Environmental Performance Indicators Research Articles

Bangladesh towards green growth: a review of environmental sustainability indicators

Pursuing green growth is crucial for Bangladesh to transition from an unsustainable economic trajectory to a more sustainable and inclusive one. Bangladesh is picked for this study because of impending and severe economic and environmental threats. This study intends to review the present scenario of various environmental sustainability-related indicators in Bangladesh, focusing on renewable energy consumption, freshwater resources, water productivity, CO2 emissions, energy intensity, air pollution, and natural resource rents. The World Bank database has been utilized to obtain secondary time series data of Bangladesh spanning from 2000 to 2020. As a descriptive study, cross-sectional and observational research methods as well as descriptive statistics and figures are used to elucidate the secondary data. Data demonstrate that Bangladesh now generates 41.16% of its energy from renewables, despite considerable variability. Regardless of the variation in freshwater availability, averaging at 708.19 cubic meters per capita, efficient water productivity remains consistent, indicating a robust water management system. The country demonstrates a relatively low carbon footprint, emitting 0.35 metric tons of CO2 per capita, alongside varying energy intensity levels, highlighting the need for enhanced efficiency measures. While pervasive PM2.5 air pollution poses a significant health risk, Bangladesh's reliance on natural resource rents underscores the importance of sustainable resource management practices for long-term economic stability. The observations of this study might assist in the formulation of policies of water management systems, air pollution control initiatives, and conservation of ecology to promote Bangladesh's long-term sustainability objectives and formulate policies.

A comprehensive analysis of key factors’ impact on environmental performance: Evidence from Globe by novel super learner algorithm

This study aims to analyze comprehensively the impact of different economic and demographic factors, which affect economic development, on environmental performance. In this context, the study considers the Environmental Performance Index as the response variable, uses GDP per capita, tariff rate, tax burden, government expenditure, inflation, unemployment, population, income tax rate, public debt, FDI inflow, and corporate tax rate as the explanatory variables, examines 181 countries, performs a novel Super Learner (SL) algorithm, which includes a total of six machine learning (ML) algorithms, and uses data for the years 2018, 2020, and 2022. The results demonstrate that (i) the SL algorithm has a superior capacity with regard to other ML algorithms; (ii) gross domestic product per capita is the most crucial factor in the environmental performance followed by tariff rates, tax burden, government expenditure, and inflation, in order; (iii) among all, the corporate tax rate has the lowest importance on the environmental performance followed by also foreign direct investment, public debt, income tax rate, population, and unemployment; (iv) there are some critical thresholds, which imply that the impact of the factors on the environmental performance change according to these barriers. Overall, the study reveals the nonlinear impact of the variables on environmental performance as well as their relative importance and critical threshold. Thus, the study provides policymakers valuable insights in re-formulating their environmental policies to increase environmental performance. Accordingly, various policy options are discussed.

Study of Environmental Performance Index of Mines Using a Balanced Scorecard Approach and Fuzzy Network Analysis

Study of Environmental Performance Index of Mines Using a Balanced Scorecard Approach and Fuzzy Network Analysis

Impact of sustainability integrating environmental and social practices on farm resilience: a quantitative study of farmers facing the post-COVID-19 economic turbulence in Japan

Research on sustainability practices and resilience in farm systems has focused on the mutual interrelationship between the two. When identifying critical variables related to sustainability, it is essential to take an integrated perspective that considers the interplay among sustainable practices and uses a dataset that includes both environmental and social indicators. Thus, this study aims to quantitatively identify the impact of integrated sustainability indices on farm resilience, which is classified as persistence and adaptation, in the face of Post-COVID-19 economic turbulence. We obtained data from a questionnaire survey of 4,604 farms conducted by a government financial institution. Integrated sustainability indices and resilience indices are formulated through the application of factor analysis. As a result, we develop six sustainability indices that integrate environmental and social practices. A regression analysis reveals a positive correlation between the integrated sustainability indices and short-term persistence as farm resilience. Moreover, these sustainability indices exhibit a more pronounced impact on long-term adaptive resilience. These results imply that the integrated sustainability indices are more adept at evaluating farmers’ sustainability endeavors and clarifying the relationship between sustainability and farm resilience than traditional environmental and social sustainability indicators.

