Effective environmental management through life cycle assessment

Unplanned and unsustainable development (particularly rapid industrialisation) has placed great pressure in every dimension of the environment (air, water, soil, health, etc.). The resulting disturbance in the natural ecological balance is a serious concern. Sustainable development is the need of the hour; it can only be achieved through effective environmental management. Environmental management will become indispensable in the future as regulatory restrictions tighten and public expectations of environmental performance increase. The day is not far away when a customer will prefer to buy products produced by an environmentally committed organisation. In short, the environmental commitment of an organisation will become a market strategy.

Environmental management is a set of actions based on a structured methodology to ensure that an organisation is committed to the environment and that the production process has minimal/no adverse affect on it. This article emphasises environmental management in the real engineering sense of the term, and discusses how to develop an effective environmental management system through life cycle assessment. It further demonstrates through a real life case study how an industry has achieved landmark success in managing its environment, production, as well as winning the good faith of society.     

清洁生产理论基础

重点分析了清洁生产的物流基础、价值基础、经济基础,并与末端治理对比,从而论证了清洁生产是实现经济效益和环境效益的最佳模式,是实现可持续发展的必然选择。     

吐鲁番地区生态环境特点及可持续发展

就吐鲁番地区生态环境特点,提出可持续发展的对策和建议。     

三峡工程对长江流域可持续发展的影响

可持续发展观念应该正确理解,研究可持续发展不能脱离国家或地区的发展水平。在分析长江流域可持续发展的限制因子（频繁的洪水灾害、偏低的防洪能力、落后的社会经济水平及脆弱的生态环境）的基础上,从三峡工程的防洪作用、发电效益、航运效益以及三峡工程效益发挥的可持续性方面,研究了三峡工程对长江流域可持续发展的促进作用。同时论述了三峡工程的建设对长江中上游地区生态环境综合治理及库区社会经济发展的带动作用。认为三峡工程的建设符合我国当今可持续发展战略,是全面促进长江流域社会经济环境可持续发展的关键性工程。     

江苏沿江开发研究

随着中国加入WTO和经济全球化进程的加快,长江三角洲以其独特的滨江临海的区位和发达的制造业基础,正在成为新的投资热点地区。江苏省沿江地区是长江三角洲重要的组成部分,拥有800多km的长江岸线和8个经济发达、人才资源优势明显的经济中心城市。传统的制造业基础和相对低廉的加工成本、商务成本,使江苏沿江开发既有对外来资本的吸引力,又有自我发展的内生机制。重点研究了全球化背景下江苏沿江开发的战略问题,主要包括：①江苏沿江地区开发的环境和条件比较分析;②沿江产业带重组与实施跨江开发;③再造新战略据点;④打破行政区界限沿江联动实施区域一体化,等等。最后指出：加快江苏沿江开发,必须科学规划、统筹安排,做到空间合理、时间有序,同时考虑沿江的环境容量有限,应实施可持续发展和南北联动的开发战略,拓展沿江的开发空间,提升沿江的产业发展水平。     

我国非煤矿山安全生产现状、研究与发展

对我国非煤矿山的安全生产现状进行了系统调查,探讨了我国非煤矿山在21世纪开采条件的不利变化以及潜在的事故隐患,提出了确保非煤矿山的安全生产亟待开展的研究课题以及长远安全科技发展规划。     

生态示范区建设的模式及其实践的几点思考

就生态示范区建设的重要性、生态示范区建设模式进行探讨,分析了生态示范区建设模式的成功范例,最后提出创建生态示范区的建议。     

云南省锡矿资源与可持续发展

云南省锡矿资源储量居全国前列,锡产量在世界锡工业中举足轻重。虽然云南省锡矿资源开发程度高,但“四矿”(矿业、矿山、矿工、矿城)问题严重,锡矿资源的开发与可持续发展矛盾突出。需加强锡矿资源的地质勘探和宏观调控,加大人才、资金、科技投入和产业支持力度,将锡矿资源优势转化为锡工业优势,应充分利用云南省的地理优势扩大对外交流,实现锡矿资源的可持续发展。     

Local governance of energy transition: sustainability,transactions and social ties. A case study in Northeast France

This paper tackles the process of energy transition from a transactional perspective. It addresses the governance of energy transition by studying its local actualizations, moving beyond purely technical and normative readings. The paper shows that through the local socio-technological energy systems, sustainability governance filters down to the level of individual, everyday behavior, thus questioning the link between public and private spaces, especially regarding the issue of housing. Going beyond the results commonly yielded by transition studies, which favor large-scale analysis, it details how the discourse of citizen involvement, which often boils down to a mere call to control one’s individual energy consumption, conceals environmental inequalities, confirming the socioeconomic divide materialized in deprived areas such as public housing estates or remote rural areas. From a methodological standpoint, the analysis is based on four case studies in Northeast France, in more or less privileged areas, and in both urban and rural environments: the renovation of a heating network in the public housing estate of Cité de l’Ill, north of Strasbourg; the solar energy systems designed for property owners in Plobsheim, a residential suburb of Strasbourg; the energy-efficient equipment set up in a public housing estate in the city of Saint-Dié, in the Vosges; and citizen participation in a cooperative program to finance wind turbines in the small Alsacian city of Saâles, in a mountain rural area. The paper draws on the results of these sociological investigations, carried out using field observations, questionnaires and interviews.     

Perceived importance of sustainability dimensions in the Portuguese metal industry

The growing interest of stakeholders regarding the contribution of organizations to Sustainable Development is influencing organizational behavior and strategic planning. The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the perception of the importance of organizational sustainability dimensions in a relevant economic sector: the metal industry. Survey data was collected from a sample of 211 Portuguese industries, and non-parametric statistical tests were used to validate five research hypotheses regarding the importance of the economic, environmental, social and cultural dimensions of sustainability. The results obtained demonstrate awareness of the sampled industries regarding all sustainability dimensions, recognizing that their importance has been increasing over the years, and prospecting that this importance will continue to increase in the future. The industries in this sample revealed different degrees of perceived importance for the different sustainability dimensions: the highest importance was given to the economic dimension, and culture was considered the least important sustainability dimension. However, the perception of the respondents is that these differences will be less relevant in the future. The results also show that companies with certified management systems reveal a higher perceived importance regarding sustainability dimensions. Also, industries with higher values of annual turnover, number of employees and export sales tend to give higher degrees of importance to sustainability dimensions. Considering the economic, environmental and social impacts of metal industries at an international level, the awareness of this industrial sector regarding the importance of sustainability is a relevant step to the commitment towards Sustainable Development.