Academic literature on the topic 'Costs and sustainable environmental practices'
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Journal articles on the topic "Costs and sustainable environmental practices"
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Bello, Dikko. "Cost Reduction and Sustainable Business Practices; A conceptual approach." Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences 26, no. 118 (April 1, 2020): 78–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.33095/jeas.v26i118.1862.
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An excellent reputation earned by initiating and practicing sustainable business practices has additional benefits, of which are reducing environmental incidents and an improvement in operational efficiency as this has the potential to help firms improve on productivity and bring down operating costs. Taken further, with ever-increasing socially and environmentally-conscious investors and the public alike, this act of natural resources management could have a significant implication on market value and income of the practicing firms.
The above proposition has been supported by sustainable business practices literature that is continuously conversing and deliberating upon the impact of efficient resource deployment and sustainable business practices. This paper aims to add value and contribute by offering inferences on cost reduction possibilities through improved natural resources management. Therefore it is an entirely conceptual level approach that provided potentially efficient tools for business sustainability and profitability
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Egorova, Svetlana, Irina Bogdanovich, Natalia Kistaeva, and Anastasia Kulachinskaya. "Environmental costs as an indicator of sustainable development." E3S Web of Conferences 140 (2019): 09007. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/201914009007.
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One of the priorities of the modern economy is the optimal use of natural resources in economic activity. This is because the organization and management of production impacts the environment, which in turn affects both the well-being of society and the indicators of economic development. Which is why methodology and practice of public non-financial reporting reflecting indicators related to the conservation and assessment of natural resources, pollution control, waste management and recycling, and creating emission standards are actively developing. Environmental costs are becoming an important tool for making informed management decisions aimed at harmonizing the economy and the environment. At present, despite a large number of methodical developments, there is no solid theoretical basis for the formation of environmental indicators that adequately characterize the interaction of the economy and the environment and economic decision-making at all levels. The article clarifies the content, classification, performance evaluation system, environmental cost assessment methods for their application in management activities for deeper analysis, modelling and predicting economic phenomena and processes within the framework of the concept of sustainable development. The authors show approaches to the valuation of anthropogenic damage to nature, determined by the disproportionateness of natural and value indicators; the lack of prices of non-market goods, great uncertainty about the true value; the duration of the effects of man-made impacts and the long-term investment in environmental protection. Modern approaches to modelling and interpretation of results are generalized, as well as the possibilities of developing new (or improving existing) models for optimizing environmental costs. The direction of analysis of environmental indicators in the existing management system has been defined, in particular, through the study of non-financial reporting, which acts as a basis for calculating resource utilization, environmental quality and sustainability.
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M. Tahat, Monther, Kholoud M. Alananbeh, Yahia A. Othman, and Daniel I. Leskovar. "Soil Health and Sustainable Agriculture." Sustainability 12, no. 12 (June 15, 2020): 4859. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12124859.
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A healthy soil acts as a dynamic living system that delivers multiple ecosystem services, such as sustaining water quality and plant productivity, controlling soil nutrient recycling decomposition, and removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Soil health is closely associated with sustainable agriculture, because soil microorganism diversity and activity are the main components of soil health. Agricultural sustainability is defined as the ability of a crop production system to continuously produce food without environmental degradation. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), cyanobacteria, and beneficial nematodes enhance water use efficiency and nutrient availability to plants, phytohormones production, soil nutrient cycling, and plant resistance to environmental stresses. Farming practices have shown that organic farming and tillage improve soil health by increasing the abundance, diversity, and activity of microorganisms. Conservation tillage can potentially increase grower’s profitability by reducing inputs and labor costs as compared to conventional tillage while organic farming might add extra management costs due to high labor demands for weeding and pest control, and for fertilizer inputs (particularly N-based), which typically have less consistent uniformity and stability than synthetic fertilizers. This review will discuss the external factors controlling the abundance of rhizosphere microbiota and the impact of crop management practices on soil health and their role in sustainable crop production.
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Sekerez, Vojislav. "Environmental Accounting as a Cornerstone of Corporate Sustainability Reporting." INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 4, no. 1 (2017): 7–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.41.1001.
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The major objective of this paper is to stress a role of environmental accounting in developing management’s strategic initiatives in the field of environmental protection. The socially responsible behavior of a company implies undertaking various activities for prevention, removal and minimizing the harmful effects on the environment. Such a responsible strategic approach ultimately leads to numerous cost savings, improvement in profitability and reputation and finally enables corporate sustainable development. In order to achieve its goal, this research will be methodologically based on the qualitative approach of published articles’ content analysis and the analysis of corporate practice in designing environmental accounting systems that allow better identification and control of costs and benefits related to environmental protection activities. Analysis of different accounting practices in producing financial and nonfinancial environmental information requires distinction between environmental financial and management accounting, given the fact that they create different types of information intended for internal and external users. Management needs such information for the purposes of identification and control of environmental protection costs, making decisions about the more efficient use of resources, projecting costs and benefits of further activities and attempts to increase company’s value through a socially responsible behavior. The expected results of this research should confirm the premise that increased awareness of the need of environmental protection and achieving sustainable development motivates companies for more frequently producing obligatory and voluntary external and internal reports about their environmental activities. At the same time, environmental accounting is supporting these initiatives, but we expect that in future new tools will be developed that will improve the quality and scope of its informational offer, which may be the area of potential for further research.
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Hu, Xin, Bo Xia, Martin Skitmore, and Laurie Buys. "Providing a sustainable living environment in not-for-profit retirement villages." Facilities 36, no. 5/6 (April 3, 2018): 272–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/f-02-2017-0013.
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Purpose As a viable housing option for older people, retirement villages need to provide a sustainable living environment that satisfies their residents’ needs in terms of affordability, lifestyle and environmental friendliness. This is, however, a significant challenge for not-for-profit developers because of the high upfront costs involved in using sustainable practices. The purpose of this paper is to identify the sustainable features and practices adopted in not-for-profit retirement villages. Design/methodology/approach Because of the lack of quantitative historical data, a case study approach was adopted to identify the sustainable features and practices used in a not-for-profit retirement village in Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Data were collected based on interviews, direct observation and documentation, and collected data were analysed by using content analysis. Findings The research findings indicate that similar to private developers, not-for-profit developers also have the capability to make their village environment sustainable. In this case, the sustainable practices cover various aspects including the selection of village location, site planning, provision of facilities and services, social life and living costs. Although the associated costs of adopting sustainable features is a concern for both developers and residents, some of the identified sustainable practices in this case do not result in significant cost increase but can improve the residents’ quality of life substantially. Practical implications The research findings provide a number of practical implications on how to deliver sustainable retirement villages in a not-for-profit village setting. Originality/value This paper provides a first look at sustainable features and practices adopted in both the development and operation stages of a not-for-profit retirement village.
