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It is generally accepted that in order to preserve the sustainability of resource utilization worldwide, it is imperative to maximize the positive environmental effects and minimize the negative ones in agriculture. To assess the impact of agricultural ecosystems on environmental footprints in China, this study used a time-series econometric approach spanning the period from 1990 to 2020. The suitability of the variables was confirmed through stationarity tests, followed by the application of the Johansen technique. The Johansen technique's findings showed that long-run co-integration is present in both exogenous and endogenous variables. Moreover, the bound testing technique with the ARDL model was applied to validate the long-run results. The findings revealed a positive correlation between agricultural ecological footprints and factors such as agricultural land, energy consumption, fertilizer usage, and agricultural employment with short-run elasticity. In the long run, agricultural land, energy consumption, and fertilizer usage were all identified as having a positive impact on the ecological footprint. Consequently, the agricultural ecosystem faces strain due to stringent agricultural practices aimed at enhancing production. The integration of modern technology becomes imperative to reduce carbon emissions, promote environmentally-friendly industries, and enhance the nation's land bio-capacity, thereby mitigating the strain on the ecological ecosystem. This study offers valuable insights for academia, policymakers, researchers, and planners in formulating a comprehensive strategy and vision for establishing sustainable food production and fostering favorable environmental conditions, particularly pertinent to China and with broader applicability to the global context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a rapid increase in demand for higher quality and healthier diets in less developed regions such as rural areas. Given the large disparity in nutrition levels between urban and rural areas, such demands are justified and should be pursued. However, little attention has been paid to the environmental consequences of rural diet change and the solutions that follow. With its large scale of rural population and the rapid development of rural areas due to the implementation of Rural Revitalization National Strategy, China is taken as a typical example to explore the environmental impacts of rural dietary improvement. A framework for evaluating water footprints, carbon footprints, and ecological footprints is established, and four scenarios are presented based on increased rural income and a reduction in urban-rural imbalance. The findings revealed a significant improvement in diet quality with increasing income, decreasing urban-rural disparities, and compensating for insufficient food consumption (total deviation decreases from 69% to an average of 38%). However, such improvements would significantly increase the environmental burden, with water footprints ranging from 24% to 71%, carbon footprints ranging from 5% to 46%, and ecological footprints ranging from 20% to 122%. The primary reason is increased consumption of dairy products, meat, and aquatic products. As a result, when developing national dietary guidelines, environmental indicators should be considered alongside nutrition and health metrics. ● Demands for a more nutritional diet is increasing in developing countries. ● Dietary shifting is associated with income increase and urban-rural integration. ● Dietary transformation imposes high environmental burdens in scenarios analyzed. ● Environmental consideration should be integrated with nutrition improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern‐day firms are under extreme pressure from diverse stakeholders to integrate environmentalism, mainly sustainable, social, and environmental ingenuities like biodiversity initiatives, into their business strategy. Collaborative arrangements in the form of business groups can positively influence sustainable development and environmental ingenuities by adhering to environmental policies and regulations and pursuing environmental orientation as they have a higher political or social visibility. However, such collaborations may negatively influence ecological and carbon footprints as their stronger political legitimacy means that they are less worried about undertaking legitimation activities in the drive toward environmental protection and restoration, such as enhanced sustainable social and environmental performance. This paper adds to the emerging conflicting business strategy and environment literature to resolve whether corporate's collaborative actions protect the environment or further deteriorate it in the form of increased or decreased sustainable social and environmental performance. Using a large sample of 21,086 firm‐year observations from 2010 to 2018 in China (the world's biggest polluter), we find a negative and significant relationship between corporate's collaborative actions and sustainable social and environmental performance, implying that such collaborative arrangements have worse sustainable social and environmental performance than non‐collaborative (individual) firms. The findings highlight vital guidelines in framing stratagems about ecological protection and restoration and effectively improving the environmental footprints of the firms. Our results constitute the interests of policymakers and controllers concerned with evaluating initiatives pertaining to ecological protection and sustainable development among the collaboratively managed enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To examine the association of adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) with Environmental Footprints (EFPs) among women of childbearing age in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Methods: Data belonging to a nationally representative sample of 482 women (19–50 years) were derived from a previous survey in the UAE. In face-to-face interviews, participants completed questionnaires addressing sociodemographic, physical activity, and dietary intake characteristics; the latter assessed using a multiple pass 24-h