This essay considers the rural-to-urban transition and correlates it with urban energy demands. Three distinct themes are inspected and interrelated to develop awareness for an urbanizing world: internal urban design and innovation, technical transition, and geopolitical change. Data were collected on the use of energy in cities and, by extension, nation states over the last 30 years. The urban population boom continues to pressure the energy dimension with heavily weighted impacts on less developed regions. Sustainable urban energy will need to reduce resource inputs and environmental impacts and decouple economic growth from energy consumption. Fossil fuels continue to be the preferred method of energy for cities; however, an increased understanding is emerging that sustainable energy forms can be implemented as alternatives. Key to this transition will be the will to invest in renewables (i.e., solar, wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal, and biomass), efficient infrastructure, and smart eco-city designs. This essay elucidates how the technical transition of energy-friendly technologies focuses on understanding the changes in the energy mix from non-renewable to renewable. Smart electricity storage grids with artificial intelligence can operate internationally and alleviate some geopolitical barriers. Energy politics is shown to be a problematic hurdle with case research examples specific to Central and Eastern Europe. The energy re-shift stressed is a philosophical re-thinking of modern cities as well as a new approach to the human-energy relationship.

Container shipping is the largest producer of emissions within the maritime shipping industry. Hence, measures have been designed and implemented to reduce ship emission levels. IMO’s MARPOL Annex VI, with its future plan of applying Tier III requirements, the Energy Efficiency Design Index for new ships, and the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan for all ships. To assist policy formulation and follow-up, this study applies an energy consumption approach to estimate container ship emissions. The volumes of sulphur oxide (SO_x), nitrous oxide (NO_x), particulate matter (PM), and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted from container ships are estimated using 2018 datasets on container shipping and average vessel speed records generated via AIS. Furthermore, the estimated reductions in SO_x, NO_x, PM, and CO₂ are mapped for 2020. The empirical analysis demonstrates that the energy consumption approach is a valuable method to estimate ongoing emission reductions on a continuous basis and to fill data gaps where needed, as the latest worldwide container shipping emissions records date back to 2015. The presented analysis supports early-stage detection of environmental impacts in container shipping and helps to determine in which areas the greatest potential for emission reductions can be found.

An enterprise carrying out operations according to the sustainable development (SD) concept should maximize its business goals without affecting interest groups. It requires not only a rethinking, but also a partial allocation of profit to social goals—used to contribute to and create a positive image of the enterprise and improve its competitiveness—over the long-term. Operations should result in an increase in profit—indirectly—by way of demand. This paper explores the sustainable supply chain (SSC) concept and the interplay of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within business objectives. The concept of SSC-compliant CSR is primarily stressed as an executive, top-down centric role. Businesses and societies at large that foster an SD continuum are considered healthy economies. The SD of enterprises and CSR in business are explored in relation to social investment and considered a viable long-term strategy for doing business. A pilot case study of Poland is carried out as a value analysis of the SSCs of enterprises. The key findings illustrate the benefits and problems of SSCs applied at the enterprise level. The problems of applying the principles of SSC within the enterprise and the connection between its levels of strategy and social value in terms of CSR and entrepreneurial operations are examined. Comparative studies indicate a number of overlapping trends in which positive SSC is cross-functional toward business partners, suppliers, customers, investors, and local communities.

For centuries Europe's transport has been a catalyst for economic development. At present, it facilitates exchange among European Union (EU) Member States and much of the rest of the world. Maritime transport forms the main axis of international exchange, carrying ~90% of total traded tonnage. In doing so, it bears responsibility for 2.5% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. The efforts to reduce negative environmental impact of transport activity is centered on better modal integration of the common transport system, sustainability, green technologies in the transport sector, resource efficiency, and carbon emissions reduction. The International Maritime Organization has tasked its members to achieve a 70% reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2050 or, if possible, to eliminate them altogether. From a business end, it is possible to apply a variety of technologies to ensure zero-emissions or, at the least, a dramatic reduction of emissions in the shipping sector. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the strategic approach to the decarbonization process based on EU strategic documents and low-emission and zero-emission technologies, used and developed, in maritime transport. An estimation of external costs incurred by maritime transport will allow for the assessment of benefits resulting from the application of technologies and alternative fuels proposed in the solutions. On the basis of the obtained results from the external cost valuation it will be possible to estimate the potential for decarbonization in maritime transport.

Ports are not just nodal points in global supply chains but at the same time, they are concentration points for air emissions. Ships that are manoeuvring within estuaries and within the port areas and ships at berth contribute to a large extend to the overall air pollution in port cities. Thus, the efforts to reduce these emissions are not only left to the shipping lines themselves, but to port authorities, port operators and port cities as well. One option that lately has gained huge political interest is onshore power supply. Consequently, more and more ports in the world begin to plan and implement such installations. For the time being, this process is yet in an initial phase and even if different technical solutions do exist and prove their usability in daily operations, the needed investments for the installations do barely see any economic viability. The same is to observe for the operational costs, which is why a discussion for a general obligation to use shore power in ports is ongoing. Time will show if shore power really is a solution or if shipping lines will find even better options to reduce air emissions on their path towards a zero emission shipping.

Recently, the focus of action for port authorities has been to find a set of development and investment measures which would, on one hand, ensure the expected technical and organizational conditions for port operations in the future and, on the other hand, incorporate a variety of social and environmental aspects necessary to maintain or improve the quality delivered in these two areas. This set of measures that has been of particular importance to the port industry in the last years is termed the Green Port, as a way of distinguishing it from the previous measures, which were equally intensive but failed to consider the requirements of sustainable growth. The term is used to refer to a port which takes planned investment actions to ensure compliance in all the three areas: economy, society and environment. In Poland, the notion of ‘Green Ports’ is still in its infancy. The purpose of this paper is to present research into sustainable growth awareness and attitudes in Polish ports. The research was carried out with representatives of Polish sea port authorities to allow identifying the actions for the development of green ports and defining the directions to be adopted in the sea ports development strategies.