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As a traditional energy and carbon intensive sector, it becomes imperative for the global paper industry to realize green development. This paper aims to provide guidance for the green transformation of global paper industry by evaluating the global paper industry green development level in a systematic and dynamic way. This paper employs text-mining method to develop paper industry green development evaluation indicator system and adopts market-extended LCA model and entropy-TOPSIS method to calculate the paper industry green development level of 48 countries/regions. The results show that during 2000–2030 the paper industry green development level of developing countries improves faster than developed countries, where those of developing and developed countries increase from 0.3369 to 0.3938 and from 0.5120 to 0.5517 respectively and the gap between them narrows from 0.1751 to 0.1579. The comparative analysis reveals that the paper industries of developed and developing countries are in different green development stages. Developing countries, represented by China, improve greatly in economic and social dimensions, but decline seriously in ecological dimension due to enlarging resource consumption and environmental damages. On the contrary, developed countries tend to saturate in economic and social dimensions and have been improving fast in ecological dimension, gradually realizing the decoupling of industrial economic development and environmental damages. To further promote the global paper industry green development, developing countries should focus on promoting the coordinated development between economic growth and environment protection and developed countries should play a leading role in the global green transformation by promoting optimal allocation of resources and cross-regional communications of green technologies. • A paper industry green development indicator system is developed based on text mining. • A global paper industry green development model is built with market-extended LCA. • Complex interactions among the indicators are internalized in the evaluation. • A spatial-temporal analysis is performed on global paper industry green development level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a traditional energy and carbon intensive sector, it becomes imperative for the global paper industry to realize green development. This paper aims to provide guidance for the green transformation of global paper industry by evaluating the global paper industry green development level in a systematic and dynamic way. This paper employs text-mining method to develop paper industry green development evaluation indicator system and adopts market-extended LCA model and entropy-TOPSIS method to calculate the paper industry green development level of 48 countries/regions. The results show that during 2000–2030 the paper industry green development level of developing countries improves faster than developed countries, where those of developing and developed countries increase from 0.3369 to 0.3938 and from 0.5120 to 0.5517 respectively and the gap between them narrows from 0.1751 to 0.1579. The comparative analysis reveals that the paper industries of developed and developing countries are in different green development stages. Developing countries, represented by China, improve greatly in economic and social dimensions, but decline seriously in ecological dimension due to enlarging resource consumption and environmental damages. On the contrary, developed countries tend to saturate in economic and social dimensions and have been improving fast in ecological dimension, gradually realizing the decoupling of industrial economic development and environmental damages. To further promote the global paper industry green development, developing countries should focus on promoting the coordinated development between economic growth and environment protection and developed countries should play a leading role in the global green transformation by promoting optimal allocation of resources and cross-regional communications of green technologies. • A paper industry green development indicator system is developed based on text mining. • A global paper industry green development model is built with market-extended LCA. • Complex interactions among the indicators are internalized in the evaluation. • A spatial-temporal analysis is performed on global paper industry green development level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise in carbon emissions linked to the tourism industry has challenged its long-standing reputation as an eco-friendly sector. In parallel, the digital economy's evolution has introduced a series of transformations within tourism. This necessitates a thorough examination of the intricate interplay between the digital economy and carbon emissions in the tourism sector. With the help of Chinese provincial panel data, this study uncovers a compelling relationship marked by an inverted "U" curve through two-way fixed model, moderated effects model and threshold regression analysis. Intriguingly, an increase in road density shifts the inflection point of this curve to the lower left. As road density reaches a critical threshold of 0.361, it not only amplifies the elasticity of the inverted "U" curve but also accelerates the timeline to reach peak tourism-related carbon emissions. This study underscores a significant practical implication: while digital technology exacerbates carbon emissions from tourism at this stage, the dampening effect of digital technology is to be expected as the development of industrial manufacturing brings better transportation. However, the timing of the tipping point may be earlier or later for different regions, depending on whether the local level of industry is sufficiently developed. • The inverted "U" curve relationship between digital economy growth and tourism carbon emissions at the provincial level in China is validated. • Transportation accessibility is a key mechanism by which the digital economy affects carbon emissions from tourism. • This paper predicts the conditions for an inflection point in tourism carbon emissions within digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars, policy-makers and industries increasingly express their interest in the development of industrial symbiosis (IS) as a way to transition to cleaner production. Yet, many proposed IS instances never get implemented. In this article, the authors argue that lack of clear understanding on how trust develops in the context of IS may prevent the implementation of new IS initiatives. Initiating new IS typically require upfront investments, such as pipelines and waste treatment equipment, and take place in a cross-industry setting. This upfront and cross-industry setting of new IS may restrict firms in their ability to develop trust prior to the IS investments. Management literature provides a large body of literature on trust. Based on a multidisciplinary conceptual study, the aim of this paper is to synthesize and combine empirical and theoretical research from the fields of IS and management, and theorize how trust applies to the field of IS, i.e. how firms can deploy certain strategies to develop trust prior to the IS investment in the context of upfront and cross-industry IS investments. As a result, this paper introduces a conceptual IS trust framework and proposes an agenda for future research. • Merging literature in the fields of industrial symbiosis (IS) and management to explore the role of trust in IS • A conceptual framework for developing trust in the context of ISStrategies for progressing from calculus-based trust (CBT) to knowledge-based trust (KBT) to identification-based trust (IBT). • A proposal for a future research agenda on developing trust in the context of IS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The governance of industrial energy use in recent times has been driven by the quest for greater energy security and sustainable industrial growth. Sustainable use of energy necessitates a rethink in the production, use and governance of energy resources that stimulates and supports transition to a more effective and efficient energy system. However, how do we ensure an effective transition in industrial energy use in the midst of gross energy poverty within a developing country context? This paper explores the motives and drivers of changes in energy use within the industrial sector. Statistical data from published reports, as well as informal interviews of stakeholders in Nigeria's industrial sector were used. Following analysis of data, four important salient phases (eras) of industrial energy transition in Nigeria's manufacturing sector was established. These distinct eras are: (1) Grid-dependent era; (2) Self-generation era; (3) Industrial energy outsourcing era; (4) Industrial energy conservation era. The study reveals that: outsourcing of industrial services; cost reduction; and business realignment motives are key drivers of transitions in Nigeria's industrial sector. This paper concludes by highlighting the implications of these changes for the future of energy and sustainable industrial growth in Nigeria. Highlights • Industrial energy transitions in Nigeria is happening but rather slow. • There is high dependence on biofuels and wastes for certain industrial processes. • Cost reduction and business realignment motives are key drivers of transitions. • Outsourcing industrial energy services is viewed as one way to drive transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract By applying an integrated framework, this paper examines the impacts of population decline, urban sprawl and industrial transformation on rural residential land use change at the peri-urban interface. The examination is conducted from the perspective of the spatial structure of rural residential land based on a comparative regional analysis. The results show that the pace and pattern of spatial structure change in three regional areas are quite different: the changing process in mountainous areas is much slower, together with low-density development; conversely, the spatial structure in plains and semi-mountainous areas experiences considerable change, and development is more diversified. This can be explained by the differential impacts of urbanization and industrialization: rural population decline, which often occurs in exurban areas with monotonous economic structures, easily causes land and environmental degradation, as evidenced by large quantities of abandoned land. Nevertheless, suburban areas present a compact and multifunctional land use pattern, which is attributed to benign industrial transformation and the external benefits of urban sprawl (e.g., industrial transfer, infrastructure expansion, and urban-rural migration). Based on these findings, this paper also offers a critical discussion of the limitations of rural residential land use and potential adaptive strategies, arguing that the multifunctionality of rural areas and local village characteristics should be taken into account by Chinese policy-makers to achieve man-environment systems compatible with development and rural sustainability. Highlights • Rural residential land use change is always embodied in its internal structure. • Regional differentiation of land use changing patterns existed clearly. • Rural population decline easily causes land and environmental degradation. • Multifunctional land use pattern is attributed to benign industrial transformation and benefits of urban sprawl. • Multifunctionality should be encouraged in rural environmental restructuring. [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]

