THE ROAD TO PLATINUM Using the USGBC’s LEED-EB® Green Building Rating System to Retrofit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 10 Park Place Office Building

According to the U.S.Green Building Council(USGBC),buildings account for a significant amount of environmental degradation.The building sector is the number one producer of global CO_(2) emissions in the U.S.,followed by the transportation and industrial sectors.1(See Figure 1 for the environmental impact of all U.S.buildings.)The concept of green buildings represents a major paradigm shift in the architectural,construction,and engineering fields.As society increasingly switches its appreciation of buildings from merely size and aesthetics toward environmental stewardship and efficiency,the USGBC’s LEED Green Building Rating System has become increasingly popular to follow.Since its inception in 2000,the LEED system has been promoting and monitoring green building practices throughout the United States.With a four-tiered rating scheme including LEED Certified,LEED Silver,LEED Gold,and LEED Platinum,the system currently has 35,000 projects already on their way toward certification.2 In particular,the LEED for Existing Buildings(LEED-EB)system looks to retrofit existing buildings into those that are more sustainable,efficient,and environmentally friendly.Doing so significantly reduces the demand for new resources,as construction managers can recycle and reuse building materials and incorporate them into new designs.This truly is the definition of green building and is the way of the future.By implementing green building practices,many of the adverse environmental impacts of buildings can be dramatically reduced,often for only a one to two percent initial cost premium over the price of conventional construction practice.3 Several environmental benefits of green buildings include improving air and water quality,conserving natural resources,and becoming more energy efficient.Sudies have shown that green buildings,compared to normal buildings,can reduce energy use by 24–50 percent,CO_(2) emissions by 33–39 percent,water use by 40 percent,and solid waste by 70 percent.4(See Figure 2 for the impact of green commercial buildings compared to the average commercial building.)In fact,if half of all new construction within the U.S.were built to match these percentages,it would be the equivalent of taking more than one million cars off of the road every year.5 Economic benefits include reducing operating costs,improving employee productivity and satisfaction,and optimizing economic performance over the life cycle of the structure.6 Additionally,health and community benefits include enhancing occupant comfort and health,and contributing to an overall positive environmentallyconscious reputation.7 Furthermore,Taryn Holowka states,“people in green buildings have 40-60 percent fewer incidents of colds,flu,and asthma;patients in green hospitals are discharged as much as two and a half days earlier;and kids in green schools increase their test scores by as much as 18 percent.”8 The U.S.EPA’s Region 10 Park Place office building in Seattle was built in 1970.Its owner,Washington Holdings,and building manager,Wright Runstad&Company,have been encouraged by the EPA to use innovative energy conservation design,water conservation,waste reduction,stormwater management,and other strategies to make the structure more sustainable.Following the EPA’s Green Building Strategy,which states that the EPA aims to strengthen the foundations of green building and raise public awareness of building-related impacts and opportunities,the Park Place building has become only the fifteenth LEED-EB Platinum building in the world,and one of the most impressive nearly-forty-year-old buildings in the entire United States.By using the LEED-EB Platinum green building rating system,the Park Place building management team has been able to successfully lower the building’s energy consumption rate,improve its water efficiency,and make many other beneficial changes—all of which demonstrate just how effective the LEED system is at producing higher performance buildings.

Central environmental protection inspection and carbon emission reduction: A tripartite evolutionary game model from the perspective of carbon neutrality

Since the carbon neutrality target was proposed,many countries have been facing severe challenges to carbon emission reduction sustainably.This study is conducted using a tripartite evolutionary game model to explore the impact of the central environmental protection inspection(CEPI)on driving carbon emission reduction,and to study what factors influence the strategic choices of each party and how they interact with each other.The research results suggest that local governments and manufacturing enterprises would choose strategies that are beneficial to carbon reduction when CEPI increases.When the initial willingness of all parties increases 20%,50%—80%,the time spent for the whole system to achieve stability decreases from 100%,60%—30%.The evolutionary result of“thorough inspection,regulation implementation,low-carbon management”is the best strategy for the tripartite evolutionary game.Moreover,the smaller the cost and the larger the benefit,the greater the likelihood of the three-party game stability strategy appears.This study has important guiding significance for other developing countries to promote carbon emission reduction by environmental policy.

