Cleaner Production Letters最新文献

Despite increasing calls for circularity in business, the trending Circular Economy (CE) is not converting into action and the global usage of secondary material is declining. Addressing this gap is vital for our future well-being. Hence, more research is needed on whether and how companies translate broader CE discourses into their future visions. This study employed frame analysis to investigate how the CE's meaning and goals are being envisioned and shaped in companies' external communication to advance their future goals. Drawing empirical insights from documents focused on 41 Finnish self-declared front-runner CE companies from various industries, the paper contributes to current CE literature in two ways. First, five distinct future vision frames were identified – technological utopia, outsourcing circularity, business-as-usual, market leader, and systemic change – that demonstrate how self-described front-runner companies communicated circularity to their stakeholders. Second, the study demonstrates how company-level future visions align with or differ from macro-level CE visions. The study found that even self-described frontrunner CE companies were reluctant to align with strong sustainability in their framing, limiting the transformative potential of CE in business context. The findings have implications for managers regarding how they can assess their future visions from the perspective of weak or strong sustainability.

Environmental deterioration is a significant and multi-dimensional issue that concerns the modern world. During the last decades, research has been conducted to address this argument, intending to provide holistic policies that drive sustainable development. However, the European Union (EU) should further provoke the complementarity between growth and environmental quality. Recognizing that gender equality must be introduced in Agenda (2030), this paper intends to examine the impact of well-established macroeconomic and socioeconomic variables in existing literature alongside the role of women in governance. More specifically, this study uses panel data analysis to investigate the understanding of the effects of economic growth, renewable energy, human capital, female representation in parliaments, and environmental regulation on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in 20 European countries from 2004 to 2018. Empirically, the study employs several econometric tests and approaches. Findings partially confirm the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, while renewable energy and tertiary education enhance sustainability. Environmental regulation is significant for policymakers as it decreases pollution. The role of women in parliaments, which has been scarcely examined in existing literature, appears to be beneficial for the prosperity of EU societies. All empirical findings leave ample room for further discussion among European stakeholders and policymakers, emphasizing the importance of female participation in governance.

An improved sustainability performance of one system does not automatically lead to an improved sustainability performance of larger systems (society and nature). A reliable sustainability assessment must be carried out to improve environmental and social sustainability performance for whole systems. It is necessary to show how a system of interest at any scale should (and can) improve sustainability performance. An examination of the literature on sustainability assessment highlights a lack of a systems perspective in most sustainability assessment frameworks. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to provide a framework that enables an assessment of environmental and social sustainability performance, taking systemic aspects into account. This assessment framework is based on a definition of first- and second-order sustainability performance. The former focuses on narrow efficiency issues, while second-order sustainability performance focuses on systemic effectiveness and covers sustainability impacts on society and nature. Improving the first-order level (narrow perspective) will not automatically lead to an improved second-order sustainability performance (systemic perspective). Thus, systemic effectiveness is not automatically increased in the case of first-order sustainability performance. Therefore, three essential dimensions have been identified and combined in an assessment framework, i.e., the dimension of scale, the decision horizon, and sustainability principles. The conceptualized assessment framework allows to analyze whether an action of a system of interest (e.g., corporate action, any process, project, or policy) contributes to global sustainable development.

New ventures that strive for sustainability are crucial in offering solutions to grand social and environmental challenges, but they often face unique tensions. Previous tensions research has primarily examined incumbent firms, thereby limiting the transferability of findings to new venture contexts. Using a conceptual framework based on paradox theory, we explore the tensions that result from the intent to create social and environmental value in addition to economic value. Using content analysis, eight new ventures were investigated longitudinally at the pre-seed and seed phases. The findings reveal that new ventures face different tensions in the categories of organizing, performing, belonging, and learning. Additionally, the study reveals how entrepreneurs manage these tensions. The findings expand on the sustainability management literature and provide a foundation for more research on new ventures’ tensions. Entrepreneurs can draw on our study to identify and potentially overcome these tensions to create value along the triple bottom line.

Plastic production has increased over the years and the packaging industry was responsible for 44% of the total plastic production. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), due to its favorable properties, is one of the most used polymers in this sector.

This study first aimed to compare the environmental performance related to the production of a novel recycled PET (rPET) form, namely, rPET flake, and then compare it with the production of virgin PET (vPET) and rPET pellet. Secondly, this study aimed to compare the environmental impacts of four water bottles with different compositions, namely, option A composed with only vPET, option B made with 50% vPET and 50% rPET pellet, option C made with 75% rPET pellet and 25% rPET flake, and option D made with 50% vPET, 25% rPET pellet and 25% rPET flake. Option A was designed as a single-use water bottle, while the remaining options (Options B, C and D) were thought to be reusable bottles, and for that reason were heavier and more robust compared to Option A. The environmental impact assessment followed the International Standard Rules of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and the impact assessment method used was the Environmental Product Declaration. Ecoibéria and Logoplaste provided the majority of the required data, and three functional units were considered. The first one was the production of 1 kg of PET, the second was the production of different water bottles, and finally, the third one was the consumption of 2 l of water with different water bottles. As a result, it was first observed that the production of rPET flake in comparison to vPET reduces, on average, 79% of the impacts, and rPET pellet reduces 10% of the impacts. Secondly, in the production of the different water bottles, Option A, the single-use bottle, presented the lowest environmental impacts in almost all categories. Finally, when taking into account the reusable factor, the use of single-use bottles presented the higher environmental impact in all categories, probably because of the dilution of the environmental impacts associated with the production of heavier and robust reusable bottles by the multiple times of uses of these bottles.

