•Human awareness and behavior driven environmental protection was investigated.•Traditional media can be positive on bridging gaps between awareness & behaviors.•Citizens using the digital media may ...have weak awareness & behavior motivation.•Joint of government, media and citizens can contribute to sustainable environment.
As urbanization accelerates and population density & activities increase, the conflict between humans and urban environmental issues becomes prominent. The demand for urban environmental protection involving broad participation of human (e.g., citizens) is rising. Media play a key role in promoting environmental protection awareness and behaviors of citizens. However, there is still a disconnect between media information and citizens' awareness and behaviors, of which the synergistic associations have not been analyzed. This study synthetically explored the coupling relationship between media channels (including traditional & digital media) and environmental protection awareness & behaviors of citizens in Chinese cities through the questionnaire survey. Although the usage rate of traditional media was approximately 50% of that of digital media, traditional media had a significantly greater impact on bridging the gaps between environmental protection awareness and behaviors. Among citizens using the digital media, 60% exhibited weak awareness (e.g., concern level, risk awareness, anxious psychology and cognitive level) and behavior motivation (including recycling, low-carbon living, and public welfare) regarding environmental protection. Improvement measures were further proposed, including strengthening top-level government design, leveraging advanced digital technology, and providing more incentives to citizens. Our findings can contribute to human-driven urban environmental protection and the sustainable development of society.
This book is intended for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the dynamics and governance of low-carbon transitions. Drawing on the Multi-Level Perspective, it develops a whole ...system reconfiguration approach that explains how the incorporation of multiple innovations can cumulatively reconfigure existing systems. The book focuses on UK electricity, heat, and mobility systems, and it systematically analyses interactions between radical niche-innovations and existing (sub)systems across techno-economic, policy, and actor dimensions in the past three decades. Comparative analysis explains why the unfolding low-carbon transitions in these three systems vary in speed, scope, and depth. It evaluates to what degree these transitions qualify as Great Reconfigurations and assesses the future potential for, and barriers to, deeper low-carbon system transitions. Generalising across these systems, broader lessons are developed about the roles of incumbent firms, governance and politics, user engagement, wider public, and civil society organisations. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Recycling gold from electronic waste offers significant benefits for both environmental protection and resource sustainability. However, this process presents considerable challenges due to high ...costs, prolonged processing times, and interference from coexisting metals. In this study, we synthesized a hybrid mesoporous nanocomposite comprising platelets-like CoNi 2 S 4 incorporated with g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets (CoNi 2 S 4 @g-C 3 N 4 ) for the selective recovery of gold (Au( iii )) ions from spent computer motherboards. Comprehensive characterization of the CoNi 2 S 4 @g-C 3 N 4 nanocomposite was conducted, including its physicochemical properties, textural and structural characteristics, morphology, and elemental composition. The CoNi 2 S 4 @g-C 3 N 4 extractor demonstrated an exceptional adsorption capacity of 200.6 mg g −1 , with high selectivity at pH 2, rapid equilibrium time of 60 minutes, and satisfactory reusability for over ten cycles. Adsorption isotherm and kinetic studies revealed that the CoNi 2 S 4 @g-C 3 N 4 nanocomposite adheres to the Langmuir adsorption model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model for Au( iii ) ion adsorption. Overall, this study introduces a viable adsorbent that shows considerable promise for industrial-scale Au( iii ) extraction from e-waste.
Environmental protection is now an integral part of public policies, at local, national and global levels. In all instances, the cost and benefits of policies and projects must be carefully weighed ...using a common monetary measuring rod. Yet, many different categories of benefits and cost must be evaluated, such as health impacts, property damage, ecosystem losses and other welfare effects. Furthermore, many of these benefits or damages occur over the long term, sometimes over several generations, or are irreversible ( e.g. global warming, biodiversity losses). . How can we evaluate these elements and give them a monetary value? How should we take into account impacts on future generations and of irreversible losses? How to deal with equity and sustainability issues? This book presents an in-depth assessment of the most recent conceptual and methodological developments in this area. It should provide a valuable reference and tool for environmental economists and policy analysts.