Faced with risks aroused by the ever-increasing expansion of industrialization and urbanization, water security sustainability takes more and more effect on balancing regional sustainability and development, especially for industrial regions. Introducing sustainability into the indicator framework of water security is an indispensable issue should be addressed. The indicators of water security sustainability in practice are measured by observation data obtained from a monitoring period. These data are commonly expressed in various forms, such as ratio and qualitative linguistic, which makes them hard to be quantified and evaluated. As multiply influential criteria are involved the water security sustainability evaluation process, it can be treated as a multi-criteria decision making problem. An appropriate evaluation framework with scientific and strategic multi-criteria decision making techniques is supposed to be constructed. This paper incorporates the dimensions related to sustainability into the indicator framework of water security sustainability. Another contribution of this paper is that it establishes an observation data conversion standard and adopts linguistic distribution assessments as information representation. Linguistic distribution assessments can capture the natural characteristics of the observation data of water security sustainability indicators. More importantly, a multistage decision support framework integrated with multi-criteria decision making techniques, such as best-worst method (BWM), decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), is constructed for water security sustainability evaluation. Then, deep analyzes about the evaluation results and influential factors are provided, thereby certifying the reliability of evaluation results and facilitating the enhancement of water security sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diffusion effect makes air pollution become a regional problem. The purpose of this paper is to explore the spatial spillover effects of most pollutants emissions and identify industrialization and urbanization factors affecting emissions from spatial econometric perspective. In recent years, air pollution in China's Huang-Huai-Hai region is the most serious in the whole nation. Based on the geographical weight matrix introduced in this paper, the spatial Durbin model (SDM) is employed to explore the direct and spatial spillover effects of industrialization and urbanization factors on 7 pollutant emissions in 53 cities of China's Huang-Huai-Hai region over the period 2009–2014. The results show that CO is the main pollutant component, followed by SO 2 , and NO x in 53 cities. The spatial autocorrelation strengthen of each pollutant in all cities is as the order: BC > PM 2.5 >CO > PM 10 > NH 3 > SO 2 > NO x . There are significant spatial aggregation effects of emissions of pollutants except NO x . Furthermore, the direct effects of per capita GDP, non-agricultural industries and urban residents' per capita consumption on pollutants emissions are the biggest on the whole. The direct effect of per capita GDP on each pollutant emissions is entirely negative, while that of non-agricultural industries is positive on the whole. The spatial spillover effects of above three factors on pollutants emissions are the largest; the spatial spillover effect of non-agricultural industries is positive, while that of per capita GDP is negative. According to the results, some policy implications are provided to control regional air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the emerging landscape of Industry 5.0, the integration of innovative technologies such as Cognitive Digital Twins (CDTs) is pivotal for steering industrial processes towards sustainability and inclusivity, particularly in developing nations striving to align with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study explores the transformative capabilities of CDTs in Industry 5.0, concentrating on India's quest for inclusive and sustainable industrialization in alignment with SDGs. The inclusion of the TOE-HOT framework enriches the research's analytical foundation, providing a nuanced perspective to investigate the multifaceted dynamics of technology, organization, environment, and human aspects within the sphere of industrial evolution. By employing the Best-Worst Method (BWM), Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM), and MICMAC analysis, the study delves deep into the synergies between industrial strategies, technology, and sustainable development. The findings reveal the paramountcy of the Technological Dimension, emphasizing CDTs strategies like real-time optimization and data analytics, which are instrumental in dynamically adjusting manufacturing processes and fostering alignment with market demands. The research also stresses the roles of various CDTs strategies like strategic alignment, change management, job security, skill augmentation, and environmental compliance in industrial sustainability and inclusivity. The paper concludes with invaluable insights for policymakers, industry leaders, and researchers, emphasizing the necessity for a holistic, interconnected approach to fully harness the potential of CDTs in realizing the aspirations of Industry 5.0 and contributing to India's sustainable industrial advancement by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first estimates the energy-related carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions and carbon intensity of China's 30 provinces from 2000 to 2015. By constructing a 4-variable Panel Vector Auto-regression (PVAR) model, the paper quantitatively analyzes the dynamic relationship among urbanization, industrial structure, energy and carbon intensity in China during urbanization and industrialization stage. The results show that urbanization process and the advancement of industrial structure are consistent with the optimization goals of energy and carbon intensity. In the long term, energy and carbon intensity will decline with the development of urbanization and the advancement of industrial structure. But urbanization process has an inverted U-shaped effect on energy and carbon intensity, while the influence of industrial structure advancement on energy and carbon intensity increases over time. In contrast, the positive impact of energy intensity on carbon intensity is mainly reflected in the short term. This paper confirms the importance of urbanization and upgrading of industrial structure in the goal of energy saving and emissions reduction. Thus, this paper suggests that each province should adopt the upgrading of industrial structure as one of the policy goals, and constantly promote new urbanization process, following their own development characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a remanufacturing supply chain where a manufacturer adopts the dual collecting channels to recycle the used products. In order to analyze the optimal choice of collecting channel, the optimal pricing and collecting effort decisions, we establish two models by considering the collecting channels competition and obtain their corresponding analytical solutions. Through analysis and comparison of the results obtained in this paper and the existing references, some interesting and new insights are derived. For example, (1) the manufacturer's best action for collecting used products is to insure the retailer is engaged in collecting used products regardless of adopting single collecting channel or dual collecting channels; (2) the manufacturer's best choice, in order to improve environmental performance, increase used-product collection quantity, is to adopt dual collecting channels; (3) counter-intuitively, although the intensity of competition between the dual collecting channels affects the new product's optimal wholesale price and optimal retail price, it does not affect the order of the optimal collection effort of the whole supply chain in the models established in this paper and in Savaskan et al. (2004) and Huang et al. (2013). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the onset of industrialization over the past several decades, the rural areas are undergoing considerable changes in China. Optimal rural industrial land use distribution provides a spatial foundation for sustainable development in rural areas. Moreover, the importance of appropriate rural industrial land use adjustment is evident in rural spatial restructuring. This paper investigates rural industrial land use patterns and its impact on rural areas in Pinggu District of Beijing based on a combined method of “landscape indices” and the “geospatial analysis.” Subsequently, this paper proposes a rural industrial land use adjustment. The results show that according to the relevance of township and village enterprises (TVEs) to rural development, rural industrial land can be classified as rural industry land (RI-land) and non-rural industry land (NI-land). “Small scale, spontaneous dispersion” is the overall rural industrial land use pattern in China, and the spatial patterns between the two types of rural industrial land are quite different: the pattern “dispersion inside rural settlements” is usually observed in RI-land, while “agglomeration around regional central towns” and “linear sprawl” are common on NI-land. Considering the peculiarity of TVEs, the dispersion for RI-land is designed to absorb the surplus labor and raw materials nearby in the countryside to enhance their output-efficiency, whereas the agglomeration for NI-land is to pursue the efficiency of agglomeration economies. This paper also revealed that current disperse rural industrial land use pattern has generated polluting effects on the environment. Therefore, following the “classification principle,” rural industrial land use adjustment should not merely pursue economic efficiency and agglomeration efficiency but should also engage in labor absorptivity and environmental benefits. The formation and development of rural industrial land in China is quite different from traditional industrial land; these differences are largely attributed to their unique driving mechanisms and historical backgrounds. In particular, the traditional Theories of the Location of