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The Top 30 Global Sustainability Research Papers in 2019

In 2019, record-high global temperatures and climate change took central stage in global news headlines, culminating with a declaration from more than 11,000 scientists from around the world that a climate emergency exists on Earth. This declaration got people talking on social media and in the news, more so than any other scientific publication in 2019.

Altmetric annually ranks the 100 scientific papers that glean the most media attention as a simple measure of what sparks public interest. In 2019, they examined over 62 million media mentions of 2.7 million research articles. The altmetric score does not measure the calibre of the research or researcher.

At Future Earth, we used the list to identify the top 30 global sustainability articles. We were guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which recognize that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, combating inequality within and among countries, preserving the planet, creating sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and fostering social inclusion are linked to each other and are interdependent.

Taking a closer look at the top five, the rising threat posed by climate change (SDG 13) was a central concern in 2019 as reflected by this year’s top two papers. The health of our oceans (SDG 14) and global terrestrial biodiversity (SDG 15) also find their way into the top five, with the third ranked paper discussing increasing vulnerability to sea level rise and coastal flooding, while the fourth ranked paper examines the potential of global reforestation to mitigate the effects of climate change. Rounding out the top five, a global study between 1990-2017 analyzed the health effects linked to dietary risks (SDG 3). Together, these papers reflect the many connections among natural and human systems by highlighting just how important the life supporting SDGs (6, 13, 14, and 15) are to supporting healthy, equitable, and sustainable livelihoods on Earth.

Of the top 30, nearly half of the global sustainability articles are concerned with climate change, with another third related to health, nutrition, and climate. Papers discussing biodiversity and plastics also make their way onto the list.

Read on for the full top 30 of 2019 and see earlier lists here (January – April 2019 ), here (May – August 2019 ) and here (2018 in review) .

The top 30 global sustainability articles in 2019, by Altmetric score:

• World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency (November 2019) BioScience . Altmetric score: 10,966
• Climate tipping points too risky to bet against (November 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 8556
• New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding (October 2019) Nature Communications . Altmetric score: 7,135
• The global tree restoration potential (July 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 6,356
• Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 (April 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 5,868
• Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers (April 2019) Biological Conservation . Altmetric score: 5,438
• Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable foods (February 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 4,561
• Committed emissions from existing energy infrastructure jeopardize 1.5°C climate target (August 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 4,434
• Concerns of young protesters are justified (April 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 4,349
• Global warming impairs stock-recruitment dynamics of corals (April 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 4,121
• Eat less meat: UN climate-change report calls for change to human diet (August 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 3,861
• No evidence for globally coherent warm and cold periods over the preindustrial Common Era (July 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 3,898
• Decline of the North American avifauna (October 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 3,368
• Earth system impacts of the European arrival and the Great Dying in the Americas after 1492 (March 2019) Quaternary Science Reviews . Altmetric score: 3,290
• Spending at least 120 minutes in a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing (June 2019) Scientific Reports . Altmetric score: 3,249
• Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release (April 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 3,014
• The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change: The Lancet Commission Report (February 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 2,973
• How fast are the oceans warming? (January 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 2,882
• Acceleration of ice loss across the Himalayas over the past 40 years (June 2019) Science Advances . Altmetric score: 2,767
• The 2019 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by climate change (November 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 2,752
• 40 years ago, scientists predicted climate change. And hey, they were right (July 2019) The Conversation . Altmetric score: 2,724
• Ice sheet contributions to future sea level rise from structured expert judgment (May 2019) PNAS . Altmetric score: 2,620
• Dissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populations (October 2019) Science . Altmetric score: 2,584.
• International humanitarian norms are violated in Hong Kong (December 2019) The Lancet . Altmetric score: 2,538
• Four decades of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance from 1979-2017 (January 2019) PNAS . Altmetric score: 2,494
• Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers (April 2019) Frontiers in Psychology . Altmetric score: 2,312
• Plastic Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles and Nanoparticles into Tea (September 2019) Environmental Science and Technology . Altmetric score: 2,305
• White and wonderful? Microplastics prevail in snow from the Alps to the Arctic (August 2019) Science Advances . Altmetric score: 2,253
• Arthropod decline in grasslands and forests is associated with landscape-level drivers (October 2019) Nature . Altmetric score: 2,240
• Nudging out support for a carbon tax (May 2019) Nature Climate Change . Altmetric score: 2,190

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Open Access

Ten simple rules to make your research more sustainable

Contributed equally to this work with: Anne-Laure Ligozat, Aurélie Névéol

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliations Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, LIMSI, Orsay, France, ENSIIE, Evry-Courcouronnes, France

Affiliation Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, LIMSI, Orsay, France

• Anne-Laure Ligozat, 
• Aurélie Névéol, 
• Bénédicte Daly, 
• Emmanuelle Frenoux

Published: September 24, 2020

• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008148
• Reader Comments

Citation: Ligozat A-L, Névéol A, Daly B, Frenoux E (2020) Ten simple rules to make your research more sustainable. PLoS Comput Biol 16(9): e1008148. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008148

Editor: Russell Schwartz, Carnegie Mellon University, UNITED STATES

Copyright: © 2020 Ligozat et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: This work was supported by CNRS, ENSIIE, and Université Paris Saclay. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Sustainable development can be defined as a principle that regulates human activity without causing irreparable damage to the Earth's natural system. It also aims to preserve resources so that future generations can benefit from them as much as present generations. To address the global challenges today's world faces to manage the impact of human activity on the environment, the United Nations have defined a set of sustainable development goals to be achieved in the next decade [ 1 ].

