What influences the effectiveness of green logistics policies? A grounded theory analysis

Mitigating the environmental concerns through total quality management and green manufacturing practices

This study seeks to explore the intricate relationship between total quality management (TQM) and environmental performance (EP), incorporating the mediating role of green manufacturing practices (GMPs). Additionally, the study examines the moderating impact of environmental strategy on the connections between GMPs and EP. Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to managers of manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and were subjected to analysis using structural equation modeling. The results reveal a positive and significant impact of TQM on EP. Furthermore, the findings suggest that GMPs partially mediate the association between TQM and EP, while the anticipated moderating effect of environmental strategy between GMPs and EP is also supported in this study. These outcomes hold valuable implications for enhancing the environmental performance of SMEs through the integration of TQM and GMPs. It is important to note that this research exclusively focuses on manufacturing SMEs; therefore, future studies should extend their examination of this concept to other industries. Additionally, the study's findings provide a valuable roadmap for SME administrators aiming to elevate their environmental performance.

Exploring the impact of green logistics practices and relevant government policy on the financial efficiency of logistics companies

The coexistence of carbon neutrality and capitalism can be realized if environmentally friendly management is proven to enhance profitability. The focus of green logistics practices (GLPs) is on maximizing energy efficiency in logistics services, potentially leading to cost reductions for companies. Such practices can be supported through public reports, such as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reports, and government policies, including government certification. The primary objective of this study is to investigate whether the financial efficiency of logistics companies can be improved through the implementation of GLPs and a relevant government policy. To achieve this objective, a two-stage analysis was conducted using Data Envelopment Analysis - Slack-Based Measure (DEA-SBM) and Tobit regression analysis. The DEA-SBM was employed to assess whether the financial efficiency of logistics companies adopting GLPs and a relevant government policy was superior to that of companies not adopting such practices. Additionally, Tobit regression analysis was employed to analyze the effects of GLPs, ESG reports, and a government policy on the financial efficiency of logistics companies. The findings of the study indicate the necessity for collaboration between the private and public sectors to implement GLPs in a financially positive manner. In conclusion, the research demonstrated that the implementation of GLPs, coupled with public disclosure through ESG reports or equivalents and a government policy, had a positive impact on the financial efficiency of logistics companies.

Explaining the Green Development Behavior of Local Governments for Sustainable Development: Evidence from China

Although researchers have examined organizational sustainability practices, a specific interpretation of local government green development practices remains for supplemental analysis. This study conducted an empirical survey of 53 local officials from departments related to green development to understand the key processes and practices of green development behavior of local governments in China. The key findings indicate that the main stakeholders involved in the green development practices of Chinese local governments consist of enterprises and residents. In part, local government green development practices emphasize the greening of enterprises, especially in the step of process environmental regulation. The new institutionalism theory and the organizational process research provide dependable insights into green development behaviors. Our findings further shed light on the process of cross-sectoral cooperation across local government departments in green development, contributing to local multi-sectoral interactions for regional green development.

Developing green logistic services management to achieve sustainable development in Vietnam: the role of green construction practices, green social awareness and green innovation

The selection of suitable logistic service providers is essential while making strategic decision for sustainable business. Green logistic service management is the one that incorporates sustainable practices in whole operation cycle in order to maintain product quality, timely deliveries and satisfied customers. This also helps in the prevention of products from further waste that is quite necessary in the context of emerging economies. Thus, in order to assess its effectiveness, the study proposes a framework which emphasizes that the simultaneous role of green logistic services management, green construction, green innovation, and green social awareness helps in achieving sustainable development in Vietnamese context. The outcomes revealed that the green logistic services management, green construction practices, and green innovation helps to achieve sustainability in transportation industry of Vietnam due to positive linkage. The results also exposed that the green social awareness significantly moderates among green logistic services management, green construction practices, green innovation, and sustainable development of transportation industry in Vietnam.

