• Energy Research
• 11. Sustainability close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• 4. Education close
• KR close
• Seoul National University close

In an era of environmental crisis, the world is at a perilous moment. The fight between sustainability and economical choice has been a contentious matter and the world is facing environmental uncertainties today. The main purpose of the present study is to prepare an integrated exploration of the development of consciousness in all business categories. This study also focuses on the indispensable roles and impact of top management in merging the commitment and abilities to environmental leadership and thus, adds a contemporary insight into how businesses, economic stakeholders, government authorities, and the general human sphere can mitigate the runaway menace of environmental issues. Finally, the current authors conclude that the environment is the supernatural force that is making life a possibility on the planet. Therefore, every human operation should be regulated by the approaches mentioned in this study and efforts made through the strategic principles and theories of leadership.

In this paper, we introduce REX-10 (Regional Energy Reactor, 10MWth) system development and power system interconnection in the utilization sides of renewable energy resources for the purpose of reduction of environmental greenhouse gas emissions. The REX-10 consists of nuclear reactor power generation units with thorium fuel. We describe the assumed strategy for power interconnection between the island areas and a KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation) power system. The electric power capacity for the regional power generation per unit has less than 10 MW of power output. The newly designed REX-10 has been developed to be placed in an island ares to maintain system safety, island, etc. Also, REX-10 units for distributed generations (DGs) are connected to the backbone transmission line of a KEPCO 154kV power system in South Korea. Additionally, this study on DGs using REX-10 is necessary and important with respect to the environmental energy policy for greenhouse gas reductions in Korea. Thus, we expect reduced carbon dioxide emissions of 6.448 million tons as compared with what coal-fired power plants would emit if they were to generate the same amount of electricity.

Reducing global emissions will require a global cosmopolitan culture built from detailed attention to conflicting national climate change frames (interpretations) in media discourse. The authors analyze the global field of media climate change discourse using 17 diverse cases and 131 frames. They find four main conflicting dimensions of difference: validity of climate science, scale of ecological risk, scale of climate politics, and support for mitigation policy. These dimensions yield four clusters of cases producing a fractured global field. Positive values on the dimensions show modest association with emissions reductions. Data-mining media research is needed to determine trends in this global field.

The gas products from gasification processes have been considered to have some limitations in gas composition and heating value from the previous studies. Gasification characteristics of sewage sludge and wood mixture were investigated using different mixing ratios with the purpose of better quality of gas product suitable for energy/power generation. The gasification experiment was performed by an indirectly heated fluidized bed reactor. As reaction temperature increased from 600 to 900 °C, the yield of gas product increased with higher generation of CO, H2 and CH4 by more activated gas conversion reactions. As the equivalence ratio increased from 0.2 to 0.4, composition ratio of CO2 increased while CO, CH4, H2 decreased as expected. Several operating variables including mixing ratio of wood with dried sludge were also tested. From this initial stage of experiment, optimal operating conditions for the bubbling fluidized bed gasifier, could be considered 900 °C in temperature; 0.2 in equivalence ratio and 40 % in wood mixing ratio within test variables range. These results will be more thoroughly investigated for the application to the larger scale pilot system.

This study has three principal aims: to classify consumers by their retirement preparation planning and behavior; to examine the financial status of retirement preparation in each country; and to find ways to help consumers effectively secure financial sustainability after retirement by practicing retirement preparation. Adopting the planner–doer model, consumers were classified into four types: ‘indifferent,’ ‘just planner,’ ‘just doer,’ and ‘ideal doer.’ This study used data collected by Korea Life Insurance Association to compare the level of retirement preparation in Korea, Japan, Germany, the U.S., and the U.K. The data were analyzed using the chi-square test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and binary logistic regression analysis. The major findings are three-fold: first, the largest percentage of consumers in every country were ‘just doers’; second, ‘ideal doers’ are older than the other types, but have a low expected retirement age and high level of retirement preparedness; and third, ‘ideal doers’ demonstrated distinct variations in their characteristics in different countries. These findings indicate the need to help consumers recognize the necessity to prepare effectively for financial sustainability in their post-retirement lives; this requires the development of policy and gradual education programs, including effective practical suggestions.

Self-management plan for GHG (Greenhouse Gas) reduction should be prepared in academic facilities, which occupy a large amount of energy consumption. In this study, a university was chosen as one of the major academic facilities and its energy consuming pattern and GHG emission were analyzed. The results have shown that annual CO2 emission from university buildings was 10,452 ton-CO2 (0.65 ton-CO2/m), and dependent upon 78.0% electricity, 20.5% LNG and 1.5% oil, respectively as energy sources. According to more detail analysis by usage of energy consumption, appliances occupies 36.7% followed by gas heating (18.9%), lighting (18.6%), heating with electricity (12.5%), cooling with electricity (10.2%), transportation (1.5%), gas cooling (1.2%) and cooking (0.4%). Furthermore, annual CO2 emissions per unit area and a student by electricity usage were evaluated to 51.30 kg-CO2/m and 981.86 kg-CO2/capita, respectively and those by LNG usage were 14.61 kg-CO2/m and 241.01 kg-CO2/capita.

Abstract Electric vehicles (EVs) are considered as an effective solution in achieving a low-carbon society. One of the major hurdles to EV diffusion is consumer ignorance. That is, consumers generally consider only the initial purchase price, not knowing the total life cycle cost in terms of long-term operational cost savings. The purpose of this study is to develop a consumer-based optimal electric vehicle investment model using total cost of ownership (TCO) which is the actual total cost paid by consumers from acquisition to disposal. Especially, this model includes the recent rapid technological advances in EVs and high volatility of oil prices. To quantify the economic value of the options of consumer's decision, we estimated the TCO of vehicles. Specifically, to provide practical results to consumers, we used the empirical data from the Korean automobile market to evaluate the economic value of TCO. Using the proposed investment model with empirical data, we derived an optimal decision path as a function of time, considering oil price uncertainty and technological advancements, by analyzing a binomial lattice model to identify the optimal timing of adoption. We found that even without subsidies, EVs are more cost-effective than internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) at the current fuel price level, and are still cost-effective even if the current fuel price decreases 20% further in the Korean market. And as the fluctuation of fuel price becomes more stable, consumer preference to EV products should increase.

This study explores the role of community-led governance in innovation adoption by drawing determinants of RFID waste pricing system adoption. The Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea adopted an individual-incentive based RFID waste pricing system for apartment complexes in 2013 in an effort to reduce food waste. After invention and wide usage during World War Two, RFID has received lots of intention especially in public policy field. This innovative system using RFID machines and RFID tag-embedded cards showed effectiveness in waste reduction. Residents of each apartment complex decide whether and when to adopt the RFID system. Based on innovation diffusion theory, we would like to draw which determinant factors most affect RFID pricing system adoption. Although innovation diffusion is dependent on community level, many previous studies surveyed individuals and asked them about organizational adoption. We use non-perceptional data representing the characteristics of the level of apartment complex. This study, relying on ecological variables collected from 2018 apartment complexes across 25 autonomous districts located in Seoul City, explores significant factors related to the process of the RFID adoption. According to the empirical results, there were two important determinants: how much information the government provided, and how the apartment complex residents have opportunity to gather opinion and decide the RFID pricing system adoption. We emphasize the importance of community-led governance in adopting an innovative environmental system and how community-led governance contributes to sustainable innovation adoption.