the early history of modern ecological economics abstract this paper provides a historical perspective for the discussion on ecological economics as a special field of research by studying the historical background of ecological economics the present discussions and tensions inside the field might become easier to understand and to relate to the study is inspired by other studies of the emergence of new research areas done by sociologists and historians of science and includes both cognitive and social aspects macro trends and the role of individuals the basis for the paper is a combination of literature studies and interviews with key researchers from the field the story opens with the emergence of the new environmental agenda in the 1960s which was influenced by the scientific development in biology and ecology then it is outlined how the environmental challenge was met by economics in the 1960s around 1970 the basic ideas of ecological economics were given modern formulations but it took a long gestation period from the beginning of the 1970s to the end of the 1980s before ecological economics took shape during this gestation period the personal relationships between the actors were formed and the meetings that were decisive for the formal establishment of ecological economics took place

a combined input output decision making trial and evaluation laboratory method for evaluating effect of the remanufacturing sector development abstract the increasingly intensive industrial activities in emerging economies like china have caused serious resource depletion and pollution issues as remanufacturing practices effectively solve common environmental problems in recycling and processing stages by minimizing emissions of wastes remanufacturing has become an important eco industry and it has been gradually adopted in recent years in china based on the input output theory and previous studies this paper establishes an input output model with multiple remanufacturing sectors and develops a combined input output and decision making trial and evaluation laboratory method then using the input output table of china in 2007 the combined method is used to examine the role of the remanufacturing sector in the national economy as well as its symbiotic effects with other sectors for energy saving and emissions reduction the results show that the remanufacturing development is far below the average development level of other sectors in china with the rising market share of remanufacturing the demand of some energy intensive and pollution intensive sectors including smelting and rolling of metals and production supply of electric power heat power can be significantly decreased but the demand of traffic transport and storage is increased the results can provide a scientific basis in formulating economic policies to promote the remanufacturing development and the macro adjustment of the industrial structure for the government

evaluating the comprehensive benefit of eco industrial parks by employing multi criteria decision making approach for circular economy abstract with the increasing conflicts among economic growth environmental deterioration and resource shortage as an effective way to achieve the sustainable development and circular economy the eco industrial park gradually becomes a critical research issue in the field of recycling economy in this paper a hybrid framework for evaluating the comprehensive benefit of eco industrial parks from the perspective of circular economy was proposed firstly the evaluation index system for eco industrial parks was constructed by employing the grey delphi method according to the opinions provided by experts from relevant fields which includes economic benefit criteria social benefit criteria environmental benefit criteria ecology industry construction criteria and management level criteria consisting of seventeen quantitative sub criteria and nine qualitative sub criteria secondly in order to solve complicated uncertain and ambiguous problems under the fuzzy background a hybrid multi criteria decision making mcdm approach was put forward on the basis of superiority linguistic ratings and entropy weight method for weight determination as well as fuzzy vikor for ranking alternatives finally the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed hybrid mcdm approach was demonstrated through a case analysis of six representative eco industrial parks in china and the comprehensive benefits of six eco industrial parks were prioritized effectively the hybrid mcdm approach in this paper presents a great potential in evaluating and ranking the comprehensive benefits of eco industrial parks through solving complex and ambiguous problems in a fuzzy environment and varying mcdm tools the evaluation findings by employing the proposed mcdm approach can provide references for the construction and management of eco industrial parks and relevant policy formulation

circular economy at the micro level a dynamic view of incumbents struggles and challenges in the textile industry the circular economy ce has received considerable attention as an approach that promises to reconcile ecological systems and economic growth in spite of its increased popularity little is known about the implementation struggles of incumbent firms across industrial sectors furthermore although the notion of circular production systems is at the intersection of different research areas such as sustainable product design sustainable supply chains and reverse logistics knowledge on how these concepts combine to ease or impede firms transition towards circularity is scarce to shed light on these gaps i used multiple case studies from cradle to cradle certified companies in the textile industry in europe by employing qualitative research i identified a set of factors along the textile value chain from product design to take back and reprocessing that are crucial in expediting or delaying a firm s aspirations to develop a circular product the main contribution of this paper is the dynamic understanding of how certain collaborative supplier buyer innovation factors i e supply chain position power balance and a shared vision coupled with complex aspects in product design namely in basic materials architecture and functionality combine to determine the output speed and quantity of circular products to be sold taken back and ultimately regenerated

managing technological development lessons from the newly industrializing countries this survey looks at the technological development of the newly industrializing countries to draw some important lessons for firms and governments in other developing countries first inventing products and processes is not at the center of the technological development needed for successful industrialization it is at the fringe what is at the center is acquiring the capabilities needed for efficient production and investment second some countries have overemphasized the drive for technological self sufficiency and paid a high price in poor productivity what makes the best economic sense is to combine foreign and local technological elements and to do this in a way that progressively develops local capabilities in areas where they can be more efficient third the acquisition of technological capability does not come merely from experience though experience is important fourth the economic environment through its influence on the technological efforts of firms is very important in determining the productivity of a country s resources

