Sustainability

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are increasingly recognized as strategic contributors to a sustainable society. Although sustainable procurement is widely acknowledged as a key mechanism for advancing sustainability goals, many HEIs encounter persistent barriers to its effective implementation. Within the academic research, sustainable procurement in HEIs is a largely overlooked topic. This study explores an often neglected perspective: the experiences of staff-level employees involved in procurement processes. Through focus group research conducted among staff members at five universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands, we identified barriers at the organizational and functional levels. Findings underscore the critical importance of (other) top management priorities, financial considerations and the lack of clear goals and guidelines for implementing sustainable procurement. Focus group participants identified the invisibility of sustainable procurement’s impact as a key challenge in generating buy-in and enthusiasm among colleagues. This invisibility is closely linked to difficulties in measurement and to inadequate monitoring systems. In addition, contract and supplier management appear to be blind spots within HEIs. Staff-level employees feel that they could greatly benefit from the experiences of peers in other institutions. The results of this study highlight untapped potential for advancement in both professional practice and academic research.

This study evaluates the feasibility of using a ground-coupled ammonia heat pump as a heat source for the district heating system in Ustka, Poland. A three-dimensional transient thermal model of a 122-borehole field was developed in ANSYS 2023 R1 using local geological data and hourly meteorological inputs. Three extraction loads—0.50, 0.75, and 1.00 MW—were analysed, together with regeneration periods of one month (August) and six months following the heating season. Ground temperatures were assessed across all geological layers down to 250 m. The simulations show that each of the tested loads leads to a noticeable and lasting reduction in ground temperature. For 1.00 MW, the temperature in the main heat-exchange layers remains more than 2 K below the initial value even after six months of regeneration. At 0.75 MW the deficit is smaller but still persists in the layers that dominate heat transfer. Even the 0.50 MW scenario does not return to thermal balance: the active layers stay more than 1 K cooler after the regeneration period, indicating cumulative long-term cooling. Although the model includes standard engineering simplifications, the large-scale thermal behaviour is consistent across all scenarios. The analysis shows that the analysed GSHP (ground-source heat pump) configuration cannot serve as a primary heat source for the Ustka network in the analysed configuration. Alternative low-emission solutions, such as air-source heat pumps supported by renewable electricity, are more suitable for this site.

The security and stability of energy are vital to the national economy and people’s well-being. At present, the global energy industry is undergoing a profound historical transformation. Exploring effective strategies to bolster the resilience of the energy industry supply chain and ensure its sustainable development represents a pivotal approach to achieving energy security and stability. Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2023, this study constructs an indicator system for new quality productivity forces and the resilience of the energy industry supply chain, applies the entropy weight method for indicator weighting, and employs an improved E–G index algorithm to measure the industrial agglomeration index. The influence of new quality productivity forces on the resilience of the energy industry supply chain is examined through a two-way fixed-effects model. The research findings demonstrate that new quality productivity significantly enhances the resilience of the energy industry supply chain. The level of energy supply exhibits a moderating effect, positively facilitating the enhancement of supply chain resilience through new quality productivity. The levels of urbanization, development, and industrial collaborative agglomeration demonstrate a threshold effect, leading to a nonlinear impact of new quality productivity on the resilience of the energy industry supply chain. Our heterogeneity tests reveal that in central r–ions and regions with higher levels of informatization, the promoting effect of new quality productivity on the resilience of the energy industry supply chain is more pronounced. This study further clarifies the mechanism through which new quality productivity influences the resilience of the energy industry supply chain, enriches and expands the understanding of the role of new quality productivity in the energy industry, and provides crucial support for governments and enterprises in making decisions aimed at enhancing the resilience of the energy industry supply chain.