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In the transition from linear production systems, unsustainable from the point of view of resources, to a model that finds strength in environmental, social and economic sustainability, the circular economy paradigm is the foundation that facilitates the planetary agro-ecological transition. The European Union has taken a number of steps (including the Circular Economy Package of Directives) shaping circularity as a wide-ranging driver measure involving many sectors. The paper intends to provide a regulatory framework on the current general situation regarding circularity in European Union, in order to extrapolate and give evidence to the aspects that intersect the agri-food sector. This is not only because they are poorly addressed in the literature, but also because there is a lack of regulatory instruments on the circular economy specifically addressing this area of interest. For this purpose, the analysis focuses on waste and residue/scrap management issues, recognized by law as by-products and end-of-waste status, as they are covered by circular economy legislation and as they can be applied to the agri-food sector. The latter allow the implementation of circularity strategies in the agri-food sector and, given the numerousness of production chains and the peculiarities of each of them, various regeneration and/or reuse processes of specific resources may be depicted. The intent is to provide useful knowledge on how to implement sustainable waste management, also proposing a concrete case on a by-product of olive oil processing, through which it is possible to highlight how the correct application of regulations favors the adoption of circular economic and management models in the firms involved, as well as informing the relevant economic operators on the possible profiles of legal liability that may arise from insufficient knowledge. Furthermore, this paper delves into the European Green Deal’s Strategy as it enriches the circular economy paradigm with new facets. NextGenerationEU and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan financially support this strategy in the aftermath of the socioeconomic crisis from COVID-19 in the EU Member States. This is in order to achieve the objective of achieving the agro-ecological transition.

This datapackage provides the dataset used for the first stage of the validation of the simulations and the analysis of the main variables collected by the monitoring system of the HEART project. At this stage (M32), the building refurbishment of the Italian case study in Bagnolo in Piano (Reggio Emilia) is not completed due to the COVID-19 lockdown; the window renovation has been done in September 2019 and in February 2020 the refurbishment works stopped. Therefore, the content of dataset at the moment is only on the first step of the building refurbishment. The dataset contains: the main climatic variables in the area the central heating monitored data the main monitorwd data for 5 refurbished appartments The building is located in the city of Bagnolo in Piano (Reggio Emilia, Italy), and it is oriented 21 degrees towards south west (44.7698536, 10.6768598 at 30 m of altitude.). It is a four-story building, having a total of 12 apartments (4 apartments per floor); cellars and parking area are located on the ground floor. The gross floor area for the conditioned zone is 245.78 [m2] (apartment plus external walls), for a total conditioned area of 737.34 [m2] for the entire building. Further information are available in the repository: Data set repository: https://gitlab.inf.unibz.it/URS/heart/bagnolo-dataset

Over the past two years, the world’s population has been tested by the COVID-19 health emergency. This has changed population habits worldwide by encouraging a sedentary lifestyle and overnutrition. Isolation and reduction of social life, for most of the population, was mandatory but it quickly became a new lifestyle. Nowadays, we are encountering the consequences with an increase in nutritional associated disorders and conditions that cause illnesses in the general population. These disorders include diet excesses that lead to obesity and diet deficiencies and malnutrition which could rapidly lead to death. These eating disorders are very complex to manage because they become mental disorders which can negatively impact physical or mental health. This work will disucss the benefits associated with the mindfulness–exercise–nutrition (MEN) technique. From a nutritional point of view it will focus on the nutritional effect of a plant-based diet, such as the Mediterranean diet (MD) which has a high tryptophan content which can increase serotonin (the “feel good” hormone) levels. The MEN technique takes a multidisciplinary approach and aims to integrate healthy behaviors into clinical practice using healthy eating, active living, and mindfulness. This method includes controlled physical movements, stretching techniques such as yoga, and aerobic exercise to achieve optimal mental and physical health. This literature review, carried out using the PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases, aims to investigate the latest research on this topic. This study may be useful for healthcare professionals and clinicians and may help patients to be more self-aware, encouraging them to lead a healthier lifestyle, make thoughtful choices, and ameliorate their mental health. The final aim of this study is to promote physiological homeostasis and well-being.

This paper analyzes the causes and effects of the COVID-19 crisis, with a specific focus on the food system. Food consumption and production has not only been impacted by the crisis, but it may have also contributed to causing the pandemic. After providing a brief introductory framework, the paper presents the results of a pilot study on the link between COVID-19 and the food system, as indicated by the social media activity of selected European Union (EU) Twitter accounts, measured using an original “theme popularity” metric. Thereafter, a systematic review of the literature is proposed to identify the causes of the rise in popularity of a sustainable food system theme, the potential consequences of the COVID-19 crisis for the food system (targeting the production, consumption and waste disposal phases) and possible solutions, focusing on the circular economy. Challenges and opportunities for policymakers in the short and long term are discussed. A holistic approach is advocated, as the global food system is intimately connected with society and requires deep cooperation among nation states and economic actors.

