Sisters in sustainability: municipal partnerships for social,environmental, and economic growth

While debates about sustainable development tend to focus on national- and international-scale problems, sustainability programs and research generally focus on the regional, county, municipal, or even household level. Less research has focused on evaluating the benefits of pairing two cities (i.e., sister city partnerships) with different needs and capabilities to jointly enhance the potential for sustainable practices between the cities. Given shrinking state and federal budgets and the nascent national climate policy, how might US cities use existing resources to achieve greater levels of sustainability? This paper presents a new data-driven mathematical tool—the partnership assessment for intra-regional sustainability—that city planners can use to explore the prospects for improving sustainability practices by leveraging existing resources and establishing synergistic partnerships with neighboring cities. The efficacy of the tool is assessed through the presentation of a Southern California case study and the results of a psychological survey of Southern California residents. Results indicate that cities of different size and scale would benefit from synergistic sustainability programs that pool the resources and needs of both cities. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential societal implications, methodological issues, and barriers to implementation.     

Development of composite sustainable supply chain performance index for the automobile industry

The automobile companies are becoming increasingly aware about the importance of sustainability and its challenges. In order to compete in the global market, the industry has responded to these challenges by identifying the sustainability indicators. It is quite difficult to evaluate the performance of the company on the basis of large number of sustainability indicators. Integration of key sustainability indicators is quite essential for effective decision-making. This article presents an integrated method by accommodating both qualitative and quantitative approaches for the development of composite sustainable supply chain (SC) performance index. We applied an integration of fuzzy analytical hierarchy process, Liberatore score and signal-to-noise ratio approaches to compute the index. The proposed methodology demonstrates how quantitative statistical inputs can be combined with expert opinion to construct an overall index of sustainability. The index can be extensively used by SC managers to measure their organization's contribution towards SC sustainability. An application of an integrated methodology is demonstrated for an automobile SC.     

Strengths and weaknesses of common sustainability indices for multidimensional systems

Sustainability is rapidly moving from an abstract concept to a measurable state of dynamic human-ecological systems. The large number of economic, social, and environmental indicators currently available provides an unwieldy view of system sustainability. To aid policy decisions, these indicators are therefore either presented in the context of a conceptual framework, or quantitatively aggregated into indices. Due to the quantitative nature of sustainability indices, their results may be given more weight by scientists and policy-makers. However, policy decisions can be ineffective or even counterproductive if they do not consider factors which influence index behavior: the scale of the available data and choice of system boundaries; the inclusion, transformation, and weighting of indicator data; and the aggregation method used. As previous reviews have demonstrated, sustainability indices do not rank countries consistently, even when using some of the same indicator data. Several improvements would increase the utility of sustainability indices for policy decisions, particularly the identification of biases introduced by the index methodology and data inclusion. The discrepancy of current sustainability indices due to theoretical or methodological differences supports the use of several complementary indices.     

Environmental sustainability practices in South Asian university campuses: an exploratory study on Bangladeshi universities

Environmental sustainability practices in universities can play an important role in helping society form a sustainable future. In this study, the roles that Bangladeshi universities play in terms of sustainability practices on their campuses are scrutinized, as well as the challenges these universities face. The existing research on campus sustainability practices in Asia is reviewed, and a new exploratory study is put forth on environmental sustainability practices in the higher education institutions of a developing country—Bangladesh. The Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework used in Canadian universities was taken as basis for determining potential environmental management indicators. Results show that environmental management practices (i.e., environmental education, research, governance and operations) are present only to a very limited extent in higher education institutions in Bangladesh.     

Crossing technology and sustainability in cities’ development

This paper deals with sustainability in cities and the role technology plays in furthering sustainable results. Recently, many interventions have been implemented in cities to propose paths and models promoting the sustainability of cities from an overall perspective. Technologies are favouring the achievement of aims recalling the three spheres of sustainability as proposed by Arcadis (2017), namely “planet”, “profit”, and “people”. The ties between technology and the three spheres are investigated through a content analysis of reports issued by the 10 cities with the most significant advances in terms of becoming sustainable cities, as indicated in the Arcadis Report 2016. The results highlight technology as an element crossing sustainability, as processes and models in cities management and service provisions to citizens are significantly changing. New tools are innovating the processes addressing environmental issues, thus leading to cost efficiency and better economic conditions. Parallel to this, new models for city management and the provision of public services are addressing the need for a better quality of life for citizens and cities’ other stakeholders. Technology itself is thought of as sustainable because it should lead to efficiency and being efficient itself. A qualitative cluster analysis and a focus on excerpts from reports are proposed to highlight the ties between technologies and the elements representing key issues in managing and leading a city towards more sustainable conditions.     

