Energy and Sustainability V is the proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Energy and Sustainability, held by the Wessex Institute of Technology. The modern world is highly dependent on the exploitation of fossil fuels. More recently, resources depletion and severe environmental effects deriving from the continuous use of these fuels has resulted in an increasing amount of interest in renewable energy resources and the search for sustainable energy policies. The changes required to progress from an economy mainly based on hydrocarbons to one taking advantage of sustainable energy resources are massive and require considerable scientific research as well as engineering systems. The effect also involves collaboration between different disciplines in order to arrive at optimum solutions, including buildings, energy networks, convenience systems, new energy storage solutions, waste to energy technologies, and many others. This book covers topics related to sustainability in energy and power production, storage, distribution and management.These include: Energy Policies; Renewable Energy Resources; Sustainable Energy Production; Environmental Risk Management; Green Buildings; Energy Storage; Biofuels; Processing of Oil and Gas; Drilling and Well Design; CO2 Capture and Management; Pipelines; Energy Efficiency; Energy from Waste; Energy and Transportation.

Within recent years pharmaceuticals have come into focus as contaminants of the environment (see for example Kummerer, K. editor: Pharmaceuticals in the Environment). At the same time the issue of sustainable chemistry gained momentum. Bringing both together would result in sustainable pharmacy. Sustainable pharmacy is a totally new issue and approach. It addresses environmental, economical and social aspects of pharmacy. In the present stage the focus will be on environmental issues along the whole lifecycle of a pharmaceutical entity. That is dealing with resources and energy input but also with waste issues for example during the synthesis and production of an active pharmaceutical ingredient. Furthermore, it would also look on the compounds themselves and will aim to improve the degradability of the compounds after their use in the environment to reduce the environmental risk caused by pharmaceuticals in the environment. Another issue is the people using pharmaceuticals such as pharmacists, medical doctors and patients. How can they contribute to more efficient use of pharmaceuticals with less environmental burden and less risk for drinking water. The book "Sustainable Pharmacy" will address all these issues and will be the first one dealing with this important topic.

This book sheds new light on the current and future challenges faced by cities, and presents approaches, options and solutions enabled by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the smart city context. By focusing on sustainability objectives within a rapidly changing social, economic, environmental and technological setting, it explores a variety of planning challenges faced by contemporary cities and the power of smart city developments in terms of providing innovative tools, approaches, methodologies and technologies to help cities cope with these challenges. Key issues addressed include smart city (e-) planning and (e-)participation; smart data management to facilitate decision-making processes in cities and insular communities on a variety of topics; smart and sustainable management aspects of climate change, water scarcity, mobility, energy, infrastructure, tourism, blue growth, risk assessment; etc. The book presents current and potential pathways and applications for the evolution of smart cities and communities, taking into consideration the unique problems and opportunities emanating from their specific geographical location. The case study examples mainly concern small and medium-sized cities and communities as well as insular areas in the Mediterranean region, while also incorporating lessons learned from other parts of the world. Their focus is on the specific opportunities and threats emerging in these urban and insular environments, which are characterized by their role as globally known tourist destinations, their coastal or port character, and unique cultural resources, as well as the high rated vulnerability in very many sustainability respects (social, economic, biodiversity, urbanization, migration, poverty, etc.) to be found in the Mediterranean region at large

Including considerations of sustainability in universities' activities has long since become mainstream. However, there is still much to be done with regard to the full integration of sustainability thinking into science and engineering curricula. Among the problems that hinder progress in this field, the lack of sound information on how to actually implement it is prominent. Created in order to address this need, this book presents a wealth of information on innovative approaches, methods and tools that may be helpful in translating sustainability principles into practice.

This study analyzes the spatial-temporal pattern and processes of China's energy-related carbon emissions. Based on extensive quantitative analysis, it outlines the character and trajectory of China's energy-related carbon emissions during the period 1995-2010, examining the distribution pattern of China's carbon emissions from regional and sectoral perspectives and revealing the driving factors of China's soaring emission increase. Further, the book investigates the supply chain carbon emissions (the carbon footprints) of China's industrial sectors. Anthropogenic climate change is one of the most serious challenges currently facing humankind. China is the world's largest developing country, top primary energy consumer and carbon emitter. Achieving both economic growth and environmental conservation is the country's twofold challenge. Understanding the status, features and driving forces of China's energy-related carbon emissions is a critical aspect of attaining global sustainability. This work, for the first time, presents both key findings on and a systematic evaluation of China's carbon emissions from energy consumption. The results have important implications for global carbon budgets and burden-sharing with regard to climate change mitigation. The book will be of great interest to readers around the world, as it addresses a topic of truly global significance.

