Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Environmental leverages'

Rivers deliver significant macronutrients and sediments to lakes that can vary substantially throughout the year. These nutrient and sediment loadings, exacerbated by winter and spring runoff, impact aquatic ecosystem productivity and drive the formation of harmful algae blooms. The source, extent and magnitude of nutrient and sediment loading can vary drastically due to extreme weather events and hydrologic processes, such as snowmelt or high flow storm events, that dominate during a particular time period, making the temporal component (i.e., time over which the loading is estimated) critical for accurate forecasts. In this work, we developed a data-driven framework that leverages the temporal variability embedded in these complex hydrologic regimes to improve loading estimates. Identifying the "correct" time scale is an important first step for providing accurate estimates of seasonal nutrient and sediment loadings. We use water quality concentration and associated 15-minute discharge data from nine watersheds in Vermont's Lake Champlain Basin to test our proposed framework. Optimal time periods were selected using a hierarchical cluster analysis that uses the slope and intercept coefficients from individual load-discharge regressions to derive improved linear models. These optimized linear models were used to improve estimates of annual and "spring" loadings for total phosphorus, dissolved phosphorus, total nitrogen, and total suspended loads for each of the nine study watersheds. The optimized annual regression model performed ~20% better on average than traditional annual regression models in terms of Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency, and resulted in ~50% higher cumulative load estimates with the largest difference occurring in the "spring". In addition, the largest nutrient and sediment loadings occurred during the "spring" unit of time and were typically more than 40% of the total annual estimated load in a given year. The framework developed here is robust and may be used to analyze other units of time associated with hydrologic regimes of interest provided adequate water quality data exist. This, in turn, may be used to create more targeted and cost-effective management strategies for improved aquatic health in rivers and lakes.

