Skip to Content

Sustainability, Volume 12, Issue 5

2020 March-1 - 454 articles

Cover Story: Circular Economy is nowadays recognized as a way to implement and achieve sustainability, mainly due to its contribution to the separation of biological and technical nutrients according to their metabolism. The incorporation of its principles into business leads to the creation of the Circular Business Model, where the business is a link in the value chain that tries to ensure circularity and mitigate the metabolic rift derived from the relationship between natural and social capital. This paper pursues a triple aim. Firstly, the use of Activity Theory as a framework for Circular Business. Secondly, the use of the holonic paradigm to manage complexity and allow dynamic relationships and contextualization aspects in the new Circular Business Models for different levels. Finally, a multilevel and multiscale Eco-Holonic Architecture for circular business is proposed from the perspective of Industry 4.0. View this paper
  • Issues are regarded as officially published after their release is announced to the table of contents alert mailing list .
  • You may sign up for email alerts to receive table of contents of newly released issues.
  • PDF is the official format for papers published in both, html and pdf forms. To view the papers in pdf format, click on the "PDF Full-text" link, and use the free Adobe Reader to open them.

Articles (454)

  • Article
  • Open Access
27 Citations
6,780 Views
21 Pages

10 March 2020

The ambition to keep global warming well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, as recognised in the Paris Agreement, implies a reorientation towards low-carbon societal development and, ultimately, the decarbonisation of human societies and eco...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
5,194 Views
18 Pages

10 March 2020

In sustainable construction/production, the social dimension regarding owner and community satisfaction has received the least focus. To promote social sustainability, the multilevel strategies of contractors should be developed for owner and communi...

(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Engineering and Science)
  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
8,310 Views
14 Pages

10 March 2020

Organizations are increasingly aware of the importance of managing the acquisition processes of new and sustainable knowledge, which allows them to increase performance. These knowledge-acquisition processes require top management teams to focus on t...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Knowledge Management for Sustainability-oriented Performance)
  • Article
  • Open Access
56 Citations
17,193 Views
16 Pages

10 March 2020

The study aims to investigate the formation of customer loyalty among luxury restaurant patrons in Korea. Moreover, the study investigated how the restaurants’ performance could contribute to the trust and sustainability of the Michelin restaur...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Attitude towards Luxury Brands and Sustainable Development: New Challenges for Business)
  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
5,100 Views
14 Pages

10 March 2020

The frequent terrorist attacks in subways has dramatically increased the necessity and importance of security check systems (SCSs). The implementation of a SCS in China has successfully eliminated lots of potential safety hazards. However, the excess...

  • Article
  • Open Access
25 Citations
8,800 Views
20 Pages

10 March 2020

The aim of this study is to strengthen the capacity of mining industries to assess and improve their environmental sustainability performance through the introduction of a relevant framework. Specific assessment categories and respective indicators w...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decision Support Systems and Knowledge Management for Sustainable Engineering)
  • Article
  • Open Access
80 Citations
8,977 Views
21 Pages

10 March 2020

A smart city is one of the latest concepts in the development of modern cities. It has evolved from the foregoing smart cities 1.0 and 2.0 to the smart city 3.0, where members of the local community play the main role as not only the recipients of th...

  • Article
  • Open Access
41 Citations
9,656 Views
19 Pages

10 March 2020

Land grabbing has become a priority topic in academic research and a political concern, due to interests in the dynamics of the phenomenon and its negative impact on the sustainable development of agriculture in rural areas. This phenomenon generates...

(This article belongs to the Collection Sustainable Economic Development: Challenges, Policies, and Reforms)
  • Article
  • Open Access
28 Citations
5,636 Views
14 Pages

Mapping Cultural Ecosystem Services Enables Better Informed Nature Protection and Landscape Management

  • Gréta Vrbičanová,
  • Dominika Kaisová,
  • Matej Močko,
  • František Petrovič and
  • Peter Mederly

10 March 2020

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) have specific richness and diversity provision patterns related to particular landscape features and land cover forms. Studies of their spatial distribution, however, are quite rare in the Slovak Republic and surroun...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traditional Landscapes—from the Past to the Sustainable Future (Factors and Trends of Landscape Functions and Services Provision towards the 21st Century))
  • Article
  • Open Access
75 Citations
8,380 Views
20 Pages

