Environmental Efficiency Assessment Research Articles

Industrial environmental efficiency assessment for China's western regions by using a SBM-based DEA.

This study employed a data envelopment analysis (DEA) by using slacks-based measure (SBM) with undesirable outputs to assess the industrial environmental efficiency of western China duringthe period of 2001-2015. The Malmquist index was further used to examine the changes in the industrial environmental efficiency of the analyzed region. The result showed that western China presented a low industrial environmental efficiency throughout the period of 2001-2015. Chongqing City was the only province that exhibited strong economic and environmental coordination. The level of technical development was identified as a key determinant of industrial environmental efficiency. This study provided policy implications on emissions reduction and the improvement of industrial efficiency. Limitations of the approach were provided to lay foundation for future studies.

Greenhouse gas emissions from different plant production system in China

Abstract For the environmental efficiency assessment of the plant nursery production system, the total CO2 eq emissions of 18 nurseries in China was calculated using the LCA “from cradle to gate” approach. The analysis revealed that the GHG emissions of potted plant production were higher than those of field-grown nurseries. The CO2 eq emissions were variable between 0.31 and 2.19 Mg ha−1 year−1 for field-grown nurseries, while the lowest and the highest emissions were 4.09 and 6.06 Mg ha−1 year−1, respectively, for potted plant nurseries. In 2015, the total CO2 eq emissions of the nursery production industry in China were approximately 1.59 Mt, which consisted of 1.07 Mt from field-grown nurseries and 0.52 Mt from pot-grown plant nurseries. In China, nursery production industry carbon emissions were 0.19% of the national agriculture emissions. The comparison showed that the GHG emissions of the nursery plant system have significant differences depending on region, production method, plant species and economic development level.

Environmental and resource recovery efficiency assessment of the obsolete mobile phones recycling system

Considering environmental protection and resource recovery efficiency, the building of low pollution and high efficiency for recycling system of obsolete mobile phones has been a huge issue. Through system dynamics, the recycling model of obsolete mobile phone is built, which involving the recycling effect under different recycling situations between formal and informal recyclers. The vensim PLE software is used to simulate and assess influence variables in the model. The results show that the formal recycling system can improve the efficiency of recovery and reuse or recycling of obsolete mobile phones.

Dynamic Environmental Efficiency Assessment of Industrial Water Pollution

In the face of severe water pollution, all provinces and cities in China have actively invested in water environment management funds driven by the goals of national energy conservation and emissions reduction. However, due to differences in natural environment, economic and technological levels, industrial structure, and other aspects in provinces and cities, their water environment management effects are also different across time and space. Under economic development and environmental regulation policies, it can be seen that the change in industrial GDP is not completely consistent with that of industrial wastewater discharge. How to improve desirable outputs and reduce undesirable outputs under the limited investment in water pollution control are key issues when investigating the efficiency of industrial water pollution control. This study uses the Dynamic SBM (Slacks-Based Measure) model to assess wastewater resources for research samples covering the 30 regions of China. There are two output variables, two input variables, and one carry-over variable. The output variables are industrial wastewater treatment and industrial output, the two input variables are industrial water consumption and facility operation cost, and the carry-over variable is industrial waste. This study concludes with implications for theory research, as these variables may lead to a better understanding and merging with the input variables, output variables, and carry-over variable of recent studies. The empirical results show that from the efficiency rank changes of the 30 regions for 2011–2015, regions with higher industrial output do not appear to have improved versus other regions, such as for Shandong, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Qinghai, and Zhejiang. The 30 regions’ efficiency scores show some volatility, with 13 regions’ efficiency score volatility clustering close to 0, like Beijing, Chongqing, Shandong, Guangdong, and Sichuan. In contrast, for Anhui, Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, and Xinjiang, their efficiency scores fell more than other regions in this period and thus should adjust their input/output variables to increase their efficiency scores. This study further presents that many lower-/middle-/high-industrial output regions do not achieve a balance between industrial output and industrial wastewater treatment. How to find a balance between these two factors for any region is a vitally important issue for industrial wastewater treatment policy makers. Under such a circumstance, an industrial output region may not actually be highly efficient at doing this.

