Natural Resource Inputs Research Articles

The circular economy concept application to livestock systems: an agroecological approach

Abstract Over the last century, livestock systems AQ: Please check if the edit made in the article title is okay. Amend if necessary. --> have undergone a progressive intensification process, which brought to light many environmental and agronomical issues, mainly related to manure management. An agroecological approach has also been advocated to develop more sustainable systems and ensure a balanced relationship between environmental, social and economic goals. The circular economy (CE) concept was placed next to that of agroecology, and its application to manure management was finalized to reduce the input and use of natural resources, increase sharing of energy and natural resources and reduce pollution. This review comprehensively reports the more interesting opportunities for European Cattle breeding, considering that its waste management plays an important role from the agroecological point of view. Many technologies based on biological and/or thermochemical processes are currently available and different studies on how to improve their efficiency are under way. The biorefinery concept concerns the lignocellulosic fraction exploitation for biofuels, by-products and biochar/hydrochar production. The enhancement of farm nutrient utilization could restore the balance between input and output. The knowledge of the fertilizing/amendment properties of the manure and its by-products could create a synergistic development at landscape scale considering other agricultural production (crops, orchards, vineyards, etc.). Some ecological services such as soil fertility, biological regulations, soil erosion and biological diversity provided by animal farming could be a product of the transition towards circular economy. By adopting an agroecological approach, the enhancement of the energetic, agronomic and biochemical exploitation of manure will be sustainable.

Connected lifecycle systems: A new perspective on industrial symbiosis

Decreasing total natural resource input is critical for sustainability. Thus, improving resource efficiency is increasingly required at all levels from products to industry-wide systems. Product lifecycle systems and business models for circular economy, such as remanufacturing and sharing products, have been developed in only particular markets. Lifecycle processes of different products are often connected after sales, even if the products and their lifecycle processes were developed by independent companies or business communities. This study focuses on one such complex system called “connected lifecycle systems,” which is a system of systems comprising product lifecycle systems. Connected lifecycle systems can be regarded as industrial symbiosis in wide areas. The objective of this paper is to propose a hybrid simulation architecture for more realistically calculating dynamic material flow in connected lifecycle systems.

A Call to Integrate Economic, Social and Environmental Motives into Guidance for Business Support for the Transition to a Circular Economy

A broad range of organizations, from small and medium-sized enterprises to large multi-nationals, are interested in adopting circular economy practices. A circular economy can help companies make better use of materials by minimizing the input of natural resources, reducing waste, and optimizing the economic, social, technical and environmental costs and benefits of materials and products throughout their lifecycle. Despite the interest of companies in a circular economy, only 9% of material flows in the global economy are circular. There is formal guidance for those offering business support with the aim to expedite the transition to a circular economy. However, support measures narrowly confine the role of companies and the motivations of business managers to the economic realms, assuming that companies are solely driven by monetary factors. Conversely, pluralist economic views emphasize the broader role of companies in society: for example, in respect of the well-being of their staff and the communities in which they reside. Indeed, our practical experiences of business support have brought alternative motivations to explore a circular economy to the fore. We argue that business support should stem from a broader conception of the role of business in society. The diverse motivations and willingness of business managers to engage in a circular economy should be investigated further with results feeding into broader and more inclusive business support guidelines in the future to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy.

Comparing protected cucumber and field cucumber production systems in China based on emergy analysis

Cucumber is an important vegetable, which provides essential minerals, vitamins and nutrients for human body and is widely cultivated in China on account of its delicious taste, short nutritional cycle and high economic benefits. To comprehensively evaluate the sustainability of the cucumber production systems under two planting patterns (the protected cucumber production system and the field cucumber production system), and to provide constructive suggestions for an efficient and sustainable development of the production systems, the emergy evaluation method was utilized to analyze the composition and metabolism of the emergy flows in the production systems based on 2016 provincial data from China. The results show that the mean value of natural resources input of the field cucumber production system (13.59E+14 sej/ha) was significantly higher than that of the protected cucumber production system (5.92E+14 sej/ha). However, the mean values of the purchased resources input, total emergy input and total energy output had the contrary trend. The extent to which the cucumber production systems under two planting patterns are dependent on the environment is different. The field cucumber production system uses more natural resources and the degree of utilization of natural resources is geographically distributed. More natural resources are utilized in the south of China where natural conditions are better. However, the protected cucumber production system uses more purchased resources, especially the nonrenewable resources, and has the characteristics of high input, high output but low production efficiency. Improving the efficiency of resources utilization, using more clean energy and improving the degree of mechanization will contribute to a cleaner, more efficient and sustainable development of the cucumber production system.

