Sustainable Production and Consumption最新文献

{"title":"Testing circularity measures: Lifespan and end-of-life modelling influence on the environmental impact of the EU residential building stock","authors":"G. Pristerà ,&nbsp;E. Sanyé-Mengual ,&nbsp;P. Wierzgala ,&nbsp;S. Sala","doi":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.014","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The reduction of the environmental impacts of the building sector, either through a decrease in its operational energy consumption or the promotion of circular practices, is the target of multiple EU policy initiatives. While different modelling approaches have been proposed to quantify the environmental impacts of the EU building stock, limited knowledge is available on the sensitivity of these models to key parameters associated with circular economy measures. To fill this gap, this study aims at testing lifespan and end-of-life modelling choices to gain an improved understanding of their effect on the quantification of the environmental impacts of the EU residential sector, using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based building stock model developed by the European Commission – Joint Research Centre (JRC) as the reference model. Several options were explored in relation to parameters affecting the service lives of buildings and their components, along with their end-of-life pathways. A sensitivity analysis was also performed to evaluate the model's robustness when subjected to parameter changes derived from the literature. It emerged that, due to the prominent role played by the operational energy phase, environmental impact results at the stock level were not significantly affected by parameter changes, with the exception of the particulate matter impact category, which achieved &gt;10% variations when simultaneously testing shorter finishing material service lives and lower incineration and recycling rates. Shifting the focus to embodied impacts, however, led to increased sensitivity in the model, with oscillations due to service life length overshadowing those connected to end-of-life treatment changes: in terms of single weighted score, the former can achieve a building-level variation of over 100% (when assuming short lifespans), while the latter does not exceed 38% (when maximising incineration rates). It is therefore necessary to take these fluctuations into account when using this LCA-based model as a basis for verifying the potential benefits of measures to promote circularity within the building sector, particularly as said measures primarily target embodied impacts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48619,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Production and Consumption","volume":"56 ","pages":"Pages 207-220"},"PeriodicalIF":10.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143767780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Contributions of a mitigation measure portfolio to directing Chinese crop-livestock production system towards net-zero emissions","authors":"Wei Yang ,&nbsp;Wufei Zhang ,&nbsp;Jiahao Xing ,&nbsp;Yuanyuan Zheng ,&nbsp;Helmut Yabar ,&nbsp;Junnian Song","doi":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.012","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.012","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agriculture contributes over 50% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the food system and plays a key role in reaching the climate target. How and to what extent agriculture can reduce GHG emissions, and whether it can achieve net-zero emissions, remain to be further uncovered. Applying a life cycle and scenario analysis approach with the functional units defined as unit crop cultivated area and one head of livestock, we assess the residual emissions of the integrated crop-livestock production system in China after implementing a portfolio of mitigation measures. The results show that the life cycle net GHG emissions in the integrated system is 1142.19 Million tons (Mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂-eq). In scenario 3, the combined measures targeting straw utilization achieve the greatest reduction of 270.42 Mt CO₂-eq, followed by measures implemented for manure management at 206.30 Mt CO₂-eq. The net residual emissions significantly drop to 241.35 Mt CO₂-eq, resulting from the net negative emissions achieved through bioenergy production with CO₂ capture (−398.30 Mt CO₂-eq), alongside emissions from energy and material production, and energy use (297.17 Mt CO₂-eq), as well as hard-to-abate direct emissions (342.47 Mt CO₂-eq) from enteric fermentation, manure management, and rice cultivation. Achieving further emission reductions, even net-zero and negative emissions in Chinese crop-livestock production system will strongly depend on transitioning to low-carbon energy system and expanding agricultural waste-to-energy utilization combined with CO₂ capture.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48619,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Production and Consumption","volume":"56 ","pages":"Pages 112-127"},"PeriodicalIF":10.