Dynamic Assessment of Environmental Efficiency in Chinese Industry: A Multiple DEA Model with a Gini Criterion Approach

While China’s rapid industrialization has brought great pressure on environmental pollution, great variations appear in terms of environmental pollution levels among industries. The effective assessment of the environmental performance of different industries is not only conducive to identifying the major sources of pollution in China but also of great significance to the Chinese government in formulating differentiated industry environmental control policies in a targeted manner. Using data of 36 Chinese industries from 2006 to 2015 and a multiple data envelopment analysis (DEA) with a Gini criterion as well as a systematic clustering approach, this study first calculates the environmental efficiency score of Chinese industries and then identifies those pollution sources based on a ranking and clustering analysis. The main result indicates that the ranking of environmental efficiency of various industries overall varies greatly by time. In addition, using a clustering analysis, this study finds that 13 labor-intensive light industries and heavy chemical industries with high energy use and high emissions are medium- and high-pollution industries. Important policy implications are drawn to achieve green industrial development.

Renewable energy in cement manufacturing: A quantitative assessment of energy and environmental efficiency of food residue biofuels

The present work investigates solid biofuel, derived from household food waste (food residue biofuel, FRB) as a potential bioenergy source in cement manufacturing. Up-to-date investigations of household food waste as a solid fuel focused on composition and heating value, yet no results are available regarding impact on plant efficiency and emissions upon utilization. A multidimensional model based on fundamental principles (mass and enthalpy balances) is used together with actual data from fossil fuel operation to identify and quantitatively asses the impacts on plant performance, product quality and atmospheric emissions. Τhe energy needed to prepare low moisture FRBs is determined and suitable processes are singled out. Key issues of cement plant operation are identified and quantitatively assessed via simulation in an actual dry-process plant, when FRBs substitute 20% of thermal energy (provided by petcoke). The facility utilizes 1.65 × 105 tpa of fossil fuels to produce 1.5 × 106 tpa clinker. It is found that energy efficiency falls and clinker production diminishes by about 0.5 t clinker/t FRB. Refractory thermal rating and main blower capacity constraints remain satisfied. Non-biogenic green-house-gas emissions are reduced by ~60 kg/t clinker. Emitted concentrations slightly increase for several pollutants, mainly nitrogen oxides (NOx) hydrogen chloride (HCl) and metals; they decrease for sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particulates. Maximum emission limits are observed for all regulated pollutants but NOx. Incombustible chlorine and inclusions of alkalis in cement increase by ~9%. To reap the bioenergy benefits and mitigate impacts, blends of FRB (~80%wt) with paper residues (~20%wt) are investigated. Conforming to plant operational constraints and product specifications, the blends ensure production level, environmental compliance and reduced emission rates. The results direct towards customer-tailored FRB blends with lignocellulosic residues, that best suit the design, specific quarry raw materials, operating conditions and individual parameters of the cement plant towards more sustainable cement manufacturing.

The ecological efficiency assessment in the system of management

The article presents models and methods of environmental efficiency assessment. The analysis of methodological approaches to environmental efficiency assessment has been carried out. The research concludes that the indicators of ecological management benefit and costs and nature protection activity are key criteria in environmental efficiency estimation.

Towards a sustainable agri-food system by an energetic and environmental efficiency assessment

The authors are grateful for the funding of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Ceres-Procom: Food production and consumption strategies for climate change mitigation (CTM2016-76176- C2-1-R) (AEI/FEDER, UE).

DEA-BASED DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT OF REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL EFFICIENCY

We apply window Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to the solution of the problem of assessment of the efficiency of regional production systems in Southern Russia. The proposed method allows to monitor the changes in efficiency of regional economic systems throughout time and has a high discrimination power. The simplicity of the technical implementation of the proposed method and the availability of the necessary software for its use allow one to hope for its wide implementation in the modern practice of regional environmental management.

