Taylor & Francis reports 35% reduction in supply chain emissions and training of 70,000+ researchers in low-income region

Publisher’s first sustainable impact report showcases positive impact on society and the environment

Taylor & Francis has announced the release of its first sustainable impact report, Publishing with purpose, highlighting its commitment to sustainability, equity, and accessibility in scholarly publishing.

The report showcases the international publisher’s progress in reducing its environmental footprint, advancing equitable access to knowledge, supporting the global journey toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and creating a positive impact on local communities.

The path to net zero

Reaffirming its commitment to decarbonization and waste reduction, Taylor & Francis outlines significant progress in sustainable digital publishing, plastic-free packaging, and optimizing its book supply chain. Key achievements include:

• 35% reduction in print supply chain emissions since 2019.
• Transitioning over 90% of journal titles to plastic-free mailing, up from 60% in 2021.
• Printing 80% of book titles on demand, reducing overproduction and eliminating 100,000 book returns annually.

Championing sustainable development

The report underscores Taylor & Francis’ role in fostering human progress through knowledge by publishing research and ideas that can improve lives. In every publishing portfolio, from education and social justice to science and medicine, a vast range of specialist resources are helping to advance the SDGs and tackle today’s greatest challenges, including:

• Over 300,000 articles and 16,000 books since 2020 focused on the themes of the SDGs, with over 33% of content published each year addressing at least one SDG.
• 28,930 Taylor & Francis articles cited in policy documents by organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, directly influencing strategies to address poverty, health, and climate change.
• 35% of SDG research is now published open access, up from 19% in 2019.

Equity and participation in publishing

With the goal of enhancing access to research, Taylor & Francis outlines a range of initiatives that are bringing down barriers to knowledge, such as income or visual impairment. Since 2020, the publisher has delivered £17 million in value through access initiatives, including:

• Providing free eBook access to over 90,000 visually impaired students.
• Offering low-cost subscriptions to institutions in 120 countries via Research4Life.
• Supporting independent researchers and professionals in low-income countries through 15 years of the STAR program, offering free access to journal articles.

Taylor & Francis also supports researchers in resource-constrained regions to publish their own work, with initiatives such as:

• Training 70,000 researchers in publishing and peer review since 2020.
• Waiving or discounting 18,000 open access article publishing charges for researchers in low-income countries since 2020.
• Achieving a 33% increase in articles by researchers from low-income countries between 2020 and 2025.

Supporting communities

The final section of the impact report illustrates the direct involvement of Taylor & Francis staff in their local communities through fundraising, charity partnerships, donations, and volunteering. Examples highlighted include:

• Collaborating with the National Federation of the Blind of India to provide accessible learning materials for 20,000 visually impaired students.
• Delivering 1,300+ hours of Chapter One reading sessions for children in the UK and USA, improving literacy and confidence.
• Planting 3,000 saplings in Bengaluru through the Green Prints program, fostering environmental stewardship.
• Raising over £200,000 for local charities through the annual Walk the World initiative.

Stuart Blackley, Executive Vice President of Operations at Taylor & Francis, said: “This new report highlights the remarkable progress achieved by colleagues across the organization with a shared commitment to building a sustainable and inclusive future. By reducing our environmental footprint, championing equitable access to knowledge, and supporting the global journey toward the SDGs, we are proud to play a meaningful role in addressing the urgent challenges of our time.”

 

How a strange fruit fly became a bloodthirsty underwater hunter

Lund University

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A carnivorous fruit fly living in bubbling African streams may sound like a fever dream. However, with the help of DNA analysis of a pinned insect from a museum in Zurich, researchers have managed to draw an evolutionary map of a mysterious species that has not been seen since 1981.

Researchers at Lund University have successfully mapped the genome of one of the world’s most unusual fruit flies - Drosophila enhydrobia. Unlike its well-known relatives in the kitchen, its larvae live entirely underwater, in flowing streams where they actively hunt other insects.

“We’re talking about a fruit fly that has completely turned its lifestyle upside down. From feeding on yeast and rotting fruit, it has become a specialised predator in running water,” says Marcus Stensmyr, biology researcher at Lund University, who led the study.

