To address the pressing need for sustainability in healthcare and reduce plastic waste, this study assesses the environmental and economic impacts of plastic trocars in Stockholm's healthcare sector. Using life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) across seven scenarios, the findings reveal that the Reusable-recycling scenario reduced environmental impacts—lowering the climate change potential (kg CO2-eq) by 91 %, resource use, fossil (MJ) by 62 %, and resource use, minerals, and metals (kg Sb-eq) by 64 %—compared to the current Single-use incineration scenario. Additionally, the reusable system proved to be the most cost-effective despite a higher purchase cost. This research contributes to the academic understanding of circular strategies in healthcare by providing insights into the economic and environmental performance of medical devices. The findings also inform policymakers, highlighting the need for investment in sterilization and recycling infrastructure to support reusable systems and advance sustainable healthcare practices aligned with a circular economy.

Today's globalised agricultural sector poses significant environmental challenges that are expected to worsen with population growth, increased urbanisation, and with the effects of climate change. In this context, vertical farming systems have gained traction as potential solutions to create a more resilient and sustainable food system. This study aims to evaluate the environmental performance of mixed salad bags from a conventional supply chain and compare it with that of mixed salad supplied by a large-scale vertical farm. Different locations for the vertical farm are also investigated. To compare the environmental impacts, life cycle assessment was conducted for various scenarios employing a cradle-to-grave perspective. The results suggest that the vertical-farmed supply can have lower environmental impacts compared to the conventional supply of mixed salad bags, e.g. having roughly 44 % lower CO2-eq emissions. However, in five of the eight impact categories assessed, the vertical farm was found to have higher emissions, notably for resource use. Furthermore, it was found that the location of the vertical farm can play a critical role in its sustainability due to varying electricity mix compositions and transportation distances to final processing or consumers. Furthermore, the results are sensitive to the conventional supply data for comparisons. The findings contribute to the growing field of vertical farming and provide valuable information for transitioning toward a more sustainable food system.

This study aimed to analyse the environmental performance of a commercial aquaponic system in Sweden. The system produces rainbow trout and 40+ varieties of leafy greens, edible flowers and herbs, about 50 % of which is lettuce, in total about 1200 kgs of plants was sold in 2022. Attributional life cycle assessment was employed to assess the environmental impacts of producing rainbow trout and leafy greens, with functional unit of 1 kg of leafy greens, employing system expansion for replaced conventionally produced trout. Results show a climate change impact of 3.94 kg CO2eq/kg plant. The results suggest that energy, infrastructure, and consumables were the main contributors to most environmental impact categories of the modelled system. Electricity contributed to 52 % of climate change impacts. Specifically, electricity used for artificial lighting represents 45 % of the electricity use. Reduced photoperiod was found to lead to reduced impact in all impact categories assessed. Another scenario explored the use of an insect-based feed using insects produced in Sweden as a possible pathway for increased circularity of the system. For the insect-based feed results depended on modelling choices (e.g. burden or no burden) for the food waste used for insect farming. Furthermore, the results were sensitive to the choice of electricity mix employed. This study advances the LCA literature in aquaponics by providing an actual case study with empirical evidence of aquaponics' sustainability and improvement pathways. The evidence shows results that existing and future aquaponics systems can use to optimise their performance and address potential trade-offs.

Vertical farming is gaining attention as an indoor growing system because it enables standardised and intense production, thanks to fully controlled growing settings where environmental parameters can be precisely tuned to satisfy plants’ needs. While vertical farming is claimed to feature high use efficiencies of land, water, and nutrient resources, its high energy use is behind some recent major bankruptcies and hinders large-scale uptake of the technology. Thus, a critical analysis of the productive, economic, and environmental performances of vertical farming is needed. Here, we review the state of the art of vertical farming, with the aim to provide quantitative data on productivity and environmental performance, with a focus on resource use efficiency, which can also be used for benchmarking. The article elaborates on how vertical farming compares with open-field and greenhouse production of leafy greens (in particular lettuce). Lettuce yield (as fresh weight, FW, per cultivation area) in vertical farms commonly averages 60 to 105 kg FW m⁻² year⁻¹, with energy use efficiency of approximately 0.08–0.13 kg FW kWh⁻¹, and water use efficiency of approximately 140 g FW L⁻¹ H₂O. The higher greenhouse gas emissions of vertical farming technology systems (on average, 2.9 kg CO₂ kg⁻¹ FW) as compared with traditional systems are discussed and compared to impacts associated with transport in longer supply chains or those caused by energy-intensive greenhouse technologies that enable cultivation in harsh environments. The potential for consistent production throughout seasons in vertical farming suggests that looking at yearly yield only (rather than their monthly trends) may be misleading when addressing a stable food supply in a specific region.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to improve the energy and resource use efficiency of plant factories with artificial lighting, promoting more economically viable and environmentally sustainable indoor agriculture.

