Environmental assessment of the entire pork value chain in Catalonia - A strategy to work towards Circular Economy

A systematic review of life-cycle GHG emissions from intensive pig farming: Accounting and mitigation

Pork accounts for approximately 35 % of the global meat supply, with approximately 747 million tons of CO2e greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually. To meet the increasing demand for pork, intensive farming is becoming the priority rearing system owing to its higher productivity. Given the climate transformation ambitions of the pig industry but the lack of knowledge and data, we conducted a systematic review of studies published in the period of 2010-2022 from a life-cycle perspective, with a focus on greenhouse gas emissions accounting and mitigation. The significant variations in systematic harmonized global warming intensities (GWIs) can be primarily attributed to differences in accounting approaches, activity data, technologies and geographical conditions. To understand more, we broke down the entire life cycle and revealed the underlying reasons for modelling mechanisms and data from the main emitters (e.g., feeding, pig rearing, and manure management). These findings are expected to support and improve the transparency, consistency, and comprehensiveness of life-cycle GHG emissions accounting in pig farming. Potential mitigation measures were also reviewed and discussed to provide insights to support the sustainable development of the pig industry.

Body Weight Estimation for Pigs Based on 3D Hybrid Filter and Convolutional Neural Network

The measurement of pig weight holds significant importance for producers as it plays a crucial role in managing pig growth, health, and marketing, thereby facilitating informed decisions regarding scientific feeding practices. On one hand, the conventional manual weighing approach is characterized by inefficiency and time consumption. On the other hand, it has the potential to induce heightened stress levels in pigs. This research introduces a hybrid 3D point cloud denoising approach for precise pig weight estimation. By integrating statistical filtering and DBSCAN clustering techniques, we mitigate weight estimation bias and overcome limitations in feature extraction. The convex hull technique refines the dataset to the pig's back, while voxel down-sampling enhances real-time efficiency. Our model integrates pig back parameters with a convolutional neural network (CNN) for accurate weight estimation. Experimental analysis indicates that the mean absolute error (MAE), mean absolute percent error (MAPE), and root mean square error (RMSE) of the weight estimation model proposed in this research are 12.45 kg, 5.36%, and 12.91 kg, respectively. In contrast to the currently available weight estimation methods based on 2D and 3D techniques, the suggested approach offers the advantages of simplified equipment configuration and reduced data processing complexity. These benefits are achieved without compromising the accuracy of weight estimation. Consequently, the proposed method presents an effective monitoring solution for precise pig feeding management, leading to reduced human resource losses and improved welfare in pig breeding.

Nitrogen management in farming systems under the use of agricultural wastes and circular economy

Population growth leads to an increase in the demand for energy, water, and food as cities grow and urbanize. However, the Earth's limited resources are unable to meet these rising demands. Modern farming practices increase productivity, but waste resources and consume too much energy. Agricultural activities occupy 50 % of all habitable land. After a rise of 80 % in 2021, fertilizer prices have increased by nearly 30 % in 2022, representing a significant cost for farmers. Sustainable and organic farming has the potential to reduce the use of inorganic fertilizers and increase the utilization of organic residues as a nitrogen (N) source for plant nutrition. Agricultural management typically prioritizes nutrient cycling and supply for crop growth, whereas the mineralization of added biomass regulates crop nutrient supply and CO₂ emissions. To reduce overconsumption of natural resources and environmental damage, the current economic model of "take-make-use-dispose" must be replaced by "prevention-reuse-remake-recycle". The circular economy model is promising for preserving natural resources and providing sustainable, restorative, and regenerative farming. Technosols and organic wastes can improve food security, ecosystem services, the availability of arable land, and human health. This study intends to investigate the nitrogen nutrition provided by organic wastes to agricultural systems, reviewing the current state of knowledge and demonstrating how common organic wastes can be utilized to promote sustainable farming management. Nine waste residues were selected to promote sustainability in farming based on circular economy and zero waste criteria. Using standard methods, their water content, organic matter, total organic carbon, Kjeldahl nitrogen, and ammonium levels were determined, along with their potential to improve soil fertility via N supply and technosol formulation. 10 % to 15 % of organic waste was mineralized and analysed during a six-month cultivation cycle. Through the results, the combination of organic and inorganic fertilization to increase crop yield is recommended, as is the search for realistic and practical methods of dealing with massive amounts of organic residues within the context of a circular economy.

