A method for evaluating the overall technical and economic performance of environmental innovations in production cycles

As is demonstrated by a great deal of scientific literature on the subject, an ever-increasing number of businesses are adopting cleaner production as a strategy to minimise the impact of their activities and their products on the environment. However, the range of approaches which are grouped together and given the common name ‘cleaner production’ is quite broad and diversified and includes a variety of innovative solutions that lead to very different results. Indeed, varying results have been obtained; the improvements in that industry has achieved in its environmental performance, both on a single business basis and in the overall product life cycle, as well as in the financial and economic returns. The present study proposes a quantitative method of classification, cleaner production innovations based on technical and economic criteria. The method proposed here is based on improvements made to the environment and the economic benefits to both the single business and to the overall socio-economic system as well as on the inter-relations between these variables.     

湖泊沉积物-水界面系列采样装置的研制

介绍了系列采样装置,包括沉积物-水界面取样器,孔隙水隔气抽取装置和电渗析沉积物剖面切割工作台等。可对75m深水湖泊采集到30—90cm的沉积物术及10—30cm底层水样品,并可在野外现场分样和提取孔隙水。沉积物分样的厚度最小是0.1cm。整套装置重量轻、可拆卸、操作简便且便于野外运输。     

我国环境空气颗粒物质量基准研究框架及研究体系的构建

空气颗粒物来源广泛、组成复杂,我国目前尚未有一套基于完整科学理论和足量实测数据支持的颗粒物基准体系,导致其来源、暴露水平、健康和环境风险信息量不足,相关标准制、修订的依据不足. 解析了美国环境空气质量管理的模式,并追踪了美国基准文件的发布历程和世界卫生组织导则值的发布和修订历程. 辨析了环境空气颗粒物质量基准与标准的内涵,分析了空气颗粒物质量基准研究对环境空气质量标准制/修订的支撑作用. 综合国外环境基准体系框架构成和已有研究成果,结合国内空气颗粒物质量基准研究现状和存在的问题,基于“污染源—环境空气浓度—暴露水平与剂量—健康/环境效应与风险”的各环节研究方法与目标,提出了“2-4-4”基准研究框架体系,即颗粒物质量基准研究包括空气颗粒物人体健康基准和空气颗粒物环境效应基准两部分,其中人体健康基准包括颗粒物污染特征与来源解析、个体暴露、剂量-效应关系及人体健康效应四部分,空气颗粒物环境效应基准包括颗粒物对生态系统、能见度、建筑物和材料、气候的影响四部分. 建议我国应开展大气污染健康影响前瞻性队列研究和对生态环境影响研究,采用多种方法,包括近期发展的暴露组学方法,系统研究空气颗粒物特别是PM_2.5载带的有毒有害组分对公众健康的危害和风险;基于我国人群或区域调查结果,建立我国空气颗粒物特别是PM_2.5环境质量基准体系,定期发布质量基准文件.      

平顶山市生态环境评价系统的研究

生态环境评价系统是平顶山环境管理信息系统(PDSEMIS)的一个子系统,该系统包括土地开发度评价与生态适宜度评价,本文着重介绍评价功能块建立的原理以及该系统在环境规划中的应用。      

A proposed Multi Criteria Analysis decision support tool for international environmental policy issues: a pilot application to emissions control in the international aviation sector

Policy making at the level of international environmental problems appears to lack a transparent, multi criteria based, decision support ‘tool’. This is due mainly to the highly political, volatile, and contextual nature of issues at this level. The environmental problem of how to regulate emissions from international civil aviation due to their transboundary nature, and the participation of international and domestic players, makes it a ‘wicked’ international environmental problem where policy making has proved problematic. This problem has been used as the basis for developing and pilot testing a tool for contributing to international policymaking, the Multi Criteria Decision Support System (MCDSS). This tool is based on simplifying and integrating key components of Multi Criteria Analysis with a Decision Support System. A preliminary application of the tool explored three options for progressing the reduction of aviation emissions. Testing was based on the allocation of weights to environmental, social, economic and institutional categories, which were each then internally weighted to reflect key criteria in the policy process. Finally, likely performances of each option, against the criteria, were evaluated against Likert scale measures. The outputs from each of these steps were combined to generate a summed best policy option. Conclusions have been drawn and they indicate that the tool is potentially useful especially in the initial stages of policy development. The MCDSS is not an alternative to the international policy process, but rather complements, and makes explicit key tradeoffs in, that process.     

