Improvement Of Environmental Performance Research Articles

Monocentricity or polycentricity? The study on the enterprise environmental performance of urban spatial structure

Under the promotion of urban planning and land development policies, the urban spatial structure of China is undergoing a transformation towards polycentricity. The improvement of environmental performance during the process of urban spatial transformation is crucial for urban sustainable development. This paper uses high-resolution population grid data from LandScan for the years 2001–2019 to measure the urban spatial structure of Chinese cities. Then we match the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database with the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Pollution Emission Database for the years 2001–2014. This paper empirically examines the impact and mechanisms of the polycentric spatial structure of Chinese cities on enterprise pollution reduction at the micro-level. The findings indicate that compared to monocentricity, polycentricity is more conducive to improving enterprise environmental performance. Mechanism tests demonstrate that the improvement in enterprise environmental performance resulting from polycentricity can be achieved through three channels: increasing urban population and density, mitigating urban environmental pollution, and promoting enterprise innovation ability. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that polycentricity is more beneficial for emission reduction among small enterprises, young enterprises and enterprises in regions with higher environmental regulations. This paper provides micro-level evidence and policy implications for further strengthening the aggregation effect of polycentricity and improving enterprise environmental performance in the future.

The impact of green credit guidelines on environmental performance: Firm-level evidence from China

The Green Credit Guidelines (GCG) regulates the environmental behaviour of firms with high pollution, high energy consumption, and surplus production capacity (known as “two high and one surplus”, THOS) through environmental and social risk assessment and credit management, thereby improving firms' environmental performance. Adopting the panel data of 461 Chinese A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2020 and the Difference-in-Differences (DID) model, this paper employs the promulgation of GCG in China as a quasi-natural experiment to investigate the effect of GCG on THOS firms' environmental performance and its potential mechanisms. The main findings are reported as follows. Firstly, the promulgation of GCG significantly improves the THOS firms' environmental performance. Secondly, after dividing the firms' environmental performance into the environmental strengths and concerns, the policy effect is stronger on environmental strengths that focus on process control. Thirdly, the firms' environmental performance improvement effect of the GCG is mainly achieved by promoting green innovation and exacerbating financing constraints. Finally, the improvement effect of the GCG on firms' environmental performance is more pronounced in firms with weaker external monitoring, environmental information disclosure and lower capital dependence.

Potential water reuse pathways from a life cycle analysis perspective in the poultry industry

Achieving sustainable water use in the food industry requires a paradigm change and transforming it towards circularity by exploring opportunities for water reuse. Life Cycle Assessment can comprehensively evaluate the environmental impacts of the water management and reuse options throughout their life cycle to ensure improvement of environmental performance. Through the example of a poultry processing plant it was shown that improving wastewater treatment technology can reduce the metal depletion category by almost 30 % by cutting down chemical use by 90 %. Further mitigation of environmental damage could be achieved by either choosing technological or agricultural reuse options depending on the needs or local constraints. While the improvement is not massive since the implementation of additional technologies require further resources, the Reduce scenario (technological reuse with 50 % reduction of water consumption) compared to the direct discharge into a surface water body resulted a decrease of 11.0 % and 17.1 % in freshwater consumption and 7.6 % and 2.6 % in metal depletion units. On the contrary, irrigation is better than technological reuse with regard to human health and resource scarcity indicators. Legislative requirements and social acceptance issues might slow down the process of closing the loop in the water management of the food industry; nonetheless results show that opting for water reuse is an environmentally sound solution even in this sector.

Decreasing environmental footprints of dairy production systems through optimization of feed rations and origins

Environmental impacts of livestock production systems are a global concern, because of the large greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) losses associated with feed production and livestock rearing. These losses are in part related to the system of livestock production and their feed rations and feed origin. This study aims to investigate the economic and environmental impacts of optimizing feed configurations of dairy farms in Inner Mongolia (China), using data from farm surveys, life cycle assessments and linear optimization programming. The findings of our study reveal that feed optimization may lower carbon footprints by 36–44%, nitrogen footprints by 35–42%, and phosphorus footprints by 42–71%, compared to the baseline. The need for cropland decreased by 11–38% per kilogram of milk, feed costs decreased by 15–48%, and net profit increased by 39–129%. Further, we found a statistically significant negative correlation between environmental footprints and feed self-sufficiency of dairy farms. Notably, energy-rich feeds, silage maize, and grass should be grown on-farm. These findings underscore the potential of adjusting feed rations and origin to decrease environmental footprints and enhance net profits of dairy farms. However, we observed several barriers to widespread adoption of optimal feed rations and origin, which relate to land scarcity, high land rental costs, and lack of trust and cooperation with nearby arable farms. Our research provides a scientific foundation for optimizing feed rations and origins for diverse dairy systems to achieve improved environmental and economic performance.

