Introduces a bold, new model for energy industry pollution prevention and sustainable growth Balancing industrial pollution prevention with economic growth is one of the knottiest problems faced by industry today. This book introduces a novel approach to using data envelopment analysis (DEA) as a powerful tool for achieving that balance in the energy industries—the world’s largest producers of greenhouse gases. It describes a rigorous framework that integrates elements of the social sciences, corporate strategy, regional economics, energy economics, and environmental policy, and delivers a methodology and a set of strategies for promoting green innovation while solving key managerial challenges to greenhouse gas reduction and business growth. In writing this book the authors have drawn upon their pioneering work and considerable experience in the field to develop an unconventional, holistic approach to using DEA to assess key aspects of sustainability development. The book is divided into two sections, the first of which lays out a conventional framework of DEA as the basis for new research directions. In the second section, the authors delve into conceptual and methodological extensions of conventional DEA for solving problems of environmental assessment in all contemporary energy industry sectors. Introduces a powerful new approach to using DEA to achieve pollution prevention, sustainability, and business growth Covers the fundamentals of DEA, including theory, statistical models, and practical issues of conventional applications of DEA Explores new statistical modeling strategies and explores their economic and business implications Examines applications of DEA to environmental analysis across the complete range of energy industries, including coal, petroleum, shale gas, nuclear energy, renewables, and more Summarizes important studies and nearly 800 peer reviewed articles on energy, the environment, and sustainability Environmental Assessment on Energy and Sustainability by Data Envelopment Analysis is must-reading for researchers, academics, graduate students, and practitioners in the energy industries, as well as government officials and policymakers tasked with regulating the environmental impacts of industrial pollution.

Methods in Sustainability Science: Assessment, Prioritization, Improvement, Design and Optimization presents cutting edge, detailed methodologies needed to create sustainable growth in any field or industry, including life cycle assessments, building design, and energy systems. The book utilized a systematic structured approach to each of the methodologies described in an interdisciplinary way to ensure the methodologies are applicable in the real world, including case studies to demonstrate the methods. The chapters are written by a global team of authors in a variety of sustainability related fields. Methods in Sustainability Science: Assessment, Prioritization, Improvement, Design and Optimization will provide academics, researchers and practitioners in sustainability, especially environmental science and environmental engineering, with the most recent methodologies needed to maintain a sustainable future. It is also a necessary read for postgraduates in sustainability, as well as academics and researchers in energy and chemical engineering who need to ensure their industrial methodologies are sustainable. - Provides a comprehensive overview of the most recent methodologies in sustainability assessment, prioritization, improvement, design and optimization - Sections are organized in a systematic and logical way to clearly present the most recent methodologies for sustainability and the chapters utilize an interdisciplinary approach that covers all considerations of sustainability - Includes detailed case studies demonstrating the efficacies of the described methods

This open access book analyzes and seeks to consolidate the use of robust quantitative tools and qualitative methods for the design and assessment of energy and climate policies. In particular, it examines energy and climate policy performance and associated risks, as well as public acceptance and portfolio analysis in climate policy, and presents methods for evaluating the costs and benefits of flexible policy implementation as well as new framings for business and market actors. In turn, it discusses the development of alternative policy pathways and the identification of optimal switching points, drawing on concrete examples to do so. Lastly, it discusses climate change mitigation policies’ implications for the agricultural, food, building, transportation, service and manufacturing sectors.