This monograph provides a methodological approach for establishing demand-oriented levels of energy transparency of factories. The author presents a systematic indication of energy drivers and cost factors, taking into account the interdependencies between facility and production domains. Particular attention is given to energy flow metering and monitoring. Readers will also be provided with an in-depth description of a planning tool which allows for systematically deriving suitable metering points in complex factory environments. The target audience primarily comprises researchers and experts in the field of factory planning, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

Conducting a systematic and comparative review of energy and environmental issues, especially at the regional and national levels, can improve communication among different disciplines and be helpful for managers, politicians, and stakeholders involved in energy and environmental systems. Sustainable Systems and Energy Management at the Regional Level: Comparative Approaches provides an interdisciplinary look at the possible relationships which exist between energy and the environment. Relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings on the impacts of regulation policies, market-facilitation policies, and communication models and policies are reviewed with the aim of improving understanding and strategy.

This book covers all sustainable fibres applicable in the fashion sector. It addresses the importance of these fibres in the fashion sector with the context of sustainability. This book, the first of its kind, addresses all the minute details pertaining to these fibres and connects these fibres with the world of sustainable fashion. It stresses the importance of having these fibres on board in developing sustainable apparels, as fibres play a major role as the starting point in the life cycle of apparel.

This book is the result of remarkable contribution from the experts of interdisciplinary fields of Science with comprehensive, in-depth and up-to-date research and reviews. It describes the applications of date palm for food, medicine and the environmental sectors. Date palm is one of the oldest cultivated trees and its fruit has been a dietary staple around the world for many centuries. Date pulps contain dietary fibers and easily digestible sugars (70%), mainly glucose, sucrose and fructose. They also contain vitamins like biotin, thiamine, riboflavin, ascorbic and folic acid that are important for our body. The date palm fruit has been used in folk remedies for the treatment of various infectious diseases, cancer and immuno-modulatory activity. Date stones and date palm leaves are freely and abundantly available biomass. Therefore, the renovation of agricultural biomass wastes into activated carbons for drinking water purification, wastewater treatment, treatment of dyes, and metal-ions from aqueous solution would add value to agricultural commodities which offer a solution to environmental problems as well as reduce the cost of waste disposal.

It is more important than ever to be concerned with energy related efforts, especially on what we as individuals can do now to help protect our future. With research coming out left and right on sustainable initiatives, we can only hope that future generations will benefit greatly from the efforts of today s researchers. Energy-Aware Systems and Networking for Sustainable Initiatives covers a great variety of topics such as materials, environment, electronics, and computing. This title is a vital source of information detailing the latest architectures, frameworks, methodologies, and research on energy-aware systems and networking for sustainable initiatives. With contributions from authors around the world, this book presents the most sophisticated research and developments from the field, relevant to researchers, academics, and practitioners alike.

The process of globalization based on major forms of entertainment consumption has promoted the interest of enlarged social actors toward cultural experiencing. Disseminated by social media, new forms of information and knowledge about exotic tourism destinations have endorsed an increasing interest in forms of cultural tourism. This cultural tourism turnout results from a significant change in the traveler's demands and behaviors and has led to a new and renovated interest in cultural heritage that must be studied further. The Handbook of Research on Cultural Tourism and Sustainability explores theoretical concepts related to cultural tourism and cultural routes and provides original viewpoints and empirical research with case studies and best practices for the future of cultural tourism. Covering a range of topics such as creative tourism and sustainable tourism, this major reference work is ideal for academicians, practitioners, professionals, policymakers, government officials, instructors, and students.

Throughout the global community, the challenges of finite resources, budget deficits, and growing interdependence and complexity have forced governments and the private sector to do more with less. In the foreign assistance realm, this has translated into a donor mandate to promote self-sustaining development in the Third World, a key component of which is the institutional framework that conceives, plans, funds, implements, and manages activities. This book, based on the results of a multi-year applied research project, focuses on institutional sustainability and its role in agriculture and rural development. It concentrates on collaboration between international donor organizations and developing countries to design and implement projects aimed at introducing performance and capacity improvements.

The collection of fifteen essays is divided into three subject areas. Part one examines the sustainability dimensions of agriculture and rural development, with chapters that focus on the range of meanings of sustainability and the relationship between it and continued benefit flows; a conceptual model that draws on systems theory, organizational contingency theory, and political economy; and the action-research methodology for applying the model in the field. Part two is made up of nine chapters, each of which uses the model to analyze a particular case where an international donor-funded intervention sought to develop a sustainable institution. The cases range geographically across the world. Finally, part three draws on the case experiences to highlight strategies for promoting institutional sustainability. Lessons are derived from a comparative analysis of several of the cases, and a chapter incorporating the points made in all of the cases is also provided. With its comparative framework and conclusion that institutional sustainability is a feasible objective for development agencies, this volume will be an important work for development practitioners and students of development administration, as well as a significant addition to public and academic library collections.

"Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning" is based on the 8th International Symposium of the same name (ISHVAC2013), which took place in Xi an on October 19-21, 2013. The conference series was initiated at Tsinghua University in 1991 and has since become the premier international HVAC conference initiated in China, playing a significant part in the development of HVAC and indoor environmental research and industry around the world. This international conference provided an exclusive opportunity for policy-makers, designers, researchers, engineers and managers to share their experience. Considering the recent attention on building energy consumption and indoor environments, ISHVAC2013 provided a global platform for discussing recent research on and developments in different aspects of HVAC systems and components, with a focus on building energy consumption, energy efficiency and indoor environments. These categories span a broad range of topics, and the proceedings provide readers with a good general overview of recent advances in different aspects of HVAC systems and related research. As such, they offer a unique resource for further research and a valuable source of information for those interested in the subject.
The proceedings are intended for researchers, engineers and graduate students in the fields of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), indoor environments, energy systems, and building information and management.
Angui Li works at Xi an University of Architecture and Technology, Yingxin Zhu works at Tsinghua University and Yuguo Li works at The University of Hong Kong."

Followed by the previous part (Volume-1), Volume-2 of carbon footprint assessment book deals with the assessment of carbon footprint in different other sectors, which were not dealt in the first part. Attention on Carbon footprint is growing day-by-day from the public, government and media. Certainly it is one of the most important topics in the agenda of every nation, which is trying its best to reduce its carbon footprint to the maximum possible extent. Every manufacturing industry or sector would like to reduce the carbon footprint of its products and consumers are looking for the products which emit lower carbon emissions in their entire life cycle. Assessment of Carbon footprint for different products, processes and services and also carbon labeling of products have become familiar topics in the recent past in various industrial sectors. Every industry has its unique assessment and modeling techniques, allocation procedures, mitigation methods and labeling strategies for its carbon emissions. With this background, volume two of this book has been framed with dedicated chapters on carbon footprint assessment on various industrial sectors, apart from the ones covered in Volume 1. In each chapter, details pertaining to the assessment methodologies of carbon footprint followed in a particular industry, challenges in calculating the carbon footprint, case studies of various products in that particular industry, mitigation measures to be followed to trim down the carbon footprint, recommendations for further research are discussed in detail.

One of the most important issues in developing sustainable management strategies and incorporating ecodesigns in production, manufacturing and operations management is the assessment of the sustainability of business operations and organizations' overall environmental performance. The book presents the results of recent studies on sustainability assessment. It provides a solid reference for researchers in academia and industrial practitioners on the state-of-the-art in sustainability appraisal including the development and application of sustainability indices, quantitative methods, models and frameworks for the evaluation of current and future welfare outcomes, recommendations on data collection and processing for the evaluation of organizations' environmental performance, and eco-efficiency approaches leading to business process re-engineering.

With China's rapid growth over the past several decades, the detrimental effects of industrial growth on the environment have become ever more apparent. In this collection of articles from some of China's most distinguished political scientist, economist, and environmentalist, we find the emerging debate on environmentalism unfolding as Chinese try to find their own way. At the core of these concerns is a debate on balancing the needs of economic development with responsibilities to the planet, and the degree to which that responsibility applies to China as a developing country. These articles seek to illustrate broader principles for environmental policies and international support, as well as more specific projects in China that have been tested and those that have failed.

Air pollution policy is closely connected with climate change, public health, energy, transport, trade, and agriculture, and generally speaking, the Earth has been pushed to the brink and the damage is becoming increasingly obvious. The transport sector remains a foremost source of air pollutants - a fact that has stimulated the production of biofuels. This book focuses on the biodiesel industry, and proposes a modification of the entire manufacturing chain that would pave the way for further improvements. Oil derived from oilseed plantations/crops is the most commonly used feedstock for the production of biodiesel. At the same time, the UK's Royal Academy of Engineering and 178 scientists in the Netherlands have determined that some biofuels, such as diesel produced from food crops, have led to more emissions than those produced by fossil fuels. Accordingly, this book re-evaluates the full cycle of biodiesel production in order to help find optimal solutions. It confirms that the production and use of fertilizers for the cultivation of crop feedstocks generate considerably more GHG emissions compared to the mitigation achieved by using biodiesel. To address this fertilization challenge, projecting future biofuel development requires a scenario in which producers shift to an organic agriculture approach that includes the use of microalgae. Among advanced biofuels, algae's advantages as a feedstock include the highest conversion of solar energy, and the ability to absorb CO2 and pollutants; as such, it is the better choice for future fuels. With regard to the question of why algae's benefits have not been capitalized on for biofuel production, our analyses indicate that the sole main barrier to realizing algae's biofuel potential is ineffective international and governmental policies, which create difficulties in reconciling the goals of economic development and environmental protection.