Outsourcing natural resource requirements within China

Consumption demands are final drivers for the extraction and allocation of natural resources. This paper investigates demand-driven natural resource requirements and spatial outsourcing within China in 2012 by using the latest multi-regional input-output model. Exergy is adopted as a common metric for natural resources input. The total domestic resource exergy requirements amounted to 125.5 EJ, of which the eastern area contributed the largest share of 44.5%, followed by the western area (23.9%), the central area (23.0%) and the northeastern area (8.6%). Investment was the leading final demand category, accounting for 52.9% (66.4 EJ) of national total embodied resource use (ERU). The total trade volumes of embodied resource were equivalent to 69.6% of the total direct resource input (DRI), mostly transferred from the central and western regions such as Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Xinjiang to the eastern regions such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shanghai. The northeastern and eastern areas had physical net imports of 1213.5 PJ and 38452.6 PJ, while the central and western inland areas had physical net exports of 6364.5 PJ and 33301.5 PJ, respectively. Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong had prominent ERUs which respectively were 101.6, 12.6, 11.7, 8.4 and 4.3 times of their DRIs. The ERUs of Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Ningxia and Guizhou were equal to only 17.6%, 25.3%, 27.9%, 46.0% and 50.2% of their DRIs, respectively. Regional uneven development resulted in imbalanced resource requirements across China. The findings can provide a deep understanding of China's resource-driven economic development mode, and contribute to reducing regional resource footprints and their environment outcomes under the “new normal economy”.

Capturing natural resource heterogeneity in top-down energy-economic equilibrium models

Top-down energy-economic modeling approaches often use simplified techniques to represent heterogeneous resource inputs to production. We show that for some policies, such as feed-in tariffs for renewable electricity, detailed representation of renewable resource grades is required to describe the technology more precisely and identify cost-effective policy designs. We demonstrate the hybrid approach for modeling heterogeneity in the quality of natural resource inputs required for renewable energy production in a stylized computable general equilibrium framework. Importantly, compared to the traditional approach, the hybrid approach resolves near-flat or near-vertical sections of the supply curve and improves the precision of policy simulation. We then represent the shape of a resource supply curve based on more detailed data. We show that for the case of onshore wind development in China, a differentiated feed-in tariff design that can only be modeled with the hybrid approach requires less than half of the subsidy budget needed for a uniform feed-in tariff design to achieve the same installation targets.

Cleaner production as an antecedent for circular economy paradigm shift at the micro-level: Evidence from a home appliance manufacturer

Abstract The concept of circularity has been widely discussed in the literature, but the implementation of the circular economy at the micro-level remains unexplored. It is still not clear what are the antecedents for circular economy implementation at the industry level, instead of cleaner production principles and practices have been discussed as essential for circular economy adoption from the bottom up, but more empirical studies are still necessary to better understand the adoption and effects of cleaner production in promoting circular economy. Thus, this paper aims to explore the cleaner production principles and practices adopted by a manufacturing company located in an emerging economy in order to understand how these were valuable in foster circular economy implementation. A case-based research approach was adopted in this investigation. The circular economy practices introduced by the company were analyzed by considering their connections with the requirements when transitioning to a circular economy paradigm, within company-related processes in addition to circular economy areas at the micro-level. An inductive approach was adopted for data analysis to develop some propositions regarding circular economy interactions. The main findings revealed that cleaner production practices for product optimization are valuable to circular economy implementation regarding circular product design strategies. The cleaner production principle of input substitution is valuable for reducing input and use of natural resources as well as increasing the share of renewable and recyclable resources. Technological optimization can contribute to reducing emissions levels. In addition, field data showed that cleaner production practices at the production area enable circular economy practices to be implemented at the micro-level, as well as there is a connection with other circular economy areas (i.e. waste management, consumption, and support). Moreover, the findings confirmed that all cleaner production practices and principles implemented by the organization are connected to each other and across the processes. Further studies may focus on testing the propositions developed in this study in other manufacturing contexts, as well as on the investigation of possible cause-effect relationships that may exist between cleaner production and circular economy transition pathways.

