Barriers,potentialities, and actions for implementation of sustainable energy procedures in Brazilian federal universities

Many universities around the world have served as active centers for research on climate change. However, there are several barriers to their activities, stemming from the nature of research, resources, and the structure of institutions. This document provides an overview of barriers, potential factors, and activities to develop and implement sustainable energy processes in public higher education institutions (HEIs) in Brazil. The research was conducted from March to April of 2018 with representatives of HEIs (rectors or prorectors of research). A total of 63 invitations to respond to the Survey‐monkey survey were emailed, and responses were received from 32 universities. The research concludes by proposing measures that can be taken to make the issue of climate change more present and effective in university research and teaching activities. This includes changes in research, information dissemination, and teaching approaches to better support actions to address climate change. In Brazil, there are many potentialities in terms of natural resources, but actions for implementation are still incipient. Further efforts and investment in research and development will be required.     

临港工业区生态化发展的探索与思考

实现临港工业区向生态工业区转变是贯彻实践科学发展观、推进生态文明建设的重要抓手,是加快转变经济发展方式、促进经济转型升级的内在要求,是提升城市综合功能、增强核心竞争力的迫切需要,也是全面改善民生、构建和谐社会的重要内容。本文介绍了北仑区实现临港工业区向生态区转变的主要成效,分析了发展过程中存在的主要问题及原因,最后提出了加快推进临港工业向生态工业发展的对策。     

工业企业环境行为信用评价程序研究

企业环境行为信用评价是一种符合国情的先进的环境管理手段,是对当前环境管理制度的重要补充和完善,研究企业环境行为信用评价程序对于开展企业环境行为信用评价工作具有非常重要的意义.本文通过对各地区评价程序进行研究分析,明确了开展评价工作的重要环节,制定了初次评价、复查评价与实时评价三种评价程序的关键步骤,为包头市开展企业信用评价工作奠定了基础.     

华北平原不同生产模式设施蔬菜生命周期环境影响评价

全面系统地评价不同生产模式下设施蔬菜生产过程的环境效应,可为降低蔬菜生产过程中的负面环境影响提供理论指导.本文以华北平原河北省曲周县4 a春茬设施茄子生产为例,采用田间实测结合生命周期评价的方法,分析和比较了该地区常规、综合和有机生产模式下设施茄子的生产过程及其对环境的影响.结果表明,3种模式的水体毒性、富营养化和土壤毒性危害潜势对环境影响的贡献较大,分别占82.05%~84.02%、10.29%~12.32%和2.62%~3.48%,且主要发生在农作子系统中,均主要是由氮磷流失、农药残留及有机肥所携带的重金属所致.综合模式的环境影响综合指数最低,为0.596,分别比常规和有机模式降低了30.3%和6.7%,该模式显著降低了设施蔬菜农作子系统的污染物排放,为最佳生产模式.因此,优化田间管理措施(如施用生物农药、优质有机肥和提高氮磷利用效率)可较好地控制蔬菜生产生命周期负面环境影响及提高该地区设施蔬菜生产的环境可持续能力.     

乌兰察布市生态旅游建设探讨

本文通过对乌兰察布市生态旅游资源现状的简要分析,提出该城市生态旅游开发所应遵循的基本要求、原则和对策,从而达到保护环境、提升城市价值的战略目标。     

An agenda for assessing and improving conservation impacts of sustainability standards in tropical agriculture

