scholarly journals Microbiology challenges and opportunities in the circular economy

Microbiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 167 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin E. O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Resource Efficiency ◽  
Novel Foods ◽  
Biological Resources ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Safe Food ◽  
Micro Organisms

Our knowledge and understanding of micro-organisms have led to the development of safe food, clean water, novel foods, antibiotics, vaccines, healthier plants, animals and soils, and more, which feeds into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The circular economy can contribute to the UN SDGs and micro-organisms are central to circular nutrient cycles. The circular economy as described by the Ellen MacArthur foundation has two halves, i.e. technical and biological. On the technical side, non-biological resources enter manufacturing paths where resource efficiency, renewable energy and design extend the life of materials so that they are more easily reused and recycled. Biological resources exist on the other half of the circular economy. These are used to manufacture products such as bioplastics and paper. The conservation of nature’s stocks, resource efficiency and recycling of materials are key facets of the biological half of the circular economy. Microbes play a critical role in both the biological and technical parts of the circular economy. Microbes are key to a functioning circular economy, where natural resources, including biological wastes, are converted by microbes into products of value and use for society, e.g. biogas, bioethanol, bioplastics, building block chemicals and compost for healthy soils. In more recent times, microbes have also been seen as part of the tool kit in the technical side of the circular economy, where microbial enzymes can degrade plastics and microbes can convert those monomers to value-added products.

scholarly journals Circular economy in clusters' performance evaluation

Equilibrium ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Razminiene
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Regional Growth ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Resource Efficiency ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
Technology Products ◽  
Performance Development ◽  
Medium Enterprises

Research background: The value of clusters in developing advanced technology products and services as well as promoting regional growth is acknowledged by many policymakers and researchers (Lee et al., 2012). Hence, clusters are identified as enablers of the circular economy and resource efficiency in this study. Companies aim to enhance competencies and create competitive advantages in global competition and this can be achieved through pulling from a common and accessible pool of resources, information and demand for innovation which means that companies can profit from belonging to a cluster. Purpose of the article: The main aim of the article is to overview the scientific literature that addresses the circular economy, identify clusters and their role in the circular economy and suggest how small and medium enterprises could engage in a circular economy through clusters' performance development. Methods: Bibliometric literature analysis enables identifying the latest trends in scientific articles regarding a circular economy and clusters. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) allows for composing the scheme of the cluster’s competitive advantage within circular economy. Findings & Value added: The findings suggest that resource efficiency is considered to be one of the most important ambitions and clusters can work as enablers of a circular economy for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), gaining a competitive advantage at the same time. Clusters can encourage and provide conditions in which SMEs would turn to a circular economy. The scheme of Cluster's competitive advantage proposed by the author can help cluster's coordinators, policymakers and all the concerned parties to verify the importance of clusters' involvement in the circular economy.

scholarly journals Advancing the Circular Economy in Public Sector Organisations: Employees’ Perspectives on Practices

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natacha Klein ◽  
Tomás B. Ramos ◽  
Pauline Deutz
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Resource Efficiency ◽  
Public Employees ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Sustainability Research ◽  
Consumption Reduction

AbstractCircular economy (CE) is a concept that is gaining attention as an approach to help accelerate the transition towards sustainability. Research has focused on the adoption of CE practices in the business sector while the adoption within public sector organisations has been relatively overlooked. Examining CE adoption in the public sector through the perceptive of employees is crucial because of their expertise in the organisation where they work. The main aim of this study is to identify what public employees perceive as suitable CE practices for their organisations and their critical role in implementation. As the adoption of CE practices is influenced by social and material configurations, this research has taken a case study approach, focused on the Portuguese Central Public Administration. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with public employees working on CE and sustainability issues, and a complementary analysis was undertaken of governmental reports and legislative documents. The results show that public employees view the existence and potential of CE practices mainly in the area of public procurement but also in resource efficiency and optimisation, dematerialisation and in practices related to the R-hierarchy including reduce and reuse. Both technical-oriented practices aimed to achieve traditional resource efficiency, and human-centred practices targeted at reducing consumption and sharing resources have been identified. This research provides insights into how a specific group of stakeholders envisions CE activities for their sector. Identification of practices for central public sector has the potential to assist decision-makers in the process of defining priorities for CE planning, implementation and monitoring. This study focusing on CE practices in central public sector organisations contributes to the calls for an inclusion of human/socially-based practices centred around consumption reduction, sharing and dematerialisation activities to enhance the transformative and innovative potential of CE.

scholarly journals Second Life of Post-Mining Infrastructure in Light of the Circular Economy and Sustainable Development—Recent Advances and Perspectives

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (22) ◽  
pp. 7551
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Pactwa ◽  
Martyna Konieczna-Fuławka ◽  
Krzysztof Fuławka ◽  
Päivi Aro ◽  
Izabela Jaśkiewicz-Proć ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Underground Mines ◽  
Hard Coal ◽  
Underground Space ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Will Force

Current EU policy will force a significant reduction of hard coal mines in the near future due to environmental restrictions. There are also numerous non-coal underground mines that will be excavated in the next few years. Taking the above into consideration, it is worth starting to plan further steps in terms of reclamation of these facilities. Within this manuscript, both recently used and novel approaches to underground space reclamation have been reviewed. Selected methods of reclamation were analyzed in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, and the results were compared with the effect of a commonly used approaches (i.e., filling or flooding of underground space after mine termination). The analysis has been performed in the scope of sustainable development. Taking into account the opinion of many stakeholder groups and underground facilities, reuse was considered as an action aimed at fulfilling sustainable development goals and the circular economy concept. Based on numerous surveys, the challenges and opportunities have been determined as well. Finally, most perspectives concerning underground mine reclamation, including environmental impact, social acceptance, and profitability have been proposed and described.

