Journal of Cleaner Production

For many islands, the answer to the question “why a locally, self-sustaining, and regenerative economy is needed?” is clear. The struggle often lies in the “how”. Here, we argue that tools from regenerative economics, which follow an island economy-as-an-organism analogy, offer valuable and complementary insights to socio-metabolic research. Indicators from flow-based and information-based ecological network analysis can quantify properties of an island's socio-economic metabolism (SEM) which are related to cycling, resilience, and degree of mutualism, among others. To illustrate the applicability of these methods, we select Samothraki in Greece as a case study. Results show that over the years the island became very efficient in streamlining imported resources, experiencing physical growth as indicated by a substantial increase in its total material throughput. This growth was attributed to a high degree of order (i.e., network efficiency) endowed by the constraining (ordered) part of the linear structure of the island's SEM. The disordered part of its SEM which is related to resilience, played a much smaller role which became progressively more important over the years, albeit to a limited degree. While the island exhibits an increasing trend in its robustness, its value over the years studied was well below what is typically observed for healthy natural ecosystems, and its current SEM has a very low ability to generate internal flow activity and cycling of resources per unit input. This limited robustness is due to the island's dependency on imports but also due to its linear SEM which had a very small number of feedback loops in its network. A scenario analysis showed that a reticulated network structure would theoretically endow the island with increased resilience, and hence robustness, by allowing for more internal resource flow activity to be circulated as regenerative re-investment. This article highlights that methods from regenerative economics can be used as diagnostic tools to assess and monitor the impact of strategies related to circular economy interventions on network properties, and to illuminate their effect on the regenerative potential of islands.

The food system of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) transitioned from plantation-based agriculture to one based on small-scale production and high food imports. Through the ‘25 in 5 Plan’, the CARICOM hopes to reduce its US$ 5 billion annual food import bill by 25% in the next five years, mainly by import substitution. Virtual water analysis has the potential to reveal water consumption and fluxes in food production and trade in the CARICOM to highlight hydro-concerns for the anticipated food import substitution. This study, therefore, analysed the virtual water flows associated with maize production and trade in the Caribbean to explore the implications of import substitution for sustainable water use and food security. Maize production and trade matrix data for the period 2010–2019 were obtained from FAO databases, and virtual water content was obtained from the Water Footprint Network database. Virtual water flow was estimated as the product of the virtual water content of maize and quantity traded between any two trading partners. Net virtual water flows were estimated as the difference between virtual water of imported commodities and that of exported commodities for each Caribbean country and its trading partners. Additionally, the equivalent water demand for full import substitution was estimated. The results showed that maize import to the Caribbean was about twice the regional production and both intra- and extra-Caribbean trade were highly concentrated in few countries. The equivalent volume of water required to support full import substitution, at current yields and consumption, was larger than the total internal renewable water resources for some countries. It is concluded that, while there is room for import substitution and diversification to reduce both cost and risk, water scarcity considerations are necessary and can limit the scale of import substitution for key commodities such as maize. A regional approach that takes advantage of national differences in water endowments and production potential, while enhancing intra-regional trade and diversifying extra-regional sources of supply, should be given urgent attention.

While excessive use of electronics and the resulting e-waste is a global problem, the situation is even more acute on small islands as bounded systems and the enormous costs associated with shipping it elsewhere. Dumping e-waste on islands can cause pollution of ground and surface water and degradation of coastal and marine resources. Yet, research that supports island governments to deal with their e-waste is scarce. This paper explores the viability of a circular economy (CE) and asks whether this could be a promising solution for islands to tackle their e-waste challenge. In pursuit of this aim, the CE potential of e-waste is analyzed on five Caribbean islands: Aruba, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. The resource quantity of e-waste generated between 2020 and 2025 is estimated, and the economic value is assessed for the embedded materials. Using sensitivity analyses, three scenarios of exploitable e-waste and their potential economic values were calculated, considering the recovery of 20%, 50%, or 100% of e-waste stocked on the islands between 2001 and 2019. Expert interviews were conducted to identify existing e-waste management practices, if any. The results reveal that more than 317.4 kt of secondary materials would be available for recovery, comprising a significant amount of base and precious metals, such as aluminum, copper, silver, gold, and palladium. The estimated economic value of these materials is estimated to be more than $546 million. However, according to the sensitivity analysis, if these islands had started the recovery of resources in early 2001, this value would almost triple to $1,430 million - equivalent to nearly 30% of the total gross domestic product (GDP) from mining and quarrying in the entire Caribbean community, from just these five islands. Due to economies of scale that limit smaller nations, regional co-operations and initiating industrial symbiosis would be essential for desirous islands to shift to a CE. CE can support resource self-sufficiency on islands and bring several social, environmental, and economic benefits. This research is the first to provide an island-specific perspective to help decision-makers manage e-waste flows by including participatory CE implementation methods.

The Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) are largely reliant on fossil fuels for electricity generations and this dependency makes these Island States immensely vulnerable to global fuel price volatility since the excess outflow of money on fuel imports not only affects the economic growth but also hinders the sustainable development. Additionally, waste management in these small countries is economically and environmentally expensive and mostly dumped in open/closed-dumps and landfills which decompose and releases notorious greenhouse gases (i.e., methane and carbon dioxide, etc.). Amalgamating these two disparate issues, this study aims to find a mutual solution by exploring the feasibility of waste-to-energy (WtE) potentials via different technologies at the selected sites. Using the population and per capita waste generation data of fifteen selected sites of eight PSIDS, a waste profile of each site is evaluated. Then, the waste generation over the projected 20 years is used to determine the electricity generation potential of each site under the proposed alternative scenarios (i.e., 2 – landfill gas to energy (LFGTE) technology, 3 – mass-burn incineration, 4 – hybrid mechanical-biological treated (MBT) anaerobic digestion (AD) and LFGTE technology, and 5 – hybrid MBT-AD and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) incineration). These four scenarios (2–5) are compared to the Business-as-Usual case denoted as scenario 1. To test the economic viability, the Net Present Value, Levelized Cost of Energy, and Payback Period of each site is ascertained. Further economic benefits are assessed through the recycling of materials including plastics (under scenario 4 only), glass, and metals (under all scenarios). Emissions and energy consumption of each scenario are analysed using the Waste Reduction Model (WARM). The outcome of this study revealed that scenario 3 offers the greatest potential in terms of electricity generation, at Port Moresby (PNG1), Papua New Guinea site having the highest potential (i.e., 78.86 GWh) and Kosrae (FSM4), Federated States of Micronesia has the lowest generation potential of only 92.86 MWh. This scenario 3 (mass-burn incineration) was also supported by the economic assessment. It was also found that recycling brought in additional economic benefits and also helped offset CO2-equivalent emissions and contributed towards energy savings. Multi-level multi-criteria decision analysis (ML-MCDA) was performed to select the most viable waste management alternative based on technical, economic, environmental, and stakeholder preferences. The priorities assigned to the respective scenarios for all fifteen sites were as such: scenario 3 > scenario 5 > scenario 4 > scenario 2 > scenario 1.

The sustainable island implicates the integrated development of ecological environment with agriculture, tourism, trade, and other industries in a long term. In this study, an emergy-based framework was built to assess the sustainability of three islands states in a time series (2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015). Compared with other regions, islands are more fragile and sensitive to environmental challenges that threaten the ecosystems. Under such circumstances, we initially focused on three typical island countries of Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, mainly for their rich natural resources accompanying rapid economy growth and urbanization processes. Results present different features for each country. Indonesia has the largest total emergy (1.53E + 24 sej in 2015), whereas Malaysia has the highest emergy use per capita (2.07E + 16 sej/cap in 2015). Another finding is that renewable resource fractions in total emergy are all steadily declining over the investigated time, whereas Indonesia experienced the largest decreasing rate but became increasingly dependent on nonrenewable resources (N), Meanwhile, Malaysia and Philippines relied more on imported inputs (F). The results also reveal that Indonesia has a higher emergy sustainability index (ESI). But when the new indicator environmental index of sustainable development (EISD) was applied to measure sustainability. The Philippines had the highest value (0.71) in 2015, whereas Malaysia had both the lowest ESI and EISD values because of factors like frequent economic activities as well as conflicts between humans and land. Results suggest that, it is essential to improve energy efficiency by technological innovations, and the removal of subsidies to fossil fuels and the strengthening of pollution control are also suggested. The outcomes can also provide policy insights to enhance sustainability of similar island economies.

