Sustainability

Research

27 pages, 2687 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Framework to Predict Consumption Sustainability Levels of Individuals

by Arielle Moro and Adrian Holzer

Sustainability 2020, 12(4), 1423; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041423 - 14 Feb 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2894

Innovative Information Systems services have the potential to promote more sustainable behavior. For these so-called Green Information Systems (Green IS) to work well, they should be tailored to individual behavior and attitudes. Although various theoretical models already exist, there is currently no technological [...] Read more.

Innovative Information Systems services have the potential to promote more sustainable behavior. For these so-called Green Information Systems (Green IS) to work well, they should be tailored to individual behavior and attitudes. Although various theoretical models already exist, there is currently no technological solution that automatically estimates individual’s current sustainability levels related to their consumption behaviors in various consumption domains (e.g., mobility and housing). The paper aims at addressing this gap and presents the design of G_REENP_REDICT, a framework that enables to predict these levels based on multiple features, such as demographic, socio-economic, psychological, and factual knowledge about energy information. To do so, the paper presents and evaluates six different classifiers to predict acts of consumption on the Swiss Household Energy Demand Survey (SHEDS) dataset containing survey answers of 2000 representative individuals living in Switzerland. The results highlight that the ensemble prediction models (i.e., random forests and gradient boosting trees) and the multinomial logistic regression model are the most accurate for the mobility and housing prediction tasks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Technology Innovation for Sustainability)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

20 pages, 2495 KiB

Open AccessArticle

China’s Agricultural Irrigation and Water Conservancy Projects: A Policy Synthesis and Discussion of Emerging Issues

by Lijuan Du, Li Xu, Yanping Li, Changshun Liu, Zhenhua Li, Jefferson S. Wong and Bo Lei

Sustainability 2019, 11(24), 7027; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11247027 - 09 Dec 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4260

Abstract

The United Nations (UN) has identified 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to tackle major barriers to sustainable development by 2030. Achieving these goals will rely on the contribution of all nations and require balancing trade-offs among different sectors. Water and food insecurity have [...] Read more.

The United Nations (UN) has identified 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to tackle major barriers to sustainable development by 2030. Achieving these goals will rely on the contribution of all nations and require balancing trade-offs among different sectors. Water and food insecurity have long been the two major challenges facing China. To address these challenges and achieve the SDGs, China needs to safeguard its agricultural irrigation and water conservancy projects. Although China is making efforts to transition its agricultural development to a sustainable trajectory by promoting water-saving irrigation, a number of issues are emerging, both with policy reforms and technological innovations. Through synthesizing the historical development of agriculture and its relationship with policy and political regimes, this paper identifies four major issues that are challenging the sustainability transformation of China’s agricultural irrigation system and water conservancy projects: (1) problems with financial policy coordination between central and local governments; (2) the lack of incentives for farmers to construct and maintain irrigation infrastructure; (3) conflicts between decentralized operation of land and benefits from shared irrigation infrastructure; and (4) deterioration of small-scale irrigation infrastructure calls for action. In addressing these challenges, policy changes are required: government financial accountability at all levels needs to be clarified; subsidies need to be raised for the construction and management of small-scale irrigation and water conservancy projects; local non-profit organizations need to be established to enhance co-management between farmers and government. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Technology Innovation for Sustainability)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 1756 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Does Regional Innovation Capacity Affect the Green Growth Performance? Empirical Evidence from China

by Sumin Hu, Shulin Liu, Die Li and Yuxuan Lin

Sustainability 2019, 11(18), 5084; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11185084 - 17 Sep 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2404

Abstract

Behind the high development of technology, backward institution systems and imperfect incentive mechanisms are not conducive to the green transformation of the economic society in China. Meanwhile, the relative effectiveness of both technical and institution innovation in encouraging green growth has yet to [...] Read more.

Behind the high development of technology, backward institution systems and imperfect incentive mechanisms are not conducive to the green transformation of the economic society in China. Meanwhile, the relative effectiveness of both technical and institution innovation in encouraging green growth has yet to be tested empirically in China. It is of great practical significance to assess the effect of regional innovation capacity (RIC) on the green growth performance. This paper firstly exploits a model to measure regional innovation capacity from the perspective of technological and institutional respect. The panel data of 30 provinces in China during 2008–2017 is then used to examine the coordination effect of technological and institutional instruments on green growth performance. The empirical results demonstrate the following: (i) regional innovation capacity significantly affects the green growth performance of 30 provinces in China, showing regional differences. The elasticity of RIC on the green total factor efficiency in the eastern region is larger at approximately 0.48, followed by central and western areas, at about 0.47 and 0.45, respectively; (ii) technological innovation is able to incentivize green growth performance for all regions in China, while the institutional innovation induces green growth in the eastern region only; (iii) the coordination of technical and institutional instruments has a significant effect on green growth performance, positive in the eastern region and negative in central region respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Technology Innovation for Sustainability)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Green Technology Innovation for Sustainability

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (3 papers)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI