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Discover Sustainability
Research
Research constituent, intellectual structure andcurrent trends
inenvironmental sustainability‑an analytical retrospective
ChetanSharma1· SunilKumar2· ShamneeshSharma1· SaumyaSharma3· EshaqAhmadOmarkhail4
Received: 11 March 2024 / Accepted: 16 May 2024
© The Author(s) 2024 OPEN
Abstract
Climate change is a paramount problem for humanity, representing a substantial danger to all living organisms. Industri-
alization, a vital factor for economic progress, has resulted in global warming, posing a threat to the long-term viability
of our ecosystem. Currently, a wide range of techniques and technologies are being used to guarantee the preservation
of the environment for future generations. This study employed data from the Scopus database to do topic modeling.
Authors used latent Dirichlet allocation to extract research themes related to environmental sustainability from a cor-
pus of 4023 research articles published between 1976 and 2022. By utilizing clustering methodologies to analyze the
collection of words, Authors successfully forecasted two, ve, and ten study subjects, emphasizing specic domains
that necessitate additional investigation by scholars. Based on coherence ratings, ve subjects have been identied as
prospective study areas requiring further scientic exploration. The results of our research emphasize the signicance of
incorporating environmentally-friendly technologies in dierent industries to promote a long-lasting and eco-friendly
ecosystem. In addition, authors recommend prioritizing implementing sustainable and environmentally friendly tech-
nologies, improving the management of ecosystems, encouraging water conservation, promoting agricultural advance-
ments, and advancing renewable energy resources as crucial strategies for protecting the environment and enhancing
ecological conditions. This analysis illuminates current research trends in environmental sustainability and potential
pathways for future investigation and intervention.
Keywords Environment sustainability· Latent Dirichlet allocation· Topic modelling· Natural language processing·
Green technologies· Human capital
1 Introduction
Ensuring the longevity and health of our planet is contingent upon environmental sustainability. Sustainable develop-
ment encompasses preserving natural resources and ecosystems to sustain human existence and economic endeavors
while ensuring that the demands of future generations can be met without hindrance. This study examines the inter-
dependence of environmental, economic, and social sustainability, emphasising the importance of maintaining a har-
monious equilibrium among these aspects to attain comprehensive sustainability. Before the 1980s, most companies’
environmental initiatives were haphazard and reactive, often in response to government regulations or public outrage.
* Eshaq Ahmad Omarkhail, eshaqahmad@staict.com; Chetan Sharma, chetanshekhu@gmail.com; Sunil Kumar, shunkumar156@
gmail.com; Shamneesh Sharma, shamneesh.sharma@gmail.com; Saumya Sharma, saumyasharma@ncuindia.edu | 1upGrad Education
Private Limited, Bangalore, India. 2GITAM School ofBusiness, GITAM, Visakhapatnam, India. 3The NorthCap University, Gurugram,
India. 4Spring Tree, Kabul, Afghanistan.
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Following that, it became more common for businesses to develop ecological strategies based on broad assessments
of their environmental impact [1]. The ability to maintain the qualities valued in the physical environment is called envi-
ronmental sustainability [2].
In today’s world, climate change is considered one of the most sustained threats to people’s health worldwide. Since
the industrial revolution started, the planet’s temperature has increased because of greenhouse gas emissions. It has
enormous health implications associated with worldwide climate change [3–5]. The planet is not about human activity
on earth. It also includes oceans, clouds, soils, greenery, etc. Humanity cannot t in the planetary system. Many changes
are happening in the planetary system, which is a life-threatening hazard, and humankind is behind this hazard only.
There is no escape from these harsh realities to be noticed, and they must be managed promptly. According to Meadows
and Brundtland etal., “environmental sustainability as the maintenance of natural capital.” It is also related to economic
and social sustainability [6, 7]. Sustainability “was recently identied as one of the most misused corporate terms in an
annual guide to corporate newspeak. The term has become a corporate buzzword, used so frequently and ubiquitously
that it has simply become” a synonym for everything good. Sustainability includes three main aspects: environment,
society, and economy related to human beings and the ecosystem in which humans live [8, 9].
A viable environment is essential for a resource base, a prerequisite for a sustainable society and economy. Next, a
sustainable economy is related to a continuous ow of energy, material, and environmental resources. “Environmental”
is associated with human impact on natural systems, which is understood as a reference to human interaction with the
ecosystem [10, 11]. Where ecology is an interdependence of dierent elements within a system, it is clear that “eco-
logical sustainability as a conservation concept” means “meeting human needs without compromising the health of
ecosystems.” Environmental sustainability is a part of ecological sustainability and is considered a subset. The concept
of sustainable development got more depth due to the emergence of the environmental sustainability concept [12]. It
is “meeting the current generation’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”
The general denition is “meeting the resource and services needs of current and future generations without compro-
mising the health of the ecosystems that provide them.” More precisely, environmental sustainability is “a condition of
balance, resilience, and interconnectedness that allows human society to satisfy its needs while neither exceeding the
capacity of its supporting ecosystems to continue to regenerate the services necessary to meet those needs nor our
actions diminishing biological diversity”. Various supporting principles for environmental sustainability include societal
needs, preservation of biodiversity, regenerative capacity, reuse and recycling, constraints of non-renewable resources,
and waste generation. [13, 14].
Environmental sustainability helps sustain global life-support systems that adequately maintain human life, as shown
in Fig.1. This ecosystem provides various inputs, such as food, air, water, energy, etc. Sustainability can be ensured by
maintaining it rather than running it down [3, 8]. Environmental sustainability has become a mantra for many manage-
ment theorists and practitioners since the 1990s. In today’s time, organizations are focusing on becoming prot-making
organizations. Industrial society started focusing on the natural environment as it grew and matured. It is high time to
focus on environmental sustainability because of the high demand for specic products and services. In today’s time,
environmental concerns are kept aside and concentrated on increasing prots and market share of the companies.
Organizational environmental consciousness remained stagnant until concerned authorities were silent [6, 14]. Ecologi-
cal consciousness among corporations needs to be enhanced to ensure the adoption of green practices. Sustainability is
Fig. 1 Environment sustain-
ability
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possible if it is providing the organization with green technology and procedures. Successful implementation of green
practices helps improve the organizations’ performance [15]. Authors notice many challenges present in rms while
implementing and adopting such practices. It is evident that environmental sustainability is related to a rm’s perfor-
mance and helps it grow in the future [14].
Environmental sustainability is crucial for all industries worldwide [16, 17]. The need of the industry is catered to
signicantly without impairing mother earth. Environmental sustainability relates to environmental science and most
other disciplines [18, 19]. It is crucial to nd the signicant role of environmental sustainability in various other sectors
[20]. Understanding the critical role of environmental sustainability will help identify the signicant challenges and x
the related problems. It is essential to understand the signicance of environmental sustainability in the current context
and how its practices can be integrated into various functions of industries.
