Economic-environmental Trade-offs Research Articles

Optimising seafood nutritional value and environmental sustainability in aquaculture through a novel integrated modelling tool applicable to IMTA and monoculture

Aquaculture policies that decrease the reliance on wild-caught fish and promote integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) both aim to lessen the environmental footprint but often overlook economic-environmental trade-offs and neglect social, health, and broad-scale sustainability considerations. Here we present a new bio-physical model (FYNE) that bridges some of these gaps, by linking farm operational choices, such as feed choices and farm siting, with the nutritional value of the farm-gate seafood products and the resulting environmental eutrophication footprint at the farm level. The FYNE model operates both in conditions of monoculture or of IMTA production, and estimates feed composition effects on growth and omega-3 fatty acid content of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), and nitrogen and carbon concentrations, the latter being a measure of the environmental eutrophication footprint of the farm. The model here developed integrates for the first time (i) an ecosystem model of an IMTA and (ii) a fatty acid dynamics model, with new models for salmon feed digestibility and mussel ingestion. The outputs span (i) production analysis for simulation of biomass; (ii) farm mass-balance analysis on deposition analysis and environmental eutrophication footprint; and (iii) product nutritional quality, in terms of fatty acid content. An application of the model to an IMTA farm in Scotland (UK) demonstrates how fatty acid and environmental changes can be modelled in tandem and could be used to support the industry to optimize the nutritional value of cultured species and manage aquatic environmental eutrophication footprint at farm level, informing feed and siting decisions. The model effectively predicts changes in omega-3 fatty acids, particularly DHA and EPA, in response to variations in feed composition. Notably, our results confirm that salmon waste has limited influence on mussel growth due to the spatial separation within the IMTA system, which emphasizes the need for strategic siting to enhance system productivity through effective waste recycling. Additionally, results show that while increasing fishmeal in diets enhances environmental outcomes, it reduces levels of critical fatty acids like DHA and EPA, underscoring the need for balanced feed formulations. The method developed in this study described a novel integrated model (FYNE) that extend previous modelling work by incorporating the influence of farmed species feed composition on fatty acid dynamics as well as the farming environmental factors.

Economic–environmental trade-offs based support policy towards optimal planning of wastewater heat recovery

Wastewater heat, a promising alternative to traditional district heating and cooling sources, can be recovered using heat pumps and transmitted to surrounding buildings for winter heating and summer cooling. Despite its potential benefits, the policies to support wastewater heat recovery remain limited. This study provides support policies for local governments to encourage energy recovery in urban wastewater treatment plants, incorporating subsidies and renewable energy certificates. The local government aims to maximize the recovered energy, minimize the subsidy expenditure, and minimize the certificate price. Urban wastewater treatment plants seek to optimize producer profits under realistic planning constraints. This model was applied in Chengdu, China, which indicates that plants with a daily treatment scale exceeding 30,000 m3 can invest in heat recovery without support policies, achieving recovery ratios of only 27%–29%. As the calculated electricity charge accounts for about 90% of operating cost, the electricity price subsidy proves the most significant in improving the installed capacities, followed by renewable energy certificates, capital refunds, and tax reductions. Electricity prices and renewable energy certificates have combination and substitution effects. Further analysis shows that heat pump efficiencies have low sensitivity in project feasibility. Fluctuations in infrastructure costs have a minimal impact, while charges for heating and cooling services significantly influence feasibility. Lowering the available thermal energy ratio also affects project returns. The government can reduce risks in sensitive parameters by electricity price subsidies or renewable energy certificates.

Fast yet balanced trade-offs for multi-timescale multi-objective economic-environmental dispatch under varying conflicts

