Resource Consumption Patterns Research Articles

Circular entrepreneurship: A business model perspective

The circular economy, which takes inspiration from the ‘waste not’ functioning of the ecosystem to propose more resource efficient production and consumption patterns, has attracted the interest of different stakeholders recently. Yet very little is known about the companies that put circular principles at the heart of doing business and their ecological and social sustainability outcomes. Circular entrepreneurship, conceptualised as the processes of exploration and exploitation of opportunities in the circular economy domain, is just emerging in the circular economy literature and the empirical evidence about how it is implemented through innovative business models is still limited. Our research illustrates and describes the entrepreneurial process and orientation from a business model perspective of a circular firm - Wasted Apple - in the British drinks and beverage industry. We find that entrepreneurial value proposition, value creation and delivery and value capture define our case circular business model. Entrepreneurial orientation is also characterised by embeddedness: being entrepreneurial in the circular economy means to create value for the broader system an organisation is part of. Furthermore, the pursuit of ecological and social value is central to the logic of value creation and typifies the entrepreneurial process.

Diverse paradigms of residential development inform water use and drought-related conservation behavior

Widespread urbanization has led to diverse patterns of residential development, which are linked to different resource consumption patterns, including water demand. Classifying neighborhoods based on urban form and sociodemographic features can provide an avenue for understanding community water use behaviors associated with housing alternatives and different residential populations. In this study, we leveraged built environment data from the online real estate aggregator Zillow to develop neighborhood typologies and community clusters via a sequence of unsupervised learning methods. Five distinct clusters, spatially segregated despite no geospatial inputs, were associated with unique single-family residential water use and conservation patterns and trends. The two highest-income clusters had divergent behavior, especially during and after a historic drought, thus unraveling conventional income–water use and income–water conservation relationships. These clustering results highlight evolving water use regimes as traditional patterns of development are replaced with compact, water-efficient urban form. Defining communities based on built environment and sociodemographic characteristics, instead of sociodemographic features alone, led to 3% to 30% improvements in cluster water use and conservation cohesion. These analyses demonstrate the importance of smart development across rapidly urbanizing areas in water-scarce regions across the globe.

Examining strategies behind universities’ technology transfer portfolio: how different patterns of resource consumption can lead to similar technology transfer profiles

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyse how different patterns of production factors consumption of Spanish universities lead to specific technology transfer (TT) profiles (outcomes).Design/methodology/approachAdopting a resource-based view perspective (RBV), qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is used to analyse the relationship between different combinations of resources – human resources, financial resources and support services – and various portfolios of TT outcomes – intellectual or industrial property agreements, spin-offs and TT income.FindingsResults indicate that there is no unique formula of resource consumption that leads to a specific portfolio of TT outcomes. These results seem to reflect the characteristics and competencies added by universities, along with the characteristics of their socioeconomic context. From a RVB perspective, this indicates that the considered resources are substitutable.Practical implicationsThe effectiveness of university policies is expected to vary by university, for example depending on the type of resources that is most relevant in the university’s production process. To develop competitive advantages Spanish public universities must resort to internal intangible resources or specific and inimitable combinations of the available resources.Social implicationsSince Spanish universities are heterogeneous and display different TT portfolios they address the needs of different users.Originality/valuePrevious studies have failed to acknowledge the heterogeneity among universities. To perform the analysis QCA is used, an innovative methodology in the higher education sector that enables us to purposefully acknowledge institutional diversity (in both resources and results). This allows us to indirectly take into account the capabilities of universities using a more holistic approach to evaluate their competitiveness.

Primary and Secondary Succession Mediate the Accumulation of Biogenic Amines during Industrial Semidry Chinese Rice Wine Fermentation.