Identifying common features among household consumption patterns optimized to minimize specific environmental burdens

This study seeks to find common features in a set of simulated Japanese household consumption patterns, each of which was optimized to reduce a particular type of environmental burden. To this end an input–output system comprising some 500 commodity and fixed capital formation sectors was formulated that relates Japanese household consumption of these commodities to the generation of 13 types of environmental burden, clustered in 6 key problem areas. Based on this system a linear programming model was developed and was used to compute a set of 13 household consumption patterns optimized for minimizing each of the environmental burdens in turn. Each of these singly optimized patterns was then characterized as to how it impacts on the magnitude of the other 12 environmental burdens. By examining the commonalties and differences among these optimal patterns, we then classified consumer commodities into 3 types, providing a simple indicator with which to steer towards consumption patterns with less environmental impact than today's.     

Development of environmental management system in China's financial sector

The establishment of the environmental management system in the financial sector can be effectively promoted through the introduction of the environmental protection concept and its implementation by the financial sector. The impact of a sustainable development system on the sector is analyzed in this article from three aspects: environmental risk assessment, financing support for environmental protection projects, and financial services to environmentally friendly corporations and individuals. Influential factors on the development of the environmental management system in China’s financial sector are discussed from the perspective of various entities such as financial institutions, financial regulation authorities, environmental protection departments, corporations, and the public. It is pointed out that China’s financial sector is now in the transitional phase from a defensive attitude to a preventive attitude. Strengthening governmental guidance, the supervision of regulators as well as public awareness of environmental protection should be used to enhance the initiative in the development of the environmental management system in the Chinese financial sector.     

Integrating science,policy and farmers to reduce soil loss and sediment delivery in Flanders,Belgium

This paper describes the evolution of soil erosion perception with policy makers and farmers in Flanders, and how these changes have resulted in the emergence of a soil conservation policy. Until the mid 1990s, soil erosion and its related problems received little attention in the environmental debate. This has changed through increased interest in environmental issues in general, as well as an increasing number of scientific reports on soil erosion and sediment delivery. New legislation that made the sediment problem a big financial issue in 1995, however, was the main reason for the recognition of soil erosion as an environmental problem with the policy makers. Despite the lack of monitoring soil erosion, a soil conservation policy emerged recently, which is clearly represented in the 2001 “soil erosion decree” by the Flemish government. This policy provides important opportunities for soil conservation as it incorporates both scientists and farmers. The involvement of farmers in demonstration projects is crucial with this respect as they have to be convinced about the usefulness and applicability of soil conservation measures. Farmers also participate in the development of a management plan. However, the success of the new policy could be undermined by its rapid development. There is still a lack of data underpinning the status of the erosion problem, and, the goals of the policy are not clearly defined. Furthermore, the administrative organisation is currently not favourable for an optimal co-operation with the farmers.     

A taxonomy of metrics for testing the industrial ecology hypotheses and application to design of freezer insulation

Industrial ecology is sometimes referred to as the science of sustainability, but unlike mature sciences, it has yet to establish reliable modes of inquiry or a uniform framework for dialogue—partly because sustainability is difficult to characterize, and partly because industry–environment interactions are difficult to model quantitatively. A number of sustainability metrics have recently been proposed that partially address the quantification problem, but inevitably oversimplify the problem of sustainability characterization. This paper proposes an overarching taxonomy for classifying the quantitative criteria of sustainability as financial, thermodynamic, environmental, ecological, socio-political or aggregated. Several examples are presented. Pollution potential, which is an environmental metric related to the ideal thermodynamic work (of mixing) per mole required to remove pollutants from the environment, is discussed in particular. However, because no single metric can capture sustainability per se, industrial ecology may be limited to elucidating the trade-offs that exist between different types of complementary (rather than substitutable) criteria. The life cycle of polyurethane foam insulation in freezer applications is presented as a quantitative example of how different environmental criteria can lead to different design recommendations. Lastly, the framework proposed herein suggests a research agenda for industrial ecology, especially regarding the linkages between different measures of sustainability and cross-comparison of the investigative methods found in different sciences related to sustainability.     