ISO 14001 Environmental Standard: Process Approach and Identification of Environmental Aspects and Impacts

Environmental management is the management of activities that may have an impact on the environment. It aims to limit polluting emissions and risks to the environment and to save natural resources. Often unsuspected and therefore without us always realizing it, all economic activities can have a considerable impact on the environment. Indeed, the manufacture of products requires the extraction of raw materials and the use of water and energy. Similarly, activities associated with the manufacturing process, such as maintenance, transportation; all have environmental impacts. The environmental management system is a progress tool that integrates the environmental dimension into an organization’s strategy, leading it to set objectives, achieve and maintain performance through effective management and promotes anticipation (the forecast). There is a multitude of guides allowing self-diagnosis by the organization and which make it possible to make an environmental assessment. ISO 14001 is the environmental management standard (EMS) created by the international organization for standardization. It defines the requirements of a global environmental management system for self-reporting or certification purposes. It is organized in 17 points modeled on quality management, well known for 34 years in the industry. The standard does not establish any absolute requirement for environmental performance, other than a commitment to environmental policy, to comply with legislation and the principle of continuous improvement. Pollution prevention through the identification of the various significant environmental aspects and impacts, which accounted for 70% of the requirements of ISO 14001, is the main environmental improvement point. In addition, since these environmental aspects and impacts can only be identified from the activities, products and services associated with them, this article represents a working method that allows expressing good environmental practices, present in the form of environmental performance indicators that inform in a concentrated and precise manner on the different activities with environmental relevance.

Enhancing sustainability considerations in construction industry projects

AbstractIn today’s society, the construction sector significantly influences all three aspects of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. Industry and academia have recognized sustainability in construction projects as a key concern. The New Zealand government also focuses on providing a sustainable construction sector centred on high performance, high productivity, enhanced innovation, and improving community well-being through a better-built environment. Project management and sustainability are two distinct areas of research. Previous empirical research on the effectiveness of construction project implementation lacked sustainability success components. This research aims to provide criteria for project sustainability success for future performance on construction projects. Based on the existing literature, many economic, environmental, and social sustainability indicators were compiled for consideration at various pipeline project life cycle phases. The information gathered from the Scopus database was analyzed using ATLAS.ti 9 software to create project sustainability success criteria. Pipeline construction projects and sustainability must focus on environmental challenges while managing economic and social advantages. The research investigated sustainable construction adoption, revealing weak awareness among organizations due to limited understanding among key actors like clients, regulatory bodies, and construction organizations. Lack of effective application of sustainability guidelines, inadequate legislation, and building codes were significant hurdles in implementing sustainable practices in the construction sector. The study highlights essential issues to promote sustainable practices in the industry. The study findings suggest that organizations and individual factors are strong predictors for achieving sustainable construction and are vital antecedents leading to greater sustainability adoption. Finally, the study points to construction project managers’ knowledge of how to set up criteria connected to sustainability and how it could affect the outcome of their projects.

Environmental regulations and firms’ integration in global markets: using a new environmental performance index

AbstractThis paper investigates how the environmental performance of firms impacts their participation in global value chains (GVC). The analysis is based on a dataset of 15,922 firms located in 32 European, Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and North African countries, with information on firm-level environmental practices provided by the recent Green Economy module of the World Bank Enterprise Surveys. We propose the Firm Environmental Performance Index (FEPI), a new index measuring firms’ adoption of environmental actions. The index is used in a two-part instrumental variable approach to estimate the impact of FEPI on both the probability and the intensity of GVC participation, while addressing reverse causality concerns. The results indicate that a one-standard deviation increase in the FEPI increases the probability of participation by 6.4 percentage points, a result consistently observed in all regions and sectors. The effects on the intensity of participation are mostly non-significant. However, a negative effect is observed in exceptional cases, namely for firms that are importers only, have low-technology practices, and are located in less developed regions. The results are robust to alternative definitions of GVC participation, inclusion of alternative instruments, and to partial violations of the exclusion restriction. All in all, they suggest that complying with environmental regulations could lead to higher integration in global markets, albeit with adverse effects in some particular cases.

