This research project was based on the Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Photovoltaic Water heating system in South Africa, Eastern Cape Province. The purpose of the study was to design and investigate the scientific and economic contribution of direct water cooling on the photovoltaic module. The method involved performance comparison of two photovoltaic modules, one naturally cooled (M1) and the other, direct water cooled module (M2). Module M2 was used to produce warm water and electricity, hence, a hybrid system. The study focused on comparing the modules’ efficiency, power output and their performance. The temperatures attained by water through cooling the module were monitored as well as the electrical energy generated. A data logger and a low cost I/V characteristic system were used for data collection for a full year. The data were then used for performance analysis of the modules. The results of the study revealed that the directly water cooled module could operate at a higher electrical efficiency for 87% of the day and initially produced 3.63% more electrical energy each day. This was found to be true for the first three months after installation. In the remaining months to the end of the year M2 was found to have more losses as compared to M1 as evidenced by the modules’ performance ratios. The directly water cooled module also showed an energy saving efficiency of 61%. A solar utilization of 47.93% was found for M2 while 8.77% was found for M1. Economically, the project was found to be viable and the payback period of the directly cooled module (M2) system was found to be 9.8 years. Energy economics showed that the system was more sensitive to the price changes and to the energy output as compared to other inputs such as operation and maintenance and years of operation. A generation cost of R0.84/kWh from the system was found and when compared to the potential revenue of R1.18 per kWh, the system was found to enable households to make a profit of 40.5 %. Use of such a system was also found to be able to contribute 9.55% towards carbon emission reduction each year. From these results, it was concluded that a directly cooled photovoltaic/thermal heating (PV/T) system is possible and that it can be of much help in terms of warm water and electricity provision.

With the Paris Agreement comes targets to reduce emissions and mitigate the temperature increase in the atmosphere. One way to move towards reaching these targets for companies is by using the greenhouse gas protocol reporting standard (GHG protocol). The goal of this study was to critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the GHG protocol with the use of a case study, a calculation of Albany International AB’s emissions. Using the GHG protocol as a foundation the study show that Albany International AB emitted 10 673 CO2 equivalents 2019 and with recommended changes in energy acquisition emissions for coming years can be reduced with 17 %. There are some questions and uncertainties raised surrounding the created tool but also the use of the GHG protocol. Converting processes to CO2 equivalents means calculating conversion rates. These rates are sometimes precise but can also be only estimations. With a yearly update of greenhouse gas emissions Albany International AB increase their environmental awareness. It also prepares the company for a future with increasing demands of sustainable manufacturing. The GHG protocol is useful when it comes to increasing the knowledge of your emissions. Although there are many different variables that are not always reliable which makes the total emissions rather difficult to determine.

In 2014, only 48% of S&P companies scored high-performance band B ratings and above in their Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) reports to attract the interest of institutional investors holding U.S. $92 trillion plus assets under management. This multiple case study explored the business leaders' strategic decisions to improve the performance band ratings in the companies' CDP reports. The conceptual framework for this study was stakeholder theory, which suggests that businesses should incorporate the interest of institutional investors to minimize the climate-related risks that could affect their investment decisions. The target population for this study was business leaders from S&P 500 companies in the eastern United States who have experience in making strategic decisions to improve performance band ratings in the CDP reports. Data collection included semistructured face-to-face interviews with 4 business leaders and an exploration of company archival documents related to carbon management. Using Yin's data analysis method 5 themes emerged: governance, risk management, target and initiatives, measurement and verification, and transparency and disclosure. These themes highlighted companies' governing strategies for better carbon management, which are essential in achieving better performance band ratings in the CDP reports to attract the interest of intuitional investors. Better carbon management by S&P 500 companies will facilitate a positive social change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are detrimental to human health and well-being of its stakeholders.

This dissertation studies two important problems in the field of biomass supply chain network. In the first part of the dissertation, we study the impact of different carbon regulatory policies such as carbon cap, carbon tax, carbon cap-and-trade and carbon offsetmechanism on the design and management of a biofuel supply chain network under both deterministic and stochastic settings. These mathematical models identify locations and production capacities for biocrude production plants by exploring the trade-offs that exist between transportations costs, facility investment costs and emissions. The model is solved using a modified L-shaped algorithm. We used the state of Mississippi as a testing ground for our model. A number of observations are made about the impact of each policy on the biofuel supply chain network. In the second part of the dissertation, we study the impact of intermodal hub disruption on a biofuel supply chain network. We present mathematical model that designs multimodal transportation network for a biofuel supply chain system, where intermodal hubs are subject to site-dependent probabilistic disruptions. The disruption probabilities of intermodal hubs are estimated by using a probabilistic model which is developed using real world data. We further extend this model to develop a mixed integer nonlinear program that allocates intermodal hub dynamically to cope with biomass supply fluctuations and to hedge against natural disasters. We developed a rolling horizon based Benders decomposition algorithm to solve this challenging NP-hard problem. Numerical experiments show that this proposed algorithm can solve large scale problem instances to a near optimal solution in a reasonable time. We applied the models to a case study using data from the southeast region of U.S. Finally, a number of managerial insights are drawn into the impact of intermodal-related risk on the supply chain performance.