Since the aquatic predator has not been observed in the wild since 1981, the researchers had to turn to a natural history museum in Switzerland to track down the fruit fly. Using modern DNA techniques, the research team managed to extract and analyse an almost complete genome from an old, pinned specimen - without destroying it. The results show that Drosophila enhydrobia is not an “evolutionary loner” but belongs to a group of flies associated with water-adjacent environments, mainly in South Asia.

“What at first looked like an evolutionary mystery turned out to be an extreme elaboration of something that already existed. That makes the story both more understandable and, in a way, even more fascinating,” says Marcus Stensmyr.

The study reveals clear genetic adaptations to the fly’s unusual lifestyle. Its genome has been “trimmed” of several gene families linked to smell, taste, and metabolism. At the same time, the results suggest that the remaining sensory genes have become more specialised.

“It’s as if it has fewer tools in the toolbox, but the tools that remain are all the more finely tuned for this particular environment,” says Hamid Ghanavi, biology researcher at Lund University.

Beyond the evolutionary insights, the research also highlights the value of natural history museums. Collections of old, seemingly insignificant specimens can, with today’s technology, yield entirely new knowledge about biodiversity and the evolution of life. The study also shows that species not seen for decades can still contribute to research - and to our understanding of how organisms change over time.

“We have only just begun to scratch the surface of what is hidden in museum collections. With continued technological advances, they may become important for understanding both evolution and how species are affected by future environmental changes,” concludes Marcus Stensmyr.

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Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2026.04.024 

Article Title

Chemosensory evolution in the aquatic predator Drosophila enhydrobia

Article Publication Date

5-May-2026

 

Chilean wasp named in honor of Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday

Taylor & Francis Group

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Attenboroughnculus tau © Trustees of the Natural History Museum

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Credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum

• A new species of wasp originally from Chile has been named for science
• The name, Attenboroughnculus tau, honours Sir David Attenborough on his 100th birthday
• The new species has been identified from a specimen housed at London’s Natural History Museum.

Scientists from the Natural History Museum, London have described a new genus and species of parasitic wasp found within the Museum’s collections, and named it as a birthday present for Sir David Attenborough.

The study, led by Dr Gavin R. Broad, Principal Curator, Insects, Natural History Museum London gives new insights into one of the least understood groups of wasps and highlights the scientific value of museum collections.

The name Attenboroughnculus tau pays tribute to Sir David Attenborough, whose work has inspired generations, including many of those working at the Museum, to appreciate and protect the natural world. The naming coincides with Sir David’s 100th birthday on May 8 and reflects his profound influence on biodiversity research and public engagement with science. The species name tau refers to a striking ‘T’ shaped marking on the insect’s abdomen.

Attenborough has famously highlighted parasitoid wasps in his documentaries, including memorable sequences in The Trials of Life, where he described them as ‘body snatcher wasps.’ His storytelling has brought attention to organisms that are often overlooked due to their small size or unusual life histories.

Dr Gavin Broad said, ‘When I was far too young, I learnt about taxonomy from David Attenborough’s “Life on Earth” series and resolved to be a taxonomist. Amazingly, I ended up a taxonomist, so I have Sir David to thank for that.’

The newly described insect is both a new species and a new genus because it is so distinct from its closest relatives that it cannot logically fit into any established genus. It measures just 3.5 millimetres in body length and was originally collected in 1983 in the Valdivia Province of Chile, a country Attenborough has featured the diverse and extreme landscapes of in several of his documentaries.

Despite being collected over 40 years ago the wasp’s unusual characteristics were only recently spotted by volunteer Augustijn De Ketelaere whilst they were undertaking a detailed examination of the ichneumonid collections. Researchers then identified a unique combination of anatomical traits that separate it from previously known genera including a strongly curved abdominal segment, subtle toothlike structures on the ovipositor, which is used to deposit eggs, and unique wing and leg morphology. Its discovery increases the number of known genera in this rare subfamily to four.

The discovery of Attenboroughnculus tau serves to highlight the value of museum collections. As the Natural History Museum continues to digitise and work towards the NHM Unlocked programme, which will deliver a new collections, science and digitisation centre, it is hoped that these efforts to revisit and reexamine could reveal countless new species, particularly among insects and other small organisms.

