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A growing population, climate change and the environmental impacts of conventional agricultural practices are worsening food insecurity. New research shows that use of nanofertilizers can increase food production while simultaneously decreasing the negative environmental effects of agriculture.
Deep-sea mining could provide a substantial supply of metals that we urgently need to decarbonize our society, yet its environmental impact remains intractable. Considering on-land resources remain abundant and can be extracted using well-established risk management, deep-sea mining cannot currently be justified.
A powerful technique with broad applications, operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is widely used but there is a lack of design and reporting standards. Focusing on water-splitting electrocatalysts, we propose best practices for the reproducibility, replicability and reliability of operando XAS studies.
Rice is a staple crop for much of the world’s population, but its production can be a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Supplemental nano iron oxides application can halve these emissions while boosting crop yield.
Carbon neutrality complicates the transition to sustainability due to potential adverse effects on employment and the prosperity of high-emitting sectors. This study simulated the Hungarian economy and tested various strategies for reducing CO2 emissions, revealing that decarbonization-induced economic and job losses can be substantially limited by considering the firm-level network of supply chains.
To get the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track we need to reshape our approaches to implementation, including localization. Localization done differently involves progressing beyond symbolic piecemeal efforts, prioritizing the SDGs with the greatest gains, and pluralizing interpretations and pathways for actions.
Additive manufacturing is gaining growing attention as an alternative to conventional methods, but it can support more-sustainable manufacturing processes if developed through a system-level approach. This Perspective discusses how to achieve such a holistic development of additive manufacturing systems for sustainability.
Cement is a ubiquitous material in modern construction, but produces substantial carbon emissions. Emerging technologies exist that can reduce cement’s carbon footprint, but the right strategies must be implemented ambitiously and synergistically to be effective.
Designing and implementing effective carbon offset mechanisms is a complex and challenging process. This Perspective underscores the importance of transparency across the carbon-offsetting value chain and places it as a prerequisite for efficient offset mechanisms and, ultimately, carbon emissions reduction.
Phase transitions are detrimental to the cyclability of layered oxide cathodes for next-generation sodium-ion batteries. Now, two complementary studies suggest principles on how to navigate through the vast compositional space for better electrochemical performance.
As our reach extends outside our planet into Earth’s orbital space and beyond, the need for proactive research and equitable governance of human activity in outer space is more urgent than ever.
The energy sector has led to the creation of marine artificial structures such as oil and gas installations and offshore wind farms. This global meta-analysis assesses whether such structures can act as artificial reefs and benefit the marine environment when left at sea following decommissioning.
The rapid launch of hundreds of thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit will significantly alter our view of the sky and raise concerns about the sustainability of Earth’s orbital space. A new framework for sustainable space development must balance technological advancement, protection of space environments and our capacity to explore the Universe.
Evaluating the sustainability impacts of housing policies for low- and moderate-income households is challenging. This study links observations of housing programme participation and utility consumption to quantify the benefits of locally administered housing policies in a typical community in the American Southeast.
Global food supply chains drive ecosystem degradation and social injustices. This Perspective focuses on the ability of midstream actors operating between agricultural commodity producers and manufacturers of food products to improve supply chain sustainability.
Research on how to support human exploration and eventual habitation of outer space is advancing. However, while its aims are beyond our planet, space bioprocess engineering has practical sustainability applications here on Earth.
This work shows an integrated device that could harvest osmosis energy at one side and then drive efficient production of green hydrogen from seawater at the other side.
Polyamides are an important class of polymers, yet their fossil-based manufacturing markedly contributes to environmental pollution. A recent breakthrough unlocks a sustainable pathway to recyclable polyamides produced directly from biomass.
With a sustainable carbohydrate core, the proposed polyamide plastic design here can compete with fossil-based alternative in terms of both performance and cost.