Industries directed by “agglomeration,” are unsuitable for rural industrial land in China. Therefore, the results in this paper can help form a basis for sustainable planning of rural industrial land and contribute to rural transformation development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household e-wastes have been increasingly generated, which has brought environmental burdens in most countries, especially in rapidly developing countries. With the unprecedented industrialization and urbanization, China has faced more serious problems concerning household e-wastes. Moreover, informal e-waste collecting has brought environmental burden due to improper treatment of invaluable parts of e-wastes. Thus, formal e-waste collecting enterprises have emerged with support from the government. But they are still difficult to survive. This paper contributes to systematically identify barriers for formal channels of household e-waste collection in China considering different stakeholders such as the government, households, collectors, and treatment plants. Using perspectives from experts in e-wastes formal collecting enterprises in Liaoning Province, this paper develops three steps based on the method of grey-based Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to reveal the most serious barriers in both the short and the long term by examining causal and effect relationships among these barriers. The results show that households’ habits of selling e-wastes to peddlers is one key barrier, which should be carefully considered in the short term. Support from the government such as providing subsidy and tax reduction for formal collecting enterprises is elemental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New energy vehicles (NEVs) have been recognized as a sustainable eco-innovation to address China's energy and environment problems. As a strategically emerging industry, China's NEV manufacturing industry has been prioritized by governments and manufacturers, significantly impacting its spatial distribution pattern and stimulating the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutralization. China, the largest NEV producer and consumer and with distinctive regional diversity, has experienced a new round of capacity expansion. Therefore, the literature on the spatial distribution patterns and influencing factors of NEV industry in provincial level is vital for the transformation of manufacturing industry and transportation sector, while to date, the related studies is few. In this paper, considering the number and location of key enterprises/production bases, the spatial distribution and influencing factors of China's NEV industry were discussed by an empirical study. The results are gained from a spatial perspective. Firstly, in general, China's NEV industry presents a "T" spatial distribution pattern. Secondly, a point-axle spatial exploration pattern is proposed, which includes "four points and one axle" namely Bohai rim, Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Pearl River Delta (PRD), Hubei-Chongqing clusters and Eastern Coastal NEV industrial belt. Thirdly, different types of NEV enterprises show various location preferences and spatial distribution characteristics. Fourthly, the influencing factors on China's NEV spatial distribution are concluded from five aspects of supporting policy, infrastructure condition, economic drivers, technical capacity, and industrial foundation, and the degree of factors is different considering varying enterprise classification and industrial development stage. The findings of this paper provide a reference for rational layout in China's NEV industry, and are expected to stimulate the sustainable development of NEVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New energy vehicles (NEVs) have been recognized as a sustainable eco-innovation to address China's energy and environment problems. As a strategically emerging industry, China's NEV manufacturing industry has been prioritized by governments and manufacturers, significantly impacting its spatial distribution pattern and stimulating the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutralization. China, the largest NEV producer and consumer and with distinctive regional diversity, has experienced a new round of capacity expansion. Therefore, the literature on the spatial distribution patterns and influencing factors of NEV industry in provincial level is vital for the transformation of manufacturing industry and transportation sector, while to date, the related studies is few. In this paper, considering the number and location of key enterprises/production bases, the spatial distribution and influencing factors of China's NEV industry were discussed by an empirical study. The results are gained from a spatial perspective. Firstly, in general, China's NEV industry presents a "T" spatial distribution pattern. Secondly, a point-axle spatial exploration pattern is proposed, which includes "four points and one axle" namely Bohai rim, Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Pearl River Delta (PRD), Hubei-Chongqing clusters and Eastern Coastal NEV industrial belt. Thirdly, different types of NEV enterprises show various location preferences and spatial distribution characteristics. Fourthly, the influencing factors on China's NEV spatial distribution are concluded from five aspects of supporting policy, infrastructure condition, economic drivers, technical capacity, and industrial foundation, and the degree of factors is different considering varying enterprise classification and industrial development stage. The findings of this paper provide a reference for rational layout in China's NEV industry, and are expected to stimulate the sustainable development of NEVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is actively advancing the integration of digital and real industrial economies, fostering a mutually beneficial cycle that could potentially drive new momentum for eco-friendly industrial development. The empowering effect of digital-real integration on industrial green transformation (IGT) requires urgent exploration. Based on China's industrial sector panel data from 2010 to 2020, this paper empirically investigates the relationship between digital-real integration and IGT and delves into its internal mechanism to verify the above hypothesis. Meanwhile, it analyzes the heterogeneous effects of digital-real integration on IGT, considering variations in industrial technology levels and the sources of such integration. The results demonstrate a positive impact of digital-real integration on IGT in China. The green technology and scale effects play pivotal roles in unleashing the green benefits of digital-real integration in the industrial sector. Notably, the contribution of digital-real integration to IGT varies across industrial subsectors with distinct technology levels. There is heterogeneity in the enabling effect of digital-real integration from different sources on IGT, and the integration of digital services and the real industrial economy has yet to achieve the expected green benefits. Our findings provide new scientific evidence for managers and policymakers in developing countries like China to promote industrial digitization and sustainable growth. This work informs the future discussion on digital-real integration topics from a global context. [Display omitted] • The degree of digital-real integration in China's industrial sector is estimated. • Digital-real integration significantly promotes industrial green transformation. • Digital-real integration acts as a driver through green technology and scale effects. • Digital-real integration from different sources varies in green empowerment effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's development model of relying on heavy industry has brought huge environmental costs. Serious haze pollution has posed a threat to high-quality economic development and people's healthy life. Exploring the relationship between air pollution and industrial development and promoting the coordinated governance of economy and environment has become an important task in China's new era. Based on the satellite inversion PM2.5 concentrate data and micro industrial enterprise data in China's county-level areas, this paper uses the instrumental variable and two-stage least square (2SLS) method to test the impact of regional air pollution (RAP) on the regional industrial structure upgrading (RISU), and further reveals its impact mechanism. The results show that: (1) RAP has a negative impact on the RISU, and the introduction of instrumental variable and 2SLS method can overcome the endogenous problem of regression. (2) on average, for every 1% increase in PM2.5 concentration, the regional industrial structure height will decrease by 2%. (3) RAP hinders the RISU by affecting enterprises' fixed assets investment and innovation activities. And the sensitivity of innovation activities of state-owned enterprises to RAP is lower than that of other ownership enterprises. According to the research of this paper, some pertinent policies and suggestions are proposed to provide new decision-making basis for national policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Emission levels associated with the Best Available Techniques, abbreviated BAT-AELs, is an important concept in the European Industrial Emissions Directive. To date, methodologies for determining BAT-AELs have not been described in literature. BAT-AELs are determined in most of the European BAT reference documents, but their determination relies to a large extent on expert judgement and even on negotiation processes between authorities and industry within the dedicated Technical Working Groups of the BREFs. The BAT-AELs determined in the BREFs give guidance for setting ELVs for a limited number of parameters, but not for all relevant parameters. This is especially the case for industrial waste water, which can contain numerous different pollutants. To support the permitting authorities in the Flemish region of Belgium in setting ELVs for all relevant parameters, we have developed a practicable, objective and transparent methodology for determining BAT-AELs for industrial waste water. The proposed methodology is based on a detailed analysis of emission data for the industrial sector under consideration. This analysis consists of five steps: 1) Selection and grouping of industrial installations, 2) Collection of emission data, 3) Selection of parameters (pollutants), 4) Analysis of available emission data in relation to BAT and 5) Determination of (differentiated) BAT-AELs. Prerequisites for applying the methodology are that the BAT for the sector have been selected and that emission data and background information are available. The methodology is presented in this paper and is illustrated by means of a few examples from Flemish BAT documents. The results and recommendations in this paper can be considered as a starting point for the development of a methodology for determining BAT-AELs for industrial waste water in the context of the BREF process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As the basic sector providing basic service and promoting economy development, the increment demand of transport sector has brought much more pressure on the environment. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is the representative region of the advanced region of China and it is significant to analyze how to achieve the low-carbon transport development in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, meanwhile provide reference of green development for other regions. Using the panel data from 1995 to 2016, the paper analyses the driving factor of carbon dioxide emissions from transport sector with two different analytical methods. The results of LMDI show that transportation energy intensity and economic effect is the main factor increasing the carbon dioxide emissions and the contributing factors to the carbon dioxide emissions reduction in the transport sector are the energy structure effect, the freight turnover of unit industrial output effect and the industrialization effect. In different subclasses divided by different threshold variables, industrialization has the positive impact while the coefficients vary, which indicates that appropriate development policies should be formulated in light of the development characteristics of different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract As a significant basic industry for the national economic development, coal chemical industry is one of the main contributors to energy consumption and CO 2 emission. In this paper, the CO 2 emission in the time series of 2020 and 2030 was calculated and the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method was employed to explore the driving forces of CO 2 emission change. According to the industry development, the CO 2 emission in 2020 and 2030 was tentatively predicted. The results show that China's coal chemical industry has experienced a significant increase in CO 2 emission, from 177.87 million ton CO 2 (MtCO 2) to 427.19 MtCO 2 in 2005–2015, with an average annual growth rate of 9.16%. Currently, the coal-to-ammonia industry is the largest contributor. According to the decomposition analysis, the economic growth and energy intensity are the two positive factors and the industry structure is a negative factor to carbon emission change. In 2020, the CO 2 emission will be 617.34 MtCO 2 under slow development scenario and 759.69 MtCO 2 under rapid development scenario. In 2030, the CO 2 emission will reach 1041.90 MtCO 2 and 1440.13 MtCO 2 under slow and fast development scenarios, respectively. The coal-to-olefins industry will take the place of coal-to-ammonia and turn to be the largest one in 2020 and 2030 if no CO 2 capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies are adopted. It is probable that the contribution from coal-to-methanol will also play important role for CO 2 emission due to its rapid development. In addition, by 2030, if coal-to-natural gas industry develops as planned, its CO 2 emission will significantly increase, which has the potential to be equivalent to that of olefins industry. Highlights • The CO 2 emission evolution trend in China's coal chemical industry is analyzed. • The major driving factors of CO 2 emission change are identified and the effect sizes of various factors are evaluated. • The CO 2 emission in 2020 and 2030 is forecasted. • Policy implications to policymakers are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Construction methods in developing countries such as China are gradually industrializing due to rising labor costs, new techniques, tools, procedures and management methods. This makes it essential to develop new risk evaluation and control methods. Previous research seems to ignore the risk management of the application of new construction technologies and procedures. The identification of risk mechanisms is unclear, leading to a lack of clear guidance for risk avoidance and control. This paper describes a network model based on meta-network analysis of project objectives, risk events, risk factors and stakeholders in the construction process of building industrialization. According to ISO 31000, the main processes of risk management in the model has three parts: risk identification, risk analysis and evaluation, and risk treatment and control. Risk factors are identified from previous literature and site investigation, and the indirect impact on project objectives is analyzed and calculated with the networks in the meta-network. The order of importance is evaluated and used as the foundation of risk treatment and control. The analysis of the crucial risk factors makes it possible to identify the stakeholders who influence them, leading to suggestions for relevant control strategies. A residential building construction project in South China that uses the building industrialization construction system serves as a case study to verify the feasibility and applicability of the risk management system. Results show that critical risk factors are construction-related factors and design-related factors. The water and electricity engineers, the project manager, the project secretary, the field engineer, the project supervisor and the main contractor engineer have a significant influence on the risk factors. A stakeholder supervision system with targeted risk control strategies is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The contradiction between economic growth and carbon emissions in China and India is the most prominent in the world. Both countries have faced tremendous pressures to curb carbon emissions, because they are major source of new added emission sources. Meanwhile, both countries have faced greater pressures to achieve industrialization and urbanization in order to eradicate poverty. Better understanding the decoupling status and its drivers can serve to develop effective policy to achieve economic growth without an increase in emission. This paper comparatively analyses the decoupling effect of the economic growth from the carbon emissions as well as its drivers during the period 1980–2014 in China and India. The Tapio decoupling model was used to analyze the decoupling status, and the co-integration theory and the impulse response functions were applied to investigate the effects of urbanization, industrialization, per capita GDP and carbon emission intensity to decoupling. The results show that China mainly performed a weak decoupling of economic growth from carbon emissions in 1980–2014, while the decoupling status of India was no regular. In China, carbon emission intensity is the biggest contributor of decoupling, followed by urbanization, per capita GDP, and industrialization. In India, the biggest driver of decoupling is also the carbon emission intensity, followed by urbanization, industrialization, and per capita GDP. Therefore, improving energy efficiency is the best policy to toward economic growth without emission growth in China and India. Highlights • Towards to economic growth without an increase in emission in China and India. • The Tapio model, the Johansen cointegration theory and the Granger causality test are adopted. • Investigating decoupling status between economic growth and carbon emission in China and India. • The biggest driver of China' and India's decoupling is carbon emission intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Industrial symbiosis (IS) emerged as a collective, multi-industrial approach to improve economic and environmental performance through the use of wastes/by-products as substitutes for raw materials. The development of IS initiatives depends on the context in which they occur, characterised in terms of social, economic, political, spatial and temporal embeddedness. As a consequence, the context can be influenced to become more supportive of IS through a continuous, interactive process, combining top-down governmental directives and bottom-up spontaneous business initiatives. A strategy to develop and enhance this process is explored in this paper and described by the authors as a middle-out approach. Policies and policy instruments introduced by governmental agencies provide objectives and incentives to businesses. The middle-out approach induces the development of a strategy to create positive feedback loops among agents (e.g. government, industries) that may guide their actions into setting the conditions to support IS emergence. This paper provides a case study that discusses a regional development of IS in Portugal that highlights critical factors for success in implementing IS, and shows that the middle-out approach can also be understood as an extension and combination of previous research on context factors and planned/spontaneous approaches to IS development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Industrial symbiosis (IS) emerged as a self-organizing business strategy among firms that are willing to cooperate to improve their economic and environmental performance. The adoption of such cooperative strategies relates to increasing costs of waste management, most of which are driven by policy and legislative requirements. Development of IS depends on an enabling context of social, informational, technological, economical and political factors. The power to influence this context varies among the agents involved such as the government, businesses or coordinating entities. Governmental intervention, as manifested through policies, could influence a wider range of factors; and we believe this is an area which is under-researched. This paper aims to critically appraise the waste policy interventions from supra-national to sub-national levels of government. A case study methodology has been applied to four European countries i.e. Denmark, the UK, Portugal and Switzerland, in which IS emerged or is being fostered. The findings suggest that there are commonalities in policy instruments that may have led to an IS enabling context. The paper concludes with lessons learnt and recommendations on shaping the policy context for IS development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In China many investments especially from foreign companies are located in industry parks. However, the general situation and management perspectives of developing Chinese industrial parks are not very clear to the westerners. With the rapid development, industrial parks will play a key role in China''s economy, therefore, those issues relating with China''s industrial parks need to be further discussed. This paper is one of such efforts. It will review the development of China''s industrial parks, including characterizing industry parks in China and discussing the main site selection criteria and important aspects for foreign investors. The main focus of this paper is to discuss the current environmental management practices of industrial