Seven suppositions about energy security in the United States

Changing the patterns of energy use requires investigating how energy consumers - not experts - conceive of energy challenges. This article explores the varying beliefs, attitudes, and views on energy security in the United States among experts and residents. Based primarily on an academic literature review to distill expert views, and a survey distributed to hundreds of residents in the U.S. to capture consumer views, the study begins by explaining its methodology before identifying seven suppositions related to energy security. These suppositions involve security of fuel supply, energy democracy, energy research and development, affordability of energy services, environmental pollution, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. The second section of the study tests these suppositions with a survey distributed to 427 respondents in the United States. Three suppositions are supported, two are unsupported, and two are neither supported nor unsupported. The final section of the study offers implications for U.S. energy policy and scholarship.     

Empirical analysis of energy management in Danish industry

In this article we examine energy-management practice in the Danish manufacturing industry. The paper addresses the following: To what extent is energy management put into practice in Danish industry? From which sources does Danish industry obtain its information about making improvements in energy management? Based upon the results of a telephone survey covering 304 Danish industrial firms and by use of our definition of the minimum requirements for energy management, we concluded that between 3% and 14% practice energy management. Inspiration to manage energy comes from many different sources, but the electricity utilities emerge as the main source of inspiration. This leads to a presentation of a statistical model synthesising two types of energy management and two potential avenues that can lead to improved energy management. One-size-fits-all is not appropriate when giving incentives for firms to practice improved energy management. Possible variations between industrial sectors are addressed.     

Less bad is not good enough: approaching zero emissions techniques and systems

Radical changes towards sustainable products and a clean and safe system of production have yet to be developed and implemented in all sectors of industry. Technology holds the key to addressing many environmental problems and achieving sustainable patterns of economic growth. In many cases, companies already have the appropriate technological solution. However, the technology may not be in widespread use because of market and systemic failures and cultural barriers. Examples of market failures are the lack of information about cleaner technologies. Examples of systemic failures are weaknesses in linkages among firms, universities, research and development (R&D) institutions, and others involved in developing, supplying and applying technology. Cultural barriers are caused by the differences in the way companies communicate and do business. This makes “zero emissions” a much needed approach. The Journal of Cleaner Production has devoted this special issue to “Zero Emissions Techniques and Systems – ZETS” in the production and the urgent issues surrounding, “How to make sustainable companies become reality”. To document the state of the art in this field and to report progress are main goals of this issue. The objective of the planners of this special issue is to present perspectives, case studies and pedagogic initiatives from, academic, governmental, business, technical and financial sectors, as well as from NGOs from around the world.It is, however, evident that the term “zero emissions” still has different meanings and refers to different strategies and technologies. “Zero Emissions Techniques and Systems” are really a “SYSTEMS” aspect and not a sectoral approach. It develops more and more like a discussion about a mosaic. Some speak of the image they expect to be seen at the end, others speak of the tesserae they have to shape or the cement that fills the gaps between.     

绿色环境保护节能建筑的设计与实现研究

为了实现建筑行业的可持续发展,设计并实现绿色环保节能建筑,将节能环保理念渗透在建筑设计的每个细节中。分析融入节能环保理念的建筑设计过程,对其中的架构环保节能设计、节能环保材料的选用以及节能环保技术发展进行研究,并重点分析了资源可持续利用、太阳能利用以及电气节能技术在绿色环保节能建筑设计中的应用过程。通过绿色建筑节能环保总设计,绿色节能环保建筑构造的优化设计以及绿色建筑的暖通空调设计,实现绿色环保节能建筑的高质量设计。     

环境规制视角下制造业绿色转型对能源强度的影响

基于Super-SBM及动态面板门槛模型,系统分析中国制造业行业绿色转型异质性结构,并从环境规制视角探析制造业绿色转型对于其行业能源强度的影响效应.研究发现：中国制造业绿色转型并没有实现（平均值为-0.1637）,且行业间差异显著,其转型过程呈现明显波动特征.有趣的是,中国制造业绿色转型对于能源强度的作用存在显著的环境规制异质门槛效应：较低程度的环境规制并不利于促使制造业绿色转型降低能源强度.而随着环境规制强度的提高并突破“临界点”,在一定程度上有效增强了制造业绿色转型的影响作用,进而推动能源强度的降低.     