Urban sustainable development efficiency towards the balance between nature and human well-being: Connotation, measurement, and assessment

Abstract Sustainable development requires that development patterns that meet the needs of the present generation do not harm the needs of future generations. Sustainable development not only demands the sustainability of natural resources and the environment, but also emphasizes sustainable human welfare and resident happiness. Urban sustainable development can be achieved easily at local scales. Urban sustainable development efficiency (USDE) reflects the relevant efficiency of human welfare and resources and the environmental input into an urban system. This paper presents an assessment framework of urban sustainable development based on the reality of natural resource limitations and human welfare needs, and evaluates the performance of urban sustainable development in Chinese cities as a case study. The assessment framework is constructed based on natural resource inputs and human welfare outputs. The assessment index system includes 11 specific indicators, and data envelopment analysis was chosen to assess the urban sustainable development performance of 287 cities in China. The USDE results of the sample cities showed an increasing trend in sustainability over the past three decades, with visible spatial differences. By assessing the urban development of society, economy, and industry in China, the results reflected various characteristics and differences in urban development. The methods and index system used in this study can be used to reveal temporal and spatial differences in urban development resource inputs, human welfare, and environmental support.

Europe as a model for large carnivores conservation: Is the glass half empty or half full?

At first sight, the increasing trend of many large mammal populations in EU Member States are the results from successful application of EU environmental legislation. In this perspective a ‘rewilding’ Europe appears as a laudable conservation goal. It has been therefore suggested that the EU model of carnivores-humans coexistence could be of interest to several other regions of the Planet. In the present paper we critically review alleged successes of the EU conservation policies. Our conclusions suggest that some optimistic reports should be taken cautiously. Firstly, one should not lose sight of the heterogeneity of ‘Europe’ and the different histories and socio-ecological situations of the 28 Member States. Furthermore, we doubt whether the positive status of large carnivores in Eastern Europe is attributable exclusively to EU conservation policies. Long time spans necessary for demographic recovery in large carnivores sharply contradict the quite recent entry of these countries into the EU. The EU model is possible owing to the unique socio-economic development that Western Europe experienced after the Second World War. Economic growth, urbanization, rural abandonment and reforestation are the main forces behind the increase of large mammals in some areas of Western Europe. Yet this has been possible only through a considerable input of natural resources from outside EU (food, raw materials, oil, gas etc.). Therefore, although there are examples that could be considered good experiences, we are of the opinion that the EU policies as a general model is unlikely to be exportable world-wide and may have negative consequences for wildlife, even in Eastern Europe.

Impact of Segment‐level Natural Resource Operational Risk Reporting on Earnings Predictions

Non‐financial reports alert investors to operational risks associated with issues such as insufficient access to natural resource inputs and related costly interruptions to production, while segment‐level reports alert investors to operational risk distribution across a firm. An important issue, to date unexplored, is how segment‐level non‐financial reporting has an impact on earnings predictions. We report the results of an experiment used to examine how mining company segment‐level water reports affect investors' earnings predictions, where water reports indicate whether the firm and its segments will have access to sufficient water to meet production needs. We find that investors do not change their earnings predictions when firm and segment‐level reports indicate low water risk but they do revise down their earnings predictions when firm and segment‐level water reports indicate high water risk. This is consistent with investors responding to the additional information provided in segment‐level reports confirming that water risk is high across the firm. Regardless of whether firm‐level water reports indicate high or low water risk, when segment‐level reports indicate that one segment is low water risk and another is high water risk, investors revise down their earnings predictions. This is consistent with investors recognizing that natural resource operational risk concentration in one segment can affect earnings more than evenly‐distributed risk. Overall, our findings suggest that belief‐adjustment theory explains how investors react to prospective operational risk information contained in segment‐level water reports according to the similarity of the segment‐level risks, and that this information is factored into earnings predictions.