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Malarvizhi, P., and Sangeeta Yadav. "Corporate Environmental Disclosures on the Internet: an Empirical Analysis of Indian Companies." Issues In Social And Environmental Accounting 2, no. 2 (December 31, 2008): 211. http://dx.doi.org/10.22164/isea.v2i2.33.
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The impact of industrialization, on natural resources, human health and environment was not clear till 1960s. Rachel Carson for the first time in 1962 raised important questions about human impact on nature in her book, Silent Spring. With the growing awareness towards sustainable<br />development, industries and corporations have a major role in environmental degradation and protection thereof. In the past, accounting theories emphasized primarily on financial performance. This awareness<br />on sustainable development is visible through varied environmental<br />management mechanisms practiced amongst companies across the world. Environmental concerns are addressed by corporate giants through identification and estimation of environmental costs, benefits, investments, assets and liabilities into main stream accounting and reporting practices, for varied managerial decisions. These focused environmental efforts have sharpened and improved the global reporting<br />standards. In India, the incorporation of environmental costs and benefits<br />into mainstream financial reporting is at its nascent stage at present - but it is certain to grow. Indian companies have not yet developed a holistic approach to environmental reporting, as there is lack of environmental reporting guidelines. On the other hand environmental awareness among<br />Indian stakeholders gets strengthened with advancement in communication technology. High propensity of environmental awareness ensures a more cautious approach among Indian corporations to be environmentally responsible. With the advancement of information and communications technologies, global corporate information disclosures<br />have been on rise through the medium of internet, as confirmed by various recent national and international surveys. This research has observed that Indian companies follow diverse reporting practices on the internet viz., stand alone environmental reporting (satellite accounts) or<br />reporting along with the Annual/Financial Reports, or Sustainability Reporting.
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Nazeer, Sabrina Fathima, Thanuja Ramachandra, Sachie Gunatilake, and Sepani Senaratne. "Emerging sustainable facilities management practices in health-care sector." Journal of Facilities Management 18, no. 1 (December 20, 2019): 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jfm-10-2019-0056.
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Purpose Health-care (HC) is one of the most polluting industries and recognised as the second energy-intensive sector, emitting 8 per cent out of total 40 per cent of total carbon emissions. Integrating sustainability to facilities management operations is imperative and could significantly contribute to reducing energy consumption, waste and day-to-day operational costs of buildings. The integration of sustainability into FM practices depends on factors such as facility type, organisational scale, business sector and organisation characteristics. This paper aims to explore the SFM practice with a specific focus on HC-specific FM services and respective sustainable practice that could be integrated into FM operations. Design/methodology/approach A Delphi survey was administered to ten experts in two rounds, who are specialised in FM and sustainable practices in the HC sector. Data gathered from the survey were analysed using the Relative Importance Index to identify the most significant FM services and sustainable practices. Findings The study found 9 significant FM services and 49 sustainable in HC. The top three significant FM services include “building services (BS)”, “space planning (SP)” and “quality management (QM)”. Further, “identifying applications for energy-saving measures” and “ensure onsite, off-site storage and transport of wastes” were found as the topmost significant sustainable practices. The relevancy of these identified sustainable practices to the principles of sustainability was determined. The results showed that 22, 18 and 09 sustainable practices were relevant to environmental, social and economic principles of sustainability, respectively. Originality/value There is a dearth of literature that integrates sustainable FM practices in HC sector, and this study fulfills this research gap. The study is novel in offering a framework to integrate sustainability into FM practice in HC sector.
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Aznar-Sánchez, José A., Juan F. Velasco-Muñoz, Belén López-Felices, and Fernando del Moral-Torres. "Barriers and Facilitators for Adopting Sustainable Soil Management Practices in Mediterranean Olive Groves." Agronomy 10, no. 4 (April 2, 2020): 506. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10040506.
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Soil is a fundamental resource, subject to severe and quick degradation processes because of the pressure of human activities, particularly in many regions of the Mediterranean where agriculture is an important economic activity. It has been proven that the use of sustainable soil management practices can potentially give rise to the creation of a carbon sink, an increase of soil organic matter content, the maintenance of crop productivity and a reduction in erosion. Despite the existence of scientific evidence about the benefits generated by the use of sustainable practices on soil, many farmers are reluctant to adopt them. The objective of this study is to identify and give a hierarchical structure to the factors that condition the adoption of sustainable practices in the management of agricultural soil. The case of olive tree cultivation in Southeast Spain has been studied, using a participatory qualitative methodology. The results show a series of seven principal barriers (information, costs, risk aversion, characteristics of the farm and sustainable practices, macro factors, and cultural barriers) and five facilitators (technology, farmer training, awareness, incentives, and social pressure) for the adoption of the proposed sustainable agricultural practices. The principal political and legislative actions proposed to increase the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices include: administrative control, fostering environmental awareness, technical knowledge, and on-farm demonstrations; and, on the economic and financial level, incorporation of both general incentives and subsidizing specific costs. This study contributes to the development and discussion of intervention proposals that are designed to stimulate the implementation of sustainable practices in agricultural soil management.
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Lasley, Paul, Eric Hoiberg, and Gordon Bultena. "Is sustainable agriculture an elixir for rural communities?" American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 8, no. 3 (September 1993): 133–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s088918930000518x.
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AbstractThe transformation of agriculture according to an industrial model has had clear benefits in improving efficiency and lowering production costs, but also has had adverse consequences on rural culture and the environment. Sustainable agriculture offers alternative practices and values intended to promote environmental stewardship, conserve resources, preserve farm traditions, and support rural communities. Strong arguments can be made that it will have these consequences, based on the interactions among agricultural structure, rural community viability, and environmental quality. However, counterarguments can also be made, and the claimed benefits of sustainable agriculture for rural communities must be regarded as not yet demonstrated.
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Bowers, J. "Sustainability, Agriculture, and Agricultural Policy." Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 27, no. 8 (August 1995): 1231–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a271231.
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In this paper, the problem of achieving sustainable development in the context of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and other policy suggestions is examined. Sustainable development is defined as a commitment to conserve necessary biological, cultural, and aesthetic capital for future generations. This is not a costless process. Constraints are required on current economic activity, entailing sacrifices by the current generation, if sustainability requirements are to be met. Specific wildlife sites within the farmed landscape are critical to the sustainability programme. Conservation of these sites entails the continuation of specific and often technically obsolete farming practices. Their conservation cannot be ensured by the practice of efficient sustainable agriculture as advocated by the authors Pretty and Howes. Furthermore, those authors are wrong in believing that such agriculture could be profitable without continuing subsidy. The approach of the CAP is to make payments for the practices necessary to safeguard these sites. However, the economic sustainability of the CAP is doubtful. Its costs are excessive and reforms are not reducing the excessive financial burden and resource costs. Alternative reform packages involving conservation through cross-compliance have even greater resource costs. The ability to safeguard these critical sites in the long run is therefore questionable. This suggests there is a need to rethink sustainability requirements for cultural and biological diversity.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Costs and sustainable environmental practices"
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Forslind, Maja. "Finding the Dollar Language : Drivers and rationales for monetising corporate environmental and social impacts– practices in counting the true value of business operation from ecosystem services perspective." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-85855.