Tracing the evolution of green logistics: A latent dirichlet allocation based topic modeling technology and roadmapping

Green logistics (GL) is the main development trend of modern logistics. The analysis of green logistics topics and their evolution is helpful in grasping its development trend and doing research facing the international frontier. Focusing on the hot topics and evolution process of green logistics, this paper analyzes from four aspects: firstly, this study divides the green logistics development progress into three stages based on life cycle theory, which are the emerging stage (1993-2003), slow growth stage (2004-2014) and rapid growth stage (2015-2021). Then, based on latent dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic model, this study summarizes and confirms related words and meaning of each topic in different stages. Furthermore, this study calculates the text similarity in each development stage of green logistics and analyzes the trend of hot topics in green logistics. Finally, this paper visualizes the development roadmap of green logistics and explores the progression among three stages. There are 4, 5, and 7 topics defined respectively in three development stages. The revolution of green logistics is analyzed, and the results show that "model and management on sustainable development of GL", "related issues and potential threats of GL", and "optimization analysis of low-carbon vehicle routing and time" are the primary development trends of green logistics. This study fills the gap in considering the evolution process of green logistics through topic modeling and roadmapping method. It provides a particular theoretical significance for the green and sustainable development of logistics.

Bio-straw or not? Determinants of consumption intention under the plastic straw ban

A new plastic ban has banned the use of single-use non-degradable plastic drinking straws in China's food and beverage industry by the end of 2020. However, this has caused widespread discussion and complaints on social media. What are consumers' reactions and what factors influence consumers to choose bio-straws (substitutes for plastic straws) are unclear. Therefore, this research collected 4367 effective comments (177,832 words in total) on "bio-straws" from social media and extracted keywords based on grounded theory to generate questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the consumption intention and influencing factors of 348 consumers regarding the ban. The results indicate the following: (1) consumer opinion on straws can be summarized into five main categories, namely, consumers' user experience, consumer subjectivity, policy awareness, policy acceptance, and consumption intention; (2) consumer subjectivity, policy awareness, and policy acceptance directly affect consumption intention significantly, while user experience affects consumption intention indirectly; and (3) user experience and consumer subjectivity play significant roles in mediating these relationships. From the perspective of consumers, this study provides an important basis for policymakers to formulate single-use plastic alternative policies in the future.

Analysis of technological innovation on provincial green development levels of logistics industry in China

The transition from traditional logistics to green and low-carbon logistics is crucial and inevitable due to the pressure of climate change and sustainable development in China. Meanwhile, technological innovation is perceived as an important factor affecting the development of the logistics industry. To explore the impacts of technological innovation and other factors and to propose proper policies based on the results, this study utilizes a generalized estimating equations (GEE) regression model to analyze panel data of 30 provinces during 2001-2019. Firstly, the entropy weight method is applied to calculate the green logistics development level based on an index system considering green factors. Secondly, a GEE model which considers the correlation among different observations is used to investigate the impacts of crucial factors on the green logistics development level. Moreover, regional heterogeneity is also analyzed in this paper by comparing the regression results of the Eastern region, Central region, and Western region. Based on the above analysis, several conclusions are drawn: (1) In terms of the average green logistics development levels, the Eastern region ranks 1st, the Central region ranks 2nd, and the Western region ranks 3rd. (2) GEE regression model is proved effective in our sample. (3) For the full sample, technological innovation, trade openness, and logistics infrastructure positively affect the green logistics development level; while, government regulation and energy intensity negatively influence the green logistics development level. (4) Regional heterogeneity is confirmed in our sample. Related policy recommendations are proposed based on our regional regression results. Take the Eastern region as an example, the local governments in the Eastern region should upgrade the manufacturing industry, reduce government financial investment in the transportation sector, and enhance environmental control expenditure in the transportation sector.

