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Nature-Inspired Sustainable Development
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Nature-Inspired Sustainable Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2022) | Viewed by 29174

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Abhishek Tiwary

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering and Sustainable Development, De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK
Interests: engineering sustainability; systems operation management for sustainability; engineering project management; environmental management and policy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The industrial revolution saw humanity moving away from nature over the last two centuries, leading to rampant exploitation of the finite natural resources and severance of our essential ecosystem services. This has posed a global challenge for sustainable development in the 21st century in a largely urban world, where we are now faced with issues of climate change, infrastructure resilience, resource depletion, energy poverty, air/water/soil pollution, etc. Nature-inspired solutions have been considered climate-resilient in terms of enabling resource-efficient technologies (e.g., construction, energy harvesting, manufacturing), as well as offering ecologically and culturally adaptive interventions across different global context.

The Special Issue is dedicated to capturing the growing body of knowledge in the emerging field of nature-inspired/nature-based innovations for sustainable development. Suitable themes within its scope would include (but not be limited to) natural and applied sciences/engineering, architecture, environmental management, design, green project management, public policy, etc.

Dr. Abhishek Tiwary
Guest Editor

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

  • biophilic
  • green energy
  • nature-inspired
  • nature-based solution
  • sustainable development

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 1968 KiB  
Article
Emerging Perspectives on Diverse Nature-Oriented Sustainability Strategies
by Abhishek Tiwary and Neil Brown
Sustainability 2024, 16(2), 881; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020881 - 19 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1305
Abstract
Increasing levels of nature-oriented sustainability strategies (NOSSs) are being recognized as offering solutions to combat climate change at scale, both through transformative infrastructure and autonomous technology innovations. This paper presents a synopsis of the mainstream literature covering the emerging trends from the last [...] Read more.
Increasing levels of nature-oriented sustainability strategies (NOSSs) are being recognized as offering solutions to combat climate change at scale, both through transformative infrastructure and autonomous technology innovations. This paper presents a synopsis of the mainstream literature covering the emerging trends from the last two decades across two broad trajectories of NOSS initiatives—“nature-inspired” (NI)- and “nature-based solution” (NBS)-oriented approaches. The specific scopes of these two approaches have been categorized into disciplinary fields, highlighting their peculiarities and commonalities, followed by an appreciation of their evolutionary trends based on the literature abundance over three distinct time-horizons—pre 2000, 2000–2010, and 2011–2021. We find ambitious levels of sustainability-led developments are driving NOSS initiatives beyond 2010; in particular, the increased level of NI approaches in the field of chemical processing, material structure, and renewable energy. Likewise, there has been rapid growth in NBS approaches in the last decade from a systems perspective, reducing the level of grey infrastructure by offering sustainable alternatives to the ecologically destructive technologies. However, we identify some crucial red herrings to the main-streaming of NOSSs as a ‘true sustainability solution’, such as the inherent challenges in their scaling-up, operation and management, and in ensuring ecologically and culturally adaptive interventions across different global contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Inspired Sustainable Development)
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13 pages, 2825 KiB  
Article
Beyond Nature-Based Rhetorics: A Prospect on the Potentials of Redundancy in Ecology-Oriented Design
by Nieves Mestre, Eduardo Roig and Manuel Almestar
Sustainability 2021, 13(23), 13293; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313293 - 1 Dec 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2888
Abstract
Nature-Based Solutions are defined as infrastructures or systems which are inspired by, supported by, or copied from nature. This biophilic leitmotif has rapidly permeated and been prescribed in many fields, particularly in urban and architectural design, stimulating an invasion of green rhetorics not [...] Read more.
Nature-Based Solutions are defined as infrastructures or systems which are inspired by, supported by, or copied from nature. This biophilic leitmotif has rapidly permeated and been prescribed in many fields, particularly in urban and architectural design, stimulating an invasion of green rhetorics not necessarily founded on genuine ecological performing. In this context, this article explores current gaps in the epistemology and rhetorics of NBS, expanding the field with alternative narratives such as cycle-based design and micro-scalar or process-oriented approaches. The concept of redundancy is here presented as a non-observable, still nature-based principle, already applied in disparate scientific fields such as information theory, cybernetics, or evolutionary biology, and introduced in design fields from a theoretical perspective. Novel applicability of the term will be articulated from design perspectives through various case studies, using a multi-scalar scope and concluding in a tentative taxonomy. Redundancy entails a shift from grammar-based to syntax-based design logics. Morphological redundancy is presented as an upgrade of NBS rhetorics, delivering a more advanced understanding of the hidden choreographies of nature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Inspired Sustainable Development)
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14 pages, 1355 KiB  
Article
Biophilic Design Patterns for Primary Schools
by Rokhshid Ghaziani, Mark Lemon and Paramita Atmodiwirjo
Sustainability 2021, 13(21), 12207; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132112207 - 5 Nov 2021
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 10382
Abstract
Existing frameworks for biophilic design have similar strategies and attributes as useful checklists for designers; however, the focus has been on adults rather than children, and there remains the need for more guidance related to school design by extension. The application of biophilia [...] Read more.
Existing frameworks for biophilic design have similar strategies and attributes as useful checklists for designers; however, the focus has been on adults rather than children, and there remains the need for more guidance related to school design by extension. The application of biophilia would be a design resolution in schools because of its impact on children’s health and well-being, which has been more important since the pandemic started; however, it remains quite unexplored in school design in many countries, including the UK. Biophilic design patterns can be used in school buildings and grounds for greater connectivity between spaces and nature in order to promote children’s well-being. This paper focuses on ten biophilic design patterns under two categories of ‘nature in the space’ and ‘natural analogues.’ This study presents the findings of case studies in various countries. The analysis focuses on the manifestations of biophilia to inform the application of biophilic design patterns for primary schools. Finally, this paper suggests how primary school children could be involved in a co-design process in order to evaluate biophilic design patterns. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Inspired Sustainable Development)
25 pages, 1154 KiB  
Article
Strategies for Building Environmental Transparency and Accountability
by Christina W. Y. Wong, Chee Yew Wong, Sakun Boon-itt and Ailie K. Y. Tang
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9116; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169116 - 14 Aug 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 10912
Abstract
How do nature-inspired enterprises be accountable to the natural environment formed? Natural environment is one of the basic elements of the business. Firms should be sensitive to environment, so they should develop environmental transparency and accountability. This paper develops a framework to understand [...] Read more.
How do nature-inspired enterprises be accountable to the natural environment formed? Natural environment is one of the basic elements of the business. Firms should be sensitive to environment, so they should develop environmental transparency and accountability. This paper develops a framework to understand how environmental transparency and stakeholder governance create environmental accountability, following an “action cycle” informed by four accountability criteria—identifiability, awareness of monitoring, expectations of evaluation, and social pressure. The paper analyzes the environmental transparency practices of 50 companies listed in the annual Best Global Green Brands report, the Global RepTrak 100, and The Climate A-List of the CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project). The results show that exemplar firms improve the “what”, “how”, and “how much” factors in terms of environmental information to identify what will be disseminated to whom when the information follows the criteria of accountability, which allow stakeholders to effectively adopt a governance role. This paper provides a 2 × 2 matrix for firms and stakeholders to better understand how accountability leadership is driven by environmental transparency, stakeholder governance and accountability criteria. The practical implications of environmental transparency are highlighted, specifically in terms of strategies for building accountability to meet the growing expectations of transparency and accountability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Inspired Sustainable Development)
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Review