The climate changes induced by human activities have been accelerating alarmingly as reported by scientists since 1979 [ 2 ]. Scientists can observe an increase in pollution (e.g., depletion of oxygen in water, eutrophication), natural resource scarcity, and a significant and accelerated loss of biodiversity. All these changes have led geologists to propose the Anthropocene as a new geological epoch, reflecting the impact of human activities on Earth's ecosystems[ 3 ].

To mitigate this effect, a paradigmatic shift represented by sustainable development is needed in all fields of human activities, including research. As individuals and researchers, we are concerned with these challenges and deeply aware of the necessity to be more sustainable. But in practice, what does this entail? How can a researcher's activity be “sustainable,” and how do we integrate sustainable practices into research projects? Where do we start?

There is currently no global policy from French research institutes to federate collective action of the scientific community towards sustainable development goals, but working groups focusing on sustainable development have published recommendations [ 4 ]. There are also examples of good practice in the United Kingdom (S-Labs [ 5 ], Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework [ 6 ]) and the United States (International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories [ 7 ], My Green Lab [ 8 ]).

Taking action to address the emergency situation is not only a moral responsibility we have as citizens but also a necessary contribution to gathering an understanding of the impact of research activities on the environment and how to make them more sustainable.

This article is the result of the work carried out by the "sustainable development" committee created at the French Laboratoire d'informatique pour la Mécanique et les Sciences de l'Ingénieur (LIMSI) [ 9 ] in 2019 to bring together researchers interested in addressing these questions in the context of the activities of our laboratory, which conducts theoretical and experimental research in a diversity of scientific fields, including fluid mechanics, energetics, human language technology, human machine interaction, medical informatics, and augmented and virtual reality.

The first task of the committee was to assess the carbon footprint of research activities over the year 2018 [ 10 ]. The next task is to analyze the results of this study and draw a roadmap towards reducing the carbon footprint and, more generally, the environmental impact [ 11 ] of our research activities in subsequent years.

Herein, we propose a list of actionable rules to facilitate the contribution of anyone in the community towards sustainable research. We selected a set of rules that address a variety of topics with different levels of potential impact with the goal of illustrating the breadth of possible actions.

Rule 1: Cherry-picking is allowed

Why does it matter.

It can be daunting to think about all you should be doing to strive towards sustainability. However, in the words of popular wisdom, Rome wasn't built in a day, and every little thing helps. We want to acknowledge here that integrating sustainability into our research is a big step for many of us and that this change may need to be gradual, according to behavioral theory [ 12 ]

How to address it?

You can start your path towards sustainable research today by picking only one of the suggestions below and committing to it. Depending on your particular field of research or interests, some rules may be easier to implement than others.

Rule 2: Be informed

Information is the foundation of sustainable action. According to the Paris Agreement [ 13 ], we have a global goal of achieving carbon neutrality in 2050 and halving current carbon emissions by 2030. Drastically reducing the carbon footprint of human activities can only be achieved if we are well aware of the specific impact of the different carbon-emitting activities.

Research institutes should ensure that their staff receive some training on environmental issues related to energy, climate and biodiversity. Training courses are available on this subject, including Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) through popular platform such as Université Virtuelle Environnement et Développement Durable (UVED) [ 14 ] in French and Coursera [ 15 ] in English. The sustainability literacy test [ 16 ] is a tool approved by the United Nations for learning general knowledge relating to the environment that could also be used to enhance workers’ and students’ knowledge. In addition, general public documents such as summaries of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports or reports from think tanks such as the The Shift Project or the Green Alliance can also be used as information material, as well as documents from environmental nongovernmental organizations such as 350.org or Greenpeace. Awareness of these issues will facilitate their inclusion in lab operations and scientific work.

Evaluating the carbon footprint of your lab/institute is an excellent start. An information search for reports of carbon footprint assessments conducted by laboratories or institutes in the same field can also help identify major trends. Typically, for research labs, travel accounts for a significant portion of carbon emissions. Other major sources of carbon emissions include electricity used for building operations as well as computer power. In France, the labos1point5 [ 17 ] collective is offering support to labs interested in assessing their carbon footprint.

