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With the rapid development of urbanization and economic growth, urban agglomerations have become an effective way to realize resource sharing and reduce environmental dependence. This paper focuses on the cities within an urban agglomeration and analyzes the spatial characteristics of green development and its influencing factors. Considering the spatial correlation and dependence of green development, this paper proposes a methodology for the spatial analysis of area green efficiency (AGE) and total factor productivity change (TFPC) using a two-level hierarchical framework including diversity and correlation. This approach was tested using an urban agglomeration in China, and the results reveal that AGE varies greatly among cities and that the changing trend is related to the government's regional planning. TFPC presents a significant negative spatial correlation, indicating that the heterogeneity between cities is obvious. The serious problems in the green development of the Shandong Peninsula are due to the improper structure of export products and the insufficient contribution of tertiary industry. Proper policy instruments could improve area green development within an urban agglomeration, including policies promoting closed networks among cities, measures readjusting the industrial structure, and strategies for optimizing the development of tertiary industry according to the characteristics and advantages of each city. • A methodology is put forward for the spatial analysis of area green development. • Area green development in urban agglomeration shows significant spatial correlation. • The importance of influencing factors varies in different regions and time periods. • Optimizing spatial structure and factor input could improve area green development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of Cleaner Production (CP) is a strategy for achieving a corporate's sustainable development and therefore is an important instrument for improving environmental performance. Due to the rapid economic development and urbanization in China, the stone processing industry is developing fast, resulting in several environmental problems. The stone processing sector has begun to implement the CP technologies and practices to tackle with environmental problems caused by the production process. However, the evaluation methodologies of the effectiveness of CP implementation in this sector have rarely been examined in the literature. This paper proposed a CP evaluation system that enables decision-makers to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of CP in the stone processing industry. A three-level framework was structured with 6 first-grade indicators and 24 sub-indicators according to the context and characteristics of the stone processing production. And the evaluation criteria were closely related to the laws, rules, regulations and discharge standards in China as well as the current CP technology level. Using analytical hierarchy process and fuzzy membership degree analysis, the weights of each indicators were determined, and evaluation results were achieved. Moreover, the evaluation methodology was verified to be reasonable and practical in the case study of a stone processing firm in Shandong Province. The entire and detailed assessment results demonstrate that the evaluation methodology is helpful in providing guidelines for the implementation of CP strategy in the industry of stone processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There has been an increasing level of attention to sustainability issues in higher education by academic leaders, students and by policy makers and the public, at large due to significant impacts of university activities have upon society environmentally and socially in the short and long-term. The last decade has witnessed the promotion of “Green University” in China with an aim of fostering sustainable development in higher education. This paper was developed, based upon research designed to investigate the awareness of faculty, alumni and student's parents on sustainable development and their perceptions on the ‘Green University’. A large-scale questionnaire survey was conducted with representatives of each of these three groups of stakeholders in the Shandong University, one of the largest academic institutions in China. The main focus of this study was placed on exploring the most important factors that contribute towards achieving ‘Green University’ goals from different stakeholders' points of view. These factors were broadly grouped into seven categories, i.e. management systems, environmental sustainability, sustainable curricula, research and development, staff development and rewards, student opportunities and social responsibility. This research compared the perceptions of these three stakeholder groups with those of the student's perspectives, which were also researched several months earlier at Shandong University. Implications on the ‘Green University’ development are presented. The research findings provide a useful reference to improve both the sustainability performance in higher education at Shandong University as well as for ‘Green Universities’ more broadly throughout China and other parts of the world. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With the continuous development for the straw utilization industry, studying the sustainability of different straw utilization industries and the realization of the optimal distribution of regional straw utilization industries has become an important issue. This paper studied the straw utilization industry in Shandong through field investigation and literature research, and comprehensively evaluated these industries through emergy analysis. Results showed that the emergy-based sustainability indexes (ESI) of straw biogas (SBP) and feed productions (SFP) are both high, 1.61 and 1.49 respectively, which should be encouraged. ESIs of straw-based particleboard (SBPP) and straw-bioethanol production (SP) are low, 0.61 and 0.54 respectively, which should be restricted, and other ways could be developed appropriately. Moreover, a methodology combining emergy analysis and multi-objective programming was constructed to solve optimization of regional straw comprehensive utilization scheme. The results suggested that if the main goal was to improve the regional economy, the proportion of straw returning to the field (SRF) should be reduced and that of the SBP should be increased. If the environmental impact was the main optimization goal, then SRF should be the main straw treatment method. Furthermore, to avoid adverse effects on environmental benefits and sustainable development, it was recommended that more attention should be paid to avoid blindly pursuing the increase in the scale of straw utilization. [Display omitted] • Emergy analysis is applied to compare nine main straw utilization methods. • A methodology is developed to solve straw utilization scheme optimization. • Optimization schemes of straw utilization under three priorities are proposed. • Suggestions for development of China's straw utilization industry are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is essentially a practice way. A great number of the National Sustainable Development pilot Zones (NSDPZs) has been rapidly developed in recent years in China, which is a practice to explore the road of sustainable development. In order to regulate and promote their better development, suitable comprehensive measurement of sustainability is essential. However, few efforts have been made in this regard. This paper aims to fill such a gap by using grey relational analysis to evaluate the development performances, principal component analysis to discuss the influencing factors of 13 pilot zones in Shandong Province from 2009 to 2015. The results showed that the development performances of pilot zones had generally improved, while there were obvious differences between subsystems after years of development. The spatial variations revealed a gradually decreasing trend from east to west as well as from north to south. The development performances of pilot zones were subject to the influence of various factors such as technology, efficiency, and industry. According to the leading factors and their development performances, the 13 pilot zones could be divided into six different types. The difference of dominant influencing factors among pilot zones caused to the difference of development performances. The technological innovation was the endogenous driving force in stimulating high-quality development of pilot zones. These results would not only provide theoretical reference for the establishment of efficient management mechanism of pilot zones in Shandong Province, but also provide practical reference for the effective implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]