Green Bonds Drive Environmental Performance: Evidences from China

Faced with the urgent challenge of global warming, green bonds play an important role in promoting economic transformation and improving environmental quality by financing environmentally friendly projects. However, the actual effects of green bonds, especially their impact on corporate environmental performance, and the mechanisms behind it, still need to be studied and validated. Based on the time-varying difference-in-differences (DID) model, this study uses 85 Chinese A-share listed companies that have issued green bonds from 2013 to 2022, to study the impact of green bond issuance on corporate environmental performance and the potential mechanisms. The results show that green bonds issuance effectively promotes the improvement of corporate environmental performance; this promotion is more significant for labor-intensive enterprises, larger enterprises, and enterprises with more government subsidies. In terms of the influencing mechanism, R&D investment and green innovation play partial mediating roles, media attention and analyst attention play positive moderating roles. This study further validates and complements the signal theory of green bonds and makes relevant suggestions for the development of green bonds in China.

Institutional Pressures and Environmental Management Accounting Adoption: Do Environmental Strategy Matter?

This paper examines the impact of institutional pressures (IPs) on Environmental Management Accounting adoption (EMA). The current research also aims to examine the moderating effect of environmental strategy (ES) on the relationship between IP and EMA. Data were collected from managers working in all registered Egyptian manufacturing companies (N = 491). The collected data were analyzed using smart partial least squares (Smart-PLS) software. The results revealed that there is a positive significant relationship between IP’s three components, namely, coercive, normative, and mimicry pressures, and EMA. The results also revealed that ES was found to moderate the relationship between IP and EMA. The study model was able to explain 68.9% of the variance in EMA adoption. The findings of this study serve as a pivotal yardstick for guiding corporate policy formulation, offering valuable insights to drive continuous improvements in EMA, environmental performance, and sustainable development. The present investigation extends the discourse on the role of IP and ES by revealing a substantial influence on EMA adoption. Positioned as one of the initial studies to delve into the moderating role of ES in the relationship between IP and EMA adoption, this research offers insights within an emerging market context.

The impact of the energy-consuming right trading system on corporate environmental performance: Based on empirical evidence from panel data of industrial enterprises listed in pilot regions

The energy-consuming right trading system (ECRTS) is a significant institutional innovation in China to address the increasingly severe energy crisis and environmental issues. Identifying the policy effects of energy consumption rights on corporate environmental performance (CEP) is conducive to achieving a win-win situation for China's economic growth and carbon neutrality. This study aims to analyze the impact of energy-consuming right trading system on corporate environmental performance and provide empirical evidence and policy implications for the full implementation of future policies. Using data from Chinese listed industrial enterprises from 2012 to 2019 and adopting the difference-in-differences method and mediation analysis, we empirically analyze the policy effects of energy-consuming right trading system. We find that the energy-consuming right trading system significantly promotes the improvement of corporate environmental performance, and the conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness tests. Further mechanism examinations indicate that the system mainly enhances environmental performance by affecting corporate green technological innovation. Heterogeneity tests suggest that the energy-consuming right trading system has a stronger impact on companies in economically developed regions, non-state-owned enterprises, and those with higher asset flexibility. Our research results can aid in the green transformation of enterprises and provide practical evidence for China to accelerate the comprehensive construction of the energy consumption rights trading market.