Attenborough fans visiting the Museum can enjoy Our Story with David Attenborough, the Museum’s first ever immersive experience until August. In the experience Sir David draws on his lifetime of exploration to tell the incredible tale of people and planet. And as summer approaches and visitors enjoy our recently reimagined gardens, they will also see a quote from Attenborough installed in bronze lettering "The future of the natural world, on which we all depend, is in our hands." a message is echoed in the naming of this new genus of tiny wasp.

Jennifer Pullar, Science Communications Manager at the Natural History Museum, London, and co-author concluded “We hope to inspire global scientists to take another look in their collections to see if there is something small that could contribute to our collective understanding and therefore the future of our natural world.”

The paper, The description of a new genus of Pedunculinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) from Chile and a key to the world genera, is published in the Journal of Natural History.

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Journal

Journal of Natural History

DOI

10.1080/00222933.2026.2663058 

Article Title

The description of a new genus of Pedunculinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) from Chile and a key to the world genera

Article Publication Date

7-May-2026

 

International scientists urge urban planners to stop burying rivers to build cities

Freshwater wildlife has collapsed by 84 per cent in recent decades - and urban planners are a critical missing link in the effort to reverse it

University of Portsmouth

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Urban planners hold a critical but untapped power to reverse the collapse of freshwater biodiversity, a team of international scientists has warned. 

Rivers, wetlands and ponds cover just 2.3 per cent of the Earth's land surface but support a third of all animal species. In cities - where freshwater has been buried, channelled in concrete, and floodplains built over - ecosystems face the most intense pressure of all. 

Freshwater animal populations have declined by an estimated 84 per cent in recent decades, a greater collapse than that seen in either marine or land environments. 

A new paper, published in the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, says that the professionals responsible for day-to-day land-use decisions in urban areas hold the key to protect and restore these important habitats. 

Lead author Dr Helen Currie, from the University of Portsmouth's Centre for Blue Governance, said: “Our rivers, ponds and wetlands have been treated as plumbing for decades - nuisances to be controlled rather than living ecosystems to be valued. Urban planners are uniquely placed to help fix this problem, if we give them the knowledge and support to act.” 

Only 37 per cent of the world's longest rivers remain free flowing along their entire length. Global wetland loss is occurring at 1.6 per cent a year - more than three times the rate of forest loss. 

The research team - made up of experts from 16 institutions across the world - identified six actions needed to mobilise urban planners as allies in freshwater conservation. 

These include equipping them to value biodiversity; supporting community involvement; breaking down barriers in planning education; improving knowledge exchange between planners and ecologists; developing enforceable standards and policies; and addressing gaps in practical scientific guidance. 

Co-author Professor Steven Cooke of Carleton University, Canada, said: “The planner working in a local authority has more power to protect freshwater life than most people realise. What's missing is the systemic commitment to train them in freshwater ecology and give them the policy frameworks to act.” 

Cities from Seoul to Vancouver are already showing what is possible. In South Korea, a buried urban stream was restored after a motorway above it was demolished, boosting both biodiversity and community wellbeing. In Vancouver, nature-based stormwater systems have been integrated into urban design alongside indigenous community engagement. 

In England, mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain was introduced two years ago. Under the rules, most new developments must deliver at least a 10 per cent uplift in biodiversity value, including a dedicated water metric for sites within 10 metres of a freshwater body or a riparian zone. 

While a step in the right direction, the authors warn the policy places significant demands on local planning authorities that often lack ecological expertise or resources. 

Co-author Professor Irene Gregory-Eaves from McGill University, Canada, said: “We already know how to build cities differently - there are inspiring examples on every continent. What's missing is the commitment to train planners in freshwater ecology and to give them the policy frameworks to act on it.” 

The study also presents a vision of what a city designed from the ground up with waterways and ecology in mind could look like. Stormwater ponds could be managed as biodiverse wetlands rather than overflow tanks, floodplains reconnected so rivers have room to function, and buried streams 'daylighted' and returned to community life. 

"Housing, roads, parks and industry should be planned in harmony with the freshwater landscape,” explained Dr Currie. “We recommend ecologists and communities are brought in from the outset rather than as afterthoughts. That way they can work collaboratively with planning experts, to ensure our cities and towns are built for all creatures, great and small.” 

