contextualize our study, we focus on a significant sustainability problem: food waste stemming from food retail at the retailer-consumer interface. We make two theoretical contributions to the service research on sustainability. First, we offer a systemic conceptualization of sustainability in service as a dynamic ability of a focal system (e.g., a service firm) to sustain the system(s) that contains it. Second, we explicate the mechanisms—stocks and flows, feedback and mindsets—that contribute to (un)sustainable service provision as a systemic behavior, and which can thus be used as intervention points when designing sustainability initiatives. Our work also has significant practical implications for food retailers and policymakers working towards reaching UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, as we specify the feedback loops that drive food waste and hinder efforts to reduce it at the retailer-consumer interface.

Are Energy Reductions Compatible with Economic Growth?

Our planet faces several serious and urgent challenges to sustainability including, but not limited to, climate change; however, most researchers argue that technological solutions can solve these problems. This review first examines the prospects for decoupling environmental damages in general from economic growth, considered at the global level; then, it looks at whether the recent advances in information and communication technology (ICT) can help. It is argued that although absolute decoupling may have occurred in some countries—even after accounting for energy-intensive imports—it has not occurred at the global level, which is the relevant level for global sustainability problems. This conclusion is strengthened by the very high correlation over the past three decades found between global gross domestic product (GDP) and several parameters relevant for sustainability, particularly for atmospheric CO2 concentrations and ecological footprint as a function of GDP. ICT innovations relevant to energy use include smart grids and smart cities, especially smart urban transport. A review of recently published papers shows no definite findings of energy or carbon reduction, although some innovations show energy/carbon reduction potential if given strong policy support. Overall, it was concluded that the Earth’s sustainability challenges will probably need deep energy reductions, which in turn require profound sociopolitical changes.

Predicting Willingness to Donate Smartphones as a Reuse Option using Decision Tree Analysis

The increasing number of smartphone users in Indonesia, coupled with the short average usage time of smartphones, has posed a sustainability problem. Smartphone production requires natural resources including rare earth materials and energy, that need to be preserved due to their limited availability and depletion. Circular economy initiatives have become important in the last few decades, and one of them is extending product life by reusing discarded products. On the other hand, triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, online learning has become an essential part of education. In Indonesia, marginalized communities or low-income societies have limitations in providing online learning tools such as desktop or laptop computers, including smartphones. Therefore, smartphone donation is considered a suitable initiative to help students who need a smartphone to join online learning while at the same time extending the useful life of a smartphone. Using decision tree techniques, we investigate the willingness to donate used smartphones for education in the Indonesian context. The results show that the respondents' willingness-to-donate was influenced by several considerations, which are performance, value (price), type, obsolescence of the used smartphone, and the donators’ age. The resulting parameters and predictions could enhance the effectiveness of the donation mechanism.

Challenges for sustainability: misperceptions and misleading advice

AbstractTo ensure sustainable development, governments depend on informed decision‐makers including the electorates. Previous studies show evidence of widespread and systematic misperceptions, voter ignorance, and reliance on inappropriate cognitive heuristics. The wait and see heuristic is one such trusted heuristic that is used repeatedly and with minimal effort. When applied to the management of dynamically complex renewable resources, it leads to overinvestment and resource depletion. On the optimistic side, a laboratory experiment finds that proactive expert advice counteracts the wait and see heuristic and contributes to sustainability. However, when expert advice is challenged by misleading advice that supports the wait and see heuristic, most of the positive effect of the expert advice disappears. The experiment generalizes to a large number of sustainability problems. Different from fake news that can be corrected by simple facts, misperceptions and misleading advice call for extraordinary information policies and deliberative democracy. © 2023 The Authors. System Dynamics Review published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of System Dynamics Society.

Temporal PROMETHEE II — New multi-criteria approach to sustainable management of alternative fuels consumption

Alternative fuels are the subject of growing interest among both researchers and practitioners. In this aspect, to properly handle the problem of proper evaluating alternative fuels, appropriate methods, and tools are undoubtedly needed. Since the evaluation of sustainable alternative fuels similarly, like most sustainability problems, has a multi-criteria character, multi-criteria methods have the potential to be employed here. Analysis of the alternative fuels domain indicates that classical multi-criteria methods are not exactly suitable for use in cases where, instead of a single matrix for evaluating alternatives, we have a set of them collected for particular periods. Therefore, developing a dedicated approach that considers the specifics of a given problem is necessary. For this purpose, the paper proposes a new Temporal Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations II (PROMETHEE II) method for multi-criteria temporal evaluation. Hence, the presented method solves the limitations occurring in previously developed multi-criteria methods. In addition to the classical aspect of evaluating the options under consideration, the proposed method makes it possible to accurately grasp the dynamics of the outcomes and put them into an easy-to-interpret result. A practical contribution of the paper is applying the developed method to a multi-criteria temporal evaluation of sustainable consumption of alternative fuels in road transport. For this purpose, an assessment model was built based on the data for 32 European countries acquired from the European Union’s statistical office (Eurostat). Preference imprecision modeling and model sensitivity analysis demonstrated the analytical potential of the developed sustainability assessment model and, simultaneously, the Temporal PROMETHEE method’s superiority. The comparative analysis of the Temporal PROMETHEE II method clearly shows that the results are robust and reliable, and the developed method is suitable for evaluating various temporal sustainability problems. The research demonstrated that a model alternative fuel mix and its shape as well as progression is maintained by Scandinavian countries such as Norway and Sweden.

