Better resource management: An improved resource and environmental efficiency evaluation approach that considers undesirable outputs

摘要

Highlights?This study focuses on resources used as inputs.?This study establishes a new resource and environmental efficiency evaluation model.?China’s resource and environmental efficiencies are evaluated.?China’s resource and environmental efficiencies need to be further improved.AbstractEvaluating resource and environmental efficiency is helpful to stakeholders when making iterative improvements to resource management policies, with regards to either their business activities or to societal management. Traditional evaluation models—which consider undesirable outputs in measuring environmental efficiency—are output-oriented, and so they only pursue the minimum undesirable outputs and the maximum desirable outputs, based on current inputs. The growing depletion of nonrenewable resources makes it difficult to acquire the resources essential to socioeconomic development. In such circumstances, bet