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Just-in-time (JIT) and reverse logistics are two important philosophies. Coincidentally, both are related to reducing the impact on the environment. However, they are sometimes in conflict with each other. The former focuses on moving the materials smoothly which require a stable demand and supply, but the latter is weak in terms of predicting how many returned products will be processed. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the impact of JIT to reverse logistics systems. After an extensive literature review based on a model developed for this purpose, different functions, namely reverse logistics structure, process model, product life cycle, information system model, and JIT performance, have been identified that have great impact on integrating JIT with reverse logistics. In short, a process model with JIT can have a better control on cost and efficiency of reverse logistics activities, and product life cycle management with JIT helps to design the product that consider the reverse activities in various process models. An information system can support both process model and product life cycle management for JIT reverse logistics. Details are presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relying on institutional theory, agency rationale, and environmental management research, we hypothesize that, in polluting industries, good environmental performance increases CEO pay; that environmental governance mechanisms strengthen this linkage; that pollution prevention strategies affect executive compensation more than end-of-pipe pollution control; and that long-term pay increases pollution prevention success. Using longitudinal data on 469 U.S. firms, we found support for three hypotheses. Contrary to our expectations, firms with an explicit environmental pay policy and an environmental committee do not reward environmental strategies more than those without such structures, suggesting that these mechanisms play a merely symbolic role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

General managers of large industrial plants in Israel were asked to evaluate the effects of environmental dependencies on their freedom of action. It was found that most segments of the environment were perceived as homogeneous--affecting the firms' autonomy in similar ways. Different components of government, however, were perceived as having conflicting interests both within the segment and with other segments of the environment. When a segment of the environment is heterogeneous, it is possible that managers use a tradeoff strategy, in which pressures generated by one component of the environment can be used as a means to reduce pressure of the other components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of books relating to the field of organizations and natural environment, including "Deep Ecology for the 21st Century," edited by George Sessions, "Economy of Nature: Rethinking the Connections between Ecology and Economics," by William Ashworth, and "Lean and Clean Management: How to Boost Profits and Productivity by Reducing Pollution, by Joseph J. Romm.

The article presents a response to an earlier article in "Academy of Management Review" titled "Ecocentric Management for a Risk Society," by Paul Shrivastava. The author takes issue with Shrivastava's claim that technological and ecological risk will take the place of product orientations in a post industrial world. The author argues that instead of replacing product orientation, environmental and risk considerations will influence product orientation. A competing paradigm might cause industry to dismiss those environmental and risk factors that should be a part of product management.

How impartial are managerial decisions? This question is particularly concerning when it comes to making green investment decisions in the face of stakeholder pressures. When managers respond to stakeholder pressures, their personal cognition, judgment, and past experiences play a role in determining their responses. The salience of particular stakeholder claims may be determined by deeply rooted individual preferences. This research investigates how a manager’s past experiences can influence green investments. Data are gathered from 247 managers about their past experience and their employer’s performance data. These data are combined with managerial responses to a vignette-based experiment, which required managers to make green investments based on a decision scenario where they are exposed to different types and strength of stakeholder pressure (from consumers and the community). Results suggest that managers’ years of experience, their employers’ financial performance, and their employers’ market performance influence investment decisions even when making decisions under new and different set of circumstances. While the employers’ financial performance influences managers to invest more, the employers’ market performance only influences managers’ investment in the presence of either high consumer or high community pressure. Compared to less-experienced managers, experienced managers invest more in response to consumer pressure but less in response to community pressure. Practical and theoretical implications of these findings in green management are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emergence of environmental sustainability and green business management, increasing demands have been made on businesses in the areas of environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR). Furthermore, the influence of ECSR on green capital investment, environmental performance, and business competitiveness has also been the subject of attention from enterprises. However, in previous studies, the mediating role of green information technology (IT) capital in the relationship between ECSR, environmental performance, and business competitiveness, has not been investigated by researchers. In order to bridge this gap in the ECSR literature, this study aims to examine the influence of ECSR on green IT capital, and the consequent effect of green IT capital on environmental performance and business competitiveness. Data were collected from 358 companies from the top 1000 manufacturers in Taiwan. The results confirmed that ECSR has significant positive effects on green IT human capital, green IT structural capital, and green IT relational capital. Green IT structural capital and green IT relational capital have positive effects on environmental performance and business competitiveness, and environmental performance has a positive effect on business competitiveness. In addition, green IT structural capital and green IT relational capital have partial mediating effects on ECSR, environmental performance, and business competitiveness. The implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper aims to illustrate how institutional factors, such as Guanxi (connectedness) mechanism in a transition economy, could impact managerial cognition and their temporal orientation at individual level as well as induced change on corporate environmental strategy (CES). More specifically, this paper explores the micro foundation of corporate strategy change in an attempt to examine how corporate strategic choice and actions evolve with managerial cognition of “Guanxi” with various temporal orientations.Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews the extant literature focusing on Guanxi and CES with special attention to the temporal orientation in strategy formulation. A conceptual framework is proposed to analyze the underlying mechanism of Guanxi in mediating and shaping CES. A multi-case study with four companies operating in two industry sectors were investigated considering their relative long foothold as well as their different postures and dynamic change of corporate environment strategy in the past decades.Findings The findings support recent critiques on the likely shift in strategic choice of firms from the traditional Guanxi-based to a rule-based format. The interactions between entrepreneurial cognition and strategic activities toward environmental issues were still influenced by deep relational embeddedness. The findings proved that managerial Guanxi cognition impacts managers’ temporal orientation and their strategic choice on CES. Foreign-invested enterprises in the process of localization face the potential risk of emerging backdrop of their CES, i.e. from more active strategy to more reactive strategic posture, whereas local private-owned enterprises show a transformation from reactor to follower and even pioneer in the wave of those entrepreneurs’ changing cognition on the role of Guanxi in their businesses.Research limitations/implications One main limitation of the study is the lacking of quantitative measurement of corporate environment performance. Although the paper used multiple cases to explore the dynamics of Guanxi on impacting CES, only with further development of effective scale measurement to test corporate environment performance can increase the explaining power of the proposed theoretical model in this study. It is important to note that with data of longitudinal measurement of corporate environment performance, it would be more convincing to show the outcome of the temporal lens of Guanxi on CES. However, the lacking availability of qualified disclosed data on indicating corporate environment performance constrains another limitation for the study. Considering the complexity of corporate environment strategy, the focus cases in the paper might still lack powerful and convincing illustration to prove the impact of Guanxi on CES despite the enriched contextual data and description. It is necessary to conduct deeper analysis to exclude the impact of other possible factors on CES to highlight the direct impact of Guanxi on CES.Practical implications The results of the in-depth analysis and interpretation of the exploration of the cases suggest that Guanxi still seems to dominate managerial thinking process as the norm is deeply rooted in their mind sets. However, Guanxi is no longer considered as a mere reactive cultural norm rather a positive mechanism through which Chinese firms can achieve their sustainable environmental strategic goals as well as economies prosperity in the rapidly competitive business landscape in modern China.Originality/value Previous research on CES largely neglected the context factors. This paper presents a conceptual model to deepen our understanding of the contextual factor of Guanxi with a temporal perspective and its consequent influence on CES. This helps policy makers as well as strategic management researchers and academics to reconsider the mechanism of adaptation and selection in shaping CES in the event of large scale institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an explanation of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Innovation Management System Standard in clause 8. It discusses the standard in operation planning and control for maintaining documented information, planning changes, the management of innovation initiatives.

Modern business management plays an important role in spending on the environment, with counting on it to be of great help to corporate executives. The management accounting mission is to provide relevant information to the different levels of management in the areas of planning, decision making, management, performance measurement and control. The relationship between environmental protection and accounting is important because of the new challenges facing companies, since the environmental and social dimension of economic activity is increasingly becoming part of company reporting, which raises the need for measurability and measurement. In the context of environmental affairs, the principle of objective liability has been disclosed, according to which the company must bear financial responsibility for the damage caused by it, irrespective of whether it is guilty of maladministration, negligence or intent on the damage caused. One of the important areas of this can be environmental accounting. In the traditional accounting system, the primary area of environmental protection activity is the cost statement. As environmental accounting complements the traditional accounting system, environmental accounting literature deals with environmental issues broadly. In contrast, environmental benefits appear in few places and are not even comprehensively examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While sustainability is largely associated with do-gooders, this article discusses whether and how fraud might also be an issue in sustainability departments. More specifically, transferring the concept of the fraud triangle to sustainability departments I discuss possible pressures/incentives, opportunities, and rationalizations/attitudes for sustainability managers to commit fraud. Based on interviews with sustainability and forensic practitioners, my findings suggest that sustainability managers face mounting pressure and have opportunities to manipulate due to an immature control environment. Whether a presumably morality-driven attitude may prevent them from committing and easily rationalizing fraud remains controversial. Even though cases of fraud happening in sustainability departments are still widely unknown, the interview analysis reveals that sustainability fraud is likely