Efforts to 'operationalize' a concept of sustainability into appraisal methods for practical decisionmaking have been few and generally unpersuasive. In this paper it is argued that this need not be the case if a set of environmentally compensating, or 'shadow', projects within an overall portfolio are used to ensure a sustainability objective of setting a constraint on the depletion and degrad...

I analyze the impact of a firm’s environmental profile on its cost of equity and debt capital. Using implied cost of capital derived from analysts’ earnings estimates, I find that investors demand significantly higher expected returns on stocks excluded by environmental screens (such as hazardous chemical, substantial emissions and climate change concerns) compared to firms without such environ...

The study identified and evaluated the options for population-level government policies to increase the prevalence of homes free of secondhand smoke (SHS). We used three criteria to evaluate the policy options: effectiveness, the reductions on inequalities in SHS exposure, and cost-effectiveness. Evidence indicates some association between relatively comprehensive tobacco control programmes and...

OBJECTIVE To identify and evaluate the options for population level government policies to increase the prevalence of homes free of secondhand smoke. METHODS The literature was searched for population level policy options and evidence on them. Three criteria were used to evaluate the policy options: effectiveness, the reductions on inequalities in secondhand smoke exposure, and cost effective...

This paper proposes a comprehensive cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate environmental policies. While effectiveness is measured as the reduction of different pollutants aggregated to a damage index, all the other effects apart from pollutant reduction are monetarised and expressed as cost. The damage index is based on the ‘Umwelt-BelastungsPunkte’ (UBP)-method (Environmental Impact Points) ...

The Department of Defense (DoD) Environmental Security Technology Certification Program and the Environmental Protection Agency sponsored a project to evaluate the benefits and utility of contaminant transport simulation-optimization algorithms against traditional (trial and error) modeling approaches. Three pump-and-treat facilities operated by the DoD were selected for inclusion in the projec...

The complexity of ICT products and services has brought them to the level of disposable ‘species’. The combination of the race to optimal performance and disposability has resulted in considerable footprint and impact. Although approaches such as increasing efficiency, reducing the total cost of ownership, life cycle assessment and management, and circular economy have been put forward to manag...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate and quantify the economic benefits attributable to improvements in water supply and sanitation in rural India. METHODS We combined propensity-score "pre-matching" and rich pre-post panel data on 9500 households in 242 villages located in four geographically different districts to estimate the economic benefits of a large-scale community demand-driven water supply program...

In this paper a gas turbine power plant including air preheater (recuperator), heat recovery steam generator and air cooler system was modeled. Eight parameters were selected as the design variables.  Fast and elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) was applied (to maximize the exergy efficiency and to minimize the total cost rate) for the mentioned cogeneration system. Th...