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Who cares for cultural and creative workers (CCWs)? This paper considers the impact of a declined welfare support system across European states on CCWs and investigates the role played by creative intermediaries in providing care for those employed within the sector. Building on both quantitative and qualitative data taken from a range of European creative intermediary organisations, the paper applies Joan Tronto's politicised framework of care to articulate how work undertaken by intermediaries can be understood as a form of care work. The findings highlight the range of creative intermediaries working to support CCWs across Europe and illustrates their role in conducting research on the sector in response to the lack of available robust data at a more official governance level. It explores how these organisations are filling both a welfare and knowledge gap however, that this support is ad hoc, supported by various funding models which place the intermediary organisations themselves in a precarious position. In response to this, the paper calls for investment in collaborations between higher education, policy makers and creative intermediaries to strengthen support for CCWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper foregrounds the use of "Living Labs" as instruments for the delivery of just low carbon transformations. Living Labs are commonly understood as stakeholder-centred, iterative and open-innovation ecosystems that involve multiple forms of co-creation and engagement among different actors in a given territory. Over a period of three years, thanks to a unique pan-European action research study, three such Labs were set up in different locations in Europe -- a large North-western European city (Manchester, England), a mid-sized mountainous town in South-eastern Europe (Metsovo, Greece) and a series of rural settlements in Central Europe (Nyírbátor, Hungary). Working closely with local residents and relevant organisational stakeholders, the research teams that led the Labs undertook multiple low-carbon interventions in the homes of low-income residents, while continuously monitoring the broader impacts of intermediation practices on energy equity and sustainability across three consecutive cycles of activity. We present and discuss the results of these activities, so as to uncover the impacts of Living Labs on energy poverty both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The volume of urban transportation sustainability assessments in academic literature has steadily increased over the last two decades. This paper targets these studies through the first systematic literature review to construct a synthesised and critical overview of how urban transportation sustainability is in fact assessed. The sample consists of 99 peer-reviewed articles retrieved via three scientific search engines. The results reveal a Europe-centric and single-case focus, a strong interest to introduce new indicator systems with limited references to previous work, and a lack of qualitative approaches and stakeholder diversity regarding the assessment methods. Nearly 2400 indicators are identified in the articles with significant variation in their use. Furthermore, the comprehensive accounting for sustainability is often overlooked, and the inconclusive assessment results are often noted by the authors of the sample articles themselves. Our findings signal that the research field is highly fragmented and to some extent fails to accumulate knowledge generated by past studies and to comprehensively operationalise the concept of sustainability. The identified shortcomings of the assessments and their implications for transportation policy-making and planning are highlighted, and based on our results recommendations to develop more reliable, comparable, and inclusive sustainability assessments for the urban transportation sector are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the policy of austerity in three European welfare regimes with differing levels of social spending and fiscal balance: Italy; Sweden; and the UK. In spite of significant material differences between the three countries, the paper begins by illustrating that there is ultimately convergence in their responses to the economic crisis. These welfare regimes have justified the terms of austerity by suggesting that economic and welfare reforms address questions of ‘need’, ‘fairness’ and ‘sustainability’. Contrary to dominant political and policy rationale, the paper demonstrates that austerity measures in each country fail to meet policy objectives given their own conceptions of social and distributive justice. The three welfare regimes lack cogent strategies to safeguard their financial sustainability and this results in a neo-liberal paradigm that compromises the ethical and internal coherence of austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The goal of this paper is to study non-financial information disclosed by European SMEs as a way to identify sustainability risks. We analyze a sample of all the voluntary non-financial reports disclosed according to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards for European SMEs from 2016 to 2019. We obtain that the reports are made voluntarily with basic adherence to GRI and without external assurance. It means that European SMEs choose the basic option to divulge information on sustainability what can not include the identification of sustainability risks. In the current momentum of discussion about non-financial information normalization in Europe the obtained conclusions can be useful to bear in mind SMEs´ specificities. Social implications of requirements of sustainability information to European companies are clear when every company has to add efforts to contribute to a sustainable economy. Nowadays, when non-financial information is compulsory in Europe for certain companies and there is a discussion about the scope of this requirement, it is important to note that SMEs are the backbone of the European economy and that this information on sustainability risks can be a benchmark worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responsibility in planning for sustainable development (SD) is little conceptualised in the planning literature. This paper sets