Life Cycle Assessment Perspective for Sectoral Adaptation to Climate Change: Environmental Impact Assessment of Pig Production

Growing demand for sustainably driven production systems, especially pork, requires a holistic or system thinking approach. Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) offers a robust methodological background as one of the approaches to achieving system analysis for a product along its lifecycle. On the other hand, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can perform state-of-art system analysis characterising its sustainability fronts as a compelling set of tools. Pork, as the most consumed meat across Europe (circa 34 kg per capita per year), compounded with the sector’s contribution to global greenhouse gases (GHG) doubling over the past decade necessitated this research. Our objective was to map hotspots along the value chain and recommend the best available practices for realising the sectoral contribution to carbon neutrality and climate change adaptation. To achieve the objective, we compared organic and conventional production systems by basing our analysis on Recipe midpoint 2016 (H) V1.13 as implemented in OpenLCA 1.10.2 using AGRIBALYSE® 3.0 datasets for eleven indicators. We found that producing 1 kg of pig meat under an organic production system had almost double the environmental impact of conventional systems for land use, water consumption, acidification, and ecotoxicity. Feed production and manure management are the significant hotspots accounting for over 90% of environmental impacts associated with 1 kg pig meat Liveweight (LW) production. Similarly, efficient conventional systems were less harmful to the environment in per capita unit of production and land use compared with organic ones in ten out of the eleven impacts evaluated. Implementing increased efficiency, reduced use of inputs for feed production, and innovative manure management practices with technological potential were some of the best practices the research recommended to realise minimal impacts on the identified hotspots.

An integrated literature review on sustainable food supply chains: Exploring research themes and future directions

The sustainable food supply chain (SFSC) is a research area of global significance. The increasing number of research articles in SFSC justifies this. With 80% of publications in SFSC coming up in the last 7 years, this field is expanding and diversifying at a rapid rate. The research on sustainable food supply chain (SFSC) covers a wide variety of areas and has a wide range of research themes in FSC. To facilitate the theoretical understanding of SFSC, we have conducted a review of the literature on SFSC. With the aim to define prominent research themes in SFSC, we follow an integrated review approach of structured literature review (SLR), bibliometric analysis, and thematic analysis. Bibliometric analysis was conducted using the vosviewer software version 1.6.16. The thematic analysis identified- "Waste management", "SC sustainability and impact assessment", "Decision support", "Operations management and optimization", "Food quality and safety", "Sustainable business models", "Innovation and technological solution", "SC strategy", and "Social sustainability" as the key emergent themes. We discuss the conceptual and theoretical basis of each of these themes. "SC sustainability and impact assessment" is identified as the most dominant theme in SFSC. Innovation and technological solution is an emerging theme with many new publications related to disruptive technologies coming up. Research in collaboration and decision theory-based approaches is important to enable sustainability in FSC. Quantifying waste streams, identifying hotspots are important future directions of research in SFSCM. Circular economy, AFSC, and the use of advanced technologies to enable circularity and sustainability also have great scope. The review aims to help researchers and academicians understand the boundaries and domain of SFSC and the future scope of these themes about how they can enhance the sustainability in SFSC.