Carbon footprint assessment can also be done at the scale of specific research activities. Researchers can apply their knowledge of how to evaluate and compare the impacts of two alternatives. For example, from an environmental point of view, is it better to continue using legacy equipment that may require more power or to invest in new equipment that will require less power but incur environmental construction costs [ 18 ]? Which videoconference system incurs the lowest energy consumption [ 19 ]?

Although these questions may be hard to answer, some of them can be addressed using widely recognized methodologies, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA enables the assessment of environmental impacts of a service or product by taking into account all the stages of its life cycle according to different criteria, including but not limited to carbon dioxide CO 2 measurement. This again requires that research staff be trained on these methodologies, in order to apply them properly. The results obtained may differ substantially on a case-by-case basis because the assessment is dependent on the location and specific set-up. For example, whether the electricity used comes from low-carbon sources will have an impact. In some cases, the LCA will nevertheless remain difficult if key relevant data (e.g., electric power provenance) is not available.

Rule 3: Prefer train over plane

The main source of global CO 2 equivalent emissions in several research institutes is travel. For example, at LIMSI, in 2018, travel accounted for 50% of the total emissions [ 10 ], including about 35% for transportation to attend scientific meetings or conduct field work and an additional 15% for employees’ commutes. Other case studies at two academic institutions in Switzerland and in the US also found travel to account for a large share of their carbon footprint, with air travel alone accounting for 30% of all CO 2 emissions [ 20 , 21 ].

Fig 1 presents a sample comparison between plane and train travel for two sample itineraries to illustrate the CO 2 emission gain offered by train travel for medium range journeys: one international journey within Europe (Paris–Turin, 584 kilometers/363 miles) and one domestic journey withing the US (New York, New York–Washington, DC, 474 kilometers/295 miles).

• PPT PowerPoint slide
• PNG larger image
• TIFF original image

Plane emissions were calculated with the https://co2.myclimate.org/en/flight_calculators/newmyclimate flight calculator. Flight durations are estimated using https://www.expedia.fr/expedia . Train emissions and durations come from oui.sncf/SNCF for the Paris–Turin journey and from https://www.virail.frvirail for the New York, New York–Washington, DC journey.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008148.g001

This data shows that carbon emissions associated with train travel represent a mere fraction of those associated with plane travel (9.2% for New York/Washington and 1% for Paris/Turin), while travel duration increases by about 2 hours (precisely 2 hours 12 minutes for New York/Washington and 2 hours 21 minutes for Paris/Turin), which is arguably equivalent to the time associated with air travel formalities, including city/airport commute and airport security procedures.

This data shows that traveling by train instead of plane can massively reduce the footprint of academic travel. While travel is perceived as essential to a researcher's activity [ 22 ], it was also shown that air travel has a limited influence on academic professional success [ 23 ] for senior researchers. Therefore, train travel should be favored whenever possible. We also encourage researchers to reduce their travel footprint by favoring attendance to scientific meetings in locations that can be reached by train and to limit their conference travel, which scientists seem willing to do [ 24 , 25 ].

This rule applies mainly for short distance travel, which only accounts for a fraction of academic travel. Typically, the train is not an option for traveling from Paris (France) to San Franciso, California (US). The impact of a Paris–San Francisco round-trip flight in terms of CO 2 emissions (2.9 tons according to myclimate) is roughly equivalent to 10 times that of a domestic Paris–Toulouse round trip (314 kg according to myclimate). Favoring train over plane will not reduce emissions related to long-distance trips and thereby may have limited impact over global travel-related emissions if long-distance travel accounts for the majority of travel. As a result, it is necessary to limit long-distance travel by assessing the need for travel, encouraging local collaboration, and adopting publication methods that restrict travel, such as journal publications or domestic conferences.

Rule 4: Take advantage of remote participation

As discussed above, it is necessary to limit long distance travels because they incur a high level of carbon emissions within the overall travel category, which is a major source of emissions for research institutions.

Remote participation in conferences and webinars can be encouraged and facilitated.

Pioneer events showed that entirely remote conferences can be organized to the satisfaction of an overwhelming majority of participants: 10 years ago, computational biologists published a set of guidelines for organizing such events as an effective low-cost educational strategy [ 26 ]. More recently, the University of California at Santa Barbara also devised a plan to organize remote conferences [ 21 ] in which conference participants were invited to record their talks ahead of the event; the videos were then made available on the conference website, and direct interaction with the authors was supported by message forum within the conference timeline. A similar set-up was used for the Cochrane Colloquium 2019 after the event had to be cancelled due to local political events [ 27 ]. A more complete list of conferences aiming to limit their carbon emissions is available at https://www.appropedia.org/List_of_low-carbon_conferences , and recent guidelines provide support for organizing non–real-time events [ 28 ]. The recent global public health crisis due to the COVID-19 outbreak is providing additional motivation for organizing remote events[ 29 ].

These events show that it is technically feasible to engineer fully remote participation in conferences. However, one of the benefits of conference participation is the networking and personal interactions between colleagues occurring during coffee breaks and social events. For this reason, the scientific community may want to continue fostering in-person meetings. To support this middle-ground solution, remote participation can be promoted as a systematically available option for all conferences and meetings [ 30 ]. This way, researchers may balance their conference attendance between in-person and remote attendance.