Traditional methods for analyzing organophosphorus pesticide chlorpyrifos, usually require the tedious sample pretreatment and sophisticated bio‐interfaces, leading to the difficulty for real‐time ...analysis. Herein, we use palladium single‐atom (PdSA)/TiO2 as a photocatalytic sensing platform to directly detect chlorpyrifos with high sensitivity and selectivity. PdSA/TiO2, prepared by an in situ photocatalytic reduction of PdCl42− on the TiO2, shows much higher photocatalytic activity (10 mol g−1 h−1) for hydrogen evolution reaction than Pd nanoparticles (1.95 mol g−1 h−1), and excellent stability. In the presence of chlorpyrifos, the photocatalytic activity of PdSA/TiO2 decreases. Through this inhibition effect the platform can realize a detection limit for chlorpyrifos of 0.01 ng mL−1, much lower than the maximum residue limit (10 ppb) permitted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
DetectHER: A palladium single‐atom (PdSA)/TiO2 platform directly detects the organophosphorus pesticide chlorpyrifos with high sensitivity and selectivity. PdSA/TiO2, prepared by an in situ photocatalytic reduction of PdCl42− on TiO2, shows high photocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In the presence of chlorpyrifos, the photocatalytic activity of PdSA/TiO2 decreases.
Due to decreases in the availability and quality of traditional water resources, harvested rainwater is increasingly used for potable and non-potable purposes. In this study, we examined the effect ...of conventional roofing materials (i.e., asphalt fiberglass shingle, Galvalume
® metal, and concrete tile) and alternative roofing materials (i.e., cool and green) on the quality of harvested rainwater. Results from pilot-scale and full-scale roofs demonstrated that rainwater harvested from any of these roofing materials would require treatment if the consumer wanted to meet United States Environmental Protection Agency primary and secondary drinking water standards or non-potable water reuse guidelines; at a minimum, first-flush diversion, filtration, and disinfection are recommended. Metal roofs are commonly recommended for rainwater harvesting applications, and this study showed that rainwater harvested from metal roofs tends to have lower concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria as compared to other roofing materials. However, concrete tile and cool roofs produced harvested rainwater quality similar to that from the metal roofs, indicating that these roofing materials also are suitable for rainwater harvesting applications. Although the shingle and green roofs produced water quality comparable in many respects to that from the other roofing materials, their dissolved organic carbon concentrations were very high (approximately one order of magnitude higher than what is typical for a finished drinking water in the United States), which might lead to high concentrations of disinfection byproducts after chlorination. Furthermore the concentrations of some metals (e.g., arsenic) in rainwater harvested from the green roof suggest that the quality of commercial growing media should be carefully examined if the harvested rainwater is being considered for domestic use. Hence, roofing material is an important consideration when designing a rainwater catchment.
► Harvested rainwater generally requires treatment for indoor domestic use. ► Galvalume
®, concrete tile, and cool roofs had similar harvested rainwater quality. ► Asphalt shingle and green roofs produced high organic carbon concentrations. ► Growing media quality for green roofs should be examined for rainwater harvesting.
In response to the growing urgency of environmental concerns in civil society, governments have been accelerating their pursuit of green procurement. However, green procurement faces substantial ...barriers and challenges that are internal to the governmental organizations. Using a natural resource-based view as the theoretical lens, this study developed and tested a model on how leadership styles and innovation capability influence green procurement. The findings showed that neither transformational nor transactional leadership styles influence green procurement, although they do influence innovation capability. Notably, innovation capability fully mediates the relationship between both transformational and transactional leadership styles and green procurement. Our findings offer a more advanced understanding of the impact of leadership style on e-procurement and the role of innovation capability, thereby addressing the crucial questions of how leadership style and innovation capability can enhance green procurement to improve environmental sustainability.
In recent years, economic growth has caused an increasing number of environmental problems in China. In order to achieve the goal of carbon peak on schedule, enterprises need to accelerate green ...transformation and upgrading. Environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation are important means of corporate environmental governance strategy, but it is unknown whether they can promote the sustainable development of enterprises. Therefore, this article will analyze the effect of enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation on financial performance. Based on relevant theories, this study builds a theoretical model to demonstrate how enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation can affect the financial performance of heavy polluting enterprises. Empirical tests are carried out using 293 heavy polluting enterprises in China as the sample. The results reveal that: (i) Enterprise environmental protection expenditure has significant negative effects on current enterprise financial performance, while green technology innovation can significantly promote enterprise financial performance. (ii) When the lag period is two periods, the enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation have positive effects on enterprise financial performance respectively, and the effects are the most significant. (iii) Enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation synergistically promote enterprise financial performance in the current period, and the impact has a lag effect. (iv) In state-owned enterprises and enterprises with higher corporate governance level, the synergetic promotion effect of environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation on enterprise financial performance is more significant. Finally, this study provides suggestions for promoting the transformation and upgrading of heavy polluting enterprises and achieving sustainable development from the perspectives of the government, enterprises and the public.
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