Sustainable Production and Consumption最新文献

The transition from linear economy to circular economy (CE) has gained mainstream status in recent times, not only at product and process levels, but also at component level. In order to adopt the CE as common practice, there is a need to reimagine the product end-of-life (EoL) phase to include assessment of individual component health status. Implementation of EoL strategies on products designed based on wear and tear, robustness, and safety concerns is, however, complex. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential of designing for CE by applying a visual health-based analysis (VHA) at the component level at the EoL stage. The application of this diagnostic tool is exemplified in a case at a large Swedish outdoor power product manufacturer by analyzing components for reuse, remanufacture, refurbishment, recycling, and recovery strategies. The VHA results in the calculation of a CE potential at the component-product level based on individual component's cost, complexity, health, and diagnostic approach. This study presents a diagnostic tool for practitioners to understand circularity at the component-level in the effort to identify EoL strategies. Furthermore, in supporting the CE principle of maximizing resource recovery, the study potentially contributes to the EU's CE action plan and the UN-SDGs 8, 9, 12, and 13.

This paper introduces a sustainable consumption corridor (SCC) framework designed to define a ‘safe’ and ‘just’ space for housing provisioning, integrating social equity with ecological sustainability in the housing sector. It proposes a comprehensive set of ecological ceilings and social foundations, providing actionable threshold indicators for measuring and guiding sustainable housing practices. Through the SCC, this work addresses the pressing socio-ecological challenges the housing sector faces, especially the need to balance housing expansion with environmental limits. In doing so, this work provides a platform to discuss the consumption-based versus absolute limits for social and ecological thresholds, the need to integrate social and environmental thresholds, and the need to model the provisioning system dynamics which in turn influence the social and environmental performance of housing provisioning systems. This provisioning includes both the physical and political economic factors which influence these outcomes. The study sets the stage for future empirical research and the refinement of indicators that can be adapted across different contexts to ensure relevance and applicability. The ultimate aim promote policies to reconfigure housing provisioning systems to meet human needs within the planetary boundaries.

While technically feasible, completely avoiding certain waste in real-life may be challenging. We construct the concept of actionability to classify six causes for household food waste based on the difficulty of action to address them. Using data from an online survey of 1746 consumers from China, we show that the actionability-adjusted food waste is 2.4 to 10.6 percentage points lower than the traditional measure, translating to up to 7.2 million tons or $26.5 billion in reduced waste in 2019. The main causes of food waste are similar in total food and four main specific categories of food. Our statistical models show that consumer demographic characteristics also interact with the levels of actionability among different types of food. Our findings can advance the measurement of and the creation of more realistic and effective policies to reduce household food waste.

The escalating threat of climate change from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increasingly threatens the stability of agricultural systems, emphasizing the pressing necessity to transition towards sustainable, low-carbon practices. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an evolving approach to balance heightened crop productivity, reduced GHG emissions, and enhanced resource adaptability to climate change. A comprehensive model was developed to facilitate the sustainable and coordinated development of land, energy, food, and waste nexus systems. This study seeks to tackle the pressing necessity by incorporating advanced modeling techniques to enhance resource allocation and decision-making in agricultural systems, aiming for a triple win in reducing GHG emissions, enhancing food security, and promoting economic sustainability. An integrated approach harnessing life cycle assessment, system dynamics model, and multi-objective optimization methodologies was employed to evaluate the effects, trade-offs, and synergies of resource allocation in the context of CSA practices. In Jiangxi Province, China, a case study demonstrated notable reductions in overall carbon footprints, ranging from 6.02 % to 12.03 %. Additionally, applying the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II optimization algorithm to the model led to significant enhancements, such as an 11.24 % increase in grain nutrient availability, a 20.99 % boost in economic returns, and a 19.36 % decrease in GHG emissions. The findings underscore the efficacy of optimizing resource allocation to attain economic, environmental, and social advantages and curb carbon emissions. Moreover, pivotal policy recommendations encompass land use transformation, optimal food production allocation, and bioenergy production restructuring. Enforcing the practices of CSA and integrating them with carbon market transactions are crucial for sustainable agricultural development. This innovative framework provides a sustainable global agricultural management model with a low-carbon footprint, which is particularly beneficial in resource-scarce regions with competing policy objectives.