parks because such parks have been main sources of pollution. New development strategy for industrial parks, such as eco-industrial development, should be considered and implemented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Non-functional requirements (NFRs) are essential in the development of industrial energy management systems (IEMS). This paper presents a comprehensive ontology model for NFRs in IEMS, derived from an extensive survey of NFRs in both the software industry and the energy domain. The proposed ontology encompasses four critical factors influencing the quality attributes of IEMS: technologies, stakeholders, markets, and regulations. Implemented using the OWL 2 DL standard, the ontology model aims to provide a clear and consistent understanding of NFRs and their relationship to the energy domain, as well as identify which factors have a significant impact on the environmental performance of IEMS. The ontology is evaluated through various methods, such as technical validation, user evaluations, its applications in RDF data management, and application-based evaluation, including software architecture, knowledge base data model design, and regulatory framework design. By understanding the link between software quality requirements and the characterizing factors of the energy domain, as provided by our ontology model, this information can be used to inform life cycle assessments and quantify potential reductions in energy consumption, emissions, waste generation, and other environmental impacts associated with implementing cleaner and more sustainable solutions. The results demonstrate that the proposed ontology effectively supports IEMS development and serves as a foundation for developing reusable and adaptable software systems across different industrial domains. • Proposed ontology model for energy management software development. • Non-functional requirements survey identifies factors that impact software quality requirements. • Proposed ontology supports real-world Industrial Energy Management System (IEMS) development. • Comprehensive evaluation demonstrates the ontology' s effectiveness in supporting IEMS development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper quantifies urban land use eco-efficiency (ULUEE) and explores its improvement in the context of western China. We propose a hybrid model that includes the Super-slack-based measure model (Super-SBM) and a varying co-efficient panel model using data from 11 provincial cities in the western regions of China from 2000 to 2018. The results show that overall ULUEE, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency were ecologically inefficient. Meanwhile, ULUEE differences between cities mainly reflect different levels of pure technical efficiency. Further, the linkage between urban population density and ULUEE can be expressed in inverted-U and U-shape curves, and most cities' industrial development positively affects ULUEE, while most cities' fixed asset investments negatively affect ULUEE. Moreover, land management institutions (LMIs) play a moderator role, shaping the main impacts of industrial development on ULUEE. Therefore, the findings suggest that improving ULUEE in the western region of China should focus on attracting inflows of highly skilled people, optimizing resource allocation, and guiding/regulating local government actions. [Display omitted] • Overall urban land use eco-efficiency (ULUEE), scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency of ULUEE are estimated and found to be eco-inefficient in the studied areas. • Slowing ULUEE improvement during the studied period results from slowing improvement of scale efficiency. • ULUEE differences between cities were mainly caused by pure technical efficiency. • LMI plays a moderator role in reducing the main impacts of industrial development on ULUEE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China gradually completes the process of industrialization, its industrial energy consumption growth is now slowing and even decreasing. Meanwhile, household energy consumption in the residential sector has seen steady growth. This paper aims to explore the mechanisms of factors affecting urban household energy-saving behavior including the habitual energy-saving behaviors and purchasing energy-saving behaviors. A structural equation model is built to analyze the influencing routes and effects of individual objective and subjective characteristic factors, external influencing factors, and energy-saving intentions on shaping energy-saving behaviors. The empirical results drawing on the survey data collected in Shandong province show that external influencing factors that have two kinds of mediating effects through energy-saving intentions and individual subjective characteristic factors are the most crucial factors to energy-saving behaviors. Values included in individual subjective factors and quality of energy-saving products included in external influencing factors have greatest effects on energy-saving behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial park recycling transformation (IPRT) was one of the major circular economy construction demonstration programs in the 12th Five-Year Plan issued by the China State Council in 2012. It comprised of 7 major tasks to transform traditionally high resource and energy intensive production into high efficiency and low pollutant production. By 2017, 129 industrial parks had been approved for IPRT by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). This paper presents a thorough review on IPRT content, policies, and practices, with some lessons and suggestions for further development. Six types of projects were supported by national funds, which included industrial chain extension and complementary projects; water conversion and recycling projects; energy saving projects; pollution prevention projects; platform construction projects; and infrastructure construction sharing projects. Case studies show success for each case. However, deficiencies in industrial development, management, policy-making, and information sharing also emerged. Two suggestions were put forward. First, investment should be diverted from traditional industries to new industries. Past cases have shown that traditional industries have a greater risk of obsolescence. Failure in one park has already created a cascading effect on other enterprises in the park. Secondly, the government-led model should be transformed into a government and market co-led model. The government could establish more effective incentive and restraint mechanisms to attract participation from enterprises and/or social capital. Information sharing platforms, for example, benefit enterprises by increasing awareness for circular economy projects to both private and public actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As socio-economic development progresses (division of labor in society, industrialization and urbanization), changes on the spatial structure and function take place in the rural settlements. The regional distribution and formation mechanisms of multifunction of rural settlements are the scientific basis for effectively implementing rural land consolidation. This paper characterized the structure and spatial differentiation of multifunction of rural settlements quantitatively by using spatial autocorrelation and spatial econometric model based on practical survey data of spatial location and property of 804 typical villages, and the formation mechanism of multifunction of rural settlements was revealed as well. Results showed that the coefficient of variation of function was between 11.01% and 23.05%, and the grade structure of multifunction was mainly in the medium and relative-low grade, characterized by the four spatial distribution patterns: “gradient”, “spot-region”, “strip” and “ring”. Under the integrated influence of the external and internal factors of the rural settlements system, the multifunction spatial differentiation of rural residential areas was significant, i.e., the distribution of the transition trend and the spatial distribution of rural settlements in Qingdao and Yantai were the two hotspots; general counties of Jiaodong peninsula and the Jinan City were sub-hotspots, and the southwest, central, and north of Shandong Province were cold spots. This study recommends that rural settlement restructuring should pay special attention to the multifunctional development and its formation mechanism, which can house larger populations and better accommodate industry in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contains an analysis of Industrial symbiosis policies to explore how development Industrial symbiosis systems is influenced by policies and to examine how future policy frameworks can designed to best support the development of Industrial symbiosis systems. Industrial symbiosis is in the paper defined as the connection of traditionally separate industries in a collective effort to simultaneously increase competitive advantage and reduce environmental impacts by means of byproduct exchange and shared infrastructure. The paper is based on three components: First, the paper reviews, journal articles to provide a policy landscape overview of how such Industrial symbiosis systems are supported by policies and in which areas new policy needs can be identified. Secondly, the paper reviews and discusses policies and framework conditions, provided by the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) designed to support the development of Industrial symbiosis systems The analysis distinguishes between direct and indirect policies in order to emphasize that the development of Industrial symbiosis systems is influenced not only by policies directly targeting industrial symbiosis but also by general framework conditions that may not have been designed with Industrials symbiosis in mind. To improve the understanding of such in direct policies the paper thirdly includes a case study from Denmark, Maabjerg Energy Center (MEC). This case provides new insights into the application of Industrial symbiosis concepts, especially with regards to how framework conditions and indirect policies can influence and shape the development of industrial symbiosis systems. Based on these three components, this paper analyses obstacles and drivers for a further dissemination of Industrial symbiosis within the EU, and suggest key points for further assessment and development on a potential way forward. From the literature review and framework conditions assessed, general recommendations are provided whereof many relate to the potential benefits of focusing more on development and re-development of indirect incentive schemes fostering symbiotic behavior in industries as opposed to focusing only on designing policies exclusively based on direct top-down regulations. From the case analysis, several examples of more context-specific drivers and obstacles were highlighted as valuable in the