up a theoretical framework to extend its understanding by drawing on ethics and political constructions of responsibility at their intersection with planning studies and SD debates. This is then applied to explore responsibility outlooks in planning practice in Sweden and England. It is argued that planning theory needs to further engage with the ethics of responsibility in planning but also with its politics, while the variety of responsibility landscapes in planning practice calls for a re-examination of responsibilities in planning for SD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within global sport, volunteering has been identified as a fundamental resource to the effective operation and continuity of operations. However, investments in, and the success of, sport volunteering is contingent on amiable socio-cultural, political, and economic conditions. In Europe, the context of this paper, the vibrancy of sport volunteering remains a concern since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notwithstanding the pandemic, some transnational sport networks and regional governmental partnerships have been making more dedicated investments to fortify volunteer cultures in the region. In addition, collaborative ventures are finding ways to connect sport volunteering with wider international issues to support its growth across all sectors. Here, sustainability and environmental change have provided a key issue platform for sport volunteer leverage. As the pandemic continues to confront the existence and practices of sport organisations, and specifically their ability to engage volunteers, these issues have become salient. We present a commentary of the Erasmus + Sport-funded, pan-European, sport volunteering and sustainability focused, PlayGreen consortia and its organisation members responses to the unfolding pandemic across Europe. Our commentary is guided by spatial theory and internal administration insights. The pandemic has brought new ideas and cohesion into sport volunteer communities, challenged, and changed modes of production, and led to new forms of social transformation and action vis-à-vis environmental and sustainability issues. As sport organisations continue to find viable ways of existing, the experiences within the PlayGreen consortia evidence creative potential for future volunteer engagements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the observed impact of past economic downturns on human development indicators in 29 countries of the region. We estimate empirical elasticities of key human development indicators covering demographics, crime, epidemiology, unemployment, and poverty with respect to changes in per-capita purchase power parity (PPP) gross domestic product. Based on published gross domestic product growth projections from the IMF, we then project the likely impact on the human development indicators in coming years for the countries in the region. The results suggest that the adverse impact of past downturn in income on poverty, public health, mortality, and suicide and homicide rates is likely to be considerable, long-lasting, and to affect the poorest disproportionately. Based on our results, we argue that policy-makers will need better and more timely data to provide the evidence base for policies; and that those policies need to take into account the looming substantial backslide in human development indicators stemming from the global economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses technical performance in the water industry in the Southern European region of Andalusia, while accounting for sustainability in the management of water. This allows the opportunity cost of producing sustainability to be evaluated. Given the low cost of raw water in Spain in relation to the estimated opportunity cost of saving this natural resource, wasting water becomes a profitable strategy for utility managers from a private perspective. However, this managerial strategy has a huge social cost in an area of Europe where the sustainable management of water is a pressing need. The conclusion is that environmental policy aimed at discouraging this wasteful behaviour is urgently needed. For this reason, a suitable mix of environmental taxes on water abstraction and institutional reforms is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the problems that arise when seeking to evaluate policies for the multifunctionality of agriculture (MFA) and rural areas. The focus is on the conceptual frameworks, methods, tools and data that are used to evaluate policies and regulations that impact upon or are targeted at agriculture and rural space. The paper builds upon a review of policy evaluation practice and experiences in six different EU member states and a summary review among Central and Eastern European Countries, carried out as part of the EU-funded MULTAGRI research project (for more information on the project see www.multagri.net). The evaluation methods and the agricultural functions that the policies address differ widely between countries. Until now, the focus of MFA has primarily been on nature protection, environmental concerns and landscape conservation. Other dimensions of multifunctionality, such as community services, renewable energy sources, recreation and leisure and linkages with non-agricultural development (for example in gastronomy and tourism) have been largely neglected. As a result, multifunctionality is not yet understood as a way of addressing concerns about economic, social and environmental sustainability. This paper argues that classic evaluation tools, such as cost-benefit analysis and other economic models are not, by themselves sufficient to evaluate the MFA and rural areas. It argues that more comprehensive and integrated approaches need to be adopted, that are more focussed on the potential of agriculture to fulfil new societal goals, contribute to rural employment and improve the viability of rural, particularly less favoured areas (this potential of MFA is described in more detail in the introductory article to this issue). The concluding section argues the need to build better links between quantitative tools and qualitative, discursive and consultative approaches. Ways are sketched out for developing more comprehensive and integrated evaluation approaches that might