... Selecting criteria for new green product development project: ... Taiwan consumer electronics products as an example

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652611005105

Abstract: With changes in the environment and a rise of consciousness concerning environmental protection, industry has begun to devote research and develop into products which reflect the needs for environmental preservation as well as allow them to maintain their market share and competitive advantage. This study summarizes the impact of 24 elements of the R&D of new products in Taiwan’s consumer electronics industry through factor analysis of a practical survey given to those in this industry. Factor analysis extracted four separate factors that speak to the potential for new product development. These factors are as follows: the potential for new product development, identifying the favorable internal and external factors to bolster competitiveness, the capability for R&D mastery and consumer acceptance preferences. This study calculates the corresponding weights of each factor and then proceeds with fuzzy multiple attribute decision making (FMADM) directed at green product development projects possessing the four factors stated in relation to their corresponding weights and finally compares these results with the product development project prescribed by application of the checklist evaluation model. The results prove that FMADM not only reaches the same conclusions as the policy-making checklist but also takes fuzzy uncertainty into account, giving a reflection of the real-world situation.

by Chang-Chun Tsai; Department of Business Administration, TransWorld University, No. 1221, Zhennan Rd., Douliu, Yunlin 640, Taiwan, ROC
Journal of Cleaner Production via Elsevier Science Direct www.ScienceDirect.com
Volume 25; April, 2012; Pages 106–115
Keywords: New product; Green product; Factor analysis; Fuzzy multiple attribute decision making

Investing in efficient industrial boiler systems in China and Vietnam

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511008147
Abstract: Energy efficiency in industrial boiler steam systems can be very low due to old technologies, improper design and non-optimal operation of the steam systems. Solutions include efficiency assessments and investments in steam system optimizations, education and training for operators of the systems. This paper presents case studies on assessing and investing in boiler steam systems in China and Vietnam. Methodologies and approaches for data collection and analyses were designed specifically for each of the two countries. This paper concludes: (1) investing in energy efficiency in industrial boiler steam system in China and Vietnam are cost effective; (2) government should not sent national energy efficiency standards lower than that of energy companies or energy equipment manufactures.

Highlights:
► GEF successfully catalyzed investment in industrial energy efficiency boilers in China in 1990s.
► With about $100 million of investment by the GEF/World Bank/Chinese government, the project will mitigate 40 million tons of CO2 by 2019.
► This generated lowest unit cost of carbon reduction in the world: about $2.5 per ton of CO2 mitigation.
► Investing in energy efficiency in industrial boiler steam system today in Vietnam will be the same cost effective as in China: $2.1 per ton of CO2 mitigation.

by Ming Yang 1 and Robert K. Dixon 2
1. 3E&T International, Suite 1506, No. 10 Building, Luo Ma Shi Street, Xuan Wu District, Beijing, 100052, China
2. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585, USA
Energy Policy via Elsevier Science Direct www.ScienceDirect.com
Volume 40; January, 2012; Pages 432-437
Special Issue: Strategic Choices for Renewable Energy Investment

Valuing the health risks of particulate air pollution in the Pearl River Delta, China

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901111001493
Abstract: The Pearl River Delta (PRD) in Southern China is a region where the manufacturing industry is rapidly developing, accounting for about 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP) with 4% of China's population. The economic development in this region is accompanied by severe air pollution that poses harm to people's health and causes economic loss. This paper estimates the adverse health effects of particulate matter pollution in the PRD by using a log-linear exposure–response function, and monetizes the morbidity effect by using the cost of illness (COI) method and the mortality effects by using both the amended human capital (AHC) method and the results of contingent valuation (CV) study. The results show that in 2006 the total economic loss of the health effects from PM10 pollution in PRD is 29.21 billion Chinese yuan by using CV results and COI method, which is equivalent to 1.35% of the regional GDP, and is 15.51 billion Chinese yuan by using AHC and COI methods, which is equivalent to 0.72% of the regional GDP. The economic loss due to premature death and chronic respiratory disease accounts for more than 95% of the total loss. Despite the uncertainties, the results clearly show the severity of the health effects and economic loss incurred by particulate matter pollution in PRD; the results further point to the need for developing environmentally friendly industry, and provide a benchmark for comparing alternative options to reduce air pollution.

