Achievement of Sustainable Development Goals through the Implementation of Circular Economy and Developing Regional Cooperation

Abstract

Circular economy is a tool based on the inclusion of environmental, social, and governance performance (ESG) in decision-making to achieve sustainable development goals (SDG). In recent years, it has become clear that business-as-usual has nothing to do with sustainability, and alternative business models, primarily on technological grounds, must be implemented to mitigate the damage caused by significant and unpredictable effects of climate change. The current situation requires unprecedented and urgent changes to policies and business development models. The current research aimed to target on industrial symbiosis as one of the business models of the circular economy. It evaluated the benefits of symbiosis and the fostering of cooperation between industries and, consequently, has a major impact on resource efficiency ratios. The research is based on quantitative and qualitative research methods, including a literature review, assessment, and application of the triangulation method. As a result of this research, the authors realized a matrix for the development of regional or cross-country industrial symbiosis that can be used by policymakers to foster the development of symbiotic interconnections on a wide scale. The authors also recommend the development of the Baltic University Program (BUP) network center of excellence and methodological justification for industries to engage in industrial symbiosis (IS).

Family ISO 14000 standards as a tool of achieving environmental sustainability of enterprises

“…In general, the implementation of standards and certification allows enterprises to achieve environmental sustainability in the long term, which makes ISO 14000 family standards an effective tool in achieving environmental sustainability. Their improvement, namely the development of simplified standards and certification procedures for small and medium-sized businesses and the adaptation of the most important standards to industry specifics, can accelerate the achievement of environmental sustainability not only at the level of an individual enterprise, but also at the level of an entire industry or even national economy [31,32].…”

Circular economy: the future of aquaculture sector in Ukraine

“…Waste from aquaculture production cannot be disposed of in general municipal sewage treatment plants, nor in landfills. Therefore, the aquaculture industry will require the inclusion of final technologies for the treatment of saline organic substances, phosphorus and nitrogen effluents [17,18]. For the most part, it is necessary to attract investments for the implementation of such plans.…”

Analysis of China’s Carbon Peak Achievement in 2025

“…The current research on sustainable development mainly uses general equilibrium models and focuses on the energy and power sectors to make predictions [15,16]. In addition, another direction of research on the "circular economy" is to analyze future sustainable development by incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance into decision making [17,18]. However, current research lacks an approach to find the optimal development scenario for a country by combining economic policies, demographic changes, energy development and trading markets.…”