This book describes various aspects of modern microbiology including microbial enzymes, secondary metabolites, next-generation sequencing, microbial-based biopesticides, microbial-based cancer therapies, biodiesel, and microbial products from fermentation, biodegradation, bioremediation and wastewater treatment. Further, it explains how and why microbes play an important role in preserving the welfare of living beings and the environment. Many bacteria play a significant part in cleaning our environment by detoxifying various xenobiotic compounds, while several microbes produce secondary metabolites that are useful to human beings. The book is divided into 15 chapters that cover various aspects of microorganism-based biotechnology, including recent methodologies such as advanced molecular techniques, as well developments in classical microbiological techniques. The authors also explain how the latest and classical techniques are being used in modern-day microbial biotechnology. All chapters were written by experts from prominent universities, research laboratories, and institutes around the globe. Above all, they focus on recent advances in microbial technology that promote the welfare of living beings and the environment.

This book examines the Indian mandate for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its implementations in various individual organizations. Although the mandate is applicable only to certain large and stable companies, many believe that India is poised to become the birthplace of social, economic and environmental transformation, given the immense size of the Indian population and its challenging socio-economic index. The book explores the various facets of CSR investigation and places special emphasis on the Schedule VII of the Indian Companies Act of 2013, which defines specific areas of intervention for these companies. In addition, it provides a wealth of first-hand case studies that exemplify the ongoing developments and the fundamental challenges and opportunities of mandated CSR.

By the end of the 21st century, our oil and natural gas supplies will be virtually nonexistent, and limited coal supplies will be restricted to only a handful of countries. The authors - an environmental scientist and veteran journalist - make abundantly clear that we must plan for a future without reliance on oil. They make a compelling case that the key determinant of our global economy is not so much the invisible hand of the marketplace but the inexorable laws of ecology. Although the coming decades will be a time of much disruption and change of lifestyle, in the end we may learn a wiser, more sustainable stewardship of our natural resources.
This timely, sobering, yet constructive discussion of energy and ecology offers a realistic vision of the near future and many important lessons about the limits of our resources.

A major challenge of our times is to understand and manage the increasing complexity of socio-economic reality. This has immediate relevance for sustainable development. The impact of recent contributions from systems and complexity sciences in addressing this issue has not filtered down into effective practice - notably, there remain problems caused by the legacy of competing paradigms and the application of their associated methodologies. This book argues the urgency for the application of analytical tools that embody the principles of complexity management. The authors describe a theoretical framework based on complexity science with a focus on organisational and second order cybernetics, one that presents a powerful new insight into the concept of sustainability. The book also describes actual applications of the ideas in the area of organisational, societal and environmental management, and reflects upon the impact of such an approach on current practice.

This book presents a new economic theory developed from physical and biological principles. It explains how technology, social systems and economic values are intimately related to resources. Many people have recognized that mainstream (neoclassical) economic theories are not consistent with physical laws and often not consistent with empirical patterns, but most feel that economic activities are too complex to be described by a simple and coherent mathematical theory. While social systems are indeed complex, all life systems, including social systems, satisfy two principles. First, all systems need to extract resources from the external environment to compensate for their consumption. Second, for a system to be viable, the amount of resource extraction has to be no less than the level of consumption. From these two principles, we derive a quantitative theory of major factors in economic activities, such as fixed cost, variable cost, discount rate, uncertainty and duration. The mathematical theory enables us to systematically measure the effectiveness of different policies and institutional structures at varying levels of resource abundance and cost.The theory presented in this book shows that there do not exist universally optimal policies or institutional structures. Instead, the impacts of different policies or social structures have to be measured within the context of existing levels of resource abundance. As the physical costs of extracting resources rise steadily, many policy assumptions adopted in mainstream economic theories, and workable in times of cheap and abundant energy supplies and other resources, need to be reconsidered. In this rapidly changing world, the theory presented here provides a solid foundation for examining the long-term impacts of today's policy decisions.

Islands face one of the most pressing issues of our time: how to balance ecological integrity with economic development and collective quality of life, including the need for social and conservation space. Islands are sites of rich and varied human and ecological diversity, but they are also often characterized by narrow resource bases and dependency on links to the outside world, and by their limited ability to determine the actual character of those links. This volume reviews the challenges of island development and conservation in the Asia-Pacific region. With emphasis on nature reserves and UNESCO World Heritage sites, chapters describe the benefits, barriers, and potential pitfalls in preserving such sites, managing biota, and attracting and controlling tourism. The book also provides a provocative challenge to move beyond the typical concerns of "sustainability" to the more holistic concept of "futurability," or "future potential" for convivial human-environmental interactions.