China's logistics green competitiveness promotion path: a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis approach

Increasingly serious environmental problems are forcing many industries to gradually turn to green development, and green competitiveness has become the vision of policymakers and industry practitioners. The impact of the development of the logistics industry on the environment cannot be ignored, but the promotion path of its green competitiveness has not been fully studied. Based on Porter's diamond model, this study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to explore the condition configuration of the logistics industry in 30 provincial regions in mainland China to enhance green competitiveness and effectively combine theory with practice. Factors considered include logistics technology innovation ability, logistics market demand, proportion of tertiary industry, management level of logistics enterprises, environmental regulation, and the internet. The results show that the green competitiveness of the logistics industry is influenced by many factors and cannot be sufficiently explained by a single factor. The findings point to three paths with equal authenticity to improve the green competitiveness of the logistics industry. By comparing the same types of high configuration and low configuration, this study finds that environmental regulation is an important external driving force for regions with low added value of output products, and for regions with certain geographical advantages and numerous logistics enterprises, in addition to the management level of logistics enterprises, support from the internet is also particularly important in improving the green competitiveness of logistics. These findings can provide a practical reference for the promotion of green competitiveness in the logistics industry in different regions.

What Is the Operation Logic of Cultivated Land Protection Policies in China? A Grounded Theory Analysis

Cultivated land protection policies (CLPP) are essential for maintaining social stability, guaranteeing food security, and ensuring sustainable development. However, a mismatch exists between policy performance and the objectives that influence the implementation of CLPP, and the system mechanisms of CLPP must be revealed and explored. Based on the literature review, this paper summarizes the current dilemmas of China’s cultivated land protection at the theoretical level, and preliminarily depicts the external foundation of CLPP in view of China’s topography and spatial distribution of cultivated land. This paper uses CLPP texts as research samples based on grounded theory to construct an analytical framework. The results show that the operation logic of the CLPP is founded on situation–structure–motivation–action–space–outcome. Accordingly, systematic analysis and in-depth understanding of the operation logic of CLPP will help to re-examine the profound relationship between policy text and implementation effect from such perspectives as transnational, trans-regional, and multi-scale. It also helps to reveal the hidden scientific value of spatiotemporal pattern for cultivated land protection, and serve the formulation and implementation of relevant policies in the future. Under the background of the new era of ecological civilization, it is urgent to enhance the operational effectiveness of the CLPP, identifying the focus of policy implementation, and scientifically formulating the CLPP is of great significance to its success.

How to Evaluate Investment Efficiency of Environmental Pollution Control: Evidence from China

Clarifying the efficiency of investment in environmental pollution control is conducive to better control of environmental pollution. Based on panel data of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2008 to 2017, this study combines the three-stage super-efficient SBM-DEA model and the Global-Malmquist-Luenberger index to measure the efficiency of investment in environmental pollution control in China and analyze regional differences. The results show that: First, the investment efficiency of environmental pollution control in China shows a rising trend year by year, but there are significant differences among provinces and regions; the presence of random factors and environmental variables makes the control efficiency underestimated. Second, excluding the effects of both, the national investment efficiency of environmental pollution control has improved significantly, but still has not reached the optimal effect; the gap between provinces and regions has narrowed while the investment efficiency of environmental pollution control has improved, and there is still an unbalanced situation. Third, the main driver of the year-on-year improvement in China’s environmental pollution control efficiency is technological progress; compared with northeastern China, technological progress has a more significant role in promoting eastern, central, and western China. Finally, based on the results, this paper focuses on making suggestions to promote environmental pollution control in China in terms of making regional cooperation, making good environmental protection investment and strengthening environmental protection technology research and development.

Evaluation of Green Logistics Efficiency in Northwest China

This paper develops an index system for assessing green logistics efficiency in Northwest China with the goal of “double carbon” (peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality). The study employs a three-stage data envelopment analysis model of super efficiency to assess the spatial and temporal efficiency of the green logistics industry in Northwest China from 2010 to 2019. Our findings reveal that the overall logistics efficiency in Northwest China fluctuates. Each province has a high pure technical efficiency, but significant regional differences in comprehensive technical efficiency and scale efficiency are apparent. In Northwest China, government support and science and technology levels have a greater impact on green logistics efficiency. Based on the implementation of the “double carbon” strategy, this study offers pertinent insights and suggestions for the high-quality development of the green logistics industry in Northwest China.

