Artificial Intelligence for a Sustainable Future: Opportunities, Challenges, and Governance

Dear Colleagues,

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a key enabling technology for advancing sustainability, transforming how societies address environmental, economic, and social challenges. Recent advances in machine learning, big data analytics, and automation have significantly enhanced decision-making processes in areas such as climate modeling, energy systems, food systems, environmental monitoring, circular economy, sustainable supply chains, smart cities, and sustainable governance. At the same time, with the rapid use of AI, new sustainability issues emerge, such as energy consumption, carbon footprints of data centers, water use, supply chain impacts, electronic waste, algorithmic bias, ethical risks, and governance deficiencies. AI can function as a catalyst for sustainable development due to its ability to process vast datasets, identify patterns, automate tasks, and improve predictive analysis, which can significantly accelerate progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, AI can also create new risks if it is used without clear rules and ethical standards. Since sustainability is about balancing innovation with responsibility, there is a growing need for research that looks at both the benefits and the limits of AI. Understanding how AI can support a sustainable future, while being used in a responsible and ethical way, is therefore an important research priority across many fields.

The aim of this Special Issue is to study the relationship between AI and sustainability in a clear and balanced way. It focuses on how AI technologies can aid with sustainable development, but also on the challenges and limitations these technologies may impose. The Special Issue examines the environmental, social, economic, and ethical impacts of AI. We invite high-quality theoretical and empirical studies that explore how AI is used for sustainability, evaluate its effects in different sectors, and discuss issues related to governance, ethics, and policy. Interdisciplinary research is especially welcome, bringing together perspectives from technology, environmental science, economics, management, and public policy. This Special Issue fits well within the scope of Sustainability, as it addresses sustainable innovation, environmental protection, socio-economic development, and the responsible use and governance of technology.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Critical and High-Impact Topics:·

• AI for sustainable agriculture, food systems, and precision farming;
• AI in water resource management, conservation, and quality monitoring;
• AI for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services;
• AI and sustainable consumer behavior: nudging, choice architecture, and behavioral change;
• AI for sustainable supply chain transparency and traceability;
• AI in sustainable finance, ESG investing, and impact assessment;
• AI for disaster risk reduction, early warning systems, and climate resilience;
• Generative AI and Large Language Models for sustainability applications;
• Digital twins and AI simulation for sustainability planning;
• Explainable AI (XAI) for sustainability decision-making;
• Life cycle assessment (LCA) of AI systems and infrastructure.

Epistemological and Knowledge Dimensions:

• Epistemological challenges in AI-driven sustainability research: knowledge production, validation, and legitimacy;·
• AI-generated knowledge vs. traditional scientific methods in sustainability assessment;·
• Uncertainty, reliability, and epistemic limits of AI predictions for sustainability;·
• Integration of AI with indigenous, local, and tacit knowledge systems;·
• Epistemic justice, data colonialism, and power asymmetries in AI for sustainability;·
• Multi-stakeholder knowledge co-production and participatory AI for sustainability.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Vasiliki Vrana
Dr. Tsimpiris Alkiviadis
Dr. Subhankar Das
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.

• artificial intelligence
• sustainable development
• SDGs
• environmental sustainability
• climate change
• sustainable cities
• social sustainability