provide more detailed insights into the complex interrelationships between policy impacts, the MFA and rural areas and their future development. The suggested improvements draw on the notions of joint learning, holistic systems approaches and trans-disciplinary knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development initiatives are proliferating in the US and Europe as engineering educators seek to provide students with knowledge and skills to design technologies that are environmentally sustainable. Many such initiatives involve students from the 'North,' or 'developed' world building projects for villages or communities in the 'South.' Sustainable development projects in engineering education are being lauded for meeting multiple educational outcomes and providing students with important international training. This paper argues that such programmes need to educate students to think critically about their role as development professionals, to understand and value the role of community in development projects, and to develop long-term assessment criteria for such projects. It argues that engineering educators need to meaningfully engage the 'community' in sustainable community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability indicators have been broadly used to assess energy technologies both at the national and local levels. However, very few studies have addressed the issue of resilience of energy technologies. Moreover, there is a lack of an integrated framework that combines both sustainability and resilience indicators for the assessment of energy technologies. The aim of this paper is to present the development of an integrated framework of sustainability and resilience indicators for the assessment of low-carbon energy technologies at the local level in Europe. The selection of indicators is based on a modified ‘3S’ approach, composed of literature review, self-validation, scientific validation, and social validation. The study incorporates local stakeholders’ feedback on the selection and validation of evaluation criteria based on a European survey. The vast majority of respondents approved and validated the indicators that were selected through the internal and experts’ validation steps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to define a set of smartness and sustainability indicators applicable to European cities and to assess their outcome in an ex ante perspective with regard to the implementation of Europe 2020 strategy. Following the DPSIR (Driving forces, Pressures, State, Impact, Response) model, we select a bundle of indicators for three relevant sustainability domains (environmental, social and cultural), which are proper to the smart city definition. Then we define groups of homogeneous cities for each domain by using a two-step cluster analysis. Results show the existence of heterogeneous groups of cities that are likely to become smart in the cultural domain, side by side with groups of more developed urban areas that have acquired a substantial advantage in the environmental and social dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence and data analytics capabilities have enabled the introduction of automation, such as robotics and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), across different sectors of the production spectrum which successively has profound implications for operational efficiency and productivity. However, the environmental sustainability implications of such innovations have not been yet extensively addressed in the extant literature. This study evaluates the use of AGVs in container terminals by investigating the environmental sustainability gains that arise from the adoption of artificial intelligence and automation for shoreside operations at freight ports. Through a comprehensive literature review, we reveal this research gap across the use of artificial intelligence and decision support systems, as well as optimisation models. A real-world container terminal is used, as a case study in a simulation environment, on Europe's fastest-growing container port (Piraeus), to quantify the environmental benefits related to routing scenarios via different types of AGVs. Our study contributes to the cross-section of operations management and artificial intelligence literature by articulating design principles to inform effective digital technology interventions at non-automated port terminals, both at operational and management levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the first to focus on the effects of sustainability on the investment performance of a European retail portfolio comprising 128 properties in the Netherlands and extends the existing range of studies on the office and residential sectors in the United States. As the data sample is an existing fund portfolio, all attributes of the properties are known. Environmental sustainability is measured by the Dutch energy label, which compares with ENERGY STAR in the U.S. Through OLS regressions, we examine whether a sustainability premium exists. We find that green retail properties have a significantly higher income return of 0.52%, while, counterintuitively, non-green retail properties appear to have significantly higher rents and values. After controlling for various factors, however, the sustainability effects become insignificant. This contradicts some of the findings in the office and residential sectors. We attribute this to the importance of traditional retail location theory factors, which continue to dominate returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the apparent position of the European Union and the largest European energy corporations concerning the energy future of Europe and the environmental impacts of their business activities. In contrast to growing public concern at the long-term environmental, economic and social consequences of the reliance on non-renewable energy sources, official words about sustainable development are copious, but ineffective in producing investment in public and private research and development expenditures in the energy sector. Apart from the economic and social problems of the innovation deficit of the European Union, the stagnant and shrinking expenditures also raise ethical dilemmas linked to the questions of intergenerational equity. If