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The thesis explores how monetisation of corporate externalities, can be carried out in order to provide investors, policy makers and consumers with accurate pictures of the true costs and benefits of business operations from a resilience and ecosystem services perspective. By drawing conclusions from company cases, and previous research – methods, drivers and monetary values of impacts such as carbon dioxide, water usage, pollutants and land use are analysed. The findings reflect opportunities that open up with monetisation, in terms of tools for guidance and support in internal corporate decision making, by making the actual impacts visualised and understandable. Findings from company cases, show that monetisation of corporate effects has potential to contribute to visualising impacts – and add knowledge that may close information gaps internally as well as externally. It can guide and facilitate strategic choices at corporate level. It may also have a role in bridging information asymmetries in the picture of a firm’s operation, to consumers and investors. Monetising effects may facilitate identification of risks arising from ecosystem services dependencies, visualising the actual impacts by, assed costs in losses in ecosystems’ production (yields e.g.) caused by corporate harm.Providing relevant information to policy makers, on obstacles and where regulative incentives are needed, and investors and consumers with guidance, monetisation of impacts potentially can play a part in bridging market information gaps toward better incentive structures and possibly facilitating effective market transformation in favor of sustainable production and consumption patterns.
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SANTOS, Kelly Mary Viana dos. "Práticas ambientais sustentáveis: uma análise dos custos de adoção das ações sustentáveis aplicáveis ao Hospital Universitário Prof. Alberto Antunes (HUPAA) /." Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 2014. https://repositorio.ufpe.br/handle/123456789/18581.
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Este estudo teve por objetivo analisar os custos de adoção das ações sustentáveis aplicáveis ao Hospital Universitário Professor Alberto Antunes (HUPAA). Por meio de estudo das legislações pertinentes e uso de metodologia qualitativa, baseada em estudo de caso, procedeu-se á observação participante, aplicação de questionários e entrevistas semiestruturadas com responsáveis pela gestão hospitalar como também com os colaboradores relacionados direta e indiretamente com as ações ambientais da instituição. Observou-se que dentre um universo de 27 (vinte e sete) práticas ambientais sustentáveis pesquisadas, o HUPAA desenvolve efetivamente 20 (vinte) ações, 03 (três) são parcialmente desenvolvidas e 04 (quatro) não são aplicáveis ao hospital. Constatou-se que o hospital investiu em torno de R$ 957.125,28 (novecentos e cinquenta e sete mil cento e vinte cinco reais e vinte e oito centavos) para adotar as práticas ambientais sustentáveis. Em relação à prática ambiental que apresenta maior impacto no orçamento hospitalar foi representada pela aquisição de equipamentos e materiais que consomem menos energia, o qual o hospital gastou o um valor anual de R$ 495.169,70 (quatrocentos e noventa e cinco mil cento e sessenta e nove reais e setenta centavos). Observou-se também a necessidade do HUPAA implantar novas práticas ambientais, as quais teria que investir um valor de R$ 169.111,04 (cento e sessenta e nove mil cento e onze reais e quatro centavos). Os dados encontrados demonstram que o HUPAA apresenta uma situação favorável no desempenho das suas práticas ambientais sustentáveis, porém o hospital tem a obrigação de adotar todas as práticas ambientais inerentes à legislação ambiental, uma vez que existe a necessidade dele cumprir com o seu papel social e legal. Contudo, espera-se que as informações levantadas nesta pesquisa sirvam de instrumento de gestão para tomada de decisões da gestão hospitalar, para estruturação do serviço de gerenciamento de resíduos, além de alertar para adoção de novas práticas ambientais sustentáveis.
This research aimed to analyze the costs of adoptions of the sustainable actions applicable to the University Hospital Professor Alberto Antunes (HUPAA). By means of study of the pertinent legislations and use of qualitative methodology, based on case study it took place participating observation, utilization of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with the ones responsible for hospital management as well as the collaborators related direct or indirectly to the environmental actions of the institution. It was noticed that within the universe of 27 (twenty-seven) sustainable environmental practices researched, the HUPAA develops effectively 20 (twenty) actions, 03 (three) are partially developed and 04 (four) are not applicable to the hospital. It was observed that the hospital invested around R$ 957.125,28 (Nine hundred fifty-seven thousand one hundred twenty-five reais and twenty-eight scents) to adopt the sustainable environmental practices. With regard to the environmental practice, that presents the highest impact to the hospital budget was represented by the purchase of equipment and materials that expend less electricity, in which the hospital spent the annual value of R$495.169,70 (Four hundred ninety-five thousand one hundred sixty-nine and seventy scents). It was also observed the need of the HUPAA to establish new environmental practices, which should be invested an amount of R$ 169.111.04 (One hundred sixty-nine thousand one hundred eleven reais and four scents). The data found show that the HUPAA presents a favorable situation in the development of its sustainable environmental practices, however the hospital has the obligation to adopt all the environmental practices inherent to the environmental legislation, once that there is the necessity of it fulfills its social and legal role. Nevertheless, it is expected that the relevant information collected in this research may be useful as an instrument of management for decision-making of hospital management, the organization of the service of residue management, besides alerting for the adoption of new sustainable environmental practices.
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Logan, Alexandra Joanna. "Sustainable tourism awareness and environmental practices in luxury safari lodges." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19962.
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Sustainable tourism requires accommodation businesses to balance economic, environmental and social issues, taking into account the needs of current and future generations. However, despite the ever E increasing attention on sustainable tourism and the acknowledgement of the impacts of tourism on the environment, this form of tourism only represents a minor share of all tourism. Ecotourism forms part of sustainable tourism and is one of the most common forms of commercially focused wildlife management on privately owned land. Luxury safari lodges are expected to provide a high level of hospitality , luxurious facilities and exquisite cui sine . Consequently, these lodges consume large quantities of resources and are reliant on the adequate supply of water and energy. Safari lodges are also reliant on the natural environment to attract guests. Therefore it is prudent of these businesses to conserve and protect water, energy and ecological resources to ensure the perpetuity of the lodge. Furthermore, both the environment and society benefit from the conservation of these resources. This study investigates the awareness of sustainable tourism and environmental practices in luxury safari lodges. Twenty-five luxury safari lodges in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa were approached and a total of six safari lodges participated in an email E based questionnaire and one took part in semi -structured interviews. The research reveals that luxury safari lodges are aware of sustainable tourism and its importance. In addition, they involved in a number of environmental activities in order to achieve sustainability. The environment is emphasized as central to sustainable tourism, stemming from the fact that these lodges rely on the natural environment to attract guests. Balancing financial commitments to sustainability was found to have an impact on certain aspects of the luxury safari lodges attitudes and actions. The research indicated two key directions to pursue to sustain environmental activities in the luxury safari lodge industry. Firstly, education and awareness of staff and guests is acknowledged as central to supporting and achieving sustainability in luxury safari lodges. Secondly, lodges affiliated with voluntary initiatives such as FTT and Greenleaf are audited regularly to ensure a specific standard has been achieved, thus maintaining sustainable best practices in the lodges. The research concluded that the motivation for achieving sustainable tourism within luxury safari lodges can be seen as driven by: the need to preserve the natural environment, the opportunity to reduce operating costs (increase profitability) and the growing demand for environmentally friendly safari lodges.
