Evaluating Ports Environmental Performance based on the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP)

Appropriate environmental performance is considered one of the most important indicators in the sustainable development of organizations and industries. Evaluating the environmental performance in ports as one of the two main parts of the maritime transport system is of particular importance. Therefore, the current study was designed and conducted to develop a method for evaluating the environmental performance of ports based on the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP). In the present study, 22 experts in the field of environment and marine sciences were selected in 2020. Firstly, various studies on the factors affecting the environmental performance of ports were reviewed. Secondly, a questionnaire was designed to assess ports’ environmental performance. Thirdly, this questionnaire was developed using the Delphi technique. Finally, by determining the weight of each parameter, the method of environmental performance assessment in ports was developed based on the FAHP. The final normalized weights for six environmental performance factors including reactive and proactive performance, sustainability, socio-cultural, economic, and governance were estimated 0.202, 0.241, 0.226, 0.070, 0.080, and 0.182. Additionally, it was found that each of the parameters had a different weight and impact on these factors. The highest and lowest impact on the environmental performance index belonged to environmental risk assessment (weight=0.217), cultural effects, and justice (weight=0.107). In the current study, a new method was developed for evaluating the environmental performance of ports based on six factors, 32 parameters, and FAHP. Therefore, this method may provide an effective step in reducing environmental impacts and improving the level of environmental performance in ports to achieve the goal of green port.

Dimensiones culturales y sustentabilidad como factores de convivencia ciudadana. Un estudio comparativo entre países

El objetivo del artículo es determinar la relación entre la convivencia ciudadana, el cuidado ambiental y las dimensiones culturales, a partir de un estudio documental de fuentes secundarias, entre ellas, el Environmental Performance Index (EPI) de 2020 y las dimensiones de la cultura de Hofstede de 2020. La metodología es de corte cuantitativo con alcances correlacionales; la muestra incluye países con alto desempeño ambiental, dos con desempeño ambiental medio y bajo, pero con un PIB muy alto, como es el caso de Estados Unidos y China, respectivamente, y los países de la Alianza del Pacífico. Los resultados muestran la relación entre la convivencia ciudadana, las instituciones o dimensiones culturales y el EPI. Aunque las variables estén correlacionadas, la dinámica cambiante de los aspectos institucionales implica un análisis diacrónico en contextos específicos y la necesidad de profundizaciones posteriores. No obstante, mientras la literatura sobre teoría institucional y sustentabilidad es prolífica, la correlación de variables planteada es inédita. En conclusión, el ambiente es transversal a la convivencia, y factores como el individualismo y la orientación a largo plazo la promueven, mientras la distancia de poder y la disminución de la incertidumbre la condicionan.

Seeing environmental injustices: the mechanics, devices and assumptions of environmental sustainability indices and indicators

At the heart of any colonization project, and therefore any move to de-colonize, are ways of seeing nature and society, that then allow particular ways of governing each. This is plainly visible in a number of tools that exist to measure progress towards (or regress from) environmental sustainability. The tools use indices and indicators constructed mostly by environmental scientists and ecologists. As such, they are not neutral scientific instruments: they reflect the worldviews of their creators. These worldviews depend on three dimensions: the values they prioritize, the explanatory theories they use and the futures they envision. Through these means different tools produce conflicting notions of the sustainability of our economies and societies. In this article, we shed light onto the theoretical and epistemological assumptions that lie behind key international sustainability indices and indicators: the Environmental Performance Index,Domestic Material Consumption, Material Intensity, the Material Footprint, the Carbon Footprint, the Ecological Footprint and CO2 emissions (territorial). The variables included in these indices, the way they are measured, aggregated and weighted all imply a particular way of understanding the relationships between economy, society and environment. This divergence is most clearly visible in the fact that some indices are negatively correlated with each other. Where one index might plot growing environmental sustainability, another shows its decline. Our results highlight that those devices and the theories informing them are particularly interesting for way how colonialism is materialized. Some of these measurements hide the material roots of prosperity and the ecological (and economic) distributional conflicts exported to the poorer countries by the global North, and others show how its production and consumption levels are reliant upon a socio-ecological 'subsidy' imposed on Southern countries. These subsidies represent injustices that present a primafacie case for decolonizing indices and indicators of environmental governance.

Modeling the Price of Electric Vehicles as an Element of Promotion of Environmental Safety and Climate Neutrality: Evidence from Poland

One of the main threats to ecological safety is the increased emissions of greenhouse gases. Promoting the purchase of electric vehicles and increasing their share among all cars in a given country can be considered as activities reducing the emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere. Based on Environmental Performance Index, in 2021, Poland is in 37th place among the most climate-friendly countries in the world, and 30th among similar countries in Europe. The aim of the article was to model the prices of electric vehicles as one of the elements of promoting climate security in Poland. For the purposes of the study, an analysis of data from electric vehicle sales advertisements on one of the Polish automotive services was carried out. Moreover, on this basis, the most important factors influencing the price of the vehicle were analyzed. For this purpose, forecasting models were built based on neural networks and selected models of decision trees based on the CART algorithm, boosted trees, and random forest. We assessed the developed models and compared their prognostic abilities.

Green Business as a Moderating Variable for Financial Ratios and Firm Value

According to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), Indonesia is listed at 133, from 180 countries in the world. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Republic Indonesia has established a company performance rating, namely, PROPER, whose assessment aspect is almost equal to EPI such as environmental permits, water and air pollution, and waste management. The purpose of this research is to see the effect of profitability, solvency, and liquidity toward firm value with PROPER rating as a moderation variable. Research was conducted over 45 companies in Indonesia from 2015-2019 using multiple regression analysis. The results showed profitability and solvency had positive significant effect on the firm value. Meanwhile, liquidity had negative significant effect towards firm value. PROPER rating positively moderates the effect of profitability and solvency on firm performance. However, it negatively moderates the effect of liquidity towards firm value.

