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This paper aims to assess agri-environment (AE) scheme options on cultivated agricultural land in England for their impact on agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It considers both absolute emissions reduction and reduction incorporating yield decrease and potential production displacement. Similarities with Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) introduced in 2015 as part of the post-2014 Common Agricultural Policy reform, and their potential impact, are considered.

A life-cycle analysis approach derives GHG emissions for 18 key representative options. Meta-modelling is used to account for spatial environmental variables (annual precipitation, soil type and erosion risk), supplementing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change methodology.

Most options achieve an absolute reduction in GHG emissions compared to an existing arable crop baseline but at the expense of removing land from production, risking production displacement. Soil and water protection options designed to reduce soil erosion and nitrate leaching decrease GHG emissions without loss of crop yield. Undersown spring cereals support decreased inputs and emissions per unit of crop yield. The most valuable AE options identified are included in the proposed EFAs, although lower priority is afforded to some.

Recommendations are made where applicable to modify option management prescriptions and to further reduce GHG emissions.

This research is relevant and of value to land managers and policy makers. A dichotomous key summarises AE option prioritisation and supports GHG mitigation on cultivated land in England. The results are also applicable to other European countries.

This paper aims to examine the geochemical change experienced by laterites in Kerala, India, subjected to tropical monsoonal climate. These sediments are underlain by hard rock. The source rock characteristics have a major stake on the ultimate composition of sediments, as also the climatic conditions which an area experience.

Core samples have been obtained from several locations in a lateritic plateau. The upper portions of the borehole cores are composed of the lateritic hard cap, followed by lateritic soils. The soil samples were subjected to sediment texture analysis and XRF analysis (Bruker S4 Pioneer Sequential Wavelength-Dispersive XRF) for the determination of major elements ((in oxide form).

Major element geochemistry has revealed the following order of relative proportions of elements (in oxide form) SiO₂ > Al₂O₃ > Fe₂O₃ > TiO₂ >> Na₂O > P₂O₅ > CaO > K₂O > MgO > MnO. Even though the concentrations of SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and Fe₂O₃ contribute 90% of major element chemistry, there is no significant correlation found for these elements within themselves or with others.

Microscale movement of elements could not be characterised in this study. This requires access to an electron probe micro analyzer.

The practical implication of tropical weathering is that enhanced chemical leaching leads to movement of most elements out of the system, except for Al, leading to the possible formation of bauxite, or aluminous laterite.

The weathered products in this study provide livelihood sustenance for many of the local households, through manual production of laterite bricks, which are used in construction.

The indices of the intensity of chemical alteration/weathering like chemical index of alteration (CIA), chemical index of weathering (CIW) and weathering index of parker (WIP) reveal that the sediments indicate intense weathering of the source area prior to being deposited in the present location. This indicates enhanced monsoonal activity in the provenance areas, than that obtained today.

The aim of this paper is to assess whether the current European target to increase the areas under organic farming to 25% by 2030 is attainable and whether the simple increase in areas under organic farming may be sufficient to improve the sustainability of European agriculture.

The analysis has been carried out through a simple data processing related to areas under organic farming, for the period 2012–2020 (Eurostat database), in order to highlight the trends of areas under organic farming and to verify whether the annual average change rates may be compatible with the stated target.

The analysis showed that organic farming has a productive weight not corresponding to the amount on the total of the areas under cultivation and a small impact on the total of food consumption. It is a plausible hypothesis, the one that shows the increase in areas under organic farming will engage forms of agriculture and farms that, already, are more sustainable, so the achievement of 25% target will not particularly impact the European potential productive and the less environmental sustainable forms of agriculture.

This paper contributes to the debate, involving scientific community, policy maker and civil society, about the real contribution of organic farming to sustainability, and it will be developed in future research.

This paper aims to demonstrate methods that sustainability-conscious brands can use to include their primary producers in the measurement and reporting of the environment and sustainability performance of their supply chains. It explores three questions: How can farm businesses provide information required in sustainability reporting? What are the challenges and opportunities experienced in preparing and presenting the information? What future research and policy instruments might be needed to resolve these issues.

