This policy-oriented article explores the sustainability dimension of digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI). While AI can contribute to halting climate change via targeted applications in specific domains, AI technology in general could also have detrimental effects for climate policy goals. Moreover, digitalisation and AI can have an indirect effect on climate policy via their impact on political processes. It will be argued that, if certain conditions are fulfilled, AI-facilitated digital tools could help with setting up frameworks for bottom-up citizen participation that could generate the legitimacy and popular buy-in required for speedy transformations needed to reach net zero such as radically revamping the energy infrastructure among other crucial elements of the green transition. This could help with ameliorating a potential dilemma of voice versus speed regarding the green transition. The article will further address the nexus between digital applications such as AI and climate justice. Finally, the article will consider whether innovative governance methods could instil new dynamism into the multi-level global climate regime, such as by facilitating interlinkages and integration between different levels. Before implementing innovative governance arrangements, it is crucial to assess whether they do not exacerbate old or even generate new inequalities of access and participation.

The past two decades have seen a proliferation of Indigenous philosophy in environmental education. Much of this anti and decolonial work has made significant advances in deconstructing western modernist subjectivities; re-embedding and re-situating Indigenous and western relational epistemologies into human-earth relationality, including critical inquiry into questions of positionality, power-knowledge and human and more-than-human agency. Less articulated, however is the potential of these practices to address large scale and interrelated global challenges associated with climate and cultural-ecological crisis which coincide with the intensification of late capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacism. Relatedly, at global levels human rights approaches to planetary wellbeing continue to predominate and prominent international agreements such as UNDRIP, SDG, IPCCC and the Global Compact for Migration remain siloed from one another. Providing a broad sketch of these themes I then propose a whakapapa or kinship-based approach to life as laying the conceptual foundation for three regenerative place-based strategies which I subsequently introduce. Each strategy treats contemporary global challenges as interconnected and positions Indigenous knowledges and lifeways as playing a crucial role in addressing these. Moving from Indigenous philosophy in environmental education to broad intersectoral action, these strategies also make the interconnections between individual, collectivist, and structural approaches to Indigenous-led intergenerational resilience as one means to support our collective action toward healing human-environmental relations.

Urban green spaces are indispensable for the conservation of biodiversity in Germany. In addition, the availability of green areas often provides citizens with the only opportunity to experience nature. Lichens are an important component of urban environments in terms of both species diversity, and ecosystem functions and services. However, they are rarely the subject of biodiversity education. To bolster awareness on their diversity and appreciation, a transformative biodiversity education in both the formal and informal sectors is necessary. This transformative biodiversity education should not only provide knowledge about species and habitats, but also on all dimensions of biodiversity, viz., the three levels of biodiversity, drivers of biodiversity loss, and ecosystem services. For this reason, the design of biodiversity education may be particularly challenging for educators and teachers. This paper shows how biodiversity education projects on urban lichens can be developed in accordance with the principles of transformative education, supporting nature experience, knowledge transfer (species knowledge in a broad sense and interdisciplinary aspects), participation and cooperation, as well as the use of digital media. Two best-case projects, tested in Germany, are presented as examples for the design and implementation of a transformative lichen education in urban areas. A similar approach can be easily applied in other education systems beyond national boundaries.

This paper presents a public outreach program developed by the Department of Classics at the University of Florida to introduce school-age children to Classics. The main goal is to emphasise the value of Classics and the practical skills it teaches by engaging students with hands-on exercises and materialising connections between the past and the present. The paper focuses on the importance of Classics and the humanities in the development of engaged citizens, the types of programs and their content, and ways to ensure the sustainability of such initiatives through the involvement of graduate students, faculty, and administrators.

An increasing number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are focusing on sustainable development and on embracing sustainable business models (SBMs). Despite the growing interest of academics and practitioners in SBMs, and the benefits for stakeholders, there is limited knowledge regarding the factors enabling SME transition toward SBMs, leading them to integrate sustainable principles in their BMs. This study explores the enabling factors for SBM adoption by SMEs and provides an improved understanding of this recent phenomenon. Understanding what factors enable adoption of SBMs is crucial for both SMEs and policymakers. The research uses an inductive qualitative research design approach focused on multiple case studies. The findings reveal that both internal and external factors play a key role in enabling SME transition toward SBM adoption. The internal factors that emerged include openness, change of mindset, problemistic search, social exchange, and resource valorization, while external factors included markets change, technological innovation, stakeholders’ influences, policy and institutions.

Consumer misperception and misinterpretation of food labels can lead to consumers not buying a product or purchasing products that do not align with their environmental or sustainability interests. Consumer purchasing behavior can be explained by looking at consumer food values or food quality attributes. This study aimed to (a) determine the effect label information has on consumer preference shares for selected sustainability-related food labels and (b) if correlations exist between food labels and food values. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the comprehension of 12 different labels and identify how food labels relate to food value preferences. Responses from the best-worst scaling experiment of food value and environmental food label choice sets were analyzed using the random parameter logit model. Results reveal preference shares changed for each label as more information was provided to the respondents about the various labels included in the study. These findings should support food policy efforts requiring strict, clear label standards. Food labels should represent the food’s core food values to increase consumer preference for the product. These findings also further support the need for efforts to increase consumer knowledge and understanding of the labels on food packaging.