The conflicts between generation cost and the power generation-induced effects on the environment are always considered to be constant. However, the conflicts can vary with weather conditions and have typical daily fluctuations if the air pollutant dispersion process is considered when minimizing the generation-induced air pollution. Although understanding the conflicting situation by a Pareto front (PF) can contribute to a better economic-environmental balance, the PF calculation is inherently time-consuming and a threat to fast computation, especially when the time granularity is constantly increasing in today’s multi-timescale-based power operation. This paper proposes a novel multi-timescale multi-objective economic-environmental dispatch (MTMO-EED) method to solve the “fast computation or good balance” dilemma from the following two aspects: On the modeling side, we establish a new MTMO-EED framework with intra-day offline–online coordination (IOOC), where the intra-day PF is calculated offline while only a simple single-objective optimization is needed online. We quantify the error bounds of the deviations between the offline estimated PF and the accurate PF induced by offline forecast errors, and then provide explicit operational conditions under which the offline PF can closely approximate the accurate online PF despite the offline forecast errors; On the solution method side, we propose a new multi-objective algorithm, termed basis changing boundary intersection (BCBI), to improve the PF computational efficiency at the day-ahead stage and the intra-day offline stage. Specifically, mathematical properties of the MTMO-EED’s PFs are exploited in the BCBI. Case studies are conducted on a modified IEEE 39-bus system, which validate the proposed method can achieve fast yet balanced economic-environmental trade-offs at both the day-ahead and intra-day stages.

The synergistic and trade-off effects of economic-environmental-health improvement in agriculture sector: evidence from China.

Typical non-parametric frontier analysis based on material balance principle (MBP) is superior for measuring agricultural economic-environmental trade-offs when considering the flow of materials, but fails to incorporate the serious health effects caused by excessive use of pesticides. Here, using MBP-based data envelopment analysis, we measure the economic-environmental-health performances and trade-offs of agricultural production in China during 2006-2016. Evaluation results indicate that (i) the average agricultural sector would be able to produce current output with 16.3% fewer inputs; (ii) 17 million tons CO2 reduction potentials (9.6% of total emissions in 2016) could be realized through technical efficiency promotion without damaging environmental, health, and economic performances; (iii) synergistic effects on agricultural performance promotion exist in 12 regions indicating that the improvement of technical efficiency and the adjustment of input mix would simultaneously lead to 0.2-74.3% reductions on costs and pollutions; and (iv) improving cost efficiency in 18 regions and improving pollution efficiency in another 11 regions would be the most beneficial strategies for their agricultural sectors which would lead to additional reductions on total (economic, environmental, and health) costs by 10.3-22.5%.

The economic–environmental trade-off of growing apple trees in the drylands of China: A conceptual framework for sustainable intensification

Agricultural intensification has turned the drylands-dominated Loess Plateau (LOP) of China into the world’s largest apple production area, which has greatly contributed to increasing farmer’s income and reducing rural poverty in the past two decades. However, substantial environmental trade-offs are evident, including (i) severe deep soil desiccation, which lowers resistance to extreme droughts; (ii) low soil organic carbon sequestration, which undermines apple tree’s ability to mitigate climate change; (iii) high soil erodibility, which increases the risks for orchards suffering serious erosion; and (iv) severe residual nitrate pollution, which threatens drinking water and planetary health. We propose a conceptual framework for addressing those environmental externalities, which will incorporate a nexus of scientists and technicians, policymakers, social enterprises, and smallholder farmers (SPES) to emphasize good governance, green-production technologies (GPTs), and collaboration as the route toward sustainable intensification and the realization of SDG 1 (alleviation of rural poverty), SDG 6 (reduction of soil and water pollution), SDG 13 (provision of important carbon sinks), and SDG 15 (positive water cycling and soil and water conservation). This framework may also offer insight into the sustainable development of orchards in dryland areas with similar environmental issues.

Economic-environmental equilibrium-based bi-level dispatch strategy towards integrated electricity and natural gas systems

Even though economic dispatch of integrated electricity and natural gas systems using optimization techniques has been widely conducted, a cooperative distributed and multi-objective optimization is still needed for meeting multi-energy demands from both conventional and renewable energy resources. In this study, an original bi-level economic-environmental equilibrium model is proposed to optimize a dispatch strategy for an integrated system, which include combined cooling, heating, and power and power to gas technologies. By optimizing cooperative distributed decisions, the system attempts to provide heat/cooling, power and natural gas loads. An equilibrium consideration of economic energy supply and environmental carbon emission control is achieved using a multi-objective optimization in the model. To reflect interactions of individual system operators in a cooperative distributed manner, a bi-level optimization is applied to address the respective decisions and objective functions. Subsequently, an interactive solution approach based on Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II and genetic algorithm is specifically designed to solve the model by updating individual decisions interactively and iteratively, and the optimality of an integrated solution lies in the capability to coordinate two system operators for a reliable, economic and environmental energy supply. Performance of the dispatch strategy is validated for a case with various system configurations. The obtained results showed that multi-energy needs are met, economic-environmental trade-offs achieved and hierarchical interactions addressed. Proper managerial suggestions are also provided based on comparison analyses. The proposed method is therefore worthy of being popularized in integrated systems.

