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Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2024) | Viewed by 22773

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Prof. Dr. Xueting Zeng

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Guest Editor

Center for Environmental, Economics and Law, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China
Interests: water resources management; risk analysis of population–resource–environment systems; flood control; water trading; sustainable development; green policy; circular economy
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Dr. Lirong Liu

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Guest Editor

Center for Environment and Sustainability, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK
Interests: clean technology; policy development; computable general equilibrium model development and application; inpu–output/supply chain/ecological network/ material flow analysis; system optimization/partial equilibrium models
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Cong Chen

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Guest Editor

Donlinks School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: energy economy; environmental economy and energy–environment–economy system optimization modeling; policy research

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the context of urbanization, the economy has achieved rapid development, while the extensive high-input economic development mode (which includes resource demand and energy consumption) and serious pollution have required new manners of production and technique improvement. On the one hand, traditional resource-dependent production and the uncontrolled scaling up of production leads to excessive resource consumption. Meanwhile, a failure to reuse resources increases the risk of resource depletion, environmental degradation, natural disasters, social stability, and economic stagnation. On the other hand, extensive consumption and conspicuous unsustainability can lead to resource waste and environmental pollution, resulting in huge environmental losses and treatment costs. According to a reported released by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), economic losses caused by human activities reached about USD 6.6 trillion in 2008 and are expected in increase to USD 28.6 in 2050. To reverse these situations, the government plays a leading and exemplary role in technological advancement, environmental governance, legal support, the encouragement of a circular economy, and the formulation of development plans. Among them, a circular economy is an effective approach to support economic development based on resource reuse, recycling, and waste reduction and can transform the traditional "resource–product–waste" mode of economic development into a "resource–product–waste–recycle–product" mode of development. It emphasizes that the traditional direction of linear growth would be replaced by circular development, which encourages effective resource consumption and sustainable environmental protection, achieving greater economic, social, and environmental benefits . At the same time, the circular economy can be supported by life cycle theory, which encompasses the use of administrative intervention, the use of legal economic and technical control, the reform mode, and the principles of reducing, reuse, and recycle.

The main aim of this Special Issue on “Advancing the circular economy—a path to sustainability” is to better understand the current issues and challenges of sustainable development as well as the solutions and improvements that can be made to achieve green development. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Xueting Zeng
Dr. Lirong Liu
Dr. Cong Chen
Guest Editors

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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.

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Keywords

green policy and management
circular economy development and corresponding influencing factors
technological progress and sustainable development
industrial ecology and eco-industrialization
harmonious development of "population-resources-environment"
green consumer behaviour
“3R” in resources consumption and the corresponding efficiency of resources use.

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 2023 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Connecting the Computer Skills with General Performance of Companies—An Eastern European Study

by Carmen Elena Stoenoiu and Lorentz Jäntschi

Sustainability 2024, 16(22), 10024; https://doi.org/10.3390/su162210024 - 17 Nov 2024

Viewed by 474

Abstract

In the current era, the economic model that measures the dependence of the training offered by companies to their employees on certain variables allows for identifying the steps taken on account of digital transformations, given the fact that companies want to be competitive, to develop sustainably and the positive effect to it spreads globally. However, how digital transformation contributes remains unclear in both the literature and practice. Five descriptors of information on the economy in relation to the digital economy were extracted from the Eurostat database, and data on eight Eastern European countries in the period 2012–2020 served as primary data in the analysis. A generalized linear model was used as a statistical tool to infer the data series. Following the statistical regression analysis, it was found that the variable measuring the share of companies that offered training for the development/improvement of information and communication technology (ICT) skills is influenced by the combined effect of several other variables: ‘country’, ‘country × year’, ‘country × share of ICT personnel in total employees’, year × “share of ICT sector in GDP”. Based on the results, we noticed that the studied countries are included in two groups with distinct features, which influence the obtained GLZ model, showing the increase in the dependency effect or, on the contrary, the decrease in this effect. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability)

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18 pages, 2904 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Evaluation of the Environmental Impact of Logistics Activities: A Case Study of a Logistics Centre

by Constantin-Adrian Popescu, Ana Maria Ifrim, Catalin Ionut Silvestru, Tiberiu Gabriel Dobrescu and Catalin Petcu

Sustainability 2024, 16(10), 4061; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16104061 - 13 May 2024