地热绿色新能源与可持续发展

可持续发展见报频繁 ,因为它关系到全人类的生存和发展。新世纪要走可持续发展之路 ,这是人们在付出沉重代价后作出的不二选择。地热能储量大、无污染、可再生 ,被认为是一种很有潜力同时也是十分现实的绿色新能源。当前 ,地热能已广泛应用于社会的方方面面 ,它的最大的好处是能满足社会可持续发展。地热能的最新发展趋势是最大限度地用以替代化石能源 ,减轻环境污染。     

依靠科学技术进步 防治大气环境污染

本文从节能入手控制污染的观点,就我国大气环境污染的防治问题,谈了几点看法:降低能耗,提高能源利用率;环境保护要依靠科学技术进步;发扬务实精神,进行科技攻关,开发实用治理技术。同时,本文还谈了抗御温室效应对全球气侯变暧的影响,提出了三大对策;控制化石燃烧消耗;推行“软”能源的开发;保护并扩大森林植被资源。      

Joint management of energy and environment

According to the Kyoto Protocol, by 2012 Norwegian emissions of greenhouse gases must be reduced by about six per cent lower than the 1996 level. In order to achieve this target, the Norwegian Government intends to give greater priority to energy efficiency measures, renewable energy sources and the use of heat pumps.Even though Energy Management should be integrated in EMS, empirical data indicates that it is not. Energy Management is separated from EMS in Norwegian industry. Focusing on the quality of the energy consumed, facilitates the utilization of wasted, low temperature energy sources. However, empirical data indicate that energy intensive food companies do not emphasize the portion of renewable energy sources they consume, or the quality of their energy consumption. This paper discusses integration of Energy Management into EMS. Better integration of existing energy and environmental schemes represents a CO₂ reduction potential that may be realised at short-term, net cost savings. This paper argues for the joint management of energy with the environment.     

Non-market values of forest biodiversity and the impact of informing the general public: Insights from generalized multinomial logit estimations

Apart from the ethical argument around trade-off that individuals have to make between monetary and non-monetary value, application of stated preference method was exposed to another criticism related to the complexity of biodiversity issue and the capacity of the general public to provide accurate responses to willingness to pay elicitation survey. This paper tests how providing information about the ecological processes underlying forest management scenarios affects public preferences and their valuation of biodiversity in publicly owned forest land in France. The generalized multinomial logit models applied to choice experiment data suggests that all respondents adopt the same heuristics based on easily visible aspects of forest landscape, to reveal their use and nonuse values of biodiversity. However, when they receive additional ecological information, only those who are familiar with the biodiversity concept, have awareness of issues at stake, and have a regular use of forest tend to attach higher values to less known biodiversity component (fallen deadwood in this case). The paper concludes that “mass media campaign” has to be completed by environmental literacy programs, to improve people’s awareness and understanding of what biodiversity means from ecological functioning, then making economic valuation a useful tool from a conservation perspective.     

“可持续生产”与“清洁生产”内涵辨析

就可持续生产在可持续发展中的重要性而言,厘清可持续生产的含义并对可持续生产与清洁生产的内涵进行辨析十分必要.阐明可持续发展的确切含义,将其定义为与人、自然、社会相和谐的生产活动或方式.在此基础上,结合清洁生产含义,指出了可持续生产与清洁生产在实施层面、目标指向和内容维度三方面的区别:①清洁生产的实施层面仅局限于企业层面,而可持续生产却涉及到整个社会层面;②在生产活动对人和社会的影响方面,可持续生产的目标指向比清洁生产更为全面;③可持续生产是在“技术”、“制度”2个维度上的双向拓展,而清洁生产仅是在“技术”维度上的单维延伸.      

Technology-based industrial environmental management: a case study of electroplating in Shenzhen,China

Severe industrial pollution has largely hindered the sustainable development of China. Taking Shenzhen’s electroplating industry as a case, this article investigates the current status of the industry and proposes a specialized policy framework to push its environmental innovation. There is a relatively complete environmental management system in Shenzhen’s government, but it does not work well when dealing with the electroplating industry, mainly because it lacks regulation aiming at production technology, which is the underlying decisive factor of the environmental performance of the industry. So, we first develop an evaluation criterion, which incorporates a technological index about whether enterprises engage identified obsolete technologies. With this evaluation criterion, enterprises are classified into “advanced” and “obsolete”. Then, we propose specific policy suggestions for different types of enterprises, including command and control mixed with economic tools, voluntary agreements, establishing electroplating parks, and improving current management system. Finally, we assess the impact of the policy proposal and prove it to be conducive to the sustainable development of the industry and conclude it from a more general perspective.     