This research aims to explain to what extent environmental sustainability is crucial in various industries, such as raw
materials, energy, and other vital resources used in manufacturing. It is evident that the waste remains generated after
the espousal of sophisticated technologies and whether all of these will negatively or positively aect environmental
sustainability. The current research rst tries to nd areas where studies on ecological sustainability were done; second,
what various technologies or practices were adopted for environmental suitability; and nally, what research areas
demanded the entire focus of the researchers? This study responds to the mentioned research questions. The main
objectives of this paper are:
• Please provide a detailed understanding of environmental sustainability and its relationship with economic and social
sustainability.
• Analyze the prevalent research areas and technological advancements contributing to environmental sustainability.
• Highlight areas that require further investigation and propose future research directions.
This study is segmented into eight sections where Sect.1 leads the study’s introduction, Sect.2 is the background of
the study, Sects.3 to Sect.6 describe the methodology and research outcomes, and subsequent sections deal with the
implication and conclusion of the study.
1.1 Motivation forthestudy
The motivation for this study stems from the urgent need to address the multifaceted challenges of environmental
sustainability. It seeks to tackle the obstacles of environmental sustainability by examining the points where
environmental, economic, and social sustainability intersect. This would give policymakers valuable insights into
prevailing research trends and technology breakthroughs, facilitating the formulation of ecacious rules and policies.
Businesses and industry leaders can enhance their competitive edge by embracing sustainable technology and practices,
which will help minimize their environmental footprint and enhance operational eciency. Gaining a comprehensive
understanding of regulatory standards can assist organizations in guaranteeing compliance and establishing transparent
processes. Researchers and academics will identify areas that have not been extensively studied and propose possibilities
for future research, promoting collaboration across dierent disciplines. Empowering communities and civil society
can be achieved by promoting measures that improve local resilience, biodiversity, and food security. Increasing public
knowledge and engagement can cultivate a culture of environmental stewardship and collaborative action. The study’s
comprehensive methodology assures that its ndings are pertinent and advantageous to diverse stakeholders, facilitating
advancement towards a more sustainable future.
2 Literature review
‘Only the dead have seen the end of the war.’
––George Santayana
In the words of great historian John Keegan, ‘History of mankind is the history of war’ as the world is still lurching with
the COVID-19 crisis, a signicant shockwave led by the Russia -Ukraine war. The pandemic is driven by a global problem
that has been super-seeded by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas, again a severe concern for climate change.
Decades after the World War ceased, the world thought the war had paused, with the formation of a charter-United
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Nations to control the pace of unnecessary usage of arms and ammunition and other political and regional conicts.
To safeguard the interests of member nations, the Sustainable Development Goals (17 global goals) were set up by
the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. The mission statement of SDG states, “blueprint to achieve a better and
more sustainable future for all” by 2030. According to the World Bank Group report (April 2022), more than 12 million
people have been displaced due to war, and 13 million need compassionate assistance. It is indispensable to mention
that without attaining global peace, our eorts to achieve sustainable goals will fail [21]. There are three strong pillars
of sustainability- Social, Economic, and Environmental objectives.
The 21st Century has witnessed tremendous growth but with a hefty price of climate change. It has put across a
significant threat to humanity and sustainable development. Environment sustainability is at the threshold due
to globalization [22], urbanization [22], and technological innovations. One of the crucial factors adversely aected
by environmental degradation is “Water.” Water is indispensable to the sustenance of humanity, which leads to the
attainment of sustainable regional balanced development and further growth of any economy [23]. According to a
study by the United Nations in 2019, untreated wastewater is a prime factor for water pollution, which is hazardous for
consumption [22]. Approximately 297 thousand children die annually from contaminated wastewater, and 80% of this
polluted water returns to the environment without being treated, thereby causing severe harm to the environment.
Scholarly articles suggest that nanotechnology can treat wastewater and remove approximately 51% of microcystins
[22]. Scholars opine that the human-led Greenhouse gas eect has threatened climate change.
Environmentalists fear that the present condition of our planet might lead to food shortages and an energy crisis in the
future. Past literature on environmental sustainability suggests the vulnerability of biodiversity due to global warming.
GHG emission traps the Sun’s harmful radiation, which encircles Earth, thereby making the survival of the living being
dicult. The impact of climate change can be witnessed in declining growth trends in the dairy industry. Disturbed
ecology brings drought, earthquakes, and oods, making survival dicult for animal husbandry and increasing mortality
risk. Soaring temperatures have made pasteurization ineective, severely threatening food safety measures [24].
Agriculture accounts for 11% to 23% of greenhouse gas emissions (CH4 and N2O), leading to climate change. Increased
pesticide use, deforestation, soil erosion, and depletion of water reserves and natural resources are other crucial areas
hitting our ecology [25]. Additionally, the Paris Agreement 2015 stated all sectors should reach the zero carbon dioxide
emission stage by 2050–70 and limit global temperature below 2°C. The agreement fostered eective, sustainable
strategies and moved towards net zero carbon emission strategies [25].
The extensive literature on organizational sustainability suggests that harnessing the unleashed potential and
developing competencies within the organization structure supports the overall attainment of strategic goals, irrespective
of the size, scale, or large-scale organization [26]. Previous studies suggest that organizations adopt green human
resource practices and green transformational leadership, as this will build an environment of motivation, trust, and
loyalty, further adding to creativity and innovation and tapping the hidden competencies of their resources. Furthermore,
to create a green environment, eective green initiatives must be adopted in the organization, including meeting social,
environmental, and legal aspects and incorporating eco-friendly products, processes, ideas, and innovation that support
ecology along with strategic business goals [27].
In the current scenario, nothing seems to be more crucial for the government, business organizations, and societies
than environmental changes, which will lead to a worsening impact for the generations to come (Theresa May 2019), head
of the UK Government, Pope Francis encyclical Laudato Si., AI Gore’s Nobel peace prize acceptance speech on the topic
-Global Warming, even the concern raised by A. Guterres (United Nations General Secretary, 2019) says that corporate
government actors must utilize resources to maintain environmental sustainability wisely. However, ecological behavior
and sustainability studies through maintaining a well-being approach take the attraction. Inequality is a potent driver for
ecological sustainability as individuals face a challenge with limited shared resources [28]. Government reserves should
not promote natural disasters, famine, drought, or increase the heat waves by melting glaciers, but rather adopt and
innovate green thought in designing and shaping business, energy conservation, and green technology to fabricate an
intelligent world. Hence, corporate governance is pivotal in maintaining environmental sustainability as it is liable to
regulatory bodies, societal stakeholders, and global nancial authorities [29].
