Search Results (757)

Transportation infrastructure plays a fundamental role in shaping sustainable urban and regional development by improving accessibility, strengthening territorial cohesion, and supporting long-term economic resilience. While previous studies have primarily examined this relationship through macroeconomic indicators and secondary datasets, limited attention has been given to the perceptions of transportation professionals directly involved in infrastructure planning, implementation, and management. Addressing this gap, the present study investigates how transportation professionals in Greece perceive the contribution of transport infrastructure to sustainable regional development within the European policy context. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed, administering a structured questionnaire to 384 transportation professionals in October–November 2025. The study examined four interrelated dimensions: socio-economic contribution, environmental sustainability, infrastructure resilience, and long-term development. Multiple regression analysis showed that all four dimensions are significantly and positively associated with perceived regional development, with socio-economic contribution (β* = 0.359) and long-term development (β* = 0.304) showing the largest coefficients (R² = 0.597, p < 0.001). The study contributes practitioner-grounded evidence from the Greek context, with implications for the European Green Deal, TEN-T, and EU Cohesion Policy. Full article

Background: Sustainable maritime logistics has become a strategic priority for achieving the European Green Deal objectives and accelerating the transition towards low-carbon and resource-efficient transport systems. Nevertheless, existing studies mainly focus on isolated sustainability dimensions, providing limited evidence on the heterogeneous transition patterns followed by European countries. This study proposes an integrated analytical framework to identify and characterise longitudinal transition patterns towards sustainable maritime logistics across Europe. Methods: A harmonised database was developed using Eurostat indicators covering European countries for the period 2015–2023. Following data preprocessing, missing-value treatment and standardisation, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed to reduce dimensionality, while cluster analysis was applied to identify groups of countries sharing similar sustainability and logistics transition characteristics. Results: The proposed framework reveals that the transition towards sustainable maritime logistics does not follow a single homogeneous pattern but multiple differentiated pathways. The analysis identifies distinct country profiles associated with energy transition, modal integration, circular economy performance and environmental sustainability, highlighting heterogeneous convergence dynamics throughout the study period. Conclusions: The findings provide a robust and transferable benchmarking framework for monitoring sustainable maritime logistics transition at the European level. By identifying differentiated transition pathways rather than static rankings, the proposed approach offers valuable evidence for supporting strategic planning, policy design and decision-making aimed at accelerating the transformation of maritime logistics systems towards sustainability. Full article

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent the majority of EU businesses and a disproportionate share of its environmental impact, yet longitudinal evidence on their resource efficiency behaviour remains scarce. This study examines whether SME adoption of resource efficiency practices increased between 2017 and 2024 and whether the size gradient changed across a period spanning several major and concurrent institutional and economic events: the European Green Deal (2019), the Circular Economy Action Plan (2020), the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftermath (2020–2021), the energy price shock that intensified in 2021 and was amplified by the Russia–Ukraine conflict in 2022, and the early implementation phase of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (2022–2024). These events overlapped substantially in time and cannot be disentangled with the present empirical design. Using microdata from three Flash Eurobarometer waves (N = 38,165; EU27), we construct a harmonised eight-item adoption index and estimate a weighted Poisson regression with cluster-robust standard errors and wave × firm-size interactions. Adoption increased substantially: SMEs reporting no resource efficiency action fell from 10.5% to 4.2%, and renewable energy use more than doubled (+15.3 pp). More substantively, the population-level gap in resource efficiency adoption between medium-sized enterprises (50–249 employees) and microenterprises (1–9 employees) narrowed by 81%, from +0.89 practices in 2017 (out of a maximum of 8) to a statistically non-significant +0.13 and +0.17 practices in 2021 and 2024 respectively (interaction IRR ≈ 0.81–0.82, p < 0.001 in both waves), robust to nine checks. The size gradient in environmental behaviour appears not to be structural but a dynamic feature of the institutional landscape, one that narrowed substantially over a period coinciding with intensifying regulatory ambition and energy price shock—though the present repeated cross-sectional design cannot establish which mechanisms drove this compression. Full article