ОЦЕНКА ОТНОСИТЕЛЬНОЙ УСЛОВНОЙ МАССЫ ЗАГРЯЗНИТЕЛЯ

The article presents a calculation of environmental performance indicators, an assessment of the rela-tive conditional mass of the pollutant adsorbed by the vegetation barrier

Water footprint assessment in an industrial symbiosis system based on environmental, economic, and social sustainability indices

Integrated water resource management requires a comprehensive assessment of all water uses, both direct and indirect, which can be captured by the Water Footprint (WF) concept, especially in Industrial Symbiosis (IS). IS creates links between different industries to reduce resource consumption. This article analyses the environmental, social, and economic sustainability aspects of the WF in an IS system. First, the inventories of these three aspects were carried out simultaneously with the WF inventory. Sustainability indices were presented based on the relative comparison of current WF and sustainably oriented WF (SOWF). SOWF in an IS system is defined as the situation with minimum total WF and is obtained by mathematical programming. The proposed framework was applied to an IS involving three industries in southeastern Iran: steel production, coal concentrate, and power generation. The blue WFs of these industries were calculated as 11.77 m3/ton of steel, 0.87 m3/ton of coal, and 8.31 m3/MWh of power. The sustainability indices revealed that the steel industry exhibited a more favorable environmental and social performance than other industries, while the power generation was economically superior with a higher cost ratio of current WF to SOWF. Subsequently, several sustainability-enhancing solutions were evaluated based on environmental, economic, and social criteria. Among these, solar energy usage, wastewater reuse, and recycling in iron ore processing emerged as effective strategies to enhance overall sustainability by reducing WFs and improving social criteria. Ultimately, the wastewater reuse option was given the highest priority.

Strategic analysis of the sustainability of the Andalusian primary sector. An instrument for resilient management

The current Common Agricultural Policy encourages the expansion of agri-food sustainability to implement sustainable development in primary production. It is, therefore, important to quantify the sustainability of agriculture and livestock farming in order to apply corrective measures. The objective of this work was to analyze the sustainability of primary production in southern Spain, one of the main production areas in Europe, between 2002 and 2021. For this purpose, a composite indicator of economic, social, environmental, and global sustainability was constructed, as recommended in previous research. The results of this work suggest that the provinces of Jaén, Córdoba, and Almería show the highest overall sustainability of primary production in Andalusia with different levels of sustainability being observed. An inverse relationship between the economic and environmental subcomponents of the sustainability of primary production in southern Spain was observed. The global sustainability of primary production in Andalusia is moderate, as well as heterogeneous. Therefore, it does not make sense to apply a homogeneous agricultural strategy. The Andalusian administration should apply an agricultural policy at different speeds to improve the critical points of each production system.

Do MENA firms consider climate risks? Evidence from the relationship between ESG and firm performance

ABSTRACT We investigate the moderating effect of climate risk, measured by Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and a Global Climate Risk Index (CRI), on the relationship between Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) score and firm performance using data on non-financial listed firms in the MENA region during the period 2006–2021. We perform the analysis in two stages, in the first stage, we examine the impact of ESG score on firm performance. The findings show that ESG score has a negative impact on operational and financial performance and a positive effect on market performance. Next, we hypothesize that ESG will have a more positive and stronger impact on firm performance in high than low climate risk countries. The results indicate mixed evidence. In further analysis, we have examined the effect of environmental performance index and net zero initiatives on the relationship of ESG on firm performance.

Environmental performance, financial development, systemic risk and economic uncertainty: What are the linkages?

The paper studies the relationships among the composite indicators of environmental performance, financial development, systemic risk and economic uncertainty for a balanced panel of 57 countries during 2010–2020. The analysis builds on panel local projections by Jordá (2005). In addition to the whole panel, this technique also applies to two sub-panels obtained via the K-means clusterization conditional on a set of composite indicators of environmental performance. We underscore a two-way relationship between systemic risk and environmental performance. An increase in systemic risk improves the environmental quality, albeit to the detriment of economic growth and energy consumption, whereas ex ante higher values of the key composite indicators of environmental performance mitigate systemic risk. Financial development adversely affects environmental performance. Contrary to the prevailing view, this effect is mostly related to the development of financial markets compared to the development of financial institutions. Economic uncertainty is found totally unrelated to the composite indicators of environmental performance. The aforementioned key findings generally hold after splitting the whole panel into the two sub-panels. Overall, our results induce policymakers to treat with caution certain policy recommendations aimed at improving environmental quality, since reducing systemic risk, increasing financial development as a whole or shifting towards a market-based financial system do not necessarily help accomplish this goal.