recall. The composite Mediterranean (c-MED) index was used to examine the adherence to the MD. Metrics for the EFPs (water use, energy use, and GHG emissions) were calculated using Life Cycle Analyses. Descriptive statistics and linear regressions were used in data analysis. Results: In the study sample, the distribution of the c-MED scores was skewed to the right, indicating a low adherence to the MD. The lowest contributions to the total c-MED score were observed for legumes (2.9%) and olive oil (1.8%). The EFPs associated with food consumption per 1000 kcal were: water use: 1256.89 ± 544.95 L/day; energy use: 18.01 ± 7.85 MJ/day, and GHG: 2.46 ± 1.46 kg CO2 eq/day. After adjustment for age, energy intake, and potential confounders, being adherent to the MD was associated with 540.57 [95% CI (− 726.6; − 354.54)] units decrease in water use and 0.94 units decrease in GHG emissions [95% CI (− 1.45; − 0.43)]. Conclusions: The findings of this study revealed an inverse association between adherence to the MD and EFPs. As such, the MD may represent a promising dietary strategy to improve health outcomes and reduce the environmental impact. Public health programs addressing the low adherence to the MD among women of childbearing age in the UAE are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prime objective of this research is to explore the impacts of import and export diversification and renewable energy on environmental footprints. In doing so, the authors employ the data of trade diversification, income inequality, renewable energy, and ecological footprints for 17 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries covering the period of 1995–2019. In econometric framework, the authors use two baseline empirical models based on key indicators such as trade (exports and imports) diversification index, income inequality, renewable energy, and globalization. The empirical analysis from both specifications suggests a cointegrating relation between the key variables of interest. The Long-run empirical estimates from FMOLS, and DOLS methods indicate that income inequality and import diversification increase ecological issues while globalization and exports diversification abate it. Further analysis through Granger causality highlights unilateral causal relationships running from renewable energy consumption to imports diversification, and from ecological footprint to imports diversification. The conclusions of this study stress the importance of harmonic policies, synchronization in trade, energy and resource consumption in achieving sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A solar cooling system with an optimized air-cooled double-effect water/LiBr absorption machine is proposed as a sustainable alternative to meet cooling demands in dry hot climates. This system allows eliminating the cooling towers in those regions of the planet where water is scarce. This work analyses the environmental benefits of this air-cooled system, as well as its environmental footprints, compared to a solar water-cooled single effect. In this regard, a methodology has been applied to calculate the annual saving in water consumption produced in a case study: a hospital located in Almería, in South of Spain. Furthermore, the reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions is also quantified since this machine can be driven by solar energy and with higher efficiency than those of single effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource scarcity poses an increasing threat to the supply security of modern economies. Some grand challenges ahead are the limits to agricultural expansion and the geologic scarcity of metals. To better understand the drivers behind land and metal depletion, footprint-type indicators are gaining importance. Such indicators, however, fail to differentiate between vastly different degrees of resource availability across regions. Using crop suitability areas and metal reserve base data, we calculate scarcity-weighted land and metal footprints for the major economies with the EXIOBASE global multi-regional input-output model. Scarcity-weighting causes a significant reordering of the global rankings of countries for both land and metal footprints. Land scarcity focuses mostly on cereals (∼54% from the total agricultural land used) and oil crops (∼15%), the former being notably affected by water scarcity issues in Asia and the Middle East. Metal scarcity focuses on copper ores (∼69%) and iron (∼11%), the former being a globally scarce metal impacting multiple economies. The large impact of scarcity-weighting suggests that, while non-weighted resource footprints are a valid proxy of resource use, these are not always aligned with further implications of resource depletion and supply security. In this sense, scarcity-weighting can offer an initial overview of those countries where analyses at finer scales may be more valuable. Our results also show that international trade is a major driver of land and metal depletion in some developing regions. This highlights the intersection of environmental justice and globalization, as the burden of resource depletion often falls into poorer regions which critically rely on exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, a large portion of grain production is funneled into animal feed despite widespread hunger and undernutrition. In the present work we: (i) estimated the area, water and carbon footprints of animal-source proteins (AP) obtained from intensive farming systems and compared them with those from producing an equivalent amount of plant-source proteins (PP); (ii) postulated a set of straightforward hypotheses to recover environmental resources by cutting down a surplus in the per capita protein intake from three representative regions where intensive animal farming systems account for a great share of animal food production. Our major findings revealed that AP from intensive farming were approximately 2.4 to 33 more expensive in terms of area and water demand and 2.4 to 240 more pollutant in terms of greenhouse gas emissions when compared with PP. Environmental recoveries varied widely according to the hypothesized scenarios, but even the lowest estimates suggested remarkable results. Whether