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Evans, Peter J. "Community knowledge, attitudes and practices - urban mosquitoes and sustainable mosquito control." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.241460.
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Song, Ying. "Green Accessibility: Estimating the Environmental Costs of Space-time Prisms for Sustainable Transportation Planning." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437344275.
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Sukhdeo, Beverley Amanda Faith. "A conscious leadership model to achieve sustainable business practices." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5885.
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Business sustainability is a fundamental concern amongst business leaders and it is imperative that business defines an environmentally and socially sustainable path to financial prosperity. This focus on sustainable business practices has been caused by the perceived contribution of businesses to undesirable conditions such as environmental and social degradation including global warming and the global financial crises. This study suggests that a leadership style that differs from leadership that is currently causing business unsustainability is needed in order to achieve the goal of sustainable business practices. This study therefore proposes a new kind of leadership, called conscious leadership. The main contribution of the study is to increase the achievement of sustainable business practices by investigating the importance of conscious leadership in achieving this objective. Convenience sampling was used to select senior managers and directors from mainly JSE listed companies. This resulted in a total of 371 usable questionnaires (317 from listed companies and 54 from unlisted companies) being received. A quantitative approach was adopted to investigate whether conscious leadership would be related to increased sustainability competencies and more effective sustainability-related corporate governance and whether these in turn would increase sustainability behaviours which would generate sustainable business practices as measured by financial, social and environmental performance. Regression analyses were conducted to investigate the hypothesised relationships among these variables. Pearson correlations and descriptive statistics were also calculated. The empirical results showed that respondents in this study regarded conscious leadership, not as a separate construct, but as a way they governed their businesses. The empirical results showed that corporate governance and systems thinking competency had a strong interactive relationship and should therefore be cultivated within business firms. Corporate governance (including conscious leadership) and systems-thinking competency were positive influencers of employee relations, equal opportunities and workforce diversity. The empirical results however showed that corporate governance (including conscious leadership) had a negative influence on profitability. The present study cannot argue for the discouragement of corporate governance (including conscious leadership), as measured in this study, because reduced corporate governance would decrease healthy employee relations and the latter would decrease the achievement of equal opportunities and workforce diversity in these firms. A decrease in healthy employee relations would decrease profitability. The most important finding of this study is that senior managers and directors of big business firms, mostly JSE-listed companies, regarded conscious leadership as an important part of corporate governance. Corporate governance that includes conscious leadership must be developed to higher levels in business firms, so that the negative and not-significant relationships to profitability as viewed by lower and high conscious leaders respectively can be changed to positive relationships.
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Tkachenko, Sergii, and Kristina Rib. "Enforcing sustainable sourcing: A framework based on best practices." Thesis, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Marketing and Logistics, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-23875.
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Problem – Companies are increasingly focusing on sustainability issues in response to internal and external pressure. Research on sustainable performance of focal companies is vast; however there is a lack of guidelines for managing sustainability in extended supply chains. Scholars claim a need for additional research on intra- and inter-organizational diffusion of best sustainable practices. Besides, the outcomes of sustainable sourcing practices are still uncertain. The gap between potential benefits of sustainable sourcing and actual performance is attributed to lack of capabilities, instruments, and efficient processes. Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore existing sustainable sourcing practices which are used by leading multinational companies. Based on the obtained knowledge we aim to develop a framework that will suite as a guideline for enforcing sustainable sourcing practices. Method – The research has been conducted through the method of grounded theory, enabling the researchers to constructively interpret data from documentary primary data and semi-structured interviews. This approach was utilized in order to explore what are the most common practices of managing sustainable sourcing applied by the companies awarded as Industry leaders by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Conclusion We found that a commonly accepted approach towards managing and enforcing sustainable sourcing is absent both in theoretical discourse and practice. However, the most frequently mentioned tools and approaches were defined. They include the adoption of suppliers’ code of conduct, establishment of dedicated sustainability departments, procurement personnel training, suppliers’ capability building, risk assessment and categorization of suppliers, IT platforms for information sharing, supplier self-assessment, audit, joint projects with suppliers, meetings and conferences, and suppliers’ scorecards. Finally, we developed a Sustainable Sourcing Enforcement framework which could serve as a guideline to enforce supplier’s commitment to act sustainably. The framework consists of five chronologically connected pillars: Objectives alignment, Commitment creation, Supplier selection, Ongoing development and Work with stakeholders.
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Blaser, Kristeena K. "The Triple Bottom Line of Sustainable Fashion." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1493839389457047.
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Lee, Mengshan. "Integrated Assessment of Water Conservation Practices For Sustainable Management Strategies." FIU Digital Commons, 2011. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/439.
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Miami-Dade County implemented a series of water conservation programs, which included rebate/exchange incentives to encourage the use of high efficiency aerators (AR), showerheads (SH), toilets (HET) and clothes washers (HEW), to respond to the environmental sustainability issue in urban areas. This study first used panel data analysis of water consumption to evaluate the performance and actual water savings of individual programs. Integrated water demand model has also been developed for incorporating property’s physical characteristics into the water consumption profiles. Life cycle assessment (with emphasis on end-use stage in water system) of water intense appliances was conducted to determine the environmental impacts brought by each practice.
Approximately 6 to 10 % of water has been saved in the first and second year of implementation of high efficiency appliances, and with continuing savings in the third and fourth years. Water savings (gallons per household per day) for water efficiency appliances were observed at 28 (11.1%) for SH, 34.7 (13.3%) for HET, and 39.7 (14.5%) for HEW. Furthermore, the estimated contributions of high efficiency appliances for reducing water demand in the integrated water demand model were between 5 and 19% (highest in the AR program). Results indicated that adoption of more than one type of water efficiency appliance could significantly reduce residential water demand.
For the sustainable water management strategies, the appropriate water conservation rate was projected to be 1 to 2 million gallons per day (MGD) through 2030. With 2 MGD of water savings, the estimated per capita water use (GPCD) could be reduced from approximately 140 to 122 GPCD. Additional efforts are needed to reduce the water demand to US EPA’s “Water Sense” conservation levels of 70 GPCD by 2030. Life cycle assessment results showed that environmental impacts (water and energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions) from end-use and demand phases are most significant within the water system, particularly due to water heating (73% for clothes washer and 93% for showerhead). Estimations of optimal lifespan for appliances (8 to 21 years) implied that earlier replacement with efficiency models is encouraged in order to minimize the environmental impacts brought by current practice.