given situation including the potential benefit of more flexible funding schemes, the importance of positive value-based communication to gain political support on the local, regional and national environment, feed-in tariffs and tax reliefs and the relevance of having centralized legal organs with specialized competencies on regional or national level to support development and implementation efforts. • Policies supporting deployment of Industrial symbiosis must be enhanced in the future. • Danish MEC case study revile possibilities and obstacles for deploying Industrial symbiosis. • A literature review and the case study point to the need for both direct and indirect policy support. • We find that indirect policies, not addressing Industrial symbiosis, are the most important drivers. • Biogas feed-in tariff and a flexible funding scheme has thus been pivotal for the Danish MEC case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To comply with recent sustainable development trends and initiatives for effectively controlling air pollution problems, this paper applies spatial econometrics and extended STIRPAT model to explore the impact of the industrial agglomeration (IA) on haze pollution (HP) using panel data from critical cities of Bohai Sea economic region (BSER) in China between 2006 and 2018. Influence path characteristics, regional heterogeneity effects and development trends of three major IA on the HP are systematically investigated. The results show that: (1) IA significantly correlated to HP in the BSER. The Siphon Effect in Beijing-Tianjin-Shijiazhuang region plays an important role in the HP and IA, and it weakened with the upgrading of industrial structure and industrial transfer. (2) Both IA and HP have significant spatial autocorrelation properties, the agglomeration and diffusion properties of IA and HP in specific regions are consistent along the time series. (3) However, systematic analysis of various industries indicated that the IA of the primary industry and the secondary industry has a significant positive impact on HP. Interestingly, IA of the third industry has a significant nonlinear effect on HP. Based on the results of the empirical analysis, this study provides insights on the spatial relationship between regional HP and industrial development. This paper gives an effective reference on promoting the distribution of resources and diversified green economic development paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explored the extent to which the climate change could affect economic performance for large enterprises in the world through the process of knowledge diffusion in the energy sector. There is a theoretical dichotomy between studies to understand if and how economies react to climate change both at macro and micro level. The economic analysis of climate change effects is important to demonstrate that production is associated to world climate and to implement an opportune framework for modelling the economic damages. In this way, new sustainable strategies for increasing efficiency in the use of energy can be suggested by policy makers. Because of environmental externalities produced by the economic activities of companies, the analysis of technological diffusion processes play a crucial role in analysing the economic impact of the climate change. In this perspective, this paper intends to fill two gaps in the literature: firstly, it sheds more light on the sensitivity of the economic performance of companies to climate change; secondly, it analyses the role of knowledge spillovers in a relevant field of cleaner production, which is that of energy. Indeed, the empirical evidence concerning the climate change effects in energy technology through knowledge spillovers is yet poor. The econometric analysis considered a sector-based panel dataset for the USA, Japan and the following European countries: France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Finland and Denmark, over the time span 2002–2014. The results showed a significant impact of climate change on firms' productivity and the spillovers play an important role in this process. The findings should have relevant policy implications for each country government in case of development of industrial strategy instruments in cleaner production technology. • The effect of climate change on firms' productivity was investigated. • Technological proximity matrix was developed taking into account the energy patents. • Results are important in terms of policy implications for cleaner production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is facing the dilemma of how to coordinate economic development and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions reduction. This paper investigates the decoupling effect of economic growth from CO 2 emissions in China during the period 1992–2012. Using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method, we decompose the driving forces of the decoupling of economic growth from CO 2 emissions in China's five major economic sectors into several factors, and measure the contribution of each factor to the decoupling of China's overall economy from CO 2 emissions. The results show that China performed the weak decoupling of economic growth from CO 2 emissions during 1992–2012, and so did all its five major sectors. Such a state did not occur smoothly and presented five different stages. Energy intensity and economic activity level were the most important factors affecting the decoupling in China. Energy intensity decreased in all sectors, indicating a large acceleration for the sectoral decoupling states. This finding is applicable to process carbon intensity in industrial sector and energy emission factor in agricultural, industrial, construction, and service sectors. In terms of sectoral effects on the decoupling in China, industrial sector played a dominant role, while construction sector had the most marginal influence. The economic activity level and economic share of industrial sector exerted the most negative effects on the decoupling. The energy intensity of industrial sector played a key role in promoting the national decoupling state, while the energy emission factor of agricultural sector contributed the least. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concrete is heavily used as a construction material in modern society. With the growth in urbanization and industrialization, the demand for concrete is increasing day by-days. Therefore, raw materials and natural resources are required in large quantities for concrete production worldwide. At the same time, a considerable quantity of industrial waste, agricultural waste and other types of solid material disposal are posing serious environmental issues. To minimize and reduce the negative impact of the concrete industry through the explosive usage of raw materials, the use of artificial wastes as supplementary cementitious materials, the source of which are both reliable and suitable for alternative preventive solutions promotes the environmental sustainability of the industry. This paper reviews the possible use of industrial and agricultural wastes as a supplementary cementitious material in the production of concrete. It aims to exhibit the idea of utilizing these wastes by elaborating upon their engineering, physical and chemical properties. This provides a summary of the existing knowledge about the successful use of artificial wastes such as fly ash, slag, silica fume, rice husk ash, palm oil fuel ash, sugar cane bagasse ash, wood waste ash, bamboo leaf ash, and corn cob ash in the concrete industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is hindered by low demand for environmentally-benign industrial development strategies, and a limited supply of professionals to enact such strategies. The “Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas” project was a multinational effort aimed at facilitating the transition to sustainability in the region by addressing both of these concerns. The project incorporated multidisciplinary education in business, engineering, and the environment that enhanced sustainability awareness, technical competence and innovative skills of industry professionals, while exposing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to cleaner production (CP) opportunities. In an alliance of nine universities in eight countries, project partners trained 648 university students to assess CP opportunities, while directly benefiting 136 MSMEs. The project developed a unique industry-academic partnership model for experiential learning. Faculty members collaborated with CP industry experts in their respective countries to prepare their students to conduct energy, process and material audits, and develop recommendations for improving financial and environmental performance. The project's CP experts supervised student interns and provided follow-up assistance to the MSMEs to implement the prioritized recommendations. The universities also hosted workshops for industry participants to learn best practices developed through the project and strategies to implement those in their enterprises. In this paper, we share the most valuable lessons from this model, which can be more widely adopted to facilitate industry-academic engagement in the transition to sustainability in LAC and other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable urban development is a fundamental discourse for cities in industrialising nations. This is particularly so for new industrial cities in rapid developing countries where local residents and ecological systems have been significantly impacted by economic growth. In this paper, we draw upon the case of Jinchang City (north-western China) to demonstrate how the transition toward urban sustainability can be understood and facilitated. By using an urban metabolism model combined with qualitative social research and policy analysis to understand the urban systems, this research verifies that urban sustainability requires good governance, policy and planning, as well as the participation of local enterprises and residents. This can be built on the notion of urban metabolism that identifies changes and suggests adaptive responses, which when combined with informed public understanding can create adaptive changes in the physical, economic and social dimensions of the city. In particular, such change is predicated upon the rapid development of appropriate human capital that can be employed to monitor and evaluate the functioning of the urban systems, facilitate innovation and build a diversified economy. The rapidly growing cities in north-western China provide a model of how new industrial cities have the potential to be significant actors in the transition toward global sustainability. Specifically this research suggests how necessary environmental improvements for north-western China can be achieved and a model for the developing world can be created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 