• Korea Real Estate Review
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.49-64
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of eco-friendly building certification grade on the price and cost of office in Seoul office building. For this purpose, multiple regression analysis is used to examine the prices of buildings. In order to identify the effect of environmental cost reduction of buildings with high eco-friendly certification, we also performed LCC (Life Cycle Cost) + LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) analysis. Results of our analysis show that office buildings with a higher level of eco-friendly certification are priced significantly higher. Through LCC analysis, it was also found that buildings with high levels of eco-friendly certification cost less than those with lower-level certification. Furthermore, it was confirmed that office buildings with higher-level environmental certification have total lower environmental load costs (TCA = LCC+LCA) than buildings without certification. According to the TCA analysis, buildings with a high level eco-certification generated lower social costs than buildings with lower-level or no certification.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.149-172
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• 2024

Purpose: By empirically analyzing factors that affect the intention to introduce RPA, we aim to increase understanding of RPA introduction in small and medium-sized businesses and contribute to establishing an effective introduction strategy. The aim is to improve the company's productivity, reduce costs, and strengthen its competitiveness. It also provides policy recommendations for the introduction of RPA. Methods: A survey was conducted to examine whether the technical, organizational, and environmental factors of the TOE framework had an impact on the intention to adopt RPA. We also used stepwise regression analysis to determine whether firm size moderates this relationship. Results: Technical factors, organizational factors, and environmental factors were all found to have a significant impact on small and medium-sized enterprises' intention to adopt RPA. It was confirmed that company size has a moderating effect affecting the intention to adopt RPA. In particular, customer pressure, relative advantage, competitive pressure, age, government support, and the perceived ease of use of RPA was a key determinant of its adoption by small and medium-sized enterprises. Conclusion: This suggests that small and medium-sized businesses should comprehensively consider technical, organizational, and environmental factors when introducing RPA. It is expected to increase understanding of RPA introduction in small and medium-sized businesses, contribute to establishing effective introduction strategies, and contribute to improving company productivity, reducing costs, and strengthening competitiveness.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.11-20
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• 2016

Depletion of natural resources and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are an important issue which we have to solve. The recycling of waste has emerged as a global concern. In Korea, the development of cost-effective treatment and recycling technologies also need to be improved. In this study, we compared and analyzed the cost per unit of treatment and recycling of organic waste, and presented an effective recycling scheme. We investigated the current status of treatment and costs for six types of organic wastes from 80 workplaces, including organic wastewater treatment sludge, processed organic sludge, and plant residues. In addition, environmental costs for greenhouse gas reduction were calculated. It's an economic way that organic waste is composted and used as cement additives. In particular, the economic analysis was done by realistic results of the survey target companies. In conclusion, in order for reliable processing and recycling of organic wastes, wastewater treatment sludge and sewage sludge need to be classified based on hazard characteristics. Finally, technical difficulties need to be further resolved such as odors, leachate, and debris on recycling organic wastes.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.451-463
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• 2016

We explore the impact of Chinese future air pollutant emissions on ozone air quality in Northeast Asia (NEA) and health in South-Korea using an assessment framework including ICAMS (The Integrated Climate and Air Quality Modeling System) and BenMAP (The Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program). The emissions data sets from the climate change scenarios, the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) (emission scenarios, EMSO), are used to simulate ozone air quality in NEA in the current (1996~2005, 2000s), the near future (2016~2025, 2020s) and the distant future (2046~2055, 2050s). Furthermore, the simulated ozone changes in the 2050s are used to analyze ozone-related premature mortality and economic cost in South-Korea. While different EMSOs are applied to the China region, fixed EMSO are used for other country regions to isolate the impacts of the Chinese emissions. Predicted ozone changes in NEA are distinctively affected by large changes in NOx emission over most of China region. Comparing the 2020s with the 2000s situation, the largest increase in mean ozone concentrations in NEA is simulated under RCP 8.5 and similarly small increases are under other RCPs. In the 2050s in NEA, the largest increase in mean ozone concentrations is simulated under RCP 6.0 and leads to the occurrence of the highest premature mortalities and economic costs in South-Korea. Whereas, the largest decrease is simulated under RCP 4.5 leads to the highest avoided premature mortality numbers and economic costs. Our results suggest that continuous reduction of NOx emissions across the China region under an assertive climate change mitigation scenario like RCP 4.5 leads to improved future ozone air quality and health benefits in the NEA countries including South-Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.17 no.2 s.75
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• pp.227-241
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• 2005

This paper presents a practical and realistic Life-Cycle Cost (LCC) optimum design methodology for steel bridges considering the long-term effect of environmental stressors such as corrosion and heavy truck traffics on bridge reliability. The LCC functions considered in the LCC optimization consist of initial cost, expected life-cycle maintenance cost, and expected life-cycle rehabilitation costs including repair/replacement costs, loss of contents or fatality and injury losses, road user costs, and indirect socio-economic losses. For the assessment of the life-cycle rehabilitation costs, the annual probability of failure, which depends upon the prior and updated load and resistance histories, should be accounted for. For the purpose, Nowak live load model and a modified corrosion propagation model, which takes into consideration corrosion initiation, corrosion rate, and repainting effect, are adopted in this study. The proposed methodology is applied to the LCC optimum design problem of an actual steel box girder bridge with 3 continuous spans (40m+50m+40m=130m). Various sensitivity analyses are performed to investigate the effects of various design parameters and conditions on the LCC-effectiveness. From the numerical investigation, it has been observed that local corrosion environments and the volume of truck traffic significantly influence the LCC-effective optimum design of steel bridges. Thus, these conditions should be considered as crucial parameters for the optimum LCC-effective design.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.28-36
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• 2018

