Circular Economy, Environmental Monitoring, and Sustainable Development

Dear Colleagues,

Despite our increased knowledge and actions to support the introduction of innovative solutions for an equitable transition, which is necessary to reach the Sustainable Development Goals, much still needs to be achieved in order to adopt alternative production and consumption models, as well as more sustainable behaviours. Circular economic models are being proposed to promote the reuse and recycling of resources and more efficient energy solutions, and to reduce the production of wasted materials. However, many of the proposed solutions do not sufficiently the integration of all the dimensions of sustainability, including the environmental, ecological, economic, social and cultural pillars of sustainability. On the other side, many of the proposed scenarios are implemented on the basis of accessible databases, whose quality is not always guaranteed. In particular, limited attention is given to the instruments, measure methods and the analysis of field data, on which any futher assessment should rely. Finally, the redesign of products, allowing the reuse and recycling of materials and the reduction of wasted resources (materials and energy) needs to be further stimulated.

Providing an advanced forum for studies related to sustainability, the journal Sustainability, which is an international, cross-disciplinary, scholarly, peer-reviewed and open access journal that publishes research on the environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability of human beings, decided to open a call for papers for a Special Issue, entitled, “Circular Economy, Environmental Monitoring, and Sustainable Development ”. The aim is to assess the state-of-the-art, innovative instruments, methods and databases used for environmental monitoring and ecological engineering, assessing the flow of resources, ecosystem services and their nexus, as well as the environmental impacts of different production, consumption and lifestyle patterns, whose impacts can be mitigated through the adoption of circular solutions. Moreover, the Special Issue aims to discuss the integration of monitored data within environmental accounting processes, including the appropriate use of indicators and the application of different accounting methods for the implementation of analyses, assessing the flow of resources, their nexus and the impacts generated through different production and consumption patterns by different economic sectors and households. Based on this knowledge about the environmental impacts, assessed through monitoring actions and further analyses, we can assess their magnitude. The Special Issue also aims to consider the innovative technogies and redesign solutions to reduce material extraction, increase the reuse and recycling of materials, reduce environmental, economic and social impacts, and reduce wasted materials in ecological engineering, while also establishing a more sustainable management of solid waste and wastewaters. Finally, the Special Issue aims to consider innovative, integrated assessment approaches for the analysis of circular economy solutions, encompassing and integrating the environmental, economic, social, cultural and ethical dimensions of sustainability.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews, as well as multidisciplinary perspectives, are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: environmental monitoring and accounting; the designing of circular products and production processes; innovative solutions for a more sustainable waste and wastewater management and a reduction in wasted materials; circular economy production and consumption processes; and integrated environmental, economic, social, cultural and ethical implications of circular economy solutions.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Marco Casazza
Dr. Gengyuan Liu
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.