Projected impacts to the production of outdoor recreation opportunities across US state park systems due to the adoption of a domestic climate change mitigation policy

Numerous empirical and simulation-based studies have documented or estimated variable impacts to the economic growth of nation states due to the adoption of domestic climate change mitigation policies. However, few studies have been able to empirically link projected changes in economic growth to the provision of public goods and services. In this research, we couple projected changes in economic growth to US states brought about by the adoption of a domestic climate change mitigation policy with a longitudinal panel dataset detailing the production of outdoor recreation opportunities on lands managed in the public interest. Joining empirical data and simulation-based estimates allow us to better understand how the adoption of a domestic climate change mitigation policy would affect the provision of public goods in the future. We first employ a technical efficiency model and metrics to provide decision makers with evidence of specific areas where operational efficiencies within the nation's state park systems can be improved. We then augment the empirical analysis with simulation-based changes in gross state product (GSP) to estimate changes to the states’ ability to provide outdoor recreation opportunities from 2014 to 2020; the results reveal substantial variability across states. Finally, we explore two potential solutions (increasing GSP or increasing technical efficiency) for addressing the negative impacts on the states’ park systems operating budgets brought about by the adoption of a domestic climate change mitigation policy; the analyses suggest increasing technical efficiency would be the most viable solution if/when the US adopts a greenhouse gas reduction policy.     

Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions – a strategy for eco-effective product and system design

Eco-effectiveness and cradle-to-cradle design present an alternative design and production concept to the strategies of zero emission and eco-efficiency. Where eco-efficiency and zero emission seek to reduce the unintended negative consequences of processes of production and consumption, eco-effectiveness is a positive agenda for the conception and production of goods and services that incorporate social, economic, and environmental benefit, enabling triple top line growth.Eco-effectiveness moves beyond zero emission approaches by focusing on the development of products and industrial systems that maintain or enhance the quality and productivity of materials through subsequent life cycles. The concept of eco-effectiveness also addresses the major shortcomings of eco-efficiency approaches: their inability to address the necessity for fundamental redesign of material flows, their inherent antagonism towards long-term economic growth and innovation, and their insufficiency in addressing toxicity issues.A central component of the eco-effectiveness concept, cradle-to-cradle design provides a practical design framework for creating products and industrial systems in a positive relationship with ecological health and abundance, and long-term economic growth. Against this background, the transition to eco-effective industrial systems is a five-step process beginning with an elimination of undesirable substances and ultimately calling for a reinvention of products by reconsidering how they may optimally fulfill the need or needs for which they are actually intended while simultaneously being supportive of ecological and social systems.This process necessitates the creation of an eco-effective system of “nutrient” management to coordinate the material flows amongst actors in the product system. The concept of intelligent materials pooling illustrates how such a system might take shape, in reality.     

中国草地资源利用：生产功能与生态功能的冲突与协调

草地生态系统具有多功能性,既提供多种畜牧产品,同时也具有多样化的生态服务,诸如防风固沙、保持水土、维持生物多样性等。因此,健康的生态系统是生产功能与生态服务和谐并存的统一体。我国有各类天然草地 4×10⁸hm²,其中80%的草地主要分布在干旱、半干旱的北方地区,即主要分布在兴安岭-燕山-吕梁山-秦岭-西藏高原东缘一线以西的广大地区, 这一地区自然条件差,生态系统脆弱。因此,草地生态系统具有保障北方地区畜牧业发展和维护我国生态安全的双重角色。1949年以来,我国草地资源利用中由于长期追求生产功能最大化,忽视了对生态功能和服务的养护,造成生态系统退化,从而影响生态服务的发挥,导致了生产功能与生态服务的冲突。一是在突出生产功能的政策导向下,片面追求草地生产功能最大化,导致大量优质草地被大面积开垦,天然草地资源缩减,出现结构性和功能性的生态退化,生态服务功能受到显著损害。二是由于生产要素投入不足,使得草地系统输出和输入不平衡,难以维持正常的物质和能量循环过程,从而导致生产功能与生态功能的冲突。这主要是由于草地资源是我国的公共财产资源,即使实行草地承包制度后,所有权和使用权的分离,加上缺少政策制度的约束,因此形成了牧民对草地资源的掠夺式利用。三是我国畜产品生产需求增长与生态功能保护需求的矛盾愈加突出。在草地资源开发利用中“重用轻养”的失误既阻碍了我国草地畜牧业的现代化进程,更加剧了我国草地生产功能与生态服务的冲突。所以,在我国人口趋多,耕地趋少,粮食趋紧、畜产品消费趋增的态势下,充分利用占国土面积41%的草地资源,建立生态保护约束下的草地资源利用模式,协调草地生态系统的生产功能和生态服务关系,是解决我国耕地资源不足、维护我国生态安全的重要途径。     