2018, the European Union (EU) launched an updated bioeconomy strategy with the aim of encouraging the substitution of fossil carbon with biomass feedstock in the industry and in energy production while preserving ecosystem services. The objective of the paper is to analyse the links between the EU bioeconomy strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to assess what could be the main points of synergies and tensions between bioeconomy-related SDG targets. By semantically mapping the action plan of the 2018 EU bioeconomy strategy with the SDG targets, the paper finds that the bioeconomy strategy is aligned with 53 targets distributed in 12 of the 17 SDGs. Ex-post correlation analysis on bioeconomy-related SDGs indicators for 28 EU Member States (1990–2018) shows a predominance of synergies over trade-offs. More intense synergetic past developments (positive correlations) are found among clean energies (SDG 7), recycling (SDG 11), ecosystem preservation (SDG 15) and most of all other bioeconomy-related SDGs. Negative correlations are observed between agro-biodiversity (SDG 2), domestic material consumption of biomass (SDG 8 and 12), agriculture and industrial developments (SDG 2 and SDG 9) and a wide array of bioeconomy-related SDG indicators. The hotspots of strong correlations identified might be useful in further enrichment of ex-ante simulation models. From a policy coherence perspective, a wide range of policy instruments are already in place in the EU to foster synergies and may bring co-benefits. Policies oriented at preventing trade-offs are already in place but they have not overcome the antagonisms observed in this study yet. Change in practices, technical and technological innovations and the application of circular and 'cascading principles' are the most common fields of action. • The European bioeconomy strategy is aligned with 12 Sustainable Development Goals. • Synergies predominate over trade-offs in bioeconomy domains (period 1990–2018). • Main synergies are found with goals 7 (energy), 11 (recycling) and 15 (land). • Many co-benefits are thus expected from policy measures in these areas. • Trade-offs with Sustainable Development Goals 2, 8, 12 and 9 require policy attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental problems are among the world's major challenges. To alleviate the environmental pressure caused by rapid economic growth, many governments have implemented a series of environmental regulation policies to reduce energy consumption and pollutant emissions. While existing studies have shown that environmental regulations can affect industrial development, the impact of environmental regulations on industrial structure upgrading in regional development remains unclear. This paper studies such an impact by quantitatively analyzing the environmental policies of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in China and provides insightful recommendations for regional integration governance. By analyzing the policy texts from 2003 to 2014, this paper defines a series of indices to quantify the policy objective of industrial structure upgrading and six types of policy measures. Based on these quantitative indices, this paper builds econometric models to study the spatial effect and time-lag effect of environmental regulations on industrial structures. The main findings include: (1) the environmental regulations in these three regions have no influence on each other, yet the upgrading of industrial structures shows significant negative spatial dependence; (2) environmental regulations have direct and indirect spatial effects on industrial structures across regions; and (3) environmental regulations have a long-term promotion effect on industrial structure upgrading, and economic measures tend to be more effective than noneconomic measures. This paper provides insights into the importance of the integrated development across regions of environmental regulations and industrial development. This paper also shows the significant effectiveness of economic measures of environmental regulations for industrial structure upgrading. • Environmental regulations can help to upgrade local industrial structure. • Without coordination, regulations in one region can harm its neighboring regions. • Effects of environmental regulations on industrial structure tend to be long-term. • Economic measures in environmental regulations tend to be more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasingly serious problems of environmental impact and excessive consumption of production resources brought about by industrial development, enterprises pay more and more attention to the green manufacturing of industry. In the existing green manufacturing standard system, it clearly covers all elements, layers, activities and functions of green manufacturing. However, it does not refine the specific contents of green manufacturing model and framework in different industrial areas. The research in this paper can fill this gap. This paper aims to provide a general model and overall framework of green manufacturing for industrial enterprises. In this way, according to the needs and conditions, enterprises can construct and formulate a clear plan for the implementation of green manufacturing that conforms to their actual situation of enterprises. By these, it can ultimately enhance the improvement ratio of comprehensive green rate for enterprises. In this paper, a general reference model for green manufacturing based on IIPG (Industrial Implementation for Product life cycle based on Green index system) modular is proposed. Then, in the form of a case, three enterprises in three key industrial fields are selected to customize and validate the model. Integrating with intelligence technologies, such as artificial intelligence and industrial cloud, this model can be improved by the higher data processing efficiency and computing speed in green index systems, which is the follow-up work. • A system model of green manufacturing is proposed. • A general reference model for green manufacturing based on IIPG modular is proposed. • The detailed calculation method and case of green index system are given. • Detailed overall frameworks for green manufacturing are proposed. • Three enterprises in typical industrial fields are taken as an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy and environmental concerns have attracted more and more worldwide attention. As industrialization leads to serious environmental effects on sustainable development, China urgently needs to improve its energy-pollution performance without harming industrial growth. This paper proposes two indexes, the energy-pollution efficiency index and the energy-pollution productivity change index, in a unified framework that not only enables a more comprehensive analysis by simultaneously allowing for both static and dynamic performance evaluations, but also sets a sounder best target environmental effect by jointly considering energy conservation and pollution reduction. This research evaluates the industrial energy-pollution performance of regions in China during the period 1995–2014. Findings reveal that its energy-pollution efficiency was unbalanced and hovered at a low level, showing an urgent need for improvement; however, energy-pollution productivity did gradual increase and technology progress was its main contributor. Energy efficiency was higher than pollution efficiency, and their gap increased instead of narrowing. The east area's energy-pollution efficiency ranked first, while its regional discrepancy presented an increasing trend. Energy-pollution productivity improvement was mainly driven by technology progress, while efficiency change exhibited a negative effect. Finally, energy utilization contributed less to energy-pollution productivity improvement than pollution emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid industrialization and urbanization, air pollution and corresponding visibility problems in Nanjing were increasingly severe during the last few years. To better understand the potential causes of impaired visibility, particulate matter (PM) mass and chemical composition were measured from May 2013 to May 2014 in Nanjing. During the period, major water soluble ions and organic carbon exhibited obvious seasonal variations with the highest level in winter. On average, the water-soluble ions ranked in the order of SO 4 2 − > NO 3 − > NH 4 + > Cl − > Na + > Ca 2+ > K + > F − > Mg 2+ . The NO 3 − / SO 4 2 − average ratios were over 1.0 in the fall and winter due to the low temperature favored a shift from the gas phase as nitric acid to the particle phase as ammonium nitrate. The averaged mass concentrations of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) were 18.96 and 2.60 μg m −3 respectively. The daily average visibility in Nanjing over study period ranged from 1.2 km to 18.4 km. High aerosol concentration and relative humidity were two important factors that cause low visibility events in Nanjing. The correlation between PM 2.5 concentration and visibility under different relative humidity values showed that visibility was exponentially decreased with the increased PM 2.5 concentrations when relative humidity less than 80%. However, the relationship was no longer to follow the exponentially decreasing trend when relative humidity >80%, and the visibility maintained in very low values, even with low PM 2.5 concentrations. This indicated the hygroscopic growth of particles played more important roles for reduction of visibility. The annual average chemical extinction coefficient based on the revised IMPROVE (Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments) equation was 267.69 ± 139.24 Mm −1 in Nanjing. On average, organic matter was found to be the largest contributor accounting for 35.69% of chemical extinction coefficient. The contributions of ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate were also important with the annual average of 28.80% and 24.08%, respectively. For visibility >10 km, organic matter was the largest contributor to extinction coefficient, while organic matter and ammonium sulfate were the main contributors for visibility <5 km. The results showed that the most influential factors affecting visibility in Nanjing were organic matter and sulfate. The reduction of carbonaceous species and sulfate could effectively improve the visibility of Nanjing. The paper aims to help environmental scientists and policy makers understand air pollution in Nanjing and air pollution control strategies taken by government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial park development has become a critical strategy to promote economic development in many countries since 1980s. Particularly, China is one key country to adopt such a method on enhancing its industrialization. However, rapid industrial park development has resulted in many issues, including resource depletion, environmental emissions and