Implications of the use of organic fertilizers for antibiotic resistance gene distribution in agricultural soils and fresh food products. A plot-scale study

The spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) into agricultural soils, products, and foods severely limits the use of organic fertilizers in agriculture. In order to help designing agricultural practices that minimize the spread of ARG, we fertilized, sown, and harvested lettuces and radish plants in experimental land plots for two consecutive agricultural cycles using four types of fertilizers: mineral fertilization, sewage sludge, pig slurry, or composted organic fraction of municipal solid waste. The analysis of the relative abundances of more than 200,000 ASV (Amplicon Sequence Variants) identified a small, but significant overlap (<10%) between soil's and fertilizer microbiomes. Clinically relevant ARG were found in higher loads (up to 100 fold) in fertilized soils than in the initial soil, particularly in those treated with organic fertilizers, and their loads grossly correlated to the amount of antibiotic residues found in the corresponding fertilizer. Similarly, low, but measurable ARG loads were found in lettuce (tetM, sul1) and radish (sul1), corresponding the lowest values to samples collected from minerally fertilized fields. Comparison of soil samples collected along the total period of the experiment indicated a relatively year-round stability of soil microbiomes in amended soils, whereas ARG loads appeared as unstable and transient. The results indicate that ARG loads in soils and foodstuffs were likely linked to the contribution of bacteria from organic fertilizer to the soil microbiomes, suggesting that an adequate waste management and good pharmacological and veterinarian practices may significantly reduce the presence of these ARGs in agricultural soils and plant products.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a food-production system in Spain: Iberian ham based on an extensive system

Taking into account that in the literature on pork-production Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) there are a few studies about the Iberian pig, the present article evaluates an extensive (growing-fattening) Iberian-pig system in Spain, producing meat for Iberian ham and other quality-labelled products. The study has been based on Cumulative Energy Demand (CED), Global Warming Potential (GWP), ReCiPe (midpoint; endpoint) and USEtox (human toxicity; ecotoxicity). The analysis involves feed (for pigs and piglets), transportation, drinking water, straw usage and building materials (concrete). The impacts have been evaluated per kg of live or carcass weight (two functional units). The results show that the total impacts (per kg of live or carcass weight) range from: 1) 22.05 to 28.19 MJ_prim (CED), 2) 4.37 to 6.19 kg CO_2.eq (GWP 20a, 100a and 500a), 3) 0.86 to 1.08 Pts (ReCiPe endpoint single-score, involving Human health, Ecosystems and Resources), 4) 9.9 × 10^-6 to 1.2 × 10^-5 DALY (ReCiPe endpoint with characterisation), 5) 2.8 × 10^-7 to 3.5 × 10^-7 (species.yr) (ReCiPe endpoint with characterisation), 6) 10.12 to 12.66 CTU_e (USEtox: ecotoxicity). Overall, the results show that the feed for the pigs is responsible for the major part of the environmental impacts. More analytically, maize and soya are the components with the highest environmental impacts due to factors such as transportation, use of fertilisers and diesel fuel. The discussion about pig-production environmental impacts and the role of extensive pig farming is enriched with comparisons with the literature on pig-production LCA. Critical parameters are identified and discussed, with the aim of proposing solutions to reduce pork-production environmental impacts. Finally, the usefulness of the present study and future prospects are presented.

Emerging waste valorisation techniques to moderate the hazardous impacts, and their path towards sustainability

Due to the recent boom in urbanisation, economy, and global population, the amount of waste generated worldwide has increased tremendously. The World Bank estimates that global waste generation is expected to increase 70% by 2050. Disposal of waste is already a major concern as it poses risks to the environment, human health, and economy. To tackle this issue and maximise potential environmental, economic, and social benefits, waste valorisation - a value-adding process for waste materials - has emerged as a sustainable and efficient strategy. The major objective of waste valorisation is to transit to a circular economy and maximally alleviate hazardous impacts of waste. This review conducts bibliometric analysis to construct a co-occurrence network of research themes related to management of five major waste streams (i.e., food, agricultural, textile, plastics, and electronics). Modern valorisation technologies and their efficiencies are highlighted. Moreover, insights into improvement of waste valorisation technologies are presented in terms of sustainable environmental, social, and economic performances. This review summarises highlighting factors that impede widespread adoption of waste valorisation, such as technology lock-in, optimisation for local conditions, unfavourable regulations, and low investments, with the aim of devising solutions that explore practical, feasible, and sustainable means of waste valorisation.