Strategy orientation and government regulation on environmental performance: The role of green supply chain management

Purpose-Both internal and external factors may affect a business's environmental performance. Using green supply chain management as a mediating variable, this study examined the relationship between strategy orientation and government legislation on environmental performance. Design/Methodology/Approach-The study population focused on micro, small, and medium sized enterprises in Asia. This research data was collected through questionnaires given to respondents and obtained results as many as 50 respondents. Then, a model analysis was applied using the Smart PLS application. Findings-The findings demonstrate that government policies and initiatives have a direct and favorable impact on green supply chain management. Green supply chain management has a favorable impact on environmental performance however, government plans and regulations do not directly improve environmental performance. The results indicate that the impact of government strategy and regulatory orientation on environmental performance is mediated by green supply chain management. Research limitations/implications-For business actors, especially micro, small, and medium enterprises, it is necessary to focus on to the orientation of government strategies and regulations in their operational activities to encourage improved environmental performance. To support this, business actors must also pay attention to other factors, such as green supply chain management, to maximize efforts to achieve environmental performance. Originality/value There is currently a dearth of research on the environmental performance of businesses, particularly micro, small, and medium-sized businesses. Prior studies on environmental performance have examined both internal and external corporate aspects, such as strategy orientation and green supply chain management, as well as government requirements.

The Impact of Green Innovation on Corporate Performance: An Analysis Based on Substantive and Strategic Green Innovations

Green innovation is a new approach to achieving sustainable social development. Examining whether firms can reap the rewards of this costly and risky endeavor is essential to assessing whether they can sustainably adhere to a green strategy. This study was conducted on a sample of Chinese A-share-listed firms from 2010 to 2021 and employed a two-way fixed-effects approach. We found that substantive and strategic green innovations significantly impact firms’ financial and environmental performance. Specifically, substantive green innovation leads to a significant improvement in financial performance, while strategic green innovation weakens financial performance; both types of green innovations lead to a significant improvement in environmental performance, with strategic green innovation being more effective in this regard compared to substantive green innovation. Moreover, our heterogeneity analyses showed that substantive green innovation has a weaker effect on improving financial performance in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and in firms in regions with higher government environmental concerns; similarly, in SOEs, strategic green innovation has a weaker detrimental effect on financial performance. The findings of this study provide substantial evidence for promoting green innovation transformation and the upgrading of enterprises.

Environmental Management Accounting Information and Environmental Performance, the Mediating Effect of Environmental Decision Quality

In recent times, there has been a heightened focus from both governments and societies towards evaluating Organisations’ Environmental Performance (OEP). Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) is pivotal in elevating OEP as it offers a holistic perspective to elucidate the environmental impacts and associated costs of diverse business activities. This research delves into the dynamic interplay between EMA information and the OEP. The study entails the administration of a questionnaire to Jordanian organisations listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. The research adopts the Resource-Based View Theory. The study establishes statistically significant positive connections between these variables by employing partial least square structural equation modelling (SEM) for data analysis. Central to this investigation is identifying Environmental Decision Quality (EDQ) as a mediating capability. This capability is the mechanism for translating the relationship between EMA information and OEP. This finding underscores the pivotal role of in-formed decision-making in converting such information into tangible improvements in environmental performance. The research makes a notable contribution by expanding the understanding of EMA, highlighting its informational value beyond merely the practice considerations. Moreover, findings provide invaluable guidance for policymakers and regulatory bodies striving to promote sustainable business practices, especially pertinent in the context of developing nations.

Does Executives’ Compensation Stickiness Encourage Environmental Investments? An Environmental Attention-Based Perspective

ABSTRACT This study explores the influence of executives’ compensation stickiness (ECS) on environmental investments in Chinese heavily polluting enterprises from 2009 to 2021. We find that ECS increases environmental investments by enhancing executives’ environmental attention. This positive impact is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and is more pronounced in companies with weaker local environmental supervision, lower local environmental investments, and less media supervision. Moreover, ECS enhances accounting information quality following environmental investments and also promotes the improvement of environmental performance and corporate value after such investments.

BUILDING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF A COLLECTIVE HOUSING BUILDING IN PORTUGAL CONSIDERING DIFFERENT STRUCTURAL MATERIALS

AbstractIn recent years, the focus on reducing the environmental impact of construction has shifted from operational carbon emissions to embodied carbon or materials due to the constant decarbonization of the energy sector. This paper compares the life‐cycle assessment (LCA) of a collective housing building in Portugal, examining four structural solutions: composite steel and concrete, light steel framing, prefabricated reinforced concrete, and cross‐laminated timber load‐bearing walls. This study aims to aid construction professionals in making environmentally informed decisions by comparing design options composed of different materials and highlighting potential improvements in environmental performance.

