A value proposition: Resource recovery from faecal sludge—Can it be the driver for improved sanitation?

There is currently a lack of access to affordable sanitation in urban areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. This study evaluated the potential for resource recovery from innovative faecal sludge treatment processes to generate a profit that could help sustain the sanitation service chain. A total of 242 interviews were conducted in Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; and Kampala, Uganda to compare markets in different cultural and regional contexts. Products identified to have potential market value include dry sludge as a fuel for combustion, biogas from anaerobic digestion, protein derived from sludge processing as animal feed, sludge as a component in building materials, and sludge as a soil conditioner. The market demand and potential revenue varied from city to city based on factors such as sludge characteristics, existing markets, local and regional industrial sectors, subsidies, and locally available materials. Use as a soil conditioner, which has been the most common end use of treated sludge, was not as profitable as other end uses. These findings should help policy and decision makers of sanitation service provision to design financially viable management systems based on resource recovery options.     

Future markets: An alternative for stabilizing secondary materials markets?

The authors present an economic justification for extramarket intervention in the markets for secondary materials and briefly discuss the possible impacts of futures trading on the cash market for a commodity. These impacts are applied to the markets for secondary materials and the potential effects are assessed. They conclude with a rationale for public participation in initiating a scrap futures market.     

Market imperfections in recycling markets: conceptual issues and empirical study of price volatility in plastics

The effectiveness of recycling depends upon efficient functioning of secondary material markets. This paper focus on the role that price volatility can play in slowing investment and market development. However, a statistical analysis of the relative volatility of secondary and primary material prices does not confirm the widely-held belief that relative price volatility is higher in secondary than in primary materials, at least at national levels.An econometric estimation of the determinants of plastic recovery volumes in Seattle contributes to the literature in four ways: the use of monthly (as opposed to annual) data; the use of local (as opposed to national) data; the use of an explanatory variable to reflect price volatility; and, the focus on plastics, which have not been examined previously. Some tentative conclusions can be made: the results generally support the principal hypothesis that price volatility has a negative effect on recovery of secondary materials; in addition, and consistent with previous studies, price elasticities are low and insignificant; and finally, policy factors are clearly important. The concluding section treats the economic and policy implications of market inefficiency in secondary material markets.     

国际碳排放权交易模式的更替发展与协同优化路径

实现碳中和是各国应对气候变化的共同选择。碳市场作为以碳排放权交易为核心的市场机制是加速全球碳排放目标实现的重要途径之一。尽管当前全球碳市场的发展仍呈现区域性和碎片化状态,但随着能源危机的加剧,极端气候灾难的不确定性增多,未来通过碳市场领域的国际合作实现全球碳市场的协同以应对气候变化仍是大势所趋。本文试图通过对国际碳市场进行回顾和类型化总结,并就《巴黎协定》下国际碳交易模式的协同困境从技术、制度和参与程度三个维度开展分析。作者认为,如欲加快全球碳交易的协同进程,应尽快完善国际碳交易中的技术适用细节,提升碳交易相关制度的适用力度,扩大碳交易相关制度的适用范围,加强发展中国家的碳市场的基础建设,拓展发展中国家碳交易市场建设支持来源,最终建立全球碳价格统一机制。提前布局研究碳市场的跨境连接方案对于中国而言极具现实意义,本文最后对中国参与全球碳交易市场的国际合作前景作出了展望。     

Markets for advanced structural ceramics

The potential market for advanced structural ceramics is large but also uncertain. In this paper a quantitative framework is used to investigate the production economics and potential markets for ceramic materials in four representative applications, ie cutting tool inserts, turbocharger rotors, automotive valve guides and mechanical seals. The economic and technical conditions necessary for growth to be demonstrated in these ceramic markets are identified and estimates are made of feasible market size values, both in dollars and pounds of powder consumed.     

Environmental education for small- and medium-sized enterprises: methodology and e-learning experience in the Valencian region

The last decades have shown an increasing social demand for environmental awareness, which firms are inevitably required to adapt to. More and more, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are finding it necessary to train their staff in environmental issues if they wish to survive in a market where it is no longer sufficient to excel in price competitiveness exclusively, but where quality, service and environmental standards also play an important role.     