Designing globalized robust supply chain network for sustainable biomass-based power generation problem

The utilization of renewable energy sources to produce electricity is capable of relieving the pressure of limited natural resources and achieving the sustainability of future energy. This paper addresses a multi-period multi-feedstock multi-technology biomass-based power generation supply chain planning problem with parameter uncertainty, balancing economic, environmental, and social objectives simultaneously. However, the main challenges in optimizing this problem are correlated with multiple conflicting objectives and uncertain parameters. This study proposes a novel globalized robust goal programming model with goal constraints to balance three conflicting objectives using priority levels and characterize the uncertainty of unit emissions and social scores by inner–outer uncertainty sets. After transforming globalized robust environmental and social goal constraints into their equivalent forms, the tractable counterpart of the proposed model is obtained, which is mixed-integer linear programming (MILP). Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed model is demonstrated through a case study about the design of a sustainable biomass-based power generation supply chain (SBPSC) network in Hubei Province, China. Computational results reveal that by adjusting several parameters, environmental and social aspired goals consistently can achieve, whereas the economic objective is vulnerable to being influenced. Comparative studies with nominal goal programming model and robust goal programming model indicate that the proposed model is uncertainty-immunized and less conservative. Under investigated circumstances, the realized economic profit by the proposed model is approximately 42.5% higher than that of the robust goal programming model on average.

Hybrid Intuitionistic Fuzzy Entropy-SWARA-COPRAS Method for Multi-Criteria Sustainable Biomass Crop Type Selection

To select a biomass crop type of the highest sustainability for the purpose of producing biofuel is recognized as a problem of the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) type, as it comprises different conflicting criteria. To effectively address this problem, the present paper introduces a novel integrated approach using the complex proportional assessment (COPRAS) method under the intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs). The proposed approach works based on the IFSs operators as well as an innovative process utilized in evaluating the attributes’ weights. To evaluate these weights, the subjective weights using the step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) model are integrated with the objective weights achieved using an entropy-based approach in order to attain more realistic weights. As MCDA problems inevitably suffer from different degrees of uncertainty, the proposed approach could be of great help to those who are required to make decisions in uncertain settings. The paper took into consideration a sustainable biomass crop selection problem to exemplify the effectiveness of the presented approach in handling real MCDA problems. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis with respect to the diverse values of the attributes is presented in order to assess the stability of the introduced model. This study reveals that the combination of the objective and subjective weights enhances the stability of the introduced approach with diverse attribute weights. Finally, the results of the introduced model are compared to some existing intuitionistic fuzzy information-based methods. The findings of the comparison confirm the efficiency of the present approach in performing the defined tasks under uncertain environments.

Fiber-reinforced polymer composite: Higher performance with renewable and eco-friendly plant-based fibers

Considering sustainable environmental problems due to waste and the enormous potential of natural plant resources in producing natural fibers has encouraged researchers to make environmentally friendly composite materials reinforced with fibers. Several articles on using natural fibers as composite reinforcement have been collected and studied to produce this article. This article aims to comprehensively describe the physical properties, chemical composition, factors that affect fiber quality, and their relationship with mechanical properties. In the first section, we introduce the general classification of plant fibers and summarize the annual production and category of fiber origin used for fiber-reinforced composites. It then presents the parts of plants and plant species for fiber, including fruit, leaf, and seed fibers, and discuss their characteristics. Further describes the chemical compounds and physical and mechanical properties based on fiber sources. Based on our discussion, this review shows that plant fibers are very suitable as an alternative to polymer-based reinforcement materials due to low cost, renewable, and environmentally friendly composites. However, compatibility with synthetic polymers, dimensional stability and processability must be actively considered to replace synthetic fibers in various applications.