We review impacts of climate change, energy scarcity, and economic frameworks on sustainability of natural and human systems in coastal zones, areas of high biodiversity, productivity, population density, and economic activity. More than 50% of the global population lives within 200 km of a coast, mostly in tropical developing countries. These systems developed during stable Holocene conditions. Changes in global forcings are threatening sustainability of coastal ecosystems and populations. During the Holocene, the earth warmed and became wetter and more productive. Climate changes are impacting coastal systems via sea level rise, stronger tropical cyclones, changes in basin inputs, and extreme weather events. These impacts are passing tipping points as the fossil fuel-powered industrial-technological-agricultural revolution has overwhelmed the source–sink functions of the biosphere and degraded natural systems. The current status of industrialized society is primarily the result of fossil fuel (FF) use. FFs provided more than 80% of global primary energy and are projected to decline to 50% by mid-century. This has profound implications for societal energy requirements, including the transition to a renewable economy. The development of the industrial economy allowed coastal social systems to become spatially separated from their dominant energy and food sources. This will become more difficult to maintain with the fading of cheap energy. It seems inevitable that past growth in energy use, resource consumption, and economic growth cannot be sustained, and coastal areas are in the forefront of these challenges. Rapid planning and cooperation are necessary to minimize impacts of the changes associated with the coming transition. There is an urgent need for a new economic framework to guide society through the transition as mainstream neoclassical economics is not based on natural sciences and does not adequately consider either the importance of energy or the work of nature.

This research aims to analyse the links and potential limiting and supporting factors between sustainability actions and sustainability reporting. Comparing companies involved in sustainability actions and those whose reporting practices lack a formal reporting system, this analysis focuses on Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the meat and cured meat industry, identifying the perspective (formative) that links sustainability action to communication in these SMEs. The qualitative interpretative approach, based on semistructured interviews, highlights the relevant strengths and weaknesses concerning substantive sustainability actions and the effect of communication on them, providing implications for international and sectoral policies and management choices. Filling a gap in the SME literature concerning their approaches to sustainability reporting and action (and the relationship thereof), this study also introduces, as a widely used practice, ‘greenhushing’, i.e., the deliberate absence of or limited communication on effectively implemented sustainability practices or their salient results.

Arthropod species diversity enhances ecosystem productivity and sustainability by increasing pollination and biological control services. Although, it is declining rapidly due to conventional agricultural intensification, organic agriculture with reduced reliance on agronomic inputs can regenerate ecosystems' resilience and restore them. Here, we report whether hexapod communities differ on both types of farming systems in small-scale field plot experiments, wherein Maize variety AG-589 was grown organically and conventionally in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Livestock manure was applied in organic fields, whereas nitrogen and phosphorous were used as synthetic fertilizers in conventional fields. Hexapods were sampled three weeks after sowing once a week from the middle rows of subplots from both organically and conventionally grown maize. Twelve species of herbivores and four species of predators were recorded. Hexapod abundance overall and that of herbivores only was higher in conventionally cultivated maize, while predator abundance was higher in organic maize. Herbivores species diversity and evenness were significantly higher in conventional maize. Predator species diversity and evenness were significantly higher in organic maize fields. We noted predator abundance, diversity, and evenness as strong predictors to lower herbivore populations. These findings suggest that organic farming conserves natural enemies’ biodiversity and regulates herbivores with increased provision of suitable habitats and prey resources for natural enemies, leading to enhanced relative abundance in their specialized niches. Thus, organic agriculture can potentially mediate better ecosystem services.

Nutrition scientists are currently facing a substantial challenge: to feed the world population sustainably and ethically while supporting the health of all individuals, animals and the environment. The Nutrition Society of Australia's 2022 Annual Scientific meeting theme ‘Sustainable nutrition for a healthy life’ was a timely conference focusing on the environmental impact of global, national and local food systems, how nutrition science can promote sustainable eating practices while respecting cultural and culinary diversity and how to ensure optimal nutrition throughout life to prevent and manage chronic diseases. Comprehensive, diverse, collaborative and forward-thinking research was presented in a 3 d programme of keynote presentations, oral and poster sessions, breakfast and lunch symposiums, ending with a panel discussion to answer the question of how we can best achieve a nutritious food supply that supports human and planetary health. We concluded that this complex issue necessitates coordinated efforts and multi-faceted responses at local, national and global levels. Collaboration among consumers, scientists, industry and government using a systems approach is vital for finding solutions to this challenge.

This essay adapts Dietrich Bonhoeffer's ‘orders of preservation’ to address the sharp rise in species extinctions due to human causes. I argue that Bonhoeffer's creative use of preservation orders to build an international alliance provides the scope required to meet the present biodiversity crisis while pre-empting Karl Barth's criticism of static regionalism and avoiding problematic elements in Carl Schmitt's concept of the ‘restraining force’. Drawing on Bonhoeffer's 1932 address, ‘On the Theological Foundation of the Work of the World Alliance’, I present three convictions to guide the task of preservation today, which include the formation of alliances between ecclesial and scientific communities in order to properly specify God's commandment.