Warehouse Financing Risk Analysis and Measurement with Case Study in Carbon Trading

Warehouse financing has been emerged as one of the most effective financing approaches for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Its basic working mechanism is to transfer the company’s assets to collaterals which are more acceptable by the bank. As a logistics service provider, the 3rd Party Logistics (3PL) coordinates and controls the whole financing process. With the professional 3PL’s help, it is easier for SMEs to get loan from the bank. In the meantime, the 3PL’s profit margin has also been increased by providing financing service in addition to their traditional logistics based functions. This chapter explains the basic working mechanism of warehouse financing, applies SCOR reference model to identify financing activities and the risks caused by them. Then this chapter synthesizes four relevant risk analysis / management frameworks from previous literatures, and proposes a new risk framework and evaluation measures aimed specifically for warehouse financing. Finally, a case of carbon trading in China is studied using the previous framework.

Bike Transportation System Design

The main objective of this chapter is to address the facility design and location issues in a public bike transportation system. The major decisions in introducing a public bike transportation system include determining the number of bike facilities and their locations. The present chapter considers a case study from city of Vancouver bike transportation system to demonstrate the importance of these decisions through a real world application. The city intends to decide the number and location of bike terminals. Addressing these two decisions is the main focus of the present chapter and the chapter employs linear programming and center of gravity approaches to arrive at the solutions. The chapter also provides a basic introduction to bike facilities and discusses the sustainability benefits of bike transportation mode.

Operational Hedging Strategies to Overcome Financial Constraints during Clean Technology Start-Up and Growth

Clean technology startups face multiple sources of uncertainty, and require specialized knowhow and longer periods for revenue growth than their counterparts in other industries. These startups require large investments and have been hit hard during the current credit squeeze. On the other hand, clean technologies create important positive externalities for the economy. Hence, loan guarantees and other incentive schemes are being developed that are conditioned upon operational benchmarks. The authors offer a framework to establish the extent wherein operational hedging can reduce risk and increase the probability of obtaining financing. They examine a variety of evidence, ranging from production outsourcing to creation of joint ventures, to posit that operational hedging may affect both the marginal cost of capital and the marginal return on investment through mitigating the informational problems in the market. However, operational hedging may not be an effective strategy in all settings: the decision for creation of such hedges ought to weigh the benefits of reduced marginal cost of capital and the opportunity cost of reduced future growth potential against a status quo.

Data Center Technology Roadmap

In this chapter, they take you through the general roadmap architecture starting with market drivers, products, technology and its components followed by their recommendations and inference from the study.

Transition to Low-Carbon Hydrogen Economy in America

This chapter describes the process of transitioning to a low-carbon hydrogen economy in the United States and the role of transition management (TM) in this process. Focusing on the transition process for hydrogen-based energy and transport systems in the United States, especially California, this study outlines the key characteristics of TM that have been employed in managing the transition. Several characteristics of TM have been noted in the United States’ hydrogen transition, including: (a) the complementarity of the long-term vision with incremental targets, (b) the integration of top-down and bottom-up planning, (c) system innovations and gradualism, (d) multi-level approaches and interconnectedness, and (e) reflexivity by learning and experimenting. These characteristics are instrumental in bringing about the development and initial commercialization of HFCVs and related energy infrastructure in the United States.

Mind the Gap Please!

This chapter scrutinises the World Bank’s nine guiding principles for investment strategies on renewable energy in developing countries. Drawing on two World Bank-funded solar lighting projects in Bangladesh and India as examples, it demonstrates a wide gap in investment strategies between the Bank and local people. It suggests that a rigid distinction of renewable and non-renewable options risks restricting poor people to adopt an energy-mix approach to cope with poverty. The economic assumptions of the strategic choice for renewable energy investment pay inadequate attention to the cultural norms that shape people’s preferences for energy sharing. A lack of participation of NGOs and local communities in shaping the Bank’s investment strategies also undermines the effectiveness of its renewable energy policies in the long term. This chapter suggests that the World Bank re-conceptualises the complex relationships between energy and poverty and seeks a better understanding of local people’s daily energy consumption practices.

Modeling Closed Loop Supply Chain Systems

In the past, many companies were concerned with managing activities primarily along the traditional supply chain to optimize operational processes and thereby economic benefits, without considering new economic or environmental opportunities in relation to the reverse supply chain and the use of used or reclaimed products. In contrast, companies are now showing increased interest in reverse logistics and closed loop supply chains (CLSCs) and their economic benefits and environmental impacts. In this chapter, our focus is the study of remanufacturing activity, which is one of the main recovery methods applied to closed loop supply chains. Specifically, the authors investigate and evaluate strategies for effective management of inventory control and production planning of a remanufacturing system. To pursue this objective, they model a production and inventory system for remanufacturing using the System Dynamics (SD) simulation modeling approach. The authors primary interest is in the returns process of such a system. Case studies will be referred to in this chapter to support some of the findings and to further validate the developed model.

Carbon Markets and Investments

In a world where greenhouse gasses (GHG) carry a price, organizations can create financial instruments that are tradable on the carbon market by investing in projects that reduce GHG emissions. The purpose of this study is to analyse critically an investment project from EcoSecurities to mitigate the emissions of methane from a coalmine located in China’s Sichuan province. This project generates carbon credits that are later sold to governments and organizations under the Kyoto Protocol. In order to evaluate this investment, we conduct an analysis centred on its net present value, and we take into consideration a set of external variables and the financial and economic situation of EcoSecurities. This study concludes that EcoSecurities’ project investment, since the project’s net present value is positive, has a relevant impact on EcoSecurities’ strategy and improves the company’s financial situation as it increases revenues and improves assets using efficiency.

Low Carbon Economy and Developing Countries

This study finds that community forest contributes 45 percent livelihood income (fire wood, leaf litter, grass, water) to the forest dependent stakeholder’s total income. This labor incentive based on labor contribution in forest management is distributed among the member households. This study further finds huge carbon income potentials. Annually, KCF can earn carbon income Rs. 39, 81,196, if KCF enters in REDD. It is 41 times higher than the present mean income Rs 24, 549.55 from the forest product sale. In mixed familiarity about REDD, the study finds only 44 percent households expecting that REDD will be a better livelihood alternative to the poor. 63 percent responds need and use of carbon income for livelihood objectives. From estimation, household stakeholders who have good asset holdings (land and Rlivestock) think that REDD will be not a better livelihood alternative to the poor. However, the household stakeholders who have literacy, different food sufficiency level, land holding (1>), different earning per day, Rsex, per day earning and age think that REDD will be a better alternative. Thus, the poor households expects livelihood role from REDD in Nepal. Therefore, REDD should be more beneficial to the poor household stakeholders and their livelihoods.

Alternatives to the Global Financial Sector

This chapter explores complementary currencies and exchange systems and how they can provide some stability and competition to the vulnerability of the financial markets. The social economy, or 3rd sector, already plays a significant part in many societies. This is becoming more so as many governments and nations are facing decades of debt inevitably resulting in cut backs in key social and health services. In addition, the existing formal economic activity does not capture, value or support the full range of social and economic interaction within a nation. The chapter examines timebank systems, a particular type of complementary currencies and exchange system, and provides guidance on issues to consider in develop them. One of the finding from the evaluation is that as the number of people in the timebank system increases then more formality is needed to moderate the system and reduce potential for misuse.