The use of exogenous functional microorganisms to regulate biogenic amine (BA) content is a common approach in fermentation systems. Here, to better understand the microbial traits of succession trajectories in resource-based and biotic interference systems, the BA-related primary and secondary succession were tracked during industrial semidry Chinese rice wine (CRW) fermentation. Dominant abundance and BA-associated microbial functionality based on phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states (PICRUSt) indicated that Citrobacter, Acinetobacter, Lactobacillus, Exiguobacterium, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, and Enterobacter spp. prominently contributed to the decarboxylase gene family in CRW. The expression levels of tyrosine decarboxylase (tyrDC), ornithine decarboxylase (odc), and agmatine deiminase (aguA) genes were assessed by quantitative PCR (qPCR). The transcription levels of these genes did not correlate with the BA formation rate during postfermentation, indicating that acidification and carbon source depletion upregulated the expression and microbes launch the dormancy strategy to respond to unfavorable conditions. Furthermore, microbial interference with CRW fermentation by Lactobacillus plantarum (ACBC271) and Staphylococcus xylosus (CGMCC1.8382) coinoculated at a ratio of 1:2 exhibited the best synergetic control of BA content. Spearman correlations revealed that Lactobacillus and Staphylococcus exhibited influence on BA-associated microbiota (|ρ| > 0), Exiguobacterium and Pseudomonas were strongly suppressed by Lactobacillus (ρ = -0.867 and ρ = -0.782, respectively; P < 0.05), and Staphylococcus showed the strongest inhibitory effect toward Lactobacillus (ρ = -0.115) and Citrobacter (ρ = -0.188) in the coinoculated 1:2 group. The high inhibitory effect of exogenous added strains on specific bacteria presented evidence for the obtained BA-associated contributors. Overall, this work provides important insight into the microbial traits that rely on resource usage and functional microbiota within food microbial ecology.IMPORTANCE Understanding the shifting patterns of substance usage and microbial interactions is a fundamental objective within microbiology and ecology. Analyses of primary and secondary microbial succession allow for determinations of taxonomic diversity, community traits, and functional transformations over time or after a disturbance. The kinetics of BA generation and the patterns of resource consumption, functional metagenome prediction, and microbial interactions were profiled to elucidate the equilibrium mechanism of microbial systems. Secondary succession after a disturbance triggers a change in resource usage, which in turn affects primary succession and metabolism. In this study, the functional potential of exogenous microorganisms under disturbance synergized with secondary succession strategies, including rebalancing and dormancy, which ultimately reduced BA accumulation. Thus, this succession system could facilitate the settling of essential issues with respect to microbial traits that rely on resource usage and microbial interactions that occur in natural ecosystems.

Interregional supply chains of Chinese mineral resource requirements

Reliable mineral resource supply is necessary for socio-economic development. As the world’s leading consumer of mineral resources, China’s economic development largely relies on the exploration, exploitation and utilization of mineral resources. This paper explores the interregional supply chains of Chinese mineral resource requirements in 2012 via the multi-regional input–output and structural path analyses. Exergy as a common metric is used for the integrated assessment of mineral resource inputs. Results show that investment is the most crucial final demand category for most provinces’ embodied mineral uses. The Construction sector is the biggest user of embodied mineral resources in all 31 provincial regions. Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi providing most mineral resources for other regions have high proportions of interregional mineral resource exports. Developed regions as net importers of embodied resources always have large resource requirements, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shandong and Shanghai are important mineral resource consumers. We further identify critical supply chain paths based on the overall mineral resource linkages through interregional trade. Coal mining→Investment is a typical path for the investment-induced intra-provincial transfer, while Coal mining→Nonmetal products→Construction→Investment is an important path for investment-induced interregional transfer. Coal mining→Electricity power, stream, and hot water production and supply→Consumption is an important path for consumption in intra-provincial and interregional transfers. The regional integrated mineral resource footprint and its critical paths will help policymakers to understand real mineral resource consumption patterns and related supply chain nexus, and to develop targeted resource policies from the consumption-based perspective.