Economic-environmental trade-offs in marine aquaculture: The case of lobster farming in Vietnam

Marine aquaculture has increased in importance in most countries over recent decades. In order to develop this sector in a sustainable way, it is necessary to consider its environmental impacts. In Vietnam, marine cage lobster cultivation has been seen as a high return business. However, in recent years, the sector has been facing sustainability issues, with recurrent disease outbreaks and increased lobster mortality. These phenomena are linked to nutrient pollution, which is attributed to the overuse of feed inputs. The annual loss for the sector is reported to be up to 30 million USD. Local lobster farmers have reacted to these issues by spending more on antibiotics and chemicals, or by increasing efforts to clean cages. This behavior suggests that farmers perceive a conflict between reducing environmental pressure and improving the economic performance of the sector. In order to identify the relationship between cost and environmental efficiency, this paper uses a Material Balance Principle based Data Envelopment Analysis approach using a dataset of 353 marine cage lobster farms in Vietnam. The findings show that improvements in input use efficiency would result in both lower production costs and better environmental performance. If lobster farms were to become more cost efficient, using a more appropriate input mix, given the input price information, this would benefit the environment. Similarly, improving environmental performance generally also reduces production costs.

Establishing a benchmark for comparing relative cost-effectiveness of an alternative policy instrument for controlling non-point source pollution

Knowledge about economic environmental tradeoffs is a prerequisite to evaluate the relative cost-effectiveness of alternative policy instruments to control non-point source pollution (NPS). Failure to explicitly account for the impact of the spatial combination of alternative management practices on pollution contribution rates while quantifying these tradeoffs may cause relative comparisons between alternative policy instruments to control NPS pollution inappropriate. The main objective of this research is to develop a spatial decision support system able to quantify cost-effective economic environmental tradeoffs of maintaining alternative pollution standards taking the interrelated linkages between various agricultural management practices into account. The system is used to establish a benchmark tradeoff curve by means of which alternative policy instruments to control NPS pollution can be compared to determine their relative cost-effectiveness. Tradeoff analyses indicated that the pollution contribution factor plays a cardinal role in determining pollution abatement cost and therefore the benchmark. The importance of the contribution factor highlights the necessity of taking the interdependencies between management units into account when modelling economic environmental tradeoffs. Catchment level tradeoffs showed that the nitrate water quality indicator can be improved with little cost due to both positive and negative tradeoffs at the sub-catchment level. Significant variability exists at the sub-catchment level when nitrate pollution abatement and abatement cost are concerned. The conclusion is that care should be taken not to compare the relative cost-effectiveness of alternative policy instruments to control NPS pollution based on catchment level tradeoffs alone.

Carbon emissions quota allocation based equilibrium strategy toward carbon reduction and economic benefits in China's building materials industry

Abstract The rapid urbanization in China over the last decade has resulted in increased carbon emissions from the building materials industry. This paper seeks to reach a trade-off between economic benefits and carbon emissions in the building materials industry by integrating a carbon emissions quota allocation (CEQA) based equilibrium strategy under a carbon emissions trading (CET) mechanism that fully considers the stakeholder relationships between the regional authority and the building materials suppliers. An interactive solution approach with fuzzy random variables (FRVs) is designed to determine the trade-off between these decision makers. The methodology is then applied to a real world case to demonstrate its practicality and efficiency. Comprehensive discussions under different policy control scenarios and comparative analysis of two carbon reduction policies are conducted to assist policy makers. It was found that the proposed methodology encouraged building materials suppliers to adjust their production and carbon emissions quota purchase plans, further assisting regional authority to control the industry's emissions performance by providing a “win-win” solution for the regional authority and suppliers when making logical economic-environmental trade-off decisions.