Negotiating Stakeholder Relationships in a Regional Circular Economy: Discourse Analysis of Multi-scalar Policies and Company Statements from the North of England

Circular economy (CE) literature discusses the need for cooperation between different stakeholders to promote a CE; there is also an assumption regarding the benefits of loop closing on a local or regional scale. However, the potentially conflicting priorities, understandings, and expectations of the stakeholders involved have not been sufficiently addressed. Regional (or local) authorities have a responsibility to promote prosperity for stakeholders in their administrative region, within the constraints of national policy; conversely companies can have financial imperatives associated with stakeholders who may be globally distributed. Evidence of these conflicting priorities, the various positions stakeholder take, and their expectations of each other can be seen in the language choices regional actors make in their public-facing policy and report documents. The aim of the paper is to consider the challenges for creating a regional-scale CE that might arise from the differing priorities and values of companies and public agencies relating to specific places. It uses discourse analysis (including critical approaches) to examine how policy and business documents represent the stakeholders of the CE, their place in it, their priorities, and, importantly, the relationship between CE actors, focusing on the case of North Humberside on the North East coast of England. The plans set out in these reports are designed for external stakeholders and allow us to gain an insight into company and policy thinking in relation to CE developments in the coming years, including how they view each other's roles. Findings indicate a shared motivation across scales and sectors for the CE as a means towards sustainable growth within which business plays a central role. However, there is a critical double disjuncture between different visions for implementation. First, between policy scales, a regional-scale CE is prioritised by regional policymakers, who have an interest in economic advantage being tied to a specific place and call for national scale support for their actions. Second, between regional policymakers and business, companies focus on their own internal operations and potential supply chain collaborations, with little attention given to the regional scale. This can be seen in the way organisations represent the actors of a nascent CE differently. In addition, a hegemonic business-focused growth discourse excludes other visions of the CE; the public are relegated to a passive role primarily as consumers and recipients of under-specified "opportunities" of wealth creation. CE theorisations need to incorporate and address these critical perspectives in order to support the development of strategies to overcome them.

Environmental Impacts of Pig and Poultry Production: Insights From a Systematic Review

Pig and poultry production systems have reached high-performance levels over the last few decades. However, there is still room for improvement when it comes to their environmental sustainability. This issue is even more relevant due to the growing demand for food demand since this surplus food production needs to be met at an affordable cost with minimum impact on the environment. This study presents a systematic review of peer-reviewed manuscripts that investigated the environmental impacts associated with pig and poultry production. For this purpose, independent reviews were performed and two databases were constructed, one for each production system. Previous studies published in peer-reviewed journals were considered for the databases if the method of life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied to pig (pork meat) or poultry (broiler meat or table eggs) production to estimate at least the potential effects of climate change, measured as CO₂-eq. Studies considering the cradle-to-farm gate were considered, as well as those evaluating processes up to the slaughterhouse or processor gate. The pig database comprised 55 studies, while 30 publications were selected for the poultry database. These studies confirmed feeding (which includes the crop cultivation phase, manufacturing processes, and transportation) as the main contributor to the environmental impact associated with pig and poultry production systems. Several studies evaluated feeding strategies, which were indicated as viable alternatives to mitigate the environmental footprint associated with both production chains. In this study, precision feeding techniques are highlighted given their applicability to modern pig and poultry farming. These novel feeding strategies are good examples of innovative strategies needed to break paradigms, improve resource-use efficiency, and effectively move the current productive scenario toward more sustainable livestock systems.