how do scholars approach the circular economy a systematic literature review abstract circular economy ce aims to overcome the take make dispose linear pattern of production and consumption proposing a circular system in which the value of products materials and resources is maintained in the economy as long as possible in recent years there has been a proliferation of scholars publications on the topic this study presents the results of a systematic literature review exploring the state of the art of academic research on ce the paper examines the ce body of literature with a systematic approach to provide an exhaustive analysis of the phenomenon with rigorous and reproducible research criteria the revisited material consists of 565 articles collected through the web of science and scopus databases and has been evaluated using specific structural dimensions to group literature into analytical categories starting from being a concept studied in connection with industrial ecology ce has slowly acquired its independent role in academic research framed mainly into environmental sustainability related studies as a result of policies implementation academic production is mainly concentrated in china and europe employing tools and methods for modelling processes and supporting decision making for ce implementation e g life cycle assessment and material flow analysis ce studies follow three main lines of action the first aims to change the social and economic dynamics at macro and administrative level the second to support firms in circular processes implementation at micro level to spread new forms of consumption and product design the third developed at meso level discusses industrial symbiosis experiences ce is associated with a variety of concepts and waste management emerges as the most relevant sub sector ce is also strongly connected with the concept of sustainability proposing ways to operationalize its implementation at the environmental and economic level while scholars only marginally consider social and institutional implications the most explored practices are those related to cleaner production aiming at reducing environmental impact and waste production along the life cycle of a product and optimizing the performance and efficiency of processes conversely studies on ce may devote greater attention to strategies for social and institutional changes able to transform the upstream process of production and consumption considering business model strategies scholars mainly focus on studying closing material loops strategy while slowing the loops which requires a radical change of consumption and production patterns is only marginally included with respect to ce implementation this study s findings highlight ce as an evolving concept that still requires development to consolidate its definition boundaries principles and associated practices

explaining the university run enterprises in china a theoretical framework for university industry relationship in developing countries and its application to china this paper explains and evaluates the evolution of the ures university run enterprises in china by building a new theoretical framework on the university industry relationship unlike the triple helix or the new economics of science that advocates a certain type integration or separation of university industry relationship we take a contingent or context specific perspective on the relationship having the context of developing countries in mind the framework developed in this paper explains in what condition universities would keep distance from industry or become entrepreneurial to take a part in the functions of industry i e setting up and running their own business enterprises in this typology the basic determinants are internal resources of university absorptive capacity of industrial firms and existence of intermediary institutions as well as the propensity of university for ures the paper has argued that the chinese universities since the market oriented reform had strong propensity to pursue economic gains and strong internal r d and other resources to launch start ups and thus established their own firms i e ures given the low absorptive capacity of industrial firms and the underdeveloped intermediary institutions the recent adjustment of the ures in china can also be understood in terms of changes in the above three factors such as universities weakened propensity to pursue economic gains relative decline of superiority of university resources and improved external environment

trends in the development of ecological economics from the late 1980s to the early 2000s abstract as the contributions to ecological economics are very diverse recent years have seen some discussion on both how to delimit the field and in which direction it should develop the intention with this paper is to contribute to the discussion by outlining important trends in the development of the field from the late 1980s to the early 2000s the study is inspired by other studies in the sociology and history of science in particular by the theoretical framework regarding scientific fields as reputational organizations which draws attention to both cognitive and social aspects of the formation of a field the basis for the paper is a combination of literature studies interviews with key researchers in the field and participant observations the paper outlines the characteristic cognitive features of ecological economics at the time of the birth of the field it is then described how the development in ecological economics was influenced by broader social factors during the following years and how the field was shaped by the inflow and outflow of different groups of researchers the emergence of different research programmes is outlined as is the organizational development finally the characteristics of ecological economics are summarized and the future prospects are briefly assessed

a bibliometric review on natural resource accounting during 1995 2014 abstract natural resource accounting plays a critical role in sustainable utilization and conservation of natural resources this paper aims to review research progress on natural resource accounting for the period of 1995 2014 the main research methods for this study include bibliometric analysis and social network analysis covering publications performances characteristics of related journals countries institutions authors and keywords the results show that the total amount of publications on natural resource accounting has increased rapidly since 2001 the most productive journal country institution and author are journal of environmental management usa university of california and dr chen respectively all of them have higher academic influence meanwhile natural resources that attract most attentions are water and energy the six main research methods in this field include mathematic modeling emergy exergy ecological footprint ef life cycle assessment lca and material flow analysis mfa reasons for the prominent performance of key countries and institutions are then discussed and uncovered as well as for six methods finally suggestions on how to further promote the development of this research field are raised

mfca extension from a circular economy perspective model modifications and case study abstract as an innovative method of environment management accounting ema a model of material flow cost accounting mfca is widely used in the field of cost calculation in the manufacturing process industry and it has obtained a level of achievement in recent years based on the existing literature in the field this report argues that the application of the current mfca model in the process industry has defects such as content restrictions a single accounting index simple methodology and one sided conclusions among others this paper combines the current mfca model with the 3r principle of a circular economy ce and the industry characteristics of high consumption and pollution the research focuses on the iron and steel industry as a representative of a process manufacturing industry and forms a modified mfca model for an iron and steel enterprise according to the perspective of ce the modifications we make to the model occur in the fields of model content the accounting index the methodology of application and the extension of functionality finally through a specific case study this report verifies the comprehensive utility of the proposed modified model in general the modified mfca may to a certain extent be considered innovative in its approach to information and data connections extension of methods and procedures modes of disclosing information construction of evaluation analysis and management of circular decision making each of these elements is conducive to realizing a triple win situation for the conservation of resources energy providing an economic value add reducing the environmental load and enhancing the sustainable development of a resource constrained process industry

an ecological economic assessment of deregulation of international commerce under gatt this paper discusses the ecological economic implications of deregulation of trade as promoted by the general agreement on tariffs and trade gatt 1 this includes both environmental2 and socio economic factors such as standards of living and equity we outline fifteen overlapping problems with deregulation or free trade we argue that many environmental problems cannot be resolved equitably efficiently or sustainably by unregulated markets and that there is no alternative to public intervention in certain situations we repeat the 1987 brundtland commission s question of how far into international trade should regulation penetrate wced 1987 the commission s call for gatt s environmental reform 3 has not yet been heeded

