Academic literature on the topic 'New Green Savings Programme'

The UK government has recently implemented the Green Deal, a new pay-as-you-save policy which seeks to fundamentally reform the existing housing stock to make it more energy efficient. Regarded by its proponents as a ‘revolutionary programme to bring our buildings up to date’ (HM Government 2010: 2), generate cash savings for householders, and simultaneously yield environmental benefits by reducing energy consumption, it promises much. However, there have been many critiques of the Green Deal from industry, environmental pressure groups and housing professionals. Moreover there has been very limited take up of Green Deal loans by householders, and those measures which have been installed offer perhaps only minimal improvements in overall energy efficiency. This paper therefore considers the potential generative and productive outcomes of the Green Deal by looking across three related issues: households with low incomes and in fuel poverty; the potential impacts on elements of the housing system; and, the extent of environmental benefits. The paper concludes by suggesting that the instead of being a revolutionary way to improve the energy efficiency of the UK’s domestic building stock, the Green Deal may potentially perpetuate existing social injustice and environmental degradation. The effort should, instead, focus on understanding how energy demand is created in the first place (e.g. desire for larger homes, energy-hungry appliances, heating in every room) through householders’ expectations and changing domestic practices.

In many countries the availability of data about the energy performance of low-energy buildings is quite limited and this lack of information refrains potential investments on green buildings. In 2004, in order to contribute to generate and collect reliable performance data, the European Commission launched the GreenBuilding (GB) Programme aimed at enhancing energy efficiency in both existing and new non-residential buildings on a voluntary basis. Under the umbrella of the GB Programme, the GreenBuildingPlus (GB+) Project operated from 2007 to 2010. One of the activities developed in the project was the creation of a European database on building energy performance. The authors developed a Data Collection Tool, which was used by building owners and their consultants to provide a detailed description of the candidate buildings and their energy efficiency and renewable energy features. In this paper, we present a selection of the results of a statistical analysis of the detailed data of 85 green buildings. The main outputs of the GB+ project are: the total primary energy saved by the 85 buildings amounted to about 115 000 MWh per year and the average percentage of savings is 54%, hence much higher than 25% requested by the GB Programme.

PurposeGreen building is a relatively new concept with limited applications in property development in South Africa. The objectives of this study are therefore threefold: identify key green building principles considered by property developers, establish the benefits of implementing the principles and determine the barriers to its applications.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a case study of two Green Star South Africa (SA)-certified buildings in Sandton, Johannesburg. These are Alexander Forbes building, and Ernst & Young Eris Towers. The two certified buildings were purposefully selected because of the insightful information they provide regarding application of green building principles. The main themes investigated in the cases are environmental awareness, green building principles applications, as well as benefits and barriers of green building. A total of six interviewees from the contractors', property developers', environmental/green building consultants' and sustainability consultants' organizations who were involved in the implementation of green building principles in the two cases provided the qualitative data for the study. The qualitative data were supplemented with data relating to the two case studies obtained from the ‘Earth Works for a Sustainable Built Environment’. The interviews were arranged over a period of two months, and each interview took between 20 and 30 minutes. Analysis of the data was done through a phenomenological interpretation of the qualitative opinions expressed by the interviewees.FindingsKey green building principles comprising energy efficiency, water efficiency, resource efficiency, occupants' health and well-being and sustainable site development were implemented in the two cases. The fact that the buildings were rated 4-star enabled inference to be drawn that the implementation of the principles was less than 60 per cent. Energy efficiency of 35 per cent indicated in Case I suggests that the level is consistent with the South African green building standard of 25 per cent to 50 per cent. However, the energy and water efficiency assessment of the building were based on projections rather than on ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the buildings' performance. Moreover, perceived saving in operational cost was identified as dominant driver to green building principles implementation. Conversely, lack of government incentives and absence of reliable benchmarking data regarding performance of green buildings were major barriers to its full implementation.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study provide important implications to the developers and government on the application of green building principles. In the first place, the evidence that initial high cost premium could be off settled by long- term saving on operational costs as a result of use of local materials, energy and water savings as well as use of recycled material, as implemented in the two case projects, would improve investment decision in green building by developers. The understanding of the drivers and barriers to implementation of green building principles also has implications for guiding government policies and programmes towards green building.Originality/valueThe significance of this study stems from the fact that limited studies, especially in the South African context, have indicated the drivers and barriers to the implementation of green building principles. The case study approach adopted gave a novelty to the study by providing hands-on information from the stakeholders who were known to have played specific roles in the application of green building. The findings indicated that initial high cost premium was not a consideration in developers' choice of green building which justifies the possibility of a costlier product when factors such as environmental sustainability benefit is considered to be ultimate. The study thus suggests further research involving larger cases on energy efficiency, water efficiency and costs of green buildings compared to the conventional type to bring the findings to a broader perspective and assist to benchmark data for green building assessment.

In January 1995, the New Zealand insurance industry embarked on a programme of self-regulation. At the centre of this programme is the Insurance and Savings Ombudsman Scheme ('ISO Scheme'), which is intended to provide an independent dispute resolution service for non-commercial insureds. This article discusses the ISO Scheme's development process, how the ISO Scheme measures up, and whether ISO Scheme's complaints handling be rated. The author concludes that, while the ISO Scheme appears to be a step in the right direction, there are questions to be resolved about accessibility, the adequacy of public information, and the degree of actual independence achieved by the Scheme. The real benefit to the insurance and savings industry must come from encouraging use of the ISO Scheme by complainants, and for this to happen the Scheme will have to establish a reputation for independence, flexibility and effectiveness.

This incremental housing programme combines resources from participating families with traditional joint savings schemes and micro-credit to help those who have no access to formal credit to build new homes or improve their existing accommodation. Families are involved in the design process of their homes and training is provided in self-help construction methods. The construction process is phased to avoid families becoming financially overstretched. The consolidation of community organisation and solidarity, the empowerment of women and development of savings capacity are important elements of this well-established programme that has to date funded the construction and/or improvement of over 800 homes in the state of Veracruz, Mexico.

The Jan-Dhan programme has garnered consistent policy attention across two national governments. Started in February 2011, this programme has gone on to mobilise ₹ 81,203.59 crore (US$12.4 billion approximately) by May 2018 through 31.6 crore ( 316 million) savings accounts. These accounts, spread over thousands of branches and operating in diverse conditions, include banks from the public sector, private sector and rural sector (Regional Rural Banks). The central question this paper tries to address is how we can ensure sustained gains from the programme. This article recommends that a new version of the programme be launched. The justification for this new version arises from evidence of substantive difference among banks already in outreach, product success and service quality. Using available data, this paper identifies banks that have done better than others in mobilising deposits and opening of the accounts. The next phase, this article suggests must direct resources and policy attention to the successful banks and support them by policy and regulatory incentives.

Green real estate investment paradigm brings a new investment option to property investors. The green office buildings are gradually replacing the conventional buildings due to the fact that green office building provides better return such as high market value and rental value, high occupancy rate and cost savings. Energy and water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, sustainable site planning and management, materials and resources and innovation are prerequisite green criteria that determine the level of greenness which distinguish it from a non-green office building. This paper discusses the green attributes in office building and its enhancement to return on investment.

There is an urgent need to march towards “low - carbon economy”. Global challenges of diminishing fossil fuel reserves, climate change, environmental management and finite natural resources serving an expanding world population - these reasons mean that urgent action is required to transition to solutions which minimize environmental impact and are sustainable. We are at the start of the low - carbon revolution and those that have started on their low - carbon journey already are seeing benefits such as new markets and customers, improved economic, social and environmental performance, and reduced bills and risks. Green investment banks offer alternative financial services: green car loans, energy efficiency mortgages, alternative energy venture capital, eco - savings deposits and green credit cards. These items represent innovative financial products.

In this article, the approaches to the application of evaluation systems for green buildings to the processes of modeling and designing green infrastructure in the development of the management mechanism of the urban environment, the problems of using green roof technologies are reviewed. The implementation of new green roof and green wall systems requires the accumulation of parametric data for variability in the selection of rational decisions. This study presents new green roof and green wall technologies and describes the main device advantages compared to existing coverings. The study applied the methods of comparative analysis of various options for roofing systems, including landscaping, based on the principles of labor and time savings. The comparison is made of the various indicators of the labor intensity of the covering device, using methods of structural-functional modeling. On the graphical models the identification of the structural separate layers of the roof structure is shown, which clearly represents the variable model according to various indicators of labor intensity. This research presents the new green roof and green wall technologies for implementation in the coverings and describes the main device advantages compared to existing coverings, which designed for simple cost-effective installation and modern urban design flexibility.

The main aim of the thesis is a detailed economic evaluation of the energy saving measure, which was compared with the original state before the reconstruction. The economic evaluation is based on the physical calculation performed in DEKSoft. The effectiveness of the solution was determined by calculating the discounted payback period based on the estimated energy cost savings in each year of operation and initial investment costs. The work includes the use of a mortgage loan and grant programs as financial resources.