pressure on responding climate change. Industrial symbiosis has been proved that it has positive impacts on promoting resource utilization efficiency. Therefore, effective performance evaluation can help recognize the key barriers on industrial symbiosis of industrial parks so that more appropriate policies can be raised by considering the local realities. Emergy synthesis is one feasible method on addressing the contribution of local ecosystem to industrial park development due to its innovative perspectives and mature methodology, while impact, population, affluence, technology (IPAT) formula and index decomposition analysis (IDA) are suitable for identifying and quantitatively calculating the key impacts of various factors. This paper integrated emergy synthesis, IPAT formula and IDA methods together to investigate the impact factors of industrial symbiosis in an industrial park. A case study approach at Dalian Economic Development Area (DEDA) was carried out so that such an effort can be tested. The results show that waste reutilization by industrial symbiosis in DEDA increased by 3.0E+20 seJ from 2006 to 2010. Technological pressure for waste utilization by industrial symbiosis and energy structure of an industrial park had made negative effects on the waste reutilization from 2006 to 2010 in DEDA, while the efficiency of non-renewable energy consumption and emergy scale of an industrial park played positive effects on the waste reutilization. Among the four impact factors, technological pressure for waste utilization and the efficiency of non-renewable energy consumption took more significant impacts on the industrial symbiosis of DEDA than the other two factors, which contributed −1.92E+21 seJ and 2.18E+21 seJ for the waste reutilization by industrial symbiosis respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid industrial development consumes a large amount of water and energy, which causes both urban water shortages and massive carbon emissions. Therefore, optimization of the urban industrial structure is urgently required to pursue the low-carbon goal under the constraints of water supply. In this paper, we chose Dalian city in China as a case study and divided its industrial sectors into three types according to their output value. Meanwhile, we used the LMDI (Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index) method to decompose the factors that impact industrial carbon emissions from energy consumption. Based on the ratio of the carbon emission effects, five scenarios were set respectively, and accounted for the carbon emissions and water consumption under different scenarios of industrial structure. The results indicated that the economic growth effect was the most significant factor that contributed to industrial carbon emissions, while industrial structure effect was the largest negative factor for increasing industrial carbon emissions. The results also indicated that the total carbon emissions under the HOV (high output-value)-preferred and water-conserved scenario will be lower by 8.5% in 2020 than the baseline scenario, while both its energy intensity and water intensity will meet the requirements of the constraints of the urban development planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial parks have been adopted as one way to promote industrial development in China since the early 1980s. However, most of current performance evaluation indicators highlight the maximization of industrial yield, leading to both ecological degradation and environmental pollution due to intensive industrial activities. Therefore, it is critical to develop appropriate evaluation indicators so that industrial parks can move toward sustainable development. This paper aims to fill such a research gap by developing innovative emergy indicators. Kaya formula and index decomposition analysis (IDA) were integrated together in order to quantify the key factors influencing the sustainability of an industrial park. Tianjin Economic Development area (TEDA), the largest industrial park in terms of its economic scale in China, was chosen as one case study area for testing the related methods. The results show that during the period of 2006–2010 the sustainability of TEDA experienced a declining trend. From the Kaya formula and IDA analysis, indicators on economic efficiency of process, economic return on investment, renewable empower density and nonrenewable empower density were calculated. Such research findings provide valuable policy insights to the industrial park managers so that they can prepare appropriate development strategies for achieving sustainable development of their industrial parks by considering the local realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the old industrial areas are experiencing declining due to their backward equipment, technologies and management, leading to entreprise's bankrupcy, job losses and ecosystem degradation. In order to respond such a challenge, the local governments have made various efforts, such as polluting enterprises' relocation and brownfield redevelopment. It is critical to conduct a scientific assessment for such efforts so that appropriate solutions can be found by considering the local realities. Many evaluation methods, such as emergy analysis, material flow accounting and ecological footprint analysis, have been widely applied. Among them, emergy analysis is a useful policy and planning tool due to its unique nature of linking ecosystem service with different types of input–output flows interacting within a study area. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the overall performance of such a brownfield redevelopment site by observing its evolutional changes. Tiexi old industrial area in Shenyang city of northeast China was selected as the case study area. Years of 2000, 2005 and 2010 were chosen since each year represents a unique feature of its evolution, namely, before and after its redevelopment, as well as its ongoing process. The results show that almost all of the emergy flows were imported from the outside, leading to a lower sustainable development level. Before the relocation and redevelopment program, Tiexi was in the decline stage of economy, the inflow was much lower than those of 2005 and 2010. After the implementation of the relocation and redevelopment program, the flourishing of construction businesses and the drastic changes of urban functions induced higher emergy flows during 2000–2005 and then less emerg flows during 2005–2010 due to the phase-out of relocation. Finally, several policy recommendations were proposed, including preventative and regenerative eco-industrial development, industrial structure change, energy saving and energy structure optimization, and the application of economic instruments, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with China's modern industrialization, challenges on smog crisis are raising dramatically in the past decade. The sources of municipal smog are multiple and complex, one of which is construction dust emission due to the rapid urbanization. In literature, there are studies focusing on the end-pipe treatment of construction dust; however, very little research has been conducted from the perspective of dust mitigation in developing countries. To fill in this research gap, this paper investigates the current situation of construction dust prevention and control in China, with the aim of providing insights for mitigating dust pollution caused by the construction industry. Through a combination of the content analysis, on-site observation, questionnaire survey and interviews with experienced professionals, a total of 11 related regulations are thoroughly reviewed, and the main sources of construction dust production are identified. A case study is further presented to demonstrate the prevailing dust control measures on site. Recommendations are proposed in order to increase the awareness of related stakeholders, including formulation of targeted regulations, establishment of an appropriate charging scheme, development of a feasible monitoring system, and enhancement of training and dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is currently experiencing rapid economic growth as a result of industrialization and urbanization. In the next 20 years, China's energy demand will increase substantially, and energy conservation will become imperative for the country's low carbon economic transformation. Since 1998, China's chemical fiber production has ranked first in the world. In 2011, China's chemical fiber production accounted for about 70% of the world's total output. Therefore, energy saving is important for China's chemical fiber industry, and can provide immense benefits, and hence the need for thorough and intense research. In this paper, the co-integration method is used to test the relationship between energy consumption and its influencing factors such as GDP, energy prices, population and R&D expenditures. The results show that there is a long-term relationship between the variables. Based on this, we estimate energy demand and predict the energy-saving potential for the industry under different scenarios. We apply the Monte Carlo simulation method to verify the reliability of the prediction. Scenario analysis is adopted to predict energy demand and energy saving in the industry under different scenarios. Finally, we propose some policy suggestions on energy saving based on the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed energy systems are key in building a sustainable energy economy. Biofuels are an example of an industry that needs to be based on a system of rather small-scale local production units due to the limited transportation radius of biomass. Moreover, the benefits of biofuels are greater if their production is based on the integration of local production activities and consumption among traditionally separate industries, as implied by the notion of industrial symbiosis. Such an arrangement, however, requires the establishment of industrial ecosystems that are customised to local conditions, which increases costs and uncertainty for the involved stakeholders and the integrating company. In this paper, we discuss replication strategy as a means of transferring not only technical knowledge, but also the business format to new locations, thereby achieving ‘economies of repetition’. The case of a biogas-for traffic solution serves as an illustrative example. We analyse the establishment of a ‘vanguard’ ecosystem and assess the potential of replicating the solution in six other locations. Based on this, we propose a replication framework that builds on functional modularisation, collaboration mechanisms required for cooperating with the relevant stakeholders, and organisational learning. The replication approach is expected to be useful for the companies attempting to build sustainable distributed energy systems based on industrial symbiosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]