Intensive livestock farming generates vast amounts of organic materials, which are an important source of nitrogen releases. These anthropogenic nitrogen releases contribute to multiple environmental problems, including eutrophication of water systems, contamination of drinking water sources, and greenhouse gas emissions. Nitrogen recovery and recycling are technically feasible, and there exists a number of processes for nitrogen recovery from livestock material in the form of different products. In this work, a multi-scale techno-economic assessment of techniques for nitrogen recovery and recycling is performed. The assessment includes a material flow analysis of each process, from material collection to final treatment, to determine nitrogen recovery efficiency, losses, and recovery cost, as well as an environmental cost-benefit analysis to compare the nitrogen recovery cost versus the economic losses derived from its uncontrolled release into the environment. The results show that transmembrane chemisorption process results in the lowest recovery cost, 3.4-10.4 USD per kilogram of nitrogen recovered in the range of studied processing scales. The recovery of nitrogen from livestock material through three technologies, i.e., transmembrane chemisorption, MAPHEX, and stripping in packed bed, reveales to be cost-effective. Since the economic losses due to the harmful effects of nitrogen into the environment are estimated at 32-35 USD per kilogram of nitrogen released, nitrogen recycling is an environmentally and economically beneficial approach to reduce nutrient pollution caused by livestock operations.

The City Region Food Systems approach has been proposed to achieve food system resilience and nutrition security while promoting the urgent ecological transition within urban and peri-urban areas, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the great diversity of the initiatives composing City Region Food Systems in Europe poses barriers to the assessment of their integrated sustainability. Hence, the present work is developed within the EU-H2020 project Food System in European Cities (FoodE), to build a consistent sustainability scoring system that allows comparative evaluation of City Region Food System Initiatives. Adopting a Life Cycle Thinking approach, it advances on existing knowledge and past projects, taking advantage of a participatory process, with stakeholders from multidisciplinary expertise. As a result, the research designs, and tests on 100 case studies a simplified and ready-to-use scoring mechanism based on a quali-quantitative appraisal survey tool, delivering a final sustainability score on a 1-5 points scale, to get insights on the social, economic, and environmental impacts. As in line with the needs of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the outcome represents a step forward for the sustainable development and social innovation of food communities in cities and regions, providing a practical and empirical lens for improved planning and governance.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, different strategies emerged to combat shortages of certified face masks used in the healthcare sector. These strategies included increasing production from the original manufacturing sites, commissioning new production facilities locally, exploring and allowing the reuse of single-use face masks via various decontamination methods, and developing reusable mask alternatives that meet the health and safety requirements set out in European Standards. In this article, we quantify and evaluate the life-cycle environmental impacts of selected mask options available for use by healthcare workers in the UK, with the objective of supporting decision- and policy-making. We investigate alternatives to traditional single-use face masks like surgical masks and respirators (or FFP3 masks), including cloth masks decontaminated in washing machines; FFP3 masks decontaminated via vapour hydrogen peroxide, and rigid half masks cleaned with antibacterial wipes. Our analysis demonstrates that: (1) the reuse options analysed are environmentally preferential to the traditional "use then dispose" of masks; (2) the environmental benefits increase with the number of reuses; and (3) the manufacturing location and the material composition of the masks have great influence over the life-cycle environmental impacts of each mask use option, in particular for single-use options.

The occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic is a disruption that has adversely affected many supply chains (SCs) around the world and further proved the necessity of combination and interaction of resilience and sustainability. In This paper, a multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming model is developed for responsive, resilient and sustainable mixed open and closed-loop supply chain network design (SCND) problem. The uncertainty of the problem is handled with a hybrid robust-stochastic optimization approach. A Lagrangian relaxation (LR) method and a constructive heuristic (CH) algorithm are developed for overcoming problem complexity and solving large-scale instances. In order to assess the performance of the mathematical model and solution methods, some test instances are generated. The computations showed that the model and the solution methods are efficient and can obtain high-quality solutions in suitable CPU times. Other analyses and computations are done based on a real case study in the tire industry. The results demonstrate that resilient strategies are so effective and can improve economic, environmental and social dimensions substantially. Research findings suggest that the proposed model can be used as an efficient tool for designing sustainable and resilient SCs and the related decision-makings. Also, our findings prove that resilience is necessary for continued SC sustainability. It is concluded that using proposed resilience strategies simultaneously brings the best outcome for SC objectives. Based on the sensitivity analyses, the responsiveness level significantly affects SC objectives, and managers should consider the trade-off between responsiveness and their objectives.