Thesis deals with the possibility of reducing the energy costs of a typical family house located in Brno. In the first part is a detailed calculation of heat loss of the building, considering heat gain and subsequent quantification of costs for heating, hot water and total annual costs. In other sections provide specific calculation of the economics for the partial implementations of planned procedures leading to a reduction in heating costs (replacing windows, doors, facades and floor ceiling). A calculation for changing the heating method and compared to the existing boiler. A possible reduction in the energy required when using energy from the Sun. In the penultimate section briefly review the options for what you get a subsidy from the grant program "New Green Savings Programme" and reduce the initial investment. Finally the comprehensive proposals of different options exchanges boiler insulation, replacing windows and doors, and the subsequent evaluation of the best solution when investing 350 000 CZK.

Diploma thesis deals with revitalization issues of prefabricated house. The aim of the work evaluate the effectiveness of revitalization and presentation proposal of the best variant in terms of investment and energy savings. In the theoretical part is explained revitalization issues, problems of prefabricated houses, phase of the modernization and financing. Practical part is focused to specific revitalization of the prefabricated house, analysis of financial bids of banks and use of subsidies, analysis of energy audits. On the basis of the analysis is determined the optimal variant of the revitalization.

This master’s thesis is dealing with the plan of reconstruction of the house in an effort to get closer to "near zero building". Total heat loss along with calculation of the cost of the house operation and the energy performance of buildings were computed for the given house. Then we have enclosed suggestions of individual methods of building´s insulation (replacing of windows, doors and gates, insulation of exterior walls, roof and ceiling between floor and attic) and a draft of a new technical building services (forced ventilation with heat recovery, photovoltaic system and heat pump). Furthermore, the suitability of the original heating system was evaluated and the also the energy performance for the renovated building was analyzed during the reconstruction. An economic evaluation was calculated for each method of reconstruction, together with the new green subsidy programme. At the end of the dissertation is drawn up the economic evaluation of the whole proposed reconstruction, together with an assessment, what class of the building we have achieved according to its the energy intensity.

Sweden started its nuclear programme in the early 1950s. Initially it was generally welcomed as modernization and even supported by environmentalists. The issue became more contested in the 1970s, when protests began and the Centre Party turned anti-nuclear. In the 1980s, the phasing out of nuclear energy until 2010 was decided as a consequence of a referendum. In 2010, however, the parliament decided to allow building a new generation of nuclear power plants. After the Fukushima disaster a new phase of nuclear energy confinement began in 2014 as a consequence of a Red-Green coalition coming to power. Over the years most Swedish parties have reversed their positions on the nuclear power issue. Policy reversals were triggered by party competition and government replacement and reflected changes in public opinion as well as coalition politics.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

The Six Sigma () methodology, as it has evolved over the last two decades, provides a proven framework for problem solving and organizational leadership and enables leaders and practitioners to employ new ways of understanding and solving their sustainability problems. While business leaders now understand the importance of environmental sustainability to both profitability and customer satisfaction, few are able to translate good intentions into concrete, measurable improvement programs. Increasingly, these leaders are looking to their corps (six sigma experts) of six sigma “Master Black belts,” “Black belts,” and “Green belts” to lead and implement innovative programs that simultaneously reduce carbon emissions and provide large cost savings. Six sigma is a powerful execution engine and sustainability programs are in need of this operational approach and discipline. Six sigma rigors will help a business leader to design a sustainable program for both short- and long-term value creations. The aim of this chapter is to show the importance of applying six sigma methodologies to multidisciplinary sustainability-related projects and how to implement it.

This chapter investigates how the combination of savings and investments affects economic development and sustainability. This discussion aims to help to understand the role of savings as a support to growth, and how biasing individual decisions on consumption and debt via monetary policies can be a source of economic growth un-sustainability. Information technology helps to optimise the use of resources, but it even makes dangerous policies easier to implement. Section 1 shows theoretical insights into the contribution of savings to growth, and the concept of sustainability; section 2 focuses on the theories that better deal with the sustainability concern and investigates the role of information technology in monetary policy; section 3 shows the growing, positive contribution of e-money to growth and sustainability, and it suggests a new role for the government as advisor within an information-enhanced economy where information technology can play a prominent role; section 4 concludes.

In this article, new services in Green Computing environment is introduced. Energy and power is saved in an efficient manner using proposed services. These services are still undefined to the researchers in most of the cases. A typical framework of hierarchical structure for typical software managed central urban traffic control room is considered as case study. Each type of services is shown with an example which is interrelated with central traffic control room scenario. The authors' aim is to produce an energy efficient and power savings method in computing environment. Urban Traffic Control Room is considered as a case study. This is because in today's world urban traffic management is one of the most burning issues of any smart city management. Use of complex yet efficient software in the urban traffic control room may aid in proper management of road traffic. Keeping in mind growing environmental concerns, efficient green system architecture needs to be in place to ensure high performance, reliability and security of such an important public service sector.

The strategic importance of supply chain management has been increasing during the past two decades. Companies utilise the supply chain in order to become more competitive as a whole. Recently, it has been observed that environmental and social pressures and standards have a direct and indirect impact on supply chain management and the competitiveness of corporations. Integrating environmental criteria into supply chain management has become an important strategic issue for many companies. This study explores the subject area of the greening of supply chain management. In particular, the supply chain environmental management (SCEM) programme is explored in the Korean context. The SCEM programme is based upon the relationship between buyers and suppliers. By utilising this relationship, general improvement in the environmental performance of suppliers can be achieved. A case study of Hyundai Motors Co. (HMC) empirically supports this. Green supply chain management led to new ways of collaboration with suppliers, in terms of developing environmental solutions and capacity buildings with key suppliers. The key implication for suppliers, in particular SMEs, is to develop suppliers’ capabilities and increasing supplier criticality in order to achieve win-win outcomes in environmental and financial performance.

In the present world of information and communication technologies (ICT) “Green ICT” represents a topic of immense interest. The meaning, sense and scope of Green ICT are quite varied and very wide. Hardware technologies, for example (virtualization of hardware) and corresponding methods are considered initiatives towards environment protection and sustainable growth. At the same time, however, improved development and implementation of existing tools influencing environment by implication (for example due to reducing travel costs or energy savings) are very important in terms of Green ICT. ICT solutions could also work as a device or medium of implementation of new environmentally friendly methods, for instance in agriculture or industry. Spatial data or data with a direct or indirect reference to a specific location or geographic area (INSPIRE Registry, 2009), like digital maps, data in navigation tools, are a significant means of correlating otherwise disparate sources of information. This chapter tries to show the relationship of spatial data and how it can benefit Green ICT. This relationship is vital, as spatial data plays a very important role in system and application (e.g. Geographic Information Systems) with the potential for making direct impact on environmental protection. Spatial data continues to be an integral part of common equipment like mobile phones, car navigation systems and computers. The numbers of these gadgets are constantly growing and so is the corresponding volume of spatial data sets. Within the context of this rapid growth, the costs of data capture, management, updating, processing and distribution are increasing. For example the operation of servers containing the same spatial data sets is energy-consuming and results in burdening the influence on environment. Spatial data sharing, re-use and possibilities of interconnection of existing spatial data sources pose a solution. Therefore, the spatial data interoperability assurance (e.g. by private spatial data providers, state administration etc.) is required. The spatial data interoperability enables more efficient management and use of spatial data sets and achieving of desired savings.The principles of spatial data interoperability are described in the first part of this document. Emphasis is put on spatial data heterogeneities as the main problem of spatial data interoperability. Moreover, technologies focused on elimination of spatial data heterogeneities are discussed here. Subsequent paragraphs introduce selected instruments (metadata, schema languages, ontologies) which are based on data description and support data interoperability. The last section of this document is composed of examples of several international projects focused on spatial data description and processing of well-described spatial data through web services.

Almost every market in the world aims to go globally as wide as possible. It is important to understand the need for information and internet merged together in order to achieve such goal. Cloud systems are the new way of delivering and managing information to different parts in the world in a secure manner. However, not many organizations have moved to cloud. The rely of green supply chain management systems on cloud is not as popular as expected and not increasing fast enough. There is a trust issue raised against cloud and the adoption to it. Cloud can bring different benefits to green supply chain management systems such as the low cost of running, speed of dealing with information, and information availability which can have significant impact on energy savings. Organization contribution in the process of moving to cloud is important to attach any knowledge database to take competitive advantage.

Anna Coote’s recommendations cover three overlapping areas: social justice; environmental sustainability and a more equal distribution of power. A key unifying theme is that the distribution and care of resources should be directed towards the needs and potential of all members of society and not, as is currently the case, disproportionately to the few. To pursue this equality people should ‘be able to influence and control decisions that affect their everyday lives’. In several key, participatory, egalitarian and environmentally –sustainable respects, Coote’s proposition for a society-wide ‘social settlement’ resembles the systemic changes advocated by Ted Benton’s Red-Green programme, in chapter 3.

