Biomass fuel use,burning technique and reasons for the denial of improved cooking stoves by Forest User Groups of Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary,Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the structural linkages of product quality, corporate image, store image, and price on customer satisfaction and loyalty towards green products usage in Malaysia. The research used structural equation modelling technique via AMOS 21.0 computer program for data analysis across a sample of 200 university students who applies a green lifestyle, such as purchasing green products which are referring to only retail goods, using recyclable products, and ozone-free products. Empirical analysis divulged that product quality followed by corporate image, store image, and product price jointly affected customer satisfaction in using green products. They are highly concerned that the green store provides a variety of good quality products with good value for money. Marketers should aggressively promote the identification of green products and overcome the problem of just noticeable difference between green product and non-green product among consumers for business sustainability. Empirical findings provide valuable insights to put forth in outlining effective marketing strategies that widen the marketers’ understanding of consumer behaviour in using green products with regard to their satisfaction and loyalty levels from the perspective of product quality, corporate image, store image, and product prices in Malaysia markets.     

Sustainable consumption: the effects of knowledge,cultural values,environmental advertising,and demographics

As a result of human lifestyles and unsustainable consumption patterns, the environment continues to deteriorate and thus inhibit sustainable development. In order to curb this situation and promote a sustainable economy, one of the solution is to reduce conventional products consumption and shift to green products. Over the past 20 years, marketing managers keenly seek to understand the green market; however, inadequate information on how to promote consumers’ green behavioral intentions is slowing the growth of green markets and becomes a barrier for firms when developing segments and communicating strategies for effective promotion of green products in countries like Malaysia where the trend is fairly new. Therefore, this study attempts to examine the impact of environmental knowledge, cultural values, and environmental advertising and determine the moderating effect of income level, education level, and gender on consumers’ green purchase intentions. A survey was administered, and a total of 405 valid questionnaires were obtained. Structural equation modeling technique was used to evaluate the causal model by using SmartPLS 2.0 software. The finding results suggest that cultural values and environmental advertising are the main influences in building green purchase intentions, while environmental knowledge is not significantly related. The results also indicate that education level and gender have a significant positive moderation effect while income did not. This suggests that green purchase intentions’ motivational factors are greater among highly educated individuals, with females in particular. The discussions and implications of these findings are further elaborated.     

绿色消费认知和意愿的行为学调查与分析

绿色消费是解决当前中国环境污染的重要战略组成部分,本文研究了对上海市开展的关于绿色消费1200余份调查问卷。研究结果显示:1)人们环境意识和绿色消费意愿普遍提高,98%的受访者愿意为保护环境做出自身行为的改变。2)绿色消费认知参差不齐。对绿色产品的认知渠道不多,绿色产品的标签知晓率低于30%。3)绿色消费意愿强烈但支付能力还有限,82%的消费者愿意购买绿色产品,但支付不能超过同类普通商品10%的额外费用。研究结果还表明:绿色消费与性别、年龄、职业以及学历等具有相关关系。     

Warm glow from green power: Evidence from Australian electricity consumers

Green electricity products are increasingly made available to consumers in many countries in order to address a number of environmental and social concerns. Most of the literature on this green electricity market focuses on consumers’ characteristics and product attributes that could affect participation. However, the contribution of this environmental consumerism to the overall environmental good does not depend on participation alone. The real impact relies on market participation for green consumers (the proportion of green consumers) combined with the level of green consumption intensity – the commitment levels, or proportion of consumption that is green. We design an online interface that closely mimics the real market decision environment for electricity consumers in Western Australia and use an error component model to analyze consumers’ choice of green electricity products and their commitment levels. We show that product attributes have limited impact on the choice of green products; however, there is still great potential for better participation by improving the design of green electricity programs. When green products are selected, most respondents select the minimum commitment possible, and this is insensitive to the premium being charged on green power, suggesting that we are largely observing a buy-in ‘warm glow’ for carbon mitigation.     

