Environmental Upgrading Research Articles

Multiple Analysis of the Relationship between the Characteristics of Plant Landscape and the Spatiotemporal Aggregation of the Population

The reformation and development of the education system in China have led to environmental upgrades in a great number of universities. Amid this improvement, plant landscapes hold an important role in improving the environment and highlighting the campus culture. However, due to the lack of in-depth exploration of the relationship between plant landscape characteristics and the spatiotemporal aggregation of the population in current research, the design methods of campus plant landscapes are not thoroughly studied. Therefore, the mutual improvement between landscaping and population activity has not been maximized. In this study, we collected 52 plant landscape units from Northwest A&F University as the research objects. We investigated the patterns of population aggregation on campus plant landscapes through quantitative analysis of the characteristics of plant landscapes and the temporal and spatial aggregation of people. Multiple regression analysis was used to explore the complex relationship between the characteristics of each landscape and the spatial-temporal agglomeration of people. Traditional survey questionnaires and field surveys, kernel density analysis, Python crawler technology, raincloud plots analysis, correlation analysis, principal component analysis, and other methods were used to further measure and analyze plant landscape characteristics under the influence of population density from the two levels of various characteristic elements and different landscape units, and explain the mechanism affecting population aggregation, striving to provide a theoretical basis and practical support for the sustainable development of the campus environment and landscape design methods.

Industry 4.0 in sustainable supply chain collaboration: Insights from an interview study with international buying firms and Chinese suppliers in the electronics industry

With the proclaimed advent of Industry 4.0 in supply chains, digitalisation is expected to restructure the ways in which buying firms and suppliers in supply chains collaborate, including on sustainability issues. Digital technologies are expected to foster information exchange and facilitate collaboration on sustainability issues between firms. Yet, there is limited empirical evidence explaining the role of Industry 4.0 in the context of sustainable supply chain management. This qualitative, exploratory study examines digitalisation in the electronics supply chain and its implications for sustainable supply chain collaboration (SCC). We focus on environmental sustainability aspects, such as environmental data analysis and energy use in the supply chain. We conducted 18 interviews with representatives from international electronics buying firms and Chinese suppliers to explore a) how digital technologies are currently used in SCC, and b) which opportunities, risks, and obstacles are associated with digitalisation in sustainable SCC. Our results indicate that a broad range of digital technologies on different digital maturity levels (including Industry 4.0 technologies) are used in SCC, but their use for sustainability purposes is still underdeveloped. Digitalisation is expected by most firms to improve sustainability, e.g., using big data analytics for energy management or easing the transfer of sustainability knowledge in the chain (what we call "digital environmental upgrading"). We argue, however, that if firms do not prioritise addressing sustainability through digitalisation in collaboration, digitalisation-related sustainability potentials will either not materialise on the firm-level, e.g., due to data sharing concerns, or will tend to be overshadowed by the negative indirect effects of digitalisation, such as rebound effects. We propose three political and managerial levers to enhance the overall socio-ecological performance of the supply chain.

A study on the environmental upgrade path of the commercial district in Liangping District, Chongqing

Liangping district, which is located in both the Three Gorges Reservoir area of Northeast Chongqing and Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, is acting as a bridge and pivot between the “Belt and Road” and the “Yangtze River Economic Zone.” High-quality business districts play a vital role in gathering popularity, developing the economy and improving residents’ living standards. Therefore, Liangping district should make a comprehensive consideration of the development situation of business, overall planning of the whole region, construction requirements from Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone and the Three Gorges Reservoir area. From the commercial area positioning, dislocation development, intelligent promotion, mode innovation, cultural construction and other aspects, the implementation of “environmental engineering,” strengthen the overall layout, improve the supporting facilities, enrich the commercial format, strengthen comprehensive services, improve the commercial area operating soft and hard environment, realize the commercial area upgrade.