Highlights
► The Pearl River Delta in Southern China is a major manufacturing region; the air pollution there is severe.
► The health effects incurred by air pollution are estimated and the results show that the health effects are great.
► The economic loss associated with the health effects is great and accounts for about 0.24–2.08% of the regional GDP.
► The economic loss of premature death and chronic respiratory disease dominate.
► Stringent air pollution control policies are justified and the health benefit would be great.

by Desheng Huang, Jianhua Xu and Shiqiu Zhang all of the Institute of Environment and Economy, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, PR China; Tel.: +86 10 62764974; fax: +86 10 62760755.
Environmental Science & Policy via Elsevier Science Direct www.ScienceDirect.com
Volume 15, Issue 1; January, 2012; Pages 38-47
Keywords: Economic loss; Particulate matter; Health effect; Valuation; Pearl River Delta

China Takes a Loss to Get Ahead in the Business of Fresh Water

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/world/asia/china-takes-loss-to-get-ahead-in-desalination-industry.html
... The Beijiang Power and Desalination Plant is a 26-billion-renminbi technical marvel: an ultrahigh-temperature, coal-fired generator with state-of-the-art pollution controls, mated to advanced Israeli equipment that uses its leftover heat to distill seawater into fresh water.

... One wrinkle in the $4 billion plant: The desalted water costs twice as much to produce as it sells for. Nevertheless, the owner of the complex, a government-run conglomerate called S.D.I.C., is moving to quadruple the plant’s desalinating capacity, making it China’s largest.
...
As it did with solar panels and wind turbines, the government has set its mind on becoming a force in yet another budding environment-related industry: supplying the world with fresh water.

The Beijiang project, southeast of Beijing, will strengthen Chinese expertise in desalination, fine-tune the economics, help build an industrial base and, along the way, lessen a chronic water shortage in Tianjin....
...
At the government’s order, China is rapidly becoming one of the world’s biggest growth markets for desalted water. The latest goal is to quadruple production by 2020, from the current 680,000 cubic meters, or 180 million gallons, a day to as many as three million cubic meters, about 800 million gallons, equivalent to nearly a dozen more 200,000-ton-a-day plants....

Institutes in at least six Chinese cities are researching developments in membranes, the technology at the core of the most sophisticated and cost-effective desalination techniques.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top-level state planning agency, is drafting plans to give preferential treatment to domestic companies that build desalting equipment or patent desalting technologies. There is talk of tax breaks and low-interest loans to encourage domestic production.

... Direct government investment in seawater projects does not exceed 10 percent of their cost....The government’s plans could mean an investment of as much as 200 billion renminbi, or about $31 billion, by state-owned companies, government agencies and private partners.

Beijiang’s desalination complex, built by S.D.I.C. at the behest of the Development and Reform Commission as a concept project, was almost wholly made in Israel, shipped to Tianjin and bolted together. Nationally, less than 60 percent of desalination equipment and technology is domestic.

China’s goal is to raise that to 90 percent by 2020...

Demand for water here is expected to grow 63 percent by 2030 — gallon for gallon, more than anywhere else on earth....

In Tianjin, deemed a model city for water conservation, 90 percent of water used in industry is recycled; 60 percent of farm irrigation systems use water-saving technologies; 148 miles of water-recycling pipes snake beneath the city. Apartments in one 10-square-mile area of town feature two taps, one for drinking water and one for recycled water suitable for other uses.

The Beijiang plant, one of two, supplies an expanding suburb with 10,000 tons of desalted water daily, with plans to someday pump 180,000 tons....

The Beijiang plant has faced some hiccups. The mineral-free distilled water scrubs rust from city pipes en route to taps, turning the water brown....

The global market for desalination technology will more than quadruple by 2020 to about $50 billion a year, the research firm SBI Energy predicted last month, and growing water shortages worldwide appear to ensure further growth.

... The increasingly sophisticated membrane technologies that filter salt from seawater can be applied to sewage treatment, pollution control and a legion of other cutting-edge uses. Far outpaced now by foreign membrane producers, which command at least 85 percent of the market, China is set on developing its own advanced technologies.
...
The list of foreign companies that have plunged into China’s desalination industry is long: Hyflux of Singapore, Toray of Japan, Befesa of Spain, Brack of Israel and ERI of the United States, among others.  And just as foreigners shifted solar-energy research and production to China, desalination companies are leaving their home bases as well. The Norwegian company Aqualyng is a partner with the Beijing city government ... and is studying moving its manufacturing facilities from Europe to China.  ERI, which is based in San Francisco and claims to have the desalination industry’s most advanced technology, is moving research facilities to China and is considering moving manufacturing as well at some later date.  Most of the foreign companies have partnered with state-owned corporations.... ERI and Aqualyng say they can become researchers and manufacturers in China without losing control of their products.
...
by Michael Wines
FOR FULL STORY GO TO:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/world/asia/china-takes-loss-to-get-ahead-in-desalination-industry.html
The New York Times www.NYTimes.com
October 25, 2011

China to double solar capacity by year end: report

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/13/us-china-solar-idUSTRE77C0AR20110813
China will double its solar capacity to around 2 gigawatts (GW) by the end of the year as the world's largest solar-panel maker ramps up domestic installation, a local paper said on Saturday citing a government-linked think tank.
...
To encourage the construction of more solar power plants, the NDRC has set unified benchmark grid feed-in power tariffs for solar projects for the first time ever earlier this month.

