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A direct correlation exists between waste disposal, disease spread and public health. This article systematically reviewed healthcare waste and its implication for public health. This review identified and described the associations and impact of waste disposal on public health.

This paper systematically reviewed the literature on waste disposal and its implications for public health by searching Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA), PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and ScienceDirect databases. Of a total of 1,583 studies, 59 articles were selected and reviewed.

The review revealed the spread of infectious diseases and environmental degradation as the most typical implications of improper waste disposal to public health. The impact of waste includes infectious diseases such as cholera, Hepatitis B, respiratory problems, food and metal poisoning, skin infections, and bacteremia, and environmental degradation such as land, water, and air pollution, flooding, drainage obstruction, climate change, and harm to marine and wildlife.

Infectious diseases such as cholera, hepatitis B, respiratory problems, food and metal poisoning, skin infections, bacteremia and environmental degradation such as land, water, and air pollution, flooding, drainage obstruction, climate change, and harm to marine and wildlife are some of the public impacts of improper waste disposal.

Healthcare industry waste is a significant waste that can harm the environment and public health if not properly collected, stored, treated, managed and disposed of. There is a need for knowledge and skills applicable to proper healthcare waste disposal and management. Policies must be developed to implement appropriate waste management to prevent public health threats.

The purpose of this study is to solve the problem of healthcare waste management in developing countries. The buildup of medical waste has attracted the attention of all spheres of society due to the expanding population and developing economy. Timely collection and processing of medical waste are extremely important due to its potential hazards. Although the problem of planning medical waste management has been addressed in developed countries, it persists in several developing countries. This research is motivated by an example of a city in India characterized by a dense population, abundant health-care facilities and a lack of planning for managing large medical waste generated daily.

The authors address the problem of designing the network of collection and processing facilities for medical waste and optimizing the vehicle route that collects and transfers the waste between facilities. Due to distinct topographic restrictions in the considered city, the collection and transfer process needs to be conducted in two echelons – from hospitals to collection centers using smaller vehicles and then to the processing facilities using trucks. This work addresses these two problems as a two-echelon location-routing problem.

A mixed-integer programming model is developed to minimize the cost of opening the facilities and transporting medical waste. Several managerial insights are drawn up to assist planners and decision-makers.

This study follows a case study approach to provide a descriptive and prescriptive approach to hospital waste management in the ancient city of Varanasi. The city has witnessed unplanned growth over the years and is densely populated. The health-care facilities in the city have a large catchment area and attract patients from neighboring districts. The situation analysis based on secondary data and unstructured interviews of the stakeholders suggests that the ad hoc approach prevails in present hospital waste management in the city.

This paper aims to propose a stepwise method to improve the sustainability of manufacturing processes.

The proposed approach is based on an extensive literature review and research around the environmental, economic and social pillars of sustainability in manufacturing firms. Considering the lean approach, the manufacturing processes are mapped in a value stream and analyzed through the extensive identified sustainability criteria.

The findings reveal the consumption and waste of natural and nonrenewable resources, through going beyond the existing boundaries and focusing on relevant derived production pieces and tracing to their origins. The findings also present the effect of the time value of money on sustainability by using the cost–time profile as a sustainability criterion. This research finds out the employees’ impacts on sustainability improvement through an effective focus on technical, cultural and personal aspects.

The research outcomes provide operations managers and decision-makers in the field of sustainability with a practical platform to comprehend and assess the factors contributing to the manufacturing process sustainability and to plan relevant corrective actions accordingly.

The extended view of sustainability criteria in this research as well as its visual-analytical approach will help practitioners to assess and improve sustainability in their operations in a more holistic way.

Currently, Mauritius is adopting landfilling as the main waste management method, which makes the waste sector the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG) in the country. This presents a challenge for the island to attain its commitments to reduce its GHG emissions to 30% by 2030 to cater for SDG 13 (Climate Action). Moreover, issues like eyesores caused by littering and overflowing of bins and low recycling rates due to low levels of waste segregation are adding to the obstacles for Mauritius to attain other SDGs like SDG 11 (Make Cities & Human Settlements Inclusive, Safe, Resilient & Sustainable) and SDG 12 (Guarantee Sustainable Consumption & Production Patterns). Therefore, together with an optimisation of waste collection, transportation and sorting processes, it is important to establish a solid waste characterisation to determine more sustainable waste management options for Mauritius to divert waste from the landfill. However, traditional waste characterisation is time consuming and costly. Thus, this chapter consists of looking at the feasibility of adopting machine learning to forecast the solid waste characteristics and to improve the solid waste management processes as per the concept of smart waste management for the island of Mauritius in line with reducing the current challenges being faced to attain SDGs 11, 12 and 13.

Improving productivity and efficiency has always been crucial for industrial companies to remain competitive. In recent years, the topic of environmental impact has become increasingly important. Published research indicates that environmental and economic goals can enforce or rival each other. However, few papers have been published that address the interaction and integration of these two goals.

In this paper, we identify both, synergies and trade-offs based on a systematic review incorporating 66 publications issued between 1992 and 2021. We analyze, quantify and cluster examples of conjunctions of ecological and economic measures and thereby develop a framework for the combined improvement of performance and environmental compatibility.