scholarly journals Food Waste Biorefinery: Pathway towards Circular Bioeconomy

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1174
Author(s):  
Bahiru Tsegaye ◽  
Swarna Jaiswal ◽  
Amit K. Jaiswal
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Food Waste ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Sustainable Resources ◽  
Platform Chemicals ◽  
A Value ◽  
Development Goals

Food waste biorefineries for the production of biofuels, platform chemicals and other bio-based materials can significantly reduce a huge environmental burden and provide sustainable resources for the production of chemicals and materials. This will significantly contribute to the transition of the linear based economy to a more circular economy. A variety of chemicals, biofuels and materials can be produced from food waste by the integrated biorefinery approach. This enhances the bioeconomy and helps toward the design of more green, ecofriendly, and sustainable methods of material productions that contribute to sustainable development goals. The waste biorefinery is a tool to achieve a value-added product that can provide a better utilization of materials and resources while minimizing and/or eliminating environmental impacts. Recently, food waste biorefineries have gained momentum for the production of biofuels, chemicals, and bio-based materials due to the shifting of regulations and policies towards sustainable development. This review attempts to explore the state of the art of food waste biorefinery and the products associated with it.

scholarly journals Towards Scalable Economic Photovoltaic Potential Analysis Using Aerial Images and Deep Learning

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3800
Author(s):  
Sebastian Krapf ◽  
Nils Kemmerzell ◽  
Syed Khawaja Haseeb Khawaja Haseeb Uddin ◽  
Manuel Hack Hack Vázquez ◽  
Fabian Netzler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Semantic Segmentation ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Aerial Images ◽  
Potential Analysis ◽  
3D Data ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Roof-mounted photovoltaic systems play a critical role in the global transition to renewable energy generation. An analysis of roof photovoltaic potential is an important tool for supporting decision-making and for accelerating new installations. State of the art uses 3D data to conduct potential analyses with high spatial resolution, limiting the study area to places with available 3D data. Recent advances in deep learning allow the required roof information from aerial images to be extracted. Furthermore, most publications consider the technical photovoltaic potential, and only a few publications determine the photovoltaic economic potential. Therefore, this paper extends state of the art by proposing and applying a methodology for scalable economic photovoltaic potential analysis using aerial images and deep learning. Two convolutional neural networks are trained for semantic segmentation of roof segments and superstructures and achieve an Intersection over Union values of 0.84 and 0.64, respectively. We calculated the internal rate of return of each roof segment for 71 buildings in a small study area. A comparison of this paper’s methodology with a 3D-based analysis discusses its benefits and disadvantages. The proposed methodology uses only publicly available data and is potentially scalable to the global level. However, this poses a variety of research challenges and opportunities, which are summarized with a focus on the application of deep learning, economic photovoltaic potential analysis, and energy system analysis.

scholarly journals Towards Sustainable Mobility? The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Romanian Mobile Citizens in Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 4023
Author(s):  
Silvia Marcu
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Sustainable Mobility ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
New Models ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Depth Interviews

Using the case study of Romanians in Spain, this article highlights how the COVID-19 crisis presents both challenges and opportunities when it comes to human mobility and sustainability. Drawing on in-depth interviews with mobile people during the period of lockdown and circulation restrictions, and in accordance with the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the paper advances and contributes to the relevance of sustainability and its impact on people’s mobility in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. I argue that even in the midst of the crisis, sustainable ways may be found to promote and protect human mobility. The paper raises the way sustainability acts as a driver, gains relevance and influence, and contributes to the creation of new models of resilient mobility in times of crisis. The conclusions defend the respect for the SDGs regarding human mobility and emphasise the role of people on the move as sustainable actors learning to overcome distance and the barriers to their mobility during the pandemic.

scholarly journals DigiPrime: Digital Platform for Circular Economy in Cross-Sectorial Sustainable Value Networks

Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Elena Mossali ◽  
Marco Diani ◽  
Marcello Colledani
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Digital Platform ◽  
Sustainable Value ◽  
Value Added Products

Circular Economy is the solution for the current environmental crisis, representing a huge economic opportunity to build new sustainable businesses. However, many barriers need to be faced for its implementation at industrial scale—firstly, the lack of data sharing between the different stakeholders of product value-chains. The DigiPrime project is an EU-funded Innovation Action aimed at developing and demonstrating a digital platform with services able to unlock innovative cross-sectorial business models for the remanufacturing and recycling of target value-added products. In this paper, the concept behind the DigiPrime project is reported, with a particular focus on the construction sector.

The 3 C's of the Circular Economy for Food. A conceptual framework for circular design in the food system

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franco Fassio
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Food System ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Circular Design

Food, the basic connecting unit of all the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, plays a crucial role in the ecological transition towards a circular economic paradigm. This paper takes scientific considerations as a starting point in order to contribute to the definition of a theoretical-operational framework in which to grow the Circular Economy for Food. This is a still-open question in a sector of the circular economy that is emerging as vital to sustainable development. The 3 C's of Capital, Cyclicality and Co-evolution offer a systemic, holistic vision of the food system's role. Within this conceptual framework, the designers can find the main boundaries of the system, within which to express their creativity. The aim must be to avoid damaging relationships with the best supplier of raw material known to humanity (Nature), respecting planetary boundaries and at the same time offering a fair space to civil society.

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