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Environmental Footprint and Sustainable Development
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Environmental Footprint and Sustainable Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 8022

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Xiawei Liao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China
Interests: water–energy nexus; water footprints; energy footprints; sustainable development
Dr. Li Chai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: coupled human–natural systems; environmental footprint; sustainability; telecoupling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xi Hu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Law School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Interests: climate change; sustainable infrastructure; social development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The growth, development and prosperity of human societies have not been possible without the depletion of natural resources and degradation of the environment, often exceeding the pace of their regeneration or purification. One of the most urgent challenges facing humanity in the 21st century is the increasing pressure that anthropogenic activities place on our planetary boundaries, including finite resources, outcome of emissions, among several others, particularly under a changing climate.

Resources are consumed throughout the life cycle processes to produce final products and services. Emissions such as pollutants and greenhouse gases are also emitted. Environmental footprints (e.g. water, carbon and ecological footprint) are therefore useful indicators to measure the total impacts of human production and consumption on natural resources and the environment, including both direct and indirect impacts. In 2015, the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030, aiming to eliminate poverty, reduce inequality, and provide services, while protecting the sustainability of natural resources and the environment.

Within this context, this Special Issue aims to investigate the relationship between human production and consumption and sustainable development goals using the indicators of environmental footprints, with a particular focus on unexplored and new perspectives shedding light on potential conflicts, trade-offs or co-benefits between sustainable development efforts. This Special Issue solicits both original research and review studies, and research works using interdisciplinary approaches will be most welcome.

Topics covered in this Special Issue include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Literature reviews that identify the state-of-art of current research concepts and methodologies, and approach and identify gaps for future research challenges;
  • Empirical approaches that document novel evidence and data resources on environmental footprints and sustainable development;
  • Top-down (e.g., macro input–output models) and bottom-up (e.g., process-based) approaches;
  • Relationships, including trade-offs, conflicts and synergies, between environmental footprints, planetary boundaries and Sustainable Development Goals;
  • Human production and consumption and environmental footprints;
  • Social, economic and environmental inequality and environmental footprints;
  • Spatiotemporal redistribution of natural resources and environmental impacts;
  • Environmental and climate risks and environmental footprints;
  • Approaches to reduce environmental footprints to realize the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr. Xiawei Liao
Prof. Dr. Li Chai
Dr. Xi Hu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • water footprint
  • carbon footprint
  • ecological footprint
  • sustainable development goals
  • planetary boundary
  • sustainable consumption
  • sustainable production

