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The paper "Blue Food policy objectives: an analysis of opportunities and trade-offs" integrates the findings of an initiative to assess the multiple roles of blue foods in food systems worldwide (https://www.bluefood.earth/) and translates them into four policy objectives aimed at realizing the contributions of aquatic foods to more nutritious, just, resilient and environmentally sustainable food systems. This dataset contains the variables used to assess conditions (at the level of nations) when blue food policy objectives are likely to be relevant. The R code used for Boolean analysis is available here: https://github.com/emmywas/BFA_Policy_analysis The paper "Blue Food policy objectives: an analysis of opportunities and trade-offs" is part of the Blue Food Assessment ( https://www.bluefood.earth/ ) a comprehensive examination of the role of aquatic foods in building healthy, sustainable, and equitable food systems. The assessment was supported by the Builders Initiative, the MAVA Foundation, the Oak Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation. BC also thanks the Erling Persson Family Foundation. The data comes from publicly available (or published) datasets

Low-income, rural frontline communities of California’s Central Valley experience environmental and socioeconomic injustice, water insecurity, extremely poor air quality, and lack of fundamental infrastructure (sewage, green areas, health services), which makes them less resilient. Many communities depend financially on agriculture, while water scarcity and associated policy may trigger farmland retirement, further hindering socioeconomic opportunities. Here we propose a multi-benefit framework to repurpose cropland in buffers inside and around (400-m and 1600-m buffers) 154 rural disadvantaged communities of the Central Valley to promote socioeconomic opportunities, environmental benefits, and business diversification. We estimated the potential for (1) reductions in water and pesticide use, nitrogen leaching, and nitrogen gas emissions, (2) managed aquifer recharge, and (3) economic and employment impacts associated with clean industries and solar energy. Retiring cropland within 1600-m buffers resulted in estimated reductions in annual water use of 2.18 km3/year, nitrate leaching into local aquifers of 105,500 t/year, greenhouse gas emissions of 2,232,000 t CO2‑equivalent/year, and 5,388 t pesticides/year, with accompanying losses in agricultural revenue of US$4,213 million/year and employment of 25,682 positions. Buffer repurposing investments of US$27 million/year per community for ten years showed potential to generate US$101 million/year per community (total US$15,578 million/year) for 30 years and 407 new jobs/year (total 62,697 jobs/year) paying 67% more than prior farmworker jobs. In the San Joaquin Valley (southern Central Valley), where groundwater overdraft averages 2.3 km3/year, potential water use reduction is 1.8 km3/year. We identified 99 communities with surficial soils adequate for aquifer recharge and canals/rivers within 1600 m. This demonstrates the potential of managed aquifer recharge in buffered zones to substantially reduce overdraft. The buffers framework shows that well-planned land repurposing near disadvantaged communities can create multiple benefits for agriculture and industry stakeholders, while improving quality of life in disadvantaged communities and producing positive externalities for society.

The concrete industry currently contributes an estimated ~8% of global anthropogenic GHG emissions annually. Reducing emissions from this industry is a critical step in meeting emissions goals. In our study, we investigate near-term mitigation strategies that can significantly reduce global GHG emissions from concrete production. The manufacturing of cement, an essential ingredient in concrete, is the primary contributor to GHG emissions from concrete production. This model’s primary focus is on the efficient use of cement, a key strategy for reducing emissions. Based on projected global population growth and material saturation levels, we estimated the global cement demand from 2015-2100. We quantified estimates for current GHG emissions from the production of cement-based materials and the potential reduction in GHG emissions that could be achieved globally if four mitigation strategies are implemented. These strategies are: (1) implementing changes to cement manufacturing, such as improving the energy efficiency, using low-carbon fuels, and switching to lower-emissions electricity grids; (2) increasing use of supplementary cementitious materials to lower the amount of high-emissions components of cement and concrete; (3) utilizing concrete strength and steel reinforcement ratios to optimize concrete structural members; and (4) elongating the service life of concrete structures to reduce future cement demand. This packet includes a dataset used in the associated publication "Near-term pathways for decarbonizing global concrete production", a manuscript which explores how engineering design can be used to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from concrete production. Additionally, the codes written to make these figures are included in the packet.

Worldwide, rice production contributes about 10% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agricultural sector, mainly due to CH4 emissions from continuously flooded (CF) fields. Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) is a promising crop technology for mitigating CH4 emissions and reducing the irrigation water currently being applied in many of the world's top rice-producing countries. However, decreased emissions of CH4 may be partially counterbalanced by increased N2O emissions. In this case study for the Philippines, the national mitigation potential of AWD is explored using the process-based biogeochemical model LandscapeDNDC. Simulated mean annual CH4 emissions under conventional rice production for the time period 2000 - 2011 are estimated as 1,180163 Gg CH4 yr-1. During the cropping season, this is about +16% higher than a former estimate using emission factors. Scenario simulations of nationwide introduction of AWD in irrigated landscapes suggest a considerable decrease of CH4 emissions by -23%, while N2O emissions are only increased by +8%. Irrespective of field management, at national scale the radiative forcing of irrigated rice production is always dominated by CH4 (>95%). The reduction potential of GHG emissions depends on, e.g., number of crops per year, residue management, amount of applied irrigation water and sand content. Seasonal weather conditions also play an important role, since the mitigation potential of AWD is almost double as high in dry as compared to wet seasons. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the importance of temporal continuity, considering off-season emissions and the long-term development of GHG emissions across multiple years. This study was conducted as part of the multidisciplinary research project ICON: ‘Introducing Non-Flooded Crops in Rice- Dominated Landscapes: Impacts on Carbon, Nitrogen and Water Cycles’. We thank the German Research Foundation (DFG) for its generous funding (FOR 1701, BU1173/13-1/2 and KI1431/3-1/2).

