Day: March 30, 2021

A Systematic Review on Social Sustainability of Artificial Intelligence in Product Design

Lee K. (2021). “A Systematic Review on Social Sustainability of Artificial Intelligence in Product Design”. Sustainability. 13(5):2668. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052668 [open access]

Abstract: Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence help operations management achieve sustainability. However, in sustainable operations management studies, scholars pay less attention to product design, which can be highly affected by artificial intelligence. In addition, sustainability is perceived as maintaining economic development while limiting environmental harm caused by human activity. Therefore, social sustainability is treated as peripheral compared to economic and environmental sustainability. However, social sustainability now has gained more attention because it is the basis on which meaningful economic and environmental sustainability can be valid. Thus, I systematically reviewed present studies on product design considering artificial intelligence to understand what types of social sustainability are achieved when applying artificial intelligence to product design. This study discovered artificial intelligence can improve social sustainability in product design, but social sustainability diversity is necessary. These findings can contribute to the inclusion of different types of social sustainability in product design when using artificial intelligence

Pheromones and social lives are becoming a liability for insects in changing climates

Read the full story at Massive Science.

Animals that live in cooperative societies share traits that may make them vulnerable to change, and humans may struggle in their absence

McCain Foods ‘Upping’ the Stakes in Vertical Farming With GoodLeaf

Read the full story at AndNowUKnow.

Vertical farming continues to make a splash in the fresh produce industry, and McCain Foods is getting in on the future of the sustainable farming practice. The company recently revealed a $65 million investment in TruLeaf Sustainable Agriculture and its wholly owned subsidiary, GoodLeaf Farms, one of Canada’s largest commercial vertical farming operations.

A Comeback for Beavers?

Read the full story from JSTOR.

As two researchers found out, rewilding a species can be done in different ways, sometimes with different outcomes.

As early renewables near end-of-life, attention turns to recycling and disposal

Read the full story at Utility Dive.

Although only a handful of states have implemented rules related to the disposal of batteries, PV panels and other renewable assets, the time has come to consider their fate as early installations reach the end of their useful life, industry leaders concluded during a Tuesday webinar hosted by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

Batteries, solar panels and even wind turbines contain components that could be repurposed and recycled, panelists said, but high costs and the limited availability of these materials present barriers to scaling up recycling operations.

To create a “circular economy” in which no raw materials are wasted would reduce the lifetime environmental impact of renewable energy, but accomplishing this requires intent and funding that “starts at the design phase,” said Peter Perrault, senior manager of circular economy and sustainable solutions at Enel North America.

This inverted building saves energy because it’s 300 feet underground

Read the full story at Fast Company.

This proposal for a new Chicago development would build down instead of up.

Meet the Climate Change Activists of TikTok

Read the full story in Wired.

A crop of eco-creators is bent on educating their followers about the looming global disaster. Can their message translate into action?

Carbon Leadership Forum resource library

The Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) accelerates the transformation of the building sector to radically reduce the embodied carbon in building materials and construction through collective action.

The CLF Resource Library includes a variety of reports, articles, fact sheets, and other materials related to reducing carbon emissions in the construction industry.

Can an end-to-end sustainability standard change fashion?

Read the full story at Vogue Business.

Cradle to Cradle’s latest Certified Product Standard aims to cover the entire lifecycle. Some experts argue it’s still not enough.

As a crop, cannabis has enormous carbon emissions

Read the full story at Ars Technica.

Back in the pre-legalization days, cannabis production meant finding a rarely visited patch of land and growing outside, or it meant taking cultivation indoors—typically to a basement where your product wouldn’t be visible from the outside world. But the power-use involved in lighting a basement growing space was legendary.

With legalization, it’s really only the scale that has changed. Most legal marijuana is grown indoors, with some pretty hefty electrical use to match. Now, researchers have attempted to quantify the greenhouse gases emitted, and they came up with some impressive figures. Based on their calculations, cannabis production results in over 2,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide emitted for every kilogram of product (defined as dried flowers), and its legalization has had a measurable effect on Colorado’s greenhouse gas output.