Environmental Performance Research Articles

Multi-Objective Optimization for the Energy, Economic, and Environmental Performance of High-Rise Residential Buildings in Areas of Northwestern China with Different Solar Radiation

Multi-Objective Optimization for the Energy, Economic, and Environmental Performance of High-Rise Residential Buildings in Areas of Northwestern China with Different Solar Radiation

Pengaruh Penerapan Green Accounting terhadap Profitabilitas pada Perusahaan Sektor Industri Dasar dan Kimia yang Terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia Periode 2020-2022

This research aims to analyze the effect of implementing green accounting on profitability in Basic Industry and Chemical Sector Companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the 2020-2022 period. The population of this research is all Basic Industry and Chemical Sector Companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) totaling 70 companies with samples for three years from 2020-2022 totaling 22 companies with a period of 3 years so that we got 66 samples taken using the Purposive Technique Sampling. Data collection was carried out using documentation techniques. Data analysis was carried out with SPSS 23 using multiple linear regression tests, classical assumption tests, and hypothesis tests. Based on the results of partial testing (T test), the environmental cost variable has a significant effect on profitability, indicating that environmental costs can have a large effect on the company's ability to earn profits. Meanwhile, the environmental performance variable does not have a significant effect on profitability, which shows that whether a company's environmental performance is good or bad does not affect the company's profit even though the company has a good PROPER rating. Based on the results of simultaneous testing (F test) environmental costs and environmental performance together have a simultaneous effect on profitability

The Influence of Eco-Control, Company Size, Environmental Performance on Sustainability Reporting Disclosure

Sustainability reporting in Indonesia has become a mandatory report published by financial institutions and public companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Obligations related to sustainability reporting refer to Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (PSAK) No.1 Revised 2019, namely that companies are required to disclose additional reports related to environmental life. Under the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 2021 standards, the information on a company's applicant list can build stakeholder trust, maintain reputation, increase company value and demonstrate company accountability. Factors that can encourage disclosure of sustainability reporting are Eco-control, company size and environmental performance. One industry that is closely related to the environment and natural resources is the agricultural industry, apart from having a positive impact, there are also negative impacts that also cause harm to the environment. The sample in this research is agricultural sector companies listed on the IDX for 2018-2022. The research uses multiple linear analysis methods with SPSS 23 statistical software. After testing the hypothesis, the results obtained are that Eco-control has a positive influence on sustainability reporting disclosures, while the company size variable has no influence on sustainability reporting disclosures, starting with the environmental performance variable. .

Cost of Equity Pre and During Covid-19 Outbreak: Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance in Indonesia

This study examines the influence of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance on the cost of equity (COE), prior to and during the COVID-19 period. This study analyses 65 Indonesian public companies in the non-banking and financial sectors that disclosed all ESG information in 2019 and 2020. 2019 is taken as the pre-COVID-19 period, while 2020 is the year during COVID-19. The results reveal that ESG performance is favorable in lowering the COE. However, the effect of ESG performance on COE decreased during COVID-19, such that it was ineffective in mitigating the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the COE. The disclosure of ESG includes the firm’s endeavors to be transparent to its stakeholders, thereby mitigating information asymmetry. The ability of companies to manage information asymmetry is substantial during high-uncertainty periods, such as the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. However, this study is limited to Indonesian companies. As emerging markets, countries with characteristics similar to Indonesia may benefit from this study.

The impact of the informal sector on supply chains in Africa

ABSTRACT The informal sector adds a systemic layer of uncertainty and risk for the performance of Food Supply Chains in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on interviews conducted among all the agents directly involved in the FSCs and international statistics, we analysed how the informal sector affects five mango FSCs in Burkina Faso in their economic, social and environmental performance. The informal sector accounts for about 30% of the total FSCs value, 67% of the total production, and 99% of the workforce. The lack of statistics, lack of legal compliance, lack of public infrastructure, increases the probability and severity of any given risk and therefore hinders investments. Firms internalise the risks with horizontal and vertical integration, the support of subsidies, or by avoiding the costs of international standards compliance. As a result, we distinguish subsidised resilience from informal resilience. FSC's resilience in sub-Saharan Africa will depend on how the level of state intervention, legal compliance and law enforcement will affect the informal sector.