Le secteur des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (TIC) est en pleine croissance en raison de l'augmentation du nombre d’utilisateurs d’Internet et de la démocratisation des services numériques, entraînant une empreinte carbone non négligeable et toujours croissante. La part des émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES) liées aux TIC est estimée entre 1,8% et 3,9% des émissions mondiales en 2020, avec un risque de presque doubler et d’atteindre plus de 7% d'ici à 2025. Les datacenters sont au cœur de cette croissance, estimés d'être responsables d'une part importante des émissions de GES du secteur des TIC (allant de 17% à 45% en 2020) et à consommer environ 1% de l'électricité mondiale en 2018.De nombreux leviers existent et peuvent aider les fournisseurs de cloud et les gestionnaires de datacenters à réduire certains de ces impacts. Ces leviers peuvent opérer sur de multiples facettes telles que l’extinction de ressources inutilisées, le ralentissement de ressources pour s’adapter aux besoins réels des applications et services, l’optimisation ou la consolidation des services pour réduire le nombre de ressources physiques mobilisées. Ces leviers peuvent être très hétérogènes et impliquer du matériel informatique, des couches logicielles ou des contraintes plus logistiques à l’échelle des datacenters. Activer, désactiver et orchestrer ces leviers à grande échelle est un réel enjeu permettant des gains potentiels en termes de réduction de la consommation énergétique et des émissions de dioxyde de carbone.Dans cette thèse, nous abordons la modélisation, évaluation et gestion de leviers hétérogènes dans le contexte d'un datacenter cloud à grande échelle en proposant pour la première fois la combinaison de leviers hétérogènes : à la fois technologiques (allumage/extinction de ressources, migration, ralentissement) et logistiques (installation de nouvelles machines, décommissionnement, changement fonctionnels ou géographiques de ressources IT).Dans un premier temps, nous proposons une modélisation des leviers hétérogènes couvrant les impacts, les coûts et les combinaisons des leviers, les concepts de Gantt Chart environnemental contenant des leviers appliqués à l'infrastructure du fournisseur de cloud et d'un environnement logiciel de gestion des leviers qui vise à améliorer les performances énergétiques et environnementales globales de l'ensemble de l'infrastructure d'un fournisseur de cloud. Ensuite, nous abordons le suivi et la collecte de métriques, incluant des données énergétiques et environnementales. Nous discutons de la mesure de la puissance et de l’énergie et effectuons une comparaison expérimentale des wattmètres logiciels. Par la suite, nous étudions un levier technologique unique en effectuant une analyse approfondie du levier Intel RAPL à des fins de plafonnement de la puissance sur un ensemble de nœuds hétérogènes pour une variété de charges de travail gourmandes en CPU et en mémoire. Finalement, nous validons la modélisation des leviers hétérogènes proposée à grande échelle en explorant trois scénarios distincts qui montrent la pertinence de l’approche proposée en termes de gestion des ressources et de réduction des impacts potentiels
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is constantly growing due to the increasing number of Internet users and the democratization of digital services, leading to a significant and ever-increasing carbon footprint. The share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to ICT is estimated to be between 1.8% and 3.9% of global GHG emissions in 2020, with a risk of almost doubling and reaching more than 7% by 2025. Data centers are at the center of this growth, estimated to be responsible for a significant portion of the ICT industry's global GHG emissions (ranging from 17% to 45% in 2020) and to consume approximately 1% of global electricity in 2018.Numerous leverages exist and can help cloud providers and data center managers to reduce some of these impacts. These leverages can operate on multiple facets such as turning off unused resources, slowing down resources to adapt to the real needs of applications and services, optimizing or consolidating services to reduce the number of physical resources mobilized. These leverages can be very heterogeneous and involve hardware, software layers or more logistical constraints at the data center scale. Activating, deactivating and orchestrating these heterogeneous leverages on a large scale can be a challenging task, allowing for potential gains in terms of reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions.In this thesis, we address the modeling, evaluation and orchestration of heterogeneous leverages in the context of a large-scale cloud data center by proposing for the first time the combination of heterogeneous leverages: both technological (turning on/off resources, migration, slowdown) and logistical (installation of new machines, decommissioning, functional or geographical changes of IT resources).First, we propose a novel heterogeneous leverage modeling approach covering leverages impacts, costs and combinations, the concepts of an environmental Gantt Chart containing leverages applied to the cloud provider's infrastructure and of a leverage management framework that aims to improve the overall energy and environmental performance of a cloud provider's entire infrastructure. Then, we focus on metric monitoring and collection, including energy and environmental data. We discuss power and energy measurement and conduct an experimental comparison of software-based power meters. Next, we study of a single technological leverage by conducting a thorough analysis of Intel RAPL leverage for power capping purposes on a set of heterogeneous nodes for a variety of CPU- and memory-intensive workloads. Finally, we validate the proposed heterogeneous leverage modeling approach on a large scale by exploring three distinct scenarios that show the pertinence of the proposed approach in terms of resource management and potential impacts reduction

It may be argued that ours is far away from a sustainable society. For all the technological wonders that we have been able to produce, some basic problems such as lack of universal access to the means to satisfy one's basic needs, human rights violations, systematic degradation of the environment, among others are still present. Not for a lack of effort, but scientific progress, political effort and economic growth appear to have real limitations in their capability to help us solve some of these problems that have endured through time. Donella Meadows, an expert in systems analysis, has developed a comprehensive list of points to intervene in a system in order to effect change. Using that framework as a basis, the present study aims to try to identify potential reasons for why most of the efforts conducted so far to solve some of the previously mentioned fundamental problems appear not to be so effective. Many of the fundamental assumptions of the mainstream economic school that heavily influence policy making and individual behavior to a large extent, have been identified as potentially important leverage points being pushed in the wrong direction! Economic powers and vested interests allow for the erosion of the self-controlling elements of the global political-economic system such as democratic institutions, what Meadows classifies as weakening of negative feedback loops. The mainstream economic models promoting "success to the successful" loops such as accumulation of resources in the hands of a few, all the while concentrating power can be pointed out as an example of a positive loop getting dangerously out of control. Uncontrolled positive loops inevitably lead to system collapse. Concentration of power is specially dangerous as it can bestow upon an elite the power to set the rules of the system, one of the most effective leverage points according to Meadows. Additionally, by curtailing biological, ideological and cultural diversity we are compromising one of the fundamental conditions for our systems to endure threatening changes, the ability to self-organize, or evolve. The most powerful leverage point is the paradigm out of which the whole system is constructed. The current mainstream economic thinking is fundamentally based on a single paradigmatic assumption of scarcity by mean of the supposed impossibility of satisfying human material wants, as 'new wants are always emerging'. In this mindset, it seems to make sense for the economic system to promote limitless growth and accumulation under the assumption of unlimited material wants. In the possibility to transcend such a paradigm lies an important potential for leverage in the efforts to solve the fundamental problems that still hold our society from attaining sustainability.

