The International Water Summit (IWS) is a global platform for promoting water sustainability in arid regions by bringing together world leaders, field experts, academics and business innovators to accelerate the development of new sustainable strategies and technologies. Videos from the 2017 summit cover a wide range of technologies and innovations which support SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation and SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities.
This collection of articles from the Editors of Environment International Journal explore the impact of climate change on health. The collection demonstrates the interconnectedness of SDG 13 and SDG 3. Understanding the changes and associated impact allows us to develop appropriate adaptive policies and practices to respond to climate-sensitive health risks.
All-Energy is the UK’s largest renewable energy event, providing industry suppliers and thought-leaders the opportunity to connect with new customers and expand business networks in this fast-changing marketplace as well as learn about latest technologies and solutions. Presentations from the 2017 event provide invaluable insights into bioenergy, solar, offshore and onshore wind, hydropower and wave & tidal sectors, as well as energy storage, low carbon transport and sustainable cities solutions. This is directly related to SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy.
This article aims to contribute to current discussions about “making cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable” (SDG 11) by linking debates that are currently taking place in separate containers: debates on the “global land rush” and the “new urban agenda”. It highlights some important processes that are overlooked in these debates and advances a new, socially inclusive urbanization agenda that addresses emerging urban land grabs.
Growing media (substrate) is a fundamental part of a green roof, providing water, nutrients and support to plants. However, little research has reviewed how it affects plant performances in different climatic regions. This study aims to analyse published research on green roof growing medium across world's climate zones. Findings are structured according to Köppen–Geiger climate classification, aiming to investigate the prevalence of research conducted in different climate zones. Results from full-scale studies and laboratory or greenhouse experiments were reviewed.
A number of property companies are going beyond traditional corporate responsibility to be net positive. Instead of opting for sustainability strategies that manage risk and reduce negative impacts, these companies are seeking to put back more into society, the environment and the global economy than they take out. Whilst the breadth and scope of these net positive commitments made by real estate leaders vary, there is enormous opportunity for this sector with sustainability and in supporting SDG 7 and 13.
Assuming communities in a city may formally express their aspirations for the future sustainability of their city, which technological innovations for changing the city's infrastructure and metabolism might they introduce today, as a first step towards realizing their distant aspirations? What is more, recognizing the diversity of aspirations that may never be reconciled into a consensus, might some innovations and policy interventions be nevertheless more privileged than others, in being non-foreclosing? How might we discover this?
Sustainability theory shows that the sustainability problem is a value orientation problem. In a recent study, Klaas van Egmond identified an underlying pattern of a crossed circle, representing affirmative and adversative value orientations, whose disintegration engenders unsustainable tendencies. This article explicates how Shakespeare's allegories invite to quests for ‘values worthy of pursuit’, grounded upon a similar immanent cyclical pattern of value orientations, moving from and to the centre of Shakespeare's works.
Thirty years of public health research have demonstrated that improved indoor environmental quality is associated with better health outcomes. Recent research has demonstrated an impact of the indoor environment on cognitive function. We recruited 109 participants from 10 high-performing buildings (i.e. buildings surpassing the ASHRAE Standard 62.1–2010 ventilation requirement and with low total volatile organic compound concentrations) in five U.S. cities. In each city, buildings were matched by week of assessment, tenant, type of worker and work functions.
Massive slums have become major features of cities in many low-income and middle-income countries. Here, in the first in a Series of two papers, we discuss why slums are unhealthy places with especially high risks of infection and injury. We show that children are especially vulnerable, and that the combination of malnutrition and recurrent diarrhoea leads to stunted growth and longer-term effects on cognitive development. We find that the scientific literature on slum health is underdeveloped in comparison to urban health, and poverty and health.