Environmental efficiency analysis of the Yangtze River Economic Zone using super efficiency data envelopment analysis (SEDEA) and tobit models

Environmental efficiency (EE) assessment is an efficient way to evaluate the degree of coordination between economy and environment. Most of the studies measured country- or region-level EEs, while the EE disparities among cities were not well investigated. By incorporating the socioeconomic and remote sensing data, this study measured the static and dynamic EEs of 11 provinces and 131 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Zone (YREZ) in China based on a super efficiency data envelopment analysis (SEDEA) and Malmquist index (MI) methods during 2003–2014. The influential factors of EE imbalance in the YREZ area were explored by the panel tobit model. Results show that large gaps exist in city's environmental efficiency. Cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) show higher EEs than that in the Chengyu Urban Agglomeration (CUA) and Urban Agglomeration in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMR) areas. 15 cities have an EE below 0.2 and only 2 cities above 1 in 2014. The overall average EE exhibited a declining trend during 2003–2014. The number of cities below the average environmental efficiency increased from 70 (53.4%) to 83 (63.4%) over the time period studied. The MI results indicate that management and scale optimization level is the main factor hindering total factor productivity (TFP) growth. The tobit experiment reveals that GDP per capita played a negative impact on EE for most of the YREZ area during 2003–2014. The degree of opening up and industrial structure acted positively on city's environmental efficiency. These conclusions may be a helpful reference for decision makers to coordinate the economy and environment in the YREZ area.

Dynamic environmental efficiency assessment for wastewater treatment plants

Purpose Life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) have been combined in numerous occasions in order to identify the environmental efficiency of multiple units. In many cases, important differences in environmental performance have been identified among the units, referred to as decision-making units (DMUs). However, most studies have been limited to 1 year of assessment, preventing the study from identifying if efficiency values were linked to a specific trend of each DMU through time or to random annual changes. Therefore, the current study delves into the temporal variations in efficiency using DEA.

8-6-2 食肉生産システムにおける環境効率と環境影響評価(Session 8-6 エネルギー評価IV)

8-6-2 食肉生産システムにおける環境効率と環境影響評価(Session 8-6 エネルギー評価IV)

The economic and environmental efficiency assessment in EU cross-country: Evidence from DEA and quantile regression approach

This article aims to estimate the efficiency of 26 different European Countries over 2001 and 2012 comparing their performance. Data Envelopment Analysis technique is used in a first step to evaluate the performance of each European country. The output-oriented model was used with two specifications (Variable and Constant Returns to Scale) including as inputs labour and capital productivity, the weight of fossil energy and the share of renewable energy in GDP (gross domestic product), being the output GDP per GHG (greenhouse gases) emissions. In a second step, the quantile regression technique was used, to explain different efficiency scores through variables as Environmental Taxes Revenues, Resources Productivity and Domestic Material Consumption. Results indicate that share of renewables and non-renewable energy sources are important to explain differences in emissions. They suggest a significant change in the trend of economic and environmental efficiency in European countries and put forward the high disparities existing among them. Policy recommendations point for the need of higher steps if the goal is to equal countries efficiency scores. Moreover, environmental tax revenue effects are negatively stronger in less efficient countries, whereas also exerting negative influence over those more eco-efficient. Transport taxes affect negatively more eco-efficient countries and positively less eco-efficient countries. Energy taxes only seem to positively influence the lower eco-efficient countries. There is also evidence for a negative premium of efficiency considering domestic materials consumption. Finally, resources productivity shows a positive and significant influence independently of the country technical eco-efficiency level.

An Empirical Study on Environmental Efficiency Assessment in Urban Industrial Concentration Areas

An Empirical Study on Environmental Efficiency Assessment in Urban Industrial Concentration Areas

Ecological-economic evaluation of modern receptions of growing vegetable products

A modern study of the role of silicon in the physiology of cultivated plants, in the soil fertility and in the production of quality and environmentally safe plant products remains one of the pressing and in-demand in practice. Purpose. Assessment of environmental and economic efficiency of modern methods of growing vegetables. Methods. Field, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, variance. Results. Field studies have been conducted on the plot of land in the village of. Orihikka of the Lubny District of the Poltava region during 2015-2016. In the autumn of 2015, an experiment with the following plot variants was planted on the plots: 1. Control - a plot without fertilization; 2. control – +2 foliar feeding; 3. N60P40K60; 4. N60P40K60 + 2 foliar nutrition; 5. 30 t / ha semi-perforated manure; 6. 30 t / ha semi-permafrost + 2 extra root feedings. The area of each site was 15 m2. Repeat options - triple.For siliceous-potassium foliar nutrition, complex fertilizers containing silicon and potassium "Quantum-AQUASIL" were used. The agrostatus of our choice is the steel plate feeding of vegetable plants of tomatoes and sweet pepper, which is carried out by 0.5% solution of the preparation by standard spraying in the evening in the second, fourth and sixth variants of the experiment. Two treatments were carried out: the first-in-phase of budding, the second - at the beginning of the formation of fruits.Researched ahrostatus not cause soil contamination with heavy metals. The maximum increase of harvest tomatoes in the experiment is 13.2 kg / ha of sweet pepper in the experiment is 5.2 kg / ha on the background of manure and foliar nutrition siliciclastic-potassium fertilizer. The same results were obtained for the variant with the introduction of complete fertilizer and foliar nutrition siliciclastic-potassium fertilizer. Against the background of manure siliciclastic double-sheet feeding potash contributed detox effect with respect to heavy metals, pollutants and also helped to shape better trace element composition.Conclusions. It is shown that the most appropriate to the ecological-economic approach is the cultivation of vegetable crops (tomato and pepper), with application of organic fertilizers and double silicon-potassium foliar treatment.