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Hjerpe, Mattias. "Sustainable Development and Urban Water Management : Linking Theory and Practice of Economic Criteria." Doctoral thesis, Linköping : Dept. of Water and Environmental Studies, Univ, 2005. http://www.bibl.liu.se/liupubl/disp/disp2005/arts322s.pdf.
Full textBooks on the topic "Costs and sustainable environmental practices"
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Marsden, Catherine Fletcher. Practices for sustainable communities. 2nd ed. [Ottawa]: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, 2000.
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Singh, A. J., and Hervé Houdré. Hotel sustainable development: Principles & best practices. Lansing, Mich: American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute, 2012.
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Environmentally sustainable viticulture: Practices and practicality. Oakville, ON, Canada: Apple Academic Press, 2015.
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Loehrlein, Marietta M. Sustainable landscaping: Principles and practices. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis, 2014.
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Ashfaq, Khalfan, ed. Sustainable development law: Principles, practices, and prospects. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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Redclift, M. R. Wasted: Counting the costs of global consumption. London: Earthscan, 2009.
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Rivers State (Nigeria). Ministry of Environment. Blue print on sustainable environmental practices in Rivers State. Port Harcourt: [Rivers State Ministry of Environment, 2005.
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(Canada), National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. Discussions on decision making practices for sustainable development. Ottawa: National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, 1991.
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Golińska, Paulina. Sustainable Transport: New Trends and Business Practices. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012.
Find full textBook chapters on the topic "Costs and sustainable environmental practices"
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Roy, Rishin Basu. "Environmentally Sustainable Practices." In Environmental Management: Issues and Concerns in Developing Countries, 127–38. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62529-0_7.
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Roberts, Erin. "Sustainable behaviour and environmental practices." In The Routledge Companion to Environmental Planning, 161–70. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020.: Routledge, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315179780-17.
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Ellwanger, Gunther. "External Environmental Costs of Transport — Comparison of Recent Studies." In Social Costs and Sustainable Mobility, 15–20. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag HD, 2000. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-57669-0_3.
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Zeiss, Ragna. "From Environmental Awareness to Sustainable Practices." In Handbook of Engaged Sustainability, 1–27. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53121-2_25-1.
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Zeiss, Ragna. "From Environmental Awareness to Sustainable Practices." In Handbook of Engaged Sustainability, 729–54. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71312-0_25.
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Jordan, Carl F. "Applied Tools and Practices for Sustainable Agriculture." In Environmental Challenges and Solutions, 115–50. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6790-4_5.
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Lundgren, Tommy, Lammertjan Dam, and Bert Scholtens. "Sustainable Business Practices—An Environmental Economics Perspective." In Challenges in Managing Sustainable Business, 205–29. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93266-8_9.
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Pretty, Jules N. "Agricultural Pollution: From Costs and Causes to Sustainable Practices." In Sustaining Earth, 60–70. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1990. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21091-6_6.
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Miyai, Machiko. "Panasonic’s Environmental Vision and its Practices." In Design for Innovative Value Towards a Sustainable Society, 1–3. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3010-6_1.
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Mishra, Vibhav, and Aditya Ranjan. "Air Quality Management Practices: A Sustainable Perspective." In Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World, 233–53. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3481-2_10.
Full textConference papers on the topic "Costs and sustainable environmental practices"
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Aydın, Nevin. "Green Production Practices." In International Conference on Eurasian Economies. Eurasian Economists Association, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.36880/c08.01949.
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Green production is a method developed for manufacturing, which leads to the greatest reduction in waste and pollution through process design. Creating sustainable products that become an increasingly popular trend for the conservation of natural resources that will remain in future generations, such as making the product reusable, making it appealing for producers, increasing sales, lowering operating costs, and providing collective benefit. The legal requirements of green production are supported by consumers in many countries around the world. While these changes encourage companies in different sectors to offer products and services with an environmentally sensitive approach, green applications are emerging, focusing on creating economic and ecological values in every process of the product. In this study, we discuss the benefits and examples provided by the firm and gathering of green production.
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Ittyeipe, Alan Verghese, and Anu V. Thomas. "Barriers to Adoption of Precast Concrete Construction in Buildings." In International Web Conference in Civil Engineering for a Sustainable Planet. AIJR Publisher, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.21467/proceedings.112.2.
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The increasing demands for housing the burgeoning urban population in developing countries like India has impelled the need to shift to mechanised construction practices like Precast Concrete Construction (PCCon) for faster supply of projects. PCCon has been successfully implemented in developed countries to meet the once prevalent housing shortages and is still being adopted extensively in high rise residential building projects in these countries. PCCon offers several benefits compared to cast in situ construction practices such as reduced construction time, time and cost certainty, improved quality control and improved health and safety. PCCon also promotes environment friendly construction, addresses shortage of skills and results in minimisation of life cycle costs.
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McNally, Amanda D. "A Tiered Approach for Evaluating the Sustainability of Remediation Activities at Rail Sites." In 2018 Joint Rail Conference. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/jrc2018-6163.
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Remediation of environmental sites is of concern across the rail industry. Impacted sites may result from releases of chemicals to the environment along active rail lines or in rail yards; historical activities; or through acquisition of impacted property. Management of these liabilities may require investigation, planning, design, and remediation to reduce risks to human health and the environment and meet regulatory requirements. However, these investigation and remediation activities may generate unintended environmental, community, or economic impacts. To address these impacts, many organizations are focusing on the incorporation of sustainability concepts into the remediation paradigm. Sustainable remediation is defined as the use of sustainable practices during the investigation, construction, redevelopment, and monitoring of remediation sites, with the objective of balancing economic viability, conservation of natural resources and biodiversity, and the enhancement of the quality of life in surrounding communities (Sustainable Remediation Forum [SURF]). Benefits of considering and implementing measures to balance the three pillars of sustainability (i.e., society, economics, and environment) may include lower project implementation costs, reduced cleanup timeframes, and maximizing beneficial while alleviating detrimental impacts to surrounding communities. Sustainable remediation has evolved from discussions of environmental impacts of cleanups (with considerable greenwashing), to quantifying and minimizing the environmental footprint and subsequent long-term global impacts of a remedy, and currently, incorporating strategies to address all three components of sustainability — environmental, social, and economic. As organizations expand their use of more sustainable approaches to site cleanup, it is beneficial to establish consistent objectives and metrics that will guide implementation across a portfolio of sites. Sustainable remediation objectives should be consistent with corporate sustainability goals for environmental performance (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions, resource consumption, or waste generation), economic improvements (i.e., reduction of long term liability), and community engagement. In the last decade, there have been several Executive Orders (13423, 13514, 13693) that provide incrementally advanced protocols for achieving sustainability in government agency and corporate programs. Resources for remediation practitioners are available to assist in developing sustainable approaches, including SURF’s 2009 White Paper and subsequent issue papers, ITRC’s Green and Sustainable Remediation: State of the Science and Practice (GSR-1) and A Practical Framework (GSR-2), and ASTM’s Standard Guide for Greener Cleanups (E2893-16) and Standard Guide for Integrating Sustainable Objectives into Cleanup (E2876-13). These documents discuss frameworks that may be applied to projects of any size and during any phase of the remediation life cycle, and many provide best management practices (BMPs) that may be implemented to improve the environmental, social, or economic aspects of a project. Many of these frameworks encourage a tiered approach that matches the complexity of a sustainability assessment to the cost and scope of the remediation. For small remediation sites, a sustainability program may include the selection, implementation, or tracking of BMPs. A medium sized remediation site may warrant the quantification of environmental impacts (e.g., air emissions, waste generation, etc.) during the evaluation and selection of remedial alternatives. Often, only large and costly remediation sites demand detailed quantitative assessment of environmental impacts (e.g., life cycle assessment), economic modeling, or extensive community or stakeholder outreach. However, if a tiered approach is adopted by an organization, components of each of these assessments can be incorporated into projects where it makes sense to meet the needs of the stakeholders.