The article assesses the energy potential of biodegradable municipal waste in the Krakow Metropolitan Area, analyzing the feasibility of using derived biomethane for residential heating by 2050. Framed within the circular economy and the European Green Deal, the study highlights a significant technological gap in Poland, contrasting it with successful models in Austria, Germany, and Italy. Empirical data from 2023–2024 indicate that kitchen waste (code 20 01 08) is an optimal feedstock for methane fermentation due to its stable annual flow, whereas green waste (code 20 02 01) presents challenges due to high seasonality. Simulation modeling suggests that annual biomethane production from kitchen waste could range from approximately 1.23 million m³ (Variant 3) to over 1.42 million m³ (Variant 4). A key finding is the synergy between waste-to-energy transformation and building thermal modernization. By reducing energy demand, the consistent volume of kitchen waste processed from 2024 could potentially supply heating for between 4928 and 8180 apartments by 2050. Ultimately, the research underscores the role of metropolitan integration in achieving sustainable development goals, enhancing regional energy security, and reducing emissions. Full article

Maritime transport, responsible for over 90% of global trade, is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions due to its reliance on fossil fuels. Achieving international decarbonization targets set by the International Maritime Organization and the European Green Deal requires not only advancements in vessel technologies but also the sustainable transformation of port infrastructures. In this context, this study examines current trends in shore-to-ship (STS) charging technologies as a key enabler of sustainable port electrification. It provides a comprehensive review of AC, DC, and hybrid charging architectures, along with recent developments in robotic and autonomous charging systems. The study also explores industrial standards and energy management strategies for smart port applications, and identifies renewable integration and grid interaction models as key directions for future research. Furthermore, the study proposes an Onshore Power Supply (OPS) Readiness Index (OPSRI), a multi-criteria assessment framework that evaluates ship types based on their operational, technical, infrastructural, and regulatory suitability for onshore power integration. The main contribution of this review lies in integrating international standards, robotic charging technologies, and ship-type-specific readiness assessment into a unified analytical framework. The results indicate that ferries and tugboats are highly suitable for OPS deployment, while long-haul cargo vessels face greater limitations under current conditions. Overall, the findings offer practical insights for port authorities, policymakers, and energy planners, highlighting key challenges and future directions toward smart, sustainable, and low-carbon port ecosystems. Full article

Contemporary sustainable development is affected by geopolitical competition, geoeconomic fragmentation and growing strategic uncertainty. These developments challenge conventional assumptions on which sustainability governance is based and raise questions about the relationship between sustainable development, economic security and strategic autonomy. This article examines how geopolitical and geoeconomic transformations are reshaping sustainable development within the European Union and assesses their implications for the future evolution of the European development model. The analysis is based on a qualitative analysis of policies and documents in key EU strategic frameworks, legislative instruments, sustainability reports and the academic literature. Particular attention is paid to the European Green Deal, the European Economic Security Strategy and the Europe 2026 Sustainable Development Report. Sustainable development now depends not only on environmental and social outcomes but also on resilience, secure access to key resources and technologies and the ability to adapt to external disruptions. Economic security and strategic autonomy do not emerge as competing priorities but as enabling conditions for the implementation of sustainability goals. This article argues that sustainability governance in the European Union is undergoing a process of geopoliticisation, in which environmental, economic and strategic considerations are now closely intertwined. Its main contribution is the creation of a framework of sustainable strategic resilience that conceptualises these interactions as mutually reinforcing dimensions of contemporary EU governance. Full article