Urban farming initiatives are increasingly considered to contribute to the development of sustainable cities—not only regarding increased circularity and resource efficiency but also to address and improve the social and economic dimensions of city regions’ sustainability. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding upscaling and how urban farms can become more viable. The aim of this study was to explore the current business development of urban farming as well as the drivers and barriers for their upscaling. The study employs a qualitative case study on 10 commercial urban farms in the Stockholm region, where data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The analysis showed that the market consists of a large variety of urban farm types, with business models adapted to their situation. The competition for gaining a larger market share in terms of yield is challenging, so some farms have instead aimed to offer their technological knowledge or diverse packages of other societal and professional services. This shift toward technology and services is apparent for several of the urban farms in the study and requires a completely new set of skills for employees. By expanding through decentralized food production, on-farm gastronomy, technical product-service systems, or by providing societal services, there are ample opportunities for increasing the market share of the farms.

Policymakers in the EU are betting on a transition from a linear to a circular economy to ensure human activity remains within the planet's boundaries. Public procurement is vital in this context, e.g., accounting for 20% of Swedish GDP, with circular public procurement being critical to the transition. Although circular public procurement is garnering increasing interest, until now, the research focus in this area has been narrow, concentrating on, e.g., IT equipment or furniture. Plastic medical products have remained absent in the literature despite generating substantial environmental impact and offering a tremendous upside. To enable the application of circular economy strategies in this context, changes are required on two ends: the design of the products and the criteria under which the products are procured. Indicators are a central basis of any purchasing decision and are considered powerful enablers and drivers of the transition to a circular economy. This paper reviews circular economy indicators as a starting point toward guidelines for the circular design and procurement of plastic products in the healthcare sector. Thus, this review identifies critical factors for developing a comprehensive indicator for designing and procuring circular plastic medical products.

A critical shift is required to meet the challenges reflected in the sustainable development goals. Policymakers in the EU are betting on a transition from a linear to a circular economy to make this happen. Public procurement is vital in this context, e.g., accounting for 20% of Swedish GDP, with circular public procurement being critical to the transition. Until now, the research focus in this area has been narrower, concentrating on, e.g., IT equipment or furniture. However, plastic medical products have not been addressed despite generating substantial environmental impact and offering a tremendous upside. To enable the application of circular economy strategies in this context, changes are required on two ends: the design of the products and the criteria under which the products are procured. Indicators are the central basis of decision-making in any purchasing decision and are considered powerful enablers and drivers of the transition to a circular economy. This paper reviews circular indicators as a starting point toward guidelines for the circular design and procurement of plastic products in the healthcare sector. Based on this, critical factors for developing a comprehensive indicator for the design and procurement of circular plastic medical products are identified.

Controversial figures on environmental impacts associated with urban agriculture are receiving attention from the media and the general public. For comparative analysis, however, methodologically sound evidence is needed, before conclusions can be drawn. In this manuscript, we address issues associated with comparative assessment of environmental performances between rural and urban farming, while also evidencing the need for specifically designed indicators that enable for comprehensive assessment of multifunctional urban agriculture.

The number of vertical farms has been expanding rapidly in recent years to provide more resilient and sustainable global food provisioning closer to consumers. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on whether vertical farms can provide sustainable sourcing of food. The purpose of this study is to assess the environmental performance of a modular cabinet vertical farm producing lettuce and basil on-site at the end-user. To assess the environmental performance of this system, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to determine the total impact of producing lettuce and basil on-site, i.e., a kitchen for an office cafeteria, and compare to conventional sourcing. The results from this study suggest that the modular vertical farm can provide crops with environmental impacts comparable to or less than conventionally sourced options. GHG emissions ranged from 0.78–1.18 kg CO2-eq per kg lettuce and from 1.45–2.12 kg CO2-eq per kg basil from on-site production. The ranges suggest that the environmental performance is sensitive to methodological choices and life cycle inventory (LCI) data choices. These include how to treat the infrastructure for the modular cabinet, as it is often rented as a growing-service system, in addition to the LCI data choices related to the source of electricity. In conclusion, under local conditions (i.e., Stockholm, Sweden) the modular vertical farm can produce lettuce with equivalent emissions and quality to imported lettuce, despite its high energy requirement. The findings and knowledge from this study add to the growing body of literature on vertical farming, providing empirical evidence on the sustainability of an on-site commercial cabinet-based vertical farm. Such information can be used for comparisons and validation of claims in the industry, and to provide empirical evidence to this developing field.