Green logistics and environment, economic growth in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative

Infrastructure development has been a priority area since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed. This paper uses the generalized method of moments (GMM) to analyze the relationship between the green logistics, environment and economic growth based on panel data of countries along the BRI from 2007 to 2018. It is found that fossil fuels are the core of logistics operation activities, and the more fossil fuels are used, the more detrimental to the sustainable development of the environment. "The green logistics is negatively correlated with fossil fuel energy consumption and carbon emissions per capita in countries along the Belt and Road. At the same time, the green logistics can also bring more export opportunities for these countries and increase the national income per capita. The development of the green logistics is of great significance to the countries' environment and sustainable economic development along the Belt and Road.

Formation Mechanism and Dynamic Evolution Laws About Unsafe Behavior of New Generation of Construction Workers Based on China's Construction Industry: Application of Grounded Theory and System Dynamics

Construction workers' unsafe behavior is a major cause of safety accidents and injuries, therefore, a profound understanding of the formation process and evolution laws about construction workers' unsafe behavior is conducive to taking measures to prevent incidents. At present, the new generation of construction workers (NGCWs) born after 1980 are gradually becoming the main force at construction sites in China. Given that generational differences of construction workers can cause the discrepancies in their thoughts and attitudes when engaging in safety-related activities, this study aims to investigate the formation mechanism and dynamic evolution laws about NGCWs' unsafe behavior based on the context of China's construction industry. From the perspective of behavior motivation, in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 NGCWs and 7 grassroots managers were conducted, and data analysis followed a three-step coding process based on grounded theory. Through continuous comparison, abstraction and analysis, the stimulus-organism-response theory was introduced and expanded to construct a three-stage formation mechanism model. On this basis, the causal diagram and stock flow diagram were developed based on system dynamics principles to reflect the dynamic feedback relationships of the factors in the static formation mechanism model, and simulation was carried out using Vensim PLE software. The results show that three types of internal needs and three types of external incentives stimulate corresponding motivations for NGCWs' unsafe behavior. Two types of individual factors, five types of situational factors and behavior result play an influencing role in the decision-making process of externalizing motivation into behavior. Under the synergistic effect of multiple factors, the level of unsafe behavior displays a downward trend, and the rate of decrease is slow first and then fast. Furthermore, among individual factors and situational factors, safety awareness and safety management system have the most significant effect on the level of unsafe behavior, while situational factors play a more obvious role. The findings can provide theoretical support and practical references to China's construction companies and government departments for the purpose of improving NGCWs' unsafe behavior.

Eco-market orientation in the logistics industry: a conveyor belt for achieving organizational outcomes via green logistics practices

Purpose

The compounding impacts of climate change has mobilised unstinting endeavours of researchers, ecologists and corporate leaders to explore new ways for the logistics industry to manage environmental problems, improve social outcomes and gain competitive advantage. The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediation roles of inbound green logistics practices and outbound green logistics practices between eco-market orientation, green value competitiveness and social sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach

By employing explanatory research design, with questionnaire-based survey, data for the study was collected from Ghanaian logistics firms. The data is analysed using the partial least square structural equation modelling.

Findings

The results indicate that eco-market orientation has a significant positive impact on green value competitiveness. However, eco-market orientation was found to have an insignificant impact on social sustainability. The results further confirmed the notion that eco-market orientation substantially strengthens the implementation of inbound green logistics practices and outbound green logistics practices. Specifically, the mediation analysis confirmed that inbound green logistics practices and outbound green logistics practices serve as indirect mechanisms through which eco-market orientation significantly influences green value competitiveness and social sustainability.

Originality/value

Compared to previous literature, this is a pioneer study that develops an explanatory research framework under the lenses of the natural resource-based theory, stakeholder theory and resource advantage theory in illuminating how inbound green logistics practices and outbound green logistics practices act as mediation mechanisms between eco-market orientation and green value competitiveness and eco-market orientation and social sustainability.