A strategic design approach to develop sustainable product service systems: examples taken from the ‘environmentally friendly innovation’ Italian prize

The product service systems’ (PSS) sustainability potential is described in the framework of the new types of stakeholder relationships and/or partnerships, producing new convergence of economic interests, and a potential concomitant systemic resources optimization.In this perspective, it is argued that the design competencies should move towards those of the ‘strategic design’, thus introducing the concept of ‘strategic design for sustainability’: the design of an innovation strategy, shifting the business focus from designing (and selling) physical products only, to designing (and selling) a system of products and services which are jointly capable of fulfilling specific client demands, while re-orienting current unsustainable trends in production and consumption practices.Some examples of PSS are presented and discussed using the PSS categories ‘services providing added value to the product life cycle’, ‘services providing final results to customers’, and ‘services providing enabling platforms for customers’. The cases derive from an analysis of the ‘environmental friendly innovation’ yearly endowed prize submissions. The Politecnico di Milano University together with the Bocconi University and Legambiente (an environmental NGO) promotes the initiative in Italy.     

Valuation of natural marine ecosystems: an economic perspective

This paper attempts to examine whether information from valuation studies can help the design of policies adequate to reverse and halt the generally poor state of marine and coastal ecosystems of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Economic implications of managing coastal and marine environments are thus discussed by assessing the results of different valuation studies implemented in the area. Lessons and policy recommendations from existing literature are inferred to guide marine resources management decisions. One of our main findings is that there are extremely few published studies within the Mediterranean and Black Sea region which highlights the potential for future research on coastal and marine ecosystems ability to sustain different goods and services as a result of climate change and anthropogenic drivers in the area. However, results reveal that there are substantial positive economic values attached to marketed and non-marketed services provided by marine and coastal ecosystems that justify their sustainable use and management.     

北京市食物消费虚拟水含量研究

虚拟水是指在生产商品和服务过程中消耗的水资源数量。人们在消费商品或服务的过程中,即在消费隐含其中的虚拟水。我国是水资源比较匮乏的国家,且水资源在时间和空间上分布不均匀。随着人口和经济的不断增长,我国对水资源的需求也逐渐增加,缺水问题日益严重。水资源短缺已经成为制约我国社会经济发展的关键因素。虚拟水理论为解决水资源危机提供了新的思路。在居民的虚拟水消费中,食物消费中隐含的虚拟水占很大比例,且食物消费与居民生活息息相关。本文以北京市为例,计算了2009年北京市居民食物消费中隐含的虚拟水含量,并对城乡居民和不同收阶层居民的食物虚拟水消费总量及结构进行了对比分析。结果显示,北京市居民食物消费的虚拟水含量在城乡间及城乡各收入阶层间都存在差异,且城乡间及农村各收入阶层间虚拟水消费结构也存在差异。造成这种差异的原因是消费水平及消费结构的不同。     

