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1 – 10 of 284Ying Guo, Dongpo Xia, Binghua Sun, Xi Wang, Dao Zhang and Jinhua Li
Because natural resource utilization is a predictor of sustainable development, an evaluation of the efficiency of resource utilization is critical for assessing developmental…
Abstract
Purpose
Because natural resource utilization is a predictor of sustainable development, an evaluation of the efficiency of resource utilization is critical for assessing developmental potentiality. The purpose of this paper is to apply three-dimensional (3D) ecological footprint theory to assess the effects of production and consumption on ecological systems in Hefei, China.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data for Hefei for the period 2005-2014, an ecological footprint model (EFM) was developed to calculate the area’s ecological footprint (EF), ecological carrying (EC) capacity and obtain two indices, namely, footprint depth and size. The relationship between economic development and natural resource utilization was subsequently evaluated based on the calculated ecological deficit and the EF demand per Renminbi 10,000 of gross domestic product (GDP).
Findings
Over the last decade, Hefei’s EF per capita evidenced a 9.87 percent growth rate, increasing from 1.16 hm2/person in 2005 to 2.70 hm2/person in 2014. EC capacity per capita increased from 0.21 hm2/person in 2005 to 0.36 hm2/person in 2014, evidencing a gradually increasing trend at an average annual growth rate of 6.24 percent. Thus, between 2005 and 2014, the ecological deficit increased annually by three times. The amplification of footprint depth significantly exceeded that of footprint size. Between 2005 and 2014, Hefei’s EF per capita Renminbi 10,000 of GDP decreased annually by 4.68 percent. Thus, energy consumption in Hefei exceeded the natural regeneration capacity of energy resources, with excessive development and resource utilization impacting on the regional ecological system.
Practical implications
The application of a 3D EFM sheds light on natural resource utilization within regional development. Moreover, footprint depth and size are significant predictors of the impacts of natural resource utilization. These findings will also benefit other countries or cities.
Originality/value
This is one of the first empirical studies to apply a 3D EFM to evaluate the relationship between natural resource utilization and economic development. Adopting a sustainable development framework, it provides insights into the effects of natural resource utilization in relation to the balance between the natural ecological system and economic development. This has far-reaching implications beyond Hefei and China.
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This paper seeks to discuss technology transfer – and its role in climate change mitigation – within the United Nations framework of sustainable development. Innovation is broadly…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to discuss technology transfer – and its role in climate change mitigation – within the United Nations framework of sustainable development. Innovation is broadly considered as a tool to bring about breakthrough results in climate change alleviation. To ensure that innovative technology serves sustainable development, a massive international effort on the part of the regulators is required to create an integrated legislative framework to standardize eco‐innovation policies worldwide. To facilitate a global ecological regulatory framework, it is essential to use universal measurement tools which provide input to the decision‐making process at an international level, and address the mechanism of monitoring progress.
Design/methodology/approach
The concept of eco‐innovation potential is introduced as one of the inputs to the decision‐making process on the global level. A composite index with such constituents as ecological balance (deficit or reserve), innovation, and energy intensity of economy, is built. The concept of innovation credits is introduced.
Findings
The simulation shows that ecological balance can potentially be increased for countries with greater eco‐innovation potential. The innovation credits can be given to countries with the highest eco‐innovation potential to foster eco‐innovation and perform technology transfer.
Originality/value
Earlier research developed focus on innovation as a means to transition to sustainable development and to create climate positive technological regimes applied at a national or industry level. The paper illustrates that the eco‐innovation potential index can be applied globally and can provide key input to the decision‐making process at a global level.
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Kilian Fricke, Thomas Bergs, Philipp Ganser and Martin Seimann
The aviation industry has seen consistent growth over the past few decades. To maintain its sustainability and competitiveness, it is important to have a comprehensive…
Abstract
Purpose
The aviation industry has seen consistent growth over the past few decades. To maintain its sustainability and competitiveness, it is important to have a comprehensive understanding of the environmental impacts across the entire life cycle of the industry, including materials, processes and resources; manufacturing and production; lifetime services; reuse; end-of-life; and recycling. One important component of aircraft engines, integral rotors known as Blisks, are made of high-value metallic alloys that require complex and resource-intensive manufacturing processes. The purpose of this paper is to assess the ecological and economical impacts generated through Blisk production and thereby identify significant ‘hot-spots’.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper focuses on the methodology and approach for conducting a full-scale Blisk life cycle assessment (LCA) based on ISO 14040/44. Unlike previous papers in the European Aerospace Science Network series, which focused on the first two stages of LCA, this publication delves into the “life cycle impact assessment” and “interpretation” stages, providing an overview of the life cycle inventory modeling, impact category selection and presenting preliminary LCA results for the Blisk manufacturing process chain.