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Labor, Bea, and Staffan Lindskog. "On Evaluation of Assessments of Accruals of Future Dismantling Costs." In ASME 2013 15th International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/icem2013-96100.
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A major prerequisite in order for civilian commercial nuclear energy production to qualify as sustainable energy production is that systems for the management of the nuclear waste legacy are in operation. These waste types are present in a range from very low short lived waste (VLLW) to long lived high level waste (HLW) (including the used nuclear fuel). The second prerequisite is that financial responsibilities or other constraints must not be passed on to coming generations. The first condition for qualification corresponds to the Polluters Pays Principle (PPP) which demands that the responsibility for the waste management rests solely with the polluter. The second qualification corresponds to the principle of fairness between generations and thus concerns the appropriate distribution of responsibilities between the generations. It is important to note that these two conditions must be met simultaneously, and that compliance with both is a necessary prerequisite in order for commercial use of nuclear power to qualify as a semi-sustainable energy source. Financial and technical planning for dismantling and decommissioning of nuclear installations cannot be regarded as successful unless it rests upon a distinctive way to describe and explain the well-founded values of different groups of stakeholders. This cumbersome task can be underpinned by transparent and easy to grasp models for calculation and estimation of future environmental liabilities. It essential that a systematic classification is done of all types of costs and that an effort is done to evaluate the precision level in the cost estimates. In this paper, a systematic and transparent way to develop a parametric approach that rest upon basic accounting standards is combined with data about younger stakeholder’s values towards decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear installation. The former entity rests upon theoretical and practical methods from business administration, whilst the latter is based on current survey data retrieved from 667 personal interviews in one town in Poland and one town in Slovakia with a near 100 % response rate. The main conclusions from this field study may be summarised as follows: • Sustainable energy sources are prioritised. • Around one quarter of the respondents regards nuclear power as a future semi-sustainable commercial energy production mode subject to that the waste is managed in a sustainable, environmental friendly and safe way. • The values are to a significant degree positioned on health, safety and environmental (HSE) attributes. • The polluter pays principle is honoured. • There are doubts regarding the compliance with these principles due to risks for delays in the implementation phase of repositories for disposal of the nuclear residues. • 1/5th of the respondents expressed an openness to reprocessing (which is linked to the concept of “new nuclear power”).
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Mirkouei, Amin, and Karl R. Haapala. "A Network Model to Optimize Upstream and Midstream Biomass-to-Bioenergy Supply Chain Costs." In ASME 2015 International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/msec2015-9355.
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Growing awareness and concern within society over the use of and reliance on fossil fuels has stimulated research efforts in identifying, developing, and selecting alternative energy sources and energy technologies. Bioenergy represents a promising replacement for conventional energy, due to reduced environmental impacts and broad applicability. Sustainable energy challenges, however, require innovative manufacturing technologies and practices to mitigate energy and material consumption. This research aims to facilitate sustainable production of bioenergy from forest biomass and to promote deployment of novel processing equipment (mobile bio-refinery units). The study integrates knowledge from the renewable energy production and supply chain management disciplines to evaluate economic targets of bioenergy production with use of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The decision support system method employs two phases: (1) classification of potential biomass harvesting sites via decision tree analysis and (2) optimization of the supply network through a mixed integer linear programming model that minimizes the costs of upstream and midstream supply chain segments. While mobile units are shown to reduce biomass-to-bioenergy supply chain costs, production and deployment of the units is limited due to undeveloped bioenergy supply chains and quality uncertainty. It is reiterated that future research must address process-related and systemic issues in pursuit of sustainable energy technology development.
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Jayanty, Sri Satya Kanaka Nagendra, William J. Sawaya, and Michael D. Johnson. "Sustainable Distribution Design: Contrasting Disposable, Recyclable, and Reusable Strategies for Packaging Materials Using a Total Cost Analysis With an Illustration of Milk Distribution." In ASME 2010 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. ASMEDC, 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/detc2010-28823.
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Engineers, policy makers, and managers have shown increasing interest in increasing the sustainability of products over their complete lifecycles and also from the ‘cradle to grave’ or from production to the disposal of each specific product. However, a significant amount of material is disposed of in landfills rather than being reused in some form. A sizeable proportion of the products being dumped in landfills consist of packaging materials for consumable products. Technological advances in plastics, packaging, cleaning, logistics, and new environmental awareness and understanding may have altered the cost structures surrounding the lifecycle use and disposal costs of many materials and products resulting in different cost-benefit trade-offs. An explicit and well-informed economic analysis of reusing certain containers might change current practices and results in significantly less waste disposal in landfills and in less consumption of resources for manufacturing packaging materials. This work presents a method for calculating the costs associated with a complete process of implementing a system to reuse plastic containers for food products. Specifically, the different relative costs of using a container and then either disposing of it in a landfill, recycling the material, or reconditioning the container for reuse and then reusing it are compared explicitly. Specific numbers and values are calculated for the case of plastic milk bottles to demonstrate the complicated interactions and the feasibility of such a strategy.
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Fiducioso, Marcello, Sebastian Curi, Benedikt Schumacher, Markus Gwerder, and Andreas Krause. "Safe Contextual Bayesian Optimization for Sustainable Room Temperature PID Control Tuning." In Twenty-Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence {IJCAI-19}. California: International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2019/811.