Remote work (working from home) became a norm rather than an exception for the global workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, influencing every facet of life in both positive and negative ways. The stringent action of the Malaysian government in enacting the Movement Control Order (MCO) motivated the investigation of its impact on the energy consumption behaviour of working people regarding air-conditioner (AC) use. To this end, this study conducted a cross-sectional survey through an online platform. An ordinal logistic regression model (ORL) was used to analyse the collected data of 1873 respondents to determine the factors influencing the ordinal variable of interest, AC-usage behaviour during remote work. Next, the variable with unordered categories, the MCO-induced change in AC-usage behaviour, was analysed using a multinomial regression model (MLT) to identify the potential determinants. Finally, a reason analysis unveiled aspects behind the transition in AC use during remote work. This study identified stopping AC use during remote work despite using it at the office before the MCO period as the most significant change in AC-usage behaviour due to MCO. This change was frequently adopted by people with medium-level incomes and high electricity bills. By contrast, participants unfamiliar with their electricity bill were most likely to start AC use during remote work, although they did not use it before the MCO. Participants working remotely in the communal spaces of their houses preferred to stop using ACs during MCO compared to private room users. Furthermore, age group and ethnicity significantly influenced AC-usage behaviour in remote work and changes in such demeanours. These findings recommend policy interventions to expedite limited AC use for a sustainable energy sector, even during future climatic emergencies .

Currently, there is an alarming increase in food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries throughout the world. This will be seen particularly in the countries of the Global South (developing countries). Many countries are trying to show efforts to keep agriculture, food industry and markets running, the supply chains and access to the markets and affordable food is still not secured. Disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are going to/or already have affected the poor and other marginalised groups, mainly those with less purchasing power. It is necessary to mitigate the pandemic's impacts across the food system, enhance the resilience of food systems and avoid any potential food shortages. Therefore, this paper provides an overview of past pandemics and tries to synthesise the main lessons learned from these while also outlining visions of post-COVID-19 agriculture and the effects on food security.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a surge in consumption of single-use plastics (SUPs), particularly in the food service sector, due to concerns for public health and safety. To follow public health guidelines, food services have been limited to takeout service and have restricted use of personal reusable items. This study investigated opportunities to reduce increased use of SUPs in Nova Scotia food services sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic using semi-structured interviews and focus groups with stakeholders from the food service sector. Many participants had already implemented SUP reduction strategies prior to COVID-19. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to rely on SUPs and to pause SUP reduction strategies. Obstacles to SUP reduction included operational challenges from COVID-19 restrictions, misunderstanding of local waste management systems, costs of transitioning to zero plastic waste, poorly manufactured alternatives, greenwashing, and ingrained societal convenience culture. Whilst not all SUP consumption patterns were attributed to COVID-19, these barriers prevented food retailers, waste managers and consumers from achieving zero-plastic waste goals. Food services should adopt SUP reduction strategies, including re-introducing reusables, implementing exchange programs for bulk items and takeout, providing education and awareness to staff and consumers, and sourcing sustainable SUP alternatives. SUP reduction strategies can be implemented immediately as public health officials and researchers agree reusable items can be used safely when using basic hygiene measures. Food services across Nova Scotia should adapt their operational procedures and create behaviour change to reduce SUPs.