Shelter poses global sustainability challenges, as the population increase accelerates and resources dwindle. It is crucial for initiatives addressing the growing housing demand to incorporate a sustainability perspective. Open source, a form of Internet information-sharing, is being utilised by various housing initiatives worldwide. However, a sustainability perspective is not always included in a robust and holistic way, despite the negative impacts for human needs and ecosystems resulting from many aspects of current housing practices. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development includes basic conditions for a sustainable society and a planning and decision-making methodology to move systematically towards sustainability. It provides a robust method for organizing, evaluating and using tools to aid in handling sustainability challenges effectively. This thesis aims to contribute to the development of affordable, sustainable design solutions, by modelling the incorporation of the FSSD into open source housing initiatives. A case study of a housing project under development in Ghana is used. Despite the complexity of the system under study, the research concludes that bringing a strategic sustainable development perspective to open source approaches can act as leverage for housing to move towards sustainability. Within this context, guidance is provided for approaching open source housing to contribute to SSD.

charcolatebar@live.ca

This research explores the current and potential green initiatives to advance the sustainability agenda in property management. It outlines the environmental protection strategies adopted in housing management in achieving sustainable development goals. This research also studies how eco-friendly objectives could tie in with other environmental and social goals in sustainable development. The research involves a review of available evidence in an attempt to identify and recognize good practice/instances where green measures are actively promoted in private housing estates. The researcher tries to advance and examine the key issues and challenges that are at stake respecting sustainable development in the context of property-related decision making, and at the same time, suggests how environmental considerations can be integrated into all aspects of a housing project from planning to implementation. The study draws on evidences emerged from relevant literature reviews, interviews and a case study in exploring the role of housing management in promoting sustainability in the scope of realizing green measures. In addition, the researcher would mention the local policy background and discuss the efforts by the government in related to sustainable development. In the final section, the limitations followed by recommendations towards the subject matter would be revealed.
published_or_final_version
Housing Management
Master
Master of Housing Management

Includes bibliographical references.
South African higher education is plagued by student articulation gap, which is often attributed to insufficient knowledge production processes and surface approaches to learning. Unfortunately, supervisor-student model of supervision, one of the direct, personal interventions to address this challenge, is plagued by multiple flaws. The traditional supervisor-student model of knowledge generation may not be adequate in externalizing research processes to students. Yet, a social learning model potentially extends the traditional model by providing a social environment where students collectively generate knowledge through peer-based interactions. Mindful of supervision dilemmas namely, this study explores technology-enhanced social learning environments as complements to traditional supervision models.

Several studies have observed that stocks tend to drop by an amount that is less than the dividend on the ex-dividend day, the so-called ex-dividend day anomaly. However, there still remains a lack of consensus for a single explanation of this anomaly. Different from other studies, this dissertation attempts to answer the primary research question: How can investors make trading profits from the ex-dividend day anomaly and how much can they earn? With this goal, I examine the economic motivations of equity investors through four main hypotheses identified in the anomaly’s literature: the tax differential hypothesis, the short-term trading hypothesis, the tick size hypothesis, and the leverage hypothesis. While the U.S. ex-dividend anomaly is well studied, I examine a long data window (1975 to 2010) of Thailand data. The unique structure of the Thai stock market allows me to assess all four main hypotheses proposed in the literature simultaneously. Although I extract the sample data from two data sources, I demonstrate that the combined data are consistently sampled. I further construct three trading strategies: “daily return,” “lag one daily return,” and “weekly return” to alleviate the potential effect of irregular data observation. I find that the ex-dividend day anomaly exists in Thailand, is governed by the tax differential and is driven by short-term trading activities. That is, investors trade heavily around the ex-dividend day to reap the benefits of the tax differential. I find mixed results for the predictions of the tick size hypothesis and results that are inconsistent with the predictions of the leverage hypothesis. I conclude that, on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, juristic and foreign investors can profitably buy stocks cum-dividend and sell them ex-dividend while local investors should engage in short sale transactions. On average, investors who employ the daily return strategy have earned significant abnormal return up to 0.15% (45.66% annualized rate) and up to 0.17% (50.99% annualized rate) for the lag one daily return strategy. Investors can also make a trading profit by conducting the weekly return strategy and earn up to 0.59% (35.67% annualized rate), on average.