Managing people, processes, and products has been the core of green HRM practice, where organizations focus on
building a structure for maximizing mind and market share [30]. Various scholars have asserted the role of green HRM
practices in gaining an organization’s competitive advantage [31, 32]. Though consistent articles have revealed the
paradox an employee has to face to sustain, Scholars believe that ICT compliments the concept of developing smart
cities with structured infrastructure, transport, and industries that support environmental sustainability [33]. Today
people live in the 4.0 technology era, where the manufacturing sector has transformed and adopted a novel business
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model, building a green economy emphasizing green purchasing, repurchasing, recycling waste, and remanufacturing
[34]. The metamorphosis of technology has facilitated the pace of production, processes, and techniques stimulating
green factor productivity [34]. The plethora of studies conrmed the contribution of BRICS nations to the GDP had
been 6.5%, with regional consumption of global energy being 40% and the most signicant contributor to global CO2
emissions [35]. Even the systematic study of OPEC countries from 1996 to 2016 conrms economic growth’s impact on
ecological footprints [36]. After the power sector, Cement Industry is also a prominent contributor to greenhouse gas
emissions. Its global anthropogenic CO2 emission accounts for 8–10% annually [37]. Over the years, online shopping has
tremendously increased, specically after Covid-19, prominently called ‘Silent Salesman’, which has evoked marketers
to adopt innovative e-commerce packaging. The packaging design aesthetics have led to waste resources, decreasing
the product life cycle [38]. Online shopping increased by 32%, causing environmental degradation through carbon
emission and energy consumption [39]. Various innovative techniques like Big Data Analytics, Articial Intelligence,
Blockchain, the Internet of Things, Digitalisation, and Robotics have stimulated sustainability’s economic, social and
environmental aspects [40]. These digital technologies have supported environmental sustainability initiatives like
AI for global warming, e-waste management, energy issues, providing geographic information systems, wildlife care,
construction waste management, and reducing food waste [40].
3 Natural language processing
A relatively new discipline, data mining seeks to mine information from various sources in various formats. Topic modeling
is an inuential text mining and NLP tool for discovering the connections between data and documents [41]. Researchers
in a wide variety of disciplines employ this method, like medical [42, 43], semantic analysis [44], engineering [45], etc.,
to conclude the relationship between the documents and topics. Massive data are generated daily, disorganized and
chaotic [46]. The study’s overarching goal is to oer fresh territory for scholars to explore. Because it assigns a score to
each term depending on how relevant it is to the text and the corpus, topic modeling is the technique that gives crucial
keywords connected to the clusters from the massive unstructured data [47]. The importance of the keywords allows the
author to specify a range of study areas that can yield fruitful ndings with more investigation [48]. When it comes to topic
modeling, researchers rely heavily on LDA but also employ other methods, including Non-Negative Matrix Factorization
(NMF), Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), Parallel latent Dirichlet allocation (PLDA), and the Pachinko Allocation Model
(PAM). Comparable methods exist for topic modeling and dimensionality reduction in numerical data. The dictionary of
words is used to generate a bag of words (BOW), from which the necessary attributes for subject modelling are drawn.
NLP places a premium on the corpus’s words because of their signicance in the eld.
In natural language processing, every word is a feature the model can learn from. Researchers may use this method
instead of manually searching for relevant information. The documents in the dataset are related using LDA, and the
results are shown in charts and tables. Similarity estimates from the corpus are employed in developing LDA, and the
Variational Exception Maximization (VEM) technique is used to do this [49]. Due to the lack of sentence-level semantics,
the BOW’s most frequently occurring terms are typically selected. Each document in the corpus represents the
probabilistic distribution of subjects, and each extracted topic represents the probabilistic distribution of words per the
principles of LDA. That helped me draw solid conclusions about the relationship between the two themes. Data that is not
easily organized can be mined for insights using LDA. Researchers can conclude broader social trends by studying how
people behave and talk to one another online [50]. It is implemented in various elds. Some recent research is Internet
review analysis [51], Agriculture [52], Management [32], Software Engineering [53], Environment [54], Deep learning [55],
Medical [56], and many more. In this research, LDA is applied to the problem of environmental sustainability abstraction.
4 Research questions
This analysis uses the LDA method applied to a dataset of 4,023 articles to uncover research trends and patterns of
Environmental Sustainability. In other words, a dataset is a compilation of previously released information spanning
1976–2022. This investigation has incorporated a systematic approach to data collecting and presentation guided by
the research topic. Titles and abstracts of published publications have been analyzed to reveal two central study topics,
ve research areas, and ten emerging trends. This systematic review draws from a wide range of literature and considers
Kitchenham and Charters’ recommendations [57, 58]. The goals of this study are to answer the following questions:
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Research Question 1. What are the typical research areas examined by the researchers?
Research Question 2. What various technologies and practices are adopted for environmental sustainability?
Research Question 3. What research areas demanded the maximum observance from the researchers?
5 Methodology
This part covers everything from conducting experiments to carrying out actions to conduct analyses on environmental
sustainability. Our study approach to foresee future trends in environmental sustainability is dened pictorially by the
aective explanation of the step-by-step procedure of any activities that have been accomplished. Figure2 shows the
research strategy that was implemented during this analysis.
5.1 Collecting thedataset
Online digital libraries, journals, and conference proceedings were the key resources for data collecting and developing
the research corpus. Scopus, widely recognized as the largest database for published articles, is used as a control group
in this study [59]. Users prompted the creation of search phrases for the digital library needed to nd information. The
study’s research questions were informed by Sehra’s previous work [60]. The search phrases identied were “environmen-
tal sustainability”, “eco-friendly”, “green environment”, “organic environment,” and “ecological sustainability,” as our study
focused on environmental sustainability. In this study, the designed search string used to extract the information was
(TITLE((“environmental sustainability”) OR (“ecological sustainability”) OR (“sustainable environment”) OR (“eco-friendly
environment”) OR (“green environment”) OR (“green environmental”) OR (“organic environment”)). The mentioned string
was passed to the Scopus database to extract the data from the database. The search criteria conformed to relevancy
and recency. The publication’s title, abstract, and keywords perform database searches for the desired information. The
original search yielded a total of 5,301 articles. The rst phase only takes into account the 5,165 articles written in Eng-
lish. The second section of the corpus includes 4,491 articles from periodicals, conferences, and books. A total of 4,023
articles were considered for the experiment after deleting those from the corpus that did not meet the inclusion criteria
(lack of author details, abstract, year, etc.). Figure3 depicts the collected corpus organised in an excel le for processing.
Fig. 2 Proposed methodology
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5.2 Preprocessing
Processing the dataset or the gathered information is the rst stage. The goal of pre-processing is to remove any
unnecessary details from the data. When a dataset has been pre-processed, irrelevant words and characters have
been removed, making the dataset more accurate. This results in a more reliable and acceptable prole for subsequent
processing. The abstract column text is tokenized rst, and each token is lowercase as part of the corpus preprocessing.
In tokenization, the focus is on removing the punctuation marks, single characters, and other special characters like “;”,
“,”, “.”, “/”, “\”, “ brackets”, “!”.
Additionally, the abstract was edited to exclude any mathematical expressions. A full-edged textual token was
created by eliminating the numerical values [61]. Because they add nothing to the meaning of the text and slow down
the reader’s comprehension, common English words like “the,” “if,” “but,” “a,” “an,” etc. are eliminated in the second phase.
Natural Language Toolkit was used for the experiments in this study (NLTK). This package includes a list of stop words in
more than sixteen languages. Here, the corpus was cleaned by removing all occurrences of stop words from the English
NLTK library and other phrases used to compile it [62]. In the nal stage, stemming is practiced to reduce words to their
simplest forms. Stemming aims to produce the primary word from which English prexes and suxes are derived. It
cuts out the unnecessary portions of the term and returns the true meaning. For example, taking the words “helpless,”
“helpful,” and “helps,” it can be deduce that “help” is the root word. Words are transformed into their root forms using the
Snowball stemmer algorithm [63], and the resulting base keywords are then saved in the cleaned corpus. The nal step
of the stemming process is lemmatization, during which the stemmed words are converted into their corresponding
lemmas. Lemmatization is breaking down compound words into their constituent parts (the lemmas) by considering
the context. During this process, inected words are stripped o, and the dictionary form of a term is generated [64].
