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Green building studies generally focus on singular performance aspects (e.g., energy, waste, water, indoor environment) with few tackling the relationships between each other, particularly the relationship between indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and building energy consumption. This study aims to explore the relationship between IEQ performance and energy consumption in National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) certified buildings. A verified climate normalization factor was localized to standardize energy use intensity in buildings from different climate zones of Australia. The normalized energy use intensity (NEUI) was calculated for all office buildings and correlated with their NABERS Energy and IE rating scores. Multivariate linear regression results reveal that one unit increase in NABERS Energy rating score and IE score can reduce NEUI by 21.98 kWh/m2 and 9.88 kWh/m2 per annum, respectively. Also, this study develops an Energy and Indoor Environment Index to benchmark the energy and IEQ performance of Australian office building. Buildings with excellent NABERS Energy and IE ratings (scores equal to/higher than 5) have been classified as high-performance NABERS buildings (HNBs) and the rest as low-performance NABERS buildings (LNBs). A comparison between 49 HNBs and 48 LNBs demonstrates that, on average, HNBs can deliver 12.6% better indoor environment quality with 35.9% less energy consumption than LNBs. In contrast, many LNBs either use excessive energy to provide a sufficient IEQ, or sacrifice IEQ to reduce energy costs and/or achieve a high NABERS Energy rating.

This study seeks to investigate the effects of supply chain characteristics on e-procurement institutionalization in construction companies. Data was collected through the in-depth structured interviews with 47 managers from a sample of 31 construction firms in Vietnam. The technique of cluster analysis with the Ward algorithm, the silhouette coefficient, and the t-test were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that the supply chain characteristics in terms of the size, ownership type, and operating market of strategic partners were significantly associated with the level of e-procurement institutionalization in construction companies. Along with the findings, this study's results will be helpful to policy-makers in formulating supportive policies and actions to effectively improve the low status of e-procurement adoption as well as accelerate the diffusion of the technology in the industry.

The effectiveness of deployment policies to promote the uptake of residential rooftop solar photovoltaic systems ultimately hinges on the behaviour of households who decide to accept or reject the technology. Over the past years, research has strived to understand, designate significant predictors, model the behaviour of heterogeneous households, and predict the diffusion rate by putting a wide range of approaches in place. Inspired by compiling a comprehensive database of home solar adoption studies, the present study systematically reviews the adopted theories, methods and approaches used within 199 original quantitative, qualitative, statistical, and non-statistical articles covering households’ attitudes, awareness, tendencies, knowledge, motives, willingness, intentions, and adoption decisions. The study provides a critical analysis of investigations on the adoption of solar photovoltaics, solar home systems, and solar photovoltaics coupled with battery energy storage systems. The outcome of the review revealed 108 future and 91 retroactive studies that exploit 10 key dependent variables by means of 52% primary (empirical data), 34% secondary (available sources), and 13% covering both modes of data collection. The sensitivity of these dependent variables was tested by 36 intervention variables that seek to capacitate effective managerial policies. The complexity of the individual decision was comprehended by 13 forms of behavioural theories, with the top-ranked two being the diffusion of innovation and the theory of planned behaviour. The literature showcased a total of 170 quantitative, 20 qualitative, and nine mixed-method studies, with statistical and non-statistical techniques being applied 139 and 86 times, respectively. Regression analysis was the most commonly used statistical analysis method, followed by spatial analysis for non-statistical models. At the heart of the predictive methods for analysing the diffusion rate of these solar technologies, nuances of 25 agent-based models and their social networks were examined in depth. The review further revealed 14 spectra of household categories as well as 12 typologies of household comparisons.

Business cases often strain to identify enough benefits to cover costs of digital water metering (DWM), consisting of advanced metering infrastructure and data analytics. An Australian study in 2020 identified 77 benefits of DWM, potentially generating cost savings and customer satisfaction improvements. Modeling software makes projections of monetary savings over the DWM project life cycle and considers customer satisfaction improvements linked to DWM deployment. Leasing meters may provide lower entry costs, shifting risks to the supplier and avoiding lock-in of today's technology for long periods to achieve acceptable returns on investment.

Increasing demand for metals used in clean energy technologies, including electric vehicles, has led to an increased demand in certain metals such as Ni, Co, and Mn. This demand has in turn led to an expanding interest in deep-seabed mining (DSM) of polymetallic nodule deposits that contain these exact metals. The main concerns about DSM relate to the incomplete information available about the environmental risks associated with seabed mineral extraction. Key uncertainties need to be systematically addressed to refine environmental impact predictions and establish effective mitigation measures. Adaptive management is an iterative process for reducing the uncertainty that can be applied by both mining companies and regulatory bodies. This Special Series paper reviews the key opportunities and challenges to operationalizing adaptive management in DSM projects and highlights the need for a framework to move from theory to practice. The discussion proposes a systems approach to adaptive management, which could help to guide the environmental management of deep-sea mineral extraction. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;00:1-8. © 2021 SETAC.

