Building stock modelling underpins energy and environmental assessments of the built environment. Material Intensity (MI), representing material mass per unit dimension, is vital for bottom-up estimation of building material stocks. However, reliance on sparse or uniform MI data can lead to significant inaccuracies due to intra-archetype variability, often stemming from differing building morphologies

The increasing demand for plastic products has generated unprecedented amounts of plastic waste. To reduce both proper and improper plastics disposal and the concomitant long and short term physical and chemical risks, recycling has emerged as an effective and complementary tool to recover waste and lower demand for unsustainable virgin plastics production. Post-consumer and post-industrial recyclate

Agricultural activities in crop production emit substantial air pollutants, impacting air quality, ecosystems, and public health. However, compiling a spatially explicit crop air pollutant emission inventory including all agricultural activities in field is urgent but still lacking. Here, we conducted a county-level air pollutant emission inventory and mitigation potential assessment for China’s wheat

Expansion of geothermal power generation (GPG) enhances stability of renewable energy systems yet with increasing material demands. However, material footprints of GPG remain underexplored for a thorough comparison with wind and photovoltaic power. We establish a life cycle system for GPG to evaluate material footprints of flash steam, dry steam, and binary cycle power generation on a global scale

Global greenhouse vegetables production has grown substantially and will play a critical role in meeting future global vegetable demand. However, the environmental performance of large-scale greenhouse vegetable production compared to open-field cultivation remains unclear. Through carbon and reactive nitrogen footprint analysis of provincial-scale vegetable production in China, we show that greenhouse

The fluorine-containing organics in the spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) cause environmental pollution during recycling. Recovery of fluorine-containing resources is critical for the recycling process of spent LIBs. This study elucidated the transformation mechanism of fluoride in cathode black mass (BM) during pyrolysis and proposed an integrated approach for fluoride reclamation. At 650 °C, 89

As the largest terrestrial carbon sink, forests regulate global carbon cycling, with timber providing long-term carbon storage for climate mitigation. This study analyzes consumption-based timber carbon stock flows in China, the U.S., and Canada, focusing on their roles in the global timber trade and sectoral linkages. China’s timber supply chain is dependent on imported timber carbon stocks, particularly

This study investigated various drinking water emergency countermeasures, evaluating their economic, environmental, and public health tradeoffs during contamination events. Employing process-based dynamic modeling and life cycle assessment methodologies, we assessed the effectiveness of 10 countermeasure deployment scenarios applied to a surrogate drinking water system. Our analysis indicates that

Material stocks in long-lived products require over half of the annual global resource extraction for their construction and maintenance, and lock in energy use through their technical and geospatial characteristics. A thorough understanding of material stocks is therefore essential to inform sustainable resource use strategies. However, despite substantial advances in material stock research in recent

This study explores the enhancement of Compressed Earth Blocks (CEBs) using alginate-based stabilization, promoting resource conservation and the use of renewable materials in construction. By utilizing alginates from algae— a renewable and increasingly abundant resource due to the uncontrolled proliferation of algae belts —the research addresses key limitations of traditional CEBs, such as mechanical

Industrial enterprises are prominent sources of contaminants, and accurate reporting of contaminant discharge by these enterprises is essential for effective environmental management. However, fraudulent reporting, particularly underreporting hazardous waste (HW) generation, has become an intractable issue. HW is difficult to monitor automatically, and underreporting often implies improper treatment

Optimized fertilizer managements are crucial for enhancing global food security and represent essential strategies for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) and reactive nitrogen (Nr) emissions. However, a systematic assessment of the distribution and reduction potential for nutrient inputs, GHG and Nr emissions within the Chinese potato production system is lacking. Here, we evaluated the nutrient balance

A better understanding of the material stock in the built environment is needed to reduce its climate and environmental impacts while also improving its circularity. We introduce a comprehensive, globally consistent method to estimate residential floor area and material stock at a fine-scale spatial resolution, using the latest publicly available datasets on key building parameters and material intensity

Deep removal of trace aluminum from lithium extraction slag (LES) is key to recovering high-purity battery-grade iron phosphate (FePO4). Existing methods exhibit low aluminum removal due to the close solubility product constants of Al (III) and Fe (III). In this work, we propose a novel strategy for trace aluminum removal based on fluoride ion-mediated differential coordination of Al (III) and Fe (III)