we believe that there are technological solutions to our environmental problems we should redefine the corporate responsibility in terms of knowledge production, use and dissemination, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional typologies that seek to categorise indicators of urban sustainability tend to draw upon the neoliberal, silo approach for conceptualising sustainability, which positions sustainability as having economic, social and environmental dimensions. This approach has been critiqued for its inability to account for challenges to sustainability arising from interactions between social, economic and environmental variables. Models that are incapable of assessing dimensional interactions and their collective outcomes are also incapable of providing critiques that address entrenched structural challenges to sustainability. This paper proposes a new thematic approach based on Australian research to classify indicators for urban sustainability. The proposed approach shifts the categorisation of indicators from a neoliberal ontology to a social democratic foundation by proposing a model for assessing urban development relational to themes of amenity, accessibility, equity and environmental performance relative to resource conservation. The proposed approach is intended to be sensitive to integrating social, economic and environmental considerations with land use planning to improve the natural and built environments of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of farming previously dedicated mainly to food production changed with an increasing recognition of the multifunctionality of agriculture and rural areas. It seems obvious to expect that farmers and rural actors adapt themselves to these new conditions, which are innovative and redefine their job. In many regions farmers can increase their income basis as rural entrepreneurs, developing new services and exploring new markets. Often, however, there is a gap between the need for change and farmers' willingness to adjust, and the insufficient capacities of innovation agencies and advisory services to effectively support changes. In this contribution we discuss the kinds of gaps between present societal demands, the related farm-level adjustments, and the capacities of innovation agencies and advisory services. We explore a conceptual framework that understands innovation processes as the outcome of collaborative networks where information is exchanged and learning processes happen. We argue that technical and economic factors used to analyse drivers and barriers alone are not sufficient to understand innovation processes. The related social and institutional aspects of cross-sector as well as intra-sector processes are explored. Overall, we emphasize that innovation functions as a process where farmers' and rural entrepreneurs' knowledge, motivations and values play an important role. We emphasize that institutions, administrations and extension services, whose mission it is to support changes, can become barriers to innovation if they do not acknowledge that the needs of farmers and of society have changed. The paper builds on the conceptual level work carried out in the on-going EU funded IN-SIGHT research programme with multidisciplinary teams from seven European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The State of European Cities Report is very much to be welcomed. For the very first time, the Report presents comprehensive, comparative, and relevant statistical information from the Urban Audit on selected cities from the 27 members of the European Community. The underlying concept is critically discussed in respect to four issues: the selection of cities, the selection of topics, the spatial scale and the temporal scope of the data. Concerning the future of European cities, the paper finally reflects on how to safeguard sustainability, to maintain and foster diversity, to cope with demographic change and to strengthen the role of the cities as actors. All tiers of governance - the EU, nation-states, states/regions and cities - would be well advised to integrate the data presented in the Report into future concepts and to face up to the challenges mentioned, whether through competition or through cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Construction projects using emerging bio-based materials have been realized over the past ten to fifteen years within Europe. Bio-based buildings utilize properties of natural materials to regulate internal environments, particularly fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity. Despite individual exemplar projects demonstrating functional performance and long-term operational cost savings, there hasn't been a proliferation of commercial or domestic bio-based projects. With a growing shift towards circular economy construction, bio-based buildings could be readily adopted to meet this development. This study evaluates barriers faced by bio-based materials, making the upscaling of production and a breakthrough into mainstream construction challenging. Evaluation was achieved through senior professionals with experience in bio-based construction participating in semi-structured interviews based on core categories of finance, knowledge, and policy. Challenges include the upscaling of production by manufacturers of emerging materials, inconsistencies in life cycle assessment, material certification and accreditation, vested interests in the construction industry, and concerns regarding initial costs, availability, and knowledge of products. Potential solutions for upscaling bio-based construction are identified and include increased case studies, positive legislation, regional economic regeneration, the wellness agenda, long-term economic sustainability, and engagement with established construction companies. This insight has informed the procurement process, material evaluation, and adoption of policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding food sustainability and healthy diets public awareness is of utmost importance since consumers are the main drivers of global consumption patterns. Using Google Trends data, from 2010 to 2021, we aim to explore the temporal dynamics of food sustainability public interest across Europe and its association with interest in sustainability, healthy