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We tune one of the most common heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) control loops, namely the temperature control of a room. For economical and environmental reasons, it is of prime importance to optimize the performance of this system. Buildings account from 20 to 40 % of a country energy consumption, and almost 50 % of it comes from HVAC systems. Scenario projections predict a 30 % decrease in heating consumption by 2050 due to efficiency increase. Advanced control techniques can improve performance; however, the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control is typically used due to its simplicity and overall performance. We use Safe Contextual Bayesian Optimization to optimize the PID parameters without human intervention. We reduce costs by 32 % compared to the current PID controller setting while assuring safety and comfort to people in the room. The results of this work have an immediate impact on the room control loop performances and its related commissioning costs. Furthermore, this successful attempt paves the way for further use at different levels of HVAC systems, with promising energy, operational, and commissioning costs savings, and it is a practical demonstration of the positive effects that Artificial Intelligence can have on environmental sustainability.
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Tamošaitienė, Jolanta, and Tomas Starta. "Integration of LEAN Last Planner System in construction processes." In Sustainable Decisions in Built Environment. VGTU Technika, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/colloquium.2019.007.
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Globally, the efficiency of the construction sector has declined around the world over the past 30 years. The main principles aimed at the improvement of the situation are based on lean construction. The concept of lean construction can be effectively used in the strategic process to improve waste reduction as well as cost and time efficiency, which results in positive outcomes such as environmental protection, economy and time-saving. Lean construction practices help to achieve significant benefits. However, many organisations still find it difficult to successfully and correctly integrate lean concepts. The research literature indicates that the construction industry has encountered poor implementation and integration of these concepts. Lean construction has eight main techniques for increasing productivity in implementing customer requirements in the construction industry. Having in mind that lean is the key requirement for gaining construction productivity, this paper provides the basic fundamental knowledge of lean construction. Also, it shows how to get the most effective results by applying the Last Planner System technique. The described case study demonstrates the integration of the Last Planner System technique into the project.
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Muroyama, Alexander, Mahesh Mani, Kevin Lyons, and Bjorn Johansson. "Simulation and Analysis for Sustainability in Manufacturing Processes." In ASME 2011 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. ASMEDC, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/detc2011-47327.
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“Sustainability” has become a ubiquitous term in almost every field, especially in engineering design and manufacturing. Recently, an increased awareness of environmental problems and resource depletion has led to an emphasis on environmentally friendly practices. This is especially true in the manufacturing industry where energy consumption and the amount of waste generated can be high. This requires proactive tools to be developed to carefully analyze the cause-effect of current manufacturing practices and to investigate alternative practices. One such approach to sustainable manufacturing is the combined use of Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to analyze the utilization and processing of manufacturing resources in a factory setting. On an economic aspect such method can significantly reduce the financial and environmental costs by evaluating the system performance before its construction or use. This project considers what-if scenarios in a simplified golf ball factory, using as close to real-world data as possible, to demonstrate DES and LCA’s ability to facilitate decision-making and optimize the manufacturing process. Plastic injection molding, an energy-intensive step in the golf ball manufacturing process, is the focus of the DES model. AutoMod, a 3-D modeling software, was used to build the DES model and AutoStat was used to run the trials and analyze the data. By varying the input parameters such as type and number of injection molding machines and material used, the simulation model can output data indicating the most productive and energy efficient methods. On a more detailed level, the simulations can provide valuable information on bottlenecks or imbalances in the system. Correcting these can allow the factory to be both “greener” and more cost-effective.
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Maharaj, Tushara, Marc Rudder, Vyshaia Singh, Wayne Rajkumar, and Vidjaya Ramkhalawan. "A New Produced Water Management Policy for the Energy Sector of Trinidad and Tobago." In SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section Energy Resources Conference. SPE, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/200926-ms.
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Abstract A Produced Water (PW) Management framework is presented, forming part of an Upstream Effluent Management (UEM) Policy. It addresses the minimization and ultimate elimination of treated and untreated PW discharge by utilization of an integrated management approach to ensure Zero Harmful Discharge (ZHD) to the environment. This approach targeted legislative reform, sustainable PW management practices, monitoring and evaluation, research and development and sustainable production patterns. A Cabinet-appointed Upstream Effluent Management Committee was established for evaluating the status of the upstream, oil and gas, effluent management practices including that of PW and providing recommendations on the way forward. This included determining the challenges in meeting relevant environmental standards; evaluating Best Available Technology (BAT) or Best Practicable Environmental Options (BPEO) for local use and benchmarking local standards against international best practices. Ultimately, a UEM Policy, inclusive of a PW Management Policy, and a revised Water Pollution Rules 2019 (WPR) were developed, submitted and approved by the Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago. Emerging from data evaluation and committee consultations, it was found that parameters from PW streams, such as Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Phenols and Ammoniacal Nitrogen were regularly out of compliance with local permissible limits. Additionally, it was noted that PW management was known to be generally costly, in terms of monitoring, treatment and disposal operations. As such the UEM Committee recommended that measures be taken to facilitate better PW management including, amendments to the Water Pollution Rules 2001 (as amended) and the TTS 547:1998, Specification for the Effluent From Industrial Processes Discharged into the Environment; to focus more on toxic components such as BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene) and PAH (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons); improvement of the chemical evaluation and approval process by the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries (MEEI) to include a pre-screening step; and the establishment of National Ambient Water Quality Standards, which have been included in the revised WPR. The WPR also encourages re-use as a beneficial discount through the revised annual permit calculation. In addition, Environmental Risk Assessments (ERA) are to be utilized to evaluate the physical, biological and socio-economic environmental standing of the marine environment of Trinidad and Tobago, so as to comprehensively deduce the full impacts of effluent discharge. Trinidad and Tobago has been in oil and gas operations for over 100 years and this integrated management approach for PW introduces a set of novel strategies and tools, geared towards moving in a more environmentally sustainable direction. The approach envisages the use of a more industry-specific regulation that focuses on the toxic components. Furthermore, this method acknowledges that "not-one-size-fits-all" and so, based on the ERA results for the specific geographic marine jurisdictions surrounding Trinidad and Tobago; it encourages more environmentally sustainable and cost effective management.
Reports on the topic "Costs and sustainable environmental practices"
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Deerhake, Marion, Christopher Mosley, Mark Rice, Karen Schaffner, Amy Wesley-Snider, Nneka Ubaka-Blackmoore, and Paul Peterson. CLEANEAST™ Comprehensive Environmental Assessment Tool for Livestock and Poultry Farms: Design, Utility, and Performance for Adoption of Sustainable Agri-Environmental Practices. RTI Press, December 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.3768/rtipress.2015.mr.0032.1512.
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Phuong, Vu Tan, Nguyen Van Truong, and Do Trong Hoan. Commune-level institutional arrangements and monitoring framework for integrated tree-based landscape management. World Agroforestry, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.5716/wp21024.pdf.
