Study on the performance of two water-side free cooling methods in a semiconductor manufacturing factory

Buildings account for a large portion of global energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Therefore, reducing the energy demands of buildings has become a global topic for sustainable development. A central cooling system accounts for a significant part of a building’s energy consumption. This study proposes a tap water-based free cooling system that recovers heat from spaces for tap water preheating in winter. The tap water-based free cooling and cooling tower free cooling systems integrated with a water-cooled central cooling system were applied in a semiconductor manufacturing factory. Based on the whole-year operation data, the performance of the tap water-based free cooling and cooling tower free cooling systems were compared from thermodynamic, energy, environmental, and economic perspectives. The results showed that free cooling was the dominant cooling method in winter in Tianjin. Compared with the cooling tower free cooling system, the tap water-based free cooling system could provide slightly higher chilled water temperature resulting in 10% shorter operating time. The energy analysis revealed that the coefficient of performance (COP) of the tap water-based free cooling system was approximately 7.4-fold and 2.2-fold higher than that of the mechanical cooling and cooling tower free cooling systems, respectively. Using the two free cooling methods reduced electricity consumption by 6,044 MWh and reached an annual energy-saving rate of 15.1%. Furthermore, the tap water-based free cooling system saved 1.48×105 kg of natural gas for tap water preheating. Energy reductions attributed to two free cooling methods reduced CO2 emissions by 6,236 tons. The tap water-based free cooling is more environmentally friendly with a 4.4-fold greater CO2 emission reduction rate than the cooling tower free cooling method. From the economic perspective, with a short payback period (1.4 years), the tap water-based free cooling system is an attractive solution for improving the energy efficiency of central cooling systems

Silicon Revolution: Sustainability Disclosures and Performance in the Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry (2010-2014)

This exploratory work investigates the sustainability performance and reporting practices in 20 semiconductor companies from 2010-2014 using content analysis, survey, and interview methods. The sample consists of companies that are either integrated chip manufacturers (ICMs) or semiconductor foundries with annual net revenue of $0.2 billion to$55.9 billion. A sustainability matrix based on the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines assesses the reporting completeness. Sustainability performance is measured based on two factors, identification of trends in social and environmental data and adoption of 28 sustainability best practices specific to this manufacturing sector. The majority of the resource use and emissions data followed a decreasing trend during 2010-2014. The study found ethical responsibility and concern for society and the environment to be the main motivations for sustainability reporting in this sector. A positive association between reporting completeness and the sustainability performance was observed, but based on the available data the causation could not be established

Extending the Decision-Making Capabilities in Remanufacturing Service Contracts by Using Symbiotic Simulation

Remanufacturing is a critical enabler of a resource efficient manufacturing industry that has long been associated with high value products. Over time, the commercial relationship between customers and service providers has been made through the fulfilment of rights and obligations under remanufacturing service contracts. Nonetheless, financial analysis to evaluate the contract terms and conditions are becoming increasingly difficult to conduct due to complex decision problems inherent in remanufacturing systems. In order to achieve better and safer decision-making to shape the business strategies, remanufacturers often employ computer-based simulation tools to assess contractual obligations and customers’ needs. This paper discusses the roles of a symbiotic simulation system (SSS) in supporting decision-making in remanufacturing systems. An industrial case study of power transformer remanufacturing illustrates how SSS can support contract remanufacturers in managing service contracts planning and execution. By linking the simulation model to the physical system, it has been demonstrated that the capabilities of the remanufacturers to make critical decisions throughout the entire service contract period can be extended

Sustainability and Business Performance

With climate change becoming more and more of an ominous reality, the concept of sustainability is gaining more and more traction, throughout both consumers and businesses. Companies that have implemented “green” initiatives have found that there are various potential benefits that can be derived from these sustainable practices. This study aims to quantify those benefits and examine how sustainable businesses perform in comparison to their non-sustainable counterparts. Using Newsweek’s Green Rankings, and several statistical tests, it was found that there are no statistically significant differences between sustainable firms and non-sustainable firms, showing that while sustainability may not yield any short-term benefits, there are also no additional costs incurred to implement sustainable practices

Context sensitivity of regional complex knowledge: From an analytical framework to empirical studies

Regional complex knowledge evolution has become a popular topic in the economic geography literature. Scholars measure regional complex knowledge to explain regional economic complexity or the agglomeration of innovative activities. According to the literature, such knowledge is tacit in nature, and it is mainly static and ingrained in the workers, companies, and institutions of specific locations. While studies have provided valuable insights into the agglomerative spatial patterns of complex knowledge production, making significant advancements in how it is measured and evaluated, they have not addressed the sensitivity of the context of complex regional knowledge in economic geography. To address such a gap, this dissertation aims to advance the understanding of complex knowledge by examining knowledge base combinations. I do so by exploring and comparing knowledge evolutionary processes in two industries in Shanghai: high-end medical devices and electric vehicles. This dissertation makes four main contributions. First, it advances the understanding of complex knowledge from a CKB perspective, providing a complementary approach to measuring complex knowledge in economic geography. Second, it introduces a contextsensitive theory of complex knowledge evolution by combining the concepts of CKBs and ISR. Third, it draws on a recent empirical study of the Shanghai medical device and automobile industries to illustrate the theory and shed light on complex knowledge trajectories and the relations among multiple sectors at the regional level. Fourth, it examines upstream–downstream interactions in the Shanghai medical device and electric vehicle industrial chains, refining complex knowledge research at different spatial scales and transitional contexts

