Open research questions in Environmental Impact and Sustainability

What the literature leaves open

• The lack of quantification of pollution loads associated with crop straw fertilizer utilization. The insufficient understanding of the interprovincial evolution of pollution loads and spatial dependence.

  Regional Disparities and Spatiotemporal Evolution of Non-Point Source Pollution Loads from Crop Straw Fertilizer Utilization in China under Rural Revitalization · 2026 · DOI

• The environmental impacts of open and laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair have not been compared. There is a lack of studies evaluating the environmental footprint of surgical procedures.

  Environmental footprint of open versus laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair · 2026 · DOI

• Lack of information and guidance on sustainable surgery. Variations in healthcare infrastructure, resource availability, energy sources, sterilization practices, and waste management across different countries and hospitals. Need for standardization of decision-making and reduction of the environmental impact of minimally invasive surgery.

  Development of an Environmental Impact Calculator for Minimally Invasive Cholecystectomy: Protocol and Methodological Framework of the ECOMIS Project · 2026 · DOI

• The need to distinguish the province where household demand is recorded from the province where the associated agricultural production and water withdrawal occur.

  Spatial Mismatch Between Agricultural Water Withdrawal and Agricultural-Stage Value Added Attributed to Selected Household Demand in China · 2026 · DOI

• The refractory manufacturing industry is highly decentralized, making bottom-up assessment of emission inventory challenging. The industry's environmental damage is a complex issue, requiring a comprehensive study. The need to prioritize environmental protection, safety, and health in the industry while sustaining output.

  Life Cycle Emissions and Driving Forces of Air Pollutants and CO2 from Refractory Manufacturing Industry in China Based on LMDI Model · 2025 · DOI

• The lack of robust tools to assess and reduce the environmental impacts of short-life-cycle products. The need for improvement strategies to reduce the environmental footprint of abrasive discs.

  Life Cycle Assessment of a Short-Lived Product: The Case of Abrasive Discs · 2025 · DOI

• The high variability and limited availability of primary data related to energy and infrastructure in conservation contexts. The need to select proxy materials due to the unavailability of direct Ecoinvent matches for conservation materials. The challenge of quantifying and comparing material flows and associated environmental impacts in the conservation of cultural heritage.

  Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) of Materials in Painting Conservation: A Pilot Protocol for Evaluating Environmental Impact in Cultural Heritage · 2025 · DOI

• There is a need to quantify carbon emissions and sinks in the Yellow River Basin. The study identifies a gap in understanding the factors influencing agricultural carbon emissions. There is a lack of data support for low-carbon agriculture policy formulation and planning in China.

  Analysis of Agricultural Carbon Emissions and Carbon Sinks in the Yellow River Basin Based on LMDI and Tapio Decoupling Models · 2024 · DOI

• The study identifies the need for a deeper, more tailored analysis to effectively navigate China's sustainable energy transition under different scenarios. It highlights the importance of logistic decarbonization in reducing carbon footprints.

  China’s Sustainable Energy Transition Path to Low-Carbon Renewable Infrastructure Manufacturing under Green Trade Barriers · 2024 · DOI

• The study is based on a comprehensive literature review and does not provide new primary data. The study only considers two sizes of wind turbines, 3.6 MW and 4.8 MW. The study is limited to the Turkish context and may not be generalizable to other countries or regions.

  Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Wind Turbines: A Path to Sustainability with Challenges · 2024 · DOI

• Similar studies based on site-specific data should be conducted to inform electricity producers and policymakers about wind energy’s current impacts and environmental hotspots. Conducting analogous studies is critical to reducing the environmental impacts of wind energy. Future research should consider other sizes and types of wind turbines to provide a more comprehensive understanding of their environmental impacts.

  Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Wind Turbines: A Path to Sustainability with Challenges · 2024 · DOI

• The need to address the environmental impact of the built environment has gained significant attention. There is a gap in understanding the economic dimensions of reducing the carbon footprint of buildings.

  Review: The Economics Landscape for Building Decarbonization · 2024 · DOI

• The textile industry lacks effective methods for reducing its environmental footprint. There is a need for sustainable practices in textile dyeing processes. The industry requires advanced forecasting methods to predict electricity consumption and reduce energy waste.

  Sustainable Textile Manufacturing with Revolutionizing Textile Dyeing: Deep Learning-Based, for Energy Efficiency and Environmental-Impact Reduction, Pioneering Green Practices for a Sustainable Future · 2024 · DOI

• The study notes that the aviation sector is a hard-to-abate sector due to the lack of alternatives to fuels. The research identifies the need to balance energy yield and environmental impacts in SAF production. The paper notes that the extraction of raw materials for photovoltaic panels can have environmental impacts, which must be considered in the production of SAFs.

  Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production from Different Biomasses · 2024 · DOI

• There is a need to explore the environmental and energy performance of organic and conventional cotton farming systems. The study identifies a gap in the comparison of organic and conventional cotton farming systems in terms of net energy gain, efficiency, and profitability.

  Performance and Sustainability of Organic and Conventional Cotton Farming Systems in Egypt: An Environmental and Energy Assessment · 2024 · DOI

• The study does not consider the carbon emissions of other materials affected by the recycling of steel scrap. The accounting boundary is limited to the remanufacturing process of steel scrap.

