Characterization Factors for Water Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Based on Freshwater Fish Species Extinction

Resource use and environmental impacts are important factors relating to the sustainability of beef production in Australia. This study used life cycle assessment to investigate impacts from grass-finished beef production in eastern Australia to the farm gate, reporting impacts per kilogram of liveweight (LW) produced. Mean fossil fuel energy demand was found to vary from 5.6 to 8.4 MJ/kg LW, mean estimated fresh water consumption from 117.9 to 332.4 L/kg LW and crop land occupation from 0.3 to 6.4 m2/kg LW. Mean greenhouse gas emissions ranged from 10.6 to 12.4 kg CO2-e/kg LW (excluding land use and direct land-use change emissions) and were not significantly different (P > 0.05) for export or domestic market classes. Enteric methane was the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and multiple linear regression analysis revealed that weaning rate and average daily gain explained 80% of the variability in supply chain greenhouse gas emissions. Fresh water consumption was found to vary significantly among individual farms depending on climate, farm water supply efficiency and the use of irrigation. The impact of water use was measured using the stress-weighted water use indicator, and ranged from 8.4 to 104.2 L H2O-e/kg LW. The stress-weighted water use was influenced more by regional water stress than the volume of fresh water consumption. Land occupation was assessed with disaggregation of crop land, arable pasture land and non-arable land, which revealed that the majority of beef production utilised non-arable land that is unsuitable for most alternative food production systems.

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Impact of Environmental Reporting on Financial Performance: Study of Global Fortune 500 Companies

Indonesian Journal of Sustainability Accounting and Management ◽

10.28992/ijsam.v3i2.78 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 109 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

G. M. Shahariar Zamil ◽

Zubair Hassan

Keyword(s):

Financial Performance ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Target Population ◽

Fortune 500 ◽

Performance Study ◽

Environmental Reporting ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

The Impact

This study examines the impact of environmental reporting on the financial performance of Fortune 500 firms from 2013 to 2017. It appraises financial performance by measuring three independent variables: reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, reduction in waste, and reduction in water consumption. While the target population comprised the top 100 CSR-reputed companies listed on Fortune 500, the sample size was determined to be 50 based on observations of 250 companies. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analysis. Findings indicated that reduction in nominated variables such as greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption had a positive and significant impact on financial performance, whereas that in another variable, i.e., waste, had a negative and significant impact on financial performance. Thereby, this study recommends that firms should adopt environment-friendly resources to attract stakeholders as well as save the planet. It also suggests that firms need to accord dedicated focus to environmental reporting to improve profitability.

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Effects of Different Types of Water and Nitrogen Fertilizer Management on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Yield, and Water Consumption of Paddy Fields in Cold Region of China

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16091639 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (9) ◽

pp. 1639 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Tangzhe Nie ◽

Peng Chen ◽

Zhongxue Zhang ◽

Zhijuan Qi ◽

Yanyu Lin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Nitrogen Fertilizer ◽

Paddy Fields ◽

High Yield ◽

N2o Emissions ◽

Cold Region ◽

N Application ◽

Gas Emissions

Water management and nitrogen (N) fertilizers are the two main driving factors of greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, two irrigation modes, controlled irrigation (CI) and flood irrigation (FI), and four nitrogen fertilizer levels (N0: 0, N1: 85, N2: 110, and N3: 135 kg·hm−2) were set to study the effect of different irrigation modes and N fertilizer amount on greenhouse-gas emissions of paddy fields in cold region by using the static chamber-gas chromatograph method; yield and water consumption were also analyzed. The results showed that, compared with FI, CI significantly reduced CH4 emissions by 19.42~46.94%, but increased N2O emissions by 5.66~11.85%. Under the two irrigation modes, N fertilizers could significantly increase N2O emissions, but the CH4 emissions of each N treatment showed few differences. Compared with FI, appropriate N application under CI could significantly increase grain number per spike, seed-setting rate, and 1000-grain weight, thus increasing yield. Under the two irrigation modes, water consumption increased with the increase of N application rate, and the total water consumption of CI was significantly lower than that of FI. The global warming potential (GWP) of CI was significantly smaller than that of FI. The trend of GWP in each treatment was similar to that of CH4. Through comprehensive comparison and analysis of water productivity (WP), gas emission intensity (GHGI), and the yield of each treatment, we found that CI+N2 treatment had the highest WP (2.05 kg·m−3) and lowest GHGI (0.37 kg CO2-eq·kg−1), while maintaining high yield (10,224.4 kg·hm−2). The results of this study provide an important basis for guiding high yield, water-savings, and emission reduction of paddy fields in cold regions.

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