diet, Mediterranean diet (MedDiet), and flexitarianism. Public interest in food sustainability has increased and is positively associated with the interest in the topic of sustainability. With few exceptions, no general association between food sustainability and healthy diet or MedDiet interest were found. Consistent associations between food sustainability and flexitarianism were found across most of the European regions and countries. Despite the growing interest, only flexitarianism seems to be associated with food sustainability. Understanding consumers' interest in food sustainability is crucial for the transition towards healthy and sustainable diets and to define educational and behavioural interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the impact of using three-dimensional digital participatory planning (3DDPP) on planning practices. This method was tested within the framework of a redevelopment project in one of the less-advantaged neighborhoods in the Dutch city of Schiedam. An interactive 3DDPP tool was employed by a group of residents who co-designed public spaces in the neighborhood. Residents were given the opportunity to visualize online the project area in 3D format, suggest their ideas, comment on the design proposal, produce interactive graphical designs online, and interact with each other. The impact of this process was tested according to five criteria (efficiency, feasibility, attractiveness, interaction, and satisfaction) developed via free-listing and pile-sorting methods in collaboration with nine experts. A qualitatively driven (QUAL) mixed method was used to analyze the data collected from a sample of 62 subjects, which included professionals and citizens. The results showed that the use of 3DDPP tools can potentially enhance community engagement in decision-making. This article concludes by emphasizing that socioeconomic, political, and demographic challenges, which might decrease the residents' willingness to be actively engaged in collaborative decision-making, might not solely be solved via technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of mass media in forming consumer attitudes, exploring the main trends in the media discourse on sustainability is of great interest to businesses, policymakers and researchers. This study investigates the discourse on sustainable consumption in major national newspapers in four European countries (Germany, Italy, Norway and Romania), using food consumption as the specific topic. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the issues reported in the newspapers related to the concept of sustainable food from the longitudinal and comparative perspective and identifies the dimensions of sustainability reported in the examined newspapers that are associated with sustainable food in the four different countries. This study adds to the understanding of how the sustainable food concept has developed in Europe over time and highlights the factors that have influenced the development of this concept. The information gaps in the common understanding of the sustainable food concept are pointed out through this research, therefore illustrating how to enhance consumer awareness about this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy uncertainty (PU), and sustainability disclosure, influence the performance of the firms. We use European data to extend the nascent literature on sustainability disclosure, and economic policy uncertainty by investigating the moderating impact of sustainability disclosure on the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and firm performance. We find overwhelming evidence that policy uncertainty reduces firm performance; however, sustainability disclosure moderates this destructing impact of policy uncertainty on firm performance. Our results show that environmental and social disclosure by the European firms enhances their reputation and help these firms in reducing the policy-induced uncertainty. A higher governance disclosure representing efficient corporate governance also help European firms to moderate the negative effect of policy uncertainty on their performance. Our results are robust to alternate proxies of firm performance as well as endogeneity issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience is seen as a key organisational capability for sustainability in the current turbulent environment. At the same time, for organisations to be more sustainable and resilient, the delivery of innovative responses to the market through continuous change and improvement is necessary. If small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for over 70% of the world's production, and there is a growing mandate to create sustainable SMEs, then instilling, developing and implementing change capabilities is paramount in making progress towards sustainability and resilience. Therefore, this article aims to demonstrate that change management process capability is fundamental to creating resilience in SMEs. This study is based on a multiple case study methodology through semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with 232 senior managers in 37 manufacturing SMEs across Europe. This article demonstrates that sustainability and resilience in SMEs will be enhanced by (1) ability to embrace organisational and people dimensions as well as operational aspects of change management, and (2) paying attention to long-term planning and external communication to drive change proactively. This article builds a bridge between the theoretical starting point, the results of empirical research and the usability of the presented findings in practice in order to contribute to the development of more resilient SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of city governments worldwide engage in sustainability reporting, voluntarily and responding to legal pressures. Diverse practices emerged based on unique choices concerning formats, periodicity, authorship and dissemination efforts. Such design questions and associated outcomes are highly relevant for practitioners yet unaddressed in standard guidelines and most prior research that primarily concern content and conjectured reporting benefits. This article presents a framework suited to assessing real-life practices and outcomes. An exploratory evaluation in