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The purpose of this paper is to overcome the weakness of the traditional model, in which the grey action quantity is a real number and thus leads to a “unique solution” and to build the model with a trapezoidal possibility degree function.

Using the system input and output block diagram of the model, the interval grey action quantity is restored under the condition of insufficient system influencing factors, and the trapezoidal possibility degree function is formed. Based on that, a new model able to output non-unique solutions is constructed.

The model satisfies the non-unique solution principle of the grey theory under the condition of insufficient information. The model is compatible with the traditional model in structure and modelling results. The validity and practicability of the new model are verified by applying it in simulating the ecological environment water consumption in the Yangtze River basin.

In this study, the interval grey number form of grey action quantity is restored under the condition of insufficient system influencing factors, and the unique solution to the problem of the traditional model is solved. It is of great value in enriching the theoretical system of grey prediction models.

Taking power consumption as an example, the accurate prediction of the future power consumption level is related to the utilization efficiency of the power infrastructure investment. If the prediction of the power consumption level is too low, it will lead to the insufficient construction of the power infrastructure and the frequent occurrence of “power shortage” in the power industry. If the prediction is too high, it will lead to excessive investment in the power infrastructure. As a result, the overall surplus of power supply will lead to relatively low operation efficiency. Therefore, building an appropriate model for the correct interval prediction is a better way to solve such problems. The model proposed in this study is an effective one to solve such problems.

A new grey prediction model with its interval grey action quantity based on the trapezoidal possibility degree function is proposed for the first time.

Purpose: Due to technological developments, industrialisation, irregular urbanisation, rapid population growth, and unconscious consumption, environmental problems have been on the agenda of activists, not for profit organisations, businesses, and governments for the last 20 years. Global warming, climate change, and ozone layer depletion are among the environmental problems which are the most threatening to life on earth. What is underlying these three problems is greenhouse gases emitted into atmosphere. Carbon footprint is a measure of carbon emission. The amount of carbon footprint is closely related to consumption styles as well as production. Unconscious life styles and consumption habits of consumers increase the amount of carbon footprint produced. Together with the rise of environmental problems, the concept of sustainable consumption has become very important. In the most simple of terms, sustainable consumption means consumption without consuming natural resources and this will play an important role in reducing carbon footprint.

Aim: In this chapter, keeping in mind the context of sustainable consumption, the concept of carbon footprint is explained as well as the methods for reducing carbon footprint arising from consumption, in a bid to bring strong awareness of these issues to consumers.

Methodology: To do this a literature review was carried out and methods of reducing carbon footprint were examined and discussed.

Findings: Consumers play an important role in reducing the amount of carbon footprint arising from individual consumption.

Originality of the Study: Most studies are carried out on the carbon footprint resulting from businesses and on carbon footprint calculation and determination of carbon footprint of products. Therefore, this study is specific in that it focusses on the carbon footprint of consumers.

Implications: Studies show that one of the important factors increasing carbon footprint is the unconscious acts of consumers relating to the environment. As long as this unconscious consumption model continues, the amount of carbon footprint will also increase. Hence, consumers need to know which activities reduce the amount of carbon footprint.

During the great post–World War II economic expansion, modernization theorists held that the new American capitalism balanced mass production and mass consumption, meshed profitability with labor's interests, and ended class conflict. They thought that Keynesian policies insured a near full-employment, low-inflation, continuous growth economy. They viewed the United States as the “new lead society,” eliminating industrial capitalism's backward features and progressing toward modernity's penultimate “postindustrial” stage.⁷ Many Americans believed that the ideal of “consumer freedom,” forged early in the century, had been widely realized and epitomized American democracy's superiority to communism.⁸ However, critics held that the new capitalism did not solve all of classical capitalism's problems (e.g., poverty) and that much increased consumption generated new types of cultural and political problems. John Kenneth Galbraith argued that mainstream economists assumed that human nature dictates an unlimited “urgency of wants,” naturalizing ever increasing production and consumption and precluding the distinction of goods required to meet basic needs from those that stoke wasteful, destructive appetites. In his view, mainstream economists’ individualistic, acquisitive presuppositions crown consumers sovereign and obscure cultural forces, especially advertising, that generate and channel desire and elevate possessions and consumption into the prime measures of self-worth. Galbraith held that production's “paramount position” and related “imperatives of consumer demand” create dependence on economic growth and generate new imbalances and insecurities.⁹ Harsher critics held that the consumer culture blinded middle-class Americans to injustice, despotic bureaucracy, and drudge work (e.g., Mills, 1961; Marcuse, 1964). But even these radical critics implied that postwar capitalism unlocked the secret of sustained economic growth.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of the industrial sector, renewable energy consumption and nonrenewable energy consumption in Indonesia on the ecological footprint from 1990 to 2020 in the short and long term.