La prévision du rendement des cultures est toujours une question primordiale. De nombreuses recherches ont été menées avec cet objectif en utilisant diverses méthodologies. Généralement, les méthodes peuvent être classées en approches basées sur les modèles et en approches basées sur les données.Les approches basées sur les modèles reposent sur la modélisation mécaniste des cultures. Ils décrivent la croissance des cultures en interaction avec leur environnement comme systèmes dynamiques. Comme ces modèles sont basés sur la description mécanique des processus biophysiques, ils impliquent potentiellement un grand nombre de variables d'état et de paramètres, dont l'estimation n'est pas simple. En particulier, les problèmes d'estimation des paramètres résultant sont généralement non linéaires et conduisent à des problèmes d'optimisation non-convexes dans un espace multidimensionnel. De plus, l’acquisition de données est très difficile et nécessite un travail expérimental lourd afin d’obtenir les données appropriées pour l’identification du modèle.D'un autre côté, les approches basées sur les données pour la prévision du rendement nécessitent des données provenant d'un grand nombre de scénarios environnementaux, mais les données sont plus simples à obtenir: (données climatiques et rendement final). Cependant, les perspectives de ce type de modèles se limitent principalement à la prévision de rendement.La première contribution originale de cette thèse consiste à proposer une méthodologie statistique pour calibrer les modèles mécanistes potentiellement complexes, lorsque des ensembles de données avec différents scénarios environnementaux et rendements sont disponibles à grande échelle. Nous l'appellerons Méthodologie d'estimation de paramètres multi-scénarios (MuScPE). Les principales étapes sont les suivantes:Premièrement, nous tirons parti des connaissances préalables sur les paramètres pour leur attribuer des distributions a priori pertinentes et effectuons une analyse de sensibilité globale sur les paramètres du modèle afin de sélectionner les paramètres les plus importants à estimer en priorité.Ensuite, nous mettons en œuvre une méthode d’optimisation efficace non convexe, l’optimisation parallèle des essaims de particules, pour rechercher l’estimateur MAP (maximum a posteriori) des paramètres;Enfin, nous choisissons la meilleure configuration en ce qui concerne le nombre de paramètres estimés par les critères de sélection de modèles. Il y a en effet un compromis à trouver entre d’un côté l'ajustement aux données, et d'un autre côté la variance du modèle et la complexité du problème d'optimisation à résoudre.Cette méthodologie est d'abord testée avec le modèle CORNFLO, un modèle de culture fonctionnel pour le maïs.La seconde contribution de la thèse est la comparaison de cette méthode basée sur un modèle mécaniste avec des méthodes classiques d'apprentissage statistique basées sur les données. Nous considérons deux classes de méthodes de régression: d'une part, les méthodes statistiques dérivées de la régression linéaire généralisée qui permettent de simplifier le modèle par réduction dimensionnelle (régressions Ridge et Lasso, Régression par composantes principales ou régression partielle des moindres carrés) et d'autre part les méthode de régression de machine learning basée sur des modèles non-linéaires ou des techniques de ré-échantillonnage comme la forêt aléatoire, le réseau de neurones et la régression SVM.Enfin, une régression pondérée est appliquée pour prédire la production à grande échelle. La production de blé tendre, une culture de grande importance économique en France, est prise en exemple. Les approches basées sur les modèles et sur les données ont également été comparées pour déterminer leur performance dans la réalisation de cet objectif, ce qui est finalement la troisième contribution de cette thèse
Crop yield prediction is a paramount issue in agriculture. Considerable research has been performed with this objective relying on various methodologies. Generally, they can be classified into model-driven approaches and data-driven approaches.The model-driven approaches are based on crop mechanistic modelling. They describe crop growth in interaction with their environment as dynamical systems. Since these models are based on the mechanical description of biophysical processes, they potentially imply a large number of state variables and parameters, whose estimation is not straightforward. In particular, the resulting parameter estimation problems are typically non-linear, leading to non-convex optimisation problems in multi-dimensional space. Moreover, data acquisition is very challenging and necessitates heavy specific experimental work in order to obtain the appropriate data for model identification.On the other hand, the data-driven approaches for yield prediction necessitate data from a large number of environmental scenarios, but with data quite easy to obtain: climatic data and final yield. However, the perspectives of this type of models are mostly limited to prediction purposes.An original contribution of this thesis consists in proposing a statistical methodology for the parameterisation of potentially complex mechanistic models, when datasets with different environmental scenarios and large-scale production records are available, named Multi-scenario Parameter Estimation Methodology (MuScPE). The main steps are the following:First, we take advantage of prior knowledge on the parameters to assign them relevant prior distributions and perform a global sensitivity analysis of the model parameters to screen the most important ones that will be estimated in priority;Then, we implement an efficient non-convex optimisation method, the parallel particle swarm optimisation, to search for the MAP (maximum a posterior) estimator of the parameters;Finally, we choose the best configuration regarding the number of estimated parameters by model selection criteria. Because when more parameters are estimated, theoretically, the calibrated model could explain better the variance of the output. Meanwhile, it increases also difficulty for optimization, which leads to uncertainty in calibration.This methodology is first tested with the CORNFLO model, a functional crop model for the corn.A second contribution of the thesis is the comparison of this model-driven method with classical data-driven methods. For this purpose, according to their different methodology in fitting the model complexity, we consider two classes of regression methods: first, Statistical methods derived from generalized linear regression that are good at simplifying the model by dimensional reduction, such as Ridge and Lasso Regression, Principal Components Regression or Partial Least Squares Regression; second, Machine Learning Regression based on re-sampling techniques like Random Forest, k-Nearest Neighbour, Artificial Neural Network and Support Vector Machine (SVM) regression.At last, a weighted regression is applied to large-scale yield prediction. Soft wheat production in France is taken as an example. Model-driven and data-driven approaches have also been compared for their performances in achieving this goal, which could be recognised as the third contribution of this thesis

