As far as cloth production is concerned, the dyeing process in textiles forms a bottleneck procedure, as this process consumes a great deal of time and high volumes of water per unit of fabric for ...processing, which causes depletion of groundwater levels at a high rate. Besides, textile effluents are discharged into rivers or wetlands without proper treatment in many cases. Untreated textile effluent can contaminate groundwater and water bodies, reduce dissolved oxygen in the water, and affect aquatic ecosystems, which may indirectly cause climate change. The waste generated in dyeing is mainly due to the cleaning process. Thus, the dyeing process needs to be improved and optimized to solve the problem and reduce delay. To take effective measures for future improvement, it is essential to develop a nature-inspired tracking system. The amount of emission and the performance can be improved by utilizing scheduling as a tool. In this view, the dyeing process is formulated as a bi-objective optimization model to reduce the tardiness cost and minimize the emission of wastewater during the cleaning process of the dyeing vat. The current problem is of a difficult nature; thus, multi-objective particle swarm optimization in collaboration with the tabu search algorithm has been used to attain good and nondominant results. The tabu search algorithm is used along with ejection chains to focus on the objectives of emission reduction and increase the number of desired solutions. It was found that the total processing time was reduced by 4–5 hours and water was reduced by 500 liters for dyeing 200 kg of yarn daily.
Sustainability has emerged as one of the important planning concepts from its beginnings in economics and ecological thinking, and has widely been applied to assessing urban development. Different ...methods, techniques and instruments for urban sustainability assessment that help determine how cities can become more sustainable have emerged over a period of time. Among these, indicator-based approaches contribute to building of sustainable self-regulated systems that integrate development and environment protection. Hence, these provide a solid foundation for decision-making at all levels and are being increasingly used. The present paper builds on the background of the available literature and suggests the need for benchmarking indicator-based approach in a given urban area and incorporating various local issues, thus enhancing the long-term sustainability of cities which can be developed by introducing sustainability indicators into the urban planning process.
•Urban sustainability balances the economic development with environment.•Indicators are being used while evaluating urban sustainability.•Different indicators are reviewed for urban sustainable assessment.
India emerged as the ninth –largest aviation market globally, with more than 120 operational airports, notably 34 internationally operating, complemented by increasing arguments and counterarguments ...regarding the aviation's contribution to the climate change. There is an urgent need to assess, investigate and evaluate different airlines operating in India, incorporate various mitigation methods into their business models. This paper classifies and scrutinizes the actions that airlines are implementing and communicating through their websites with respect to their responsibility and their views regarding the environmental implications arising due to the air travels. This paper uses the data available on the internet like the airline's websites, their annual reports and the media through which the airlines communicate. The data is analyszed using frame analysis and by employing the NVivo software, which does a qualitative analysis of various sustainable initiatives adopted by major airlines and characterizes them into several themes. It helps us to identify the areas of aviation where sustainable efforts are being made, as well as how to expand the themes in the coming years to make aviation greener and much more sustainable.
Cement manufacturing is a hard-to-abate industrial sector that accounts for 5–8% of global anthropogenic emissions. Approximately 80–90% of these emissions occur during limestone calcination and fuel ...combustion processes. Decarbonising these two emission and energy-intensive processes requires a sustained and regenerative supply of low-carbon resources. Unlike other renewables such as solar or wind, biomass is uniquely positioned to abate emissions from fuel combustion, and process emissions by substituting clinker with biomass ash. Moreover, bioenergy with carbon capture utilisation or storage offsets the energy penalties and associated emissions due to the deployment of carbon-capturing technologies. The sustainable transition towards biomass-based industry involves multifaceted socio-technical conflicts across bioenergy and cement sectors. This review uncovers opportunities, challenges and interplay involved in the sustainable transition of the cement industry through the lens of circular bioeconomy and multi-level perspective. The review found that 20–30% of fossil fuels can be replaced with biofuels without significant capital investments. This can be further enhanced through pre-processing of biomass and process optimisation. Clinker substitution with biomass ash is reported to be in the range of 3–80%. To increase the uptake of biomass, key aspects of circular bioeconomy are good starting points for transition at an organisation level, but system-wide change demands policy interventions. The policy intervention points presented in this study will serve as focus areas for practitioners and policy makers.
•Biomass potential in the carbon-intensive manufacturing processes is discussed.•Opportunities and challenges in uptake of biomass were examined.•Key aspects of circular bioeconomy to initiate the transition are presented.•Policy intervention points to achieve a sustainable transition are proposed.
Decentralized Energy Planning (DEP) is one of the options to meet the rural and small-scale energy needs in a reliable, affordable and environmentally sustainable way. The main aspect of the energy ...planning at decentralized level would be to prepare an area-based DEP to meet energy needs and development of alternate energy sources at least-cost to the economy and environment. Present work uses goal-programming method in order to analyze the DEP through bottom-up approach. This approach includes planning from the lowest scale of Tumkur district in India. The scale of analysis included village level—Ungra, panchayat level (local council)—Yedavani, block level—Kunigal and district level—Tumkur. The approach adopted was bottom-up (village to district) to allow a detailed description of energy services and the resulting demand for energy forms and supply technologies. Different scenarios are considered at four decentralized scales for the year 2005 and are developed and analyzed for the year 2020. Decentralized bioenergy system for producing biogas and electricity, using local biomass resources, are shown to promote development compared to other renewables. This is because, apart from meeting energy needs, multiple goals could be achieved such as self-reliance, local employment, and land reclamation apart from CO
2 emissions reduction.
