Reviews & Analysis

Seaweed farming is gaining attention as a potential climate change mitigation solution, but how to achieve such potential is uncertain given current knowledge and practice. A study now explores how expanding seaweed farming for wider human use could reduce carbon emissions from agriculture.

Regulating the temperature inside buildings takes a huge amount of energy, but this cost can be reduced with a smart, durable building envelope that can adapt to different temperatures for heat loss control.

An aqueous electrochromic device has been developed that enables reversible tuning of its thermal emissivity with minimal electrical power input. The device allows for all-season radiative thermoregulation, leading towards year-round energy savings for buildings.

Philosophers in the Western tradition of virtue ethics have long considered practical wisdom a central virtue. This Perspective suggests that virtue ethics and practical wisdom can enrich the work of sustainability researchers, helping them to navigate the challenges of co-producing knowledge and effecting transformative change.

While often perceived as being immune to adverse change, new satellite observations highlight the unexpected impacts of human activities on the world’s protected and intact forests.

Rechargeable aqueous zinc batteries are promising candidates for large-scale energy storage, but their operation is suboptimal at low temperatures. An electrolyte solution comprising two salts now enables unprecedented battery performance across a wide temperature range.

In a warming climate, more than 90% of the global population and gross domestic product might be exposed to increasing risks of compound drought–heatwave events, with more severe effects in poor and rural areas. Furthermore, relative to the current climate, future compound events would disproportionally affect the global terrestrial carbon sink.

The hazardous life cycle of synthetic materials is driving sustainable materials with biogenic building blocks to play a larger role. This Perspective identifies the main challenges and suggests the way forward by focusing on food packaging.

The textile industry is energy intensive and releases huge amounts of pollutants to the environment. Here the authors take a life cycle approach to examine the technological progress made to improve the sustainability of each stage and propose the future directions.

Huge volumes of a diverse range of minerals are required to shift the world to renewable energy. An analysis now shows that many of these are being sourced from the lands of vulnerable people.

Annual grains, domesticated from wild species, have dominated agriculture since the Neolithic. A new study reports how turning to high-yield perennial rice crops could maintain key ecosystem functions while supporting livelihoods.

A lack of regional and international collective action is the greatest barrier to achieving global environmental sustainability. Game theoretic experiments suggest that introducing shared goals could offer a path forward.

Although urgently needed for the decarbonization of our economies, the mining of rare earth elements has a poor environmental record. The use of electrokinetics promises a more efficient extraction while substantially reducing environmental impacts.

The successful breeding and cultivation of perennial rice enables up to eight grain harvests from a single planting, with reduced labour input, improved soil health and potential to affect farming systems in frost-free environments between 40° N and 40° S. Perennial rice reconciles food production with environmental security in a changing climate.

Many tropical reefs are also active community fisheries, posing a complex management challenge. Taking into account reef fish turnover as well as biomass could inform better management for both conservation and sustainable use.

Progress on poverty eradication has yet to deliver access to basic services such as electricity and running water for all. Redistribution, better technologies and different lifestyles can address inequality without exacerbating climate change or degrading ecosystems.

A survey study shows that people want their governments to require increased transparency from companies about their supply chains. But it remains unclear how consumers would respond if such policies raised product prices.

Moving from a glacial-hydrological focus to a social-ecological perspective of the wider catchment hydrology can improve the assessment of mountain water security. Such a shift can help in the development of context-specific and transformational adaptation strategies to changes in the mountain cryosphere.

Despite growing mountains of electronic waste, only a fraction is recycled. Now, a study meshing material flow and geospatial analysis shows how e-waste pathways could be integrated with virgin mining to build viable strategies around metal supply chains.

Efforts to reduce emissions will lower our exposure to air pollution. Yet, the size and vulnerability of the future population will largely determine the resulting health burden. The key socio-demographic determinants include ageing and a declining baseline mortality rate, which are likely to occur in many countries.