Stabilising secondary materials markets

This paper argues that ‘secondary materials’ — waste products — are now an integral part of the global commodities problem. It analyses the background to attempts being made in several advanced economies to intervene in secondary materials markets. The forms of intervention are exact analogues of those that have been tried, or are being considered, and centre on buffer-stock schemes which aim to stabilise prices. In turn, stabilised markets have been thought to be a prerequisite for increasing the long-run supply of secondary materials. The paper casts doubt on the usefulness of such schemes for a selected product — waste paper — and presents a simulation exercise for the existence of a buffer-stock scheme.     

Scrap tires to crumb rubber: feasibility analysis for processing facilities

Crumb rubber can be produced from scrap tires in a wide range of particle sizes and quality levels. Ideally, the revenue stream includes tipping fees paid to receive the raw materials; sales of variously-sized crumb products to different end-user markets; and potential sales of scrap metal and fiber contained within the tires. General demand has been increasing, and submarkets for crumb products are growing in size and variety. However, the optimistic expectations of potential investors and government agencies contrast sharply with the experiences of many current and former producers. Production planning and operation is complex, real-dollar crumb prices have fallen, and many producers recount difficulties finding stable markets and competing against newer, state-subsidized competitors. This paper examines the engineering economics of crumb rubber facilities. Following a literature review and interviews with producers, a financial model of a nominal processing operation was created to aid the analysis of different market, crumb size, and production scenarios. The profitability of a crumb facility appears to be particularly sensitive to crumb rubber prices, operating costs, and raw material availability. Better analysis of market and production impacts on financial viability for proposed processing facilities would aid overall market efficiency.     

Recycling and householder attitudes: A survey of Norwich

This paper incorporates the results of a survey of recycling activity and attitudes in one UK community, the city of Norwich. The principal aims of the study were to identify the operation of the local market in secondary materials and to assess householder attitudes towards new recycling ventures and the use of recycled paper products. The main findings of the study indicate that a well established secondary paper and metals markets does exist in Norwich. Householder attitudes to recycled products seem, as far as paper is concerned, to depend upon the quality (texture and colour) of the products. As for the collection of secondary materials, better deployment of existing volunteer/charity based groups would appear to be a more ‘economic’ strategy than direct local authority involvement.     

Feasibility of water purification technology in rural areas of developing countries

Water scarcity is threatening social and economic growth in rural areas of developing countries. There are potential markets for water purification technologies in these regions. The main focus of this article is to evaluate the social, economic and political feasibilities of providing water purification technologies to rural areas of developing countries. The findings of this research can serve as the basis for private investors interested in entering this market. Four representative regions were selected for the study. Economic, demographic, and environmental variables of each region were collected and analyzed along with domestic markets and political information. Rural areas of the developing world are populated with poor people unable to fulfill the basic needs for clean water and sanitation. These people represent an important group of potential users. Due to economic, social, and political risks in these areas, it is difficult to build a strong case for any business or organization focusing on immediate returns on capital investment. A plausible business strategy would be to approach the water purification market as a corporate responsibility and social investing in the short term. This would allow an organization to be well positioned once the economic ability of individuals, governments, and donor agencies are better aligned.     

Authority Pooling and Regional Organic Agriculture Standard-Setting: Evidence from East Africa

A key characteristic of global organic agriculture governance through standards is the coexistence of regulatory fragmentation and regional integration. To reduce barriers to organic trade, especially for market participants from developing countries, international and transnational entrepreneurs increasingly promote the setting of organic agriculture standards (OAS) in different world regions, for example, in East Africa, the Pacific, or Asia. Although scholars from different disciplines have done a lot of research on the role of standards in global governance, we still know little about why and how regional standard-setting processes evolve. Applying findings from regime analysis, entrepreneurship, and political authority, the article introduces the concept of authority pooling. It argues that legal, moral, and technical authority sources interact in a blurred functional division of labour between the public and the private sector in standard-setting. The article presents results from a within-case study of the development of the East African Organic Products Standard using the process-tracing method. It detects the underlying causal mechanism by which international and transnational entrepreneurs pooled different authority sources and, thus, significantly influenced political actors in East Africa to set the first regional OAS in the developing world.     

