Organic farming and resource efficiency

The Chapter discusses the efficiency of nutrient and energy use in organic farming, regarding the pressing need to make efficient use of natural resources. Nutrient recycling, the use of adapted plant varieties and energy-saving through the ban of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer are organic farming practices that enhance resource efficiency

Efficiency of the enterprise resource potential

The economic value of the results obtained is to improve the methodological approaches to the diagnosis of the resource potential of light industry enterprises and the further development of theoretical aspects of the diagnosis of the enterprise

Efficiency in intrahousehold resource allocation

This paper examines the allocation of productive resources within rural households of poor countries. Building upon the existing literature, it provides a consistent framework from which to study productive efficiency and intrahousehold equity. The topics discussed include returns to scale and household centralization; specialization and gender casting; separate spheres and commitment failure; labor market cartelization and discrimination; and the provision of home public goods in the presence of free riding. We show that intrahousehold productive inefficiency should not arise unless household members are prevented from entering into enforceable side contracts. Our analysis predicts that intrahousehold inefficiency increases with factors that exacerbate commitment failure such as short time horizon, low assets, unequal stakes in the household, and poor external enforcement. Patrimonial laws and customs regarding inheritance and divorce can be understood as efforts to mitigate commitment failure within the household.Gender ,Resource allocation. ,Household resource allocation ,Rural poor. ,Property rights ,Labor market ,

Improved resource efficiency and cascading utilisation of renewable materials

In light of various environmental problems and challenges concerning resource allocation, the utilisation of renewable resources is increasingly important for the efficient use of raw materials. Therefore, cascading utilisation (i.e., the multiple material utilisations of renewable resources prior to their conversion into energy) and approaches that aim to further increase resource efficiency (e.g., the utilisation of by-products) can be considered guiding principles. This paper therefore introduces the Special Volume “Improved Resource Efficiency and Cascading Utilisation of Renewable Materials”. Because both research aspects, resource efficiency and cascading utilisation, belong to several disciplines, the Special Volume adopts an interdisciplinary perspective and presents 16 articles, which can be divided into four subjects: Innovative Materials based on Renewable Resources and their Impact on Sustainability and Resource Efficiency, Quantitative Models for the Integrated Optimisation of Production and Distribution in Networks for Renewable Resources, Information Technology-based Collaboration in Value Generating Networks for Renewable Resources, and Consumer Behaviour towards Eco-friendly Products. The interdisciplinary perspective allows a comprehensive overview of current research on resource efficiency, which is supplemented with 15 book reviews showing the extent to which textbooks of selected disciplines already refer to resource efficiency. This introductory article highlights the relevance of the four subjects, presents summaries of all papers, and discusses future research directions. The overall contribution of the Special Volume is that it bridges the resource efficiency research of selected disciplines and that it presents several approaches for more environmentally sound production and consumption

Classifying resource efficiency indicators based on LCA practices

Our whole society depends on the use of natural resources. Despite the fact that most natural resources are limited, they are not always used in a sustainable way. To monitor the transition towards a more resource efficient society, a wide variety of indicators has been developed over the years, both within a policy context and an industrial context. However, these indicators are not univocally defined, which generates confusion about the real meaning of resource efficiency. Indeed, the term resource efficiency is interpreted in different ways: from the simple accounting of resource extraction to environmental impact assessment related to resource availability and provision of resources ; from the micro-level of products and companies to the macro-level of regions and countries ; from a gate-to-gate perspective to a life cycle perspective or from a national perspective1 to a global perspective . Also the considered resource range (which natural resource types are taken into account) and the used quantification metric (monetary or physical) can vary from indicator to indicator. Another issue is the provenience of resources: in some studies is referred to natural resources, while in others waste is also considered to be a potential resource . This paper tries to bring order into these different visions by proposing a systematized framework for resource efficiency indicators based on LCA practices. The proposed framework is subdivided in multiple levels based on the interpretations summarized above. The use of the framework is illustrated by structuring several resource efficiency indicators in practice today, e.g. the GDP over DMC (Gross Domestic Product over Domestic Material Consumption), used within a policy context, or process-efficiency, used within an industrial context. Within this framework, resource efficiency indicators can be classified and critically evaluated, identifying possibilities for further development and improvement

Resource use efficiency of US electricity generating plants during the SO2 trading regime: A distance function approach.

This paper measures resource use efficiency of electricity generating plants in the United States under the SO2 trading regime. Resource use efficiency is defined as the product of technical efficiency and environmental efficiency, where the latter is the ratio of good output (electricity) to bad output (SO2) with reference to the best practice firm, i.e., one that is producing an optimal mix of good and bad outputs. This concept of environmental efficiency is similar to that of output oriented allocative efficiency. Using output distance functions we compare three methods for the calculation of resource use efficiency, namely, stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), deterministic parametric programming and nonparametric linear programming. This paper reveals the strengths and weaknesses of these methods for estimating efficiency. Both SFA and linear programming approaches can estimate the efficiency scores. For plants in the dataset the overall geometric mean of the three methods for technical efficiency, environmental efficiency and resource use efficiency is 0.737, 0.335 and 0.248, respectively. The rank correlation coefficient between technical efficiency, environmental efficiency and resource use efficiency is 0.213, 0.617 and 0.877, respectively. The regression analyses of performance across plants shows units in phase I of the SO2 trading programme are negatively related to measures of economic and environmental performance. This suggests that the market for SO2 allowances, per se, may not be minimizing compliance cost. We also find that a decrease in SO2 emission rates not only increases environmental efficiency but also leads to an increase in resource use efficiency. This finding concurs with the hypothesis that enhancement in the environmental performance of a firm leads to an increase in its overall efficiency of resource use as well.Technical efficiency ; Environmental efficiency ; Resource-use efficiency ; Distance functions ; SO2 allowance program

Power efficient dynamic resource scheduling algorithms for LTE

This paper presents a link level analysis of the rate and energy efficiency performance of the LTE downlink considering the unitary codebook based precoding scheme. In a multi-user environment, appropriate radio resource management strategies can be applied to the system to improve the performance gain by exploiting multi-user diversity in the time, frequency and space domains and the gains can be translated to energy reduction at the base station. Several existing and novel resource scheduling and allocation algorithms are considered for the LTE system in this paper. A detailed analysis of the performance gain of different algorithms in terms of throughput, rate fairness, and power efficiency is presented.This paper presents a link level analysis of the rate and energy efficiency performance of the LTE downlink considering the unitary codebook based precoding scheme. In a multi-user environment, appropriate radio resource management strategies can be applied to the system to improve the performance gain by exploiting multi-user diversity in the time, frequency and space domains and the gains can be translated to energy reduction at the base station. Several existing and novel resource scheduling and allocation algorithms are considered for the LTE system in this paper. A detailed analysis of the performance gain of different algorithms in terms of throughput, rate fairness, and power efficiency is presented

Energy Efficiency Resource Standards: Economics and Policy

Twenty states in the United States have adopted energy efficiency resource standards (EERS) that specify absolute or per¬centage reductions in energy use relative to business as usual. We examine how an EERS compares to policies oriented to meeting objectives, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, cor¬recting for consumer error in energy efficiency investment, or reducing peak de¬mand absent real-time prices. If reducing energy use is a policy goal, one could use energy taxes or cap-and-trade systems rather than an EERS. An EERS can be optimal under special conditions, but to achieve optimal goals following energy efficiency investments, the marginal external harm must fall with greater energy use. This could happen if inframarginal energy has greater negative externalities, particularly regarding emissions, than energy employed at the margin.energy efficiency resource standards, energy efficiency, electricity, conservation