trade environment and development the issues in perspective abstract this special issue on trade and the environment brings together a number of papers that are constructively critical of the conventional economic wisdom on the topic we think that this criticism is warranted because of the decidely uncritical way in which free trade has been advocated in much of the literature and especially in policy the papers analyse the validity of the underlying assumptions on which the conventional wisdom is based and provide suggestions for ways to facilitate trade that is also adequately protective of the environment sustainability and other social values in this introductory piece we discuss trade the environment and sustainability summarizing arguments in the papers included in this issue and adding a few additional points not covered by them

creating integrated business and environmental value within the context of china s circular economy and ecological modernization abstract this paper investigates the challenges and opportunities of how firms and organizations can and will be able to strike a better balance between economic growth and environmental stewardship in the context of china s emerging circular economy policy paradigm and based on ecological modernization theoretic approaches based on three company case studies in the information technology and electronic industries in china we identify and demonstrate how a blended business and environmental value can be created from adopting a sustainable supply chain management approach the adoption of a sustainable supply chain management approach is rapidly becoming a key business challenge and opportunity in china and other large emerging economies around the world where our greatest environmental management challenges currently reside and will continue to exist for many years to come the value creation framework proposed in research focuses on evaluating three case study companies who appear in various stages of an electronic industry supply chain value creation within a supply chain can provide the impetus for organizations to adopt circular economy sustainable supply chain practices for competitive reasons in addition we describe how a value proposition can be evaluated at two levels of analysis a more specific micro level and a more general meso level of analysis the four major business value dimensions include cost reduction revenue generation resiliency and legitimacy and image the initial findings are that a variety of opportunities exist for electronic firms in emerging and developing countries while results from this study provide an important scholarly foundation to develop and refine sustainable supply chain management practices in emerging and developing economies

the bullwhip effect in closed loop supply chains a systematic literature review abstract the bullwhip effect or how uncertainty associated with the end customers demand propagates through the entire supply chain has been widely discussed in supply chain management literature although there is a well established research stream on the causes and mitigating factors for the bullwhip effect in forward supply chains few studies have investigated how this phenomenon manifests itself in closed loop supply chains we argue that this phenomenon can affect the supply chain s environmental performance by increasing emissions waste and consumption of natural resources aiming at filling this theoretical gap this article compares the causes and mitigating factors of the bullwhip effect in forward supply chains and closed loop supply chains to this end we employ a systematic literature review that combines bibliometric and content analyses the studies examined in our review indicate that the causes of the bullwhip effect in closed loop supply chains are similar to those in forward supply chains however most of the studies have not considered that the quality of returned products are different from the quality of their new counterparts products adding another variable into the complexity of a given supply chain which in turn could lead to higher variability thereby causing the bullwhip effect regarding mitigation we found that the primary mitigating factor is related to increasing the product return rate moreover we suggest that closing a supply chain can reduce the bullwhip effect which could lead to positive impacts in the environmental performance of supply chains

real options approach to renewable energy investments in mongolia developing nations are seeking alternative energy for electricity and one attractive alternative is renewable energy this research analyzes changing investment environment for renewable energy with real options approach and explores its potential in developing economies through studying the case of mongolia under coal price uncertainty to evaluate comparative attractiveness of either continuing to use coal based infrastructures or switching to renewable energy we formulate social revenue functions for the two environments assuming that renewable energy has lower external costs and coal prices follow geometric brownian motion gbm or geometric mean reverting gmr processes we find the optimal trigger coal prices for switching technologies with some scenarios in electricity price and externality characterize when renewable energy investments become attractive in contrast to conventional wisdom we identify some situations where the value of having more decision opportunities does not exceed that of a now or never decision for switching technologies and welfare losses are incurred the optimal trigger prices are higher in gbm than in gmr and our result raises the possible risks for waiting to switch energy to avoid welfare losses in mongolia the government should increase electricity prices or switch to renewable energy earlier especially when people pay more for the removal of externalities

bridging the industrial energy efficiency gap assessing the evidence from the italian white certificate scheme the italian white certificate scheme is the main national policy instrument to incentivise energy efficiency of the industrial sector with savings from white certificates amounting to 2 of italy s 2012 primary energy consumption the mechanism sets binding energy saving targets on electricity and gas distributors with at least 50 000 clients and includes a voluntary opt in model for participation from other parties this paper investigates and assesses the elements of the scheme that help overcome several barriers to deliver industrial energy efficiency results from a survey conducted among leading experts indicate that the italian system provides a strong financial incentive to energy efficiency investments covering a significant share of investment costs and thus reducing payback time moreover the scheme fosters the development of energy service companies escos which are key to developing installing and arranging finance for projects on the ground in conjunction with other policies the mechanism also raises awareness of energy efficiency investment opportunities thus helping overcome the market failure of insufficient information core challenges remain including tackling regulatory uncertainty and improving access to finance

determinants of environmental investments testing the structural model abstract the main purpose of this study is to provide the needed additional quantitative evidence regarding the introduction of environmental technologies and to increase the possibility for generalization and thus policy application of conclusions to achieve that purpose a conceptual model is developed and then tested on a large database of firms from various industries with the use of structural equation modeling the results show that policy measures past environmental investments the importance of environmental technologies for customers and the firm performance have a positive effect on environmental investments furthermore the results show that policy measures are a second order three factor construct

the circular economy swings and roundabouts abstract in the last few decades the circular economy has increasingly been advertised as an economic model that can replace the current linear economy whilst addressing the issues of environmental deterioration social equity and long term economic growth with the explicit suggestion that it can serve as a tool for sustainable development however despite the individual prominence of the circular economy and sustainable development in the academic and wider literature the exact relationship between the two concepts has neither been thoroughly defined nor explored the consequent result is various inconsistencies occurring across the literature regarding how the circular economy can serve as a tool for sustainable development and an incomplete understanding of how its long term effects differ from those of the linear economy a literature review was conducted to interpret the current conceptual relationship between the circular economy and sustainable development the review highlights numerous challenges concerning conceptual definition economic growth and implementation that inhibit the use of the circular economy as a tool for sustainable development in its current form the review concludes by providing suggestions for how research concerning the circular economy should proceed if it is to provide a potential approach for achieving sustainable development