This handbook focuses on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) applications in operations analytics which are fundamental tools and techniques for improving operation functions and attaining long-term competitiveness. In fact, the handbook demonstrates that DEA can be viewed as Data Envelopment Analytics. Chapters include a review of cross-efficiency evaluation; a case study on measuring the environmental performance of OECS countries; how to select a set of performance metrics in DEA with an application to American banks; a relational network model to take the operations of individual periods into account in measuring efficiencies; how the efficient frontier methods DEA and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) can be used synergistically; and how to integrate DEA and multidimensional scaling. In other chapters, authors construct a dynamic three-stage network DEA model; a bootstrapping based methodology to evaluate returns to scale and convexity assumptions in DEA; hybridizing DEA and cooperative games; using DEA to represent the production technology and directional distance functions to measure band performance; an input-specific Luenberger energy and environmental productivity indicator; and the issue of reference set by differentiating between the uniquely found reference set and the unary and maximal types of the reference set. Finally, additional chapters evaluate and compare the technological advancement observed in different hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) market segments over the past 15 years; radial measurement of efficiency for the production process possessing multi-components under different production technologies; issues around the use of accounting information in DEA; how to use DEA environmental assessment to establish corporate sustainability; a summary of research efforts on DEA environmental assessment applied to energy in the last 30 years; and an overview of DEA and how it can be utilized alone and with other techniques to investigate corporate environmental sustainability questions.

Economic development has long been acknowledged for its beneficial effects on human well-being. In the context of economic globalization and vertical specialization, increasing the quality of export products is more critical and necessary to export success and sustainable development. The product's quality is inextricably linked to its manufacture and production, which need various types of energy and raw materials. Meanwhile, the adoption of more environmentally friendly and cleaner energy sources contributes to the achievement of sustainable production. Therefore, product quality may provide a new perspective from which to investigate the systematic relationship between greener and renewable energy sources, sustainable production and environmental regulations, as well as the nature of export competitiveness. Generally, export product quality has referred to the quality of manufactured products within the product lines. Quality refers to the relative price of a country's varieties within their respective product lines. Product sophistication assesses the composition of the aggregate exports. Different varieties of same product as per quality level are being produced by several developing and emerging economies. Within any given product line, quality converges both conditionally and unconditionally to the world's benchmark; increases in institutional quality and human capital are associated with faster quality upgrading. In turn, faster growth in quality is associated with more rapid output growth.

This handbook includes three parts, corresponding to the following three domains of OR/MS research related to sustainability: (i) Systems Design, Innovation, and Technology, (ii) Manufacturing, Logistics, and Transportation, and (iii) Sustainable Natural Resource Management. The first part of the handbook (Chapters 2-6) will focus on the creation and development of sustainable products, services, value chains, and organizations from a systems perspective. Key areas to be covered include Green Design & Innovation, Technology and Engineering Management, Sustainable Value Chain Systems, Sustainability Standards and Performance Evaluation, and Circular Economy and New Research Directions in Sustainability. The second part of the handbook (Chapters 7-11) will concentrate on the major operational and logistic issues faced by today’s industries in pursuing sustainability. Key areas to be covered include Remanufacturing, Reverse Logistics, Closed-Loop Supply Chains, Sustainable Transportation, and New Research Directions in Green Supply Chain Management. The third part of the proposed handbook (Chapters 12-16) will center on major sustainability issues in managing engineering infrastructure and natural resources. Key areas to be covered include Renewable Energy, Sustainable Water Resource, Biofuel Infrastructure, Natural Gas, and New Research Direction in Sustainable Resource Management. The handbook aims to bridge the three main OR/MS research domains in sustainability: “Systems Design, Innovation, and Technology,” “Manufacturing, Logistics, and Transportation,” and “Sustainable Natural Resource Management.” Traditionally, these domains are treated separately in the OR/MS literature. By combining the three domains, the handbook will provide a more holistic treatment of MS/OR methodologies to address critical sustainability issues faced by today’s society. Unlike most existing handbooks which only focus on current OR/MS research in sustainability within a domain, this handbook will include a concluding chapter in each of the three parts to discuss and identify potential future research directions in each of the three main domains.

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA) that was developed about three decades ago demands a broadening of its scope to include lifecycle costing and social aspects of life cycle assessment as well, drawing on the three-pillar or ‘triple bottom line’ model of sustainability, which is the result of the development of the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). LCSA refers to the evaluation of all environmental, social and economic negative impacts and benefits in decision-making processes towards more sustainable products throughout their life cycle. Combination of environmental and social life cycle assessments along with life cycle costing leads to life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). This book highlights various aspects of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA).