sustainability

Black liquor, the alkaline effluent of kraft pulping, is one of the largest underutilized sources of technical lignin globally. This chemically valuable aromatic biopolymer is predominantly incinerated for energy recovery, foregoing the considerable chemical value embedded in lignin’s aromatic backbone and reactive functional groups. Conventional lignin isolation via acid precipitation is constra…

As storms, wildfires, and floods strike in ever-closer succession, an architect with disaster risk science expertise explains why resilience is built between hazards, not during them.

International environmental law governs environmental protection, transboundary harm, shared resources, and global environmental risks through treaties, customary international law, and general international law. This article explains prevention, precaution, environmental impact assessment, sustainable development, major treaty regimes, compliance, and State responsibility.

Nature Communications, Published online: 07 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-77475-3 As vehicle exhaust emissions fall, tire and road wear particles (TRWP) are becoming a major PM2.5 source. In China, road traffic emitted 425 kt of TRWP PM2.5 in 2023, concentrating risks in cities. Without action, TRWP will grow by 2050, but targeted measures could cut emissions by 41%.

Policy interventions redirect land use/land cover (LULC) trajectories and consequently alter both individual ecosystem services (ESs) and the relationships among them. Resolving these effects is particularly important in major grain-producing regions, where agricultural production, urban development, and ecological conservation compete for limited land. Taking the Jianghan Plain in China as a cas…

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South Asia continues to grapple with the growing vagaries of extreme climate risks, leaving millions increasingly exposed to recurrent, devastating disasters. Communities across the region continue to confront these uncertainties, often with limited capacity and resources for recovery. The recent Read More ... The post The changing hue of Climate Risk – The Need for a Holistic Risk Literacy Frame…

The Utah Inland Port Authority approved a property-tax incentive for A1 Lithium's $569 million Green River direct lithium extraction project. The post A1 Lithium Wins Utah Incentive for $569 Million Green River Lithium Project appeared first on iGrow News .

Our EORC staff member Dr. Julia Rieder has published a new study in Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research, together with colleagues from TU Dresden, the University of Göttingen, HSWT Weihenstephan, and the University of Würzburg. This study, based on data collected within the BeechDecline project, investigates how the size, orientation, and temporal dynamics […] The post New publi…

GORHAM, Maine—Supersonic shockwaves shook the bones of Charlie Hamblen’s historic Maine farmhouse more than a dozen times last year, travelling over half a mile from blasts at a nearby quarry. The quarry is one of two active in Gorham, a vibrant and growing town of nearly 20,000 residents a few miles west of Portland, and […]

The Swiss project called Proof by Underpants went into the ground in 2021, and its authors say their results suggest the test reflects soil fertility more strongly than soil health in the broader ecological sense, with the gardens that rotted the most cloth also carrying phosphorus far above the level Swiss guidelines call optimal.

On the Charlottenburg campus of the Technical University of Berlin, the Chemical Invention Factory – John Warner Center (CIF) is taking shape as a venue for knowledge transfer in green chemistry that is unique in Europe. On September 4, 2026, TU Berlin celebrated the topping-out ceremony for the new...

Universities increasingly promote sustainability, yet environmental intentions do not consistently become private or public action. This qualitative study examined how university students and faculty in eastern China understood the personal, social, pedagogical, and institutional conditions shaping campus pro-environmental behavior. Four focus groups with 20 undergraduate and graduate students fr…

Scientific Reports, Published online: 07 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-67094-9 Multi-objective artificial lemming algorithm for optimal operation of carbon capture and power-to-methanol integrated microgrid