Sustainability Assessment of Red Sand as a Substitute for Virgin Sand and Crushed Limestone

This article assesses the sustainability benefits of replacing virgin sand and crushed limestone with Red Sand for road construction and top dressing. The sustainability of Red Sand was assessed using a triple bottom line analysis that includes economic, social, and environmental objectives. Each of these objectives consists of a number of headline performance indicators, with each being the aggregate of key performance indicators that measure whether Red Sand applications foster or impede sustainability. Red Sand is a newly developed product that is expected to be commercially available in 2014. It is produced by washing and carbonating the coarse fraction of the residue produced by the Bayer alumina refining process. Our assessment indicates that replacing virgin sand and crushed limestone with Red Sand will provide a range of financial and environmental benefits. For example, some environmental impacts associated with using virgin sand and crushed limestone, such as loss of biodiversity and land degradation, can be avoided by substituting Red Sand. Also, the use of Red Sand for road construction and top dressing is expected to conserve land and raw materials for future generations, thus enhancing intergenerational social equity. The energy consumption associated with producing Red Sand is projected to be lower than that required to quarry virgin sand and crushed limestone, thereby conserving energy and reducing the overall greenhouse impact of road construction and top‐dressing applications that use virgin sand and crushed limestone. The greenhouse benefit of Red Sand is further enhanced by avoiding the loss of vegetation associated with sand and limestone quarrying. There are also intangible benefits expected from the substitution of Red Sand, including ecological, aesthetic, and recreational benefits associated with bushland conservation, a significant issue in areas surrounding metropolitan Perth.     

The Impact of Social Factors and Consumer Behavior on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the United Kingdom

In this article we apply geodemographic consumer segmentation data in an input−output framework to understand the direct and indirect carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions associated with consumer behavior of different lifestyles in the United Kingdom. In a subsequent regression analysis, we utilize the lifestyle segments contained in the dataset to control for aspects of behavioral differences related to lifestyles in an analysis of the impact of various socioeconomic variables on CO₂ emissions, such as individual aspirations and people's attitudes toward the environment, as well as the physical context in which people act.
This approach enables us to (1) test for the significance of lifestyles in determining CO₂ emissions, (2) quantify the importance of a variety of individual socioeconomic determinants, and (3) provide a visual representation of "where" the various factors exert the greatest impact, by exploiting the spatial information contained in the lifestyle data.
Our results indicate the importance of consumer behavior and lifestyles in understanding CO₂ emissions in the United Kingdom. Across lifestyle groups, CO₂ emissions can vary by a factor of between 2 and 3. Our regression results provide support for the idea that sociodemographic variables are important in explaining emissions. For instance, controlling for lifestyles and other determinants, we find that emissions are increasing with income and decreasing with education. Using the spatial information, we illustrate how the lifestyle mix of households in the United Kingdom affects the geographic distribution of environmental impacts.     

Organization Environmental Footprint through Input‐Output Analysis: A Case Study in the Construction Sector

The implementation of global sustainability has gained worldwide attention in recent years. The Organization Environmental Footprint, which encompasses 14 impact categories, is a multicriteria measure of the environmental performance of goods and services provided by an organization from a life cycle perspective. In this article, the focus is on quantifying the Organization Environmental Footprint of a construction company in Spain. By applying an environmentally extended input‐output approach, its total footprint and impacts along the supply chain from two consecutive years were calculated. The results show that the environmental impacts from the second year of implementation were significantly higher than those from the first year. The impact category climate change was found to have experienced the greatest increase from one year to the other, with a 31% increase. This work provides an overview of 14 environmental impact categories of the company assessed, as well as recommendations for the implementation of this indicator in companies and public procurement. This approach could pave the way to shape organizations’ action plans and meet the European environmental challenges.     

Shifting Trade Patterns as a Means of Reducing Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions

This article extends and applies the world trade model with bilateral trade (WTMBT), a linear program with any number of goods, factors, and regional trade partners that determines regional production, bilateral trade patterns, and region-specific prices on the basis of comparative advantage by minimizing factor use. The model provides a consistent analysis of the global production system, representing geographical location at a regional level, region-specific technologies at a sector level, emissions from production, and resource constraints and costs. An illustrative analysis investigates how changes in the geographic distribution of production could contribute to reducing global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and at what cost. The model provides a bridge between global objectives and their determinants and consequences in specific sectors in individual regions. Multi-objective analysis is used to construct a trade-off curve between global factor costs and CO₂ emissions. The relevance of both primal and dual solution variables is demonstrated. In particular, changes in goods prices and emissions are investigated. We conclude that the main impact of tightening carbon constraints is a substantial reduction in international trade accompanied by a shift away from regions most reliant on the combustion of coal. In addition to the analysis of the overall global trends, including the impact on prices, the implications of the global carbon constraint for one specific industry are investigated.     