Effect of Green Space Environment on Air Pollutants PM2.5, PM10, CO, O3, and Incidence and Mortality of SARS-CoV-2 in Highly Green and Less-Green Countries

Worldwide, over half of the global population is living in urban areas. The metropolitan areas are highly populated and environmentally non-green regions on the planet. In green space regions, plants, grass, and green vegetation prevent soil erosion, absorb air pollutants, provide fresh and clean air, and minimize the burden of diseases. Presently, the entire world is facing a turmoil situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigates the effect of the green space environment on air pollutants particulate matter PM2.5, PM10, carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), incidence and mortality of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in environmentally highly green and less-green countries. We randomly selected 17 countries based on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) data. The 60% of the EPI score is based on seven categories: “biodiversity and habitat, ecosystem, fisheries, climate change, pollution emissions, agriculture, and water resources”. However, 40% of the score is based on four categories: “air quality, sanitation and drinking water, heavy metals, and waste management”. The air pollutants and SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths were recorded from 25 January 2020, to 11 July 2021. The air pollutants “PM2.5, PM10, CO, and O3” were recorded from the metrological websites, Air Quality Index-AQI, 2021. The COVID-19 daily cases and deaths were obtained from the World Health Organization. The result reveals that air pollutants mean values for PM2.5 110.73 ± 1.09 vs. 31.35 ± 0.29; PM10 80.43 ± 1.11 vs. 17.78 ± 0.15; CO 7.92 ± 0.14 vs. 2.35 ± 0.03 were significantly decreased (p < 0.0001) in environmentally highly green space countries compared to less-green countries. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2 cases 15,713.61 ± 702.42 vs. 3445.59 ± 108.09; and deaths 297.56 ± 11.27 vs. 72.54 ± 2.61 were also significantly decreased in highly green countries compared to less-green countries. The green environment positively impacts human wellbeing. The policymakers must implement policies to keep the living areas, surroundings, towns, and cities clean and green to minimize air pollution and combat the present pandemic of COVID-19.

Financial Consideration of Energy and Environmental Nexus with Energy Poverty: Promoting Financial Development in G7 Economies

Energy and environmental concepts have been extensively studied in the past. However, these studies often lacked integrated analysis of energy, monetary, public, and ecological aspects to assess energy and environmental issues. This article provides analyzation of the G7 nations’ qualitative, social, cultural, and health achievement in the energy poverty indexes. These include the energy economics and climate change of energy poverty, by using DEA like a composite indicator. The G7 countries’ combined energy consumption is equal to 34% of the world’s total, whereas the GDP is 50% of the global total. As a result, this article develops a comprehensive series of energy, financial, societal, and environmental indicators that are up to date. Such indicators are utilized to assess energy financial, societal, and EPI using a mathematical composite indicator. Canada has the greatest EPII score, indicating that it can deal better than the other G7 countries with energy independence, productivity expansion, and social impact, and France’s and Italy’s the second tier. While Japan has a 0.50 EPI grade and the United States will have the lowest, the G7 countries are growing faster. Finally, we propose a policy framework for enhancing the research area. The energy, societal, and EPI were created by combining these elements. In terms of energy independence, economic growth, and sustainability practices, Canada beats the other G7 countries according to the data. France and Italy are in the 2nd and 3rd places, respectively. Despite having a higher level of economic development than the G7 countries, Japan has a 0.50 Environmental Performance Index rating, whereas the United States has a minimum average Environmental Performance Index rating. Finally, in order to improve the study’s subject, we propose a policy framework.

Time for Science-Based National Targets for Environmental Sustainability: An Assessment of Existing Metrics and the ESGAP Framework

Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence on the ongoing degradation of the environment, there is a clear gap between the urgency of the environmental crisis and the policy measures put in place to tackle it. Because of the role of metrics in environmental governance, the way environmental information is translated into metrics is of utmost relevance. In this context, we propose criteria to assesses the suitability of environmental metrics to monitor environmental sustainability at the national level. After assessing well-known environmental metrics such as the Sustainable Development Goals indicators and the Environmental Performance Index, we conclude that countries still lack robust and resonant metrics to monitor environmental sustainability. In order to bridge this metric gap, we present the Environmental Sustainability Gap (ESGAP) framework, which builds on the concepts of strong sustainability, critical natural capital, environmental functions and science-based targets. Different composite indicators are proposed as part of the ESGAP framework. Through these metrics, the framework has the potential to embed strong sustainability thinking and science-based targets in nations in which these concepts are not currently sufficiently reflected in policies.

Agri-environmental policies in Indonesian and Thailand: a comparison

After introducing the Green Revolution in Indonesia and the Sustainable Farming System in Thailand, environmental issues in the agricultural sector became an interesting topic. This article discusses the efforts of the Governments of Indonesia and Thailand in implementing Agri-environmental policies (AEPs). The implementation of AEPs has become a discourse that in the last few decades has played an increasingly vital role for the government to encourage the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and the Sustainable Nitrogen Management Index (SNMI). Indonesia and Thailand are two developing countries in the Asia Pacific that have great attention in implementing AEPs. Therefore, this research has two main objectives: 1) Analyzing the determinants of successful implementation of AEPs in the two countries, and 2) Analyzing the role of AEPs in each country for improving the EPI and SNMI. The method used in this research is comparative descriptive with a qualitative approach. Meanwhile, the data collection technique was carried out by studying documentation from various sources related to AEPs. The results show that Indonesia’s AEPs, the Green Revolution, improve the SNMI indicators. Meanwhile, the determinant of the success of the AEPs, namely the Sustainable Farming System in Thailand, is in optimizing the EPI.