• Energy Research

The fashion sector contributes significantly to global environmental pollution. Clothing manufacturing and transportation produce a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Recent research has shown that nowadays, the number of consumers that are more willing to pay higher prices for clothes with high sustainability content is growing. This paper provides a broad framework of current trends in the fashion, textile, and garment industry, highlighting circular and slow fashion values that companies and policymakers should address in the coming years to maintain their competitiveness in the market and promote sustainable development. The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles is expected to help fashion enterprises achieve more circular, sustainable, and resilient value chains. Notably, encouraging natural and recycled textiles, design for reuse and recycling, second-hand retail and repair, and product-as-a-service models, particularly for items with high turnover rates, have been highlighted as critical factors for reducing the fashion industry's environmental implications.

This study consolidates research on operational sustainability in dry ports. A total of 232 papers published in the last 23 years (2000–2023) are reviewed to assess the breadth of research perspectives in dry port sustainable operations. Additionally, the findings summarize current research trends, identify flaws in the body of knowledge, and suggest potential research areas. A bibliographic analysis approach is deployed to explore the existing body of knowledge, review the concepts in depth, and narrow the focus on potential research areas. Within this context, a content analysis technique has been utilized to explore and understand the conceptual underpinnings of specific themes, typically involving trending subjects like sustainability, dry ports, inland ports, economic sustainability, social sustainability, and environmental sustainability. Tools such as BibExcel and VOSviewer were utilized to assist in conducting the bibliometric analysis. The majority of dry port research has concentrated on the definition, functions, policy and governance, location analysis, ownership, and dry port-seaport interaction. Less attention is paid to dry port sustainability in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the interaction of internal and external collaboration with dry port sustainability, dry port social sustainability, dry port economic sustainability, dry port environment sustainability, and dry port service quality. Specifically, there has been limited research output on the sustainability of dry ports within the context of landlocked nations. This study will raise awareness of unexplored areas for further research by focusing on critical issues that are not generally covered by scholars in existing literature, such as dry port internal sustainability management and external collaboration.

In the context of a dry port, sustainable operations involve developing and implementing policies and procedures that reduce adverse effects on the environment, advance economic viability, and strengthen social responsibility. Several factors contribute to achieving environmental, economic, and social sustainability, making it critical to identify the factors influencing the sustainability of dry port operations. This research aims to identify decisive factors associated with economic, social, and environmental sustainability, and to develop a framework for measuring sustainability in dry port operations. The research utilises exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to develop a measurement framework for assessing the sustainability of Ethiopian dry ports. EFA is an effective method with which to identify factors that contribute to sustainable dry port operations. To provide a frame for the critical sustainability performance metrics for dry ports, the AHP approach was used. Data were collected from 300 stakeholders using surveys to identify key factors, and 20 senior experts were involved in validating and rating the most influential factors determining dry port sustainability. This research asserts the most pertinent factors guiding dry port sustainability operations, resource allocation, and decision-making. From an environmental sustainability perspective, critical factors include minimising business-partner impacts, reducing waste, addressing climate change, providing environmental planning education to teams, and implementing measures to protect the national environment. From a social perspective, the factors identified include a resettlement policy, employment opportunities for the community, workplace safety, stakeholder consultation, and top-management guidance. From an economic standpoint, critical factors include value-added services, reduced transportation costs, decreased time, enhanced productivity in the trade supply chain, and profit orientation. The research provides valuable insights with which to guide the development of practices and policies aimed at ensuring sustainable dry port operations, a critical domain of the trade supply chain.

The world is moving fast, and organizations are facing new risks, uncertainties, and threats within their supply chains [...]

AbstractAs the maritime industry forms the common means of heavy freight transportation, the efficient and strategic management of sea routes from an economic and environmental perspective has become a major concern to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). By applying marine engineering principles and quantifying metrics such as energy efficiency design, index/existing vessel design index, energy efficiency operational index, carbon footprints, fuel consumption, voyage times and emission this study aims to explore the merits of the Indo‐Sri Lankan shipping canal project over the existing route circumnavigating Sri Lanka. The quantification was performed by studying the design and operational indices of marine vessels, based on the metrics considering the major ports in India. The socio‐political, environmental and economic benefits reported in this study advocate the significance of this route to the maritime industry in meeting SDGs.

The adoption of Circular Economy (CE) is challenging, especially for manufacturing SMEs. Without SMEs, CE’s full spectrum cannot be realised, since they contribute to around 50% of the national GDP, globally. This research proposes a novel framework (C-LEAN) to facilitate the implementation of CE in manufacturing SMEs by combining the principles of CE and Lean, as both foci on waste elimination and value creation/preservation. The framework utilises Lean tools/methods mingled with CE principles to achieve circularity, efficiency and effectiveness in manufacturing SMEs. The proposed framework was conceptually developed based on an extensive review of the existing scholarly literature and verified by a panel of field experts, through a Delphi study, from academia and industry. The model was further validated to assess its practical relevance through a case study approach in an SME manufacturing company. The results derived from the verification and validation of the proposed C-LEAN framework suggest that CE can be effectively and efficiently adopted through its amalgamation with Lean. The C-LEAN framework provides a systematic approach for manufacturing SMEs to simultaneously adopt CE and Lean practices in their existing operations. The proposed C-LEAN framework can support and guide managers in the concurrent deployment of CE and Lean for their organisations to enhance both their operational and sustainability performance. This research provides a novel framework that converges CE and Lean as no such framework exists to date. C-LEAN is attractive for manufacturing SMEs due to its dual nature of achieving operations excellence in a sustainable circular manner.