Sustainability at its Best

It has taken quite some time to raise collective awareness of the fact that all actions have an environmental impact and that there is a pressing need to find ways to mitigate these impacts in order to create a sustainable future. The 17 global challenges for humanity, as identified by the Millennium Project and the UN Climate Change Conferences, only further emphasize the urgency with which these issues should be addressed. As a result of this, new fields of study are being established at universities: building sustainability programs including green campuses, offices, and labs, and more and more research grants with significantly increased funding have been initiated in recent years, which also include environmental and sustainability aspects, such as Horizon 2020 (80 bn € by 2020) by the EU and EC, or UN. The implication of this is that in the future much more original research will be carried out in cross-disciplinary areas, but with a common aim: To enable a sustainable future. In this regard, we realize that a key publication platform bringing together isolated research disciplines under one roof is urgently needed and with Advanced Sustainable Systems we are now planting a seed with unique characteristics in the scholarly publishing landscape. This new journal provides an unparalleled, global forum for exchange of opinion and original research results, putting us in a position to tackle sustainable development from multiple angles. A dire need for more sustainable development has also been recognized in industry, where broad sustainability and corporate social responsibility strategies have been enacted by many companies operating on a global scale. How to allocate limited resources to generate revenue, but also to conserve the environment in order to secure future revenue, at the same time, is a very important question in many industry sectors. The general problem in this regard is the lack of data. Engineers, for example, often have sound experience and a proven track record of well-established data on how to build an artificial dam. However, the influence of man-made buildings on the surrounding environment, fauna, and flora, is often less understood due to a lack of reliable data. In this regard Advanced Sustainable Systems will act as an enabler to provide the critical missing data on complex interdisciplinary subjects related to topics such as sustainable building, resource efficient production, and advanced research on more efficient and less consumptive technologies for energy, healthcare, electronics, water, food sustainability, and environmental aspects, as well as its implications for the policymaking domain and for human wellbeing in general. Advanced Sustainable Systems will be backed by an Executive Advisory Board consisting of internationally established thought leaders from diverse backgrounds: The current, first issue of the journal already shows its full potential by publishing topics such as clean water through solar steam generation, food packaging, sustainable electrochemical energy storage, and photo-electrochemical production of hydrogen and valuable oxidation products. These topics rank highly among the greatest challenges of our time, and will continue to influence the global community. These are just the first steps of the journal to enable humanity (and those working on planning projects around the world) to take the next steps toward greater sustainability with confidence. Submit your exciting research to Advanced Sustainable Systems now, and enjoy reading! The Editorial Team of Advanced Sustainable Systems