Leveraging participation in apparel global supply chains through green industrialization strategies: Implications for low-income countries

The global apparel industry has been a gateway to industrialization, but changes in the global economy have eroded the benefits from participating in apparel global supply chains, leading to thin industrialization in low-income countries where suppliers firms are squeezed between low prices and high requirements. More recently, buyers added improved environmental performance as a new requirement for their suppliers, seeking to avoid brand risks in their supply chains due to consumer awareness. This environmental upgrading focused on eco-efficiency gains, which increased productivity among suppliers while using fewer resources, but buyers captured most of the benefits in terms of maintaining low prices due to market power imbalances. This article aims to shift the debate on the limits of participating in global supply chains by conceptualizing the opportunities available to late industrializing countries from embedding the environmental upgrading of individual supplier firms within a broader green industrialization process, which offers more opportunities for value capture and inter-industry linkages through circular industrial economies. We use this conceptual approach to examine the newest apparel sourcing location, Ethiopia, and the government's green industrial policy that aimed to spur industrialization through apparel specific eco-industrial parks.

The Green Economy and Environmental Upgrading in Turkey: A Situation Analysis

The Green Economy and Environmental Upgrading in Turkey: A Situation Analysis

Life Cycle Analysis and Life Cycle Cost Analysis of green roofs in the Mediterranean climatic conditions

ABSTRACT The European policy as well as the national legislation framework set targets toward energy reduction and decarbonization in all sectors. Considering the building sector a number of regulations have been defined in order to ensure the energy as well as the environmental upgrade of the building stock. The paper’s main target is to evaluate from the environmental perspective the green roofs technology in Southern Europe. Therefore, a Life Cycle Assessment has been performed following the international standards of ISO 14040 series, supported by SimaPro Software. The aim is to define the proposed green roof system, analyze its environmental impact and evaluate the air pollutants levels related to the life cycle of its construction materials. A comprehensive review of similar roof applications is presented and results are compared with the ones regarding conventional roof typologies. The economic feasibility of the proposed roof types is assessed and evaluated based on a Life Cycle Cost Analysis. Thus, an integrated evaluation approach for the examined solutions is introduced, mainly focusing on Mediterranean climatic conditions. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis is conducted in order to define the impact of green roofs construction’s life span in terms of maintenance and renovation. As concerns the comparison of the suggested two roof types, and based on the sensitivity analysis the Traditional Horizontal Roof is proved to cause less environmental impact comparing to the Extensive Green Roof mainly because of the components use. Finally, the use of different insulation materials is examined and evaluated from an environmental point of view for the suggested typologies that are most suitable for the Mediterranean climatic conditions. More specific based on the sensitivity analysis’ results, and as far as global warming category, in both green technologies, levels have dropped by approximately 61% (from 2,13 to 1,52 kgCO2 and from 3,08 to 2,46 kgCO2, respectively) when recycled extruded polysterene is used in the construction stages for insulation.

Role of foreign direct investment interaction to energy consumption and institutional governance in sustainable GHG emission reduction.

The theme of the environmental upgrades and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations is "Better Environment, Better tomorrow." This study uses regulatory quality (RgQ) and energy consumption per capita (EC) as explanatory variables and foreign direct investment (FDI) as an integrating variable with RgQ and EC and examines their impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 2001 to 2018 in panel Asian economies. The findings indicate that EC negatively impacts GHG emissions, while RgQ positively promotes the reduction of GHG emissions in Asia. In addition, FDI has an integrating role, as sufficient FDI inflows significantly enhance clean energy use and EC efficiency. Such inflows also support and improve Asia's regulation quality by upgrading standardization investments and technology deployment to enhance institutional quality and achieve SDGs. FDI inflows have thus been vital in environment upgrading in Asia and regional sustainable environmental development.

ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE AND POLICY ACTIONS BY USING CONTINGENT VALUATION METHOD: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF SAGO INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION IN TAMIL NADU, INDIA

The objective of the study focusses on water quality, health impact, loss of agriculture production and livestock population. Primary data was collected from 413 households in the study villages of Kaveripuram, Ammampalayam, Kattukkottai and Mallur by adopting the stratified random sampling technique. The information was also gathered on the sago industrial pollution to estimate the households’ willingness to pay for improved water quality, and the human health impacts, loss of agriculture production, livestock populations and loss of environmental resources in the study area. The outcome of this study will be helpful to determining the sustainable environmental upgradation and policy reform.