Management of patented ‘circular innovation’ in view of the circular economy

This study mainly aims to analyse whether innovation related to the circular economy's principles, defined as ‘circular innovation’, is closely linked to environmental disclosure and contributes to the generation of improvements in environmental performance. The article also aims to test whether waste patents, as a specific indicator of circular innovation, are more valuable assets that need specific strategic management due to their level of novelty, complexity, and radicalness being higher than other green or conventional innovations. The empirical analysis uses a rich firm‐level dataset of worldwide companies for the 2011–2015 period, with 1330 observations to show that environmental disclosure and environmental performance are positively associated with circular innovation. This innovation is in fact, more intensive in patent claims and patent citation generation, indicating a higher economic value for companies. The article contributes to this new line of inquiry on defining circular innovation, as well as providing some environmental determinants and consequences from the stakeholders' perspective in relation to circular business models.

Does Environmental Protection Law Bring about Greenwashing? Evidence from Heavy-Polluting Firms in China

To enhance environmental governance for sustainable development, China has made efforts to address environmental issues through formal institutions. The enactment of the new Environmental Protection Law (EPL) in 2015 exerted new institutional pressures on heavy-polluting firms. Our study focuses on examining the phenomenon of greenwashing among these firms after the implementation of EPL. Using difference-in-difference model, we identify that EPL results in an increase in greenwashing behavior by heavy-polluting firms. Furthermore, our research reveals that while EPL implementation enhances disclosure performance in heavy-polluting firms, there is no tangible improvement in substantive environmental performance. These results are supported by various robustness tests that affirm their reliability. Additionally, we uncover that government subsidies exacerbate greenwashing in heavy-polluting firms. In contrast, the availability of slack resources diminishes the impact of EPL on greenwashing behavior. This study not only enhances the understanding of the mechanism of the impact between EPL and firm greenwashing, but also offers suggestions to help the government for better environmental governance as well as firms to engage in environmental behaviors and sustainability.

Investigating the impact of agricultural informatization on the carbon shadow price

The mitigation of climate change requires that agricultural development would proceed in accordance with green and sustainable practices. This implies that economic performance should be improved while minimizing the impact on the environment. One way to assess the underlying costs of sustainable agricultural development, and to model the relationship between the environment and the economy in general, is to use the carbon shadow price (CSP). In this paper, we utilize a by-production model within a non-parametric framework to estimate the agricultural CSP from 1997 to 2020 in 31 provinces of China. The patterns of the agricultural CSP are unveiled through kernel density analysis and convergence tests. Additionally, this paper constructs a comprehensive agricultural informatization indicator using the entropy method. We then empirically investigate its influence on agricultural CSP. The results reveal that China's agricultural CSP has demonstrated consistent growth over the past two decades which suggests serious improvement in environmental performance. Furthermore, the CSP show cross-province variation, albeit with conditional β convergence. Our empirical findings indicate that agricultural information technology contributes to an increase in CSP, thereby indicating its positive role on the green growth of agriculture in China.

Green supply chain management practices and implementation in the construction industry

This study aims to define and describe Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) in the construction industry. GSCM is one of the most critical initiatives for integrating environmental factors into supply chain management. It aids in the reduction of carbon emissions and the improvement of organizational environmental performance. As a result, most construction organizations have included GSCM in their strategic planning. Barriers and problems are predicted to exist in the execution or operational process of GSCM in construction or building firms, as in the case of radical innovations. As a result, organizations must identify any potential hurdles to GSCM implementation and develop strategies for achieving success. This study undertakes a complete literature evaluation on GSCM procedures to address the difficulties of establishing a conceptual framework. According to the data, the biggest weaknesses or disorders to applying GSCM canister are divided into five categories: expertise, information and facts, funds, contract out, administration, and supervision. Moreover, uppermost managing commitment, variated in present strategies and know-hows, expanded consciousness of harmless to the ecosystem matters, preparing and instruction, and executing effective materials and waste administration frameworks are systems to improve GSCM performances in building organizations. To successfully implement GSCM in construction firms, the provided framework can be used to recognize the crucial mechanisms of GSCM and self-assessment of obstacles and policies.