Design Ideas for an Issue-Situation-Based Board Game Involving Multirole Scenarios

  • Ping-Han Cheng,
  • Ting-Kuang Yeh,
  • Yen-Kai Chao,
  • Jing Lin and
  • Chun-Yen Chang

10 March 2020

In learning based on socio-scientific issues, teachers primarily use role playing in situation learning to promote students’ knowledge and responsibility and to teach them how to reach a consensus in multirole scenarios. However, if participant...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the Eurasian Conference on Educational Innovation 2020)
  • Article
  • Open Access
50 Citations
9,427 Views
19 Pages

10 March 2020

Uncertainty about efficiency and sustainability of shrimp production due to diseases and climatic events may prevent Vietnam from attaining US $10 million target from shrimp exports by 2025. We surveyed 120 and 159 shrimp farmers from Khánh H&...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
4,108 Views
25 Pages

10 March 2020

The urban ecosystems in China have been compromised during the process of urbanization. The declining services of ecological lands have hindered the sustainable development of cities and the current ecological land management (regulations, rules, and...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
6,203 Views
20 Pages

10 March 2020

Motivated by the enormous business success of E-tailers and their distinct business strategies, this paper analyzes the characteristics of dual online channel competition and the fundamental willingness of an E-tailer to open its marketplace to other...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
5,153 Views
14 Pages

10 March 2020

Accessibility plays an essential role in determining real estate prices and land use. An understanding of how accessibility and changes in accessibility influence real estate prices is key to making decisions regarding investments in infrastructure p...

(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Transportation)
  • Article
  • Open Access
53 Citations
9,916 Views
35 Pages

10 March 2020

Urban green spaces are known to provide ample benefits to human society and hence play a vital role in safeguarding the quality of life in our cities. In order to optimize the design and management of green spaces with regard to the provisioning of t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5,628 Views
13 Pages

10 March 2020

Despite the presence of guiding legislation such as the United Nations Guiding Principles, respect for human rights is subject to the conscience of organizational actors. Given that some transnational corporations are more powerful than nation states...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Corporate Sustainability Reforms: Securing Market Actors’ Contribution to Global Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
5,294 Views
16 Pages

Sustainable Production from Shale Gas Resources through Heat-Assisted Depletion

  • Saad Alafnan,
  • Murtada Aljawad,
  • Guenther Glatz,
  • Abdullah Sultan and
  • Rene Windiks

10 March 2020

Advancements in drilling and production technologies have made exploiting resources, which for long time were labeled unproducible such as shales, as economically feasible. In particular, lateral drilling coupled with hydraulic fracturing has created...

(This article belongs to the Section Resources and Sustainable Utilization)
  • Perspective
  • Open Access
19 Citations
8,400 Views
22 Pages

Understanding the Implications of Alternative Bioenergy Crops to Support Smallholder Farmers in Brazil

  • Paola Sakai,
  • Stavros Afionis,
  • Nicola Favretto,
  • Lindsay C. Stringer,
  • Caroline Ward,
  • Marco Sakai,
  • Pedro Henrique Weirich Neto,
  • Carlos Hugo Rocha,
  • Jaime Alberti Gomes and
  • Nouman Afzal
  • + 1 author

10 March 2020

Smallholders constitute more than three quarters of the world’s farmers, and despite their numbers, they commonly lack opportunities to advance their development status. Bioenergy production and consumption can help sustain smallholders’...

  • Article
  • Open Access
19 Citations
4,579 Views
16 Pages

Genotoxic and Anatomical Deteriorations Associated with Potentially Toxic Elements Accumulation in Water Hyacinth Grown in Drainage Water Resources

  • Farahat S. Moghanm,
  • Antar El-Banna,
  • Mohamed A. El-Esawi,
  • Mohamed M. Abdel-Daim,
  • Ahmed Mosa and
  • Khaled A.A. Abdelaal

10 March 2020

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs)-induced genotoxicity on aquatic plants is still an open question. Herein, a single clone from a population of water hyacinth covering a large distribution area of Nile River (freshwater) was transplanted in two drain...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance: Physiological and Molecular Approaches for Sustainable Agricultural Production)
  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,108 Views
20 Pages

10 March 2020

It is a very urgent issue to reduce energy-related carbon emissions in China. The three northeastern provinces (Heilongjiang (HLJ), Jilin (JL), and Liaoning (LN)) are typical heavy industrial regions in China, playing an important role in the nationa...

