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GHG emissions cause climate change and environmental degradation. The proposed research examines the role of CE in reducing GHG emissions to achieve sustainable goals and an evergreen future by recirculating materials and products. The present work identified thirteen essential CE strategies from a literature review and expert perspective to reduce GHG emissions in India's rubber industry. To provide a comprehensive explanation of the problem, the identified CE strategies were ranked by importance and categorised using the grey DEMATEL (G-DEMATEL) approach. The study offers managers and policymakers a work plan to reduce the carbon footprint.

Circular Economy (CE) is an economic approach which aims to save the environment by eliminating waste and efficiently using resources by applying recycle, reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling strategies. The purpose of the article is to propose a concept of measurement the development of Environmental pillar in the context of Circular Economy, apply and provide empirical evidence based on the data of Baltic Sea Region countries. The research augmented for the analysis of Circular Economy which includes assessment model creation. The multi-criteria decision methods MULTIMOORA and TOPSIS were used to assess the development of Environmental pillar of Circular Economy in Baltic Sea Region. Results are useful to add to theoretical building and evaluate the Environmental aspect in the concept of Circular Economy.

Different studies in the scientific literature have shown how the transition towards a circular economy (CE) can benefit from product design, although maintaining a rather broad and qualitative perspective of analysis. This study investigates and compares which product design strategies (from routinely design, structural optimization, industrial design and systematic innovation) are most used by students and professional designers to implement different CE strategies (i.e., waste reduction, reuse, remanufacturing, recycling and biodegradability). Students’ data were collected from year projects and MSc degree theses based on real industrial case studies and carried out in two Italian engineering universities, while those of professional designers, were collected from selected scientific articles. Among the main outcomes emerged that the design strategies deriving from systematic innovation were preferred by students quite clearly. The design strategies referred to industrial design, e.g., user-centered design and timeless design were preferred by professional designers. The design strategies related to routine design, i.e., materials substitution, reducing resources and energy consumption, and structural optimization, were indistinctly used by both students and professional designers. The obtained results and their discussion can be useful during eco-design teaching to show the main gaps that students should fill in comparison with professional designers.

Circular economy (CE) and sustainability are interrelated, without being exchangeable. While sustainability tries to reconcile the management of productive resources with their increasing consumption, CE aims to make the productive process more efficient, reducing, reusing and recycling the results of the productive process as much as possible. The aim of this paper is to ascertain the systemic structure of interactions between sustainability and CE through the analysis of the existing literature from 2004 to 2021. For this purpose, a computational literature review and a content analysis of the main contributions of CE and sustainability, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), were conducted. The results show that there is a positive impact of the synergy between CE strategies and certain SDGs. Specifically, the circular strategies that generate the greatest synergies have to do with preserving materials through recycling, downcycling, and the measurement of indicators or reference scenarios. This is what has led to the inclusion of these concepts in the formulation of policies and strategies, as their multidisciplinary nature allows them to have an impact on areas such as agriculture or innovation, which currently lack specific measures. Therefore, the knowledge derived from this study will contribute favorably to future decisions and actions to be considered, as there is still the potential to legislate in favor of an even more sustainable framework.

Electricity from the combination of photovoltaic panels and wind turbines exhibits potential benefits towards the sustainable cities transition. Nevertheless, the highly fluctuating and intermittent character limits an extended applicability in the energy market. Particularly, batteries represent a challenging approach to overcome the existing constraints and to achieve sustainable urban energy development. On the basis of the market roll-out and level of technological maturity, five commercially available battery technologies are assessed in this work, namely, lead&ndash, acid, lithium manganese oxide, nickel&ndash, cadmium, nickel&ndash, metal hydride, and vanadium redox flow. When considering sustainable development, environmental assessments provide valuable information. In this vein, an environmental analysis of the technologies is conducted using a life cycle assessment methodology from a cradle-to-gate perspective. A comparison of the environmental burden of battery components identified vanadium redox flow battery as the lowest environmental damage battery. In terms of components, electrodes, the electrolyte, and the set of pumps, motors, racks, and bolts exhibited the greatest environmental impact related to manufacturing. In terms of materials, copper, steel, sulphuric acid, and vanadium were identified as the main contributors to the midpoint impact categories. The results have highlighted that challenging materials 4.0 are still needed in battery manufacturing to provide sustainable technology designs required to the future urban planning based on circular economy demands.

The objective of this study was to develop new indicators that reflect economic growth by taking into account the impact on the environment and natural resources as well. The indicator calculated by subtracting environmental cost from the “Gross Domestic Product (GDP)” and is used in the assessment of the GDP by taking into consideration the cost of natural resources and the environment, called “green GDP”. This study uses Life Cycle Assessment, which is a technique used to assess the environmental impact of sugar industry from raw materials, distribution, production, and waste management. The system boundary for the life cycle inventory are cultivation, planting, transportation and sugar production. The results of the green GDP and GDP is difference about 6–12% due to the depletion cost resulting from the use of natural resources between 9.0–9.52 $/ton of sugar production and the degradation cost caused by the airborne emission and waterborne emission between 37–57 $/ton of sugar production. The quantity of Total Suspended Particulate (TSP) generated from the sugar production process is the main causing the environmental cost about 55%. In order to solve environmental causes, the policy making as Circular Economy Strategies can be used to meet the sustainable development in the future.

The transition towards a sustainable circular economy (CE) model is seen as a solution to keep the consumption of the earth’s resources within planetary boundaries. In the regional context, the CE is promoted through various policy actions, one being the smart specialisation concept. This paper provides a novel approach to examining the spatial adaption of a CE through a conceptual framework of research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation (S3) in Europe. This interdisciplinary research presents a multi-country comparison of S3 implementation in Europe in 12 regions that have defined the CE as a priority area. The data consist of interviews with representatives of organisations responsible for the regional S3 process. The findings indicate that a political demand exists for proceeding further with the construction of transformative activities involving the CE, but the models and stages of implementation vary. In addition, most regions still struggle with building specific monitoring and evaluation measures and mechanisms for the CE. Despite these challenges, promoting the CE as a strategic priority through the S3 process has, at least in some regions, helped define the CE targets and actions by focusing on existing regional assets and future potential.

Even if the economy nowadays is still locked into a linear model of production, tighter environmental standards, resource scarcity and changing consumer expectations are forcing organizations to find alternatives to lighten their impacts. The concept of Circular Economy (CE) is to an increasing extent treated as a solution to this series of challenges. That said, the multitude of approaches and definitions around CE and Life Cycle Extension Strategies (LCES) makes it difficult to provide (Small and Medium Enterprise) SMEs with a consistent understanding of the topic. This paper aims at bridging this gap by providing a systematic literature review of the most prominent papers related to the CE and lifetime extension, with a particular focus on the equipment and machinery sector. A taxonomy was used to define and cluster a subset of selected papers to build a homogeneous approach for understanding the multiple strategies used in the industry, and the standards in maintenance and remanufacturing strategies. As a final research step, we also propose a Strategy Characterization Framework (SCF) to build the ground for the selection of the best strategy to be applied for production equipment life cycle extension on several industrial use cases.