Human development in the European Union remains uneven, and it is still unclear how economic, social, environmental, and institutional conditions jointly shape it. Understanding this question is essential for EU cohesion and sustainability policy, since Member States differ widely in governance capacity and development trajectories. This study proposes and empirically tests an extended Triple Bottom Line framework in which governance is treated as a fourth sustainability subsystem and examines its influence on the Human Development Index (HDI) in the 27 EU member states over 2000–2024 (675 country-year observations). Composite dimension indices are constructed through principal component analysis and validated with KMO and Bartlett diagnostics, and the analysis combines two-way fixed-effects models, Mundlak within–between decomposition, dynamic panels, a parsimonious system GMM estimator, and Driscoll–Kraay standard errors. The institutional dimension is the most robust positive correlate of HDI across all specifications, and its long-run effect remains significant. The environmental dimension is negatively and significantly associated with HDI, revealing a development–environment tension rather than a welfare effect, while CO₂ emissions display a positive coefficient in disaggregated models, reflecting development-stage and energy-structure effects. The economic dimension matters mainly as a long-run structural difference between countries, not as short-run within-country variation, and institutional and environmental effects are more pronounced in Central and Eastern Europe than in Western Europe. The findings imply that EU policies aimed at strengthening governance quality and supporting a just green transition—including the European Green Deal, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), and cohesion policy instruments—are central levers for sustaining human development. Full article

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is the world’s second-most cultivated vegetable. Production reached 192 million tonnes in 2023; approximately 23% is industrially processed, leaving 4.3 to 10.2 million tonnes of pomace each year. Despite its high content of lycopene, tocopherols, polyphenols, dietary fibre, and seed oil, most of this residue is composted, landfilled, or fed without prior processing. This narrative review examines how the chemistry of tomato by-products maps onto their effects in farm animals, and how green-extraction biorefinery fits within the European Green Deal. Reported pomace lycopene runs from 36.7 to 50.2 mg/100 g DM, with phenolics near 161.8 mg GAE/g. Lycopene is an efficient singlet-oxygen quencher; it activates Keap1–Nrf2–ARE signaling while dampening NF-κB. Supercritical CO₂, ultrasound, microwave, pressurized-liquid, and NADES extractions can now recover up to 91% of peel lycopene using green, food-grade solvents. In broilers, 5 to 10% pomace or 30 to 400 mg/kg purified lycopene improves antioxidant status and lessens heat stress; in dairy ruminants, ensiled pomace at 10 to 40% maintains milk yield while improving milk PUFA. In finishing pigs and rabbits, dietary pomace or lycopene improves tissue oxidative stability, with growth benefits reported in heat-stressed rabbits. Standardized bioactive reporting and clearer inclusion limits remain the main research priorities. Full article

Environmental issues such as climate change and cumulative emissions have intensified debate on the effectiveness of public environmental protection expenditure. Traditional Pigouvian taxes and subsidies mainly target instantaneous flow externalities. However, it is difficult to resolve dynamic stock externalities that accumulate over many years, such as climate change and cumulative greenhouse gas emissions, through taxation policies alone. This situation requires the government to make direct environmental protection expenditure to support the ecosystem’s natural assimilation capacity and reduce the rate at which pollution accumulates. This study specifically examines the relationship between stock externalities and environmental protection expenditure within the context of the Turkish economy, which is highly industrialised and under pressure to comply with international environmental commitments such as the European Green Deal and the Paris Climate Agreement. In the study’s empirical analysis phase, long-term relationships between macroeconomic variables and pollution stocks were tested using Fourier cointegration methods and econometric time series analyses. The analysis revealed a long-term co-movement (cointegration) relationship between the series, indicating that public environmental protection expenditures and industrial emissions move in the same direction over the long term. FMOLS and DOLS estimates indicate that environmental protection expenditures are positively associated with industrial emissions in the long run (FMOLS coefficient = 2.1125; DOLS coefficient = 2.0375), whereas renewable energy consumption exerts a negative effect on emissions (FMOLS coefficient = −1.4391; DOLS coefficient = −1.4967). These results suggest that environmental protection expenditure in Türkiye is not independent of current production and industrialisation dynamics, and that its emission-reducing effects are influenced by technological transformation processes. Full article