(This article belongs to the Section Environmental Sustainability and Applications)
  • Article
  • Open Access
30 Citations
5,952 Views
15 Pages

10 March 2020

Quickly obtaining accurate waterlogging depth data is vital in urban flood events, especially for emergency response and risk mitigation. In this study, a novel approach to measure urban waterlogging depth was developed using images from social netwo...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Resources and Green Growth)
  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
4,456 Views
23 Pages

Estimating Soil Available Phosphorus Content through Coupled Wavelet–Data-Driven Models

  • Jalal Shiri,
  • Ali Keshavarzi,
  • Ozgur Kisi,
  • Sahar Mohsenzadeh Karimi,
  • Sepideh Karimi,
  • Amir Hossein Nazemi and
  • Jesús Rodrigo-Comino

10 March 2020

Soil phosphorus (P) is a vital but limited element which is usually leached from the soil via the drainage process. Soil phosphorus as a soluble substance can be delivered through agricultural fields by runoff or soil loss. It is one of the most esse...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
12 Citations
5,602 Views
25 Pages

10 March 2020

The rapid pace of economic exploration of the Arctic against the backdrop of progressing environmental change put a high priority on improving understanding of health impacts in the northern communities. Deficiencies in the capability to capture the...

(This article belongs to the Collection Sustainable Economic Development: Challenges, Policies, and Reforms)
  • Article
  • Open Access
248 Citations
9,516 Views
14 Pages

10 March 2020

Volunteer tourism is indisputably an emerging trend in the tourism industry across the globe. Yet, little is known about the altruistic behavior of volunteer travelers. To fill this void, this research explores the convoluted relationships among memo...

(This article belongs to the Collection Intention and Tourism/Hospitality Development)
  • Article
  • Open Access
134 Citations
35,249 Views
36 Pages

Measurement of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review of Corporate Sustainability Indexes, Rankings and Ratings

  • Borja Diez-Cañamero,
  • Tania Bishara,
  • Jose Ramon Otegi-Olaso,
  • Rikardo Minguez and
  • José María Fernández

10 March 2020

Companies are currently changing their traditional role in society and transforming it into a proactive role in which their operations generate social and environmental positive impacts. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has evolved from simple p...

  • Article
  • Open Access
199 Citations
19,461 Views
12 Pages

Effect of Bio-Based Products on Waste Management

  • Irena Wojnowska-Baryła,
  • Dorota Kulikowska and
  • Katarzyna Bernat

9 March 2020

This article focuses on the end-of-life management of bio-based products by recycling, which reduces landfilling. Bio-plastics are very important materials, due to their widespread use in various fields. The advantage of these products is that they p...

  • Article
  • Open Access
52 Citations
10,519 Views
26 Pages

9 March 2020

According to the United Nations Development Program, sustainable development goals are fundamental for attaining a better and more sustainable future for all of us, and are a primary concern today. New indicators, such as the Economic Complexity Inde...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the Eurasian Conference on Educational Innovation 2020)
  • Article
  • Open Access
26 Citations
5,569 Views
23 Pages

9 March 2020

In the 21st century, heavier rainfall events and warmer temperatures in mountainous regions have significant impacts on hydrological processes and the occurrence of flood/drought extremes. Long-term modeling and peak flow detection of streamflow seri...

  • Article
  • Open Access
23 Citations
4,805 Views
15 Pages

9 March 2020

With the rapid development of urban road traffic, there are a certain number of black spots in an urban road network. Therefore, it is important to create a method to effectively identify the urban road black spots in order to quickly and accurately...

  • Article
  • Open Access
26 Citations
4,780 Views
15 Pages

9 March 2020

Soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration is closely related to soil quality and climate change. The objectives of this study were to estimate the effects of contemporary land use on SOC concentrations at 0–20 cm depths, and to investigate the dy...

