Nature Sustainability, Published online: 26 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01586-wGold has a vital role in human society and the global economy, but its production currently causes high levels of environmental pollution. This work reports an approach that can effectively produce gold from both primary and secondary resources without the use of toxic substances such as mercury or cyanide.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 25 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01575-zExtreme weather events will require resilient and adaptive critical infrastructure. This study models adaptive transitions in collective travel behaviour during flood events across different cities to quantify recovery and adaptive learning from failures and reveal adaptation drivers.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 24 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01584-yIrrigation is an important component of agricultural productivity, but its influence on health and nutritional outcomes—especially those of children—remains unclear. This study examines the links between irrigation expansion and child diet diversity across 26 countries in the global south.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 23 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01590-0Shutting down environmental agencies and scientific research is not just counterproductive to America’s economy and health, it is a conflict against the pursuit of truth and the principles of sound evidence and good governance.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 23 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01588-8Crude oil contains multiple valuable hydrocarbons used for material synthesis, but their separation involves a laborious and energy-intensive multistep distillation process. Now, scientists introduce a simple two-step separation of important hydrocarbons from crude oil under ambient conditions using selective chemistry.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 23 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01570-4This Review highlights how membrane technology can drive sustainability and steer industries towards a sustainable future, providing perspectives on materials, manufacturing processes and applications with respect to energy saving, process intensification and environmental impacts.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 20 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01585-xOver exploitation of the Colorado River system, a critical water supply for North America, has resulted in a steep decline in the health of native fish species. Developing strategic water markets in the Colorado River headwaters can restore habitat while conserving water resources.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 12 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01578-wHuman population growth over the past few decades has had detrimental impacts on biodiversity; however, several countries, such as Japan, are experiencing below-replacement human fertility leading to depopulation. This study examines the impact of human depopulation on biodiversity levels across Japan.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 06 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01582-0Transformation to healthier and more sustainable diets in China can generate measurable benefits for nutrition, the environment and food affordability. Integrating multidimensional sustainability goals into China’s dietary guidelines can help to align food policy with long-term societal and environmental improvements.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 04 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01579-9Developing nontoxic high-performance bio-based adhesives is of great interest from a sustainability perspective. This paper reports a high-performance, reusable, biocompatible hot-melt adhesive that is produced from xylan, a byproduct of pulp industry.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 02 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01571-3This work shows an iron molecular catalyst for water oxidation, a critical reaction for renewable energy technologies. The excellent performance of the catalyst is attributed to an intermediate dinuclear structure formed via spin crossover.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 29 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01580-2Energy models make projections for infrastructure, yet struggle to map deployment pathways at the ground level, where risks and benefits to human and natural systems materialize. A study now shows how blending in geospatial science can help to preserve natural capital while allowing for new infrastructure to be built.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 29 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01576-yNet-zero policies can put pressure on land use, which can conflict with preserving natural landscapes, cultural sites and agricultural areas. Now a study integrates national energy models with proactive and collaborative planning to design net-zero pathways that conserve natural capital and address diverse concerns.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 29 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01561-5Powering electric vehicles hinges on the availability to extract lithium from reserves. Modelling now shows the likely number of new lithium deposit openings required by 2050 if the demand for larger battery packs continues and suggests moderating battery size and improving recycling to reduce mine openings.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 28 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01569-xDespite pressure to improve the circularity of polysulfone plastic waste, upcycling polysulfones remains technically challenging. This study presents a photocatalytic method that can upcycle various polysulfones into valuable chemicals at ambient conditions.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 28 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01572-2Decarbonizing the steel industry is essential for achieving sustainable development. Here the authors propose a decarbonization strategy for the steel industry that could substantially reduce carbon emissions and is easily adaptable to existing facilities.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 27 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01577-xMarine and freshwater fisheries around the world have had stagnating stocks due to increased demands in food from a growing human population. Authors here assess how biodiversity levels of fisheries around the world can be leveraged to maximize nutrients provided with less biomass.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 26 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01568-yThe phenol industry faces a pressing sustainability challenge from the production of acetone as a by-product at a level far beyond its market. Here the authors develop an electro-biosystem that can efficiently convert such surplus acetone into valuable long-chain commodity chemicals.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 23 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01574-0The fifth negotiation round for a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution concluded without an agreed text and will resume at INC-5.2 in August 2025. Scientific evidence and inputs remain vital in informing the final stage of negotiations and ensuring the final treaty is robust and effective.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 23 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01581-1The plans to achieve a sustainable ocean economy are shaping up — it’s up to decision makers to implement them. The world is waiting.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 22 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01562-4Unconventional economic approaches with transformative potential for sustainability are too dispersed to gain sufficient traction in policy. With qualitative content analysis, this study brings coherence to many documents discussing such approaches to support efforts towards mainstreaming them.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 19 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01547-3The benefits and risks of nature to human health have been studied, however, robust empirical research on forest biodiversity and health outcomes is still lacking. Here the authors use a unique dataset from 164 European forest stands to explore the associations between forest types and well-being.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 16 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01566-0Dry-season groundwater irrigation in southern Asia increases annual agricultural productivity while monsoon rains recharge aquifers. However, groundwater irrigation rates in the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna delta exceed monsoonal recharge rates, reduce available surface freshwater and increase the risk of saltwater intrusion.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 15 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01583-zAuthor Correction: Electrode separation via water electrolysis for sustainable battery recycling