Table1 shows the sample of pre-processing steps.
5.3 Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA)
After the data has been preprocessed, it is fed into the LDA model, which stands for latent Dirichlet allocation and is the
most widely used technique in natural language processing. Bigrams and trigrams are eliminated before the information
is transmitted. Bigrams, which are made up of two words, are referred to as human resources, while trigrams, made up of
Fig. 3 Sample of loading dataset
Table 1 Pre-processing steps
Sample document Environmental sustainability helps sustain global life-support systems, which adequately maintain human life.
This ecosystem provides various inputs, which are food, air, water, energy, etc
After Tokenization “Environmental”, “sustainability”, “helps”, “sustain”, “global”, “life”, “–”, “support”, “systems”, “which”, “adequately”,
“maintain”, “human”, “life” “This”, “ecosystem”, “provides”, “various”, “inputs”, “which”, “are”, “food”, “air”, “water”,
“energy”, “etc.”
After Stop Word Removal “Environmental”, “sustainability”, “helps”, “sustain”, “global”, “life”, “support”, “systems”, “adequately”, “maintain”,
“human”, “life” “ecosystem”, “provides”, “various”, “inputs”, “food”, “air”, “water ”, “energy”
Stemming “Environment”, “sustain”, “help”, “sustain”, “global”, “life”, “support”, “ system”, “adequ”, “maintain”, “human”, “life”
“ecosystem”, “provide”, “variou”, “input”, “food”, “air”, “ water”, “energi”
Lemmatization “Environment”, “sustain”, “help”, “sustain”, “global”, “life”, “support”, “ system”, “adequate”, “maintain”, “human”, “life”
“ecosystem”, “provide”, “various”, “input”, “food”, “air”, “ water ”, “energy”
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three words, are referred to as human resource management. Python’s genism module eliminated sentences like these
in implementing the LDA model. Phrases, whether bigrams, trigrams, quadgrams, or n-grams, can be constructed and
recognized with the help of Genism’s model [65]; thus, it can remove and improve the data cleansing process. It is also
part of pre-processing, so after completing this stage, data is sent to the LDA model for further analysis [41, 66]. Topic
modeling through LDA is based on three input parameters, one is several topics, and two are hyperparameters α and β.
α is the magnitude of the Dirichlet before the topic distribution of a document. β is per-word-weight of Dirichlet prior
over topic-word distributions. The hyperparameter α is taken as 1/T in this experiment, where T is the number of topic
to be demanded for study while, and the β value is xed as 0.01 for all topic solutions [67]. Iteration used to conduct
experiment for identifying two, ve, and ten topic solutions are 500, which is suggested by [50]. It becomes problematic
to initialize these parameters since their values can aect the distribution of promising topic ndings. The extracted
bag of words (BOW) is further processed using LDA topic modeling. This process removes the most common and rarest
words to make the corpus more denitive. Words occurring more than 1,500 times were removed from the BOW for the
sake of this study. Listed in Fig.4 are the top twenty most frequently used English words.
The python mallet library, a natural language processing tool written in JAVA, is used to ne-tune the hyperparameters.
You can easily extract the desired subjects when you install the Mallet package and train the model with BOW. A denitive
method for determining the optimum solution count has not yet been developed [60]; Cao and Arun only provide a few
observable factors. Still, those are enough for the researcher to determine how many solutions are needed [50, 68]. Study
ndings and heuristics were considered when deciding a topic solution [50, 60, 68, 69]. K-mean clustering techniques
are then used to determine how many topics should be extracted from the BOW.
5.4 Topic labeling
After the LDA model has automatically extracted the subjects, they are next individually labeled according to their most
salient phrases. Consequently, there are 4023 articles in the corpus, and out of all documents, the top ve high-loading
papers and their contribution to the issue are indicated in Table2.
6 Result analysis
6.1 Meta‑analysis
A total of 4023 studies have been considered for the current research after applying the requirements, and a year-wise
analysis of the collected article is shown in Fig.5.
This research is published in various reputed journals, and journals from ABDC and ABS dominate journals in environ-
mental sustainability, as shown in Fig.6. The dominating journal analysis shows that the maximum participation comes
11348
8675
4662 4153 3576 3245 2749 2723 2619 2477 2322 2217 2207 1995 1926 1882 1880 1807 1779 1755
Fig. 4 Top 20 words from corpus with frequency
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Table 2 High-loading research articles for topic solutions
Topic ID High loading terms Topic label High loading paper Contribution (%)
T 2.1 energy, production, system, impact, water, waste, high, assessment, result,
food, life, emission, process, cycle, base, increase, sustainable, material,
analysis, reduce
Waste Management System [70–72] 99.6
99.58
99.52
T 2.2 development, sustainable, environment, economic, research, green, energy,
policy, result, country, ecological, management, social, practice, paper,
emission, impact, base, analysis, model
Green Technology [73–75] 99.92
99.86
99.81
T 5.1 water, food, production, system, impact, land, indicator, agricultural,
soil, ecological, management, assessment, result, resource, crop, area,
increase, high, farm, base
Agriculture Management System [76–78] 99.87
99.82
99.8
T 5.2 energy, emission, economic, country, growth, carbon, consumption,
renewable, development, policy, result, eect, increase, ecological, run,
impact, footprint, economy, long, nancial
Energy Consumption and Economic Growth [8, 79, 80] 99.9
99.89
99.88
T 5.3 green, practice, performance, research, management, sustainable, rm,
model, business, result, company, chain, industry, analysis, supply, paper,
nding, student, impact, strategy
Green Supply Chain Management System [81–83] 99.9
99.86
99.85
T 5.4 development, sustainable, environment, social, research, policy, paper,
change, system, urban, resource, issue, design, ecological, city, economic,
community, approach, human, management
Human involvement in sustainable Ecological Management [84–86] 99.89
99.89
99.87
T 5.5 energy, waste, impact, life, process, production, cycle, material, emission,
system, high, result, assessment, reduce, cost, base, technology, oil, gas,
analysis
Life Cycle of Energy Management System [72, 87, 88] 99.91
99.89
99.87
T 10.1 design, system, model, building, construction, environment, technology,
process, energy, base, paper, sustainable, green, datum, method, propose,
research, network, information, develop
Sustainable Technology for Construction Management [89–91] 99.9
99.87
99.82
T 10.2 food, production, system, agricultural, crop, farm, soil, agriculture, high,
plant, organic, farmer, management, increase, yield, impact, water,
practice, fertilizer, result
Smart Farming System [92–94] 93.2
88.72
87.6
T 10.3 water, ecological, area, urban, land, tourism, resource, management,
ecosystem, city, development, sustainable, change, forest, result, region,
analysis, impact, increase, natural
Smart Cities and Tourism Management System [77, 95, 96] 99.79
99.68
99.65
T 10.4 development, sustainable, environment, social, economic, policy, change,
human, resource, issue, paper, global, natural, ecological, challenge,
community, local, country, develop, future
Green Human Resource Management System [97–99] 99.92
99.91
99.91
T 10.5 energy, impact, emission, life, cycle, production, assessment, gas, fuel,
system, carbon, result, consumption, reduce, analysis, electricity, oil, cost,
process, renewable
Smart Energy Management System [100–102] 99.94
99.91
99.76
T 10.6 waste, material, process, high, water, treatment, environment, chemical,
result, plastic, property, increase, show, pollution, metal, application,
sustainable, wastewater, concrete, production
Waste Treatment Management System [103–105] 99.9
99.87
99.87
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Table 2 (continued)
Topic ID High loading terms Topic label High loading paper Contribution (%)
T 10.7 green, rm, performance, chain, practice, supply, business, management,
industry, company, innovation, research, model, product, strategy,
impact, nding, relationship, sustainable, result
Green Strategic Management for Organization [106–108] 99.92
99.92
99.92
T 10.8 indicator, research, sustainable, analysis, approach, development,
management, base, framework, assessment, paper, method, identify,
develop, policy, practice, make, company, level, result
Smart Performance Management System [109–111] 99.87
99.85
99.83
T 10.9 education, student, environment, research, health, university, behavior,
high, practice, consumer, sustainable, result, green, attitude, change,
design, perception, survey, social, school
Smart Education System [112–114] 99.92
99.88
99.87
T 10.10 energy, emission, economic, country, growth, carbon, consumption,
renewable, result, development, policy, run, eect, long, increase,
nancial, ecological, impact, quality, variable
Impact of Energy for Economic Development [115–117] 99.94
99.94
99.94
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from the sustainability journal by MDPI, which has 109 H-Index and 3.8 impact factor. On the other hand, the Journal of
Cleaner Production (JCP) is one of the leading journals in Elsevier, having 137 articles on environmental sustainability.
