Parabens (PBs) are esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid, and there are growing concerns due to their potential to disrupt endocrine function and their wide use as preservatives in foodstuffs, including beverages. The consumption of bottled and hand-shaken teas is gradually replacing traditional tea consumption through brewing. However, no study has reported PB concentrations in different types of teas or packaging and their associated health risks. Our aim was to determine the concentration of PBs (methyl- (MetPB), ethyl- (EthPB), propyl- (PropPB), butyl-paraben (ButPB)) in green, black, and oolong teas in two varieties of products (bottled and hand-shaken teas), using UPLC-MS/MS. Additionally, we estimated the health risks associated with tea consumption in the general adult population of Taiwan. A Monte Carlo simulation was applied to estimate the distribution of daily PB intake through bottled (n = 79) and hand-shaken (n = 71) tea consumption. Our findings revealed geometric mean concentrations in bottled green/black/oolong teas were 714.1/631.2/532.1 ng/L for MetPB, 95.2/ 30.5/14.9 ng/L for EthPB, 77.9/28.3/non-detected (ND) ng/L for PropPB, and 69.3/26.6/ND ng/L for ButPB. Hand-shaken green/black/oolong teas exhibited concentrations of 867.5/2258/1307 ng/L for MetPB, 28.5/28.8/14.5 ng/L for EthPB, 25.4/18.3/17.8 ng/L for PropPB, and 30.3/18.0/15.5 ng/L for ButPB. The median MetPB concentrations in hand-shaken black (2333 ng/L) and oolong teas (1215 ng/L) were significantly higher than those in bottled black (595.4 ng/L) and oolong teas (489.3 ng/L). Conversely, median concentrations of EthPB, PropPB, and ButPB in bottled teas were significantly higher than those in hand-shaken teas. MetPB was the predominant PB, constituting 73.2-91.9% in bottled teas and 85-94% in hand-shaken teas. Our results showed no health risks associated with bottled or hand-shaken tea consumption based on reference doses. However, the study highlights the importance of continued vigilance given the potential chronic exposure to PBs from various sources, necessitating ongoing concern despite the absence of immediate risks from tea consumption.
Recent bauxite mining activities in the vicinity of Kuantan, Pahang, have been associated with apparent environmental quality degradation and have raised environmental concerns among the public. This study was carried out to evaluate the overall ecological impacts on water and sediment quality from the bauxite mining activities. Water and sediment samples were collected at seven sampling locations within the bauxite mining areas between June and December 2015. The water samples were analyzed for water quality index (WQI) and distribution of major and trace element geochemistry. Sediment samples were evaluated based on geochemical indices, i.e., the enrichment factor (EF) and geoaccumulation index (I geo). Potential ecological risk index was estimated to assess the degree to which sediments of the mine-impacted areas have been contaminated with heavy metals. The results showed that WQIs of some locations were classified as slightly polluted and contained metal contents exceeding the recommended guideline values. The EFs indicated minimal to moderate enrichment of metals (Pb, Cu, Zn, Mn, As, Cd, Cr, Ni, Co, and Sr) in the sediments. I geo showed slightly to partially polluted sediments with respect to As at some locations. The potential ecological risk index (RI) showed that As posed the highest potential ecological risk with RI of 52.35-60.92 at two locations, while other locations indicated low risk. The findings from this study have demonstrated the impact of recent bauxite mining activities, which might be of importance to the local communities and relevant authorities to initiate immediate rehabilitation phase of the impacted area.
Enterprises across the globe are facing increasing pressure to effectively utilize resources and reduce costs through green supply chain practices. Emerging technology, such as blockchain technology which enables green practices, has become a contemporary industrial paradigm. However, enterprises need to build green intellectual capital to implement blockchain technology, which can be key to realizing green supply chain practices. This research examines the impact of green intellectual capital (GIC) on blockchain technology and its role in implementing green manufacturing to achieve sustainability. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was utilized for assessing the proposed hypotheses, and cross-sectional data was accumulated from manufacturing firms. As per the results, GIC, which includes green human capital, green structural capital, and green relational capital has a crucial role in the implementation of blockchain technology. The outcomes also indicated that the adoption of blockchain technology significantly influences green manufacturing. Moreover, green manufacturing (GM) has a substantial role in improving business sustainability. This empirical research provides a deeper understanding of how GIC and blockchain technology contribute to the implementation of GM. This research also provides guidelines that managers, policymakers, and producers can use to facilitate the incorporation of GM practice into business activities.