Exergy analysis of Chinese agriculture

• An in-depth exergy analysis of Chinese agriculture during 2001–2015 is carried out. • Exergy-based indicators are devised to assess resource and environmental performance. • Chinese agriculture was increasingly dependent on purchased non-renewable resources. • The improvement of resource use efficiency and total productivity were identified. • Exergy analysis proved a reliable tool to pinpoint the sustainability of agriculture. Along with the growing population scale and improving diet structure, a great challenge has been faced to reconcile food supply, resource use and environmental impact in contemporary agriculture. This paper presents an in-depth exergy analysis of Chinese agriculture covering cropping, forest, stockbreeding and fishery over the period of 2001–2015. The resource, environmental and economic performance of the agricultural system are illustrated by accounting all the major exergetic fluxes, which include free nature resources input, purchased economic investments, waste emissions or virtual environmental inputs, and harvested yields of agricultural products. Chinese agriculture has experienced accelerating transition from a self-supporting mode to a modern energy-intensive pattern, which is characterized by lower renewability index, higher non-renewable resource consumption and economic investment ratio, and larger waste emissions and environmental resource input. The improvements of resource use efficiency and total agricultural productivity are also identified as indicated by the evolution of resource yield ratio and system transformity. In 2015, as to 100 units of agricultural yield, there were about 109 units of purchased resource input including 18 units purchased nonrenewable resources, 748 units of free natural resource input and 21 units of environmental impact. Exergy analyses capture the resource and environmental performance of agricultural ecological economic system by pinpointing the real exergy dissipation and cost processes, which could help policy makers to couple biophysical concepts more robustly for improving resource use efficiency and achieving sustainable development of Chinese agriculture in the 21 st century.

Will intensification of beef production deliver conservation outcomes in the Brazilian Amazon?

The intensification of beef production has become a conservation target based on the idea of land sparing and the assumption that in order to contain deforestation and meet increasing beef demand we must increase productivity. There is also increasing attention and conservation credit being given to supply chain management in beef production. Based on a historical comparison between the US, a fully intensive system, and Brazil, one moving in that direction, we suggest that cattle ranching will intensify as a result of conservation investments (reductions in capital and land subsidies) rather than intensifying in order to produce conservation results. If the comparison holds, the new intensive system, however, will continue to require large natural resource inputs, government subsidies, and be plagued by social and conservation problems. It will also be held in thrall by a few large processing companies, which exert undue influence over both producers and consumers. Therefore, we suggest that closer attention be paid to attribution in the claim of conservation outcomes from intensive beef production.

The Rise and Fall of Exceptional Australian Incomes Since 1800

We gauge how productivity and factor endowments shaped the rise and fall of Australia's exceptional incomes using new measures of total factor productivity (TFP), which include natural resource inputs, in an accounting of income growth. Further, we explore the drivers of TFP growth. Pastoralism and mining had negative TFP externalities, and we incorporate these findings into a unified accounting of incomes, which distinguishes the roles of endowments and productivity. Nevertheless, TFP growth played an important role in promoting exceptional incomes between 1842 and 1890. Our findings favour a more balanced interpretation of Australian growth that has roles for natural resources, labour participation, and productivity.

Integrating natural capital into system of national accounts for policy analysis: An application of a computable general equilibrium model

Natural capital is an asset that provides natural resource inputs and environmental services for economic production. Regional patterns of production and consumption have direct and indirect effects on sustainability of its natural capital. Traditional gross domestic product (GDP) estimates fail to explicitly and fully account for natural capital in system of national accounts (SNA). To address this gap, this study builds on United Nation's System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) and provides a methodological framework to integrate natural capital into system of national accounts, in input-output table. It further illustrates how natural capital-integrated system of national accounts in input-output table can be used as an effective tool for natural resource management and policy analysis in computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling framework. Results indicate that, without natural capital accounting and integration into system of national accounts, GDP estimates may give misleading signals as a measure of a region's economic performance, where economic growth could be at the expense of natural capital depletion.