Theoretical Analysis of Consumers’Purchase Motivation in the Context of Environmental Protection

Through reviewing and summarizing the existing research on consumer motivation,and combining the characteristics of human behavior and the objective needs of environmental protection,this paper analyzes and defines consumers’purchase motivation.In the context of environmental protection,purchase motivation is divided into demand motivation,value recognition motivation,recognition motivation,and interest motivation.Their definitions are given in this paper,which provides a conceptual basis for further research on the influence of purchase motivation on consumer behavior in the context of environmental protection.

A spotlight on dosage and subject selection for effective neuroprotection: exploring the central role of mitochondria

Neurons are notoriously vulnerable cell types.Even the slightest change in their internal and/or external environments will cause much distress and dysfunction,leading often to their death.A range of pathological conditions,including stroke,head trauma,and neurodegenerative disease,can generate stress in neurons,affecting their survival and proper function.In most neural pathologies,mitochondria become dysfunctional and this plays a pivotal role in the process of cell death.The challenge over the last few decades has been to develop effective interventions that improve neuronal homeostasis under pathological conditions.Such interventions,often referred to as disease-modifying or neuroprotective,have,however,proved frustratingly elusive,at both preclinical and,in particular,clinical levels.In this perspective,we highlight two factors that we feel are key to the development of effective neuroprotective treatments.These are:firstly,the choice of dose of intervention and method of application,and secondly,the selection of subjects,whether they be patients or the animal model.

Assessing the corrosion protection property of coatings loaded with corrosion inhibitors using the real-time atmospheric corrosion monitoring technique

The atmospheric corrosion monitoring(ACM)technique has been widely employed to track the real-time corrosion behavior of metal materials.However,limited studies have applied ACM to the corrosion protection properties of organic coatings.This study compared a bare epoxy coating with one containing zinc phosphate corrosion inhibitors,both applied on ACM sensors,to observe their corrosion protection properties over time.Coatings with artificial damage via scratches were exposed to immersion and alternating dry and wet environments,which allowed for monitoring galvanic corrosion currents in real-time.Throughout the corrosion tests,the ACM currents of the zinc phosphate/epoxy coating were considerably lower than those of the blank epoxy coating.The trend in ACM current variations closely matched the results obtained from regular electrochemical tests and surface analysis.This alignment highlights the potential of the ACM technique in evaluating the corrosion protection capabilities of organic coatings.Compared with the blank epoxy coating,the zinc phosphate/epoxy coating showed much-decreased ACM current values that confirmed the effective inhibition of zinc phosphate against steel corrosion beneath the damaged coating.

Establishment of human cerebral organoid systems to model early neural development and assess the central neurotoxicity of environmental toxins

Human brain development is a complex process,and animal models often have significant limitations.To address this,researchers have developed pluripotent stem cell-derived three-dimensional structures,known as brain-like organoids,to more accurately model early human brain development and disease.To enable more consistent and intuitive reproduction of early brain development,in this study,we incorporated forebrain organoid culture technology into the traditional unguided method of brain organoid culture.This involved embedding organoids in matrigel for only 7 days during the rapid expansion phase of the neural epithelium and then removing them from the matrigel for further cultivation,resulting in a new type of human brain organoid system.This cerebral organoid system replicated the temporospatial characteristics of early human brain development,including neuroepithelium derivation,neural progenitor cell production and maintenance,neuron differentiation and migration,and cortical layer patterning and formation,providing more consistent and reproducible organoids for developmental modeling and toxicology testing.As a proof of concept,we applied the heavy metal cadmium to this newly improved organoid system to test whether it could be used to evaluate the neurotoxicity of environmental toxins.Brain organoids exposed to cadmium for 7 or 14 days manifested severe damage and abnormalities in their neurodevelopmental patterns,including bursts of cortical cell death and premature differentiation.Cadmium exposure caused progressive depletion of neural progenitor cells and loss of organoid integrity,accompanied by compensatory cell proliferation at ectopic locations.The convenience,flexibility,and controllability of this newly developed organoid platform make it a powerful and affordable alternative to animal models for use in neurodevelopmental,neurological,and neurotoxicological studies.