The unprecedented consumption of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is occurring to meet the needs of modern transportation electrification. Recycling-friendly designs intrinsically facilitate the long-term sustainable utilization of natural resources, reducing the detrimental impacts of spent LIBs on the environment, and improving the economic viability of recycling. For this, we propose the incorporation of an intelligence-assisted predesign strategy into the battery-management system and battery chemistry, including ameliorating the traceability of battery structure and operation status, promoting cost-effective material sorting and separation, and adopting sustainable battery materials. The purposeful predesign of intelligent “Reuse–Refurbish–Recover” (3R) LIBs could be realized in an economically and environmentally sustainable (EES) manner. The intelligence-assisted predesign strategy will promote multi-disciplinary cooperation in a systematic and synergetic way; in addition, it will empower governments to establish and implement a series of regulations and standards for addressing the environmental pollution issues from spent batteries, thus avoiding the ever-increasing consumption of natural resources.

A three-dimensional (3D) numerical model was developed to investigate the thermodynamic and sediment processes in a subtropical drinking water reservoir. Data-driven models were also established to generate the inflow conditions. The modelling outputs revealed that climatic forces such as storms and winds significantly impact lake stratification and mixing processes. The sediment transport is driven by storm events, during which sediment delivery to the reservoir is dominated by allochthonous flux. The sediments are transported from riverine zones to transition zones and finally to lacustrine zones. It is estimated that sediment accumulation could have reached 100,000 kg during the largest storm event in February 2015. The winds can lead to a strong vertical water cycle, especially at the centre of the reservoir, and strong winds result in bed erosion in shallow regions. The outcomes of this paper benefit future research by providing a modelling approach for understanding the hydrodynamics of lakes and reservoirs under a variable climate, and also the local water utility by providing insights for an improved management of the reservoir of this study.

This paper examined the innovation process in the Australian Public Service (APS) using a Bayesian network (BN) founded on an empirically derived structural equation model. The focus of the BN was ...

Storage technology is recognized as a critical enabler of a reliable future renewable energy network. There is growing acknowledgement of the potential viability of pumped hydro energy storage solutions, despite multiple barriers for large-scale installations. A plethora of articles have been published covering the drivers for and barriers to the widespread diffusion of pumped hydro energy storage, but the literature has yet to coherently categorise and rate the various reported drivers and barriers. Therefore, a systematic literature review of studies published between 2000 and 2020 was conducted using meta-analysis guidelines to analyse, synthesize and consolidate findings covering both the techno-environmental and socio-economic drivers for, and barriers to, the development of pumped hydro energy storage. The study ranked the significance of reported drivers and barriers as well as the lessons learned for both developed and developing countries. The top-ranked techno-environmental driving factor was grid resilience (i.e., grid balancing, energy time-shifting, etc.) and the top-ranked socio-economic driver was revenue generation and rural development (i.e., job and businesses opportunities, infrastructural development, etc.). In terms of barriers, the top ranked techno-environmental barrier was as the lack of good infrastructure (i.e., roads, transmission lines, etc.) near potential sites, and top ranked socio-economic barrier was securing the initial and ongoing capital requirements for a less understand investment category. Overall, this study synthesises and categorises the drivers and barriers to the development of pumped hydro energy storage. Study findings will be useful to both researchers and practitioners seeking to better direct resources and efforts to foster the development of pumped hydro energy in the future.

A complex systems model is necessary to holistically address the end-of-life (EoL) solar panel waste problem. However, there is a significant challenge in communicating such a model to stakeholders. Serious games can overcome this challenge by simplifying a complex model via a user-friendly interface. It enables stakeholders to experiment with different decisions and understand their long-term impacts in a safe environment. In this paper, a serious game called R3SOLVE was designed from a previously developed system dynamics (SD) model. The goal of the game is to achieve certain collection and recovery outcomes through a mix of decisions ranging from product stewardship strategies, landfill regulation, technological investment, promotional effort, reuse strategy, and infrastructure improvement. The game has a single player mode, where a player can access all decisions, and a multiplayer (turn-based) mode, where two players with different roles work collaboratively to achieve the desired outcome. Rewards and penalties also exist in the game to promote players’ extrinsic motivation to use critical thinking. Both game modes have been tested in separate workshops to identify bugs and issues regarding goal clarity and in-game information. Future directions to conduct stakeholder workshops and the evaluation approach are also suggested at the end of this paper.