1,721,085 research outputs found
Managing resource loops in circular supply chains: A taxonomy of multi-sided platforms in the B2B setting
No full textMulti-sided platforms have been increasingly recognized as enablers for circular supply chains. This notwithstanding, scholars are still struggling with a lack of deep understanding of the different roles that multi-sided platforms may play to enable inter-organizational collaborations among supply chain actors to foster the creation of circular supply chains, especially in the business-to-business setting. To address this research gap, the paper develops a taxonomy of multi-sided platforms enabling circular supply chains in the business-to-business setting, by leveraging existing literature as well as an empirical analysis that included 26 multi-sided platforms. Such platforms have been identified through the involvement of a panel of experts into this research area and analysed through a Delphi method. The proposed taxonomy is characterized by two dimensions: (i) the circular supply chain strategy that can be fulfilled through multi-sided platforms, i.e., closing, slowing, or narrowing of resource loops; and ii) the supply chain(s) involved by the resource loops to fulfil such strategies, i.e., either the supply chain in which a resource was originally addressed to or different supply chains. The taxonomy includes six clusters of multi-sided platforms enabling circular supply chains in the business-to-business setting. The study represents the first attempt to provide an overarching conceptualization of the different roles of multi-sided platforms enabling circular supply chains in the business-to-business setting. Furthermore, it informs managers on how multi-sided platforms can be exploited by companies to foster the creation of circular supply chains in this setting
The environmental impact of electric vehicles: A novel life cycle-based evaluation framework and its applications to multi-country scenarios
Full text linkElectric mobility is being studied as a possible solution for reducing the environmental impact associated to the transportation sector. However, there is a huge ongoing debate among scholars and practitioners on the extent to which Electric Vehicles perform better in terms of greenhouse gases emissions against Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles, and especially on the variables that affect such performance. To the best of our knowledge, most of the studies addressing the topic mainly focus only on some specific phases of a vehicle's life cycle, such as vehicle manufacturing and use, while comprehensive evaluations of the greenhouse gases emissions during a vehicle's life cycle are quite rare. Therefore, the paper aims to develop a comprehensive evaluation framework in order to estimate the environmental impact associated to Electric Vehicles and Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles, by adopting a Life Cycle Assessment approach. The evaluation framework is then adopted to estimate the environmental impact associated to Electric Vehicles and Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles in four different scenarios, each one assuming different countries in which the phases of a vehicle's life cycle take place. Results show that CO2 emissions over the Electric Vehicle's life cycle are lower than the ones associated to a comparable Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle in all the scenarios analysed. Moreover, the analysis highlights: (i) the huge impact on a vehicle's CO2 emissions associated to the geographical location in which the upstream phases of the vehicle supply chain take place (mainly for Electric Vehicles); (ii) the primary impact played by the use phase on the Electric Vehicles CO2 emissions, followed by the vehicle and battery manufacturing ones. Both evidences reinforce the impact of the energy mix on the environmental performance of Electric Vehicles, as further confirmed by the sensitivity analysis. The paper contributes to the extant literature by reaffirming the better environmental performance of Electric Vehicles compared to Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles in terms of CO2 emissions over the whole life cycle, also providing policymakers with useful suggestions for the promotion of Electric Vehicles as a means to tackle environmental issues
The Economic Evaluation of Energy Efficiency in Industry: an Innovative Methodology
No full textAn empirical research involving 130 Italian industrial firms showed that the economic
viability of energy efficiency projects is mostly evaluated through indicators like Pay-Back Time
(PBT) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR), whose acceptability thresholds are affected by decision
makers’ risk propensity and other contingencies (such as competing priorities).
However, this approach hinders the adoption of several energy efficiency technologies -
such as CHP, electric motors, inverters -, which provide economically viable results from a
lifecycle cost perspective.
This paper addresses this issue by identifying an innovative evaluation method for energy
efficiency investments. Inspired by the lifecycle economic assessment methodology for energy
production plants – the so-called Levelized Cost Of Electricity (LCOE) or Levelized Energy
Cost (LEC) - our indicator, called Levelized Energy Efficiency Cost (LEEC), correlates the
energy savings that can be achieved through the implementation of an energy efficiency
technology and the total costs incurred throughout the entire technology lifecycle (e.g. initial
investments, O&M, disposal). A technology can be considered as economically viable if the
LEEC is lower than the energy price incurred by the firms, because in that case the economic
benefit of the saved energy is higher than the sustained cost to obtain it.
The application of such methodology in different Italian energy-intensive industrial
sectors (e.g. automotive, cement, iron&steel and pulp&paper) demonstrates that most of the
considered technologies are economically viable. Therefore the LEEC is a clear and simple tool
for companies’ decision makers to evaluate energy efficiency projects
Energy Efficiency Report. L'efficienza energetica in impresa: soluzioni tecnologiche, fattibilità economica e potenziale di mercato
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Smart Grid Executive Report: applicazioni, tecnologie e prospettive di sviluppo delle smart grid in Italia
No full textUnraveling the role of Artificial Intelligence to achieve energy-related Sustainable Development Goals: a literature review and an empirical analysis
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