Environmental benefits of pet food obtained as a result of the valorisation of meat fraction derived from packaged food waste

The 2030 Agenda of the United Nations includes the objective of setting up sustainable production patterns by pursuing several Sustainable Development Goals. Among them, the "Responsible production and consumption" is a key topic in the food production and is strictly connected with the "Climate action"; the crucial point, however, is how to jointly act on all these aspects and apply them in practice. The waste yearly produced in the food chain represent both an ethical, economic and environmental issue. In particular, as far as the recovery of packaged food waste from retailers is concerned, the valorisation of the wasted meat is an extremely relevant issue. Pet food industries could be interested in valorising this waste fraction to replace meat coming from slaughters in their product recipes. This article evaluates the environmental impact of valorising meat fraction from packaged food waste to produce two different recipes of high quality pet food, called Natura and Pâté. A life cycle assessment of the current scenario (traditional pet food production and landfilling of packaged food waste) and of a new one (pet food production using meat fraction from packaged food waste) is carried out applying the ReCiPe 2016 method of impact assessment. Real data have been taken from retailers and pet food manufacturer. The production of pet food using the meat fraction from packaged food waste generates on average lower environmental impacts if compared to the traditional process, in terms of GWP (-56.40%), water consumption (-22.62%), land use (-87.50%) and fossil resource scarcity (-21.78%). Benefits are interesting even if considering the production of Pâté (-14.66%), for which the traditional production process makes use of some slaughter by-products. The proposed industrial process is demonstrated to be sustainable from an environmental point of view and appears to be in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2, 12 and 13.

Sustainable Agri-Food Processes and Circular Economy Pathways in a Life Cycle Perspective: State of the Art of Applicative Research

This study aims at providing a systematic and critical review on the state of the art of life cycle applications from the circular economy point of view. In particular, the main objective is to understand how researchers adopt life cycle approaches for the measurement of the empirical circular pathways of agri-food systems along with the overall lifespan. To perform the literature review, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol was considered to conduct a review by qualitative synthesis. Specifically, an evaluation matrix has been set up to gather and synthesize research evidence, by classifying papers according to several integrated criteria. The literature search was carried out employing scientific databases. The findings highlight that 52 case studies out of 84 (62% of the total) use stand-alone life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the benefits/impacts of circular economy (CE) strategies. In contrast, only eight studies (9.5%) deal with the life cycle costing (LCC) approach combined with other analyses while no paper deals with the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methodology. Global warming potential, eutrophication (for marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems), human toxicity, and ecotoxicity results are the most common LCA indicators applied. Only a few articles deal with the CE assessment through specific indicators. We argue that experts in life cycle methodologies must strive to adopt some key elements to ensure that the results obtained fit perfectly with the measurements of circularity and that these can even be largely based on a common basis.

Assessing industrial circular economy performance and its dynamic evolution: An extended Malmquist index based on cooperative game network DEA

This paper aims to investigate efficiency performance and the dynamic evolution of industrial circular economy (ICE). We first employ the cooperative game network data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure the overall efficiency, subsystem efficiency, and factor efficiency of the ICE system. Then, an extended Malmquist index (EMI) method is proposed to identify the dynamic evolution of efficiency performance over time. Unlike the standard Malmquist index method, the proposed EMI method can finally decompose the EMI of the ICE system into the square root of the product of four dynamic indicators of efficiency change and the technological progress of subsystems, providing more details and dominants underlying EMI in the ICE system. The evaluation results of China's Yangtze River Delta region over 2012-2017 show that overall efficiency of the ICE system presents obvious disparity across cities and subsystems. Besides, it is found that EMI of the ICE system presents a V-shaped fluctuation and is mainly dominated by the environmental treatment (ET) subsystem. The decline of EMI of the ICE system early in the sample period (2013-2014) is caused by serious efficiency deterioration of the ET subsystem, while its rise at the end of sample period (2016-2017) is due to the technological progress of the ET subsystem.

Testing the data platforms required for the 21st century food system using an industry ecosystem approach

Testing the planning of resource utilisation across food supply chains provides sustainability and security reporting that can resonate with consumer requirements. The research reported here demonstrates this approach for fast throughput convenience foods that have short shelf life and whose product development must be agile enough to meet changing consumer demand. The higher-level outputs of these conditions are the responsible reporting of nutritional, greenhouse gas emission and packaging impact assessments. Together with the food safety requirements of this food category, it means that manufacturing operations are in some of the most challenging arenas for sustainability assessment. The analysis presented here shows that food production systems can no longer focus on one or two core conditions, such as food safety or quality. This is a strategy of least resistance that has previously worked but it continues to displace risks elsewhere within the food and beverage meta-system, rather than attempting to reconcile complexities and address intra-system root causes. By taking a holistic view the food ecosystem approach can inter-connect requirements using digital and externally linked platforms that will fundamentally change the way future food systems operate. The integration and streaming of these platforms are only achieved through innovation, with the end-user providing development and balance in emergent business ecosystems.

