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- Assessing the connections between COVID-19 and waste management in BrazilPublication . Leal Filho, Walter; Salvia, Amanda Lange; Paço, Arminda; Ferreira, Célia; Neiva, Samara; Rampasso, Izabela Simon; Anholon, Rosley; Vasconcelos, Claudio Ruy Portela de; Eustachio, João Henrique Paulino Pires; Jabbour, Charbel Jose ChiappettaIn addition to the health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, several countries— particularly in developing regions—faced serious additional challenges in the economic, social and environmental areas. In Brazil, one of these challenges refers to the changes in consumption caused by the lockdowns, and the environmental impacts caused by new patterns of waste generation. Against this background, this paper investigates the changes in consumption and waste generation in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides a technical contribution to the topic by comparing the perception of survey respondents on the amount of household waste produced before and during the pandemic, and cross-checking these with information on current aspects of policymaking, the findings suggest that the amount of some specific types of household waste has noticeably increased, challenging even more the local waste management systems. The data instrument was validated by a pre-test, prior to deployment. According to the respondents, packaging (both plastic and paper/cardboard) was the type of waste that reported the highest increase in generation during the lockdowns, which is in line with the results of increased consumption of food delivery within this period. The results also suggest that current waste management policies make Brazil ill-equipped to deal with one of the non-intended effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has severely impacted Latin America’s largest country.
- Sustainable development goals and sustainability teaching at universities: falling behind or getting ahead of the pack?Publication . Leal Filho, Walter; Shiel, Chris; Paço, Arminda; Mifsud, Mark; Ávila, Lucas; Brandli, Luciana; Molthan-Hill, Petra; Pace, Paul; Azeiteiro, Ulisses; Vargas, Valeria; Caeiro, SandraThe fact that the world community is engaged in pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) means that an unrivalled opportunity is provided to universities, both in respect of teaching and in research, on individual SDGs, as well as in pursuing their "third mission" linking up with external stakeholders and society. However, not many universities have realised that and many are falling behind. This paper explores the many advantages of the introduction of the SDGs into teaching and suggests that it can catalyse the engagement of students in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) with the concepts of sustainability. The paper fills in a research gap by surveying the current state of the art regarding the theme, presenting current data outlining the extent to which HEI are using SDGs to support their sustainability work. The reasons why some institutions are currently not engaging is also shown. The paper, which consists of a worldwide survey deployed to collect data on the SDGs and sustainability teaching at universities, concludes by providing some recommendations aimed at encouraging further engagement of HEI in incorporatingSDGs as part of their teaching programs. This research is unique in the sense that it provides for the first time offers an overview of the level of emphasis selected universities currently place on the SDGs. Finally, it provides a contribution to current state of knowledge by outlining some actions universities may take, to move forward with their implementation.
- The COVID-19 pandemic and single-use plastic waste in households: a preliminary studyPublication . Leal Filho, Walter; Salvia, Amanda Lange; Minhas, Aprajita; Paço, Arminda; Ferreira, CéliaThe Coronavirus pandemic promoted an unprecedented change in consumption habits, especially as lockdowns contributed to the increase in online shopping and in delivery services. One of the consequences is the substantial amounts of plastic waste produced, which can undermine the efforts to reduce plastic pollution. In this context, this commentary explores, as a preliminary study, the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic in relation to singleuse plastic waste in households by means of an international survey with 202 participants distributed over 41 countries worldwide.
- COVID-19 and waste production in households: a trend analysisPublication . Leal Filho, Walter; Voronova, Viktoria; Kloga, Marija; Paço, Arminda; Minhas, Aprajita; Salvia, Amanda Lange; Ferreira, Célia; Sivapalan, SubarnaApart from the health aspects and the high death toll, the COVID-19 pandemic has, since its official recognition in March 2020 caused may social and economic problems. It has also led to many environmental ones. For instance, the lockdowns have led to higher levels of consumption of packaged products, and of take-away food. This paper reports on an international study on the increased consumption and subsequent changes in the amounts of waste produced since the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that 45–48% of the respondents observed an increased consumption of packed food, fresh food, and food delivery. One of the main reasons for the increased waste generation during the lockdown was the fact that people have spent more time at home. In addition, increases of 43% and 53% in food waste and plastic packaging. Drawing from comparisons on the amount of domestic waste produced before and during the pandemic, the findings suggest that some specific types of municipal waste have visibly increased, putting additional pressure on waste management systems. This characterises one of non-intended effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results from this study provide useful insights to city administrations and municipal utilities on consumption patterns during emergency situations. This, in turn, may support more systemic and strategic measures to be taken, so as to curtail the increase of household waste during pandemic situations.
- Are distance higher education institutions sustainable enough?: a comparison between two distance learning universitiesPublication . Casado-Aranda, Luis Alberto; Caeiro, Sandra; Trindade, Jorge; Paço, Arminda; Lizcano Casas, David; Landeta, AnaPurpose – Universities are continually transforming its structure and governance in response to the new social, environmental and economic challenges. Particularly, there has recently been a growing academic interest for measuring sustainable practices of higher education institutions (HEI) aiming to monitor and reduce their carbon emissions, as well as transform them into more sustainable organizations. More recent studies began to focus also on the sustainable performance of distance education Universities. So it became crucial to evaluate their sustainability practices through sustainability assessment tools with the aim of improving their sustainability performance and boosting their role as agents of academic, social and economic change. The purpose of this study is to assess and compare holistically sustainability implementation in two similar distance learning universities and to evaluate their advantages and disadvantages. Design/methodology/approach – One of the most rigorous and internationally used sustainability assessment tools was used – the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System, to evaluate and compare sustainability implementation in two distance universities, one from Spain and another from Portugal: the Madrid Open University and Universidade Aberta. Indicators of both universities were compared and ways of improvement in both universities were widely discussed. Findings – The results of this research show that there is a similar pattern in both universities. Both have low performance in campus operations and low levels of community participation but good performance in sustainability courses and programmes offer. The results of both institutions were compared and allowed a learning process for improvement. Distance learning universities Received 21 July 2020 Revised 5 October 2020 14 October 2020 Accepted 21 October 2020 International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education © Emerald Publishing Limited 1467-6370 DOI 10.1108/IJSHE-07-2020-0260 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1467-6370.htm Originality/value – This research hopes to contribute to the continuous research about the usefulness of sustainability assessment tools in particular when applied to distance universities at the time that offers new paths to carry out improved sustainable practices in crucial areas of interest such as research, administration, education and resource-saving. This research also highlights the value of distance learning universities and their ability to be more sustainable after the advent of COVID-19