Journal of Industrial Ecology最新文献

Biological diversity—the complex tapestry of life and ecosystems—is facing an urgent global crisis, with increasing extinction rates and the loss of variety on all levels of biodiversity from genetic to ecosystem diversity. This study analyzes 2843 environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reports by companies from 43 countries, focusing on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, and examines the quality of biodiversity-related disclosure (BRD) from 2010 to 2019. The study achieves three objectives. First, it provides a global assessment of the quality of BRD, which declines after 2015 despite increased recognition of the importance of biodiversity. Second, it identifies the influence of climate-related risks and management incentives as internal determinants of BRD quality. Third, in examining the consequences of BRD, it highlights the impact of BRD quality on investor risk perception and stakeholder perceptions (i.e., corporate reputation). Improved BRD quality increases perceived risk. For companies with biodiversity impacts, however, the effect is the opposite, suggesting that investors do not fully understand the risks of biodiversity dependency. These findings suggest the need for equal recognition of biodiversity alongside climate change in reporting standards and policies.

Economic crises offer a valuable perspective on the relationship between carbon performance and corporate financial performance (CFP). Crises test corporate performance and challenge the allegedly universal synergies that developed under “normal” circumstances. However, the current research in this area is limited and has often yielded insignificant results. Drawing from a global dataset spanning 15 years, we investigate the moderating influences of two distinct crises on the interplay between carbon emission intensity and CFP. Employing fixed-effects regression analysis, we dissect these critical periods, offering nuanced insights into their distinct impacts. The contrasting nature of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic is central to this study. The COVID-19 pandemic, characterized by operational disruptions and natural resource scarcities (supply-side shock), significantly amplified the benefits of carbon reduction strategies, highlighting the value of efficient processes and cost efficiencies. In contrast, the GFC did not exhibit a significant impact on the carbon–CFP relationship. This differentiation is attributed to the GFC's finance-driven nature (demand-side shock), and the resultant evolution in stakeholder preferences and organizational structures. This study extends beyond the debated territory of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores. It also provides a nuanced understanding of carbon performance's role subject to the unique characteristics of a crisis.

Construction and demolition waste management (CDWM) is a grand challenge on a global scale. Traditional CDWM has heavily relied on anthropological approaches, which may prevent stakeholders from acquiring a comprehensive understanding of a macro standpoint for developing effective strategies. The emergence of geospatial technologies offers a more objective and precise approach for CDWM to enhance resource management and support environmental and socio-economic sustainability. However, a holistic review of how these geospatial technologies have been applied to CDWM is still lacking. To fully harness the potential of geospatial technologies for CDWM, this study aims to examine how different categories of geospatial technologies serve different application scenarios in CDWM through a systematic literature review. Through delving into 73 papers spanning 2004 to 2024, the results find this research discipline has been a hotspot since 2017. Existing CDWM literature has predominantly utilized geographic information systems (GIS) technology, followed by remote sensing technology and a hybrid technology strategy. Geospatial technologies have been extensively integrated with other non-geospatial technologies. Existing literature is mainly distributed across four application scenarios: identification and classification, site selection, quantification, and decision support. Finally, three research gaps have been also pinpointed, directing future studies to devote specific efforts to improving data accuracy, combining geospatial technologies with traditional methods as well as expanding application scenarios from a life cycle perspective. This paper offers academics and practitioners a clear roadmap on how to utilize geospatial technologies for propelling the discipline of CDWM toward high efficiency and precision.

Despite their relevance in building stock modeling, building lifetimes are poorly understood and tend to form the weakest link in forecasting energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, waste generation, and resource use. Here, we develop a methodology to trace building lifetimes for cohorts in two central areas built up after fires in the 1840s. Using Geographical Information System (GIS) data of the current building stock and archival material, we determined yearly hazard rates for buildings within the cohort 1841–1845 in the historical center of Trondheim, Norway. We find that hazard rates are very sensitive to events ranging from global to hyperlocal scales and that demolition rates have slowed down significantly since the 1980s when municipal preservation policies came into effect. In contrast, age-based lifetime approaches fail to capture the effects of such events as they only account for the delay between construction and demolition. We discuss the use and limitations of hazard rates to better reflect changes in demolition that are not correlated with building age. Our study underscores that building lifetimes are a property of a wider system rather than an attribute of individual structures. In that sense, hazard rates are a more suitable approach to capture spatiotemporal changes of building stocks and could be further used in scenarios in dynamic models. This article met the requirements for a gold-gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

