Special Issue "Circular Economy Approaches and Emerging Business Models Addressing the Food-Energy-Water Nexus"
Dear Colleagues, I am collaborating with colleagues from several institutions in Europe to serve as guest editors for this special issue of Sustainability. I encourage you to consider the following call for submissions. Tom Johnson An intertwined and complex web of relations, generally defined as a nexus, connects food, energy, and water (FEW), and the related production and management systems. The predicted growth of the global population will pose a critical challenge for the sustainable and equitable supply of these resources. From this perspective, efforts and policies aiming at increased sustainability might result in unintended consequences and tradeoffs. Therefore, the transition towards holistic research and business approaches is needed both to address the multiple interactions and dimensions of FEW and to evaluate potential sustainable solutions. In this framework, current linear economic approaches prove inappropriate to foster more sustainable food and energy production and resource and waste management. Thus, the circular economy is a welcomed paradigm shift from this conventional approach. As defined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the circular economy is inherently restorative, relies on renewable sources of energy, minimizes the recourse to toxic chemicals, and aims at designing out waste. When focusing on the FEW, circularity will be mainly mean diversion of food waste and organics from landfills, the recovery of nutrients, materials and energy, and the treatment and recycling of wastewater. In addition to technological innovations, the transition towards circularity will require appropriate business models, able to create economic value and jobs and consideration of the other social and cultural factors that lead to food waste. Therefore, this Special Issue seeks contributions on circular economy approaches and emerging biobased business models in the FEW nexus. In particular, we encourage submissions of research contributions, case studies, and review articles related but not limited to: * System-level approaches to FEW nexus * Sustainability assessment of FEW nexus systems * Emerging biobased business models and market dynamics in the circular economy * Policy analysis related to FEW and the circular economy * Life-cycle assessments of FEW systems * Comparative analyses of FEW systems Prof. Dr. Matteo Vittuari Dr. Christine Costello Prof. Dr. Thomas Johnson Dr. Karen Refsgaard Dr. Fabio De Menna Prof. Dr. Sirpa Kurppa Dr. Luca Falasconi Guest Editors Manuscript Submission Information Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com<https://www.mdpi.com/> by registering<https://www.mdpi.com/user/register/> and logging in to this website<https://www.mdpi.com/user/login/>. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form<https://susy.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload/?journal=sustainability>. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website. Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors<https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/instructions> page. Sustainability<https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/> is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI. Please visit the Instructions for Authors<https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/instructions> page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC)<https://www.mdpi.com/about/apc/> for publication in this open access<https://www.mdpi.com/about/openaccess/> journal is 1700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service<https://www.mdpi.com/authors/english> prior to publication or during author revisions. Keywords * food, energy and water nexus * circular economy approaches * biobased business models
