Shoulin Liu

Purpose: University campuses serve as critical testbeds for net-zero transitions, but campus decarbonization measures are often designed and assessed in isolation, with limited attention to the dynamic interactions among energy, buildings, human activities and emissions. This study aims to propose a four-in-one analytical framework that differentiates the functional roles of energy substitution, infrastructure efficiency, organizational capacity and carbon-feedback regulation in campus operational decarbonization. Design/methodology/approach: To explore these dynamics, an integrated system dynamics model is developed for a stylized, average-scale Chinese university campus. Scenario simulations from 2025 to 2035 compare a baseline pathway, four single-lever interventions and a coordinated intervention package. Findings: The results indicate four model-based patterns: intervention effects remain relatively close during the initial period and diverge gradually as changes accumulate; energy-structure adjustment produces the largest simulated reduction among the individual interventions, while building-efficiency improvement generates more gradual effects; changes in organizational awareness or target stringency generate limited direct effects under the current model specification unless they are translated into technical deployment and implementation capacity; and a coordinated transformation pathway shows lower simulated emissions than standalone measures by linking technical interventions with organizational capacity and feedback mechanisms. Originality/value: This work provides both a holistic analytical framework and a quantitative simulation tool to support universities in designing synergistic, evidence-based strategies for achieving robust and sustainable net-zero futures.

Promoting green behavior among corporations is essential to the green transition of industrial sectors in China. There is a unique government-led green publicity institution, ‘Xuanguan‘, that expects to accelerate the green idea and policy spread top-down in the economic system in China. However, few studies discussed its role in formulating corporate green behavior. By constructing an integrated model of Government-led publicity-Internal and external perception-Corporate green behavior, this paper explored the effect of government-led green publicity on corporate green behavior, based on the survey data of 199 industrial manufacturing corporations in Henan Province, China. A structural equation model (SEM) was adopted to detect the influence and influential path. The results found that government-led green publicity could positively enhance green behavior via improving the corporate internal perception of risk and opportunity and improving the corporate perception of external environment actors. The heterogeneity tests showed that type of publicity channels, corporate ownership, and corporate scale made different effects on the results. Further analysis proved that government-led publicity could enhance the function of formal environmental regulation. It implies that government-led publicity can be a good compensation for formal regulations and stimulate green behavior. This paper demonstrates a new factor of enhancing corporate behavior and contributed new evidence of China’s green development story.