trade development and sustainability a critical assessment of the free trade dogma abstract mainstream economic theory argues that trade and especially free trade isbeneficial to everyone involved this fundamental idea which has the character of a dogma still plays an important role in international discussions on trade issues notably in relation to development and environment the purpose of this article is to critically assess the free trade dogma and to investigate the validity of widely used arguments concerning the relations between trade and development and between trade and environment it is argued that the trading system is not something inherently good and especially the developing countries benefits from trade have been very dubious furthermore the trading system has contributed to environmental problems in several ways e g generating undervaluation of natural resources stimulating economic growth with environmental deterioration as a consequence and magnifying and creating externalities the critical approach makes a case for reducing trade

the circular economy an interdisciplinary exploration of the concept and application in a global context there have long been calls from industry for guidance in implementing strategies for sustainable development the circular economy represents the most recent attempt to conceptualize the integration of economic activity and environmental wellbeing in a sustainable way this set of ideas has been adopted by china as the basis of their economic development included in both the 11th and the 12th five year plan escalating the concept in minds of western policymakers and ngos this paper traces the conceptualisations and origins of the circular economy tracing its meanings and exploring its antecedents in economics and ecology and discusses how the circular economy has been operationalized in business and policy the paper finds that while the circular economy places emphasis on the redesign of processes and cycling of materials which may contribute to more sustainable business models it also encapsulates tensions and limitations these include an absence of the social dimension inherent in sustainable development that limits its ethical dimensions and some unintended consequences this leads us to propose a revised definition of the circular economy as an economic model wherein planning resourcing procurement production and reprocessing are designed and managed as both process and output to maximize ecosystem functioning and human well being

eco innovation in the transition to a circular economy an analytical literature review abstract in the ongoing sustainability debate the circular economy ce has been steadily gaining ground as a new paradigm at the same time eco innovation ei has been recognised as a key element in carrying out the transition from a linear to a circular system of production and consumption however little information can be found concerning whether and how ei can actually facilitate the change to a ce while extensive literature on ei and a growing body of research exploring the ce already exist there is as yet no comprehensive understanding concerning the connections between these two concepts drawing on academic contributions from the fields of ei and ce this analysis seeks to clarify and synthesise findings at the intersection of these two fields the aim is threefold derive literature based working definitions of ce and ei review the role of ei at ce s macro meso and micro levels and characterise ce inducing ei in terms of targets mechanisms and impacts our literature review shows that an ei driven techno economic transition to a ce requires specific solutions i e different forms of ei driven clean congruence at distinct levels of operation generally speaking movement toward a ce is found to be contingent on systemic ei that is not only intense in technology but also involving dynamic and holistic combinations of service innovations and novel organisational set ups

nexus between clean energy consumption economic growth and co2 emissions abstract to investigate the nexus among clean energy consumption economic growth and co2 emissions a newly developed bootstrap ardl bounds test with structural breaks is employed to survey the cointegration and causality for g7 countries we find no cointegration among real gdp per capita clean energy consumption and co2 emissions in canada france italy the us and the uk however cointegration exists in germany when real gdp per capita and co2 emissions serve as dependent variables and in japan when co2 emissions is the dependent variable regarding the results of causality test that we find clean energy consumption causes real gdp per capita for canada germany and the us and co2 emissions causes clean energy consumption for germany besides we find feedbacks between clean energy consumption and co2 emissions for germany and unidirectional causality running from clean energy consumption to co2 emissions for the us our study has important policy implications for g7 countries conducting efficient energy use strategy to reduce co2 emissions

an economic instrument for zero waste economic growth and sustainability if global problems such as climate change and waste remain unresolved society can choose either to continue attempting to incrementally reduce wastes and lessen impacts or to consider a more ambitious approach that paradoxically may be easier to implement this paper suggests how an approach designed to prevent waste and other global impacts could be based upon the established practices of precycling circular economic policy and recycling insurance a new economic instrument called precycling insurance is proposed so that decision making can be led by the market rather than by prescriptive regulation or educational campaigns the approach gains relevance now that china is developing a national law on the promotion of the development of circular economy 2006 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

towards a new taxonomy of circular economy business models abstract circular economy has undoubtedly become one of the hot topics in public debates about new and more sustainable industrial paradigms and strategies in this respect the fashion of circular economy is in the fact that it aims at overcoming the dominant linear take make disposal economy model i e a traditional open ended economy model developed with no built in tendency to recycle which is reflected by treating the environment as a waste reservoir su et al 2013 circular economy indeed bases on the establishment of closed production systems where resources are reused and kept in a loop of production and usage allowing generating more value and for a longer period despite the interest for circular economy by politicians and practitioners scholars particularly in the strategic management field are still struggling with a lack of a framework explaining how companies willing to become circular adapt their existing business model or create a new one by extensively reviewing through the lens of business model literature the extant contributions on circular economy we propose a taxonomy of circular economy business models based on the degree of adoption of circularity along two major dimensions i the customer value proposition interface i e the implementation of the circularity concept in proposing value to customers ii the value network i e the ways through which interacting with suppliers and reorganizing the own internal activities the taxonomy is then initially tested through some explorative case studies showing in practice the ability of the framework to properly distinguish different modes of adoption of circular economy

the value of flexibility preservation remediation or development for ginostra we are concerned with land allocation andinvestment decisions when dealing withpartially degraded areas that might be 1 remediated and returned to a more natural state or 2 irreversibly developed this type ofproblem seems particularly relevant in europewhere the issue of wilderness conservation isof less concern than the remediation oflandscapes which have been altered by previouseconomic activities traditional expectedpresent value analysis will fail to capture thevalue of investments that might be undertakensequentially or when certain investments areirreversible we show how to determine withina discrete time stochastic model the optimaladaptive development strategy and how tocalculate the option value of flexibility thetheoretical model is then applied to ginostra a town on stromboli an island off the southerncoast of italy