基于演化树模型的长江三角洲城市紧凑度综合评价

紧凑城市是一种高效的城市空间组织模式，对实现城市可持续发展战略具有重要意义。通过密度、规模、结构和强度维度建立紧凑城市四维理论模型，并以此为基础构建由4个二级指标和12个三级指标组成的城市紧凑度综合评价演化树模型。通过对长江三角洲16个核心城市实证分析，评价结果显示：整体城市紧凑度下降，且影响紧凑度因素存在区际差异；在空间上，紧凑城市大致呈现沪杭甬沿线高于南北两翼的空间格局；从演化过程上分析，城市紧凑度与城市发展阶段发展水平具有一定的关联性，城市化率和产业结构与城市紧凑度呈现显著正相关。近年来开发区分散建设、城市建设用地面积扩张等因素是造成长三角城市紧凑度下降的重要原因，交通、医疗等公共服务设施投入不足、分布不均及政府有限的约束力也在一定程度上制约城市的紧凑发展模式。因此，需要在未来加强协调市场和政府两种力量以推动城市发展的高效高质     

Relative Assessment of Indicators in Sustainability Enhancement (RAISE): a first approach in the manufacturing stage of products

The estimation of the sustainability performance of products requires tools to provide systematic approaches to the definition of impacts, indicators and comparative scenarios from early design stages. This paper illustrates the Relative Assessment of Indicators in Sustainability Enhancement (RAISE) methodology that is based on the measure of negative impacts generated during any product life cycle stage. This approach includes a systematic process for the definition and evaluation of indicators to compare the sustainability performance of products considering each indicator individually and using a holistic index of sustainability to entail an overall comparison between products from manufacturing scenarios. The RAISE method is developed with the aim of assessing sustainability performance of product life cycle stages and incorporating this assessment into the decision-making process when comparing different manufacturing scenarios. A guitar capo manufactured in polymeric material is used as case study to demonstrate the use of the method. In this paper, only the manufacturing stage is considered; however, the method can also be employed in other stages of the life cycle.     

国内外可持续发展评价方法对比分析

国际、国内很多组织都对可持续性评价方法进行过研究分析,但大多是特定的案例研究.目前国内外对可持续发展评价方法没有一个全面系统的分析比较,使得不同地区比较起来很困难.本文对各种评价方法如环境可持续性指数法、生态足迹法、能值分析法和指标综合评价法的来源、理论和应用作了介绍.得出各方法适用范围:可持续性指数法适合于国家间的综合评价;生态足迹和能值分析法适合于各种范围,包括国家、区域、地区和小系统;指标体系综合评价法对于小范围更合适.同时对各种方法的优势和缺陷进行了分析讨论,得出:可持续性指数法信息量大,但是计算复杂;生态足迹法计算过程简单,但是缺失一些可持续性信息;能值分析法考虑问题全面,但是其原理涉及热力学知识,很难被一些学者认同;指标体系评价法变通性较大,可随着评价系统的变化而进行调整,但是主观性较强.通过分析指出不同方法适用范围并指出每种分析方法的优势和不足,为以后选择合适的分析方法评价对象的可持续性提供依据.     

