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Highlights • Environmental performance of a lead acid battery recycling system was assessed using emergy analysis. • High environmental loading hinders its sustainability. • The impact of emissions from the system was discovered to be 5.60E + 10 seJ/$. • The studied system had a significant recycling efficiency. Abstract In China, rapid development of electric vehicles resulted in large consumption of lead and lead products such as lead acid batteries (LABs). Recycling LABs is one option to mitigate natural resource depletion and corresponding environmental issues. However, few studies have been conducted to measure the operation of LABs recycling industry. Consequently, it is necessary to initiate such a study so that key barriers on promoting this industry can be identified. Under such a circumstance, this study proposes an emergy-based evaluation framework to evaluate one LABs recycling firm in Yunnan so that the emissions' impact on human health and ecosystem from this firm can be quantified. A set of emergy-based indicators are established to evaluate the sustainability of this recycling firm. The results show that the investigated system had a higher emergy efficiency compared with that primary ore exploitation system. However, the extremely low values of emergy indicators indicate that this recycling system could not achieve sustainable development goals due to its heavy dependence on nonrenewable resources. Based upon such results and local realities, policy suggestions are raised in order to improve the overall sustainability of such a recycling system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In order to improve the overall sustainability of industrial parks, it is necessary to understand the development characteristics of industrial parks so that appropriate management measures can be raised. Under such a circumstance, this study analyzes the changes in the environmental performance of Shenyang Economic and Technology Development Zone (SETDZ) in terms of emergy‐based indicators and explores underlying driving forces using decomposition analysis methods. The results show that in the industrial recruitment stage (2001–2006), the total emergy increased rapidly and the sustainability level decreased significantly because of the exploitation of local resources with the expansion of industrial scale. After entering the industrial cluster and upgrading stage (2007–2010), the total emergy increased even faster, while the environmental performance did not decrease too much because of the improved resource efficiency and improved technological progress. The implementation of industrial symbiosis (IS) (2011–2013) could have further effectively reduced the total emergy consumption and improved the environmental performance, but current symbiosis efforts were not sufficient and need to be further promoted. Gross regional product and area of the industrial park were the most important driving factors to the total emergy for all the development stages. In terms of emergy sustainability, renewable emergy ratio (R1/U) was one key impact factor. Therefore, how to improve the ratio of renewable resources and enhance IS scopes will be the key strategies for its sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the sustainability of urban ecosystem is becoming a key area in global sustainable development. Urban metabolism is an effective analysis tool for the study of urban ecosystem. In this regard, how to evaluate the level of urban sustainable development and identify the key factors that affect urban metabolism is critical. Many studies on urban metabolism have been explored during the past half century, but few concerns about the key factors that affect urban metabolism. Therefore, this paper fills such a gap by combining emergy and Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) methods in order to analyze the sustainable development level and identify the driving forces of emergy utilization, respectively. A typical industrial city, Shenyang in northeast China, was chosen as a case study city in this paper. Results show that renewable resource utilization in Shenyang was very limited from 2000 to 2010, while nonrenewable resources and the imported resources increased rapidly. During this period, total emergy utilization of Shenyang increased from 8.52 × 10 22 sej to 21.53 × 10 22 sej, and emergy density increased with annual increasing rate of 10.34%, demonstrating a fast development of the economy and high level of resident's consumption. LMDI method was employed to analyze the driving forces of emergy consumption from the aspects of scale, structure and intensity. Results show that the rapid increase of emergy utilization in Shenyang was mainly caused by the expansion of economic scale, while emergy intensity greatly contributed to offset total consumption, and industry structure played a marginal role, with a minor value for its growth. Based upon these results, several policy recommendations were raised, including the use of more renewable and clean energy sources, a regenerative and preventative eco-industrial development approach, and capacity-building efforts, so that the overall environment pressure on urban development can be reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current rapid urban development, particularly in Asian cities, is facing various challenges, such as resource depletion, environmental emissions and increasing pressures on responding climate change. It is critical for decision-makers to raise the appropriate urban development strategies so that cities can move toward sustainable development. In this regard, well-designed evaluation methods are valuable for managing environmental development and providing guidelines to improve sustainable urban development. Six well-known assessment methods for environment and sustainability assessment, namely, input–output analysis (IOA), life-cycle analysis (LCA), ecological footprint (EF), carbon footprint (CF), emergy analysis and cost benefit analysis are selected. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review on these methods and proposes an integration of different methods so that the holistic performance of one eco-city initiative can be scientifically evaluated and key problems can be identified. Such an integration can solve the problems that each single method is facing so that valuable policy insights can be identified for urban decision-makers to prepare more appropriate urban strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a growing demand for crop products in China, a great deal of local resources and industrial inputs are consumed including agricultural machineries, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and energies, which results in many environmental issues such as resource depletion, water pollution, soil erosion and contamination, and CO2 emissions. Thus, this study evaluated the trend of sustainability of China's crop production from 1997 to 2016 in terms of emergy and further explored the driving forces using decomposition analysis methods. The results showed that the total emergy used (U) increased by 50% from 7.82 × 1023 in 1997 to 1.17 × 1024 solar emergy Joule (sej) in 2016. Meanwhile, the values of the emergy sustainability index (ESI) were all smaller than one with a declining trend year by year, indicating that China's crop production system is undergoing an unsustainable development pattern. From the results of the ESI decomposition, the renewable resource factor (R/GDP) and land use factor (L/A) are two key factors impeding the sustainable development of the crop production system. Therefore, the increased capacity of renewable resources and enough labor forces engaged in crop production will be the key strategies for its sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured with a unique geographic position and climate conditions, Qinghai is abundant with natural resources, making significant contribution to China's or even the world's ecological security. In order to evaluate its current sustainability and provide useful policy suggestions to improve its sustainable development, a systematic study on Qinghai's socio-economic system was conducted by applying emergy synthesis. Results show that the total emergy use for supporting Qinghai's economy was 5.13 × 10 24  sej in 2015. The values of emergy to money, emergy density, and emergy used per person are 2.12 × 10 13  sej/RMB, 7.11 × 10 12  sej/m 2 , and 8.72 × 10 17  sej/person, respectively. The holistic picture of Qinghai's socio-economic system is also uncovered based on the temporal analysis of emergy-based indicators. Results show that emergy yield ratio increased from 52.21 in 2002 to 164.10 in 2015. Similarly, the environmental loading ratio increased from 4.64 in 2002 to 57.99 in 2015. Correspondingly, the value of emergy-based sustainability index decreased from 11.25 in 2002 to 2.83 in 2015. These results indicate that Qinghai was highly dependent on local resources and its sustainability experienced a declining trend. In addition, the high absolute value of emergy to money ratio indicates that Qinghai was a net loser for its domestic and international trade. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to test the reliability of these results. Finally, policy recommendations based on such a systematic evaluation and local realities were proposed to improve its sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is experiencing rapid development and suffering from resource depletion and increasing environmental emissions. It is necessary to identify the key patterns of resource use in different Chinese regions so that more appropriate solutions can be raised. Under such a circumstance, the aim of this paper is to scientifically measure and evaluate the sustainability of natural resources utilization of 30 Chinese provinces for the year of 2007 by adopting a bio-perspective method-emergy analysis. After referring to the traditional emergy accounting method, several emergy-based indicators were established to evaluate resource flows, structure, efficiency and the overall sustainable level of different Chinese regions. Furthermore, by employing GIS technology, spatial distribution of natural resources was presented to illustrate emergy consumption with various regional characteristics in 30 Chinese provinces, which may help better understand regional disparities of resource utilization. The results show that regions with most emergy consumption include Shanxi (2.07E+24sej) and Shandong (2.07E+24sej), and most regions with higher resource consumption locate in east China, while less developed region Qinghai has the highest sustainability level, with ESI being 44.82. Another key finding is that renewable resources were very important to sustainability development, and a large amount of consumption on non-renewable resources led to higher environmental press on local and surrounding ecosystems. Sustainable resource use can only be achieved by reducing total resource use, encouraging technology innovation, initiating institutional reform and preparing region-specific development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource over-exploitation and resource depletion have received increasing attentions, especially for industrial regions. In this paper an innovative method that combines emergy analysis and an IPAT (Human Impact Population Affluence Technology) equation is developed in order to create an integrated framework for uncovering the driving forces on resource consumption in one industrial region. Liaoning province, one of the old heavy industrial bases in China, is selected as the case study region. The main results show that total emergy of Liaoning province increased from 9.25E + 23 sej in 2002 to 1.92E + 24 sej in 2012, with 165% growth on non-renewable emergy and 250% growth on imported emergy. Regional emergy/RMB ratio was higher than other developed regions and the average value of China, indicating that this province consumed more local free non-renewable resources to support its own development. The lower ESI (emergy sustainability index) indicates that Liaoning province's sustainability is still weak and far away from sustainable development. IPAT analysis further identifies that rapid economic growth was the main driving force to increase its total emergy use, while technology innovation offset the increase of total emergy use. Policy insights suggest that industrial regions should improve their energy efficiency and optimize their economic and energy structure by applying economic instruments and capacity building efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the old industrial areas are experiencing declining due to their backward equipment, technologies and management, leading to entreprise's bankrupcy, job losses and ecosystem degradation. In order to respond such a challenge, the local governments have made various efforts, such as polluting enterprises' relocation and brownfield redevelopment. It is critical to conduct a scientific assessment for such efforts so that appropriate solutions can be found by considering the local realities. Many evaluation methods, such as emergy analysis, material flow accounting and ecological footprint analysis, have been widely applied. Among them, emergy analysis is a useful policy and planning tool due to its unique nature of linking ecosystem service with different types of input–output flows interacting within a study area. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the overall performance of such a brownfield redevelopment site by observing its evolutional changes. Tiexi old industrial area in Shenyang city of northeast China was selected as the case study area. Years of 2000, 2005 and 2010 were chosen since each year represents a unique feature of its evolution, namely, before and after its redevelopment, as well as its ongoing process. The results show that almost all of the emergy flows were imported from the outside, leading to a lower sustainable development level. Before the relocation and redevelopment program, Tiexi was in the decline stage of economy, the inflow was much lower than those of 2005 and 2010. After the implementation of the relocation and redevelopment program, the flourishing of construction businesses and the drastic changes of urban functions induced higher emergy flows during 2000–2005 and then less emerg flows during 2005–2010 due to the phase-out of relocation. Finally, several policy recommendations were proposed, including preventative and regenerative eco-industrial development, industrial structure change, energy saving and energy structure optimization, and the application of economic instruments, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract China's demand for crop products is increasing, leading to a great deal of consumption of local resources and industrial inputs such as agricultural machineries, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and energies. Many environmental problems also occurred, such as water pollution, soil erosion and contamination, and CO 2 emissions. Therefore, it is imperative to assess crop production's sustainability and identify the key driving forces of its rapid development so that the proper mitigation policies can be proposed. An emergy analysis method was employed due to its advantage of linking economic development with natural ecosystem service. Emergy sustainability index was chosen as the key indicator to measure crop production performances in 31 Chinese provinces for the period 2006–2015. The results demonstrate that the EYRs in 31 Chinese provinces are entirely keeping around 1 and the maximum and minimum values of ELR are respectively 1.71 in Guizhou and 8.29 in Tibet. Under this circumstance, the mean ESI values in 30 Chinese provinces are all less than 1, except Guizhou. This indicates that most Chinese provinces will have to improve their crop production toward sustainable agricultural development. Then, a logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition method was applied to identify the key driving forces that affect the evolution of ESI. The change of ESI (ΔESI) was decomposed into five factors: Scale and intensity factor (I), which depends on emergy density; Non-renewable resources factor (T), which depends on the density of non-renewable resources emergy; Productivity of labor factor (P), which depends on the productivity of labor; Renewable resources factor (E), which depends on intensity of renewable resources and number of Labor (G), which depends on labor inputs. The decomposition analysis results indicate that labor and renewable resources are the major factors affecting China's sustainable crop production, while other factors also have certain impacts. Such findings can provide valuable policy insights so that more appropriate crop production policies can be prepared by considering the local realities. Highlights • Emergy sustainability index of 30 provinces are all less than 1, except Guizhou. • Labor factor is mostly maximum positive-contributors for promoting sustainability. • Renewable resources factor is mostly maximum negative-contributors. • Most provinces need to improve their crop production toward sustainable agriculture. • Increasing farmer's ratio is vital for sustainable crop production of 31 provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recovering the landfill gas from municipal solid wastes for power generation is one feasible approach to respond both climate change and resource depletion issues. Under such a circumstance, it is important to evaluate the overall performance of its production process. This study proposes an integrated evaluation method by integrating emergy analysis and eco-indicator 99 method. Key impact factors influencing the sustainability are uncovered by adopting Kaya identity and index decomposition analysis (IDA). One MSW treatment plant in Yunnan province of China was selected as one case study site. The results indicate that the overall performance of the MSW treatment plant has been improved after operating a power generation system. The emissions' impact has been reduced by 56.85% and 2.44gCO 2 eq has been offset when generating 10 9 sej of electricity. However, the low economic benefit, the increase of nonrenewable empower density and the low investment effectiveness are still key factors that hinder its sustainability. In order to address these issues, several suggestions are raised by considering the local realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Quantifying the impact of emission is crucial to grasp provincial performance. • The emergy and LMDI methods were used to quantify EIN and identify key factors. • The reducing of intensity of fertilizer N is key factor to restrain EIN growth. • The sustainability of crop farming in 31 regions are declined by quantifying NPS. Sustainable crop production is a significant challenge in China. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to evaluate environmental impacts related to the sustainable development of crop production by integrating scientific and practical indicators. Therefore, this study employed emergy and index decomposition analysis approaches to assess the environmental impacts of non-point source pollution and the overall performance of crop production in China's 31 provinces. First, the emergy flow of emission impacts and two new indicators, the emergy sustainability index and the emergy-based pollutant-producing coefficient, were proposed to comprehensively measure crop production performance from 2012 to 2015. The results demonstrated that the environmental impacts of non-point source pollution (EIN) were predominantly attributed to total nitrogen and phosphorus contents and mulching film residuals, which substantially increased the total emergy used and reduced the sustainability of crop production in each province. The ratio of EIN plus purchased resources (F) to total emergy used (U) were consistently greater than 80% in all 31 provinces, while the ratio of local resources including the emergy of local renewable (R) and non-renewable resources (N) to the total emergy was relatively small, accounting for less than 20% in all provinces. Then, a logarithmic mean Divisia index decomposition method was applied to identify the key driving forces influencing the evolution of EIN. The decomposition analysis indicated that the economy factor had a major promoting effect on EIN growth in all provinces except Beijing and Shanghai. Intensity and technology factors had a limiting effect on EIN growth. These findings provide valuable insights for developing appropriate crop production policies that consider local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]