Sustainable-consumption policy in the European Union currently treats the European public as a relatively homogeneous target audience. This study contributes a reproducible instrument for measuring and monitoring sustainable consumption under the European Green Deal. Whether this assumption holds empirically in 2024 is examined using Special Eurobarometer 550 (N = 26,332, EU27, March–April 2024). Background: the relationship between environmental concern, observed behavior, and policy support remains contested in the post-pandemic, post-inflation, post-Green-Deal context, and the role of chemical-risk literacy as a possible additional segmentation dimension has not been examined. Methods: a weighted latent class analysis (LCA) on a 16-indicator hybrid battery covering five conceptual domains (concern, observed behavior, willingness-to-pay, policy support, chemical-risk literacy), followed by weighted multinomial logistic regression with 27 country fixed effects. Robustness checks include alternative class numbers (K = 4, K = 6) and stratified estimation across country subsamples. Results: the EU27 population in 2024 is most consistently described by a five-class solution comprising Concerned Policy Supporters (47.1%), Comprehensive Eco-Citizens (20.8%), Chemically Concerned Pragmatists (14.2%), Disengaged citizens (12.9%), and Behavioral-Only Adopters (4.9%). Education and political left-right placement are associated with class membership more strongly than household economic difficulty. Chemical-risk literacy varies substantially across classes. Conclusions: the descriptive heterogeneity of the European population in 2024 is consistent with concern-behavior gaps documented in the prior literature and motivates segment-aware sustainability communication while providing a baseline against which the European Union can measure and monitor progress in sustainable consumption, while leaving causal questions about policy effectiveness for future longitudinal designs. Full article

Intermodal freight transport is an integral, strategic foundation of the European Union’s vision to decarbonize Europe, but in non-EU countries such as Republic of Serbia, the split in modalities remains heavily focused on road haul, while terminal infrastructure remains poorly interconnected and digital maturity remains low. This research study investigates the adoption of new digital and operational technologies along the intermodal transport chain. It is measured in the context of enhancing ecological and operational performance in the Serbian environment. Research data was collected from a sample of nine medium and large Serbian intermodal logistics companies, who operate along Pan-European Corridor X and the Rhine–Danube Corridor. Three ecological and three operational key performance indicators (KPIs) were defined to measure the level on enhancements reached through sustainability efforts. The study is an uncontrolled, firm-level pre–post comparison: three directional hypotheses were evaluated using paired-sample t-tests, exact Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, and bootstrap confidence intervals on pre- and post-modernization firm-level aggregates. In the post-modernization period, mean CO₂ intensity per TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) was 17.4% lower, terminal energy intensity (kWh/TEU) 14.3% lower, and terminal dwell time 22.5% lower than in the pre-modernization period (exact p ≤ 0.001; 95% bootstrap confidence intervals excluding zero). Implications were discussed for EU Green Deal alignment, Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) extension to the Western Balkans, and future research has been initially defined. Given the pre/post design without a control group, the reported effects are associations rather than causal estimates and should be read as preliminary, exploratory evidence. Full article

With the Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan, the European Union aims to replace half of the fossil-based raw materials in plastics with sustainable alternatives by 2030. In the plastic pipe industry, the use of post-consumer recyclates (PCRs) remains very limited due to reduced material quality, economic hurdles, limited availability, non-specific classification requirements, and a lack of testing standards. This paper presents two interconnected contributions to the quality-assured use of PCR for buried utility infrastructure made from Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP), and unplasticized Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC-U). First, a methodological framework, based on EN 13476, defines suitability as the intersection of material classification and application-specific requirements profile. A review of the current regulatory and technical situation reveals a systemic discrepancy: requirements profiles are oriented toward virgin material, while the scope of classification for PCR remains insufficiently defined. As a result, PCR is either used without adequate suitability assessment or blended with fillers, thereby limiting recyclability. Secondly, the review focuses on additive strategies, including restabilization, compatibilization, chain modification, and recyclate-compatible functional additives. These strategies are among the main technical solutions for closing the gap between PCR properties and the product’s requirements, reducing filler dependency, and enabling the long-term use of PCR in safety-critical applications. Full article

