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Few studies on population-specific health effects of extreme temperature on cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) deaths have been conducted in the subtropical and tropical climates of China. We examined the association between extreme temperature and CVD across four cities in China. We performed a two-stage analysis; we generated city-specific estimates using a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) and estimated the overall effects by conducting a meta-analysis. Heat thresholds of 29 °C, 29 °C, 29 °C, and 30 °C and cold thresholds of 6 °C, 10 °C, 14 °C, and 15 °C were observed in Hefei, Changsha, Nanning, and Haikou, respectively. The lag periods for heat-related CVD mortality were observed only for 0–2 days, while those of cold-related CVD mortality were observed for 10–15 days. The meta-analysis showed that a 1 °C increase above the city-specific heat threshold was associated with average overall CVD mortality increases of 4.6% (3.0%–6.2%), 6.4% (3.4%–9.4%), and 0.2% (−4.8%–5.2%) for all ages, ≥65 years, and <65 years over a lag period of 0–2 days, respectively. Similarly, a 1 °C decrease below the city-specific cold threshold was associated with average overall CVD mortality increases of 4.2% (3.0%–5.4%), 4.9% (3.5%–6.3%), and 3.1% (1.7%–4.5%), for all ages, ≥65 years, and <65 years over a lag period of 0–15 days, respectively. This work will help to take appropriate measures to reduce temperature-mortality risk in different populations in the subtropical and tropical climates of China.

This paper provides an overview of insights and lessons learned from nearly 20 years of running a Master’s unit called Leadership in Sustainability and how it has been used to foster change agents in small business enterprises, as well as other parts of our economy and community. The unit is based on five ‘C’ pillars, which are discussed in this paper to show how the teaching was able to assist potential leaders in their journey towards sustainability. Collective Wisdom is the theory of how leaders have used their imagination to solve collective ‘wicked problems’ and how sustainability requires such wisdom. The unit covers such theory from innovation, complexity, leadership, management and sustainability literatures, and the students are required to show they used this in solving a problem. Conversations are the main tool that is used because only through integrating diverse opinions have solutions been found to such problems as sustainability. The unit is based around case studies from leaders (including SMEs) who have approached sustainability from various perspectives, and conversations were created with the leaders to illustrate this. Creativity is introduced as a tool that draws upon different layers of perspectives on how to tackle wicked problems, as well as facilitating the breadth of conversations and actions required to solve them. The unit requires students to make a creativity contribution and the teachers provide assistance in how to make this work. Contemplation is designed to show how leadership requires reflection to enable the creativity and conversations to reach the depth and breadth required. The unit introduces students to the Theory-U tools to help instil the link between creativity and reflection or contemplation in addressing sustainability challenges and enabling leadership that creates change in personal, organizational and social systems. Finally, Courage is shown as a necessary part of the role of a leader in sustainability to make the magic of collective and creative solutions, based on conversations and contemplation, come to life through a demonstration-based transition.

Identifying local energy sources and devising a circular economy could improve self-sufficiency in many Pacific Islands. On the islands with significant agriculture, the residue from the cultivation of plants has promising energy potential. The waste stream is another potential source of energy that otherwise should undergo proper treatment. Additionally, cold-storage capacity improves the preservation of crops and increases the agricultural exports of these islands. This study proposes a combined cooling and power (CCP) system driven by biomass from agriculture residue and waste streams as fuel for different districts in Tonga. The units supply a fraction of the districts’ electricity demand and provide sufficient cold-storage capacity to preserve the prospective yield of a fraction of fallow lands. The technical and economic performance of the CCP units was analysed for different fractions of electricity demand and fallow land exploitation in each district during a year of operation. The results show that the optimum combination of the CCP units supplies 38% of the total electricity demand of Tonga and prevents the annual consumption of 7.4 million litres of diesel and emission of 20 kilotonnes of CO2. In addition, it provides 3700 m2 of cold-storage area, which is sufficient for preserving the prospective yield of the exploitation of 27% of the total fallow land of Tonga. Annual export revenue of about AU$10 million is expected from such a cold-storage capacity for Tongan farmers. Furthermore, the units consume 10,000 tonnes of annual waste, significantly reducing waste management costs. This study presents an example of a comprehensive circular-economy solution for a remote island state that improves its socioeconomic and environmental condition by supplying the community’s local needs from its available and abundant resources under a viable business model. The solution presented in this study can be adapted to many island communities with significant agriculture in the economy and crucial energy and cooling needs.