Environmental impacts of lithium supply chains from Australia to China

Abstract Lithium (Li) has been widely recognized as an essential metal for clean technologies. However, the environmental impacts and emission reduction pathways of the lithium supply chain haven’t been clearly investigated, especially between Australia and China, where most lithium ore are mined and produced. This study analyzed and compared the environmental and human health implications of six key cross-border Li supply chains from Australia to China through material flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) methods. Key findings include: (1) approximately 30% of total Li extraction is lost in the beneficiation stage due to low recovery rates; (2) the Cattlin-Yaan routes exhibit superior environmental and human health performances than other routes attributed to lower diesel consumption, reduced electricity use, and a high chemical conversion rate; (3) the Wodgina production routes have a higher carbon footprint mainly due to low ore grade and significant diesel consumption; (4) the dominant environmental implications in the supply chain are associated with refining battery-grade lithium carbonate, driven by energy use (electricity, coal and natural gas), sulfuric acid, soda ash, and sodium hydroxide. In addition, lithium carbonate refining has the highest water consumption. Overall, the analysis highlights opportunities to improve environmental performance, advance data-poor environmental assessments, and provide insights into sustainable Li extraction.

Environmental assessment of hospital waste management practices: A study of hospitals in Kermanshah, Iran

This research aims to identify current procedures of hospital waste management in educational hospitals, in western Iran. This study examined upon to be current procedures of medical waste management focusing on the management of hazardous medical waste, under a circular economy. Three criteria environmental situation, environmental management, and environmental performance. The environmental assessment was done by pair matrixes between criteria and sub-criteria, and between scale levels of the indicators were done. The questionnaire structure adopted in the Romero and Carnero study. The Analytic Hierarchy Process method indicates that aspect of the hazardous waste improvement program is essential. The results demonstrated that 56 % of the total environmental criteria score was VERY DEFICIENT in the scale factors classification. The lowest values indicated in the environmental management aspect and 63 % of the total score was VERY DEFICIENT. The results indicated a deficient value in environmental criteria based on the values received for the commitment to environmental policy standards and waste management procedures. The results of environmental performance criteria have shown; that no data was on atmospheric emission. The lack of rules in green purchasing and renewable energy was indicated. In waste management criteria, the total value was reasonable, but there weren't comprehensive rules for redefining waste types and staff training obligations. However, the redefinition of rules, public and staff training, using new technologies, and determination of specific budgets and green teams by proper supervising cycle can be essential to improve hazardous waste management.

Unified control of diverse actions in a wastewater treatment activated sludge system using reinforcement learning for multi-objective optimization

The operation of modern wastewater treatment facilities is a balancing act in which a multitude of variables are controlled to achieve a wide range of objectives, many of which are conflicting. This is especially true within secondary activated sludge systems, where significant research and industry effort has been devoted to advance control optimization strategies, both domain-driven and data-driven. Among data-driven control strategies, reinforcement learning (RL) stands out for its ability to achieve better than human performance in complex environments. While RL has been applied to activated sludge process optimization in existing literature, these applications are typically limited in scope, and never for the control of more than three actions. Expanding the scope of RL control has the potential to increase the optimization potential while concurrently reducing the number of control systems that must be tuned and maintained by operations staff. This study examined several facets of the implementation of multi-action, multi-objective RL agents, namely how many actions a single agent could successfully control and what extent of environment data was necessary to train such agents. This study observed improved control optimization with increasing action scope, though control of waste activated sludge remains a challenge. Furthermore, agents were able to maintain a high level of performance under decreased observation scope, up to a point. When compared to baseline control of the Benchmark Simulation Model No. 1 (BSM1), an RL agent controlling seven individual actions improved the average BSM1 performance metric by 8.3 %, equivalent to an annual cost savings of $40,200 after accounting for the cost of additional sensors.

