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Abstract: Environmental problems caused by recycling wasted paper at a board paper mill provide the material of this study. Two scenarios have been investigated: The first being the treatment of the end-of-pipe, and the second being the control and management of pollution problems through the application of in-plant control and pollution prevention measures. Comparison between the two alternatives, based on a cost-benefit analysis and compliance with National Environmental Laws was done. From this study it was apparent that the implementation of the pollution prevention measures such as the recovery of fiber, reduction of fresh water consumption, and optimization of white water usage proved to be very cost effective. All the implemented solutions have short payback periods and resulted in great savings compared with the treatment of the end-of-pipe. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper studies examines how a firm's position in the global value chain affects its pollutant emissions. This paper integrates China's firm-level trade data into China's multi-regional input-output tables to provide an index to measure a firm's position in global value chains. Based on a firm-level pollution dataset (2000–2014) in China, this paper conducts an empirical analysis and find that the most-downstream firms on the global value chain have lower pollutant emission intensity. Our results also suggest that the production factor structure effect, the knowledge absorption effect and the abatement investment effect together contribute to the emission intensity gap between the most-upstream firms and the most-downstream firms. These novel results are significant in guiding firms towards reducing their emissions and promoting a green global value chain, with the ultimate goal of achieving multinational environmental protection. [Display omitted] • The most-downstream firms have lower pollutant emission intensity. • A supply chain disruption shock is used as an instrumental variable. • Factor structure, knowledge absorption and abatement investment are channels. • Effects on firms with diverse ownership and trade patterns are heterogeneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing global energy demand and limited production of conventional crude oil, the extraction of unconventional heavy and extra-heavy oil is receiving unprecedented attention. China is the fourth largest producer of heavy oil. High viscosity and complex formation environments increase the difficulty of exploiting heavy oil. To alleviate the economic cost and environmental pollution pressure brought by heavy oil production, China has achieved significant advancement in the innovation of heavy oil recovery, including accelerating the transformation of thermal technology to non-thermal technology and the use of new energy technology to achieve the goal of low-carbon economy and green environmental protection. Based on the background of heavy oil in China, this paper recharacterizes the high-viscosity mechanism of heavy oil. From different aspects, including basic principles, main characteristics, applicability, limitations, and challenges, this paper comprehensively reviews existing heavy oil recovery technologies, including thermal recovery, in-situ upgrading, cold recovery, and new energy technologies. Currently, in China, the main target of heavy oil recovery is achieving the "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" goals, which can be described as low energy consumption, low emission, and low pollution. To facilitate the low-carbon transition in the extraction of heavy/extra-heavy oil and attain environmental sustainability goals, it is essential to increase the proportion of non-thermal factors in thermal recovery technologies, develop efficient in-situ catalysts, adopt clean cold extraction techniques, and advance the development of new energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental protection and sustainable development are now profoundly ingrained in the public consciousness in the modern era of the global green revolution. First, this paper uses an evolutionary game model to theoretically analyse the impact of environmental regulation and green finance on enterprises by dissecting the game behaviour between local governments, banks and enterprises. Then, we incorporate entrepreneurial spirit into the model to determine whether entrepreneurial spirit accelerates the achievement of green sustainability objectives. Environmental regulation and green finance are found to contribute substantially to the innovation of green technologies by local enterprises, while entrepreneurial spirit accelerates this process. Finally, we empirically test the findings based on a prefecture-level panel dataset from 2007 to 2020. We find that green finance has a positive impact in Central and Western cities of China, while Eastern cities are in greater need for government environmental regulation controls. For entrepreneurial spirit, the incentive effect of entrepreneurial spirit on the level of green technology innovation is more significant in Central and Western regions of China. This paper enriches the field of research on entrepreneurial spirit and regional green sustainable development by providing empirical evidence for the evaluation of environmental regulatory and green financing policy impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the growing emphasis on green packing, e-commerce businesses actively pursue sustainable solutions that balance cost reduction with environmental conservation. Traditional research on three-dimensional bin packing has concentrated on maximizing spatial utilization under fixed box dimensions. However, in the practical context of e-commerce, packing boxes exhibit a wide range of sizes within a single warehouse. Customizing packing to prevent material and space wastage has become crucial for sustainable development. This paper innovates traditional three-dimensional packing research by introducing open dimensions instead of fixed ones. It addresses challenges in e-commerce packing, such as multiple orders and diverse bin shapes, to formulate a mixed-integer programming model. Focused on the carbon emission lifecycle's usage phase for packing boxes, the model aims to minimize associated costs while ensuring that items' weight, the center of gravity, sufficient support, and non-overlapping placement are maintained during the packing process. It also incorporates one-dimensional and two-dimensional fixed bin sizes. To solve this model, the paper proposes an improved hybrid genetic algorithm for stack sequence optimization. This algorithm systematically optimizes the dimensions for each box type. Building upon this, the study introduces an algorithm capable of estimating packing material consumption and the percentage reduction in carbon emissions during the packing process, given the known variability in packing box utilization. These two algorithms are integrated into an open-dimension packing box warehouse management ecological closed loop system designed for the B2B e-commerce context. In experiments with the proposed model and algorithms, the results demonstrate an average packing rate improvement of 10%–12% compared to alternative methods. Additionally, packing material consumption and carbon emissions are reduced by approximately 16.56%–19.85%, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed approach. • Open dimension model boosts green e-commerce packing efficiency. • Stacking algorithm lifts space use up to 12%. • Material and emissions cut 16%–20% on space gains. • Eco warehouse system enables box reuse and material recycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited cycling life and outdated recycling modes will inevitably cause an explosive surge in spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The recycling and reutilization of these spent LIBs play a vital role in environmental conservation and resource circulation. In recent years, deep eutectic solvents (DESs), recognized as green solvents, have attracted the public's attention for their outstanding environmental friendliness, recyclability, tunability, and ability to dissolve metal oxides, which has resulted in significant practical value in the realm of recycling spent LIBs, offering enormous economic feasibility for the large-scale recovery and utilization of spent LIBs. This paper offers a comprehensive overview of recycling technologies within the recent DESs system, focusing on the separation of cathode active materials (CAMs) and current collectors, as well as the extraction of metals from CAMs. Firstly, this review systematically expounds on the distinctions in the separation principles of DESs when separating CAMs and current collectors. Secondly, the leaching system is preliminarily categorized, considering the composition of DESs. It methodically delineates and compares the advantages, challenges, and leaching mechanisms of different DES leaching systems from perspectives on viscosity, acidity, reducibility, and coordination ability. On this basis, a preliminary proposal for an efficient, low-cost, green, and sustainable spent LIBs recycling process under the DESs system is introduced, offering a reference for improving spent LIBs recycling technology under the DESs system. Finally, the current challenges of DESs in recycling spent LIBs are discussed, and relevant suggestions for the future direction in this field are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central environmental protection inspection is an institutional innovation in China that aims to supervise enterprises by monitoring government environmental enforcement. This paper examines the effectiveness of central environmental protection inspection in improving enterprise environmental performance by using a quasi-natural experiment of the first round of central environmental protection inspection. The study reveals that the central environmental protection inspection improves enterprise environmental performance by strengthening local government environmental enforcement and environmental attention. This is evidenced by the increase in enterprise environmental capital expenditure and the decrease in pollution discharge fees. The impact of central environmental protection inspection on enterprise environmental performance is strengthened by local governments' environmental regulation and environmental fiscal expenditure, as well as by public participation. Under the pressure of central environmental protection inspection, heavily polluting enterprises engage in production process improvement and R&D investment, which can improve their economic performance. This can ultimately lead to a competitive advantage for enterprises, promoting a win-win situation for both environmental and economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, the Chinese government set ultra-low emission standards for thermal power to alleviate