Managing Drought Through Water Markets: Farmer Preferences in the Rio Grande Basin1

Abstract: Managing drought in agriculture has taken on growing importance as population growth and environmental concerns place increasing pressures on agricultural water use. One alternative for agricultural water resource management in areas of recurrent drought is allocation through market mechanisms. While past research has aimed to explain why farmers are reluctant to participate in already established water markets, this research seeks to identify the appropriate market mechanism given farmers’ preexisting attitudes toward water markets. Statistical analysis of survey data from 166 farmer interviews in the Rio Grande Basin indicate that farmers are significantly more likely to participate in short‐term water mechanisms, such as spot water markets and water banks than in permanent transfer mechanisms, particularly those that fully separate water rights from land. In sharp contrast to expectations, the choice of market mechanism did not differ significantly between farmers based on their a priori intention to buy, sell or both buy and sell in these markets. Choice of market mechanism also did not differ among farmer types although small, lifestyle or hobby farmers clearly preferred spot water markets to other types of short‐term mechanisms. Evaluating these attitudes a priori may help to design more suitable water market mechanisms for the basin.     

The Climate Value of Cycling

The reduction of CO₂ emissions constitutes one of the largest challenges of the current era. Sustainable transportation, and especially cycling, can contribute to the mitigation of CO₂ emissions since cycling possesses an intrinsic zero‐emission value. Few studies have been conducted that appraise the CO₂ reduction potential of cycling. Opportunity costs enable the estimation of avoided CO₂ emissions resulting from bicycle trips. The methodology developed in this research allows the attribution of a climate value to cycling by substituting bicycle trips with their most likely alternative transportation modes and calculating the resulting additional CO₂ emissions. The methodology uses data on the current modal shares of cycling mobility, the competition of cycling with other transportation modes, and CO₂ emission factors to calculate the climate value of cycling. When it is assumed that the avoided CO₂ emissions of cycling mobility could be traded on financial carbon markets, the climate value of cycling represents a monetary value. Application of the methodology to the case of Bogotá, Colombia — a city with a current bicycle modal share of 3.3% on a total of 10 million daily trips — results in a climate value of cycling of 55,115 tons of CO₂ per year, corresponding to an economic value of between 1 and 7 million US dollars when traded on the carbon market.     

Information technology — a challenge for the sparsely populated areas

The computer and telecommunications technology has created new opportunities for developing interaction between offices and enterprises located far away from each other. Even if the market forces favour concentration to R & D centres in the big cities and in university towns, there are expectations that the distance over‐bridging qualities of the new technology can create development opportunities for sparsely populated peripheral areas. In this paper the interplay between the new technology and other important factors in the local and regional environment are discussed with the focus on both opportunities and restrictions.     

ADMINISTRATIVE,INSTITUTIONAL, AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ACTIVE WATER MARKET1

ABSTRACT: Voluntary water transfers through markets have been advocated by many diverse groups as a means to reallocate scarce water supplies in the semi-arid western U.S. Although transfers of water rights have occurred almost since the creation of prior appropriation laws over a century ago, functioning water markets have been very slow to develop and are few in number. The structure, composition, administration and transactions of one of the most well established water markets, shares in the Bureau of Reclamation, Colorado-Big Thompson project, are examined to better understand the institutional and transfer conditions that sustain an active water market. Results from a detailed study of C-BT project records reveal that between 1970 and 1993 there were 2,698 transactions through which over one-third of the project water changed ownership or type of use. Further analysis shows that the transactions involved many individual sellers and categories of buyers with different uses, including agricultural buyers. The transfer activity and efficiency of the C-BT market has lead some to suggest that it be used as a model for other markets. However, because this market has fewer institutional restrictions, a well developed infrastructure and unique market conditions, it will be difficult to transfer this model to other areas without accompanying modifications in water right administration and institutions.     

Fostering green innovation in achieving sustainable performance

Nowadays, sustainable development has been underlined as critical in relation to firm performance and is becoming a global concern. Green innovation is believed to be a fundamental approach to environmental protection and determines the firms' competitiveness. Many factors drive the success of adopting green innovation. Unfortunately, many studies generally focus on large industries. This study investigates the influence of the firms' external pressure and internal factors simultaneously on the adoption of green innovation in small enterprises in developing countries. We conceptualized the four factors that may determine the successful implementation of green innovation to achieve sustainable performance, including environmental regulations, customer pressure, resources and capabilities, and management commitment. Data were gathered from 160 food sector SMEs in Malang Raya, Indonesia. Data analysis used structural equation modeling with the partial least squares approach (SEM-PLS). The empirical results conclude the positive effects of customer pressure, resources and capabilities, and commitment management on green innovation, which in turn had a positive on sustainable performance. The results also confirmed that environmental regulations did not significantly impact green innovation. The findings provide valuable contributions and encourage SMEs to foster green innovation's potential for better sustainable performance and competitive advantage. The findings also offer integrated perspectives on how firms should be more innovative toward sustainability.     

