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Scalable Step-by-Step Approach of Sustainable Bioplastic Production from Food Waste
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Humanity's unsustainable environmental footprint.

Arjen Y Hoekstra1, Thomas O Wiedmann2

  • 1Twente Water Centre, Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands. a.y.hoekstra@utwente.nl.

Science (New York, N.Y.)
|June 7, 2014
PubMed
Summary

Humanity's current environmental footprint exceeds Earth's capacity, demanding urgent economic transformation. Assessing resource footprints across supply chains is crucial for understanding and improving sustainability, efficiency, and equity.

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Area of Science:

  • Environmental Science
  • Ecological Economics
  • Sustainability Studies

Background:

  • Humanity's current resource consumption and waste generation exceed Earth's natural limits.
  • The environmental footprint, encompassing land, water, energy, and materials, is a key metric for assessing sustainability.
  • Understanding resource use across supply chains is vital for producers, consumers, and governments.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review current assessments of human environmental footprints.
  • To compare these footprints against maximum sustainable levels.
  • To identify critical areas for future research in footprint analysis and resource management.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature on environmental footprint assessments.
  • Analysis of land, water, energy, and material footprints across various supply chains.
  • Comparison of current footprint data with estimated maximum sustainable levels.

Main Results:

  • Current human environmental footprints are unsustainable given Earth's finite resources.
  • Significant gaps exist in combining different footprint types and assessing trade-offs.
  • There is a need for improved computational methods and benchmarking for resource use efficiency.

Conclusions:

  • Major transformative changes in the global economy are required to achieve sustainable resource use.
  • Further research is needed on integrating footprint assessments and determining sustainable footprint levels.
  • Effective resource management necessitates a shift towards greater sustainability, efficiency, and equity.