Past studies related to embodied pollutant accounting reported that free trade has increased the environmental pollution of developing economies, because the developed countries "outsource" their pollutants to developing nations. The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated the rise of the most serious protectionism after World War II. This study is aimed to discuss whether protectionism improve the environment in developing countries by developing a comprehensive evaluation model, which integrates multi-regional input-output (MRIO), data envelopment analysis (DEA), and scenario analysis. We revealed the role of protectionism from two perspectives: the single impact on pollutant emissions and the comprehensive impact on environmental efficiency. Specifically, the capital inputs, labor inputs, energy consumption, economic output, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions related to global trade activities were simulated based on the MRIO. And then, sector-level trade environmental efficiency was computed by intergrading the MRIO and DEA using a non-radial directional distance function. Finally, the environmental efficiency of both developing and developed countries under two scenarios with and without trade were estimated. The results confirmed that trade has increased the CO, SO and NO emissions of developing economies by 12.9%, 9.8% and 12.3%, and has reduced that of developed economies by 6.0%, 29.4% and 21.2%, respectively. However, the results also uncovered that the environmental efficiency of developing and developed economies was dropped by 3% and 5%, respectively, under no-trade scenario. We contend that protectionism is not conducive to the sustainable development of developing countries because it lowers their environmental efficiency, although it may reduce their territorial pollutant emissions. For developed countries, the single impact of protectionism on pollutant emission reduction and the comprehensive impact on environmental efficiency are both negative.

COVID-19 hits the global supply chains in a non-paradigm manner unfolding new and systemic complexity. Therefore, the unexpected and frequent disruptions forced the concern of preventing or creating supply chain resilience capabilities. This paper aims to provide theoretical and practical reflections on resilience in supply chains of essential goods during pandemics using a systems approach. Documental research was performed in order to characterize business practices in consulting reports and interviews with managers published in business communication media. Thus, a careful content analysis was carried out, including the coding and categorization of the leading practices indicated by these vehicles. We suggest categories of resilience factors as new concepts to face the new normal in the supply chains. These categories are Technology and People, Sourcing, Customer, Ecosystem, and Financial Assets. The systems approach consists of more qualified supply chain management stimulating several inputs and synchronized actions to sense and respond to the external environment dynamics.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruptions to food systems, leading to both food shortages and food waste across the supply chain. These disruptions have, in turn, altered how people consume and then ultimately discard food. To better understand these impacts, their underlying drivers, and their sustainability implications, this study surveyed U.S. consumers about food purchasing, use, and waste behaviors during the pandemic. Survey respondents reported an increase in overall food purchases and a slight decrease in food waste generation due to the pandemic, but the linkages between these outcomes and underlying behaviors were complex. For instance, reduced household food waste was significantly correlated with an increase in behaviors such as meal planning, preserving foods, and using leftovers and shelf-stable items. On the other hand, behaviors aimed at self-sufficiency, including bulk purchasing and stockpiling, were significantly correlated with increased food purchase, which in turn led to increased waste. Results may offer insight for future resource and waste management strategies. For example, over 60% of respondents who started or increased efficient food use behaviors stated an intent to continue these activities after the pandemic. In contrast, less than 10% of respondents reported that they began or increased separating or composting food waste during the pandemic, and many stopped altogether due to suspension of local curbside composting services. Findings suggest that it may be easier to shift food consumption and use behaviors but more challenging to alter food waste separation behaviors, particularly those influenced by external factors, such as infrastructure that may be vulnerable to disruption. Identifying ways to facilitate ongoing behavior change and foster robust food waste management systems can contribute to resilience of food systems now and once the immediate threat of the pandemic has subsided.

The amount of food being thrown away despite being in an edible condition has become alarming in countries with populations with medium and high incomes. Changes in consumer behaviour, such as overbuying, are some of the major impetuses of food waste. This study aimed to examine the relationship between food waste and social media usage, neuroticism, and impulse buying. The mediating role of impulse buying and the moderating role of neuroticism on food waste during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic were also uncovered in this study. A self-administered online survey was distributed to a total of 274 consumers who had experienced a lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak and were also regular buyers of food. Empirical findings supported the fact that social media usage, neuroticism, and impulse buying were positively related to food waste. Impulse buying mediates the relationship between social media usage and food waste, as well as between neuroticism and food waste. The study results also revealed that neuroticism positively moderates the relationship between social media usage and food waste. This paper offers new insights into efforts for sustainable food consumption to tackle the issue of food waste.