Survey on Advances in Broadband Signal Generation and Processing of ASIC Semiconductors for Defense Satellites

To replace the field-programmable gate array semiconductors used in the defense satellite industry, we conducted a technical investigation of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) semiconductors. The analysis results show that ASIC semiconductors have the heat dissipation, reliability, and radiation resistance capabilities required in a space environment and excellent performance indicators related to the resolution of synthetic aperture radar payloads, such as operating frequency. Research and development of mission-customized ASIC semiconductors that fit the requirements for NSP(new-space paradigm) should be preceded to expanse bases of the space industry, national security capabilities for next-generation space deveolpment also to secure competitiveness of technology and domestic supply chain as space parts itselfs.

Characteristics of the Audit Committee and the Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Performance in Indonesian Companies

This study intends to experimentally demonstrate the impact of audit committee features on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance in companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The study specifically looks at how the number, tenure, independence, expertise, and frequency of audit committee meetings can impact ESG performance. A sample of the companies comprised in the Bloomberg database was used to gather information on the audit committee’s composition and ESG performance. With a total of 288 observations covering the years 2018 to 2021, the sample consists of 72 firms. According to the study’s conclusions, the size of audit committees and their level expertise have a positive impact on ESG performance. However, the length of the audit committee’s term, independence, and the frequency of audit committee meetings do not significantly impact ESG performance. These findings highlight the critical oversight functions that audit committees perform in maintaining a company’s commitment to all stakeholders and show that businesses typically follow social norms and international standards. Keywords: audit committee characteristics, ESG performance, corporate governance

Green Packaging and Environmental Safety in Ghana’s Hospitality Industry: A Systematic Review

This study seeks to review on green packaging practices on environmental safety in Ghana’s hospitality industry. The reviewed studies adopted a cross-sectional study design. A systematic review was carried out with the aid of online research journal websites as well as other in-context articles. While conducting this study, the key words in the search query were directed towards the impact of green practices on environmental safety in Ghana. Areas noted in relation to this study was use of green practices in hotels. Therefore, there was linkage of papers pointing out the impact of green practices on environmental safety. The results revealed that, hotels fared well in environmental health but badly in eco-labeling and certification. At 34%, hotels supported sustainability. Results affect MDGs, volunteering, and environment. Hierarchical multiple regression demonstrated that hotel size, class, national hotel trade association engagement, and manager remuneration increased environmental performance. No performance improvement from global chain link. Many Ghanaian hotels provide green enhancements. Most municipal hotels affect the environment. Sustainability demands hotel personnel green management training. Based on observations and interviews, they promote resilience in solid and liquid waste management, renewable energy development, green designs, energy efficiency, water conservation, and green environmental regulatory compliance. Conclusion: The research shows that hotels are important to their communities' economies, but if we neglect their environmental impact, they may damage the ecosystem. There is a need for hotels that invest money into environmental audits or certification programs like eco-labels to get monetary recompense for their environmental efforts.

Does enterprises agglomeration lead to increased pollution emissions? Evidence from Chinese microdata

Enterprise agglomeration provides significant economic benefits but also carries substantial environmental impacts. Using the China Industrial Enterprise Database, this research develops novel metrics to comprehensively quantify specialization and diversity within enterprise agglomeration patterns in the Chinese industry from 1998 to 2012. Meanwhile, this study also theoretically links levels of enterprise agglomeration to pollution levels by extending established models and testing these relationships empirically with emissions data from the period. The study finds that enterprise agglomeration has a "U-shaped" relationship with environmental pollution that is modified by factors like fossil fuel intensity and strength of environmental regulations. The conclusions suggest priorities for sustainable development include optimizing degrees of enterprise agglomeration and promoting energy efficiency and stricter standards to support long-term compatibility between economic clustering through enterprise agglomeration and environmental performance goals.

The Mediating Role of Eco-Innovation between Adaptive Environmental Strategy, Absorptive Capacity, and Environmental Performance

This article delves into the role of adaptive environmental strategies, absorptive capacity, and eco-innovation in enhancing environmental performance, particularly in the context of market turbulence. The study, conducted among 568 companies in Colombia, employs structural equation modeling to evaluate relationships between the studied variables. The findings suggest that adaptive strategies alone do not directly impact environmental performance, emphasizing the need for integration with eco-innovation initiatives. Moreover, organizations with high absorptive capacity can leverage market turbulence to drive eco-innovative initiatives, highlighting the indirect yet significant impact of market turbulence on environmental performance through absorptive capacity. The study underscores the critical role of eco-innovation in directly influencing environmental outcomes, suggesting that the effectiveness of adaptive strategies and absorptive capacities hinges on successful eco-innovation initiatives. These insights offer practical guidance for organizations seeking to enhance their environmental performance in turbulent markets, providing a roadmap for sustainable business practices.