Integrated design of remanufacturable products based on product profiles

The mass of products at end of life becomes a real problem for the environment. Thus, industrials are turning their attention to strategies for the management of products at the end-of-life. The remanufacturing is an end-of-life strategy that reduces the use of raw materials and saves energy while preserving the value added during the design and manufacturing processes. But, in most of the cases, remanufacturing processes must be adapted to existing products because products have not been designed to be remanufacturable. However, the process adaptations increase costs and this can lead the overall benefits obtained with the remanufacturing process to be reconsidered.The aim of our research was to propose an approach for the designers to integrate remanufacturing constraints throughout the design process; mainly in the earliest phases. The eco-methodology assists designers in two steps. They are first helped in improving the reliability of a remanufacturing end-of-life strategy for that product on the bases of the analysis of the project context. Then they are guided towards a product whose properties are adapted to remanufacturing. Our approach is built upon remanufacturable product profiles (RPP) encapsulating the knowledge on both remanufacturing contexts and remanufactured product properties.For the product profile definition, eight categories of design criteria were identified based on a survey of about 30 products successfully remanufactured. A statistical analysis was made to identify clusters of products. Then, product profiles were extracted while examining the links between internal and external criteria for each group.This methodology is supported by the tool REPRO² (REmanufacturig with PROduct PROfiles) that we have developed, which should lead to a real integrated design of remanufacturable products. Indeed, designers assisted with this tool, made early design by product profiling. It gives specific information to improve the internal technical definition of the product under study from a remanufacturing point of view.     

A decomposition of the end of life process

New legislation on electronics waste in Europe will set formal requirements for product end of life (EOL) processes. These include producer responsibility for obsolete product take-back, pre-treatment and recycling. A structure is needed for the complex interactions between technical, environmental, socio-economic and legislative factors in product take-back and EOL treatment. EOL process can be divided into three distinct stages with different characteristics and stakeholders. The first stage is the organization of an effective take-back process. The second is the structural pre-treatment and fragmentation of the product. The third stage is the recycling and disposal processes of the product material content. In this paper we propose a simplified economic model for an EOL process for mobile terminals. We use the model to create a step-by-step EOL process. Furthermore, we present through examples, technical as well as engineering process solutions in promoting economic implementation of the EOL processes.     

Developing sustainable products and services

In light of increasing pressures to adopt a more sustainable approach to product design and manufacture, the requirement to develop sustainable products is one of the key challenges facing industry in the 21st century. Hence, the concept of developing sustainable products as well as services is evolving as a key element of Cleaner Production. Sustainable product development initiatives (mainly through eco-design) have been evolving for some time to support companies develop more sustainable products. Ireland has been running the highly successful Environmentally Superior Products (ESP) initiative that supports industrial companies to incorporate a more sustainable approach to the development of products and/or services. The lessons learned from the ESP and other global Sustainable Product and Service Developments in industry and research, are being used to develop a method for effective sustainable product and/or service development (SPSD) in industry. The method is designed to provide pragmatic guidance to business and industry for developing sustainable products and services as well as incorporating this approach within existing corporate strategy, cleaner production and product development systems. This method is being developed by the authors at the Environmental Policy and Management Group (EPMG), Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Imperial College London, UK in conjunction with industry and practitioners. The method provides a framework for implementing SPSD throughout the entire lifecycle of a product and/or service. It can be used to identify, assess and implement the options for optimum sustainability in the design and development of a product and/or service. This paper describes the key features of this method.     