additional proteins supply would be required, crops with large protein content as peas, chickpeas, soybeans, and lupins could help to meet food security, while better compromise between dietary habits and environmental protection could be reached in rich countries by a moderate consumption of meat produced with non-feed grain systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Southern people with high PCDI have the highest EFP and GHG emissions (GHGe). • Northern people with low PCID have the lowest EFP and GHGe. • The meat over-consumption and milk under-consumption in China are severe. • EFP and GHGe were related with geographical locations (GL) and economic indicators. • GL showed higher correlations with EFP and GHGe than indirect economic indicators. A sustainable diet is widely recognized as an effective way to solve environmental and healthy dilemmas. Due to economy improvement, food consumption is undergoing a dietary transition toward more animal-based products. However, very few studies explored how geographical locations are correlated with dietary environmental footprints. Here, we quantified the per capita ecological footprint (EFP) and Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Chinese people's food consumption during the 2015 to 2020 period. Our results showed that the southern residents with high per capita disposable income (PCDI) showed the highest EFP (0.596 ha) and GHG emissions (1946 kgCO 2 eq), and the northern residents with low PCDI showed the lowest EFP (0.368 ha) and GHG emissions (1260 kgCO 2 eq). The overconsumption of meat is severe in China, and southern high PCDI residents annually consumed 116.7% more than they need. The EFP and GHG emissions were significantly related to geographical locations (i.e., southern and northern areas), direct economic indicators (i.e., PCDI and food expenditure), and indirect economic indicators (i.e., urban and rural status, and East-Central-West areas) (all p < 0.01). We also showed that though not significant, the correlation coefficient between geographical locations and EFP (r = 0.52) exceeded the coefficient between direct economic indicators and EFP (r = 0.44/0.48), while both coefficients mentioned above were significantly higher than the coefficient between indirect economic indicators and EFP (r = 0.32/0.31). These findings suggest that, besides economic indicators, more attention should be paid to the geographical locations and the related dietary cultures to reduce the environmental impacts not only in China but also in other countries with distinct regional differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing understanding of the biophysical processes that regulate the stability of the Earth-system, yet human pressures on the planet continue to increase rapidly. Here, recent advances in defining Earth-system thresholds using the planetary boundaries framework are translated down to national and sub-national levels. A set of 10 indicators is developed in a biophysical accounting framework that links the sustainability of resource flows from the biosphere to final consumption. The indicator set includes three measures of physical stocks, three measures of aggregate resource consumption, and four indicators of sustainable scale. The four scale indicators are ratios of (i) cumulative carbon footprint relative to carbon budget, (ii) nutrient use relative to biogeochemical boundaries, (iii) blue water consumption relative to monthly basin-level availability, and (iv) land footprint relative to biocapacity. Taken together, the indicators measure how close high-consuming societies are to meeting the conditions of a “steady-state economy”, defined here as an economy with non-growing physical stocks and flows maintained within shares of planetary boundaries. The framework is applied over a 15-year period to the economies of Canada and Spain, along with two sub-national regions (Nova Scotia and Andalusia). Nova Scotia is the only study site experiencing stable or decreasing biophysical stocks and flows. None of the study sites are consuming resources within their shares of all four planetary boundaries. Overall, the set of indicators provides guidance for prioritizing which environmental pressures need to decline (and by how much) for societies to be more effective stewards of Earth-system stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental or 'ecological' footprints have been widely used in recent years as indicators of resource consumption and waste absorption presented in terms of biologically productive land area [in global hectares (gha)] required per capita with prevailing technology. In contrast, 'carbon footprints' are the amount of carbon (or carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions for such activities in units of mass or weight (like kilograms per functional unit), but can be translated into a component of the environmental footprint (on a gha basis). The carbon and environmental footprints associated with the world production of liquid biofuels have been computed for the period 2010-2050. Estimates of future global biofuel production were adopted from the 2011 International Energy Agency ( IEA) 'technology roadmap' for transport biofuels. This suggests that, although first generation biofuels will dominate the market up to 2020, advanced or second generation biofuels might constitute some 75% of biofuel production by 2050. The overall environmental footprint was estimated to be 0.29 billion (bn) gha in 2010 and is likely to grow to around 2.57 bn gha by 2050. It was then disaggregated into various components: bioproductive land, built land, carbon emissions, embodied energy, materials and waste, transport, and water consumption. This component-based approach has enabled the examination of the Manufactured and Natural Capital elements of the 'four capitals' model of sustainability quite broadly, along with specific issues (such as the linkages associated with the so-called energy-land-water nexus). Bioproductive land use was found to exhibit the largest footprint component (a 48% share in 2050), followed by the carbon footprint (23%), embodied energy (16%), and then the water footprint (9%). Footprint components related to built land, transport and waste arisings were all found to account for an insignificant proportion to the overall environmental footprint, together amounting to only about 2% [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the failure to implement a rather sophisticated Excel-based environmental assessment tool, environmental load profile (ELP) in the Swedish construction industry, the City of Stockholm further developed a simplified version focusing on materials to make the tool user friendly and simple, aiming at educating stakeholders in the design phase of building construction. This study evaluated whether this simplified ELP of building structures (ELP-s) can be used directly or modified for use as a simple standard model for calculating the environmental footprint of building structures. ELP-s was compared with the two leading commercial LCA softwares, GaBi and SimaPro, based on two reference buildings: (i) a concrete and (ii) a wooden building, in order to examine the importance of material selection and the simplification of the tool. The results showed that the estimated energy footprint obtained using ELP-s was close in value to that produced by GaBi and SimaPro, but that carbon footprint was much lower with ELP-s. This great deviation in carbon footprint can be explained by the lower GHG emissions intensity per unit energy in Sweden compared with the world average or European average, the major data sources on which estimations in GaBi and SimaPro are based. These results indicate the importance of exercising care when applying commercial software tools to a specific situation in a specific country. They also indicate that the model should fit the purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution presents the selected categories of environmental footprints related to the planetary boundaries and threats to human security. The analysis covers the footprint family of indicators that usually consists of ecological, carbon or more precisely greenhouse gas and water footprints and also sometimes the energy footprint. The other assessed footprints that are important for ecosystem health in regard to water, health, food, and land and species security are nitrogen, phosphorus, biodiversity and land footprints, which have already transgressed the planetary boundaries and are therefore outside the safe operating space. The importance of the various footprints is discussed and the simultaneous analysis of footprints is emphasised as a major direction of research and practice. The comprehensive set of environmental impacts, e.g. set of presented footprints in this contribution, should be considered and should incorporate the burdening and unburdening concept from the life cycle perspective. Some applications of the presented environmental footprints are offered, and conclusions and remarks provided for future observation. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While in recent years both environmental footprints and planetary boundaries have gained tremendous popularity throughout the ecological and environmental sciences, their relationship remains largely unexplored. By investigating the roots and developments of environmental footprints and planetary boundaries, this paper challenges the isolation of the two research fields and provides novel insights into the complementary use of them. Our analysis demonstrates that knowledge of planetary boundaries improves the policy relevance of environmental footprints by providing a set of consensus-based estimates of the regenerative and absorptive capacity at the global scale and, in reverse, that the planetary boundaries framework benefits from well-grounded footprint models which allow for more accurate and reliable estimates of human pressure on the planet's environment. A framework for integration of environmental footprints and planetary boundaries is thus proposed. The so-called footprint–boundary environmental sustainability assessment framework lays the foundation for evolving environmental impact assessment to environmental sustainability assessment aimed at measuring the sustainability gap between current magnitudes of human activities and associated capacity thresholds. As a first attempt to take advantage of environmental footprints and planetary boundaries in a complementary way, there remain many gaps in our knowledge. We have therefore formulated a research agenda for further scientific discussions, mainly including the development of measurable boundaries in relation to footprints at multiple scales and their trade-offs, and the harmonization of the footprint and boundary metrics in terms of environmental coverage and methodological choices. All these points raised, in our view, will play an important role in setting practical and tangible policy targets for adaptation and mitigation of worldwide environmental unsustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Electricity generation contributes a large proportion of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom (UK), due to the predominant use of fossil fuel (coal and natural gas) combustion for this purpose. A range of future UK energy scenarios has been employed to determine their resulting environmental and carbon footprints. Methodologies have been established to calculate these footprints for the UK electricity supply industry on both a historic timescale and in accordance with the three selected scenarios. The latter scenarios, developed by the UK SUPERGEN Consortium on ‘Highly Distributed Power Systems’ (HDPS), were characterised as ‘Business As Usual’ (BAU), ‘Low Carbon’ (LC) and ‘Deep Green’ (DG) futures, and yielded possible electricity demands out to 2050. It was found that the environmental footprint of the current power network is 41 million (M) global hectares (gha). If future trends follow a ‘Business As Usual’ scenario, then this footprint is observed to fall to about 25 Mgha in 2050. The LC scenario implies an extensive penetration of micro-generators in the home to satisfy heat and power demands. However, these energy requirements are minimised by way of improved insulation of the building fabric and other demand reduction measures. In contrast, the DG scenario presupposes a network where centralised renewable energy technologies – mainly large-scale onshore and offshore wind turbines - have an important role in the power generation. However, both the LC and DG scenarios were found to lead to footprints of less than 4 Mgha by 2050. These latter two scenarios were found to give rise to quite similar trajectories over the period 2010–2050. They are therefore more likely to reflect an effective transition pathway in terms of meeting the 2050 UK CO2 reduction targets associated with decarbonisation of its power network. However, this appears unlikely to be achieved by 2030–2040 as advocated by the UK Government''s advisory Committee on Climate Change in order to meet overall national carbon reduction targets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Environmental or 'ecological' footprints have been widely used as aggregate indicators of the human appropriation of natural capital with prevailing technology. They represent a partial measure of a community's pathway towards sustainable development. Footprints vary between countries at different stages of economic development and varying geographic characteristics. Dimensional analysis techniques from engineering and the thermal sciences have been employed to determine the influence of a wide range of parameters on per capita national footprints, including per capita national income, population density, pollutant emission intensity, local climate, soil productivity, and technology. One hundred and nine countries made up the final database (based on 2003 international statistical data sets). Per capita national environmental footprints are found to be strongly dependent on per capita national income, and only weakly on population density. The implications of the findings are illustrated by reference to the situation in the G8 + 5 nations. Variations about the resulting power-law correlation suggest the extent to which individual nations are frugal or profligate in terms of their resource use and environmental impacts. The ecological debt owed by the industrialized countries of the North to the developing nations of the populous South is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Current food consumption is quite different from Chinese dietary guidelines. • Under the recommended level, the supplies of cereal and meat are adequate. • NF, PF, CF would decrease by 36%, 22%, and 29% while WF increased by 3% under S1. • Under S3, NF, PF, CF and WF would increase by 22%, 63%, 22%, 65%, respectively. Dietary adjustment is widely recognized as an effective way to solve the environment/ health predicament, and a more sustainable diet is the final target. The environmental effects of the sustainable oriented diet transition deserve considered, especially given the severe food waste. Here, we explored the links between food supply, food consumption, and food demand of recommended diet from 1990 to 2015 at the individual and national level in China, and then quantified the effects of dietary transition on nitrogen footprints (NF), phosphorus footprints (PF), carbon footprints (CF), and water footprints (WF). Results show that cereal consumption decreased at a rate of 1.6% annually, but it was still higher than the dietary guidelines in 2015. Meat consumption went up and almost 1.5 times the maximum recommended level (Max_RL) in 2015. Milk consumption accounted to 10% of the minimum recommended level (Min_RL). Cereal and meat supplies had exceeded the Max_RL demands by 34% and 47%, respectively. The ratios of food supply to consumption varied from 1.3 for meat to 4.3 for vegetables from 1990 to 2015. For environmental effects, NF, PF, and CF would decrease by 36%,22%, and 29%, but WF increased by 3% when current food consumption in 2015 completely meet with the Min_RL. While NF, PF, CF, and WF would increase by 22%,63%,22% and 65% when food supply meet with the food demand of the Max_RL. We would underestimated NF by 4%, but overestimate PF, CF, and WF by 12%, 3%, and 20% if without considering gaps between food supply and consumption. We conclude that ignore the gaps between food supply and consumption would overestimate the environmental impacts when current food consumption transitions to the recommended diet. Measures facilitating the realization of the sustainability-oriented diet rely on dietary patterns adjustment and improving the efficiencies of food supply chain. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability transformation calls for policies that consider the global consequences of local lifestyles. We used stakeholders' visions of sustainable lifestyles across Europe to build 19 scenarios of sufficiency (net reductions) and 17 of green consumption (shift in consumption patterns). We applied Environmentally Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output analysis to model scenarios by assuming widespread adoption of the proposed lifestyles changes. Finally, we estimated the domestic and foreign implications for land, water, carbon and human toxicity potential. We distinguish the options with most potential from those that are seemingly fruitless or present backfire risks. While our method allows for testing a large number scenarios under a consistent framework, further work is needed to add robustness to the scenarios. However, we do find a range of indicative results that have strong potential to contribute to mitigation efforts. Services : We find that a local and sharing service economy has a maximum reduction potential of 18% of the European carbon footprint (CF). Clothing & Appliances : Sharing and extending lifetimes of clothes and devices could diminish CF by approximately 3%. Transport : Reducing motorized transport by remote work and active travel could mitigate between 9 and 26% of CF. Food : Vegan diets could spare 4% of the land and reduce up to 14% of CF. Bio-economy : Switching to biomaterials and bioenergy tend to reduce carbon and toxic emissions at the risk of increasing water and land use. Housing : Passive housing and decentralized renewable energy reduces carbon emissions up to 5 and 14%, respectively. We characterize the sensitivity of our results by modelling income rebound effects and confirm the importance of deterring expenditure in resource intensive goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]