ENDS 

Notes to editors 

Paper: 'Urban planning to support the conservation of freshwater biodiversity', Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2026, is available to view here:  

DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2026.2638827 

Full author list: Helen A.L. Currie, Andrea E. Kirkwood, Jack G. Imhof, Morgan L. Piczak, Irena F. Creed, Nicolas W.R. Lapointe, Nicholas E. Mandrak, Sarah E. Null, Jon S. Harding, Rebecca C. Rooney, John P. Smol, Elizabeth A. Nyboer, Irene Gregory-Eaves, Michael Stone, Charles H. Nilon, Joseph R. Bennett, Trina Rytwinski, Colin D. Meurk, John E. Fitzgibbon, and Steven J. Cooke 

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Journal

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

DOI

10.1080/09640568.2026.2638827 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Urban planning to support the conservation of freshwater biodiversity

Article Publication Date

6-May-2026

 

Deforestation lessens Amazon rainfall, and climate change hastens that process

As climate change intensifies, deforestation from agriculture may leave crops with too little rainfall to thrive

American Geophysical Union

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WASHINGTON — Climate change makes the southern Amazon’s rain increasingly sensitive to deforestation, a new study finds. Clearing large areas of forest can trigger severe and lasting reductions in rainfall regardless of climate, but as the Amazon warms and dries, that “tipping point” arrives at ever lower levels of deforestation. 

This presents a conundrum for the expansion of Amazonian agriculture, which has cleared about a fifth of the region’s forests in the past 50 years but also depends on consistent rainfall. In the context of climate change, the authors write, deforestation limits once thought sufficient to maintain hydrological stability may no longer be enough. Warming is predicted to make the Amazon drier.  

“The way I see this is like the snake eating its own tail,” said Eduardo Maeda, an Earth system scientist at the University of Helsinki and senior author on the study. “Our results demonstrate to producers in the south of the Amazon that their activities are impacting their profits and their future.” 

The study will appear Thursday, May 7 in Geophysical Research Letters, AGU’s journal for high-impact, innovative, and timely articles on major advances across the geosciences. 

For rainforests, size matters  

Currently, Maeda said, laws prohibit landowners in Amazon forest areas from deforesting more than 20% of their land. “That is not enough,” he said. “We need to do more.” In a worst-case warming scenario, his team estimates, maintaining current annual rainfall in areas larger than 210 square kilometers would require limiting deforestation to no more than 10% of that area. 

Doing so would not only conserve the Amazon’s biodiversity and carbon-sequestering capacity and help prevent wildfires, all of which take cues from rain and temperature — it would also protect the agricultural livelihoods driving deforestation in the first place. If annual rainfall fell even 4%, it could cut Amazonian soybean yields by up to 8%.  

Those consequences owe to the delicate relationship between forests and rain, which doesn’t follow the same playbook in every instance. In small doses, deforestation can actually bring more rain. Clearing trees from a patch of land makes the air hotter, Maeda explained. That heat, rising, pumps moisture emitted from the surrounding forest into the sky over the deforested area, where it condenses and falls as rain. 

Clear a massive swath, however, and you’ll get the opposite: if not enough forest remains to supply moisture, rainfall over the deforested area will decline. 

“[Different] sizes of deforested area affect rainfall differently,” Maeda said. “If you deforest 80% of a small farm, but it’s surrounded by forest, it’s not a big deal. But if you deforest 80% of the whole state, then it will have a huge [impact].”  

What remained uncertain, however, was how climate change might alter the link between deforestation and rainfall in the future. To find out, the authors used a weather simulation model to estimate the effects of different climate change and deforestation scenarios on rainfall. They focused their analysis on a hotspot of agricultural growth in the southern Amazon where forest cover continues to dwindle while croplands and pasturelands expand. 

Saving the rain 

In all land area sizes the team considered, climate change caused rainfall to become more sensitive to deforestation. In a 90-by-90-kilometer area fixed at the climate conditions of 2005 to 2014, for instance, they found that rainfall starts to decline once half the land has no forest. In this case, projected deforestation by 2050 cuts annual rainfall by 1.7%. 

Add the warming of a low-emissions future into the mix, however, and things start drying up once 45% of the land lies bare, with up to almost 14% less rainfall by 2050. In a high-emissions scenario, only 10% of the land need be treeless before annual rainfall starts to dwindle, potentially declining almost 11% by mid-century.  