Aggregate Measures of Complex Economic Structure and Evolution

It is perhaps in the nature of complex systems that they call for aggregate measures that enable analysts to grasp their structure and evolution without being overwhelmed by their very complexity. Complex interindustry theory and models are a typical case, where the underlying database—an input−output table—routinely contains thousands of data points for a single year. Within input−output analysis, quantitative measures have been developed that describe and characterize interindustry interactions and that have been used to compare economies, both in a static taxonomy and through their evolution over time. First, we review and critically discuss a number of concepts that have been proposed and applied to interindustry systems, such as interconnectedness, interrelatedness, linkages, and economic landscapes. Second, we apply these concepts to a case study of the Australian economy between 1975 and 1999 in terms of environmental headline indicators. Our results enable the reader to judge the usefulness and ability of the measures in capturing the key structural elements and evolutionary processes governing the interaction between the economy and the environment. For the Australian case study, the measures showed a diversifying economy occurring together with a specialization of environmental flows.     

Insights on the Use of Hybrid Life Cycle Assessment for Environmental Footprinting

Establishing a comprehensive environmental footprint that indicates resource use and environmental release hotspots in both direct and indirect operations can help companies formulate impact reduction strategies as part of overall sustainability efforts. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful approach for achieving these objectives. For most companies, financial data are more readily available than material and energy quantities, which suggests a hybrid LCA approach that emphasizes use of economic input‐output (EIO) LCA and process‐based energy and material flow models to frame and develop life cycle emission inventories resulting from company activities. We apply a hybrid LCA framework to an inland marine transportation company that transports bulk commodities within the United States. The analysis focuses on global warming potential, acidification, particulate matter emissions, eutrophication, ozone depletion, and water use. The results show that emissions of greenhouse gases, sulfur, and particulate matter are mainly from direct activities but that supply chain impacts are also significant, particularly in terms of water use. Hotspots were identified in the production, distribution, and use of fuel; the manufacturing, maintenance, and repair of boats and barges; food production; personnel air transport; and solid waste disposal. Results from the case study demonstrate that the aforementioned footprinting framework can provide a sufficiently reliable and comprehensive baseline for a company to formulate, measure, and monitor its efforts to reduce environmental impacts from internal and supply chain operations.     

Environmental Supply Chain Cooperation and Its Effect on the Circular Economy Practice‐Performance Relationship Among Chinese Manufacturers

Due to resource scarcity and environmental degradation, a new development concept emphasizing environmental concerns, called the circular economy (CE), has been enacted in legislation in China. This environmental management concept can be implemented at three levels, namely, region, industrial zone, and individual enterprise, with the objective of boosting economic development while lessening environmental and resource challenges. Environmental supply chain cooperation (ESCC), an approach that utilizes customer and supplier cooperation in environmental management, has been initiated among Chinese enterprises. Using survey data collected from 396 Chinese manufacturers, we examine the role of ESCC practices in influencing the relationship between implementing CE practices and the achievement of performance outcomes by testing the moderation and mediation effects of ESCC practices on the CE practice‐performance relationship through hierarchical regression analysis. Our data analyses indicate that ESCC practices are useful by moderation and, in some cases, essential by mediation, for Chinese manufacturers seeking to realize the performance targets desired in CE practices. The results highlight the need for Chinese manufacturers to improve supply chain coordination in their implementation of CE. On the policy side, our research findings suggest that ESCC practices are beneficial and, in some cases, necessary for the development of CE in China.     