Biodiesel, Glycerin and Seed-cake Production from Roof-top Gardening of Jatropha curcas L.

Vertical expansion of Jatropha curcas L by roof-top gardening with pot experimental studies were carried out to produce feedstock of Jatropha for production of biofuel and related byproducts. The plant can grow on eroded land and needs comparatively limited amounts of natural resource and capital inputs and garners much interest from developing nations based on an agrarian societal ecosystem. The experiment also focused in evaluating the physiochemical parameters of resulting Jatropha oil, biodiesel, glycerin and seed cake characteristics after extraction. The seeds of the plants after two years of germination were collected from the earthen pot to extract fuel. After maturity, the plant provided about 250 ml of crude oil per plant and the characteristics of fuel responded better (Flash point of 254°C, Ignition point 323.6°C, Specific gravity of 0.922, Densi- ty 0.919, high Cetane number, or Ignition Quality, of 56.7, Sulfur % of 0.125, Iodine (103.67 mg/g) and Saponifi- cation value of 196.85 mg/g) in comparison to fossil fuel. Higher nutrient content were found in seed cake residue obtained after oil extraction, which could potentially be used as an excellent organic fertilizer, with nutrients value, N = 3.48%, P2O5 = 1.78% and K2O = 1.57%. Also the oil contains a comparatively high percentage of unsaturated fatty acid (79.34%) resulting in characteristically low levels of free fatty acids, which improves storability. The crude oil without any modification could easily be used in lamp for illumination. The high iodine value and the presence of unsaturated fatty acids enables it to remain fluid at lower temperatures. The low sulfur content equates to less harmful sulfur dioxide (SO2) emitted when the fuel is burnt. The crude oil then converted to biodiesel by transesterification process with the byproduct glycerin. 250 ml crude oil could produce about 243 ml of biodiesel. Biodiesel could be used in farming machineries, irrigation pumps, building generator and transporta- tions with greater environmental benefits than conventional carbon-based fossil fuels. Roof-top gardening of plants in this setting also allows for a cooling effect in direct response to urban heat-island effects. Keywords: Biodiesel, glycerin, jatropha curcas, nutrient uptake, physiochemical properties, seed cake.

China's regional natural resource allocation and utilization: a DEA-based approach in a big data environment

China's economic reform and opening policy has resulted in China's rapid growth, especially in terms of economy. The growth, however, is mainly based on huge consumption of natural resources, and that consumption should be reduced by significant amounts to protect global ecosystems. Emerged in 1980s, “big data” has developed very quickly in recent years, bringing new perspectives and opportunities for all kinds of academic fields, especially in DEA since it is a research highly based on data. In this paper, we propose a SBM-DEA model based on natural resource input orientation to evaluate the efficiency of natural resource utilization for 26 provincial regions in mainland China from 2005 to 2012. A DEA-based approach is developed to allocate a reduced total of natural resources among the 26 provincial regions. Drawing support from the developments of “big data”, we use each provincial region's previously observed production data to characterize its own production technology, which allows a better analysis of how the production will change after allocations of natural resources are reduced. Our empirical study shows that most provincial regions perform well in terms of efficiency in utilizing natural resources, but that is based on huge consumption of natural resources. From an area perspective, the eastern area of China achieved the highest average efficiency value, followed by the central and western areas. Our study also indicates that the most effective allocation of the natural resources requires about half of the 26 provincial regions to reduce their natural resource consumption while the remaining ones can maintain their original consumption.