Amsterdam, Basel, Dublin, Freiburg, Nuremberg and Zurich suggests that sustainability reporting can benefit organizational change, management and communication yet also lead to 'fatigue' and discontinuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A core claim about agricultural policy making is that it is ‘compartmentalized’ and ‘exceptional’. In this picture, the policy process is insulated from other policy concerns, has a distinctive system of actors and institutional structures, and is rooted in extensive governmental intervention in the market and the redistribution of resources from taxpayers to food producers. Recently there have been suggestions that a ‘post-exceptional’ agricultural politics has emerged, which is more market-driven, has reduced state intervention, and where policies reflect influences relating to non-food issues such as the environment. This contribution discusses the concepts of compartmentalization and exceptionalism and then applies ‘indicators of change’ to a case study of the 2013 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It concludes that the reform provides evidence for ‘shallow’ post-exceptionalism where a historically persistent agricultural policy subsystem has opened up to new actors, incorporated some programme change but left the ideational framework largely intact. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sustainability has components from the environmental, social and economic sections. In the present study, it is suggested to bring in indicators from different sectors and apply them simultaneously without any form of aggregation. Hence, we apply the carbon dioxide emission, the air concentration of small particles as well as the under-five mortality rate as well-known indicators from the environmental and health/social sectors. The study includes 20 countries from the Europe–Central Asia group as well as the Europe–Central Asia region as a whole and the Euro zone. An overall evaluation based on an average ranking of the countries and regions shows that countries like Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan apparently are the least sustainable countries while Georgia appears as the most sustainable. The study further points out that the carbon dioxide emission apparently is the most important indicator among the three included. The so-called ‘peculiar’ countries are verified, showing that Kazakhstan has an unexpectedly high carbon dioxide emission whereas the under-five mortality rate is unexpectedly high in Tajikistan. In the final part of the study, the gross national income per capita is brought into play and the implications of poverty are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study answers the call for holistic assessments of events' sustainability through testing a model for measuring impacts of a sports tourism event from sustainability perspectives and in a common monetary metric. The aim is to achieve commensurability through integration of economic, sociocultural and environmental impacts. Concepts such as use- and non-use value, consumer surplus, direct economic impacts, ecological footprint analysis and shadow cost are applied to fulfil this aim. The model is tested on a three-day long European athletics indoor championship 2013 and the results demonstrate a possibility to produce a sustainability impact analysis in a uniform metric. Measured in monetary terms, sociocultural impacts carry more weight than economic impacts do, whereas environmental impacts have little importance for the total assessment. The assessment of event impacts in one common metric paves the way for destinations to trade-off alternatives and develop clear-cut strategies to increase social, economic and environmental welfare. It is suggested that prices on the market for emission rights severely underestimate environmental costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The compact city has become a leading concept in the planning of peri-urban areas. The compact city concept is often advocated as “sustainable” because of claims that include lower emissions and conservation of the countryside. The literature shows, however, that there are certain trade-offs in striving for compaction, especially between environmental and social aspects of sustainability. In this article, we describe expressions of the compact city concept in the planning practice of several European urban sample regions, as well as policies and developments that contradict the compact city. We look at examples of positive and negative impacts of the compact city that were observed in the sample regions. Further, we discuss attempts by planners to deal with sustainability trade-offs. Being aware that developments in the peri-urban areas are closely connected to those in the inner city, we compare the sample regions in order to learn how the compact city concept has been used in planning peri-urban areas across different contexts in Europe: in Western, Central and Mediterranean Europe, and with growing, stable or declining populations. We conclude with recommendations with respect to balance in applying the compact city concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today 50 percent of the world's population lives in cities. This entails an excessive exploitation of natural resources, an increase in pollution, and an increase in the demand for food. One way of reducing the ecological footprint of cities is to introduce agricultural activities to them. In the current food and agriculture model, the fragmentation of the city and the countryside means energy use, CO2 emissions from transport, and large-scale marketing requirements. Rooftop Eco.Greenhouses (RTEG) consist of a greenhouse connected to a building in terms of energy, water, and CO2 flows; it is a new model for a sustainable production, an eco-innovative concept for producing high quality vegetables and improving the sustainability of buildings in cities. The main objective of this study is to examine the barriers and opportunities regarding the implementation of RTEG in Mediterranean cities in Europe. The work method consisted of discussion seminars involving an interdisciplinary group of experts in the area of agronomy, architecture, engineering, environmental sciences, industrial ecology, and other related disciplines. The barriers and opportunities of RTEG take into account social, economic, environmental, and technological aspects and were determined and analyzed according to three scenarios of implementation: residential buildings, educational or cultural buildings, and industrial buildings. We would highlight the interconnection of the building and the greenhouse as an opportunity of RTEG, making use of water, energy, and CO2 flows between both, as well as the decrease in food transportation requirements. The methodology applied to the study was positive due to the interdisciplinary participation of experts which facilitated a global vision of the implementation of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asia–Europe liner service often calls at a number of Europe-continent ports and one UK port. An alternative is to skip the UK port by using feeder services to reach the UK market. This article aims to quantitatively analyze the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of these two alternatives, and to identify which is preferable in different scenarios. We adopt a detailed service activity-based method to calculate the CO2 emissions for two alternatives in a range of scenarios. The study is expected to provide shipping companies with useful insight into policy merits and service route design from a CO2 emissions perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The important role that Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) play in promoting more entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviours is well recognised. Whilst most countries in Europe have introduced policies to support this agenda through enterprise education, concerns remain as to its sustainability where enterprise education is often dependent upon bespoke funding streams and narrowly concentrated in university business schools. In addressing this challenge regional, national and international networks have been identified as having a crucial part to play. The role that these networks play in supporting enterprise education and educators however is under-researched and little is known as to their effectiveness. This study focuses on one national network which began as a publically funded initiative, UK Science Enterprise Centres, but has today evolved into Enterprise Educators UK, an independent membership based network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines an elementary school which during enrolment in the European Network of Health Promoting Schools, 1993-2003, and the Norwegian Physical Activity and Healthy Meals Project, 2004-2006, selected physical activity (PA) as a prioritized area. Survey data, school documents, and focus group data were collected and analyzed through a sequential exploratory strategy. After a decade, the students in the upper grades participated in more PA weekly than allocated by national plans, and PA promotion was formalized in curriculum outlines. The findings suggest that motivated teachers were the core of PA promotion. Teacher motivation was linked to an interplay between individual teacher characteristics: positive attitudes, innovativeness, internalization of practice, and teacher skills; and organizational characteristics: leadership, teacher climate, and working strategies. The study highlights the advantages of utilizing a mixed-methods approach to data collection and data analyses. The findings could only be reached by an integrative analysis of data from multiple sources, yielding a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the conditions facilitating sustainability of PA promotion in schools as well as other types of policy initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political economic literature on EMU suggests that its sustainability depends on the consolidation of the member states into a political community, based on shared beliefs in neo-liberal values, as well as the development of strong EU institutions and a well-integrated and liberalized common market. Have national governments in the EU become less favourable to policies that accordingly contribute to the sustainability of EMU? A dataset including 15 pre-2004 member states during 1990-2006 shows that, while the member states of the euro zone have in recent years converged in support of macroeconomic policies that are important for a sustainable EMU, they have also become more divergent about imperative microeconomic policies, and their scepticism with regard to the authority of EU institutions has become more consensual. This may challenge the sustainability of EMU. This study is innovative in its original government orientation analysis and large dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the report "Sustaining Europe for a Long Way Ahead: Making Long-Term Sustainable Development Policies Work," by the Network of European Environmental and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC) during its annual meeting in October 2008. The statement's aim is to evaluate how well various aspects of societies and economies plan, adapt, think, and assess actions for sustainable projects. Topics include a definition of sustainable development, as defined by the EEAC, the relationship between governance, social justice, and budgets in promoting sustainability in European Union (EU) countries, and the availability of markets that offer long-term sustainability for humanity. Also discussed is the role culture, demography, and localism play in sustainability.

The future energy supply and the projected scarcity of oil will play an ever-increasing role in the development of land-use and transport strategies within Europe. This article provides a scenario-based investigation using a world energy market model (POLES) linked to an EU-level model (ASTRA) and a regional land-use transport interaction model (MARS). All three models were used to investigate the effects of policies in technology, infrastructure, pricing, and regulation under different assumptions about energy supply. Our results suggest that changes in oil prices will have a small impact on fuel use but that demand regulation will be needed to tackle congestion, and technology improvements can reduce emissions. Hence, investments in technologies and some demand regulation will be required to meet targets on sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]