Environmental Efficiency Measurement of Grassland Grazing using Stochastic Distance Function on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of China

With the use of first hand field survey data from yak grazing households combined with remotely sensed Net Primary Productivity data on the Qinghai-Tibetan-Plateau, stochastic distance functions are developed with grazing pressure as the undesirable output, in the sense that the more efficient producer would achieve higher productivity at lower grazing pressure. After the estimates of directional distance function and technical inefficiency model, we derive shadow prices of grazing pressure to grazing economic revenue, and elasticity of complementary or substitutionary relationships among inputs. The goal is to help producer to achieve higher productivity with lower grazing pressure in the use of the available grassland resource

Review of Life-Cycle Approaches Coupled with Data Envelopment Analysis: Launching the CFP + DEA Method for Energy Policy Making

Life-cycle (LC) approaches play a significant role in energy policy making to determine the environmental impacts associated with the choice of energy source. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) can be combined with LC approaches to provide quantitative benchmarks that orientate the performance of energy systems towards environmental sustainability, with different implications depending on the selected LC + DEA method. The present paper examines currently available LC + DEA methods and develops a novel method combining carbon footprinting (CFP) and DEA. Thus, the CFP + DEA method is proposed, a five-step structure including data collection for multiple homogenous entities, calculation of target operating points, evaluation of current and target carbon footprints, and result interpretation. As the current context for energy policy implies an anthropocentric perspective with focus on the global warming impact of energy systems, the CFP + DEA method is foreseen to be the most consistent LC + DEA approach to provide benchmarks for energy policy making. The fact that this method relies on the definition of operating points with optimised resource intensity helps to moderate the concerns about the omission of other environmental impacts. Moreover, the CFP + DEA method benefits from CFP specifications in terms of flexibility, understanding, and reporting

Study of the viability for production of conductive nonwoven reinforcement from technical textile waste

With the growth of the population and the improvement of people's quality of life, the consumption of textiles is increasing, but the number of textiles recycled and reused is relatively small. Especially in recent years, there have been more and more text iles containing conductive fibres, and their recycling methods are quite different from ordinary fibres. Therefore, reasonable recycling is required to avoid waste of resources. In this paper, a conductive nonwoven fabric is constructed by stainless steel fibres, and its feasibility is analyzed to further explore the feasibility of using recycled stainless steel fibres. The specific research contents are as follows: (1) Desk work Summarize the current types of conductive fibres, preparation methods, and app lications. The most suitable conductive fibres(stainless steel fibre) are selected by analyzing and comparing the electrical properties of these conductive fibres, the degree of impurities in their preparation, and the cost. The nonwoven fabric preparatio n method used in this experiment was analyzed, and the feasibility of using stainless steel fibres to construct conductive nonwoven fabrics was further determined by considering the matching degree of the process flow with the stainless steel fibres. Summa rize the methods for recycling and reusing conductive fibres, and summarize the types of products containing conductive fibres, especially stainless steel fibres, as potential waste sources. And put forward a plan for recycling and reusing these products w hen discarded. Summarize the current application of conductive cement and the types of conductive fibres suitable for it. Consider the possibility of conductive nonwovens as reinforcing materials to impart conductive properties to cement. (2) Experiment pa rt By comparing the conductive properties of nonwoven fabrics with different stainless steel fibre content and different fibre bonding methods, it can be seen that the higher the content of stainless steel fibres, the better the conductive properties of t he nonwoven fabric. However, the uniformity of the distribution of stainless steel fibres will affect the conductivity of the non the nonf non-- woven fabric, and woven fabric prepared by the cross structure has the best conductivity. However, the conductivity o woven fabrics will decrease with time, so heat treatment is required to improve the conductivity furthe

Application of Wood Composites

This Special Issue "Application of Wood Composites" addresses various aspects of these important wood materials’ use. Topics include the mechanical processing of wood composites, including their cutting, milling, or sanding, incorporating current analysis of wood dust or grain size measurements and the composition of particles; scientific views on the influence of various adhesives in the creation process of wood composites and the analysis of their behavior in contact with various wood elements under different conditions; the analysis of input raw materials forming wood composites, including various wood species, but also non-wood lignocellulosic raw materials; and, last but not least, the analysis of bark, which in recent years has become an important and promising raw material involved in the construction of wood composites. The study of the development of the sliding table saw also suitably complements this Special Issue