This study investigates the relationship between corporate financial performance and carbon emission disclosure in listed companies in Sri Lanka, with a focus on contributing to the understanding of sustainability reporting practices. The purpose of the research is to explore how financial indicators namely Earnings per Share, Return on Assets, and Total Assets are associated with companies' decisions to disclose their carbon footprint, highlighting the interconnectedness between financial success and environmental responsibility. By employing quantitative research design and statistical analyses, the study aims to provide theoretical insights and practical implications for corporate reporting practices and corporate decision making.  The research philosophy of this study aligns with the positivist paradigm to ensure the attainment of unbiased and impartial findings. Employing an explanatory research design, the study utilizes data sourced from secondary sources pertaining to companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange. Descriptive and inferential statistics are used for analysis, with 588 observations included in the study sample. Ethical considerations play a significant role in guiding the research process, ensuring the confidentiality and appropriate handling of sensitive corporate financial data.  Based on the findings of the correlation analysis of this study there is a positive relationship between financial performance indicators and carbon emission disclosure in Sri Lankan listed companies. Specifically, there is a significant relationship between Earnings per Share (EPS) and carbon emission disclosure, indicating that companies with higher EPS are more likely to disclose their carbon-related activities as a strategic move to enhance their financial image. However, the analysis shows no significant relationship between Return on Assets (ROA) and carbon emission disclosure, suggesting that asset utilization efficiency may not directly influence environmental reporting practices. Additionally, the study finds a significant relationship of Total Assets on carbon emission disclosure, indicating that the size of a company, as indicated by its Total Assets, plays a substantial role in determining the disclosure of carbon emission.  Finally, this research contributes to a deeper awareness of the relationship between financial performance indicators and carbon emission disclosure in the context of Sri Lankan listed companies. The study underscores the importance of integrating environmental considerations into corporate strategies and reporting frameworks, advocating for a comprehensive approach to decision-making that prioritizes long-term environmental sustainability alongside financial success. The findings enhance understanding of the interplay between financial performance and sustainability reporting, paving the way for further analyses in the growing field of corporate sustainability.

Global warming is currently a major challenge faced by the world. Reduction of carbon emissions is of paramount importance in the context of global warming. There are widespread ongoing efforts to find satisfactory ways of surmounting this challenge. The basic objective of all such efforts can be summarized as conception and formation of protocols to reduce the pace of global carbon levels. Countries and global companies are now engaged in understanding systematic ways of achieving well defined emission targets. In this dissertation, we explore the specific problem faced by a global industry or global company in allocating carbon emission reduction units to its different divisions and supply chain partners in achieving a required target of reductions in its carbon reduction program. The problem becomes a challenging one since the divisions and supply chain partners are often autonomous and could exhibit strategic behavior. Game theory and mechanism design provide a natural modeling tool for capturing the strategic dynamics involved in this problem. DSIC (Dominant Strategy Incentive Compatibility), AE (Allocative Efficiency), and SBB (Strict Budget Balance) are the key desirable properties for carbon reduction allocation mechanisms. But due to an impossibility result in mechanism design, DSIC, AE, and SBB can never be simultaneously achieved. Hence in this dissertation, we offer as contributions, two elegant solutions to this carbon emission reduction allocation problem. The first contribution is a mechanism which is DSIC and AE. We first propose a straightforward Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism based solution to the problem, leading to a DSIC and AE reverse auction protocol for allocating carbon reductions among the divisions. This solution, however, leads to a high level of budget imbalance. To reduce budget imbalance, we use redistribution mechanisms, without affecting the key properties of DSIC and AE. The Cavallo-Bailey redistribution mechanism, when applied to the above reverse auction protocol leads to reduced budget imbalance. To reduce the imbalance further, we propose an innovative forward auction protocol which achieves less imbalance when combined with the Cavallo-Bailey redistribution mechanism. The forward auction protocol also has the appealing feature of handsomely rewarding divisions that reduce emissions and levying appropriate penalties on divisions that do not participate in emission reductions. The second contribution is a DSIC and SBB mechanism. Even though the first mechanism tries to reduce the budget imbalance, there is always a surplus which cannot be distributed among divisions and is wasted. So, in this part, by slightly compromising on efficiency, we propose a mechanism which is DSIC and SBB. The SBB property guarantees that there is no need for any monetary support from an external agency for implementing the mechanism and there is no leakage of revenue.

O novo cenário da macroeconomia e os freqüentes alertas daqueles que estudam o meio ambiente trazem a luz outros fatores que devem ser respeitados num processo de tomada de decisão para qualquer investimento a ser realizado. Neste sentido vem se consolidando o Mercado de Crédito de Carbono no mundo, que se por um lado viabiliza a implantação de um empreendimento por admitir a compensação ambiental, por outro pode viabilizá-lo disponibilizando recursos para a sua instalação e operação. A geração de Crédito de Carbono, isto é, Redução Certificada de Emissões (RCE) e o aporte de recursos no sistema empreendimento em função da negociação dos créditos no Mercado de Carbono, pode se caracterizar em fonte de funding de empreendimentos de geração de energia elétrica no Brasil. Sendo assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa é a montagem de um protótipo de Pequena Central Hidrelétrica - PCH, tendo por base o project finance, enquanto estratégia de investimento e estrutura de negócio e adequado aos padrões do MDL no Brasil visando verificar a viabilidade de utilização das RCEs para compor o funding desses empreendimentos e, consequentemente, a validação de investimentos em geração de energia. Dessa forma, fornecerá as referências necessárias para a análise econômica e financeira do investimento em empreendimentos dessa tipologia. Após a análise dos indicadores da qualidade do protótipo é possível afirmar que com a criação do MDL e outros mecanismos promovidos por ele, os empreendimentos de geração de energia o tipo PCH tornaram-se atrativos para investidores típicos que buscam renda estável e de longo prazo, e o setor elétrico brasileiro sofreu mudanças em sua matriz, onde o crescimento de investimentos em fontes alternativas de energia é uma realidade. / The new scenery of macroeconomics and the alerts frequents of those that study the environment brought up other factories that must be respected in a decision process in any investment to be carried through. In this direction it is coming to consolidate the Market of Carbon Credit in the world, that if on the other hand makes possible the implantation of an venture for admitting the environmental compensation, for another one it can make possible have the resources available for its installation and operation. The generation of Carbon Emission Reduction (CERs) and input of resources in the enterprise system according to the trading of credits at the Carbon Market can be characterized source of funding for projects to generate electricity in Brazil. Therefore, the objective of this research is the assembly of a prototype of small hydroelectric - PCH, based on project finance, as investment strategy and business structure and appropriate standards of the CDM in Brazil to check the feasibility of using CERs to compose the funding of these projects and hence the validation of investment in power generation. Thus, it will provide the necessary references to the economic and financial analysis of investment in projects of this type. After analyzing the indicators of the quality of the prototype is possible to say that with the creation of the CDM and other mechanisms promoted by him, the development of power generation type SHP became attractive to the typical investors who seek steady income and long-term and the Brazilian electric sector has undergone changes in their type, where the growth of investments in alternative energy sources is apparent.

abstract: Fossil fuel CO2 (FFCO2) emissions are recognized as the dominant greenhouse gas driving climate change (Enting et. al., 1995; Conway et al., 1994; Francey et al., 1995; Bousquet et. al., 1999). Transportation is a major component of FFCO2 emissions, especially in urban areas. An improved understanding of on-road FFCO2 emission at high spatial resolution is essential to both carbon science and mitigation policy. Though considerable research has been accomplished within a few high-income portions of the planet such as the United States and Western Europe, little work has attempted to comprehensively quantify high-resolution on-road FFCO2 emissions globally. Key questions for such a global quantification are: (1) What are the driving factors for on-road FFCO2 emissions? (2) How robust are the relationships? and (3) How do on-road FFCO2 emissions vary with urban form at fine spatial scales? This study used urban form/socio-economic data combined with self-reported on-road FFCO2 emissions for a sample of global cities to estimate relationships within a multivariate regression framework based on an adjusted STIRPAT model. The on-road high-resolution (whole-city) regression FFCO2 model robustness was evaluated by introducing artificial error, conducting cross-validation, and assessing relationship sensitivity under various model specifications. Results indicated that fuel economy, vehicle ownership, road density and population density were statistically significant factors that correlate with on-road FFCO2 emissions. Of these four variables, fuel economy and vehicle ownership had the most robust relationships. A second regression model was constructed to examine the relationship between global on-road FFCO2 emissions and urban form factors (described by population ii density, road density, and distance to activity centers) at sub-city spatial scales (1 km2). Results showed that: 1) Road density is the most significant (p<2.66e-037) predictor of on-road FFCO2 emissions at the 1 km2 spatial scale; 2) The correlation between population density and on-road FFCO2 emissions for interstates/freeways varies little by city type. For arterials, on-road FFCO2 emissions show a stronger relationship to population density in clustered cities (slope = 0.24) than dispersed cities (slope = 0.13). FFCO2 3) The distance to activity centers has a significant positive relationship with on-road FFCO2 emission for the interstate and freeway toad types, but an insignificant relationship with the arterial road type. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Environmental Social Science 2018