Effects of Slow Release Fertilizer on the Yield and Nutrient Use Efficiency of Carnation and Its Environmental Protection Effect

[Objective] The aim was to study the effects of slow release fertilizer on the yield,economic benefit and nutrient use efficiency of carnation and environmental pollution.[Method] Taking carnation（Dianthus caryophyllus）as research object,the application effect and environmental protection effect of slow release fertilizer on carnation were discussed through field plot test.[Result] The main agronomic characters of carnation improved after the application of slow release fertilizer;compared with Conv-F treatment,the yield of carnation with slow release fertilizer increased by 18.67%-20.83%,and its economic benefit increased by 105 500 yuan/hm2,while the ratio of output to input improved by 74.29%;under the same NPK ratio and nutrient amount,the yield,economic benefit and ratio of output to input of carnation after the application of slow release fertilizer increased by 2.11%,14 800 yuan and 16.2%,respectively;besides,the application of slow release fertilizer improved the nutrient use efficiency of carnation,and N,P and K nutrient use efficiency in Opt-F-0.7% treatment increased by 13.88%,8.57% and 30.14% compared with Conv-F treatment.[Conclusion] Slow release fertilizer could not only reduce the waste of fertilizer resources and improve fertilizer use efficiency but also decrease the pollution caused by nutrient loss,which had important practical significance for protecting ecological environment and promoting the sustainable development of agriculture.

The Game Analysis of Environmental Protection at Scenic Spots

Game model of environmental protection at scenic spots is established in this paper in order to carry out analysis of the equilibrium between one-time game and infinitely repeated game, disclose the reasons why the environment of scenic spots are destroyed, and propose the countermeasures to ensure the equilibrium of the game. The study also reveals that during the one-time game between tourists and tour operators, it is tour operators' dominant strategy not to control environmental pollution that leads to the destruction of environment at scenic spots. While, during the infinitely repeated game between tourists and tour operators, the realization of Pareto optimality equilibrium (The strategy of tourist is traveling, and the strategy of tour operators are controlling environmental pollution) is dependent upon the choice of players (tourists or operators) of triggering strategy (traveling or controlling environmental pollution). The supervision of the government upon operators can force them to control environmental pollution, which can consequently improve the efficiency of equilibrium in the game, and promote environmental protection at tourism scenic spots and sustainable development of tourism.

Analysis on the Influencing Factors of Residents' WTP for Environmental Protection in Tourist Destination——A Case Study of Yellow River Stone Forest in Jingtai of Gusu Province

On the basis of questionnaire survey,by adopting Contingent Valuation Method,residents' WTP for the protection of Yellow River Hoodoo National Geopark in Longwan Village,Jingtai County of Gansu Province was investigated.The result showed that tourism development had greatly influenced local society,economy and culture.Residents in this area had a strong awareness of all the factors above mentioned and showed a positive attitude.Local residents would definitely like to provide a certain degree of labor or money to promote the development of tourism,which was different from the residents' attitude of developed countries.To some extent,it reflected the characteristics of tourism development in developing countries.However,the result of this paper that demographic among residents had little effect on WTP also differed from previous researches.The improvement of living standard and residents' consciousness of environmental protection were the main reasons affecting residents' WTP.Besides,the amount of payment was also in remarkable correlation with the improvement of living standard and the destruction degree of local ecological environment.

Study on Environmental Protection during Agricultural Eco-tourism Development in Guangzhou City——From the Perspective of Perfecting Environmental Responsibility System of Tourism Company

By taking Guangzhou City for example,a series of environmental problems brought by agricultural ecological tourism were analyzed from the perspective of environmental degradation caused by that tourism company failed to take environmental responsibility.Based on economic development and environmental protection,some suggestions on environmental protection were proposed from the perspective of perfecting environmental responsibility of tourism company in order to realize win-win of economic development and environmental protection.