Sustainability and firm performance : evidence from corportate and farm level

This thesis approaches the question of sustainability and firm performance. In the contemporary business model, firm performance measurement must take into account not only economic profits, but also environmental and social issues, in order to ensure the sustainable development of the firm. By using advanced methodological approaches and exploring sustainability through a holistic view, this thesis contributes significantly to sustainability performance literature. Three specific objectives have been fulfilled through three papers that constitute the main body of the present thesis. The first article aims to answer whether profitable business is compatible with balanced sustainability by investigating the relationship between the economic, social, environmental and governance performance for a sample of global firms. A canonical vine (C-vine) copula is used for this purpose. Results show the existence of a fairly strong positive relationship between economic, social and environmental performance. The corporate governance dimension is shown to have a weak relationship with the rest of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) dimensions. Important policy implications are derived from these results. The second paper investigates the relationships among performance dimensions associated with corporate social responsibility focusing on the U.S. electric utility sector. Results of a statistical copula approach suggest that economic performance of utilities is compatible with environmental, social, and governance performance. The CSR model has the potential to help U.S. electric utilities become better corporate citizens while also obtaining higher economic profits. The third paper investigates farms’ stochastic production technology as the interaction of three-main types of sub-technologies that govern, respectively, the production of agricultural commodities, environmental pollution, and social outputs of agricultural activities. The model is empirically implemented through a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. The empirical application is based on a survey of Catalan arable crop farms. On average, we find our sample farms to display high technical and social performance, while they show relatively poor environmental performance.Esta tesis aborda la cuestión de la sostenibilidad y el rendimiento de la empresa. En el modelo de negocio contemporáneo, la medición del rendimiento de la empresa debe tener en cuenta no solo las ganancias económicas, sino también las cuestiones ambientales y sociales, para garantizar el desarrollo sostenible de la empresa. Mediante el uso de enfoques metodológicos avanzados y la exploración de la sostenibilidad a través de una visión holística, esta tesis contribuye significativamente a la literatura sobre la sostenibilidad. Tres objetivos específicos se han cumplido a través de tres documentos que constituyen el cuerpo principal de la presente tesis. El primer artículo tiene como objetivo responder si el negocio rentable es compatible con la sostenibilidad equilibrada, mediante la investigación de la relación entre el desempeño económico, social, medio-ambiental y de gobernanza de una muestra de empresas globales. Un modelo canónico de viña de copulas (C-vine) se usa para este propósito. Los resultados muestran la existencia de una relación positiva bastante fuerte entre el desempeño económico, social y ambiental. Se muestra que la dimensión de gobernanza corporativa tiene una relación débil con el resto de las dimensiones de la responsabilidad social corporativa (RSC). Importantes implicaciones de política se derivan de estos resultados. El segundo articulo investiga las relaciones entre las dimensiones de desempeño asociadas con la responsabilidad social corporativa que se centran en el sector de servicios eléctricos de los EE. UU. Los resultados obtenidos del análisis de las cópulas sugieren que el desempeño económico de las empresas eléctricas es compatible con el desempeño ambiental, social y de gobernanza. El modelo de la RSC tiene el potencial de ayudar a que los servicios eléctricos de los EE. UU. Se conviertan en mejores ciudadanos corporativos mientras se logran mayores beneficios económicos. El tercer trabajo investiga la tecnología de producción estocástica de las explotaciones agrícolas como una interacción de tres sub-tecnologías que gobiernan, respectivamente, la producción de productos agrícolas, la contaminación ambiental y los productos sociales de las actividades agrícolas. El modelo se implementa empíricamente a través de un modelo de Análisis Envolvente de Datos (DEA). La aplicación empírica se basa en una encuesta de explotaciones de cultivos en la región de Cataluña. En promedio, encontramos que nuestras explotaciones muestran un alto desempeño técnico y social, mientras que muestran un desempeño ambiental relativamente pobre

N+3 Small Commercial Efficient and Quiet Transportation for Year 2030-2035

This study develops a future scenario that enables convenient point-to-point commercial air travel via a large network of community airports and a new class of small airliners. A network demand and capacity study identifies current and future air travel demands and the capacity of this new network to satisfy these demands. A current technology small commercial airliner is defined to meet the needs of the new network, as a baseline for evaluating the improvement brought about by advanced technologies. Impact of this new mode of travel on the infrastructure and surrounding communities of the small airports in this new N+3 network are also evaluated. Year 2030-2035 small commercial airliner technologies are identified and a trade study conducted to evaluate and select those with the greatest potential for enhancing future air travel and the study metrics. The selected advanced air vehicle concept is assessed against the baseline aircraft, and an advanced, but conventional aircraft, and the study metrics. The key technologies of the selected advanced air vehicle are identified, their impact quantified, and risk assessments and roadmaps defined