Small Island Developing States such as the Cook Islands are faced with a myriad of challenges due to their size and physical isolation. One solution that we explore is the effect local sustainable businesses would have in the Cook Islands. In this study we analyze three different case studies organized into transport, beverages and pork manufacturing, and compare the impacts of our sustainable and business-as-usual scenarios using four different indicators: wages, domestic stimulus, imports and greenhouse gas emissions. These indicators allow us to analyze the sustainable business solutions for the case studies economically, socially and environmentally. We found that our sustainable scenarios for local businesses would overall have a positive impact on the Cook Islands including an increase in local wages and domestic stimulus, a decrease in imports and in the case of the transport study, a significant decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. Promoting local sustainable businesses was ultimately found to be significantly beneficial to the Cook Islands, indicating that other solutions in different Small Island Developing States could have positive effects as well.

The residential built environment plays a crucial role in supporting many human activities. In urban areas however, high-rise residential buildings require significant investment of material resources, which are stacked for a long time over the building's lifetime. Assessing the Material Stock (MS) of buildings has been the focus of several studies for insights into in-use materials and their potential availability as secondary resources. The study of material circularity, or the potential to reuse materials emerging from end-of-life buildings, has so far been mostly limited to metals. This study argues that material stock analysis at individual material or material categories e.g. mineral, or metals, need to be complemented with building component stock estimations to enhance the potential for secondary resource recovery. Based on a bottom-up stock analysis approach, we estimate both the material and component stock of public housing developments in the city-state of Singapore and associated annual in- and out-flows. Results show that public housing in this city, which accommodates over 80 percent of its residents, accounts for 125.7 million tons of non-metallic minerals, 6.52 million tons of steel, 6.45 million windows, 8.61 million doors, 1.97 million toilet accessories, 15.33 million lighting fixtures, 0.99 million kitchen accessories (such as cookstove, kitchen cabinets) and 52.54 million m2 of tiles. The average stock of materials for these residential buildings is estimated at 27.4 tons of non-metallic minerals per capita and 1.4 tons of steel per capita. The average annual inflow of materials has been estimated to be 1.94 million tons for concrete and 0.1 million tons of steel, with a considerably low outflow of 0.31 million tons concrete and 0.02 million tons of steel, implying growth in these material stocks. This study provides a methodological approach to quantify building material and component stock and flows, which can be used by policy makers, urban planners and designers to consider responsible resource consumption. In particular, material and component stock estimations like that reported in this study contribute towards component-level circularity in the built environment.

The shortage of construction materials for concrete production on islands far from mainland is a long-standing problem. Coral waste is a by-product during some marine engineering works and it has the potential to be recycled as concrete ingredients. The present work reports the hydration, mechanical and durability-related properties as well as the ecological impacts of marine mortars based on coral waste and metakaolin (MK). Results show that coral waste mortar presents obviously lower compressive strength and chloride resistance than conventional river sand mortar. These defects can be overcome by MK addition due to the formation of carboaluminate, pozzolanic reaction as well as the increased water-retention of paste, which prevents water from being absorbed by coral waste sand (CS) to ensure better uniformity of matrix. Coral waste powder (CP) accelerates cement hydration but reduces the cumulative heat release due to dilution effect. The binary use of CP and MK results in a suspected heat release peak corresponding to the formation of carboaluminate at 26 h. Without sacrifice of the mechanical properties and durability, the coral waste based marine mortar incorporating 10 wt% MK reduces more than 35% non-renewable energy consumption and 40% carbon emission compared to conventional river sand mortar.

Chongming Island, a large island off the Shanghai Coast, is China's first and only endorsed eco-island. The Chinese central government and the Shanghai provincial government have placed high bets on making Chongming a world-class example of sustainable urbanization and involved the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) for valuable knowledge transfer. However, to what extent is it feasible to preserve the green, open and natural character of the island given the enormous urbanization pressure Shanghai faces? In this contribution, the authors examine to what extent the lofty goals formulated in the various national, provincial and local plans are effectively implemented. They claim that existing assessments are useful, but rely too heavily on technocratic indicator systems to allow for insights regarding on the ground implementation. They analyse existing assessment studies on eco island development, but then develop a broader planning and policy oriented assessment matrix of their own which they apply in an independent field study. They find that the Shanghai and Chongming authorities are generally taking their eco island development task seriously through restricting urban development to certain locations, opening eco-parks, developing an integrated water system, and invest substantial resources into making it happen. However, a sustainable public transport system is still missing and at a few locations commercially attractive to real estate development villa parks and skyscrapers have emerged. By synthesizing data from existing evaluations with information retrieved following the format of their assessment matrix, an analysis of the eco island's implementation which connects more closely with the situation experienced on the ground has been generated.