Meat consumption: Which are the current global risks? A review of recent (2010-2020) evidences

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Consumption of fatty meats may increase risks of cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

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Production of red meats increases greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions contributing to the global warming.

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Consumption of wild meats can pose some serious risks of transmission of viruses from animals to humans.

Meat consumption has been increasing since the 1960s, but especially from the 1980s decade to today. Although meat means an important source of nutrients, it is also evident that a great consumption of this source of proteins has also a negative environmental impact. Livestock production does not only have a negative influence on GHG emissions, but also on the water footprint, water pollution, and water scarcity. With respect to human health, in 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) stated that red meat was a probable carcinogen to humans (Group 2A), while consumption of processed meat was carcinogenic to humans (Group 1). Most environmental contaminants (PCDD/Fs, PCBs, PBDEs, PCNs, etc.) that are frequently found in meats are highly soluble in fats. Therefore, avoiding ingesting fats from red meats and meat products, doubtless would help in the prevention, not only of the well-known cardiovascular diseases derived of fats consumption, but also of certain kinds of cancers, mainly colorectal cancer. On the other hand, consumption of meat – especially wild meat – is related to virus infections, as many viruses have been found in wild meat trade markets. Based on the scientific literature here reviewed, we have noted that the results of the investigations conducted after the statement of the IARC, have corroborated the recommendation of reducing significantly the consumption of red meats and meat products. In turn, the reduction of meat consumption should contribute to the reduction of GHG emissions and their considerable impact on global warming and climate change. It seems evident that human dietary habits regarding meat consumption in general, and red meats and wild meats in particular, should be significantly modified downward, as much and as soon as possible.

A spatio-temporal perspective of China's industrial circular economy development

The circular economy pattern is the key to solve the contradiction between industrial development and resource protection. Based on the principle of the "3Rs" of the circular economy (reduction, reuse, and resource utilization), and combined with the characteristics of industrial and provincial circular economy development from the perspective of material flow analysis, this study constructs an evaluation index system of industrial circular economy in China's provinces. A combination of the global entropy and the coefficient of variation methods is used to calculate the comprehensive index of industrial circular economy development. Furthermore, this study analyzes the development of China's provincial industrial circular economy from the two dimensions of time and space. The results show that China's industrial circular economy developed rapidly during the Eleventh and Twelfth Five-Year Plan periods. Resource output, resource consumption, and resource reuse and waste disposal have improved over time, but the outlook for emissions of major pollutants is not optimistic. China's industrial circular economy has significant spatial correlation and obvious regional differences, since the development of the circular economy requires a large amount of capital input, and the capacity of capital input fundamentally depends on the regional economic situation. Therefore, the spatial agglomeration pattern of China's industrial circular economy is roughly the same as that of China's economic development. Eastern China has the fastest development, followed by the central and northeast regions, while the western region, especially the northwest, lags the other regions.

Investigation of Ecosystem Services and Circular Economy Interactions under an Inter-organizational Framework

Nowadays, the conceptualization of circular economy is an attractive managerial tool among governments and businesses throughout the word, while ecosystem services are a contentious issue due to the particular needs of humans’ well-being. At this review the interactions between the principles of ecosystem services and the circular economy were investigated in the light of inter-organizational systems. This evaluation was based on more and more complex processes, while the integration of the growing circular economy concept within the shrinking parent ecosystem unveiled challenges and constraints for products’ end of life and quality. It was argued that: (a) The existence of social and people-related barriers can be considered under three groups, namely, the “sustainable provision and modeling schemes”, “socio-cultural appreciation and payment schemes”, and “regulatory and maintenance schemes”, (b) The impacts of circular economy—ecosystem services toward an inter-organizational functional stream model associated with distinguished proactive and post treatment risk values (c) The functionality and the accountability of the technosphere are the two critical components to support the restorative and the regenerative perspectives of the biosphere. The aforementioned findings unveiled new emerging paths to be further investigated, offering a deeper appraisal of circular economy under the inter-organizational perception.