Agricultural drought monitoring and management at sub district level in Telangana

The weather or climate is considered as an important natural resource and basic input for better planning of crop and cropping system in agriculture particularly rainfed environments. Every plant process, related with growth, development and yield of a crop and each of in-season and off-season farm operations depends on weather. Amongst the various weather elements, temperatures, radiation and rainfall play crucial role in deciding the crop growth, development and yield levels. Precipitation is one of the important weather factors being responsible for atmospheric and soil moisture and therefore has more agricultural importance, especially in rainfed agriculture.
 Rainfed crops like jowar, maize, groundnut, greengram, blackgram and sunflower and one water-intensive crop like rice are mainly affected owing to drought. The drought conditions occur due to failure of South West Monsoon, delay in arrival of SW monsoon, and break monsoon conditions or early cessation of SW monsoon. Rainfed agriculture in India depends on onset of monsoon and the rainfall distribution during crop growth season. The amount of rainfall and the time of onset of monsoon decides the type of the crop to be grown. The timely onset and well distribution of monsoon rain in the month of June and July decides the area coverage of rainfed crops. Any deviation in the onset and distribution of southwest monsoon rainfall causes huge impact on agriculture and its dependent activities. Close monitoring of progress of monsoon and distribution of rainfall and its impact on sowing of rainfed crops is essential at sub district level to suggest time to time crop management strategies thereby to minimize the impact of aberrant seasonal conditions. In this paper a monitoring of drought at national, state and sub district (Mandal) level using indices like MAI, WRSI etc. were presented. Management strategies to reduce the impact of drought like optimum time of sowing, strategic irrigation, crop calendar, contingency crop planning etc. were discussed. Agromet advisories for communication of real time weather information for benefit of farming community were presented.

Plant artificial chromosome technology and its potential application in genetic engineering.

Genetic engineering with just a few genes has changed agriculture in the last 20years. The most frequently used transgenes are the herbicide resistance genes for efficient weed control and the Bt toxin genes for insect resistance. The adoption of the first-generation genetically engineered crops has been very successful in improving farming practices, reducing the application of pesticides that are harmful to both human health and the environment, and producing more profit for farmers. However, there is more potential for genetic engineering to be realized by technical advances. The recent development of plant artificial chromosome technology provides a super vector platform, which allows the management of a large number of genes for the next generation of genetic engineering. With the development of other tools such as gene assembly, genome editing, gene targeting and chromosome delivery systems, it should become possible to engineer crops with multiple genes to produce more agricultural products with less input of natural resources to meet future demands.

Segment-Level Sustainability Reports: Impact on Financial Statement User Earnings Predictions

Firm-level sustainability reports alert financial statement users to operational risks associated with issues such as insufficient access to natural resource inputs and related interruptions to production. This paper reports on an experiment designed to identify how segment-level environmental operational risk information that is prospective in its orientation influences financial statement users’ profit-before-tax earnings predictions. Specifically, we examine how mining company segment-level water reports affect financial statement users’ earnings predictions. We find that financial statement users revise down their earnings predictions more when both firm-level and segment-level water reports indicate high water risk rather than low water risk. Regardless of whether firm-level water reports indicate high or low water risk, when segment-level report information is uncorrelated with the firm-level water report and indicate that one segment is likely to have sufficient water (low water risk) and the other insufficient water (high water risk), financial statement users revise down their earnings predictions. This is consistent with financial statement users recognizing that environmental operational risk concentration in one segment can affect earnings more than evenly-distributed risk. Overall, our findings suggest that belief revision theory explains how financial statement users react to prospective operational risk information contained in segment-level sustainability (water) reports according to the correlation between segment-level risks and firm-level risk indicators, and that this information is factored into earnings predictions.

Discourse for Expanding the Study Realm and Subject of Economic Geography on Climate Change and its effects

The economic geography has not secured climate change and its effects as certain study realms. In order to overcome this limitation, discourse which builds the logic of knowledge about climate change and its effects is required above all things. This study, therefore, was to suggest new study realms and subjects of economic geography on climate change and its impacts. New study realms of economic geography on climate change and its impacts are: the natural resource inputs entering into the economic process; the environmental loads in economic process ; environmental costs to overcome the effects of climate change; the development of environmental technologies; and policy development on the impact of climate change. Study subjects are: negative and secondary effects of climate change and its impact on economic process; commercialization of climate change and its impacts itself; and alternative policy development based on sustainable development etc.