Stewardship Volunteering by Older Australians: The Generative Response

The aim of this paper is to use Erikson's approach to human development, and specifically generativity, as a framework by which to explore older people's experiences of environmental stewardship activities. Using data from a large qualitative study of environmental volunteers resident in the coastal fringes of Queensland, Australia, the paper provides important, illustrative, empirical support for Erikson's theory of generativity in later life. Findings suggest that older people are much more likely to connect their environmental actions with the longer-term future, and express a need to leave a lasting legacy for future generations. According to respondents, the later years are a time to contribute to the environment as part of a broader cycle of life. The environment is also an important site for intergenerational activities. Whilst the work presented here is only a small, localized study, use of Erikson's theory of human development as a framework helps demonstrate the importance of a generative response in later life.     

Characterization of ISO 14001 implementation

Environmental degradation caused by human activities is of concern to society, government, industry, companies, and the people who are able to enjoy improved lifestyles because of industrial activities. However, all of these parties also have a responsibility to support and conserve the environment and act responsibly toward the earth. This article, which includes a systematic literature review and draws upon the authors’ practical experience, summarizes the benefits, motives, and difficulties in implementing environmental management systems using the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) 14001 framework.     

Bridging conceptual “silos”: bringing together health promotion and sustainability governance for practitioners at the landscape scale

Environmental health issues are examples of “wicked problems” that require cross-sectoral collaboration at the community level, yet health practitioners and environmental stakeholders find it challenging to see how and why they could be working together. Supportive organisations have been identified as the most vital enabler for individual professionals to participate actively in cross-sectoral initiatives. Ability to justify inter-professional cooperation makes it easier for practitioners to gain the necessary approvals within their institutional mandates. This paper introduces a new conceptual framework that bridges health promotion and sustainability governance to facilitate practical cross-sectoral collaboration that targets complex health-related environmental and social-ecological challenges. The proposed framework integrates six concrete overlapping themes linking health promotion and sustainability governance. The framework also highlights examples of areas where the fields could benefit from one another. Moreover, children's environmental health is proposed as a desirable overall outcome and an attractive venue for potential collaboration, because of its critical role in the public health and well-being of future generations. As a determinant of adult health, children's environmental health emphasises the vital interdependencies between health and the environment.     

Life‐Cycle Assessment of Construction in a Developing Country

The construction industry plays a great role in a country's or an area's economy. Construction activities also have significant and increasing effects on the environment. Life‐cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the environmental management techniques that can be used to evaluate the environmental burdens of construction. The authors of this study applied the LCA approach and SimaPro 7.1 software within the framework of the International Organization of Standardization's (ISO) 14040 series of standards and analyzed the global warming potential (GWP) and acidification potential (AP) of the materials acquisition and construction phases of the Parand residential apartment complex located in the southwest part of Tehran province, Iran.     

An integrative framework for sustainable supply chain management practices in the oil and gas industry

This paper proposes a framework for understanding the contextual factors of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices in the O&G industry. It is based on a literature review of studies related to SSCM of O&G topics. The review reveals that there is a lack of SSCM research specific to the industry. Present studies focus on individual stages of its supply chain and do not consider all dimensions of sustainable development, namely economic, environmental and social factors. In addition, existing frameworks lack important contextual aspects of the industry's business and organizational environment. To address these gaps, our research develops an overarching framework operationalizing the internal and external contextual factors of the O&G industry environment that can influence the outcome of its SSCM practices. The proposed framework is useful as a tool in the formulation and implementation of SSCM strategy that enables alignment of a company's internal capabilities with its external environment.     

Material Flow Analysis: A tool to support environmental policy decision making. Case-studies on the city of Vienna and the Swiss lowlands

This paper discusses the use of Material Flow Analysis (MFA) as a tool to support policy decision making in the field of resource and environmental management. In terms of policy, MFA can be used for early recognition, priority setting, to analyse and improve the effectiveness of measures and to design efficient material management strategies in view of sustainability. MFA has a high potential to be implemented as a guiding tool at the regional level, for example as part of a regional environmental management and audit system or as a part of the Local Agenda 21 process. Material management based on MFA is complementary to traditional environmental and resource management strategies, which have tended to focus heavily on specific environmental compartments, and measure the concentration of substances in various media. MFA, in contrast, provides an overview of the total system by linking the anthroposphere (that part of the biosphere in which humans' activities take place) with the environment. This system approach shifts the focus away from the back-end so-called 'filter strategies' to more pro-active front-end measures. MFA examines short- and long-term loadings rather than concentrations and highlights current and potential material accumulations, called material stocks. These stocks represent either potential environmental problems (e.g. large stocks of hazardous materials) or a potential source of future resources (e.g. urban mining). In this way, MFA can assist precautionary policy making by highlighting future environmental or resource issue problems without relying on signals of environmental stress. The objective of materials management is: firstly, to analyse material flows and stocks; secondly, to evaluate these results; and thirdly, to control material flows in view of certain goals such as sustainable development. MFA is an excellent tool for the first objective and is well suited to generate a base for the other two objectives. MFA results can be compared against environmental standards or can be interpreted using assessment or indicator methodologies (such as environmental impact assessment or ecological footprints). Selected results from two studies, carried out for the city of Vienna (substance management) and the Swiss lowlands (timber management), illustrate the use of MFA as a tool for early recognition (resource depletion and environmental quality), for priority setting and for effective policy making.     

Dynamic street environment

The research examines the street's physical characteristics that are influenced by the culture in the city of Mashhad, Iran as a case study. It is evident that new developments in the traditional street have mostly eroded the cultural value of the urban environment. The techniques used for data collection include literature review, in-depth interview, questionnaire and field observation. The research outcome indicated, firstly, the street's physical characteristics which were influenced by culture and shaped the street form and function as a corridor to the Holy Shrine, a significant Iranian landmark. It is indicated that culture is a way of life influencing the physical appearance, activities and behavioural aspects that these are important to support human needs, therefore to create a sense of place. Secondly, culture, in line with the physical characteristics, would enhance the uniqueness of the street and its cultural value to support distinctiveness of the street environment. The third finding proves that cultural aspects have a significant role in activating public life and increasing the attractiveness of the street.     

2035年美丽中国建设目标及路径机制研究

建设美丽中国,建设人与自然和谐共生的现代化,是中国特色社会主义现代化建设的重要基础与主要内容。本文通过文献分析、对标分析、模型预测等方法,识别了美丽中国建设的科学内涵及特征要求,分析美丽中国建设中长期面临的形势,基于到2035年达到中等发达国家水平、人均GDP翻一番的目标,对标发达国家以及浙江、广东等国内先进地区,构建了美丽中国建设的目标指标体系框架,并从绿色发展、气候变化、生态环境质量、环境治理体系与治理能力等方面,设计美丽中国建设生态环境保护的总体框架与主要路径,提出美丽中国建设的规划建议。     

工业园区水管理创新研究

随着工业化和城市化进程,中国的水环境和水安全问题凸显。工业园区在中国经济发展过程中贡献突出,但同时也是环境污染特别是水环境污染的重要来源之一。在日益趋严的绿色生态发展政策导向下,园区实施可持续水管理具有重要现实意义和理论价值。研究基于全生命周期思考和系统优化原则,提出园区水管理创新概念模型,包含供(取)水、用水、废水处理、排放、污水再生回用、污泥处理处置及资源化等与水管理相关的关键环节组成的全生命周期园区水管理体系,实现生命周期全过程管理,防范水风险,改善水环境质量。从多利益相关方的角度,协同园区、企业、周边流域三个层面,采用PDCA循环,设计包含水管理问题识别、成因分析、实施对策和绩效考核四部分的园区水管理创新概念、框架及基本流程,制定以园区管理机构和企业为实施主体的全方位园区水污染防治关键行动,以达到园区和企业水资源消耗总量与用水强度双向优化、周边流域源洁流清,实现可持续生态化绿色发展的长期目标。     

Thinking Habits into Action: The role of knowledge and process in questioning household consumption practices

Despite occupying a central place in the sustainable development paradigm, calls for individuals in high-income countries to adopt patterns of sustainable consumption have failed to gain ground in the past decade. The low uptake of public messages that emphasise links between the environment and the home are caused by a plethora of 'barriers to action', which range from individual circumstances to public norms and structures. This article argues that in addition to these barriers, consideration of how individuals read and react to sustainable consumption information is important. Based on interviews with participants of a sustainable behaviour change programme called Action at Home, this article considers both how, and in what form, knowledge is mobilised when individuals rethink their personal practices. Using Giddens' structuration theory, a framework is presented. This framework emphasises the importance of 'known' or 'local' information, as well as discursive processes, in addressing individual consumption practices and argues that a 'cultural politics' of sustainable consumption needs to be factored into on-going academic and policy debates.     

我国环境污染第三方治理机制改革路线图

第三方治理是促进环境污染治理市场化、专业化、产业化的有效模式,也是我国生态文明制度建设创新的重要内容。我国环境污染第三方治理还处于探索阶段,存在内涵不清晰、理论架构未建立、关键问题待突破、政策路径不明确等问题,系统设计我国环境污染第三方治理改革路线图是当前迫切的现实需求。本文在对第三方治理内涵的解析和界定的基础上,提出基于多中心公共经济论、市场经济利益最大化原理、规模经济及委托-代理理论的理论架构,综合分析第三方治理的理论依据及作用机制。从国家和地方两个层面梳理我国环境污染第三方治理的政策演进情况,并立足于我国环境公用设施建设和企业工业污染治理领域第三方治理的发展现状,剖析成效及问题,提出构建法律法规和标准体系、环境监管体系、经济政策支持体系、市场价格体系和企业诚信评价体系的政策机制改革框架及实施路径。     

Comparing Green and Grey Infrastructure Using Life Cycle Cost and Environmental Impact: A Rain Garden Case Study in Cincinnati,OH

Green infrastructure (GI) is quickly gaining ground as a less costly, greener alternative to traditional methods of stormwater management. One popular form of GI is the use of rain gardens to capture and treat stormwater. We used life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare environmental impacts of residential rain gardens constructed in the Shepherd's Creek watershed of Cincinnati, Ohio to those from a typical detain and treat system. LCA is an internationally standardized framework for analyzing the potential environmental performance of a product or service by including all stages in its life cycle, including material extraction, manufacturing, use, and disposal. Complementary to the life cycle environmental impact assessment, the life cycle costing approach was adopted to compare the equivalent annual costs of each of these systems. These analyses were supplemented by modeling alternative scenarios to capture the variability in implementing a GI strategy. Our LCA models suggest rain garden costs and impacts are determined by labor requirement; the traditional alternative's impacts are determined largely by the efficiency of wastewater treatment, while costs are determined by the expense of tunnel construction. Gardens were found to be the favorable option, both financially (~42% cost reduction) and environmentally (62‐98% impact reduction). Wastewater utilities may find significant life cycle cost and environmental impact reductions in implementing a rain garden plan.     

环境管理战略转型研究综述

由于经济社会的发展伴随的环境问题越来越复杂,资源相对不足、环境容量有限越来越突出,环境管理转型问题引起越来越多的国内外学者关注。所谓环境管理转型,是指环境管理思维、策略和方式的转变,是以环境质量为目标导向,从被动应对向主动防控的转变。本文通过文献梳理的方法,综述了国内外学术界对于环境管理战略进行的多角度探讨。通过综述发现,国外学者主要注重环境管理理论研究,如环境管理的模型研究和不同环境管理战略的研究,且国外学者在研究不同环境管理战略时,研究对象多为微观层面的企业组织;而我国学者的研究则主要集中在宏观层面,即从国家的角度来探讨环境管理战略如何完成转型,从而促进我国经济社会的良性发展。现有的国内外研究是环境管理战略相关理论发展和实践推行的重要基础,在环境管理战略研究领域,本文认为还有一些问题需要进一步研究:一是环境管理的转型不仅需要宏观层面的统筹、微观方面的变革,也需要从中观层面来推进,所以中观层面的环境管理研究同样具有重要的现实意义。二是环境管理的转型不仅需要法律手段的支撑、经济手段的配置,也需要公民环保意识的觉醒,所以关于公民环保意识层面的研究也需要加强。     

基于陆海统筹的海洋生态环境管理体系研究

经过近60年的探索和实践,我国海洋生态环境管理机制体制不断完善,海洋生态环境综合管理能力显著提升。本文立足我国海洋生态环境管理现状,重点从强化制度约束性、机制协同性和政策指导性等角度分析了存在的主要问题,阐述了陆海统筹的海洋生态环境管理体系框架,并提出了构建以生物多样性保护为核心的海洋生态环境管理分区、建立以氮磷污染物为重点的陆海协同排放管控制度、完善以监测评估为核心的海洋生态监管制度、建立以入海河流和海湾为重点的区域联防联控机制和完善以海洋生态补偿和赔偿为核心的财政政策等重点任务,可为建立陆海统筹的生态环境治理制度提供参考。     