Consumer attitudes regarding environmentally sustainable wine: an exploratory study of the New Zealand marketplace

Previous research has suggested that consumers are becoming increasingly concerned by the effects of conventional agricultural food production practices on human health and environmental wellbeing. This study sought to understand whether environmentally sustainable practices in the vineyard would equate to advantages in the wine marketplace. Structured questionnaires were used to ascertain the views of wine consumers in Christchurch, New Zealand. The findings of this study indicate that consumers have a strong demand for wine which is produced using “green” production practices. Consumers believe that the quality of sustainable wine will be equal to or better than conventionally produced wine, and they are prepared to pay a higher price for this wine.     

风力发电技术及发展分析

风力发电是将风能转换成电能。风力发电技术是一项多学科的、可持续发展的、绿色环保的节能减排技术。本文就风力发电的意义、风力发电技术及其发展趋势进行分析。     

Minimising emissions and energy wastage by improved industrial processes and integration of renewable energy

This article provides an introduction to this Special Issue of Journal of Cleaner Production (JCLP), which contains thirteen, carefully selected articles from the 12th Conference, “Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction” – PRES'09. This issue builds upon the multi-year co-operation between the PRES conference planners and the JCLP. The articles cover important subjects of increased efficiency in energy generation and usage and in improvements in industrial process optimisation. The first group of five papers focuses upon recent advances in emissions reduction and the resulting energy penalties. The second group of four papers deals with improving the efficiency and reliability in the utilisation of renewable energy, where hydrogen and biodiesel are the key energy carriers. The final group of three papers focus on process integration challenges of sustainable energy systems and upon the challenges of industrial/societal integration of sustainable energy systems into regional sustainable development planning.     

Achieving sustainable development: a review of the environmental balancing act in two key clean water act regulatory programs

The goal of achieving “sustainable development” has been embraced by a wide range of stakeholders interested in protecting both the environment and the economy in the United States and globally. The Clean Water Act (“CWA” or the “Act”) includes important regulatory provisions that contemplate the application of sustainable development principles. Yet implementing those programs often raises substantial debate about what sustainable development means, what course of action it requires, and the availability and adequacy of tools to measure or predict whether a given level of use or development is sustainable. Failure to confront those questions can lead to imprudent or wasteful decisions. This paper first will briefly describe the ongoing evolution of sustainable development concepts in the United States, with particular focus on the recommendations of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development. Then, it will examine the applicability of those concepts to two important Clean Water Act regulatory programs — the 4316(b) regulatory program for cooling water intake structures and the state water quality standards program — both of which are now under evaluation.     

Employee participation and cleaner technology: learning processes in environmental teams

The approach to pollution prevention in Danish industries in the late-1980s and in the beginning of the 1990s met criticism, because the cleaner technology projects focused too narrowly on technical solutions implemented by experts. The objective of the project “Employee Participation in the Implementation of Cleaner Technology” was to develop a more active role for employees in the environmental activities of companies. Based on practical experiments in five Danish firms within different industrial sectors, the project concluded that employee participation can have a strong effect on changing working routines, affecting behaviour and increasing environmental consciousness. The project found that the firms' employees had a comprehensive understanding of environmental problems and solutions, including health and safety aspects. Furthermore, the employees in the environmental teams were able to improve the firms' environmental activities (e.g. setting up environmental policies, targets and action plans, implementing new procedures and technologies).     