Strong sustainability requires enhanced knowledge and understanding of complex social-ecological interactions, but it also implies a ‘novel’ conceptualization of the relationship between humans and nature, one in which individuals perceive themselves as embedded members of the Biosphere. The aim of this Licentiate thesis is to investigate the validity of a strategy that is centered on designing the urban green infrastructure to nurture such human-nature relationship in children’s attitudes. The research is framed by spatial cognition, conservation psychology, and social-ecological sustainability and it focuses on the validity of this strategy. Hence, the Licentiate analyzes how reoccurring experiences of nature that are situated in the everyday habitat (i.e. nature routines) affect personal human-nature attitudes and how these can be implemented as leverage points to change social-ecological systems using sustainable urbanism. Paper 1 tests the assumed link between the nature routines in Stockholm and preschool children’s development of cognitive and emotional affinity to nature. The results show that nature-rich routines over a period of four years are significantly correlated with the strength of preschooler’s affinity with nature. Paper 2 uses a mixed methods approach to evaluate changes in Connection To Nature (CTN) in 10 years olds who partake in a project of nature conservation. The results of Paper 2 show that there is an evaluative gap between theory and practice in connecting children with nature that impedes the evaluation of how children’s CTN changes over short periods of time and that impedes the creation of an evaluative framework for nature experiences. Paper 3 considers these empirical results in theorizing an approach to sustainable urban design based on social-ecological sustainability that includes CTN. In order to overcome existing limitations Paper 3 presents the concept of cognitive affordances as a theoretical tool to embed cognitive and emotional attitudes towards nature into the design of urban spaces. All combined these papers provide valid evidence that nature routines in cities, especially for children, can be a significant leverage point to enable future sustainable civilizations.

This qualitative study explored the overall impact of training HVAC technicians using the SightPros-VirTechs system for remote, wireless, internet video assistance at a small HVAC company, Metro Environmental. John Thomason, the president/co-owner developed a website and a new SightPros communication tool that allows wireless, one-on-one, just-in-time, high-quality, video-monitored instructions between an expert at one site and a technician at another site. Metro Environmental successfully used the SightPros-VirTechs system to train a new apprentice remotely. The apprentice and expert changed their normal and routine physical activities because the expert worked remotely and the apprentice worked on-site. Within just a few months, the apprentice proved competent enough to go to customer accounts without more experienced technicians nearby. The technicians express excitement about the SightPros communication tool as a way to contact remote experts whenever needed. The customer and business contacts also give good reviews and suggest other benefits. The expert permanently captures the communications so the company can use the saved video for many applications, especially training. The dissertation provides a list of recommendations to trainers/educators for similar applications.

Miljön har blivit en allt mer vital fråga. För att öka vår bekvämhet har det lett att vi har orsakat mycket negativa effekter på miljön. En stor del orsakas av våra dagliga oaktsamma aktiviteter. Många diskussioner har tagits upp kring detta problem. En punk som har stor vikt inom dessa diskussioner handlar om negativa påverkan av miljoner transporter som sker dagligen. Klädbranschen är en av de branscherna som bidrar till en stor del av alla transporter. En grund av denna ökade transport är en ökad efterfrågan på onlinehandel av fast fashion och en mogen global marknad. Därför syftar studie att undersöka hur olika klädföretag rapporterar transporter av deras in- och utleveranser och hur detta påverkar miljön. Ytterligare kommer studien att analysera vilken information de utvalda företagen redovisar i sina publicerade rapporter. Den valda forskningsstrategin är en kvalitativ forskning. Studien består av en innehållsanalys av tretton utvalda företags årsrapporter och/eller hållbarhetsrapporter. Datan som samlats in från rapporterna är olika leveranssätt samt utsläpp, leveransoptimering och framtida strategier/mål. Sekundära data har använts som primära data i studien för att sedan med hjälp av grundad teori har analyserats och lett till slutsatsen. Genom analys av rapporterna har vi upptäckt att exempelvis flera av de utvalda företagen lyft fram deras mål med stora siffror, men den information som inte var lika positiv skrevs med en finare stil. Därför har vi dragit en slutsats att de mer eller mindre har grönmålat deras verksamhet inom hållbarhetsområdet. Vi har kommit fram till att många företag har förmågan att påverka sina leverantörer och transportörer, men sällan har de gjort eller rapporterat det. En annan slutsats vi har dragit är att många företag inte har rapporterat miljöpåverkan som orsakas av transporter tillräckligt och vissa inte heller har framtida lösningar. Vidare forskning skulle en jämförelse mellan e-handelsföretag och fysiska företag göras genom att undersöka hur stor andel av hållbarhetsrapporten företagen väljer att skriva om miljöpåverkan. Ett annat förslag kan vara att jämföra ett företags rapporter över tid för att kunna se om de har förändrat det sättet att rapportera när det gäller miljöpåverkan som orsakas av transporter över åren.
The environment has become an increasingly vital issue. In order to increase our comfort, it has led to very negative effects on the environment. A large part is caused by our daily negligent activities. Many discussions have been raised on this issue. One thing that has great importance in these discussions is about the negative impact of millions of transports that take place daily. The clothing industry is one of the industries that contributes to a large part of all transports. One reason for this increased transport is the increased demand for online shopping of fast fashion and a mature global market. Therefore, the study aims to investigate how different clothing companies report their in and out deliveries and how this affects the environment. Furthermore, the study will analyze what information the selected companies report in their published reports. The chosen research strategy is a qualitative research. The study consists of a content analysis of thirteen selected companies' annual reports and / or sustainability reports. The data collected from the reports are different delivery methods, emissions, delivery optimization and future strategies / goals. Secondary data has been used as primary data in the study and with the use of grounded theory it has been analyzed and led to the conclusion. Through analysis of the reports, we have discovered that, for example, several of the selected companies highlight their goals with large numbers, but the information that was not as positive was written indistinct. Therefore, we have concluded that they have more or less greenwashed their published report, we have come to the conclusion that many companies have the ability to influence their suppliers and transporters, but rarely have they made or reported it. Another conclusion we have drawn is that many companies have not reported the environmental impact caused by transport enough and some do not have future solutions either. Further research would make a comparison between e-commerce companies and physical companies by examining how large a proportion of the sustainability report companies choose to write about the environmental impact. Another proposal may be to compare a company's reports over time to see if they have changed the way of reporting when it comes to the environmental impact caused by transport over the years.