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2016 KiB  
Article
China’s Sustainable Energy Transition Path to Low-Carbon Renewable Infrastructure Manufacturing under Green Trade Barriers
by Jing Tang, Xiao Xiao, Mengqi Han, Rui Shan, Dungang Gu, Tingting Hu, Guanghui Li, Pinhua Rao, Nan Zhang and Jiaqi Lu
Sustainability 2024, 16(8), 3387; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16083387 - 18 Apr 2024
Viewed by 509
Abstract
Facing green trade barriers from developed nations, particularly the EU, based on product carbon footprints, China’s renewable energy industries confront significant challenges in transitioning towards sustainability and low carbon emissions. This study delves into the carbon footprint of China’s renewable infrastructure, evaluating wind [...] Read more.
Facing green trade barriers from developed nations, particularly the EU, based on product carbon footprints, China’s renewable energy industries confront significant challenges in transitioning towards sustainability and low carbon emissions. This study delves into the carbon footprint of China’s renewable infrastructure, evaluating wind turbines, photovoltaic (PV) panels, and lithium batteries across varied decarbonization scenarios, emphasizing both production and international trade transportation. The initial findings for 2022 indicate baseline carbon footprints of 990,701 kg CO2-eq/MW for wind turbines, 2994.97 kg CO2-eq/kWp for PV panels, and 67.53 kg CO2-eq/kWh for batteries. Projections for 2050 suggest that decarbonization advancements could slash these footprints by up to 36.1% for wind turbines, 76.7% for PV panels, and 72.5% for batteries, closely mirroring the EU’s 2050 low-carbon benchmarks. Considerable carbon footprints from both domestic and international transportation have been quantified, underscoring the importance of logistic decarbonization. Based on these results, it is concluded that China’s steadfast commitment to a sustainable and climate-ambitious development path can provide globally competitive, low-carbon renewable infrastructure after 2030. The study advocates for a collaborative approach to product decarbonization across international trade, as opposed to erecting barriers, to effectively contribute to global climate objectives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Footprint and Sustainable Development)
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14 pages, 1902 KiB  
Article
The Biodiversity Footprint of German Soy-Imports in Brazil
by Lukas Mahlich, Christopher Jung and Rüdiger Schaldach
Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 16272; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142316272 - 06 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1614
Abstract
By importing agricultural commodities, Germany causes ecological impacts in other countries. One of these impacts is the loss of biodiversity in the producing regions. This paper presents a new method that combines agricultural trade data with land cover and biodiversity data to assess [...] Read more.
By importing agricultural commodities, Germany causes ecological impacts in other countries. One of these impacts is the loss of biodiversity in the producing regions. This paper presents a new method that combines agricultural trade data with land cover and biodiversity data to assess these effects within an agricultural supply chain, in a spatially explicit manner. It considers the current state of biodiversity expressed by the biodiversity intactness index (BII) of the producing region as well as changes over time. As an example, the impacts of German soy imports from Brazil were assessed for the time steps 2004, 2011 and 2018. In the first step, the soybean cultivation area used for exports to Germany was assigned to the respective municipalities by using the TRASE database. In the second step, a GIS-based analysis was conducted to determine the resulting impacts on biodiversity. In 2018, 70% of German soy imports from Brazil originated from municipalities with ecosystems that are not intact anymore (50%) or even severely disturbed (20%). Total German soy imports from Brazil in 2018 reduced the BII by 0.03 percent points compared to 1997. The main advantage of the presented method is that the biodiversity impact is quantifiable for both a commodity and the consuming country. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Footprint and Sustainable Development)
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17 pages, 647 KiB  
Article
Impact of Public Service Quality on the Efficiency of the Water Industry: Evidence from 147 Cities in China
by Jian Chang, Wanhua Li, Yaodong Zhou, Peng Zhang and Hengxin Zhang
Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 15160; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215160 - 16 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1158
Abstract
Nowadays, water service marketization has become a global trend, and the quality of public services has gradually become an important factor affecting the input and output of urban water utilities. This paper defines the connotation of service quality at the technical and public [...] Read more.
Nowadays, water service marketization has become a global trend, and the quality of public services has gradually become an important factor affecting the input and output of urban water utilities. This paper defines the connotation of service quality at the technical and public aspects innovatively, builds on the service quality system of water utilities, establishes the relationship between the quality and output efficiency model, and studies the impact of service quality on the efficiency of water utilities. Then, based on 147 cities’ water supply data during the 2005–2016 period in China, the data envelopment analysis model and Tobit panel data model were used in the empirical research to measure the efficiency characterized by the quality dimension. The results show that: (1) The service quality of the water industry is reflected in two aspects: technical and publicity. At the technical level, the service quality of the water industry can be represented by the supply capacity of water and infrastructure, and at the public level, by the penetration rate. (2) The overall comprehensive efficiency of urban water utilities in China is in the middle level of 0.5–0.7, the scale efficiency is at a high level of 0.8–1, and the pure technical efficiency is relatively low. The opportunity cost of maintaining service quality in China’s water sector is 5.21% of the potential output. (3) Public service quality is significantly positively correlated with the efficiency of China’s water utilities, and the improvement of service quality will promote the improvement of efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Footprint and Sustainable Development)
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17 pages, 454 KiB  
Article
A Water Footprint Management Construct in Agri-Food Supply Chains: A Content Validity Analysis
by Marcelo Werneck Barbosa and José M. Cansino
Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 4928; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14094928 - 20 Apr 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1722
Abstract
Common problems when carrying out water footprint (WF) assessments are obtaining specific primary data, dealing with the complexity of its computation, and the availability of quality data. In a supply chain context, inconsistencies are even more exacerbated. In order to fill in this [...] Read more.
Common problems when carrying out water footprint (WF) assessments are obtaining specific primary data, dealing with the complexity of its computation, and the availability of quality data. In a supply chain context, inconsistencies are even more exacerbated. In order to fill in this research gap, this study proposes and evaluates the content validity of a survey scale to assess WF management initiatives implemented by companies, with a focus on supply chains and the agriculture industry. In order to do so, a literature review was performed to identify candidate survey items whose content was later validated with experts in terms of their relevance, clarity, and essentiality to measure WF management. Content validity was assessed using several indices (items’ content validity index (I-CVI), Kappa’s coefficient, Aiken’ V coefficient, and content validity ratio (CVR)), which indicated high content validity for the selected items. This study provides a set of measurement survey items that can be used to evaluate WF management initiatives implemented in agri-food supply chains in future empirical studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Footprint and Sustainable Development)
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10 pages, 1398 KiB  
Article
Quantifying the “Water–Carbon–Sulfur” Nexus for Coal Power Plants in China
by Xin Liu, Yiran Wei and Junping Ji
Sustainability 2022, 14(6), 3675; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14063675 - 21 Mar 2022
Viewed by 1669
Abstract
China has implemented strict policies for the installation of desulfurization facilities in coal power plants in order to mitigate their negative environmental and human health impacts. However, it is rarely acknowledged that desulfurization processes lead to increased water consumption and carbon emissions from [...] Read more.
China has implemented strict policies for the installation of desulfurization facilities in coal power plants in order to mitigate their negative environmental and human health impacts. However, it is rarely acknowledged that desulfurization processes lead to increased water consumption and carbon emissions from the coal power sector. By using a bottom-up approach, we quantified that the desulfurization facilities in all of China’s coal power plants together avoided emissions of 29.52 Mt of SO2 in 2014, with expenses of 550.26 million m3 of increased water consumption, and 53.28 Mt of additional CO2 emissions. Such conflicts were especially pronounced in the North China Grid, where 9.77 Mt of SO2 emission reductions were realized at expenses of 132.15 million m3 of water consumption, and 14.25 Mt of CO2 emissions. The provinces in the North China Grid were already facing extreme water scarcity. Furthermore, while more than 90% of China’s coal power plants have installed desulfurization facilities, the application of full desulfurization would further reduce the greatest amount of SO2 emissions with the smallest amounts of additional water consumption and carbon emissions in the Northwest Grid. Replacing all wet desulfurization facilities with dry ones saves 498.38 million m3 of water consumption in total, and reduces 26.65 Mt of CO2 emissions; however, this is at an expense of 14.33 Mt of SO2 emissions. These conflicts are most pronounced in Shanxi Province in the North Grid, and in Guangdong Province in the South Grid. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Footprint and Sustainable Development)
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