Organisational Sustainability Modelling (OSM) is a new way to measure Cloud business performance quantitatively and accurately, and is a key area offered by Cloud Computing Business Framework (CCBF). OSM combines statistical computation and 3D Visualisation to present the Return on Investment (ROI) arising from the adoption of Cloud Computing by organisations, and makes use of a highly structured and organised process to review and evaluate Cloud business performance. The School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), University of Southampton, focusing on cost-savings, is the case study used to illustrate. In addition, i-Solutions and Corporate Planning of the University of Southampton, focusing on user confidence level and service improvement, are another two case studies to support. Data measurements have been taken in the past three years and quantitative analysis has been carefully checked and calculated by OSM to measure ROI. The University of Southampton has achieved cost saving and user confidence with service improvement offered by Cloud adoption and services, which have been deployed by several universities in the adoption of CCBF.

Over the past decade, the British pension system has been turned upside-down. Once lauded as a viable, long-term mix of public and private institutions, each element has been challenged as to its efficacy. Notably, private sector occupational pensions have been discounted by employers, just as ‘mis-selling’ scandals in the financial service sector have eroded trust in long-term savings products. Lord Turner’s model for the future was influenced by the behavioural revolution in cognitive science and behavioural psychology. In this paper, the key elements of the behavioural revolution are identified and linked to new forms of British occupational pension saving. While supportive of this research programme, there remain significant shortcomings. The penultimate section of the paper shifts attention to the Chancellor’s budget announcement prior to the 2015 general election providing individuals access to their retirement savings. In conclusion, implications are drawn for understanding the future of the structured-choice pension policy regime.

A standardized deployment of solar electric systems in the Colorado production home market is crucial to the success of the renewable portfolio standard recently adopted by Colorado voters. This research uses the Built Green® program as a context for investigating energy conservation measures (ECMs), viable within the production home market, for their efficacy in curtailing new home annual energy consumption and peak electrical demand loads. The research examines the cost effectiveness and impact of residential solar systems compared to the energy conservation measures. Colorado is a state with good solar resources and considerable production-scale residential development. However, most production homes built in the state today are not highly energy efficient. It is generally believed that improvements to energy efficiency — more insulation, better windows, more efficient appliances — are more cost-effective than solar production systems given current costs. In other words, most production homes in Colorado are not ready to don a solar home system (SHS). The analysis uses extensive energy simulation to determine energy savings of selected energy-saving home features relative to the baseline Building America Benchmark for Denver, CO. This optimization process seeks to identify the least-cost combinations of improvements, assuming present day component costs, with the greatest annual energy savings, with the ultimate goal of implementing solar energy in the Colorado production home market. The results of the analysis suggest that optimal characteristics of production home, designed to minimize total costs, are readily achievable in today’s market. Moreover, when these optimal ECMs are implemented, the marginal cost of a SHS is found to be less than additional energy efficiency. With further energy efficiency improvements, site-based solar electric systems can compete economically given current state and federal incentive programs. The results also indicate that a solar system oriented west of due south can offer significant reductions in peak demand relative to both the household and utility load profiles.

Ireland’s National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development (2014-2020), highlights the need to equip students with “the relevant knowledge (the ‘what’), the key dispositions and skills (the ‘how’) and the values (the ‘why’)” to contribute to a more sustainable future (Department of Education and Skills, 2014). Delivering on this challenge requires embedding sustainability within both the formal and informal learning that occurs on campus (Hopkinson et al. 2008), while also integrating sustainability both within and across disciplines (Byrne et al., 2018). UCC is a global leader in sustainability in higher education, being the first University in the world to be awarded a Green Flag from the Foundation for Environmental Education (Reidy et al, 2015). Sustainability at UCC is “student-led, research-informed, and practice-focused” that is, the programme takes an integrated approach and aims to utilise the collective student agency and research capability to deliver real and lasting change on the ground (Pelenc et al. 2015). UCC’s Academic Strategy, with sustainability and interdisciplinarity as key components of the new “Connected Curriculum”, aims to “facilitate students to develop values, skills and aptitudes that promote civic participation, social inclusion, sustainability, digital fluency and impactful, global citizenship” (UCC, 2018). A key aim of delivering its Sustainability Strategy is that UCC would become a “Living Laboratory”, where students, academics and practitioners work together, using the campus itself as a testbed for solutions to today’s major societal challenges (UCC, 2016). A Living Laboratory project should aim to: • Solve a real-life problem • Be based on a partnership among key stakeholders, often crossing disciplinary and/or sectoral boundaries • Trial and test ideas in real life settings • Share data and findings generated openly (EAUC, 2017).