Large-scale and difficult to decompose greenhouse gas (GHG) have challenged the agrifood sector to achieve net zero. While mulching perturbs GHG emissions and soil carbon sequestration, its potential in reducing GHG emissions remains unexplored. Here, we combined life cycle assessment with process-based model to evaluate carbon footprints and net environmental and economic benefits of maize, wheat

Analyzing the impact of spatial transfer of farmland (STF) on the food-water-greenhouse gases (FWG) nexus through a coupled perspective holds significant scientific value for guiding sustainable farmland management policies. This study developed an integrated assessment framework to quantify FWG-nexus dynamics induced by STF, systematically evaluating changes in crop yields, irrigation water consumption

Türkiye has not yet decoupled its economy from energy and material consumption, but aims to transition to a circular economy and become carbon neutral by 2053. The potential of energy system transformation and efficient material use has not yet been assessed for many services in Türkiye. This study analyzes the impacts of these transformations on passenger vehicles, using the RECC model, a physical

This paper presents the iBuildGreen building stock model, which estimates the material content of the Danish building stock based on macro-component archetypes (types of wall, roof, floor slab, etc). The model draws up a detailed material inventory and estimates the embodied carbon content for each building, based on publicly available Danish National Building Registry data. The high level of detail

Climate ambition will lead to disparate PV installation capacity pathways, thereby influencing PV waste volumes. However, there is a lack of research on global PV waste under ambitious climate commitments. Here, we conduct a comprehensive spatiotemporal analysis of the global PV waste by using GCAM and MFA. The results indicate that: (1) Ambitious climate commitments will elevate global PV waste by

A significant amount of Electro-construction waste (ECW) often ends up in landfills, leading to adverse impacts on the environment and human health. Although waste sorting utilises automated technologies like computer vision (CV), implementation in the construction industry remains limited. This study addresses the gap by evaluating the effectiveness of CV in ECW recognition to enhance resource recovery

Substituting constituents within concrete with lower impact materials is of utmost importance for the sustainable transition of the concrete industry. Systematic analyses of knowledge within the published literature can facilitate industrial practice and focus research inquiry. To address the prohibitive workload of manual review and the multifaceted linguistic complexity of communication within the

Storage rooms contain unused materials and objects that hold significant potential for the Circular Economy. The reintegration of these goods into circulation contributes to waste reduction and more efficient resource utilization. However, limited research has examined how decluttering is practiced in daily life and its connection to storage behaviors. Using grounded theory and a combination of object

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a major air pollutant, with industrial activities being the primary source of SO2 emissions. We posit that digital technology innovation (DTI) plays a crucial role in reducing industrial SO2 emissions. To explore this hypothesis, we first conduct a theoretical analysis, followed by an empirical study using data from 297 cities in China spanning 2003 to 2023. The findings are

Tungsten, as a key mineral resource, suffers from value loss in developing countries due to technological defects. It is necessary to strengthen regional cooperation to prevent this phenomenon. The Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) provides a platform to promote tungsten resources cooperation, thereby generating trade dependence network between countries. Exploring key countries in the tungsten industry

Gold (Au) holds a high market value due to its extensive industry, medicine, and jewelry applications. Extracting Au from wastewater streams presents an opportunity to bolster the supply of this precious metal. This study explores a novel application of the H2-based Membrane Biofilm Reactor (MBfR): reducing Au(III) to recover Au(0) nanoparticles (Au°NPs) by a denitrifying biofilm. During long-term

Despite growing interest in AI-driven environmental research, the use of multimodal GPT in circular economy transformation remains underexplored. This study bridges this gap by demonstrating how GPT interprets circular economy system diagrams—such as stock-flow and causal loop diagrams—and translates them into executable software models. By integrating textual descriptions with mathematical equations

Aluminum recycling must prioritize the development of high-usability products while addressing the challenges of circular waste accumulation. Traditional methods, constrained by compositional limitations, fail to meet these demands. Electrolysis technology presents a promising solution, with insights into this field possessing the potential to optimize existing technologies and inform future innovations

With the development of the new energy industry, a large number of photovoltaic modules are produced, used, promoted, and will reach the end of their life cycle shortly. The recycling of photovoltaic modules is an important work in the closed-loop development of the new energy industry, and the first step of recycling is decapsulation. Hydrometallurgical decapsulation has been considered an important

