Reviews & Analysis

The hazardous life cycle of synthetic materials is driving sustainable materials with biogenic building blocks to play a larger role. This Perspective identifies the main challenges and suggests the way forward by focusing on food packaging.

The textile industry is energy intensive and releases huge amounts of pollutants to the environment. Here the authors take a life cycle approach to examine the technological progress made to improve the sustainability of each stage and propose the future directions.

Huge volumes of a diverse range of minerals are required to shift the world to renewable energy. An analysis now shows that many of these are being sourced from the lands of vulnerable people.

Annual grains, domesticated from wild species, have dominated agriculture since the Neolithic. A new study reports how turning to high-yield perennial rice crops could maintain key ecosystem functions while supporting livelihoods.

A lack of regional and international collective action is the greatest barrier to achieving global environmental sustainability. Game theoretic experiments suggest that introducing shared goals could offer a path forward.

Although urgently needed for the decarbonization of our economies, the mining of rare earth elements has a poor environmental record. The use of electrokinetics promises a more efficient extraction while substantially reducing environmental impacts.

The successful breeding and cultivation of perennial rice enables up to eight grain harvests from a single planting, with reduced labour input, improved soil health and potential to affect farming systems in frost-free environments between 40° N and 40° S. Perennial rice reconciles food production with environmental security in a changing climate.

Many tropical reefs are also active community fisheries, posing a complex management challenge. Taking into account reef fish turnover as well as biomass could inform better management for both conservation and sustainable use.

Progress on poverty eradication has yet to deliver access to basic services such as electricity and running water for all. Redistribution, better technologies and different lifestyles can address inequality without exacerbating climate change or degrading ecosystems.

A survey study shows that people want their governments to require increased transparency from companies about their supply chains. But it remains unclear how consumers would respond if such policies raised product prices.

Moving from a glacial-hydrological focus to a social-ecological perspective of the wider catchment hydrology can improve the assessment of mountain water security. Such a shift can help in the development of context-specific and transformational adaptation strategies to changes in the mountain cryosphere.

Despite growing mountains of electronic waste, only a fraction is recycled. Now, a study meshing material flow and geospatial analysis shows how e-waste pathways could be integrated with virgin mining to build viable strategies around metal supply chains.

Efforts to reduce emissions will lower our exposure to air pollution. Yet, the size and vulnerability of the future population will largely determine the resulting health burden. The key socio-demographic determinants include ageing and a declining baseline mortality rate, which are likely to occur in many countries.

Hydrological alterations caused by booming hydropower dams in the Mekong River basin are disrupting aquatic ecosystems and local livelihoods, calling for an urgent rethinking of hydropower development. Alternative operating strategies of existing Mekong dams could help restore the natural hydrological regimes without affecting power generation.

Modelling techniques now allow flood risk to be mapped down to street or even building level in a study showing that floods disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities and particular ethnic groups.

A study of historical trends in nations’ use of phosphorus fertilizers has set targets for crop yield and phosphorus-use efficiency, identifying techniques that can be used to ensure these targets are met by 2050.

Against a backdrop of intense global drought, an innovative method for measuring toxicity to cells has been used to provide further evidence that the quality of potable-reuse water compares well with that from conventional public water supplies.

Private wildlife ranches are considered a mechanism to conserve biodiversity and support livelihoods. Now, a study examines the relative resilience of South African wildlife ranches during the disruptive times of COVID-19.

Acceleration of crop yield gains, coupled with parallel intensification of the livestock sector, would enable Brazil to increase current soybean production by 36% by 2035 without deforestation and with a notable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with following present trends.

A method to incorporate highly aligned nanosheets into a polymer matrix provides a promising strategy for fabricating membranes with high ion conductivity and selectivity — a key requirement for some energy-storage technologies.