to occur at least to some extent-and presumably remains undetected. The study brings to light the importance of a clear commitment from executives to sustainability to prevent sustainability fraud and demonstrates adverse developments driven by external stakeholders, specifically the bonus relevancy of sustainability index scores. In particular, the study shows a lack of awareness for potential fraud in sustainability departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically examines whether firms' environmental capital expenditures impact institutional investors' investment decisions in the Chinese market. We particularly examine the impact of ownership type on the relationship of environmental capital expenditures and the behavior of different types of institutional investors by classifying institutional investors into two categories, short-term and long-term investors. In addition, this study further investigates whether environmental capital expenditures related to ownership type increase firm value. We find that long-term institutional investors tend to invest in state-owned firms (SOEs) making environmental capital expenditures. Results also indicate that, with governmental backing and encouragement, the market value of SOEs making more environmental capital expenditures is likely to increase. However, no similar results are found for non-SOEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantitative management of environmental conservation activities is an effective way of achieving and maintaining sustainable business management. Disclosure of environmental accounting information is a key process indicator of business accountability and achieving sustainability. In addition, companies and other organizations are required to have accountability to stakeholders, such as consumers, business partners and investors. Review of previous research found limited studies on environmental reporting practices by Indian companies (Jose and Lee, 2007; and Chatterjee and Mir, 2008). The present study attempts to bridge this gap by analyzing reporting practices among select companies of cement and mineral industry in Rajasthan, India. As a state, Rajasthan is rich in minerals and has about 2 lakh registered small, medium and large units. The major findings reveal that environmental reporting is mostly guided by standard guidelines and does not have any standards designed for such disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research on corporate environmental behavior has produced myriad factors that explain offending and overcompliance, yet the literature lacks cohesion and would benefit from disentangling corporate- and individual-level explanations. In this study, a cross-level integrated theory of corporate environmental behavior uses Gunningham et al's. (2003) license framework and Paternoster and Simpson's (1993; 1996) rational choice theory of corporate crime to portray how individuals within corporations decide to offend or to overcomply with environmental regulations while accounting for the organizational context. Specifically, external pressures (legal, social, and economic) on the corporation, plus internal corporate policies and culture, affect individual-level cost-benefit analyses. In turn, these cost-benefit calculations impact the behavioral decisions made by corporate managers. Four sets of hypotheses based on this integration are tested using an environmental vignette survey of individuals. The results provide mixed support for the integrated theory. It is also noted that predictors of environmental offending are different from those predicting overcompliance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental issues began to be introduced more frequently in corporate business. As for the supply chain, Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) emerges as a new approach to corporate responsibility towards the environment. This article aims to analyze the diffusion of the GSCM concept and practices in the Brazilian scenario. To do that, we conducted interviews with experts on the subject of the supply chain in the area of Management in Brazil. The results show that the reasons for the slow development of the concept may relate to characteristics of the domestic market, corporate focus on internal aspects, lack of strict legislation, and low consumer pressure. Experts notice, however, good prospects for the future of discussions on the subject in the Country, due to the National Solid Waste Policy, pressure from the international market, and the search for environmental certification. This study sought to foster further discussions on GSCM in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic alliances help firms to enter new markets tactically, elude government restrictions quickly, distribute technologies effectively, and model leading firms swiftly. International strategic alliances (ISAs) are providing firms strategic flexibility, enabling them to respond to changing market conditions, and establishing effective passages for achieving global scale in enterprise operations. There are several key environmental factors that affect the success of the ISAs and those factors include cost saving in production and Research and Development (R&D), accessing intangible assets, strengthening market presence, and the firm's overall performance. In this context, this paper considers the relationship between the successful ISAs and the key environmental factors and the performances measures. This research has used an empirical study, incorporating interviews and e-mail and web-based surveys, to investigate a sample of U.S partner firms that engaged in successful ISAs. Financial and non-financial measures are utilized in order to capture the impact of the successful ISAs on the firms' performance. The study results show positive relationships between most of the key environmental factors such as coordination, interdependence, communication, trust, and commitment; and the successful ISAs. Besides, the results indicated a negative relationship between culture distance and the successful ISAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformation process opens organizations to new opportunities and competitive advantages [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter 3.3 of the Volume 7, Nos. 3-4, 2013 issue of the journal "Foundations and Trends in Technology, Information and Operations Management" by Pavel Castka and Charles J. Corbett is presented. It examines the impacts of ISO 14000 on performance. It discusses the environmental effects of ISO 14000 certification. It also explores the positive link between certification and improved environmental performance, using self-reported survey data.

