scholarly journals Striding towards Sustainability: A Framework to Overcome Challenges and Explore Opportunities through Industry 4.0

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5232
Author(s):  
José Salvador da Motta Reis ◽  
Maximilian Espuny ◽  
Thaís Vieira Nunhes ◽  
Nilo Antonio de Souza Sampaio ◽  
Raine Isaksson ◽  
...  

Sustainability 4.0 (S4.0) enables sustainable development through intelligent technologies to meet economic, environmental and social demands. The main objective of this article is to propose a framework for developing S4.0 in sectors of Triple Helix (TH) (Government, Organizations and Academy). The framework consists of benchmarking of policies and initiatives from the Science-Technology Scenario in S4.0 (STS-S4.0) and the author's experience. The STS-4.0 is a snapshot of relevant initiatives from the countries that performed best in science and technology in S4.0. This work uses the methods of bibliometric studies and content analysis of scientific articles from the Scopus database and patents publications from the Orbit database. This research resulted in a total of 19 propositions for developing sustainability through I4.0. Of these, eight are for Government, six for Organizations and five for Academy. The main scientific contribution of this work is to expand and deepen the recent block of knowledge on S4.0. As for the applied contribution, this work contributes to the conscious and sustainable development of humanity through the technological elements of I4.0, contributing to the achievement of the following SDGs proposed by the UN: 9 (Industries, Innovation and Infrastructure), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 13 (Climate Action). The main novelty of this article is the creation of paths for Government, Organizations and Academy to interactively lead the development of global sustainability through the smart technologies of I4.0.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6535
Author(s):  
Chunyan Zhou ◽  
Henry Etzkowitz

This study invents a Triple Helix of university-public-government for sustainable development, as a complement to the Triple Helix of university-industry-government for innovation. Twinning the two retains the dynamic properties of a tertius gaudens in the framework which addresses environment, resource protection, social change and equality issues. Adding a risk space and raising the “Triple Helix Spaces” concept to the world level are also proposed as a methodology to fulfill related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through joint projects transcending national borders. A project for collaborative world region development of advanced solar photovoltaics is then suggested as an exemplar. Achieving the UN SDGs requires education institutions, governments, non-government organizations and individuals to commit to collaborations, adopting dynamically interacting triple helices to unite innovative development and sustainable development. Debate over expanding the Triple Helix model has focused on whether the fourth and fifth helix might improve or disrupt the triadic model. Although a four-actor system is far away from satisfaction, an expanded model is required to incorporate the critical issues of reconciling innovative and sustainable development. Harnessed together, the Triple Helix twins provide a framework for SDGs attainment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 1550-1613
Author(s):  
O.E. Akimova ◽  
S.K. Volkov ◽  
E.A. Gladkaya ◽  
I.M. Kuzlaeva

Subject. The article discusses the sustainability of regional economy development, its definition, and the substance of sustainable development. Objectives. We aim at performing a comprehensive analysis of indicators of sustainability and adaptability of regional development in the context of digitalization, formulating a strategy for economic behavior that takes into account the multidimensional nature of regional inequality and is focused on boosting the economic potential of regions. Methods. The study draws on dialectic and systems approaches, general scientific methods of retrospective, situational, economic and statistical, and comparative analysis. Results. The sustainability of the region focuses on improving the human welfare over long time horizon. This happens in three areas, i.e. maximizing the efficiency of resource use; ensuring justice and democracy; minimizing resource consumption and environmental damage. The stability of the region can be assessed by using one parameter, or by combining the parameters in accordance with the type of region and expected results. Conclusions. The adaptation of a region to changing conditions depends on its type (‘adapted’, ‘adaptive’, and ‘non-adapted’). Regional inequality has two main components: difference in economic potential and social satisfaction of residents. Another component, affecting the stability and adaptability of regions, is the level of their digitalization. However, some regions have only formally embarked on the path of digitalization. Moreover, a focus on smart technologies, solutions and digitalization often leads to ignoring the goals of sustainable development. Smart technologies should be aimed at ensuring sustainability within the framework of the smart sustainable city concept.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4654
Author(s):  
Javier Orozco-Messana ◽  
Milagro Iborra-Lucas ◽  
Raimon Calabuig-Moreno

Climate change is becoming a dominant concern for advanced countries. The Paris Agreement sets out a global framework whose implementation relates to all human activities and is commonly guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which set the scene for sustainable development performance configuring all climate action related policies. Fast control of CO2 emissions necessarily involves cities since they are responsible for 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) is clearly involved in the deployment of SDG 13 (Climate Action). European Sustainability policies are financially guided by the European Green Deal for a climate neutral urban environment. In turn, a common framework for urban policy impact assessment must be based on architectural design tools, such as building certification, and common data repositories for standard digital building models. Many Neighbourhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools have been developed but the growing availability of open data repositories for cities, together with big-data sources (provided through Internet of Things repositories), allow accurate neighbourhood simulations, or in other words, digital twins of neighbourhoods. These digital twins are excellent tools for policy impact assessment. After a careful analysis of current scientific literature, this paper provides a generic approach for a simple neighbourhood model developed from building physical parameters which meets relevant assessment requirements, while simultaneously being updated (and tested) against real open data repositories, and how this assessment is related to building certification tools. The proposal is validated by real data on energy consumption and on its application to the Benicalap neighbourhood in Valencia (Spain).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahereh Dehdarirad ◽  
Kalle Karlsson