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16 pages, 2854 KiB  
Review
Biological Concepts as a Source of Inspiration for Efficiency, Consistency, and Sufficiency
by Olga Speck, Martin Möller, Rainer Grießhammer and Thomas Speck
Sustainability 2022, 14(14), 8892; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148892 - 20 Jul 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2190
Abstract
Sustainable development is a global challenge addressed by the 2030 Agenda with internationally adopted goals. The consideration of the three major sustainability strategies of efficiency, consistency, and sufficiency can guide us toward more sustainable policy approaches, product manufacturing, service offers, and consumption lifestyles. [...] Read more.
Sustainable development is a global challenge addressed by the 2030 Agenda with internationally adopted goals. The consideration of the three major sustainability strategies of efficiency, consistency, and sufficiency can guide us toward more sustainable policy approaches, product manufacturing, service offers, and consumption lifestyles. We select the growth form “liana”, which has evolved several times independently, to identify traits of lianas and general biological concepts derived therefrom. Even though sustainability is an anthropocentric approach and does not exist in biology, we can attribute biological concepts to sustainability strategies. The biological concepts of lightweight construction, modularity, function-related tissue formation, and trade-off can be attributed to efficiency; the concepts of zero waste, best fit, and damage repair to consistency; and the change of growth form and the concept of less is more and good enough to sufficiency. We discuss the analogies between parasitic architecture and the “structural parasitism” of lianas on host trees and between polymers with switchable autonomous properties and ontogenetic changes in the lianescent growth form. Efficiency can be analyzed quantitatively and consistency qualitatively, whereas sufficiency, as an aspect of human consumption patterns, cannot be mathematically measured. Biological concepts can thus serve as a source of inspiration for improving sustainability in the technosphere. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Inspired Sustainable Development)
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