In addition, JCP has a 309 H-Index and an 11.07 impact factor.
Countries that are contributing to environmental sustainability are shown in Fig.7. Every country is connected based
on its interconnection in terms of its publications. Figure7 depicts the connection between countries. All countries are
connected based upon interconnection, and this interconnection is calculated with link strength. The United States has
a maximum number of articles.
The USA has the leading publication with 621 articles, while China follows with 503 documents. Further India has 377
articles, the United Kingdom published 358 papers, and in the top 5 countries, Italy published 308 documents. Table3
represents the top countries in terms of their publications and citations.
Researchers’ contributions play an essential role in every aspect, so the top 10 researchers are depicted in Fig.8 for this
eld. For example, Azapagic, A. is a leading author with 26 publications and belongs to the School of Chemical Engineer-
ing and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
When you use keyword analysis, it is much easier to nd topics, trends, and the progress of academic work in a par-
ticular eld. Researchers can gain insights into current and upcoming areas of interest by studying the distribution of
keywords and how often they appear in dierent papers. By employing this strategy, students can assess their perfor-
mance and gain a holistic view of their learning environment. While doing literature reviews, keyword analysis also proves
9
122
444
627
212
259 266
392
492
666
534
Fig. 5 Year publication analysis
205
137
124
91
45
37
36
33
28
27
169
309
179
67
353
183
243
147
82
91
Sustainability
Journal of Cleaner Production
Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Earth and Environmental Science
Science of the Total Environment
Ecological Indicators
Journal of Environmental Management
Business Strategy and the Environment
Environment, Development and Sustainability
Sustainable Development
H-IndexCount
Fig. 6 Dominating journals analysis
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Fig. 7 Country wise analysis and network
Table 3 Countries’
contribution based upon
publication and citation
Ranking based on publication Ranking based upon citation
Rank Country TP Citation Rank Country TC Citation
1 United States 621 15,533 1 United States 621 15,533
2 China 503 7462 2 United Kingdom 358 8173
3 India 377 2298 3 China 503 7462
4 United Kingdom 358 8173 4 Australia 248 5876
5 Italy 308 5367 5 Italy 308 5367
Fig. 8 Author-wise analysis
26
21
19 19
17
15 14
12 12 11
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to be very useful. Not only does it help scholars nd essential publications, but it also points them towards studies that
are relevant to their area. The most highly rated term is shown in Fig.9. One can map the intellectual structure of a given
subject by using keyword analysis, a strong tool.
6.2 Parameters oftopic solutions
The loadings for two, ve, and ten-topic solutions have been acquired by deploying the LDA model and are presented
in Table2. The selection of two, ve, and ten-topic solutions is based on k-means clustering and is inuenced by the
previous studies. The coherence score plays an essential role in nding the semantic similarity between the topic’s key
terms; ideally, a 0.3 to 0.6 coherence value is considered a good score [118]. In this study, coherence values achieved
are good; for two topic solutions, 0.56; for ve topics, 0.61; and for ten topic solutions, 0.49 coherence value is reached.
Therefore, ve topic solutions are considered optimal based on coherence value. Each topic solution’s preeminence is
further bolstered by the number of articles it touches on. The number of publications that were made each year for each
answer to a specic question is summarised in Table4.
When narrowed down to just two, the initial choices will provide a high-level overview of the core research areas
extensively covered by the researchers who contributed to the collected research material. Furthermore, the researchers
have delved into the research domains in ve dierent topic solutions. This is why researchers have detailed the study
topics investigated throughout ve other answers to this problem. The ve-topic answer has expanded to a ten-topic
solution, and new elds have emerged to study trends in environmental sustainability.
7 Research areas
Topics T2.1 and T2.2 illustrate the central research zones examined and discovered using the two-topic solution. The
authors and domain experts label the extracted topics manually. The experts analyzed the keywords of each topic, and
based on their relevance to the topics, their labeling was executed. The keywords and their loadings were extracted
while applying LDA to the two-topic solution. To illustrate which articles and keywords are most relevant to each topic,
LDA displays the results of its topic extraction process. High-loading keywords are used in the labeling process. The
Fig. 9 Keyword analysis
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terms retrieved are listed under the headings T2.1, T2.2, etc., and the table shows the labeling conducted for each topic
solution (there are ve and ten total).
7.1 Defining thelabels fortopic solution
The two-topic solution presents an abstract view of the literature dataset and divides it into “Waste Management
System” (T2.1) and “Green Technology” (T2.2). These two signicant labels depict the research areas the researchers have
extensively explored. These areas encompass analyzing dierent methods or practices followed to save the environment.
The keywords and their corresponding labels are depicted in Table2. Also, note that the entire set of keywords extracted
under one topic can’t be entirely suggestive for the labeling process. Thus, the labeling is a widened and broadened
process that counts the total cumulative indication rather than specically representative.