The solar feed-in tariff, the price of solar-generated electricity, could drop below 0.80 yuan (12.5 cents) for each kilowatt-hour (kWh) by 2015, which would be on par with conventional coal-fired power tariffs by that time, according to s report by the Energy Research Institute, led by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The report also said China was expected to produce 90,000 tonnes of polysilicon this year, representing 80 percent of its domestic demand.

The rates, set at 1 yuan for each kWh, were higher than many of those that were proposed and accepted by state-owned solar-power developers in China's previous official tenders, which ranged from 0.73 to 0.99 yuan for each kWh last year.

China had about 900 megawatts of solar power generating capacity at the end of 2010.

Reporting by Fayen Wong and Ruby Lian; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani
FOR FULL STORY GO TO: 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/13/us-china-solar-idUSTRE77C0AR20110813
Reuters www.Reuters.com
August 12, 2012

The quantification of the embodied impacts of construction projects on energy, environment, and society based on I–O LCA

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151100557X
Abstract: With rapid social development and large-scale construction of infrastructure in China, construction projects have become one of the driving forces for the national economy, whose energy consumption, environmental emissions, and social impacts are significant. To completely understand the role of construction projects in Chinese society, this study developed input–output life-cycle assessment models based on 2002, 2005, and 2007 economic benchmarks. Inventory indicators included 10 types of energy, 7 kinds of environmental emissions, and 7 kinds of social impacts. Results show that embodied energy of construction projects in China accounts for 25–30% of total energy consumption; embodied SO2 emissions are being controlled, and the intensities of embodied NO_x and CO₂ have been reduced. However, given that the construction sector related employment is 17% of the total employment in China, the accidents and fatalities related to the construction sector are significant and represent approximately 50% of the national total. The embodied human and capital investments in science and technology (ST) increased from 2002 to 2007. The embodied full time equivalent (FTE) of each ST person also increased while the personal ST funding and intramural expenditures decreased. This might result from the time lag between RD activities and large-scale implementation.

by Yuan, Chang 1 , Robert J., Ries 1 , Yaowu, Wang 2
Energy Policy via Elsevier Science Direct www.ScienceDirect.com
In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 6 August 2011
1. M.E. Rinker Sr. School of Building Construction, University of Florida, 331 Rinker Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
2. School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China
Keywords: Input–output life cycle assessment; Embodied impacts; Construction projects

Environmental and economic assessment of combined biostabilization and landfill for municipal solid waste

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.05.018
Abstract: Biostabilization can remove considerable amounts of moisture and degradable organic materials from municipal solid waste (MSW), and can therefore be an effective form of pretreatment prior to landfill. The environmental and economic impacts of two combined processes, active stage biostabilization + sanitary landfill (AL), and active and curing stage biostabilization + sanitary landfill (ACL), were compared with sanitary landfill (SL) for MSW with high moisture content. The results indicated that land requirement, leachate generation, and CH4 emission in the ACL process decreased by 68.6%, 89.1%, and 87.6%, respectively, and the total cost was reduced by 24.1%, compared with SL. This implies that a combined biostabilization and landfill process can be an environmentally friendly and economically feasible alternative to landfill of raw MSW with high moisture content. Sensitivity analysis revealed that treatment capacity and construction costs of biostabilization and the oxidation factor of CH4 significantly influenced the costs and benefits of the AL and ACL process at an extremely low land price. When the land price was greater than 100 USD m−2, it became the dominating factor in determining the cost of treatment and disposal, and the total costs of ACL were reduced to less than 40% of those of SL.

by Hua Zhang, Dong-Qing Zhang, Tai-Feng Jin, Pin-Jing He; Zheng-Hao Shao and Li-Ming Shao; all of the State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, PR China; Tel./fax: +86 21 6598 6104.
Journal of Environmental Management via Elsevier Science Direct www.ScienceDirect.comArticle in Press, Available online 2 June 2011.
Keywords: Assessment model; Biostabilization; Cost and benefit; Environmental pollution; Landfill

Quantifying economically and ecologically optimum nitrogen rates for rice production in south-eastern China