Transnational environmental standards in Eastern Europe: an assessment of companies in Lithuania and their adoption motives

During the last few decades, many environmental certification schemes were developed to enhance transparency and traceability within commodity chains. Most of them are transnational schemes, which means that they were created by non-governmental organizations and/or the private sector, independently from governments. This article aims to examine how local certified companies assess the functioning of such private environmental certification. It presents the results of an empirical research about the expectations and satisfaction of certified companies in Lithuania. Empirical data were collected through a survey with 90 companies certified by one of the three major transnational environmental standards: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for the forestry and logging, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for fishing and aquaculture, and Oeko-Tex for the production of textiles. The results revealed that most companies have adopted these standards quite recently, indicating that it is generally a new trend in Lithuania. The findings suggest that the overall expectations with the standards’ functions, such as sending signals to clients or getting more market share, were higher than the satisfaction in all cases. The main transnational environmental standard adoption motive was the client demand. It turned out, however, that later after the certification procedure the majority of the companies were most satisfied with the market opportunities that opened up. Furthermore, the companies expected certification to operate best as a market-based mechanism; but most satisfactory performance was accredited to the signalling mechanism. Research suggests that certification provides various benefits for the companies, but the expectations might be rather exaggerated.     

Measurement of sustainability performance in Brazilian organizations

In recent years, sustainability issues are gaining greater prominence among organizations and their stakeholders around the world. This paper aims to verify the sustainability performance of Brazilian organizations in performance measures and to propose sustainable guidelines with the intention of directing future efforts to the transition to sustainable development. The research utilized a triangulated approach by collecting qualitative and quantitative data acquired through multiple collection methods of a theoretical literature review, documentary analysis of corporate reports, questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews with industry professionals and academic researchers. The results show that internal organizational factors are the main inductors of the sustainable environment in organizations, and sustainability must be tied to strategic planning, starting from upper management to lower levels. It is essential to use sustainable performance measurement systems in order to respond to external and internal levers and serve as benchmarking for future corporate operations and strategies. In addition, it is the responsibility of organizations to focus their efforts on environmental protection, reduction of energy, corporate reputation, quality management, customer satisfaction and investor relations, as they are considered to be more important and have a relationship of dependence on organizational sustainability. The findings will be of value to professionals and academics who want to start measuring and for continuously improving the sustainability performance of their organizations according to the technical, economic, environmental, social and governance dimensions. This research work also helps to understand the perceptions and expectations of stakeholders.     

环境中的氧化多环芳烃综述

氧化多环芳烃(OPAHs)是芳环上具有至少一个羰基氧(C=O)的PAH衍生物,广泛存在于环境中.氧化多环芳烃主要通过含碳燃料的燃烧和PAHs的转化释放到环境中,且其较稳定难降解,因此OPAHs被称为生物和化学降解的"末端产物".目前,在多种动物组织样本中都可检测出OPAHs,并发现OPAHs可能比亲代PAHs具有更强的毒性.本文阐述了OPAHs的理化性质、来源、测定方法、环境分布、转运和转化、(生态)毒理学效应及其毒性作用机制,并对今后的研究方向进行了展望,进而为该类化合物的环境污染及生态风险评估提供相应参考.     

An overview of the environmental finance policies in China: retrofitting an integrated mechanism for environmental management

Considering the significant roles of the policies in developing environmental finance, an overview is conducted on the environmental finance policies （EFPs） in China. This paper analyzed the definition, scope, evolution and main instruments of EFPs. The implementation progress of financial activities on each instrument are investigated respectively. Then the experiences learned from and failures discovered in the development of the EFPs are discussed well recommendations for further improvement of the EFPs and their implementation are provided. Our study found that the EFPs have been established in China after a four-phase evolution since the early 1980s. The policies have played a critical role in leading to a rapid development in environmental finance by involving more financial instruments to accomplish the objective-led environmental plans. Driven by the policies, the new green credit （GC）, green security （GS）, and green insurance （GI） instruments have been phased in as supplements to the conventional command and control approaches to improve the environmental governance of financial activities and pollution sources. However, the market mechanism of financial institution is limited due to their defensive and incapable performance on implementation some of EFP instruments. To further strengthen the effectiveness of EFPs in facilitating environmental man- agement, recommendations are made mainly on the aspects including developing more specific policy guidelines, enhancing information sharing and disclosure, providing sufficient economic incentives, establishing environmental liabilities with financial activities, and involving issues related to climate change, and biodiversity and ecosystem service.     