(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Agriculture)
  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
5,891 Views
18 Pages

9 March 2020

The present article aims to analyze the representations and the role of symbolic forms of mythical-religious thought in the mediatization of sustainability. A main corpus of items, composed of the media information and news offer covered by the mains...

(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Education and Approaches)
  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
5,243 Views
23 Pages

Sustainable Thermal Energy Generation at Universities by Using Loquat Seeds as Biofuel

  • Miguel-Angel Perea-Moreno,
  • Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro,
  • Quetzalcoatl Hernandez-Escobedo and
  • Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno

9 March 2020

Global energy consumption has increased the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), these being the main cause of global warming. Within renewable energies, bioenergy has undergone a great development in recent years. This is due to its carbon neutral ba...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Energy Sustainability at Universities)
  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
35 Citations
7,334 Views
13 Pages

Sustainable Banking: New Forms of Investing under the Umbrella of the 2030 Agenda

  • Mariano Méndez-Suárez,
  • Abel Monfort and
  • Fernando Gallardo

9 March 2020

(1) Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) foster the relationships between public and private sectors while adding value to new forms of investment that are closely linked to Socially Responsible Investments (SRIs). In this context, Sustainable Developments Goa...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Banking: Issues and Challenges)
  • Article
  • Open Access
27 Citations
5,265 Views
19 Pages

9 March 2020

Landslides are among the most severe natural hazards with significant impacts in human life and infrastructure. The Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) is vulnerable to landslides because of the geological environment and human activities. A centrifug...

(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Engineering and Science)
  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
4,306 Views
17 Pages

9 March 2020

The adoption of solar energy is lagging behind in urban areas worldwide. Although the literature on energy transition is abundant, it has been focused mostly at the systems level. Few studies have addressed on-the-ground implementation. This paper ex...

(This article belongs to the Section Energy Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
23 Citations
4,462 Views
17 Pages

Estimating Ecosystem Respiration in the Grasslands of Northern China Using Machine Learning: Model Evaluation and Comparison

  • Xiaobo Zhu,
  • Honglin He,
  • Mingguo Ma,
  • Xiaoli Ren,
  • Li Zhang,
  • Fawei Zhang,
  • Yingnian Li,
  • Peili Shi,
  • Shiping Chen and
  • Qing Gu
  • + 12 authors

9 March 2020

While a number of machine learning (ML) models have been used to estimate RE, systematic evaluation and comparison of these models are still limited. In this study, we developed three traditional ML models and a deep learning (DL) model, stacked auto...

(This article belongs to the Section Environmental Sustainability and Applications)
  • Article
  • Open Access
25 Citations
6,480 Views
14 Pages

9 March 2020

Adopting effective flood mitigation practices for repetitive flood events in the United States continues to play a prominent role in preventing future damage and fostering resilience to residential flooding. Two common mitigation practices for reduci...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Catastrophes)
  • Article
  • Open Access
23 Citations
8,955 Views
22 Pages

9 March 2020

Gender equality is one of the Sustainable Development Goals. Management is one of the jobs that more clearly needs a gender perspective. Women leaders have found a way around the labyrinth to get to the top, which might have developed their personal...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wellbeing in Education, Career, and Work: Current Contributions from Emotional Intelligence and other Non-Cognitive Constructs to the Psychology of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
7,250 Views
14 Pages

9 March 2020

In higher education, university students need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills for their future workplace. Companies provide opportunities for students to participate as trainee consultants in innovation-related projects as a fo...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Teaching Methodologies for Sustainable Development in Higher Education)
  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
4,943 Views
21 Pages

9 March 2020

As one of the most important grain protection policies in China, the minimum purchase price policy prevents the fluctuation of grain output and protects the interests of farmers by regulating the prices of major grain varieties. For developing countr...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Energy Powered Irrigation Systems: Addressing the Challenge to Improve Performances, Sustainability and Economy of Agricultural Productions)
  • Article
  • Open Access
16 Citations
4,904 Views
13 Pages

9 March 2020

Brand hate can be defined as the consumer’s dissatisfaction with the product or service performance. The consumer’s hatred of the brand is related to the desire for revenge and avoidance. This kind of emotion does not remain only a desire...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Patterns in Consumer Behavior)
  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
9,421 Views
15 Pages