Viewed by 2695

Abstract

Lately, the logistics sector has seen accelerated development, which has led to general economic growth, but, at the same time, it has caused considerable environmental damage due to the excessive consumption and emissions that are currently affecting society at large. Since logistics activities are considered some of the most polluting economic activities, this present article aims to present the advantages of implementing the green logistics concept. To this purpose, the activity of a logistics centre in Romania was analysed, with a focus on the greenhouse gases (GHGs) produced as a consequence of this economic activity, and its carbon footprint was calculated according to the GHG Protocol. Although this global standard is based on an integrated approach to how GHG emissions are calculated, there is limited evidence about its degree of implementation by companies. The results of the analysis revealed that the consumption of energy and fuel by the logistics sector has a significant impact on the environment. This impact is maintained, albeit at a smaller scale, even if the technology is replaced and the equipment used by companies to carry out their activities is increasingly performant. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability)

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16 pages, 4198 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainable Economy: The Eco-Branding of an Industrial Region in Kazakhstan

by Lyudmila Davidenko, Nurzhanat Sherimova, Saule Kunyazova, Maral Amirova and Ansagan Beisembina

Sustainability 2024, 16(1), 413; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16010413 - 3 Jan 2024

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2429

Abstract

In the sustainable economy, consumer preferences are gradually beginning to prioritize environmentally friendly products and services. A sustainable economy is directly linked to the growth of consumer welfare and the environmental culture. The success of environmental projects is largely determined by approaches to the management of complex interconnected objects, which operate in developed industrial regions. In this regard, we formulate the purpose of this study, which is to generalize approaches to and to improve the mechanisms of the ecological branding of the industrial complex of a region through conscious ESG transformation. For this purpose, we have studied the statistics and principles of the management systems of Kazakhstani companies and their stakeholders. The focus was on the Pavlodar industrial region, where metallurgical production, petrochemicals, the agro-industrial sector, the banking sector, and logistics hubs are developed. The vision and the mechanisms that can influence the development of the export potential of products with an “ecological brand” were studied. A survey of export-oriented organizations helped to identify the behavioral attributes of the “new generation eco-consumer”, namely, a conscious desire to reduce the negative impact of production and economic activities on the environment. The theoretical significance of this study helps to reveal the influence of the ecological principles of the organization of modern production on the speed of transition to green technologies. Its practical significance is seen in the formation of a system for measuring the level of readiness of companies to promote the ecological branding of a region’s industry outside its country. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability)

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20 pages, 497 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on the Rural Environmental Governance and Interaction Effects of Farmers under the Perspective of Circular Economy—Evidence from Three Provinces of China

by Yijia Wang, Senwei Huang and Jia Liu

Sustainability 2023, 15(17), 13233; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151713233 - 4 Sep 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1407

Abstract

As an essential subject of rural environmental governance, farmers’ environmental governance behavior directly affects the level and efficiency of rural environmental governance. In traditional rural society, the characteristics of “acquaintance society”, “circle doctrine”, and “clan society” have led to farmers’ behaviors being influenced and constrained by their surrounding social support and social relations. Therefore, the interaction between farmers will affect the effectiveness of rural environmental governance, and the interaction effect will also affect the implementation of policies in rural environmental governance. In the strategic context of the policy of “building a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in” and “promoting green development and harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature” put forward by the 20th National Congress, we follow the principles of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle from the perspective of circular economy, taking farmers as our research subject. We take the behavior of domestic garbage disposal as an example and, relying on the National Social Science Foundation project, use field research data and refer to neighbor groups and neighboring village groups. We use the Manski model to test the interaction effect of the two groups, analyze the interaction between individual farmers and the interaction between neighboring villages, and, finally, prove that there is an endogenous interaction effect and a situational interaction effect between the neighbor group and neighboring villages. Endogenous interaction effects, contextual interaction effects, and association effects exist between neighbor groups, while only contextual interaction effects and association effects exist between neighboring village groups. The above conclusions provide a policy reference for rural household waste and environmental management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability)

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18 pages, 286 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study of Farmers’ Willingness to Participate in Environmental Governance Based on Recycling, Reduction and Resourcing

by Jia Liu, Senwei Huang and Yijia Wang

Sustainability 2023, 15(14), 10850; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151410850 - 11 Jul 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1460