By using a decentralized energy-planning (DEP) approach, this paper shows that biomass-based energy systems have the potential to meet all the rural energy needs from village to district level. DEP ...has been formulated and applied to a typical Indian district (Tumkur). The main purpose of this study is to examine the economic feasibility of bioenergy for use in rural areas. Model analysis shows that the cost of producing biomass is very low per capita at the household level. Energy plantations could be raised on available degraded areas or wastelands. The biomass feedstock that can be produced from plantations is shown to be adequate to meet all the electricity needs of the village by using biomass gasification technology. Electricity demands can be met by using biomass power generation systems on the basis of biomass feedstock from energy plantations on available wastelands.
This empirical research study delves into the correlation between the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and the diversity of board members in German-listed companies. The investigation aims to ...determine whether board gender diversity impacts a company’s commitment to reducing GHG emissions. To explore this relationship, panel data analysis uses a sample of German publicly traded companies. These firms are known for their solid environmental governance and are subject to women board directors’ quota requirements over a specific period. Our study employs multiple identification techniques to examine the impact of women’s board diversity (WBD) on GHG emissions. The results reveal that WBD does not significantly influence GHG emissions. This outcome remains consistent using robust two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression analysis. However, when we introduce a dummy variable for WBD at the 1–25% level, we observe a positive impact of WBD on GHG emissions. This finding supports the critical mass theory, which suggests that the presence of at least 25% of women on board favours a reduction in GHG emissions. The insights from this research hold significance for policymakers, investors, and corporate leaders seeking to understand the potential advantages of gender diversity in mitigating environmental impacts. Our study supports the concept of social loafing (Williams & Karau, 1991) and the critical mass theory (Torchia et al., 2010) in explaining a relationship between WBD and GHG emissions in German publicly traded companies in the S&P Global 1200 Index.
The global construction sector accounts for 13.2% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP). It not only contributes to the economic growth engine of the world but also climate changes due to its ...high energy footprint. Sustainable buildings have the potential to reduce the adverse impacts of the construction industry, but their adoption is slow due to hindrances. The aim of this paper is to study literature on barriers to green building adoption to date and highlight the overlapping and unique barriers specific to India in comparison to a few prominent countries, and provide solutions and recommendations for future research. The methodology has been an extensive literature review of the barriers to green building (GB) adoption. The key findings, namely barriers, were classified under economic, governmental, organizational and social perception, information, technology and material categories. Barriers unique to India and a few other developing countries are an extension of project schedules, lack of research and developmental works, lack of public motivation, poor building code enforcement, high payback period, uncertain supply of green materials, improper implementation of policy framework and performance of green building technologies (GBT’s). The GB construction sector is fragmented around the world. Even the GB definition is not the same across the globe although the environmental aspect is the same. Similarly, there are unique and overlapping challenges in GB adoption globally. Buildings in usage perspectives can be classified into residential and non-residential. This study looks only at non-residential GBs due to their homogenous nature. There is a dearth of specific studies related to the adoption of GBs in India. This study aims to fulfil the gap of India’s standing in the barriers to GB adoption with respect to the developed and developing countries.
JEL Classification: I18
Bioenergy and food security: Indian context Kumar, Bimlesh; Hiremath, Rahul B.; Balachandra, P. ...
Energy for sustainable development,
12/2009, Letnik:
13, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Bioenergy is the subject of increasing attention around the world and represents a controversial issue. The rise of commodity prices, the negative impact on food security and climate change represent ...different challenges to be overcome before the full potentials of bioenergy can be realized. In the context of the development of bioenergy, issues relating to agriculture need special attention. Bioenergy development is always linked with food security. Farmers, having the choice to convert their food crops to fuel crops, naturally expect a high return from their farmland, thereby generating a scenario where food production falls. Present work by doing a case study of a typical district from India namely Tumkur shows that optimal production of bioenergy can be achieved by using the wasteland present in the area. This way, food security for future generations can be maintained along with optimal growth of bioenergy.
This article addresses the environmental aspects of an unorganised textile sector with large-scale employment through a case study of the city of Solapur in the state of Maharashtra, India. Waste ...generated from the textile sector is causing serious problems such as changes to land and agricultural patterns, air quality, health and biodiversity. The methodology includes qualitative and quantitative data regarding the possible impact on climate, health, agriculture, biodiversity, water, air and soil. A detailed analysis was carried out through an extensive literature review. A possible solution in the form of a sustainable networking model for mitigating change is suggested. The sustainable model with integration of information and communication technology (ICT) will help achieve the desired development goals. The role of ICT is to channelise the supply chain, which can increase the efficiency and competitiveness of the sector.
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