北京市环境政策评价研究

选取北京市 1985— 1999年环境经济数据 ,建立北京市经济增长与环境污染水平计量模型 ,为评价北京市环境政策提供依据。此实证研究得出两个重要结论 :北京市环境指标与人均GDP演替轨迹呈现显著的环境库兹涅茨曲线特征 ;但比发达国家较早实现了其环境库兹涅茨曲线转折点     

环境保护与国际贸易

从国际环境标准,绿色产品环境标志,国际环保公约等方面研究了近几年环境保护对国际贸易的影响,并根据目前国际环保发展趋势,提出了保护环境和促进我国对外贸易的对策。     

超高效液相色谱法对塑料玩具中16种环境雌激素的同时测定

含有环境雌激素的塑料玩具及儿童用品有可能被小孩放进口中,如果放置的时间足够长,就会导致雌激素的溶出量超过安全水平,危害儿童的肝脏和肾脏,也可引起儿童性早熟。采用超高效液相色谱法,对塑料玩具中16种环境雌激素类化合物进行检测,建立了超高效液相色谱法同时测定塑料玩具中16种环境雌激素的方法。采用超生萃取法进行提取,使用乙醇作为提取溶剂,在前处理过程中对样品进行无水硫酸钠脱水处理,使杂质显著降低;以乙腈-水为流动相,考察了5种具有不同选择性的UPLC色谱柱对16种环境雌激素的分离效果,结果表明,16种环境雌激素在ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18色谱柱上获得了最为理想的分离效果。该方法的回收率为93.6%～98.8%,RSD为0.5%～2.3%,检出限达0.11～0.76 ng。采用本方法对市售的28种儿童塑料玩具进行了检测,检出的环境雌激素有DEHP、DCHP、DMP、DNOP,其它未检出,其中DEHP、DCHP和DMP检出率相对较高,分别占32.8%、24.5%、19.5%,DNOP则最小,检出率为10.4%。此方法简便、易行、分离度较好,可作为测定塑料玩具中增塑剂环境雌激素类化合物的方法。     

Corporate governance and green innovation

We study the relationship between corporate governance and firms׳ environmental innovation. Exploiting changes in antitakeover legislation in the US, we show that worse governed firms generate fewer green patents relative to all their innovations. This negative effect is greater for firms with a smaller share of institutional ownership, with a smaller stock of green patents, and with more binding financial constraints. Investigating regulatory and industry variations, we also find more pronounced effects for firms operating in states with lower pollution abatement costs, and in sectors less dependent on energy inputs. Overall, our results suggest that ineffective corporate governance may constitute a major obstacle to environmental efficiency.     

The effectiveness of cluster approach to improve environmental corporate performance in an industrial district of SMEs: a case study

This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of the so-called ‘Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) cluster approach’ when applied to environmental policies, by focusing on the case history of the industrial paper production cluster located in the Province of Lucca (Italy). The Lucca cluster represents approximately 20% of Italian paper production, and Italy is the fourth leading paper producer in Europe. In the last 10 years, environmental policies have been developed under the common ‘umbrella’ of a strong public and private partnership based on stakeholder networking within the application of the EU EMAS Regulation. This article evaluates the outcome of such an approach, by comparing the environmental performance indicators for the Lucca’s paper industry using data collected from more than 40 plants before and after the adoption of this voluntary tool. The results show considerable improvements for many environmental performance indicators, consistently with the implementation of the cluster approach.     

城市居住区景观绿化格局改善热环境变化的遥感监测分析

以上海中心区域同地段的独立小区为研究对象,利用遥感技术对影响居住区内热环境改善方面的几个主要关键因子（居住区面积、建筑容积率、绿化覆盖率、乔木配置和斑块破碎率）进行了分析模拟,以期为解决居住区热环境状况,提供准确、有效的科学数据。结果表明,在区域平均气温达35℃时,居住区绿化覆盖率每增加10%,可降温0.15℃;居住区乔木面积比每增加10%,可降温0.17℃;居住区平均斑块面积每增加100 m2,可降温0.1℃。总体上,居住区的热岛效应随着绿化率、乔木比例和平均斑块面积的增加而降低,居住区温度与着绿化率、乔木比例和平均斑块面积之间存在显著的负相关,通过这3个指标拟合建立的居住区＂热环境指数＂,可以为航片拍摄获取每个居住区的热环境状况而成为可能。     

Intra-industry trade in intermediate products, pollution and internationally increasing returns

This paper examines the relationship between intra-industry trade in intermediate products, pollution and increasing returns. We develop a two-country model in which production occurs in two stages, final and intermediate good production. Intermediate goods are produced under monopolistic competition and final good production exhibits increasing returns with respect to the number of varieties of intermediates. Pollution occurs in the production of the final good when polluting intermediates are used. We analyze the effects of international trade in intermediate products on pollution, output and welfare under an endogenous tax scenario and with two types of pollution functions. The results show that, because of increasing returns, international trade either leads to lower total pollution in each country or lower pollution per unit of output in at least one country. In addition, intra-industry trade causes countries to import the environmental quality of their trading partners.     