7.2 Five‑topic solution: research areas
Then, ve topic solutions are developed from the two subject solutions that illustrate the core research areas, which are
the ones that are analyzed in depth. Again playing an important role, the keywords were considered while developing
the ve-topic response. Labeling is complete after keywords are extracted for use. Once the identied themes have been
tagged with the appropriate keyword loading values, they can predict and display the primary research areas that have
been substantially investigated in environmental sustainability. This becomes feasible after matching theme labels with
keyword labels. Further, the researchers have endeavored to map the identied stigmas under the appropriated core
research zones (T2.1) and (T2.2). Figure10 illustrates the active research areas in chronological order.
7.3 Ten topic solution: research trends
To examine what kinds of patterns may be gleaned from the highlighted keywords, it’s necessary to quantify the
number of topics recovered by the LDA topic model. The ten-point approach also generated in-depth study tendencies
in environment sustainability. The ten-topic process brings up some well-known and expected issues, uncovers, and
brings to light previously unnoticed study patterns. As a result, the ten areas are already well-studied and could benet
from additional research, as represented in Table2.
Table 4 Year-wise publication analysis for 2, 5, and 10 topic solutions
T-ID 1976–1990 1991–2000 2001–2010 2011–2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Total
2.1 4 38 162 219 86 90 101 170 182 234 163 1449
2.2 5 84 282 408 126 169 165 222 310 432 371 2574
5.1 0 31 78 81 34 28 48 55 62 80 56 553
5.2 0 3 10 5 8 13 15 25 74 125 171 449
5.3 0 2 48 130 48 70 58 108 97 150 100 811
5.4 5 79 236 281 72 91 91 99 141 171 95 1361
5.5 4 7 72 130 50 57 54 105 118 140 112 849
10.1 0 1 46 63 20 22 28 51 52 56 32 371
10.2 0 11 22 34 14 9 17 24 26 38 26 221
10.3 0 21 66 55 18 15 33 30 30 59 32 359
10.4 5 71 163 180 43 69 47 55 78 82 46 839
10.5 0 5 36 78 24 31 31 54 46 73 49 427
10.6 0 1 15 53 25 29 23 52 46 65 54 363
10.7 0 0 16 53 25 29 23 52 46 65 54 363
10.8 0 5 43 64 23 34 28 37 42 60 36 372
10.9 0 0 27 52 20 18 28 32 45 51 38 311
10.10 0 3 6 4 5 7 9 19 67 118 167 405
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7.4 Research question 1: what are thecommon research areas examined bytheresearchers?
Sustainable development derives from realizing that a nation’s prosperity depends on more than its monetary wealth;
it also requires a favorable natural environment and social structure [119]. The notion is that economic expansion is
irrational if environmental dangers are not controlled. If we permanently harm the environment or deplete current
natural resources, the capacity of future generations to meet their own needs will be compromised. Consequently,
sustainable development is concerned with the coordinated management of the economy and the environment
to ensure intergenerational equity [120]. The common areas that the researchers examine are waste management
systems and Green Technology.
7.4.1 Waste management system
The amount of garbage humans produce is enormous, permeating our food supply, drinking water, and home
soil. The United Nations estimates annual global solid trash collection totals 11.2 billion tonnes, virtually entirely
attributable to human activity [121]. Consequently, it must not only manage this trash but also develop solutions for
doing so in a sustainable manner. Collecting, transporting, processing, or disposing of, managing, and monitoring
various waste items is known as “waste management.” Practicing sustainability in this area ensures that trash is
dealt with effectively and is environmentally friendly rather than being dumped carelessly [122]. Sustainable waste
management seeks to minimize environmental impact by maximizing recycling and reusing materials culled from the
environment. Maintaining sustainability is essential for the sake of the planet and future generations. A sustainable
waste management system needs feedback loops, centers on processes, exhibits adaptability, and redirects trash
away from landfills. A lot of communities are doing a lot of research in the waste management field. Some of the
solutions which have been provided till now are as follows:
• Paperless Systems: Replace paper with policies that promote digital material, the Internet, and cloud storage for
individuals and organizations [123].
• Incinerate waste: Waste incineration is polluting yet produces heat and electricity. If you cannot recycle your
garbage, burn it [124].
• Reduce, reuse, recycle: Recycling saves energy, keeps materials out of landfills and incinerators, and provides
raw materials [125]. When feasible, reuse items like plastic bottles. Reusing protects the environment by keeping
products out of landfills.
553
449
811
1361
849
13.75 11.16 20.16 33.83 21.10
Agriculture
Management System
Energy Consumption
and Economic Growth
Green Supply Chain
Management System
Human involvement
in sustainable
Ecological
Management
Life Cycle of Energy
Management System
Count Percentage
Fig. 10 Percentage of article loaded for 5-topic solution
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• Compost your food: Composting is an eco-friendly way to dispose of trash. Compost bins can recycle leftover
vegetables, fruits, tea bags, eggshells, coffee filters, and pizza boxes [126].
• Anaerobic digestion of waste: Anaerobic digestion is similar to composting but without oxygen. Anaerobic digestion
ferments trash and sludge without oxygen. Bacteria live in sealed garbage or materials [127].
• Waste Collection Systems: Every individual, business, organization, and government should be responsible for waste
collection. Garbage trucks collect domestic waste from each source [128].
7.4.2 Green technology
Human civilization invents and uses technologies to ease daily tasks. Technology’s limited use harms the environment
and human civilization. New eco-friendly technology can support the current lifestyle’s daily activities. Due to increased
knowledge and advances in energy management research, new technologies are more ecient and environmentally
benign. These are green technologies. Green technology includes energy eciency, recycling, health and safety,
renewable resources, etc. [129]. There is a growing consensus that cutting-edge green supply and value chains must
incorporate green technology. Green technology research and development should aim to improve sustainability
without requiring radical shifts in how authors think about and use technology [130]. Environmental, eco-technology
and green technology are part of the same cluster that connects the gap between conventional practices and ecological
dependability. Green technology has developed due to merging environmental consciousness with technological
management. Green technology’s most essential and central aspect is its emphasis on long-term viability [131]. The
current research areas in Green Technology towards environment sustainability are Wastewater treatment, Elimination
of industrial emissions, Recycling and waste management, Self-sucient buildings, Waste-to-Energy, Zero-emissions
vehicles, Solar power harnessing, and Vertical farming.
• Wastewater treatment: Few technological advances exist in this area of wastewater treatment, yet they’re crucial. Key
advancements include membrane ltration, microbial fuel cells, nanotechnology, biological therapies, and wetlands.
All these procedures make water drinkable or minimize contaminants in the sea and river water [132].
• Eliminating industrial emissions: As emissions specialists, enterprises may lower the greenhouse eect by managing
air pollution. Methane and CO2 destroy the environment. Therefore, chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and
automobile industries must minimize pollutants to protect the environment [133].
• Recycling and waste management: Disproportionate increases in household and industrial trash. Companies and
individuals manage solid waste [134]. Smart containers, food waste tracking systems, and automated optical scanning
can sort mixed plastics.
• Self-sucient buildings: Self-sucient structures generate energy without external input. Intelligent solar tracking
systems can increase photovoltaic panel production by optimizing radiation consumption [135].
• Waste-to-energy plants burn municipal solid waste (MSW) to generate power. MSW includes paper, plastics, yard
garbage, and wood products [136].
• Zero-emissions vehicle: Zero-emission vehicles don’t produce harmful emissions during operation. Harmful emissions
harm the environment or human health [137].
• Solar power harnessing: Using photovoltaic (PV) panels or mirrors that concentrate solar radiation, solar technologies
turn sunlight into electrical energy. This energy can be stored in batteries or thermal storage or used to create power
[138].
• Vertical farming: Soilless farming methods, including hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics, are frequently used
in this practice, as is controlled-environment agriculture, the goal of which is to maximize plant development [139].
7.4.3 Smart education
Incorporating smart education into environmental sustainability is a powerful catalyst, inuencing the development and
organization of research and intellectual frameworks. This method employs digitalization, data analytics, and interactive
learning experiences to improve environmental literacy and promote active participation. It promotes interdisciplinary
interactions amongenvironmental science, education technology, and sustainability studies, overcoming barriers
between disciplines. Incorporatingintelligent schooling is progressively acknowledged as a pivotal approach for fostering
modications in behavior and propelling sustainable development endeavors. Environmental concerns and solutions
are taught to learners through digital learning tools, online courses, gamied platforms, and virtual reality simulations.
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Smart education integration holds excellent potential for furthering research, promoting intellectual collaboration, and
catalyzing signicant change toward a more sustainable future.
The research conducted by the Agriculture Management System mostly centers around sustainable agricultural
practices such as precision farming, organic farming, and integrated pest management. The goal is to improve crop
yields while reducing negative environmental eects. Current developments involve using the Internet of Things (IoT)
and Articial Intelligence (AI) to oversee crops’ well-being and enhance resource allocation eciency. The study examines
the correlation between energy consumption and economic growth, specically focusing on energy eciency, the shift
toward renewable energy sources, and the role of policies. The primary emphasis lies on the economic advantages derived
from the adoption of renewable energy, including the creation of employment opportunities and the enhancement of
energy security. The research on Green Supply Chain Management Systems primarily aims to include sustainable practices
in supply chain operations. This includes minimizing carbon footprints, enhancing resource eciency, and assuring
sustainable sourcing and waste management. The study also examines the principles of circular economy and the use
of blockchain technology to provide transparency and traceability. The research on sustainable ecological management
emphasizes the active participation of humans through community engagement, policy formulation, and educational
activities to promote sustainable practices. Current trends include citizen scientic projects, participatory techniques,
behavioral treatments, and incentive structures. The Life Cycle of Energy Management Systems research encompasses
all stages of energy systems, aiming to maximize energy eciency, minimize emissions, and advance the adoption of
renewable energy technology. Eorts are underway to improve lifecycle assessment approaches to assess environmental
implications and create sustainable solutions for energy storage.
7.5 Research question 2: what are various technologies orpractices adopted forenvironmental
sustainability?
Every country is working to achieve Environmental sustainability goals. Environmental sustainability means maintaining
the natural world, preserving the environment’s ability to support human life, and ensuring that humans use the
environment without harming it. It asks how economic development aects the environment.
7.5.1 Electric technology inenvironmental sustainability
Solar Technology in Environmental Sustainability: Harmful substances are released into the atmosphere due to the
combustion of fossil fuels and their by-products. Protecting the world’s ecosystems and natural resources is at the heart
of sustainable practices [140]. This plan would ensure the safety of all people on Earth. The careless consumption of
natural resources and their overexploitation can lead to ecological catastrophes. Sustainable development requires using
nite resources until they can be replaced [141]. Studying Photovoltaic Devices, Solar Heating and Cooling Technology,
Concentrating Solar Power, and Solar Energy Conservation can all lead to novel insights [142].
7.5.2 Energy conservation technologies inenvironmental sustainability
The importance of energy sources will continue to be discussed over the next few decades as more people grasp the
benet of using energy technologies to support sustainable energy development rather than obtaining energy from
non-renewable sources [143]. It’s also a rapidly growing technology that oers ecient, safe, ecologically friendly, cheap
energy extraction, conversion, transportation, storage, and usage, with minimal side eects on humans, nature, and the
environment [144].
7.5.3 Information technology inenvironmental sustainability
The growth of the information technology sector since the 1960s has helped raise standards of living worldwide. While
the proliferation of IT has undoubtedly improved our quality of life, it has also produced a substantial amount of electronic
trash and used considerable energy [145]. E-waste is the fastest-growing element of municipal solid waste, making
its disposal a global public health and environmental challenge [146]. E-waste includes abandoned excess, obsolete,
or damaged electronics. One of the research studies predicts the international e-waste management business will be
worth $143,870 million by 2028 [147]. Demand and scarcity have driven up rare metal prices. Technologies like E-Waste
Management and Smart Devices are helping with environmental sustainability.
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7.5.4 Green technology inenvironmental sustainability
Sustainability is central to discussing green technologies and the environment. Researchers from various elds, including
energy, agriculture, waste management, and economics, have studied recent advances in bioenergy, nanotechnology,
green chemistry, bioremediation, and degraded land restoration as part of their analysis of green technology [148].
Experts agree that various problems, including detrimental energy policy, climate change, deforestation, soil degradation,
and excessive resource usage, must be solved to attain sustainability on our planet [149]. The researchers believe everyone
should do their part to accelerate the research, development, and implementation of green technologies to help us attain
this sustainability [150]. Tourism, transportation, human resources, the service sector, and the supply chain are just a few
businesses that use Green Technology.
7.5.5 Nuclear technology inenvironmental sustainability
The energy density of nuclear power and its internalization of the costs associated with human health and the
environment place it in a powerful competitive position from the perspective of sustainable development [151]. Nuclear
power has a more signicant benecial impact on the surrounding environment compared to other available choices.An
analysis of nuclear energy’s properties within the context of sustainable development reveals that its approach aligns
with sustainable development’s primary objective, which is to hand down various assets to future generations while
minimizing environmental impacts and burdens [152]. This can be deduced from the fact that sustainable development
aims to achieve.
7.5.6 Recycling innovations inenvironmental sustainability
Fast trash creation and accumulation are issues plaguing emerging countries due to rapid urbanization and
industrialization, rising populations, ineective government policies, and rapid population expansion [153]. Due to
a lack of eco-friendly environmental procedures, resources, or technical ability, processing trash at disposal sites in
developing nations is becoming increasingly challenging. Rather than adequately sorted and recycled, most waste in
underdeveloped countries ends up in landlls, contributing to global warming by releasing greenhouse gases [154].
Recycling and composting are helpful since they reduce garbage production while yielding valuable by-products.
Enforcement of strict legislation increased public awareness, and innovative and cutting-edge waste management
systems are all essential to reducing the rising threat of solid waste in emerging countries [155].
7.5.7 Construction technology inenvironmental sustainability
Green construction or sustainable construction technology is one of the technologies that help environmental
sustainability [156]. Green building practices often entail the use of energy-ecient technology. Because wood has a
lower embodied energy than steel or concrete, constructing with wood is an example of a sustainable building technique
[157]. Sustainable design is quickly becoming a mainstream movement in the building industry. Using green technology
in buildings has many positive eects and may signicantly improve both new and old buildings [158]. In the future,
everyone will use the same set of materials and technologies to create environmentally sustainable homes, like cool
roofs, green insulation, biodegradable materials, rammed earth brick, storm water management, geothermal heating,
solar power, electrochromic smart glass, smart appliances, and a zero-energy home.
