Study on Environmental Performance Evaluation Method of Waste

Resource Multiple Utilization Industry

Yi Zhu

, Dongfeng Gao

, Yun Fu

, Yuanyuan Teng

, Shuang Ding

, Yanxin Gao

and Rui Zhang

China National Institute of Standardization, NO.4 Zhichun Street, Beijing, China

837411413@qq.com,dings@cnis.ac.cn,gaoyx@cnis.ac.cn,zhangrui@cnis.ac.cn

Keywords: Waste Resource Multiple Utilization, Environmental Performance, Evaluation.

Abstract: The scale of China's waste resource multiple utilization industry has been gradually expanded, the recycling

and utilization system has been gradually perfected, and the technical level has been gradually improved.

However, the standardized level of management still needs to be further strengthened. Through the study on

the domestic and overseas environmental performance evaluation methods and indicator systems, this study

constructs the framework for the environmental performance evaluation indicator system in the waste resource

multiple utilization industry, gives the determination method of indicator weight and indicator reference value,

proposes the calculation method and grading method of environmental performance indicator, and defines the

applicable scenario of such method.

1 INTRODUCTION

With the rapid economic growth, the environmental

problem has already become the most urgent task

before us, which has seriously threatened the healthy

survival of human beings and the sustainable

development of the society, and caused a widespread

concern in the whole society. At present, various

industries and enterprises have sought methods and

means to evaluate, verify and improve their

environmental performances. Centered on the

Circular Economy Promotion Law, and taking the

improvement of resources utilization efficiency,

environmental protection & improvement, and

realization of sustainable development as the target,

China has issued a series of laws, administrative

regulations & departmental regulations in terms of

clean production, pollution prevention and control,

energy-saving & emission reduction, recycling of

renewable resources, comprehensive utilization of

bulk industrial solid wastes, ecological design of

industrial products, etc., and the comprehensive

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1951-471X

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9760-1512

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4789-5297

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5087-1993

utilization policy system of waste resources has been

preliminarily established; it has broken through the

comprehensive utilization technology of bulk

industrial solid wastes, such as the fly ash, coal

gangue, industrial by-product gypsum, etc., the

producer responsibility extension system has been

implemented in the waste electronics & electrical

appliances, a group of professional enterprises that

are engaged in the recycling, disassembly, and

utilization of renewable resources has emerged, and

the pilot projects and demonstration works of

refabrication, standardization of circular economy,

etc., have been steadily promoted.

At present, the scale of China's waste resource

multiple utilization has been gradually expanded, the

functions of recycling and utilization system have

been gradually perfected, and the regional terminal

markets have been preliminarily formed. Although

the technical level has been improved, the

standardized level of management still needs to be

further improved. Therefore, it is of great significance

to study the environmental performance evaluation

method in the waste resource multiple utilization

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4858-2831

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https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2251-5526

Zhu, Y., Gao, D., Fu, Y., Teng, Y., Ding, S., Gao, Y. and Zhang, R.

Study on Environmental Performance Evaluation Method of Waste Resource Multiple Utilization Industry.

DOI: 10.5220/0011185700003444

In Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on Artiﬁcial Intelligence and Healthcare (CAIH 2021), pages 80-85

ISBN: 978-989-758-594-4

industry, guide the evaluation of environmental

performance level in waste resource multiple

utilization industry, the better enhancement of

resources utilization efficiency, the realization of

scientific recycling, high efficient collection, safe

disposal and reasonable recycling of waste resources,

and the active promotion of industrial healthy

development.

2 THEORETICAL BASIS

The overseas study on environmental performance

evaluation indicators might be traced back to 1970s,

which was mainly concentrated on the external-

stakeholder-demand-oriented indicator evaluation,

the enterprise-environmental-management-and-risk-

control-oriented indicator evaluation, and the

enterprise-environment-and-enterprise-

development-coordinated indicator evaluation (Asit

2015, Wagner 2005, Martinez 2012, Jiang 2020).

Besides, the environmental performance evaluation

processes and steps, evaluation principles, and the

selection of evaluation parameters, etc. are specified

in the international standard Environmental

Management – Environmental Performance

Evaluation - Guidelines (ISO 14031: 2013). This

standard has provided the comprehensive guidance

and support for the preparation of overall framework,

selection basis of evaluation indicators and other

contents of the environmental performance

evaluation, and this standard is also adopted by China

and converted into the national standard (Huang

2021).

With regard to the domestic research, National

Development and Reform Commission and other

departments have jointly prepared the 2007 version

and 2017 version of Circular Economy Development

Evaluation Indicator System. Among them, the 2007

version specifies 22 evaluation indicators at the

macro level and 14 evaluation indicators at the

industrial park in terms of four aspects, namely,

output of resources, consumption of resources,

comprehensive utilization of resources, and

emissions of wastes, while the 2017 version proposes

17 evaluation indicators

(www.ndrc.gov.cn/fggz/hjyzy/fzxhjj/201701/t20170

105_1202980. html 2017) from three categories,

namely, comprehensive indicator, special indicator

and reference indicator; Ministry of Environmental

Protection, National Development and Reform

Commission, and Ministry of Industry and

Information Technology separately unite other

departments to prepare the ecological industrial

demonstration park and industrial park circular

transformation and green industrial park evaluation

indicator system(Fu 2019) according to the policy

implementation and work conduct; National

Development and Reform Commission and Ministry

of Environmental Protection unite other departments

to prepare the General Principles of Stipulating the

Assessment Indicator Frame of Cleaner Production

for Industries, which combines and revises the clean

production evaluation indicator system, clean

production standard, and clean production technical

level evaluation

system(www.mee.gov.cn/gkml/hbb/gwy/201306/t20

130617_253853.htm 2013). In addition, many

Chinese scholars have also studied how to establish

the environmental performance evaluation indicator.

For instance, Liu Jiansheng proposed the design

principles and key design points of enterprise

environmental performance evaluation indicator(Liu

2011) based on the circular economy framework;

Zhang Yonghong et al., constructed the CBM

enterprise environmental performance evaluation

indicator system(Zhang 2018) based on the BSC and

GEVA; Yu Huixian et al., constructed the petroleum

enterprises environmental performance evaluation

indicator system including 6 primary indicators and

32 secondary indicators, and utilized the analytic

hierarchy process (AHP) to determine the indicator

weight (Yu 2020).

The purpose of environmental performance

evaluation is to evaluate the realization degree in

terms of the energy saving and emission reduction,

clean production, resources recycling, etc. of the

enterprise. The industrial features, operation

characteristics, business process, resources and

energy consumption, etc. of different industries may

vary, and the evaluation indicator system may be

separately designed for the environmental

performance evaluation according to the difference of

industries. This paper carries out the high-frequency

indicator and unique indicator analysis through the

study on domestic and overseas environmental

performance evaluation methods and evaluation

indicator systems, especially in terms of the

evaluation methods and evaluation indicator systems

at the macro and micro levels within the sectors such

as the circular economy, waste resources

comprehensive utilization industry, etc., prepared by

relevant departments in China, and conducts the

study on environmental performance evaluation

method of waste resource multiple utilization

enterprises in combination with the features of this

industry, and by adopting the ISO 14031 international

standard as the guideline.

Study on Environmental Performance Evaluation Method of Waste Resource Multiple Utilization Industry

3 CONSTRUCTION OF

EVALUATION SYSTEM

3.1 Evaluation Indicator System

3.1.1 Evaluation Indicator Framework

The segmentation fields of waste resource multiple

utilization industry mainly include the

comprehensive utilization of industrial solid wastes,

comprehensive utilization of agricultural and forest

wastes, recycling of renewable resources, resource

utilization of restaurant and kitchen wastes, resource

utilization of building wastes, Remanufacturing, and

other fields. The environmental performance

evaluation of waste resource multiple utilization

industry shall mainly consider the output capacity of

enterprise resources and energy consumption, the

utilization efficiency of resources and energy, the

multiple utilization capacity of waste resources, and

environmental impact level, etc. The environmental

performance evaluation indicator system of waste

resource multiple utilization industry shall be

including but not limited to the resources and energy

output indicator, resources multiple utilization

indicator, environmental emission indicator and other

primary indicators that may reflect the environmental

performance level of waste resources multiple

utilization industry and segmentation fields. Every

primary indicator may consist of several secondary

indicators that may reflect the environmental

performance level of waste resources multiple

utilization industry and segmentation fields. For the

evaluation indicator framework, see Table 1.

Table 1: Environmental Performance Evaluation Indicator Framework of Waste Resources Multiple Utilization industry.

Primary indicator

Weight of

primary

indicator

Secondary indicator

Weight of

secondary

indicator

Benchmark

value

1 Resources and energy

output indicator

Yield rate of the lan

Yield rate of the ener

Yield rate of water resources

… …

2 Resource multiple

utilization indicator

Comprehensive utilization rate of

industrial solid wastes

Comprehensive utilization rate of

ricultural and forestr

wastes

Recycling rate of renewable

resources

Resource handling rate of

restaurant and kitchen wastes

Resource utilization rate of

uildin

wastes

Repeated utilization rate of

industrial wate

Reuse rate of reclaimed wate

Refabrication rate

Comprehensive recycling rate of

valuable element

… …

3 Environmental

emission indicator

COD emissions of unit product or

unit output value

Total nitrogen emissions of unit

roduct or unit output value

Ammonia nitrogen emissions of

unit

roduct or unit out

ut value

SO2 emissions of unit product or

unit output value

Nitrogen oxide emissions of unit

roduct or unit output value

Particulate matter emissions of

unit

roduct or unit out

ut value

… …

CAIH 2021 - Conference on Artiﬁcial Intelligence and Healthcare

3.1.2 Explanation of Evaluation Indicators

Resources and Energy Output Indicator. It is

required to set the resources and energy output

indicator from the perspective of facilitating the

improvement of enterprise resources and energy

output, the improvement of resources and energy

utilization efficiency, etc. The secondary

indicators shall be including but not limited to

the yield rate of the land, energy, water

resources, and other indicators, and the

appropriate adjustments may be made according

to features of different fields of resources

comprehensive utilization.