Scarce resources and climate change require more sustainable production and consumption. Business Models for Sustainability (BMfS) can be crucial in achieving extended life cycles and a more conscious use of materials. Due to the high interdependence and interconnectedness of different BMfS compared with traditional business models, the application of conventional approaches for the design of BMfS is limited. Therefore, we show that a systemic perspective is required to achieve absolute sustainability that transcends the boundaries of a focal company. We then conduct a two-part systematic literature review focusing on existing approaches to support a systemic perspective in the design and analysis of BMfS first and modeling approaches second. Based on this review, we identify seven general approaches to achieve a more systemic perspective and six types of approaches to modeling BMfS. We further derive ten key findings and 36 requirements for a framework for the engineering of BMfS. Based on this, we introduce a System of Systems (SoS) perspective on BMfS to enable the required systemic perspective and propose a framework for the engineering of a system of BMfS (SoBMfS) providing a systematic multi-perspective, multi-level approach bridging micro-, meso-, and macro-level. Scholars and practitioners can use this framework to develop and integrate future tools and methods to support the development of BMfS.

It is greenwashing to affix to a product a label claiming biodegradability if the product is not biodegradable, but Moreno et al. had not taken the fundamental step, to determine whether the products were biodegradable or not. A polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP) product properly made with a reputable oxo-biodegradable masterbatch will fully biodegrade much more quickly than ordinary plastic in the open environment, without leaving microplastics or harmful residues. No special conditions are necessary. Oxo-biodegradable plastics, oxo-degradable plastics, and plastics marketed as “compostable” are completely different technologies and should not be confused. Samples of oxo-biodegradable plastic should not be tested in conditions unlikely to be experienced by plastic litter in the open environment, and should not be so heavily stabilised as to be unlikely to degrade in any realistic timescale.

The Comment by Ojeda and Baciu (2024) on the work by Moreno et al. (2023) lacks scientific premise and is mostly not supported by peer-reviewed literature. They argue that our study neglected fundamental scientific steps, although it is widely known that greenwashing practices can be assessed using frameworks based on product-label analyses. In addition, the Comment presents a lot of wrong or scientifically unsupported information regarding the supposed biodegradability of oxo-plastics, overall, in defense of d2w masterbatch. Here, it is necessary to point out that such materials have been banned in the European Union. Thus, in the ‘post-truth’ era, intangible statements like those presented by Ojeda and Baciu, can undermine evidence-based decisions. Therefore, the global governance of oxo(bio)degradable plastics must be evidence-based.

Circular economy strategies for electric vehicle (EV) batteries are gaining importance to reduce dependence on primary raw materials for the energy and mobility transition. Modelling circular economy strategies in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of EV batteries comes with a number of key challenges to ensure sound support to decision-making, including i) solving multifunctionality, whether regarding End-of-Life, processes of secondary raw materials production or product level, ii) capturing material quality aspects and iii) using adequate resource indicators. This study provides a review of LCA guidelines and scientific literature relative to EV batteries. The objective is two-fold: i) identifying key gaps in the guidelines regarding these modelling challenges, and ii) discussing how to fill them based on the state-of-the-art research. The analysis shows that the handling of multifunctionality is addressed in all analysed guidelines but is treated very differently. Major efforts are expected in terms of standardisation and harmonisation, building on the existing state-of-the-art research. A guiding question for standardisation is whether multifunctionality shall be always treated in the same way or whether special rules are appropriate. Instead, material quality and indicators of mineral resource losses are not at all, or to a very limited extent, addressed by existing guidelines. For material quality and mineral resource dissipation and accessibility-based indicators, research developments shall be pursued. Associated research outcomes are ultimately expected to be fed back into the guideline development in a more mid to long-term. The approach for handling these modelling challenges could and should be consistent between different products and sectors of the energy and mobility transition, to avoid double counting and burden shifting.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are considered an alternative to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) for promoting sustainable transport, with environmental benefits depending on many local factors. This study performed a comprehensive life cycle assessment of passenger transport in major urban areas of Thailand, encompassing on-road, metro trains, and inland water transport, to determine the benefits of EV deployment. The findings showed that the vehicle life cycle (manufacture, maintenance, and disposal) was a significant contributor to human health and ecosystem quality impacts when comparing across transport life cycle phases in both ICEVs and EVs. Among private vehicles, with the current electricity mix, EVs had impacts on human health and ecosystem quality comparable to small-size ICEVs. At the projected 2037 electricity mix, the EVs will have lower impacts on human health, ecosystem quality and resource scarcity in comparison with the ICEVs. In scenario analysis, when considering only on-site emissions, it was found that private EV promotion had an environmental cost by about 16–43 % lower than the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, depending on the rate of EV adoption, while shifting to public electric buses or metro trains had a lower environmental cost by 21 % and 23 % compared to BAU, respectively. If assessing the full transport life cycle, shifting to public electric buses or metro trains had a lower environmental cost (22–23 %) than the promotion of EVs with current electricity mix (14 %). The effectiveness of environmental impact mitigation through deployment of private EVs might increase to a comparable level with public electric bus or metro train shifts when Thailand achieves the electricity mix target with 34 % of renewable energy in 2037.