Spatial Transformation Characteristics and Conflict Measurement of Production-Living-Ecology: Evidence from Urban Agglomeration of China

The land development by human beings has changed from the initial small-scale and low-level transformation to the comprehensive utilization of large-scale and high-intensity implementations. The contradiction between production-living-ecology space (PLES) has become increasingly prominent while drawing land dividends. As one of the important birthplaces of Chinese civilization and the ecological barrier in the northern region, the rapid urbanization and industrialization of the Yellow River Basin (YRB) make the ecological environment very fragile, and the imbalance of land and space development is extremely serious. Therefore, according to the multifunctional characteristics of land use, this paper establishes a classification system of production space (PS), living space (LS) and ecology space (ES), and discusses the spatiotemporal evolution and conflict distribution characteristics of the PLES with the help of the transfer matrix and spatial conflict index (SCI). The results are as follows. In 1990–2020, agricultural production space (APS), grassland ecology space (GES) and other ecology space (OES) yielded the largest proportion of PLES in the YRB. However, compared with 1990, the area of these spatial types decreased in 2020, while the urban living space (ULS) expanded rapidly. The distribution pattern of PLES was generally consistent, and the transformation between PLES in Ningxia, central Inner Mongolia, Loess Plateau and downstream areas was relatively intense. The conflict index of PLES showed an upward trend, but it was generally in a controllable range. The stable and controllable areas were concentrated in the upstream of the urban agglomeration, and the midstream and downstream were basic out of control and seriously out of control, respectively.

Spatial-temporal evolution and influencing factors of total factor productivity in China's logistics industry under low-carbon constraints

Behind the rapid development of China's logistics industry, there are problems of high energy consumption and high pollution. Under the dual constraints of resources and environment, promoting the low-carbon transformation of the logistics industry is the key to achieving sustainable development of the logistics industry. This paper applies the epsilon-based measure (EBM) model which considers undesirable output and global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index to measure the logistics efficiency under the low-carbon constraints of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2017, that is, the green total factor productivity (GTFP), and characterizes its temporal and spatial evolution characteristics through visualization and spatial analysis methods. Then, this paper uses the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model to analyze the influence of industrial agglomeration level, informatization level, foreign direct investment, logistics energy intensity, traffic network density, and technological innovation capability on the GTFP of the logistics industry. The findings of this paper show that (1) during the inspection period, the overall average GTFP of the logistics industry was 0.992, which did not reach the effective level, and the spatial differentiation showed that the average GTFP of eastern was greater than that of in central, and that of in central was greater than that of in western. (2) The GTFP of the logistics industry has experienced an alternating process of rising and falling in time, with large fluctuations. Also, in terms of spatial dimension, there is a trend that high-level areas gradually gather to the southeast, and there is significant spatial autocorrelation. (3) For the logistics industry, high-efficiency areas and high-output areas show significant spatial homogeneity. (4) The estimation results of the GWR show that the direction and intensity of the multi-dimensional driving factors on the GTFP of the logistics industry are different in different regions, showing obvious spatial non-stationary characteristics.

How Is the Risk of Major Sudden Infectious Epidemic Transmitted? A Grounded Theory Analysis Based on COVID-19 in China

The outbreak of a sudden infectious epidemic often causes serious casualties and property losses to the whole society. The COVID-19 epidemic that broke out in China at the end of December 2019, spread rapidly, resulting in large groups of confirmed diagnoses, and causing severe damage to China's society. This epidemic even now encompasses the globe. This paper takes the COVID-19 epidemic that has occurred in China as an example, the original data of this paper is derived from 20 Chinese media reports on COVID-19, and the grounded theory is used to analyze the original data to find the risk transmission rules of a sudden infectious epidemic. The results show that in the risk transmission of a sudden infectious epidemic, there are six basic elements: the risk source, the risk early warning, the risk transmission path, the risk transmission victims, the risk transmission inflection point, and the end of risk transmission. After a sudden infectious epidemic breaks out, there are three risk transmission paths, namely, a medical system risk transmission path, a social system risk transmission path, and a psychological risk transmission path, and these three paths present a coupling structure. These findings in this paper suggest that people should strengthen the emergency management of a sudden infectious epidemic by controlling of the risk source, establishing an efficient and scientific risk early warning mechanism and blocking of the risk transmission paths. The results of this study can provide corresponding policy implications for the emergency management of sudden public health events.