O novo cenário da macroeconomia e os freqüentes alertas daqueles que estudam o meio ambiente trazem a luz outros fatores que devem ser respeitados num processo de tomada de decisão para qualquer investimento a ser realizado. Neste sentido vem se consolidando o Mercado de Crédito de Carbono no mundo, que se por um lado viabiliza a implantação de um empreendimento por admitir a compensação ambiental, por outro pode viabilizá-lo disponibilizando recursos para a sua instalação e operação. A geração de Crédito de Carbono, isto é, Redução Certificada de Emissões (RCE) e o aporte de recursos no sistema empreendimento em função da negociação dos créditos no Mercado de Carbono, pode se caracterizar em fonte de funding de empreendimentos de geração de energia elétrica no Brasil. Sendo assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa é a montagem de um protótipo de Pequena Central Hidrelétrica - PCH, tendo por base o project finance, enquanto estratégia de investimento e estrutura de negócio e adequado aos padrões do MDL no Brasil visando verificar a viabilidade de utilização das RCEs para compor o funding desses empreendimentos e, consequentemente, a validação de investimentos em geração de energia. Dessa forma, fornecerá as referências necessárias para a análise econômica e financeira do investimento em empreendimentos dessa tipologia. Após a análise dos indicadores da qualidade do protótipo é possível afirmar que com a criação do MDL e outros mecanismos promovidos por ele, os empreendimentos de geração de energia o tipo PCH tornaram-se atrativos para investidores típicos que buscam renda estável e de longo prazo, e o setor elétrico brasileiro sofreu mudanças em sua matriz, onde o crescimento de investimentos em fontes alternativas de energia é uma realidade. / The new scenery of macroeconomics and the alerts frequents of those that study the environment brought up other factories that must be respected in a decision process in any investment to be carried through. In this direction it is coming to consolidate the Market of Carbon Credit in the world, that if on the other hand makes possible the implantation of an venture for admitting the environmental compensation, for another one it can make possible have the resources available for its installation and operation. The generation of Carbon Emission Reduction (CERs) and input of resources in the enterprise system according to the trading of credits at the Carbon Market can be characterized source of funding for projects to generate electricity in Brazil. Therefore, the objective of this research is the assembly of a prototype of small hydroelectric - PCH, based on project finance, as investment strategy and business structure and appropriate standards of the CDM in Brazil to check the feasibility of using CERs to compose the funding of these projects and hence the validation of investment in power generation. Thus, it will provide the necessary references to the economic and financial analysis of investment in projects of this type. After analyzing the indicators of the quality of the prototype is possible to say that with the creation of the CDM and other mechanisms promoted by him, the development of power generation type SHP became attractive to the typical investors who seek steady income and long-term and the Brazilian electric sector has undergone changes in their type, where the growth of investments in alternative energy sources is apparent.

Leanness, agility, resilience, greenness, and sustainability of a supply chain are critical factors that organizations have to consider to increase the competitiveness of their supply chain. Lean &amp; Green (L&amp;G) practices have been proven to enhance performance related to sustainability when deployed. Simultaneously, agility and resilience have gained significant attention due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as its outbreak revealed the fragility of various supply chains globally. The LARGS (lean, agile, resilient, green, and sustainable) framework is an essential tool which considers all LARGS paradigms holistically to facilitate LARGS performance improvements. In this study, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to explore the current development of the LARGS framework. A case study was performed in Airinum, a company which produces personal protective equipment (PPE). Furthermore, an LCA was conducted using collected internal data as a tool to identify the hotspots of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the ecological footprint (EF) of the supply chain operations. Moreover, with the help of interviews conducted with company representatives and questionnaires answered by Airinum’s partners, L&amp;G practices were evaluated and proposed for implementation. The L&amp;G practices were prioritized according to (1) weight, (2) integration categories, (3) potential agility risks, and (4) potential resilience risks. To consider the triple bottom line (TBL), potential economic and social sustainability influences were also investigated. The results from the LARGS framework indicate that the case company would benefit from frequent interaction with suppliers and customers to improve the production process and reduce waste. Integration of the material and information flow facilitates accurate supply and demand forecasting in addition to real-time monitoring of the material flow. Green transportation was found to be an essential practice for the reduction of CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the company would benefit from using a higher proportion of renewable and recycled materials in addition to using various tools to monitor and decrease resource consumption. Results indicate that the practices may influence economic sustainability while those proposed have no significant effect on the social sustainability performance of the company. Future research is directed toward the validation of the proposed LARGS framework.