Islands are supplied with power from diesel generation or from photovoltaic power generation, and problems with offshore environmental impacts (age deterioration, salt pollution), environmental pollution (exhaust gas, noise, dust) and power generation costs (installation, maintenance) have increasingly emerged. In 2016, the cost recovery rate was only 27%, and deficits reached 73% on 65 islands managed by KEPCO. In terms of deficits, the costs incurred in the power generation sector accounted for 91%, with the ratio of fixed costs at about 60%. Analysis suggests that operating costs can be reduced with an optimal power supply system that improves power generation efficiency and makes operating systems more efficient. Therefore, it is possible to simplify fuel transportation and facility maintenance, because one island integrates the power plants of remote islands, and offshore cable is used to supply power to the other islands. From the economic evaluations in this paper, an algorithm deciding offshore cable layout validity for an integrated power supply between adjacent islands is presented. Simulation results based on the proposed algorithm confirmed that an integrated power supply is economical for existing stand-alone operations on islands having diesel generation, low peak power, and near distances.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1A
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• pp.75-89
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• 2006

This paper presents a practical and realistic Life-Cycle Cost (LCC) optimum design methodology of steel bridges considering time effect of bridge reliability under environmental stressors such as corrosion and heavy truck traffics. The LCC functions considered in the LCC optimization consist of initial cost, expected life-cycle maintenance cost and expected life-cycle rehabilitation costs including repair/replacement costs, loss of contents or fatality and injury losses, road user costs, and indirect socio-economic losses. For the assessment of the life-cycle rehabilitation costs, the annual probability of failure which depends upon the prior and updated load and resistance histories should be accounted for. For the purpose, Nowak live load model and a modified corrosion propagation model considering corrosion initiation, corrosion rate, and repainting effect are adopted in this study. The proposed methodology is applied to the LCC optimum design problem of an actual steel box girder bridge with 3 continuous spans (40 m+50 m+40 m=130 m), and various sensitivity analyses of types of steel, local corrosion environments, average daily traffic volume, and discount rates are performed to investigate the effects of various design parameters and conditions on the LCC-effectiveness. From the numerical investigation, it has been observed that local corrosion environments and the number of truck traffics significantly influence the LCC-effective optimum design of steel bridges, and thus realized that these conditions should be considered as crucial parameters for the optimum LCC-effective design.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.219-243
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• 2004

Generally, electricity market has monopoly market structure because of need of enormous investment for infrastructure. However, the introduction of competition in network industry as electricity is a tendency of the world with decreasing the effects of economy of scale due to the advancement of technology. Now, electricity industry restructuring is in progress but the competition in electricity retail market is not in force yet in Korea. Whether a effective competition exist or not is very important to policy decision maker who drive restructuring, but there are small numbers of quantitative researches on that. In this study, we estimated the effectiveness of competition in the electricity retail market through switching costs. If switching costs are high, consumers actually can be locked in incumbent firm in spite of introduction of competition. Therefore switching is a critical factor to determine effectiveness of competition and to estimate the size of switching costs quantitatively can proffer the information about whether the competition in the electricity retail market is effective or not in the future. We estimated switching costs using consumer' stated-preference data by conjoint analysis. In according to estimation results, the cost of switching process is not so high, but the relative brand loyalty of an incumbent company is significantly high. And the price is considered as the most important factor choosing an electric service commodity. Based on the empirical results, it is possible to analyze the relationship between suppliers' competitiveness resulted from management efficiency and customers' switching possibilities. The paper therefore provides guidance for suppliers in deciding to enter into retail competition and for policy makers in introducing retail competition. And it has a significance of estimating the switching costs directly.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.743-776
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• 2012

This study utilizes the meta-analysis for the benefits transfer (MA-BT) approach to measure social costs the 7 target sites in the City and County of Honolulu. The estimated MA models (MA-1 and MA-1) were evaluated in terms of validity and reliability criteria. This study utilized a parametric t-test and a non-parametric sign rank test for checking validity. A transfer error measured by an absolute percentage difference was utilized to check reliability their similarity. The GIS was utilized for data collection in order to measure social costs for each target site. The results clearly demonstrated that social costs were substantially higher thant direct costs and varied market conditions and different methods used. In terms of validity and reliability criteria, MA models were preferred to the mean transfer value approach. MA-BT approach is desirable for measuring social costs for a project designed to measure social costs for these 7 proposed landfill sites with inaccessible data, on short time frames, and with little money. If researchers and planners have enough time and money, they can implement primary research. If not, the meta-analysis for the benefits transfer approach can be much better than no framework. The use of a GIS can help to identify secondary data within a specific radius of each target site.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.27-67
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• 2012

This paper analyzed the effect of transaction costs on the prices and trading volumes at the initial stage of emission markets and also examined how the size of the effect differs depending on the characteristics of the transactions. We built trading protocols modeling a recursive process to search the trading partner and make transactions with several behavioral assumptions considering the situations of early markets. The simulations results show that adding transaction costs resulted in reduction of trading volumes. Furthermore, the speed of reduction in trading volume to the increase of transaction costs is higher when there is scale economy. With a certain level of scale economy, the trading volumes abruptly fall down to almost zero as the transaction cost gets over a certain level. This suggests the possibility of a failed market. Since the scale economy is thought to be significant in the early stage of emission trading market, it is desirable to design a trading system that maximizes trading volumes and minimizes unit transaction costs at the outset. One of the alternatives to meet these conditions is to establish a centralized exchange and take measures to increase trading volumes.