Sustainable development has always been the objective of many fields, including the tourism and transportation sector. However, a major part of this sector, the airline industry, deals with many negative impacts, such as air pollution, noise, CO₂ emission, and labor practice. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a strategic business activity that can enhance the sustainability of the airline industry. The results of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) reveal that airlines of Western countries exhibit a more remarkable CSR performance than Asia-Pacific airlines, suggesting that the CSR programs of Asia-Pacific airlines need improvement. By constructing an evaluation hierarchy and applying the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method, this study found that the key strategic factors in the airline industry’s implementation of CSR include corporate governance, risk and crisis management, brand management, and product responsibility (safety).

Municipal solid waste management is an environmental issue that has received considerable attention from researchers and environmental managers for decades. Supporting the management programs entail policies and regulations related to municipal solid waste. In developed countries, the implementation of environmental policies plays an important role and has a substantial impact on the effectiveness of solid waste management. However, in many developing countries such as Vietnam, the situation and effectiveness of the policy implementation have not been studied extensively. This investigation is conducted to ascertain the situation, limitations, and challenges in implementing solid waste management policy in Vietnam. Then, solutions for the problems and improvements for implementation efficiency are presented. This work used online questionnaires to survey environmental managers in different localities and applied qualitative research method to analyze data. The results show that not all national policies on solid waste management are implemented in all localities. Waste separation is also the foremost concern in municipal waste management in most localities of Vietnam. Most of the localities claimed that the unrealistic nature and difficult implementation of the policies and the lack of needed resources are the main limitations and challenges in Vietnam. Survey results also revealed that different localities in Vietnam have different solutions to increase policy implementation efficiency. Besides, the study also found similarities in the implementation of policies in solid waste management between Vietnam and some other countries and also gathered some valuable lessons for the improvement strategy. Finally, the implementation of an effective domestic solid waste management policy is an important platform for improving environmental quality and ensuring the sustainable development of the nation and mankind.

The accommodation sector is the most demanding energy consumer among all building stock categories. This study quantifies an international tourist hotel in Taiwan to holistically estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of hotel accommodation services through a complete life cycle inventory. The study also investigates the difference between the carbon emissions of the baseline and reduction years to understand the effects of carbon emission reduction on the hotel industry. Results show that energy consumption is the main source of carbon footprint. However, the carbon emissions of other activities, such as the production and transportation of hotel amenities and laundry services, are 15.90% for the baseline year and 16.03% for the reduction year. These values are larger than the 5% cutoff rule according to PAS 2050. Thus, these factors should also be considered in assessing the carbon emissions of accommodation services. Hotel occupancy rate significantly affects carbon emissions during a one-night stay in a standard room as the functional unit. The selection of the functional unit should be considered in the hotel strategy. Although this case study involves an international tourist hotel in Taiwan, the findings and recommendations for improvements can be applied elsewhere.

Road transport accounts for 72.06% of total transport CO₂, which is considered a cause of climate change. At present, the use of alternative fuels has become a pressing issue and a significant number of automakers and scholars have devoted themselves to the study and subsequent development of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs). The evaluation of AFVs should consider not only air pollution reduction and fuel efficiency but also AFV sustainability. In general, the field of sustainable development is subdivided into three areas: economic, environmental, and social. On the basis of the sustainable development perspective, this study presents an evaluation framework for AFVs by using the DEMATEL-based analytical network process. The results reveal that the five most important criteria are price, added value, user acceptance, reduction of hazardous substances, and dematerialization. Price is the most important criterion because it can improve the popularity of AFVs and affect other criteria, including user acceptance. Additional, the energy usage criterion is expected to significantly affect the sustainable development of AFVs. These results should be seriously considered by automakers and governments in developing AFVs.

The growing recognition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been integrated globally into product design and business activities. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is considered a useful tool for designers to apply in the early stages of product design to mitigate the environmental impact. The study aims to identify the challenges of applying simplified LCA tools to improve the eco-efficiency of products and achieve a higher level of sustainable innovation. The study was conducted in a sustainable design course at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, for four consecutive years. All challenges and opportunities by using ECO-it, Eco-indicators, and the Materials, Energy use, and Toxic emissions (MET) matrix to assess the environmental impact in each phase of 11 home appliances are presented and discussed. Results show the positive potential of applying the tools to achieve function innovation in design for sustainable innovation. The needs for guided instruction, the availability of the database, the complexity of a study product, and the overlooking of social dimensions are four major challenges in applying the tools in the early stages of product redesign. Further study in testing the tools and developing a database in collaboration with industries should be conducted to compare and validate the results.