Developing IT-enabled performance monitoring system for green logistics: a case study

Purpose

Logistics companies are compelled to improve their efficiency and the environmental performance by introducing the green concept in their operations. The main purpose of the paper is to have continuous monitoring and tracking of logistics operations to enhance the green performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This research uses a case study approach. It illustrates a monitoring system to digitize the logistics activities by sending real-time GPS data to the server and capture the surrounding pictures with the help of the internet of things (IoTs) based camera. Data generated through digitization is mathematically analyzed for ensuring a green logistic system. The alerts due to the halts, help in keeping a check on fuel consumption, carbon emissions and security of logistics. Performance indicators such as carbon emissions and the value of travel time saving (VTTS) are selected for the study.

Findings

The findings of the study show that the actual travel time and distances are higher than the estimated travel time and distances. It also reveals that actual travel routes with diversions involve a considerably higher amount of carbon emissions during all sample travels. The results indicate a considerable saving in terms of carbon emissions, time and cost savings by effective practices of Green Logistics in Monitoring system (MSGL). These findings can help the top management of logistics companies in formulating effective strategies for technology applications in logistic operations to ensure green performance.

Research limitations/implications

The study has been carried out under certain set of conditions, which may vary depending upon the organizations. Also certain more environmental dimensions for performance monitoring can be used as a future scope of study. Further studies also need to be carried out to widen the scope of the MSGL model at a global level rather than only at local level.

Originality/value

Any organization which deploys transportation as part of their activity can use this MSGL model and then do the mathematical analysis to reduce the CO2 emissions, reduce the time and extra cost. The value of this study lies in the fact that government is trying different methods and models to reduce pollution. This MSGL should be made compulsory by the government as a part of their policies for environment of the country.

How Environmental Knowledge Management Promotes Employee Green Behavior: An Empirical Study

As environmental protection has gradually become the focus of enterprises' development, employee green behavior becomes an important and key antecedent to study this issue, but there have been less studies conducted with knowledge management. As a result, drawing on the theory of planned behavior and the organizational support theory, this study investigates how environmental knowledge practices (environmental knowledge sharing and environmental knowledge application) affect employee green behavior by using a questionnaire survey administered to 266 employees in China to reveal their complex relationship mechanism. The results show that environmental knowledge application and environmental knowledge sharing have a positive effect on employee green behavior; environmental behavioral intention mediates the relationship between environmental knowledge application and employee green behavior, and between environmental knowledge sharing and employee green behavior; green perceived organizational support positively moderates the relationship between environmental behavioral intention and employee green behavior. The findings shed new light on the development of employee green behavior literature and provide practical reference for strategies related to environmental protection for managers.

Electrocatalysts for direct methanol fuel cells to demonstrate China's renewable energy renewable portfolio standards within the framework of the 13th five-year plan

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Methanol synthesis via carbon dioxide hydrogenation is reviewed.

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Up to date review on high yield catalysts for methanol synthesis are discussed.

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Catalytic performance parameters (temperature, Pressure, Support) are reviewed.

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Policy framework towards renewable energy for China is extensively reviewed.

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The catalytic mechanism and the role of promoters, bi-metallic catalyst is also discussed.