applications of option pricing theory twenty five years later nobel lecture to the memory of alfred nobel december 9 1997 this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

emergy based ecological footprint analysis for a mega city the dynamic changes of shanghai abstract to move towards sustainable urban development interactions between economic and ecological systems should be further investigated due to their coupled relations in this study we propose an emergy based ecological footprint eef analysis framework shanghai was selected as a case study city to see its dynamic changes from 2007 to 2016 the results show that shanghai had a large ecological deficit an extremely high ecological footprint intensity and a poor coordination relationship between its ecological system and its economic system indicating a great ecological challenge that it is facing the uneven distribution of its emergy ecological footprint is mainly due to the large share of fossil fuels land type but with the city s great efforts the overall ecological pressure has been reduced and the coordination relationship has also been improved while the local economy is still booming pearson correlation analysis further indicates that the city s policy on developing tertiary industry has resulted in a positive effect on improving the coordinating relationship the ratio between the output value of heavy industry and gross industrial output value has the most negative correlation with the coordinating relationship finally policy recommendations are raised by considering the local realities these recommendations can also provide valuable insights to other megacities with similar challenges

understanding sustainability innovations through positive ethical networks in this paper a positive organizational ethics poe based framework is informed by the microfinance and socially responsible investing movements to capture the process of sustainable financial innovations both of these movements are uniquely characterized by the formation of positive ethical networks pens to develop sustainability innovations in response to external crises the crisis pen innovation framework proposed makes four contributions to the poe literature 1 positions corporate sustainability through a poe lens 2 formalizes the pen construction through poe theory 3 proposes pens are mobilized to respond to external crises and 4 demonstrates how pens facilitate sustainability innovations the theoretical framework is tested using theory guided process tracing in the sustainable banking sector to understand how sustainability innovations were realized the findings are consistent with the crisis pen innovation framework proposed

institutional incentives in circular economy transition the case of material use in the dutch textile industry the aim of this paper is to gain insight into how requirements for transitioning to circular economy creates new organizational forms in inter firm collaborations and ultimately how they stimulate the emergence of new institutions enhancing sustainability two strands of literature one on circular economy and one on institutional analysis provide the theoretical background for this research currently a clearly formulated and unified theory on the institutions of circular economy is lacking therefore this research compares and contrasts empirical evidence from cases derived from the textile industry in the netherlands and concepts derived from institutional analysis and literature on circular economy to inductively build a cohesive conceptual framework using information from cases we identified two pathways to transition into circular economy and to manage circular material flows we define these pathways status quo arrangements sq when firms focus on optimizing up cycling technologies and infrastructure in their circular relations and collaborations and product as service arrangements pas to indicate a focus on providing products in service contracts chain coordination contracting and financial mechanisms were identified as key organizational elements for creating new pathways to transition into circular materials flows however in analyzing these elements we also highlight differences between sq and pas arrangements sq arrangements may have implications at the level of formal rules for example by creating a new industry standards for up cycled fabrics pas arrangements may have wider implications for example by reshaping ownership in service contracts and creating cascading activities moving ownership to the supply chain will result in increased responsibility for materials and will create an incentive for improving quality of products including their environmental performance this is expected to generate positive socio environmental impacts at a system level as well moreover pas arrangements may have bottom up effects at a formal institutional level resulting in alteration and creation of formal rules for example in terms of new approaches to the ownership of materials

towards a national circular economy indicator system in china an evaluation and critical analysis abstract it is widely acknowledged that china s economic miracle has been achieved at the expense of its natural capital and environment in order to deal with this problem the circular economy ce has been chosen as a national policy for sustainable development national laws and regulations have been enacted to facilitate the implementation of ce and national ce demonstration projects have been initiated such that national benchmarking activities could be completed china is the first country to release nationally focused ce indicators so that objective and credible information on the status of ce implementation can be recognized these ce indicators are valuable metrics for policy and decision makers and can help achieve ce goals and outcomes this unique indicator system has not been communicated to international communities this paper aims to more broadly introduce this unique national ce indicator system china s ce efforts are first detailed with various provisions of the national indicator system a critical analysis of such an indicator system is presented we show that certain benefits can be gained but substantive revision is also needed due to the lack of a comprehensive set of sustainability indicators which should include social business indicators urban industrial symbiosis absolute material energy reduction and prevention oriented indicators concerns related to barriers on implementation are also presented in this paper the knowledge gained from chinese efforts on ce indicators are valuable to both developed and developing nations seeking to implement sustainable development measures within their regulatory policies

towards a consensus on the circular economy abstract the growing importance of the concept of the circular economy as a way to attain sustainable development has encouraged scholars to propose different ways to understand it given the large number of studies done on the circular economy their differing approaches and their multiple applications this paper attempts to propose a consensus view of the basic notions of the circular economy framework and highlight its relationship with eco innovation to that end this study carried out a systematic literature review that resulted in four main outputs a knowledge map of the circular economy an analysis of the main notions of the concept principles and determinants of a circular economy finally this study brings to light some remarkable examples of eco innovations developed for implementation in the circular economy

coffee in mexico international market agricultural landscape and ecology abstract the amount of energy and land devoted to the production of export crops in developing countries is associated with the economic behavior of the commodity in the international market stable increments in the international price of cash crops are expected to drive farmers and agricultural institutions in producing countries to increase production and yields of export crops the increase in crop production which can take place by incorporating new land into agricultural production and or by introducing technological innovations to increase yield may in turn affect the regional landscape and ecology the present study examines the effects of the international coffee price during the 1970s and 1980s upon the regional landscape and coffee farm ecology of mexico s coffee regions the effects upon the landscape and ecology of coffee production in mexico are discussed within the framework of the debate on trade and environment