Waste management on small islands does not hold any straightforward solutions. The numerous difficulties include limited space availability, restricted recycling and resale opportunities and impacts on the local environment that become magnified particularly when the island is small-sized, densely populated and tourist dependent. The well-documented impact on the local environment includes resource loss, damage to the marine and local environment and continuous nuisances created by littering, trucks and treatment facilities. However, waste management can leave its mark beyond the local borders. The generation and treatment of waste is in fact gaining attention in its connection with greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Although in the past GHG emissions were mainly associated with energy generation, today it is frequently acknowledged that improved waste management can also mitigate these emissions. This research paper analysis the flows involved in the management of municipal waste (MW) from an island perspective. Focusing on the island of Malta, which consists of 316 km2 and sustains a population density of 1327 people/km2, a Material Flow Analysis together with a carbon footprint is presented for 2012. The same analysis is then made for three prospective scenarios proposed in the Waste Management Plan for the Maltese Islands 2014–2020 using projected 2018 data. With the use of STAN 2.5 (SubSTance Flow ANalysis), a tabled down analysis of the collection, treatment and disposal/export flows involved in the management of Municipal Waste in Malta is presented. The flows are then translated into a carbon footprint analysis using CO2ZW® (a carbon footprint tool for waste management). The objective is to emphasize the relationship between GHG remove GHG and replace with Greenhouse Gas emissions and existing waste management flows and how this relationship changes when different collection, treatment and disposal options are selected. The research’s ultimate aim is therefore to underline the importance of placing climate concerns in waste management policies. The results note that, in terms of carbon emissions, Malta stands to benefit from the introduction of a second Mechanical Biological Treatment plant since carbon emissions will experience an extensive reduction from the 2012 estimates. However, further reduction of carbon emissions should be accompanied by the increase of dry material recycling, separate organic collection and an analysis of the current collection system particularly route optimisation.

The extensive use of materials in building stocks contributes to the scarcity of natural resources and impacts from construction and demolition waste (CDW). Therefore, the concern with the efficient use of materials and CDW management made several countries conducted mapping, analysis and performance improvement in activities related to CDW using Material Flow Analysis (MFA). The city of Rio de Janeiro had a high urban development and building stock growth from the beginning of the last century, in which the amount of material consumed has not been documented. This study presents an MFA approach to assess the materials in-use and further flows of CDW from the residential building stock in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The material in-use was estimated from the extrapolation of the Material Intensities (MI) per different building types to the total constructed area in this city considering land occupation. The building types were modelled from the designs of typical buildings in Brazil. An analysis of urban development supported the estimation of buildings age and their remaining lifetime while national standards supported the time of replacement of building elements during the use phase. Results show that the stock in 2010 had about 78,828,770t of building material with MI between 2.58 and 0.74 t/m2; concrete and aggregates have the higher MI. The Use phase of the buildings will move about 9,807,690t of materials until 2090. These findings support further environmental impacts assessments and decision-making for planning CDW management and strategies for the efficient use of materials.

The accelerated construction of general infrastructure with global urbanization necessitates the massive input of materials. The huge material input and waste output throughout the infrastructure's lifecycle have led to severe resource depletion and the accumulation of potential environmental risks. The systematic evaluation of typical infrastructure stocks is very important to study regional resource availability and explore sustainable development modes under intensive human activities. In this study, we build a material stock model for a highway system that is based on the theory of material metabolism. We analysed the scale and structures of the stock and its lifecycle effects in the Shandong Peninsula. The following results are shown: 1) the total material stock in the entire highway system was 1933.57 Mt in 2013, and the six materials with the largest inputs were stones, fly ash, lime, cement, mineral powder and asphalt, which together comprised 99.8% of the stocks; 2) the material-driven impacts mainly originated from production and construction stages, of which the main damage types were fossil fuels, inhalable inorganics, climate change and land use; 3) the end products for highway construction were mainly supplied by Shandong itself. The average transport distance for different materials ranged from 25 to 174 km. Steel, stone and asphalt had a longer transport distance than others; and 4) the top three parameters that largely affected the stocks were the road length, roadway structure, and cross-sectional subgrade structure. The inputs could be largely reduced by appropriately adjusting the structures of roadways and subgrades in low-class roads.