This study identifies and describes methods to provide the farm-level information needed for environmental performance and sustainability reporting frameworks. It demonstrates them by compiling natural capital accounts and environmental performance information for two wool producers in the grassy woodland biome of Eastern Australia; the contrasting history and management of these producers would be expected to result in different environmental performances.

The authors demonstrated an approach to NC accounting that is suitable for including primary producers in environmental performance reporting of supply chains and that can communicate whether individual producers are sustaining, improving or degrading their NC. Measurements suitable for informing farm management and for the estimation of supply chain performance can simultaneously produce information useful for aggregation to regional and national assessments.

The methods used should assist sustainability-conscious supply chains to more accurately assess the environmental performance of their primary producers and to use these assessments in selective sourcing strategies to improve supply chain performance. Empirical measures of environmental performance and natural capital have the potential to enable evaluation of the effectiveness of sustainability accounting frameworks in inducing businesses to reduce their environmental impacts and improve the condition of the natural capital they depend on.

Two significant social implications exist for the inclusion of primary producers in the sustainability and environmental performance reporting of supply chains. Firstly, it presently takes considerable time and expense for producers to prepare this information. Governments and members of the supply chain should acknowledge the value of this information to their organisations and consider sharing some of the cost of its preparation with primary producers. Secondly, the “additionality” requirement commonly present in existing frameworks may perversely exclude already high-performing producers from being recognised. The methods proposed in this paper provide a way to resolve this.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to describe detailed methods of collecting data for natural capital accounting and environmental performance reporting for individual farms and the first to compile the information and present it in a manner coherent with the Kering EP&L and the UN SEEA EA. The authors believe that this will make a significant contribution to the development of fair and standardised ways of measuring individual farm performance and the performance of food, beverage and apparel supply chains.

Purpose – In this study, the possibility of the application of rice husks for adsorbing Mn(II) ion in the water phase has been studied.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Experimental studies have been initiated by preparing activated carbon from rice husks. The activation of rice husks was done using both physical and chemical treatment methods through heating at 110 °C and washing with citric acid activator at 0.2 M, 0.4 M, and 0.6 M. The adsorption tests were conducted as two part tests: preliminary and primary. The preliminary test was conducted to choose the best condition of four independent variables, i.e., contact time (0–120 minutes), activator concentrations (0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 M), initial Mn(II) concentrations (10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 400 mg/L), and adsorption temperatures (30, 47, and 67 °C).

Findings – By identifying the substituted groups using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy after activation with citric acid, it was found that the highest transmittance percentage was present in activated carbon with 0.2 M of citric acid. The best adsorption capacity and efficiency was 13.87 mg/g and 79.60%, respectively, which were obtained at 200 mg/L initial concentration with a 0.2 M citric acid concentration for 120 min contact time at 47 °C. These results lead to a conclusion that rice husks after activation with citric acid can be applied as an adsorbent for Mn(II) adsorption in the water phase.

Research Limitations/Implications – The activated carbon produced was only applicable for the adsorption of Mn(II) ions from the water phase, but not applicable for the adsorption of other heavy metals ions.

Practical Implications – Rice husks were potentially prepared as an adsorbent for Mn(II) ion adsorption in the water phase that was low cost, environmental friendly, and easy to prepare.

Originality/Value – Activated carbon prepared from biomass was mostly carried out using acids at high concentrations while the study was conducted using weak acids (citric acid) at low concentrations.

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship of lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) contents in sediment of Faunus ater (F. ater) population density and to analyze the relationship between Pb and Zn accumulation in F. ater with F. ater density in Reuleng River, Leupung, Aceh Besar.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Sampling was conducted in November 2016 until January 2017. Density of F. ater was analyzed by density formula while its relationship to Pb and Zn in sediments and F. ater was conducted by correlation analysis method.

Findings – The results showed that correlation between Pb and Zn in sediments and in F. ater varies at each locations on every month of sampling. Pb and Zn content in sediments found a fluctuating relationship in each month of sampling with density of F. ater. Correlation of Pb content in sediments with F. ater density showed a medium correlation in January 2017 with r-value = 0.665. Zn in sediment has a very strong correlation to F. ater density in November 2016 with r-value = 0.891. Pb in F. ater has a medium correlation to F. ater density in January 2017 with r-value = 0.436. Furthermore, accumulation of Zn in F. ater to its density does show some apparent correlation in each month of sampling.

Research Limitation/Implications – This research gives information about the relationship of Pb and Zn contents in sediment to density of F. ater and to analyze correlation of Pb and Zn in F. ater to density of F. ater in Reuleng River, Leupung, Aceh Besar district.

Originality/Value – This is the first time research is conducted about on the correlation between lead and zinc to obtain the density of F. ater.

Designing an efficient routing protocol that opportunistically forwards data to the destination node through nearby sensor nodes or devices is significantly important for an effective incidence response and disaster recovery framework. Existing sensor routing protocols are mostly not effective in such disaster recovery applications as the networks are affected (destroyed or overused) in disasters such as earthquake, flood, Tsunami and wildfire. These protocols require a large number of message transmissions to reestablish the clusters and communications that is not energy efficient and result in packet loss. This paper introduces ODCR - an energy efficient and reliable opportunistic density clustered-based routing protocol for such emergency sensor applications. We perform simulation to measure the performance of ODCR protocol in terms of network energy consumptions, throughput and packet loss ratio. Simulation results demonstrate that the ODCR protocol is much better than the existing TEEN, LEACH and LORA protocols in term of these performance metrics.

This chapter offers novel insights into how global corporations can innovate to tackle the global waste crisis and gain sustainable competitive positions. Using two of the most prominent types of global waste crises – food and plastic wastes – we discuss the dilemma of food and plastic waste, why innovations in global firms are needed to address them, and argue that a different perspective among those firms is needed, one which conceptualizes the development, dissemination and use of innovations in waste management, and one which recognizes that innovations, thus, created contribute to advancing the creation of economic, environmental and social value. We conclude using an overarching conceptual framework that depicts the complexity of the new perspective.

There is an increasing need for greater awareness and understanding of the risks climate change poses to farming communities so as to inform appropriate adaptive responses. The purpose of this study is to investigate farmers’ climate change impacts, awareness, risk perception and current adaptation strategies adopted to deal with the impacts of climate change on their livelihood.

This research was undertaken with 67 farmers in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. This study used a combination of focus group discussion and quantitative survey to obtain data. Surveyed farmers were invited to an initial workshop and asked to take photos of climate change impacts on their land and the adaptation strategies being adopted. The photos were analysed and discussed with the farmers in a second workshop. Then, in a third workshop, farmers and other stakeholders came together to rank the most important consequences of climate change and shared knowledge on adaptation strategies. The survey and photovoice data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results of this study showed that a majority of the farmers were knowledgeable of climate change, mostly got climate information through media. Floods and high temperatures were perceived as the most occurring climate change-related disaster risks. Majority of the farmers perceived climate change as high risk and have taken up multiple adaptation strategies in response to it, including changing planting times, mulching their land and digging irrigation pits. Farmers’ responses indicated that they want to do more but are restricted by financial resources.

This study outcomes provide evidence for a need to consider stakeholders’ participation in planning climate change responses to effectively address the challenges posed by climate change, particularly in coastal agricultural communities. Government and relevant agencies as recommended need to support farmers to undertake needed adaptive strategies to adapt with future flooding, high temperature and drought, providing them with necessary facilities to enhance their adaptive capacities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was one of the first studies to use photovoice to investigate climate change awareness, impacts and adaptations strategies with majority female farmers in west Africa. This study highlights the importance of participatory approaches to capture grassroots climate adaptation approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for handling end of life (henceforth EoL) scenarios of solar photovoltaic (solar PV) panels, which includes different options available to businesses and end-users, as well as promoting the collaboration between government and all relevant stakeholders.

This paper adopts purposeful sampling, secondary data and content analysis to develop an appropriate conceptual framework that helps to create awareness of the appropriate options for dealing with the EoL cases of solar PV panels.

From the data analysis, it is revealed that reuse, repair and recycling of solar PV panels can ensure value creation, public-private partnership and a solution for education in sustainability, and thus, prolonging the useful life cycle of the products.

This paper limits the analysis on developing economies and the use of selected literature based on the recycling of solar PV panels.

This paper is an initial attempt to create an awareness by identifying, analyzing and educating the stakeholders to handle appropriately any EoL scenario of solar PV panels.