information and the concept of option value this paper examines the arrow fisher henry concept of option value and analyzes its properties including its relationship to the value of information and the effects of increasing uncertainty about the future consequences of irreversible development it is shown that this option value is distinct from but bounded by the value of information in the overall decision problem also it is distinct from a concept of option value that appears in b s bernanke quart j econom 98 85 106 1983 however when there is a continuum of development levels rather than a binary choice between full development and no development some of these conclusions need to be modified

applying socio ecological economics a case study of contingent valuation and integrated catchment management abstract socio ecological economics has emerged as a new movement within ecological economics that overtly takes account of the sociological and political bases of economic activity as well as the biophysical base the paper comments on the usefulness of the principles of socio ecological economics in the light of a recent example of applied social and economic research into contingent valuation cv and integrated catchment management icm in the hawkesbury nepean in the first australian study of the temporal stability of cv responses it was found that average willingness to pay wtp to improve water quality did not change significantly over a 2 year period nor could any statistically significant explanation of bid size or change in wtp be found on each of the three occasions when cv surveys were completed participants were asked a series of follow up questions and then engaged in discussion on attitudes to cv reasons for any changes in wtp and views of possible uses for cv in icm socio ecological economics proved to be useful in analysing the results of the case study by identifying a wider range of possible determinants of individual and government behaviour than simple maximisation models these determinants especially ethical values for individuals and organisational culture for governments provided good explanations for the qualitative results obtained and perhaps a better explanation of the quantitative results it also usefully emphasised the dynamics of the interaction between the different determinants of behaviour with regard to cv consideration of the likely dynamic between the different organisational structures and cultures within icm raised the possibility that introducing cv into icm in a widespread fashion could lead to resistance and modification of its use to a more qualitative and educative role the ideas of socio ecological economics have made a valuable contribution to the understanding and analysis of this case study and provide the beginning of a research agenda for socially oriented ecological economists results of the case study suggest that this agenda should include the applications of learning theory and social ecology to policy making institutions and processes for moving towards sustainability

green circular bio economy a comparative analysis of sustainability avenues despite their evidently different assumptions and operationalization strategies the concepts of circular economy green economy and bioeconomy are joined by the common ideal to reconcile economic environmental and social goals the three concepts are currently mainstreamed in academia and policy making as key sustainability avenues but a comparative analysis of such concepts is missing the aim of this article is thus to comprehensively analyse the diversity within and between such concepts the results are drawn from a bibliometric review of almost two thousand scientific articles published within the last three decades coupled with a conceptual analysis we find that for what concerns environmental sustainability green economy acts as an umbrella concept including elements from circular economy and bioeconomy concepts e g eco efficiency renewables as well as additional ideas e g nature based solutions in particular circular economy and bioeconomy are resource focused whereas in principle green economy acknowledges the underpinning role of all ecological processes regarding the social dimension green economy is more inclusive of some aspects at local level e g eco tourism education while there is an emerging discussion in bioeconomy literature around local processes in terms of biosecurity and rural policies when considering weak strong sustainability visions all concepts remain limited in questioning economic growth by comparing the different sustainability strategies promoted by these concepts we do not advocate for their substitutability but for their clarification and reciprocal integration the findings are discussed in light of the concepts synergies and limits with the purpose to inform research and policy implementation

labour force and land distributional effects of agricultural technology a case study of coffee abstract land reform frequently refers to government policies which expropriate large farms and fragment them into smaller units however land reform can also refer to the opposite process that of consolidation of farms which are too small for efficient production in the latter sense that of land consolidation land reform may or may not be socially desirable and prompt government intervention possible gains in efficiency accruing from land consolidation may not be desirable if it entails agricultural unemployment and accelerated rural urban migration in which case governments may try to intervene this paper looks at land reform in the context of one crop coffee new techniques of coffee cultivation will increase output labour output land and labour land ratios offering the prospect for higher coffee employment and output however economic and institutional barries will preclude higher output as a result coffee employment and small coffee farms will be threatened this paper examines the economic implications of the new coffee technology in the context of columbia

diagram for a small planet the production and ecosystem possibilities curve abstract with the development of the gpi there is now an ecological alternative to gdp for measuring a country s economic performance but we still lack an ecological alternative to the ppc for illustrating a country s economic problem the diagram suggested here illustrates a country s production and ecosystem possibilities including climate stability flood control carbon sequestration aquifer recharge scenery recreation biological diversity and so on burning a rainforest to clear the land shifts a country s ppc outward giving the visual impression of an unmitigated improvement but such development causes a movement along the country s pepc as ecosystem services are transformed into gdp the slope of the pepc is the marginal rate of transformation which equals the ratio of the land s marginal marketable product to its marginal ecosystem product changes in technology create substitution and income effects that help explain the enclosure movement and the environmental kuznets curve much as employment of the human resource can be restrained to allow more leisure development of the natural resource can be restrained to preserve more ecosystem services commercial lobbying interests and rivalries for positional goods create distortions that move a country along its pepc to a materialistic misallocation with too little conservation an idealistic misallocation is also possible with too much preservation of the natural environment small is beautiful up to a point and that is evident in this diagram jacob viner s viner j 1937 studies in the theory of international trade harper and brothers new york analytical objections to the ppc are revived

