Search

With the global population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, there is an urgent need for advanced materials that can address existing and developing environmental issues. Many current synthesis processes are environmentally unfriendly and often lack control over size, shape, and phase of resulting materials. Based on knowledge from biological synthesis and assembly processes, as well as their resulting functions (e.g., photosynthesis, self‐healing, anti‐fouling, etc.), researchers are now beginning to leverage these biological blueprints to advance bio‐inspired pathways for functional materials for water treatment, air purification and sensing. The result has been the development of novel materials that demonstrate enhanced performance and address sustainability. Here, an overview of the progress and potential of bio‐inspired methods toward functional materials for environmental applications is provided. The challenges and opportunities for this rapidly expanding field and aim to provide a valuable resource for researchers and engineers interested in developing sustainable and efficient processes and technologies is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing of mining sector is generally accompanied by socio‐economic and environmental consequences. Most previous work has either analyzed economic, social, or environmental effects without considering all three dimensions of sustainable development at once. Similarly, the perceptions of the populations living near mining companies are not widely considered in these studies. The objective of this paper is to analyze the populations' perception of the effects of industrial gold mining on environment (noise, air pollution, and land degradation), social (prostitution, banditry, and alcoholism), and household income in Burkina Faso. A probit model is used on a sample of 251 households living near four industrial mining sites. The results show that mining activity has contributed to improve the per capita income of the households surrounding certain industrial mining sites. However, it has contributed to a decline in the quality of life of the households due to noise and air pollution and social problems such as banditry. The government must protect mining areas from banditry and support households with local economic infrastructure to avoid a drop in their income after the mines close. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The limited reserve of fossil fuels and public awareness of environmental issues prompt the rapid development of renewable energy generation. However, the centralised utilisation of renewable energy in bulk power systems is impeded mainly by its volatile nature and transmission congestion, leading to the spillage of renewable power. The energy storage unit is expected to be a promising measure to smooth the output of renewable plants and reduce the curtailment rate. This study addresses the energy storage sizing problem in bulk power systems. To capture the operating status of the power system more accurately, the authors use a dedicated power flow model which involves voltage and reactive power. The uncertainty of renewable generation is described via inexact probability distributions encapsulated in a data‐driven Wasserstein‐metric based ambiguity set, based on which the renewable energy curtailment rate is formulated as a distributionally robust chance constraint. The objective is to minimise the total investment cost, and the optimal sizing problem gives rise to a distributionally robust chance‐constrained program, and is reformulated as a tractable linear program via conservative approximation. Case studies conducted on the modified IEEE 30‐bus and 118‐bus systems demonstrate the effectiveness and performance of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are becoming a more promising means of transportation mainly because of environmental issues and depletion of fossil fuel resources. This study deals with the basic theoretical knowledge for describing their behaviour in acceleration, cruising, deceleration and control strategies. Preliminary design calculations for a series HEV bus are carried out in MATLAB environment using a backward model. In addition to this, the rule-based algorithm is implemented to compare fuel consumption, battery's state of charge (SOC) and energy-saving possibilities. The model is firstly tested for highway and city drive cycles for SOC limits of 0.6 and 0.7. Further, prolonged simulations are conducted for both the highway and city drive cycles for four different SOC limits and three parameters of the hybrid vehicle (SOC of battery, fuel power and average charging power) are observed and compared with each other. The performance indexes of both drive cycles are estimated and it is found that higher performance indexes are obtained using power-split mode and greater SOC lower limit as internal combustion engine is more efficient when operated in this mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to explore the antecedents of internal auditors' voice in environmental‐related issues. Using 226 responses from internal auditors and their immediate supervisors from China, we found that internal auditors' perceived organizational environmental orientation and their individual environmental orientation were significantly related to both their promotive and prohibitive voice in environmental issues. Internal auditors' perceived supervisory support for the environment was significantly related to their promotive voice, whereas internal auditors' environmental commitment was significantly related to their prohibitive voice. Moreover, internal auditors' environmental commitment mediated the relationships between the other three antecedents and their prohibitive voice in environmental issues. Our findings provide insights for researchers, practitioners, and regulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to recent calls for methodological diversification and "in‐house" theory development