A green revolution in the making: integrating environmental performance and green finance for China’s sustainable development

Green finance initiatives are encouraged in the world to attain green economic milestones. Therefore, it is the centered area of research for the plethora of researchers across the globe. Instead of this significant transition to green finance, the study analyzed the Chinese data to explore the relationship between Green Finance, Green Technology innovation, and Environmental Performance from 2003 to 2022 in the Chinese context. We preferred the CS-ARDL and panel Quantile regression models for exploring our hypothesis and to examine the relationship of these variables. Our results validated that both green finance and green technology innovation have positive effects in both the long-term and short-term on the environmental performance in numerous Chinese cities. The statistical results showed that Green Finance and Green technology innovation reduce the amount of CO2 emission. Hence our results confirmed that both Green Finance and green technology innovations are significantly contributing to the environmental quality of China as the selected cities considered for the study investigation are considerably more driven towards green initiatives. This research also discussed the potential for implementing policy interventions in the future to leverage the adoption of green technology and make a significant impact on the world’s environmental quality as China is the biggest emitter of CO2 emissions. The study places and puts forward valuable insights to the regulatory bodies that would likely help them in achieving sustainable milestones and would contribute to their long-term strategic landscape for the attainment of environmental objectives and heights.

Mapping and Current Trends in Sustainable Communication: A Bibliometric View

The aim of this study is to examine the development of the concept of sustainable communication in the business, management and communication literature through bibliometric analysis. Sustainable communication involves strategic, transparent dissemination of information integrating environmental, social, and economic factors, engaging stakeholders, promoting awareness, and emphasizing the interconnectedness of sustainability dimensions. The research problem lies in the absence of a comprehensive bibliometric study on sustainable communication, despite the abundance of studies in field of sustainability and communication. This study will fill this gap in the literature by utilizing the bibliometric analysis method and contributing to the existing literature. The situation underscores the significance of research. In line with this purposes, this study examines 2724 articles on sustainable communication, focusing on applied studies and focusing on the distribution of these articles, co-authorship, co-citation, and co-occurence of the authors who published them. As a result of the bibliometric analysis, it has been determined that the field of sustainable communication has continued to develop over the years and that the concepts of big data within the scope of Industry 4.0, green business, sustainable business, sustainable supply chain management, environmental performance, greenwashing, and the circular economy have come to the fore in recent years. The study’s findings can be beneficial to scholars as they reveal the current performance of authors, documents, as well as the progression of themes.

Comparing the circularity and life cycle environmental performance of batteries for electric vehicles

Batteries account for a significant share of the life cycle impact of electric vehicles (EV). Nonetheless, the circularity and environmental performance of EV batteries remains underexplored in the literature. This paper compares the circularity (Circularity Index and Product Circularity Indicator) and environmental performance (Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Abiotic Depletion Potential of minerals (ADPm)) of lithium nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries subjected to pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy recycling. Lifetime extension, improved energy efficiency, and material recovery ratios were also calculated to identify the optimal battery design. The findings show that NMC batteries are 6–25% more circular and environmentally sustainable (<4–6% GWP and <13–16% ADPm) than LFP batteries, primarily due to better material recovery ratios. Moreover, the longer lifetime of LFP does not sufficiently offset resource and environmental impacts. Finally, the study discusses the results to support circular and environmental innovation in EV battery design.