This study examines the impact of government spending, income, and tourism consumption on CO2 emissions in the 50 US states through a novel theoretical model derived from the Armey Curve model and the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. The findings of this research are essential for policymakers to develop effective strategies for mitigating environmental pollution. Utilizing panel cointegration analysis, the study provides valuable insights into whether continued increases in government spending contribute to higher pollution levels. By identifying the threshold point of spending as a percentage of GDP, policymakers can make informed decisions to avoid the trade-off between increased spending and environmental degradation. For instance, the analysis reveals that Hawaii's tipping point is 16.40%. The empirical results underscore the importance of adopting sustainable policies that foster economic growth while minimizing environmental harm. These findings will aid policymakers in formulating targeted and efficient approaches to tackle climate change and promote long-term environmental sustainability in the United States. Moreover, the impact of tourism development on CO2 emissions varies across states, with some US states experiencing a decrease while others see an increase.
Recently, the trend of circular economy innovation (CEI) drive SMEs to initiate more sustainable practices to attain market competitiveness but rare attention has been paid in emerging economies. Hence, this study plans to explore the impacts of CEI on the triple bottom lines (TBL) efficiencies in the light of market competitiveness among the production SMEs in emerging economies. The study complied data by using a survey-based technique in Pakistan, Malaysia, and China. With a sample of 306 for each segment, data were evaluated with PLS-SEM to clarify results. The findings reveal that CEI has positive significant effects on the market competitiveness and TBL efficiencies among the production SMEs in emerging economies. The findings also clarify that market competitiveness mediates the relationship between CEI and the TBL efficiencies. The findings elaborate the theoretical foundations for environmental-based production SMEs to formulate more sustainable strategies in the light of CEI to gain market competitiveness. It also clarifies the understandings of policy makers and environmental regulators by providing a novel precursor to frame the environment-based TBL guidelines for SMEs. It adds to the UN sustainability agenda by elevating the role of CEI as a novel domain among emerging economies grounded on the resource-based view theory.
The study proposes to examine how environmental, social and governance disclosure (ESG) affect the financial performance (FP) of Indian firms. Furthermore, it aims to evaluate the moderation impact of CEO power (CEOP) on the association between ESG on the FP. The study's target population is all firms indexed in NIFTY 100, representing the top one hundred firms by market capitalisation from 2017 to 2021. Data relating to ESG were collected and built based on the available data on Refinitiv Eikon Database. Results reveal that EDI positively and significantly impacts the ROE and TQ of Indian firms. Furthermore, SDI and GDI negatively and significantly affect the ROE and TQ of Indian firms. Moreover, ESG and CEOP have a significant impact on ROE. Nevertheless, ESG has a negative but highly significant impact on ROE, whilst it has a negative and low considerable impact on the TQ of Indian firms. Nonetheless, CEOP does not moderate the association between ESG and FP measured by ROE and TQ. This research contributes to the existing literature by introducing a moderator variable that has not been used in the Indian context; CEO power, which provides stakeholders and regulators with useful findings that would encourage firms to create an ESG committee to enhance ESG disclosure to compete on the world market and reach the United Nations (UN) Sustainable goal 2030. Furthermore, this paper provides insightful recommendations for creating an ESG legal framework for decision-makers.
The efficient consumption of material and energy resources, with minimal carbon emissions and maximum economic output, is globally significant. This study examines the metabolic transition of resource use and CO2 emissions in nine of the largest economies of East, South, and Southeast Asia. A data envelopment model has been developed to assess the efficiency of domestic material consumption and CO2 emissions during 1971-2016 at three levels of analysis. The single-country analysis results reveal that China has made the most rapid efficiency transformation during 1971-2016 followed by Japan and South Korea, while the rest of the countries in South and Southeast Asia have not illustrated significant improvements. Results from the analysis of socio-economically grouped countries show that Japan and Bangladesh are the relatively efficient economies in East and South Asia, respectively. Among Southeast Asian countries, both Indonesia and Malaysia were found to be efficient. Based on the regional analysis comparing all nine countries, Japan has consistently remained a relatively efficient economy while China-despite rapid improvements-remains a relatively inefficient economy. To this end, Japan had the lowest material and CO2 intensities compared to all other countries. Based on our results, technological advancement, industry structure, and scale of traded goods and services were found to have a significant impact (the impact of per capita income was less pronounced) on a country's effective resource utilization and carbon mitigation.