within the discipline of SCM, by introducing discourse analysis to readers of the Journal of Supply Chain Management. One of the merits of discourse analysis is the way in which it "problematizes" taken‐for‐granted aspects of organizational life, including supply chains, to show that what we assume to be natural, inevitable and beneficial is rarely quite so straightforward as it may seem. In addition, through the way in which it emphasizes the interrogation of meaning, discourse analysis can broaden conceptualizations of the supply chain to include actors that have previously been overlooked, such as employees, workers, not‐for‐profit organizations, regulators, consumers, and the media. Using examples that are familiar to SCM researchers—the discourses of lean, sustainability, modern slavery, and big data—we illustrate how discourse analysis can help to theorize SCM phenomena by problematizing established meanings and revealing how they reproduce power relations among actors. We then show how insights from discourse analysis can complement existing theories of the supply chain and, in so doing, potentially rejuvenate the field of SCM by inspiring novel theory development, opening up different empirical settings, and promoting new ways of analyzing qualitative data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, strategies to cope with environmental issues play a crucial role in the development of planning methodologies for electric distribution networks (EDNs). The primary goal of these methodologies is to find the equilibrium point, for which the EDN provides a high‐quality service with the most environmentally‐committed operation. Based on this fact, an alternative strategic approach for short‐term EDN planning is presented. This decision‐making scheme is based on classical investment actions to enhance the EDN performance in which the investment and operating costs, as well as the carbon tax surpluses, are minimised simultaneously. Unlike the traditional short‐term planning methods and to explore a more accurate approach, the electricity demand is represented by the voltage‐dependent exponential load model. By using this representation, substantial benefits related to energy saving can be achieved. To validate the proposed planning scheme, several test cases considering constant power demand and voltage‐dependent representation are widely studied on a 135‐node distribution network. Additionally, the scalability of the proposed planning scheme is studied by using two medium distribution networks of 42‐ and 417‐node. Numerical results confirm the robustness and applicability of the presented approach as an appropriate way of promoting to an efficient and low carbon tax surplus network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global warming problem together with the environmental issues has already pushed the governments to replace the conventional fossil‐fuel vehicles with electric vehicles (EVs) having less emission. This replacement has led to adding a huge number of EVs with the capability of connecting to the grid. It is noted that the presence of such vehicles may introduce several challenges to the electrical grid due to their grid‐to‐vehicle and vehicle‐to‐grid capabilities. In between, the power quality issues would be the main items in electrical grids highly impacted by such vehicles. Thus, this study is devoted to investigating and reviewing the challenges brought to the electrical networks by EVs. In this regard, the current and future conditions of EVs along with the recent research works made into the issue of EVs have been discussed in this study. Accordingly, the problems due to the connection of EVs to the electrical grid have been discussed, and some solutions have been proposed to deal with these challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study scrutinises the impacts of demand‐side resources (DSRs) on the power system reliability via a novel multi‐target generation maintenance (GM) model. The nominated model uses the lexicographic preferences to hierarchically consider the environmental issues, economics, and reliability of power systems. In this regard, the produced emission, which reflects the per unit produced pollutant values in different locations, is minimised. Taking into account the environmental constraints, the total incurred expenditures, including operating and maintenance costs, reserves costs, and total incentives are also minimised. Subsequently, the GM problem considering the correlation constraints is handled while the reliability index, the average net reserve value, is maximised over the scheduling horizon. The DSRs improve the system reliability such that the total costs, and emission level, do not exceed the situation in which DSRs are not available. The GM scheduling is a highly complicated problem and considering DSRs makes it even more complicated. To handle this problem more efficiently, appropriate linearisation technique is used, while the proposed model is formulated in GAMS modelling language. To evaluate the capability of DSRs in system reliability improvement, the modified 24‐bus IEEE‐RTS is conducted. Results indicate that by selecting proper location and incentives, significant improvement is obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental issues have become increasingly important for companies and society in general, and information about them is of concern, to the extent that many companies have been criticized for their negative impact on the environment, rather than for their technological and economic performance. This paper attempts to go a step further by developing an index of environmental issues from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database using statistical techniques to analyze the type of environmental information that companies report internationally. An index of 71 environmental variables was constructed and a dependency model was set up to determine the explanatory variables that may influence this index of