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Techno-economic and environmental assessment of closed-loop photovoltaic recycling in China","authors":"Qinyu Wang ,&nbsp;Yao Wang ,&nbsp;Beijia Huang ,&nbsp;Yuyue Wang ,&nbsp;Xiangjin Wang ,&nbsp;Yuqiong Long ,&nbsp;Yi Dou","doi":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.02.025","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.02.025","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Faced with the large-scale disposal of waste photovoltaic (PV) modules, identifying sustainable recycling pathways in terms of both environmental and economic performance is crucial. Utilizing life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis, we compared three recovery scenarios—full recovery (R1), aluminum frame and glass recovery (R2), and aluminum frame recovery (R3)—with landfilling, based on closed-loop recycling practices in China. The results show that glass recovery is a key contributor to environmental benefits, while silver recovery is the most profitable, followed by glass, aluminum, silicon, and copper recovery. From an economic perspective, R1 performs the best, yielding the highest Return on Investment (ROI) at 52.17 %, achieved by recovering all components. R2 is ideal for small startups, with a 39.53 % ROI and an initial investment 47.1 % lower than that of R1. In terms of environmental impact, R1 and R2 exhibit normalized benefits of 2.98 and 2.73, respectively, within the closed-loop recycling system. R1 stands out by reducing toxic impacts by 35 %, though it faces water eutrophication. In contrast, R3 underperforms, with landfilling of residues leading to poor environmental and economic outcomes, including a − 31.00 % ROI and an additional normalized impact of 0.55. Considering the variety of recycling scales in the industry, this study provides policy recommendations for enhancing the sustainability of the PV sector. Recyclers may adopt R2 in the early stages of PV recycling to recover aluminum frames and glass, while different PV recycling enterprises are expected to collaborate in an upstream-downstream model in the future.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48619,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Production and Consumption","volume":"56 ","pages":"Pages 1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":10.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143632245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Jute bags as a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic bags in Bangladesh: Rethinking the sole reliance on life cycle assessment","authors":"M.F.R. Zuthi ,&nbsp;F. Khan ,&nbsp;I. Lange ,&nbsp;S. Kühlewindt ,&nbsp;T.T. Jarin ,&nbsp;M.H. Masum ,&nbsp;M.A. Rahman ,&nbsp;N. Tasnim ,&nbsp;E. Kraft ,&nbsp;A. Hoque ,&nbsp;K.M. Hassan","doi":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the unique deltaic geography of Bangladesh, mismanaged plastic waste presents significant challenges to human health and aquatic ecosystems. This is due to insufficient waste management, littering, and improper plastic disposal on land. The substitution of plastic with biodegradable alternatives in Bangladesh is closely linked to jute products, driven by their cultural significance and the longstanding tradition of jute cultivation in the Ganges delta.</div><div>This study utilizes a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to evaluate jute and plastic bags throughout their life cycles, from raw material extraction to disposal. The selected functional unit for life cycle assessments is the number of bags necessary to carry the annual groceries per person in Bangladesh, calculated from the average per capita food requirement of 269.20 kg, resulting in 27 bags per capita. The potential carbon footprint for a single-use plastic bag is measured at 56.7 g carbon di-oxide equivalent (CO₂-eq.) while the single-use jute bag results in 313.41 g CO₂-eq., marking a fivefold increase compared to the plastic bag. The less favorable environmental impacts for single-use jute bags can be attributed to their nearly tenfold higher weight than a thin plastic bag, necessitating a correspondingly higher quantity of raw materials for production. In the category of terrestrial ecotoxicity, the plastic bag exhibits substantial disadvantages. The plastic bag outperforms the jute bag in 17 out of 18 impact categories in single-use scenarios. However, with multiple uses (ten times), the jute bag demonstrates superior performance in most impact categories compared to the single-use low-density polyethylene (LDPE) bag. A measure for assessing the risk of environmental littering is derived by considering the quantity of bags required to fulfill the functional unit, along with factors such as weight, surface area, price, and biodegradability. The outcomes provided by the littering risk indicator <em>(I</em>_<em>lr</em><em>)</em> contradict those obtained through LCA. The value of <em>I</em>_<em>lr</em> is significantly different between the two types of bags, with the jute bag showing a lower value of 0.65, indicating minimal environmental litter risk. In contrast, the LDPE bag has an alarmingly high value of 29,566, highlighting a substantial littering risk. The paper advocates for a more holistic assessment to inform sustainable choices better and mitigate environmental impacts effectively. Recognizing the limitations of LCA, particularly in assessing littering and material persistence, the study emphasizes the need to address these constraints in future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48619,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Production and Consumption","volume":"56 ","pages":"Pages 54-65"},"PeriodicalIF":10.