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to develop and discuss a framework aiming at monitoring and optimizing the circularity performance of products for ensuring and facilitating green profit design trade-offs whilst meeting or anticipating end-of-life regulations during the design and development process of industrial products. The proposed framework is used to extend the Green Profit Model — an optimization model to maximize the total profit from the sales of new and remanufactured products, while achieving environmental impact savings — by adding a third dimension to this model, which is the circularity performance. As such, in addition to remanufacturing, it covers a wider spectrum of circular economy practices, leading to additional economic opportunities and environmental trade-offs between maintenance, reuse, remanufacturing and recycling at a product, parts and material levels. A first formulation of this extended optimization model is given and discussed through an illustrative example. By connecting the circularity performance of products with possible economic profit and environmental impact savings, it thus contributes in advancing the understanding and linkages in the area of circular design, life cycle analysis, industrial decision-support tool, and environmental regulations. Concretely, practical implications for both design engineering and green policy making are highlighted.

The focus of this paper is on the extraction of knowledge from data contained within the content of web pages in relation to module descriptors as published on http://courses.itb.ie delivered within the School of Business in the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown. We show an automated similarity analysis highlighting visual exploration options. Resulting from this analysis are three issues of note. Firstly, modules although coded as being different and unique to their particular programme of study indicated substantial similarity. Secondly, substantial content overlap with a lack of clear differentiation between sequential modules was identified.. Thirdly, the document similarity statistics point to the existence of modules having very high similarity scores delivered across different years across different National Framework of Qualification (NFQ) levels of different programmes. These issues can be raised within the management structure of the School of Business and disseminated to the relevant programme boards for further consideration and action. Working within a climate of constrained resources with limited numbers of academic staff and lecture theatres the potential savings outside of the obvious quality assurance benefits illustrate a practical application of how text mining can be used to elicit new knowledge and provide business intelligence to support the quality assurance and decision making process within a higher educational environment.

The aim of the study (poster) is primarily to present assumptions, current results and possible directions for further research and practices related to project implementation titled “Career guidance open to ecological awareness development of a society” [in Polish: Poradnictwo zawodowe otwarte na kształtowanie świadomości ekologicznej społeczeństwa] (FSS/2014/HEI/W/0032), financed with the Norwegian funds and domestic funds under the Polish Higher Education Development Programme [Program Rozwój Polskich Uczelni], Scholarship and Training Fund [Fundusz Stypendialny i Szkoleniowy], realized (1/1/2015 – 5/31/2016) at the Department of Pedagogical Sciences of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (UKSW). The analysis both literature and the currently undertaken research activities, among others, leads to the conclusions that there are at least three important tasks which modern higher education has to face. 1. The promotion of solutions, including educational ones, which aim at limiting the possible risks to human life (deterioration of its quality) resulting from the type of profession and work organization; 2. Active participation of vocational guidance consultants (present and future) in building sustainable and environmentally friendly societies. 3. The necessity of cooperation among local entities (including universities) involved in lifelong vocational guidance. In this context and with reference to the concept of ​​“green” universities and the engaged university concept, the following question also becomes important: What is the role of higher education institutions in shaping pro-environmental attitudes and their capabilities in this respect?

The Changning District in Shanghai has expressed interest to becoming a green neighborhood and has asked for recommendations on how to reduce the energy usage in public buildings in their district. The objective of this short study is to identify the likely range of further reductions in the energy use and carbon emissions of new buildings through energy-efficiency improvements and the use of renewable energy, i.e., solar hot water (SHW), photovoltaics (PV), and ground-source heat pumps (GSHP), as compared to buildings that meet the current public building energy code in Shanghai. This analysis is done using DOE-2.1E computer simulations of three prototypical building models — an office, a hotel, and a mixed-use retail/office building — that have been calibrated against measured energy data from such buildings in the Changning District. After the building models have been calibrated, they are then used to establish the baseline energy use for code-compliant buildings, and to calculate the energy savings for 16 potential EEMs (Energy Efficiency Measures) that exceed the building energy code. A LCC (Life-Cycle Cost) analysis is done to compare the energy cost reductions to the capital costs for the EEMs, with the result that some EEMs are rejected as being not cost-effective over a 25 year period. The usage of the EEMs accepted as cost-effective is found to reduce the energy usage of the three building types by 30–40% in the office, 43–46% in the hotel, and 35% in the retail, depending on the assumed discount rate. If all the EEMs are considered regardless of cost, the energy savings increase to 44% in the office, 47% in the hotel, and 36% in the retail.

