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Forest community connections are crucial to ensure forest stewardship and sustainability. We explored the potential of mushrooming to enable such connections in contexts where these connections have been historically broken, alienating local people from forests. Taking the case of the recent devolution of a community forest (baldios) in central Portugal to the local population, we present a five-year pilot project to rework mycology from a mushroom-centered approach to a mushroom-in-baldios approach. Mushrooms were used as an entry-point to connect the forest ecology with the challenges of governance and community building. The devised activities provided an opportunity for people inside and outside the local community to adventure into the woods and find out more about their socio-ecological history, develop communal and convivial relationships and engage in the responsible gathering of wild mushrooms. However, the hosting of mushroomers to know, value and engage with the community forest recovery has constantly worked against the enclosure of mushrooms to provide marketable forms of leisure. The outcome of these activities depends on the relationships established between mushrooms, mycologists, local administrators, commoners and poachers, all operating within a framework that favors the eradication of resources instead of long-term relationships that sustain places.

Abstract This paper brings together several contemporary topics in energy systems aiming to provide a literature review based reflection on how several interrelated energy systems can contribute together to a more sustainable world. Some directions are discussed, such as the improvement of the energy efficiency and environmental performance of systems, the development of new technologies, the increase of the use of renewable energy sources, the promotion of holistic and multidisciplinary studies, and the implementation of new management rules and "eco-friendly and sustainable" oriented policies at different scales. The interrelations of the diverse energy systems are also discussed in order to address their main social, economic and environmental impacts. The subjects covered include the assessment of the electricity market and its main players (demand, supply, distribution), the evaluation of urban systems (buildings, transportation, commuting), the analysis of the implementation of renewable energy cooperatives, the discussion of the diffusion of the electric vehicle and the importance of new bioenergy systems. This paper also presents relevant research carried out in the framework of the Energy for Sustainability (EfS) Initiative of the University of Coimbra, linking the reviewed areas to the multidisciplinary approach adopted by the EfS Initiative. To conclude, several research topics that should be addressed in the near future are proposed.

Prior and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have resulted in substantial changes to everyday life. The pandemic and measures of its control affect mental health negatively. Self-reported data from 15,375 participants from 23 countries were collected from May to August 2020 during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two questionnaires measuring anxiety level were used in this study—the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), and the State Anxiety Inventory (SAI). The associations between a set of social indicators on anxiety during COVID-19 (e.g., sex, age, country, live alone) were tested as well. Self-reported anxiety during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic varied across countries, with the maximum levels reported for Brazil, Canada, Italy, Iraq and the USA. Sex differences of anxiety levels during COVID-19 were also examined, and results showed women reported higher levels of anxiety compared to men. Overall, our results demonstrated that the self-reported symptoms of anxiety were higher compared to those reported in general before pandemic. We conclude that such cultural dimensions as individualism/collectivism, power distance and looseness/tightness may function as protective adaptive mechanisms against the development of anxiety disorders in a pandemic situation.

This paper articulates a paradigm shift in the adoption of a critical ecopedagogy focused on substantive and systemic change within nature sports. In analyzing the unifying concept of nature sports, we propose an ontological shift towards genuine sustainability, a communion among people and with nature. These activities comprise a group of physical practices that have the potential to challenge participants in novel ways that provide an alternative to traditional sports and the ideological values associated with these dominant sports, such as competition and personal gain. Nature sports inscribe meaning on bodies in motion, with a blurring or erasure of boundaries, as participants become one with nature rather than seeking to exploit or conquer it. These novel and countercultural practices promise the possibility of systemic sustainability, as participants redefine sport in terms of relational equity and ecoliteracy. As a utopian project, this systems approach recognizes the nature-sport nexus as a living framework to honor culturally appropriate practices and traditions in building an ecological movement centered on environmental justice. In this way, nature sports offer an opportunity to reimagine sustainable development through the promotion of a circular, rather than linear, economy—an economy based on re-creation rather than exploitation and waste.

This work aims to develop a numerical simulation model of the combined and integrated production process of combustion and gasification, for a synthesis gas production system (SYNGAS), fed with municipal solid waste (MSW), agricultural and forestry waste. For this purpose, the EMSO software (Environment for Modeling, Simulation, and Optimization) was used in the formulation of a fixed-bed gasifier with the co-current flow. The model is developed based on mathematical calculations of partial differential equations, being one-dimensional (1-D), and considers chemical kinetics, diffusivity, and heat and mass transfer phenomena. Its validation is based on data available in the literature (variables, initial and operational conditions). As a result, a simulation of a gasifier was obtained, capable of predicting the production of Syngas, having a good correlation with the published experimental results. The general data obtained were in agreement, with high consistency for the analysis of the pilot plant in the laboratory and semi-industrial scale for solid waste processing. However, detailing the behavior of the gasifier is essential to maximize the efficiency of the process. For that, the numerical simulation tested several operational parameters, such as air–fuel ratio and gasifier temperature for instance.

Residential buildings consume a large fraction of energy and thus represent a major opportunity for reducing energy requirements and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This article presents a life-cycle energy and GHG analysis of three representative residential building types in a well-known area in Lisbon (Bairro de Alvalade). The life-cycle model focused on building construction, retrofit and use phases, applied an econometric model to estimate energy use in Portuguese households, and considered two functional units: per square meter per year and per person per year. Over the buildings’ 75-year lifespan, the use phase accounted for most (69–83%) of the primary energy requirements and GHG emissions. Larger buildings have lower life-cycle energy requirements and GHG emissions on a square meter basis. On a per person basis, however, this pattern is reversed and larger buildings are associated with higher energy requirements and GHG emissions. Due to the considerable variability and uncertainty associated with life-cycle analyses of buildings, the use of both occupancy- and area-based functional units is recommended.

The European Union in line with its climate and energy strategy has presented a renewed ambition for the post-2020 period, towards 2030, through the Clean Energy for All Europeans policy package proposals. A new binding target of minimum 30% for energy efficiency improvements is in the horizon, as well as the identified need for a stronger governance framework to support its delivery. This research contributes to a better understanding of energy efficiency governance by analysing a set of indicators covering aspects related to institutional, human, financial, and political dimensions. The results obtained provide a more detailed perspective on the European Union level and Member State governance capacities. These indicate the need to develop institutional capacities related to the transposition of legislation and directives. In parallel, the disparities between individual Member State governance capacities should be considered when devising and implementing future policies. The implications for policymakers include the need for a more robust governance monitoring and reporting system, including the development of transparent and comparable indicators, as well as a more comprehensive assessment of the impact of good governance on delivering energy efficiency improvements.