Another option that can help reduce the carbon footprint of conferences is to create small groups of participants that can meet in person in a local venue to attend a remote event. The 2010 "Signs of Change" conference was organized according to this model and offered five locations throughout New Zealand for participants to meet [ 31 ].

Rule 5: Work collectively and reproducibly

Many of the resources allocated to research activities—including resources that have an impact on the environment—are wasted due to a multiplicity of factors related to the organization, planning, and evaluation of research [ 32 ].

For example, the inadequate use of statistical methods or the fact that novelty is valued more than reproducibility results in waste that could be otherwise avoided. The practice of sharing protocols, research material such as code, and results contributes to collective work and avoids waste in the form of duplicate efforts.

Applying the classic scientific method is particularly useful here. First, do a thorough literature search to identify useful related work to a new project. If existing systems or models addressing the task at hand are identified, they should be reused. Novelty and originality does not necessarily come from new methods; an existing method can be novel if applied to a new context or used differently from usual practice. Furthermore, reusing existing material can also bring added value by demonstrating its reproducibility, documenting a reuse case from the perspective of users with a different background or experimental set-up [ 33 , 34 ].

If a thorough literature search does not uncover readily usable solutions, it makes sense to develop new methods or tools. In this case, working reproducibly will help researchers make the most of their work, by documenting protocols and sharing material. In fact, the value of reproducibility is increasingly promoted by "reproducibility challenges" that seek to reproduce prominent work and gather information about the process. The events Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 2019 Reproducibility challenge [ 35 ] and the Shared Task on the Reproduction of Research Results in Science and Technology of Language,"REPROLANG 2020" [ 36 ] are examples of reproducibility tasks in the fields of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning. In 2020, the Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP) conference added reproducibility criteria during the submission process about the description of experimental results, parameters, and datasets, based on [ 37 ] and [ 38 ], which is also a good way to promote reproducibility of research work.

Rule 6: Encourage bottom-up sustainable initiatives

Engaging the community on the topic of sustainability will create interest in the topic and in how it is addressed within the community. Empowering members of the community will contribute to the emergence of solutions that are tailored to the community culture and that will find stronger support within the community [ 39 ].

Researchers are creative. Let them implement ideas towards more sustainable practice.

Typically, many of the initiatives cited in this manuscript came from researchers themselves and have been widely adopted. Methods for organizing remote conferences are one example which has shown increased popularity with the recent pandemic.

Supporting this type of initiative (environmental impact of research operation/policy) as a research question will help with researching and adopting some of these ideas. There are many ways this support can translate into actionable policies for a variety of actors in higher education and research: by funding researchers' work in this area, even if it is outside of their main expertise, e.g., labs could fund researchers experiments towards addressing these questions, journals could waive publication fees for this type of work, and institutes could recognize this type of contribution in staff evaluation or provide special allowance to allocate a portion of their time working on these issues.

Rule 7: Evaluate the impact of your research practices

Like all human activities, research has an environmental impact that we need to be aware of (see Rule 2). Until now, we have mainly discussed the impact of the research environment rather than research activities in and of themselves. The raising awareness for environmental issues combined with the increasing energy needed for implementing modern machine learning algorithms has brought about the emerging field of so-called "green" artificial intelligence, which seeks to reconcile powerful computing with environment friendly research [ 40 ].

When conducting research, factor in the direct, indirect, and structural environmental impacts of your research. Direct impact covers the carbon footprint of the operational conduct of the research. For example, it includes the carbon footprint of overall research practice and can be taken into account by addressing questions such as the following: When two methods are otherwise equivalent in performance, which one has the smaller carbon footprint? Did you take computational cost and its environmental impact in your method evaluation/reporting [ 38 , 41 ]?

Indirect and structural impact covers the consequences of the new knowledge or findings obtained as a result of the research. For example, improving the energy efficiency of a learning algorithm could lead to increased experimentation, which, in the long run, does not reduce energy use (this typical rebound effect is described in [ 18 ]). Indirect and structural impact can be taken into account by addressing questions such as the following: What are the consequences of the discoveries we make? Do they contribute to a more sustainable world or, on the contrary, to a runaway machine, even indirectly?

Rule 8: Ask sustainability research questions

Rule 2 and others have highlighted how information is key to address sustainability. Research aims to create new knowledge and therefore can have a contribution to our information on sustainability issues and how to address them.