Environmental efficiency assessment of U.S. transport sector: A slack-based data envelopment analysis approach

Sustainable transportation in the U.S. is essential for long-term economic growth and mobility, and environmental preservation. Using a non-radial slack-based measurement data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) model and state-level data, this study assesses the environmental efficiency of the transportation sector in the U.S. from years 2004 to 2012. In addition to environmental efficiency, carbon efficiency and potential carbon reduction were estimated for the 50 U.S. states. The findings of this study reveal that U.S. transportation sector was environmentally inefficient; U.S. states had an average transportation environmental efficiency score below 0.64. Therefore the states could substantially reduce carbon emissions to improve the environmental efficiency of their transportation sectors.

A SP survey-based method for evaluating environmental performance of urban commercial districts: A case study in Beijing

Environmental assessment plays an important role in directing urban development towards a sustainable way. Unfortunately the majority of currently available environmental assessment tools emphasize either the regional scale or single-building scale, while giving less attention to the meso-scale. This paper presents a methodology of meso-scale environmental performance assessment for urban commercial districts. It extends both the environmental performance assessment and the environmental efficiency assessment by integrating the indicators from three aspects, i.e. the environmental quality, the social and economic value, and the environmental load. Consumer satisfaction is also incorporated. The Stated Preference survey (SP survey) was introduced for the evaluation to get the preference of the consumers, and weights of the indicators were decided via discrete choice model fitting. Six typical commercial districts of Beijing were sampled to test the viability. The results of our research are proved helpful for understanding the environmental situation of urban commercial districts therefore instructive for city planning and management. The proposed method can also be applied to other meso-scale districts such as industrial districts and residential districts in city.

Оценка экологической эффективности применения этанола в качестве альтернативного топлива

Оценка экологической эффективности применения этанола в качестве альтернативного топлива

Comparative environmental impact and efficiency assessment of selected hydrogen production methods

The environmental impacts of various hydrogen production processes are evaluated and compared, considering several energy sources and using life cycle analysis. The results indicate that hydrogen produced by thermochemical water decomposition cycles are more environmentally benign options compared to conventional steam reforming of natural gas. The nuclear based four-step Cu–Cl cycle has the lowest global warming potential (0.559kgCO2-eq per kg hydrogen production), mainly because it requires the lowest quantity of energy of the considered processes. The acidification potential results show that biomass gasification has the highest impact on environment, while wind based electrolysis has the lowest. The relation is also investigated between efficiency and environmental impacts.

Sustainable building management: overview of certification schemes and standards

Building sustainable management is a complex problem which needs adequate and suitable assessment tools and methods, efficient enough, to address issues of incommensurability and complexity regarding environmental policies and legislation. Within the frame of this article, assessment methods have been described, are compared with each other and evaluated in the background of the standards provided by the International Organization for Standardization. The certification schemes examined include Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Deutche Gesellschaft fur Nachhaltiges Bauen, Green Star, High Environmental Quality, Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency and GBTool assessment methods as well as the draft EU Ecolabel for office buildings. Emphasis have been placed on information referring to objectives, methodology, criteria involved in the evaluation procedure, environmental topics evaluated, life cycle analysis phases covered, costs and applications’ results within the tools’ structure for new building schemes. Finally, the impact of green certification schemes on the construction market, mainly as a tool of energy management, has also been examined in relation to the absence of mandatory international standardization in sustainable building management.