The impact of economic crises on an economy's energy consumption, considering its sectorial interactions, remains an unexplored area. For this article, we investigated the structural sectorial relationships in energy terms before, during, and after Catalonia's 2008–2014 financial crisis, using environmentally extended input–output analysis. We used three input–output tables from 2005, 2011, and 2014, for which we constructed and employed five vectors representing sectorial energy consumption (“natural gas,” “coal,” “petroleum,” “electricity,” and “biomass and waste”) for 41 economic sectors. We studied the evolution of backward and forward linkage coefficients in terms of energy, as well as key sectors over this period. Our findings reveal that most sectors, particularly energy-intensive ones, experienced a reduction in both backward and forward linkages. However, the relative importance of sectors in the Catalan economy remained relatively stable over the years, indicating a certain level of persistence in this indicator throughout the period, despite the economic crisis.

As the world's largest steel production country, China annually produces more than 50% of global steel, which relies on around 70% of iron ore imports in the last decade. Promoting scrap steel recycling is essential to reduce the heavy dependence on imported iron ore and simultaneously mitigate CO₂ emissions. This study used the GCAM model (Global Change Analysis Model) and the dynamic MFA model to quantify the amount of scrap steel that would be generated under the carbon neutrality goal (CNG). Furthermore, we provided different scrap steel recycling scenarios to explore the potential of iron ore savings and the reduction of CO₂ emissions during 2020–2060. The results showed that the annual steel production would be reduced to 525.2 Mt in 2060 under CNG, but a total of 470.3 Mt of iron ore would still be required annually. The quantity of scrap steel generated is expected to increase annually, reaching a cumulative total of 16941.37 Mt between 2020 and 2060. With increasing the scrap steel recycling rate, under optimal conditions, savings in iron ore and mitigation of CO₂ emissions could reach 6447.1 and 3132.4 Mt, respectively, cumulatively during the period from 2020 to 2060. Furthermore, iron ore demand could be met domestically by 2050, eliminating the need for imports. By extending the lifetime of construction, the overall reduction in steel production would be 1064.1 Mt from 2020 to 2060. Meanwhile, 1883.1 Mt of iron ore can be saved and 889.6 Mt of CO₂ can be mitigated accumulatively.

Statistical tests are used to examine the role of prices for petroleum, coal, and farm products in the Great Depression. A new empirical mapping of relationships between monthly energy and farm product prices and key macroeconomic variables shows how biophysical factors intersected with the price system in the 1930s US economy. Deflation was a critical feature of the Depression, with the US aggregate wholesale price index falling by 37 percentage points between October 1929 and February 1933. Petroleum product prices and farm product prices can explain 89% of changes to the aggregate wholesale price index over the 1930s. Granger causality tests show that petroleum product prices led changes to money supply in the 1930s, by 8 months, while farm product and all-commodities prices Granger caused changes to industrial production. Changes in prices from October 1929 to February 1933 varied substantially between commodities, with prices of coal, metals, and building materials—the essential ingredients for capital formation—all increasing in real terms. Real bituminous coal prices are found to Granger cause changes to money supply, personal income, and industrial production over the 1930s. Overall, the results add further support to the hypothesis that the Great Depression was caused by an energy transition, following discovery of large quantities of petroleum in the US Southwest.

Social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) has garnered significant attention in academia and the business sector. To enhance the guidance of S-LCA application and future research, it is imperative to conduct a thorough analysis of its research status and challenges, considering the extensive development of methodological approaches. Leveraging bibliometric and content analysis on 452 articles from the Web of Science database, this study examines publication trends and delineates the conceptual structure and coupling themes within the S-LCA field. Through an amalgamation of bibliometric findings and a comparative analysis between life cycle assessment and S-LCA, the study outlines prominent challenges. Five primary issues related to inventory construction and data conversion, as identified through content analysis, are presented. This article comprehensively reveals a deep understanding of research status and faced challenges, serving as a complement for future practitioners and researchers.

This article explores the challenges companies face when establishing cooperative relationships to implement industrial ecology initiatives. It examines the effectiveness of methodological devices in fostering inter-firm relations and creating a favorable environment for executing industrial ecology strategies. The theoretical framework of proximities is used to analyze the nature of the connections that form between firms based on these strategies. Based on interviews and social network analysis from three case studies in France, the study concludes that geographical proximity is important for cooperative relationships, but it is not enough on its own. The activation of organized proximities requires intermediary actors and methodological devices. In addition, these collaborations need consistent and effective support to ensure their long-term sustainability; without such support, they tend to be short lived.