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This study aims to solve the problem of optimal performance parameter selection of the virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control strategy using an improved artificial jellyfish search (IMJS) algorithm. VSG technology helps the inverter to improve the anti-disturbance ability. The VSG control effect depends on the setting of its performance parameter values. The population initialization strategy and dynamic adaptive factor are used to improve the optimization ability of the artificial jellyfish search algorithm. The IMJS algorithm is used to optimize the VSG, and a control strategy for the VSG based on the IMJS (IMJS-VSG) is proposed to improve the control capability. The results show that the active power achieves smooth changes without oscillations under the IMJS-VSG control strategy when the system is running in grid-connected operation. The system voltage drop under the IMJS-VSG strategy is less than 40% of the VSG strategy when the system is in an islanded operation state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pulp and paper industry is an important contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions1,2. Country-specific strategies are essential for the industry to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, given its vast heterogeneities across countries3,4. Here we develop a comprehensive bottom-up assessment of net greenhouse gas emissions of the domestic paper-related sectors for 30 major countries from 1961 to 2019—about 3.2% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from the same period5—and explore mitigation strategies through 2,160 scenarios covering key factors. Our results show substantial differences across countries in terms of historical emissions evolution trends and structure. All countries can achieve net-zero emissions for their pulp and paper industry by 2050, with a single measure for most developed countries and several measures for most developing countries. Except for energy-efficiency improvement and energy-system decarbonization, tropical developing countries with abundant forest resources should give priority to sustainable forest management, whereas other developing countries should pay more attention to enhancing methane capture rate and reducing recycling. These insights are crucial for developing net-zero strategies tailored to each country and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 for the pulp and paper industry.A bottom-up assessment of the net greenhouse gas emissions of the pulp and paper industries of 30 countries from 1961 to 2019 leads to country-specific strategies to achieve net zero by 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes to visualizing the complicated interrelationships among the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Taiwanese cities' resource investment and performance under uncertainties. Taiwan faces bottlenecks and uncertainties in pursuing the SDGs due to the complex interrelationships among the SDGs. In particular, the lack of a comprehensive approach causes problems for governments in identifying whether resource investment and performance reach a coherent situation. To address this issue, this study proposes to use secondary data normalization, factor analysis and reliability testing for the validity and reliability of measures, performance‐resource analysis and the fuzzy synthetic method to translate qualitative information, as well as the decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory to visualize the relationships. The study (1) establishes validation measures for resource investment and performance; (2) combines qualitative information and secondary data to understand the causal effects of the SDGs; and (3) provides directions for the government to improve the coherence of resource investment and performance. The findings show that SDG 3 has a strong effect on SDGs 11 and 9 and a moderate effect on SDG 8 to achieve the agenda. Guidelines are provided for resource‐poor counties/regions that could invest resources to achieve SDG 3. Many cities and counties are underperforming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities play a significant role on the fate of materials in economy-wide flows. Their sustainability is integral to the future of resource utilization. Circular city economies are recommended for the future of sustainable cities. Shifting towards a circular economy is challenging as urban metabolism is intertwined with city characteristics. The effectiveness of action plans is vital towards the shift through insight derivation of past city-level data. Rough set-based model can draw insights from city-level data in interpretable form, facilitating communication between analysts and city planners. This approach generates if-then rules based on the city-level data. This work generated 14 if-then rules from data of 100 cities using rough set theory. The model identified 5 relevant city characteristics from the 13 characteristics available from the data. The relevant characteristics are demographic, education, ease of doing business, income inequality, and tourism. The metric on waste management for cities was selected as the decision attribute of the model as it is the most relevant to circularity. The model attained a classification accuracy of 94 %. Specific if-then rules achieved coverage as high as 64 %, allowing ease of analysis. The rules suggest the level of development as the delineation between waste management system performances. The findings highlight the relevance of future studies on circular economy of developing countries. Results of this work provide insights on critical features that occur in more sustainable cities, which can be used to plan future circular city economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global scientific community has been successful in their efforts to develop, test, and commercialize vaccines for COVID-19. However, the limited supply of these vaccines remains to be a widespread problem as different nations have started their respective vaccine rollouts. Policymakers continue to deal with the difficult task of determining how to allocate them. This research work will present how the use of mathematical models can provide valuable decision support under such conditions. Both a linear programming model and a nonlinear programming model have been developed to determine the optimal allocation of COVID-19 vaccines that minimize fatalities and COVID-19 transmission, respectively. These scenarios have to be dealt with when not enough vaccines are available, and the pandemic is still in progress. The model is capable of handling large scale allocation problems such as those intended for the general population of a country. It could also be scaled down for organizations such as private companies or universities. The model also considers multiple vaccines with different levels of efficacy. The distribution of vaccines reduces transmission and relative infectiousness of individuals across different age groups. A hypothetical case study is solved to illustrate the computational capability of the models. The results indicate that priority should be given to the elderly when fatalities are minimized. In contrast, the younger population should then be prioritized when the objective shifts to suppressing contagion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note reveals the gaps from circular economy (CE) and resilience in the literature during COVID-19 pandemic. The disruptive event affects the circularity in the supply chain due to numerous single-use-products in food, health, plastic industries. The unsustainable production and consumption is harmful for social, ecological, and economic systems. The industrial practices need a highly resilient network to have better visibility and agility to shift sourcing. Prior studies reveal the gap that CE needs the resilient systems. Still, there is a need to conceptualize and models resilience in CE studies using quantitative and qualitative approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides immense opportunities for agro-waste utilization among countries situated along the routes. However, there is a lack of design of motivational mechanisms to put it into managerial practice. This study uses agro-straw as the typical agro-waste to structure a hybrid of multi-objective optimization and system dynamics simulation for optimizing the structure of straw-to-electricity supply chain and designing motivational mechanisms to enhance its sustainability. Since existing studies on the design of motivation mechanisms mainly stressed static motivation, two different dynamic subsidy mechanisms are devised in this study to facilitate the stable collaboration among stakeholders involved in the supply chain. A case study is provided to demonstrate the hybrid method. Discussion about the limitations of the study lays the foundation for further improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to adopt fuzzy interpretive structural modeling (ISM) to develop a precise evaluation framework and provide a theoretical basis for enhancing the understanding of responsible consumption and production (RCP) in academic and industrial fields.Design/methodology/approach An integration of fuzzy set theory and ISM is proposed to maintain a higher level of consistency and reduce the uncertainty inherent in expert responses.Findings RCP can be categorized into seven levels, which represent the driving power from higher to lower. The top aspect is management style; the remaining aspects are stakeholder management, regulation compliance, efficiency improvement, sustainable awareness, sustainable production and social responsibility.Research limitations/implications This study attempts to integrate the triple bottom line (TBL) concept and corporate sustainability to develop a significant framework for evaluating RCP. Although the proposed aspects and criteria can be used to evaluate the Chinese construction industry, these may be insufficient for other industries. In addition, further discussion regarding important aspects and criteria is required to complete the theoretical basis.Practical implications The results indicate that the top two criteria are establishing transparent communication channels and promoting managerial attitudes and behavior, which are followed by technology capabilities, organizational culture and stakeholder engagement. These five criteria play important roles when implementing RCP practices among Chinese construction firms.Originality/value This study is the first to discuss RCP via an integration of the TBL concept and corporate sustainability. The framework developed herein provides a precise guideline for Chinese construction firms to improve their performance, and it also promotes the efficient use of resources via sustainable practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to measure business sustainability in food service operations. The main objectives are to understand the concepts of business sustainability and, after constructing a framework based on a literature review, to assess the relation between the proposed framework and the empirical case study in a fast food retailer chain.Design/methodology/approach In order to examine the applicability of the proposed framework, focus group interview and face-to-face interviews were conducted. Additionally, some other secondary data such as official websites or company reports were also used to support the interview results.Findings Finding of the research result has shown most of the factors of business sustainability employed to measure sustainability food service operations are supported.Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by showing that environmental and social sustainability are significantly recognized in the corporation. More importantly, through the data analysis, a new factor of social sustainability, namely, community contribution has been found. The contribution of this paper is certainly applicable to other food service operations who wish to achieve a good degree of business sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road initiatives related to green development projects are being increasingly considered globally. However, such projects face several risks resulting from stakeholder diversity. Although previous studies attempted to identify the risks caused by stakeholders, they found it difficult to provide a precise boundary to separate the risks attributable to a single stakeholder. This study adopts social network analysis to explore the decisive risks attributed to each stakeholder by considering a project’s stage. The results reveal that contractors take on the most risk and, thus, require real-time monitoring. Furthermore, all stakeholders need to collaborate with one another during the implementation stage of a project to mitigate the occurrence of risk. This study makes three contributions: it (1) provides a theoretical basis for enhancing the understanding of stakeholder theory; (2) offers specific guidelines for monitoring risks; and (3) enables stakeholders to understand their duties in controlling risks. Detailed discussions are provided in the remainder of the manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Korea National Cleaner Production Center (KNCPC) affiliated to the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) has started a 15 year, 3-phase EIP master plan with the support of Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy (MOCIE). A total of 6 industrial parks, including industrial parks in Ulsan city, known as the industrial capital of South Korea, are planning projects to find the feasibility of shifting existing industrial parks to eco-industrial parks. The basic survey shows that Ulsan industrial complex has been continuously evolving from conventional industrial complexes to eco-industrial parks by spontaneous industrial symbiosis. This paper describes the Korean national policies and the developmental activities of this vision to drive the global trend of innovation for converting the existing industrial parks to eco-industrial parks through inter-industry waste, energy, and material exchange in Ulsan Industrial complexes. In addition, the primary and supportive components of the Ulsan EIP pilot project, which will be implemented for 5 years is elaborated with its schedules and economic benefits.