State policies and upgrading in global value chains: A systematic literature review

This paper examines the role of state policymaking in a context of global value chains (GVCs). While the literature acknowledges that states matter in GVCs, there is little understanding of how they matter from a policy perspective. We address this tension between theory and practice by first delineating the state’s facilitator, regulator, producer and buyer roles. We then explore the extent to which corresponding state policies enable or constrain the following policy objectives: GVC participation; value capture; and social and environmental upgrading. We do so via a systematic review of academic GVC literature, combined with analysis of seminal policy publications by International Organizations. Our findings indicate that state policymakers leverage facilitative strategies to achieve GVC participation and enhanced value capture; with regulatory and public procurement mechanisms adopted to address social and environmental goals. Mixed results also emerged, highlighting tensions between policies geared towards economic upgrading on the one hand, and social and environmental upgrading on the other. Finally, we suggest that effective state policies require a multi-scalar appreciation of GVC dynamics, working with multiple and sometimes competing stakeholders to achieve their developmental objectives.

The Potential and Limits of Environmental Disclosure Regulation: A Global Value Chain Perspective Applied to Tanker Shipping

Abstract Exploring how transnational environmental governance and the operation of global value chains (GVCs) intersect is key in explaining the circumstances under which mandatory disclosure can improve the environmental footprint of business operations. We investigate how the governance dynamics of the tanker shipping value chain (a major emitter of greenhouse gases) limits the effectiveness of the European Union (EU) monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) regulation, which mandates the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions for ships calling at EU ports. Although MRV seeks to help shipowners and ship managers save fuel and reduce emissions, it does not address the complexity of power relations along the tanker shipping value chain and currently cannot disentangle how different actors influence the design, operational, commercial, and ocean/weather factors that together determine fuel consumption. In particular, the EU MRV neglects to reflect on how oil majors exert their power and impose their commercial priorities on other actors, and thus co-determine fuel use levels. We conclude that, in its current form, the EU MRV is unlikely to lead to significant environmental upgrading in tanker shipping. More generally, we argue that regulators seeking to facilitate environmental upgrading need to expand their focus beyond the unwanted behaviors of producers of goods and providers of services to also address the incentive structures and demands placed on them by global buyers.

Sustainable Use of Energy Resources, Regulatory Quality, and Foreign Direct Investment in Controlling GHGs Emissions among Selected Asian Economies

“United in Science” is the recent slogan of the United Nations climate summit in 2020. A collective effort of institutional governance, energy resources utilization, foreign inclusion, and regional collaboration is required for the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) of achieving a clean environment. In reaching this objective, this study investigates the sustainably of Regulatory Quality (RQ), Energy Consumption per capita (ECpc), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and their interaction in reducing the Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) Emissions. This study considered 27 Asian economies, covering the more extensively undertaken regional investigation, in the time period from 2001 to 2018. The results of the two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) show that RQ has a strong positive significant impact on GHGs emissions reduction. It further indicates that FDI inflows support the institutions to enhance their institutional capacities. Simultaneously, ECpc has negative impacts on GHGs emissions. Furthermore, RQ interaction with ECpc and FDI also have a strong significant positive impact on GHGs emissions reduction in Asia. The study concludes that the Asia region has been implementing aggressive and prudent policies towards environmental up-gradation to achieve sustainability. However, FDI inflows should be more allocated to environmental quality and energy efficacy to clean the climate and promote regional collaboration.

Research on the Coordination of Environmental Pollution and Industrial Structure Upgrading from the Coupling Perspective

Economic transformation and industrial structure upgrading are critical to achieving environmentally sustainable development. Based on the inaccurate data analysis of the VEC model and the logarithmic average exponential decomposition method, this paper proposes an analysis of the two-way coupling relationship between natural gas energy consumption and environmental pollution. Through the identification of conceptual models of the re-linking and decoupling relationship between energy consumption and environmental pollution, two-dimensional endogenous variables and exogenous variables are determined. The research results show that both energy consumption and CO2 emissions are on the actual data statistical line, with an error of 0. At the end, the article puts forward policy recommendations to promote the coordinated development of urban agglomeration environmental pollution and industrial structure upgrading.