A Systematic Literature Review of Bio, Green and Circular Economy Trends in Publications in the Field of Economics and Business Management

The concepts of bioeconomy, green economy and circular economy share the common objective of developing a sustainable economy, and they attract enormous political, academic, social and business interest. However, an analysis of these concepts in the fields of economics and business management is lacking. The objective of this article is to classify the publications on these topics by subject of study, to analyse trends in publications and to guide researchers interested in selecting articles. The review was performed using Scopus for the period 1960 to 2017. Four hundred and forty-nine publications were obtained and classified into 17 categories. The results show that the existing literature is rich in analysing implemented policies and issues related to the strategies and organizational models of companies looking for a more sustainable path, and research in China and the European Union is highlighted. However, there is still a long way to go in researching implemented case studies and evaluating the economic impact of these concepts. For this to happen, the need to promote, encourage and support companies to implement cleaner production and approach a more sustainable path must be prioritised. Possible gaps in current research that allow future lines of work are also identified.

An Exploration of Circular Economy Practices and Performance Among Romanian Producers

Economic growth is the mandate of the global economy and with our planet’s population poised to reach 10 billion people, economists are searching for sustainable economic growth approaches that do not increase raw materials consumption nor deplete and damage our environment. This mandate is the heart of the Circular Economy (CE), a challenge to theoreticians and practitioners alike to continue global economic growth, but with fewer resources and protective methods for our environment. The European Union (EU) economies were early adopters of CE and are now demanding similar adoptions from its recently integrated members from the East. Romania is one of the laggard states in this transition, given its heritage and lack of economic sophistication. Our paper identifies the practices and performance of Romanian producers regarding the implementation of the CE principles, so future recommendations can be formulated. In surveying the Romanian firms, we applied a cluster analysis based on their level of green-oriented supply chain cooperation (GSCC) practices. The respondents were grouped into two clusters: “low green-oriented supply chain cooperation (GSCC) scorers” and “high green-oriented supply chain cooperation (GSCC) scorers’. The results suggest that cluster membership partially influence CE practices and fully influence CE-targeted performance.

Determination of the carbon footprint of all Galician production and consumption activities: Lessons learnt and guidelines for policymakers

Galicia is an Autonomous Community located in the north-west of Spain. As a starting point to implement mitigation and adaptation measures to climate change, a regional greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory is needed. So far, the only regional GHG inventories available are limited to the territorial emissions of those production activities which are expected to cause major environmental degradation. An alternative approach has been followed here to quantify all the on-site (direct) and embodied (indirect) GHG emissions related to all Galician production and consumption activities. The carbon footprint (CF) was calculated following the territorial life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology for data collection, that combines bottom-up and top-down approaches. The most up-to-date statistical data and life cycle inventories available were used to compute all GHG emissions. This case study represents a leap of scale when compared to existing studies, thus addressing the issue of double counting, which arises when considering all the production activities of a large region. The CF of the consumption activities in Galicia is 17.8 ktCO₂e/year, with 88% allocated to Galician inhabitants and 12% to tourist consumption. The proposed methodology also identifies the main important contributors to GHG emissions and shows where regional reduction efforts should be made. The major contributor to the CF of inhabitants is housing (32%), followed by food consumption (29%). Within the CF of tourist consumption, the share of transport is highest (59%), followed by housing (26%). The CF of Galician production reaches 34.9 MtCO₂e/y, and its major contributor is electricity production (21%), followed by food manufacturing (19%). Our results have been compared to those reported for other regions, actions aimed at reducing GHG emissions have been proposed, and data gaps and limitations identified.