Macroeconomic, social and environmental impacts of a circular economy up to 2050: A meta-analysis of prospective studies

The potential impacts on gross domestic product, employment, and carbon emissions of implementing a circular economy have been modelled at the national and multiregional levels using multiple scenarios. However, there is still no consensus on the magnitude of the impacts of a transition to a circular economy and on whether it will generate a ‘win-win-win’ situation in terms of macroeconomic, social and environmental benefits. In this paper, we review more than 300 circular economy scenarios in the time frame from 2020 to 2050. We classify each scenario according to the degree of intervention (i.e. ambitious or moderate), and perform a meta-analysis of the changes in gross domestic product, job creation, and CO2 emissions generated by each circular economy scenario compared with a business-as-usual scenario. Among other results, we find that in 2030 the implementation of ambitious circular economy scenarios could generate a ‘win-win-win’ situation with marginal or incremental changes in gross domestic product (median (mdn) = 2.0%; interquartile range (IQR) = [0.4–4.6]%) and employment (mdn = 1.6%; IQR = [0.9–2.0]%), while reducing CO2 emissions in a more substantial way (mdn = −24.6%; IQR = -[34.0–8.2]%). Furthermore, we discuss the modelling features (e.g. resource taxes, technology changes, and consumption patterns) suggested in the literature which yield the greatest changes in gross domestic product, job creation, and CO2 emissions. The outcomes of this paper are relevant to the scientific community and policy makers for understanding the magnitude of the macroeconomic, social and environmental impacts of circular economy scenarios.

Do some travel purposes lead to more tourist expenditure patterns than others? Evidence from an almost ideal demand system (AIDS) analysis

ABSTRACT Tourists have different travel purposes and show different patterns of resource consumption at travel destinations. The present study examines travel expenditure patterns among domestic travelers with different main travel purposes during the holidays by utilizing the almost ideal demand system approach. The study used data from 760 Korean respondents and determined that tourists pursuing different travel purposes exhibited significant differences in expenditure patterns. The travel expenditure allocation of different tourist types with varying travel purposes can provide important information that can contribute to the sustainable development of tourism destinations by tailoring travel activities and programs for targeted segments.

Circular business models in the European manufacturing industry: A multiple case study analysis

Circular economy has recently emerged as an alternative industrial paradigm to the traditional “take, make, dispose” economic model, with the aim to promote more sustainable resource consumption patterns and production processes. However, more empirical research is needed to address the topic of how circular economy is adopted in practice by companies. In this study, we mainly adopt the lenses of circular business models and analyze three European case studies operating in the manufacturing industry that embraced circular economy principles in their business. In particular, the paper investigates and presents peculiar managerial practices to create and capture value in circular business models, and highlights the need to conceive a systemic perspective on the implementation of these practices, especially for companies operating in the manufacturing industry. Moreover, the paper shows to managers willing to embrace circular economy principles how the implementation of managerial practices for circularity can support the design of the manufacturing companies’ business model within which they operate. Finally, the paper argues about the role of a peculiar external condition, i.e., the environmental regulation, in influencing the way companies implement the managerial practices for circularity.

Medical, nursing, and physician assistant student knowledge and attitudes toward climate change, pollution, and resource conservation in health care

BackgroundClimate change and pollution generated by the health care sector impose significant public health burdens. This study aimed to assess medical, nursing and physician assistant student knowledge and attitudes regarding climate change, pollution from the health care sector, and responsibility for resource conservation within professional practice.MethodsIn February–March, 2018, medical, nursing, and physician assistant students at Yale University (1011 potential respondents) were sent a 17-question online Qualtrics survey. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, as well as Fisher’s exact test and logistic regression to assess associations between variables of interest and the personal characteristics of gender, age, geographic place of origin, school, and year in school (among medical students).ResultsThe response rate was 28% (280 respondents). 90% felt that physicians, nurses, and physician assistants have a responsibility to conserve resources and prevent pollution within their professional practice. 63% agreed or strongly agreed that the relationship between pollution, climate change, and health should be covered in the classroom and should be reinforced in the clinical setting. 57% preferred or strongly preferred reusable devices. 91% felt lack of time and production pressure, and 85% believed that lack of education on disease burden stemming from health care pollution, were barriers to taking responsibility for resource conservation and pollution prevention. Women and physician assistant students exhibited a greater commitment than men and medical students, respectively, to address pollution, climate change, and resource conservation in patient care and professional practice.ConclusionWe found that health professional students are engaged with the concept of environmental stewardship in clinical practice and would like to see pollution, climate change, and health covered in their curriculum. In order for this education to be most impactful, more research and industry transparency regarding the environmental footprint of health care materials and specific clinician resource consumption patterns will be required.