A review of vulnerability indicators for deltaic social–ecological systems

The sustainability of deltas worldwide is under threat due to the consequences of global environmental change (including climate change) and human interventions in deltaic landscapes. Understanding these systems is becoming increasingly important to assess threats to and opportunities for long-term sustainable development. Here, we propose a simplified, yet inclusive social–ecological system (SES)-centered risk and vulnerability framework and a list of indicators proven to be useful in past delta assessments. In total, 236 indicators were identified through a structured review of peer-reviewed literature performed for three globally relevant deltas—the Mekong, the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna and the Amazon. These are meant to serve as a preliminary “library” of potential indicators to be used for future vulnerability assessments. Based on the reviewed studies, we identified disparities in the availability of indicators to populate some of the vulnerability domains of the proposed framework, as comprehensive social–ecological assessments were seldom implemented in the past. Even in assessments explicitly aiming to capture both the social and the ecological system, there were many more indicators for social susceptibility and coping/adaptive capacities as compared to those relevant for characterizing ecosystem susceptibility or robustness. Moreover, there is a lack of multi-hazard approaches accounting for the specific vulnerability profile of sub-delta areas. We advocate for more comprehensive, truly social–ecological assessments which respond to multi-hazard settings and recognize within-delta differences in vulnerability and risk. Such assessments could make use of the proposed framework and list of indicators as a starting point and amend it with new indicators that would allow capturing the complexity as well as the multi-hazard exposure in a typical delta SES.     

A proposed framework to assess upstream supply chain sustainability

There are few methods that are suitable for assessing the sustainability of companies and supply chains in an integrated way, taking into consideration the economic, social and environmental dimensions. This paper proposes a framework for assessing the sustainability of individual companies and their corresponding upstream supply chain. The framework consists of a set of steps to evaluate the sustainability of both the individual company and their upstream supply chain. The linear aggregation technique is suggested to combine the set of indicators from the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability into a unique value, giving rise to a composite index for the company and corresponding supply chain. The proposed framework represents a contribution in the area of index construction and could be used as a valuable component of sustainability reporting and sustainability management practices. It also represents an important benchmarking tool, offering managers the possibility of identifying the supply chain partners that are best and worst performers in terms of sustainability while at the same time making it possible to improve company performance. Managers can adjust their company’s behaviour according to their sustainability index score and improve economic, social and environmental performance.     

北京环境库兹涅茨曲线假设的验证

城市在我国国民经济和社会发展中的地位举足轻重,其高速的经济增长带来了巨大的资源消耗与环境压力。2005年北京人均GDP突破5000美元,处于工业化中期和重化工阶段。在这一特定发展阶段和北京举办奥运会的背景下,如何通过综合决策。推动北京的资源消耗和污染排放同经济增长尽快达到解耦具有重要的现实意义。针对上述问题,本文利用环境库兹涅茨曲线（Envirommental Kunznets Curve。EKC）假设,以北京为例验证EKC假设及其条件。本文采用北京市1990—2004年闾的序列数据建立计量模型。解析十类环境指标的EKC演变轨迹和阶段特征。验证表明：除工业废气排放量和工业固体废弃物产生量呈N形外。其它环境指标虽下降或倒U形。即已跨越了EKC顶点正逐步实现解耦。本文引入了“强度EKC曲线簇”,通过确定不同城市在该坐标系中的相对位置来比较城市间的耦合状态。在此基础上,本文利用PSR（Press-State-Response）政策分析框架。从环境政策、产业结构和技术进步探讨了北京EKC演变的驱动因子。     

Identifying and rating cultural sustainability indicators: a case study of wood-based bioenergy systems in eastern Finland

Cultural sustainability has become a much discussed topic in the forestry and bioenergy sectors. However, there are not many indicators available for measuring cultural sustainability. In order to identify indicators for the assessment of the cultural sustainability impacts of wood-based bioenergy in eastern Finland, two-phased expert interviews were conducted. The process was supported by a hybrid approach: A qualitative mapping technique was applied when the indicators were identified, and weights for the indicators were set using a quantitative rating technique. The experts identified 49 indicators of cultural sustainability. Most of the generated indicators were relevant for local uses and highlighted the perceptions of the general public. Furthermore, most of the indicators were relevant from the perspective of raw material acquisition. Applying methods of differing backgrounds enabled advanced problem structuring, which allowed the identification of indicators suitable for assessing cultural sustainability of wood-based bioenergy in Eastern Finland. The quantitative rating technique enabled the determination of the importance of the indicators generated. Nevertheless, it seems that the hybrid approaches have many challenges related to the quantitative measuring of the participants’ perceptions. Cultural sustainability indicators should be identified within a case study, since it seems that most of the cultural sustainability indicators are case specific. The process introduced here offers steps for identifying case-specific cultural sustainability indicators; however, the concept of cultural sustainability cannot be strictly defined.     