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880911001459
Abstract: China consumes 32% of the world's total synthetic fertilizer nitrogen (N). Overuse of fertilizer N has become widespread, resulting in severe environmental problems. Based on a set of statistical models, we quantified the optimum N rates for rice production in terms of economic and ecological benefits. Model fitting results suggested that the dependence of rice yield, N uptake and N loss on fertilizer N application rates can be well determined by a quadratic polynomial function, a logistic function and a power function, respectively. Using these functions, the economically optimum and ecologically optimum N rates in south-eastern China were estimated to be 180–285 kg ha−1 and 90–150 kg ha−1, respectively, depending on rice subspecies, varieties and cropping systems. A case study in Jiangsu Province, where single rice with conventional japonica varieties is dominated, suggested that current N rates (not, vert, similar390 kg ha−1) could be cut by 26% and 61% when the economically and ecologically optimum N rates, respectively, are adopted, saving 189 × 103 and 442 × 103 metric tons per year, respectively. Cutting one-third of the N use would not reduce rice yield but is expected to mitigate negative environmental impact in this province.

by Jing Chen 1, Yao Huang 1 and 2 and Yonghua Tang 3
1. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
2. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
3. Shanghai Agricultural Science and Technology Service Center, Shanghai 200335, China
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment via Elsevier Science Direct www.ScienceDirect.com
Article in Press, Corrected Proof; Available online 31 May 2011.
Keywords: Fertilizer nitrogen use; Rice production; Economically optimum; Ecologically optimum; Environment; China

New irrigation system helps farmers conserve water - SmartPlanet

http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/thinking-tech/new-irrigation-system-helps-farmers-conserve-water/6602/
...
Recent studies project that water demand in many countries will exceed supply by 40 percent by the year 2030. However, about 90 percent of the world’s water consumption is being tapped to produce food and energy, meaning nations that can effectively manage their water supply would likely be in the best position to nourish economic prosperity.

China has already begun thinking a few steps ahead and recently announced plans to pour the equivalent of $600 billion over the next 10 years into conservation technologies and revamping their water management infrastructure.... The drought-prone nation has been exploring potential solutions to wasteful irrigation practices....

Driptech, a small Silicon Valley-based water technology firm, hopes to play a major role in that effort. The company has developed ... a simple network of polyethylene plastic tubing with strategically placed holes that allow just enough water to drip into to the roots of crops.... [Alternative] expensive large-scale pressurized irrigation systems ... require the complete flooding of large plots of farmland. The [Driptech] technology costs $100 dollars and can reduce water usage by 30 percent. In India, it’s the farmer that’s responsible for paying for water and diesel pumps.... In China, the government benefits more, because they’re responsible for providing water.

The Chinese government has given the go-ahead to a pilot program in the Shanxi province....

By Tuan C. Nguyen
SmartPlanet.com
March 22, 2011
FOR FULL STORY GO TO:
http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/thinking-tech/new-irrigation-system-helps-farmers-conserve-water/6602/

China to slow GDP growth in bid to curb emissions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/28/china-gdp-emissions#
...
The announcement that economic growth targets will be lowered from 8% to 7% over the next five years may mark the end of China's peak growth years as environmental constraints drive up the expense of resources and pollution control.

'In China's thousands of years of civilisation, the conflict between humanity and nature has never been as serious as it is today,' the environment minister Zhou Shengxian wrote on his ministry's website.

'The depletion, deterioration and exhaustion of resources and the deterioration of the environment have become serious bottlenecks constraining economic and social development.'

In an online discussion on Sunday, the premier, Wen Jiabao, said China's 2011-15 economic plan would lower the target for annual GDP growth – 'to raise the quality and efficiency of economic growth'.

He said: 'We absolutely cannot again sacrifice the environment as the cost for high-speed growth, to have blind development, and in that way to create over-capacity and put greater pressure on the environment and resources. That economic development is unsustainable.'
...

A similar line emerged from a report released last Friday by Tsinghua University's climate policy initiative. It noted that from 2000-10, China's GDP grew at an annual rate of 10.4%, which took it from sixth to second place in the world. Per capita GDP in that period rose from $996 to $4,300.

China's energy demand, meanwhile, has surged by 220%, compared to a world average of 20%. Since 2006, the country has accounted for 75% of the global increase in coal consumption and 60% of the increase in oil use.
...

But demographic pressures are easing. China's population increase of 6.3 million people in 2010 was the lowest for many years.

...
by Jonathan Watts
FOR FULL STORY GO TO:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/28/china-gdp-emissions#
The Guardian, www.guardian.co.uk
February 28, 2011