The Circular Economy and Sustainability journal aims to bring a new approach of the key concepts of circular economy and sustainability, by combining the scientific disciplines of economy, management, engineering, technology, environment, and society. As circular economy is necessary today to promote the goals of sustainable development; these scientific areas are not independent to each other, but their relations, interactions and synergies exist and should be further developed and studied. Interdisciplinary approaches and multiple connections between these scientific areas are required not only to reach the sustainability goals but also to solve diverse environmental problems, expand technological limits and overcome potential economic disturbances. This approach is expressed with new policies (command and control, market-based instruments, and circular public procurement), technological suggestions (e.g. technical cycle solutions), environmental engineering technologies (e.g., waste management, 3r strategies, water recycle, wastewater treatment and reuse, renewable energy), circular business models, circular innovations, circular management solutions, consumers’ behavior in circular economy, new circular economy products labels and social acceptance in circular economy. These topics could be classified in three levels; the micro-level (firm-level engineering and managerial level), meso-level (industrial ecology, industrial symbiosis, eco-clusters, eco-industrial parks), and macro-level (general policies, plans, green and sustainable entrepreneurship).
This special issue calls for state-of-the art studies on analyzing the status of and tackling the problems of waste plastic generation and treatment, both in developing and developed countries, and efforts from the public, from governments, businesses and other stakeholders, to support a transition from a linear economy model to fundamentally rethink the way we design, use, and reuse plastics.
The proposed special issue will focus on the integrated approach for sustained innovation in various areas of agro-based bioeconomy. The SI takes a comprehensive look to underline the upcoming challenges and present most viable options for translating commercially viable ideas into easily affordable agricultural products and technologies. Review papers summarizing the state-of-the-art knowledge and technological status are also welcome, after coordination with the Special issue Editors.
This special issue aims at developing critically-needed strategies and at focusing current efforts carried out on Circular and Sustainable Design of materials. Submissions should be aligned with the 6Rs philosophy (reuse, recycle, redesign, remanufacture, reduce, recover), including lifecycle engineering and life cycle assessment of materials.
This Special Issue reflects the efforts of the Convergence Research Incubator at the Texas A&M Energy Institute in creating this platform for convergence research by fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations and stakeholder engagement that addresses the complex energy system challenge of our century. The Issue will include a series of white papers addressing this goal from intellectually diverse researchers and stakeholders.