Recent outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has provided strong impetus to supply chain resilience research. In a volatile and uncertain business environment, resilience can be incorporated by developing and implementing effective risk mitigation strategies. In this research, risk mitigation strategies for environmentally sustainable clothing supply chain have been prioritised by considering their efficacy to mitigate various risks. Twelve risks and thirteen mitigation strategies, identified through literature review and experts' opinion, are considered as decision criteria and alternatives respectively. Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solutions (fuzzy TOPSIS) is implemented under a group decision making scenario for prioritising the strategies. Developing supply chain agility; multiple green sourcing and flexible capacities; adoption of green practices; building trust, coordination and collaboration; and alignment of economic incentives and revenue sharing are found to be dominant risk mitigation strategies for environmentally sustainable clothing supply chain. These strategies have been viewed through the lens of resource dependence, change management and transaction cost theories. Organisation desirous to build resilience in their supply chain can prioritise the risk mitigation strategies and adopt a portfolio of strategies based on the outcome of this research.

The plastic system is burdened with many inefficiencies that have been exposed, and exacerbated, by the outbreak of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) pandemic in December 2019, widely known as COVID-19, and which threaten society's commitment to transition to a sustainable plastics economy. This perspective aims to depict the structural and systemic inefficiencies of the plastics system, and illuminate: (a) the vulnerability of the recycling sector to macroeconomic - particularly to oil price - shocks; (b) the economics of the recycling system; (c) the political dimensions of the plastics sector. It emphasises that is unwise to think about plastics recycling as an insular and linear problem, due to the complexity and interconnectedness of different parts of the plastic system that affect and are affected by the intertwined processes, stakeholders and values. That said, the transition to a sustainable plastics system requires an integrated, knowledge-based systems approach that interrogates the dynamics and causal-effect relationships of the interconnected challenges. This analytical scrutiny can indicate where interventions are needed in the plastics system towards creating transformational change.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted production and consumption patterns across the world and forced many organisations to respond. However, there is a lack of understanding as to how sharing platforms have been affected by the pandemic, how they responded to the crisis, and what kinds of long-term implications the pandemic may have on the sharing economy. This study combined systematic literature review and qualitative web analysis of 30 mobility, space, and goods sharing platforms of different business models and geographies. An empirically-driven framework of organisational responses to COVID-19 was developed that comprises eight overarching response strategies targeting the organisation, users, and society. It is a novel framework that structures organisational responses to a high-impact, low-probability crisis. This study also discusses the long-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sharing economy, and explores how this may impact future responses among sharing platforms in the society that seeks sustainability. The learnings of this study have real-world significance. Sharing platforms can learn from each other about how to continue to respond in the face of the ongoing pandemic, and consider actions for future preparedness to potential forthcoming crises. With this we hope to encourage perseverance, long-term viability, sustainability, and resilience in organisations that may offer more sustainable ways of consumption and production.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains are today confronted with more uncertainties than ever before. In the face of unanticipated disruptions, being resilient and sustainable has been rewarding for supply chains in terms of competitive advantage. However, literature is still far from possessing an encompassing sustainable supply chain framework (SSCF). As a contribution to the extant literature, the present study expounds a prominent concept termed negative entropy and explores its role in the SSCF. To accomplish this goal, the effect of negative entropy on supply chain sustainability is tested. Following the open systems theory and drawing from the collaboration and information management aspects of the negative entropy, co-creation, open innovation and network governance concepts which are considered to be relevant in this context are selected to be the antecedents of negative entropy. The empirical research is conducted on prominent logistics service providers and firms from various sectors with approved research and development departments in Turkey. The obtained data were subjected to covariance-based structural equation modeling analysis via Lisrel program. According to results, negative entropy is found to be a robust element in explaining supply chain sustainability. Furthermore, whereas co-creation and network governance reflected significant effects on negative entropy, surprisingly, open innovation demonstrated no substantial impact. This paper opens up a new front in sustainable supply chain management studies with a notable empirical study introducing negative entropy in the context of open systems theory.