Marginal land use and value characterizations in Lagos: untangling the drivers and implications for sustainability

Lagos, the leading African megacity, is a coastal city located in creeks and riparian environment. In all parts of the city, transactions in marginal lands—riparian or water-logged areas—are increasingly becoming more noticeable. However, while previous studies have focused upon normal land transactions, the dynamics of land uses in marginal regions remain largely unexplained. Information on the dynamics of informal land transactions in the marginal regions of Lagos city is important for urban sustainability. This study therefore interrogates the attributes, uses, values and drivers of marginal land in Lagos using generalized linear model (GLM). Findings show that the predominant land use in marginal areas of Lagos is residential, majority of the lands are less than full plot size, close to river channels and less accessible, and the mean price ranges from NGN 3,156,908 to NGN 4,052,158. The GLM estimations show that distance to river channels/lagoon and buyer’s status have more significant influence on marginal land uses and values in Lagos. These findings have significant policy and practical implications for the city’s land use and sustainability. For urban and environmental sustainability, there is need to stem transactions in coastal marginal environments of Lagos for their obvious implications for climate change, flooding, erosion, sea incursion, building collapse, natural parks and public spaces, river channels and urban greening.     

Sustainability analysis of SEEA indicators for non-renewable resources

Despite the fact that the non-renewable resources industry contributes greatly to regional and national gross domestic product(GDP),it casts massive negative impacts on the environment,which fails to be deducted from economic growth.Hence,sustainable development of non-renewable resources(extraction and processing)is playing an essential role in boosting economic growth continuously.The System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting(SEEA)proposed by the United Nations Statistics Division(UNSD)provides a brand-new perspective for sustainability study.This paper designs a fundamental approach of green accounting for non-renewable resources based on SEEA.Three main aspects of the accounting are extracted to explore the way of analysis for sustainability indicators,which are not touched upon by SEEA.Main analyses are as follows:(1)the analysis on the influence of the change of the discount rate in user cost(UC);(2)correlation analysis between environmental degradation and pollutants emission intensity;(3)analysis of the accounting results of green GDP and green GCF(gross capital formation).Then taking petroleum resources in Shandong Province as an example,this paper will calculate and analyze green data based on the accounting and analytical approaches discussed above.However,sustainability indicators studied in the paper are just associated with past economic activities,while investigation into the factors of the change of sustainability indicators is the one most critical point in relevant policymaking.     

大庆市城市经济系统可持续性评价

三角模型作为一种直观的平台能够很好地图解区域可持续综合发展状况及长期趋势.由于具有直观性和简明性,三角模型易于被不同层次的学者和政策制定者理解和应用.根据经济发展、资源-能源消耗及环境污染的相互关系,结合生态学表现,利用三角模型工具分析评估区域经济可持续发展状况和长期趋势.本文选择我国最大的石油资源型城市--大庆市作为典型案例.大庆市位于黑龙江省西部,下辖5个区和4个县,2006年全市土地总面积为2.1219万hm2,总人口269.3万.结果表明,大庆市经济系统可持续性状况不容乐观,"八五"、"九五"时期处于不可持续和弱可持续性状态,"十五"中后期才缓慢进入一般可持续性状态;"八五"时期大庆市经济系统具有一般可持续性发展趋势,"九五"时期呈现强可持续性发展趋势,进入新世纪后却呈现出由强可持续性向一般可持续性的发展趋势.     

基于SBM-DEA模型的中部地区资源环境效率格局演化及成因机理分析

资源环境是制约区域发展的重要影响因素,区域资源环境的利用是否有效是衡量地区综合发展水平的关键指标之一。因此对区域资源环境效率格局及其成因机理进行时空动态模拟,不仅有助于人们了解区域投入产出的过程与效益,同时又能为相关部门制定区域发展规划以及缓解区域人地矛盾提供参考依据。利用SBM-DEA模型分析2005~2014年间中部地区资源环境效率时空分异特征,并探讨了造成其格局演化的成因机理,得到如下结论:(1)从资源环境效率结果来看,2005~2014年中部地区资源环境效率总体呈现稳步上升态势;(2)省会城市、长江和京广等国家发展轴线的重要节点城市资源环境效率较高,远离长江、京广等重要轴线的城市资源环境效率较低的空间分布格局逐步形成;(3)从资源环境效率与投入产出的耦合关系来看,中部地区75%左右的城市处于Ⅰ类型,较少城市处于Ⅱ类型,极少数城市处于Ⅲ~ⅩⅢ类型。近10 a来中部地区普遍处于低投入、低产出、低污染的发展阶段,资源环境效率较高及以上城市数量先减少后增加,中等效率的城市数量先增加后趋于稳定,效率较低及以下的城市数量呈逐步减少的趋势;(4)促进资源环境效率的主导因素为地区经济发展水平,制约资源环境效率的主导因素为能源消耗。     

