This article addresses goals 7 and 12 with reviews across 28 countries on how culture creates barriers and defines ideas, customs, and social behavior regarding a transition to a low-carbon, low-energy future.
Solar energy is an attractive clean energy source but storage and transportation is often a problem. Solar-light-driven water splitting provides a promising way to store and utilise abundant solar energy in the form of gaseous hydrogen. High temperature-promoted photocatalytic water splitting systems, described in this article, could open up a new direction for innovation in this field, furthering SDG 7 and 9.
World Smart Energy Week is the world’s leading comprehensive B-to-B trade show for smart and renewable energy held twice a year in Japan. (March in Tokyo and September in Osaka) The show aims to provide a platform for professionals from across Japan, Asia, and the world to negotiate and network for the future of smart and renewable energy business. This supports SDG 9: to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
Cerium (IV) oxide, commonly known as ceria, is a rare-earth compound used in the optics industry to polish glass surfaces found in many high-tech products and components. Sending the spent polishing slurry, which contains high levels of total suspended solids, into the sewage system may damage natural ecosystems. This paper describes the work performed to evaluate technologies, design, and implement a system to recover more ceria and reduce TSS discharge from the ceria washwater operation. This supports SDG 9 and 12.
Impacts of rearing goats for milk production are analysed and more environmentally-friendly options are suggested to further SDGs 12 and 13.
The abundance of residual colors in the effluents discharged from textiles, tanneries, dyeing, food processing and numerous other industries across the globe, currently poses a grave threat to global environmental sustainability. Polymer enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF) can be a cost effective and energy-efficient membrane separation process in the treatment of wastewater. This article supports SDGs 6, 12 and 14.
This paper looks at a number of ways that veterinary anaesthetists can reduce their environmental impact, including by minimizing release of halogenated anaesthetics (which are potent greenhouse gases). This relates to SDGs 12 and 13.
This article furthers SDGs 12 and 13 by looking at the supply chain for returnable containers (secondary packaging material such as bins, pallets, boxes or crates) as a means of reducing CO2 emissions. The authors propose a returnable containers supply chain that consists of a single vendor and multiple buyers. They study the impact of the investment of buyers on the performance of the supply chain, developing two inventory models for comparison. They show that the first case, where buyers invest, leads to optimal performance.
Nepal has been suffering from a serious energy crisis for decades. It has severely affected its economic, social and political development. This paper furthers SDGs 7, 9 and 12 by showing that renewable resources are crucial not only for mitigating the present energy crisis, but also to ultimately provide energy independence for Nepal by establishing reliable and secure sources of energy.
This study advances SDGs 7, 9 and 12 by evaluating the environmental sustainability of biomass utilisation for small-scale power generation in rural communities, with a focus on the Southeast Asian context. Rice and coconut residues are considered for direct combustion and gasification, and livestock manure for anaerobic digestion. The results of this study are expected to support the development of sustainable bioenergy in off-grid rural communities as well as those that aim for greater energy independence.