甘肃省2003年的水足迹评价

水足迹是指在一定的物质生活水平下,维持一定人群消费所需要的总的水资源数量。由于考虑了社会经济系统中虚拟水的消费量,水足迹真实地反映了一个地区人类消费对水资源的占有情况,为水资源科学管理提供了一个新的方法。论文引入了水足迹的概念和计算方法及其相关评价指标,计算分析了2003年甘肃省的水足迹。结果表明,甘肃省2003年的水足迹总量为226.67×10^{8,/sup>m3,人均水足迹878m3,水足迹占总可更新水资源的26%,水资源消费自给率为99.52%,如此高的水资源消费占用比例和自给率,对甘肃省生态环境造成了巨大的压力。}     

中国主要农产品生产的生态足迹研究

生态足迹是追踪和评价人类生活生产方式对自然依赖与影响的有效工具。近年来生态足迹研究向中观产业部门与微观产品扩展,但面临着生态足迹系数匮乏的制约。研究综合运用生命周期理念、物质流分析技术与生态足迹模型,根据2010 年中国平均生产效率,核算了近80 种农产品离开生产系统时的生态足迹,并采用消费品-土地利用矩阵的形式详细地呈现其生态足迹组分信息。核算得到的农产品生态足迹系数反映了产品生产的生态效率与生态影响,为在个人、家庭、社区、组织、区域等不同尺度上核算人类生产和消费的生态足迹提供了基础参数。     

A Framework for Benefit-Cost Analysis of Adaptation to Climate Change and Climate Variability

The potential damages of climate change and climate variability are dependent upon the responses or adaptations that people make to their changing environment. By adapting the management of resources, the mix and methods of producing goods and services, choices of leisure activities, and other behavior, people can lessen the damages that would otherwise result. A framework for assessing the benefits and costs of adaptation to both climate change and climate variability is described in the paper. The framework is also suitable for evaluating the economic welfare effects of climate change, allowing for autonomous adaptation by private agents. The paper also briefly addresses complications introduced by uncertainty regarding the benefits of adaptation and irreversibility of investments in adaptation. When investment costs are irreversible and there is uncertainty about benefits, the usual net present value criterion for evaluating the investment gives the wrong decision. If delaying an adaptation project is possible, and if delay will permit learning about future benefits of adaptation, it may be preferable to delay the project even if the expected net present value is positive. Implications of this result for adaptation policy are discussed in the paper.     

Partitioning of resources in production: an empirical analysis

Industrial economies ingest materials, energy and information to produce goods and services and excrete wastes and emissions. Wastes can be minimized and the relative amounts of resources, which go into goods and services, as opposed to waste, are essential to clean production and to the sustainability of the production system. A regression model based on empirical data is presented that provides a partition coefficient expressing the ratio of energy (or material) resources invested in goods to energy going to waste. Partition coefficients are developed for five countries and are shown to be related to GDP, energy and material consumption and energy and waste intensities. Higher partition coefficients mean higher productivity and lower energy, waste and material intensities. In addition, energy use/capita and pollution/capita is lower. The price of energy to the industrial sector is related to the partition coefficient. The policy implications are that partitioning of resources to goods should be maximized and waste minimized for economic as well as environmental reasons.     

Alternative function fulfilment: incorporating environmental considerations into increased design space

The focal point of this paper is the relatively unknown concept of alternative function fulfilment (AFF), which is a design strategy that can be used to generate new ways of fulfilling a certain function and is referred to in the context of ecodesign. It can be considered an attractive environmental innovation strategy, provided that the increased design space is used to create more sustainable products and services.This paper explores the AFF concept and discusses the implications of adopting this concept. It thus focuses on how design and business processes may need to change to allow the radical shift towards AFF, in order to facilitate the envisaged significant environmental improvements.     

Diversity of eco-innovations: Reflections from selected case studies

An analytical framework is developed in this paper in order to explore the diversity of eco-innovations according to several key dimensions (design, user, product service and governance). The framework is used to analyse a set of case studies of eco-innnovation processes. The diversity of the analysed eco-innovations appears to be considerable; each of them involves different kinds of combinations of elements pertaining to those dimensions. Albeit the design dimension is decisive to determine the environmental impacts of the innovation, all dimensions can play a significant role in the management of eco-innovation. Our findings suggest that the capacity of eco-innovations to provide new business opportunities and contribute to the transformation towards a sustainable society depends on the interplay of those dimensions and the engagement of key stakeholders in the innovation process.     

