Şiir Kılkış

Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Index for policy learning in cities

Policy learning between cities is a vital process to enable the diffusion of more sustainable practices. The Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Index provides a composite indicator to benchmark city performance based on 7 dimensions and 35 main indicators. In this research work, the SDEWES Index is applied to 25 cities. Data are collected, normalised, and aggregated to obtain the results. Stockholm (3.29), Espoo (3.25) and Sevilla (2.98) are the top three cities. An average city in the sample receives an index score of 2.75. The paper further develops a benchmarking tool to trigger policy learning based on the index performance. Two typologies of policy learning are discussed to stimulate an exploratory process for catching-up or finding solutions to common needs. On the basis of the total of 56 cities to which the index is applied to date, a search algorithm is developed to match cities in which 10 common patterns are identified. The paper concludes with the prospect of using the SDEWES Index to stimulate innovation for more sustainable cities.

Campus and Community Micro Grids Integration of Building Integrated Photovoltaic Renewable Energy Sources - Case Study of Split 3 Area, Croatia - Part A

Micro grids interconnect loads and distributed energy resources as a single con-trollable entity. New installations of renewable energy sources in urban areas, such as building integrated photovoltaic, provide opportunities to increase ener-gy independence and diversify energy sources in the energy system. This paper explores the integration of renewable energy sources into two case study commu-nities in an urban agglomeration to provide optimal conditions to meet a share of the electrical loads. Energy planning case studies for decentralized generation of renewable energy are conducted in highways 2 renewable systems energy plan-ning software for hourly energy balances. The results indicate that building inte-grated photovoltaic and photovoltaic in the case study communities can cover about 17% of the recorded electrical demand of both areas. On a yearly basis, there will be a 0.025 GWh surplus of photovoltaic production with a maximum value of 1.25 MWh in one hour of operation unless grid storage is used. This amounts to a total investment cost of 13.36 million EUR. The results are useful for proposing future directions for the various case study communities targeting sustainable development.

Sustainable R&D and innovation system comparisons of India, Russia, Mexico and Turkey

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to define and measure the outputs of a specific kind of innovation system, namely a sustainability-oriented innovation system (SoIS) for India, Russia, Mexico, and Turkey, with a view to compare and draw best practises for other emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach In a mixed methods design, the research work combines qualitative assessments based on support mechanisms with quantitative analyses based on the outputs of papers and patents in a set of 25 main keywords and related patent codes. Findings The SoIS for the four countries are defined based on 40 support mechanisms in the six main activities or functional dynamics of innovation systems. In an 11-year timeframe between 2003 and 2014, the output analyses consisted of 42,812 papers in the Scopus database and 3,483 patents in the World Intellectual Property Organization PatentScope database. Best practices were further identified and used to make a set of five key recommendations toward activating SoIS. Practical implications The synergy of each functional dynamic is necessary to maximize the outputs of SoIS and transform knowledge into societal benefit for sustainable development. Best practises include dedicated research initiatives in sustainability priorities. Originality/value The paper bridges a gap in developing and applying a method to identify, compare, and measure the performance of SoIS. The results are useful to activate SoIS to accelerate the pace of research, development and innovation for better managing environmental quality.

Comparative analyses of sustainable campuses as living laboratories for managing environmental quality

Purpose Despite an emerging trend in the higher education sector toward sustainable campuses, comparative analyses that span multiple themes across multiple campuses are still limited. The purpose of this paper is to reduce such a gap by comparing universities that are members of the International Sustainable Campus Network across themes that are related to environmental quality. Design/methodology/approach In total, 34 universities are included in the sample. Indicators are systematically reviewed and clustered into ten themes. Common indicators (CIs) are identified in seven themes for at least seven and at most 20 campuses. At the absence of CIs, the given theme is assessed based on the measures applied. The results indicate the average levels of performance in the sample and/or the scope of the measures that are undertaken. Findings According to related values, an average campus spent 233,402 MWh of energy in buildings, 838,317 m3 of water on campus, generated 4,442 tonnes of waste, and emitted 75,354 tonnes of CO2 emissions. The average recycling rate was 50 percent, the average single occupancy vehicle rate in campus commuting was 34 percent, and on average, there were 152 sustainability-oriented courses. Best practices from the measures included energy audits for data centers, retrofit of water intense laboratories, and on-site renewable energy projects. Originality/value In addition, a unified monitoring framework is proposed to improve subsequent comparative analyses of campuses. Universities must focus on the use of the campus as a living laboratory to guide society toward a more sustainable future.

A sustainable aviation sector index to benchmark the landside and airside based on airport-airline pairs

This paper develops and applies a sustainable aviation sector index to benchmark the performance of airport and airline pairs. The index is composed of two subindices that address the landside and airside of the aviation sector. These indices involve 5 dimensions and 25 indicators on the landside and 4 dimensions and 20 indicators on the airside, respectively. The sum of the products of the normalised values of the related dimensions on the landside and airside are then used to obtain single composite indicator values for each airport and airline pair. The airport and airline pairs to which these subindices are applied represent the main airport hubs of major international airlines. In total, 20 airport and airline pairs are subjugated to the analyses that contain 15 different airports and 13 different airlines. The results indicate the pairs that have above average performances in multiple aspects of aviation services and quality, energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, and sustainable aviation measures in a comprehensive manner. According to the results, the airport and airline pairs that are in the top 5 are those that are marked as P1, P5, P19, P14 and P16 in the sample. These leading pairs attain values between 8.8 and 7.2 in the integrated index whereas the average value for all pairs is 5.6. The research work contributes to the literature by providing an integrated approach to benchmark the landside and airside of the aviation sector. Such an integrated approach is useful for allowing airport and airline managers in partnering across the landside and airside to excel toward a more sustainable aviation sector to challenge the future.