Abstract

In order to establish a green and low-carbon agricultural economic system based on the principles of recycling, reduction and resource utilization, to promote a comprehensive green transformation of the economic development and to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, this article examines the farmers’ willingness to participate in rural environmental governance. Through a questionnaire survey in the Fujian, Anhui and Shanxi provinces, this article explores the influence of homogeneous and heterogeneous relationships in social networks on the farmers’ willingness to participate in rural environmental governance using a logit model and tries to reveal the deeper mechanisms. The results show that: (1) heterogeneous relationships have a significant positive effect on farmers’ participation in rural environmental governance, but homogeneous relationships do not have a significant effect. (2) The larger the size of the social network, the weaker the farmers’ willingness to participate in rural environmental governance. (3) Age and education level have significant effects on willingness to participate. The older the age, the weaker the willingness to participate; the higher the education level, the stronger the willingness to participate. (4) The larger the number of family members, the stronger the farmers’ willingness to participate in environmental governance. (5) The subjective cognitive status of farmers also has an important influence on their willingness to participate. The more environmental knowledge is acquired, the stronger the willingness to participate in rural environmental governance. Therefore, to promote rural environmental management, there is an urgent need to keep modern farmers on rural land and to make the countryside a beautiful space for living and working with complete living functions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability)

17 pages, 3451 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Analysis of Legislative Support Effect for Circular Economy Development in the Context of “Double Carbon” Goal in China

by Ruisi Gao, Hongfang Han, Xueting Zeng, Xinyu Zhang and Xuejing Yang

Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10166; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310166 - 27 Jun 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1320

Abstract

In the requirement of the “double carbon” goal, China has confronted the lack of a driving force for the low-carbon transformation of socioeconomic development, which requires a comprehensive law and strategy support system for supporting a circular economy. In this study, a framework associated with a multi-level quantitative index system associated with legislative support for a circular economy (MILC) through the entropy TOPSIS method was developed. It can not only reflect the legal support for a circular economy in four areas based on the “3R” principle, but also respond to the process of environmental law improvement dynamically. The legislative support effect can be applied and analyzed in China’s circular economy for the period from 2009 to 2022, which can respond to the process of legal improvement on the environment dynamically. The obtained results show that China’s circular economy and its rule-of-law guarantee system are still facing many challenges, such as the low systematic degree of legalization for industrial development, unmatched supporting legal system, and backward concepts and consciousness of circular economy legalization. Various suggestions according to the identification of the importance of a legal support system for the circular economy were obtained, which can not only encourage a reduction in resource consumption and carbon reduction from the view of systematic legalization, but also promote socioeconomic transformation to match the goal of “double carbon”. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability)

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21 pages, 1129 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study on the Spatial and Temporal Evolution of High-Quality Development in Nine Provinces of the Yellow River Basin

by Jing Zhang, Yang Liu, Cuicui Liu, Su Guo and Junfu Cui

Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6975; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086975 - 21 Apr 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1566

Abstract

High-quality development (HQD) is a positive initiative in China to promote sustainable development. Promoting HQD in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) is a major national strategy for China. The YRB is an important ecological barrier and economic zone in China, which comprises nine provinces, including Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the HQD of the nine provinces in the YRB. It clarifies the basic connotation of HQD and constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system for HQD according to the principles of comprehensiveness, distinctiveness, openness, refinement and feasibility. The comprehensive evaluation index system includes four dimensions: economic development, technology innovation, society and livelihood, and ecological security, which contain 28 secondary indicators. The combined method of coupling development and entropy weight termed the “technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS)” was selected to make a comprehensive evaluation of the HQD of the nine provinces in the YRB from the time dimension and the space dimension, respectively. It was found that there are still problems, such as the differentiation of HQD, the low comprehensive development degree (CDD), and the low development coupling degree (DCD) in some provinces. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability)

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14 pages, 1217 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Entrepreneurial Initiatives, Education and Culture: Hubs for Enterprise Innovations and Economic Development

by Svetlana Zemlyak, Olga Gusarova and Galina Khromenkova

Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 4016; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054016 - 22 Feb 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3750

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of entrepreneurial initiatives, entrepreneurial education, and entrepreneurial culture on enterprise innovation and economic development. The research was driven by the fact that entrepreneurship is a remarkable force which drives the enterprise growth, societal development, and economic development of a nation. The research adopted the social exchange theory and the economic theory as the basis of the literature. Primary data were used, collected from people engaged in entrepreneurship in Russia. The study used quantitative research method, where empirical data were analyzed using Structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings of the study indicated that entrepreneurship initiatives, entrepreneurship education, and entrepreneurship culture have a significant effect on enterprise innovation. However, only entrepreneurship culture was found to have a direct effect on economic development, but entrepreneurial education and initiatives have indirect effects through enterprise innovation. Enterprise innovation was found to have significant effect on economic development. The research recommended that stakeholder should emphasize creating an entrepreneurial culture to encourage enterprise innovation and economic development. The search also advocates for providing entrepreneurs with the resources, support, and incentives to start businesses in addition to adopting policies that enable and facilitate enterprise innovation, both domestically and internationally, to boost their economic development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability)

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17 pages, 2772 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on the Coupling and Coordination of Systems of Citizenization, Regional Economy, and Public Service in China from the Perspective of Sustainable Development

by Mingzhu Qi, Peng Miao, Ya Wang and Yuge Song

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12916; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912916 - 10 Oct 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1615

Abstract

Based on the perspective of sustainable development, this paper introduces the circular economy dimension into the economic system, the ecological environmental protection dimension into the public service system, and constructs index evaluation systems for citizenization, regional economy, and public service, respectively. Then, the paper establishes a coupling coordination model to study the mutual relationship between citizenization, regional economy, and public service at provincial levels, so as to promote the sustainable development of population, economic society, and resource environment. The main research conclusions are as follows: (1) the level of citizenization is generally low, and the dimensions of income and social security are weak; (2) the development trend of circular economy in the eastern regions is better than that in other regions; (3) the “Citizenization, Regional Economy, Public Service” System has an overall low coupling and coordination degree and it shows a trend of “high in the east and low in the west”; (4) the contradictory characteristics between the systems vary greatly by province. Most of the provinces’ systems of the regional economy and public service lag behind their citizenization and some developed provinces have a lag in their citizenization systems. In order to promote a high-quality coordinated development between the systems of citizenization, regional economy, and public service, a sustainable development path that adapts to local conditions must be sought. It should focus on improving the social security level of rural-to-urban migrants, establishing a circular economy, and strengthening the construction of an ecological environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability)

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15 pages, 633 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of the Sharing Economy in the Context of Smart Cities: Social Performance

by Anna Veretennikova and Kseniya Kozinskaya

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12200; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912200 - 26 Sep 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2248

Abstract

The sharing economy (SE) provides new opportunities to solve social, economic, and environmental problems, as well as increasing resource efficiency and releasing underutilized assets. However, social aspects of the sharing economy remain to be fully appraised. The present study aims to develop and apply a technique for assessing the sharing economy in the context of improving the social performance of smart cities. When considering social performance, we examine the relationship between the development of SE services and the public goods sector, as well as the potential of the sharing economy for improving the quality of life of citizens. A comparative analysis of approaches used to evaluate the sharing economy concluded that the social and environmental significance of the sharing economy can be most appropriately considered at the level of cities. The proposed technique is based on the use of the Smart City Index and Sharing Economy Index databases, data on collaborative economy platforms presented by Eurostat. The methodology used to assess the sharing economy comprises three stages: substantiation of the selected indicators for assessing SE; calculation of the presented integral index of the sharing economy; and construction of a matrix of indices of the sharing economy. At the first stage, correlation analysis was used; at the second stage, the TOPSIS system analysis method was used; and at the third stage we used graphical analysis. As a result, a ranking of 31 European cities was compiled in terms of the level of development of the sharing economy. It is shown that the sharing economy has a greater impact on public goods in cities with lower rates of economic development. In addition, significant changes in the 2020 ranking occurred due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is hoped that the obtained results will contribute to the development both of sharing economy methodologies and the urban environment by supporting sharing services. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability)

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14 pages, 388 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Can Emissions Trading System Aid Industrial Structure Upgrading?—A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on 249 Prefecture-Level Cities in China

by Chunxiao Li, Jingjing Xu and Luxiaohe Zhang

Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 10471; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710471 - 23 Aug 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1790

Abstract

Emissions trading system (ETS) is a market-based policy tool that essentially provides economic compensation for corporate environmental measures. The Chinese government implemented pilot emissions trading in 2007. In order to evaluate the effect of the policy, we conducted a quasi-natural experiment to collect the data of 249 prefecture-level cities in China from 2001 to 2020 and applied the difference-in-difference method to explore the impact of ETS on regional industrial structure. The results show that the implementation of ETS can promote the upgrading of regional industrial structure but can hinder the rationalization of the upgrading. The results of regional heterogeneity regression suggest that the effects of ETS pilots on industrial structure upgrading in three regions of China are significantly different, with the strongest one being the western region, followed by the central and eastern regions. Finally, we put forward some policy proposals in terms of technological innovations, implementation of ETS in different regions and ETS improvement. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing the Circular Economy—The Path to Sustainability)

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