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Governance is a difficult task in the context of achieving landscape multifunctionality owing to the multiplicity of stakeholders, institutions, scale and ecosystem services: the ‘many-multiple’ (Cockburn et al 2018). Governing and managing the physical landscape and the actors in the landscape requires intensive knowledge and good planning systems. Land-use planning is a powerful instrument in landscape governance because it directly guides how actors will intervene in the physical landscape (land use) to gain commonly desired value. It is essential for sustaining rural landscapes and improving the livelihoods of rural communities (Bourgoin and Castella 2011, Bourgoin et al 2012, Rydin 1998), ensuring landscape multifunctionality (Nelson et al 2009, Reyers et al 2012) and enhancing efficiency in carbon sequestration, in particular (Bourgoin et al 2013, Cathcart et al 2007). It is also considered critical to the successful implementation of land-based climate mitigation, such as under Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), because the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector is included in the mitigation contributions of nearly 90 percent of countries in Sub-Saharan and Southern Asia countries and in the Latin American and Caribbean regions (FAO 2016). Viet Nam has been implementing its NDC, which includes forestry and land-based mitigation options under the LULUCF sector. The contribution of the sector to committed national emission reduction is significant and cost-effective compared with other sectors. In addition to achieving emission reduction targets, implementation of forestry and land-based mitigation options has the highest benefits for social-economic development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (MONRE 2020). Challenges, however, lie in the way national priorities and targets are translated into sub-national delivery plans and the way sub-national actors are brought together in orchestration (Hsu et al 2019) in a context where the legal framework for climate-change mitigation is elaborated at national rather than sub-national levels and coordination between government bodies and among stakeholders is generally ineffective (UNDP 2018). In many developing countries, conventional ‘top–down’, centralized land-use planning approaches have been widely practised, with very little success, a result of a lack of flexibility in adapting local peculiarities (Amler et al 1999, Ducourtieux et al 2005, Kauzeni et al 1993). In forest–agriculture mosaic landscapes, the fundamental question is how land-use planning can best conserve forest and agricultural land, both as sources of economic income and environmental services (O’Farrell and Anderson 2010). This paper provides guidance on monitoring integrated tree-based landscape management at commune level, based on the current legal framework related to natural resource management (land and forest) and the requirements of national green-growth development and assessment of land uses in two communes in Dien Bien and Son La provinces. The concept of integrated tree based landscape management in Viet Nam is still new and should be further developed for wider application across levels.
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Taher, Raya, Farah Abu Safe, and Jean-Patrick Perrin. Not In My Backyard: The impact of waste disposal sites on communities in Jordan. Oxfam, July 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.21201/2021.7734.
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Waste disposal sites across Jordan pose serious risks to the environment and to public health if not managed safely. Municipal waste decomposing in open landfills also takes an environmental and socio-economic toll on neighbouring communities. While the Government of Jordan is planning to reduce the number of operational landfills and improve waste management services, persistent issues associated with unsustainable waste practices and their associated effects on the wellbeing of surrounding communities and the environment need to be addressed. Guaranteeing a sustainable waste management scheme for communities in Jordan should include increased consideration of the long-term effects that waste disposal sites have on neighbouring communities.
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Phuong, Vu Tan, Nguyen Van Truong, Do Trong Hoan, Hoang Nguyen Viet Hoa, and Nguyen Duy Khanh. Understanding tree-cover transitions, drivers and stakeholders’ perspectives for effective landscape governance: a case study of Chieng Yen Commune, Son La Province, Viet Nam. World Agroforestry, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.5716/wp21023.pdf.
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Integrated landscape management for sustainable livelihoods and positive environmental outcomes has been desired by many developing countries, especially for mountainous areas where agricultural activities, if not well managed, will likely degrade vulnerable landscapes. This research was an attempt to characterize the landscape in Chieng Yen Commune, Son La Province in Northwest Viet Nam to generate knowledge and understanding of local conditions and to propose a workable governance mechanism to sustainably manage the landscape. ICRAF, together with national partners — Vietnamese Academy of Forest Sciences, Soil and Fertilizer Research Institute — and local partners — Son La Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Son La Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Chieng Yen Commune People’s Committee — conducted rapid assessments in the landscape, including land-use mapping, land-use characterization, a household survey and participatory landscape assessment using an ecosystem services framework. We found that the landscape and peoples’ livelihoods are at risk from the continuous degradation of forest and agricultural land, and declining productivity, ecosystem conditions and services. Half of households live below the poverty line with insufficient agricultural production for subsistence. Unsustainable agricultural practices and other livelihood activities are causing more damage to the forest. Meanwhile, existing forest and landscape governance mechanisms are generally not inclusive of local community engagement. Initial recommendations are provided, including further assessment to address current knowledge gaps.
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Downes, Jane, ed. Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Scotland: ScARF Panel Report. Society for Antiquaries of Scotland, September 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.9750/scarf.09.2012.184.
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The main recommendations of the panel report can be summarised under five key headings: Building the Scottish Bronze Age: Narratives should be developed to account for the regional and chronological trends and diversity within Scotland at this time. A chronology Bronze Age Scotland: ScARF Panel Report iv based upon Scottish as well as external evidence, combining absolute dating (and the statistical modelling thereof) with re-examined typologies based on a variety of sources – material cultural, funerary, settlement, and environmental evidence – is required to construct a robust and up to date framework for advancing research. Bronze Age people: How society was structured and demographic questions need to be imaginatively addressed including the degree of mobility (both short and long-distance communication), hierarchy, and the nature of the ‘family’ and the ‘individual’. A range of data and methodologies need to be employed in answering these questions, including harnessing experimental archaeology systematically to inform archaeologists of the practicalities of daily life, work and craft practices. Environmental evidence and climate impact: The opportunity to study the effects of climatic and environmental change on past society is an important feature of this period, as both palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data can be of suitable chronological and spatial resolution to be compared. Palaeoenvironmental work should be more effectively integrated within Bronze Age research, and inter-disciplinary approaches promoted at all stages of research and project design. This should be a two-way process, with environmental science contributing to interpretation of prehistoric societies, and in turn, the value of archaeological data to broader palaeoenvironmental debates emphasised. Through effective collaboration questions such as the nature of settlement and land-use and how people coped with environmental and climate change can be addressed. Artefacts in Context: The Scottish Chalcolithic and Bronze Age provide good evidence for resource exploitation and the use, manufacture and development of technology, with particularly rich evidence for manufacture. Research into these topics requires the application of innovative approaches in combination. This could include biographical approaches to artefacts or places, ethnographic perspectives, and scientific analysis of artefact composition. In order to achieve this there is a need for data collation, robust and sustainable databases and a review of the categories of data. Wider Worlds: Research into the Scottish Bronze Age has a considerable amount to offer other European pasts, with a rich archaeological data set that includes intact settlement deposits, burials and metalwork of every stage of development that has been the subject of a long history of study. Research should operate over different scales of analysis, tracing connections and developments from the local and regional, to the international context. In this way, Scottish Bronze Age studies can contribute to broader questions relating both to the Bronze Age and to human society in general.