Energy efficiency complexities: A technical and managerial investigation

Increased concern about sustainability issues has been voiced in the accounting literature. Although environmental performance is only one dimension of sustainability, it is nevertheless a key factor, especially in sectors such as the process industry, which consume substantial volumes of materials and energy. Energy itself is important because its production is a major cause of carbon emissions. Hence efforts to reduce its use are important, and here energy efficiency measurement and management play a key role.Although the conceptual challenges posed by energy efficiency measurement are well known in the technical literature, there has been little discussion of energy efficiency management. This paper examines the complexities involved in the measurement and management of energy efficiency. In particular, it examines how these complexities impede effective use of management control systems to impact the ability and motivation of employees to work toward the goals of sustainable development. The study is a cross-disciplinary one, and combines technical energy efficiency research and environmental management accounting research in performance management. The study provides practical knowledge of what happens in organizations pursuing sustainable development, in this case environmental performance. The paper demonstrates a performance indicator that does not allow proper energy efficiency performance management because it is still technically underdeveloped. Setting targets for the indicator is especially problematic.     

Water and food in the bioeconomy: challenges and opportunities for development

The world economy is under pressure for greater, more efficient and more sustainable use of natural resources to meet complementary and competing objectives in the food, water and energy sectors. Interactions between these three sectors have become increasingly affected by the bioeconomy—a concept that encompasses economic growth driven by the development of renewable biological resources and biotechnologies to produce sustainable products, employment and income. This article explores how water and the bioeconomy are interlinked, including how the constraints from growing water scarcity—in part caused by development of the bioeconomy—may influence bioeconomic growth. The article describes the impact of biofuel production on water quantity and quality and examines the potential for improved water use through the development of crop biotechnology and improved crop management. Then alternative scenarios for water in the bioeconomy are assessed, and policy conclusions are presented.     

科研院所国有资产管理刍议

科研院所国有资产管理刍议夏凤琴一、科研院所国有资产管理的现状及存在的问题从１９８４年开始，随着科技体制改革的深化，科研事业费拨款逐年递减，科研院所已从一个纯科研型的事业单位发展为实行企业化管理的科研、生产、工程承包一体化的综合型经济实体。为了适应科技...     

流域生态经济管理及其指标体系的探讨

通过分析流域生态经济系统的共性和生态经济管理的特点及应遵守的原则,文章认为维持流域持续发展的能力是流域生态经济管理的关键,并在此基础上,讨论了流域生态经济管理指标体系的建立。     

循环经济视角下企业的成本收益分析

从微观经济学的角度来讲,市场主体都具有自利性,企业应当遵循"成本最低,利润最大"的原则。循环经济则强调最有效地利用资源和保护环境,这样就会在很多方面增加成本。从循环经济视角下对企业的成本收益进行分析,就是要使企业的循环经济生产"有利可图",进而形成促进循环经济发展的自发机制。     

绿色物流与广州市可持续发展

当前,物流业已成为广州市经济发展的强劲增长点,但是物流业在促进广州经济发展的同时,也给城市环境带来许多负面影响。因此,发展绿色物流对广州市实行可持续发展具有重要意义。文中首先对广州市物流产业发展的环境和条件进行了分析,总结出现代物流业发展对广州市的影响,提出了广州市发展绿色物流的必要性,并对广州市发展绿色物流提出相应的对策。     

An application of an integrated ANP–QFD framework for sustainable supplier selection

This study provides a novel integrated multi-criteria decision-making approach to sustainable supplier selection problems. Despite the large supply chain management literature on green performance measurement, the need for a systematic analysis of how specific sustainable variables develop and affect each other remains mostly overlooked. The proposed integrated framework allows for such an analysis. By combining analytic network process and quality function deployment, our model identifies a clear hierarchical structure for all the relevant sustainable factors and sub-factors while weighting the decision criteria based on the importance given to customer requirements. Finally, suppliers are ranked using a multi-objective optimisation procedure based on ratio analysis and weighted aggregated sum product assessment. The proposed framework is used to analyse a case study of a dairy company, but it can be easily implemented for supplier selection by any other company with similar features.     