Understanding feed formulation impacts and regional carbon transfer is crucial for sustainable pork supply chains. Currently, secondary greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the pork supply chain are often overlooked, and regional carbon transfer inequality impedes food sustainability. This study combines spatial equilibrium modeling with life cycle assessment to quantify China's 2021 pork supply emissions

Climate change is affecting water resource availability and predictability, impacting corporate operations, supply chains, and their financial performance or valuations in the capital markets. Scant corporate disclosure on water demand and operational intensity necessitates the use of advanced data science tools to inform risk exposures and investment decisions. Using 2550 company years across eleven

The carbon emissions from countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) account for over half of global emissions, yet the carbon footprint (CF) of cropping systems in these countries remains insufficiently studied. This study quantifies the life cycle carbon footprint (LCCF) of three major grain crops, maize, rice, and wheat, in BRI countries from 2006 to 2019, using a hybrid approach

Ignoring the impact of ecosystem service (ES) demand and ES supply-demand relationship (ESSDR) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may affect the equitable and rational allocation of resources and the SDGs agenda. By coupling multiple models, we find that soil conservation ESSDR has lower coupling coordination with SDGs (especially economic SDGs) than other ESs in the Belt and Road Initiative

With the increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the recycling processes of LIBs have aroused more attention. However, benefits remain limited due to inadequate advanced recycling technologies and low volumes of spent LIBs. In this research, an muti-objective evaluation and prediction system is established for six typical LIBs recycling processes. The direct recycling process of LiNixCoyMn1-x-yO2

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management faces significant challenges in waste generation forecasting due to insufficient data and limitations of traditional predictive methods, such as ARMA and ARIMA, which struggle with nonlinear, high-frequency data. This study introduces an IoT-based deep learning framework to enhance forecasting accuracy by utilizing real-time data from 3052 smart recycling bins

Quantifying footwear carbon footprints is crucial to carbon mitigation due to >20 billion pairs of global production annually. In light of complexities of footwear manufacturing, few studies have reported the carbon footprint of footwear in high resolution. This study developed a detailed cradle-to-grave carbon footprint accounting method based on on-site measurement of materials, energy, transportation

The intersection of the circular economy and technological obsolescence is pivotal for understanding sustainable consumption and innovation’s impacts on product lifecycle management. Prevailing literature emphasizes producer-driven obsolescence and often overlooks the consumer’s role in product replacement decisions, particularly in a circular economic context. This study bridges this gap by exploring

Despite its dominant role as a major supplier of battery materials, Australia faces significant challenges in managing end-of-life (EoL) lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). With growing interest in establishing a circular economy of LIBs in Australia, robust quantitative analysis is urgently needed to inform policy and industrial actions. This study develops a dynamic, regionally-resolved material flow analysis

Steel is widely regarded as the world's most recycled material, yet little information exists on just how circular the steel industry actually is, both globally and nationally. This study traces iron and steel flows across the top 30 steel-producing countries, showing that the share of recycled iron inputs into global steelmaking has stagnated at ∼30 % over the past two decades. Although waste management

Significant amounts of slaughterhouse waste (SHW) are generated from livestock processing industry and could pose substantial environmental risks. Given its versatile properties, SHW can be upcycled into high-value product – bioplastics. This study presented the first global estimation of livestock processing waste, specifically SHW, across 193 countries and regions. Meanwhile, the bioplastics potentially

Current rapid depletion of high-grade iron ore reserves in the worldwide has largely driven the demands of efficient iron resource cycling, including extraction, utilization, and recycling of iron-based resources. These processes predominantly involve chemical transformations of iron-bearing minerals, which control cycling pathways and determine end products. However, previous fragmented case studies

Decarbonizing China’s passenger vehicle sector is crucial for carbon neutrality goals. While electrification alone may not suffice due to scope 3 emissions, material efficiency (ME) represents a complementary pillar. However, ME’s overall benefits across China’s provinces remain unclear. This study applied the RECC model to estimate nine ME strategies’ impacts on bulk material production and GHG emissions

Solar photovoltaics is crucial in the low carbon transformation of the global energy industry, while the mainstream types of photovoltaic modules have changed considerably. The most promising N-type TOPCon monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic module is examined through the life cycle environmental impact assessment, and focus is placed on optimizing the production process of industrial silicon, poly-silicon

