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This special volume of the JCLP is mainly built upon articles presented at the 6th International Workshop Advances in Cleaner Production held in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2017. The event had provided a progressive interdisciplinary meeting for knowledge advance and information trade. Papers in this issue cover a broad range of perspectives of cleaner production strategies and practices, and a special focus was placed upon the type of contribution – practical, conceptual/practical, conceptual - and the scale of their coverage – local, regional and global. The papers provide understanding on the research intended to systematically include cleaner production in the path sustainability, and identifies the extent to which cleaner production practitioners directly and indirectly provide local, regional and global solutions. Key results of this introductory article include research on: efficient and responsive use of energy and resources; the search for reduced emissions, the role of managerial support and environmental assessments, and the implementation/analysis of closed-loop systems of materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Urban parks include different infrastructures - green areas, fitness equipment, jogging tracks and sport courts – and are key suppliers of ecosystem services in cities. Given the importance of ecosystem services to the vigor of urban ecosystems, there is a developing awareness that ecosystem services concerns ought to be integrated into urban park design. Nonetheless this integration is incomplete due to the scarcity of applicable or available tools and criteria for implementation. To address this scarcity, the present study assesses costs and supply of a subgroup of supportive and regulative ecosystem services in urban parks and examines the significance of these services under an environmental/economic perspective using emergy synthesis. Seventy-three parks in São Paulo, Brazil, are used as a case study. Results show that green areas in urban parks provide valuable services to the municipality, and that parks can be designed according to the needs of the surrounding areas. The method may be useful for different localities and environments providing practical information to urban planners and policy makers. This study provides a basis for the incorporation of ecosystem service concerns into urban park design to boost their benefits in urban centers. Highlights • A set of recommendations for São Paulo's public parks managers is provided. • A balance was found between the emergy invested and the ecosystem services production. • Results allow prioritizing actions to optimize the parks maintenance. • Results permit establishing a minimum green area for new projects in São Paulo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]