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Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 July 2025 | Viewed by 1142

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Trustworthy AI Group, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
Interests: AI; machine learning; deep learning; Bayesian models
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Interests: smart solution and technologies for sustainable buildings; climate change resilience; environmental sustainability; sustainable urban environments; energy efficiency in buildings; dynamic building simulation; sustainable mobility; building energy efficiency; resilient buildings; urban environmental sustainability; urban energy resilience; urban environmental resilience; indoor and outdoor environmental quality; HVACs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Bld. 9, 90131 Palermo, Italy
Interests: dynamic building simulation; sustainable buildings; sustainable materials for the construction sector; innovative building envelope components; green roofs; building energy efficiency; indoor thermal comfort; lighting; acoustics; HVAC systems; urban energy efficiency; urban environmental sustainability; climate change resilient buildings; urban climate change resilience; urban energy resilience; outdoor environmental quality; atmospheric pollution; renewable energy sources; sustainable urban mobility
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last decade, the advent of deep learning has enabled the development of groundbreaking AI systems and applications, profoundly impacting the economy and society.

This major technological breakthrough presents a significant opportunity to foster sustainable development, as illustrated by many recent contributions in AI-powered smart agriculture, urban development, circular economy, environmental monitoring, and sustainable energy systems. AI's transformative potential in these areas is highlighted, from optimizing resource use and improving efficiency to addressing global challenges like climate change, food security, energy interactions and social equity.

However, AI systems cannot be blindly adopted; they must be carefully evaluated for bias and safety, calling for guidelines in ethics and trustworthiness. Building and running AI systems come with high energy demands and reliance on rare elements, which have their own environmental impacts. Research must ensure these issues do not undermine AI's positive contributions. Additionally, the high costs of AI tools and training concentrate AI power in a few wealthy entities, potentially exacerbating global inequalities and limiting access to AI-driven solutions in lower-income regions. These challenges raise ethical concerns and necessitate governance frameworks to ensure AI's benefits are equitably distributed and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.

This Special Issue aims to collect high-quality research, including original research articles, reviews, and case studies, that explores the interplay between AI and sustainable development as described above. Topics will be considered of interest if they relate to the keywords listed below.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Pierrick Bruneau
Dr. Laura Cirrincione
Dr. Gianluca Scaccianoce
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

  • sustainable AI governance
  • circular economy
  • social sustainability
  • ethical AI
  • trustworthy AI
  • sustainable development goals
  • AI-based building management systems
  • AI-based energy management systems
  • AI-based smart grid management
  • AI-based dynamic urban management
  • AI for cultural heritage

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 3247 KiB  
Article
A Fuzzy LARG Index for Assessing the Lean, Agile, Resilience, and Green Paradigms in Industrial Companies
by Abbas Al-Refaie and Natalija Lepkova
Sustainability 2025, 17(5), 1863; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17051863 - 22 Feb 2025
Viewed by 668
Abstract
Today’s sharp competition has forced organizations to adopt effective improvement paradigms, including lean, agile, green, and resilience (LARG). However, an assessment tool is necessary to monitor the progress of LARG adoption and evaluate its effectiveness. This research, therefore, developed an index for assessing [...] Read more.
Today’s sharp competition has forced organizations to adopt effective improvement paradigms, including lean, agile, green, and resilience (LARG). However, an assessment tool is necessary to monitor the progress of LARG adoption and evaluate its effectiveness. This research, therefore, developed an index for assessing the effectiveness of LARG paradigms by evaluating their principles and practices with experts’ fuzzy evaluations. Initially, thorough research on LARG paradigms was conducted to determine the paradigm principles and their measures and prepare a comprehensive LARG survey. The Delphi method with four experts was used to rate item measures of LARG based on a five-point Likert scale. The principles and measures of each paradigm were represented by triangular fuzzy membership functions. Then, defuzzified values were obtained for each principle and set as inputs in the fuzzy inference system (FIS) to obtain a crisp value for each paradigm. Next, the defuzzified values of lean, agile, and green (LAG) were input in the FIS to obtain a crisp LAG index. Finally, the defuzzified values of the LAG and resilience (R) were measured and then inserted as inputs in the FIS to obtain a comprehensive defuzzified LARG value. The effectiveness of the proposed LARG framework was validated in pharmaceutical and chemical organizations. The results revealed that the LARG index is an effective tool for evaluating lean, agile, green, and resilience paradigms for both organizations. In conclusion, the LARG index provides valuable support to decision-makers in determining a business’s weaknesses and strengths and guides technical managers to possible improvement actions to enhance competitiveness and sustainability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development)
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