This study is to determine total mercury in edible tissues of eight species of cephalopods and 12 species of crustaceans purchased from 11 identified major fish landing ports and wet markets throughout Peninsular Malaysia. The concentration of mercury was measured by cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) technique using the Perkin Elmer Flow Injection Mercury System (FIMS-400). In general, the mercury levels were low with concentrations in cephalopods ranging from 0.099 to 2.715 mg/kg dry weight (or 0.0184-0.505 mg/kg wet weight) and in crustaceans ranging from 0.057 to 1.359 mg/kg dry weight (or 0.0111-0.265 mg/kg wet weight). The mercury levels showed no significant differences (P > 0.05) between species for both cephalopods and crustaceans. There was no significant correlation between mercury concentrations and the body size of individual for both groups as well. Comparisons with mercury levels obtained found from other previous studies and/or species noted that they were of the same magnitude or relatively low compared to various locations reported worldwide.
The focus of this study is to analyze the level of knowledge, awareness, and attitude toward plastic waste and to distinguish the key drivers that encourage the households in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to participate in "No plastic campaign," This study used the logistic regression model to explain the factors that may affect the willingness to participate (WTP) of households in the campaign. In this study, it is found that 35 % of households are willing to participate in the campaign. The results of the study also indicate that people who are more informed and more convinced of their knowledge have a more positive attitude toward recycling than their counterparts do. Furthermore, this study provides additional evidence of the level and classification of importance of motivating factors for plastic recycling, using the modified average and coefficient of variation of the models. From the analysis, the factor "helps reduce landfill use" is found as the most important factor and the factor of "raising money for charity" is found as the least important factor that motivates households to participate in recycling. The determinations of the study suggest some strategies that could hold implications for government and households to boost them to participate in the campaign "No Plastic Bag."
A country's financing system is essential in addressing sustainable development requirements. National sources and international financial flows contribute to economic growth and environmental quality in many ways, and their impact can be critical. This paper applied panel data analysis using a comparative approach of Pooled Mean Group Auto Regressive Distribute Lags (PMG-ARDL) and Cross Sectionally ARDL (CS-ARDL) to estimate the effects of FDI, renewable energy, and remittance on environmental quality in the top remittance-receiving countries, during 2000-2021. The study emphasized the positive relationship between FDI and carbon emissions. Moreover, renewable energy and remittances revealed an inverted U-shaped relationship with carbon emissions. In the case of developing countries from the panel, remittance improves environmental quality after reaching the threshold. Moreover, for some of the developing countries included in the panel, we found that they do not achieve the desired carbon mitigation effect in their early stages of renewable energy implementation. However, renewable energy becomes a key factor for tackling environmental pollution after a certain threshold. The mixed results determined diverse policy recommendations for various stakeholders.
Global risk concerns spurred a debate regarding empowering an organization's risk management system. Risk assessment, management, and planning are vital for running a firm, but they are not universal. This research investigates how operational risk management is institutionalized in an organization and reveals best practices from a Malaysian government-linked enterprise (GLC). This phenomenological study interviewed 39 risk management officers, executives, and employees. Data are thematically analyzed. Burawoy's Social Theory uses a case study to integrate micro- and macro-organizational elements. The case company's risk management officers, executives, and employees are involved in seven processual factors, according to the analysis. Strong leadership and external consultants, setting up the apparatus and assigning the task to the person in charge, risk framework, risk diagnostic, monitor and measure, developing and nurturing risk management culture, and consistent risk management enforcement and monitoring could explain the institutionalization process of risk management in the organization. Global and local entities have institutionalized risk management. This phenomenological study helps comprehend the role of risk management institutionalization in corporate risk management. This study contributes to a practical implication such as to the GLC. It suggests that top management support and a standard risk framework are necessary for risk management homogeneity. Leaders and frameworks must address organizational processes and capabilities to ensure risk management consistency. This study contributes to the literature on risk management practices in developing nations. The paper concludes with limitations and research recommendations.
The Southeast Asian countries have experienced significant degrees of economic growth over the years but have not managed to safeguard their environmental attributes in tandem. As a result, the aggravation of the environmental indicators across this region casts a shadow of doubt on the sustainability of the economic growth achievements of the Southeast Asian countries. Against this milieu, this study specifically explores the influence of renewable electricity generation capacity, technological innovation, financial development, and economic growth on the ecological footprints in five Southeast Asian countries namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam during the period 1985-2016. One of the major novelties of this study is in terms of its approach to assess the renewable energy use-ecological footprint nexus using the renewable electricity generation capacity as an indicator of renewable energy use in the selected Southeast Asian nations. The econometric analysis involves methods that are robust to handling cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity issues in the data. Accordingly, the recently developed Cross-sectional Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag estimator is used to predict the short- and long-run impacts on ecological footprints. The major findings suggest that higher renewable electricity generation capacity and technological innovation reduce ecological footprints, while higher financial development and economic growth increase the ecological footprints. Therefore, these findings imply that in forthcoming years, the selected Southeast Asian countries will need to tackle the environmental adversities by enhancing their renewable electricity generation capacities, increasing investment in technological development, greening the financial sector, and adopting environmentally-friendly growth policies. Hence, the implementation of relevant policies, in this regard, can be expected to ensure complementarity between economic growth and environmental welfare across Southeast Asia.
Path analysis has been largely used in marketing research but has recently been applied in an environmental management context. This study evaluated the potential of path analysis in identifying the influence of moisture content on odor from decomposing food waste. Food waste with varying moisture content was monitored for odor concentration, microbial population density, oxygen uptake rate, volatile fatty acids, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide. These various parameters were later analyzed using SmartPLS 3.0 software to produce the path analysis model using simultaneous equation modeling. Results indicate that odor concentration of food waste was not directly affected by moisture content (not significant, t-statistical 1.46 1.96) and subsequently odor. In order to manage food waste-related odors, it is recommended that the waste be kept at a moisture content lower than 40%. This is especially critical if prolonged storage is unavoidable.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that the development of low-carbon economy and industrial restructuring cannot occur in a coordinated manner. However, academic literature does not provide further explanations for this phenomenon. In this paper, we introduce a novel decomposition method to reassess the relationship between industrial restructuring and low-carbon economy, which yields similar findings. Next, we construct a straightforward theoretical model to investigate two fundamental reasons that interrelate with this issue: excessively high proportion of secondary sector and excessive carbon intensity of tertiary sector. Finally, we implement a rigorous causal identification using three-dimensional panel data at the provincial, industrial, and yearly levels by undergoing multiple robustness tests and mitigating endogeneity issues. Our heterogeneity tests suggest that the impact of industrial restructuring is greater in high-polluting industries, the Eastern region, and non-digital pilot regions. Overall, our theoretical and empirical analysis serves as a vital reference for other developing and developed countries to attain harmonious development between low-carbon economy and industrial restructuring.
This study examined the impacts of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the environment in the Southeast Asia region using qualitative content analysis to analyze the textual data of published studies and other online references such as the organizational reports. Besides, the materiality assessment particularly the Global Reporting Initiative was conducted by analyzing short- and long-term impacts from the stakeholders' (local and regional policymakers) perspective. The positive effects of COVID-19 lockdown and movement restriction on the regional environment identified in this study included a reduction in air pollution, improvement of air and water quality, lower noise levels, and reduced land surface temperature. In contrast, the negative effects encompassed a rise in the use of plastics and the generation of medical waste in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Materiality assessment findings have offered insights on the need of stakeholders' importance for further to deal with huge amount of waste, inadequate waste management facilities and system, explore the effectiveness of such sustainable work and lifestyle changes, utilize real-time monitoring air quality data and future prediction responses for climate change mitigation and adaptation policies as well as consideration towards new green technologies for clean energy in each Southeast Asian country and at regional level. It is anticipated that this study will contribute towards a better understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 on environmental sustainability in the Southeast Asia region, particularly from the perspective of the stakeholders.
There is a shred of evidence of environmental degradation in the form of carbon emissions to behave differently when tested with different macroeconomic variables. This paper aims to examine the long-run and short-run association between natural resource rent, financial development, and urbanization on carbon emission from the context of the USA during 1995-2015 with the help of a contemporary and innovative approach named quantile autoregressive distributed lagged model (QARDL). The stated approach is applied due to the fact that non-linearity is observed for the study variables. The findings indicated that the higher financial development (0.304), natural resource rent (0.102), and urbanization (0.489) have a positive impact on the environmental degradation in the region of USA during long-run estimation in the stated quantiles of the study. This would indicate that higher financial development, urbanization, and natural resources are putting more environmental pressure on the economy of the USA. Similarly, the findings under short-run estimation confirm that past and lagged values of carbon emission, financial development, natural resource rent, and urbanization are significantly determining the current values of the carbon emission. For this reason, it is suggested that the government requires some immediate steps of the USA to control the harmful effect of such financial development, more urbanization, and higher natural resource rent as well. This would indicate the reflection of some green strategies in all three explanatory variables to generate some fruitful environmental outcomes.
The paper explores the short-run and long-run asymmetric impact of fiscal decentralization, green energy, and economic policy uncertainty on environmental sustainability proxied by ecological footprint. Using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed lag (NARDL) approach in selected five OECD countries, we find that ecological footprint responds to positive and negative fiscal decentralization asymmetrically in the long run and short run. However, the nature of the response varies significantly across countries. The result also suggests that green energy is a major factor in reducing the ecological footprint in all countries except Canada. Finally, economic policy uncertainty plays a negative and significant role in the ecological footprint in the UK, USA, and Germany while insignificant in Australia and Canada. Implications for effective environmental policies are discussed.
Global warming and the dreadful climate condition in China demands the sustainable energy transition and production that must be far away from coal-based energy production. The present article, thereby, intends to assess the effectiveness of environmental knowledge and green supply chain practices on sustainable energy production. The study also introduces green behavior and green leadership as a moderator to evaluate the proposed relationship. Primary data has been collected and assessed by PLS-SEM. The findings reveal that environmental knowledge, green purchases, and internal environmental management (IEM) have a positive association with sustainable energy production (SEP) in China. The outcomes also indicate that green behavior significantly moderates among environmental knowledge, green purchases, and SEP, and green leadership significantly moderates among IEM and SEP in China. The research guides the policymakers in establishing policies related to SEP using green behavior, GSC practices, and environmental knowledge.
This study investigates the energy security and income roles in testing environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for developing countries from 1990 to 2019. The panel quantile regression approaches are employed to examine the relationship between the variables, considering that income and energy security effects on carbon emissions may vary across distributions. Findings revealed that the EKC hypothesis was inconsistent at low and high quantiles when estimating energy availability, affordability, and acceptability. The validity of inverted U-shaped EKC is supported at high quantiles for energy affordability and accessibility in developing countries. However, given the energy accessibility and acceptability, the EKC hypothesis becomes invalid in developing countries. Notably, developing countries have yet to progress toward achieving energy security as a switch component to low carbon emissions. This study contributes to the literature by revealing the effect of availability, accessibility, affordability, and acceptability of energy security on carbon dioxide emissions (CO2). Thus, it suggests implications for improving environmental quality in developing countries by enhancing energy security. Diversifying energy sources with nuclear, renewable, and developing technologies reduces dependence risks on a single source while improving efficiency through technology and demand management lowers carbon emissions and strengthens energy security. Beyond energy security, this study emphasises sustainable urban planning to promote compact development, effective transportation, and green infrastructure to reduce energy use and improve environmental sustainability, ultimately reducing carbon emissions.
Rapid increases in energy consumption and economic growth over the past three decades are considered the driving force behind rising environmental degradation, which remain a threat to people and healthy environment. This study investigates the impact of energy consumption on environmental quality in the MINT countries using a panel PMG/ARDL modelling technique, and the Granger causality test spanning from 1971 to 2017. The empirical results confirm the existence of long-run nexus among the variables employed. The results also reveal that economic growth, energy consumption and bio-capacity have a positive and statistically significant effect on environmental degradation during the long run period. We find that a 1% increase in primary energy consumption leads to 0.4172% increase in environmental deterioration in the long-run period, but it is insignificant in the short run. This implies that energy consumption deteriorates environmental quality through a negative effect of ecological footprint. The result also suggests that as MINT countries increase the use of energy to accelerate pace of economic growth, environmental quality would deteriorate through increased ecological footprints. The coefficient of the error correction term (ect) is negative and significant (- 0.2306), suggesting that ecological footprint, a measure of environmental degradation would converge to its long-run equilibrium in the MINT region by 23.06% speed of adjustment every year due to contribution of economic growth, energy consumption, urbanization and biocapacity. The Granger non-causality test results reveal a unidirectional causal relationship from economic growth, energy consumption, and urbanization to ecological footprint and from economic growth to biocapacity. The results further show bi-directional causality between biocapacity and ecological footprint as well as between biocapacity and economic growth. Moreover, urbanization causes economic growth and biocapacity Granger-causes urbanization. Based on these findings, policy implications are adequately discussed.