Search results

The purpose of this paper is to present greenhouse gas study results for biofuels produced with partial qualified utilisation of pulp wood or forest residues when integrated into kraft pulp mill systems. The impact of considering biogenic carbon on the results is also presented.

The material and energy balances of the integrated ethanol production were simulated for the study with a mill‐wide simulation model. Data for the simulation were obtained from prehydrolysis and cooking experiments. The life cycle model for greenhouse gas calculation was created based on the simulation results. In this paper, the change of forest carbon stock caused by residue removal from forest soil and carbon delay of forest growth after stand felling were also taken into consideration, to discuss the true greenhouse gas emissions of forest biomass utilisation.

The emission reduction levels achieved with these ethanol fuels derived from forest biomass ranged from 80 to 90 per cent when biogenic carbon emissions were neglected.

The findings indicate that in both cases a significant percentage of the side flows containing energy can be utilised to produce excess electricity when the ethanol plant is integrated into the pulp mill. The findings also indicate that the carbon storage impact of forest biomasses affects significantly the emission values of both studied fuels and overturns the emission savings of prehydrolysed chip based ethanol.

Heritage buildings are consistently impacted by technical and pathological issues associated with their maintenance and conservation such as diminish of building's authenticity and damaging environmental impact. This paper aims to evaluate the environmental maintenance impact (EMI) of the Singgora roof tiles repair in heritage buildings. The EMI is an evaluation upon embodied carbon expenditure during maintenance phase, thus important in repair efficiency appraisal.

Calculation procedures within selected boundaries of life cycle assessment (LCA) and arbitrary period enabled evaluation of the EMI of Singgora roof tiles repair in heritage buildings during the maintenance phase.

Evaluation of the EMI could be appreciated as a carbon LCA of Singgora roof tiles repair and has been recognised in embodied carbon expenditure reduction in the form of CO₂ emissions mitigation. Importantly, the evaluation underpins decision-making for heritage buildings repair.

EMI evaluation encompasses all building types and forms, thus comprehends the associated applied methodologies. Moreover, the evaluation reflects the emerging environmental challenges of sustaining resilient buildings globally.

EMI evaluation highlights options that may be adopted in repair. Indirectly, this implicates heritage building preservation and place's identity protection. Significantly, the evaluation supports environmentally focused conservation and promotes a sustainable repair approach.

EMI evaluation of this paper may devoted to the holistic understanding of the complex relations between Singgora roof materials and their environmental performance. Meanwhile, the application of a carbon LCA had dictated integration of multidisciplinary of heritage buildings maintenance and conservation.

The purpose of this paper is to review the relevant literature on low carbon supply chain management (LCSCM) and classify it on contextual base. It also aims at identifying key decision-making issues in LCSCM. This paper also highlights some of the future challenges and scope of research in this domain.

A content analysis is carried out by systematically collecting the literature from major academic sources over a period of 18 years (2000-2017), identifying structural dimensions and classifying it on contextual base.

There is an increasing trend of research on LCSCM, but this research is still in a nascent stage. All supply chain functions such as supplier selection, inventory planning, network design and logistic decisions have been redefined by integrating emissions-related issues.

Limitation of this study is inherent in its unit of analysis. Only peer-reviewed journal articles published in English language have been considered in this study.

Findings of prior studies on low carbon inventory control, transportation planning, facility allocation, location selection and supply chain coordination have been highlighted in this study. This will help supply chain practitioners in decision making.

Though there are an increasing number of studies about carbon emission-related issues in supply chain management, the present literature lacks to provide a review of the overarching publications. This paper addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive review of literature on emissions-related issues in supply chain management.

The purpose of this paper is to identify various dimensions of green quality. It integrates the existing carbon footprinting technique with the eight dimensions of quality proposed by Garvin (1984, 1987). Apart from extending these concepts, it also proposes two new dimensions – traceability and standardization which are not explicitly considered by the above two.

Conceptual theory building is used to develop a framework consisting of three interrelated propositions which explain the underlying dimensions of green quality and provide a better understanding of the same.

Similar to the eight dimensions of quality proposed by Garvin, the authors propose various dimensions of green quality and develop three propositions around these dimensions. This conceptual framework is developed by integrating the works of traditional quality (specifically Garvin’s eight dimensions), emergent literature on green products and their attributes, carbon footprinting from environmental economics discipline by summarizing their common elements and contrasting their differences.

This research is one of the first studies that explore the dimensions of green quality of a product. Apart from discovering and exploring inherent greenness in Garvin’s eight dimensions of quality, the authors also discuss about two new dimensions – traceability and standardization.

Worldwide, many carbon audit guidelines have been developed, but comparative reviews of these guidelines and empirical findings of carbon emissions from hotels remain limited. The aim of the study reported here was to bridge these knowledge gaps.

A comparative review of the legislations and guidelines for carbon audits in Australia, the UK and Hong Kong was made. An empirical audit, which entailed a series of site visits and interviews for collecting the record data of a typical hotel in Hong Kong, was conducted to identify the sources and amounts of carbon emissions from the hotel.

Conducting carbon audits for buildings in Hong Kong is entirely voluntary. Reporting of certain scopes of carbon emissions is at the sole discretion of the reporting party. Purchased electricity for the hotel is the dominant source of carbon emissions.

Audits in future may follow the reported audit process to identify carbon emissions from other hotels to enlarge the pool of empirical findings, which is a prerequisite to developing carbon emission benchmarks and carbon footprint analyses.

The suggestions made for overcoming the obstacles found from the audit are crucial for performing smoother and more complete audits in future.

The review findings and the practical problems identified are useful information for the stakeholders of carbon audits, including policy makers and facilities management practitioners.