Analysis of drying characteristic, effective moisture diffusivity and energy, exergy and environment performance indicators during thin layer drying of tea in a convective-hot air dryer

The objective of this study is mainly to analyze the drying kinetic parameters, effective diffusivity, and thermodynamic performance indicators (energy, exergy, heat, and mass transfer coefficients) of tea under different drying conditions of different drying temperatures (DT) and thin layer thicknesses (TT). Experimental drying was conducted at drying temperatures of 70°C, 80°C, and 90°C with thin layer thicknesses of 10 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm. The results show that a higher drying temperature and a lower thin layer thickness can increase evaporation moisture content and shorten drying time. By evaluating and comparing the fitting of five drying models adopted by the coefficient of determination (R2) and chi-square (χ2), it can be found that the logarithmic model is the best to describe drying behavior. The effective moisture diffusivity shows a positively correlated trend with the increase in DT and TT, with the value of activation energy ranging from 14.030 to 22.344 kJ mol−1 K−1. The specific moisture evaporation rate (SMER), energy efficiency, exergy efficiency, and sustainability index (SI) descend as the TT increases at all DT; the specific energy consumption (SEC) and improvement potential (IP) rate perform in an opposite manner, but the TT remains unchange. The conclusion drawn from the thermodynamic parameters is opposite to the aforementioned. As the TT increases, the heat and mass transfer coefficients show a significant decrease trend. In addition, the heat and mass transfer coefficients are given as functions of DT and TT, and further knowledge shows that the mass transfer coefficient is positively correlated with DT but the heat transfer coefficient is negatively correlated. In conclusion, this article provides new insights into the effects of drying characteristics, energy consumption characteristics and heat and mass transfer characteristics in the process of tea drying under different drying conditions, and provides certain theoretical reference bases for promoting the optimization of industrialized tea drying production machinery design and drying process optimization.

An Analysis of the Banking Sectors: The effect of Ecosystem Performance on Financial Stability

With an emphasis on the effects of regional differences and the COVID19 epidemic, this study examines the link between Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ratings and the financial performance of European banks while considering the role of governance and law. Our study, which uses panel data regressions spanning five years and 71 listed banks in 21 European nations, shows a negative link between EPI scores and bank performance, which is most noticeable in Southern Europe. These results highlight the significance of taking regional variations in bank size and characteristics into account when assessing EPI performance in the banking industry.

Revisiting the relationship between natural resources and environmental quality— can ICT break the “resource curse” in the environment?

Despite the prevalence of discussions on the “resource curse”, the impact of natural resources on environmental quality for better or for worse has not been clearly answered, this study aims to answer the question by introducing the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). To that end, by using the Instrumental Variable Generalized Method of Moments (IV GMM) estimator and a sample of 102 developing and emerging economies from 2006 to 2016, this paper studies the impact of ICT on the relationship between natural resources and environmental quality. Specially, the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) captures the environmental quality. The results show that natural resources have a significant negative effect on EPI, specially, EPI decreases by one unit with a 1% increase in natural resource rents. ICT significantly mitigates this adverse effect, and marginal effects analysis further confirms its positive moderate effects. The results proved to be robust by Lewbel 2SLS and Driscoll-Kraay techniques or other robust tests. It is noteworthy that the adverse effect of natural resources on EPI is greater and the mitigating effect of ICT is more pronounced in low-income countries and lower-middle income countries. Overall, these results remind resource-based countries to vigorously develop ICT, and apply intelligent exploration, digital monitoring, or other digital technologies to realize the high-efficiency use of natural resources, reducing environmental pollution and ecological damage.

