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The purpose of this paper is to explore the sustainability of waste supply chains regarding the energy efficiency of first-mile waste collection systems and quality of waste. Roles of actors in the waste service triad are considered, particularly focusing on households.

Primary data are collected from respondents including municipality officers, waste service providers (WSPs) and households through brainstorming sessions, semi-structured interviews, site visits and a focus group. Secondary data are collected from official reports for validation.

Findings reveal tension between the energy efficiency of waste collection logistics and the quality of waste collected. Households are co-producers of logistic services providing important inputs in the form of sorting and moving waste and raw materials into new cycles of goods circulating in logistics systems. Other actors in the logistics service triad are the municipality as regulator and the WSP acting as a reverse-logistics service provider.

This study provides principles for policymakers and practitioners to evaluate the energy efficiency of waste management options, considering the quality of waste. Also, “logistics services” and “quality of waste” as concepts might provoke new thoughts on how to involve the consumer in resource recovery.

Few studies have focused on the end-consumer’s role in waste supply chains. By considering waste as a resource and the consumer as the supplier of this input, this study provides a new way to think about logistics services for waste collection.

Service modularity promotes efficiency at the provider end of the supply chain and customisation at the customer end. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how logistics service modularity contributes to sustainable development through the means of energy efficiency. This is analysed in the context of logistics services for household waste collection.

A single case study methodology with embedded units is adopted where semi-structured interviews were conducted with a waste service provider (WSP) and buyers (municipalities) in Sweden, focussing on five types of logistics services for waste collection: collection of food and residual waste at apartments and one-family houses, as well as collection of gardening waste. Service modules are identified and analysed by blueprinting the service.

The findings show different service modules – standardised or customised – and their contribution to sustainable development operationalised through energy efficiency. Principles for an energy-centric service design are proposed.

The research is limited to Swedish household waste collection setting. Promising efficiency through standardisation, logistics service modularity has a potential to improve energy efficiency as well. This neglected link between sustainability and service modularity offers fruitful research avenues.

This research is of practical relevance to waste logistics service providers and the municipality by suggesting principles for energy-centric service design. The service blueprint enables using logistics service modularity for improving energy efficiency in different logistics service settings.

This research incorporates an environmentally sustainable development perspective into logistics service modularity and contributes to the literature by exploring how energy efficiency is improved by modular design of logistics services. Furthermore, the study is one of the first to use service blueprinting to analyse logistics service modularity, providing a methodological contribution to that field in general and logistics in particular.

This paper discusses logistics service providers' (LSPs’) energy efficiency initiatives for sustainable development, both from an evolutionary perspective and based on a framework consisting of actions, processes (i.e. at the operations interface) and services (i.e. at the customer interface).

Following a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with sustainability managers at LSPs and the data were analysed via inductive coding. Based on the results and the literature, the authors developed a maturity model for LSPs' transitions to environmental sustainability.

LSPs' sustainable development occurs via operational processes, services at the customer interface, and actions that support those processes and services. Energy efficiency efforts are characterised by process depth that helps LSPs to align with their customers' energy efficiency improvement processes. While services related to energy efficiency connect LSPs and their customers, actions in support vary depending on the logistics activities in which LSPs participate.

Further research is needed to test and verify the maturity model and to clarify the interdependency of its three dimensions.

By categorising energy efficiency initiatives and proposing a maturity model for LSPs' sustainable development via energy efficiency, the authors have developed a tool for logistics actors to assess their progress towards improved sustainability.

The paper contributes to the literature by providing a three-pillar framework to understand the sustainability transitions of LSPs through energy efficiency. Developing a maturity model using this framework also contributes to the literature with an approach to assess sustainability advancement in the logistics industry.

Flood resilience is emerging as a major component of an integrated strategic approach to flood risk management. This approach recognizes that some flooding is inevitable and aligns with the concept of “living with water.” Resilience measurement is a key in making business case for investments in resilient retrofits/adaptations, and could potentially be used to inform the design of new developments in flood prone areas. The literature is, however, sparse on frameworks for measuring flood resilience. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a fuzzy logic (FL)-based resilience measuring model, drawing on a synthesis of extant flood resilience and FL literature.

An abstraction of the flood resilience system followed by identification and characterization of systems’ variables and parameters were carried out. The resulting model was transformed into a fuzzy inference system (FIS) using three input factors: inherent resilience, supportive facilities (SF) and resident capacity.

The resulting FIS generates resilience index for households with a wide range of techno-economic and socio-environmental features.

It is concluded that the FL-based model provides a veritable tool for the measurement of flood resilience at the level of the individual property, and with the potential to be further developed for larger scale applications, i.e. at the community or regional levels.

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between parental migration and adolescents’ styles of close relationships with parents, friends and romantic partners.

In total, 197 adolescents from Cuenca (Ecuador) participated in the study, of which 35% reported a background of parental migration. The Behavioral Systems Questionnaire was used to assess participants’ relational styles.

The study reveals that, although parental migration is associated with the development of lower secure styles for parents and friends, it is not associated with the development of insecure styles. Moreover, parental migration does not appear to be associated with the development of romantic styles. Based on the differential impact of the migration of one or two parents, the migration of two parents appeared to have a stronger association with lower secure styles.

The results are discussed in light of the socio-cultural context in which parental migration occurs in Ecuador, which may offer clue variables in shaping the relational styles of adolescents. The study addresses an important consequence of migration focusing on a scarce studies group, adolescents who stay in their home country while their parents migrate. Moreover, its main findings challenge the preconceptions that parent-child separations necessarily involve a direct negative impact on relational functioning.