Roles of instrumented farm-scale trials in trade-off assessments of pasture-based ruminant production systems

For livestock production systems to play a positive role in global food security, the balance between their benefits and disbenefits to society must be appropriately managed. Based on the evidence provided by field-scale randomised controlled trials around the world, this debate has traditionally centred on the concept of economic-environmental trade-offs, of which existence is theoretically assured when resource allocation is perfect on the farm. Recent research conducted on commercial farms indicates, however, that the economic-environmental nexus is not nearly as straightforward in the real world, with environmental performances of enterprises often positively correlated with their economic profitability. Using high-resolution primary data from the North Wyke Farm Platform, an intensively instrumented farm-scale ruminant research facility located in southwest United Kingdom, this paper proposes a novel, information-driven approach to carry out comprehensive assessments of economic-environmental trade-offs inherent within pasture-based cattle and sheep production systems. The results of a data-mining exercise suggest that a potentially systematic interaction exists between ‘soil health’, ecological surroundings and livestock grazing, whereby a higher level of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock is associated with a better animal performance and less nutrient losses into watercourses, and a higher stocking density with greater botanical diversity and elevated SOC. We contend that a combination of farming system-wide trials and environmental instrumentation provides an ideal setting for enrolling scientifically sound and biologically informative metrics for agricultural sustainability, through which agricultural producers could obtain guidance to manage soils, water, pasture and livestock in an economically and environmentally acceptable manner. Priority areas for future farm-scale research to ensure long-term sustainability are also discussed.

Modelling Environmental Risk Using the Upper Partial Moment: a Safety-First Approach

The objective of the paper is to model economic-environmental trade-offs using a safety-first approach. The novelty of the approach is in the use of the empirically estimated flexible production risk and environmental risk functions that create a clear link between the source of the pollution, the production risk due to input use and the environmental outcome. Simulated production data and an environmental indicator were used to estimate a production function and environmental response function for every production year. The response functions were incorporated into an upper partial moment model, which ensures compliance to the user-specified environmental goal by enforcing the environmental constraint. Production decisions are significantly impacted by the presence of an environmental constraint due to the substantial compliance costs. Any changes in the intensive and extensive margin made by risk-averse decision-makers impact the size of the compliance cost faced by producers. The presence of an environmental constraint impact production decisions significantly with substantial compliance costs. While, fertiliser application technique have very little effect on the size of compliance costs. The greatest difference in compliance cost is therefore due to changes in the use of fixed resources.

Optimal design of distributed effluent treatment systems in steam assisted gravity drainage oil sands operations

The oil sands industry in Canada is under increasing pressure to simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water consumption. As a consequence, new trade-offs are emerging that require an integrated analysis. This paper applies Process Integration (PI) tools to investigate opportunities to improve efficiencies in the steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process. The goal of the paper is to design a distributed effluent treatment system to minimize cost and explore the economic-environmental trade-offs based on concepts of Process Integration. Different configurations of water treatment technologies and steam generation options in SAGD operations are assessed and cost, GHG emissions, water and energy consumption are compared across these configurations. The results of the study show that there are potential cost and electricity savings of up to 19.5% and 12% respectively in the water treatment system of SAGD operations relative to “typical” configurations. These results can help oil sands operators make informed decisions about investments in water treatment technologies for SAGD operations.

Economic-environmental trade-offs and the conservativeness of the upper partial moment

Accounting for the stochastic nature of environmental outcomes when quantifying economic environmental trade-offs with mathematical programming models requires the use of probabilistic programming approaches like the upper partial moment (UPM) method. Application of the UPM model may result in overregulation and losses in farm profit because the probabilistic constraint is satisfied at a higher level than the specified compliance probability, resulting in conservative responses from polluters. The main objective of this article was to present the upper frequency method as an alternative to enforce a probabilistic constraint with a close bound to the actual compliance probability. The UFM uses binary variables in a linear programming framework to enforce the probability bound on an empirically distributed outcome variable. Results showed that the UPM model was very conservative in the estimation of the upper probability bound, which resulted in an overestimation of abatement costs and an underestimation of the average amount of pollution above the environmental goal. Inconsistencies also exist between the ranking of alternatives when comparing the UPM and UFM methods. The UFM is general enough to ensure that the technique can be applied to any problem where the researcher is concerned with the risk of exceeding a specified target level.

Transitioning beyond the Economic-environmental Trade-off in the City of Hangzhou

This research uses the concept of to develop further the field of urban transformation and sustainability. Empirically, we document and conceptualize the experience of a Chinese industrialized city, Hangzhou, in overcoming the economic-ecological trade-off common in declining urban environments. We analyze Hangzhou's large-scale green initiative by examining the political, entrepreneurial and environmental rationale behind the initiative, the distinctive organizational capability that enables its implementation, and the initiative's economic and ecological impact on the city. We propose and elaborate the concept of ambidexterity in the making and two sets of enabling mechanisms to explain how such a unique capability is formed and functions to afford an urban government to actualize its green aspirations into an ecological reality, while simultaneously fostering entrepreneurialism and further economic development.