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 15 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01565-1Climate science and national emissions reporting communities have historically used different definitions and methods for anthropogenic land-based carbon removals. As the mitigation agenda accelerates, reconciling these differences for comparability and moving towards integration is crucial for enhancing confidence in land-use emission estimates.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 14 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01564-2Hypochlorite is in wide industrial and domestic use as disinfectant, but its manufacture, involving the processing and transport of hazardous chemicals, is problematic. Now a safer, more sustainable alternative, powered by sunlight and seawater, has been developed.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 12 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01567-zSeawater is the most abundant source of uranium. This work shows a bipolar electrochemical mining process from seawater at ultra-low voltages, ensuring maximized extraction efficiency and minimized energy consumption.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 12 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01563-3Crude oil is a mixture of different hydrocarbons, and their separation remains challenging. Here this work shows a molecular sieve that allows for direct, selective and sustainable isolation of valuable components.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01549-1Natural rubber has many uses in a variety of industries, enabled by ‘crosslinking’ between its tangled polymers, which creates elasticity. But rubber can crack and suffer fatigue. It is now shown that reducing the crosslink density in highly entangled natural rubber increases its crack resistance and prolongs its useful life.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01559-zNatural rubber is a widely used biopolymer and further improving its resistance to crack growth will extend its service life. Here the authors show a strategy to amplify the resistance to crack growth in natural rubber by forming a tanglemer.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 06 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01560-6The transition to sustainable diets is challenging for countries that face malnutrition and limited resources. Now a study explores how various dietary transformations in China can improve public health, make food affordable and reduce environmental impacts, while evaluating the feasibility of the diet changes.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 05 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01558-0Active radiant cooling is an emerging technology that consumes less energy than traditional air conditioning. This work demonstrates an outdoor radiant cooling structure incorporating infrared-reflective surfaces that delivers enhanced thermal comfort.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 02 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01555-3A systematic literature review is conducted to explore the promise and limitations of systems-based methods in addressing plastic pollution. The findings suggest that more literature focused on the whole life cycle of plastics is needed to improve understanding of the complex societal challenge and guide science-based policymaking.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 02 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01556-2Transitioning to a net-zero future requires several energy-related interventions by a variety of actors across scales. Modelling results now show that, considering critical trade-offs and uncertainties, there is significant spatial flexibility in how the European energy system can be designed to achieve carbon neutrality.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 02 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01544-6Solid-state sodium batteries represent more sustainable options as they combine resource abundance with safety. This work advances their performance, particularly fast cycling lifespan, to an unprecedented level utilizing a hybrid electrolyte.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 01 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01551-7Catalytic syngas conversion is an essential part of sustainable chemical production but is hindered by the trade-off between conversion activity and product selectivity. Here the authors address this challenge by developing a catalytic shunt strategy.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 30 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01573-1Author Correction: Greenhouse gases reduce the satellite carrying capacity of low Earth orbit

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 29 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01548-2Managing medical waste, and more generally solid waste, was extremely challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic, with cities around the world responding quite differently. Now researchers show how having access to reliable data often determined a city’s response to the pandemic-induced waste crisis.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 29 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01550-8Analysis of medical waste (MW) generated and disposed of during the COVID-19 pandemic can help develop better MW management in the future. This study presents a city-level dataset on MW generation and disposal capacity during the pandemic across China, and a model to identify disposal strategies.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 28 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01552-6Elastocaloric cooling has emerged as an eco-friendly technology with low greenhouse gas emissions and high energy efficiency. Here the all-solid-state elastocaloric cooler shows a long operational life of over 2 million cycles.

The Los Angeles wildfires of January 2025 gripped the world’s attention owing to the confluence of ecological and socio-political dynamics that fuelled...

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 22 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01554-4Plastics pollution has intertwined environmental, economic and social consequences calling for holistic solutions that require systems analysis. This study evaluates how and to what extent systems analysis tools are used in research on plastic pollution to support policy design.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 21 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01557-1Meeting global hydrogen demand with zero-carbon processes also requires finding enough market space for their associated co-products. Helping to access new markets, researchers have now tuned their catalyst to co-produce acetic acid, a crucial commodity chemical, with high selectivity and minimal CO2 emissions.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 21 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01546-4This analysis looks at the impacts and outcomes from installing solar arrays on agricultural land, finding that these ‘agrisolar’ projects can displace food production but simultaneously provide economic security and offset water use.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 11 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01545-5Anode-free sodium metal batteries without excess sodium achieve high energy density and low cost, but their cycling stability remains poor. Here an optimized current collector interphase enables unprecedented cyclability and energy density.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 08 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01535-7Evaluating the short-term exposure to wildfire-specific fine particulate matter (PM2.5) showed greater risks of hospitalization for all major respiratory diseases than non-wildfire PM2.5. When developing air quality guidelines, it is also important to consider that PM2.5 from varying sources can have different health effects, which require targeted health and environmental policy approaches.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 08 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01533-9Wildfires are becoming increasingly frequent in several regions around the world due to climate change, posing serious health risks, especially for respiratory diseases. This study examines the respiratory health risk and burden of wildfire-specific PM2.5 pollution across eight countries and territories.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 03 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01539-3Current battery recycling processes face sustainability challenges. Using gas evolution in water electrolysis, this work realizes fast separation of active electrode materials from current collectors before their dry refabrication for electrodes without compromising performance.

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 02 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01540-wMembranes supporting selective ion transport provide the opportunity to generate electricity from water sources with different salt concentrations. Now researchers report a strategy to align nanochannels in covalent organic framework membranes for unprecedented performance in osmotic energy harvesting.