the pressure of increasing total pollutants from energy demand. This paper analyzes the policy effect of ultra-low emission in different regions based on panel data of 1202 thermal power enterprises, and the results of hierarchical linear model show that the total amount of air pollutants emitted by thermal power enterprises showed a decreasing trend during 2017–2021, realizing the dual control of concentration and total amount. Due to the differences in primary energy structure, industrial structure and economic development level of different regions, the total emission reduction of thermal power pollutants is affected differently. First, the proportion of the region's secondary industry in the region's GDP is negatively correlated with the decrease of the total pollutant emission of local thermal power enterprises. Second, the higher the per capita GDP of the region, the more significant the decrease in the total amount of pollutants, economic development is conducive to pollutant emission reduction. Third, the higher the proportion of thermal power in local energy, the more obvious the reduction of total pollutant emissions of thermal power enterprises, indicating that the implementation of ultra-low emission policies in these regions is more thorough. In addition, the environmental protection tax plays a positive role in the total emission reduction, and the higher the sulfur dioxide tax rate, the more significant the reduction of total pollutants of thermal power enterprises. To further reduce the total amount of pollutants in thermal power, more coordinated efforts of environmental and economic policies are needed. [Display omitted] • The ultra-low emission policy can achieve dual control of pollutants. • The total pollutant emission reduction has obvious regional differences. • Environmental protection tax can reduce the total amount of pollutants. • The coordinated emission reduction of different pollutants is not obvious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental issues are closely related to the economic development of human society, and reducing environmental pollution during production is of great significance for environmental protection. This paper utilizes data from Chinese industrial enterprises (2001–2010), and establishes a fixed effects model to examine whether minimum wage standards are important in reducing non-clean energy consumption by enterprises. The results indicate that an increase in the monthly minimum wage leads to a significant reduction in coal consumption by firms, while the change in the hourly minimum wage do not exert a statistically significant influence on coal consumption by firms. The above empirical results remain robust after conducting a series of endogeneity tests. The mechanism test shows that innovation and exports serve as mediating variables between the minimum wage and coal consumption. Specifically, raising the minimum wage can incentivize enterprises to innovate in production and expand their exports, resulting in a decrease in the consumption of non-clean energy. Finally, through the heterogeneity test, we observe that increases in the minimum wage have varying effects on coal consumption among firms with different numbers of employees and different ages. Based on the research findings of this paper, we propose that the government should comprehensively consider and improve relevant systems, formulate scientifically-based minimum wage standards, take into account both workers' rights and interests as well as enterprises' profits, actively promote energy transformation in enterprises, and ultimately achieve long-term development of the social environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the topic of project orientation of organizations and their relationship with pro-environment behavior. It studies the relation between project orientation and pro-environmental behavior using a questionnaire method to collect the data from small, medium and large-sized Slovak companies. In the context of climate change, this research advocates how project orientation can be beneficial to pro-environmental behavior while being also advantageous for companies. The paper provides positive evidence of project orientation to management. Project orientation is researched by a later specified model that takes into account many aspects influencing the level of project orientation of a particular organization. The model studies the level of project orientation in five areas, namely: Communication, Knowledge Development, Development of Project Management, Employee Training and Development, and Organizational Standards & Norms. Using the questionnaire the relationship between those areas and the approach of the companies towards the protection of the environment was studied which is reflected in the following indicators: environmental policy of the organization, decreasing energy consumption, waste minimization, prevention of air pollution (emissions), prevention of water pollution (wastewater), reduction and prevention of noise, natural environment conservation, utilization of sustainable resources, utilization of "green" technologies. The relationships mentioned above were analyzed by statistical methods, and subsequently, the KDD method was applied. The results suggest that the pro-environmental behavior of companies can be influenced and so is related to the project orientation, in other words, the higher the level of project orientation (according to the Integrated model of transformation process leading to the project-oriented organization) the greater is the positive effect on pro-environmental behavior. The results also suggest that companies with limited resources should focus on organizational norms and standards and employee training and development to achieve the greatest positive effect on pro-environmental behavior. Using the KDD method groups of enterprises with the best and the worst results in the approach towards protection of the natural environment were identified. Also studied was the direct correlation between the level of project orientation and pro-environmental behavior. Image 1 • Sustainable development is a significant aspect of economic success. • Project orientation enables managing of the changes in the competitive environment. • The integrated model defines the level of project orientation. • Interdependency of project orientation and pro-environmental behavior was identified. • Project orientation is associated with business success as well as pro-environmental behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil is a main driving force when it comes to the economic development of a country. But nations around the world have uneven oil distribution, which pushes them toward rapid development of petroleum trade and maritime transportation. With the rising maritime transportation volume of oil, countries around the globe are paying increasing attention to the safe transportation of oil, oil spills from tankers are thus decreasing. However, the oil spill problem still deserves attention and laws and procedures should be strengthened to prevent future accidents and spills. This paper reviews the history of world oil trade and oil spill pollution and puts forward oil spill prevention strategies. The paper looks at the data related to oil spills created by tankers in the past 50 years from 1970 to 2017 and studies the trends in oil trade and oil spill pollution, in a bid to analyze the pollution status of major oil spill accidents and the development of treatment regulations. The paper also explores key factors behind oil spills from tankers and summarizes strategies and directions for the global marine shipping industry to prevent oil tanker pollution in the future based on the aforementioned research. This study offers systematic and scientific information reference for green operation and management of the oil tanker industry and helps government departments and policymakers to adopt reasonable and effective strategies to prevent and handle oil spill accidents from tankers across the world. • Prevention of oil spill of tankers is crucial to marine environment protection. • History of tanker oil spill pollution is reviewed. • Regulations and influencing factors of tanker oil spills are summarized. • Future governance and specific recommendations for tanker oil spill are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing the sustainability of large-scale infrastructure construction is the foundation and trend of urban sustainable development and environmental protection. This paper proposes a perception and evaluation method based on Dynamic Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (D-FCM) to address the dynamics, uncertainties, and implementation difficulties of sustainability evaluation in large-scale infrastructure construction. Using Hebbian rules to learn the experience and knowledge of experts, a dynamic evolution correlation matrix about evaluation indicators is obtained, and a D-FCM dynamic system model is established to obtain the sustainability evaluation results of large-scale infrastructure construction. The comprehensive sustainable evaluation value (K) of the selected subway project case is 0.934, which belongs to the V level in the sustainable level classification standard and has a good trend in sustainable development. Social public participation (S1), light pollution prevention (H1), wastewater discharge compliance rate (H2), soil pollution prevention (H3), and soil and water conservation and utilization (Z2) are the most significant and sensitive indicators for the sustainable development of large-scale infrastructure construction. Based on the interaction of influencing factors in the D-FCM model, an economically efficient control measures and decision-making plan can be proposed to improve the sustainability of large-scale infrastructure construction projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grasping how individual choices and exogenous factors shape agents' environmental preferences is essential to comprehending societal trends in pro-environmental behaviour. To this end, this paper proposes the concept of "individual environmental capital". It investigates how an individual's past pro-environmental decisions relate to their future ones, particularly in terms of willingness to pay for improvements in air quality. A randomised information treatment choice experiment was conducted in Poland to gauge individual environmental capital, accounting for physical assets and expressed policy preferences. The investigation found that willingness to pay varied depending on levels of prior investment in environmental assets and declared support for environmental regulations. Results demonstrate that highlighting one's past pro-climate endeavours may fail to differentiate the valuation of environmental protection among those who have already invested in environmental capital. However, it does seem to relate to a higher valuation for those yet to transition