An economic-environmental analysis of selected barrier-coating materials used in packaging food products: a Swedish case study

The purpose of a barrier coating in food packaging is primarily to increase the shelf life of the foodstuff contained within the packaging, preserve its colour, odour, taste and quality, and thereby reduce food wastage (both at retail outlets and households). While most publications hitherto have compared packaging and barrier-coating materials on the basis of their environmental impacts alone, this paper adopts a more holistic approach by factoring in the economic aspect as well. Four barrier material alternatives—starch, polyethylene, EVOH + kaolin and latex + kaolin are analysed. Two well-defined end-of-life handling scenarios, relevant to Sweden, are: one in which everything except starch is recycled, with starch being composted, and the other in which everything is incinerated. Among the several environmental impact categories which can be analysed, this paper considers only global warming. Two approaches are tested to combine the economic and environmental aspects—normalisation, weighting and aggregating on the one hand, and using the carbon tax to internalise the externality caused by GHG emissions on the other. For the set of weighting factors obtained thanks to a survey conducted by the authors (40.6% for environmental and 59.4% for economic), starch emerges as the most sustainable alternative, followed by polyethylene for both the end-of-life handling scenarios. This tallies with the result obtained by using the carbon tax for internalisation of the externality. The case study, methodology and results presented in this paper, will hopefully be a springboard for more detailed studies of this nature, under the umbrella of sustainability.     

Evaluation of Urban Sustainability in Specific Sectors in Latvia

In Latvia, the concept of sustainability is only slowly gaining recognition. An analysis of Development Plans prepared by the four largest cities of Latvia indicates that sustainability is presented as one of the guiding principles. However, a comparison of Development Plan policies against the urban sustainability issues reveals a great deal of ambiguity and contradiction.At the municipal level, planners and politicians lack indicators to gauge whether the long-term goals of Development Plans and the principles of sustainable development are being achieved. As a consequence, the broad public is deprived of the opportunity to assess for itself the process of development in relation to Development Plan policies, thus limiting accountability in development decision-making. Relevant statistical data collected on a regular basis are required to create sustainability indicators reflecting sustainability issues, to supplement and replace existing statistical compilations pertaining almost exclusively to economic growth and consumption. Development and utilisation of sustainability indicators can be an effective instrument for promoting the values of sustainable development amongst politicians, planners and the broad public and for enhancing accountability in decision-making.     

中国低碳城市关注度研究

本文通过文献计量和社交大数据挖掘的方法统计到包含"低碳"和"城市"的文献共8 574篇,新浪微博51 081条。利用文献代表学者对于低碳城市的观点,利用新浪微博代表公众对于低碳城市的关注度,分别统计文献和新浪微博中城市出现频率以及关键词出现频率并进行分析。结果表明与低碳城市相关的文献和新浪微博从2010年开始增长,2013年达到峰值,2014年后略有回落。文献和新浪微博中出现频率最高的前30位城市基本一致,城市出现频率与城市行政地位和政策支持力度高度相关,另外文献和新浪微博中均未统计到的城市还有3个。词频统计结果表明:公众和学者对于低碳城市认知相差较大,学者更关注低碳城市建设和经济之间的关系,以及低碳城市对环境的影响程度。公众对于低碳城市的关注角度主要是从日常生活出发,更偏向于把低碳城市理解为低碳生活。建议政府进一步加大低碳城市的宣传力度,通过调整政策加大对非低碳试点城市和欠发达城市的扶持力度。并出台低碳城市的考核细则和评价标准,进一步理顺低碳发展与经济建设和环境保护的关系。