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143644303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A systematic review of agrivoltaics: productivity, profitability, and environmental co-benefits","authors":"Ganesh Pandey ,&nbsp;Sarah Lyden ,&nbsp;Evan Franklin ,&nbsp;Benjamin Millar ,&nbsp;Matthew Tom Harrison","doi":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In co-locating agriculture and solar photovoltaics (PV) on the same land parcel, agrivoltaic systems (AVS) afford opportunities to meet growing global food and energy demand while contributing to renewable energy targets. Previous review studies have not concurrently examined how AVS impacts agri-food production and PV electricity generation, profitability, and environmental co-benefits and trade-offs. We systematically review the literature to assess the impact of AVS design, layout and position in the landscape on agri-food production and energy generation, profitability and environmental stewardship. The impact of site-specific factors such as climate, design constraints, policies and the emissions intensity of the local electricity system were also included in the assessment. In addition to renewable energy, we find that AVS provide co-benefits such as enhanced crop/pasture water-use efficiencies (up to 150–300 % improvement), greater land-use efficiency (up to 200 %), reduced irrigation demand (14 % reduction), improved profitability (up to 15 times higher revenue) and more consistent interannual crop/pasture production compared with conventional agricultural production systems in isolation. Such synergies amplify in locations characterized by arid, semi-arid and hot conditions that are conducive to transient or chronic plant water deficit. Further, bifacial solar panels achieve higher electricity yield per unit area compared with conventional monofacial panels, support plant growth by allowing greater solar radiation transmission, and provide flexibility in the selection of azimuth and tilt angle at which solar panels are installed. Bifacial panels thus afford complementarity with common agricultural practices, such as cultivation and/or livestock grazing. Although AVS tend to have higher installation costs than conventional PV systems (about 5–40 %), practitioners of subsidized projects report competitive returns on investment (payback period &lt;10 years) and highlight benefits associated with revenue diversification. The conversion of agricultural land to AVS offers manifold environmental benefits, including mitigation of global warming, reduced eutrophication, and more effective utilization of land resources.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48619,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Production and Consumption","volume":"56 ","pages":"Pages 13-36"},"PeriodicalIF":10.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143644300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Absolute environmental sustainability of solid biofuels: An investigation by different environmental-ecological performance indicators","authors":"D.A. Lopes Silva ,&nbsp;D.V. Silva ,&nbsp;A.C. Farrapo Junior ,&nbsp;Y. Xue ,&nbsp;B. Bakshi","doi":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research on the absolute environmental sustainability of biofuels is limited, and no studies to date have focused on the biomass pellet sector. Net environmental-ecological performance models can be used to quantify absolute sustainability in a life cycle approach, and this investigation provided an analysis of them in the context of biomass pellets as a case study. Four models were compared, where two models are based on results expressed in biophysical units, and two are given in monetary units. All the models were applied in a cradle-to-gate perspective for the two types of biomass pellets: pine pellets and peanut shell pellets. Ten environmental categories were investigated, and the results showed that the pine pellets were the best option and closer to an absolute sustainable profile. The problem with monetary-based models is the loss of accuracy in results. However, the communication of the results for non-experts could be based on monetary terms as they express the main findings more simply. To assist different stakeholders we provided recommendations on which model to apply in bioenergy systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48619,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Production and Consumption","volume":"55 ","pages":"Pages 407-419"},"PeriodicalIF":10.