environmental disclosure. Innovation, economic development and geographical areas are some of the variables used that have been less tested in previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the importance of maintaining a proactive environmental agenda gains significance, an understanding of the impact of the characteristics of the top management team (TMT) on environmental strategy is of critical importance. Given the impact of environmental initiatives on the supply chain, experience in this area can benefit decision‐making in TMTs for a proactive environmental or green strategy. Drawing on upper echelon theory (UET), the theory of generativity, and prior work leveraging the knowledge‐based view (KBV), we analyze the impact of supply chain management (SCM) experience in TMTs for a proactive environmental strategy. To further contextualize the characteristics of the TMT in the SCM context, we include age and female representation in our analysis as important factors in setting the green agenda of a firm. The theory is tested with an original panel dataset of 2,703 firm‐year records. Measure of a proactive environmental strategy is drawn from Kinder, Lydenberg, and Domini (KLD) database, while TMT characteristics are derived from executive profiles recorded in Bloomberg. Our findings support the positive impact of executives with SCM experience in TMTs, aging TMTs, and TMTs with higher female representation on a proactive environmental agenda. Furthermore, the results reveal that the desire for a proactive environmental agenda in aging and in TMTs with increasing female representation can benefit from the additional presence of SCM experience. In sum, this study highlights the significance of female representation and age, and makes a strong case for the importance of SCM experience in TMTs for a proactive environmental strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtually unheard of 30 years ago, collaborations involving environmental NGOs and businesses are now common and are increasingly being used to address sustainability issues in supply chains. We argue that a supply chain perspective is instrumental for collaborative NGOs in helping them to understand environmental impacts, interorganizational dynamics, and optimal collaborative partners and tactics. We apply a framework that integrates three predominant social capital theories to cross‐sector partnerships to explain how three dimensions of social capital, individually and in interaction, may create strategic value for NGOs who seek to improve the environmental performance of companies through collaboration. Finally, we survey the nature of the progress that has (and has not) been made through cross‐sector partnerships and offer suggestions for how social capital may be deployed to accelerate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant conceptual and practical challenge for companies is how to integrate triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability into their global supply chains. In supply chain research, the classic economic perspective—the business of business is to be profitable—still dominates, followed by coverage of the environmental dimension; the social dimension is underrepresented. Stakeholders, however, are calling for a TBL perspective that simultaneously includes environmental, social, and economic gains. While there have been recent theoretical advances on how to characterize supply chains in terms of their structure, how to connect these insights into supply chain design for TBL sustainability has not been studied. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to move the theory of supply chain forward into the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) research agenda. Toward that purpose, the paper analyzes the sustainable supply chain design (SSCD) at social businesses, incorporating the physical chain and the information and financial support chains. Four social businesses located in Haiti are used as cases of innovative supply chain structures for TBL sustainability. By analyzing the supply chain structures and boundaries of these social businesses, three supply chain configurations combining physical and support chains are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem degradation and social sustainability have become important issues in the corporate sphere during the last few decades. However, research discussing corporate social responsibility and related concepts has often focused on larger companies, sometimes neglecting the specifics of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between two common strategic orientations, market orientation (MO) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO), in relation to sustainability commitment, sustainability practices and management values in SMEs. Questionnaire responses from 450 Swedish SMEs were analyzed, confirming the influence of MO, EO and sustainability practices on commitment to sustainability, implying that firms committed to sustainability see both market and entrepreneurial advantages of sustainability. The results also show that different parts of MO and EO differ in importance for commitment to sustainability among SMEs. Implications concern the importance for firms and policymakers to work with sustainability issues using both internal and external perspectives. © 2015 The Authors. Business Strategy and the Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vast majority of research and practice regarding sustainable supply chains has followed an instrumental logic, which has led firms and supply chain managers to place economic interests ahead of environmental and social interests. Evidence that firms are attempting to become less unsustainable is mounting, but compensating practices such as offsetting a supply chain's negative impact on the environment and society do not create truly sustainable supply chains. This conceptual study seeks to move the field from the question of how can firms merely diminish environmental