Direct regulation is an efficient approach to industrial environmental improvement: empirical evidence and perceptions from chemical manufacturers in Ireland and Italy.

Industrial production is a major source of global pollution, and it is widely recognised that regulation is required to reduce this pollution for the benefit of society. However, there is considerable debate about the most effective approach to environmental regulation with respect to both environmental and competitive performance. This paper integrates complementary empirical evidence from two entirely separate projects with different approaches (scientific and econometric), from different countries (Ireland and Italy), in order to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of direct environmental regulation in practice. Quantitative pollution avoidance and compliance cost data from Ireland’s pharmaceutical-manufacturing sector were combined with questionnaire responses from 20 Irish pharmaceutical manufacturers and 25 Italian manufacturers of chemicals for building products. We conclude that direct command-and-control regulation is a highly effective approach, and that the efficiency of such regulation is often underestimated.environmental regulation, environmental performance, competitiveness.

Strengthening of graduate curriculum for domestic and international extension and related change agents to work with small farm clients

The purposes of this curriculum strengthening study were to develop two academic programs in the Department of Agricultural Extension Education: 1) one for preparation of change agents planning to work with domestic small farm clients, and 2) the other for preparation of those planning to work with small farm clients in less developed countries (LDC\u27s). To develop these programs of preparation, inputs concerning professional duties, academic preparation and the knowledge and skills important for work with small farm clients were obtained from 19 Tennessee Extension small farm program staff members and from 12 former Agricultural Extension graduates with subsequent experience in LDC\u27s. Personal interviews were used to collect domestic information and a mail questionnaire was sent to the former graduates doing work inter-nationally. Library research was used to formulate a framework for curriculum strengthening and to provide background on small farm clients and programs. Major findings from the survey of Tennessee staff included: 1. Domestic respondents considered preparation in the subject matter areas of sociology and vegetable production to be at least very useful to their work; although they had received only some or little preparation in these areas. 2. Domestic respondents indicated having received more preparation in the subject matter areas of beef, dairy and general education than they felt was needed for their work. 3. Seventy-nine percent of the domestic respondents considered on farm demonstrations to be an effective activity for small farm work. 4. One to one contact was considered the most successful method for small farm work by 95 percent of the domestic respondents. Domestic respondents indicated that knowledge and skills were needed in the following areas for effective work with small farm clients: a) vegetable and fruit production and marketing; b) pork production and management; c) farm management and agricultural marketing systems; d) understanding rural social systems; e) methods and procedures for transferring information and skills to small farmers; f) general agricultural science and the interdependency of its subdisciplines; and g) understanding the small fanner\u27s needs, interests and abilities. Major findings from the survey of international change agents included: 1. Respondents to the international survey were divided into four occupational groups. One-third of the respondents were doing some type of Extension work, one-third were students, 17 percent were academic professors and another 17 percent were involved with religious work. 2. Administration, supervision and other types of non-direct client contact activities accounted for the greatest amount of professional time identified by respondents. 3. Change agent preparation needs for work with small farm clients in LDG\u27s were difficult to identify due to the wide range of tasks performed by the change agents and varying professional levels in their respective organizations. 4. Respondents to the international questionnaire indicated that knowledge and skills were needed in the following areas for effective work with small farm clients: l) supervision and administra-tion; 2) professional education; 3) general agriculture with emphasis in the student\u27s areas of anticipated responsibility; 4) understanding small farmers\u27 needs, and 5) being able to work with people. Major implications of the study included: 1. Learning objectives and learning experiences to meet these objectives were proposed, with particular applicability to Tennessee, to meet the anticipated professional needs of students in the Department of Agricultural Extension Education to be change agents working with small farmers in the United States. 2. Learning objectives and learning experiences to meet these objectives were proposed to meet the anticipated professional needs of students preparing in the Department of Agricultural Extension Education to be change agents working with small farmers in LDC\u27s. Recommendations for use of findings and future study were also made

