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There is a long standing debate regarding the link between environmental and financial performance. To date, this debate results controversial findings, triggering for further research in different industries and countries. The specific study examines the relationship between environmental and financial performance in Greek manufacturing. Environmental performance is measured according to accounting data following the Eco Management and Auditing Scheme guidelines and ISO certification. Return on assets and return on sales ratios are used as indicators of financial performance. Empirical findings suggest that there seems to be a link between these dimensions irrespectively of the particular sector of activity. Contrary to similar studies a “virtuous circle” does not exist, as the avoidance of environmental improving investments is related to a better financial performance. On the other hand, firms with superior financial performance seem to achieve a better environmental performance. At the same time, firm specific and market characteristics significantly affect this relationship. These findings provide evidence that governmental and corporate actions are necessary in order to lead to a more sustainable corporate performance in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To specify the maximum allowable pesticide concentration in soil, pesticide residential soil regulatory guidance values (RGVs) have been promulgated by U.S. state regulatory jurisdictions to protect human health. A total of 12,451 RGVs for 456 identified pesticides adopted by 46 states were analyzed to evaluate whether there is the agreement among pesticide standard values regulated by the U.S.-related jurisdictions. Among them 62 pesticides with at least 50 RGVs were defined as the commonly regulated pesticides, and seven pesticides with at least 100 RGVs were defined as the most commonly regulated pesticides. A total of 12 states have provided over 500 pesticide soil RGVs and Texas alone has provided at least 1140 RGVs. Results indicate that these pesticide soil RGVs promulgated by the U.S. state jurisdictions for an individual pesticide could vary in a wide range of over six (DDT), seven (alpha-HCH), or even nine (Dieldrin) orders of magnitude. On the other hand, all of the seven most commonly regulated pesticides have a large RGV data cluster in which the state jurisdiction RGVs shared the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) standards. To examine whether those pesticide soil RGVs could protect human health, cancer and non-cancer risk uncertainty bounds were calculated for the seven most commonly regulated pesticides. Results show that for the most commonly regulated pesticides, a total of 265 (41.8% of the total) soil RGVs exceeded the cancer risk uncertainty upper bounds and 30 (4.5% of the total) soil RGVs are above the non-cancer risk uncertainty bounds, which indicates that those RGVs cannot protect human health when exposing to the pesticides from soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit has the capacity to impact heavily on the agricultural sector across the United Kingdom in that it is a sector which has been both in receipt of substantial expenditure under the Common Agricultural Policy and subject to a pattern of close regulation at European Union level. This article will explore the legal implications for post-Brexit agricultural support, proceeding in three stages. First, there will be an outline of the current structure of the industry, with particular reference to its diversity in terms of physical landscape, operational scale and legal foundations. Secondly, there will be discussion of emerging policy within both central UK government and the devolved administrations. In this context, specific attention will be directed to the likely extent of funding and the proposed drive towards higher standards in environmental protection and animal welfare. And, in each case, account will also be taken of specific implications which flow from overarching World Trade Organization rules. Thirdly, there will be consideration of the potentially difficult issues which arise as a result of agriculture being a devolved matter, different policy imperatives already becoming evident across the constituent parts of the UK. For the present, the prospect is that a bespoke support regime will survive Brexit and, in this sense, agricultural ‘exceptionalism’ will continue. However, the more precise form of such a regime remains as yet work-in-progress and its realisation will present considerable challenges not only in political terms, but also by reason of the complex legal geometry in which World Trade Organization rules and the constitutional rights of the devolved administrations are weighty factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standards linked with the environmental protection and vehicles are increasingly restrictive. EURO VI standard and regulations define the acceptable limits for exhaust emissions of new vehicles sold. Because of that, Selective Catalyst Reduction systems are used in a new vehicles with the heavy-duty type engines. This paper presents a study of the SCR system in public transport vehicles of the Municipal Transport Company (MPK) in Lublin, Poland. The tests were performed to study the power consumption of the SCR (the urea applicator into the catalyst) and calculate the results per unit of fuel. The amount of fuel for the Solaris Trollino 12 trolleybus was estimated and the energy demand found was of the order of 343 kWh/year. This gives low diesel fuel consumption, i.e. only 34.3 litres per year. The study also shows a graph of the daily demand of energy by the SCR system in public transport vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents analysis on the evolution of environmental law in the European Union (EU) and the Dominican Republic. topics discussed include development of environmental law in the Dominican Republic and the EU; examining Environmental Law 64-00 of Dominican Republic and environmental law in the EU following the Treaty of Lisbon; and access to environmental standard in the Dominican Republic and the European Union related to environment protection.

The article explores how the potential effect of the negotiations to reach a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the U.S. on EU food standards attracted a lot of attention in 2016. The assertion that the TTIP rules would be the gold standard for environmental, safety and health protection for trade for the world as a whole implied that negotiators of TTIP would set harmonised rules.

The effect of pH, temperature, particulate matter, organic matter, and NH3on phage MS2 inactivation using chlorine in pure water, synthetic water and filtered water samples was studied. And four possible models, including the Chick, Chick–Watson, Hom, and delayed Chick–Watson models were attempted to fit the experimental data. The virus inactivation achieved 4 logs at a CT value of 2.8 mg min/L, which met the United States Environmental Protection Agency standards. However, over 2 mg/L chlorine was needed to achieve the same goal in filtered water originated from two local water treatment plants. Furthermore, organic matter, pH, and temperature as well as the presence of NH3and particulate matter strongly affected the chlorine inactivation of MS2. Among four possible models, delayed Chick–Watson model was found to provide the most suitable description of MS2 inactivation by chlorine. Furthermore, the equation of the inactivation rate was obtained. And the MS2 inactivation rate predicted by this equation well correlated with the measured results in both simulated and filtered water samples. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, the author discusses the efforts of Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) is encouraging companies from across the chemical process industry supply chain to join an annual trade mission to India. Topics discussed include trade associations such as Indian Chemical Council (ICC) encouraging trade missions for chemical process industry, advances in chemical manufacturing in India with stringent environmental protection standard and due diligence on companies.

The paper describes a mechanism-based design approach for assessing spudcan penetration in soft nonuniform clay with an interbedded stiff layer. The proposed approach is developed on the basis of the results from a parametric study through large deformation finite-element analyses and validated against centrifuge test data. This can be taken as a 'top-down' approach. Design formulas are proposed for assessing the limiting cavity depth and soil plug height. A direct comparison between the predicted profiles using the proposed design approach and the 'bottom-up' approach recommended in an ISO standard confirms the benefit of using the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]