Impact of Corporate Innovation, Technological Innovation and ESG on Environmental Performance: Moderation Test of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Technological Innovation as Mediator Using Sobel Test

Impact of Corporate Innovation, Technological Innovation and ESG on Environmental Performance: Moderation Test of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Technological Innovation as Mediator Using Sobel Test

Developing Digital Literacy For Vietnamese Civil Servants

Different political, economic, cultural and social conditions will lead countries to their own ways, methods and roadmaps to successfully implement their national digital transformation goals. However, there is one factor that always plays a prerequisite role in digital transformation: the human factor - digital literacy. In the public sector, it is the civil servants ‘digital literacy, an essential factor, enables civil servants to achieve the goal of digital transformation, perform public duties in the digital environment and modernize the public administration. In this study, the theoretical framework on digital literacy has been built up, including: (1) Capacity to use digital technology, (2) Capacity to exploit digital information and data, (3) Capacity to create digital content, (4) Capacity to perform digital transactions, assess the impact of digital literacy on civil servants' public duty performance in the digital environment. A survey was conducted to collect opinions of 360 commune-level civil servants in 3 provinces representing 3 regions of Vietnam, including: Thai Binh province (Northern region), Quang Nam province (Central region), Tay Ninh province (Northern region), Quang Nam province (Central region), Tay Ninh province (Southern region). The results show that the commune - level civil servants self-assess themselves at a low level in terms of proficiency in all four aforementioned digital capacities, posing requirements for the development and implementation of training policies on digital literacy for civil servants in Vietnam today. These findings suggest related issues as recommendations for developing and improving policies on Vietnamese civil servants’ digital literacy.

Effect of Ultraviolet Radiation on Properties of Ge2Sb2Te5 Phase Change Films.

With the expanding utilization of space technology, the stability of electronic components' performance in radiation environments has garnered significant attention. In this study, we prepared Ge2Sb2Te5 phase change films and memory units on silicon substrates to explore the influence of ultraviolet (UV) radiation on their characteristics. The experimental findings revealed that UV irradiation at a power density of 450 mW/cm2 decreased the amorphous resistance and thermal stability of Ge2Sb2Te5 films, impeding their multistage storage performance. Nevertheless, the amorphous state could still undergo effective transformation into a crystalline state. Furthermore, UV irradiation triggered the photoelectric effect, narrowing the band gap and causing a redshift of the Raman peak in amorphous films. Remarkably, the surface properties of Ge2Sb2Te5 films remained unchanged under irradiation. The phase change memory device based on Ge2Sb2Te5 film retained its SET-RESET conversion capability at a pulse width of 100 ns post-UV irradiation, demonstrating resilience against UV radiation. This study offers the practical insights for the application of phase change memory in space radiation environments.

Does participation in sports competitions enhance interprofessional teamwork among medical students? Evidence from a medical school curriculum experiment

BackgroundEffective interprofessional teamwork is essential for the efficiency, safety and quality of healthcare system services and requires interprofessional education for medical students. Physical education is a simple and easy way to teach teamwork, which translates into team performance in the work environment. This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the physical education competition model, instead of the exams model, for improving teamwork skills among medical students.MethodsA quasiexperimental intervention design was used to measure the effect of a 16-week cheerleading programme on subjects' teamwork skills by completing a teamwork scale comprising four subdimensions, namely, personal characteristics, teamwork, leadership, and conflict management, before the start and at the end of the programme, and by comparing nonwinning to winning students to measure the effect of teamwork skills on team performance.ResultsA total of 179 students completed the valid baseline and posttest (effective rate = 95.21%). The teamwork scale scores (B M = 4.81, R M = 5.05, p < 0.001) and 4 subdimension scores (personal characteristics p = 0.002, teamwork p = 0.028, leadership p < 0.001, conflict management p < 0.001) were statistically significant. Twenty-two of the 44 items in the scale improved significantly. The differences between students who won the competition and those who did not (N M=4.86, W M=5.14, p<0.01) were statistically significant, with no significant differences in personal characteristics p = 0.183; significant differences in the 3 subdimensions of teamwork p < 0.01, leadership p = 0.024, and conflict management p = 0.037; and a significant increase in 13 out of 44 self-efficacy items on the scale.ConclusionsThe "race for exams" physical education programme improved teamwork among medical students, and increased teamwork improved team performance. The "competition instead of examination" physical education programme provides a quantifiable method for improving interprofessional teamwork among medical students.