Interactive strategy of carbon cap-and-trade policy on sustainable multi-objective solid transportation problem with twofold uncertain waste management

Interactive strategy of carbon cap-and-trade policy on sustainable multi-objective solid transportation problem with twofold uncertain waste management

Sustainable Environment Problems Arising from Sports Facilities

Relevance of the topic. In recent years, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional education system, including various non-formal education activities, has faced enormous challenges and problems. This pandemic not only claimed millions of lives, but also affected people's daily lives and lifestyles. Most of the economic sectors in Lithuania also encountered various problems. Education, which traditionally carried out educational activities in physical environments, was not an exception and faced the sudden and strict closure of all institutions. In this situation, the application of technology and digital learning practices became the main solutions that helped to ensure the continuity of education and training, including non-formal ones (González, Bonal, 2021). Unfortunately, this decision had a particularly painful impact on organized sports for children and youth (Reece et. al., 2020). This area, of course, faced an even greater challenge than other, more theoretical, subjects, since sport, being a physical, practical and interactive activity, is not easily and simply transferred to an online environment (Iuliano et al., 2021).
 The problem. The idea of the problem has been increased by the fact that direct social interaction between the coach and the athlete is considered an essential condition in order to supervise the actions performed by the athletes and to ensure the high-quality implementation of the sports program (Emery & Tyreman, 2009).
 In the context of the pandemic, researchers began to emphasize the changed organization and execution of sports activities (Ratten, 2020; Escamilla-Fajardo et al., 2020), but there is still a lack of research-based data on the characteristics of these activities. In Lithuania, this topic has so far been little studied in the context of school sports. And although the sports activities implemented in sports schools, as state educational institutions, are regulated by the legislation of the Republic of Lithuania and the orders and instructions of the Ministry of Science, Education, Science and Sports, there is no data in the scientific literature about how informal sports education programs were implemented in them during the COVID-19 pandemic?
 The purpose of the study: To highlight the challenges of non-formal sports education during the Covid-19 pandemic.
 Research object: Challenges of informal sports education.
 The results. Research data revealed that the sports activities organized and carried out in sports schools during the COVID-19 pandemic had certain characteristics associated with the challenges experienced by coaches as providers of non-formal sports education programs and the challenges experienced by schoolchildren participating in sports. During the pandemic, the decrease in the motivation of young athletes to play sports, their inability to fulfill the training conditions and the negative influence of the environment in which they train on sports activities became apparent. The coaches, adapting to the changed conditions, were led to search for additional information, invest their own funds in the training process, understand the peculiarities of conducting training remotely, demonstrate their ingenuity while conducting classes, and constantly raise the motivation of athletes. However, when faced with these obstacles, they did not avoid ignoring the existing rules for the organization of sports activities.
 Keywords: sustainable environment, sports, nature, problems

International trade under new stresses in the development of the global economy

In the past few years, the international exchange of goods and services has faced two unprecedented shocks – a pandemic and increased geopolitical tensions. These shocks significantly weaken international trade, slow down the development of global supply chains and cause serious damage to the global economy as a whole. This article considers the problems of sustainability of international trade in goods and services in the light of the analysis of new triggers for its development, as well as taking into account the changed context for exporting and importing countries. The author came to the conclusion that the established patterns of participation of countries in international trade will undergo significant changes. The main directions for increasing the stability of global supply chains, as well as Russia's participation in it in the face of severe sanctions pressure, are identified. The prospects for the development of international trade are assessed by us as gloomy and uncertain, and exchange risks are elevated. A number of areas of international trade policy that could be effective for adjusting current trade relations between countries were discussed.

Improving the efficiency of patient diagnostic specimen collection with the aid of a multi-modal routing algorithm

The Sustainable Specimen Collection Problem (SSCP), in which diagnostic specimens are collected from GP surgeries (doctor’s office/clinics) and subsequently transported to a hospital laboratory for analysis using more sustainable transport modes, is introduced in this paper. Using a weighted objective function, we solve a new multi-objective problem using cycle consolidation to limit driving time and the numbers of vans used whilst improving overall service quality, reducing costs and emissions. This particular heterogeneous vehicle routing problem is explored and applied to two real-world case studies in the UK, where 97 and 22 sites (respectively) are currently served, using a column generation based heuristic algorithm with some additional improvement heuristics. The results demonstrated a potential improvement in the system’s maximum delivery time between 41% and 74% compared to business-as-usual activity using solely road vehicles. Road vehicle (van) fleets could be reduced by up to 40%, and the total driving time across the fleet by between 41% and 65%. Operational costs were estimated to increase by up to 38%, though additional workloads for gig-economy cycle couriers and improvement in specimen quality and service reliability may make this trade-off worthwhile. Tailpipe CO2 emissions were also reduced by up to 43%. The proposed algorithm was effective, reducing computational time by up to 99% whilst achieving an average of 5% deviation from optimality.