Assessment of water quality in agricultural systems in Candipuro, Lumajang Regency, East Java, Indonesia

The current challenges of industrial agriculture focus on environmental safety. Water quality is an indicator of environmental sustainability. The cultivation system has an impact on water quality. The aim of this study is to assess the water quality of agricultural systems. Anthropogenically, agricultural activities have an impact on environmental aspects. Identification of agricultural systems is clustered into organic and non-organic agriculture. The agricultural system in Indonesia is regulated based on SNI 6729;2016. Water sampling was carried out at three points, including upstream, middle (irrigation), and downstream (river). Water sampling at each point was repeated three times. Assessment of the physical quality of water using the Combo Quality Meter. Water samples for chemical and biological analysis at the Environmental Laboratory, Perum. Jasa Tirta 1. Determination of water quality standards refers to Government Regulation No. 82 of 2001. In the upstream section, pollution can be seen in the biological oxygen demand (BOD) indicator, with an average of 15.03 mg L-1 for organic and conventional systems. The phosphate indicator averaged 1.96 mg L-1. In the middle section (irrigation), the pollution indicators for BOD, phosphate, and total Coliform parameters were 6.76 mg L-1 for the organic system, 7.37 mg L-1 for the non-organic system, and 1,290 CFU mL-1. In the downstream (river), pollution indicators consist of total suspended solids (TSS), BOD, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total Coliform. Anthropogenic identification for clustering agricultural systems at the research location uses stratified disproportional sampling. The results of this research provide recommendations for water quality management for sustainable agricultural environmental management.

Development of a composite index to measure environmental sustainability in the telecom sector: A comprehensive approach towards carbon emission reduction

Telecommunication provides the infrastructure to deliver core services but contributes to extensive CO2 emissions. To address the problem, this paper introduces environmental sustainability index for the Telecom sector to reduce carbon emissions. The present work identifies the most critical factors that reduce carbon emission in a multiple-stage telecom supply chain through an extensive literature review, followed by developing an environmental sustainability index to measure carbon reduction efforts. A detailed survey was conducted among the personnel of the Indian telecom sector to understand the initiatives for carbon emission reduction. The study employed factor analysis and multiple regression to achieve its objectives.

Analyzing the effect of economic policy uncertainty in healthcare: the role of working capital management and environmental performance index

Analyzing the effect of economic policy uncertainty in healthcare: the role of working capital management and environmental performance index

A multi-objective optimization approach for green supply chain network design for the sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) industry

In China, aquatic supply chain network design does not include the green concept or the coordination of environmental and economic performance. Sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) is an aquatic product of high economic value; however, studies on sea cucumber supply chain network optimization are lacking. This study is the first to design the sea cucumber supply chain and construct an optimization model. Considering the characteristics of the sea cucumber industry, LCA for Experts software and the CML-IA-Aug. 2016-world method were used to assess each aquaculture model's global warming potential (GWP), as the environmental performance indicator. In addition, multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) coupled with Modified Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (M-TOPSIS) integrates yield production, economic benefits, and environmental performance. The results demonstrated that cage seed rearing (CSR) combined bottom sowing aquaculture (BSA) represents the best production strategy upstream of the sea cucumber supply chain. In the downstream, the best proportion of sales channels in supermarkets, boutique stores and online shops accounted for 14.79 %, 58.02 % and 27.19 % of the production, respectively. The proposed optimization scenario 4 (S4) can increase product profit by 27.88 % and reduce GWP by 56.89 %. The following improvement measures are proposed: using sea cucumber aquaculture industry standards (cleaner production and green supplier selection) to regulate the behavior of enterprises, adopting an ecological and green production strategy, eliminating high-energy consumption and high emission production practices, and promoting widespread adoption of green consumption concepts. Finally, these measures may improve the sea cucumber supply chain, achieve coordinated environmental and economic performance development in the sea cucumber industry, and provide guidance for green optimization of other aquatic product supply chains in China.

Clothing industry in transition from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0

Industry 5.0 has recently been introduced as a new concept. Reviewing the literature shows that Industry 5.0 brings three kinds of values: bringing humans back to industries, making businesses more resilient, and reducing environmental damage. Based on the critical capabilities of Industry 5.0, this study aims to determine how Industry 5.0 transforms the clothing industry’s value chain. For this purpose, after identifying the Industry 5.0 technological capabilities through semi-structured interviews and an electronic brainstorming session, a questionnaire was sent to experts to determine how these capabilities bring the values of Industry 5.0 to the clothing industry. After three rounds of the Delphi study, the results declared 33 technological capabilities that affect the clothing industry’s value chain. Additionally, among 14 indicators for human-centricity, resilience, and environmental sustainability, Industry 5.0 technological capabilities have the most significant effect on improving business resilience, cost-effectiveness, and economic development in the clothing industry.