“As climate changes in the region, we expect the air to become warmer and drier. The moisture we had before that could be recycled [as] rainfall starts to become less and less,” Maeda explained. With less moisture available to begin with, cutting down the trees that pump that moisture into the sky to become rain takes an additional toll. Even the initial rainfall boost from small-scale deforestation gets weaker as climate change progresses, the team wrote. 

“We now have strong arguments to show that we need to increase [forest] protection,” Maeda said. “Producers need to understand the ecosystems that are supporting their activities, and to learn how to preserve them so all of us can benefit from [them].” 

Protecting the rain in a changing climate might involve alternative approaches to agriculture, such as agroforestry systems that intersperse native trees among the crops to minimize rainfall loss and heat buildup. “We already have a lot of deforested areas, so the argument is that we don’t need any more,” Maeda said. “We just need to make these areas more productive and to produce things in a way that is better integrated into the ecosystem.” 

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Notes for journalists:    

This study will be published in Geophysical Research Letters, an open access AGU journal, and is under embargo until Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 13:00 UTC. Journalists may request an embargoed copy of the study by emailing news@agu.org. The study will be available to view and download at this link after the embargo lifts: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025GL119000  

Paper title: “Climate change amplifies rainfall sensitivity to deforestation in the Southern Amazon” 

Authors:    

• Jie Zhang, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China 

• Alice Catherine Hughes, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia 

• Britado Silveira Soares-Filho, Centre for Remote Sensing, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil 

• Jose Antonio Marengo, National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters/CEMADEN, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil; Post Graduate program in Natural Disastees, UNESP/CEMADEN, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil; Graduate School of International Studies, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea 

• Eduardo Eiji Maeda, Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2, 00014 Helsinki, Finland; Finnish Meteorological Institute, FMI, Finland 

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AGU (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million professionals and advocates in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct. 

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Journal

Geophysical Research Letters

DOI

10.1029/2025GL119000 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Article Title

Climate change amplifies rainfall sensitivity to deforestation in the Southern Amazon

Article Publication Date

7-May-2026

 

Hasanuddin University study paves way for sustainable construction in sugar-producing regions

Geopolymer concrete made with sugarcane bagasse ash enhances mechanical properties while reducing carbon emissions compared to traditional cement

Hasanuddin University

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Cement production is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to around 7% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions globally. Now, a study from Hasanuddin University shows that a concrete mix with 5% sugarcane bagasse ash and polypropylene fibers significantly improves mechanical strength while reducing carbon emissions by up to 30%, offering a more sustainable option for the construction industry.

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Credit: "Vanishing point" by Paul Bica via Flickr Image source link: https://openverse.org/image/3a7b1019-1975-4193-b9a1-2a82bcfc2e41

With global population growth driving unprecedented infrastructure demand, cement production, a major carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter, requires sustainable alternatives. A study by Dr Fakhruddin from Hasanuddin University presents a greener concrete mix using sugarcane waste. Results show that Class C fly ash-based geopolymer concrete with 5% sugarcane bagasse ash replacement and polypropylene fibers improved compressive strength by 41% while reducing CO2 emissions by 25–30% compared to traditional cement.

According to the United Nations, the global population is set to reach around 10.3 billion by the mid-2080s, driving rapid urbanization and an unprecedented demand for infrastructure. But do you know that this growth comes at a cost? Energy-intensive industries which supply construction materials like steel, cement, and chemicals are undoubtedly a major source of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and industrial emissions.

Among these industries, cement remains the single largest contributor to emissions. The production of Portland cement alone generates about 7% of global CO2 emissions, largely from clinker manufacturing, where limestone is heated and releases carbon dioxide. As construction demand continues to rise, finding cleaner, more sustainable building materials has become an urgent global priority.

Now, a study by Dr. Fakhruddin, a Lecturer at Hasanuddin University, Indonesia, proposes a new type of concrete made from sugarcane waste as a sustainable alternative to conventional cementing materials. In this study, Dr. Fakhruddin studied the effect of sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA), a by-product of sugar production, when combined with fly ash and polypropylene (PP) fibers and found that it creates geopolymer concrete (GPC) with improved mechanical performance, microstructural behavior, and eco-efficiency. The study was made available online on December 13, 2025, and was published in Volume 29 of Results in Engineering on March 1, 2026.