Environmental Impact and Intensity of Processes in Selected Services Companies

The study fills the gap in existing literature by comparing the economic costs and environmental impacts of processes in four services companies in Europe and the United States. Process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) and the case study method are used to compare companies both on four global-scale impacts and on environmental intensity (impacts per unit cost). The study builds on prior publications on the environmental contribution of processes. The processes include all the activities of the companies that result in an entry into the bookkeeping records. The results show that despite the substantial differences in organizational characteristics and line of business, all the cases had similar environmental contributions and intensity profiles. Wages, which accounted for over half of the costs, were assumed not to cause any environmental impacts. By contrast, the office premises, which generated less than 10% of the costs, caused around 50% of the environmental impacts. At a more general level, the results suggest that both the high environmental impact and the high intensity are attributed mostly to a few premises-related processes in the services industry. The results also seem to imply that the companies could gain added value by using life cycle assessment in determining the significant environmental impacts of their operations.     

Assessing Socioeconomic Metabolism Through Hybrid Life Cycle Assessment

This article applies a combined input−output and life cycle inventory (LCI) method to the calculation of emissions and material requirements of the Czech economy in 2003. The main focus is on materials and emissions embodied in the international trade of the Czech Republic. Emissions and material extraction avoided due to imports are calculated according to an input−output approach that assumes the same production technology for imports as for domestic production. Because not all products are provided by the domestic economy, the LCI data are incorporated into the monetary input−output model.
The results show that incorporating the LCI data into an input−output model is reasonable. The emissions embodied in the international trade of the Czech Republic are comparable to the domestic emissions. We compare the economy-wide material flow indicators, such as direct material input, domestic material consumption, and physical trade balance, to their raw material equivalents. The results of our calculation show that the Czech Republic exerts environmental pressure on the environment in other countries through international trade.
We argue that raw material equivalents should be used to express the flows across national boundaries. Furthermore, we recommend a raw material consumption indicator for international comparisons.     

Longitudinal Analysis of the Eco‐Design Management Standardization Process in Furniture Companies

This article discusses how eco‐design management standards have been adopted and the environmental and economic results that have been obtained by the Spanish furniture manufacturers. This is precisely the industry sector in Spain where the dissemination of eco‐design standards has been most important. Using multiple case‐study methodology, the research has shown that, in three companies, more than 90% of the environmental impact of the companies’ products occurs within the manufacturing phase. Companies have implemented tools for life cycle assessment with eco‐indicators values that allow them to assess complex products and evaluate their significant environmental impacts at each stage. The environmental strategies of these companies are based on the continuous improvement of the internal processes and the review and monitoring of their activities. In this approach, the proper choice of materials and the environmental management of the supply chain are the main problems for companies. The outcomes achieved by the companies included some improvements, such as a greater control of product management and a reduction in operating costs, that have allowed them to obtain competitive advantages. Moreover, the adoption of standard management has enabled the companies to drive innovation of products, improve the image of companies and their products, significantly reduce the environmental impact of their products, and adapt to new, more demanding environmental laws and regulations.     

Hotspot Scenario Analysis

Increasingly, organizations are working to reduce the environmental footprint of their supply chains. The use of environmentally preferable purchasing criteria is one strategy organizations use to address this goal. However, evaluating the environmental performance of these criteria (e.g., recycled content, biodegradable, renewable, and so on) has remained elusive. Life cycle assessment (LCA) can measure the impact reduction potential of sourcing strategies. However, full process‐based LCAs are time‐consuming and costly across multiple criteria of thousands of products and inputs purchased in an organizational setting. A streamlined “hotspot” methodology is presented using a combination of environmentally extended economic input‐output (EEIO) approaches and extant literature to identify hotspots in which to constrain a parameterized process‐based LCA. A case study of breakfast cereal manufacturing is developed to (1) assess the efficiencies associated with the hotspotting approach and (2) demonstrate its applicability in generating comparable decision signals of environmentally preferable sourcing criteria for procurement and supply‐chain managers along the dimensions of global warming potential and water use.     

Life Cycle Attribute Assessment

Practitioners of life cycle assessment (LCA) have recently turned their attention to social issues in the supply chain. The United Nations life cycle initiative's social LCA task force has completed its guidelines for social life cycle assessment of products, and awareness of managing upstream corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues has risen due to the growing popularity of LCA. This article explores one approach to assessing social issues in the supply chain—life cycle attribute assessment (LCAA). The approach was originally proposed by Gregory Norris in 2006, and we present here a case study. LCAA builds on the theoretical structure of environmental LCA to construct a supply chain model. Instead of calculating quantitative impacts, however, it asks the question “What percentage of my supply chain has attribute X?” X may represent a certification from a CSR body or a self‐defined attribute, such as “is locally produced.” We believe LCAA may serve as an aid to discussions of how current and popular CSR indicators may be integrated into a supply chain model. The case study demonstrates the structure of LCAA, which is very similar to that of traditional environmental LCA. A labor hours data set was developed as a satellite matrix to determine number of worker hours in a greenhouse tomato supply. Data from the Quebec tomato producer were used to analyze how the company performed on eight sample LCAA indicators, and conclusions were drawn about where the company should focus CSR efforts.     