  Scrap Steel Recycling: A Carbon Emission Reduction Index for China · 2024 · DOI

• Background and Aims Colonoscopy significantly impacts healthcare's carbon footprint, and although cold snare polypectomy (CSP) offers a safer, more efficient method for small polyp removal, its environmental impact remains unclear.

  Impact of Full Implementation of Universal Cold Snare Polypectomy for Diminutive and Small Polyps at Colonoscopy on Carbon Footprint · 2026 · DOI

• The study used a top-down approach, which may not capture the complexity of the refractory manufacturing industry. The study did not consider the impact of other factors that may influence emissions, such as changes in government policies or economic conditions. The study's results are based on historical data and may not reflect future trends or changes in the industry.

  Life Cycle Emissions and Driving Forces of Air Pollutants and CO2 from Refractory Manufacturing Industry in China Based on LMDI Model · 2025 · DOI

• Investigation of the carbon footprint of minimally invasive cholecystectomies in various European centers using LCA, - Development of a comprehensive quantitative overview of the environmental impact associated with key variables involved in minimally invasive…

  Development of an Environmental Impact Calculator for Minimally Invasive Cholecystectomy: Protocol and Methodological Framework of the ECOMIS Project · 2026 · DOI

• The published information on the environmental footprint of treatments is scarce and heterogeneous - Access to the data needed to reproduce the calculations is limited - The problem is not the absence of a methodological framework, but the distance between having an environmental estimate and being able to reproduce it or apply it to an independent clinical…

  Environmental assessment of hemophilia therapies. Comment on: "Carbon footprint of direct oral anticoagulants in atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism" · 2026 · DOI

• Incorporating environmental assessment into health technology assessment - Establishing minimum reporting requirements for environmental impact - Increasing transparency from manufacturers to allow independent researchers to reproduce…

  Environmental assessment of hemophilia therapies. Comment on: "Carbon footprint of direct oral anticoagulants in atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism" · 2026 · DOI

• Inconsistencies and gaps in regional and county-level carbon emission data could undermine the reliability of monitoring and evaluation results - Uncertainties arising from regional price consistency in MRIO data and the estimation of county-level carbon…

  Exploring Inequality: A Multi-Scale Analysis of China’s Consumption Carbon Footprint · 2025 · DOI

• Conduct a more comprehensive study on the reasons for the significant differences in carbon sequestration among crops - Analyze in more detail the influencing factors of the carbon sequestration capacity of different crops in different…

  Analysis of Agricultural Carbon Emissions and Carbon Sinks in the Yellow River Basin Based on LMDI and Tapio Decoupling Models · 2024 · DOI

• Methodological advancements to refine the precision of building stock models, - Further integration of machine learning algorithms and remote sensing, - Development of more sophisticated GISs to overcome current…

  Building Stock Models for Embodied Carbon Emissions—A Review of a Nascent Field · 2024 · DOI

• The study does not consider all possible biomasses, - The study relies on data from specific regions, - Issues related to the extraction of raw materials to produce photovoltaic panels…

  Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production from Different Biomasses · 2024 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Environmental Impact and Sustainability

• The environmental footprint of health care: a global assessment · The Lancet Planetary Health · 2020 · 1,012 citations
• Health Care Pollution And Public Health Damage In The United States: An Update · Health Affairs · 2020 · 673 citations
• Assessment to China's Recent Emission Pattern Shifts · Earth s Future · 2021 · 618 citations
• Quantifying the potential for climate change mitigation of consumption options · Environmental Research Letters · 2020 · 576 citations
• Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emission plastics by a circular carbon economy · Science · 2021 · 564 citations
• Global and regional drivers of land-use emissions in 1961–2017 · Nature · 2021 · 546 citations
• PRospective EnvironMental Impact asSEment (premise): A streamlined approach to producing databases for prospective life cycle assessment using integrated assessment models · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · 2022 · 538 citations
• Large inequality in international and intranational energy footprints between income groups and across consumption categories · Nature Energy · 2020 · 518 citations
• A review of CO2 emissions reduction technologies and low-carbon development in the iron and steel industry focusing on China · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · 2021 · 499 citations
• Global patterns of ecologically unequal exchange: Implications for sustainability in the 21st century · Ecological Economics · 2020 · 481 citations

Most recent work

• Carbon Footprint Efficiency Ratio: A Unified Indicator for Green Evaluation of Evolutionary Algorithms · IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence · 2026
• Sustainable extraction of bioactive compounds: a life cycle perspective on technologies, solvents, and process scale-up · RSC Sustainability · 2026
• Life cycle assessment of seaweed-based biorefineries: environmental impacts, hotspots, and pathways for a circular bioeconomy · RSC Sustainability · 2026
• Building material stock drives embodied carbon emissions and risks future climate goals in China · Nature Climate Change · 2026
• Consumption inequalities in material use undermining resources sustainability · Nature Sustainability · 2026
• The interaction between energy transition, pollution, recycling, and ecological footprint: Lessons from European countries · Energy Policy · 2026
• A typology of energy scaling in Chinese cities and its implication for sustainable urban transitions · Sustainable Cities and Society · 2026
• Have industrial robots reduced carbon emissions? Empirical evidence from China · Technology in Society · 2026
• Energy-related carbon emissions in the building sector: Drivers, forecasting, and multi-scenario analysis · Energy Reports · 2026
• A comparative review of whole-life-cycle carbon emission assessment in the building sector: progress, challenges, and trends in China and globally · Building and Environment · 2026

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