The change in climate and depletion of natural resources because of the harmful emissions from different materials becomes a main issue for the globe. Some of the developed and developing countries have focused on this issue and performed research to provide a solution. The purpose of this study is to identify the best types of concrete based on its impact on the environment and economy.

The life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis of six concrete mixtures that include construction and demolition wastes (CDW), marble sludge, rice husk and bagasse ash as a partial replacement of cement, are performed. These types of concrete are compared with each other and with ordinary concrete to select the best possible concrete type for a developing country, like Pakistan.

The results show that, although for an agricultural country like Pakistan, the agriculture wastes such as rice husk and bagasse ash are preferable to be used, if the emissions of CO₂ and CO from rice husk and NOx and SO₂ from bagasse ash are properly controlled. However, based on the results, it is recommended to use the CDW in concrete because of the small amount of air emissions and affordable prices.

Through this study, a path has been provided to construction companies and relative government organizations of Pakistan, which leads to sustainable practices in the construction industry. Moreover, the base is provided for future researchers who want to work in this area, as for Pakistan, there is no database available that helps to identify the impact of different concrete on the environment.

Sustainability encapsulates economic, environmental and societal domains. In order to conform to these domains, the efficiency of maintenance and repair of heritage buildings is no exception. Emergently, environmental considerations for sustainable heritage buildings repair have become increasingly important. The purpose of this paper is to present a decision-making process based on “Green Maintenance Model” – an appraisal approach based on life cycle assessment (LCA) of paint repair options for heritage buildings.

Calculation procedures of Green Maintenance model within selected boundaries of LCA enable evaluation of carbon emissions, in terms of embodied carbon expenditure, expended from paint repair for heritage buildings during maintenance phase.

“Green Maintenance” model could be understood as a carbon LCA of paint repair and has been recognized in reducing carbon emissions. Significantly, the model underpins decision-making for repair options for heritage buildings.

It must be emphasized that the calculation procedures of Green Maintenance model is not limited to heritage buildings and can be applied to any repair types, materials used and building forms. More importantly, this model practically supports environmentally focused conservation and promotes sustainable repair approach.

The implementation of Green Maintenance model highlights the efficiency of repairs options that may be adopted.

Green Maintenance shows that generated environmental maintenance impact from repair options relays the “true” embodied carbon expenditure contextualized within the longevity of repair and its embodied carbon. This will consequently allow rationale in appraisal of repair options.

Low carbon repair epitomises sustainable maintenance management for heritage buildings. However, there is little recognition of this aspect, coupled with impractical assessment of repair impact strategies. This paper aims to present a decision-making process based on life cycle assessment (LCA) approach of lime plaster repair options for heritage buildings.

Calculation procedures of LCA were carried out to enable sustainable maintenance management appraisal for heritage buildings upon embodied carbon expenditure expended from lime plaster repair during the maintenance phase.

Calculation procedures could be understood as a carbon LCA of lime plaster repair and recognised in reducing CO₂ emissions. This underpins low carbon of lime plaster repair in achieving sustainable maintenance management of heritage buildings.

It must be emphasised that the LCA approach is not limited to heritage buildings and can be applied to any repair types, materials used and building forms. This supports environmentally focused economies and promotes sustainable maintenance management solutions.

The LCA approach highlights the efficiency of repair impact strategies through evaluation of low carbon repairs options.

The LCA approach results show that low carbon repair, contextualised within maintenance management, relays the “true” embodied carbon expenditure and stimulates sustainable development of heritage buildings.

The purpose of this paper is to make sense of the tensions and contradictions between different conceptions of the meaning of carbon accounting.

The paper draws on theories of framing to help explain the divergent understandings and practices currently encompassed by the term “carbon accounting”. The empirical core of the paper is based on a review of the literature and illustrated through examples of some of the contemporary problems in carbon accounting.

Tensions and contradictions in carbon accounting can be understood as the result of “collisions” between at least five overlapping frames of reference, namely physical, political, market‐enabling, financial and social/environmental modes of carbon accounting.

Unresolved tensions in carbon accounting can undermine confidence in climate science, policies, markets and reporting, thereby ultimately discouraging action to mitigate climate change. Understanding this problem can contribute to finding practical solutions.

The paper makes three distinct contributions to the emerging theoretical literature on carbon accounting. First, it provides a unique “unpacked” definition of carbon accounting that attempts to represent the contemporary range of meanings encompassed by the term. Second, it demonstrates how social science ideas about framing can help explain why definitions and understandings of carbon accounting vary. Third, by making the interactions between different forms of carbon accounting explicit through the metaphor of colliding frames of reference, the origins of some of the contemporary intractable issues in carbon accounting can be better understood.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationships between low carbon supply chain practices and their relationships with environmental sustainability (ES) and the economic performances (EP) of firms. The study also includes an examination of the low carbon supply chain practices that are utilized by Indian manufacturing firms.

Through a questionnaire-based survey, the data received from 83 Indian manufacturing firms was analyzed using a variance-based structural equation modeling technique to test the proposed hypotheses.

The study indicates that carbon governance is a strategic imperative for the adoption of low carbon supply chain practices. Similarly, low carbon product and process design (LCPPD), manufacturing and logistics lead to improved ES. In addition, low carbon purchasing is positively related to the adoption of LCPPD, manufacturing and logistics. No significant relationship was found between the adoption of low carbon supply chain practices and the EP of a firm.

The findings of this study may assist manufacturing managers in prioritizing operational practices for the reduction of emissions.

This study provides two major contributions to green supply chain management. First, it provides comprehensive empirical evidence on low carbon supply chain practices that are being followed by Indian manufacturing firms. Second, this study also empirically validated a structural model of low carbon supply chain practices.