Reducing Gaseous Emissions and Resource Consumption Embodied in French Final Demand: How Much Can Waste Policies Contribute?

This study investigates the benefits of waste management policies on gaseous emissions and resource consumption caused by the final demand, in the specific case of France and in a context of economic growth. Waste input‐output analysis is implemented to compare three scenarios, depicting and combining the upward trend of final demand from 2008 to 2020, the increase in recycling rates by 2020 (encompassing the achievement of recycling objectives set by European Union Directives), and the simultaneous larger implementation of best available techniques (BAT) for waste incineration. Hybrid monetary physical input‐output tables are initially derived from balanced physical supply and use tables and further complemented with process inventory data on waste treatment technologies. A dramatic reduction in the demand for primary metals (by a factor of 2.0) and for primary mining and quarrying products for construction (by a factor of 1.9) is observed in 2020, as compared to 2008, in the case of the scenario “recycling,” despite the competition induced by the evolution of the final demand. On the contrary, considering energy requirements and fossil carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide emissions caused by the French final demand, the combined improvements in recycling and incineration performances by 2020 would only limit the rise induced by the evolution of the final demand. On the basis of these results, the potential contribution of waste management policies to the decoupling of resource consumption and gaseous emissions from final demand's growth is finally discussed.     

Strategic Responses to Environmental Regulation in the U.K. Automotive Sector: The European Union End-of-Life Vehicle Directive and the Porter Hypothesis

As of 1 January 2006 all automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and component manufacturers operating within the European Union will need to comply with the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive (referred to hereafter as the EU ELV Directive). The EU ELV Directive compels all OEMs to take back and dismantle all motor vehicles for domestic use at the end of their useful lives. Each component part will then be either reused or recycled. To this end, the ultimate goal of the EU ELV Directive is that all motor vehicles for domestic use will have a reuse or recyclable content of 85% at the end of their useful lives, moving toward 95% by 2015. The burden of the EU ELV Directive falls on both the OEMs and their component manufacturers, forcing them to innovate and "design for disassembly." This being the case, it offers a unique real world example with which to test the Porter Hypothesis. Porter asserts that strict, correctly formulated environmental regulation can offer a firm secondary benefits through improved product design and the reduction of waste. This in turn allows the firm to offset the cost of compliance. Because the EU ELV Directive has been fashioned to force firms into a process of innovation and redesign, the magnitude of these so-called offsets can be judged. This article employs Rugman and Verbeke's 1998 strategic matrix of firm response to environmental regulation to examine qualitative details of the strategic response of automotive component manufacturers and OEMs in the United Kingdom to the demands of the directive to judge the volume of offsets generated. This analysis shows no support for the Porter Hypothesis and challenges the assumptions of Rugman and Verbeke's model.     

Quantifying Phosphorus Flow Pathways Through Socioeconomic Systems at the County Level in China

Phosphorus (P) is a key factor in aquatic eutrophication, and P contamination has become a common issue worldwide. Many developing countries, including China, have made great efforts in the anti‐P contamination battle. In this article we mainly discuss the P flow in Wuwei, a typical county in China with insufficient wastewater treatment, using the method of static substance flow analysis. We show that characterizing P metabolic pathways and flows at the county level can provide useful information about P pollution. Through complex calculations, we found that Wuwei County released 3,552 metric tons (t) of P into the local aquatic environment in 2008 and that its P load (3.35 kilograms P per capita per year [kg P/cap/yr] or 19.43 kilograms P per hectare per year [kg‐P/ha/yr]) was greater than both the adjoining counties’ and Chaohu City's average levels combined. The agricultural subsystem discharged the largest quantity of P (2,572 t) and had a relatively low production conversion efficiency (32%) and P waste recycling rate (36%). The rural residential and small‐scale livestock breeding systems also accounted for substantial portions of P discharge. Anti‐P contamination efforts should consequently focus on those three subsystems. Based on the results of this case study, we also discuss the feasibility of potential efforts to reduce P contamination.     