While different in emphasis, spirituality and sustainable development are intertwined concepts that cannot be meaningfully discussed in isolation from each other. This is especially pertinent in Pacific Island countries that are characterised by both high degrees of vulnerability to climate change and high degrees of religious engagement. There is a paucity of research that examines the relationship between spirituality and sustainable development in contemporary human development discourse. To address this gap in the literature, this research employs an inductive and exploratory methodological approach to the study of major development organisations in Australia. It investigates what significance contemporary NGOs ascribe to matters of spirituality in the design and implementation of their community aid and development programming in the Pacific and beyond. To achieve its goal, the study conducts a systematic term frequency analysis in the annual reports of government-funded and independently funded NGOs, both faith-based and secular. It extends previous research by focusing expressly on the intersectionality of sustainable development and spirituality as a fertile space for interdisciplinary inquiry. The findings link development policy and practice more closely to the needs and worldviews of Pacific peoples. A better understanding of the spirituality–sustainability nexus will enable more effective, sustainable, equitable, ethical, and culturally acceptable development programming. Crucially, integrated approaches promise to make ongoing community development programmes and adaptation responses to climate-driven environmental change more effective and sustainable. Finally, it is an important aim of this study to conceptualise various opportunities for future research, thus laying the foundation for an important emergent research agenda.

This study aimed to conduct a techno-economic performance and optimisation analysis of grid-connected PV, wind turbines, and battery packs for Syiah Kuala University, situated at the tip of Sumatra island in the tsunami-affected region. The simulation software Hybrid Optimisation Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER) was used to analyse and optimise the renewable energy required by the institution. The methodology began with the location specification, average electric load demand, daily radiation, clearness index, location daily temperature, and system architecture. The results revealed that the energy storage system was initially included in the simulation, but it was later removed in order to save money and optimise the share of renewable energy. Based on the optimisation results, two types of energy sources were chosen for the system, solar PV and wind turbine, which contributed 62% and 20%, respectively. Apart from the renewable energy faction, another reason for the system selection is cost of energy (CoE), which decreased to $0.0446/kWh from $0.060/kWh. In conclusion, the study found that by connecting solar PV and wind turbines to the local grid, this renewable energy system is able to contribute up to 82% of the electricity required. However, the obstacle to implementing renewable energy in Indonesia is the cheap electricity price that is mainly generated using cheap coal, which is abundantly available in the country.

In this paper, we apply game theory to study the price competition between drugstores and hospitals in China’s pharmaceutical supply chain. Motivated by drug shortages and price disparity problems, we build a simplified model with one supplier, one hospital, and one drugstore in which the sellers sell one kind of drug and compete on price. The hospital receives a discount from the government when ordering the drug and both sellers face a price-sensitive and uncertain demand. The existence and uniqueness of a Nash equilibrium are proved and closed-form solutions are found for linear demand cases. We characterize the pricing and ordering decisions of the hospital and drugstore. The analysis shows that high ex-factory price, high price sensitivity, and a small discount are three factors contributing to drug shortages. We consider two special kinds of linear demand to obtain insights into the drug price disparity problem.

Energy-efficient retrofitting has emerged as a primary strategy for reducing the energy consumption of buildings. Buildings in China account for about 40% of total national energy consumption. Large office buildings account for the most. Less than 5% of the building area of existing office buildings is energy efficient. Energy-efficient retrofitting for sustainable buildings is a complicated system that involves various sustainable dimensions and operational technical schemes. Making multi-criteria decisions becomes a challenging problem for stakeholders. Based on the theory of sustainability, this paper establishes a sustainable analysis framework to guide stakeholders to select an optimal technical combination of energy-efficient retrofit measures for large office buildings. Based on empirical data collected in Beijing, a number of energy efficiency measures are selected, tailored and applied to a virtual model of a typical large office building. Technical features and the energy performance are simulated accordingly. The energy consumption, energy-saving ratio and lifecycle costs are derived to identify the optimal configuration. The outcome of this research offers a feasible technical plan for stakeholders relating to technical design and design making. The study finds that an LED lighting system and frequency conversion device for the cooling water chiller cannot only sufficiently reduce the building’s energy consumption but also perform economically. Different thermal insulation materials for reconstructing the building envelope have no obvious effect on the thermal performance in comprehensive simulations of technology combinations. The sustainable analysis framework offers theoretical and practical support and can be used as a reference for the other types of buildings in future research.

A promising technology for renewable energy is energy piles used to heat and cool buildings. In this research, the effects of bio-cementation via microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) using mixed calcium and magnesium sources and the addition of fibres on the thermal conductivity of soil were investigated. Firstly, silica sand specimens were treated with cementation solutions containing different ratios of calcium chloride and magnesium chloride to achieve maximum thermal conductivity improvement. Three treatment cycles were provided, and the corresponding thermal conductivity was measured after each cycle. It was found that using 100% calcium chloride resulted in the highest thermal conductivity. This cementation solution was then used to treat bio-cemented soil samples containing fibres, including polyethylene, steel and glass fibres. The fibre contents used included 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% of the dry sand mass. The results show that the glass fibre samples yielded the highest thermal conductivity after three treatment cycles, and SEM imaging was used to support the findings. This research suggests that using MICP as a soil improvement technique can also improve the thermal conductivity of soil surrounding energy piles, which has high potential to effectively improve the efficiency of energy piles.