Computer science (CS) is well positioned for offering analysis of problems using predictive models, simulation and visualization methods that can be applied to a large range of sustainability problems. The National Research Council Committee on Computing Research for Environmental and Societal Sustainability has suggested that "[s]marter energy grids, sustainable agriculture, and resilient infrastructure provide three concrete and important examples of the potential role of IT innovation and CS research in sustainability." [ 42 ]

However, the benefit of work on sustainability research questions must be balanced with the impact of such research (see Rule 7). For example, although information and communication technologies are often considered as a means for reducing energy demands and emissions, a recent study [ 43 ] showed that digitalization actually increases energy consumption. Standard methodologies can be used here, such as attributional LCA (see Rule 2), which takes into account the direct environmental impacts. The more general and long-term impact of research work can be difficult to anticipate or predict. Typically, researchers investigating electricity in the 17th and 18th century may not have foreseen the climate crisis we are facing today due to CO 2 emissions generated by electricity-powered technology. In order to assess research impact at a global level, consequential LCA can also be used. It goes beyond the direct impacts and may require multidisciplinary work involving economists, sociologists, philosophers, etc.

Furthermore, researchers can be encouraged to think about research questions outside of their main expertise (see Rule 6). For example, several French groups with an interest in advancing sustainability policies [ 17 ] drafted incentive and coercive plans to reduce airplane travel in research labs. The incentive measure consists in making it mandatory to compensate the carbon emissions linked to travel by funding compensating projects. The coercive measure consists in banning travel as soon as the yearly carbon quota defined either per lab or per researcher has been reached. They are suggesting enforcing these policies in pilot institutes as a scientific experiment to test adherence and impact.

Rule 9: Transfer ecofriendly gestures from home to the lab

Studies show that individual actions towards sustainability in the form of ecofriendly gestures can contribute towards achieving up to 45% of the carbon footprint reduction that needs to be achieved collectively by 2050 [ 44 ].

Ecofriendly gestures practiced at home by many are also relevant in a professional setting and can have a significant impact. These ecofriendly gestures are not necessarily trivial to implement in the workplace because individuals are not directly involved in the global administration of the infrastructure. Typically, for security and logistical reasons, electric facilities cannot be openly accessible to all. Nonetheless, based on recommendations for carbon reduction [ 44 ] and our own example of carbon emissions at LIMSI [ 10 ], the following points can be brought to the attention of infrastructure management officials within an institute:

• Limit the use of (plastic) disposable material [ 45 ].
• Practice printing sobriety: think before you print and collect printed documents.
• Encourage employees to use soft modes of transport for local commutes (see also Rules 3 and 4).
• Favor local, seasonal, and vegetarian food when organizing events.
• Practice digital sobriety: use less material, make it last as long as possible, and consider donations when research use of otherwise-functioning equipment is no longer appropriate.
• Organize trash collection to encourage or facilitate recycling.
• Consider the feasibility of switching off lights and servers during off–peak-use periods.

Rule 10: Raise awareness

Sustainable actions have an impact both at the individual and collective level. The strength of the impact directly depends on the support of many individuals. As a result, it is important to raise awareness to convince and gain the support of others.

Communication officers at research institutes are in charge of internal communication using diverse means including custom visual tools and social media. They are excellent assets to support an awareness campaign on sustainability issues. For example, the contribution of LIMSI's communication director to the sustainable development committee includes the creation of a series of handouts around the theme of "Mon labo écolo" (My green lab). Fig 2 presents sample handouts produced by the LIMSI communication officer to raise awareness of lab members on major issues such as power use ( Fig 2A ) and travel ( Fig 2B ).

(A) Translation of hand-out content into English: “My Green Lab—BUILDINGS—(electricity) 90,000 € pa, 2/3 for server room (heat) 26,000 € pa (action) Switch off servers, computers, screens, lights when not in use. Open window? Radiator off!” (B) Translation of hand-out content into English: “My Green Lab—TRAVEL—(map) travel is responsible for half of the lab’s carbon footprint, with plane travel accounting for 99% of the travel footprint (action) prefer train over plane; question the necessity of travel.” Text and design by Bénédicte Daly .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008148.g002

These documents are used at LIMSI to promote sustainable action around the lab and can be used/customized as desired.

The goal of this article is to provide researchers with guidance for integrating sustainable practices into their activities. These 10 rules are positioned in the paradigm of science as it is conducted today. We posit that modern environmental and public health issues suggest the need for a massive paradigm shift. Calls to this effect have already been issued within the scientific community [ 46 ], such as the "slow science manifesto" [ 47 ].

In this situation, we stress the importance of cherry-picking and easing into change step by step to avoid being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task.

A major step towards achieving sustainable research requires being informed about the impact of our activities as well as the impact of the simple choices we can make, as outlined by this set of 10 rules.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Gabriel Illouz, Mathilde Véron, and members of the sustainable development committee at LIMSI for fruitful conversations during the preliminary stages of preparing this manuscript. Portions of this article were written by post-editing text that was translated from French into English with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).