从中德比较论我国环境许可制度的发展

首先从现代环境保护的内在逻辑入手,指出我国环境法治正处于从外生型向内生型转变,并认同以排污许可为核心的环境许可制度应成为我国环境治理的核心制度。接着对环境许可制度进行基本的理论分析和简单框架梳理,认为环境许可制度是以法治完善和科技发展为支撑的,在此基础上需要进一步的内容细化和体系构建,并强调在风险预防原则下,环境许可不应局限于排污许可制度。然后分析了欧盟与德国在环境许可一体化上的趋势与不同,进而提出我国环境许可制度的趋势。探讨了与环境许可制度紧密相关的环境技术标准制度,认为基于技术的环境标准面临内生性、系统化和动态完善的要求,环境许可制度需要面向环境质量达标体系转型。本文还分析了德国环境治理理念的转型变革与许可制度衔接的经验。最后,小结对我国环境许可制度的启示。     

国家“十四五”环境经济政策改革路线图

"十三五"时期环境经济政策对建立我国生态文明建设长效机制发挥了重要作用,"十四五"时期需要通过进一步深化环境经济政策改革与创新以适应新时代生态文明建设需要。本文研究提出了我国"十四五"时期环境经济政策改革思路、框架与重点,认为我国"十四五"时期环境经济政策改革要深入贯彻习近平生态文明思想,系统考虑政策改革创新面临的新形势和新要求,推进建立"两山"转化和环境质量达标的长效激励机制,突出环境质量持续改善激励、突出经济过程全链条调控,突出政策手段的系统优化与协同增效,突出政策执行能力保障。继续推进生态环境财政制度改革,深化绿色价格税费机制创新,推进建立多元化、市场化生态补偿制度,健全生态环境权益交易机制,完善绿色金融体系,并同步推进完善生态环境价值核算、环境信息公开和信用体系、资源环境名录、政策绩效评估等政策实施配套能力建设,构建全面支撑生态文明建设的环境经济政策体系,推进环境治理体系和治理能力现代化。     

Managing Indirect Environmental Impact within Local Authorities' Standardized Environmental Management Systems

Abstract

Many local authorities use standardized environmental management systems (EMSs) to improve their environmental management. These authorities often find it difficult to manage environmental impact caused by their exercise of authority i.e. indirect environmental impact (IEI) within their EMSs. Since this is connected to their core activities, it is important to understand how IEI could be more efficiently managed with respect to EMS work. The purpose for this paper is to study if and how IEI could be managed within the framework of EMS. In this study we have identified two different approaches to managing IEI. Because managing IEI is complex, it is often ignored when initiating EMSs or managed by explicitly avoid mentioning the concept. Managing IEI is seen as a matter of maturity within the organization. The paper concludes with a discussion regarding a developed definition of IEI and how management of IEI could be facilitated.     

A comprehensive set of resource use indicators from the micro to the macro level

Many of today's most urgent environmental problems arise from increasing volumes of worldwide production and consumption and the associated use of natural resources, including renewable and non-renewable raw materials, energy, water and land. Solid indicators to measure different dimensions of anthropogenic resource use are essential for designing appropriate policy measures for a sustainable management of these resources. Based on a brief review of the current state of the art of resource use indicators, this paper suggests a new set of complementary resource use indicators, combining existing measures for resource use. The suggested indicator set covers the core resource input categories of materials, water and land area and includes the output category of greenhouse gas emissions. This set can be applied consistently from the micro level of products and companies up to the macro level of countries and world regions. All suggested indicators take a life-cycle wide perspective on production and consumption activities. This set of indicators deals with the issue of the overall scale of the human production and consumption system. It can be regarded as the general indicator framework, based on which more specific indicators, for example, on different environmental impacts related to natural resource use, can be calculated.     

An Empirical‐Theoretical Analysis Framework for Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment

Public participation has been increasingly recognized as one of the most important aspects of environmental impact assessment. However, the definition of adequate evaluative criteria for public participation, with a strong theoretical backing, the functionality of empirical best practice and the consideration of the country-specific context, has remained elusive. The evaluative framework developed here is an attempt to fill this gap. Best-practice public participation is defined as consisting of two components: (1) legal provisions; and (2) actors' attitudes and capacities (towards participation). The theoretical model, defined on the basis of Webler's adaptation of Habermas's theory of communicative action, is then translated into evaluative criteria for bestpractice public participation.     

It's Good to Talk! Environmental Information and the Greening of Industry

This paper focuses on one aspect of industry's contribution to safeguarding the environment: the use and production of environmental information. Access to such information is an important part of the government strategy for promoting shared responsibility for the environment. The objective of the paper is to assess how far public regulation, private regulation and self regulation provide an incentive to industry to use and produce environmental information.