• Energy Research
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Rapid urbanization combined with high economic growth, industrialization, and changes in socio-economic conditions increase the quantity of municipal solid waste. Cities located in South-Asia are facing serious issues due to waste, with countries like India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan top of the list of bad waste management. The increasing generation of solid waste and also the improper management of waste in Bangladesh leads to environmental degradation. Current waste management practice in Bangladesh is so weak that day by day it is harming the climate and creating a lot of unwanted situations. This research consists of an examination of the current administrative measures and presents another proposition for the executive cycle to decrease ecological contamination. The research study aims to decrease the amount of waste being dumped into municipal sanitary landfill sites & converting the waste into energy which is both financially and environmentally suitable by involving unemployed people in the management system. The results of this study will give an idea of how waste can be utilized as a resource and how this resource can be a capital good as well as how the local level problems can be solved by taking some strategies and making our environment suitable for future generations.

Global energy consumption has risen enormously over the past century due to population growth and increasing energy use per person. Industrial production consumes a significant portion of global energy resources. Thus, industrial sector’s investment in energy efficiency is critical to a sustainable future. For most global enterprises the consumption of energy and natural resources represents a major overhead and developing sustainable energy policies can represent a significant competitive advantage due to the growing price of energy and volatility of supply. This symbiotic relationship can lead to the mutual benefits of increasing industrial efficiency whilst allowing the transition to a sustainable renewables-based energy future and needs to be significantly harnessed. This paper describes a decision support framework to help industrial organisations make positive investment decisions on energy performance improvement projects.

In 2009, a preliminary framework for how climate change could affect worker safety and health was described. That framework was based on a literature search from 1988-2008 that supported seven categories of climate-related occupational hazards: (1) increased ambient temperature; (2) air pollution; (3) ultraviolet radiation exposure; (4) extreme weather; (5) vector-borne diseases and expanded habitats; (6) industrial transitions and emerging industries; and (7) changes in the built environment. This article reviews the published literature from 2008-2014 in each of the seven categories. Additionally, three new topics related to occupational safety and health are considered: mental health effects, economic burden, and potential worker safety and health impacts associated with the nascent field of climate intervention (geoengineering). Beyond updating the literature, this article also identifies key priorities for action to better characterize and understand how occupational safety and health may be associated with climate change events and ensure that worker health and safety issues are anticipated, recognized, evaluated, and mitigated. These key priorities include research, surveillance, risk assessment, risk management, and policy development. Strong evidence indicates that climate change will continue to present occupational safety and health hazards, and this framework may be a useful tool for preventing adverse effects to workers.

ABSTRACT Fungi and fungal enzymes play important roles in the new bioeconomy. Enzymes from filamentous fungi can unlock the potential of recalcitrant lignocellulose structures of plant cell walls as a new resource, and fungi such as yeast can produce bioethanol from the sugars released after enzyme treatment. Such processes reflect inherent characteristics of the fungal way of life, namely, that fungi as heterotrophic organisms must break down complex carbon structures of organic materials to satisfy their need for carbon and nitrogen for growth and reproduction. This chapter describes major steps in the conversion of plant biomass to value-added products. These products provide a basis for substituting fossil-derived fuels, chemicals, and materials, as well as unlocking the biomass potential of the agricultural harvest to yield more food and feed. This article focuses on the mycological basis for the fungal contribution to biorefinery processes, which are instrumental for improved resource efficiency and central to the new bioeconomy. Which types of processes, inherent to fungal physiology and activities in nature, are exploited in the new industrial processes? Which families of the fungal kingdom and which types of fungal habitats and ecological specializations are hot spots for fungal biomass conversion? How can the best fungal enzymes be found and optimized for industrial use? How can they be produced most efficiently—in fungal expression hosts? How have industrial biotechnology and biomass conversion research contributed to mycology and environmental research? Future perspectives and approaches are listed, highlighting the importance of fungi in development of the bioeconomy.

Implementing a circular economy aimed at reusing resources is becoming increasingly important for industry. Microalgae fit within a circular economy by being able to bioremediate nutrient waste and as a source of biomass for several commercial applications. Here, we report a novel validation of a circular economy concept using microalgae at a relevant industrial scale with a new two-phase process. During the first phase biomass was grown autotrophically, biomass was then concentrated using membrane technology for the second phase where mixotrophic conditions were applied to boost growth further. Microalgae cultures were able to grow (13.8 g/L), uptake and bioremediate nutrients (Nitrogen > 134 mg/L/day) from an anaerobic digestion side-stream (digestate), obtaining high quality microalgae biomass (>45% protein content) suitable for use as animal feed, closing the circular economy loop for industrial applications.

Environmental pollution damages public health and affects economic development. Environmental regulation is the main way for the government to solve environmental pollution. So what type of environmental regulation works better for public health and economic development? Can environmental regulation have an influence on economic development through public health? To solve these problems, this research uses China’s provincial panel data from 2013 to 2017 to divide environmental regulation into command-control policy tools and economic incentive policy tools and uses the mediating effect model to examine the relationship among environmental regulation, public health and economic development. The results show that: (1) There is a positive correlation between economic incentive policy tools and economic development; while no significant relationship between command-control policy tools and economic development is founded; (2) The relationship between command-control policy tools and public health is not significant, while the relationship between economic incentive policy tools and public health is positive; (3) Public health does not play a mediating role between command-control policy tools and economic development but plays a partial mediating role between economic incentive policy tools and economic development. Therefore, the government should strengthen the use of economic incentive policy tools to promote public health and sustainable economic development.

While firms understand that implementing green supply chain management (GSCM) is important, they seem uncertain about how to manage their green initiatives by looking beyond their own facilities. Building a green supply chain requires the participation of all partner firms across the supply chain. However, partner firms are different in size, situation, capabilities, and even industries. Thus, encouraging them to participate in green initiatives is difficult. Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) hesitate to comply with green initiatives as they require a substantial amount of investment. This study empirically examines the causal relationship between the partnership governance mechanism and the success of GSCM. Based on transaction-cost economics theory (i.e., opportunism) and relational perspectives (i.e., trust) as the theoretical background, this study found that governance mechanisms between suppliers and manufacturers are positively related to GSCM performance. It showed that formal governance is important in the process-management side, while relational governance is critical for sharing knowledge in GSCM. The implications of the study results provide strategic insights on how the choice of governance mechanism affects GSCM performance and thus a firm’s competitiveness.

This chapter explores the nexus between climate change and jobs. For the International Labour Organization (ILO), the relevance of climate change and low carbon development has not always been evident. Member states and social partners have long been reluctant to include the transition to low carbon economies in the programme of work and commit resources to it. But in recent years, environmental issues have become a policy priority among ILO member states and social partners. Why, then, is climate change now more relevant than ever for the world of work? What are the current and forecasted employment and social implications of climate change and the policies for adaptation and mitigation? How can the distributional impact of the move to a low-carbon society be better understood and managed? In this respect, how relevant is the concept of ‘green jobs’? What policy approach has emerged within the ILO despite initial resistance and disagreement among constituents? Finally, what role could the ILO play in the future to promote social justice in the transition?