Phosphorus is a resource that is utilized with efficiency in most parts of the world. Farmers fertilize with increasing precision; wastewater treatment plants strip phosphorus from sewage; and industries make use of phosphorus byproducts. Why, then, do incidents of eutrophication and harmful algal blooms related to excessive phosphorus outflows continue to intensify? Incremental improvements in phosphorus use efficiency and monitoring of individual phosphorus waste streams no longer seem sufficient to dampen these environmental impacts. A radical shift in perspective is needed, one in which phosphorus is treated as a resource rather than as waste. Using substance flow analysis, we explore various types of phosphorus management scenarios for a specific system, for the urban city-state of Singapore. These scenarios are jointly framed with the urban planning agency of Singapore and takes into consideration both behavioral and infrastructural changes to the status quo. These scenarios include strategies and technologies such as composting, separated incineration of organic and non-organic waste, anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and wastewater, and dedicated anaerobic digestion of food waste and wastewater. Publicly available UN Comtrade data is used to establish temporal trends in phosphorus consumption between 1989 and 2012. Phosphorus waste outputs are verified via empirically collected data on household and commercial waste generation. The results of this paper demonstrate how the transition from a linear to a closed-loop phosphorus cycle might be possible for Singapore, an island that is an important test bed for planning the sustainable metabolism of future urban areas.

Waste management on small islands does not hold any straightforward solutions. The numerous difficulties include limited space availability, restricted recycling and resale opportunities and impacts on the local environment that become magnified particularly when the island is small-sized, densely populated and tourist dependent. The well-documented impact on the local environment includes resource loss, damage to the marine and local environment and continuous nuisances created by littering, trucks and treatment facilities. However, waste management can leave its mark beyond the local borders. The generation and treatment of waste is in fact gaining attention in its connection with greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Although in the past GHG emissions were mainly associated with energy generation, today it is frequently acknowledged that improved waste management can also mitigate these emissions. This research paper analysis the flows involved in the management of municipal waste (MW) from an island perspective. Focusing on the island of Malta, which consists of 316 km² and sustains a population density of 1327 people/km², a Material Flow Analysis together with a carbon footprint is presented for 2012. The same analysis is then made for three prospective scenarios proposed in the Waste Management Plan for the Maltese Islands 2014–2020 using projected 2018 data. With the use of STAN 2.5 (SubSTance Flow ANalysis), a tabled down analysis of the collection, treatment and disposal/export flows involved in the management of Municipal Waste in Malta is presented. The flows are then translated into a carbon footprint analysis using CO2ZW® (a carbon footprint tool for waste management). The objective is to emphasize the relationship between GHG remove GHG and replace with Greenhouse Gas emissions and existing waste management flows and how this relationship changes when different collection, treatment and disposal options are selected. The research’s ultimate aim is therefore to underline the importance of placing climate concerns in waste management policies. The results note that, in terms of carbon emissions, Malta stands to benefit from the introduction of a second Mechanical Biological Treatment plant since carbon emissions will experience an extensive reduction from the 2012 estimates. However, further reduction of carbon emissions should be accompanied by the increase of dry material recycling, separate organic collection and an analysis of the current collection system particularly route optimisation.

In recent decades economic growth and increased human wellbeing around the globe have come at the cost of fast growing natural resource use (including materials and energy) and carbon emissions, leading to converging pressures of declining resource security, rising and increasingly volatile natural resource prices, and climate change. We ask whether well-designed policies can reduce global material and energy use, and carbon emissions, with only minimal impacts on improvements in living standards. We use a novel approach of combined economic and environmental modelling to assess the potential for decoupling for 13 world regions and globally. We apply a production (territorial) and consumption approach to discuss regional differences in natural resource use and carbon emissions across three stylized policy outlooks: a reference case with no significant changes to environment and climate policies; a ‘high efficiency’ outlook involving a global carbon price rising from $50 to $236 (constant price) per tonne of CO2 between 2010 and 2050 and improvements in resource efficiency (rising from 1.5% historically to between 3.5% and 4.5% in the scenarios); and a ‘medium efficiency’ outlook midway between the ‘no change’ and ‘high’ outlooks. We find that global energy use will continue to grow rapidly under all three scenarios from 17 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) in 2010 to between 30 and 36 billion toe. Carbon emissions would be considerably lower with a global carbon price, less than half the level of the reference case (29–37 billion tonnes of CO2 instead of 74 billion tonnes) and also material use would grow much more slowly under a carbon price and significant investment to increase resource efficiency (95 instead of 180 billion tonnes of materials). We find that OECD economies have significant potential to reduce their material throughput and carbon emissions with little impact on economic growth, and that developing economies such as China could expand their economies at much lower environmental cost. Globally, the effects of very strong abatement and resource efficiency policies on economic growth and employment until 2050 are negligible. Our study suggests that decarbonization and dematerialization are possible with well-designed policy settings and would not contradict efforts to raise human wellbeing and standards of living. The research demonstrates the usefulness of scenarios for unpacking environmental and economic outcomes of policy alternatives. The findings have important implications for future economic opportunities in a highly resource efficient and low carbon global economy to set human development and achieving the sustainable development goals on a more resilient path.

The Danish island Samsø has since 1997 initiated a process through which the island should reach a state where it would be able to supply its own energy. Such a situation was reached since 2005 – after having established 21 windmills – and the island is now a net exporter of electricity to the Danish power network. At the same time the buildings in the more habituated areas were connected to 4 district heating plants which generate heat from combustion of straw in some cases combined with supplementary inputs from photo thermal devices. Meanwhile, certain activities on the island, such as running the ferries, cars, factories and heating in more distant areas are still dependent on significant input of fossil fuels. The inhabitants have recently stated a wish to move on towards being independent of fossil fuels in 2030 and carbon neutral during the next decades. As a consequence the idea came up to develop a method for the “sustainability analysis” of a society which would assist in governing the transitional process in the direction of increasing sustainability. Therefore, a framework has been developed based on the concept exergy that may reveal where large consumptions are taking places. Such areas are likely to be sensible targets for action or at least increased attention. Basic methods have been developed that allows to account for infrastructure, transfers, inputs and outputs, and consumption in terms of exergy, and taking into account whether the exergy storages or flows can be considered to be renewable or not. The framework has been developed for six societal sectors: the energy sector, the public sector, the private households, the agricultural sector, the industry, commerce and trade sector and nature. Nature is here considered an activity that provides the society with an exergy that may also be of value to our societies, often referred to as ecosystem services. Based on the estimated amount of infrastructure and transfers, inputs and outputs a number of “sustainability indicators” have been developed that may be monitored over time and which may serve to indicate whether potential measures undertaken also lead the society in the right direction. An attempt to evaluate the potential importance of wastes has also been carried out as in organic waste could play an important role in acquiring the amount of bio-diesel required to run the ferries in the future. The results demonstrate that the already existing overhead in production of electricity leaves the island with many options and a great opportunity to be independent of fossil fuels in near future. In fact, it might well be that socio-economical perspectives will turn out to be the more severe obstacles in the transition process. Adjacent to this work a carbon model has also been set up to reveal the consequence of proposed measures and strategies to the carbon budget of the island (Jørgensen and Nielsen, 2014).

The Danish island Samsø has since 1997 initiated a process through which the island should reach a state where it would be able to supply its own energy. Such a situation was reached since 2005 – after having established 21 windmills – and the island is now a net exporter of electricity to the Danish power network. At the same time the buildings in the more habituated areas were connected to 4 district heating plants which generate heat from combustion of straw in some cases combined with supplementary inputs from photo thermal devices. Meanwhile, certain activities on the island, such as running the ferries, cars, factories and heating in more distant areas are still dependent on significant input of fossil fuels. The inhabitants have recently stated a wish to move on towards being independent of fossil fuels in 2030 and carbon neutral during the next decades. As a consequence the idea came up to develop a method for the “sustainability analysis” of a society which would assist in governing the transitional process in the direction of increasing sustainability. Therefore, a framework has been developed based on the concept exergy that may reveal where large consumptions are taking places. Such areas are likely to be sensible targets for action or at least increased attention. Basic methods have been developed that allows to account for infrastructure, transfers, inputs and outputs, and consumption in terms of exergy, and taking into account whether the exergy storages or flows can be considered to be renewable or not. The framework has been developed for six societal sectors: the energy sector, the public sector, the private households, the agricultural sector, the industry, commerce and trade sector and nature. Nature is here considered an activity that provides the society with an exergy that may also be of value to our societies, often referred to as ecosystem services. Based on the estimated amount of infrastructure and transfers, inputs and outputs a number of “sustainability indicators” have been developed that may be monitored over time and which may serve to indicate whether potential measures undertaken also lead the society in the right direction. An attempt to evaluate the potential importance of wastes has also been carried out as in organic waste could play an important role in acquiring the amount of bio-diesel required to run the ferries in the future. The results demonstrate that the already existing overhead in production of electricity leaves the island with many options and a great opportunity to be independent of fossil fuels in near future. In fact, it might well be that socio-economical perspectives will turn out to be the more severe obstacles in the transition process. Adjacent to this work a carbon model has also been set up to reveal the consequence of proposed measures and strategies to the carbon budget of the island (Jørgensen and Nielsen, 2014).

A large and growing body of research examining sustainability in higher education has emerged in the past decade. This literature is dominated by empirical and descriptive studies of specific approaches and individual initiatives, but lacks a cohesive research agenda and is not yet supported by strong theoretical underpinnings. This paper contributes to the advancement of this emerging field by exploring the theoretical framework of transition management (TM), a multi-scale, multi-actor, process-oriented approach and analytical framework to understand and promote change in social systems. The TM framework provides guidance toward informing and prioritizing future empirical research in this important emerging field.

The objective of this study was to compare the life-cycle environmental impacts of changed production structures for two consumer goods (high-density polyethylene (HDPE) shopping bags and beds) in Jamaica. A scenario technique was used to construct three alternative production structures for each product; each scenario reflecting an increase in local production in Jamaica which depended on an increased supply of input materials which may be sourced: (1) externally from overseas suppliers, (2) from post-consumer recycling, and (3) locally on the island of Jamaica. These three constructed scenarios were then compared to the existing supply chain or reference scenarios of the products. The results showed that for both case products the recycling scenario was most preferable for localising production, resulting in the lowest environmental impact. This was because the production of raw materials accounted for the largest effect on total environmental impact. As such, the most immediate environmental improvements were realised by lowering the production of virgin materials.

Conventional measures aimed at tackling the energy and waste issues of island communities focus on technological solutions, such as the introduction of renewable energy sources. There exists a history of technology implementations on small islands that have failed because of a lack of continuing skills and financial resources needed for ongoing operation and maintenance. Despite these experiences, what has received little attention so far are measures aimed at achieving island-friendly solutions by reducing their material metabolism, for example, by recycling and re-use. The two case studies presented in this work show that conservation, efficiency and reductions of the overall material metabolism of economic activity can be as effective as purely technologically driven changes. Both case studies demonstrate exceptional sustainability performance in terms of material flow and greenhouse gas emissions. The income growth scenarios show that – from a sustainability point of view – increasing tourist yield rather than tourist numbers is preferable for coping with price hikes and a finite resource base, and is also more likely to keep within bounds the strain on the island's people and infrastructure.

In this study, the possibility of transforming the current status of tourism in the Balearic Islands (a region in Spain which has been under an enormous environmental pressure from conventional and massive tourism) to a sustainable tourism model is explored. Firstly, a general methodology for the conversion from standard to sustainable tourism is presented. The methodology consists of an initial audit, the selection of objectives and solutions proposed, the application of the selected solutions, an economical evaluation and a review of the obtained results. This methodology is then applied to the conversion of a real case study (“Sa Cova”) and a complete evaluation of the transformation to sustainable tourism is presented, showing an important reduction in the environmental impacts associated with tourism development (especially in areas such as energy consumption, water and waste management). The results presented here can serve as an example for the application of sustainable tourism plans to other similar regions in Spain or other traditional tourist destinations with similar problems.