Energy industrial zones can act as a transformative model for industrial decarbonization by integrating renewable energy infrastructure directly with industrial production. By combining energy industrial zones with the energy community framework and peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading, this study proposes a pathway toward 100% renewable energy sources. The model was tested using a techno-economic assessment applied to the Bravar-Jasenice case study in Croatia featuring 12 MW of solar PV, 10 MW of wind power, and a 9.3 MW biogas cogeneration plant. This integrated approach can achieve 80–90% energy self-sufficiency and reduce electricity expenditures for participating enterprises by approximately 15%. Furthermore, the system facilitates an annual reduction of roughly 20,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions, thus directly supporting European Green Deal objectives. The study also highlights the potential for industrial symbiosis, including green hydrogen production, data centre integration, and waste heat recovery. Ultimately, the proposed framework provides a robust strategy for enhancing industrial competitiveness and ensuring energy security through localized, sustainable energy management. Full article

Freshwater is essential for sustaining the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems; however, agricultural activities remain a major source of water pollution globally. This review examines how crop production, livestock farming, and aquaculture contribute to water contamination, the effectiveness of current European policies, and the potential of sustainable mitigation strategies. Evidence from the research identified pesticides, herbicides, veterinary antibiotics, nutrient runoff, aquaculture effluents, and microplastics as the primary agricultural pollutants affecting surface and groundwater quality. These contaminants have been linked to ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss, endocrine disruption, antimicrobial resistance, and adverse human health outcomes. Despite extensive regulatory frameworks, including the Water Framework Directive, Nitrates Directive, Farm to Fork Strategy, and European Green Deal, significant implementation and monitoring challenges remain. Current evidence indicates that only 40% of European surface waters achieve “good” ecological status, highlighting persistent water quality concerns across the region. The review further identified precision irrigation, Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled monitoring, biopesticides, hydroponic systems, and integrated multi-trophic aquaculture as promising solutions for reducing agricultural impacts on water resources. However, barriers, including high implementation costs, technological limitations, and inconsistent policy enforcement, continue to hinder widespread adoption. Overall, the findings demonstrate that while existing policies have improved water governance, stronger regulatory enforcement, greater investment in sustainable technologies, and increased adoption of nature-based solutions are required to reduce agricultural water pollution. An integrated approach combining technological innovation, policy support, and sustainable farming practices is essential to protect freshwater resources and ensure long-term environmental sustainability. Full article

European sustainability transitions are increasingly defined by the convergence of blue, green, and circular economy agendas. Traditionally analysed and governed in isolation, these domains generate important interdependencies, trade-offs, and coordination challenges that remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on the multi-level perspective (MLP) and recent advances in multi-system dynamics, this article introduces the Resource Infrastructure Economy (RIE) as a novel integrative framework. The RIE differs from existing multi-system frameworks by explicitly integrating marine governance as a full socio-technical regime, theorising regulatory-driven regime coupling as a distinct transition pathway, and foregrounding the constitutive role of shared physical and digital infrastructures in shaping value creation, path dependencies, and distributional outcomes. The RIE conceptualises contemporary European transitions as processes of deep regime coupling and infrastructural integration, whereby energy, marine, and material regimes become tightly coordinated through shared physical and digital infrastructures and assertive regulatory steering. Through a systematic integrative literature review (58 core publications selected from over 450 records following PRISMA guidelines, analysed using abductive thematic analysis with MAXQDA 26 software) and comparative analysis of six countries—Portugal, Spain, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway—the study reveals persistent structural gaps between the three agendas alongside emerging patterns of pairwise and triadic regime coupling. While Northern and Central European frontrunners demonstrate more advanced infrastructural coordination, Southern peripheral regions face greater difficulties in governance integration and just transition outcomes. The RIE framework advances sustainability transitions theory in three ways: (1) systematically integrating blue economy scholarship into multi-system analysis; (2) theorising regulatory-driven regime coupling as a distinct transition pathway; and (3) foregrounding the constitutive role of physical and digital infrastructures and environmental data systems in shaping value creation, path dependencies, and distributional outcomes. By reframing European sustainability transitions through the lens of the Resource Infrastructure Economy, this article provides a new conceptual lens to understand uneven transition geographies and offers actionable insights for more integrated and just policy coordination across the European Green Deal. Full article