Climate change has become a global problem, and the construction industry (CI) contributes significantly to this challenge. To circumvent these effects, the circular economy (CE) concept should be implemented in the CI. Developing economies could possess significant potential for implementing CE principles to attain sustainability, particularly in the CI. However, achieving this would require professionals in the CI to adopt some key competencies that should propel success in circular construction. Therefore, this study aims to identify the key competencies required by professionals in the CI to attain circular construction using Ghana as a case study. A quantitative research approach and purposive sampling technique were adopted. After an extensive literature review which showed several key competencies, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among five large construction firms and fifty-two responses from experienced professionals in the industry were obtained. Relative importance index and principal component factor analysis (PCFA) were adopted to evaluate the obtained data. Key significant competency skills for construction professionals to propel circular construction were identified such as specification writing for components and materials, designing for multiple-use cycles, and designing for near-zero energy buildings, among others. Three components were extracted from the PCFA which served as the guidelines for enhancing the competency skills of construction professionals namely, implementing sustainable circular practices, embracing sustainable operations management techniques, and adopting sustainable design principles. In addition, to enhance its practical implications, a competency implementation framework was also developed for construction professionals of developing economies to propel the adoption and evaluation of their competency skills toward circular construction.

Urban activities currently consume 75% of global final energy demand, which is expected to increase given absolute and relative population growth in cities. Assessments of both producer (upstream) and consumer (downstream) ecological and socioeconomic impacts of urban inter-industry exchanges are needed to reduce energy consumption and resource use behind the industrial footprints of cities. Environmental extensions in the input-output analysis are designed from the user side perspective, focusing only on commercial energy supply and use. This study introduced emergy-evaluated supply-extended and use-extended carbon footprint models for Vienna and compared their empirical and conceptual implications. Emergy-evaluated footprints of Vienna's urban consumption were estimated by combining industrial and systems ecology approaches as per the research question, based on previous investigations of GHG emissions and energy supply- and use-extensions. Results showed that the ranking of footprints of final product categories is sensitive to the evaluation method, with products of extractive and manufacturing industries differing by more than 10% depending on whether emergy or carbon evaluation is chosen. The emergy-based comparison further reveals that for products of extractive industries, the difference between use and supply extension results can be more than 20% as opposed to carbon-based comparison with the difference between supply and use extension results for services not even amounting to 5%. Future studies could address the over-estimation of direct energy supply to the economy, under-estimation of product and service, inconsistency in standard use-extension design, and challenges in assembling emergy-evaluated supply and use extensions. Fundings are relevant for unified responsibility assessment of upstream and downstream sectors without prioritising structural features.

The impact of COVID-19 on different types of firm strategies, and how those firms responded to the effects of the pandemic is a subject of great interest for researchers, policymakers and firm managers. This paper studied the effects and response of eco-innovative Norwegian firms to the immediate effects of the pandemic. Given the strategy, structural, and leadership changes required for firms engaged in successful eco-innovation, such firms are assumed to possess a higher degree of dynamic capabilities that not only can mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic, but more importantly allow them to respond innovatively to those effects. Utilizing a dataset from a survey of Norwegian firms in 2020, the results of econometric modelling based on factor analysis of firm perception, showed that firms that introduced product/service eco-innovations, or process eco-innovations during COVID-19 were significantly positively affected by the pandemic compared to other firms. In addition, these firms significantly introduced more innovations in other areas of operations as a direct consequence of the pandemic. However, the results also showed that firms that introduced product/service eco-innovations were also more negatively affected by the pandemic. These results confirmed that while the higher degree of dynamic capabilities attributed to firms engaging in eco-innovations can significantly contribute to their ability to be positively affected and respond more innovatively to an unexpected external shock, it does not make them entirely immune to the negative effects.

Hydrogen is a promising alternative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and replace fossil fuels globally. However, the feasibility of this alternative is subject to various factors beyond market conditions, including political, economic, and technological conditions. The goal is to assess the potential opportunities and challenges the macroenvironment presents for developing hydrogen energy use in Brazil. The PESTEL framework was utilized, drawing on bibliographic, documentary, and survey data to evaluate the political (e.g., government management), economic (e.g., macro and microeconomic indicators), social (e.g., patterns and trends in social behavior), technological (e.g., research and innovation), environmental (e.g., characteristics and problems in the natural environment), and legal (e.g., rules, regulation and laws) segments from 2009 to 2021. The political segment significantly impacts the potential for developing the hydrogen sector. While the economic segment poses several threats, the technological, legal, and environmental segments represent significant opportunities. This analysis provides valuable insights into the macroenvironment's characteristics and its influence on developing hydrogen as a sustainable energy resource in Brazil.

Knowledge Exchange is a rapidly emerging phenomenon in the higher education sector. Nevertheless, it remains a niche area with limited studies examining the impact of knowledge exchange for sustainability on students. This research adopted a systematic literature review approach to review sustainability-oriented project-based learning and student knowledge exchange with a view to developing a framework to measure the impact of student knowledge exchange for sustainability. The literature review was based on 38 journal papers selected out of 3578 search results with an application of the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) flow chart methodology. A qualitative content analysis was used to identify and explore the main concepts and variables to evaluate the content of the articles selected by SLR. The results showed three main categories to be systematically measured to understand their impact: (i) capacity building, (ii) affective domain, and (iii) career readiness. Capacity building requires measuring students' sustainability knowledge, competence, and skill levels. The affective domain evaluates changes in students' perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours identified as affective learning outcomes for sustainability. Career readiness assesses a student's level of preparation for the workplace. These variables/constructs informed the development of a framework to measure the impact of student KE for sustainability in a systematic and comprehensive way. The proposed framework is the study's main contribution, supporting measuring the impact of student knowledge exchange for sustainability. It provides a way to address impact holistically and define what specific variables/constructors should be measured to quantify students' impact.