their energy systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the imminent water crisis era and stringent water environment management, enterprises play a vital role in environmental governance. However, there is seldom analysis on how the water environment regulation influences an enterprise's innovation due to data deficiency. Using our database from 2000 to 2022, we combine geographic information from water quality monitoring stations with the data on listed companies in China to pinpoint what distance firms are exposed to the monitoring stations. Results from a spatial regression discontinuity design along the geographic distances demonstrate that water environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on the quantity and quality of enterprise innovation. This paper found that it is primarily driven by the decreased usage of intermediate goods, rising industry profits from the exit of low-productivity firms, and enhanced enterprise research and development (R&D) investment. Furthermore, the positive impact is more pronounced for privately-owned firms, firms closer to suppliers, polluting firms, and politically unaffiliated firms. Our study offers scientifically valuable insights for emerging market countries in formulating effective water environmental regulation policies to incentivize firms to innovate in environmental protection. Additionally, it provides novel ideas on synergizing water environmental regulation and firm innovation to foster a mutually beneficial relationship between environmental protection and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific literature and regulation acknowledge the positive social and economic impacts of local food productions, especially for Geographical Indication products, but their relationship with environmental sustainability remains still to be better investigated. The current European reform of the Geographical Indications system is adopting environment protection as one of the main objectives, in conformity with the European Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies. In this framework, the present paper is aimed to show how Geographical Indications food products are related to environmental sustainability by the means of a systematic literature review. Firstly, the relevant publications are analyzed and classified referring to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework. Results show a contradictory picture regarding the positive and negative implications of Geographical Indications production for the different components of environmental protection (e.g., SDG 9 or SDG 12). Secondly, the literature analysis identifies four features (namely products specification, producers' environmental consciousness, role of institutions and link with the territory) of Geographical Indications that may mitigate environmental pressures, when present. Finally, after the analysis of the current and emerging European Geographical Indications regulation, policy suggestions are advanced. In particular, to enhance the environmental sustainability of Geographical Indication products, explicit environmental objectives should be introduced in Geographical Indication specification, while consciousness of producers, multidimensional cooperation and link with the territory should be strengthened. [Display omitted] • Environmental impacts of GIs are investigated since controversial in the literature. • The SDGs-based classification of the contributions shows a focus on SDGs 2 and 12. • Four drivers to make GIs effective for environmental sustainability are identified. • New explicit criteria in GI specification should be defined accordingly. • GI mark could incorporate environmental features due to the new EU regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the global call for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, China plans to reform its protected areas (PAs) system. Despite positive progress, there are still challenges in defining PAs boundaries, allocating management authority, and securing sustainable funding. This paper reviews the current state and challenges of China's PAs management and advocates a paradigm shift towards comprehensive public governance. This shift aligns with the Ecological Conservation Redline (ECR) and integrates PAs into the National Territorial Spatial Planning, for a coordinated layout of Ecological-Productive-Living Spaces. The current study emphasizes the need for a refined assessment of PAs, including ecosystem services, to balance human development rights and environmental sustainability. It also advocates for multi-stakeholder consultation mechanisms to ensure broader social participation, particularly for indigenous peoples and local communities. The current investigation highlights the importance of valuing ecological products to harmonize environmental protection with community welfare. This review contributes to the discourse on balancing ecological integrity with socio-economic progress and provides insights into the difference between human rights, ecological conservation, and sustainable development, marking a significant stride towards global sustainability goals. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green Buildings Labels (GBL) are indicated as one of the means with the potential to contribute to sustainable development. Worldwide, more than 850,000 green buildings have already had their project and development helped by just three of the GBLs (LEED, BREEAM, and BASIX). Brazil, however, has only 874 LEED-certified projects. Aiming to propose strategies to foster the adoption of GBL in the country, this paper developed an interpretative model involving barriers to them in Brazil. For this, the technique of Validated Interpretative Structural Modeling (VISM) was developed aiming to add statistical validity to interpretative models even in situations of research with small sample sizes. VISM is a modeling technique that incorporates the simplicity of Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) with the significance testing procedures of Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Adopting the VISM, the barriers model was then developed in five steps: (1) identification of indicators; (2) definition of constructs; (3) identification of relations between constructs; (4) validation of relations between constructs; and (5) creation of the conceptual model. As a result, VISM proved to be an effective innovative modeling technique in the development of models for exploratory research and presents results consistent with the reality studied. Regarding the model developed, the main barriers identified by the study to the adoption of GBL in Brazil are: "environmental protection mechanisms"; "costs and return on investment"; "mistrust of the benefits from GBL"; "corporate and public awareness"; "maturity and market economics"; and the "project, construction, and operation of green buildings". • The paper develop a model of barriers to adoption of green buildings labels in Brazil. • The paper present the technique of Validated Interpretative Structural Modeling. • The technique can help exploratory research with small sample sizes. • ISM models with circular and cross relationships can be validated. • Environmental protection mechanisms and costs hinder green buildings labels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection is of great significance to environmental governance by the Chinese government. However, the impact of internet use on resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection is complex, and the relevant empirical evidence is far from sufficient. Based on data from the Chinese Social Survey for 2013 and using OLS and ordered probit regressions, this study finds a significant negative relationship between internet use and resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection. Further study suggests that an increase in different online content frequencies could reduce resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection. Nevertheless, residents who are conservative or skeptical about internet information are more satisfied with the government's environmental protection. The conclusions of this study are consistent with the "negativity bias" theory, indicating that netizens focus greater attention on negative news related to environmental protection. Finally, this paper performs two analyses to ensure the robustness of the research results. First, considering the possible "self-selection" problem, this paper conducts a robustness test using the method of propensity score matching (PSM) and finds that the results are still consistent. Second, the sample is subdivided to analyse the regional differences in the impacts of internet use on resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection. The results show that internet use has a significant negative influence on resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection in eastern China, central China but has no significant effect in western China. In addition, the impact of internet use on urban resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection is significantly greater than that of rural resident. Highlights • The effect of internet use on resident satisfaction with the governmental environmental protection is studied for China. • Internet use has significant negative impact on resident satisfaction with governmental environmental protection in China. • Residents who are skeptical about internet information are more satisfied with the governmental environmental protection. • Conclusions are consistent with "negativity bias theory", indicating that netizens pay more attention to negative news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In the context of built environment, buildings are amongst the principal generators of environmental externalities. Life Cycle Assessment (LCAs) of energy efficiency and environmental performance of buildings are deemed critical to address sustainable development issues. This paper aims to investigate LCA as a tool to support the design of buildings with two objectives in mind. Firstly, it determines the role of LCA in the evaluation of energy efficiency and environmental performance of buildings. Secondly, it elaborates LCA of these constructions through the lens of international standards. The methodological approach of the study leads to development of a whole building life cycle formula that sums up the contributions from a set of LCAs. By doing so, the paper highlights the necessity of LCA applications in buildings, and the need for minimisation of resource and energy consumption, and environmental impact. The study helps in better understanding the way LCA supports the search for and identification of innovation pathways in buildings. This paper contributes to the efforts in providing theoretical expansions in LCA of buildings and stimulates the creation of technical standards for the residential building construction sector. Graphical abstract Image Highlights • The study overviewed Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) in residential buildings. • The study discussed stages and methodological aspects related to LCA elaborations. • LCA can have huge applications for quality and sustainability of buildings. • The whole building LCA was formulated as the sum of a set of partial LCAs. • LCA in buildings minimises resource and energy use and related environmental impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union is one of the major global players in environmental protection and sustainability policy, and increasingly addresses themes such as human wellbeing, global justice and development. Grounded in the degrowth literature, this paper asks how the European Union measures progress, economic development and the relevance of environmental protection. Specifically, this article aims at tracing degrowth elements in the Horizon 2020 program, i.e. the research and innovation agenda and funding scheme of the Union, which constitutes one of the European Union’s major instruments for steering economic development. Employing a frame analysis this research detects a minor agenda pointing beyond conventional growth perspectives; however, conventional growth remains the central focus in the Horizon 2020 framework even where “green growth” measures are discussed. This research shows that this pattern is especially evident in technology policy and schemes related to information and communication technology in particular. The article reflects on the rationales for why the European Union pursues only a minor degrowth agenda. It points to a neoliberal meta-frame and to the effects of path dependency related to the Union’s common market conceived of as a driver of prosperity. Finally, the paper identifies comparative policy analysis as a promising area for deeper integration of degrowth theory in political science research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy ideas associated with the urban minerals industry in China have shifted focus from environmental protection to industrial development in recent years. A key factor influencing the development of this industry is whether the policy system can adapt to changing policy ideas. This paper analyzes a series of policies on urban minerals issued by the central government and related departments and ministries from 1987 to 2017. Using the content analysis method, which is a quantitative methodology, the paper proposes a framework of policy tools and objects of policy intervention to analyze the evolutionary characteristics and problems associated with the development of the urban minerals industry. The research results show that the policy system of urban minerals in China has changed from the germination stage, in which urban minerals policies were embedded in environmental protection policies; to an introduction stage, in which the urban minerals policy system initially took shape; to a development stage, in which the effects of urban minerals policies have stabilized. The changing trend of urban minerals policies can be summarized as follows. First, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) gradually became the dominant policymaker. Second, the policy tools were enriched via restructuring. Third, the objects of policy intervention were continually extended to the whole industry chain. Although the policy system of urban minerals in China has promoted industrial development, certain problems remain to be resolved, such as the conflicting policies from different departments, the unreasonable combination of policy tools and improper object of policy intervention. To this end, we have proposed corresponding countermeasures and suggestions to better improve the development of the urban minerals industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-efficiency is an important index to measure the degree of sustainable development, and is now attracting emerging attentions from both academia and industry. Based on previous data envelopment analysis (DEA) studies on environmental performance, this paper combines the big data environment, specific environmental issues in recent years, and related environmental policies. This study illustrates a more specific production process for pursuing higher environmental performance (it is not possible to further reduce undesired outputs by remodelling the process) and proposes a dynamic environmental performance evaluation model that considers the use of environmental inputs multiple times based on DEA. Our model can achieve dynamic and forward-looking evaluations of environmental performance in all stages based on real-time data that contains environmental protection inputs in sustainable cycles. Due to the dynamic and forward-looking results of the model evaluation, our model can also assist DMUs (decision-making units) in selecting schemes to enable them to have higher eco-efficiency from numerous schemes of environmental protection and achieve scientific decisions in the era of big data. This paper also demonstrates an illustration of real-world data of China's major coal-fired power plants. Besides quantitatively showing how the power plants to adjust their production plans and environment protection plans, the results imply that there exists a positive correlation between the redundant inputs and the scales as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under carbon cap and trade policy, engineering machinery firms have engaged in remanufacturing and invested in carbon emission reduction technologies. However, they often struggle with a lack of funding, but carbon quota financing offers a solution. Taking a capital-constrained engineering machinery remanufacturer as the research object, this paper first formulates four decision models, i.e. (no capital constraints, no financing), (capital constraints, no financing), (capital constraints, carbon quota repurchase financing) and (capital constraints, carbon quota pledge financing), then the equilibrium results are compared. Finally, the numerical simulations are performed to study the impact of carbon emission reduction and quality uncertainty of recycled products. The results show that if remanufacturers possess adequate carbon quotas, carbon quota pledge financing can always improve profits effectively, otherwise, the effectiveness of financing strategies depends on the difference between extra profits and financing costs. Both financing strategies can increase the output of new products and reduce that of remanufactured products. Increasing the quality threshold of recycled products is beneficial for remanufacturing, environmental protection and profits. Investing in carbon emission reduction benefits remanufacturing and the environment, however, it reduces remanufacturers' profits in the short term. [Display omitted] • Quality uncertainty of recycled products is considered in remanufacturing. • The importance of improving quality threshold is revealed. • Financing and carbon emission reduction investment are considered simultaneously. • The optimal carbon quota financing strategies are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the implementation process of economic and environmental policy, a key concerned problem is the inability of some local officials to faithfully implement environmental policies made by the central government in China, as well as many other developing countries. In this paper, a multitask principal-agent model is established to make a comprehensive comparison on the role that the current incentive mechanism (CIM) and the long-term performance-oriented incentive mechanism (LTPOIM) play in policy implementation. In addition, both the incentive effect and the choice of incentive intensity in the LTPOIM are investigated. The results provide the insight that local officials may trade off the efforts of environment protection for economic growth in the CIM. However, local officials are incentivized to allocate higher efforts toward the implementation of environmental policies (IENP) to strengthen environment protection, or invest higher efforts toward IENP and the implementation of economic policies (IECP) to pursue the win-win situation for economy and environment in the LTPOIM. Besides, the chance of distributing higher efforts toward IENP and IECP in the case of complement tasks is higher than that in the case of substitute tasks. The optimal incentive intensities of long-term performance in the case of complement tasks are higher than those in the case of substitute tasks. • The long-term performance-oriented incentive motivates local officials to balance environmental and economic policies. • The central government makes use of the multitask agency problem to gain a win-win situation for economy and environment. • The adjustment of local officials' efforts portfolio and central government's incentive strategies are investigated. • The chance of distributing higher efforts toward two tasks is higher in the case of complement tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid shared energy storage based on electro-thermal coupling is an economical and effective way to solve the mismatch between the demand and supply of multiple multi-energy microgrids (MEMGs). However, its impact on the environment is often ignored. How to take into account economic development and environmental protection by optimizing its capacity configuration has become a key challenge. From the perspective of economy and environment, this paper explores the comprehensive benefits and capacity configuration of electro-thermal hybrid shared energy storage (ET-HSES) while considering the carbon trading mechanism and the coupling system of power to gas (P2G) and carbon capture system (CCS). Firstly, an energy sharing framework between the ET-HSES and the MEMGs is built. Secondly, a bi-level optimization model is constructed for the optimal scheduling problem of different stakeholders. Thirdly, Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality conditions and Big-M method are used to transform the bi-level model into a single-level model. The results show that ET-HSES can effectively save the capacity of energy storage equipment, significantly reduce the operating costs and carbon emissions of MEMGs, and improve the income of ET-HSES operator (ET-HSESO). The combination of carbon trading mechanism and coupling system of P2G and CCS can effectively reduce the operating costs and carbon emissions of MEMGs. Meanwhile, it will also reduce the benefits of ET-HSESO. [Display omitted] • The coupling system of P2G and CCS is integrated into the MEMG system. • The energy trading mechanism between ET-HSES and MEMGs is presented. • A solution of the bi-level programming model based on KKT condition is proposed. • Realize a balance between economic development and environmental protection for MEMGs by introducing an ET-HSES. • The benefits of ET-HSESO are reduced by combining the carbon trading mechanism and coupling system of P2G and CCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing interest in integration of sustainability into business planning decisions under a sustainable development framework. Environmental accounting methodologies for collection, measurement, and disclosure of financial and environmental impacts of strategic and operational managerial decisions are developed and utilized by business entities worldwide for effective management of both organizational and operational environmental protection policies. At the operational level, while extant literature has primarily focused on managerial decision making under different voluntary and regulatory emission pricing schemes, the intersection of economic (monetary) and environmental impact (non-monetary/physical) dimensions of sustainable development goals has received scant attention. This paper examines the intersection of the environmental and economic goals of sustainable development initiatives of a focal firm, which is engaged in the primary activities of production and/or transportation and storage of a single product within a forward supply chain. This paper assumes the presence of a responsive “green market ” through modeling of consumer awareness and response induced by the firms' environmental footprint disclosures. Through quantitative modeling approach, normative conclusions are derived on the compatibility of economic and environmental goals of sustainable development initiative. The results indicate the presence of convergence, divergence, and avoidance decision zones in balancing the environmental and economical goals of the firm's sustainable development for production and storage efficiency. The paper explicitly establishes the boundaries of the operational zones within the domain of the firm's environmental reduction and operational efficiency efforts. The results demonstrate that the efficacy of voluntary or regulated emission reduction targets depends on the firm's existing environmental and operational cost structures, and hence emission reduction targets must be well planned to avoid adverse environmental impact or operational inefficiencies. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that in a green responsive market, there may exist critical emission reduction thresholds below which the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable development initiatives diverge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green loan has attracted worldwide attention in recent years due to the increasingly striking environmental problems caused by economic activities. This paper considers a game on the application of green loans for technique innovation among the enterprises, banks and government, and addresses the effectiveness of green loan and government subsidy on promoting clean production. Serial profit-risk models are established and then solved according to the intention of enterprises to technique innovation for promoting clean production. Energy emission is selected as a measure capturing the production effects on environment in this paper. The conditions that enterprises execute technique innovation with loans and that banks approve loans for enterprises are derived. Two threshold values on technique maturity are presented to support these conditions. The most importantly, it is rigorously proved that green loan subsidy provided by the government could improve environmental quality through reducing the energy emissions from enterprises. It is also shown that subsidy not only improves the intention of enterprises to technique innovation, but also increases the innovation risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the indiscriminate use of chemical inputs like pesticides, serious agricultural diffused pollution is arising, not only with the ecological environment damaging, but also with the agriculture sustainable development restricted. It is imperative for China to reduce pesticides use. Under the decentralized production background, farmers’ willingness to reduce pesticides is worth discussing. This paper aims to explore farmers’ willingness to reduce pesticides use based on its determinants analysis. A structured questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 924 farmers in rural China. Binary logistic regression model was used to examine the determinants. The results showed that farmers’ environmental concern, pesticides residues cognition, agro-products quality concern and input controls positively and significantly influence farmers’ willingness to reduce pesticides, while non-agricultural income share influence negatively. Results also reveal that farmers’ self-discipline is more effective than government regulations; enhancing farmers’ self-discipline is important to guide farmers toward environmentally-friend measures in agricultural production. This paper recommended that policy makers take measures to improve farmers’ environmental awareness and strengthen input supervision. Improved effectiveness of pesticides usage is also needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental performance of organizations largely depends on the voluntary participation of employees in greening activities. Workers in any organization can voluntarily perform numerous environmental behaviors, such as recycling, carpooling, or using video-conferencing rather than travelling. Yet, in many organizations, these behaviors remain limited and the obstacles to their development have not been the object of specific studies. Pro-environmental behaviors are not monolithic and may vary considerably according to the degree of discretion involved. The objective of this paper is to analyze, through a systematic review of the empirical literature on pro-environmental behaviors in the workplace, the obstacles to green actions for employees and how such barriers might be overcome. The discretionary nature of certain behaviors is questioned and different categories of pro-environmental individual conduct are proposed. The paper sheds more light on the personal and organizational barriers to voluntary pro-environmental behaviors: while the former are associated with both intentions and actions, the latter have so far been found to primarily affect actual behaviors. Suggestions for future research and practical implications for managers are also proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deformation analyzes are important for long-term monitoring of areas, where, in the first place, it is necessary to take into account human safety and environmental protection for the purpose of sustainable development of human society. The quality of the results of deformation analysis will also be affected by the quality of establishment of the geodetic network. When a new Local Geodetic Network (LGN) is established, for example, during deformation monitoring (landslides, open-pit mining, excavations, etc.) for the purpose of environmental protection, its determination can be influenced by some mistakes: a) geometric quantities measured can be contaminated by blunders, b) compatibilities of some "old" points in the area of LGN can be incorrect, c) appropriate coordinates of some new points may be defective. The case c), using two methods - Least Squares (LSM) unconstrained adjustment; - iteratively reweighted LSM of Robust Estimation, is analyzed in the paper. The main objective of this paper is to compare the adjustment of the geodetic network by the Gauss-Markov model based on GMM with full rank and robust LSM adjustment. The main adjustment steps with important numerical results are presented for both methods. The method how to detect the presence of the used wrong approximate coordinates of new network points is addressed, and the detection approaches are given for both adjustment procedures. The results of both adjustment procedures summarized in the Discussion indicate that the combination of these procedures is the most suitable way of detecting errors in a geodetic network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green public procurement is believed to have the potential to contribute to environmental improvement and diffusion of green technologies. The aim of this paper is to compare and analyse how two Swedish regions use public procurement to promote the introduction of renewable fuels in their public bus transport systems. The method is a qualitative comparative case study, based on interviews and document studies. The paper addresses the questions of what the strategic motivations are for using public procurement to stimulate renewable fuels, and what the practical challenges have been in relation to five important factors identified from previous research: strategies, requirements, costs, size and knowledge. In one region, procurement is used in a strategic way to create a local market for biofuels, which poses higher demands on political backing, information and knowledge, the way requirements are set, and an acceptance of increased costs. In the other region, procurement is used instrumentally to increase the share of biofuels in a cost-effective way that gives room for more flexibility and reduces the demands on the procurers. This paper highlights the importance of context when assessing green public procurement schemes and analyses the case-specific influence of factors on the outcome of green public procurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercial sector is one of the key sectors in China’s economic transformation and carbon emissions control. This paper applies VAR and STIRPAT models to investigate the major influencing factors of CO 2 emissions in China’s commercial sector over the period 1980–2014. According to the empirical results, per capita GDP, urbanization and energy structure have positive effects on CO 2 emissions while energy intensity has negative effect on CO 2 emissions in the long term. Besides, per capita GDP ranks as the most important driving factors of CO 2 in China’s commercial sector, followed by urbanization, energy structure and energy intensity in that order. This paper argues that reducing energy intensity and improving energy structure are the means to realize CO 2 emission reductions in the commercial sector in the short and long term, respectively. Besides, this paper forecasts that CO 2 emissions in China’s commercial sector will be 1942 Mt by 2030, which is huge and about half of the CO 2 emissions of the European Union in 2014. The findings have important implications for policy-makers to enact CO 2 emission reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing - and increasingly urban - world population has led to a boom in the distillery industry for the production of ethanol as potable alcohol, industrial chemical, and bio-fuel. Distillery industries, next to the paper industries, continue to be a major source for surface water pollution due to their highly organic and complex wastewater containing recalcitrant organics, persistent color, sulfate, chlorides, phosphorus and nitrogen. Despite that, advancements in