This chapter explores the transition from the traditional linear economy, defined by the ‘take–make–dispose’ model, to a circular economy, with a focus on its application in creating liveable cities. With global material consumption and urbanisation increasing, cities are facing significant challenges, including resource scarcity, environmental degradation, and growing emissions. The circular economy offers a sustainable solution by promoting resource efficiency through recycling, reusing, and regenerating materials. This approach aims to decouple economic growth from resource consumption, enhancing urban resilience and sustainability. The chapter also highlights the role of circular economy practices in improving liveability within cities. By integrating circular principles into areas such as transportation, energy systems, water management, and the built environment, cities can reduce congestion, air pollution, and waste while promoting healthier urban living environments. The 5R framework – reduce, reuse, recycle, restore, and recover – is introduced as a core strategy for embedding circularity into city functions. Additionally, the chapter identifies key enablers, such as government policies, digital technology, and public engagement, that support the circular transition. Through these measures, cities can become sustainable, resilient hubs of innovation and prosperity, balancing economic growth with environmental protection and improving the quality of life for their residents.

The development and appraisal of renewable energy schemes is described. The phases of project development are explained, as well as the importance of careful assessment of the renewable energy resource. The use of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the development of projects is discussed and the agreements and contracts that are required for a scheme are listed. Simple discounted cash flow calculations are used for the economic appraisal of a renewable energy scheme. The importance of the Environmental Impact Assessment and the production of an Environmental Statement are emphasized. The chapter is supported by 1 example, 7 questions with answers and full solutions in the accompanying online material. Further reading is identified.

Chapter 3 argues that the metamorphosis of the Ecuadorean Amazon started with the successful exploration activities by Texaco between the 1960s and 1980s. Starting from the assumption that oil as a resource does not simply exist out there awaiting its extraction but is the result of a process of social construction, the chapter explores how discourses, policies, technologies, and material infrastructures intersected to transform the Amazon into a “resource environment.” This involved a process of making sense of, systematizing, and appropriating nature – both physically and mentally. The combination of exploration technologies with geophysical knowledge and indigenous guides enabled Texaco to locate oil reserves in its concession area. Exploration changed forever how the region was perceived: the Amazon was reduced to the prospect of oil through different processes of abstraction, such as the issuing of concessions. These early confrontations of the oil business with the rainforest also caused temporary and long-term environmental impacts beyond the conceptual metamorphosis of the Amazon.

This chapter presents tools that focus on products and processes. Specifically, the chapter moves from the assumption that a bioeconomy is unsustainable by definition. Its sustainability (and superiority with respect to the fossil-based economy) has to be proved in a rigorous way, making use of improved methodologies and scientifically sound assessment tools. To this end, this chapter provides an overview of a harmonised approach for an environmental (LCA), social (SLCA), and economic (LCC) assessment of the sustainability of bio-based products and processes – taking into due consideration elements like end-of-life options as well as indirect land use change associated with the market penetration of bio-based products.

Increased global movement of biological materials, coupled with climate change, and other environmental pressures are leading to increasing threats to plants from pests and pathogens. These pests and pathogens are relevant to plant conservation translocations as a source of translocation failure, and because the translocation itself can lead to pest and pathogen transmission. Many plant conservation translocations are relatively low risk, especially those involving the small-scale local movement of plant material between proximal sites. In contrast, plant translocations that involve movement of large amounts of material, and/or large geographical distances or crossing natural ecological barriers, are intrinsically higher risk. Additional high-risk factors include the potential for pest and pathogen transmission to occur at nursery/propagation facilities, especially if the translocated material is held in close proximity to other plants infected with pests and pathogens and/or material sourced from distant localities. Despite the importance of these issues, plant health risks are often not explicitly considered in plant conservation translocations. To support greater awareness and the effective uptake of appropriate biosecurity steps in plant conservation translocations, there is a pressing need to develop generally applicable best-practice guidelines targeted at translocation practitioners.

Industrial development and resource exploitation in Arctic Fennoscandia have caused cascading and cumulative effects on environment and people since the late nineteenth century. The increasing demand for minerals and metals to facilitate a ‘green transition’ now pose further challenges for environmental and social management. In this chapter we present local attempts to provide additional knowledge and understanding of the full impact from multiple human activities beyond conventional corporate-led impact assessments. With the aim to reveal the full range of impacts from industrial developments on their livelihood, Laevas, Gabna and Semisjaur-Njarg Sámi reindeer herding communities in Sweden produced their own assessment of cumulative effects based on detailed analysis of their land use needs. The municipal level is an important local land use planning forum. Our case examples from Sodankylä municipality in Finland exemplify how challenging it may be to fully understand and manage cumulative impacts from new industrial projects. We note that effects of climate change are not yet incorporated in any assessments of impacts in any satisfactory manner.

Alkylation of 1-butene with isobutane is employed industrially to produce C8 alkylates (such as trimethylpentane) as high-octane motor fuel. Such alkylates supply roughly up to 15% of the U.S. gasoline pool. However, the process uses large quantities of sulfuric acid (as catalyst) generating acid waste whose handling poses health and environmental hazards. The main pollutants are sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions (which causes acid rain) and acid leakage in the alkylation unit. This chapter presents an alternate process that uses a solid catalyst (Nafion® supported on silica) in dense CO2 media to produce C8 alkylates (solid acid/CO2 process). Although the environmental concerns with SO2 emissions and acid leakage are eliminated, the activity of the solid acid catalyst is lower than sulfuric acid resulting in an approximately 30% higher capital investment than the conventional process. For C8 alkylate productivity, capital investments and operating costs to be nearly identical, the required olefin throughput in the solid acid/CO2 process must be four-fold higher. Such analyses establish performance targets for the solid acid/CO2 process to be commercially viable.

The ‘second version’ of the UK Stewardship Code came into effect at the start of 2020. This chapter assesses the chances of the second version being more successful than the first. It begins by examining the most plausible reasons for the failure of the first version, referring to the capacity and the incentives of institutional investors to discharge the engagement function which the first version cast upon them. It concludes that the incentives and capacities were weak. Turning to the second version, it concludes that it has not effectively addressed the causes of the first versionʼs weakness in relation to engagement. However, regarding ESG factors, especially climate change, there are reasons to expect a more positive impact from the second version, mainly because government policy has increased the reputational incentives for institutions to exercise stewardship in this area; these may also be supported by changes in investor preferences. Overall, the second version may turn out to operate along the same lines as other changes in society rather than as an isolated reform, as with the first version, provided the governmental policy and social changes that support it continue.

This chapter looks at transport innovation in the mining sector between 1990 and 2016. Shipping the mining output is an expensive and in most cases an unavoidable component of the mining process. The importance of transport, in the logistics chain of getting raw materials to final users/consumers, increases over time. This triggers the need to innovate in the transport sector, which leads to making mining locations that were more remote, accessible. This chapter uses patent data to explore transport innovations in mining, both within the mining area and outside, in the form of haulage to destination. It explores all relevant modes of transport for mining sector, namely road, rail, conveyers and maritime. Through patent citation analysis, the chapter shows that most innovation originates from the transport sector and is then adopted into the mining sector.