or social problems to how supply chains can become truly sustainable. To that end, we review the major weaknesses in previous logics and develop an Ecologically Dominant logic where environment and social interests supersede economic interests. To encourage a wider adoption of our perspective, the study illustrates how the Ecologically Dominant logic can advance practice and research. We do this by providing examples drawn from practice and our previous research and by offering propositions to encourage future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence shows that investments in sustainable supply chain management can improve economic-based performance. Thus, based on standard economic theory, rational business decision makers should and will implement sustainable supply chain management practices. However, through inductive research methods, we uncovered an intriguing theme that runs counter to both the existing empirical evidence and such economic-based assumptions. We find that managers operating in firms without exemplary sustainable supply chain management practices face immense hurdles in developing a business case for implementing sustainability initiatives. Despite the lack of such practices-and in tension with the prevailing empirical evidence and theory-the firms within which these managers operate were performing well on economic-based performance metrics. Departing from the neoclassical economic theory of the firm, we apply the Behavioral Theory of the Firm's theoretical assumptions to findings which suggest four segments of managers in non-exemplary firms who vary based primarily on how they perceive strategic vulnerability, evaluate choices, and utilize sustainability knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global supply networks are becoming increasingly fragmented and complex. At the same time, societal pressures surrounding the environmental accountability of firms are growing, with an increasing number of environmental scandals related to supply networks. Traditional governance frameworks of green supply chain management (GSCM) may be insufficient to deal with this new reality, because they do not consider supply network structure/complexity, and how these factors interact with different governance mechanisms. Our study takes into account the complex interplay between GSCM governance mechanisms, supply network structure/ complexity, and environmental performance. We introduce a series of theoretical propositions grounded in an extensive review of the GSCM, supply networks, network complexity, and organizational design literatures. In particular, we argue that supply network structure and complexity directly affect GSCM effectiveness, but that these effects will be contingent upon the type of governance mechanism applied (formal or informal). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the sustainability arena, CO2 reduction has emerged as a key challenge for manufacturers in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. This goal needs to be balanced against the competitive priorities of cost and responsiveness. Emissions-reducing efforts are driven by the need to comply with expectations from industry and end customers and by opportunities for energy and cost savings. Manufacturers are now looking beyond their corporate boundaries to find new ways to reduce emissions along the supply chain. There is a need for research to address supplier selection in the face of sustainability challenges and provide insights about the factors affecting the transfer of sustainability skills between the manufacturer and its suppliers. This multiple case study investigates the factors that influence an organization's readiness to engage in a collaborative CO2 reduction management ( CCRM) approach. We find that partner selection for CCRM exhibits path dependency in terms of the manufacturer's maturity level of sustainability; characteristics of key downstream customers, in turn, are shown to also impact this selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: When it becomes publicly known that products are associated with suppliers that engage in unsustainable behaviors, consumers protest, as Nestlé, Zara, and Kimberly Clark, among others, have learned. The phenomenon by which consumers hold firms responsible for the unsustainable behavior of their upstream partners suggests the notion of “chain liability.” This study aims to generate insights into the antecedents and consequences of such consumer responsibility attributions. Using data from four vignette-based survey experiments, the authors find that the chain liability effect increases if an environmental degradation incident (1) results from supplier behavior rather than force majeure, (2) results from a company decision rather than the decision of an individual employee, and (3) is more severe. Responsibility attributions do not differ with varying organizational distance from the supplier, firm size, strategic importance of the supplied product, or the existence of environmental management systems. The chain liability effect also creates strong risks for the focal firm; higher responsibility attributions increase consumers’ anger and propensity to boycott. Therefore, firms should work to ensure sustainable behavior throughout the supply chain, to protect them from chain liability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Batteries play an important role in sustainable energy systems because the energy stored in batteries can be dispatched at any time. Series‐connected batteries can furnish a load with higher voltage and consequently reduce the I2R loss during power conversion and transmission. However, if imbalanced voltage occurs, a battery with high state of charge (SOC) would react more drastically than that with lower SOC under both charging and discharging conditions. Imbalanced charge or discharge would give rise to potential damage to the battery and also shorten the battery life cycle. This study presents a modified charge