Geocultural landscaping: Guidelines and conceptual framework to design future scenarios of exploited lands

The environmental recovery of quarried areas is increasingly a landscaping first-order issue in many countries and relevant lessons can be learned from each case history, depending upon factors such as the terrain nature and landscape consolidation over time. The case of the Tivoli travertine quarries near Rome (Acque Albule Basin, Italy) is addressed with a multidisciplinary approach and analytic data indicating sustainable and resilient future solutions. Geological data are analyzed to know the resources and natural hazards of this territory. Historical landscape analyses are next accomplished to know the cultural heritage and evolution of man-nature interactions. Eventually, the present land use and 3D landscape are considered to know the current setting. This territory is characterized by natural hazards including earthquakes, degassing, subsidence, and river flooding, and by resources such as abundant thermal waters. Historical analyses show the occurrence of a significant cultural heritage including two UNESCO world heritage sites. The present landscape is characterized by deep quarries and unplanned urbanization. The integration of geological data with historical information provides a new knowledge forming a geocultural database that must be taken into consideration for future planning. Based on these results, general landscape and urban guidelines are proposed for the future recovery of this intensively-quarried and -urbanized territory. The main lesson learned from the Tivoli case history is twofold: (1) the integration and feedback between multiple disciplines and professionals (architects and geologists) working together on environmental improvements and (2) the careful view of the past territory and meticulous analysis of existing buildings and urban landscapes are the key to sustainably interpret the future landscape. The main novelty of this lesson is the improvement of the concept of cultural landscape (UNESCO: http://whc.unesco.org/en/culturallandscape/) and its expansion toward geological issues and man-geology/nature interactions. In an urban-saturated territory that is also geologically-worn by human activities (e.g., Acque Albule Basin), restoring guidelines must comply with the partly-new concept of geocultural landscaping, which consists of a sustainable and resilient planning based on the study and understanding of natural-geological hazards, natural and cultural resources, and man-nature relationships over large spaces and long terms (4D). A general conceptual framework for geocultural landscaping is eventually proposed.     

The value-relevance of adopting IFRS: Evidence from 145 NGAAP restatements

Firms listed on stock exchanges within the European Economic Area are required to report consolidated financial statements according to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) since 2005. The firms that adopted IFRS in 2005 were also required to restate their 2004 financial statements from national GAAP to provide comparable accounting figures. These two sets of financial statements for 2004 are thus based on identical underlying economic activities and are fully specified according to two different reporting regimes. Our sample consists of 145 restatements from Norwegian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (NGAAP) to IFRS for firms listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in Norway. We test whether the IFRS accounting figures correlate more strongly with stock market values than the corresponding NGAAP figures. We find little evidence of increased value-relevance after adopting IFRS when comparing and evaluating the two regimes unconditionally. On the other hand, when evaluating the change in the accounting figures from NGAAP to IFRS, we find evidence that the reconcilement adjustments to IFRS are marginally value-relevant due to increased relevance of the balance sheet and the normalized net operating income. By weighting our sample by firm size, intangible asset intensity and profitability, we learn that the increased value-relevance of the net operating income stems from different reporting of intangible assets. Since more intangible assets are capitalized according to IFRS than NGAAP, our finding is consistent with the view that capitalizing intangible assets is more value-relevant than expensing them as incurred or through goodwill amortization.     

资源性城市可持续发展的问题及其对策--从大庆城乡经济发展说起

矿业资源城市是伴随着化石资源的开发而兴起的城市，如何实现经济的持续稳定协调发展是矿业资源城市发展的重大课题。本文从典型的矿业资源城市大庆市为例，运用定性与定量分析方法对大庆市经济可持续发展存在的问题进行了分析研究，在此基础上提出了大庆市场经济可持续发展的相应对策。