Dynamic study on the influencing factors of industrial firm's carbon footprint

Industrial firms are central to the effort to grapple with emission of greenhouse gases due to large material flows they process. Thus, employing system dynamics approach, the present study explored influencing factors of industrial firms' carbon footprint. Using empirical data from selected firms in China, simulation results revealed that price of raw material; governmental subsidy and pressure from international rules, as well as firm's awareness of social responsibility have slightly affected firms' carbon emissions. On the contrary, some factors have obvious effects on firms' carbon footprint including governmental regulation, awareness of consumer, company size, the ratio of low carbon package and recycling. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.