Graph- and finite element-based total variation models for the inverse problem in diffuse optical tomography

Total variation (TV) is a powerful regularization method that has been widely applied in different imaging applications, but is difficult to apply to diffuse optical tomography (DOT) image reconstruction (inverse problem) due to complex and unstructured geometries, non-linearity of the data fitting and regularization terms, and non-differentiability of the regularization term. We develop several approaches to overcome these difficulties by: i) defining discrete differential operators for unstructured geometries using both finite element and graph representations; ii) developing an optimization algorithm based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) for the non-differentiable and non-linear minimization problem; iii) investigating isotropic and anisotropic variants of TV regularization, and comparing their finite element- and graph-based implementations. These approaches are evaluated on experiments on simulated data and real data acquired from a tissue phantom. Our results show that both FEM and graph-based TV regularization is able to accurately reconstruct both sparse and non-sparse distributions without the over-smoothing effect of Tikhonov regularization and the over-sparsifying effect of L$_1$ regularization. The graph representation was found to out-perform the FEM method for low-resolution meshes, and the FEM method was found to be more accurate for high-resolution meshes.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures. Reviced version includes revised figures and improved clarit

Can temperate forests deliver future wood demand and climate mitigation?

Global wood demand is projected to rise but supply capacity is questioned due to limited global forest resources. Furthermore, the lifecycle global warming potential (GWP) impact of additional wood supply and use is poorly understood. For the case of a temperate country, combining forest carbon modelling and life-cycle assessment we show that sustained afforestation to double forest area alongside enhanced productivity can meet lower-bound wood demand projections from 2058. Thus, temperate forestry value-chains can achieve a cumulative GWP benefit of up to 265 Tg CO2-equivalent (CO2e) by 2100 for each 100,000 ha (expanding to 200,000 ha through afforestation) of forest. Net GWP balance depends on which overseas forests supply domestic shortfalls, how wood is used, and rate of industrial decarbonisation. There is considerable but constrained potential for increased wood-use to deliver future climate-change mitigation, providing it is connected with a long-term planting strategy, enhanced tree productivity and efficient wood use

Best Environmental Management Practice in the Tourism Sector

The tourism sector has a large potential to reduce its environmental impacts and many measures are already effectively implemented by companies of this sector. This document describes what are the best practices employed by frontrunners in all aspects under their direct control or on which they have a considerable influence. They cover cross-cutting issues, destination management, tour operators and travel agents, water and energy consumption and waste production in accommodation, restaurant and hotel kitchens, and campsites management. The document also contains sector-specific environmental performance indicators and benchmarks of excellence. These can be used by all the actors involved in the tourism sector to monitor their environmental performance and to benchmark it against the performance of frontrunners in each given specific area. Overall, this document aims at supporting all actors in the tourism sector who intend to improve their environmental performance and seek for reliable and proven information on how best to do it.JRC.J.5-Sustainable Production and Consumptio

Circular wood use can accelerate global decarbonisation but requires cross-sectoral coordination

Predominantly linear use of wood curtails the potential climate-change mitigation contribution of forestry value-chains. Using lifecycle assessment, we show that more cascading and especially circular uses of wood can provide immediate and sustained mitigation by reducing demand for virgin wood, which increases forest carbon sequestration and storage, and benefits from substitution for fossil-fuel derived products, reducing net greenhouse gas emissions. By United Kingdom example, the circular approach of recycling medium-density fibreboard delivers 75% more cumulative climate-change mitigation by 2050, compared with business-as-usual. Early mitigation achieved by circular and cascading wood use complements lagged mitigation achieved by afforestation; and in combination these measures could cumulatively mitigate 258.8 million tonnes CO 2e by 2050. Despite the clear benefits of implementing circular economy principles, we identify many functional barriers impeding the structural reorganisation needed for such complex system change, and propose enablers to transform the forestry value-chain into an effective societal change system and lead to coherent action. </p