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Laws, Regulations or Policy Tools to Govern Macroplastics, Mesoplastics, Microplastics and Nanoplastics
Published in Hyunjung Kim, Microplastics, 2023
Also in 2017, the United Nations proclaimed the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) (Harvey, 2017). This initiative covers broader goals for fighting plastic pollution, in particular, plastic litter. It focuses on the creation and fostering of active interfaces of science and policy aiming at enabling and boosting sustainable management of coastal areas and oceans. Although it is still in its preparatory phase (2018–2020) but under the agenda “the science we need for the ocean we want”, this process is motivated by the will to reverse the cycle that declines the health of the oceans. The current increasing awareness and goodwill toward the protection of the oceans and the development of adequate science-based policies constitute a unique opportunity that may culminate in the creation of measures efficiently directed to the preservation of the marine environment. The issue of plastic pollution has also been addressed from a more economically intergovernmental perspective like G7 (Group of Seven) and G20 (Group of Twenty) have devised specific action plans (Wayang, 2017; UNEP, 2018). These emphasize the need to promote resource efficiency, waste reduction and sustainable waste management. However, most of the reported achievements are reduced to workshops, which have, nonetheless, highlighted the need to identify improved solutions for dealing with exact problem and find a sustainable solution.
Efficiency
Published in Arjen Y. Hoekstra, The Water Footprint of Modern Consumer Society, 2019
Increasing water-use efficiency is widely recognized as an important challenge for the coming decades, worldwide. In practice, the focus is mostly on efficiency just from the production perspective. An increasing number of governments recognize ‘resource efficiency’ as an important theme. In Europe, for example, the European Commission formulated ‘a resource-efficient Europe’ as one of its seven ‘flagship initiatives’ (EC, 2011). The flagship initiatives are part of a ten-year strategy launched in 2010 by the European Commission to boost growth and jobs. This betrays an interesting dilemma: on the one hand, the goal is growth, on the other hand, sustainability. Concepts like ‘resource efficiency’ and ‘green growth’ seem to give an answer to the dilemma. Resource efficiency means less natural resources use and environmental impact per unit of production and consumption. Growth means more production and consumption. The idea is that increased resource efficiency can lead to a decoupling of growth and natural resources use. In reality, it is highly doubtful whether increased resource efficiency can offset the increased demand for resources that is naturally part of growth.
Environmental management and assessment tools
Published in Adrian Belcham, Manual of Enviromental Management, 2014
These sorts of resource efficiency surveys have been completed for material streams of many kinds, water usage, energy usage (as a whole or in important sub-divisions such as compressed air usage). Sometimes it is prompted by consumption data and/or cost (e.g. energy usage) and sometimes by waste data or cost (e.g. hazardous waste disposal costs). Wherever in the system we start from, the basic principles are the same: map out the material or energy usage through the system;use input data, product/equipment specifications, internal monitoring data, etc. to quantify the key resource movements;calculate or estimate gaps in the data with as high a degree of accuracy as possible;look for excessive usage points or pathways and then investigate to see if opportunities for resource efficiency improvements exist.
Empowering freight transportation through Logistics 4.0: a maturity model for value creation
Published in Production Planning & Control, 2023
Tiziana Modica, Claudia Colicchia, Elena Tappia, Marco Melacini
Within the wider sphere of logistics processes, transport plays a crucial role; with increasing distances, companies are intensifying their use of transportation to fulfil their customers’ demand (Villarreal et al. 2017). Transport is a significant component of the total logistics cost and, at the same, it is a source of value and competitive advantage, as it impacts directly on cost efficiency, service level and sustainability (Crainic and Laporte 1997; Klumpp 2018). Additionally, managing transport systems is a complex task that involves many stakeholders, different ownership of assets and coordination among key actors, thta is, shippers, freight operators and receivers (Chopra and Meindl 2007). The opportunities offered by Logistics 4.0 and new advanced technologies could help companies handle the ensuing greater management complexity, and improve performance within their transport processes by increasing cost efficiency and service level, attained through greater visibility and flexibility. Companies can also achieve sustainability outcomes by reducing their carbon emissions and improving resource efficiency (Harris, Wang, and Wang 2015; Pathak, Thakur, and Rahman 2019). These opportunities stemming from applying Industry 4.0 in the transportation process have, however, been overlooked (Lamba and Singh 2017; Strandhagen et al. 2017; Govindan et al. 2018), a factor that has determined the present study with its focus on the freight transportation process (hereafter transportation process).
Integrating product design and supply chain management for a circular economy
Published in Production Planning & Control, 2023
Haydn Burke, Abraham Zhang, Jason X. Wang
Resource efficiency refers to a firm’s ability to use resources to their maximum efficiency. The improvement of resource efficiency has been widely called for in sustainability policies and regulations, including in the Europe 2020 strategy (Tukker 2015). Business firms are required to adapt to the policies and explore the competitive advantages through efficient use of resources. All interviewees demonstrated good knowledge of resource efficiency and expressed concern over the depletion of natural resources. The interviewees felt the global economy should collaborate in improving resource efficiency at both the macro and micro-level. A manager of research and development in personal care product manufacturing stated that ‘using less and using it better has to be done’.
Applications of emerging technologies in logistics sector for achieving circular economy goals during COVID 19 pandemic: analysis of critical success factors
Published in International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 2021
Anchal Gupta, Rajesh Kumar Singh
Abdirad and Krishnan (2020) have done systematic and comprehensive literature review on I4.0 concepts in logistics and supply chain management. The fourth Industrial revolution has brought an opportunity for logistic sector to meet the requirements of CE. I4.0 technologies such as Internet of things, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, robotics and 3D printing plays an important role in transforming the behaviour of logistics (Tjahjono et al. 2017). These concepts assist supply chain professionals with not only sustainable solutions but also improve integration and resource efficiency among supply chains. I4.0 has capabilities to influence all the aspects of business including designing to delivery. These aspects can be termed as ‘smart manufacturing’ or ‘smart logistics’ (Hofmann and Rüsch, 2017; Bag et al. 2018).