Globally, more than 1.8 billion tons of sugarcane are processed each year, generating large quantities of SCBA. Instead of discarding, this ash can be reused as a key ingredient in GPC (which is inherently brittle and prone to cracking despite being an eco-friendly material), where it reacts with alkaline solutions to form a strong binding material. PP fibers are added to improve its strength, and they act as tiny bridges that prevent crack progression, improving the concrete's tensile strength, ductility, and crack resistance.

However, the combined effect of SCBA and PP fibers in geopolymer concrete had remained poorly understood. The current study addresses this gap by examining how these materials work together and influence the structure and performance of the concrete.

“This is the first time that SCBA and PP fibers were integrated in Class C fly ash-based GPC under ambient curing, directly linking mechanical enhancement, microstructural densification, and environmental efficiency,” says Dr. Fakhruddin, elaborating further.

Dr. Fakhruddin created three different mixtures of Class C fly ash-based GPC, replacing 0%, 5%, and 10% of the fly ash with SCBA, while keeping the fiber content at 0.6 kilograms per cubic meter. Each mixture was then evaluated for compressive, tensile, and flexural strength, and their internal structure was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. The environmental impact of the mixtures was also evaluated, considering the carbon emissions and the economic cost.

The results showed that the mix with 5% SCBA (SCBA-5) performed the best overall. It had 41% higher compressive strength, 29% higher tensile strength, and 56% higher fracture energy than the standard mix, which contained no SCBA (SCBA-0). In contrast, the mix with 10% SCBA (SCBA-10) improved the flexural strength by 9.3% but increased brittleness.

Notably, SCBA-5 also demonstrated environmental benefits, with a 52% higher strength-to-carbon ratio and 53% higher strength-to-cost ratio, while achieving a 25–30% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to conventional Portland cement concrete.

"The SCBA-5 replacement mix consistently delivered the most favorable balance of strength, ductility, and durability, making it suitable for structural applications such as low-rise buildings and non-prestressed members," says Dr. Fakhruddin, highlighting the practical relevance of this study.

Although the study did not test the long-term durability of the material, it provides a foundation for future research and real-world use. “Expanding the use of GPC can help reduce carbon emissions, lower costs, and support sustainable construction practice, aligning with a UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12): responsible consumption and production,” says Dr. Fakhruddin.

Such a concrete mix is particularly relevant in developing regions experiencing rapid urban expansion. A key example is Indonesia where the government is shifting the capital from Jakarta to Nusantara in East Kalimantan, citing concerns of flooding, overcrowding, and traffic congestion. Incorporating low-carbon construction materials could significantly reduce the environmental impact of such developments. Moreover, in sugarcane-producing regions, adoption of SCBA can also promote circular economy, creating a win-win situation by improving cost efficiency for the consumer and reducing the burden of agro-industrial waste disposal as well as emissions for the industry.  

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About Hasanuddin University, Indonesia

Hasanuddin University (Universitas Hasanuddin or Unhas) is one of Indonesia’s largest autonomous universities, located in Makassar. Established on September 10, 1956, and named after Sultan Hasanuddin of the Gowa Kingdom, the university has grown into a major center for higher education with 17 faculties, including medicine, engineering, law, agriculture, and natural sciences. Its origins date back to 1947 with an economics faculty linked to the University of Indonesia. Today, Unhas focuses on advancing science, technology, arts, and culture, with a strong emphasis on the Indonesian Maritime Continent, aiming to develop innovative and globally competitive graduates.

Learn more, here: https://www.unhas.ac.id/about/

About Dr. Fakhruddin from Hasanuddin University

Fakhruddin is a Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at Hasanuddin University, Indonesia. His skills and expertise lies in structural analysis and finite element analysis, and his research is focused on concrete structures, sustainable building materials, and the behavior of reinforced concrete beams. He received his Doctor of Engineering degree in Civil Engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan. Dr. Fakhruddin has published 13 scientific papers focusing on geopolymer mortar and fiber-reinforced polymers for strengthening and repairing reinforced concrete structures. His work aims to improve structural durability and promote sustainability in the construction sector.

Funding information

No funding was received for this study.

 

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Journal

Results in Engineering

DOI

10.1016/j.rineng.2025.108724 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Mechanical and sustainability assessment of sugarcane bagasse ash and polypropylene fiber in Class C fly ash geopolymer concrete