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Research in Details
Research #1
EDUCATION - Higher education for sustainability: A global perspective
Author(s): Inga Žalėnienė & Paulo Pereira
Date of publication: June 2021
SUMMARY
Higher education institutions have an essential role in sustainability. They are key agents in the education of future leaders that will contribute to the successful United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation. The geography of SDGs this implementation is very heterogeneous, but it is clear that higher education institutions contribute decisively to creating a mindset that facilitates the dissemination of SDGs principle. This perspective paper analyses the impacts of higher education on sustainability and the challenges and barriers associated with this process. Higher education contributes decisively to the SDGs implementation, but especially to Goal 1 (end poverty in all its forms everywhere), Goal 3 (ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages), Goal 5 (gender equality), Goal 8 (decent work and economic growth), Goal 12 (responsible consumption and production), Goal 13 (climate change) and Goal 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). As a transformational agent, the higher education sector has a tremendous impact on students' habit and contribution to a prosperous society. However, to establish the required change in education, sustainability principles need to be at the heart of higher institutions strategy (e.g., curricula, modus operandi) and is key to be incorporated in the organisational culture. Only by leading by example, the external influence in the society will be possible (e.g., implementing SDGs key aspects such as gender quality, reduce waste reduction and energy consumption). For this to be a reality, different communication methods with students are needed (e.g., different student academic levels). Nevertheless, critical challenges need to be tackled in the institutions inside and outside the institution environment, such as incorporating sustainability principles, political environment and stakeholders' interest.
KEYWORDS: Higher education institutions; Sustainability; Organisational culture; Communication
Research #2
ECONOMY - The narrative of sustainability and circular economy - A longitudinal review of two decades of research
Author(s): Josef-Peter Schöggl, Lukas Stumpf, & Rupert J. Baumgartner
Date of publication: March 2023
SUMMARY
Circular economy (CE) has gained momentum in the political, economic and scientific fields. The growing popularity of the concept is accompanied by some definitional ambiguities and conceptual uncertainties. In particular, the relationship and contribution of CE to sustainable development (SD) and thus to a more sustainable society is currently under discussion. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this discussion by providing new insights into the evolution and state of CE research over the past two decades, in general, and its sustainability connotation, in particular. For doing so, a mixed-methods approach was adopted that combines a longitudinal bibliographic network analysis, multiple correspondence analysis and k-means clustering, correlated topic modeling, historiographic citation analysis and a semantic content analysis. The results indicate that the CE literature body can be divided into management and technically-oriented studies that have either a beginning-of-life or an end-of-life focus. Recycling is the most referred to R-strategy, followed by remanufacturing, repair and reuse, which, however, occur one order of magnitude less frequently. CE research and SD were found to exhibit a subset relationship, as only a limited number of environmental aspects is directly addressed. Social aspects form a periphery. The qualitative analysis further portraits the conceptual evolution of the CE-SD relationship between 2000 and 2019 by following the citation network of the 30 most influential CE papers. The results contribute to positioning CE research within the general Sustainable Development debate and to identifying potential, sustainability-related shortcomings and blind spots.
KEYWORDS: Circular economy; Sustainable development; Thematic mapping; Multiple correspondence analysis; Topic modeling; Historiographic analysis
Research #3
EQUITY - Expanding peace ecology: peace, security, sustainability, equity, and gender
Author (s): : Úrsula Oswald Spring, Hans Günter Brauch & Keith G. Tidball
Date of publication: June 2021
Summary
This introductory chapter reviews the conceptualization of peace and ecology and the efforts in the scientific literature to link both areas. The authors expand upon the conceptualization of peace since the 1980s and the widening of the ecology concept from the natural to the social sciences, and then discuss linkages between peace and different ecological approaches of deep, human, social, geographic and political geoecology and ecofeminism. They then contextualize from a peace research perspective the expansion of the ecology concept to a ‘political geoecology’ and a ‘civic ecology’, linking security, equity, sustainability, gender and peace. They conclude with an overview of the subsequent eight chapters in this volume.
KEYWORDS: Ecology, Environmental peacemaking, Environmental studies, Environmental security, Gender, Peace, Peace ecology, Peace research, Sustainability, Sustainable peace
Research #4
ENERGY - Optimisation techniques for solar drying systems: a review on modelling, simulation, and financial assessment approaches
Author(s): Baibhaw Kumar, Gábor Szepesi & Zoltán Szamosi
Date of publication: March, 2023
SUMMARY
The depletion of conventional energy resources has created a bunyanesque energy problem in the current world order. In this article, the byzantine issues of optimisation i.e. modelling, simulations, sustainability assessment and economic analysis examples are discussed briefly. Life span analysis and associated capital costs for various solar drying systems are elucidated with comparative graphics for insights into the economic benchmarking of different models. This compendium work highlights the suitable combinations of numerical modelling and simulation softwares frequently used. In addition, the recent studies on environmental assistance are reviewed which is a crucial parameter for future studies on solar dryer optimisation as they should not only limited to exergy-sustainability criteria but to expand the studies on social impact as well.
KEYWORDS: modelling, solar dryers, optimisation, simulation, economic analysis
Research #5
ENVIRONMENT - Striving towards carbon neutrality target in BRICS economies: Assessing the implications of composite risk index, green innovation, and environmental policy stringency
Author(s): Maxwell Chukwudi Udeagha & Nicholas Ngepah
Date of publication May 2023
SUMMARY
The world governments have come together under the Paris Agreement to begin the decarbonization and transition to a zero-carbon economy. The goal of attaining low-carbon growth is not as simple as it may appear, however, because the fast-developing and fossil fuel-dependent global economies are concentrated on accelerating economic expansion at the expense of catastrophic environmental repercussions. In light of these circumstances, this study aims to investigate the combined implications of composite risk (CRI), green innovation (GINOV), and environmental policy stringency (EPS) on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the context of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS), while controlling for economic growth (GDP) and renewable energy research and development (RERD) over the period from 1960 to 2020. The study addresses the problems of cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity in the data set used for analysis by using the second-generation cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) framework to evaluate long- and short-run models. The accompanying findings confirm cointegrating relationships between the research variables. Additionally, the results of the regression demonstrate that EPS, GINOV, and RERD contribute to a long-term reduction in CO2 emissions. CRI and GDP, however, increase CO2 emissions. In light of these important conclusions, it is suggested that the BRICS nations prevent environmental deterioration by strengthening the stringency of environmental policies and promoting renewable energy research and development. In addition, the BRICS authorities should encourage the use of renewable energy sources and ecologically beneficial technologies to improve environmental quality and achieve carbon neutrality target.
KEYWORDS:
Carbon neutrality, Composite risk index, Green innovation, Environmental policy