Despite the pandemic's negative effect on the economy, it can help reduce emissions from energy consumption activities in line with the Paris Agreement, especially for high-emitter countries such as Indonesia. However, the policy response to COVID-19 may rebound the emissions to their pre-pandemic levels. To design an efficient policy that considers both economic and environmental variables, this study uses a computable general equilibrium model that assesses how COVID-19 and its stimulus policy will affect the macroeconomic indicator, energy consumption, and emissions at the national and regional levels. The results show that macroeconomic indicators generally performed worse with the current stimulus policy in the short run than in the long run. Refined petroleum energy consumption took the highest hit, followed by coal-based energy consumption and overall electricity demand. The pattern in emissions reduction is similar to the pattern of gross domestic product declination as well. The Sulawesi region particularly experienced the largest decrease in refined petroleum energy consumption. In contrast, the Java-Bali and Sumatra regions experienced the most coal-based energy consumption reduction and the largest emissions reduction. Should COVID-19 provide the impetus to develop more environmentally sound economic development, we would need better policy to address the recovery. Returning to pre-pandemic development will not lead to long-term environmental gain. This study offers policy recommendations for economic recovery and environmental improvement. The government should promote low-carbon technology, clean energy transition, more energy efficiency, and sustainable development to avoid the rebound effect of energy consumption and carbon emission. Coordination between central and local governments is also needed to formulate a fiscal policy inclined toward low-carbon pathways.

The face-to-face university classes were abruptly transferred to virtual environments during the pandemic of COVID-19, which generated changes in teaching routine and environmental impacts associated with them. Considering this reality, studies comparing the environmental impacts of face-to-face and remote classes can be of great value. In this sense, this study performed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of face-to-face and remote university classes in a Higher Education institution in the context of COVID-19. Inputs of energy and materials (food, office materials), outputs (air and water emissions, and solid waste) were gathered for the functional unit of 2 hours of face-to-face or virtual class per week for 60 engineering students. Thirteen midpoint impact categories were selected by using the recent Impact World+ midpoint method for Continental Latin America, version 1.251. In the literature, most papers about the environmental management of educational activities focus on the energy efficiency of buildings and electronic equipment during their use. But this study revealed other environmental hotspots primarily associated with meal consumption followed by ethanol fuel use. Meal consumption patterns can be explained by the fact that people usually eat more often during home-office activities. Otherwise, the transportation impacts due to ethanol use are related mainly to face-to-face classes, as much transport is required such as for food supply and student transportation. Finally, an uncertainty and a sensitivity analysis were designed for the LCA conclusions. We concluded that remote classes during the COVID-19 pandemic tend to minimize the overall evaluated impacts to ten of the thirteen impact categories. An optimal scenario was also proposed showing an overall minimization of the impacts by up to 57%, if a hybrid class model were to be adopted.