Main issues in research and practice of environmental protection for water conservancy and hydropower projects in China

In this paper,we generally summarize the main issues in the operational period of water conservancy and hydropower projects in China over the past several decades.First,the adverse impacts of these projects since the technical guidelines were proposed in 2006 are analyzed.Then,combined with projects and experience from 2006 to 2014,the four main issues are summarized:(1) There exist many questions in the design and construction of fishways,which are useful for fish migration,and the migration effects are not as expected.(2) Temperature stratification affecting the downstream fish is the major impact of temperature,and alters fish spawning in the reproduction season.(3)Ecological base flow has been one of the primary questions of the last 30 years in China,the greatest related difficulty being quantification of the amount and flow process necessary to satisfy fish life history.(4) Fish habitat protection and restoration are popular topics in recent years with the development of river ecosystem restoration.Fish habitat loss due to the impacts of dam construction and habitat fragmentation has become more and more serious.These four issues are now the main difficulties in water project management,and interact with one another to bear combined effects on river ecosystems.The issues of eco-hydraulic consideration in the design period are the key factors.Finally,future priorities for research and practice of environmental protection for water conservancy and hydropower projects in China are proposed.The main purpose of this paper is to enhance the scientific research,monitoring,and assessment of operating effectiveness.

Study on the Priority and Interaction of Food Security,Food Safety and Environmental Protection

Food security, food safety and environmental protection are major livelihood issues in front of the Chinese people. The priorities of the three are different, and there is mutually dependent and contradictory relationship among them. Facing the triple pressures of food security, food safety, and environmental protection, this paper analyzes the priority of the three from the historical development, then further analyzes the interaction between food security,food safety and environmental protection and finally puts forward the healthy development of food security, food safety and environmental protection, and the proper settlement of the three problems.

Discussion on the Environmental Protection and Planning of Traditional Villages

Resource environment of traditional villages is an important historical and cultural heritage of China. It deserves protection but currently is faced with severe destruction resulting from unsuccessful village planning or implementation. In this paper, problems existing in the planning of traditional villages are analyzed, and countermeasures for environmental protection and planning as well as proposals for implementation are put forward.

Study on Transformation of Ideas of Environmental Protection Administration and Construction of Ecological Civilization in China

The transformation process of ideas of environmental protection administration in China was introduced firstly,and then the connotation and construction of ecological civilization were analyzed.

Environmental influence of Wuhan urban agglomeration development and strategies of environmental protection

In Wuhan urban agglomeration （WUA）, the population growth and concentration, the industrial development and urban sprawl have been affecting the environment ftmdamentally. Comparing with Yangtze delta metropolitan region, the level of urbanization and industrialization of WUA has lagged behind for about 10 years; but the problems in environmental protection and rehabilitation are commonly serious. In the future, WUA should avoid unnecessary mistakes and seek a win-win strategy for economy and environment in its large-scale development stage. Based on the analysis of the changing of main environmental pollutants and the coupled curves in past decades, the paper discussed the important links among the urban environmental pollutions, industry growth and urban sprawl in WUA. It is concluded that the integration of economic and environmental policies in urban development is more required and significant at the large urban agglomeration region. Four proactive and long-term strategies need to be adopted to provide prior guidance and better protection for the development of WUA.

Closed-loop supply chain network equilibrium strategy model with environmental protection objectives

With the increasing popularity of ecological civilization and sustainable development,enterprises should consider environmental protection measures in their operations in addition to pursue their economic interests.This paper establsihes a closed-loop supply chain network model composed of multiple suppliers,manufacturers,retailers,recyclers,and demand markets—regarding their dual goals of the profit maximization and the minimization of carbon emissions.The conditions necessary for establishing overall equilibrium and an equilibrium model of the entire closed-loop supply chain network are determined by applying variational inequality and dual theory.A modified projection contraction algorithm is used to design a model-solving program.Finally,using numerical examples,the paper conducts a comparative static analysis on important parameters such as the weight coefficients of environmental protection objectives and consumers'awareness of low-carbon environmental protection and attains some beneficial enlightenment on management.The results indicate that when the environmental protection objectives of a certain type of enterprise increases,both the economic benefits and environmental protection performance will improve;when the environmental protection objectives of all enterprises increases simultaneously,environmental protection performance improves significantly,but the changes in economic benefits of different enterprises are inconsistent and profit coordination is more complex.Although consumers’awareness of low-carbon preference could improve environmental performance,it reduces the overall profits of network members and the entire closed-loop supply chain network as a whole.The above conclusions can be used as a reference for the government in designing low-carbon environmental protection policy and in closed-loop supply chain research.