A matrix for selecting sustainable floor coverings for buildings in Sri Lanka

This paper presents a method to facilitate the decision-making process in selecting sustainable floors (elements) for buildings in Sri Lanka, taking into consideration environmental, economic and social assessments of materials used for these elements. Two types of elements are selected for this study, namely, tile and vinyl tile. Environmental burdens associated with these elements are analyzed in terms of embodied energy and environmental impacts that are relevant to Sri Lanka, such as global warming, acidification and nutrient enrichment. Economic analysis is based on market prices and affordability of materials. Factors considered for the social analysis are thermal comfort, good interior (aesthetics), ability to construct fast, strength and durability. It was found that tile elements are superior to vinyl tile elements on environmental scores if processes of complete life cycle of these elements are taken into account. On social score also, tile elements (104.8) are better than vinyl tile elements (51.15). But on economic score, vinyl tile elements are better. These scores are presented in a matrix which will help in selecting sustainable floor coverings for buildings.     

Insights from a Systematic Search for Information on Designs,Costs, and Effectiveness of Poliovirus Environmental Surveillance Systems

Poliovirus surveillance plays a critical role in achieving and certifying eradication and will play a key role in the polio endgame. Environmental surveillance can provide an opportunity to detect circulating polioviruses prior to the observation of any acute flaccid paralysis cases. We completed a systematic review of peer-reviewed publications on environmental surveillance for polio including the search terms “environmental surveillance” or “sewage,” and “polio,” “poliovirus,” or “poliomyelitis,” and compared characteristics of the resulting studies. The review included 146 studies representing 101 environmental surveillance activities from 48 countries published between 1975 and 2016. Studies reported taking samples from sewage treatment facilities, surface waters, and various other environmental sources, although they generally did not present sufficient details to thoroughly evaluate the sewage systems and catchment areas. When reported, catchment areas varied from 50 to over 7.3 million people (median of 500,000 for the 25% of activities that reported catchment areas, notably with 60% of the studies not reporting this information and 16% reporting insufficient information to estimate the catchment area population size). While numerous studies reported the ability of environmental surveillance to detect polioviruses in the absence of clinical cases, the review revealed very limited information about the costs and limited information to support quantitative population effectiveness of conducting environmental surveillance. This review motivates future studies to better characterize poliovirus environmental surveillance systems and the potential value of information that they may provide in the polio endgame.     

Public policy as a part of transforming energy systems: framing bioenergy in Finnish energy policy

Government interventions have been identified as important for energy systems change, because they can either facilitate or hinder transitions toward more sustainable energy systems. This article analyses how bioenergy options have been framed in Finnish policy strategies and how the framing has changed over time. The empirical material includes the content of 15 government programmes and nine national energy/climate strategies. On the basis of this assessment, both the link between bioenergy framings in strategies and the actual transformation of Finnish bioenergy systems are explored.On the basis of bioenergy framings, the development of energy policy can be divided into three phases: support for domestic energy sources in 1979-1991, support for wood- and industry-based bioenergy in 1992-1998, and diversified bioenergy in the context of climate change in 1999-2010. For two decades, primarily wood-based bioenergy was supported despite alternative technological developments occurring elsewhere. After the turn of the millennium, the importance of climate policy increased and alternative bioenergy sources were raised on the government policy agenda, also resulting in some new policy instruments. Rather than adopting a visionary outlook to guide system transformation, climate and energy policy has strengthened those technological options that have been selected elsewhere. If public policies are to enhance the shift toward low-carbon, sustainable energy systems, they would need to be more comprehensive, be more consistent over time, and emphasise energy use more.     

Ecological modernisation: new perspectives

“Ecological modernisation” – understood as systematic eco-innovation and its diffusion – has by far the largest potential to achieve environmental improvements. In general, the market logic of modernisation and competition for innovation combined with the market potential of global environmental needs serve as important driving forces behind “ecological modernisation”. In recent times, however, additional factors like rising energy prices or fears from climate change have favoured the rise of this innovation-based approach to environmental policy. The article deals with two special driving forces: first, there is growing evidence for the importance of “smart” environmental regulation. Secondly, the increasingly complex actor constellation of global environmental governance leads to mounting business risks for polluters and thereby exerts pressure for eco-innovation.Despite these favourable framework conditions, the strategy of “ecological modernisation” nonetheless faces a number of inherent limitations. These include the unavailability of marketable technological solutions for relevant environmental problems like the loss of species, the rebound effect neutralising the incremental environmental improvements through economic growth (the dilemma of the “N-curve”) as well as resistance by “modernisation losers”. Against this background, structural solutions seem indispensable. Here, eco-innovations should be supported by transition management or ecological structural policy.