Economic–environmental trade-offs in long-term airline fleet planning

We examine the balancing of economic and environmental goals in long-term airline fleet planning. A multi-objective linear programming model optimizes fleet composition, fleet development, and fleet employment for a 10-year planning horizon. Model inputs include flight plan data, operational, technical, and cost parameters, existing fleet aircraft, and the availability of new, more efficient aircraft. The model determines trade-offs between an economically and an environmentally optimal fleet plan depending on user-defined weightings. Varying these weightings provides alternative Pareto-optimal fleet plans. An example for a major European airline shows that it would have to deviate by approximately 3% from its economic optimum to achieve a 6% improvement in the environmental goal. The study provides insights for policy makers when setting environmental targets for airlines and developing mechanisms to encourage environmental commitment.

Comparing frontier methods for economic–environmental trade-off analysis

This paper uses a mechanistic frontier approach as a reference to evaluate the ability of conventional parametric (SFA) and non-parametric (DEA) frontier approaches for analyzing economic–environmental trade-offs. Conventional frontier approaches are environmentally adjusted through incorporating the materials balance principle. The analysis is worked out for the Flemish pig finishing case, which is both representative and didactic. Results show that, on average, SFA and DEA yield adequate economic–environmental trade-offs. Both methods are good estimators for technical efficiency. Cost allocative and environmental allocative efficiency scores are less robust, due to the well-known methodological advantages and disadvantages of SFA and DEA. For particular firms, SFA, DEA and the mechanistic approach may yield different economic–environmental trade-offs. One has therefore to be careful when using conventional frontier approaches for firm-specific decision support. The mechanistic approach allows for optimizing performances per average present finisher, which is the production unit in pig finishing. Conventional frontier methods do not allow for this optimization since the number of average present finishers varies along the production functions. Since the mechanistic production function is based on underlying growth, feed uptake and mortality functions, additional firm-specific indicators can also be calculated at each point of the production function.

From research to farm: ex ante evaluation of strategic deworming in pig finishing

This paper upgrades generic and partial information from parasitological research for farm-specific decision support, using two methods from managerial sciences: partial budgeting and frontier analysis. The analysis focuses on strategic deworming in pig finishing and assesses both effects on economic performance and nutrient efficiency. The application of partial budgeting and frontier analysis is based on a production-theoretical system analysis which is necessary to integrate parasitological research results to assess aggregate economic and environmental impacts. Results show that both statistically significant and insignificant parasitological research results have to be taken into account. Partial budgeting and frontier analysis appear to be complementary methods: partial budgeting yields more discriminatory and communicative results, while frontier methods provide additional diagnostics through exploring optimization possibilities and economic-environmental trade-offs. Strategic deworming results in a win-win effect on economic and environmental performances. Gross margin increases with 3 to 12 € per average present finisher per year, depending on the cyclic pig price conditions. The impact on the nutrient balance ranges from +0.2 to –0.5 kg nitrogen per average present finisher per year. The observed efficiency improvements are mainly technical and further economic and environmental optimizations can be achieved through input re-allocation. A user-friendly spreadsheet is provided to translate the generic experimental information to farm-specific conditions.

The Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources in Southeast Asia: Issues and Challenges

