Next Article in Journal
Recent Advances in District Cooling Diffusion in the EU27+UK: An Assessment of the Market
Next Article in Special Issue
Digital Economy, R&D Investment, and Regional Green Innovation—Analysis Based on Provincial Panel Data in China
Previous Article in Journal
Modeling of the Kinetic Factors in Flame-Assisted Fuel Cells
Previous Article in Special Issue
Overcoming Barriers to the Implementation of Cleaner Production in Small Enterprises in the Mechanics Industry: Exploring Economic Gains and Contributions for Sustainable Development Goals
 
 
Font Type:
Arial Georgia Verdana
Font Size:
Aa Aa Aa
Line Spacing:
Column Width:
Background:
Article

Enhancing the Assessment of Cleaner Production Practices for Sustainable Development: The Five-Sector Sustainability Model Applied to Water and Wastewater Treatment Companies

by
Biagio Fernando Giannetti
1,2,*,
Fábio Sevegnani
1,
Roberto R. M. García
3,
Feni Agostinho
1,2,
Cecília M. V. B. Almeida
1,2,
Luca Coscieme
4,
Genguyan Liu
2,5 and
Ginevra Virginia Lombardi
6
1
Graduation Program on Production Engineering, Paulista University, Sao Paulo 04026-002, Brazil
2
School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100088, China
3
Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences, University of Oriente, Santiago de Cuba 90500, Cuba
4
Hot or Cool Institute, 10829 Berlin, Germany
5
Beijing Engineering Research Center for Watershed Environmental Restoration & Integrated Ecological Regulation, Beijing 100088, China
6
Department of Economics and Business Sciences, University of Florence, 50121 Florence, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 4126; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074126
Submission received: 19 January 2022 / Revised: 18 March 2022 / Accepted: 25 March 2022 / Published: 30 March 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cleaner Production Practices and Sustainable Development)

Abstract

The world’s water resources are under pressure due to human activities. The challenges surrounding water resources management include enhancing long-term water security and minimizing undesirable economic, social, and environmental impacts, along with the production chain. Since water and wastewater treatment plants are designed to maintain and conserve freshwater provisioning services, understanding how they operate—prior to proposing options for sustainability—is of paramount importance. The diagnostic phase calls for scientifically-based, systemic, and more objective methods to provide information for decision-makers regarding strategic management of water resources. This work applied the FIVE SEctor SUstainability (5SEnSU) model to assess twenty major water and wastewater treatment companies (WWTC) in Brazil, to quantify sustainability levels that allowed ranking procedures, and to establish benchmarks for improvements. On a comparative basis, the results identified the top-three sustainable companies—CORSAN, CASAN, and SANEPAR—which should be considered as examples of best practices. Specifically, the following best-ranked companies in each sector within 5SEnSU should be used as benchmark patterns for more oriented best practices: SANEAGO, sector 1; AGESPISA, sector 2; CORSAN, sector 3; CASAL, sector 4; MA, sector 5. This work contributes toward the advancement of sustainability assessment modeling in human-managed systems (applied in WWTCs in this present study) from systemic- and epistemologically-rooted approaches, avoiding shortcomings and misleading discussions on the sustainability issue. Quantifying sustainability of WWTCs using the 5SEnSU model allows for the identification of those sectors/indicators that require immediate cleaner production practices by decision-makers, to improve overall sustainability, as well as to identify which companies are more aligned with the requirements of UN SDGs. The decision-makers would be able to visualize balanced or unbalanced relationships among all sectors and propose actions that would improve the performance in a given sector, realizing what effects a given action would cause in the other sectors of the system.
Keywords: sustainability model; SDGs; clean water; drinking water; water security sustainability model; SDGs; clean water; drinking water; water security

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Giannetti, B.F.; Sevegnani, F.; García, R.R.M.; Agostinho, F.; Almeida, C.M.V.B.; Coscieme, L.; Liu, G.; Lombardi, G.V. Enhancing the Assessment of Cleaner Production Practices for Sustainable Development: The Five-Sector Sustainability Model Applied to Water and Wastewater Treatment Companies. Sustainability 2022, 14, 4126. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074126

AMA Style

Giannetti BF, Sevegnani F, García RRM, Agostinho F, Almeida CMVB, Coscieme L, Liu G, Lombardi GV. Enhancing the Assessment of Cleaner Production Practices for Sustainable Development: The Five-Sector Sustainability Model Applied to Water and Wastewater Treatment Companies. Sustainability. 2022; 14(7):4126. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074126

Chicago/Turabian Style

Giannetti, Biagio Fernando, Fábio Sevegnani, Roberto R. M. García, Feni Agostinho, Cecília M. V. B. Almeida, Luca Coscieme, Genguyan Liu, and Ginevra Virginia Lombardi. 2022. "Enhancing the Assessment of Cleaner Production Practices for Sustainable Development: The Five-Sector Sustainability Model Applied to Water and Wastewater Treatment Companies" Sustainability 14, no. 7: 4126. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074126

APA Style

Giannetti, B. F., Sevegnani, F., García, R. R. M., Agostinho, F., Almeida, C. M. V. B., Coscieme, L., Liu, G., & Lombardi, G. V. (2022). Enhancing the Assessment of Cleaner Production Practices for Sustainable Development: The Five-Sector Sustainability Model Applied to Water and Wastewater Treatment Companies. Sustainability, 14(7), 4126. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074126

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Back to TopTop