A decision support system to estimate the carbon emission and cost of product designs

We study a new supply chain configuration problem to optimize the amount of carbon emission in the context of a service guarantee modelling framework, called supply chain configuration problem with low carbon emission (SCCP-LCE). A novel feature of our addressed problem is the explicit consideration of carbon emission cap and trading price in the supply chain configuration setting with operating capacity. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model, and optimally solved by a custom designed dynamic programming algorithm. A case study and computational experiment are performed to examine the behaviour of optimal SCCP-LCE configurations, and the effects of key input parameters: carbon emission cap, trading price, and operating capacity. Our results suggest that government-imposed carbon emission policies, in terms of emission cap and trading price, have significant impacts and interactive effects on the optimal supply chain configuration and performance, including the safety stock cost and carbon emission cost. Our model and methodology offer a new analytical framework to prescribe data-driven decision support for both firms and governmental/environmental agencies to control carbon emission, while achieving optimal business and social benefits.

Debates on carbon costs and carbon pricing to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are emerging as cities develop local policies and programs to achieve carbon neutrality. This paper focuses on how cities formulate economic instruments and adopt carbon pricing experiments to support their climate objectives. Extensive literature is available on science-policymaking interface Integrated Assessment Models (IAM) and on the two mainstream approaches of carbon cost formulation—Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) and Marginal Abatement Cost (MAC). Although, the literature on how governments develop climate policy instruments, particularly towards a local carbon cost, is recent. We start by reviewing these essential concepts and tools for carbon cost formulation. We then critically review a set of local carbon pricing experiments, totaling fourteen international cities, and confirm a great demand for scientifically robust, verifiable, and transferable carbon cost methodologies at the local level. We thus propose an approach to assess the short-term technology cost of CO2 emission reduction in the mobility sector in Matosinhos municipality, Portugal. Our approach shows that a carbon cost methodology at the local level with robust, verifiable, and transferable results is possible. We advocate for a methodological advance to estimate versatile CO2 prices suitable for local conditions.

Bridges are special infrastructures that emit large amounts of carbon dioxide from construction. Attention should be given to the carbon cost generated by the bridge, which includes its direct economic cost; the carbon cost is the largest driving force encouraging the enterprise to implement carbon emission reduction measures. In this study, the life cycle assessment (LCA) method is applied to carbon emissions in the bridge construction stage, which include emissions from material production, transportation and on-site construction; then, a carbon emission calculation model for the construction stage is established. Next, the carbon cost calculation model for the bridge in the construction stage is determined by combining the carbon pricing mechanisms of carbon emission taxing and trading to monetize carbon emissions. Finally, by taking a bridge in Beijing as an example, the carbon emissions in the bridge construction stage are calculated, and the carbon cost is calculated. The results show that carbon emission monetization is beneficial for clarifying the environmental impact of bridge construction; these calculations should be included in cost accounting.

Assembly and disassembly sequences were planned and assessed independently. However, as eco-friendly product design has been enforced by government regulation, it is needed to plan assembly and disassembly sequence at the same time in early product design stage. This paper aims to propose a sequence structure design method by integrating both assembly and disassembly sequence planning. First, graphs represent feasible assembly sequence with components. Second, adjacency matrices are developed to accumulate the sequence information for computational analysis. Third, a black box diagram is applied to understand and consider the functions of a product during assembly and disassembly operations. Finally, factors are determined to overcome gaps between each assembly and disassembly sequence structure. By considering product architecture with Design Structure Matrix (DSM), we can determine modular design for selective disassembly and interface type for assembly. A case study is performed with two coffee makers to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Reducing buildings’ carbon emissions is an important sustainability challenge. While scheduling flexible building loads has been previously used for a variety of grid and energy optimizations, carbon footprint reduction using such flexible loads poses new challenges since such methods need to balance both energy and carbon costs while also reducing user inconvenience from delaying such loads. This article highlights the potential conflict between electricity prices and carbon emissions and the resulting tradeoffs in carbon-aware and cost-aware load scheduling. To address this tradeoff, we propose GreenThrift, a home automation system that leverages the scheduling capabilities of smart appliances and knowledge of future carbon intensity and cost to reduce both the carbon emissions and costs of flexible energy loads. At the heart of GreenThrift is an optimization technique that automatically computes schedules based on user configurations and preferences. We evaluate the effectiveness of GreenThrift using real-world carbon intensity data, electricity prices, and load traces from multiple locations and across different scenarios and objectives. Our results show that GreenThrift can replicate the offline optimal and retains 97% of the savings when optimizing the carbon emissions. Moreover, we show how GreenThrift can balance the conflict between carbon and cost and retain 95.3% and 85.5% of the potential carbon and cost savings, respectively.