distillery stillage treatment have not kept pace with the problem. This review examines the composition and the extent of stillage discharge into the physical environment with respect to advances in stillage management. Uniquely, this review addresses the local and global environmental burden of stillage discharge and the efficiencies achieved in stillage management. Typically, this review tries to bridge the gap in information between the traditional stillage treatment approach and the most current and advanced techniques. Moreover, the challenges of applying novel techniques in stillage management and the gaps for further research are discussed. Basically, the classical anaerobic-aerobic degradation is much explored technique to treat stillage so far. Though, the integrated stillage treatment approaches which include feed modification, physicochemical/biological hybrid systems, advanced oxidation systems and the catalysis degradation processes are recently being tested. Ultimately, it has become clear that a single technology cannot be sufficient to manage stillage. Thus, energy benefiting technology that leads to a sustainable stillage management through environmental conservation is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental taxes can play an important role in reducing pollution issues. However, they also have an impact on the entire economy. This paper uses panel data from Shandong Province in China from 2005 to 2016 to analyze the impact of pollutant charges on the economic and environmental performances. The results show that the payment transfer of pollutant charges can influence the output but the effects varies with regions and time. Pollutant charges increase the resource utilization efficiency and promote economic growth. After controlling output and industry structure, pollutant charges on waste gas improve the air quality. This study confirms the existence of the environmental tax double dividend and provides a reference for new environmental protection taxes. • The effects of pollutant charges on economics and environment are tested. • There are heterogeneity of the effect of pollutant charges on industry structure. • Pollutant charges improves the resource utilization efficiency in Shandong. • Pollutant charges promotes economic growth and improves the environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have been conducted on organic wine consumption, but no specific study has yet fully explored how the set of attributes explored by existing research affects the additional price for organic wine. To fill this gap, the objective of this paper was to examine whether and to what extent consumers are inclined to pay for buying organic wine and what are the attributes that significantly influence the additional price of organic wine compared to conventional one. With this aim, a quantitative study over a representative sample of wine consumers in Sicily (Italy) was carried out. Results allowed to observe that consumers attached greater importance to personal motivations such as environmental protection, distinctness and curiosity as well as to explicit label information such as brand renown and local production. In addition, male gender and income are positively correlated to the willingness to pay an additional price for organic wine. Our results have important implications for the actors involved in the wine sector as the adoption of marketing practices explicitly related to the label and motivations attributes can lead to value augmentation of organic wine that could increase consumers' valuation for it. • Patterns of consumption for organic wine are still not well-established. • We explored motivations behind additional price for organic wine. • We found that consumption of organic wine is strongly related to "curiosity". • The additional price for organic wine is not affected by PDO designation. • Consumers attached greater importance to environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food wastes display a great potential for waste-based biorefineries in the frame of a bio-economy system. The bio-economy is an innovative economy model based on the sustainable use of renewable resources in agriculture and industry, and that takes in account biodiversity and environmental protection. To this aim, some key factors are need: the development of new technologies and processes, the identification of renewable feedstock not in competition with other production chains, the creation of new markets and competitiveness, the pushing of policymakers and stakeholders to work more closely together. Tomato industry, that is one of the most important sector of the world food industry, can display an enormous potential since it produces huge amounts of wastes. Such residues negatively impact on the sustainability of food industry, since their disposal represents one main issue in terms of environmental and economic impact. Nevertheless, they represent a cheap and renewable biomass that, in the frame of the biorefinery model, could be exploited for the production of chemicals and energy thus contributing to the sustainability of this production chain. In this paper the potentiality of the tomato-wastes biorefinery was investigated with particular regard to the Italian scenario. Some main aspects were investigated including the possible re-use strategies and the available examples of tomato wastes conversion into marketable products. The analysis of the state of the art showed that tomato wastes recycling in Italy is till limited. Indeed, the scalability of such processes at an industrial scale still remains to be assessed in order to open the way to new markets based on the exploitation of tomato wastes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government's attention on environmental protection (GAEP) can signal work priorities and resource allocations to firms, promoting them to implement more carbon reduction actions. Based on the data of listed manufacturing firms in China from 2012 to 2021, this paper measures the GAEP and firms' carbon reduction actions through textual analysis, and then examines the relationship between GAEP and firms' carbon reduction actions. We find that the GAEP could improve firms' carbon reduction actions. This study further indicates that the increase in GAEP leads to the better allocation of environmental subsidies, thereby further positively impacting on firms' carbon reduction actions, and we also demonstrate the positive moderating effect of government-firm relationship. In addition, GAEP could be a stronger effect for state-owned enterprises and the firms located in the eastern and central China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural resources are abundant worldwide and function as economy stabilizers in almost every nation. However, mishandling these natural resources and their excessive exploitation degrades the environment. This has sparked scholarly interest in investigating the relationship between natural resources and environmental degradation and proposing measures to safeguard the ecosystem. Despite these efforts, research on this interaction in Ghana is limited. This paper fills the knowledge gap by exploring the short and long-run relationships between natural resources and environmental degradation in Ghana from 1990 to 2020 while employing renewable energy consumption, economic growth, trade openness, and industrialization as additional parameters. Robust econometric approaches are engaged for precise and reliable results, revealing that all the study variables are stationary at their first difference and co-integrated in the long run. Thus, the novel dynamic ARDL simulation estimator is adopted to examine the short and long-run connections between the study parameters. The results demonstrate that increased natural resources, economic growth, and trade openness escalate environmental degradation in the short and long run. However, an increase in renewable energy consumption is found to reduce environmental degradation in the short and long run. Further, industrialization accelerates environmental degradation in the short run but diminishes it in the long run. Finally, it is recommended that Ghana adopts sustainable development approaches to achieve a harmonious balance between economic growth and environmental protection, effectively addressing challenges of environmental degradation, meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and promoting equitable natural resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional collaborative governance has become one of the most significant trends in environmental protection due to its importance in suppressing pollution transfer. This paper employs panel data from 285 cities in China during 2003–2019 and a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) method to evaluate the influence of regional collaborative governance on air pollution. Results show that regional collaborative governance significantly reduces air pollution. Heterogeneity assessment suggests that the inhibiting impact of regional collaborative governance on air pollution is long-term and increases temporally, whereas the spillover effect of regional collaborative governance is only significant in a specific range and decays spatially. In addition, the mechanism analysis reveals that regional collaborative governance reduces air pollution by increasing environmental regulation intensity, improving environmental governance efficiency, and promoting environmental protection technology. This study provides useful policy insights for policymakers seeking green and sustainable development to curb air pollution and improve environmental quality. • The impact of regional collaborative governance on air pollution is examined. • We employ a multi-period difference-in-differences approach. • Regional collaboration significantly reduces air pollution emissions. • Local effects increase temporally whereas spillover effects decay spatially. • The strongest inhibition comes from promoting environmental protection technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mismatch of spatial distribution between water resources and human activities presents a considerable challenge to the sustainable utilization of water resources. This trend is further exacerbated by the impact of climate change and the increasingly frequent occurrence of extreme weather. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct an in-depth study on water resource spatial equilibrium (WRSE). This paper proposed an integrated diagnostic framework for WRSE considering the water-economy-ecology nexus, in which an improved evaluation index system of WRSE was constructed. The WRSE states of three criteria layers are quantified with the spatial equilibrium indices of water resource endowment, economic and social development, and ecological environment protection. The water resource spatial equilibrium index (WRSEI) was calculated using the Euclidean distance to reflect the overall spatial equilibrium state. The key influencing factors of WRSE are analyzed through the obstacle degree model. The findings indicate that: a) the WRSEI in the Yangtze River to Huaihe River Water Transfer Project (YHWTP) area showed a gradual increase from 0.641 in 2011 to 0.662 in 2020; b) the WRSE level of each criterion layer attained a general equilibrium or fair equilibrium state, and the WRSE state shows a trend from dispersion to aggregation during 2011 and 2020; c) per capita water resources, per capita gross domestic product and per capita urban wastewater discharge are the main factors limiting the realization of a benign WRSE in the YHWTP, with the obstacle degrees reaching 0.347, 0.324 and 0.326 in 2020 respectively. This framework can provide a theoretical reference for the study of WRSE, and provide a scientific basis and suggestions for policymakers to enhance WRSE and achieve sustainable utilization of water resources. [Display omitted] • A diagnostic framework for water resources spatial equilibrium (WRSE) was developed. • The evaluation index system and quantitative method were improved in terms of WEE nexus. • A state discrimination method of WRSE was proposed to identify the overall WRSE state. • The framework was applied to Yangtze River to Huaihe River Water Transfer Project area. • Findings can help formulate water resources planning and sustainable development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatio-temporal pattern of vegetation disturbance by open-pit mining activities such as the disturbance area and magnitude are important for coordinated development of surface mining and environmental protection. This paper proposes an automatic method (Auto-VDR) for identifying vegetation destruction and restoration of various open-pit mines. The proposed method consists of three steps: construction of the sample dataset, identification of disturbance types, and extraction of disturbance time and magnitude. First, a sample dataset with three types was constructed according to the interannual trends of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in mining areas: "Restoration after destruction (RAD)", "Destruction without restoration (DWR)" and "No destruction (ND)". Second, in order to accommodate to various open-pit mines with different background conditions (original vegetation cover prior to mining, loss rate and magnitude of vegetation due to mining, etc.), the "Shape-based distance" was used to match the NDVI curves of each pixel to the three disturbance types. Third, the disturbance time and magnitude in the destroyed regions were extracted based on the vegetated/bare ground threshold (α). The Shendong coal base in China was selected as the study area consisting of 133 open-pit coal mines. Annual NDVI was generated using Landsat time-series data. The maps of vegetation destruction and restoration caused by surface mining during 1990–2021 were drawn with accuracies of 0.82 and 0.87, respectively. The identification accuracy of the Auto-VDR is higher than Landsat-based detection of Trends in Disturbance and Recovery (LandTrendr) and Continuous Change Detection and Classification (CCDC). The results show that from 1990 to 2021, a total of 400.08 km2 of vegetation has been destroyed, accounting for 35.93% of the study area. Furthermore, restoration activities mainly began in 2010, lagging mining activities by approximately three years. The accumulated area of restoration was 177.91 km2 and accounts for 15.98% of the study area. The vegetation destruction at the Shendong coal base has gone through four stages, with 2008, 2015 and 2018 as splits, corresponding to the developing stage of the China coal industry. In particular, the area of vegetation destruction per year reached the maximum of 61.16 km2 in 2008, which was 1.38 times the total area mined over the past 17 years. There were 14% of the 133 open-pit mines in Shendong coal base with a restoration rate of 0.8 and 59% of the mines with a restoration rate of 0.5. This method has been demonstrated to be able to extract vegetation destruction and restoration processes accurately and rapidly for various open-pit mines at a scale of coal base, which provides an important reference for supervising the impact of mining on the environment and assessing the effectiveness of ecological restoration. [Display omitted] • An automated method for identifying vegetation disturbance of open-pit mines. • The method is applicable to various open-pit mines at a large scale of coal base. • Higher accuracy (overall accuracy = 0.82 and 0.87) compared to other algorithms. • Maps of vegetation disturbance caused by surface mining were drawn. • A total of 400.08 km2 of vegetation has been destroyed in Shendong coal base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing the Comprehensive Environmental Administrative Enforcement Reform (CEAER) in China as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper has adopted 179 prefecture-level cities from July 2018 to December 2020 as research sample to assess whether the limited decentralization of environmental enforcement power can improve air quality through a time-varying difference-in-difference (DID) approach. Results show that CEAER can achieve better air quality improving effects, which can not only contribute to the decrease of daily mean values of Air Quality Index (AQI), but also contribute to the decrease of daily mean values of PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 , and CO. And this promotion is mainly achieved through the micro mechanism of raising environmental penalties strength. Further examination of the heterogeneity in terms of economic factors, city rank, pollution abatement pressure, and political constraints reveals that CEAER's policy effects are mostly insignificant in cities with higher levels of economic development and administrative rank, and positively significant in poor historical air quality cities and key environmental protection cities. These results underscore the positive effects of the limited decentralization of environmental enforcement power and provide ideas for other regions to draw on for environmental management system reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has recently received increasing attention among UK manufacturing firms, there is a concern as to whether SSCM practices are being implemented because they are profitable or only because of governance coercive pressure. Thus, the aims of this paper are twofold: first, determining the role of governance in the adoption of SSCM practices; second, investigating whether SSCM practices can be both environmentally beneficial and commercially viable. In light of these issues, this paper develops and empirically assesses an integrated model of governance pressures-SSCM practices-performance. Data was collected from 146 UK manufacturing managers, and analysed using the structural equation modelling method. Exogenous driving forces of governance were found to be precursors to the successful implementation of SSCM practices. The empirical results further suggest that while the implementation of sustainable supply chain management has a positive effect on environmental performance, it does not necessarily lead to improved economic performance, as only sustainable procurement was found to have a positive effect on economic performance. This paper contributes to the literature by highlighting the role of governance in SSCM adoption and performance gains in environmental protection while economic performance is partially compromised. The results also provide useful insights for both managers seeking to adopt sustainable practices and policy-makers seeking to further promote sustainable supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the need of finding new ways of measuring the environmental and economic consequences of farming. The aim of this study is to inquire into the impacts that excessive intensification has on productivity and environmental costs in the long term and additionally, to explore empirically the trend of these two indicators over time. The contribution of this paper is to perform an empirical study of the trends of productivity and environmental costs of farming in the long-term. To this end, this paper performs a panel data analysis of productivity and environmental costs on a farm accounting database across European regions over the 1989–2009 period. The models proposed take (i) farm output per hectare as indicator of productivity, and (ii) expenditures on energy, pesticides and fertilisers per hectare as proxy indicators of environmental costs. Results provide empirical evidence that the regions under study have a negative trend of productivity and a positive trend of environmental costs over the time frame mentioned. These results correlate negatively with both, economic and environmental sustainability of farms. Arguably, this is aggravated in the latter due to hidden environmental costs valued at zero in traditional accounting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition and cooperation in the environmental governance of cities are popular around the world. However, empirical research based on the prefecture-level city level in China is rare. Since the central government of China proposed to strengthen the construction of ecological civilization, whether there are strategic interactions of "race to the bottom" or "race to the top" among local governments is an important issue of academic and public interest. This paper constructs a game-theoretic model to reveal the strategic interactions of environmental governance among local governments. And then, based on the data of 221 prefecture-level cities collected from 2007 to 2018, the spatial econometric model is used to conduct multi-dimensional testing "race to the bottom" behavior of environmental protection expenditure among local governments. Moreover, this paper further analyses the impact of performance assessment indicators on the strategic interactions of local governments, so as to provide policy reference for improving environmental public welfare. Empirical results suggest that local governments in China show strategic imitation in environmental protection spending decisions, which is manifested as "race to the bottom", and this behavior is gradually weakening with the strengthening of environmental protection assessment. Furthermore, environmental performance indicators relieve the government's strategic imitation, while economic performance indicators intensify the government's strategy imitation. Thus, reasonable performance evaluation indicators are conducive to benign strategic interaction among governments. Finally, the current environmental protection expenditure has not yet significantly affected pollution reduction, providing new evidence for the "race to the bottom" behavior of local governments. Based on the findings of our study, the central government should optimize the performance evaluation system of local officials and strengthen the implementation of the environmental supervision system and accountability mechanism. Meanwhile, the local governments should further increase environmental protection expenditure, and enhance the supervision and utilization efficiency of environmental protection funds. • Strategic interaction among 221 prefecture-level cities in China was multi-dimensionally studied. • It has been found that China's local governments have strategic imitation as "race to the bottom". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing an eco-civilization is crucial in achieving green, low-carbon development, and thus bridging the gap between theory and practice is imperative to better promote urban ecological transformation. At present, there are inconsistencies and imbalances between theoretical research and practical efforts to achieve an eco-civilization. This paper uses bibliometric analysis and Latent Dirichlet Allocation to analyze China's progress towards an eco-civilization at the theoretical and practical levels. The 'theory' is analyzed using 632 articles, while the 'practice' is analyzed using 100 eco-civilization pilot zone reports. The two are compared, with results showing: from 2015 onwards, the theory is moving in an interdisciplinary direction, with seven themes focusing on macro topics. eco-civilization construction projects have multiple overlapping themes, and the growing connection between energy consumption, economic growth and environmental impacts driven by significant projects is the key to improving the level of regional ecological development. the theory and practice are similar in that both are concerned with environmental protection, ecological education, and ecotourism. However, eco-civilization construction projects lack forward-looking and dynamic development tracking of low-carbon research. the paper proposes that dynamic evaluation and project tracking methods should be applied to monitor critical indicators to achieve a solid link between the theory and practice during eco-construction projects. This paper also proposes academia should do more research on townships and other micro level phenomena to promote climate change and energy revolution in the construction of a Chinese eco-civilization. • Analysis of the similarities and differences between theoretical research and practical measures of eco-civilization. • Academic research focuses on sustainability, while practical activities lack attention to climate change. • Optimizing the energy-economy-environment integration project is the key to improving China's ecology. • Environmental protection, eco-civilization education, and eco-tourism are common concerns in the theory and practice. • Suggestions include focusing on crucial indicators and micro-level activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the public characteristics of the ecological environment, there is an inevitable "free-rider" defect in the pro-environmental behaviors. Therefore, it is essential to study residents' pro-environmental behaviors to guide them to adopt pro-environmental behaviors actively. In the field of environmental behavior, recent studies have identified a phenomenon called "behavior spillover." Research in this field is still in its infancy. The related research has significant single characteristic: most of them are based on a single theory to explain the spillover effect of pro-environmental behavior. This paper takes the case of D Street in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China to research the internal mechanism of positive spillover effects of pro-environmental behaviors. This street is transitioning from not attaching importance to environmental protection to attaching importance to environmental protection, and thus it is a pioneering, representative, and practical sample. This paper takes the theory of planned behavior and cognitive balance theory involving cognition, emotion, and behavior as basic theoretical tools and introduces parallel and chain mediation approaches to cognitive and emotional pathways, in combination with other theories, to examine the factors influencing initial environmental participation behavior on subsequent willingness to participate in a comprehensive way. The study found that in addition to the direct effect environmental protection participation behavior has on subsequent participation willingness, our study found three pathways from Pro-environmental Behaviors to willingness, namely: (1) participating behavior → knowledge → willingness, (2) participating behavior → pleasure → willingness, and (3) participating behavior → knowledge → pleasure → willingness. This paper's aim is to theoretically confirm the complex intermediary mechanism of the positive spillover effect of pro-environmental behavior and to highlight the need to strengthen publicity and education so that residents can appreciate the necessity of environmental protection knowledge and internalize knowledge into positive, stable, and continuous emotions and attitudes, so as to promote their spontaneous environmental protection participation behavior. • Positive spillover was found in pro-environmental behavior. • Cognitive and emotional factors mediate the spillover pathways. • Pro-environmental behavior can be enhanced by cognitive balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the main driving forces that influence the sustainable innovation of enterprises based on a three-dimensional framework at the organization level, individual level and system level. Using data from China's Innovation Survey, which is in line with the Community Innovation Survey（CIS）, this paper examines the behaviours and strategies of Chinese enterprises' sustainable innovation. The study finds that China's sustainable and innovative enterprises are generally large-scale, are long lasting, have good profitability and invest more in R&D and environmental protection. And the sustainable innovation of state-owned enterprises is significantly more than other enterprises. The primary purpose of enterprises engaged in sustainable innovation is to reduce environmental damage, but financial constraints are still an important obstacle for enterprises to overcome to carry out sustainable innovation. In addition, enterprises with more conservative senior executives and more political connections to government do not prefer sustainable innovation. The institutional pressure exerted by external environmental regulations and the cost constraints alleviated by government environmental protection subsidies are the key factors affecting enterprises' sustainable innovation. In conclusion, depicting the real situation of Chinese enterprises' sustainable innovation behaviour based on the survey framework and data of systematically identifying enterprises' innovation behaviour is beneficial to provide examples for developing countries related to sustainable innovation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological innovations (EIs) are believed to play a crucial role both for the future competitiveness of companies and environmental protection. Thus, many researchers have investigated the determinants stimulating the adoption of EIs, but they usually consider determinants as a static concept. In this paper, these determinants are hypothesized to vary with companies' propensity to adopt them, that is, the degree to which companies consider relevant the choice to invest in EIs. In this view, the paper investigated a sample of 222 innovative SMEs following a multi-step procedure. By means of a composite indicator, firstly the SMEs' propensity to adopt EIs was calculated. Secondly, in order to identify the determinants that stimulate SMEs to invest in eco-innovation, the procedure of Principal Component Analysis based on the ScotLass algorithm was applied. Thirdly, the determinants individuated as the principal components extracted were investigated through OLS and quantile regression. The results suggest that among the SMEs with a higher propensity to invest in EIs, the more evident determinants are the ambition to reach better economic performance, the capacity to establish networking, and the endogenous competencies of SMEs. Also, the variable structural nature concerning the firm's size shows a high relevance. • Eco-innovations promote companies' competitiveness and environmental protection. • Eco-innovation determinants vary according to the firms' propensity to innovate. • A sample of 222 innovative Italian SMEs was surveyed. • Results confirm that determinants vary with SMEs propensity to eco-innovate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the impact of stakeholder participation in the drafting process of the Environmental Protection Act, which regulates the licensing of peat extraction in Finland. The article contributes to research on the impact of stakeholder participation in regulatory processes, which is a generally underexplored field of study, and seeks to identify which arguments affected the end result. Furthermore, it addresses whether the legislative drafter took into account influential arguments as a result of rational choice arrived at by means of adequate reasoning and under conditions of procedural transparency. Finally, it analyses how these arguments reflect the attitudes of stakeholders towards the objective and dynamics of the public hearing process. The paper presents a qualitative and quantitative argumentation analysis, which consists of an argument typology, together with analysis both of the feasibility of different arguments and the frequency with which they were employed and of the realisation of different viewpoints on the draft. The analysis shows stakeholders' statements had significant effectiveness but that the weight given to different arguments was unbalanced. In conclusion, it seems that frequently used arguments were ignored without reasons being given but that rarely used arguments that seem difficult to apply had an influence on the process. Moreover, stakeholders that supported the objective of the Act used arguments that could not be easily taken into account while still achieving the objective of the Act. Meanwhile, arguments indicating problems that were easy to fix in the draft were used to oppose the objective of the Act per se. Consequently, there was no clear consensus among stakeholders as to whether the public hearing process should be understood as amounting to aggregative bargaining or integrative deliberation. Based on these findings, it is suggested that participatory processes in legislative drafting should be developed to foster horizontal dialogue between stakeholders. • The impact of the public hearing on the draft was significant but unbalanced. • Relevant and recurring arguments were recognised but ignored with no reasons given. • Some who were in favour of the new Act proposed arguments that went against its aim. • Certain arguments opposing the new Act identified problems that were resolvable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]