---
title: "Environmental sustainability research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “environmental sustainability” appeared in 1,185 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (573), management (200) and operations research (151)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/environmental-sustainability
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/environmental-sustainability.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “environmental sustainability” appeared in 1,185 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (573), management (200) and operations research (151). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “environmental sustainability”

Research on “environmental sustainability” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “environmental sustainability” appeared in 1,185 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (573), management (200) and operations research (151).
- 183 of them were published in 2025, against 46 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Lebanese American University (21), Azerbaijan State University of Economics (16) and King Saud University (16).
- The journals publishing most of them were Resources Policy (196), Technological Forecasting and Social Change (35) and Finance research letters (27).
- The most-cited of them is “Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations” (Ecological Economics, 2017), with 3,955 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 19 | 15 | 15 | 26 | 25 | 64 | 134 | 160 | 69 | 46 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 15 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 20 | 21 | 25 | 36 | 38 | 26 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 7 | 6 | 8 | 13 | 14 | 17 | 22 | 21 | 25 | 18 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 15 | 30 | 32 | 19 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 7 | 9 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 2 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| All categories | 46 | 35 | 42 | 58 | 80 | 121 | 208 | 282 | 183 | 130 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 196 |
| 2 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 35 |
| 3 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 27 |
| 4 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 25 |
| 5 | [Economic Change and Restructuring](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-change-and-restructuring.md) | 23 |
| 6 | [Ecological Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ecological-economics.md) | 19 |
| 7 | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 18 |
| 8 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 15 |
| 9 | [Journal of Innovation & Knowledge](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-innovation-knowledge.md) | 14 |
| 10 | [Computers & Industrial Engineering](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-industrial-engineering.md) | 13 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Lebanese American University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/lebanese-american-university.md) | 21 |
| 2 | Azerbaijan State University of Economics | 16 |
| 3 | King Saud University | 16 |
| 4 | [Xi'an Jiaotong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xi-an-jiaotong-university.md) | 16 |
| 5 | [Beijing Institute of Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/beijing-institute-of-technology.md) | 12 |
| 6 | Tashkent State University of Economics | 12 |
| 7 | İstanbul Nişantaşı Üniversitesi | 11 |
| 8 | Gulf University for Science & Technology | 10 |
| 9 | [Wuhan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/wuhan-university.md) | 10 |
| 10 | ILMA University | 9 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 322 |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 91 |
| 3 | Pakistan | 78 |
| 4 | Italy | 65 |
| 5 | United States | 61 |
| 6 | Turkey | 54 |
| 7 | Australia | 52 |
| 8 | Saudi Arabia | 52 |
| 9 | France | 49 |
| 10 | India | 49 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [CO2 emissions](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/co2-emissions.md) | 143 |
| 2 | [economic growth](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/economic-growth.md) | 111 |
| 3 | social sustainability | 89 |
| 4 | [sustainable development](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/sustainable-development.md) | 78 |
| 5 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 75 |
| 6 | ecological footprint | 61 |
| 7 | [green finance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-finance.md) | 60 |
| 8 | natural resources | 60 |
| 9 | economic sustainability | 58 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3,955 | 35.4 | [Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.06.041) | [Ecological Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ecological-economics.md) | 2017-07-12 | Jaana Korhonen, Antero Honkasalo, Jyri Seppälä |
| 2 | 1,202 | 15.3 | [Artificial intelligence for sustainability: Challenges, opportunities, and a research agenda](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102104) | [International Journal of Information Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-information-management.md) | 2020-04-20 | Rohit Nishant, Mike Kennedy, Jacqueline Corbett |
| 3 | 753 | 9.0 | [Artificial intelligence and sustainable development](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100330) | [The International Journal of Management Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-international-journal-of-management-education.md) | 2019-11-03 | Margaret A. Goralski, Tay Keong Tan |
| 4 | 666 | 6.0 | [Innovative and sustainable business models in the fashion industry: Entrepreneurial drivers, opportunities, and challenges](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.07.003) | [Business Horizons](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/business-horizons.md) | 2017-08-18 | Bruna Villa Todeschini, Marcelo Nogueira Cortimiglia, Daniela Callegaro-de-Menezes et al. |
| 5 | 633 | 5.4 | [ICT and environmental sustainability: A global perspective](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.01.001) | [Telematics and Informatics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/telematics-and-informatics.md) | 2017-01-10 | Dolores Añón Higón, Roya Gholami, Farid Shirazi |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “environmental sustainability”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/environmental-sustainability

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-environmental-sustainability,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “environmental sustainability”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/environmental-sustainability}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).