the history and current applications of the circular economy concept abstract the challenges of balancing industrial development environmental and human health and economic growth in china and elsewhere in the world are drivers for recent resource use and low carbon development strategies that include the application of the circular economy ce concept a central theme of the ce concept is the valuation of materials within a closed looped system with the aim to allow for natural resource use while reducing pollution or avoiding resource constraints and sustaining economic growth the objectives of this study are 1 to review the history of the ce concept to provide a context for 2 a critical examination of how it is applied currently thematic categories are used to organize the literature review results including policy instruments and approaches value chains material flows and products and technology organizational and social innovation the literature review illustrates the variability in ce project success and failure over time and by region ce successes key challenges and research gaps are identified the literature review results provide useful information for researchers as well as multi stakeholder groups who seek to define the ce concept in practical terms and to consider potential challenges and opportunities it presents when implemented

resource duration as a managerial indicator for circular economy performance abstract this paper provides a new indicator for environmental assessment performance linked to circular economy almost all existing techniques evaluate resource use based on their burden relative to value while the central point of circular economy is to create value through material retention the existing burden orientated techniques are therefore unsuitable for guiding managers in relation to circular economy objectives this paper presents a new performance metric the longevity indicator which measures contribution to material retention based on the amount of time a resource is kept in use the measure is composed of three generic components initial lifetime earned refurbished lifetime and earned recycled lifetime management of these components can be used for decision making and performance assessment in the circular economy the example of precious metals in mobile phone handsets is used to illustrate the general application and suitability of this indicator findings show that for materials to be retained managers should encourage longer lifetime use increase product return levels for initial use and refurbished phones and select the most effective recycling processes available this paper advances performance indicators for circular economy and provides a tool which can be applied at managerial and organizational levels to measure the impact of business decisions on the longevity of precious materials

green chemistry and green engineering in china drivers policies and barriers to innovation with the world s largest population and consistently rapid rates of economic growth china faces a choice of whether it will move towards a more sustainable development trajectory this paper identifies the different factors driving innovation in the fields of green chemistry and green engineering in china which we find to be largely driven by energy efficiency policy increasingly strict enforcement of pollution regulations and national attention to cleaner production concepts such as circular economy we also identify seven key barriers to the development and implementation of green chemistry and engineering in china they are 1 competition between economic growth and environmental agendas 2 regulatory and bureaucratic barriers 3 availability of research funding 4 technical barriers 5 workforce training 6 industrial engineering capacity and 7 economic and financial barriers our analysis reveals that the most crucial barriers to green chemistry and engineering innovations in china appear to be those that arise from competing priorities of economic growth and environmental protection as well as the technical challenges that arise from possessing a smaller base of experienced human capital we find that there is a great deal of potential for both the development of the underlying science as well as its implementation throughout the chemical enterprise especially if investment occurs before problems of technological lock in and sunk costs emerge c 2012 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

the social metabolism of scotland an environmental perspective abstract the paper presents the results of a study that developed and applied social metabolism methods to assess the sustainability of a regional economy particularly the dynamics related to changes in the production and use of energy the first objective of the study was to assess the feasibility of using existing secondary data sources as a basis for sub nation state and regional analysis with the regions in this case differentiating the area based on rurality the second was to structure the outputs of the analysis in ways that provided comprehensive yet succinct and interpretable assessments of the balance of flows of material energy and money that underpin the economy with the intention that ultimately these assessments would be used to inform policymaking the paper provides an introduction to the key concepts used within social metabolism analysis particularly the use of emergy a measure of the cumulative environmental support provided to a social ecological system this is a unifying metric into which the myriad flows within an economy can be translated and combined in meaningful ways it does so by preserving information on both the quantity and quality of flows and so avoiding the need for arbitrary weightings the paper presents a range of options for the use of emergy based metrics that could be used to inform policy making comparisons for the years 2001 and 2010 are made at country level for scotland and for three degrees of rurality the analysis highlights how decisions on the share of the offshore energy sector attributed to scotland and on the share of services particularly those imported from beyond u k have profound effects on the sustainability trajectory of the economy and the conclusions that might be drawn for policy the paper concludes that the methods have the potential to add value to existing administrative datasets and provide new perspectives that may be of value to policy making but acknowledges that challenges remain in translating this potential into tangible use within policymaking

the role of policy labels keywords and framing in transitioning waste policy abstract the last decade has seen a new wave of ambitious policies in order to address the mounting ecological damage caused by high levels of consumerism and the depletion of resources to manufacture short life cycle products in this paper zero waste and sustainable materials management are examined as prominent labels of an evolving waste policy discourse towards waste prevention and reduction and material cycles using discourse analysis key documents are comparatively assessed presenting the origins of these two concepts and how they entered the waste policy domain the different framing tactics and governance models are then presented the findings demonstrate that the different discourse paradigms around the concept of waste and materials influences what policy initiatives measurement tools and outcomes are pursued although zero waste and sustainable materials management are gaining popularity as indicators of shifting waste policy towards sustainable production and consumption policy particularly with increasing discussion and application of circular economy governance models in europe and china a distinction still exists between the conceptualisation and implementation within and across the two concepts it is in this transition towards a circular economy that it is valuable to review the role of policy labels keywords and framing context in waste policy and the ability of enhanced waste management to assist in the development of more sustainable and environmentally acceptable economic and social behaviour models

toward a research agenda for policy intervention and facilitation to enhance industrial symbiosis based on a comprehensive literature review the normative question what role should governmental policy play to facilitate the development of industrial symbiosis has received considerable attention of researchers however for several reasons the effects of governmental policy actions on industrial symbiosis are still not clear this article proposes a research agenda to clarify the mechanisms of policy intervention and facilitation of industrial symbiosis based on a comprehensive review of industrial symbiosis literature focusing on how policy is conceptualized and studied the results show that existing research lacks an explicit definition of policy and employs a static conceptualization of policy that is reinforced by comparative statics research methods we argue that a dynamic process perspective is crucial to reveal the actual mechanisms through which policy intervention and facilitation affect the evolution of industrial symbiosis building on this view industrial symbiosis research is connected with insights from policy sciences and the case of policy translation of circular economy and eco industrial park in china is investigated in order to illustrate that policy is at heart a dynamic process we conclude with a research agenda proposing that the key to reveal the mechanisms is to identify the sequence of events connecting policy process and industrial symbiosis practices

