Suchergebnisse

The relatively low level of sustainability of major public projects has been subject to criticism by the community, increasing the pressure to incorporate the concept throughout the project lifecycle and the importance of understanding the perceptions of affected groups. The study undertook this task by compiling a list from the literature of the sustainability concerns that are associated with major public projects from their economic–social–environmental implications, identifying the relevant stakeholder groups in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and their levels of influence by interviews, and evaluating various sustainability objectives from a multi-stakeholder perspective via a questionnaire survey. The results were validated through a series of interviews with purposively selected experts. The study findings indicate the need for more consideration of social concerns in Guangdong province, the proper levels of public participation in Hong Kong in order to avoid excessive interruptions to the pace of project procurement, and that Macao may have to experience a relatively slow development of construction in order to balance the social/environmental requirements that are involved. These findings contribute to both the government and construction industry at large in delivering economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable major public projects in the Bay Area and China as a whole.

Environmental regulations (ER) can support or dissuade the reduction of carbon emissions. However, there are limited studies on the impact of ER on carbon emissions for the transportation infrastructure. Using provincial panel data from China for the period 2001–2017, this study measures how ER can affect the carbon emissions efficiency (CEE) of transportation infrastructure. The study uses Hansen's panel threshold model to analyze current thresholds of ER on CEE. The results show that (1) China's transportation infrastructure during 2001–2017 experienced a 10.15% decrease of CEE; (2) there are significant heterogeneities across the regions of China regarding CEE; (3) ER produces some CEE threshold effects in China's current transportation infrastructure. This study proposes alternative evaluation methods and theoretical frameworks for dynamically measuring the CEE of transportation infrastructure, and provides governments with improved criteria to design effective environmental policies.

Environmental performance allows measuring the existing gap between countries regarding their environmental policy objectives. Improving environmental performance also allows countries to achieve their sustainable development goals. However, a systematic identification of factors influencing environmental performance constitutes a premise to improve it and such a review of factors has not been conducted in previous research. This paper develops a quantitative literature review of the factors influencing environmental performance in which a total of 84 journal papers were identified by keyword retrieval between 2004 and 2019. Literature metrological and literature content analyses are performed and two major research outcomes are obtained: first, a list of environmental performance influencing factors and a classification of the five main research streams related to environmental performance: enterprise, government, economy, technology and society. Second, building on the previous classification, a research agenda is proposed which points out current shortcomings and potential research directions for environmental performance research. The results of this piece of research provides a theoretical reference for improving environmental performance. It can also help countries target better environmental management practices when seeking global sustainable development. Highlights 84 journal papers are analysed with metrological and content analysis. Grounded theory produces a list of factors affecting environmental performance. Environmental performance factors are classified in five relevant categories. These categories are: enterprise, government, economy, society and technology. A research agenda is proposed for meeting the 2030 Sustainable development goals.