Pulp and Paper Industry (PPI) is one of the key sectors emitting tremendous carbon emission and is widely distributed in the Belt and Road Initiative countries. This research analyzes the embodied carbon emissions (ECE) in this area with influence mechanisms. A system dynamics model was built to predict the effects of various scenarios on ECE by adjusting factors such as the economic growth rate of

The valorization of waste plastics in roadway infrastructure requires careful balance between sustainability and performance, as ineffective modifiers may incur both environmental and financial costs. This study shows that two modifiers derived from the same waste plastic source (PET)—DOTP (N1,N4-(dioctyl)terephthalamide) and HETP (N1,N4-Bis(2-hydroxyethyl)terephthalamide)—exhibit opposite effects

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has driven industrialization and urbanization in participating countries, thereby intensifying environmental degradation. However, the long-term carbon-water pressures faced by BRI countries remain underexplored. Here we propose a four-stage analytical approach based on the Tapio and improved STIRPAT models, integrating measurement, decoupling, decomposition, and

China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets will accelerate electrification of transport sector and the development of related infrastructures, resulting in a substantial increase in copper demand. However, China's scarce copper reserves pose potential supply risks for copper. Existing research predominantly addresses the copper demand for road transport vehicles, with less attention on other

This study developed all-solid-waste-based curing agents using industrial solid wastes—ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), carbide slag (CS), and sulfate solid wastes (electrolytic manganese residue (EMR), desulfurized-gypsum (DG), and phosphogypsum (PG))—to stabilize engineering sediment waste (ESW). Based on the simplex centroid design, three ternary curing agents (GGBS-EMR-CS (GEC), GGBS-DG-CS

Forests, as a crucial component of terrestrial ecosystems, serve as significant carbon sinks for mitigating climate change. In China, the Grain for Green Program (GFGP)—a large-scale ecological initiative—aims to enhance environmental protection and forest carbon sink capacity, thereby contributing to carbon neutrality goals. This research examines the carbon sink capacity of the GFGP in the Arid Regions

Green manure (GM) is promising for use in sustainable agriculture, but its impacts on nitrogen emissions from farmland and crop productivity are unclear. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis based on 2,616 data pairs from 218 studies to clarify the effects of GM. GM enhanced soil nitrogen retention to increase the crop yield and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) by 3.71 % and 24.41 %, respectively, and reduce

Wind power is essential for achieving carbon neutrality, yet forecasting its future distribution-related mitigation potential is challenging due to the often-overlooked development mechanisms marked by spatial heterogeneity and path dependence. To address this, we first harmonized the China Onshore Wind Turbine (COWT) dataset, which comprises 153,722 turbines installed from 1984 to 2023. Using explainable

Environmental-social trade-offs are essential but often overlooked. This study addresses the gap by examining citizens' willingness to pay (WTP) for public goods—carbon emissions, biodiversity (environmental indicators), and local employment (social indicator)—in seven European Union regions: northern and southern Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, and Poland. A hypothetical choice experiment

Effective methods to enhance aerobic composting of human feces are essential for improving composting efficiency and mitigating nitrogen loss. In this study, the effects of a synthetic human feces microbiome (SHFM) and biochar on human feces aerobic composting were investigated. Compared with the control group, the composting system inoculated with 10 % SHFM and biochar demonstrated the highest removal

The promotion of decarbonization and digitalization is expected to increase global copper demand. Meanwhile, metal use levels will not infinitely increase with economic growth, and the populations of some developed countries have begun to decline, resulting in conflicting drivers of future copper demand. This study revealed the effects of increasing decarbonization and digitalization technologies on

Agriculture in Southeast Asia (SEA) plays a crucial role in global food security, while also contributing significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) presents opportunities that may influence agricultural greenhouse gas (Ag-GHG) emissions in the region. Hence, this study investigated the trends and drivers of Ag-GHG emissions in SEA since 1961 and BRI effect

The sustainable recovery of critical and added-value metals from industrial by-products is essential for circular economy strategies in metallurgical industries. This study presents an integrated approach for the speciation and selective recovery of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), bismuth (Bi), iron (Fe), cadmium (Cd), bismuth (Bi), and lead (Pb) from electrostatic precipitator (ESP) converter dust generated