Based on the estimation of carbon cost from afforestation in project boundary and carbon leakage out of boundary in the construction period of "Grain for Green" Program (GGP) (2000-2010), the annual variance and composition of the carbon cost and carbon leakage, as well as characters of variance of net carbon sequestration were analyzed for GGP and respective program regions. Results showed that the carbon costs in northwest region, southwest region, northeast region, north region and central south and east region were 3.38, 3.64, 1.03, 1.66 and 4.38 Tg C, respectively, totaling 14.09 Tg C. Meanwhile the carbon leakages of the above regions were 21.33, 4.60, 5.50, 1.32 and 3.78 Tg C, respectively, and 36.53 Tg C in total. The composition characters of the carbon costs of the GGP and the respective regions were similar. Carbon emissions from afforestation were the largest carbon cost, and afforestation on converted farmland was the main carbon emission source. Accordingly, among the materials consumed, fertilizer brought about the largest carbon cost, followed by building materials, while carbon emissions from fuels, irrigation, herbicides and pesticides only accounted for about 10% for respective regions. The carbon cost and carbon leakage of the GGP were 50.62 Tg C in total, which counteracted 19.9% of the sequestered carbon in the program. In northwest region, southwest region, northeast region, north region and central south and east region, carbon emissions (including cost and leakage) accounted for 38.9%, 10.4%, 26.1%, 8.9% and 15.5% of the carbon sequestration, respectively. The net carbon sequestration of the GGP was 203.50 Tg C with an annual average of 18.50 Tg C·a-1. The carbon cost and leakage offset a minor part of the carbon sequestration of the GGP. Therefore, the GGP contributed significantly to greenhouse gas mitigation in China as well as global climate warming mitigation. Adopting precision fertilization in economic forest afforestation and supplying alternative livelihoods to farmers in the program could be the potential measures to reduce carbon cost and carbon leakage.

Purpose – The current study focuses on determining the carbon cost of a company which operates in iron and steel sector within the scope of cost accounting. As a result of approval of Kyoto Protocol by several countries, carbon focused inquires such as; carbon trade, carbon tax, investing in low carbon technologies, decreasing carbon emission and calculation of carbon cost have been essential issues that companies must concentrate on. Within this context, “Carbon Accounting” which is considered as a new concept has increasingly been significiant for the companies. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, case study method were used in a company which operates in iron and steel sector for carbon accounting. By means of this case study, first, company’s existing production and accounting systems were examined then carbon emissions, carbon footprint and share of carbon emissions in total production cost were calculated for 2016 and 2017 years. Findings – By means of this case study, emissions from the process and combustion were determined. Emissions from the process were examined by total value ,not detailed sub group, and emissions from combustion were composed of coal and natural gas. Mass balance method has been used by company to determine carbon foot print and it was determined that carbon footprint is 4,78 ton CO2 emission for year 2016 but 4,22 ton CO2 emission for year 2017. Beside, it was calculated that unit carbon cost is 128,04 TL/ton for year 2016 but 117,95 TL/ton for year 2017. Additionally, in this company emission cost were comprised of % 99 of total environmental cost for 2016 and 2017 years. However the percentage of carbon emission cost in unit production cost was approximately % 9 for year 2016 while this percentage was decreased to approximately % 8 for year 2017 in this company. Discussion – By this case study which was performed in a company operating in iron and steel sector it was explored that carbon foot print and unit carbon emission cost decreases and also the percentage of unit carbon cost in unit production cost decreases in 2016-2017. Beside, carbon cost constitute a significiant part of environmental cost. Therefore determining, recording, classificiation and reporting of carbon cost are crucial for companies. This study may be a referance for companies and another studies to determine carbon cost.

With the development of society and economy, the production methods that consuming a lot of resources are gradually unable to meet the needs of modern life. And with the rise of consumers' awareness of environmental protection, more and more low-carbon production of manufacturers have been put forward. In order to encourage manufacturers to product with low carbon, the carbon tax policy is proposed. Under the pressure of the new policy and consumers' environmental awareness, manufacturers' production decisions will face many challenges. In addition, the rapid development of the Internet and the popularity of online shopping have also enabled manufacturers to engage in online direct sales, which has many impacts on traditional retail. Under such circumstances, consumers' channel preferences will also have many influences on manufacturers' production decisions. Therefore, it is necessary to study the influence of carbon tax, consumer green preference and channel preference on supply chain members. Therefore, this study constructs a dual-channel supply chain model consisting of a single manufacturer and a retailer to determine the optimal pricing of supply chain members and minimum carbon emissions of the manufacturer in the two scenarios of centralized decision-making and decentralized decision-making, respectively. The impact of consumers' environmental awareness, carbon tax rates and consumers' channel preferences on the carbon emissions of products and the profits of manufacturers and retailers are analyzed. The research results show that: when the carbon tax rate is low, with the rising of consumers' awareness of environmental protection and carbon tax, it is necessary to increase the carbon tax on clean manufacturers to enable them to take more market share, and increase the carbon tax on low carbon emission manufacturers to force them to make more efforts on clean manufacturing. Besides, low-carbon taxes should be imposed on medium carbon emission manufacturers to avoid them from going back to high-polluting production, and on high carbon emission manufacturers, so that they will have more funds to carry out cleaner production reforms. Besides, shopping online should be encouraged.

