Cellulose nanocrystal, known as CNCs, is a form of material that can be produced by synthesizing carbon from naturally occurring substances, such as plants. Due to the unique properties it possesses, including a large surface area, impressive mechanical strength, and the ability to biodegrade, it draws significant attention from researchers nowadays. Several methods are available to prepare CNC, such as acid hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis, and mechanical procedures. The characteristics of CNC include X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, etc. In this article, the recent development of CNC preparation and its characterizations are thoroughly discussed. Significant breakthroughs are listed accordingly. Furthermore, a variety of CNC applications, such as paper and packaging, biological applications, energy storage, etc., are illustrated. This study demonstrates the insights gained from using CNC as a potential environmentally friendly material with remarkable properties.

Water pollution has become a serious threat to our ecosystem. Water contamination due to human, commercial, and industrial activities has negatively affected the whole world. Owing to the global demanding challenges of water pollution treatments and achieving sustainability, membrane technology has gained increasing research attention. Although numerous membrane materials have focused, the sustainable water purification membranes are most effective for environmental needs. In this regard sustainable, green, and recyclable polymeric and nanocomposite membranes have been developed. Materials fulfilling sustainable environmental demands usually include wide-ranging polyesters, polyamides, polysulfones, and recyclable/biodegradable petroleum polymers plus non-toxic solvents. Consequently, water purification membranes for nanofiltration, microfiltration, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, and related filtration processes have been designed. Sustainable polymer membranes for water purification have been manufactured using facile techniques. The resulting membranes have been tested for desalination, dye removal, ion separation, and antibacterial processes for wastewater. Environmental sustainability studies have also pointed towards desired life cycle assessment results for these water purification membranes. Recycling of water treatment membranes have been performed by three major processes mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, or thermal recycling. Moreover, use of sustainable membranes has caused positive environmental impacts for safe waste water treatment. Importantly, worth of sustainable water purification membranes has been analyzed for the environmentally friendly water purification applications. There is vast scope of developing and investigating water purification membranes using countless sustainable polymers, materials, and nanomaterials. Hence, value of sustainable membranes has been analyzed to meet the global demands and challenges to attain future clean water and ecosystem.

This multiple case study qualitative research examined the impact of adoption and diffusion of innovation on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) growth in the hostile business landscape of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. This research is intended to investigate research data and consequent findings based on an interview protocol that was purposefully developed from extant literature, complemented by an initial pilot study of two pharmaceutical SMEs. The researcher conducted 20 interviews, guided by the semi-structured interview protocol offered to the respondents beforehand after sorting their informed consent. The 20 participants represented the different hierarchal levels of the 08 case study of pharmaceutical from the two industrial clusters of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, located at the Hayatabad Industrial Estate, Peshawar, and the Rashkai Industrial Estate, Nowshera. The analysis of the data presented findings and corroborated the research propositions that those SMEs that are structurally entrepreneurial and adopt innovation amenably, are open to mobility and tourism, yield satisfactory results in terms of their growth as compared to those that are inertial and unentrepreneurial. Similarly, the results offer confirmation that the effectiveness of government agencies that are explicitly formed to address the problems of small businesses is insufficient. They rather create hindrances than assistance due to the excessive delays in approving innovative ideas and conceptions by these related organizations and ministries. Moreover, the proposed framework offers pragmatic recommendations to contextualize entrepreneurial culture and innovative structures in SMEs and their essential factors in critical environmental circumstances.

The integration of digitalization and servitization has become a significant trend in transforming the manufacturing industry due to digital intelligence technology. This paper examines the impact of the integration of digitalization and servitization on the performance of manufacturing companies and how small-scale enterprises can promote digital transformation leading to servitization. The study involved surveying 331 manufacturing companies in China using a seven-point Likert scale questionnaire. Measurement scales were validated using confirmatory factor analysis and discriminant validity tests. Mediation analysis assessed digitalization’s impact on servitization and firm performance. The study’s findings emphasize the significant impact of digitalization and servitization on enterprises’ performance. Digitalization plays a crucial role in mediating this relationship. The study highlights three critical dimensions of digital variables, including digital technology, digital labor, and digital relationship resources, essential in enabling effective servitization. Manufacturing enterprises generally prefer aligning their technology investments and organizational changes within the digitalization framework to implement servitization successfully. The study suggests two integration strategies, namely conservative and aggressive. The finding emphasizes that the convergence of digitalization and servitization leads to a new manufacturing production mode called digital servitization.

This study focuses on the environmental cost accounting and economic benefit optimization of China’s FAW Hongqi New Energy Vehicle manufacturing enterprise under uncertain conditions, within the context of the emission permit system This study calculates the pollution situation throughout the manufacturing and production process of FAW Hongqi new energy vehicles, and constructs a multi-level environmental cost evaluation system for FAW Hongqi new energy vehicle manufacturing projects. Through the interval fuzzy model of FAW Hongqi new energy vehicle manufacturing projects, the maximum economic benefits of the enterprise are simulated. The research results indicate that the pollution emissions of enterprises are mainly concentrated in the three processes of welding, painting, and final assembly. Enterprises use their own exhaust gas and wastewater treatment devices to meet the standards for pollution emissions. At the same time, solid waste generated during the automobile manufacturing process is handed over to third-party companies for treatment. Secondly, based on the accounting results of enterprise pollution source intensity and a multi-layer environmental cost evaluation system, the environmental costs of enterprises are accounted for, and the environmental costs are represented in interval form to reduce uncertainty in the accounting process. According to the accounting results of enterprise environmental costs, the main environmental costs of enterprises are environmental remediation costs caused by normal pollution discharge and purchase costs of environmental protection facilities. Pollutant emission taxes and routine environmental monitoring costs are relatively low. Enterprises can adopt more scientific solutions from the aspects of environmental remediation and environmental protection facilities to reduce environmental costs. After optimization by the fuzzy interval uncertainty optimization model, the economic benefits of the FAW Hongqi new energy vehicle manufacturing project were [101,254.71, 6278.5413] million yuan. Compared with the interval uncertainty optimization model, the lower bound of economic benefits increased by 57.68%, and the upper bound decreased by 12.08%, shortening the results of the economic benefits interval. Clarify the current environmental pollution situation of FAW Hongqi’s new energy vehicle manufacturing enterprise, provide data support for sustainable development of the enterprise, and provide reasonable decision-making space for enterprise decision-makers.