The environment, climate change and the management of natural resources have been taking centre stage with policy-makers and governments in Southeast Asia. It is now recognized that environmental degradation cannot continue unabated over the long term. It is already affecting countries, their economies and communities. Economic and social well-being will depend on how well environmental resources are managed. Concern for the environment was well documented in the Third ASEAN State of the Environment Report 2006: Towards an Environmentally Sustainable Community (SOE 2006). (1) In this report, ASEAN leaders stressed that the resources used to fuel economic growth have to be utilized in a sustainable manner, in order to ensure that prosperity in the region will be durable. ASEAN leaders have also acknowledged that sustainable development, with a dynamic and mutually supportive balance between economic growth, social equity and environmental integrity are to be the guiding principle to establish the ASEAN Community. One way to achieve this balance would be by reconciling economic-environmental trade-offs within the social setting in public policy making. Due consideration must be paid to protecting the environment and its natural resources by ensuring that resources are used in a way that benefits society as a whole, not just private interests. To do this, we need an accurate assessment of the value of environmental goods and services to society. ASEAN faces enormous challenges. Besides ongoing efforts at economic integration and political cooperation, and the high poverty incidence in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam, (2) there is a need to redress environmental problems like air and noise pollution, sewage disposal and management, traffic congestion, land degradation and deforestation, the depletion of natural resources and biodiversity, damage to marine and coastal ecosystems, depletion of the ozone layer and excessive emissions of greenhouse gases. Managing environmental resources is not easy. Markets normally do a good job of dealing with scarcity--as things become scarcer, their prices increase, people consume less of them and producers invest more in producing them. However, this does not happen when environmental goods become scarce, because few of them are bought or sold in markets. Many are also subject to misguided government policies that encourage environmental destruction by, for example, subsidizing energy consumption, over-fishing and deforestation. Environmental economics can help us to recognize the economic cost and causes of environmental depletion and so help us to react quickly--by strengthening property rights (either private or community-based), applying corrective taxes and so on. Economics can also help us design environmental laws that incorporate workable economic incentives and that, therefore, have a good chance of affecting behaviour. Conversely, environmental economics can reveal the full environmental costs of human activity. By assessing such costs and incorporating them into the prices of goods, we can use market forces to bring about environmental protection: If we all had to pay the full environmental cost of our activities, we would soon learn to conserve resources and to consume in less damaging ways. The papers in this special issue deal in varying degrees the need to price environmental resources. They also address some of the issues identified in the SOE 2006. Specifically, they use economic analysis to examine issues surrounding climate change, environmental degradation and the depletion of natural resources. The authors have been given a free hand to approach these issues from a quantitative or qualitative perspective, and on any aspect of the environment, provided they focus on ASEAN as a region or on ASEAN member countries. These papers report the findings of a series of research projects financed by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA). …

Economic and environmental impacts of introducing land use policies and rotations on Prince Edward Island potato farms

A 2002 Prince Edward Island (PEI) Agricultural Crop Rotations (ACR) Act and other sustainable land use policies regulate what crops can be grown in rotation with potatoes, and the frequency and sequence of specific crops in such rotation systems. Given that there are alternative crops that may be rotated with potatoes and managed for various rotation lengths, the policies raise questions about the economic and environmental implications of such land use policies and legislation on PEI potato-based agriculture. A multi-year linear programming model of a representative potato-based PEI farm was developed and then used to investigate the economic and environmental impacts of introducing various crop rotation systems and land use policy regulations specified under the PEI ACR Act. Results suggest that adoption of legislated rotation systems would lead to considerable reduction in gross margins. The extent of such financial losses increased as the frequency of potatoes in the rotations decreased (i.e., farm losses increased with rotation length). Both crop choice and sequence in a rotation influenced magnitude of the economic impacts of the land use and rotation legislation. For example, among 4-year rotations, gross margins for P–SC–B–RG (potato/silage corn/barley/ryegrass) were higher by $79, 955, when potatoes replaced silage corn in SC–SC–B–RG (silage corn/silage corn/barley/ryegrass). In addition, higher potato yields stemming from nutrient carry-over effects of particular crops (e.g., barley compared to spring wheat), did not necessarily translate into higher overall farm returns for the associated rotation. Economic–environmental trade-off frontier analysis suggest that different rotations generated varying levels of reduction in the use of agricultural chemicals, compared to benchmark production systems. However, environmental improvements associated with such reductions in chemical use required substantial reduction in gross margins to producers.

Environmental-Economic Measures of Tourism Yield

A focus on ‘tourism yield’ is an important aspect of business strategies to maintain and enhance destination competitiveness. Ideally the notion of ‘tourism yield’ should include tourism's environmental and social value to a destination in addition to economic value. This paper attempts to develop measures of economic and environmental yield. It first describes how measures of economic yield may be estimated and presents results for Australian inbound tourism. Environmental yield estimates are then developed for the same visitor markets. A hybrid approach is employed, combining input-output analysis with an onsite audit for tourist accommodation. The relevant environmental impacts include those on energy use, water use, greenhouse gas emissions and ecological footprint. The findings reveal that, for some inbound markets, simultaneous achievement of relatively high economic and environmental goals is not possible, and that economic-environmental tradeoffs may be necessary. The results have implications for all destinations which use notions of ‘tourism yield’ to inform their marketing strategies.