Our findings indicate an increased significance of a combined consideration of these two dimensions of sustainability. We found that cases where enforcing synergies between economic and ecological effects were identified are by far more frequent than reports on trade-offs. For the individual categories, cost savings are uniformly considered as the most important economic aspect while, energy savings appear to be marginally more relevant than waste reduction in terms of environmental aspects.

No previous literature review provides a comparable graphical treatment of synergies and trade-offs between cost savings and ecological effects. For the first time, identified measures were classified in a 3 × 3 table considering type and principle.

This chapter compares the current biodiversity practices of higher education institutions (HEIs) and their learning effects of the Global North and South. It particularly explores the HEIs’ strategies targeting biodiversity and ecosystem services preservation. In order to answer the research question, a qualitative content analysis of published sustainability reports of the systematically selected HEIs was performed. The Times Higher Education (THE) was used to select HEIs. The results show that biodiversity reporting and management is still in its early stages in HEIs from both the Global North and South and could benefit from further research and suggestions for improvement. One implication for the HEIs is that they could increase public awareness and knowledge of biodiversity through the integration of this topic into their curricula, more research projects on biodiversity, and operations on and off campus.

Drawing upon the natural resource-based view (NRBV), green absorptive capacity (GAC) is the backbone of firm green dynamic capabilities. It converts the developed knowledge into knowledge application. Understanding how GAC could benefit corporation environmental performance (EP) is still ambiguous and debated. Hence, this study introduced three facilitator factors, namely, managerial environmental concern (MEC), green innovation performance (GIP) and green entrepreneurship orientation (GEO), in which GAC can improve EP. The study tested the moderation effect of GAC and GEO on the MEC-GEO and the MEC-EP relationships and predicted the mediation effect of MEC, GEO and GIP on the GAC-EP relationship.

The quantitative study used a self-administered survey and cross-sectional research design; the study collected data from top management employees working in Chinese manufacturing firms.

The results indicated that GAC positively influences MEC, GEO and GIP, and these last three constructs influence EP. While MEC positively affects GIP, the MEC-GEO relationship was insignificant. The study found that GAC moderates the MEC-GEO relationship, whereas GEO failed to do so between MEC and EP. The results confirm a partial mediation effect between GAC-EP through the three intermediary constructs.

To promote EP, firms GAC should prioritize developing MEC ad GIP. Firms' GEO can exploit eco-friendly opportunities enabled by GAC, a process that bridges the existing knowledge and skills gap between MEC and GEO. GAC is one of the leading green strategic capabilities that help GEO to achieve green business growth and better EP. MEC is the process of facilitating GIP to deliver eco-products and protect the external environment. When MEC failed to address GEO's green business agenda, GEO could not enhance EP.

The study highlights the necessity of GAC to develop firms' green dynamic capabilities to boost EP. The study confirms GAC's vital role in strengthening the manager's environmental awareness and bridging the knowledge gap between GEO and MEC. In addition, GIP can drive entrepreneurial green opportunities and enhance EP when GAC is involved and converts knowledge creation to knowledge applications. Strategically speaking, given the importance of the triple green pillars of the NRBV, GEO would not balance green business growth and EP unless GAC leveled up MEC to match GEO's green business agenda and drive EP.

This study aims to propose an integrated model involving concepts of sustainability and social innovation (SI) in higher education institutions (HEIs).

Based on a literature review, the authors were able to systematize sustainability and SI knowledge, in an integrated manner. Hence, the authors sought to develop a theoretical model that would integrate categories, indicators and sub-indicators, to review initiatives in HEIs in the sustainability and SI domains. The results indicated four major categories: mission, vision and values; curriculum; campus; and healthy environment. The integrated model was applied and validated in a Brazilian educational group, using the main corporate reports as data sources.

For the educational group analyzed in this study, the themes of sustainability and SI are explicitly and implicitly expressed in the mission, vision and values category. In the curriculum category, these themes are presented through the contents of cross-disciplines in all undergraduate courses, and also through outreach activities, integrating sustainability and SI in a theoretical and/or practical way. Regarding the campus category, the mention is explicit and the HEI works with initiatives aimed at achieving a “green” campus. In the healthy environment category, the educational group studied gives priority to the establishment of a safe and healthy work environment, focusing on labor rights and relations with society.

This work contributes to the advancement of research on the promotion of sustainability and SI in HEIs, proposing an innovative integrated model of analysis for the topics covered.

The current chapter proposes a theoretical framework to assess the sustainability of economic growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States. The authors integrate insights from endogenous growth models and consider the unique socioeconomic characteristics of the GCC region to provide a comprehensive and tailored approach to understanding the determinants of economic growth and formulating effective policy measures to foster sustainable development and growth. This chapter highlights the environmental challenges faced by GCC; based on this, the authors suggested indicators to construct a theoretical framework (Economic Growth, Climatic Indicators, Energy Indicators, Social Indicators, and Economic Resources Indicators). The authors propose that policymakers and researchers in GCC States should take these factors into account when devising policies or conducting research aimed at fostering sustainable economic growth. Overall, this chapter presents significant insights for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders involved in promoting the sustainable economic advancement of the GCC States.