Findings
The result shows that the milled titanium Blisk has a lower CO2 footprint than the milled nickel Blisk, which is less than half of the global warming potential (GWP) of the milled nickel Blisk. A main contributor to GWP arises from raw material production. However, no recycling scenarios were included in the analysis, which will be the topic of further investigations.
Originality/value
The originality of this work lies in the detailed ecological assessment of the manufacturing for complex engine components and the derivation of hot spots as well as potential improvements in terms of eco-footprint reduction throughout the products cradle-to-gate cycle. The LCA results serve as a basis for future approaches of process chain optimisation, use of “greener” materials and individual process improvements.
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Herbert Kotzab, Hilde M. Munch, Brigitte de Faultrier and Christoph Teller
The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale that evaluates the environmental elements in retail supply chains and to examine the environmental supply chain management…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale that evaluates the environmental elements in retail supply chains and to examine the environmental supply chain management initiatives of the world's largest 100 retailing companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical evaluation has been undertaken through an investigative approach applying a web‐scan framework which included the analysis of web sites and publicly published documents such as annual reports and corporate social responsibility reports.
Findings
The authors identified 34 environmental sustainability initiatives which were grouped into eight categories; they refer to “fundamental environmental attitude”, “use of energy”, “use of input material”, “product”, “packaging”, “transport”, “consumption” and “waste”. The level of environmental supply chain management can be characterised as very operational and very short‐term oriented (green operations). Long‐term oriented green design initiatives were hardly observed. Furthermore, the specific environmental activities of three retailers from Denmark, France and the UK were compared.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical study investigates supply chain operations of retailers and excludes other areas of retail management. The results are based on material that is published by the respective companies and thus do not include internal reports.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this paper is to test the proposition that global retailers follow the path of the “Greening Goliaths”, where environmental sustainability becomes a quasi industry standard for the ecological sustainability transformation of global retailing.
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Ayodeji E. Oke and Seyi S. Stephen
Ecological economics is a multidisciplinary endeavour to connect the social sciences and nature in general. It also connects aspects of ecology and economics to a particular…
Abstract
Ecological economics is a multidisciplinary endeavour to connect the social sciences and nature in general. It also connects aspects of ecology and economics to a particular understanding. The created concept centred on the mission to acquire a more advanced albeit better scientific understanding of the complex interconnections between humans, animals and the rest of nature. This is driven towards utilising the obtained knowledge to establish policies that will lead to a more environmentally sustainable world, with a fair resource distribution (both across human groups and generations, as well as between humans, the environment and other species), and also efficiently allocates limited resources such as ‘natural’ and ‘social’ capital. This practice necessitates the development of new methodologies that are comprehensive, adaptive, integrative, multi-scale, pluralistic and evolutionary, while also acknowledging the enormous uncertainties involved.
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Jeremy Faludi, Cindy Bayley, Suraj Bhogal and Myles Iribarne
The purpose of this study is to compare the environmental impacts of two additive manufacturing machines to a traditional computer numerical control (CNC) milling machine to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to compare the environmental impacts of two additive manufacturing machines to a traditional computer numerical control (CNC) milling machine to determine which method is the most sustainable.
Design/methodology/approach
A life-cycle assessment (LCA) was performed, comparing a Haas VF0 CNC mill to two methods of additive manufacturing: a Dimension 1200BST FDM and an Objet Connex 350 “inkjet”/“polyjet”. The LCA’s functional unit was the manufacturing of two specific parts in acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic or similar polymer, as required by the machines. The scope was cradle to grave, including embodied impacts, transportation, energy used during manufacturing, energy used while idling and in standby, material used in final parts, waste material generated, cutting fluid for CNC, and disposal. Several scenarios were considered, all scored using the ReCiPe Endpoint H and IMPACT 2002+ methodologies.
Findings
Results showed that the sustainability of additive manufacturing vs CNC machining depends primarily on the per cent utilization of each machine. Higher utilization both reduces idling energy use and amortizes the embodied impacts of each machine. For both three-dimensional (3D) printers, electricity use is always the dominant impact, but for CNC at maximum utilization, material waste became dominant, and cutting fluid was roughly on par with electricity use. At both high and low utilization, the fused deposition modeling (FDM) machine had the lowest ecological impacts per part. The inkjet machine sometimes performed better and sometimes worse than CNC, depending on idle time/energy and on process parameters.
Research limitations/implications
The study only compared additive manufacturing in plastic, and did not include other additive manufacturing technologies, such as selective laser sintering or stereolithography. It also does not include post-processing that might bring the surface finish of FDM parts up to the quality of inkjet or CNC parts.
Practical implications
Designers and engineers seeking to minimize the environmental impacts of their prototypes should share high-utilization machines, and are advised to use FDM machines over CNC mills or polyjet machines if they provide sufficient quality of surface finish.
Originality/value
This is the first paper quantitatively comparing the environmental impacts of additive manufacturing with traditional machining. It also provides a more comprehensive measurement of environmental impacts than most studies of either milling or additive manufacturing alone – it includes not merely CO2 emissions or waste but also acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, ecotoxicity and other impact categories. Designers, engineers and job shop managers may use the results to guide sourcing or purchasing decisions related to rapid prototyping.
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Constantia Anastasiadou and Samantha Vettese
Mass-market production of souvenirs, their disposability and their mixed up, interpretive styling may detach the tourist from the actual experience. Conversely, it is the personal…
Abstract
Mass-market production of souvenirs, their disposability and their mixed up, interpretive styling may detach the tourist from the actual experience. Conversely, it is the personal relationship that is formed between the tourist and the souvenir that makes the object authentic. The personalization of souvenirs, through 3D printing, offers opportunities for a different approach to manufacturing that influences notions of authenticity. In this way, it is possible to escape the serial reproduction of culture, engage tourists in the creation of meaning, and (re)frame the connections among them, their visited places, and their souvenirs. This chapter considers how the personalization of souvenirs through 3D printing technologies challenges and redefines existing notions of authenticity in touristic consumption.
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Jorge Manuel Mercado-Colmenero, M. Dolores La Rubia, Elena Mata-García, Moisés Rodriguez-Santiago and Cristina Martin-Doñate
Because of the anisotropy of the process and the variability in the quality of printed parts, finite element analysis is not directly applicable to recycled materials manufactured…
Abstract
Purpose
Because of the anisotropy of the process and the variability in the quality of printed parts, finite element analysis is not directly applicable to recycled materials manufactured using fused filament fabrication. The purpose of this study is to investigate the numerical-experimental mechanical behavior modeling of the recycled polymer, that is, recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), manufactured by a deposition FFF process under compressive stresses for new sustainable designs.
Design/methodology/approach
In all, 42 test specimens were manufactured and analyzed according to the ASTM D695-15 standards. Eight numerical analyzes were performed on a real design manufactured with rPET using Young's compression modulus from the experimental tests. Finally, eight additional experimental tests under uniaxial compression loads were performed on the real sustainable design for validating its mechanical behavior versus computational numerical tests.
Findings
As a result of the experimental tests, rPET behaves linearly until it reaches the elastic limit, along each manufacturing axis. The results of this study confirmed the design's structural safety by the load scenario and operating boundary conditions. Experimental and numerical results show a difference of 0.001–0.024 mm, allowing for the rPET to be configured as isotropic in numerical simulation software without having to modify its material modeling equations.
Practical implications
The results obtained are of great help to industry, designers and researchers because they validate the use of recycled rPET for the ecological production of real-sustainable products using MEX technology under compressive stress and its configuration for numerical simulations. Major design companies are now using recycled plastic materials in their high-end designs.
Originality/value
Validation results have been presented on test specimens and real items, comparing experimental material configuration values with numerical results. Specifically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no industrial or scientific work has been conducted with rPET subjected to uniaxial compression loads for characterizing experimentally and numerically the material using these results for validating a real case of a sustainable industrial product.
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Aric Rindfleisch, Alan J. Malter and Gregory J. Fisher
Retailing thought and practice is premised on the assumption that consumers visit retailers to search for and acquire objects produced by manufacturers. In essence, we assume that…
Abstract
Retailing thought and practice is premised on the assumption that consumers visit retailers to search for and acquire objects produced by manufacturers. In essence, we assume that the acts of consuming and producing are conducted by separate entities. This unspoken yet familiar premise shapes the questions retail scholars ask and the way retail practitioners think about their industry. Although this assumption accurately depicted retailing since the Industrial Revolution, its relevance is being challenged by a growing set of individuals who are equipped with new digital tools to engage in self-manufacturing. In this chapter, we examine self-manufacturing with a particular focus on the recent rise of desktop 3D printing. After discussing this new technology and reviewing the literature, we offer a conceptual classification of four distinct types of 3D printed objects and use this classification to inform a content analysis of over 400 of these objects. Based on this review and analysis, we discuss the implications of self-manufacturing for retailing thought and practice.
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