AbstractIn this study we investigated whether open access could assist the broader dissemination of scientific research in Climate Action (Sustainable Development Goal 13) via news outlets. We did this by comparing (i) the share of open and non-open access documents in different Climate Action topics, and their news counts, and (ii) the mean of news counts for open access and non-open access documents. The data set of this study comprised 70,206 articles and reviews in Sustainable Development Goal 13, published during 2014–2018, retrieved from SciVal. The number of news mentions for each document was obtained from Altmetrics Details Page API using their DOIs, whereas the open access statuses were obtained using Unpaywall.org. The analysis in this paper was done using a combination of (Latent Dirichlet allocation) topic modelling, descriptive statistics, and regression analysis. The covariates included in the regression analysis were features related to authors, country, journal, institution, funding, readability, news source category and topic. Using topic modelling, we identified 10 topics, with topics 4 (meteorology) [21%], 5 (adaption, mitigation, and legislation) [18%] and 8 (ecosystems and biodiversity) [14%] accounting for 53% of the research in Sustainable Development Goal 13. Additionally, the results of regression analysis showed that while keeping all the variables constant in the model, open access papers in Climate Action had a news count advantage (8.8%) in comparison to non-open access papers. Our findings also showed that while a higher share of open access documents in topics such as topic 9 (Human vulnerability to risks) might not assist with its broader dissemination, in some others such as topic 5 (adaption, mitigation, and legislation), even a lower share of open access documents might accelerate its broad communication via news outlets.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1356
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Wandosell ◽  
María C. Parra-Meroño ◽  
Alfredo Alcayde ◽  
Raúl Baños

Sustainable development is a global objective that aims to address the societal challenge of climate action, the environment, resource efficiency, and raw materials. In this sense, an important strategy is the promotion of green packaging, that is, the use of sustainable materials and designs for the packaging of goods. In recent years, many research works have been published in the specialised area covering the different perspectives and dimensions of green packaging. However, to our knowledge, no previous investigations have analysed the research activity on green packaging from business and consumer perspectives. The present study intends to fill this gap by analysing all of the publications found in the Scopus database with the help of visual analytic tools, including word clouds and Gephi network visualization software. More specifically, our study analyses the impact of green packaging from business and consumer viewpoints, including some specific issues such as the design and materials used in green packaging, green packaging costs, marketing strategies and corporate social responsibility related to green packaging, and the impact of green packaging in waste management, the circular economy, logistics, and supply chain management. The results obtained reveal the growing interest of scholars and researchers in all of these dimensions, as is made patently clear by the increasing number of journal publications in recent years. The practical implications of this study are significant, given the growing awareness among companies and consumers about the importance of the promotion of sustainable development through green packaging alternatives. More specifically, the results of this research could be very useful for all of those agents who are interested in learning about the main lines of research being developed in the field of green packaging.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Ranängen ◽  
Mathias Cöster ◽  
Raine Isaksson ◽  
Rickard Garvare

Background: A particular challenge in the work to realize the global goals for sustainable development is to find ways for organizations to identify and prioritize organizational activities that address these goals. There are also several sustainability initiatives, guidelines and tools to consider when planning, working with and reporting on sustainable development. Although progress has been made, little has been written about how organizations rise to and manage the challenge. The paper explores how organizations address sustainable development, which sustainability aspects they prioritize and whether previous research can improve the priority process by using materiality analysis approach. Methods: A case study approach was chosen. Data was collected by interactive workshops and documentation. The participating organizations were two Swedish municipalities; Results: The municipalities have introduced a number of sustainability aspects into their organizational governance, especially in terms of society, human rights and the environment. A materiality analysis was conducted to determine the relevance and significance of sustainability aspects. The result shows that climate action, biodiversity and freshwater use are aspects that should be prioritized; Conclusion: The materiality analysis methodology chosen for prioritizing of sustainability aspects was useful and easy to work with. However, the sustainability aspect matrix and the risk assessment have to be updated regularly in order to form an effective base for the materiality analysis.


2004 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Rolando De LIMA ◽  
Eduardo L. KRÜGER

Considerando que o processo de desenvolvimento urbano implica na multiplicação dos impactos ambientais decorrentes do assentamento humano sobre a área de influência da cidade e a existência de diretrizes de ação visando à promoção da sustentabilidade urbana na Agenda 21 brasileira, bem como nas disposições do Estatuto da Cidade, especialmente no que se refere aos objetivos da política urbana, garantia do direito a cidades sustentáveis, planejamento do desenvolvimento urbano, estudo de impacto de vizinhança e ao Plano Diretor, o trabalho aponta possibilidades de efetivação destas diretrizes e dispositivos legais no gerenciamento urbano por meio de políticas públicas locais no âmbito dos transportes, habitação e uso do solo. Tais políticas deverão estar dirigidas a objetivos ambientais definidos em função do grau de qualidade ambiental urbana presente e da eqüidade da sua distribuição espacial, visando a uma situação futura desejada. Public policies and urban sustainable development Abstract Considering that urban development is directly related to the spreading of environmental impacts caused by human settlements within city limits and the existence of directives in the Brazilian Agenda 21 regarding the promotion of urban sustainability, as well as the content of the City Statute regarding urban policies towards sustainable cities and urban planing, this study presents possibilities of implementing directives and legal measures for urban management by means of local public policies concerning transportation, habitation and land use. Such policies should be directed towards environmental objectives, defined with regard to the present urban environmental quality and spatial distribution, aiming at a desired future condition.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Luis Antonio Orozco ◽  
Gonzalo Ordóñez-Matamoros ◽  
Javier García-Estévez ◽  
Jaime Humberto Sierra-González ◽  
Isabel Bortagaray

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