Analysis of Decoupling of Economic Growth and Resource Consumption in China’s Marine Fishery

The marine fishery resources are declining with the increase of fishing intensity, and the sustainable development of marine fishery economy has become the focus of attention. In this paper, the economic loss of marine natural fishery resources is taken as the undesired output. The SBM model is used to evaluate the economic efficiency of marine fisheries in 11 provinces and cities in China’s coastal areas from 2004 to 2015. Based on this, decoupling theory is adopted to analyze the spatial and temporal evolution pattern of marine fishery economic efficiency and resource consumption in various provinces and cities. The results show that: 1) Based on the perspective of time and space, the economic efficiency of marine fisheries in 11 provinces and cities along the coast of China is polarized and has not been effectively improved, indicating that the level of fishery economic development in China’s coastal areas is unbalanced; 2) Based on the overall perspective, the overall economic efficiency of China’s marine fisheries is low, indicating that China’s marine fishery economy is developing at a slower rate; 3) Based on the perspective of decoupling theory, the economic efficiency of marine fisheries in China and the consumption of fishery resources have shown a trend in the research period. The structure of China’s marine fishery industry, which is dominated by traditional fisheries, needs to be adjusted.

Characterization of resource consumption and efficiency trends in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan: Economy-wide biotic and abiotic material flow accounting from 1978 to 2017

This study, conducted as a first try, explores the resource metabolism in three main economies in South Asia (in terms of both scale and growing rate of economy) namely Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, with a standard economy-wide material flow accounting approach using the most updated data from 1978 to 2017. In detail, resource consumption patterns, resource efficiency and productivity, trade related issues, as well as macro-policies affecting regional resource utilization were analyzed in-depth. Results highlighted that, in general, rapid consumption of imported resources, especially construction minerals, fossil fuels, and industrial minerals has emerged. Domestic material consumption per capita increased by 81%, 93% and 46% during 1978–2017 in the three countries, respectively, due to the living standards enhancement, improved urban infrastructure as well as rapid industrial development. With rapidly growing resource consumption, improvements in resource productivity were still low compared with mature economies like Japan and United States. It was 410.7 USD/t for Bangladesh, followed by India (358.7 USD/t) and Pakistan (275.0 USD/t), as of 2017. One critical finding was that resource intensive production (e.g., primary materials, textile and agricultural products etc.) was driving most of the bilateral trade among the three countries, which resulted in lower overall resource productivity. The other critical insight was the future increasing pressure on regional and global resource competition, according to the revealed rising inflow of foreign resources in the studied countries. Finally, the macro-policy analysis highlighted that the impacts of environmental protection and resource efficiency policies were far from enough. And, lower per capita GDP of this region was still a significant impediment for integrated environmental and resources management. Higher focus on resource productivity, from a policy perspective, on agricultural and industrial sectors is highly recommended to forward beneficial implications for the selected countries.

Ecovillagers’ Assessment of Sustainability: Differing Perceptions of Technology as a Differing Account of Modernism

There is great debate over how to measure progress towards ecological sustainability, and a number of approaches deployed by various groups to try and achieve it. One of these is the “ecovillage,” a form of communal living—the primary purpose of which is to enable a reduction in consumption through the collectivization of resources. This paper presents a case study of an ecovillage named Dancing Rabbit, which stands as an example counter to mainstream discourses on progress through the relatively successful approach to ecological sustainability. In the dwellings they have built, their resource consumption patterns, and the diverse attitudes towards technology use that they express, the ecovillagers in this study demonstrate narratives of progress which center an ecological motive over one of profitable innovation. Rather than rely on modernist assumptions of engineering our way to sustainable living through advanced technology or embrace primitivist notions of rejecting it all together, the case study of Dancing Rabbit presents an approach functioning as an alternative to that prevailing dichotomy.

