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In the era of climate change, life cycle analysis (LCA) has been acknowledged as a useful method for examining carbon footprints of products or services., Once captured and stored by trees and other plants, biogenic CO 2 would re-enter the atmosphere sooner or later after the use phase of the product. And many LCA studies did not calculate the temporary carbon storage in biogenic carbon. Thus, this paper proposed a hybrid LCA approach to provide a structured methodology for evaluating carbon footprint of copying paper in consideration of temporary carbon storage. The developed method was then applied to a paper mill of China. It is indicated that the hybrid LCA method could provide a comprehensive methodology for accounting carbon footprints as well as assessing effects of delaying GHG emissions. The results shows that the carbon footprint of 1000 kg copying paper was 647.89 kg CO 2 under scenario 1 and -5094 kg CO 2 under scenario 2. Concurrently, the effect of delaying the emission of the temporarily stored carbon in copying paper was 7.67%, 15.52%, or 23.58% for a certain period of time (i.e., 10, 25, or 30 years). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve applicability of life cycle assessment (LCA) in supporting direct and robust decision-making, an integrated approach was developed through incorporating operational research and uncertainty analysis methods within a general LCA framework. The methodology can (a) help comprehensive evaluation of environmental impacts at multiple product-service levels, (b) facilitate the reflections of multiple LCA associated uncertainties and transfer them into consequential decision-making process, and (c) identify desired water allocation schemes for minimizing life-cycle environmental impacts. This represented an improvement upon conventional LCA method, as well as water resources allocation. The developed method was then verified in a water-stressed city (i.e., the City of Dalian), northeastern China. The application indicated that the proposed method was effective in generating desired water supply schemes under uncertainties, reflecting the associated life-cycle environmental impacts, and strengthening capabilities of both LCA and operational research methods. The results also indicated that the top three contributors for life-cycle environmental impacts would be districts of Pulandian and Zhuanghe, and Municipal zone of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Green GDP is an effective economic indicator of urban environmental management. This paper introduces a new method of accounting Green GDP, which puts the value of direct ecosystem services into GDP. Direct ecosystem services are weighted by their virtual prices and aggregated in the same way as market goods and services in GDP. They are components of nature, directly enjoyed, consumed, or used to yield human well-being. They belong to ecosystem services. In order to choose direct ecosystem services reasonably, two principles are put forward. That is, when calculating the value of ecosystem services for Green GDP, the differences between services for human beings and services for other living beings must be considered. And the green GDP of Wuyishan city of China is accounted, considering the direct ecological services value of urban ecosystem as environmental benefit. The results show that the value of direct ecosystem services in Wuyishan City in 2005 has reached 2.3 billion yuan RMB, and the green GDP is 15.3 billion yuan RMB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]