Policy,Institutional and Market Barriers to the Implementation of Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) in China

China is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world, with potentially about two thirds of total Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) for Asia on the world carbon market (). Since 68% of its primary energy is from coal, China's average energy intensity is 7.5 times higher than the EU and 4.3 times higher than the US (EU, 2003 The European Union on-line. (2003). (http://europa.eu.int/index_ns_en.htm accessed Oct 2003  [Google Scholar]). Therefore, introducing advanced clean technologies and management to China represents opportunities for Annex I countries to obtain low-cost CERs through CDM projects, and access to one of the largest potential energy conservation markets in the world.

CDM can provide a win-win solution for both China and Annex I countries, and the Chinese government considers that the introduction of CDM projects can bring advanced energy technologies and foreign investment to China, thereby helping China's sustainable economy and generating CERs. As energy efficiency is generally low and carbon intensity is high in both China's energy supply and demand sectors, numerous options exist for cost-effective energy conservation and GHG mitigation with CDM.

This paper reviews current Chinese policies and administrative and institutional settings for CDM cooperation, and discusses existing policy, institutional and other barriers in the energy market by drawing on observations and experience from previous initiatives such as Cleaner Production and energy efficiency. Some options to remove these barriers are addressed. In order to make CDM projects feasible, China's government needs to promote awareness, streamline administrative systems, and be more active in building a competitive edge in the world carbon market.     

Evaluating the potential of biodiesel (via recycled cooking oil) use in Singapore,an urban city

Singapore has pledged to attain 7–11% Business-As-Usual carbon emissions reduction by 2020. About 19% of CO₂ contribution stemmed from road transport in 2005. Commercial vehicles, which uses mainly diesel, consumed 695 million litres diesel in 2012. An estimated 115,585 tonnes or 127 million litres cooking oils (derived from seeds/fruits) were consumed in 2010, in which the bulk of used cooking oil is re-incorporated into the food preparation process while only a small amount is being recycled into biodiesel or disposed into the sewerage. Nevertheless, the present research reveals that biodiesel derived from spent cooking oil has potential to be a viable fuel supplement. Surveys were carried out involving three market segments – suppliers, processors and end-users – to identify the barriers and obstacles in mass production of biodiesel. A key enabler of biodiesel as a fuel supplement towards a greener environment lies in government mandate/policies in promoting greater biodiesel usage.     

Farmers’ market governance and its role on consumer motives and outcomes

Local food systems and farmers' markets across the USA have experienced unprecedented growth and development in the past 20 years. While scholarship has examined participant demographics and motives for engaging in farmers' markets, few studies have considered the coupled nature of those attending the markets with institutional governance systems used for market coordination. This study examined participation in farmers' markets under the framework of high and low market governance systems, specifically considering the demographics, values for local foods, motives for attending farmers' markets, and outcomes of the experience based on the dichotomous governance classification. Governance was characterized using four attributes: market rules or policies, paid employee(s), a rule governing geography of food origin, and affiliation with an organisation or agency. Our results suggest that market governance may impact (1) which consumers attend the market, (2) motives among those who attend the market, and (3) satisfaction outcome levels among market participants. By better understanding how the emerging governance system impacts who ultimately attends the market (and the outcomes of the experience), agencies coordinating farmers' markets and market managers can ultimately improve the market's reach and experience with greater intentionality.     

Progress on including CCS projects in the CDM: Insights on increased awareness,market potential and baseline methodologies

The inclusion of CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) in the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is still subject to controversy and discussion. A myriad of barriers prevents CCS in the CDM. Apart from political barriers, economic, social and procedural barriers play a role. This paper discusses relevant new results on the human capacity, procedural feasibility and economic potential of CCS in the CDM. The conclusions of a capacity building effort in Africa show that awareness and knowledge are low but that capacity building efforts are well received. A reality check on methodologies for hypothetical CCS projects shows that most of the issues can be resolved, and the CDM institutional arrangements can accommodate CCS. A bottom-up estimate of the potential of natural gas processing CCS in the CDM, based on a previously proprietary database from the oil and gas industry, suggests that there is an annual potential of about 174 MtCO₂ in 2020 in that sector. Most of that potential can be realized at CER prices between $20 and $30/tCO₂ but there is no sign of flooding the CDM market with cheap credits from CCS projects. Despite these results and more open information, the CCS and CDM debate, progress in the negotiations on CCS in the CDM is slow and there is no clear view on a solution.