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143601628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of resource security concerns on Nordic countries' approach to the circular economy of metals","authors":"Eugène Petelin","doi":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The circular economy (CE) transformative model depends on policy design and implementation in multiple socio-economic contexts. Temporal priorities based on security concerns can stimulate risk-averse circular policies that compromise achieving Sustainable Development Goal 12 for responsible consumption and production. However, the CE literature lacks empirical evidence on how these concerns affect prioritisation among circular policies. The Nordic countries were among the first to introduce national circular strategies, yet their circular material use is below the average and complementary to increasing mineral extraction. Substantial mining industries and a high external exchange of metals and metal-based products make this region an intriguing case for the CE. This study applied the argumentative discourse analysis to strategic documents from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway to explore the effects of resource security concerns on the Nordics' approach to the CE of metals. Identified security storylines include ensuring the secondary supply of metals, preventing adverse impacts on other countries' conditions, ensuring people's material sufficiency, eliminating health risks from discarded products, reducing environmental pressure, and eliminating hazardous pollution. The study demonstrates the prevalence of the ‘ensuring the secondary supply’ storyline in the Nordic approach while displaying prioritised metals and products. The results highlight how resource security concerns can affect prioritisation among circular policies through discursive storylines. This evidence can contribute to developing CE policy proposals that envision an inclusive and resilient transformative change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48619,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Production and Consumption","volume":"55 ","pages":"Pages 420-433"},"PeriodicalIF":10.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143610258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Circles of profit: A conceptual framework for economic and financial aspects in circular construction","authors":"Nouman Khadim ,&nbsp;Alfons van Marrewijk","doi":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Circular construction is an emerging paradigm aimed at addressing the sustainability concerns related to the construction industry. While technical and environmental aspects of circular construction receive ample attention, their economic dimension remains underexplored and is often limited to costs and micro-level factors, lacking a holistic perspective. In response, this study develops a multi-level conceptual framework to critically evaluate the economic and financial aspects of circular construction, through an Integrated Literature Review (ILR) of 45 academic and grey literature sources, complemented by interview data from actors involved in real-world circular construction projects. Four primary research clusters of economic and financial aspects are identified: (1) economic assessment methods, (2) benefits, barriers, risks, and enablers, (3) market guidelines and reports, and (4) circular business models. The findings reveal that economic and financial aspects are complex, extending beyond traditional cost and finance issues, and multilevel, shaped by supply chain dynamics, market forces and policy frameworks. As there is a high degree of interdependency among economic and financial aspects, any change can trigger cascading effects. Additionally, the study demonstrates how targeted interventions can mitigate multiple barriers and create positive feedback loops. The results contribute to the literature on the economic aspects of circular construction by broadening the traditional cost-focused approach and highlighting interconnected economic dynamics. Furthermore, the results advance the circular construction transition literature by illuminating relationships across multiple levels. Lastly, the study contributes to the literature on circular economy barriers and enablers by critically examining the underlying reasons behind existing barriers. By providing a structured approach to the economic and financial aspects of circular construction, the framework enables stakeholders to systematically identify and address barriers, costs, and uncertainties that often hinder its practical implementation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48619,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Production and Consumption","volume":"55 ","pages":"Pages 444-457"},"PeriodicalIF":10.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143610260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Shaping China's carbon peak roadmaps: A dynamic model for provincial residential buildings","authors":"Youfeng Qiao ,&nbsp;Jinfan Zhang ,&nbsp;Tengfei Huo ,&nbsp;Qianxi Du ,&nbsp;Weiguang Cai","doi":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Collaborative emission reduction in the provincial residential building sector is crucial for achieving China's “Dual Carbon” goal. However, existing research failed to clearly depict the provincial residential buildings carbon peak roadmaps or adequately account for future uncertainties, thereby hindering the formulation of effective provincial carbon control targets and collaborative emission reduction strategies. This study develops a provincial-level residential building carbon peak dynamic simulation model, integrating an improved Kaya identity, Monte Carlo simulation, and scenario analysis. The model incorporates peaking time, size constraints, and uncertainties in key variables to capture inter-provincial variations in urban and rural residential building carbon emissions and support the formulation of provincial roadmaps. Results show that under strict carbon reduction policies, both urban and rural residential buildings experience earlier and lower peak carbon emissions. In