Energy and economic analysis of environmental upgrading of existing office buildings

Over many decades, buildings have been recognised as a significant area contributing to the negative impacts on the environment over their lifecycle, accelerating climate change. In return, climate change also impacts on buildings with extreme heatwaves occurring more frequently and raising the earth’s temperature. The operation phase is the most extended period over a building’s lifespan. In this period, office buildings consume most energy and emit the highest amount of greenhouse gas pollution into the environment. Building upgrading to improve energy efficiency seems to be the best way to cut pollution as the existing building stock is massive. The paper presents an economic analysis of energy efficiency upgrade of buildings with a focus of office buildings. The paper identifies upgrading activities that are commonly undertaken to upgrade energy efficiency of office buildings and a case study of three office buildings in Sydney, Australia has been used to analyse the results. The upgrading activities can improve the energy performance of the case study buildings from 3 stars to 5 stars NABERS energy rating in compliance with the mandatory requirement in the Australian government’s energy policy. With the potential increase in energy price, energy efficiency upgrading will become more affordable, but currently, most of them, except solar panels and motion sensors show a negative return and would not be undertaken if they did not also contribute to higher rental income and an increased life span of the building. The upgrading discussed in the paper represent a potentially attractive alternative to demolition and building anew.

The hidden costs of environmental upgrading in global value chains

Sustainability has become important in the operation of the global economy and its regulatory structure, leading significant shifts in the way powerful ‘lead firms’ in global value chains approach sustainability. In this paper, I argue that private, value chain-oriented forms of sustainability governance are not addressing the environmental problems they are putatively designed to solve. Through the analysis of how lead firms stimulate environmental upgrading along their value chains, I show that the mainstreaming of sustainability in business operations has allowed global buyers to accumulate ‘green’ profits and capital in ways that extract value from suppliers – especially those based in the global South. Drawing from analyses of the wine and coffee value chains, I show how lead firms push the hidden costs of sustainability compliance and related risks upstream towards producers. These processes have important redistributive repercussions as they raise entry barriers for smaller, less organized and/or more marginalized actors. Under the mantle of achieving environmental sustainability, lead firms in value chains stealthily capture value for themselves, while extracting more demands from their suppliers and promoting a further consolidation of their supply base. In the meanwhile, serious environmental challenges remain unaddressed.

Upgrading and Global Value Chain 4.0: The Case of Palm Oil Sector in Indonesia

The Industrial Revolution 4.0 promotes digitalization and innovation across many sectors of industries allowing them to thrive by increasing productivity, profitability, product quality and performance. However, the utilization of digital technology especially in agricultural sector, requires effective governance in which must adhere to sustainability practices for upgrading strategies. As one of the main export commodities in Indonesia, the palm oil industry is in alert to face challenges brought by the Industrial Revolution 4.0. This research draws from the latest work of Gerrefi and Lee on Global Value Chain. In the framework of horizontal industrial cluster and vertical global value chain governance, the theory examines how governance and upgrading trajectories produces economic upgrading which correlates to social and environmental upgrading. This research, then scrutinizes the question posed by the role of technology which supports as well as accelerates the upgrading strategies. The GVC analysis of Indonesian palm oil industry will be used as a case study to understand the complexity of how actors operate in every cluster of governance. Economic upgrading is not always associated with social and environmental upgrading. Therefore, a strong linkage between actors suggests that the Industrial Revolution 4.0 is relevant and essential to enhance synergy to cater for economic, social and environmental dimensions in order to harness the potential of sustainable development.

Chinese Manufacturing Suppliers’ Upgrading in Global Value Chains

This research investigates the institutional challenges faced by Chinese manufacturing suppliers and their corresponding strategic responses through an institutional theory lens. The empirical research is based on a multiple case study involving nine case companies of three company size categories in the Chinese nonwoven fabric product industry. Data were collected over a period of three years from 2015 to 2017. This paper identifies three categories of institutional challenges, i.e., macro-institutional challenges, meso- institutional challenges, and micro-institutional challenges, faced by Chinese suppliers. Furthermore, it identifies the strategic responses undertaken by these companies in response to the above challenges, i.e., economic upgrading, environmental upgrading, and social upgrading, which in turn are associated with the companies’ size and level of maturity in upgrading practices. Finally, a maturity framework is developed with five positions that reveal a four-stage upgrading trajectory and strategic changes on the trade- off between institutional efficiency and legitimacy. As most extant research on the phenomenon of sourcing from China approaches it from the viewpoint of global buyers, this research examines the phenomenon from the viewpoint of Chinese suppliers. Through applying the theoretical lens of institutional theory to investigate GVC upgrading, this study contributes to the literature streams on both GVC and institutional theory.