Being Innovative While Being Green: An Experimental Inquiry into How Consumers Respond to Eco‐Innovative Product Designs

Eco‐innovations are an effective way for companies to strategically align themselves with customers' growing environmental concerns. Despite their crucial role, scant research has focused on eco‐innovative product designs. Drawing from the sustainability and innovation literature, this article proposes that in the design of an eco‐innovation, its degree of innovativeness, level of eco‐friendliness, and detachability significantly affect consumers' adoption intentions. This article develops various conceptual models tested through three independent online experiments with U.S. consumers. The findings support the hypotheses and provide useful insights into the underlying mechanisms of how and why consumers respond to eco‐innovative product designs across various high‐tech product categories. Specifically, the results show (1) a positive effect of innovativeness degrees of eco‐innovative attributes on consumers' perceptions of product eco‐friendliness and on their adoption intentions as well as a significant moderating role of consumers' need for cognition (Study 1); (2) a positive influence of eco‐friendliness levels of eco‐innovative attributes on consumer adoption intentions in the case of high‐complexity products but not for low‐complexity products, emphasizing the need to adopt different approaches when developing eco‐innovations to ensure favorable consumer reactions (Study 2); and (3) a significant impact of the detachability of eco‐innovative attributes on consumers' perceptions of trade‐offs between environmental benefits and product functionality and on their intentions to adopt eco‐innovations (Study 3). These findings add to existing theoretical knowledge, provide actionable managerial implications, and identify fruitful avenues for future research

Fabrication, Characterization and Modeling of Functionally Graded Materials

In the past few decades, a number of theoretical and experimental studies for design, fabrication and performance analysis of solar panel systems (photovoltaic/thermal systems) have been documented. The existing literature shows that the use of solar energy provides a promising solution to alleviate the shortage of natural resources and the environmental pollution associated with electricity generation. A hybrid solar panel has been invented to integrate photovoltaic (PV) cells onto a substrate through a functionally graded material (FGM) with water tubes cast inside, through which water flow serves as both a heat sink and a solar heat collector. Due to the unique and graded material properties of FGMs, this novel design not only supplies efficient thermal harvest and electrical production, but also provides benefits such as structural integrity and material efficiency. In this work, a sedimentation method has been used to fabricate aluminum (Al) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) FGMs. The size effect of aluminum powder on the material gradation along the depth direction is investigated. Aluminum powder or the mixture of Al and HDPE powder is thoroughly mixed and uniformly dispersed in ethanol and then subjected to sedimentation. During the sedimentation process, the concentration of Al and HDPE particles temporally and spatially changes in the depth direction due to the non-uniform motion of particles; this change further affects the effective viscosity of the suspension and thus changes the drag force of particles. A Stokes' law based model is developed to simulate the sedimentation process, demonstrate the effect of manufacturing parameters on sedimentation, and predict the graded microstructure of deposition in the depth direction. In order to improve the modeling for sedimentation behavior of particles, the Eshelby's equivalent inclusion method (EIM) is presented to determine the interaction between particles, which is not considered in a Stokes' law based model. This method is initially applied to study the case of one drop moving in a viscous fluid; the solution recovers the closed form classic solution when the drop is spherical. Moreover, this method is general and can be applied to the cases of different drop shapes and the interaction between multiple drops. The translation velocities of the drops depend on the relative position, the center-to-center distance of drops, the viscosity and size of drops. For the case of a pair of identical spherical drops, the present method using a linear approximation of the eigenstrain rate has provided a very close solution to the classic explicit solution. If a higher order of the polynomial form of the eigenstrain rate is used, one can expect a more accurate result. To meet the final goal of mass production of the aforementioned Al-HDPE FGM, a faster and more economical material manufacturing method is proposed through a vibration method. The particle segregation of larger aluminum particles embedded in the concentrated suspension of smaller high-density polyethylene is investigated under vibration with different frequencies and magnitudes. Altering experimental parameters including time and amplitude of vibration, the suspension exhibits different particle segregation patterns: uniform-like, graded and bi-layered. For material characterization, small cylinder films of Al-HDPE system FGM are obtained after the stages of dry, melt and solidification. Solar panel prototypes are fabricated and tested at different water flow rates and solar irradiation intensities. The temperature distribution in the solar panel is measured and simulated to evaluate the performance of the solar panel. Finite element simulation results are very consistent with the experimental data. The understanding of heat transfer in the hybrid solar panel prototypes gained through this study will provide a foundation for future solar panel design and optimization