Search results for "Eco-efficiency"
showing 9 items of 19 documents
Impact of Industrial SMEs in the Environment Conservation : A Systematic Mapping Study
2020
Small and medium-sized companies have an impact on the environment where they operate. In some cases, the effects on the environment can be significant within local communities leading to a series of negative processes, such as emission pollution into the atmosphere, the discharges to rivers and seas, the production of waste; in some cases, it makes the contamination to the soil. This paper presents the results of the systematic mapping study aimed at assessing environmental management in industrial SMEs. Descriptive studies of SMEs emphasize their poor environmental commitment, describing them as primarily interested in controlling pollutant emissions just to comply with regulations. Ninet…
On the dynamics of eco-efficiency performance in the European Union
2016
This paper evaluates the evolution of environmental performance in the context of the European Union (EU), over the period 1993–2010. The context is particularly relevant, due to the traditionally high concerns of the EU about these issues, which has triggered off several initiatives and regulations on environmental protection. In this setting, we conduct a two-stage analysis which develops environmental performance indicators in the first stage for each pair country-year, and evaluates its evolution in the second. More specifically, in the first stage we estimate specific efficiencies for three air-pollutants (CO2e, SO2, NOx), along with an eco-efficiency indicator, for which we use the sl…
Measuring the eco-efficiency of wastewater treatment plants under data uncertainty
2018
Abstract Eco-efficiency assessment is a useful tool for improving the sustainability of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, it is a complex task that requires the integration of several performance indicators into a single index. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is established as a highly effective methodology for achieving this as it permits the integration of the service value, resource consumption and environmental impact variables as the desirable outputs, inputs and undesirable outputs, respectively. However, traditional DEA models omit uncertainties in the data that are likely to result in biased conclusions. This study pioneers the assessment of the eco-efficiency of WWTPs w…
Managing Sustainability with Eco-Business Intelligence Instruments
2014
Abstract In response to increasing concerns of society about environmental degradation and increasing demands for a transition to a more sustainable society, the business companies are increasingly active in aligning their processes and services with a sustainability agenda. Production, distribution and supply of goods and services require material and energy consumption, having an impact on natural resources both quantitatively and qualitatively, generating waste, pollution and disrupting ecosystems. Ecobusiness intelligence is the capacity of people, processes and applications/tools to organize business information, to facilitate consistent access to them and analyse them in order to impr…
SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE: THE ECO-EFFICIENCY EARTH CONSTRUCTION
2017
The appropriate choice of building materials can contribute decisively to reduce the energy consumption of the building sector. The increasing worries for the environmental impact of construction materials is witnessed by a lot of studies The mentioned worries has brought again the attention towards natural materials. The use of more sustainable construction materials and construction techniques represent a major contribution to the eco-efficiency of the construction industry and thus to a more sustainable development. Within this frame the renewed interest for a natural material such as the rammed earth is included; the interest has been in continuous growth from the 80s till today. The ra…
Steps of Sustainable Development Implementation into Enterprise Activities
2015
Abstract Nowadays, principles of the sustainable development concept are present in almost all areas of life, play a key role in efforts to protect the environment, activities for the community and economic development. One of the "beneficiaries" of this concept are the enterprises, both small local as well as those with a global reach. In almost every operating company, in a greater or lesser extent, pillars of sustainable development are used, but before this happened - these companies have to go through a few steps, that led to the full implementation of the sustainable development concept and its application in practical terms. This article presents and describes in detail, the various …
Graphic model for evaluating the competitiveness and eco-efficiency of eco-innovative projects
2019
Eco-innovation describes the creation of novel and competitively priced goods, processes, systems, services, policies, and procedures that satisfy human needs and improve the quality of life while ensuring sustainable development with minimal use of natural resources and minimal release of toxic substances. This article delves into one of the most pressing problems in improving the assessment of eco-innovative projects meant to effect sustainable development. The article also proposes new criteria for evaluating eco-innovation projects. The purpose is to develop and propose a graphic model by which to assess the innovativeness, competitiveness, and eco-efficiency of eco-innovation projects.…
Eco-efficiency assessment of olive farms in Andalusia
2012
Abstract Olive farming represents an important source of income and employment in the rural areas of Andalusia (Spain), which is the most important olive oil-producing region in the world. Unfortunately, it also exerts significant environmental pressures with regard to soil erosion, use of polluting inputs, excessive water consumption and biodiversity reduction. This paper uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques and pressure distance functions to contribute a farm-level assessment of the eco-efficiency of a sample of 292 Andalusian olive farmers. We distinguish between managerial eco-efficiency and program eco-efficiency, the latter being associated to the different natural conditio…
Eco-efficiency assessment of municipal solid waste services: Influence of exogenous variables.
2020
Abstract Improving the eco-efficiency of municipalities in the provision of municipal solid waste (MSW) services is fundamental in the context of a circular economy. This study evaluates the eco-efficiency of a sample of Spanish municipalities, integrating the total cost as input, recyclable waste as desirable output, and unsorted waste as undesirable output. Following a pioneering approach, the weighted Russell directional distance model (a non-radial data envelopment analysis model) was employed, which allowed us to obtain a global inefficiency score and individual inefficiency scores for each variable integrated in the model. In the second stage of analysis, the potential factors affecti…