Society is on an unsustainable course, predicted to reach a tipping point where greenhouse gas emissions cause irreversible consequences. The cement industry is estimated to be responsible for 7% of the global CO2 emissions, but remains an essential part of building safe and affordable infrastructure for an urbanising and growing population. It is imperative that the industry urgently transitions to a more sustainable pathway. As a key stakeholder, the construction industry could play a role in this. This paper looks at the sustainability of the cement production process from a systems perspective and how the construction industry can help leverage change, using the FSSD and Meadows’ (1999) leverage points as a framework. An analysis of the cement production method against the misalignments with the FSSD Sustainability Principles was performed, as well as a document content analysis of the WBCSD 2018 roadmap for the cement industry. We also conducted 9 semi-structured interviews with experts in the cement and construction industry. Results showed that while CO2 emissions are the biggest challenge for the industry, change will not happen fast enough while a number of structural barriers prevent this. These barriers, their potential solutions and leverage points within the construction industry are discussed.

Circular fashion has become a favoured option for the fashion industry to transition toward as the fast fashion industry becomes unsustainable. Current research within academia, business and policy focuses on the lifecycle stages of the garments, with the designer and design phase in focus. Research on circular economy predominantly looks at material flows and the lifecycle. This however fails to acknowledge potential innovation and the capacity for this change to occur. This study uncovers the perspectives of the designer, who are largely absent from the current research agenda, in order to identify leverage points in the current system which would allow accelerated transition toward a circular fashion system. Using workshops as a method to involve designers, paired together with critical systems theory; the study first highlights a large gap between academia and reality, and reveals that there is a large misconception between designers from fast fashion and designers from luxury fashion and the power influences they allow, while, underlying internal organizational structures pose as an obstacle minimizing capacities for change. Finally, using a three horizons framework as a technique, six leverage points are identified: cultural norm, strong teams, digitalization, leadership for sustainability, education & knowledge and reducing intergenerational conflicts. Overall, the study provides a holistic view of the current environment and the transition toward circular fashion, how lifecycle phases connect to circular economy frameworks and highlights innovation and the ways in which the designer can be re-empowered. The study bridges fashion business with sustainability science in a straightforward way and sets and refines the future research on solutions and challenges.

Relevance of the Subject. City image and the way an individual perceives the surrounding urban environment interested many thinkers in different epochs. In the 20th century, scholars in various fields have started taking interest in this area of knowledge. The following branches of science made a significant contribution to the investigation and formation of city image – behavioural, environmental psychology and sociology, sociology of architecture, environmental planning, as well as sustainable planning, ecology, architecture, urban planning and other branches of science. Environmental psychology is one of the branches of science, which is most closely related to this sphere. Major works in the field of environmental psychology were presented to the world by I. Altman, the British geographer J. Appleton, who proposed the habitat theory, A. De Botton, K. Franck, R. Gifford, J. J. Gibson who formulated the concept of affordance, R. Hart, B. Hiller who investigated the syntax of space, C. R. Jeffery who studied the possibilities of crime prevention in planning the urban environment, R. Kaplan and S. Kaplan, C. Katz, S. Low, K. Lynch who introduced the forming of mental maps, H. Proshansky, A. Rapoport, L. Rivlin, S. Saegert, R. Ulrich, G. Winkel, and other. K. Lynch who investigated the subject of the present work most closely defined place image as a simple, purely physical conception of identification, which can be transformed into exclusiveness and recognisability... [to full text]