Sustainability standards and certification serve to differentiate and provide market recognition to goods produced in accordance with social and environmental good practices, typically including practices to protect biodiversity. Such standards have seen rapid growth, including in tropical agricultural commodities such as cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soybeans, and tea. Given the role of sustainability standards in influencing land use in hotspots of biodiversity, deforestation, and agricultural intensification, much could be gained from efforts to evaluate and increase the conservation payoff of these schemes. To this end, we devised a systematic approach for monitoring and evaluating the conservation impacts of agricultural sustainability standards and for using the resulting evidence to improve the effectiveness of such standards over time. The approach is oriented around a set of hypotheses and corresponding research questions about how sustainability standards are predicted to deliver conservation benefits. These questions are addressed through data from multiple sources, including basic common information from certification audits; field monitoring of environmental outcomes at a sample of certified sites; and rigorous impact assessment research based on experimental or quasi‐experimental methods. Integration of these sources can generate time‐series data that are comparable across sites and regions and provide detailed portraits of the effects of sustainability standards. To implement this approach, we propose new collaborations between the conservation research community and the sustainability standards community to develop common indicators and monitoring protocols, foster data sharing and synthesis, and link research and practice more effectively. As the role of sustainability standards in tropical land‐use governance continues to evolve, robust evidence on the factors contributing to effectiveness can help to ensure that such standards are designed and implemented to maximize benefits for biodiversity conservation.     

Life cycle assessment environmental data for structural steel construction in Greece

The construction industry is a critical sector in relation to sustainable development as its optimisation in terms of the consumption of resources can provide significant environmental benefits. To achieve this, a number of tools and methodologies have been developed to assist decision making. Life cycle assessment is one of the most acknowledged and widely used methodologies to assess the sustainability of construction works. Its efficient use, however, requires environmental data that in some cases are not yet available. Especially for sectors such as steel construction in which the potential for sustainable development is increased due to the recycling and reuse potential of the material, the lack of such data slows sustainability-related progress down. The current research addresses this issue by collecting primary environmental data for cold-formed structural steel and compiling the required data-sets. The data-sets are used to assess the environmental impact of an existing steel building and identify how and to what extent the environment is burdened by its construction. The findings of the research include the aforementioned environmental data which can be used in environmental analyses related to construction projects, while additional conclusions concerning the environmental impact of steel buildings in terms of quantity and type were also drawn.     

Sand-dust Storm, Population and Environment in Northwest China

Sand-dust storms are the result of the integrated influences of climate, geography, society and human factors. A theoretical framework is built to explain the coherence of population growth, agriculture change and environmental degradation. On the basis of the analysis of the causes of the sand-dust storm in terms of human factors, a discussion will be given to show that these factors are internally consistent with the theoretical framework. After that, it will look at China's Agenda 21 and try to find relevant measures to reduce such large sand-dust storms happening in Northwest China and eventually make this area develop sustainably.     

Agricultural colonisation and floristic degradation in Nigeria's rainforest ecosystem

This paper attempts to characterise the common tree species that are now found in the tropical rainforest belt of Nigeria. The occurrence of species present in at least 10 percent of the quadrats studied were generated from field data. Simple correlation analyses were used to examine the strength of relationships among the species in the data sets. The results show that the nature and intensity of agricultural activities have influenced the types of floristic association found within different areas of the region. The ecological grouping of the species in the region shows distinct areas where regressive succession has led to floristic degradation of the rainforest belt.     

The Role of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) in␣Promoting the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Africa

This article outlines some of the latest developments and opportunities for development finance institutions¹ (DFIs) to become directly supportive of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM²) in Africa. In striving to make development financing more environmentally friendly and sustainable, DFIs can play a key role in promoting the CDM on the African continent by providing monetary incentives through their project financing activities; encouraging and facilitating partnerships in support of sustainable development, particularly with reference to the CDM, and; providing technical advice and support to clients with regard to project design, planning and implementation. DFIs have traditionally focused on financing infrastructure and poverty alleviation projects. However, the emergence of the CDM has brought about a shift towards investments in services and products that reduce carbon dioxide emissions and encourage investments in environmentally friendly technologies. This can be ascribed in part to the development of a “carbon market” under the auspices of the Kyoto Protocol that took effect in February 2005. The carbon market and emerging carbon funds are some of the main drivers enabling DFIs to play an increasingly important role in promoting the CDM in Africa.