the business-as-usual scenario, the peak value for urban residential building carbon emissions (UBC) ranges from 3.63 MtCO₂ in Hainan to 97.89 MtCO₂ in Shandong, with Ningxia peaking as early as 2007. For rural residential building carbon emissions (RBC), peaking time range from 2026 to 2036, with values between 2.03 and 53.97 MtCO₂. Dynamic simulation results suggest RBC will peak before 2030, while UBC will peak later, around 2034, with values ranging from 751.46 to 799.56 MtCO₂. Provincial policies significantly influence peak times. In Henan and Shandong, the policies delay UBC peaks, whereas in Hainan and Beijing, they accelerate RBC peaks. This study offers valuable insights for developing differentiated carbon peak roadmaps and formulating targeted policy recommendations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48619,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Production and Consumption","volume":"55 ","pages":"Pages 389-406"},"PeriodicalIF":10.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143601627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Driving sustainability at early-stage innovation in production of zinc oxide nanoparticles","authors":"Israel Carreira-Barral ,&nbsp;Julieta Díez-Hernández ,&nbsp;Elorri Igos ,&nbsp;Michael Saidani ,&nbsp;Tianran Ding ,&nbsp;Tiago Ramos da Silva ,&nbsp;Helena Monteiro ,&nbsp;Andreas Stingl ,&nbsp;Patricia M.A. Farias ,&nbsp;Olavo Cardozo ,&nbsp;Jesús Ibáñez ,&nbsp;Ana García-Moral ,&nbsp;Juan Antonio Tamayo-Ramos ,&nbsp;Carlos Rumbo ,&nbsp;Rocío Barros ,&nbsp;Sonia Martel-Martín","doi":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.003","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Despite its industrial relevance and the methods that have been described for its synthesis, little is known about the performance of the production processes of ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), either pure or doped, from the sustainability perspective. The Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) framework brings to this context an excellent opportunity to 1) evaluate the impacts of chemical processes from the safety and sustainability perspectives, and 2) design and test safety and sustainability strategies to study and optimise these key aspects in early innovation stages. This work aims at assessing the production of ZnO NPs using this approach, testing the sustainability of the materials, designed and produced by Phornano, an Austrian SME, under this scheme. Three scenarios were analysed: the original process (BS) and two alternatives resulting from the application of SSbD strategies to the former (S1 and S2). BS is a linear process in which Zn(NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;)&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;·6H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O, whey, water and a dopant (a Mn salt) are used as starting materials. However, obtention of the desired product entails the release of toxic fumes (SO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; and NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt;) to the atmosphere. S1 and its scale-up version, S2, are circular processes in which SO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; emissions are avoided, due to the replacement of whey by a non-aminated starch, and NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; are transformed into HNO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;, which reacts with Zn powder to produce Zn(NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;)&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;·6H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O; in this way, no harmful substances are freed and the zinc salt employed as a raw material in BS is generated during the manufacture of ZnO NPs. Four well-known evaluation tools were employed to achieve a holistic sustainability perspective: Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA), Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), according to the standardised methodologies or the most broadly spread ones; the study was complemented with an uncertainty analysis. The results for the production of 1 kg of ZnO NPs show that the after-SSbD scenarios are remarkably more sustainable than BS: the environmental evaluation reveals that S2 outperforms BS for 10 environmental indicators, allowing a reduction of 67 % in terms of total aggregated impact (from 13.7 to 4.4 mPt); from the economic viewpoint, synthesis of ZnO NPs through S2 is around four times cheaper than that achieved &lt;em&gt;via&lt;/em&gt; BS (512 &lt;em&gt;vs&lt;/em&gt; 2206 €); finally, the social footprint is reduced from 159 mPt in the original process to 21 mPt in S2. MCDA of BS, S1 and S2 considering the three assessments performed confirms that S2 is, with almost 100 % probability, the best-performing alternative from the sustainability perspective, followed by S1. Overall, this work, the most complete in this field to date, contributes to the sustainable synthesis of ZnO NPs and to the methodological advance of the SSbD framework through the revisio","PeriodicalId":48619,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Production and Consumption","volume":"55 ","pages":"Pages 353-372"},"PeriodicalIF":10.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143578759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}