Cleaner manufacture of multipurpose batch chemical and biochemical plants. Scheduling and optimal choice of production recipes

This study presents an approach for cleaner management of multipurpose batch chemical or biochemical plants. Given that manufacture of most of the products could be carried out in multiple ways depending on chosen production recipes, the scheduling framework is extended by involving the choice of appropriate production recipes. Using as optimization criteria the Global or Local Environmental Impact Assessments defined in Minimum Environmental Impact Methodology, the mathematical formulation that results in multi-objective optimization problems is presented for a special class of schedules.The approach is implemented on an example from dairy industry. Production of two types of curds by selection from two available recipes for each one of them is considered. The problem is translated to a single objective. Two most reliable solutions are obtained, which differ in chosen production recipes, milkfat content and units involved for tasks implementation. Comments on the impacts on the load of Biochemical Oxygen Demand at the end of each production cycle due to simultaneous curds manufacturing and contributions of individual dairy wastes in Global Biochemical Oxygen Demand are also provided.     

Eco-labelling of wild-caught seafood products

Several eco-labels for wild-caught seafood have been developed during the last decade. This article describes and analyses the criteria applied by four different eco-labelling schemes for seafood products from capture fisheries, and discusses the criteria in terms of environmental impacts, based on the ISO 14040 standard for life cycle assessment.It is concluded that the most widespread eco-label, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), mainly addresses the fishing stage, in particular the overexploitation of marine resources. LCA studies confirm that the fishing stage represents the most significant environmental burden, but energy consumption and emissions of anti-fouling agents at the fishing or harvesting stage contribute with significant impacts that are not being addressed by international labelling initiatives for wild-caught seafood.LCA studies show that significant environmental impacts are related to the life cycle stages after landing. This includes fish processing, transport, cooling and packaging (especially for highly processed seafood products). Hence, another challenge would be to include criteria related to the post-landing consumption of energy, certain materials and chemicals, waste handling and wastewater emissions. Minimizing product losses throughout the product chain would also be an important area for future criteria in order to avoid fishing at high environmental costs only to produce something that is later wasted.The analysis shows that the Swedish KRAV is the only one that currently addresses a range of issues that include energy and chemicals in the whole life cycle of the products. International initiatives such as MSC cover fish products from many parts of the world emphasizing ‘overexploitation of fish resources’. It is recommended, however, that international initiatives such as MSC develop criteria related to energy use and chemicals – at least at the fishing stage. Over time, other life cycle stages could be addressed as well to the extent that this is manageable.     

Fuzzy AHP-based study of cleaner production implementation in Taiwan PWB manufacturer

In recent years, many electronic manufacturing firms have looked upon Cleaner Production (CP) as the means by which they could maintain environmental practice and competitive advantages. CP has been adopted by companies as an important factor in enhancing industrial productivity. Sustainable projects that deal appropriately with environmental and social factors are also more likely to be the most profitable.This paper investigated the criteria and attributes that determine a successful adoption and implementation of CP in reference to PWB manufacture in Taiwan. Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) methodology is used to discuss the different decision criteria that include Organizing, Systems and Technologies, Measurement and Feedback, Working environment and Worker's Culture which are all vital factors in an effective CP implementation. AHP is an efficient tool in controlling the fuzziness of the data involved in choosing the most preferred decision variables. The linguistic level of comparisons produced by the manufacturers and experts are tapped and constructed in a form of triangular fuzzy numbers in order to construct fuzzy pairwise comparison matrices. The implementation of the system is demonstrated by a problem involving three stages of hierarchy which contains different criteria and attributes at a wider perspective within an environmental uncertainty. The findings advocate that these enterprises would need to setup the priorities of the CP implementation. The results suggest a generic hierarchical model of organizations of which the highest level is to be prioritized among the CP implementation factors.     

Environmental performance and practice across sectors: methodology and preliminary results

This paper introduces a new methodology for measuring and modeling manufacturers’ environmental performance and the managerial and technological practices that affect it. Facility level licensing data are used to develop indicators based on sector-specific criteria but capable of being analyzed across sectors, at various levels of aggregation. This addresses the problem that environmental performance and determinants tend to be highly context-specific, while modeling and policy interests are often more general. Using Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) information generated EU-wide, this approach should be capable of cross-country extension. The methodology is tested on a sample of Irish facilities in three sectors during 1996–2004. Preliminary results show its usefulness in exploring the determinants of environmental performance at the sector and cross sector levels. Word count = 10,049.     