Home environments pose a number of challenges for environmental justice. Healthy homes in healthy neighborhoods are often inaccessible due to socioeconomic factors, environmental racism, and/or environmental gentrification. Publicly funded home repair programs increasingly strive to both improve environmental health conditions and to reduce energy bills for low-income homeowners. Such programs have been intended to stimulate reinvestment in neighborhoods experiencing blight and more recently to reduce gentrification pressure in neighborhoods experiencing rapid reinvestment. While such programs do not represent a silver-bullet solution to the accessibility of healthy housing, the question remains: “What is the potential of low-income home repair programs to serve as a leverage point for environmental justice in urban home environments facing gentrification pressure?” This question is investigated through performance evaluation case studies of three municipally funded, low-income home repair programs in Austin, Texas intended to ameliorate gentrification and advance outcomes related to environmental justice. The findings suggest that as a site of intervention, dialogue, community connection, and resource-mobilization, home repair programs have potential as leverage points in regenerative community development that advances environmental justice performance outcomes. Actors in home environments can increase their performance with the support of the home ecology paradigm (HEP), a synthetic research paradigm that draws from sustainability science, environmental justice, and social learning literature to renew an action research paradigm established by Ellen Swallow Richards in the late 1800s to advance healthy community design and development. Guided by a vision of environmental justice, equipped with tools supporting holistic, multi-scalar systems-thinking and regenerative dialogue assessments, and engaged in a practice of resilient leadership, such actors can more deftly dance with the co-evolving systems of their home environments. In so doing, they increase their potential to directly enhance the material, social, and ecological conditions of life in the present, while also cultivating the capacity of these living systems to adapt resiliently to future disruptions. Furthermore, beyond producing life-enhancing performance outcomes, the HEP also appears to support actors in an engaged praxis that enhances their moment-by-moment experience of life and the vitality of living systems in the present.

abstract: The built environment is responsible for a significant portion of global waste generation. Construction and demolition (C&D) waste requires significant landfill areas and costs billions of dollars. New business models that reduce this waste may prove to be financially beneficial and generally more sustainable. One such model is referred to as the “Circular Economy” (CE), which promotes the efficient use of materials to minimize waste generation and raw material consumption. CE is achieved by maximizing the life of materials and components and by reclaiming the typically wasted value at the end of their life. This thesis identifies the potential opportunities for using CE in the built environment. It first calculates the magnitude of C&D waste and its main streams, highlights the top C&D materials based on weight and value using data from various regions, identifies the top C&D materials’ current recycling and reuse rates, and finally estimates a potential financial benefit of $3.7 billion from redirecting C&D waste using the CE concept in the United States.
Dissertation/Thesis
Masters Thesis Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2019

Sustainability is highly valued nowadays due to the surroundings of social and environmental pressure and concern over the past few years, such as the United Nations also suggested goals to make prosperity beneficial to all. Thus, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 recognise the crucial role of companies through corporate sustainability (CS). However, the biggest question by academics and by experts resulting in the research purpose of this work is how to integrate sustainability into the marketing strategy in the micro level to contribute to sustainable development, going beyond knowing marketing importance in this matter. This paper develops a qualitative approach through data collected from marketing directors and heads of marketing to respond about business marketing strategies used to enhance sustainability, marketing importance and its challenges and how to improve towards sustainable development. In findings it is verified a crucial marketing view with product related matters as solutions, external pressure and communication as a relevant tool. There is a marketing strategy role in changes with tactics. Issues as consumption, processes and others in creating sustainable value for everyone are a current challenge. In the end, this matter needs more studying efforts, ideally from academics and professionals together.
A sustentabilidade é muito valorizada hoje em dia devido à envolvente de pressão e preocupação socioambiental dos últimos anos, tal como também as Nações Unidas sugeriram metas para tornar a prosperidade benéfica para todos. Assim, os Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) para 2030 reconhecem o papel crucial das empresas por meio da sustentabilidade corporativa (CS). Porém, a grande dúvida dos académicos e dos especialistas que resulta no objetivo da pesquisa deste trabalho é como integrar a sustentabilidade na estratégia de marketing no nível micro para contribuir para o desenvolvimento sustentável, para além de saber a importância do marketing nesta questão. Este trabalho desenvolve uma abordagem qualitativa por meio de dados recolhidos de entrevistas com diretores e chefes de marketing para responder sobre estratégias de marketing corporativas usadas para aumentar a sustentabilidade, a importância do marketing e seus desafios e como melhorar em direção ao desenvolvimento sustentável. Nas descobertas verifica-se uma visão de marketing crucial em questões relacionadas ao produto como soluções, à pressão externa e comunicação como uma ferramenta relevante. Há um papel da estratégia de marketing nas mudanças táticas. Questões como consumo, processos e outros na criação de valor sustentável para todos são um desafio atual. No final, este assunto precisa de mais esforços de estudo, de preferência de académicos e profissionais juntos.