Analisis Dampak Industri Semen Menggunakan Metode Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Pada PT. Semen Z

Semen Z is one of the largest cement supplier companies in Indonesia and will continue to increase every year. The development of the cement industry is in line with the continued development of infrastructure projects, both private and Indonesian government. PT. Semen Z has good integration from raw material providers to cement that is ready to be used by every project that requires it. Development of PT. Cement Z will occur in the quantity of raw materials, human resources, and production processes, up to distribution to consumers. The activities carried out are land clearing/stripping, blasting, excavation and loading, as well as transportation and destruction. Raw materials sourced from this mining process include limestone, silica stone and clay. In this study mining was only carried out on limestone and clay was obtained from suppliers. The units used in the inventory data are limestone and clay raw materials (tons), ammonium nitrate chemicals (tons), diesel fuel (liters), electricity (kWh), emissions (tons), B3 waste (tons), non-B3 waste (tons) and products (tons). Every activity process carried out will have an impact on the environment, so the Company's commitment to a green industry or clean industry is required. To determine the environmental impact analysis on cement production activities, the Company conducted an environmental impact analysis using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. The aim of this research is to identify improvements in environmental performance, especially those that are hotspots in the Company's production process. The research results show that the highest identification of environmental impacts is obtained from activities at the Limestone mine, in accordance with the Pareto rules approach where if the contributors are more than 80% of the food it will affect the results of the impact analysis obtained.

Environmental performance evaluation of electric enterprises during a power crisis: Evidence from DEA methods and AI prediction algorithms

With the continuous occurrence of power crisis events worldwide, meeting society's demand for electricity has kept coal-fired power generation high, which leads to a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions and environmental pollution problems. Therefore, improving the environmental performance of thermal power plants under the background of a power crisis has become particularly important. This research provides a new path for production optimization and environmental performance improvement of electric power enterprises from the perspective of combining prediction algorithms and DEA methods. We apply the modified non-radial directional distance function (MNDDF) method to a set of panel data containing 16 different cogeneration units and 27 different periods in eastern China and construct the grey prediction model to predict the future environmental performance of these units. Empirical analysis shows that our model has high prediction accuracy and offers a reasonable basis for future production decision-making adjustments for electric power enterprises. Based on the results herein, we present valuable suggestions for thermal power plants to improve their environmental performance during a power market crisis, including optimizing resource utilization, improving management level and operating conditions, strengthening technological innovation, and enhancing production factor allocation.

The Impact of Low‐Carbon City Pilot Policy on Corporate Environmental Performance: Evidence from China

As an important measure to achieve high‐quality economic development in China, the implementation of low‐carbon city pilot policy (LCCP) will inevitably have an impact on enterprises’ environmental protection behavior, but the empirical evidence in this field is limited. Therefore, based on the data of Chinese A‐share listed industrial enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2008 to 2020, this paper empirically tests the impact of LCCP on corporate environmental performance (EP) and its mechanism of action by using the multiperiod difference‐in‐difference (DID) method. The results show that (1) the implementation of LCCP has significantly improved EP, and after a series of necessary tests such as parallel trend and placebo, the conclusion remains robust. (2) LCCP promotes enterprises to improve their EP mainly through the pressure of environmental supervision, financing constraints, and market competition. (3) The policy effect of LCCP varies with the nature of enterprise property rights, pollution attributes, and technical level. State‐owned enterprises, heavily polluting enterprises, and high‐tech enterprises respond more positively to LCCP, and the effect of EP improvement affected by the policy is more obvious. Further analysis shows that facing the pressure of environmental policy, state‐owned enterprises mainly deal with it through two methods: increasing environmental protection investment and strengthening green innovation; heavy‐polluting enterprises tend to increase investment in environmental protection; high‐tech enterprises mainly benefit from the improvement of the green innovation level. Our findings have important policy implications for improving LCCP to achieve high‐quality economic development based on the improvement of EP.

Ecodesign Strategies for Packaging: a Simplified Approach to Evaluate Environmental Benefits

The improvement of environmental product performance is an important driver for product development. It is also related to the optimization of product packaging solutions. This paper addresses the question related to packaging eco-design strategies. A simplified approach, based on the Life Cycle Assessment methodology and Material Flow Analysis, is proposed to quickly compare alternative design solutions in terms of environmental impacts. Quantifying impacts and identifying the most significant design parameters for these products can assist industrial companies in avoiding potential impact transfer issues and finding the best solutions for their products. Multiple environmental impact categories and indicators are included to comprehensively consider impacts on the environment, resources, and human health. The proposed approach is applied to the environmental performance evaluation of several alternative design solutions for the packaging of a professional coffee machine. Alternative designs, starting from the selection of appropriate materials to the identification of solutions suitable for the reverse supply chain, will be compared and deeply analysed in environmental terms.