“两高一资”行业定量化判定标准研究

在国家管理制度和管理政策体系整体趋向精细化工的大背景下,结合环保科研的科学性和现行管理体制下各部门与环保相关职能和政策体系设置的可操作性二者的共同需求,以典型水环境污染物和大气污染物为例,在界定污染因子范围的基础上,基于产排污强度、产排污总量、产排污浓度、污染物治理达标成本和污染物毒性等相关定量指标,提出一整套兼顾科学性与可操作性、且便于进行横向和纵向对比的"两高一资"行业定量化判定标准体系,并以石化、纺织和轻工等行业中的典型"高污染"产品为例对此套判定标准进行了验证,证实了其科学性和可操作性,为今后科学地开展行业环保工作、有针对性地发挥相关政策在促进工业领域节能减排方面政策实效提供了共同的技术基础和连接点。     

ECO-design of reuse and recycling networks by multi-objective optimization

An ECO-optimized reuse of process liquors addresses the financial gain and the effective use of resources. In processes that have a potential for process liquor recovery, the minimization of both economic and environmental burdens can be realised by an ECO-optimal design of reuse and recycling network (RRN).In this paper, a procedure for synthesizing such an RRN for a metal finishing process is investigated. The simultaneous analysis of environmental impact sensitivity (SAEIS) based on a superstructure approach, combined with multi-objective optimization is performed by mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP). This allows an “eco–eco” trade-off i.e. total annualized cost and environmental impacts are minimized simultaneously. By varying the weighting factor, different RRN alternatives were generated. A replacement of the standard and closed-loop system by these solutions, even for the environmentally friendliest case, yielded a reasonable cost saving on raw material's inputs.     

大型环境地理信息系统的改进设计与实现研究

构建大型环境地理信息系统在提高环境保护的智能性方面具有重要意义,提出基于嵌入式ARM的大型环境地理信息系统设计方法.系统分为环境地理信息采集层、信息管理控制层和信息输出层,采用多线程的套接字技术进行环境信息过滤,采用TCP/IP以太网技术构建大型环境地理信息管理的信息资源共享模块,在云计算环境中进行地理信息的在线查询和资源调度.以嵌入式ARM9TDMI为内核微处理器,实现大型环境地理信息系统的软件开发,用ARM片上控制器来完成地理信息系统的读写和数据访问操作.系统测试结果表明,设计的大型环境地理信息系统对环境地理信息存储和调度的吞吐性能较好,数据输出的误码较低,信息系统具有很好的人工智能性.     

试述环境影响评价报告中的工程分析——以精细化工项目为例

以精细化工项目为例论述环境影响评价报告中工程分析的重要性,找出工程分析的难点,理清思路,确定工程分析的方法。     

环保专项资金财务管理研究

为了提高环保专项资金的利用和管理水平,充分发挥资金的使用效率,提出一种基于成本度量和主成分博弈均衡模型的环保专项资金财务管理模型,构建环保专项资金管理的约束参量体系,采用统计性融资决策方法进行环保专项资金利用的风险性评估,结合稳健性检验方法进行专项资金的管理调度,采用自适应主成分博弈均衡方法实现环保专项资金的成本约束控制和监管优化,提高专项资金的使用效率。研究表明,采用该模型进行环保专项资金管理,能提高资金的利用率,降低资源管理风险。     

环境会计在环保项目财务分析中的应用

环境会计是研究经济发展与环境资源之间的关系,计量、记录环境污染、环境防治、开发、利用的成本费用,并对企业经营过程中对社会环境的维护和开发形成的效益进行合理计量与报告,综合评估环境绩效及环境活动对企业财务成果影响的一门新兴会计学科,它是进行环境保护经济评估的理论基础.以一钢铁公司的污水处理项目为实例,介绍了环境会计在环保项目财务分析中应用的基本方法,尤其是包括常规成本、负债性成本和环境成本在内的生命周期成本的计算方法,可确定环保项目的成本与收益,为同类型项目的财务评价提供参考.运用环境会计的理论和实践,进行环保项目财务分析,目的明确,方法简便可行,操作性强,对于环保项目财务评价及投资决策,具有较高的实用价值.     

Using chemical process simulation to design industrial ecosystems

Chemical process simulation (CPS) software has been widely used by chemical (process) engineers to design, test, optimise, and integrate process plants. It is expected that industrial ecologists to bring these same problem-solving benefits to the design and operation of industrial ecosystems can use CPS. This paper provides industrial ecology researchers and practitioners with an introduction to CPS and an overview of chemical engineering design principles. The paper highlights recent research showing that CPS can be used to model industrial ecosystems, and discusses the benefits of using CPS to address some of the technical challenges facing companies participating in an industrial ecosystem. CPS can be used to (i) quantitatively evaluate and compare the potential environmental and financial benefits of material and energy linkages; (ii) solve general design, retrofit, or operational problems; (iii) help to identify complex and often counter-intuitive solutions; and (iv) evaluate what-if scenarios. CPS should be a useful addition to the industrial ecology toolbox.