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Decoupling monetary resource-environmental pressure from economic growth: Empirical studies from 30 Chinese provinces (2004–2017)

• Published: 24 June 2024

Cite this article

• Zhiguang Tian 1 , 2 ,
• Xianzhong Mu 1 , 2 ,
• Liang Xie 1 , 2 &
• Guangwen Hu 1 , 2  

A holistic framework that integrates economic growth (EG) and resource-environmental protection is crucial for achieving sustainable development. This research paper introduces a novel monetary measurement system for resource-environmental pressure (REP) based on the decoupling scheme proposed by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). Subsequently, employing China as a case study, the paper analyzes the decoupling relationship between EG and REP using the Tapio decoupling model. The main findings indicate that: (1) The overall REP in China exhibits an increasing trend from 2004 to 2017. Among the various components of REP, energy consumption accounts for the highest proportion (approximately 75%), followed by environmental degradation and pollution abatement. (2) At the provincial level, the decoupling effect of REP is highly consistent with that of natural resource loss. The overall decoupling states of REP and its sub-indicators demonstrate significant improvement around 2010. (3) The decoupling performance between REP and EG is primarily driven by policy interventions. To achieve the decoupling objectives set by the UNEP and ensure sustainable development, there is a need to intensify environmental policies in the future. (4) The decoupling effect of environmental impact loss at the provincial level exhibits notable volatility during the 2004–2017 period. The attainment of stable and strong decoupling performance in terms of environmental impact loss cannot be guaranteed. (5) From a regional perspective, provinces within the same region display similar decoupling trends over time. Hence, it is crucial to consider regional collaborative governance in addressing decoupling challenges and promoting sustainable economy.

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The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

The raw data for this pricing information is obtained from the “Standards and Calculation Methods for the Sewage Charges” issued by the Chinese government.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thanks for the financial supports from the Natural Science Foundation of China (5230101627), the R&D Program of Beijing Municipal Education Commission (SM202310005008). The authors appreciate the suggestions and enthusiastic support of the editors and reviewers.

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Zhiguang Tian, Xianzhong Mu, Liang Xie & Guangwen Hu

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Appendix A: Calculation of REPR

1.1 calculation of the economic value of carbon sequestration and oxygen release, 1.1.1 the economic value of carbon sequestration (evcs) (song et al., 2019 ).

The EVCS is expressed by the carbon tax. The green land absorbs 0.9t/hm 2 of CO 2 daily throughout the year. The Swedish carbon tax rate is fixed at 40.94 USD/t and is transformed into RMB at the average USD yearly exchange rate. The calculation formula of EVCS is:

where GLA denotes green land area.

The economic value of oxygen release (EVOR) (Huang et al., 2018 ; Song et al., 2019 )

The EVOR is calculated by multiplying the annual net oxygen release (12t/hm 2 ) by the cost of industrial oxygen production (400 RMB/t). The calculation formula is as follows:

The economic value of carbon sequestration and oxygen release (EVT)

Based on the above formulas, the EVT can be calculated by:

3.1 Calculation of the economic value of SO 2 absorption (SO 2 AEV) (Song et al., 2019 )

The total amount of SO 2 absorption is gained by multiplying the yearly SO 2 absorption amount of green land (0.296 t/hm 2 ) by the annual green land area. The SO 2 AEV is calculated by multiplying the total SO 2 absorption by the reduction expense per unit (600 RMB/t). The calculation formula is:

3.2 Calculation of the economic value of climate regulation (Song et al., 2019 )

The transpiration of green vegetation can effectively lower the temperature and optimize ventilation conditions. Previous research shows that 1hm 2 of green land can absorb 81.8 MJ of heat from the environment in summer (under typical weather conditions), equivalent to the cooling effect of 189 air conditioners working 24 h. The power consumption cost of using air conditions to reduce the same temperature is regarded as the economic value of climate regulation. The power consumption of a 2500 W ordinary air conditioner working continuously for 1 h is 0.9 kWh. Therefore, the economic value of climate regulation can be calculated by:

where CREV represents the monetary value of climate regulation; GLA denotes green land area; EleP means electricity price and is determined to be 0.6 RMB/kWh (Huang et al., 2018 ).

3.3 The economic value of dust retention (EVDR)

The dust treatment cost is regarded as the monetary value of dust retention. The average dust retention of green land is 10.9t/hm 2 /year (Song et al., 2019 ). Thus, the calculation formula is:

where GLA denotes green land area; UDRC is the unit cost of dust removal, and here is determined to be 170RMB/t (Song et al., 2019 ).

Appendix B: Trends of GDP, REP, and its sub-indicators of 30 provinces in China

See Fig. 9 .

Trends of GDP, REP, and its sub-indicators of 30 provinces in China

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Tian, Z., Mu, X., Xie, L. et al. Decoupling monetary resource-environmental pressure from economic growth: Empirical studies from 30 Chinese provinces (2004–2017). Environ Dev Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-05148-6

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-05148-6

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Greening the food supply chain: Developing sustainable food systems through interdisciplinary collaboration

by University of Connecticut

Sustainability is a hot topic in just about every field that engages with the environment, including agriculture. An interdisciplinary group of researchers in UConn's College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources has published a paper outlining the current state of sustainable food production research in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Research .

