Sustainable Cold Chain Packaging: Passive Solutions and EPS Alternatives for Thermal Integrity

Dear Colleagues,

Ensuring the thermal integrity of perishable goods during transport is vital for food supply chains, as it impacts food security, public health, and waste reduction. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) currently dominates cold chain packaging for its affordability and basic insulation properties, yet it has considerable drawbacks, such as contributing up to 80% of marine litter, occupying large landfill volumes, and adding to microplastics due to its non-biodegradable, single-use, and fossil fuel-based nature.

EPS’s insulating capacity rarely maintains the required 2–8 °C temperature range for more than 24–36 hours under variable ambient conditions. Conventional mitigation, ice packs, dry ice, and rapid shipping create operational complexity, energy demand, and risk of cold chain failure. While incremental attempts to improve EPS using coatings or composites defer rather than solve fundamental environmental and technical problems, the cold chain’s carbon footprint, already significant, continues to rise, challenging net-zero ambitions. Global bans and regulatory action are starting to drive replacement with more sustainable materials.

There is an urgent need for passive cold storage packaging solutions that do not rely on energy-intensive, active cooling strategies. Innovations focused on insulation and thermal management materials, design for recyclability or biodegradability, and the reduction of resource consumption throughout the cold chain are especially important for real-world impact.

This Special Issue invites contributions addressing the technical, environmental, and system-level aspects of developing and implementing passive energy storage techniques in cold chain packaging solutions. The focus is on alternatives to EPS and other single-use plastics that reduce reliance on powered refrigeration, aligning with the goals of sustainable materials, process efficiency, and net-zero cold chain operations.

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

• Novel insulation and phase change materials (PCMs) for passive temperature regulation;
• Integration of bio-based and recyclable materials in cold chain logistics;
• Biomimetic and bio-inspired approaches to passive thermal regulation;
• Life cycle and techno-economic analysis of passive cold chain solutions;
• Policy, standards, and industrial implementation pathways for EPS-free cold chains;
• Smart and data-driven passive packaging for food logistics.

We encourage submissions that advance the field of passive cold chain packaging, helping deliver sustainable, scalable solutions that reduce dependence on active cooling and minimize environmental footprint. For submission details and the peer review process, please refer to the journal’s editorial guidelines.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Stefano Landini
Dr. Anindita Roy
Dr. Gordhan Das Valasai
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.

• passive thermal packaging
• EPS alternatives
• cold chain sustainability
• phase change materials
• circular economy
• biodegradable materials
• sustainable logistics
• renewable-based insulation
• passive thermal packaging of battery packs