Fossil dependency has a significant cost impact on the economy, making sectors vulnerable to rising carbon costs. Economic sectors are impacted by carbon costs from two sides: fossil inputs and carbon emissions. The success of climate policy initiatives can depend upon carbon costs. The input side has not received sufficient attention. The article presents a model that integrates the fossil input and carbon emission sides to assess the total cost of carbon using input-output modelling. The model provides a comprehensive analysis of the total costs associated with fossil dependency. The integrated approach reveals the embodied carbon costs that accumulate in various economic sectors. The examples of China and Germany serve as illustrative cases due to their strong dependence on fossil inputs but different levels of climate policy enforcement. The research findings revealed that certain downstream industries, characterized by substantial embodied fossil inputs, may be more vulnerable to increased carbon pricing than upstream industries. Falling prices of fossil inputs may counterbalance the impact of rising carbon emission costs. The integrated model for assessing the total carbon cost enables policymakers to develop more efficient policies tackling climate change.

Market clearing price considering carbon cost will be an important market means to promote the development of low-carbon economy. However, different types of fuel generators have different consumption characteristics and carbon emission characteristics. Thermal power units should pay different price in carbon market, so they have various carbon cost rather than the equivalent carbon cost as in the previous research. Firstly, this paper studies the mechanism of carbon emission allowances and the future development of carbon market based on China’s latest carbon market policy. Then the carbon cost is incorporated into the cost model of various thermal power units, and a multi-type energy transaction model considering the carbon cost of diverse generators is established. Locational marginal electricity price (LMEP) and carbon price (LMCP) are obtained. Finally, the simulation was carried out in the modified PJM-5 node power system. It proves that, complex locational marginal price will increase due to the additional carbon cost of thermal power units, and the clearing model in this paper will improve the utilization rate of low carbon emission units. In addition, with the development of low-carbon economy, the LMCP will gradually increase, promoting the development of renewable energy.

Report of the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death: bringing death back into life

This article presents an assessment of the impacts that policy-induced increases in cost of energy or carbon may have on energy use and emission profiles of the U.S. iron and steel industry. Time series data and engineering information are combined within a dynamic computer model to endogenously specify changes in technologies, fuel mix, and production processes. Results indicate that energy taxes shift production to electric arc furnaces and reduce total energy use more than policies that raise costs of carbon. However, both energy taxes and costs of carbon will result in a similar decrease in carbon emissions when compared to the absence of those policies.

To develop a low-carbon construction model for bituminous pavement construction, this study divides the fieldwork construction of bituminous pavement into aggregate stacking, aggregate supply, and other stages. This study also reviews a list of previous works that investigate energy consumption during bituminous pavement construction and proposes a quantitative method for CO2 emissions. Based on this method, the proportion of carbon emissions in each stage is analyzed, and the weight coefficient of carbon emissions is calculated. An analytic hierarchy process is used to establish the judgment matrix within the system of bituminous pavement construction, which in turn facilitates the calculation of the weight coefficient in each stage. Moreover, the stages of aggregate heating, bitumen heating, and bituminous mixture mixing are identified as the key stages in quantifying the carbon emissions. The carbon emissions in these three stages account for approximately 64.19%, 14.56%, and 14.02% of the total carbon emissions, respectively. Following the energy evaluation of the key stages, this study proposes a low-carbon building technology scheme that considers both emission reduction and economic benefits. Through the two low-carbon reduction projects of changing the type of energy and reducing the water content, the carbon emissions and costs of bituminous pavement construction are significantly reduced. The proposed energy-saving and emission reduction scheme therefore provides a theoretical basis and technical support for the low-carbon development of bituminous pavement construction.

PurposeIn the future, large space truss structures will be likely to require on-orbit assembly. One of the several proposed methods includes cooperative assembly performed by pressure-suited astronauts during extravehicular activity (EVA) and space robots. An intelligent planning method was presented to generate optimal assembly tasks.Design/methodology/approachFirstly, the inherent hierarchical nature of truss structures allows assembly sequences to be considered from strut level and structural volume element (SVE) level. Then, a serial assembly strategy in human-robot environment was applied. Furthermore, a two-level planning algorithm was presented. At the first-level planning, one ant colony algorithm for assembly sequence planning was improved to adopt assembly direction and time as heuristic information and did not consider assembly tasks. And, at the second-level planning, another novel colony algorithm for assembly task planning mainly considered results of the first-level planning, human-robot interactive information, serial assembly strategy and assembly task distributions.FindingsThe proposed two-level planning algorithm is very effective for solving the human and robot cooperative assembly of large space truss structures.Research limitations/implicationsIn this paper, the case study is based on the following assumptions: each tetrahedron is assembled by two astronauts; each pentahedron is assembled by three astronauts.Practical implicationsA case illustrates the results of the two-level planning. From this case study, because of geometrical symmetry nature of large space truss structures, the optimal assembly sequences are not only one.Originality/valueThe improved ant colony algorithm can deal with the assembly sequence and task planning in human-robot environment more effectively.

Low-carbon oriented optimal energy dispatch in coupled natural gas and electricity systems