This paper uses vector error correction model (VECM) analysis to examine the relationship in the short and long term. In addition, the impulse response function is used to enable future forecasts up to 2060 of the ecological footprint as a measure of environmental degradation caused by changes or shocks in industrial value-added, renewable energy consumption and nonrenewable energy consumption. Furthermore, forecast error decomposition of variance (FEVD) analysis is carried out to predict the percentage contribution of each variable’s variance to changes in a specific variable. Granger causality testing is used to enhance the analysis outcomes within the framework of VECM.

Using VECM analysis, the speed of adjustment for environmental damage is quite high in the short term, at 246%. This finding suggests that when there is a short-term imbalance in industrial value-added, renewable energy consumption and nonrenewable energy consumption, the ecological footprint experiences a very rapid adjustment, at 246%, to move towards long-term balance. Then, in the long term, the ecological footprint in Indonesia is most influenced by nonrenewable energy consumption. This is also confirmed by the Granger causality test and the results of FEVD, which show that the contribution of nonrenewable energy consumption will be 10.207% in 2060 and will be the main contributor to the ecological footprint in the coming years to achieve net-zero emissions in 2060. In the long run, renewable energy consumption has a negative effect on the ecological footprint, whereas industrial value-added and nonrenewable energy consumption have a positive effect.

For the first time, value added from the industrial sector is being used alongside renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption to measure Indonesia’s ecological footprint. The primary cause of Indonesia’s alarming environmental degradation is the industrial sector, which acts as the driving force behind this issue. Consequently, this contribution is expected to inform the policy implications required to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2060, aligned with the G20 countries’ Bali agreement of 2022.

According to the crusade of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs-6, 7,8,12 and 13) that addressed pertinent issues around, clean access to water, access to energy, responsible consumption and climate change mitigation alongside, respectively, Paris Kyoto Protocol agreement of mitigation of climate changes issues of vision 2030.

This purpose of this study aimed to assess the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis following the ecological footprint perspective with a data set covering the period 1995–2018. It is well-established that anthropogenic human activities are the root cause of environmental deterioration. To this end, the current study is fitted in a multivariate framework to ameliorate for omitted variable bias for the data set from 1995–2018 on a quarterly frequency using autoregressive distributive lag methodology. Subsequently, the stationarity status of the study underlines series were examined with a conventional unit root test and the Pesaran’s bounds test for cointegration analysis.

Empirical evidence from the bounds test to cointegration traces the co-integration relationship between ecological footprint, conventional energy use, foreign direct investment, international tourism arrival and water resources over the sampled period. The study, in the long run, affirms the N-shaped relationship between ecological footprint and foreign direct investment in Vietnam. Additionally, the present study validates the hypothesis of energy consumption-induced pollution emissions. The relationship between international tourism arrival and quality of the environment is statistically positive in both the short-run and long-run, as 1% in international tourism arrival worsens the quality of the environment by 0.45% and 0.4% in the short-run and long-run, respectively. Interestingly, water resource's major environmental issues that have plagued the Vietnam economy are inversely related to ecological footprint. Based on findings, Vietnamese policymakers may need to consider drafting appropriate environmental policies to tackle global warming while concurrently boosting economic development.

The present study focuses on Vietnam on the determinant of environmental quality measured by a broader indicator (ecological footprint). It is well-established that anthropogenic human activities are the root cause of environmental deterioration. The present study claims to distinct from previous literature in two-folds, namely, in terms of scope. Vietnam holds a very interesting energy mix and environmental dynamics, which has been ignored in the literature. Second, we argue to be the first based on our survey to explore the theme by incorporation of water resources and foreign direct investment intensification in the conventional pollution determinant model. This is in a bid to highlights the policy blueprint for the country (Vietnam), which is currently plagued with high pollution issues and the region at large.

A systems perspective of waste management allows an integrated approach not only to the five basic functional elements of waste management itself (generation, reduction, collection, recycling, disposal), but to the problems arising at the interfaces with the management of energy, nature conservation, environmental protection, economic factors like unemployment and productivity, etc. This monograph separately describes present practices and the problems to be solved in each of the functional areas of waste management and at the important interfaces. Strategies for more efficient control are then proposed from a systems perspective. Systematic and objective means of solving problems become possible leading to optimal management and a positive contribution to economic development, not least through resource conservation. India is the particular context within which waste generation and management are discussed. In considering waste disposal techniques, special attention is given to sewage and radioactive wastes.

The primary purpose is to investigate the dynamic relationships among urbanization, energy use and environmental pollution in the context of India from 1971 to 2018. The paper also examines the validity of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in the present Indian context.

The study uses a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag cointegration test (Shin et al., 2014) to investigate the dynamic relationship among the mentioned variables. The Wald test is also used to statistically check the presence of asymmetry. Additionally, the VECM test is applied to examine the causality among the variables.

This study documents that urbanization in India is good for environment in the long run, whereas energy consumption is bad for the environment. It also finds that positive and negative shocks of energy and urbanization exert asymmetric impacts on ecological footprint. Furthermore, the results could not validate the EKC hypothesis for India.

The outcome of the study suggests designing an environmental policy which considers the nonlinearity of the investigated relationships and bearing in mind the use of comprehensive indicator like ecological footprint is equally important to address the wide-ranging problem of the environment. Policy reorientation towards the production and consumption of green energy, investment in research and development, and use of efficient technology is very crucial to achieve sustainable outcomes in the long run.

In this study, the researchers use the ‘ecological footprint’ variable to obtain a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of environmental deterioration. The mentioned dynamic relationships are investigated using an improved methodology of the NARDL model, which assumes the asymmetric impact of the explanatory variables on the response variable. The novelty of this study lies in examining the non-linear impact of urbanization and energy on ecological footprint which is inadequately addressed in the context of Indian economy.

This study aims to determine the impact of resource use behaviours of students of a public university in Ghana on ecological sustainability. It examines the land area required to provide the resources used and also to assimilate the wastes produced. It also suggests an effective way to initiate participative discussions on environmental sustainability and consequences of resource use in a university setting.

This study adopts a mixed methods approach to gather and analyse data on students’ lifestyles concerning ecological footprint. The data was analysed using the Predictive Analytics Software and a modified version of the ecological footprint analysis (EFA).

The current ecological footprint of students in the university is not environmentally sustainable. The sample population had high average ecological footprint of 3.62 hectares, representing an ecological impact score of 135.85. The findings provide lessons on how universities and analogous institutions interested in sustainable practices could foster ecologically sustainable development.

Additional data collection methods such as a longitudinal study would provide a more comprehensive assessment of the impact of resource use behaviour of students in a public university in Ghana on ecological sustainability.

EFA and findings can support universities to effectively integrate sustainability practices into their policies and practices to help students contribute to making society more sustainable.

This is an original research and makes a contribution to EFA and sustainable practices of public universities in Ghana.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the severity of obesogenic societies is associated with more significant environmental impacts, and whether these impacts are associated with the production, supply, and consumption of animal foods more so than with plant foods.

This ecological study was based on analyses of available data regarding populations of countries throughout the world. The study analyzed indicators related to food production, food supply, the anthropometric traits of malnutrition, and ecological impacts. Data were analyzed via scatter plots and Pearson’s correlation.

Food supply, when compared with food production, is more significantly associated with environmental impacts. Also, the supply of meats, when compared with the supply of cereals, has a stronger association with environmental impacts and obesogenic severity. Meat supply is strongly associated with the ecological footprint (r=0.782, p < 0.001), with CO₂ emissions (r=0.602, p < 0.001), and with the water footprint (r=0.503, p < 0.001). Thus, the average body mass index (BMI) of populations worldwide is strongly associated with environmental impacts considering the ecological footprint (r=0.559, p < 0.001), and the CO₂ emissions (r=0.460, p < 0.001).

Actions that are better aligned with worldwide urgencies related to obesogenic problems, food supply/consumption, and environmental issues are needed. This study provides a better understanding about environmental and obesogenic impacts associated with food supply.

The originality is focussed on important evidence regarding environmental and obesogenic severity strongly associated with meat supply.