equaliser (CE) along with an optimal charge equalisation algorithm (CEA). The proposed circuit scheme can distribute an imbalanced charge in a more efficient way without increasing additional circuit cost. To further expedite charge equalisation among a battery string, the activated CE duty ratio is fixed at the upper limits throughout the charge equalisation phase. An optimal CEA with a view towards maximising the final battery string voltage is developed to resolve the CE operating sequence and length. The proposed equalisation strategy is realised using a peripheral interface controller that uses a buck–boost converter as the CE. The experimental results confirm the performance of the proposed strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Organizations are facing increased pressure from various stakeholders to address issues of sustainability, resulting in a growing demand for sustainability education and training. Procurement groups remain the key drivers of many sustainability-related strategies, placing pressure on universities to integrate sustainability concepts into the business curriculum. This article describes a replicable educational model that allows students to learn about sustainable procurement while concurrently promoting sustainability within the university community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Developmental and Reproductive Toxicity Technical Committee of the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute hosted a working consortium of companies to evaluate a new commercially available analytic assay for Inhibin B in rat serum or plasma. After demonstrating that the kit was stable and robust, the group performed a series of independent pathogenesis studies (23 different compound/investigator combinations) designed to examine the correlation between the appearance of lesions in the testis and changes in circulating levels of Inhibin B. These studies were reported individually in the previous articles in this series (this issue), and are discussed in this paper. For roughly half of these exposures, lesions appeared well before Inhibin B changed. A few of the studies showed a good correlation between seminiferous tubule damage and reduced circulating Inhibin B levels, while for seven exposures, circulating Inhibin B was reduced with no detectable alteration in testis histology. Whether this indicates a prodromal response or a false-positive signal will require further investigation. These exceptions could plausibly suggest some value of circulating Inhibin B as a useful biomarker in some circumstances. However, for roughly half of these exposures, Inhibin B appeared to be a lagging biomarker, requiring significant damage to the seminiferous tubules before a consistent and credible reduction in circulating levels of Inhibin B was observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Many universities are endeavoring to understand and reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions-or carbon footprints. Hard-copy textbooks are (perhaps surprisingly) a large component of this footprint. Because they are 'virtual,' electronic texts (e-texts) are often considered environmentally superior to conventional hard-copy texts. However, such claims lack thorough empirical validation. An effective tool for evaluating environmental impacts of products and services is lifecycle assessment (LCA). This article enumerates the steps in the lifecycles of conventional (hard copy) texts and e-texts and it reports the potential GHG footprints of these activities. However, the actual footprint of most products and services depends on how individuals actually use them. Therefore, our second objective is to report survey results regarding actual student behaviors. Combining LCA and survey data, we estimate the GHG emissions of representative e-texts and conventional texts; and we compare the two. This allows us to provide insight into the question, which alternative is best? Just as importantly, our analysis also identifies three levers that administrators, faculty and students can use to reduce text-related GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While environmental management is an important topic in supply chain management, there is little theoretical understanding of how firm practices (supervisory support, rewards, and training) relate to employee engagement in environmental behaviors. Drawing upon behavioral research literature, the purpose of our article is to use organizational support theory to develop a model of how employee perceptions of management practices influence employee engagement in environmental behaviors such as participating in environmental management activities, promoting environmental initiatives, and proposing innovative environmental practices. The theoretical model was evaluated using a sample of supply chain management employees employed by a major retailer and support was found for all of the hypothesized relationships except those entailing rewards. Study findings demonstrate the importance of employee perceptions in advancing employee-level involvement in environmental behaviors and how organizations can modify their internal infrastructures to champion environmental behaviors through their effects on employee perceptions of support for the environment and commitment to the environment. Additionally, the research illustrates how an extant behavioral theory, organizational support theory, can profitably be modified and adopted to explain behavior in the field of supply chain management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes and interprets differences in stakeholder interaction as rhetorically constructed in environmental reports and in interviews with environmental managers. It also interprets the role of the natural environment among stakeholders, and discusses how that role is justified or not justified. The study focuses in a business perspective on stakeholder interaction in environmental management. Characteristically, stakeholder