how the brazilian government can use public policies to induce recycling and still save money abstract public policies can leverage the recycling of materials however there is no clear guidance on how to use such policies and still spare public funds to fill this gap a multiple case study was undertaken in brazil eleven companies that can produce new products using the waste generated by their customers were investigated the findings contribute by suggesting how governments can economically use taxes sanctions incentives and other public instruments to induce recycling tax exemptions are not required when the waste recycled reduces the manufacturer s costs or generates revenue for customers who produce it and or for the scrap dealers who collect it sanctions or penalties imposed on the manufacturer s customers can increase the recycling efforts of such manufacturers when the recycling is technically feasible but not economically attractive sanctions are ineffective when wastes have a good market value or are widespread over millions of generation points for such cases the public policies should focus on community awareness campaigns and attention on waste pickers incentives for the technological development can be provided to wastes that present a good market value but do not have an economical recycling technology available granting resources to universities and technological institutes will help spread the solution to sme companies by better understanding how to apply public instruments the governments will be able to save funds on tax exemptions better define sanctions focus its community awareness campaigns focus its waste pickers support and better allocate funds to support the development of new recycling technologies

an insight into the italian chemical sector how to make it green and efficient abstract the present research moves from the consideration that the implementation and the dissemination of circular economy processes is a hotspot in european ecosystem management and that eu countries must converge towards the same targets considering the relevance of chemical sector economic and environmental impact we aim at unveiling the economic and institutional determinants of sectoral performances in terms of circular economy and resource efficiency by means an oecd procedure we built a circular economy index for the chemical sector following a panel data model has been applied on 20 italian regions in order to test two economic hypotheses and a politico institutional one this allowed us to capture the features most likely to affect circular performances within the regions the findings reveal that regional socio economic background plays a fundamental role in improving firm performance level while institutions and sectoral economic dynamic are not strong flywheel of circular economy

a case study of a phosphorus chemical firm s application of resource efficiency and eco efficiency in industrial metabolism under circular economy abstract circular economy plays an essential and useful role in china in considering economic and ecological sustainability individual firms as the primary implements of a circular economy are facing many obstacles at present in aspects of resource and ecological efficiency therefore this study presents a set of tools to help decision makers better solve these problems and to guide resource based chemical industries in sustainable development first this study describes resource efficiency based on the sfa of a selected p chemistry firm and identifies the key potential opportunities for improvement using analysis tools and assessment tools furthermore by applying eco design and decision tools a firm level p chemical circular economic system is designed and constructed a phosphorus chemical optimization model is established and relevant successive scenarios are generated finally the corresponding feasible solutions and policy recommendations are proposed to improve economic benefit resource efficiency waste recycling rate and eco efficiency after industry design planning and technological progress the total economic benefit increases dramatically and the recycling efficiencies of accompanying resources f si i and s improve by different degrees the results demonstrate that the economic benefit of phosphorus products increases by 28 5 and p utilization efficiency correspondingly increases from 81 1 to 94 7 the comprehensive utilization efficiency of phosphor gypsum increases to 100 and the eco efficiency could be improved significantly by eliminating the phosphor gypsum stack this study demonstrates that technological progress in mineral processing and the production of associated products is the endogenic motivation to increase economic benefit and improve resource efficiency the method proposed in this paper can be applied duplicated and spread not only within the p chemical industry but also in other resource based chemical industries

a sustainable biogas model in china the case study of beijing deqingyuan biogas project according to the paris agreement china has the ambition to develop non fossil energy which will account for 20 of the total energy consumption in 2030 china has abundant biomass potential implying the bioenergy should be an important option of non fossil energy in this analysis we present an representative biogas project the deqingyuan project dqy in beijing and conduct a cost benefit analysis for the whole value chain dqy is the first large scale biogas project in china that utilizes 100 chicken manure as a feedstock and integrates biogas production with ecological agriculture using advanced technologies dqy uses 80 000 t of chicken manure and 100 000 t of sewage each year to produce biogas which generates 14 million kwh of power annually and obtains an additional revenue of rmb 8 million yuan each year through the clean development mechanism cdm operating as an example of a sustainable bioenergy model dqy accomplishes the full use of a recycled resource while showing consideration for animal welfare during the entire production which is a fundamental component of the new rural energy strategy the circular economy model of dqy plays a prominent role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions mitigating pollution and increasing employment among other benefits this paper aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the typical demonstration model dqy in utilization of agricultural waste in china and further proposes a general development model of chinese biogas in the future

towards circular economy implementation a comprehensive review in context of manufacturing industry the concept of circular economy ce is to an increasing extent treated as a solution to series of challenges such as waste generation resource scarcity and sustaining economic benefits however the concept of circularity is not of novel as such specific circumstances and motivations have stimulated ideas relevant to circularity in the past through activities such as reuse remanufacturing or recycling main objectives of this work are to provide a comprehensive review of research efforts encompassing aspects of resources scarcity waste generation and economic advantages to explore the ce landscape in the context of these three aspects especially when they are considered simultaneously based on an idea of a comprehensive ce framework propose an implementation strategy using top down and bottom up approach in a concurrent manner to fulfill this objective a comprehensive review of state of the art research is carried out to understand different ideas relevant to ce motivation for the research and context of their recurrence main contributions of this paper are a comprehensive ce framework and a practical implementation strategy for a regenerative economy and natural environment the framework emphasizes on a combined view of three main aspects i e environment resources and economic benefits it also underlines that joint support of all stakeholders is necessary in order to successfully implement the ce concept at large scale the proposed framework and implementation strategy also identify new avenues for future research and practice in the field of ce