Poverty Reduction,Environmental Protection and Ecosystem Services:A Prospective Theory for Sustainable Development

Poverty reduction and environmental protection are two global tasks for sustainable development.The study perspective has changed over time,from narrowly focusing on poverty reduction to comprehensively strengthening human-welfare.We reviewed key references targeting the theoretical content and practical approach relying on poverty,environment protection and ecosystem services.We discussed the contradicting views on the relationship of poverty and environmental degradation,and then illustrated the study progress of a cutting-age topic-ecosystem services which pave a way to address poverty reduction and environmental protection together.At last,we investigated essential factors that affect the development and environmental protection.Considering the evolution of the concept of poverty,we found that the environment has occupied an increasing proportion in the cognizance of poverty.The relationship between poverty and environmental degradation is regional uniqueness.In practical aspect,projects based on the management and valuation assessment of ecosystem services draw researchers′attention all over the world.The appropriate scale,essential economic incentives,morality,law and social equality are key factors affecting individuals′decisions which directly relate to the sustainable development.

Factors Affecting Community-Based Tourism Development and Environmental Protection: Practical Study in Vietnam

Community-based tourism (CBT) is considered as one of the typical types of tourism towards sustainable development with three important goals such as bringing back economic benefits, protecting natural environment and preserving indigenous cultural values. Therefore, this paper analyzes the factors that affect community ecotourism development associated with environmental protection in emerging economies, including Vietnam, by the method of key and community tourism potential value assessment with 721 sample surveys. In this paper, we have applied to assess the key factors of tourism in Vietnam and other key points to have more comprehensive solutions to promote the development of community-based tourism with environmental protection. The article has used guest-based approach and method of assessing the key success factors. The results of researching factors to develop community tourist (impacting tourist community needs of tourists) by running Logit function have shown the great influence of factors such as: environmental protection (influence factor +3.585780, with a statistical significance of 99%), security and safety (+3.024816—statistical significance 99%) followed by infrastructure conditions & facilities for the community based tourism, the level of information etc… for your community based tourism needs. From the research results, we propose the following policy groups: 1) Developing guidelines for CBT, the first step as a basis for the development of community based tourism laws later;2) Policies related to the implementation of planning, development of key community tourist areas and destinations;3) Policies related to the development of community-based tourism associated with the protection of natural and cultural environments;4) Policies related to tourism management;coordinating monitoring of community tourism resource points;policies related to the local community in community tourism development;5) Policies related to human resource development;promotion work;developing community based tourism products.

Environmental properties of metallic minerals and their applications in environmental protection in China

In terms of environmental mineralogy, the environmental properties of metallic minerals, including chemical activation, adsorption, pore effect and nanometer effect, have been analyzed. On the basis of the analysis of environmental properties of metallic minerals, the applications of iron-bearing sulfides, iron and manganese oxides in the purification of wastewaters containing heavy metal ions (Cr{6+}, Hg{2+}, Pb{2+}, etc.) have been summarized. Moreover, research on the application of metallic minerals in environmental protection has been anticipated. It should be a piece of dominating work for environmental mineralogic researchers in the future to lucubrate systematically the physical and chemical characteristics of the metallic mineral surfaces, further reveal the reciprocity process between metallic minerals and water surface, perfect the theory and model of the metallic minerals to remove contaminants, intensify study on the facilities and techniques of metallic minerals to remove contaminants, and entail well the extension and propagation of achievements.

Construction and Environmental Protection of Large-scale Livestock and Poultry Farms

Large-scale breeding of livestock and poultry is the main way of modern animal husbandry development.This breeding method is widely used by the majority of owners because of its easy technical promotion,low breeding cost and good economic benefits.But with the development of large-scale livestock and poultry breeding,the pollution and damage to the environment caused by fecal pollution from large-scale livestock and poultry breeding has been criticized by many environmentalists.In this paper,through visit and investigation of large-scale livestock and poultry farms,the methods and measures of environmental protection in the construction of large-scale livestock and poultry farms are proposed.