Resource Multiple Utilization Indicator. It is

required to set the resource multiple utilization

indicator from the perspective of facilitating the

improvement of waste resources recycling, quantity

& efficiency of recycling, and the improvement of

high value-added utilization level of waste resources,

etc. The secondary indicators shall be including but

not limited to the comprehensive utilization rate of

industrial solid waste, recycling rate of renewable

resources, comprehensive utilization rate of

agricultural and forest wastes, resource utilization

rate of restaurant and kitchen wastes, resource

utilization rate of building wastes, repeated utilization

rate of industrial water, reuse rate of reclaimed water,

refabrication rate, comprehensive recycling rate of

valuable element, etc. The appropriate adjustments

can made according to features of different fields of

waste resource multiple utilization industry.

Environmental Emission Indicator. It is required to

set the environmental emission indicator from the

perspective of facilitating the reduction of generation

and emission of environmental pollutants, etc. The

secondary indicator shall be including but not limited

to the COD, total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, SO2,

nitrogen oxide, particulate matter emissions, and

other indicators of unit product or unit product output

value. The specific indicators shall be set according

to the pollutant features of various sectors of waste

resource multiple utilization industry.

3.2 Determination Methods of the

Weight and Indicator Benchmark

Value

3.2.1 Weight Determination Method

Different fields of waste resource multiple utilization

industry shall separately determine the weight of

primary indicator and secondary indicator according

to the features of its own field. The environmental

performance evaluation indicator weight of waste

resource multiple utilization industry may be

determined according to the analytic hierarchy

process, Delphi method and principal components

analysis method.

3.2.2 Determination Method of Indicator

Benchmark Value

If the results of environmental performance

evaluation used as the lateral comparison, the

indicator benchmark value shall adopt the principle

that top 5% enterprises in the domestic ranking at

present may reach such benchmark value as the

value-taking principle; If the results of environmental

performance evaluation used to conduct the vertical

comparison of enterprise environmental performance

itself, the indicator benchmark value shall adopt the

medium-and-long-term target of such indicator

determined by the enterprise as the value-taking

principle.

4 EVALUATION METHOD

4.1 Calculation Method of

Environmental Performance Index

The environmental performance evaluation in the

waste resource multiple utilization industry may

adopt the index evaluation method, constructing the

environmental performance index calculation

equation (see equation (1)) of waste resource multiple

utilization industry, based on the environmental

performance evaluation indicator. The dimensionless

of indicator value will be realized with the indicator

benchmark value, and dimensionless method of the

positive indicator (the greater, the better) and

negative indicator (the smaller, the better) values

separately adopt the indicator value/ indicator

benchmark value and indicator benchmark value/

indicator value. The environmental performance

indicator score will be obtained through the weighted

composite calculation.

Study on Environmental Performance Evaluation Method of Waste Resource Multiple Utilization Industry

(1)

Where,

EP - refer to the environmental performance index

of waste resource multiple utilization industry;

𝜂



- refer to the weight of number i primary

indicator;

n - refer to the quantity of primary indicators;

𝜃



- refer to the weight of number j secondary

indicator of the number i primary indicator;

m - refer to the quantity of secondary indicators;

𝑋



- refer to the number j secondary indicator

value of the number i primary indicator;

𝑋𝑏



- refer to the number j secondary indicator

benchmark value of the number i primary indicator.

4.2 Grading of Score Results

The total score is 100 points and the grade is subject

to the environmental performance indicator score,

namely, three grades from low to high, "★★★", "★

★★★" and "★★★★★". Various fields in the

waste resource multiple utilization industry will set

the grade score range according to the evaluation

indicator system and indicator benchmark value.

5 APPLICABLE SCENARIO OF

EVALUATION METHOD

5.1 Vertical Comparison

The enterprise in the waste resource multiple

utilization industry may use this method to self-

evaluate environmental performance, which may be

used to conduct the vertical comparison between

environmental performance evaluation results of the

enterprise's various evaluation periods. The relevant

competent authority or enterprise in the industry may

carry out the dynamic monitoring on the enterprise

environmental performance through the evaluation

results.

5.2 Lateral Comparison

The relevant competent authority or industrial

organization in the industry may use this method to

compare or rank the environmental performance

results of enterprises in the waste resource multiple

utilization industry or various fields of it, and the

results may be used to carry out the lateral

comparison between enterprise environmental

performance evaluation results within different

evaluation periods and measure or evaluate the

environmental performance level of enterprises in the

industry or field.

6 CONCLUSION

The waste resource multiple utilization industry

covers many specific fields. After each field

determines the secondary indicator, indicator weight,

indicator benchmark value and score grade according

to its own features and development conditions, this

method may be used to carry out the environmental

performance evaluation. This method will provide the

technical support for the industrial management and

standardized & healthy development in the waste

resource multiple utilization industry.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is supported by the Foundation of

President of China National Institute of

Standardization（542019Y-6659）.

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Study on Environmental Performance Evaluation Method of Waste Resource Multiple Utilization Industry