Co-design approach is increasingly popular in many organizations that address global change and social sustainability challenges, thanks to its unique and diverse methods of engaging relevant people in design processes and decision-making. However, the social distancing led by the COVID-19 pandemic seriously problematized the traditional in-person co-design activities. A sustainable online transition is unprecedentedly pressing. By acknowledging the limitations of online co-design, i.e., lack of means for participant engagement, we argue that gamification holds great promise for online co-design. This paper presents an empirical study to investigate this potential qualitatively. Based on the data collected from three gamified online co-design implementations, we examine the benefits of gamification and how future activities should be designed and implemented from the participants’ perspectives. Based on the participants’ perceptions, we propose several recommendations for designing impactful gamification. The finding suggests that gamification can facilitate online co-design activities in an enjoyable, relaxing, structuring, and creative manner, since they are perceived and recognized by the participants. Moreover, the successful implementation of online co-design implies that great sustainability benefits can be achieved through online transition, i.e., reducing paper consumption and time spent on meetings and unproductive discussions, supporting extensive diversity and density in representation. Online can enable this by overcoming not only the geographic and time limitations but also relevant social issues.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, ventilation in buildings was not always given its due importance. The World Health Organization has highlighted the important role of air exchange with the outdoors in improving the air quality in buildings; buildings should, therefore, be equipped with mechanical ventilation or adequate air conditioning systems. This paper aims to investigate different retrofit solutions for air conditioning, evaluating them in terms of energy consumption and cost and the impact of increased outdoor air exchange rates on countering the propagation of COVID-19; the latter is the main novelty of the paper. As a case study, we take an existing office building located in Central Italy that was previously not equipped with a mechanical ventilation system (a system with primary air was introduced during the study). The energy analysis was conducted using dynamic simulation software after validation through energy bills; energy and economic analyses were conducted considering different external-air exchange rates. An optimal number of outdoor air changes was found to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 infection, a finding in line with the international literature. The increase in air changes with outdoor air leads to a rise in energy consumption and costs. These values were evaluated for different air conditioning systems and operational schedules. These drawbacks can be made less significant by combining interventions in the system with energy-efficiency measures applied to the building envelope.

The main purpose of our paper is to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on randomness in volatility series of world major markets and to examine its effect on their interconnections. The data set includes equity (Bitcoin and Standard and Poor’s 500), precious metals (Gold and Silver), and energy markets (West Texas Instruments, Brent, and Gas). The generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model is applied to the return series. The wavelet packet Shannon entropy is calculated from the estimated volatility series to assess randomness. Hierarchical clustering is employed to examine interconnections between volatilities. We found that (i) randomness in volatility of the S&P500 and in the volatility of precious metals were the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, while (ii) randomness in energy markets was less affected by the pandemic than equity and precious metal markets. Additionally, (iii) we showed an apparent emergence of three volatility clusters: precious metals (Gold and Silver), energy (Brent and Gas), and Bitcoin and WTI, and (iv) the S&P500 volatility represents a unique cluster, while (v) the S&P500 market volatility was not connected to the volatility of Bitcoin, energy, and precious metal markets before the pandemic. Moreover, (vi) the S&P500 market volatility became connected to volatility in energy markets and volatility in Bitcoin during the pandemic, and (vii) the volatility in precious metals is less connected to volatility in energy markets and to volatility in Bitcoin market during the pandemic. It is concluded that (i) investors may diversify their portfolios across single constituents of clusters, (ii) investing in energy markets during the pandemic period is appealing because of lower randomness in their respective volatilities, and that (iii) constructing a diversified portfolio would not be challenging as clustering structures are fairly stable across periods.

The Comment by Carol Zavaleta-Cortijo and colleagues1 was timely in emphasising the challenges faced by Indigenous peoples due to the combined effects of climate change, COVID-19, and longstanding inequities. Although pressure on Indigenous livelihoods is nothing new, current effects are extreme, both in terms of deaths due to the virus and disruptions to lifeways, including Indigenous food systems. Both the importance and also the vulnerability of Indigenous food systems, and therefore the obligation to “ensure that current decisions and development trajectories do not further jeopardise the resilience of Indigenous food systems, which have integral roles in the response of Indigenous populations to current and future pandemics and climatic changes”,1 should be highlighted in all pertinent policy and development arenas, including the Convention on Biological Diversity's Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and upcoming UN Food Systems Summit, among many others. Our experiences in the Andean, Himalayan, and other mountainous regions offer the insight that Indigenous food system biocultural diversity provides the foundations for resilience. This diversity encompasses not only the many crop and livestock species, and their varieties and breeds, but also the wild organisms supporting and interacting with Indigenous agriculture and food. Traditional knowledge systems around this diversity provide health and sustainability solutions that are unique to place, but whose benefits are urgently needed globally.2, 3 The ongoing loss of this biocultural diversity and associated knowledge is a global tragedy. We draw hope from two ongoing movements regarding Indigenous food system biocultural diversity. First, Indigenous communities have organised around nurturing this diversity by sharing experiences and visions on food, health, climate adaptation, conservation, and livelihood generation with others facing similar threats around the world, through networks such as the International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples. ...