The group includes Yangchao Luo, associate professor of nutritional sciences; Zhenlei Xiao, associate professor-in-residence of nutritional sciences; and Abhinav Upadhyay, assistant professor of animal science. Bai Qu, Luo's Ph.D. student, is the lead author on the paper.

Sustainable food production focuses on creating food systems that are environmentally sound, economically viable, and socially equitable.

"It focuses on the entire food supply chain, from farm to table, ensuring that each step is sustainable, minimizes waste, and reduces the carbon footprint," Luo says.

The paper outlines the key features of sustainable food production including environmental stewardship , economic vitality, innovation and adaptation, and social responsibility.

The paper also reviews green technologies like urban agriculture , food nanotechnology, and plant-based foods, all of which play a role in reducing the negative impacts of food production.

"This is not a new concept, but I think with the development of emergent technology, a lot of things are going on now, it is very important to revisit this concept," Luo says.

This publication provides a holistic and interdisciplinary perspective on the topic.

"Sustainable food production is a very collaborative topic," Luo says. "You cannot do everything on your own."

Sustainable food production encompasses the concept of a circular economy in which the waste from one process or product can be reused elsewhere.

"People have not cared about the waste generated, the impact to the environment, whether it's sustainable or not," Luo says. "People are pretty much profit driven. Now we have to change the whole concept or else the entire agricultural industry cannot be sustainable."

This paper reflects the College and UConn's broader commitment to sustainability, Luo explains.

"There's many things in the College and at the University, campus-wide, that flow into this area that really inspire me to dive deeper into this topic," Luo says.

Luo, co-chair for CAHNR's committee for sustainable agriculture and food production, is currently working with a group of students to develop an organic poultry feed additive made from microalgae.

"You cannot think about sustainable agriculture from a single discipline," Luo says. "It has to be highly collective and collaborative from all three areas—society, environment, and community health. You have to connect all three angles together."

Provided by University of Connecticut

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• Published: 05 June 2024

The urgent need for designing greener drugs

• Tomas Brodin   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1086-7567 1   na1 ,
• Michael G. Bertram   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5320-8444 1 , 2 , 3   na1 ,
• Kathryn E. Arnold   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6485-6065 4 ,
• Alistair B. A. Boxall 4 ,
• Bryan W. Brooks   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6277-9852 5 ,
• Daniel Cerveny   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1491-309X 1 , 6 ,
• Manuela Jörg   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3116-373X 7 , 8 ,
• Karen A. Kidd   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5619-1358 9 ,
• Unax Lertxundi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9575-1602 10 ,
• Jake M. Martin 1 , 2 ,
• Lauren T. May   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4412-1707 11 ,
• Erin S. McCallum 1 ,
• Marcus Michelangeli   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0053-6759 1 , 3 , 12 ,
• Charles R. Tyler 13 ,
• Bob B. M. Wong   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9352-6500 3 ,
• Klaus Kümmerer   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2027-6488 14 , 15   na2 &
• Gorka Orive 16 , 17 , 18   na2  

Nature Sustainability ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Metrics details

• Drug regulation
• Environmental impact

The pervasive contamination of ecosystems with active pharmaceutical ingredients poses a serious threat to biodiversity, ecosystem services and public health. Urgent action is needed to design greener drugs that maintain efficacy but also minimize environmental impact.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge funding support from the Swedish Research Council Formas (2018-00828 to T.B., 2020-02293 to M.G.B., 2020-00981 to E.S.M., 2020-01052 to D.C., 2022-00503 to M.M. and 2022-02796/2023-01253 to J.M.M.), the Kempe Foundations (SMK-1954, SMK21-0069 and JCSMK23-0078 to M.G.B.), the Swedish Research Council VR (2022-03368 to E.S.M.), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement (101061889 to M.M.), Research England (131911 to M.J.), the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (PID2022-139746OB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 to G.O.), the Australian Research Council (FT190100014 and DP220100245 to B.B.M.W.), the Jarislowsky Foundation (to K.A.K.), a Royal Society of New Zealand Catalyst Leaders Fellowship (ILF-CAW2201 to B.W.B.) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (1P01ES028942 to B.W.B.). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Author information

These authors contributed equally: Tomas Brodin, Michael G. Bertram.

These authors jointly supervised this work: Klaus Kümmerer, Gorka Orive.