studies of environmental management have concentrated on stakeholder influence or the creation of stakeholder management models. In contrast to those, the present study identifies different types of stakeholder relationships: power-based, collaborative, conflicting, and one-sided. Through descriptions of those relationships, business actors participate in the power to define responsibility, share responsibility among actors, question environmental interest, and justify environmental impacts. The results of the study demonstrate that, when regarding environmental issues in business, instead of analysing single stakeholder attributes or a single stakeholder relationship, business professionals should be able to manage differences in stakeholder relationships. No universal stakeholder management tools can be created for this purpose, rather stakeholder interaction in environmental management requires analysis of the actors involved, the attributes of relationships, and the attributes of stakeholder interests and identification of differences in those. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The public increasingly holds firms accountable for social and environmental outcomes, such as product toxicity problems and human rights violations, throughout their global supply chains. How can companies improve the social and environmental performance within their supply chains, particularly as other competitive pressures, such as cost and quality, continue to escalate? Starting from an efficient versus responsive supply chain framework, we develop an integrative model that blends together elements of supply chain configuration, stakeholder management, and capability development. Specifically, we spotlight the dimensions of control and accountability that collectively determine stakeholder exposure, and show how this new construct affects the linkages between supply chain capabilities, configuration, and performance. In particular, this analysis reveals that the nature of stakeholder exposure determines how social/environmental technical and relational capabilities impact social and environmental outcomes. We conclude with implications for research and practice, discussing how current supply chain theories must be extended to incorporate external stakeholders, to clarify strategies and identify potential pitfalls, and to better predict performance outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent studies have explored the dimensions of duty-based versus engaged citizenship. These studies assert that individuals differ on the question of “what is a good citizen” and somehow suggest that “engaged citizens” are more participatory, global, and committed to social justice than their duty-based counterparts. In this article, we examine, with an innovative survey methodology and merging of citizenship and framing literature, the potential effects of increased engaged citizenship on policy issues. Our questions explore the characteristics of citizenship and explore whether duty-based and engaged citizens are more likely to support a policy, in this case recycling efforts, if the issue is framed in the context of their respective preferred citizenship norm. We find that the engaged recycling frame was strongly supported by individuals with a more engaged view of citizenship who also supported some duty-based frames of recycling. Conversely, respondents with a more duty-based view of citizenship did not support engaged recycling frames. Estudios recientes han explorado las dimensiones de la noción de “ciudadanía basada en deberes” vis-à-vis aquella de “ciudadanía involucrada.” Estos estudios afirman que los individuos difieren en sus respuestas a la pregunta de “¿qué es un buen ciudadano?” Así mismo, parecen sugerir que los “ciudadanos involucrados” son más participativos, globales, y entregados a la justicia social que sus homólogos basados en deberes. En este artículo examinamos los efectos potenciales del incremento de la ciudadanía involucrada en asuntos de política con una innovadora metodología de encuestas y combinando la literatura de ciudadanía y la teoría del enmarcamiento de asuntos. Nuestras preguntas exploran las características de la ciudadanía y si acaso los individuos cuyo comportamiento se aproxima al planteado en la noción de “ciudadanía basada en deberes” son más proclives a apoyar una política de reciclaje, que aquellos cuyo comportamiento se aproxima al planteado en la noción de “ciudadanía involucrada.” De manera específica exploramos si acaso los ciudadanos responden de manera más decidida a propuestas de reciclaje dependiendo de si están enmarcadas en una noción de “ciudadanía basada en deberes” o en una de “ciudadanía involucrada.” Encontramos que una política de reciclaje enmarcada en una de noción “ciudadanía involucrada” fue fuertemente apoyada por individuos cuyo comportamiento se aproxima al planteado en dicha noción pero que estos mismos individuos también apoyaron algunas propuestas de reciclaje enmarcadas en la noción de “ciudadanía basada en deberes.” En cambio, individuos cuyo comportamiento se aproxima al planteado en la noción de “ciudadanía basada en deberes” no apoyaron ninguna propuesta de reciclaje enmarcada en la noción de “ciudadanía involucrada.