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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]

Industrial symbiosis is the sharing of services, utility, and by-product resources among industries. This is usually made in order to add value, reduce costs, and improve the environment, and therefore has been taken as an effective approach for developing an eco-industrial park, improving resource efficiency, and reducing pollutant emission. Most conventional evaluation approaches ignored the contribution of natural ecosystem to the development of industrial symbiosis and cannot reveal the interrelations between economic development and environmental protection, leading to a need of an innovative evaluation method. Under such a circumstance, we present an emergy analysis-based evaluation method by employing a case study at Shenyang Economic and Technological Development Zone (SETDZ). Specific emergy indicators on industrial symbiosis, including emergy savings and emdollar value of total emergy savings, were developed so that the holistic picture of industrial symbiosis can be presented. Research results show that nonrenewable inputs, imported resource inputs, and associated services could be saved by 89.3, 32.51, and 15.7 %, and the ratio of emergy savings to emergy of the total energy used would be about 25.58 %, and the ratio of the emdollar value of total emergy savings to the total gross regional product (GRP) of SETDZ would be 34.38 % through the implementation of industrial symbiosis. In general, research results indicate that industrial symbiosis could effectively reduce material and energy consumption and improve the overall eco-efficiency. Such a method can provide policy insights to industrial park managers so that they can raise appropriate strategies on developing eco-industrial parks. Useful strategies include identifying more potential industrial symbiosis opportunities, optimizing energy structure, increasing industrial efficiency, recovering local ecosystems, and improving public and industrial awareness of eco-industrial park policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT With rapid urbanization and industrialization, China is now facing a great challenge in meeting the soaring demand for new buildings and the corresponding energy consumption. Under such circumstances, the setting of a national standard on green buildings would be an effective way to respond. In fact, China has made significant progress in developing national green building standards. But such progress is not explicitly released to the international societies. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to introduce such progress. China's green building efforts are first discussed in detail with the various provisions of the national indicator system. By conducting a comparison with other countries' green building standards, a critical analysis of such a national standard is presented. The comparison indicates benefits to be gained and challenges to be met, such as lack of indicators on responding climate change, lack of region-specific indicators, lack of quantitative indicators, higher costs for receiving certification and lack of applying innovative green technologies. So, substantive revision is critically needed. The knowledge gained from Chinese efforts on green building indicators are valuable to both developed and developing nations seeking to implement sustainable development measures within their regulatory policies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [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]

Abstract To move towards sustainable urban development, interactions between economic and ecological systems should be further investigated due to their coupled relations. In this study, we propose an emergy-based ecological footprint (EEF) analysis framework. Shanghai was selected as a case study city to see its dynamic changes from 2007 to 2016. The results show that Shanghai had a large ecological deficit, an extremely high ecological footprint intensity and a poor coordination relationship between its ecological system and its economic system, indicating a great ecological challenge that it is facing. The uneven distribution of its emergy ecological footprint is mainly due to the large share of fossil fuels land type. But with the city's great efforts, the overall ecological pressure has been reduced and the coordination relationship has also been improved, while the local economy is still booming. Pearson correlation analysis further indicates that the city's policy on developing tertiary industry has resulted in a positive effect on improving the coordinating relationship. The ratio between the output value of heavy industry and gross industrial output value has the most negative correlation with the coordinating relationship. Finally, policy recommendations are raised by considering the local realities. These recommendations can also provide valuable insights to other megacities with similar challenges. Highlights • A modified emergy ecological footprint method was proposed. • Emissions' impact was integrated into EEF method. • Shanghai faces enormous ecological pressure. • Shanghai is moving towards ecological sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]