Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'SUSTAINABLE APPRACH'

The motivation for development of energy efficiency and implementation of novel advanced materials applied in buildings can be traced to increasing energy costs in conjunction with an enhanced environmental awareness among people. This doctoral dissertation presents contributions towards sustainable building, where factors such as building technology, energy efficiency in buildings, workers' health issues during construction measures, and certain economic considerations for renovation of buildings have been considered. The research study aims to provide a knowledge base for motivating building owners to renovate buildings based on energy efficiency and improved indoor environment. The initial phase of the research study identifies a detailed description of common drivers, expected in renovation projects by building owners. In the second phase, an information base is identified which may facilitate the bidding processes for decision makers by means of technological, social and economic aspects. The aforementioned information base can also contribute to attentive decisions regarding sustainable renovation and energy saving measures. A strategy was developed within the Renovation Workshop of Riksbyggen, in order to promote energy saving measures concurrent with major renovations in residential buildings. This operational decision support process was applied in a tenant owners' cooperative in Sweden. The objective of this process was to showcase and more importantly to implement energy saving measures, based on knowledge transfer between different parties involved in the renovation project. For the conducted case study, this process was shown to be of great importance when decisions regarding energy saving measures in conjunction with scheduled renovations are being planned. A unique case study was conducted on two of the most commonly used environmental certification programs for buildings in Sweden; Environmental Building (Miljöbyggnad) and GreenBuilding. Following a granted access to a limited database of submitted applications to Sweden Green Building Council, the most common mistakes in these were identified and categorized. This study contributed to further understanding about the level of ability among building consultants, comprehension of environmental certification, and enhancement of the ability to produce high-quality calculations concerning building-related energy usage. In addition, this insight can provide a basis for planning of continuing education of consultants within the field of building technology. For a church building, a study was conducted subsequent to an exchange of an existing electric coil heating system to a hydronic ground source heat pump system. Analyses of the energy demand and energy signature, prior to and after installation were carried out. The replacement of the original heating system with a ground source heat pump system for the church building constitutes a reduced energy consumption level of approximately 66%, at the average outside temperature of -2.30 °C. This study demonstrated that data from a detailed electric bill can be utilized in order to obtain the energy signature of the building and henceforth assess the energy savings. One aspect of the research, examined the decision making process related to sustainable renovation and refurbishment in buildings. The utilized methodology identified three distinct phases in order to instigate an engagement in sustainable renovation, by means of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. In particular, the attitudes of stakeholders in Sweden, Denmark and Cyprus to sustainable building were studied through three separate case studies. Within the framework of this study, it was identified that building physics and durability are among the most important drivers for energy renovation. The results provided an insight into the renovation process in the aforementioned countries and identified that drivers such as improvement of indoor air quality and elimination of moisture in the building envelope are also of crucial importance. Another aspect of the conducted research highlights workplace accidents occurring within the Swedish construction sector. The purpose of this study was to serve as a useful tool to track the working environments of construction workers in order to reduce health and safety issues within the construction sector. The findings of this research suggest that despite laws, regulations or additional factors that seek to ensure a safe and healthy environment for construction workers, the Swedish construction work force still faces challenges. Moreover, it is identified that construction workers participating in the study call for additional measures to ensure occupational health and safety. Improved knowledge of economic performance and technical results of renovations can contribute to a snowball effect, with more property owners recognizing the value of energy aspects and thus provide an increased level of energy savings.

QC 20140127

A Concept for promotion of sustainable retrofitting and renovation in Early Stages (ACES)

Many fisheries have significant challenges related to sustainable development, such as overexploitation and overcapacity in the fishing fleet. Overcapacity leads to increased pressure on fish resources, reduced profitability, and environmental problems such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and acidification fromfuel consumption. Sustainable management of the fish resources is an important objective in Norway, but overcapacity is a problem in several Norwegian fleet segments. Important issues in this respect are whether the traditional management models are able to deal with the capacity development, and whether the role of technology as a relevant discipline in fisheries management is underestimated.

The objective of this work has been to integrate a technological perspective into fisheries management in order to improve sustainability in the fishing fleet. The thesis work has been limited to the Norwegian fisheries in Norwegian territorialwaters. Since the main problems addressed in this thesis are sustainability and overcapacity, the system boundaries are limited to the fishing fleet. This means that the marine ecosystem in where the fishing vessels are interacting, is outside the thesis’ boundaries.

The main contributions of this thesis are:

• Development of a methodological framework that structures fisheries management decision-making, with main emphasis on improved sustainability in the fishing fleet.

• Clarification of the concept of sustainability in the Norwegian fishing fleet.

• Classification of attributes characterizing sustainability, and a performance evaluation of the different vessel groups in the cod-fishing fleet.

• Comparison of two cod-production systems, with focus on sustainability.

• Suggestions for how fisheries management can evaluate sustainability on a regular basis.

• Improved foundation for further research about sustainability in the fisheries. A lot of literature is collected and synthesized.

The framework developed is based on the systems engineering process. The nature of sustainability requires a systems perspective. There are different system analysis methods, but from a technological perspective, dealing with multidisciplinary tasks, systems engineering has been selected as the most feasible process. It has a strong focus on stakeholder needs and requirements, and it facilitates frequent evaluations of sustainability, which is important in order to assess management efficiency and goal achievement.

Problems regarding sustainability in the fisheries are not only caused by technological development, but have organizational challenges as well. However, in this thesis the focus is within the technological perspective. Systems engineering is not applied as an attempt to change the structure of fisheries management, but as means of suggesting a decision-making process that improves sustainability in the fishing fleet.

Fisheries management involves decision-making in situations often characterized by high risks and uncertainties, and it may be difficult to predict the outcomes of the decisions, for example, regarding sustainability in the fishing fleet. A number of tools that are available to support decision-making have been discussed and used in the thesis, such as cost-benefit analysis, risk acceptance criteria, life cycle cost (LCC), the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and Quality Function Deployment (QFD). Nevertheless, these tools do not provide “correct” answers; they have limitations, they are based on a number of assumptions, and their uses are based on scientific knowledge as well as value judgments involving political, strategic, and ethical issues. This means that these methods leave the decision-makers to apply decision processes outside the practical applications of the analyses, to which the framework offers guiding principles and structure.

The main outcome of using systems engineering principles in fisheries management, is that the framework offers a broader analytical perspective to fisheries management and sustainability, which acknowledge that sustainability cannot be distinguished fromthe context. Today, most input to fisheries management come from biology and economy, such as stock assessments and profitability analyses. In systems engineering, information from different scientific disciplines, for example, biology, social sciences, economy, and technology, are necessary input to the analyses and decision processes, because fisheriesmanagement is much more than bio-economics. Application of the systems engineering process in fisheries management, and the inclusion of technology, introduce new perspectives, new disciplines, and new stakeholders into the decision-making process in the fisheries.

Based on the framework developed in the thesis, the sustainability performance of the cod-fishing fleet has been evaluated. Sustainability in the fishing fleet may be characterized by seven attributes; accident risk, employment, profitability, quality, catch capacity, bycatch/selection, andGHGemissions/acidification. Indicators have been identified in order to measure the system performance within the attributes. The evaluation shows that there are differences in the performance of the vessel groups. These differences pose a major challenge to fisheries management in their decision-making regarding sustainability in the fleet. The smallest vessels have the lowest fuel consumption (kg fuel/kg fish), but they have a very high accident risk (FAR). The evaluation of cod fishing vs. cod farming shows that the potential growth in the cod farming industry may cause changes in the management system of the cod fisheries, such as a possible shift from the IVQ-systemof today to an ITQ-system.

The Norwegian fisheries management lacks frequent evaluations of its policies, and the information and data available about the fisheries are fragmented. Sustainability should be evaluated on a regular basis by use of performance indicators to determine if sustainability increases or decreases. For simplicity, the indicators could be aggregated into a sustainability index showing the overall system performance. Aggregation implies simplification and weighting of the indicators, which means that such an index should be used with care. Sustainability implies a long term perspective when taking decisions, because future generations will be affected. The performance evaluations can give indications of trends, which means that the results can be used to predict consequences in the future, based on the current development.

Paper I, II, III, IV and VI are reprinted with kind permission of Elsevier, sciencedirect.com

Purpose – The study aim to investigate the adoption of social and environmental objectives in public procurement. Design/ methodology/ approach – This study undertook an exploratory case study research based on the theory of bureaucracy and the theory of organisational configuration. A semi structured interview and a survey was conducted among public procurement professionals at five Ministries in Malaysia. Findings – The public procurement system were found to contain two organisational structures – The Machine Organisation and the Innovative Organisation. These structures were based on the analysis that there were two approaches to public procurement – the Compliant Approach and the Sustainable Objective Adoption Approach that respectively contained organisational structures of its own in managing public procurement. Mutual adjustment with the stakeholders was seen as a key driver in implementing sustainable objectives successfully in public procurement. Research limitations/ implications – Case studies have been viewed as controversial for the generalizability of knowledge and philosophical approaches to academia due to the low number of respondents. An in-depth study was the key direction of this study in investigating the organisation structure and relationships with the public procurement system that contained the system of administration and governance, people of the organisation, and the hierarchy of the organisation. Practical Implications – This research adds volume to practitioners and policy makers in designing public procurement policies and regulations by identifying the key areas of sustainable adoption in public procurement. Originality/ Value – The in-depth nature of this study provides a perspective into the intricacies of the public procurement system where the procurement officers were found to consolidate working with the regulations, the components of the organisation, and the hierarchies to achieve organisational objectives.

The tension between fashion and sustainability has been recognized, as it has been argued whether fashion can be sustainable. This is due to the several ethical dilemmas the fashion industry is facing, including not only environmental but also social problems. These issues have gained an increasing amount of consumers' attention during the last years. Even if these problems are recognized, consumers are still having an attitude-behaviour gap towards sustainable consumption, where positive attitude does not reflect on actions. Therefore, this study takes a deeper look into the consumption behaviour of sustainable fashion consumers and aims to clarify, what motivates to purchase sustainable fashion products. With the help of a means-end theory, this exploratory research aims to understand consumers' values behind their purchasing behaviour. The empirical data was collected using an existing sustainable fashion company's customer base in the Netherlands, as their customers have already shown interest towards sustainable fashion. This study is based on nineteen qualitative in-depth laddering interviews, lasting around 25 minutes. The data resulted in several means-end chains that presented which attributes, consequences and values motivate and influence on consumers' purchasing of sustainable fashion. After collecting the data, content analysis was conducted and as a result emerged four dominant motivational themes that motivate consumers to buy sustainable fashion products: self-expression, protect the future, contribution as well as help, care and responsibility. These motivational themes show what consumers value when they make sustainable fashion purchases. In the end, the results of this research are contributing to the holistic understanding of sustainable fashion consumption as well as give insights to the under-researched topic of motivations to purchase sustainable fashion.

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This paper critically examines the sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA) in the context of broader development debates, using a literature review as a tool to explore the origins, concepts and uses of the `approach¿. Whilst the concept of sustainable livelihoods is valuable in advancing our understanding the complexity and embedded nature of people¿s lives, sustainable livelihoods frameworks and principles are too simplistic to offer many answers. This paper argues that the idea of net sustainable livelihoods has much to offer the current discourse on rights and governance but that this is in danger of being diluted by its conceptualisation as a new `approach¿ to managing development interventions.

The current population in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is more than 7 million. Due to pressures of increasing population, the developing economy and climate change, the future security of water supply is far from satisfactory. There is also pressure to connect a large number of customers currently not connected to the HCMC water supply reticulation grid. Current water resources management tends to be fragmented and focused purely on supply side management. It is not economically and environmentally sustainable to focus purely on augmenting supply to meet increasing demand. Sustainable water resources management requires a broader more holistic approach. Government's plans to improve current and future water management issues are examined in the context of two case studies, one from Australia (a developed country) and one from the Philippines (a developing country). The sustainable water management approaches adopted by these two case studies sit at either end of the s pectrum of options. One is closer to a centralized government planning model and the other is a more radical privatisation flavoured model. The thesis investigates the current water demand and supply balance for residential, commercial and industry; and propose a balanced strategy to meet the HCMC's demand until year 2020. The amount of water savings are calculated by implementing a suite of water conservation initiatives. The proposed initatives will substantially narrow the gap between the planned supply and forecasted demand, thus providing a acceptable reasonable supply security for the community.

Time is at the core of Sustainable planning. How to involve time in the planning processes is a crucial question for which very few exhaustive answers have been provided. This research attempts to provide a definition of the important role played by time in sustainable development and the way in which it can be incorporated in planning decisions. This thesis is aimed at building a strategic framework, which can assist decision makers and be applied in the planning process of urban development to improve the approach to sustainable planning. The proposed framework will be grounded in the Philosophy of the cosmos developed by the Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd at the beginning of the twentieth century. Philosophical Dooyeweerdian concepts such as modality, analogical relations, subjective experience, law, entity, temporal coherence, cosmic time, subject object relation, sphere sovereignty, Archimedean point, Ithou relation, soul body at structure are analysed at a theoretical level to provide a theoretical basis for the practical application. This philosophical approach provides a grounding through Dooyeweerds aspects and meanings creating the structure upon which the framework is built. The study defines the temporal issues and temporal dimensions, which could make the philosophical approach a practical tool for implementing the philosophical concepts allowing them to assume a more concrete character. The proposed temporal analysis of urban systems is developed into a framework which has three main phases. The first phase is the historical temporal analysis, the second phase is the subjective analysis and the third addresses the planning phase. These three interrelated phases of analysis define a framework which is then tested through a practical case study in Santo Stefano al Mare in Italy engaging four different public areas with different characteristics. Each area is analyzed by the application of the temporal table, which is a framework structured on the fifteen Dooyeweerdian modalities. The temporal table helps in locating the garden in front of the primary school, the garden in Marco Polo road, the play garden next to the parish church, and Baden Powell square within the formative urban evolution of Santo Stefano al Mare. The application of the temporal table - backward and forward directions to the green areas provides the definition both of their spatiotemporal identity and of their response to future change. Conclusions are drawn as to the applicability of the Dooyeweerdian approach to the subject and the future research needed to make it a robust tool is suggested. The framework has the potential to be applied across the whole spectrum of sustainable development and address an aspect of evaluation which has been underplayed for many years.

Various approaches have been adopted to implement sustainable development in tourism (SOT). However, their impact is contentious and emerging trends suggest that theoretical best practices do not necessarily transform into sustainable outcomes. Recent tourism studies have attributed the lack of stakeholder participation to being one of the major barriers to the effective implementation of SOT. As a result, stakeholder involvement is increasingly called for. Although much has been written on SOT, the academic literature on its implementation is only emerging and the role of stakeholders has received limited attention in tourism. This deficiency in knowledge and the global significance of the topic forms the basis of this study. The study explores stakeholder involvement in the implementation of SOT through a purposive case study of an influential organisation. The objectives were to identify the stakeholders, to establish the factors that influence their involvement in SOT, to elicit stakeholders own perceptions of SOT and to assess how they can be effectively involved in the implementation of SOT. A qualitative approach to data collection and analysis was adopted including focus groups, individual semi- structured face-to-face interviews and documentation review. This triangulation enabled the understanding of stakeholder values, experiences and expectations of SOT. The findings reveal that stakeholders and SOT are inextricably linked. However, the stakeholder involvement process is complex and multi-dimensional. Its effectiveness in achieving sustainability objectives depends on the approach taken. The importance of developing a SOT strategy that takes into account the 'Ieadership- stakeholder involvement capacity nexus' is underscored. As such, a 'Multi- Stakeholder Involvement Management (MSIM) Framework' is offered together with the support of a 'Green Route' and 'Five Criteria for Effective Stakeholder Involvement in SOT' as key contributions from this research.

Adequate energy supply has become one of the vital components of human development and economic growth of nations. In fact, major components of the global economy such as transportation services, communications, industrial processes, and construction activities are dependent on adequate energy resources. Even mining and extraction of energy resources, including harnessing the forces of nature to produce energy, are dependent on accessibility of sufficient energy in the appropriate form at the desired location. Therefore, energy resource planning and management to provide appropriate energy in terms of both quantity and quality has become a priority at the global level. The increasing demand for energy due to growing population, higher living standards, and economic development magnifies the importance of reliable energy plans. In addition, the uneven distribution of traditional fossil fuel energy sources on the Earth and the resulting political and economic interactions are other sources of complexity within energy planning. The competition over fossil fuels that exists due to gradual depletion of such sources and the tremendous thirst of current global economic operations for these sources, as well as the sensitivity of fossil fuel supplies and prices to global conditions, all add to the complexity of effective energy planning. In addition to diversification of fossil fuel supply sources as a means of increasing national energy security, many governments are investing in non-fossil fuels, especially renewable energy sources, to combat the risks associated with adequate energy supply. Moreover, increasing the number of energy sources also adds further complication to energy planning. Global warming, resulting from concentration of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, influences energy infrastructure investments and operations management as a result of international treaty obligations and other regulations requiring that emissions be cut to sustainable levels. Burning fossil fuel, as one of the substantial driving factors of global warming and energy insecurity, is mostly impacted by such policies, pushing forward the implementation of renewable energy polices. Thus, modern energy portfolios comprise a mix of renewable energy sources and fossil fuels, with an increasing share of renewables over time. Many governments have been setting renewable energy targets that mandate increasing energy production from such sources over time. Reliance on renewable energy sources certainly helps with reduction of greenhouse gas emissions while improving national energy security. However, the growing implementation of renewable energy has some limitations. Such energy technologies are not always as cheap as fossil fuel sources, mostly due to immaturity of these energy sources in most locations as well as high prices of the materials and equipment to harness the forces of nature and transform them to usable energy. In addition, despite the fact that renewable energy sources are traditionally considered to be environmentally friendly, compared to fossil fuels, they sometimes require more natural resources such as water and land to operate and produce energy. Hence, the massive production of energy from these sources may lead to water shortage, land use change, increasing food prices, and insecurity of water supplies. In other words, the energy production from renewables might be a solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it might become a source of other problems such as scarcity of natural resources. The fact that future energy mix will rely more on renewable sources is undeniable, mostly due to depletion of fossil fuel sources over time. However, the aforementioned limitations pose a challenge to general policies that encourage immediate substitution of fossil fuels with renewables to battle climate change. In fact, such limitations should be taken into account in developing reliable energy policies that seek adequate energy supply with minimal secondary effects. Traditional energy policies have been suggesting the expansion of least cost energy options, which were mostly fossil fuels. Such sources used to be considered riskless energy options with low volatility in the absence of competitive energy markets in which various energy technologies are competing over larger market shares. Evolution of renewable energy technologies, however, complicated energy planning due to emerging risks that emanated mostly from high price volatility. Hence, energy planning began to be seen as investment problems in which the costs of energy portfolio were minimized while attempting to manage associated price risks. So, energy policies continued to rely on risky fossil fuel options and small shares of renewables with the primary goal to reduce generation costs. With emerging symptoms of climate change and the resulting consequences, the new policies accounted for the costs of carbon emissions control in addition to other costs. Such policies also encouraged the increased use of renewable energy sources. Emissions control cost is not an appropriate measure of damages because these costs are substantially less than the economic damages resulting from emissions. In addition, the effects of such policies on natural resources such as water and land is not directly taken into account. However, sustainable energy policies should be able to capture such complexities, risks, and tradeoffs within energy planning. Therefore, there is a need for adequate supply of energy while addressing issues such as global warming, energy security, economy, and environmental impacts of energy production processes. The effort in this study is to develop an energy portfolio assessment model to address the aforementioned concerns. This research utilized energy performance data, gathered from extensive review of articles and governmental institution reports. The energy performance values, namely carbon footprint, water footprint, land footprint, and cost of energy production were carefully selected in order to have the same basis for comparison purposes. If needed, adjustment factors were applied. In addition, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) energy projection scenarios were selected as the basis for estimating the share of the energy sources over the years until 2035. Furthermore, the resource availability in different states within the U.S. was obtained from publicly available governmental institutions that provide such statistics. Specifically, the carbon emissions magnitudes (metric tons per capita) for different states were extracted from EIA databases, states' freshwater withdrawals (cubic meters per capita) were found from USGS databases, states' land availability values (square kilometers) were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, and economic resource availability (GDP per capita) for different states were acquired from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In this study, first, the impacts of energy production processes on global freshwater resources are investigated based on different energy projection scenarios. Considering the need for investing on energy sources with minimum environmental impacts while securing maximum efficiency, a systems approach is adopted to quantify the resource use efficiency of energy sources under sustainability indicators. The sensitivity and robustness of the resource use efficiency scores are then investigated versus existing energy performance uncertainties and varying resource availability conditions. The resource use efficiency of the energy sources is then regionalized for different resource limitation conditions in states within the U.S. Finally, a sustainable energy planning framework is developed based on Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) and Post-Modern Portfolio Theory (PMPT) with consideration of the resource use efficiency measures and associated efficiency risks. In the energy-water nexus investigation, the energy sources are categorized into 10 major groups with distinct water footprint magnitudes and associated uncertainties. The global water footprint of energy production processes are then estimated for different EIA energy mix scenarios over the 2012-2035 period. The outcomes indicate that the water footprint of energy production increases by almost 50% depending on the scenario. In fact, growing energy production is not the only reason for increasing the energy related water footprint. Increasing the share of water intensive energy sources in the future energy mix is another driver of increasing global water footprint of energy in the future. The results of the energies' water footprint analysis demonstrate the need for a policy to reduce the water use of energy generation. Furthermore, the outcomes highlight the importance of considering the secondary impacts of energy production processes besides their carbon footprint and costs. The results also have policy implications for future energy investments in order to increase the water use efficiency of energy sources per unit of energy production, especially those with significant water footprint such as hydropower and biofuels. In the next step, substantial efforts have been dedicated to evaluating the efficiency of different energy sources from resource use perspective. For this purpose, a system of systems approach is adopted to measure the resource use efficiency of energy sources in the presence of trade-offs between independent yet interacting systems (climate, water, land, economy). Hence, a stochastic multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) framework is developed to compute the resource use efficiency scores for four sustainability assessment criteria, namely carbon footprint, water footprint, land footprint, and cost of energy production considering existing performance uncertainties. The energy sources' performances under aforementioned sustainability criteria are represented in ranges due to uncertainties that exist because of technological and regional variations. Such uncertainties are captured by the model based on Monte-Carlo selection of random values and are translated into stochastic resource use efficiency scores. As the notion of optimality is not unique, five MCDM methods are exploited in the model to counterbalance the bias toward definition of optimality. This analysis is performed under “no resource limitation” conditions to highlight the quality of different energy sources from a resource use perspective. The resource use efficiency is defined as a dimensionless number in scale of 0-100, with greater numbers representing a higher efficiency. The outcomes of this analysis indicate that despite increasing popularity, not all renewable energy sources are more resource use efficient than non-renewable sources. This is especially true for biofuels and different types of ethanol that demonstrate lower resource use efficiency scores compared to natural gas and nuclear energy. It is found that geothermal energy and biomass energy from miscanthus are the most and least resource use efficient energy alternatives based on the performance data available in the literature. The analysis also shows that none of the energy sources are strictly dominant or strictly dominated by other energy sources. Following the resource use efficiency analysis, sensitivity and robustness analyses are performed to determine the impacts of resource limitations and existing performance uncertainties on resource use efficiency, respectively. Sensitivity analysis indicates that geothermal energy and ethanol from sugarcane have the lowest and highest resource use efficiency sensitivity, respectively. Also, it is found that from a resource use perspective, concentrated solar power (CSP) and hydropower are respectively the most and least robust energy options with respect to the existing performance uncertainties in the literature. In addition to resource use efficiency analysis, sensitivity analysis and robustness analysis, of energy sources, this study also investigates the scheme of the energy production mix within a specific region with certain characteristics, resource limitations, and availabilities. In fact, different energy sources, especially renewables, vary in demand for natural resources (such as water and land), environmental impacts, geographic requirements, and type of infrastructure required for energy production. In fact, the efficiency of energy sources from a resource use perspective is dependent upon regional specifications, so the energy portfolio varies for different regions due to varying resource availability conditions. Hence, the resource use efficiency scores of different energy technologies are calculated based on the aforementioned sustainability criteria and regional resource availability and limitation conditions (emissions, water resources, land, and GDP) within different U.S. states, regardless of the feasibility of energy alternatives in each state. Sustainability measures are given varying weights based on the emissions cap, available economic resources, land, and water resources in each state, upon which the resource use efficiency of energy sources is calculated by utilizing the system of systems framework developed in the previous step. Efficiency scores are graphically illustrated on GIS-based maps for different states and different energy sources. The results indicate that for some states, fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas are as efficient as renewables like wind and solar energy technologies from resource use perspective. In other words, energy sources' resource use efficiency is significantly sensitive to available resources and limitations in a certain location. Moreover, energy portfolio development models have been created in order to determine the share of different energy sources of total energy production, in order to meet energy demand, maintain energy security, and address climate change with the least possible adverse impacts on the environment. In fact, the traditional “least cost” energy portfolios are outdated and should be replaced with “most efficient” ones that are not only cost-effective, but also environmentally friendly. Hence, the calculated resource use efficiency scores and associated statistical analysis outcomes for a range of renewable and nonrenewable energy sources are fed into a portfolio selection framework to choose the appropriate energy mixes associated with the risk attitudes of decision makers. For this purpose, Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) and Post-Modern Portfolio Theory (PMPT) are both employed to illustrate how different interpretations of “risk of return” yield different energy portfolios. The results indicate that 2012 energy mix and projected world's 2035 energy portfolio are not sustainable in terms of resource use efficiency and could be substituted with more reliable, more effective portfolios that address energy security and global warming with minimal environmental and economic impacts.
Ph.D.
Doctorate
Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering
Engineering and Computer Science
Civil Engineering

This thesis recognises the implicit shortfalls in the current methods of noise barrier development. An holistic and integrative methodology was devised, which can be potentially incorporated into general practise, without the unnecessary burdens of excessive cost and environmental impacts. In essence the thesis defines, 'a sustainable approach to environmental noise barrier design'. The importance of sustainability as a key determinant of a noise barrier's success is demonstrated through the impacts of public participation on the acceptance of a noise barrier. This was achieved through the triangulation of a grounded theory, formulated through the qualitative analysis of a real case study and then tested quantitatively on a larger representative sample. The theory explored the impact of ineffective public participation on the perceived success of a noise barrier. Noise maps were developed for the comparison of subjective opinions with objective facts. This also illustrated how this technology can be manipulated to focus public participation, and increase success. Demonstrating the utility of this growing resource beyond its current scope. A methodology for assessing the embodied impacts of noise barrier structures was also devised. By addressing the current lack of availability of a specific model, the means of choosing a noise barrier based on sustainable assets was revealed. Finally, the thesis concluded with a laboratory experiment, which utilised a RAVE facility and revealed the extent to which preconceptions play a role in the perception of a noise barriers' effectiveness. Revealing that regardless of which noise barrier is presented, that preconceptions of a materials' ability to attenuate noise are imbedded. The thesis contributed to several areas through the illustration of a sustainable approach to environmental noise barrier design. The methods highlighted, demonstrate how those responsible for building noise barriers, can improve the acceptance by the public and decrease the environmental impacts associated with the construction of these structures.

This study describes a sustainable empowerment process used to mobilise, capacitate and sustainably empower communities.An approach to unlock the potential of the high number of unemployed youth within the emerging markets was investigated. These unemployed youth do not have the correct skills, experience and opportunities to become productive citizens of a country. This research looked at methods used to enable the youth to contribute sustainably to the formal economy as a key to empowering the community.The success factors for community empowerment and the contributions made by stakeholders were explored.The research was based on exploratory research of a South African company, Next S and their operations within local communities. Next S was used because of their innovative and dynamic operations and long history with community projects.
Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
unrestricted

Doutoramento em Química
One of the biggest challenges for organic chemistry researchers is the development of catalytic systems able to selectively oxidize organic compounds, under mild and environmental sustainable conditions. In fact, this is a transformation which nature operates with an extraordinary ability but is of remarkable difficulty for both academia and industry. Metalloporphyrins, as biomimetic models of cytochromes P450, are thus catalysts with great potential. After the first introductory chapter, where the above-mentioned concepts are fully discussed, some general features of porphyrin properties, synthetic methodologies and reactivity are presented in Chapter 2 of this dissertation. The synthetic routes to all the Mn(III) and Fe(III) porphyrins used as catalysts during the work are also discribed in this chapter. Chapter 3 is dedicated to the application of Mn(III) and Fe(III) metalloporphyrin complexes on the oxidative catalysis of organosulfur compounds (sulfides, benzothiophenes, dibenzothiophenes and 1,3-di-hydrobenzothiophenes) by hydrogen peroxide. Besides revealing a high efficient approach for the obtention of the corresponding sulfones, the use of mild and nontoxic conditions turns this approach environmentally safe. The potentiality of the developed methodology only can be fully recognized through the heterogenization of porphyrin complexes in a solid support. So, in chapter 4 the immobilization strategies of tetrapyrrolic macrocycles onto Merrifield resin and silica supports are presented. Three heterogeneous metalloporphyrin-based materials were prepared and the results of catalytic assays with thioanisole as substrate and H2O2 as oxidant put in evidence the efficiency and recyclability of two of them. The catalytic experiments with metalloporphyrins were extended to other substrate classes, namely benzofurans and naphtoquinones, and the results are described and discussed in Chapters 5 and 6, respectively. Despite the complexity of the products obtained, the preferential oxidation route in both cases seems to involve first an epoxidation. Finally, the efficiency of two non-porphyrinic catalysts, namely a manganese polyoxometalate and graphene oxide (tested under homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions, respectively), was also evaluated in sulfoxidation processes by hydrogen peroxide, being the results described in Chapter 7. Graphene 3D oxide, whose catalytic performance was evaluated for the first time, demonstrates to be efficient and recyclable in the oxidation of thioanisole. The last chapter includes some general conclusions and future perspectives for the developed work.
Um dos maiores desafios para os investigadores da área da química orgânica prende-se com o desenvolvimento de sistemas catalíticos capazes de promover, mesmo sob condições moderadas e ambientalmente sustentáveis, a oxidação selectiva de compostos orgânicos. Esta é uma transformação que a natureza realiza de uma forma extraordinária mas que se reveste de tremenda dificuldade tanto no meio académico como a nível industrial. As metaloporfirinas, consideradas modelos biomiméticos do citocromo P450, revestem-se por isso de um enorme potencial em catálise. Assim, nesta dissertação, após o primeiro capítulo introdutório, onde os conceitos mencionados acima são apresentados, no capítulo 2 são abordados alguns dos principais aspectos relativos às propriedades, síntese e reactividade das porfirinas. São ainda descritas neste capítulo as rotas sintéticas para todas as metaloporfirinas de Mn(III) e de Fe(III) usadas durante o trabalho. O capítulo 3 reporta-se à aplicação de complexos metaloporfirínicos de Mn(III) e de Fe(III) na catálise oxidativa de compostos organosulfurados (sulfuretos, benzotiofenos, dibenzotiofenos e 1,3-di-hidrobenzotiofenos) pelo peróxido de hidrogénio. Para além de se revelar uma metodologia altamente eficiente para a obtenção das correspondentes sulfonas, o uso de condições moderadas e atóxicas, torna esta abordagem segura para o meio ambiente. A potencialidade da metodologia desenvolvida só pode ser amplamente reconhecida através da heterogeneização do complexo porfirínico num suporte sólido. Desta forma, no capitulo 4 são apresentadas as estratégias de imobilização de diferentes macrociclos tetrapirrólicos na resina de Merrifield e na sílica funcionalizada. Foram preparados três materiais baseados em metaloporfirinas e os resultados dos ensaios catalíticos envolvendo o tioanisol como substrato e como oxidante o H2O2 colocam em evidência a eficiência e a reciclabilidade de dois deles. Os ensaios catalíticos com metaloporfirinas foram alargados a outras classes de substratos, nomeadamente os benzofuranos e as naftoquinonas, cujos resultados se apresentam nos capítulos 5 e 6, respectivamente. Apesar da complexidade de produtos obtida, a preferencial via de oxidação parece envolver, em ambos os casos, em primeiro lugar uma epoxidação. Finalmente, foi ainda avaliada a eficiência de dois catalisadores não porfirínicos, nomeadamente um polioxometalato e um óxido de grafeno (testados em condições homogéneas e heterogéneas respectivamente) em processos de sulfoxidação pelo peróxido de hidrogénio, cujos resultados se descrevem no capitulo 7. O último capítulo inclui as conclusões gerais e algumas perspectivas futuras para o trabalho desenvolvido.

This doctoral thesis explores community participation in heritage tourism planning as a sustainable solution to real-world cultural heritage problems, such as neglect and degradation at economically-deprived areas. In particular, the study examines how the strategic design of heritage tourism can accommodate the active involvement of destination hosts, such as local residents and business owners, and their meaningful collaboration with heritage managers and policymakers. The literature suggests that destination communities are heavily affected by tourism activity and their contribution to tourism planning is vital for achieving commitment to sustainability goals. Although the theoretical grounds of community involvement are well set, heritage tourism management has been slow in applying participatory approaches. Consequently, there is little empirical work on the practical implications of realising a more pluralist governance for heritage tourism and limited evidence to convince current ‘power-holders’ such as state officials to share their power with non-expert stakeholders. This project aspires to fill this void by exploring the process and particularities of instigating community participation at destination level in areas with no previous participatory experience. By adopting the case-study approach, it explores Kastoria, a peripheral emerging destination in Greece, conducting for the first time an ex-ante assessment of the challenges and complexities involved in pursuing community involvement on Arnstein’s (1969) rungs of ‘citizen power’. Following a novel mixed methodological approach, the study generates primary fieldwork data through semi-structured interviews, an attitudinal questionnaire survey and a quasi-field economic experiment applied to the tourism field for the first time. By doing so it provides important empirical evidence and draws useful theoretical and practical conclusions that increase our knowledge of community-inclusive planning in critical issues, such as the drivers of participation and the dynamics of collaborative decision-making.

Nowadays, millennials living in megacities are facing numerous issues. Most of them are currently experiencing an unsustainable lifestyle. Since this social group is destined to grow in number in the future years, its living status will strongly affect the development of sustainable cities. High frequency relocation, limited savings and lack of time are some of the Millennials’ main issues. Create appropriate solutions to their problems is therefore crucial for a sustainable development. The project aims to investigate Millennials daily life conditions through a human-needs approach performing and, at the same time analyze the possible business-based services that can help this social group to live more sustainable. This has been done through three needs-based service design methodologies that allowed to identify the reasons behind this social phenomenon: a day in life, questionnaires and phone interviews. Furthermore, a co-creation workshop allowed to investigate possible interactions between businesses realities and millennials. This project results demonstrate that there is a need of Business to Customers services which can contribute at the same time to create a sustainable lifestyle and to reduce the environmental impact of the contemporary consumerism-based society. Finally a concept of a product-based reuse service is for this reason developed considering the role of product life cycle in contemporary sustainable issues. To conclude, the importance of a needs-base approach to generate innovative solutions within the topic of service design is highlighted.

South Africa is a signatory to the Rio Earth Summit Agenda 21 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development's, Johannesburg Plan of lmplernentation. These documents are the definitive guidelines towards sustainable development. As a local authority within South Africa, Ekurhuleni is therefore obliged to implement these sustainability principles as highlighted in Chapter 28 of Agenda 21, namely Local Agenda 21. Various tools are available to implement the Local Agenda 21 principles. The Municipal Systems Act, 32 of 2000, prescribes the compilation of an lntegrated Development Plan for all local authorities, part of this is a Performance Management System that measure performance in terms of specified indicators. Another management tool is the State of the Environment Report, which in turn identifies indicators in terms of which environmentally sustainable development can be measured. The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality's lntegrated Development Plan have been compared with the objectives set out in Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of lmplementation, to assess whether this document can be used as the Ekurhuleni Local Agenda 21 Strategy. It was found that the requirements for an lntegrated Development Plan are very similar to the requirements for a Local Agenda 21. The Ekurhuleni lntegrated Development Plan to a great extent complies with the Agenda 21 and Johannesburg Plan of lmplementation. In terms of sustainable development, the economic and social aspects, receive substantial attention, however the biophysical environmental aspect of sustainable development is not sufficiently integrated into all aspects of the lntegrated Development Plan. Neither are the target dates as specified in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation highlighted in the lntegrated Development Plan. By integrating the biophysical environmental aspects into the Ekurhuleni lntegrated Development Plan and setting target dates in line with the Johannesburg Plan of lmplernentation great strides will be made towards achieving sustainable development. If the further step is taken to combine the sustainability indictors as identified in the state of the Environment Report with the Performance Management System, the Ekurhuleni lntegrated Development Plan with its Performance Management System, can be accepted as the Ekurhuleni Local Agenda 21 Strategy.
Thesis (M. Omgewingsbestuur)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004

Sustainable transport is now a popular goal of transport planning. As with any aspiration, systems and mechanisms are required to assess and gauge success in achieving this policy goal. There is increasing reliance on sustainable transport indicators as appropriate tools for this purpose. The usefulness and credibility of any indicator-based assessment will undoubtedly depend on the specific indicators utilised. As such, indicators must be selected carefully to maximise their contribution to the sustainable transport decision making process. A review of current applications of sustainable transport indicators has revealed however, that they are typically selected in an ad hoc and arbitrary fashion. Development of a framework that facilitates transparent and systematic indicator selection would therefore represent a significant advance in transport research. In that regard, this thesis presents the Evaluative and Logical Approach to Sustainable Transport Indicator Compilation (ELASTIC), a methodological framework which provides a flexible, participatory and systematic mechanism for identifying and selecting key sustainable transport indicators. The output of ELASTIC is the Transport Sustainability Profile (TSP), a small un-aggregated suite of sustainable transport indicators which together can provide a snapshot of the sustainability of a transport system. Using various multi-criteria and statistical techniques, ELASTIC applies a robust process to evaluate and select indicators based on their analytical soundness and their relevance to key objectives of sustainable transport. A generic and transferable tool, ELASTIC is capable of application at different geographical scales as well as to non-transport sustainability assessment. For the purpose of this research, the framework is demonstrated through application to England, UK where the judgements of relevant Academics and Transport Planners are elicited and entered into the ELASTIC framework to systematically select a subset of 15 indicators from an initial set of 200. By disaggregating the sample of stakeholders into regional groupings, different context-specific suites of indicators for the regional groupings were also derived. The demonstration confirms ELASTIC to be an inclusive and practical approach to compiling a suite of sustainable transport indicators specific to context and which reflects the unique values of key stakeholders.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2012.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-76).
Energy management in industrial facilities is becoming increasingly popular as firms attempt to become more environmentally responsible and reduce cost by improving operational efficiency. Raytheon is a leader in their industry in energy management, and they view the initiative as a way to become more competitive along with being environmentally responsible. The goal of this project was to develop a framework for achieving sustainable cost reduction in production operations through energy efficiency. The energy efficiency framework will build off the existing lean and six sigma tools and philosophies in an attempt to accelerate acceptance and deployment by using a common language and proven methods in the company and industry. A 1.6 million square foot manufacturing facility at Raytheon IDS consumed $13 million of energy (90% electric) in 2010, 75% of which was consumed directly by production equipment. The equipment is diffuse, highly specialized, and used in "high mix, low volume" manufacturing. The challenge with improving production energy efficiency in this environment is that it requires a combination of technology improvements, processes modifications, and changes in the way employees conduct their work every day. The project's success relied on cross-functional (i.e., operations, engineering, and facilities) engagement from senior management to front-line operators. To sustain results, energy performance metrics were designed to keep production area leaders engaged and allow management to set progressive goals over time and reward success. The proposed metrics use a combination of tracked energy use and a "best practice" scorecard that promotes proactive engagement. Lean "Energy Gemba Walks" were initiated to generate and manage best practices and to share knowledge among production areas. The implementation phase of the pilot project (October and November 2011) resulted in an 18% energy reduction compared with the average for the year. Meanwhile, production output and total labor hours were up 18% and 11%, respectively, during the pilot, while the product mix remained constant throughout the year. The improvements, if sustained, correspond to a $74,000 per year cost savings in the pilot area.
by Kurtis McKenney.
S.M.
M.B.A.

Emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, is an invasive wood boring beetle native to eastern Asia which was first detected in North America in 2002. All North American Fraxinus (ash) species are suitable hosts and susceptible to attack. Emerald ash borer larvae feed on phloem beneath the bark of infested trees resulting in girdling and mortality in as little as five years following initial infestation. Since its introduction near Detroit, Michigan, emerald ash borer has rapidly spread throughout much of the United States and portions of Canada, threatening the persistence of ash in invaded regions. I tested a management strategy for emerald ash borer which combines pesticide applications with releases of three species of classical biological control agents: Tetrastichus planipennisi, Spathius agrili, and Oobius agrili. My data suggest that the two approaches are compatible and pesticides did not negatively impact establishment success of T. planipennisi and O. agrili. Additionally, I characterized the assemblage of natural enemies native to the central United States that might be capable of helping regulate emerald ash borer populations, and found twelve morpho-species of natural enemies being recruited to emerald ash borer in this region. Finally, I evaluated the impact of ash decline on native hymenopteran parasitoids and found a positive correlation between ash decline and parasitoid abundance.

Land areas being used unsustainably are depleted and/or degraded. To prevent this from happening and/or to reverse the effects, we need to restore these environments. However, not all restoration practices are equal, and some do not adhere to rigorous standards of sustainability. In this study, restoration guidelines and opinions from field experts were analysed from an SSD perspective. The focus of this thesis was limestone quarries in northern Europe due to quarries’ impacts to the socio-ecological system and the sensitivity of northern ecosystems. The results were divided into two sub-sections: FSSD comparison to guidelines, which included an SP analysis to principles in guidelines, and interviews. The conclusion was that the SSD approach could enhance these quarry restoration guidelines by incorporating the recommendations formulated from the results and discussion. One recommendation was having the eight SPs as overarching boundaries for success. Incorporating these recommendations would fill the sustainability gaps, aiding in the practitioner's ability to be strategic and have long-term success within sustainable limits.

It can be argued that ”sustainable tourism” is considered to be a solution for ensuring the industry’s long-term survival. However, the concept of “sustainable tourism” is contested. A key issue is a lack of consensus in how stakeholders define “sustainable tourism”, and this creates communication challenges when different stakeholders discuss the concept. Within the field of sustainable tourism, there is limited literature on the meanings that stakeholder groups attribute to the concept of “sustainable tourism”. This study aims to address this theoretical gap, by exploring the meanings that stakeholders attribute to “sustainable tourism”, and the potential for the creation of shared meanings. This thesis addresses this gap by applying a social semiotic approach to exploring the meanings attributed to “sustainable tourism” by various stakeholder groups. Social semiotics is a theory that studies meanings created in groups, and is applied in this thesis as an analysis of “sustainable tourism” stakeholders’ web-pages. A total of 18 webpages from five stakeholder groups: the Public sector, the Tourism industry, Universities and research centres, the Third sector and Environmental and tourism consultancies, have been analysed for the purpose of this study. The findings of the thesis add value to both theory and practice. The theoretical contribution is twofold. Conceptually, the study has contributed to the theory of “sustainable tourism” by establishing that there is no orderliness in the ways that stakeholders conceptualise “sustainable tourism” meanings. Instead, further fragmentation of values, according to clusters or individual organisations within stakeholder groups, occurs. The meanings identified in this study can be organised into five dualities and tensions, and represent the positions in power relations in “sustainable tourism”. Methodologically, the study has contributed to the body of knowledge by introducing social semiotics into “sustainable tourism” research methodology, and by developing an original and replicable research instrument based on methods of social semiotics. The practical implications of the thesis are twofold as well. The meanings identified in the study can help breach perceptual gap between organisations in different stakeholder groups and clusters, promoting more effective communication, inclusion and participation in “sustainable tourism”. Furthermore, the original research instrument developed for this study can be adopted by practitioners for the analysis of their own webpage for the meanings conveyed.

After the oil crisis held in 1973 and 1979, academicians and industry players have noticed the importance and necessity of having alternative and sustainable energy sources in future. Biological wastes, also named as “Biomass” has been cited as one of the significant sustainable energy sources. Biomass poses an ideal and substantial potential to achieve a sustainable system. However, the development of biomass industry is still relatively sluggish due to the lack of confidence of the investor to venture in this relatively new green business. This is most probably attributed to the low-maturation of biomass technologies compared to other conventional technologies, high logistics cost required for biomass transportation and uncertain market penetration barrier for the biomass-derived products. This raises the importance of having a proper biomass management system and a systematic evaluation approach to assess the sustainability performances of the biomass industry. Therefore, the ultimate goal of this thesis is to develop a sustainable multi-biomass supply chain with the aims of optimising all three sustainability dimensions simultaneously. A sustainable multi-biomass supply chain is referred as the integrated value chain of the green products, which derived from various types of biomass, starting from harvesting stage to the final products delivery stage. This thesis discusses in detail on the relevant previous research works toward the introduction of novel evaluation approach to attain different sustainable objectives (i.e., economic, environmental and social) simultaneously. The evaluation approach encompasses various components, including (i) model reduction by using P-graph integrated two-stage optimisation approach; (ii) consideration of vehicle capacity constraint for detailed transportation cost estimation; (iii) integration of various sustainability indexes using various optimisation techniques. On top of that, two novel debottlenecking approaches, one through principal component analysis (PCA) method; while another through P-graph framework, which able to identify and remove barriers that limit the sustainability performance of the biomass supply chain, are proposed. Aside from this, this thesis also aims to reduce the gaps between the researchers and industry players by developing some user-friendly and non-programming-background dependent decision-making tools. Thus, decision-makers are able to understand the insight of their problems easily without requirement of strong mathematical background. A case study in Johor, a southern state in Malaysia, which is endowed with extensive biomass resources, is used to demonstrate the effective of the proposed approaches.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors are a strategic topic for investors and financing institutions like the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). Currently, the bank’s experts are developing a framework based on those factors to assess companies' sustainable financing. We identify an opportunity to use Natural Language Processing (NLP) in this development. This opportunity arises from the observation that a critical document to the ESG analysis is the company annual activity report. This document undergoes a manual screening, and later it is decomposed, and its parts are redirected to specialists’ analysis. Therefore, the screening process would largely benefit from NLP to automate the classification of text excerpts from the annual report. The proposed solution is based on different Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) architectures, which rely on the attention mechanism to achieve optimal results on sentence-level analysis tasks. We devised a text classification task to enable the analysis of excerpts from the annual activity report of companies considering three categories, according to the ESG reference standard, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). To establish a benchmark, we implemented a baseline solution using a classic NLP approach, Naïve Bayes, which got a 51% accuracy and 50,33% F1-score. RoBERTa and BERT-large achieved 88% accuracy and almost 85% F1-score, the best results obtained from our experiments with different BERT architectures. Also, Albert showed to be a possible alternative for limited memory devices, with 85% accuracy and 78.5924% F1-score. Finally, we experimented with a multilingual setup that would be interesting for a scenario where the BNDES wants a more generic model that can analyze English or Portuguese annual reports. Bert multilingual model reached almost 86% accuracy and 81.18% F1-score.

Aviation has become an integral component of a modern transportation system. The economic and social benefits of flight are numerous and extensive. Increasing concern about the negative environmental and social costs of aviation has begun to question projected growth of the industry. Sustainable development has become an accepted principle of development in both government policy and business. Aviation development involves the complex interaction of a wide network of stakeholders, and the resultant perceived socio-economic and environmental impacts. This complex interaction forms the basis of this thesis. The development of UK aviation is concerned with not just the development of new infrastructure and technology, but also the utilisation of existing infrastructure and technology. Future development could be by any number of alternative scenarios. However, which future scenario is superior to others? And, how should this comparison be assessed? Sustainable development evolved as a multi-disciplinary concept and this thesis draws from a wide variety of disciplines to explore the phenomenon. The stakeholder research tradition is utilised to develop a participatory stakeholder-based methodology to identify and measure the relevant impacts of sustainable development. This new ‘stakeholder-sustainable development framework’ can analyse and evaluate the current system and inform the selection and integration of assessment techniques, and the rationale behind their selection. This methodology is applied to UK aviation to identify perceived impacts and explore epistemological interpretations of sustainable development. Through semi-structured interviews, participants are invited to share the perceived impacts and their understanding of sustainable development in relation to aviation. Methods of assessment, for the identified impact of noise, are reviewed and one applied. The research proposes a network of stakeholder actors key to the future development of aviation in the UK, and whose needs should be considered. The make-up of stakeholder representation at the airport level is relatively consistent at different airport scales.

Nel corso degli anni gli esseri umani hanno trasformato le foreste verdi in foreste di cemento. E più ci “sviluppiamo”, più la natura scompare. Di fatto, è diventato sempre più evidente che l’industria è la causa principale del problema della sostenibilità, e, in particolare, l’industria della moda è uno dei maggiori inquinatori del mondo. Se le aziende esistono e operano in virtù della legislazione nazionale del loro stato di incorporazione, allora ci si domanda: cosa stanno facendo (o non facendo) i governi per determinare una trasformazione sostenibile dell’industria? Quindi, questo lavoro si propone di analizzare gli approcci dei due maggiori mercati dell’industria della moda (Stati Uniti ed Europa) in prospettiva comparativa, con particolare attenzione agli aspetti legali, per discutere le opportunità e le sfide presentate dalle diverse strategie di sviluppo.
Over the years, humans have transformed green forests into concrete ones. And the more we “develop”, the more nature disappears. In fact, it has become increasingly evident that industry is a root cause of the sustainability problem – and the fashion industry is one of the world’s top polluters. If companies exist and function by virtue of the national legislation of their state of incorporation, then this begs the question: what are governments doing (or not doing) to cause sustainable industry transformation? Hence, this dissertation will analyze the approaches of the fashion industry’s two largest markets (the United States and Europe) from a comparative legal perspective to discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by the varying development strategies.

Despite an increasing recognition of the need for an integrative approach to sustainable development, there remains a tendency for this to be anthropocentric. Attempts to govern sustainability are invariably focused on the pre-eminence of the human perspective and social systems in the pursuit of human goals. This often means either excluding or attempting to control the external environment rather than understanding and responding to it. This thesis explores more holistic approaches to governance that are based upon the need for an improved understanding about the interconnections between social, economic and ecological systems. It examines current literature on governance for sustainable development and systems thinking as applied to it, with specific reference to Socio-Technical Systems (STS), social learning about systems’ interrelations and the nature of public goods. On the basis of this analysis, a systemic conception of governance for sustainability is developed and translated into a provisional framework that can aid participatory social learning relating to sustainable development. Three initial Socio-Technical Systems (STS) case studies are drawn upon to populate the empty framework (the European Critical Electricity Infrastructure (ECEI), the Finnish security system and the transition of energy systems towards a post carbon society); these are then analysed thematically to derive common governance for sustainability criteria. The final modified framework is then applied to an in depth, and on-going, case study of food systems’ security and sustainability and a final discussion considers how this governance framework (GAME) might contribute to future holistic decision making for more sustainable Socio-Technical Systems. The multi-method GAME supports the generation of future scenarios and core sustainability criteria by multiple stakeholders; reflecting needs, capabilities and limits that can maintain systems’ equilibrium. It also implies a more normative governance for sustainability and a commitment to improved evidence-based decision-making that reflects systems’ complexity and contributes to bridging the gaps between science, policy and society. The GAME is currently being extended to incorporate the user-friendly geospatial representations of impacts.

Sustainable building (SB) tools have been recognized and explored in different regions as among the most effective means to encourage, regulate and assist SB development. A large variety of SB tools have been developed and applied in the marketplace, while a number of new tools emerge each year. While the early-developed SB tools provide general references and resources, it is still not easy either to select from existing tools, to develop new tools, or to customize existing tools for any specific region. On the one hand, the quickly expanding number of tools is developed with different styles, contents, functions, underlying assumptions as well as limitations relating to the specific conditions in their origin regions. Without a comprehensive framework to classify the tools, it is difficult to select the right ones out for any specific task in hand. On the other hand, the conditions and requirements for developing SB tools in a specific region are multi-faceted and complex. Without a proper understanding of them from a holistic point of view, it is difficult to say which tools or which type of tools are indeed needed and appropriate in a region. Recognizing the demand for developing and applying specific SB tools in different regions and the confusion surrounding existing tools, this research establishes two comprehensive conceptual frameworks to classify SB tools and SB issues. The framework for SB tools includes four related categories that focus on building stakeholders, building activities, buildings, and building performances. The framework for SB issues constitutes two combined hierarchy structures each for the performance (P) factors and the decision-making (D) factors respectively. These two frameworks not only serve as guides toward identifying the types of tools (existing or not) that are needed and suitable in a specific region, but also facilitate the selection and customization of existing tools for specific regions. Guided by the two generic frameworks established in the research, China specific conditions and requirements for SB tools are investigated. China specific SB issues are first identified from three preliminary SB tools in the country and classified according to the generic frameworks for SB issues. A questionnaire survey targeting local architects is then conducted in four selected cities. Answers in the replied questionnaires are analysed with the SPSS software and the Content Analysis method. Local architects??? perception about the relative importance of SB issues and their preferences and expectation about the characters, orientations, functions and styles of SB tools are identified and compared with that in existing SB tools. Accordingly, similarities and contradictions between existing tools and local architects??? perceptions, preferences, and expectations regarding China specific SB tools are summarized and discussed. Synthesizing the above research and investigation about the generic and regionally specific aspects of SB tools, this thesis finally proposes a holistic approach to developing generic vs. regionally specific frameworks for SB tools. First, a more balanced approach for developing SB tools in both the broad and narrow senses is proposed and discussed; second, a suite approach for developing SB tools in both the functional and spatial dimensions is proposed and discussed. Conceptual frameworks are established in the discussions; examples are provided to illustrate the concepts; and recommendations are made for further development of the generic vs. regionally specific frameworks for SB tools in China.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the understanding of human rights in Agenda 2030 and the role of companies by adopting a human rights-based approach to sustainable development. It applies a qualitative idea analysis of the primarily material where central concepts are operationalized by constructing a model of analysis based on dimensions. The dimensions of human rights as moral, politics and law, derives from previous research by the ethical theorist Elena Namli. A potential fourth dimension, the economic dimension of human rights, is further developed, applying research of the economists Dan Seymour and Jonathan Pincus. Furthermore, this research considers what Agenda 2030 indicates in terms of human rights obligations for companies and the impacts the perceived role of companies may have for human rights. Therefore, the theoretical framework is complemented by research of the political theorist Thomas Pogge's, and international lawyer Andrew Clapham’s ideas of human rights obligations for companies. The results show that Agenda 2030 encourages a multi-stakeholder approach and addresses companies as partners in order to achieve a sustainable development based on human rights. This can be regarded as an opportunity to enhance the respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights, inviting more actors to contribute in a complementary way to states. At the same time challenges remains in creating policies, accountability and monitoring mechanisms towards companies bothin terms of human rights and companies’ performance on the SDGs. Until there is more legal clarity, the moral question of what is good and fair business practice becomes central.

Il corpo dell'elaborato è lo studio e l'applicazione del 'Life Cycle Assessment' (LCA) per un granulo di PVC. La prima parte del lavoro è una valutazione dell'industria odierna della plastica, in particolar modo del PVC, dall' origine della risorsa, attraverso tutte le fasi industriali fino al prodotto finale. Seguendo viene presentato il carattere poco sostenibile dell'industria in questione e possibili soluzioni tecniche attualmente utilizzate o previste. Mediante l'uso del GaBi software è stato possibile applicare la metodologia dell'LCA, analizzando tecnicamente l'impatto ambientale del prodotto. Infine, l'ultima parte del lavoro comprende una sezione dedicata al 'Cost-Benefit Analysis', utilizzato per quantificare il rapporto tra i costi e i benefici dell'industria.

All levels of society, individuals, businesses and governments, must be involved in order to reverse the unsustainable path that society is currently on. Though much has been written about what needs to be done, there is much less literature on how to do it. This study attempts to start filling this gap. This paper is focused on the Vision 2050 report which acknowledges the role businesses have in moving society towards sustainability. The Vision 2050 report which was released by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development explores the current reality business is facing and the opportunities that are available for them to incorporate sustainability into the mainstream of their business. The study examines how businesses can begin to integrate sustainability into their company’s operations and services, using the report for inspiration and the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development as guidance. A suggested approach is presented in the form of an implementation guide, which can be used by business to help them navigate their organization, collaborate with others and to develop an action plan as they work to integrating sustainability into their operations

The awareness of the unsustainable path we are heading and the pressing need to act has been growing for the last few decades. Organisations, in particular corporations, play an important role in the necessary changes and they are increasingly being obliged by a growing range of stakeholders to play a positive part in society as corporate citizens. This has led to the current proliferation of initiatives and standards on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and has created confusion and misunderstanding about what is a strategic corporate responsibility approach. We found that current CSR lacks principles of sustainability and a universal ethical guideline. This paper argues that current CSR can be made strategic by considering a scientifically relevant whole systems approach of sustainability as its fundamental objective. We present some implementation guidelines for CSR based on principles of sustainability and on the universal ethical principle of non-harm. Analysis of selected organisations in Brazil and Malaysia using the proposed guidelines provided recommendations and insights on how these organisations can contribute towards a sustainable society.

This thesis aims to investigate what strategic guidance can be given to design transformative ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) programs in order to bring about the necessary shift away from our dominating mechanistic and transmissive educational model towards one that is transformative. ESD programs are of high importance when moving towards a more sustainable society, however, a lack of a strategic, full systems approach for planning in the field of complexity can be observed. This gap can be bridged by the use of the FSSD, the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, which is used as a conceptual framework throughout this paper. The field of transformative education was researched by using a mixed-methods approach, revealing what key elements and best practices are present that enable transformation to happen. The Cocoon model presented in this paper is derived from the results and intends to give strategic guidance for program designers on how to create a transformative ESD program. It is a process model that aids program designers to create the space for transformational learning to occur by strategically putting into place the elements that are conducive to transformation.

Adopting a Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) approach to official bilateral development assistance could result in more effective development planning that yields lasting results in developing countries. A Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development Assistance (FSSDA) based on SSD and customised to the needs of a development agency offers guidance in planning for development towards sustainability. This it does by directing donor and recipient planners in generating holistic perspectives, setting the goal of development as an attractive and sustainable society, and providing a flexible decision-making framework to guide strategic planning. Development assistance donor agencies face several difficulties in ensuring aid effectiveness. The FSSDA offers support in addressing these challenges by: positioning the creation of sustainable societies as the fundamental goal of development; allowing progress against imminent sustainability threats while minimizing the risk of unforeseen negative impacts; balancing economic, environmental and social considerations; and providing a fairer basis for aid conditionality.

The thesis addresses the question of how to establish an appropriate methodology for monitoring sustainable tourism development (STD) in Samoa, an independent small island state in the South Pacific. The theoretical starting point and common thread throughout this study is that sustainable development can and must form the paramount context for STD. The author adopts an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on innovative research in the field of ecology and ecosystem management in order to gain understanding of new and emerging interpretations of sustainability and their implications for STD. Three guiding principles are identified and consequently form the conceptual foundation for the work. That understanding and implementing STD requires: i) a comprehensive systemic approach; ii) a stakeholder-driven focus; and iii) the adaptive capacity to accommodate the non-linear behaviour of complex systems. These principles are tested in the context of the development of a place-based STD monitoring programme in Samoa. In collaboration with the Samoa Visitors Bureau (SVB) and a multidisciplinary stakeholder committee, a set of STD objectives for Samoa were formulated, 20 indicators were identified to monitor progress towards their achievement, and a monitoring programme was established to utilise the results. The objectives and corresponding indicators are broad in their coverage of tourism and sustainable development issues, have stakeholder resonance, and are feasible considering the technical and human capacity currently available in SVB. The monitoring programme also has the flexibility to adapt to change as it inevitably occurs. The work undertaken in Samoa demonstrates that as well as generating timely information on the current state of STD, if a stakeholder approach is adopted, monitoring can also provide the opportunity for considerable social learning, and help bridge the gap between indicator development and indicator use, ensuring indicator results are actually used to change the way tourism is planned, developed and managed.