In 2016, the United Nations (UN) launched the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for sustainable development and a sustainable future. However, the global challenge has been to engage, connect, and empower communities, particularly young people, to both understand and deliver the 17 SDGs. In this study, we show the benefit of a strategic planning-based experiential learning tool, the Young Persons’ Plan for the Planet (YPPP) Program, to improve the underlying competencies of Australian and Mauritian adolescents in increasing understanding and delivering the SDGs. The study was conducted with 300 middle to senior high school students, in 25 schools throughout Australia and Mauritius, over an 18-month period. The intervention included the development of research, strategic planning, management, STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, Maths) and global competency skills in the students, to enable them to build and deliver regional and national SDG plans. Research methods included pre- and post-intervention testing of the attitudes of these students to sustainable development outcomes and compared these attitudes to subsets of scientists and the Australian national population. Our results, from both qualitative and quantitative evidence, demonstrate significant improvements in these adolescents’ appreciation of, and attitudes towards, the SDGs and sustainable outcomes, across a range of key parameters. The results from the 76 students who attended the International Conference in Mauritius in December 2018 demonstrate significant improvements in mean levels of understanding, and attitudes of the students towards the SDGs awareness (+85%), understanding/engagement (+75%), motivation (+57%), and action orientation/empowerment (+66%). These changes were tested across a range of socio-demographic, geographic, and cultural parameters, with consistent results. These findings have significant implications for the challenge of sustainable education and achieving community engagement and action towards the SDGs in Australia and Mauritius, particularly for young people. As the intervention can be replicated and scaled, the findings also highlight the opportunity to extend both the research and this type of experiential learning intervention across both broader geographies and other generation and community segments.

Introducing private capital into the public transport system for its sustainable development has been increasing around the world. However, previous research ignores emissions and energy consumption impacts, which are important for private capital investment policy-making. To address this problem, the system dynamic (SD) approach was used to quantitatively analyze the cumulative effects of different private capital investment models in public transport from the environmental perspective. The SD model validity was verified in the case study of Jinan public traffic. Simulation results show that the fuel consumption and emission reductions are obvious when the private capital considering passenger value invests in public transport compared with the no private capital investment and traditional investment models. There are obvious cumulative reductions for fuel consumption, CO2, CO, SO2, and PM10 emissions for 100 months compared with no private capital investment. This research verifies the superiority of the passenger value investment model in public transport from the environmental point of view, and supplies a theoretical tool for administrators to evaluate the private capital investment effects systematically.

Global trends and factors, such as the increased level of globalization, climate change, resource scarcity, and awareness of social and environmental responsibilities, as well as fiercer competition and lower profit margins in all industries, force organizations to act to retain, regain, or sustain their competitive advantages for long-term survival. These trends and factors are historically known to bring about innovations that drive the evolution of industries. Sustainability is considered to be such an innovation to achieve fiscally sound, environmentally conscious, and socially progressive organizations and supply chains. This study reviewed 477 past articles published in five major databases from 1990 to 2018. The purpose of the study was to assess the current state-of-the art in the subject of lean-driven sustainability. Based on the exhaustive descriptive and contextual analysis, synergies, divergences, and the extent of two-way permeability of lean and sustainability concepts from the perspective of intra- and inter-organizational operations were identified along with future research opportunities. Fundamental strengths and weaknesses of both concepts, existing strong synergies and untapped potential, along with their key contributors, the potential-use cases of lean tools to derive sustainable solutions are highlighted in this review.

The demand for sustainable functional materials with an eco-friendly preparation process is on the rise. Lignocellulosics has been attributed as the most sustainable bioresource on earth which can meet the stringent requirements of functionalization. However, cellulose nanomaterials obtained from lignocellulosics which has reached advanced stages as a sustainable functional material is challenged by its preparation procedures. These procedures can not best be described as sustainable and eco-friendly owning to lots of energy and chemicals spent in the pre-treatment and purification processes. These processes are intended to aid fractionation into the major components in order to remove lignin and hemicellulose for the production of cellulose nanomaterials. This work is thus centred on reviewing the progress achieved in introducing a new cellulose nanomaterial containing lignin. The preparation processes, properties and applications of this new lignin-containing cellulose nanomaterial will be discussed in order to chart a sustainable preparation route for cellulose nanomaterials.