7.6 Research question 3: what research areas demanded themaximum observance fromtheresearchers?
Modern company growth necessitates a global response. Corporate sustainable practices should value all stakeholders
by ensuring ethical, social, cultural, economic, and environmental eects [159]. The evolving world order increased
concern for ecology, while materialism made sustainable growth a fantasy. Sympathizing with sustainability challenges
requires humans to consider the long-term eects of their actions, whether deliberate or not. Corporate sustainable
development cannot be achieved unless greedy creatures live peacefully with nature [160]. A formidable relationship
has been seen between humans and the environment since the beginning. Even in Indian mythology, it is claimed
that humans use renewable resources for their living [161]. Indian mythology preaches and practices sustainability
for a better society. The increasing importance of sustainable development may be mirrored in the rise in academic
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research focusing on sustainable development. Because of this event, the writers were motivated to conduct survey
research, ultimately leading to environmental sustainability ndings [162]. Since the 1970s, the concept of sustainability
has become more tied to the sustainability of humans on planet earth. As a result, the denitions of sustainability
and sustainable development used most typically focus on human sustainability. This denition relates to three
interdependent goals: environmental, economic, and social. The World Commission on Environment and Development
of the United Nations dened sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Environmental sustainability encompasses a
wide range of topics, including those [163] ecological science and technology, environmental management, and related
elds [164]. These topics are signicant in preserving natural resources like water and energy. Sustainable Technology
for Construction Management, Smart Farming systems, Smart Cities and Tourism Management systems, Green Human
Resource Management systems, Smart Energy Management systems, Waste Management and Treatment systems,
Green Strategic Management for organizations, Smart Performance Management systems, Smart Education systems,
and Impact of Energy for Economic Development are ten research areas which need more attention in the eld of
environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability refers to the act of conserving and managing natural resources
and ecosystems in order to guarantee the continued existence and welfare of humanity. It highlights the importance
of achieving a harmonious equilibrium between present requirements and the capacity of future generations to fulll
their demands. The fundamental principles encompass the conservation of biodiversity, the restoration of regenerative
capacity, the practice of recycling, and the eective management of non-renewable resources. Economic sustainability
provides an economic framework that fosters enduring expansion while avoiding adverse social, environmental, and
cultural eects. Important factors encompass optimal resource utilization, environmentally-friendly corporate strategies,
and a consistent revenue stream. Social sustainability is preserving and enhancing the welfare and standard of living for
every individual in society, emphasizing equality, justice, communal advancement, and the availability of necessities.
The pillars of environmental and social sustainability are interconnected, with environmental sustainability providing
resources and ecosystem services and social sustainability ensuring that all members benet from economic and
environmental improvements. An integrated approach to sustainability is essential, as each aspect complements and
strengthens the others, establishing a sustainable system that advantages both present and future generations.
8 Research implications andfuture prospects
The key ndings of the research are as follows:
• The study utilized latent Dirichlet allocation to extract research areas in environmental sustainability from a corpus
of 4023 articles published between 1976 and 2022.
• Two, ve, and ten research topics were predicted through clustering techniques, with ve emerging research areas
identied based on coherence scores.
• The two-topic solution divided the literature dataset into ‘Waste Management System’ and ‘Green Technology,’
showcasing extensively explored research areas.
• The ve-topic solution further expanded the research areas, providing a detailed depiction of the core research topics
in environmental sustainability.
The implications of the research for future research prospects and practice are as follows:
• Future research should focus on implementing green technology across various domains, eco-system management,
water conservation, agricultural revolutions, and renewable energy resources to ensure a sustainable environment.
• Practitioners should consider adopting sustainable and green technologies and enhancing eco-system management
and water conservation practices to protect the environment and enhance ecology.
Recent developments and updates from contemporary sources are shaping the research on environmental
sustainability. The signicance of climate change and its impact on health is growing as governments and industries
acknowledge the health consequences associated with climate change. The enhancement of renewable energy sources
and the optimization of grid eciency are currently underway, with the emergence of microgrids as feasible alternatives.
Articial Intelligence is anticipated to have a pivotal role in promoting sustainability objectives. Yet, it necessitates striking
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a balance between the advantages it oers and the environmental consequences it may entail. There is a growing
interest in using nature-based solutions, such as aorestation and reforestation, to address and reduce the impacts of
climate change. The voluntary carbon market is changing as new integrity criteria are implemented to improve carbon
credits’ quality and transparency. The implementation of sustainable supply chains and reporting standards is driving
this transition. By integrating these patterns, research can enhance the ongoing academic discussion on environmental
sustainability, guaranteeing its pertinence and inuence.
9 Conclusion
The study highlights the signicance of environmental sustainability, specically focusing on practices and technology
that might promote a sustainable environment. Sustainable development seeks to decrease reliance on limited
natural resources and improve the eectiveness of new technology. The study employed natural language processing
methodologies to detect and examine research patterns in environmental sustainability. The ndings indicate that
using environmentally friendly technologies in many sectors is essential for establishing a sustainable ecosystem.
Promoting the involvement of private enterprises in creating eco-friendly goods is crucial for consumers to reduce
energy expenses and attain broader environmental objectives, such as carbon neutrality. Important suggestions comprise
the reduction of deforestation, the augmentation of renewable energy utilization, and the guarantee that the rate of
natural resource exploitation is lower than their rate of regeneration. Implementing sustainable technology, such as
ecosystem management, water conservation, agricultural improvements, and renewable energy innovations, is crucial for
safeguarding the environment. The study asserts that despite the intricate issues faced by the world, human inventiveness
and responsibility play a vital role in eectively resolving and alleviating them. The Acquisition of sustainable and green
technologies, eco-system management, water conservation, agricultural revolutions, and discoveries in renewable energy
resources will protect the environment. Authors conclude, “Regardless of how complicated the world’s issues may appear,
humans are responsible for their emergence, and they cannot be beyond our ability to solve at this time.”
Author contributions Author 1: Chetan Sharma The author collected the data from Scopus and preprocessed the data for further analysis of
data using Python. An experiment is conducted by the author on Google Colab using Python language. He also contributed as a writer of the
paper. Author 2: Dr. Sunil Kumar The author contributed to topic selection, string formulation, following the PRISMA guidelines, and writing
the paper. Author 3: Mr. Shamneesh Sharma The author contributed to drawing the diagram and graphs. He also contributed to referencing
the paper through software and discussing the research question. Author 4: Dr. Saumya Sharma The author contributed to writing the paper,
diagram and tables. Author 5: Eshaq Ahmad Omarkhail The author contributed to all proofreading and errors were removed by the author.
Funding The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.
Data availability The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.
Declarations
Competing interests The authors have no relevant nancial or non-nancial interests to disclose.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which
permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit
to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modied the licensed material.
You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third
party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the mate-
rial. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or
exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
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