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kraljic is widely viewed as a driving force behind the concepts of supply management and purchasing portfolios. Kraljic proposed that supply management professionals needed to engage in a new approach, embracing globalization, technology and risk. This article marked a critical juncture for supply chain management. Almost three decades later, it is evident that the purchasing portfolio concept has been widely adopted as an effective practitioner tool and a well-accepted tenet in the supply chain management literature. However, a recently completed study yielded interesting evidence of a potential shift in supply chain management, specifically, in sustainable sourcing. We recently observed that a number of leaders in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) were not organizing purchasing portfolios in the manner suggested by Kraljic. We found organizations buying what would traditionally be leveraged commodities in a manner more appropriate for strategic suppliers. This unexpected observation suggests that the supply chain field may face another critical juncture, this time related to SSCM. This manuscript describes the observed phenomena and then, using an inductive approach, enhances the existing theory to explain what was observed. The end result is a modified sustainable purchasing portfolio model that should provide a strategic tool to help both academics and practitioners adapt to the new realities of SSCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A key enabler of environmental projects is the ability of the project champion to gain commitment to the project from other stakeholders in his or her organization. This paper develops a model of commitment-gaining success that is based on intra-organizational influence theory. The model also includes project payback, customer pressure, government regulation, top management support and the project champion''s position in the organizational hierarchy. The model was tested using survey data from 241 environmental professionals describing their attempts to gain the buy-in of purchasing managers, operations managers, industrial engineers and others for environmental projects. The results (obtained from hierarchical regression analysis) show that intra-organizational commitment is positively associated with the project champion''s influence behavior—in particular, the champion''s use of three influence tactics (inspirational appeals, consultation and rational persuasion) and avoidance of a fourth tactic (ingratiation). Commitment is also positively associated with project payback and with top management support for the environment and negatively associated with environmental regulation. The paper contributes to the OM knowledge base on environmental project implementation by bringing new theory to bear on the topic, by focusing on individual-level, rather than organization-level, variables and by taking a confirmatory, large sample approach which complements extant exploratory research. In addition, the paper contributes to the OM field by evaluating various antecedents to cross-functional integration. The results also provide specific guidance to those who champion environmental projects within their companies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper compares and contrasts two different forms of interorganizational relationships that deal with the production and movement of waste: industrial symbiosis and supply chains. Industrial symbiosis reuses, recycles and reprocesses byproducts and intermediates within the system of organizations, whereas conventional supply chains reduce waste within manufacturing processes and reuse end-of-life products. Although both these models address waste, there is surprisingly little consideration of industrial symbiosis within supply chain research. Yet, industrial symbiosis has much to offer the study of sustainable development within supply chains. Industrial symbiosis emphasizes community, cooperation and coordination among firms, which serves to protect the environmental integrity, social equity and economic prosperity of the region — all hallmarks of sustainable development. However, such tight integration among a diverse set of organizations is difficult to jump start and difficult to maintain. In this paper, we also outline the challenges and offer some ideas on how to address these challenges. We ground our insights from interviews with firms in the Sarnia-Lambton region of Ontario, Canada. This region is home to over 130,000 people, and has a strong physical infrastructure and social structures that have facilitated symbiotic relationships among local businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the need to establish new sustainable business models in China and uses multiple objectives to examine in a sample of Chinese companies the reality of the level of sustainable development, environmental awareness and performance, community responsibility, performance barriers and drivers and other sustainability issues. A mixed methodology was adopted, using a questionnaire survey and interviews with 20 manufacturing companies in Guangzhou and Shenzen. Evidence from the small sample of companies demonstrates the lack of significant sustainable development practices in China, although small and medium sized companies appeared to show interest in this area and would like to further contribute to for example triple bottom line objectives. Increasing concerns are found from the company level regarding the need to use renewable energy, source alternative sustainable materials, close the loop of the supply chain, improve the quality of products produced rather than reducing cost, export to Europe and treat employees as an asset. The lack of skills, finance and knowledge are found to be prohibiting the effective embedment of sustainable development within companies and hence cause an under-performance in this regard. The study concludes that the establishing of a new business model for sustainable development in China is needed urgently, and this should be a joint effort with the Chinese government. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the impact of fishing activity on a marine ecosystem. The fishing activity is considered not only through annual harvest but also through a second component, called the degree of protection of the fishery environment. This characterizes the environmental impact of fishing. A stochastic dynamic programming problem is presented in infinite horizon, where a sole owner seeks to maximize a discounted expected profit. The main hypothesis states that the stock–recruitment relationship is stochastic and that both components of the fishing activity have an impact on the probability law of the state of the fishery environment. The optimal fishing policy is obtained and compared with standard models. This optimal policy has the following properties: is not a constant escapement policy and indicates an element of self-protection by the fishery manager. The paper ends with a discussion on the existence of degrees of protection of the fishery environment that take into account the environmental conservation and preservation of economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we analyze decentralized collection and processing operations for end-of-life products in durable goods industries. We consider a durable end-of-life product from which a particular part can be dismantled and remanufactured, and the remainder of the product can be further processed for part and/or material recovery. Both the quantity of end-of-life products available and the demand for remanufactured parts are price-sensitive. We develop models to determine the optimal acquisition price of the end-of-life products and the selling price of the remanufactured parts in centralized as well as remanufacturer-and collector-driven decentralized channels. We discuss how the decentralized channels can be coordinated to attain the end-of-life product collection rate that can be achieved in the centralized channel. In the presence of environmental regulations that require an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of durable goods to collect and process its end-of-life products, we identify when and why the OEM would prefer a remanufacturer-or a collector-driven channel, i.e., outsource the processing or the collection activity, respectively. From a practical perspective, we show that the OEM should prefer a collector-driven channel to increase the collection rate, when end-of-life products are homogenous. However, we also show that the OEM would prefer a remanufacturer-driven channel under certain conditions. We also examine how the OEM can increase the quantity of used products collected, when the collection rate in the preferred channel setting falls short of the collection rate mandated by the environmental regulation. When end-of-life products are heterogeneous, we observe that the collection rate for all quality groups can be positive in a remanufacturer-driven channel, whereas the collection rate for some quality groups may be zero. This indicates that the OEM must pay more attention to its outsourcing decision in this case, if the environmental regulation in effect specifies target collection rates for individual quality groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper introduces and provides an overview of social network theory and social network analysis (SNA) and its potential applications to logistics and supply chain management research. It then provides an example of the use of SNA via the introduction of hypotheses related to informal and formal structure and influence within a social network. These hypotheses are tested within the context of the development and implementation of a complex reporting system that evolved as the result of warehousing safety and environmental concerns within an organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implicit utility/value maximization and explicit utility/value maximization are identified as two major classes of multi-objective optimization methods. Explicit methods have the advantage of being able to fully exploit the power of existing mathematical programming algorithms. A disadvantage is the high information burden they place on the decision maker. Implicit (i.e., interactive) methods have complementary strengths and weaknesses: they require less extensive information but do not lend themselves as easily to use with optimizing algorithms. We develop a hybrid implicit/explicit approach that attempts to combine the advantages of both by embedding within the implicit method a procedure that periodically formulates an approximate explicit representation of the multi-objective problem and then solves it optimally without user interaction. Operationally, this requires the frequent solution of two nonlinear programs. We also report on the implementation of this method in a forest management decision support system. This is a completely microcomputer-based implementation currently undergoing field testing for use in planning the timing and intensity of timber harvests on nonindustrial forests in the southeastern United States. The system has been selected as a replacement for an earlier multi-objective program (Harrison and Rosenthal) used by over 1,800 landowners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study uses canonical analysis to examine the contingency model of organizations in the nursing home field. Data on environmental pressures and managerial practices relevant to the decision-making process are analyzed. Results support the theory that managerial practices are contingent on environmental pressures. The implications of these results for health-care decision makers and for future assessments of managerial environmental relationships are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insufficient attention that too often is paid to the characteristics required of attribute weights prevents multiattribute decision rules from accurately representing preferences. The weighting summation or linear model requires weights to be proportional to the relative value of unit changes in their attribute value functions. Only then will weights accurately reflect the trade-offs decision makers are willing to make. A number of methods of choosing weights are critiqued from this perspective. Applications of weighting methods in power plant siting are surveyed, and a siting study of western Maryland is presented. Two weighting methods were used, one deriving weights from trade-offs made by decision makers and the other asking decision makers to choose weights on a scale of 0 to 10. The locations picked by the two methods differ strikingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]