Environmental change and the informal plastic recycling networks of Kolkata

This article introduces plastic recycling networks in Kolkata, India, as a case to illustrate the contradictory entanglement of economic and environmental change in urban informal contexts of the Global South. In light of the prevailing environmental critique of informal plastic recycling in India, this article discusses plastic recyclers’ environmental impact and contribution as well as the potential to enhance the environmental and economic performance of their business. Network and chain approaches in the emerging field of Environmental Economic Geography are combined with the notion of social metabolism to conceptualize the entanglement of environmental and economic processes as well as socio‐environmental inequalities entailed in recycling networks. The analysis reveals the impact that the heterogeneity and fluctuation of plastic waste supply has on the economic organization of recycling networks, giving rise to distinct forms of governance in its intermediate and down‐stream segments. Such an integrated perspective also serves to explain why environmental upgrading is hard to achieve under prevailing circumstances by plastic recyclers in Kolkata. Based on an assessment of the social and political conditions of informality under which plastic recyclers operate, the adoption of common assumptions about ecological modernization imbuing parts of Environmental Economic Geography is called into question.

Evolution of Molten Salt Electrolysis in Titanium Production Process

The Titanium industry uses the Kroll process where titanium sponge is produced from the reduction of titanium tetrachloride by magnesium metal. The byproduct of this redox reaction is anhydrous molten magnesium chloride which must be reduced back to magnesium metal to complete the cycle.Since the early sixties Osaka Titanium technologies Co., Ltd has developed monopolar and multipolar magnesium electrolysis cells which have been used in the Kroll process.Monopolar cell has graphite anode and ferrous cathode, whereas multipolar cell has plural graphite bipolar electrodes between graphite anode and ferrous cathode. A magnesium nucleation and growth phenomenon on the graphite bipolar electrodes is different from that on ferrous cathode. Magnesium particles produced on the graphite bipolar electrodes are very fine, which leads to easy back reaction and difficult collection of them. OTC solved this problem and achieved high productivity, energy saving by halves and plant environmental upgrading.

The dark side of the sun: solar e-waste and environmental upgrading in the off-grid solar PV value chain

ABSTRACT The expected increase in the disposal of off-grid solar e-waste (SEW) in the Global South is potentially the dark side of a promising innovation. We suggest placing research aimed at identifying appropriate schemes for the collection and recycling of SEW within a conceptual framework that builds on the literature on environmental upgrading in global value chains (GVC). We advance the GVC literature by incorporating complementary insights from social anthropology and life-cycle assessments, which will enable end-user behaviour and waste disposal to be integrated into the GVC framework. It is shown how the conceptual framework could be applied in Kenya as an example of a regional hot spot for solar e-waste. We suggest three separate research areas that would ideally be combined as a coherent and programmatic approach to ensure the provision of solid inputs informing national SEW policies and systems of regulation.

Barriers and opportunities for participatory environmental upgrading: Case study of Havelock informal settlement, Durban

Urbanisation is one of the key challenges of this decade with 68% of the global population likely to be living in urban areas by 2050. This challenge is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa where future towns and cities will see an influx of residents living in spontaneous human settlements. As cities struggle to keep up with the speed of growth and spread of informal settlements, associated environmental challenges such as air and water pollution and waste management have been significantly increasing posing a health risk in high density settings. Using the case of Havelock informal settlement in Durban, the authors identified key challenges associated with poor environmental conditions, lack of basic infrastructure, and the implications for settlement upgrading. The study uses mixed methods combining transect walks, priority mapping, seasonal calendar, focus group discussions and household interviews to explore the households' most challenging environmental issues faced daily by informal dwellers. This paper seeks to make the case for targeted participatory environmental infrastructure and management delivery in urban settlements in South Africa. The research also highlights the value of adopting a holistic approach to infrastructure provision to effectively enhance the living conditions of communities. Targeted participatory processes are vital to ensure that holistic infrastructure interventions are acceptable, appropriate and embedded in local communities to create sustainable habitats.