Intra-industry trade in intermediate products,pollution and internationally increasing returns

This paper examines the relationship between intra-industry trade in intermediate products, pollution and increasing returns. We develop a two-country model in which production occurs in two stages, final and intermediate good production. Intermediate goods are produced under monopolistic competition and final good production exhibits increasing returns with respect to the number of varieties of intermediates. Pollution occurs in the production of the final good when polluting intermediates are used. We analyze the effects of international trade in intermediate products on pollution, output and welfare under an endogenous tax scenario and with two types of pollution functions. The results show that, because of increasing returns, international trade either leads to lower total pollution in each country or lower pollution per unit of output in at least one country. In addition, intra-industry trade causes countries to import the environmental quality of their trading partners.     

微生物对生物柴油副产物甘油的利用研究进展

许多微生物都可以利用甘油生产有价值的产品,因此微生物转化生物柴油废料中的粗甘油是解决副产物污染及提高经济效益的途径之一.本文综述了微生物转化甘油为1,3-丙二醇、丙酸、二羟基丙酮、丁醇等产品的研究,主要从微生物种类、产品的产量和转化率以及产品提取工艺等方面进行介绍和总结,并对今后如何利用生物柴油废液中的粗甘油为原料进行微生物发酵生产有价值的产品提出了设想.     

真菌漆酶介导自由基偶联和接枝反应在绿色化学中的应用

漆酶(p-苯二醇:分子氧氧化还原酶;EC 1.10.3.2)是自然界中普遍存在的一类胞外含铜多酚氧化还原酶.漆酶能够以环境中氧分子作为电子接受体,催化4个底物分子的单电子氧化形成4个相应的反应活性自由基或醌类中间体,随后这些活性中间体在酶促位点外发生步进式偶联反应,生成多种具有复杂结构的大分子C—C、C—O—C或C—N—C共价聚合产物.该反应过程中仅生成唯一副产物水,具有反应温和、底物广谱、催化效率高、操作可控和经济环保等优点.目前,真菌漆酶介导低分子有机物和高分子化合物的自由基偶联和接枝反应已经被应用于生物技术领域,该技术克服了传统物理化学方法存在的弊端,在保护人群健康和生态安全等方面具有广泛地应用前景和商业价值.本文详细地概述了真菌漆酶催化不同底物分子的自由基偶联和接枝反应在环境修复、生物监测、食品加工、纤维改性、纺织染色、制药行业和有机合成等绿色化学中的最新研究进展,旨在为开发和拓展真菌漆酶在绿色化学技术领域中的多功能应用提供科学的理论依据和技术指导.     

Environmental and energy-related challenges to sustainable tourism in the United States and China

This article examines the relationship between tourism, energy, and environment. This article approaches tourism as a complex adaptive system composed of consumers, transportation providers, travel intermediaries, and destinations composed of multiple tourism-related companies and other stakeholder groups. Environmental and energy-related challenges of components to the system are examined as well as various units – the system as a whole, enterprises and individuals – within the system. A total of 92 peer-reviewed articles were studied that address ‘energy’ and ‘tourism’ published between 1974 and 2011. Also addressed are the impacts of social and cultural differences between the United States and China concerning responses to environmental and energy-related challenges. This article concludes with recommendations for addressing the challenges associated with such challenges, including building system capacity, technology development and adoption, support of individual behavior change, increasing understanding of the trade-offs and interactions within the system, and adoption of multidisciplinary approaches to these challenges within the tourism system.     

胶州湾棘皮动物的数量变化及与环境因子的关系

利用1998～2002年19个季度月胶州湾10个站的海洋调查资料，对底栖棘皮动物的数量变化及与环境因子的关系进行了初步研究．胶州湾棘皮动物平均总生物量11．82g／m^3，平均总栖息密度5．63个／m^3．分布区主要在1、3、4、7号站，底质沉积类型为粉砂-粘土、有机质含量较高的区域．棘皮动物的分布除与底质有关外，其数量变化与温度、初级生产力关系较明显，二者升高，其生物量、密度也较明显升高．图5表3参9