Stratifying clinical complexity of dermatology outpatient visits: Validation of a pilot instrument

The United States population is aging and increasing in comorbidities, and patient care is accordingly growing increasingly complex. Complexity impacts patterns of resource consumption, adverse event and medical error rates, health-related quality of life, physician burnout, and more. Tools capturing complexity can be of benefit in the modern value-based reimbursement landscape and have been well studied in specialties other than dermatology. In this report, we describe the validation of a tool specific to outpatient dermatologic care that captures the complexity of clinical visit medical decision making. We performed a cross-sectional retrospective study to determine the inter-rater reliability and face validity of the tool. By objectively grading a clinical encounter based on clinical complexity, there is increased awareness of opportunities to improve clinical care, and the allocation of health care costs and resources within the dermatologic community can be better assessed.

Pursue high economic development with less pollution: implications from a Resource-Economy-Pollution dynamic system

How to reduce pollution intensity and realize the coordinated development of the economy and environment has become a key issue for environment governance. This paper investigates the pollution intensity by applying the Resource-Economy-Pollution dynamical system (REP). The dynamic behavior of the system is analyzed by means of Lyapunov exponents and bifurcation diagrams. A new REP chaotic attractor is observed. In addition, the existence of two unstable saddles is the reason for the occurrence of oscillation phenomenon. The integrated pollution intensity is studied. We detect how integrated pollution intensity is influenced by the patterns of resource consumption, recycling intensity of waste and the speed of economic development over time. We find that increasing the intensity of waste recycling is effective in reducing pollution intensity, while the effect of slowing the resource consumption and economy is not obvious. From the point of view of energy conservation and economic development, a full analysis of factors that may relate to pollution intensity should be conducted before making energy policies.

Industrial characteristics and consumption efficiency from a nexus perspective – Based on Anhui’s Empirical Statistics

As energy and water resources are coupled during the process of manufacturing and consumption, the energy-water nexus should be obtained so as to develop a better understanding of sustainable resources consumption and reservation. In this study, we analyzed the consumption status and pattern of eight categorized industrial sectors based on the framework of input-output analysis (IOA) and network analysis. It indicates that the resource consumption status or pattern is influenced by different industrial characteristics, location and the degree that each industry benefits from policy. Similarly, such influences still exist in the energy and water efficiency measured by Finn's cycling index (FCI). The industrial structural transformation affects the resource consumption structure as well. Given that the energy-water nexus can capture the performance of industrial activities in the network and serve as a measurement of self-evaluation, the results also demonstrate the effectiveness of industrial transformation and upgrading in Anhui province. Policy implications extended from the results can provide the authorities with a reference for other transitional areas between less-developed and developed areas in a developing country. The research expands the application of energy-water nexus system in Anhui Province and provides pertinent suggestions according to the unique feature of the area.

Addressing challenges to human health in the Anthropocene epoch-an overview of the findings of the Rockefeller/Lancet Commission on Planetary Health.

The report of the Rockefeller Foundation/Lancet Commission on Planetary Health described how human health directly depends upon the environment. It takes a broad perspective not only acknowledging climate change as the most important global environmental threat to health but also recognizing other impacts, including dramatic loss of tropical forests, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, declining freshwater resources, ocean acidification, and over-exploitation of fisheries. All pose challenges to human health gains, leading to the concept of planetary health—that the human condition is tied to natural systems. The Planetary Health Commission report highlights several major concerns arising from environmental change including impacts on food availability and quality, increases in natural disasters and population displacement, and newly emerging diseases, e.g. from zoonotic infections. Three challenges emerge from the report: the first is imagination, or conceptual challenges—better metrics are needed to assess human progress within the context of environmental change; the second is a lack of relevant knowledge, requiring more research on the inter-linkages between environmental change and health and on the effectiveness of potential solutions; and the third is implementation of solutions, ensuring that the science is translated into policy and practice. There are many opportunities to promote planetary health including developing sustainable and healthy cities, encouraging more resilient health systems and disaster preparedness, reducing food waste, preserving ecosystems, and redirecting harmful subsidies in food, agriculture, fishery and energy sectors. Many current trends are driven by inequitable, inefficient, and unsustainable patterns of resource consumption and technological development, coupled with population growth, but solutions lie within reach. Prosperity must be redefined as an enhancement of the quality of life and the delivery of improved health for all, together with respect for natural systems.