A unified treatment of the renewable portfolio standards is given concerning direct methanol fuel. The current mechanism of electrocatalysis of methanol oxidation on platinum and non-platinum-containing alloys is summarized for the systematic improvement of the rate of electro-oxidation of methanol are discussed. Policy realignment under the five-year plan is discussed in length to demonstrate how policy, markets, and engineering designs contribute towards the development of model direct methanol fuel cells operational enhancement, and factors that affect critical performance parameters for commercial exploitation are summarized for catalytic formulations and cell design within the context of why this investment in technology, education, and finances is required within the global context of sustainable energy and energy independence as exposed by thirteenth the five-year plan. The prolog focuses on the way, whereas the section on methanol fuel cells on the how and the post log on what is expected post-COVID-19 era in science and technology as China pivots to a post-fossil fuel economy.

China's industrial growth has been through internal market reforms and supplies side economics from the Chinese markets for fossil fuels except for petroleum. The latest renewable portfolio standards adopted have common elements as adopted from North American and the United Kingdom in terms of adaptation of obligation in terms of renewable portfolio standards as well as a realization that the necessity for renewables standards for the thirteen five year plan (from 2016 to 2020) need to less rigorously implemented due to performance targets that were met during the eleventh (06–10) and twelfth five-year plans (11–15) in terms of utilization of small coal-ire power plants, development of newer standards, led to an improvement of energy efficiency of 15 %, reduction of SO_x/NO_x by an average of 90 % and PM2.5 by 96 % over the last two five-year plans.

The current phase of the plan has a focus on energy generation from coal and a slowing down of renewables or Renewable energy curtailment of approximately 400 T Wh renewables including 300 T Wh of non-hydro power, principally from Guangdong, and Jiangsu for transfer of hydropower and Zhejiang, Tianjin, Henan for non-hydro power transfer with Beijing and Shanghai playing important roles in renewables energy curtailment and realignment using an integrated approach to optimize each provinces energy portfolio. The realignment of the renewable energy portfolio indicates that the newly installed capacity in Sichuan, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, and Zhejiang will account for less than 20 % of the current renewable energy portfolio but with the NO_x SO_x and PM_2.5 savings already accrued.

The catalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to methanol (70 / 110 million metric tons from all sources in 2019 for China/world) is one technological approach to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions and suggests that catalytic methanol synthesis by CO₂ hydrogenation may be a plausible approach, even if it is more expensive economically than methanol synthesis by the syngas approach. This is because the CO₂ emissions of the synthesis are lower than other synthesis methodologies. The Chinese government has placed a premium on cleaner air and water and may view such an approach as solving the dual issues of fuel substitution and reduction of CO₂. Thus, the coupling of hydrogen generation from sustainable energies sources (Solar 175 / 509 GW) or wind (211/591.5 GW in 2019) may be an attractive approach, as this requires slightly less water than coal gasification. Due to the thermodynamic requirement of lower operating pressure and higher operating pressure, currently, there is no single operational approach, although some practice approaches (220 °C at 48 atm using copper) and zinc oxide/alumina are suggested for optimal performance.

A New Solution for City Distribution to Achieve Environmental Benefits within the Trend of Green Logistics: A Case Study in China

Green logistics has become a consensus and an important method to achieve sustainable development in industrial activities. However, the traditional direct distribution mode has high carbon emissions, an uncertain delivery time, and a low delivery efficiency. Uncoordinated resource allocations and unreasonable network layouts of terminal distributions have shackled green development within the express delivery industry. Considering the trend of green logistics, this study innovatively proposes a comprehensive and environmentally friendly mode for city distribution based on end crowdsourcing service stations (ECSSs). This study also adopts node centrality indices of complex network theory to evaluate the node importance of existing terminal distribution outlets. The comprehensive weights of the indices are obtained via the three-scale AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and TOPSIS (Technology for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) methods to identify the candidate nodes for ECSSs. Finally, a location model is built to determine the optimal location to establish the ECSSs. A real-world case study was conducted to provide the location scheme of ECSSs in Beijing, China. Environmental benefits as well as economic and social benefits can be substantially achieved through the implementation of the new mode. The results show that carbon emissions can be reduced by 23.79–28.49% for the end of the distribution, 16.27–16.35% for the front-end, and approximately 17% for the entire distribution. Additionally, the loading rate of vans for the front-end of the distribution can be improved by 15.77%.