Facilitating the Participation of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Development Centres in Malawi: Developing a Sustainable Staff Training Programme

  • Anita Soni,
  • Paul Lynch,
  • Mike McLinden,
  • Jenipher Mbukwa-Ngwira,
  • Mika Mankhwazi,
  • Emma Jolley,
  • Bhavisha Virendrakumar,
  • Juliet Bedford and
  • Ingrid Gercama

9 March 2020

This article explores the development of a sustainable training programme supporting the inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood, education and care (ECEC) centres in Malawi. This programme is based on a review of literature of cur...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Educational Psychology for Sustainable Development)
  • Article
  • Open Access
16 Citations
5,078 Views
14 Pages

9 March 2020

Trees have a significant impact on the airflow and pollutant diffusion in the street canyon and are directly related to the comfort and health of residents. In this paper, OpenFOAM is used for simulating the airflow and pollutant diffusion in the str...

(This article belongs to the Collection Urban Planning and Built Environment)
  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,882 Views
17 Pages

9 March 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the trajectories of multicultural adolescents’ ego-resilience, to compare the effects of neglectful parenting and bilingual competency on the trajectories, and to analyze the longitudinal mediation e...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the Eurasian Conference on Educational Innovation 2020)
  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
4,623 Views
28 Pages

Modeling the Socioeconomic Metabolism of End-of-Life Tires Using Structural Equations: A Brazilian Case Study

  • Euclides Santos Bittencourt,
  • Cristiano Hora de Oliveira Fontes,
  • Jorge Laureano Moya Rodriguez,
  • Salvador Ávila Filho and
  • Adonias Magdiel Silva Ferreira

9 March 2020

Socioeconomic metabolism (SEM) is the exchange of materials and energy between society and the environment involving the social, economic and environmental sectors. In this paper, a boundary was defined between the economic (consumption) and environm...

  • Review
  • Open Access
221 Citations
19,870 Views
12 Pages

Environmentally Responsible Behavior and Sustainability Policy Adoption in Green Public Procurement

  • George Lăzăroiu,
  • Luminița Ionescu,
  • Cristian Uță,
  • Iulian Hurloiu,
  • Mihai Andronie and
  • Irina Dijmărescu

9 March 2020

Research has identified that there is a paucity of reviews covering green public procurement (GPP) in terms of environmentally responsible behavior and sustainability policy adoption. Using, comprehensively, the most recent (2017–2020) and rele...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Behaviour and Collective Decision Making)
  • Article
  • Open Access
71 Citations
14,437 Views
11 Pages

9 March 2020

Based on a primary prevention perspective, the main purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between ability emotional intelligence, cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and well-being indicators (e.g., psychological well-being and...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Well-Being and Happiness for Harmonization of Natural and Cultural Resources: Cross-Cultural Pillars of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
413 Citations
41,912 Views
24 Pages

Sustainable Management of Digital Transformation in Higher Education: Global Research Trends

  • Emilio Abad-Segura,
  • Mariana-Daniela González-Zamar,
  • Juan C. Infante-Moro and
  • Germán Ruipérez García

9 March 2020

Digital transformation in the education sector has implied the involvement of sustainable management, in order to adapt to the changes imposed by new technologies. Trends in global research on this topic have been analyzed and studied, during the 198...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Online and Ubiquitous Training, Mobile Technology in Education and Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
5,796 Views
16 Pages

9 March 2020

With growing awareness of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, much effort has been made to achieve “sustainability” in the building sector. Across the globe, many architects and building owners are striving to realize mandatory o...

  • Article
  • Open Access
76 Citations
7,205 Views
18 Pages

Future Impact of Land Use/Land Cover Changes on Ecosystem Services in the Lower Meghna River Estuary, Bangladesh

  • Muhammad Ziaul Hoque,
  • Shenghui Cui,
  • Imranul Islam,
  • Lilai Xu and
  • Jianxiong Tang

9 March 2020

Assessing the effects of different land use scenarios on subsequent changes in ecosystem service has great implications for sustainable land management. Here, we designed four land use/land cover (LULC) scenarios, such as business-as-usual developmen...

of 10

XFacebookLinkedIn
Sustainability - ISSN 2071-1050