Flower

A data analytics flow typically operates on three layers: ingestion, analytics, and storage, each of which is provided by a data-intensive system. These systems are often available as cloud managed services, enabling the users to have pain-free deployment of data analytics flow applications such as click-stream analytics. Despite straightforward orchestration, elasticity management of the flows is challenging. This is due to: a) heterogeneity of workloads and diversity of cloud resources such as queue partitions, compute servers and NoSQL throughputs capacity, b) workload dependencies between the layers, and c) different performance behaviours and resource consumption patterns. In this demonstration, we present Flower, a holistic elasticity management system that exploits advanced optimization and control theory techniques to manage elasticity of complex data analytics flows on clouds. Flower analyzes statistics and data collected from different data-intensive systems to provide the user with a suite of rich functionalities, including: workload dependency analysis, optimal resource share analysis, dynamic resource provisioning, and cross-platform monitoring. We will showcase various features of Flower using a real-world data analytics flow. We will allow the audience to explore Flower by visually defining and configuring a data analytics flow elasticity manager and get hands-on experience with integrated data analytics flow management.

UNDERSTANDING THE ERROR-STRUCTURE OF TIME-DRIVEN ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING: A PILOT IMPLEMENTATION AT A EUROPEAN MANUFACTURING COMPANY

ABSTRACT Time-driven Activity Based Costing (TD-ABC) uses time equations to improve cost allocations from cost pools to cost objects. This paper proposes a framework to identify when possible errors occur in the design and implementation stages of TD-ABC. We apply the framework to a TD-ABC pilot implementation at a European manufacturing company. Results suggest that special attention is warranted during the initial design stage of TD-ABC in order to handle diversity in resource consumption patterns and secure reliable IT-support. The framework offers a holistic perspective on TD-ABC from a real case setting. It can be used as a guideline that highlights essential steps and pertaining errors in the implementation process. Thereby, future researchers as well as practitioners can better understand where to direct attention in order to increase the accuracy of time equations. Keywords Activity-based costing; error-structure; time equation.

A green framework for DBMS based on energy-aware query optimization and energy-efficient query processing

Traditional database systems result in high energy consumption and low energy efficiency due to the lack of consideration of energy issues and environmental adaptation in the design process. In this study, we report our recent efforts on this issue, with a focus on energy-aware query optimization and energy-efficient query processing. Firstly, a method of modeling energy cost of query plans during query processing based on their resource consumption patterns is proposed, which helps predict energy cost of queries before execution. Secondly, as the traditional query optimizer focuses on solely optimizing for performance and ignores energy-efficient query plans, a query-plan evaluation model is proposed after a comprehensive study of plan evaluation principles. Using the cost model as a basis, the evaluation model can utilizes the trade-offs between power and performance of plans, and helps the query optimizer select plans that meet performance requirements but result in lower energy cost. Finally, a green database framework integrated with the two above models is proposed to enhance a commercial DBMS. Experimental results reveal that, with reliable and accurate statistical data, the proposed framework in this study can achieve significant energy savings and improve energy efficiency.

Analysis, Modelling and Characterisation of Zombie Servers in Large-Scale Cloud Datacentres

Cloud datacentres are acknowledged as being massive energy consumers, which may have significant environment impacts. Service providers have an ethical responsibility to reduce the environmental impact of server resources and a simultaneous and complementary commercial desire to reduce energy costs. Zombie servers in the datacenters are one of the primary sources of undesirable energy expenditures by incurring idle resources during task execution. This paper investigates the cause, impact and energy-related implications of zombie servers. Important outcomes of this paper are the characterization of the diversity among the workload behaviors in resource consumption and the quantification of the presence of idle CPU and memory resources during task execution causing server zombieness. The undesirable power consumption of zombie servers is determined based on the profiles of currently available servers and their corresponding environmental implications are illustrated in this paper. Empirical analysis shows that cloud workloads are highly heterogeneous in resource consumption pattern and CPU resources may display 75.6% of idleness relative to their allocated level, while memory is 25.5% idle. The report concludes that significant reductions in power consumption and CO2 emission can be achieved by provisioning a realistic level of resources to servers, which are scaled to suit the anticipated workloads.