Legacy waste treatment, storage and disposal, as well as decommissioning and site remediation, from the UK’s civil nuclear programme are estimated at a cost of £70B. Within the UK, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) directs the strategy for all civil nuclear decommissioning and demanding timescales have been set for remediation of all nuclear sites. Additionally, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) recently delivered a recommendation, accepted by Government, that geological disposal in a mined repository presents the “best available approach” for long term management of the waste legacy. There is therefore a requirement to decommission all power generation and experimental reactors, and fuel reprocessing plants, to decontaminate land, and to return nuclear licensed sites to brown or green field status. The engineering and scientific challenges that lie ahead in meeting these targets are significant, and many of the ideas required to deliver the final end state have not yet been researched. In recognition of this the UK Research Council’s Energy Programme released a call for research proposals in the area of nuclear waste management and decommissioning valued at £4M. A grant was subsequently awarded in 2008 to a consortium led by the University of Leeds, with member universities from Manchester, Imperial College, Sheffield, Loughborough and University College London. The DIAMOND (Decommissioning, Immobilisation And Management Of Nuclear Wastes For Disposal) consortium will undertake research aligned with the strategic priorities of the NDA and the CoRWM recommendations. Its primary purpose is to be adventurous and to deliver innovation. However, research is also being performed that will be of more immediate benefit to industrial stakeholders, with near-term impact achieved through the adoption of off-the-shelf technology currently implemented by other industries. Currently more than 20 industrial organisations are linked directly to the consortium. The aims of the consortium are to carry out internationally leading research in the areas of decommissioning and waste management that underpins the development of innovative and relevant technologies for industrial use. It will broaden the research base that focuses on relevant technologies, support new links within and between universities, promote multi-disciplinary collaboration and new applications of existing knowledge, and train the next generation of researchers to address a developing skills gap.

Ameresco & Department of Energy Savannah River partnered together to install three biomass fueled energy plants. The main plant is a 20 megawatt steam power plant and the other two smaller plants are thermal heating plants. All three facilities are located on the Department of Energy Savannah River Site (SRS). These facilities were developed and financed under an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC), which utilizes energy and operational savings to fund the capital investment and operations cost over the performance period. Ameresco was fully responsible for the design, installation, oversight, management, safety, environmental compliance, and continues to be responsible for the operations and maintenance of the Biomass Cogeneration Facility. This is the largest biomass facility installed under ESPC in the federal government. The facilities have the capacity to combust 385,000 tons of forest residue annually. In the first year alone, the energy and operation cost savings at SRS is in excess of $34 million. Clean biomass and bio-derived fuels (such as tire derived fuel and untreated pallets) is the primary fuel source for all of the new boilers. Biomass is used to fuel two steam boilers capable of producing 240,000 lb. /hr. of high-pressure steam and to power a steam turbine capable of generating up to 20 MW of electricity. The smaller thermal plants provide biomass-produced steam for the areas’ heating and industrial processes. These plants satisfy winter steam requirements for both domestic heat and process steam and is fueled solely with biomass wood chips, utilizing fuel oil as backup source of fuel. Key benefits of the SRS biomass project include: • Over 2,000,000 MBtu/yr. of thermal renewable energy production and a minimum of generation of 77,000,000 kWh of green power • Annual Energy Reductions of approximately 500,000 MBtu/yr. • No-cost Renewable Energy Credits retained by the DOE SR • Support of the South Carolina Biomass Council Goals • Decrease of water intake from the Savannah River by 1,400,000 kgal/yr., supporting water conservation efforts in the region • Reduction of 400 tons/yr. of Particulate Matter (PM) emissions • Reduction of 3,500 tons/yr. of Sulfur Dioxide emissions • Reduction of 100,000 tons/yr. of Carbon Dioxide emissions The smaller heating plants include the main boiler systems and live bottom trailer fuel storage. The Biomass Cogeneration Facility includes the biomass boiler systems, the steam turbine generation system, and the facility auxiliary systems as well as the site infrastructure within these boundaries. The Facility has been designed, built, and tested per industrial/commercial codes for cogeneration facilities. The main components of the Facility are listed below: • Fuel Yard – Material Unloading & Storage and Delivery System ○ Biomass Fuel Chip unloading system ○ Fuel Storage Area ○ Transfer conveyors ○ Fuel Screening System ○ Tire Derived Fuel Storage & Unloading Area ○ Whole Log Chipping System & Storage • Water Treatment System – Water treatment system to treat river water for use in boilers as well as cooling tower for condensing turbine • Boiler Systems – (2) Boiler Island from metering bin, water side and flue gas side, pollution control devices and stacks • Chemical Treatment System – Chemical skids, injection skids for cooling tower and boiler treatment • Steam Turbine Generator System & Turbine Cooling System – (1) steam turbine and generator & Cooling Tower with cooling tower pumps • Emergency Generator System – (1) back diesel generator • Plant Control System – Master SCADA system which integrates all systems and balance of plant equipment I/O into one control system

