Water resource is an important factor restricting social-economic development. Hebei Province is one of the regions suffering from severe water shortage in China. Based on the Water Resources Assessment and Planning model, population growth, economic growth, water-saving, and integrated scenarios were established. The water demand and supply in Hebei Province in 2025 and 2035 were forecasted in this study. The research results show that agriculture is the main unmet water demand sector. In the absence of large-scale population inflows, the local population growth has little impact on the changes in water supply-demand. Economic development is one of the main factors affecting water balance. The water-saving scenario has the greatest impact on water supply-demand. Compared to population and economic growth scenarios, the simulation results of water demand and unmet water demand were the smallest. Under an integrated scenario, the current situation of water shortage in Hebei has been greatly improved, but there is still a demand shortage of m³ in 2030. It is necessary to take measures to improve the carrying capacity of water resources in various regions of Hebei Province and narrow the regional gap. This study provided a reference for the rational utilization of water resources.

Considering the challenges of increasing global energy scarcity and intensifying environmental problems, energy conservation in end-use energy-consuming products has become critical. In this study, we focused on household refrigerators and analyzed the individual characteristics, energy-saving awareness, and usage behaviors of Chinese refrigerator users; discussed the influence of individual characteristics and energy-saving awareness of users on refrigerator usage behavior; and evaluated the energy-saving potential with improved user behavior. The results showed that the energy-saving awareness or usage behavior of refrigerator users requires adjustment and improvement to avoid significant energy wastage. Additionally, a strong correlation was found between education, product energy efficiency level selection, age, and user behavior. Optimizing purchase choices among existing refrigerator energy efficiency grades would result in a national energy-saving potential of up to 9.31 × 10¹⁰ kW·h annually, whereas adjusting the door opening frequency and duration of some users could achieve annual energy savings of 6.14 × 10¹⁰ kW·h and 4.47 × 10¹⁰ kW·h, respectively. This study comprehensively evaluated the energy-saving potential of refrigerators from two aspects: market research and laboratory quantitative analysis. The results highlight that the government, enterprises, and individuals should pay attention to the energy-saving potential of refrigerators and actively take effective measures to promote the realization of the “dual carbon” goal.

Against the backdrop of implementing the national carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategy, this study proposes a standardized evaluation system for building low (zero) carbon industrial parks, which encompasses principles of construction, evaluation methods, indicators system, data collection, indicators calculation, evaluation results, and implementation steps. This proposal follows a deep understanding on the challenges facing industrial parks, such as trade barriers and discrepancies in technical standards, as well as opportunities under the context of high-quality development. Through quantitative analysis on the layout and distribution characteristics of government-approved industrial parks, it figures out the status quo of industrial parks in the development zone. Moreover, a case study of an economic development zone in the southeastern coastal area is made to validate the evaluation. Finally, this paper gives suggestions on the dynamic adjustment of indicators of the evaluation system and the collection of full-sample data.

At present, water-saving standard is an important technical means to implement national water-saving actions and the strictest water resources management system. In order to analyze the development process and research fields of water-saving standards in China, this paper makes quantitative statistics and qualitative analysis on seven aspects of water-saving standards, such as annual publication, drafting unit, research fields, and progress. The results show that the annual release of water-saving standards generally showed a trend of first rising and then declining, and the release reached its peak in 2017. The contribution of China National Institute of Standardization to the development of water-saving standards is dominant. From the point of view of water department, the water-saving standards in the industrial field are comprehensive. Our finding are helpful to better understand the development process of water-saving standards and provide reference for further improving the water-saving standard system and building a water-saving society.

In the context of increasing water scarcity, improving industrial water efficiency and resource management has become an urgent need, particularly in water-intensive sectors such as the cement industry. Based on the Water Life Cycle Assessment (WLCA) framework, in this study, a comprehensive assessment of water use, consumption, reuse, and wastewater discharge during cement production was conducted, and paths were proposed for improving water efficiency. Unlike traditional water footprint assessments, which primarily focus on measuring water consumption, the WLCA integrates a holistic analysis of the operational status of water systems. The research results show that for cement production in the Yellow River Basin, the waste heat power generation system accounts for the highest proportion of water consumption (65%), with its circulating cooling unit functioning as the core water-related subsystem. A large quantity of daily circulating cooling wastewater can be reused in production after treatment. Significant differences exist in unit product water consumption among enterprise types: clinker and cement production enterprises (0.18–0.30 m³/t) have higher water consumption than cement grinding stations (0.02–0.05 m³/t), and some enterprises hold considerable water-saving potential. Wastewater recovery and treatment technologies can markedly reduce water wastage. Meanwhile, waste heat recovery technologies improve energy utilization efficiency and indirectly lower water cooling demand. Additionally, waste co-processing technologies reduce virtual water consumption by replacing part of the coal used in cement production. This research provides practical technical solutions for water conservation and resource optimization in the cement industry, facilitating improvements in water efficiency management.