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply disrupted society´s priorities and individuals' lifestyles with major implications for sustainable development. Economic shutdown and social isolation reduced society's ecological footprint by lowering transportation and industrial activity while prompting families to engage in non-commercialized modes of leisure and social relations. Yet economic recession has intensified problems of under-consumption and poverty, while social isolation has worsened physical and mental illness. The pandemic's short-term effects are visible to everyone experiencing it, yet the global health crisis will also have long-term effects which are presently unknown but whose configurations can be spotted by identifying scenarios based upon individual relations with their material, symbolic and social environments. This perspective article reviews changes in two critical domains of practice: consumption and social relations, based on a theory of scarcity, and proposes an approach to foresee post-COVID-19 scenarios across several areas of social practice. The experience of scarcity in consumption and socializing redefines priorities and values yielding two ideal-types of responses for each domain: the assimilation of reduced levels of material wellbeing and social interactions or the drive for self-indulgence to compensate sacrifices in those areas. Four different lifestyle scenarios are thereby generated based on that analytical framework, enabling the identification of long-term scenarios, beyond the simplistic old normal versus new normal dichotomy. Grounded in available secondary data and relying on the recent Brazilian experience, which can be generalized to other Global South contexts, this proposed framework illustrates distinctive behavioral patterns for each lifestyle across ten areas of practice.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has undeniably influenced the global economy and environment. Major victims of the COVID-19 outbreak are Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs), especially in developing countries, mainly because of limited use of digital technologies. This paper employs a literature review and personal insights to provide COVID-19 pandemic digitization lessons for sustainable development of MSEs from a technology for social good perspective. We develop a framework to support post COVID-19 digital transformation for sustainable development of MSEs. We find that digital payments, especially mobile money, should be a critical digital transformation priority for MSEs. Also, institutions must support MSE resources and capabilities to adopt digital transformation for business continuity, and sustainable production and consumption. Our study suggests that MSE managers and other stakeholders rethink their business strategies, incorporating crisis scenarios and business continuity plans to sustain customers virtually to enhance sustainable development. We also propose further research areas to improve the successful digital transformation of MSEs post COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to food insecurity in developed countries. Despite adequate levels of agricultural production, consumers experienced demand-induced scarcity. Understanding the effects on nutrition and the environment is limited, yet critical to informing ecologically embedded mitigation strategies. To identify mitigation strategies, we investigated wheat flour and egg retail shortages in the United Kingdom (UK), focusing on consumer behavior during the COVID-19 lockdown. The 6 Steps for Quality Intervention Development (6SQuID) framework informed the methodology. Mixed qualitative and quantitative methods were used to pinpoint the causes of the shortages, and ecological impacts of consumer behavior were related using survey results (n = 243) and environmental and nutritional databases. This research confirmed consumers' narrowed consideration set, willingness to pay, and significant reliance on processed foods which indicates agronomic biofortification, breeding strategies, selective imports and improved processed food quality are important mitigation strategies. We identified positive and negative synergies in consumer, producer and retailer behavior and related these to mitigation strategies in support of a circular bio-economy for food production. We found that the substitutes or alternative foods consumed during the COVID-19 lockdown were nutritionally inadequate. We identified the most ecological substitute for wheat flour to be corn flour; and for eggs, yogurt. Our findings also indicate that selenium deficiency is a risk for the UK population, especially to the increasing fifth of the population that is vegetarian. Due to the need to implement short-, medium-, and long-term mitigation strategies, a coordinated effort is required by all stakeholders.

The COVID-19 pandemic simultaneously triggered a sudden, substantial increase in demand for items such as personal protection equipment and hospital ventilators whilst also disrupting the means of mass-production and international transport in established supply chains. Furthermore, under stay-at-home orders and with bricks-and-mortar retailers closed, consumers were also forced to adapt. Thus the pandemic offers a unique opportunity to study shifts in behaviour during disruption to industrialised manufacturing and economic contraction, in order to understand the role peer-to-peer production may play in a transition to long-term sustainability of production and consumption, or degrowth. Here, we analyse publicly-available datasets on internet search traffic and corporation financial returns to track the shifts in public interest and consumer behaviour over 2019 - 2020. We find a jump in interest in home-making and small-scale production at the beginning of the pandemic, as well as a substantial and sustained shift in consumer preference for peer-to-peer e-commerce platforms relative to more-established online vendors. In particular we present two case studies - the home-made facemasks supplied through Etsy, and the decentralised efforts of the 3D printer community - to assess the effectiveness of their responses to the pandemic. These patterns of behaviour are related to new modes of production in line with ecological economics and as such add capacity to a broader prefiguration of degrowth. We suggest an adoption of a new "fourth wave" of DIY culture defined by enhanced resilience and degrowth to continue to add capacity to a prefigurative politic of degrowth.