The new energy mix places greater demands on power gas turbine operation; precision combustion monitoring, therefore has become a major issue. Unforeseen events such as combustion instabilities can occur and represent a danger to the integrity of the hot parts and also lead to a limitation of the output power. This is usually accompanied by an increase in maintenance costs. The enlarged off-design operating envelope of gas turbines to adapt to a fast-changing grid has made this issue even more acute, necessitating an expansion of the operating envelope into areas that were — for many engines — not foreseen in the original combustor design process. A good understanding of what happens within the gas turbine combustor is crucial. Complex and costly full-field measurements such as laboratory optical instrumentation in precision combustion diagnostics are not suitable for permanent fleet deployment. For practical and financial reasons, the monitoring should ideally be achieved with a limited amount of discrete sensors. If installed and interpreted correctly, fast response measurement chains could lead to a better gas turbine combustion management, possibly yielding considerable savings in terms of operating and maintenance costs. The firm Meggitt Sensing System (MSS), assisted by Combustion Bay One (CBOne), initiated an applied research programme dedicated to this topic — with MSS providing the instrumentation and CBOne providing the facility and test conditions. The objective was to investigate realistic combustion phenomena in a precisely controlled and reproducible way and to document the individual readings of the heat-resistant fast pressure transducers mounted on the combustor casing, as well as the accelerometers mounted on the outer surface of the machine. Particular attention was paid to the correlation between these two types of sensor readings. This paper reports on the monitoring of the flame using piezoelectric dynamic pressure sensors and accelerometers in a number of different situations that are relevant to the safe and efficient operation of gas turbines. Discussed are single events such as flame ignition, lean blow-out and flash-back, as well as longer test sequences observing the effect of warming-up or the presence of flame instability. The measurement chains and processing techniques are discussed in detail. The atmospheric test rig used for this purpose and the different testing configurations required for each of these situations are also illustrated in detail. The results and recommendations for their implementation in an industrial context conclude this paper.

A number of Fitness-for-Service (FFS) procedures (include analytical methods) have been specifically developed and used to address the components of a particular industrial sector. A number of industrial sectors, such as nuclear power, petrochemical, offshore, aerospace or pipeline girth weld applications have established FFS standards in place for the assessment of flaws found in-service. Some methods for design and remaining life assessments of fatigue-loaded structures are still unduly conservative in different loading regimes. Hence, there is still a need to generate a general purpose, unified, comprehensive and updated FFS methodology in Europe by covering four major failure modes (fracture, fatigue, creep and corrosion) in metallic load bearing components with or without welds. As a result, the European Community funded the project FITNET in the form of a Thematic Network (TN) organisation to review the existing FFS procedures and develop an updated, unified and verified European FITNET FFS Procedure to cover structural integrity analysis to avoid failures due to fracture, fatigue, creep and corrosion. FITNET TN is a four year project with the objective of developing and extending the use of FITNET FFS Procedure for welded and non-welded metallic structures throughout Europe. It is partly funded by the European Commission within the fifth framework programme and launched at February 2002. The network currently consists of 50 organisations from 16 European and three non-European countries representing various industrial sectors and academia. Further information can be found in the FITNET TN website: http://www.eurofitnet.org. FITNET Fitness-for-Service analysis of engineering structures aims to provide better design principles, support for fabrication of new components, prevention of service failures due to fracture, fatigue, creep and corrosion damages (no coverage of structural instability due to buckling). FITNET FFS criteria can be used to establish the size limits for defects in various engineering structures and can provide substantial cost savings in operating such structures. The use of the FITNET FFS Procedure involves making an assessment of a component containing a defect to ensure its structural integrity for its intended design life or until its next inspection period. The outcome of the assessment of a component in service is a decision to operate as is, repair, monitor (including re-setting of inspection intervals), or replace. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the objectives and technical content of the FITNET FFS Procedure currently developed and validated by the European Fitness for Service Network FITNET and hence inform the offshore technical community.