Water Consumption Based on a Disaggregated Social Accounting Matrix of Huesca (Spain)

Making use of the social accounting matrix (SAM) of the Spanish province of Huesca in 2002, updated following Junius and Oosterhaven's GRAS method and work by Lenzen and colleagues, we have estimated the water footprint of the region. The water footprint is defined as the volume of water needed for the production of the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants plus the direct consumption in the households. We built an open Leontief model, which gives us the water embodied in the production of goods. The valuations concern the industrial, service, and domestic sectors’ water consumption, the embodied water imported from and exported to other countries, and the agrarian water use. This agrarian sector, clearly the sector that shows the greatest water consumption, is carefully examined, so it is disaggregated for the calculations into 31 irrigation land products, dry land, and 9 livestock classifications. As a consequence, the framework enables the observation of the relationships and flows of water taking place among all the sectors and activities in the economy. Finally, we also make use of the per capita water footprint estimations to get a clear picture of how the responsibility for water use is distributed once foreign trade is taken into account.     

Combining Multiregional Input‐Output Analysis with a World Trade Model for Evaluating Scenarios for Sustainable Use of Global Resources,Part I: Conceptual Framework

Consumption in a particular country often entails resource extraction, production, and environmental degradation in remote locations. This fact has stimulated a growing body of empirical analysis using input‐output (I‐O) databases and techniques to reveal and quantify the underlying linkages. Two lines of research rooted in I‐O economics, multiregional input‐output (MRIO) analysis and I‐O modeling of the world economy, describe and analyze these relationships, the first for the past, increasingly in the form of footprints and the underlying pathways, and the latter under alternative scenarios about possible courses of action in the future. The article shows how organizing such scenario outcomes into an MRIO database can extend the reach of MRIO analysis to the future while simultaneously supplementing the capabilities of the world trade modeling framework. We describe the compilation of an MRIO database from the results of scenario analysis using the world trade model (WTM) in a companion article (Part II, Implementation); the subsequent application of MRIO techniques to this database permits the evaluation of prospects for the future. We also address several overlooked challenges, namely, the need to include factor endowments and distances between potential trade partners in an MRIO database, the representation of sectors providing transport of internationally traded goods, and the manipulation of mixed physical and money units when both quantities and prices are endogenous.     

Economic Development Matters: A Meta‐Regression Analysis on the Relation between Environmental Management and Financial Performance

Although the existing body of empirical literature on the relation between corporate environmental performance (CEP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) is continuously growing, results are still inconclusive about this fundamental question in industrial ecology. Comparisons are difficult because of various estimation methods as well as the overall heterogeneous and complex interaction between the two constructs, but especially because of country‐specific data sets. Consequently, we raise the question of whether regional differences are the driving force buried underneath the inconclusiveness. Therefore, the aim of this article is to explore this heterogeneity by aggregating 893 existing results from 142 empirical primary studies that are based on more than 750,000 firm‐year observations. Our findings suggest a convex impact of a country's economic development on the magnitude of the CEP‐CFP effect (i.e., the effect is positive in developing countries, disappears in emerging countries, and is again positive in highly developed countries). We also find that the overall positive relation strengthens for market‐based CFP measures and diminishes for countries with civil law systems, firms from the service sector, reactive environmental activities, and process‐based CEP measures. Further, several aspects of the examined data sample and the inclusion of relevant control variables explain heterogeneity in previous research results.     

A Classroom Simulation to Teach Economic Input−Output Life Cycle Assessment

Life cycle assessment (LCA) methods and tools are increasingly being taught in university courses. Students are learning the concepts and applications of process-based LCA, input−output-based LCA, and hybrid methods. Here, we describe a classroom simulation to introduce students to an economic input−output life cycle assessment (EIO-LCA) method. The simulation uses a simplified four-industry economy with eight transactions among the industries. Production functions for the transactions and waste generation amounts are provided for each industry. Students represent an industry and receive and issue purchase orders for materials to simulate the actual purchases of materials within the economy. Students then compare the simulation to mathematical representations of the model. Finally, students view an online EIO-LCA tool ( http://www.eiolca.net ) and use the tool to compare different products. The simulation has been used successfully with a wide range of students to facilitate conceptual understanding of one EIO-LCA method.