Authors and Affiliations

Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden

Tomas Brodin, Michael G. Bertram, Daniel Cerveny, Jake M. Martin, Erin S. McCallum & Marcus Michelangeli

Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

Michael G. Bertram & Jake M. Martin

School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Michael G. Bertram, Marcus Michelangeli & Bob B. M. Wong

Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York, UK

Kathryn E. Arnold & Alistair B. A. Boxall

Department of Environmental Science, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA

Bryan W. Brooks

Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Vodňany, Czech Republic

Daniel Cerveny

Medicinal Chemistry Theme, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

Manuela Jörg

Centre for Cancer, Chemistry – School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Karen A. Kidd

Bioaraba Health Research Institute, Osakidetza Basque Health Service, Araba Mental Health Network, Araba Psychiatric Hospital, Pharmacy Service, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

Unax Lertxundi

Drug Discovery Biology, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

Lauren T. May

School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia

Marcus Michelangeli

Biosciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

Charles R. Tyler

Institute of Sustainable Chemistry, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany

Klaus Kümmerer

International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3), Bonn, Germany

Laboratory of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

Gorka Orive

Biomedical Research Networking Centre in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

Bioaraba, NanoBioCel Research Group, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Tomas Brodin , Michael G. Bertram or Gorka Orive .

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Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Lydia Niemi, Terrence Collins and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Brodin, T., Bertram, M.G., Arnold, K.E. et al. The urgent need for designing greener drugs. Nat Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01374-y

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Rational Sustainability

Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, forthcoming

24 Pages Posted: 12 Mar 2024 Last revised: 22 May 2024

Alex Edmans

London Business School - Institute of Finance and Accounting; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Date Written: February 14, 2024

ESG is under attack from all sides. True believers wish to keep practicing ESG but call it something different; opportunists recognize that an ESG label no longer helps launch funds or attract customers; opponents seek to ban ESG outright. But if ESG is to be scrapped, what do we replace it with? Retiring the term but continuing the practice fails to address the legitimate challenges to ESG; abandoning the practice throws the baby out with the bathwater. This article proposes an alternative: “Rational Sustainability”. Sustainability refers to the goal – the creation of long-term value rather than the ticking of ESG boxes – which is of interest to all job titles and political leanings. Rational refers to the approach: it recognizes diminishing returns and trade-offs; it is based on evidence and analysis; and guards against irrational sustainability bubbles. Rational Sustainability is not a rebranding or a name change, but a fundamental shift in the practice of ESG to the informed creation of long-term value.

Keywords: ESG, SRI, CSR, sustainable investing, responsible business

JEL Classification: D62, G11, G34

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Alex Edmans (Contact Author)

London business school - institute of finance and accounting ( email ).

Sussex Place Regent's Park London NW1 4SA United Kingdom

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat 1000 Brussels Belgium

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

London United Kingdom

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June 20, 2024 | Anna Zarra Aldrich, College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources

Greening the Food Supply Chain: Developing Sustainable Food Systems through Interdisciplinary Collaboration

A recently published paper highlights the current state of sustainable food production research, from food nanotechnology to plant-based options and urban agriculture.

(Unsplash Photo/Sven Scheuermeier).

Sustainability is a hot topic in just about every field that engages with the environment, including agriculture.

The group includes Yangchao Luo, associate professor of nutritional sciences; Zhenlei Xiao, associate professor-in-residence of nutritional sciences; and Abhinav Upadhyay, assistant professor of animal science. Bai Qu, Luo’s Ph.D. student, is the lead author on the paper.

Sustainable food production focuses on creating food systems that are environmentally sound, economically viable, and socially equitable.

“It focuses on the entire food supply chain, from farm to table, ensuring that each step is sustainable, minimizes waste, and reduces the carbon footprint,” Luo says.

The paper outlines the key features of sustainable food production including environmental stewardship, economic vitality, innovation and adaptation, and social responsibility.

The paper also reviews green technologies like urban agriculture, food nanotechnology, and plant-based foods, all of which play a role in reducing the negative impacts of food production.

“This is not a new concept, but I think with the development of emergent technology, a lot of things are going on now, it is very important to revisit this concept,” Luo says.

This publication provides a holistic and interdisciplinary perspective on the topic.

“Sustainable food production is a very collaborative topic,” Luo says. “You cannot do everything on your own.”

Sustainable food production encompasses the concept of a circular economy in which the waste from one process or product can be reused elsewhere.

“People have not cared about the waste generated, the impact to the environment, whether it’s sustainable or not,” Luo says. “People are pretty much profit driven. Now we have to change the whole concept or else the entire agricultural industry cannot be sustainable.”

This paper reflects the College and UConn’s broader commitment to sustainability, Luo explains.

“There’s many things in the College and at the University, campus-wide, that flow into this area that really inspire me to dive deeper into this topic,” Luo says.

Luo and Upadhyay are co-PIs on a $10 million grant from the USDA to study sustainable poultry production. The grant is led by Kumar Venkitanarayanan, associate dean of research and graduate education in CAHNR.

Luo, co-chair for CAHNR’s committee for sustainable agriculture and food production, is currently working with a group of students to develop an organic poultry feed additive made from microalgae.

“You cannot think about sustainable agriculture from a single discipline,” Luo says. “It has to be highly collective and collaborative from all three areas – society, environment, and community health. You have to connect all three angles together.”

This work relates to CAHNR’s Strategic Vision area focused on  Ensuring a Vibrant and Sustainable Agricultural Industry and Food Supply.

Follow  UConn CAHNR on social media.

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