Florida's Global Warming Solutions: A Study for: World Wildlife Fund

This report assesses how the set of national actions presented in America’s Global Warming Solutions would affect Florida’s energy systems, carbon emissions and economy. This study finds that by 2010, the set of national actions to reduce global warming would decrease Florida’s primary energy use by 26 percent and its carbon emissions by 36 percent. They would also provide increasing annual savings reaching about $300 per-capita in 2010 and averaging about$110 per-capita per year between now and 2010. Thus, the State would cumulatively save about $17 billion over that period. The set of national actions would also create approximately 39,000 net additional jobs in Florida by 2010. They would reduce emissions of other pollutants and begin to shift the basis of the State’s economy towards more advanced, energy-efficient technologies and cleaner resources. The table below summarizes these results

Technological Change and the Environment

Environmental policy discussions increasingly focus on issues related to technological change. This is partly because the environmental consequences of social activity are frequently affected by the rate and direction of technological change, and partly because environmental policy interventions can themselves create constraints and incentives that have significant effects on the path of technological progress. This paper, prepared as a chapter draft for the forthcoming Handbook of Environmental Economics (North-Holland/Elsevier Science), summarizes for environmental economists current thinking on technological change in the broader economics literature, surveys the growing economic literature on the interaction between technology and the environment, and explores the normative implications of these analyses. We begin with a brief overview of the economics of technological change, and then examine three important areas where technology and the environment intersect: the theory and empirical evidence of induced innovation and the related literature on the effects of environmental policy on the creation of new, environmentally friendly technology; the theory and empirics of environmental issues related to technology diffusion; and analyses of the comparative technological impacts of alternative environmental policy instruments. We conclude with suggestions for further research on technological change and the environment.

Supplier collaboration for sustainability: a study of UK food supply chains

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of Philosophy.Achieving sustainability in the supply chain is not a choice but an inevitable necessity for the organisation to survive and thrive in the long run. Supplier collaboration to achieve sustainability is widely recognised but poorly studied phenomena. While there is a handful of studies that focused on collaboration for sustainability in food supply chains, only a few considered sustainable (i.e. environmental, cost and social) or Triple Bottom Line (TBL) performance, and in the context of UK food industry, there is hardly any study. Building on previous studies, this thesis addressed these concerns conceptually and empirically by: a) examining supplier collaboration for sustainable performance; b) assessing supplier collaboration for environment friendly and socially responsible practices; c) measuring environment friendly and socially responsible practices for sustainable performance; and d) validating environment friendly and socially responsible practices as the mediators for supplier collaboration and sustainable performance. To achieve these objectives, first, a structured literature review was performed and identified 61 studies that documented supplier collaboration for sustainability, and a comprehensive review was also conducted to expand the research domain. Second, underpinned by Relational View (RV) theory, a set of 17 testable hypotheses (including sub-hypotheses) were developed, and a survey method was used to collect 203 useable data from UK based food businesses who maintain collaborative relationships with their suppliers. Finally, for data analysis, Partial Least Squared- Structural Equations Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was used with SmartPLS3 software. The empirical findings validated that: a) supplier collaboration improves environmental, cost and social performance; b) supplier collaboration contributes to improved environment friendly and socially responsible practices; c) environment friendly practices enhance environmentally, cost and social performance; d) socially responsible practices have an impact on environmental and social performance, however socially responsible practices do not have an impact on cost performance; e) environment friendly and socially responsible practices mediate the relationship between supplier collaboration and sustainable performance. The results suggest that supplier collaboration enhances environment-friendly and socially responsible practices which will lead to enhanced environmental, cost and social performance. The contributions of this research to supply chain management literature are: a) to achieve sustainable performance in the food supply chain, collaboration with the suppliers is essential; b) collaborating with the suppliers, firms can improve their environment friendly and socially responsible practices; c) socially responsible practices in the supply chain enhance environmental and social performance but do not improve cost performance; c) this study extends the Relational View theory (RV) from the relation-specific assets for sustainable performance to the relation-specific assets for environmentally friendly and socially responsible practices which lead to sustainable performance. This study found that inter-organisational relationship facilitates environment-friendly and socially responsible practices which will lead to improved sustainable performance. For practitioners, this study offers the sustainability framework that suggests for greater collaboration with the suppliers to improve environment-friendly and socially responsible practices which should lead to a sustainable performance in the food industry. For the policymakers, this study offers a unique proposition to encourage a collaborative environment in the supply chain to achieve sustainable performance in the food industry