Handling trade-offs in Ecodesign tools for sustainable product development and procurement

Trade-off situations often occur in the product development and procurement processes when alternative solutions emphasize different aspects that have to be balanced against each other. Ecodesign tools can be used in both product development and purchasing, for example to prescribe design alternatives, assess environmental impacts or to compare environmental improvement alternatives. However, it is not always clear what should be chosen in trade-off situations. In this study, 15 different Ecodesign tools were analyzed to ascertain whether a valuation is included in the tools, in what way the tools give support in different types of trade-off situations and whether the tools provide support from a sustainability perspective.Nine of the 15 tools analyzed included a valuation and were able to provide support in a trade-off situation, but the support was not sufficient. The valuation should include a life cycle perspective and a framework for sustainability. Otherwise, it can lead to strategically incorrect decisions from a sustainability perspective with concomitant risks of sub-optimized investment paths and blind alleys. However, all the analyzed tools can be complemented with other tools and methods based on strategic planning towards sustainability in order to include a framework for sustainability.     

基于环境外部经济性的环境治理手段——以滇池白鱼河河口湿地地块的模拟案例为例

为了解决湿地建设投资渠道的问题,提出了利用环境外部经济性来改善和保护环境的发展思路。其重点是将湿地从普通概念上的公共产品转化为一段时限内的经营性项目,利用某种经营项目所产生的对环境的外部经济性来改善环境。为了验证上述思路的可行性,结合滇池湿地现状,利用湿地的自然景观价值,通过企业对这种生态景观环境的资源化利用过程,即湿地景观建设和管养,增强对污染水体的治理等角度进行了实际模拟实验。     

选择试验模型法在澳门固体废弃物管理中的应用

环境物品或环境服务的经济价值评估是环境经济学研究的前沿领域.选择试验模型法是目前国际上用于评估环境物品经济价值的一种新方法.本文以澳门的固体废弃物管理为例,探讨选择试验模型法在澳门进行环境物品经济价值评估实践的可行性.在专家咨询和小组讨论的基础上,确定垃圾分选和回收、垃圾收集频率、减小垃圾收集过程中产生的噪音和垃圾处理费为澳门固体废弃物管理的4个属性.在对澳门6个堂260名居民进行随机抽样调查的基础上,分析了澳门固体废弃物管理不同属性的价值以及固体废弃物管理不同替代方案的相对价值.结果表明,实行垃圾分选和回收利用以及减小垃圾收集过程中产生的噪声是澳门今后固体废弃物管理的合理选择.     

试论投资项目环境评价的理论基础

对投资项目进行环境影响评价是人类社会发展的必然产物,是人类实现可持续发展的必然要求,是有效解决人类生态困境的根本性环节之一.目前对投资项目的环境影响评价明显不足,现阶段,应加强其理论基础的研究.以可持续发展为目标对环境生态学、环境经济学和环境系统科学等相关理论进行深入的研究,并采取相应措施是进行有效环境影响评价的重要保证.     

Emergy as a tool for Ecodesign: evaluating materials selection for beverage packages in Brazil

The life of a product begins with the initial product design concepts; the costs and potential impacts of a product are heavily influenced by the final design, the production processes, the economic and environmental costs of all raw materials. Additionally, both of these factors are very much affected by how the products are managed during and after consumer usage. Thus, there is an urgent need for a tool to facilitate the integration and assessment of environmental and economic demands into the product planning and development processes. The introduction of environmental accounting based on emergy as a tool to assist in product design is proposed. This complementary tool may be inserted into the conventional design methodology to facilitate in the selection of materials and processes as well as in the actual design of the products. To illustrate the application of the proposed method for material selection, PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles and aluminum cans for beverage packaging are compared. Despite the exceptional condition of aluminum recycling in Brazil, results show that the best option for beverage packages is the PET bottles.