Chapter 2.3 of the Volume 7, Nos. 3-4, 2013 issue of the journal "Foundations and Trends in Technology, Information and Operations Management" by Pavel Castka and Charles J. Corbett is presented. It addresses firm-level adoption of ISO 14000 standard. It discusses early studies on the diffusion of ISO 14000 and later empirical studies on firm-level adoption of the ISO 14000 standard.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the latest management developments across the globe and to pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approach – This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.Findings – Corporate governance is still a hot topic for many, but it has perhaps now gone beyond the intrigue and hope that was associated with it in the 1990s and 2000s. For many business and management academics, it was as an exciting a topic as it got: multi-faceted, fresh, controversial, and with a real grounding in "the real world". For many executives struggling to understand and implement the concept, this fascination was probably hard to understand – for many it was simply a headache they could do without.Practical implications – The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.Originality/value – The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slack can act as a double-edged sword. While it can buffer against environmental threats to help ensure business continuity, slack can also be costly and reduce profitability. In this study we focus on operational slack, the form related to the firm's production processes. We investigate the role of operational slack on firm survival during its venture stage when its survival is significantly challenged by environmental threats. Specifically, we explore how change in three types of environmental uncertainty, namely dynamism, complexity, and lack of munificence, affect the relationship between operational slack and venture survival. Results suggest that with an increase in environmental uncertainty, operational slack lowers the likelihood of venture failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The need and ability of an organisation to manage and control its impact on the environment has been hotly debated in recent times. However, the uptake of certificated environmental management systems (EMS), specifically BS EN ISO 14001 (ISO 14001) (British Standards Institution, 2004), is becoming more prevalent, even though evidence of the individual benefits is less clear. Furthermore, reports are often limited and anecdotal in their discussion of the true barriers that organisations experience during the certification and management of their EMS. Presently organisations are commonly classified simply according to size and the barriers they experience when implementing an EMS successfully. This system of classification is not sufficient to understand the multifaceted environments within which modern organisations operate. This paper reviews existing classification methodologies relevant to environmental management so as to determine whether opportunities exist for their practical application in this sector. It begins with an introduction to EMS and existing discussions regarding implementation is provided before a more detailed consideration of organisational size, the integration and development of environmental management within an organisation, then cladistics and quality management systems (QMS) are reviewed as potential opportunities for classification. This shows that whilst numerous methods are available, none function beyond the theoretical, or that the classes provided restrain the description of the complex tasks. Central to differences faced by organisations are insights to the true hurdles that each experience when implementing an EMS. It is shown here how the manipulation of techniques from the more mature field of Energy Management may offer a direction for the development of robust classes. A valuable outcome is that these methods produce classifications that are fit for purpose to better support organisations through the implementation and management of their EMS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this article, we investigate whether environmental capabilities influence firms' corporate strategies, a topic that has received little attention to date. We hypothesize that firms are more likely to acquire facilities when ownership facilitates the transfer of capabilities either to or from the facility. Using a panel from the U.S. government's Toxics Release Inventory Program, we find firms with superior environmental capabilities are significantly more likely to acquire physically proximate facilities with inferior environmental capabilities and vice versa. Our results extend theories of both corporate and environmental strategy. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to share a methodology to identify, prioritize and incorporate environmental issues in the quality management system certified by ISO 9001:2008. The application of the research in a meat-processing company in Latacunga, Ecuador, allowed us to solve nonconformities related to the environmental impacts that are caused in sub-processes and production processes. One of main problems was to identify and assess environmental issues involved in productive activities. The investigation established the current state of environmental quality management, using control checklists consistent with the established ones in the regulatory requirements; the impacts were assessed, using simple methods adapted to the company characteristics, so that finally we can integrate the corrective actions that were incorporated into the quality management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debate about sustainability centers on the responsibilities of consumers and businesses working towards a sustainable future with a new focus on business management. This focus should be considered as a key component within undergraduate hospitality management programs with varied courses, content and sequencing. Graduates would possess a range of perspectives and competences increasing awareness of good sustainable business practices. To develop a meaningful curriculum model, three stakeholders (students, educators, and industry professionals) were assessed on their perspectives of environmental sustainability, its importance in hospitality curricula, and suggestions for course content and pedagogic approaches. The results suggest significant differences between the groups in their attitudes, behaviors, interest in sustainability, importance of environmental issues and topics in the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore whether a connection exists between business operational efficiency and environmental responsibility. Design/methodology/approach – This research adopts the DEA method through a four-step analysis to examine inter-industry differences in terms of operational efficiency with environmental consideration. The sample comprises 32 Japanese firms from three different industries listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange between 2001 and 2006. Findings – The results indicate a positive correlation with statistical significance in terms of a firm’s environmental conservation cost, net income and economic benefit of environmental conservation for the three Japanese industries. In addition, the relationship among a firm’s environmental conservation cost, CO2 emission reduction and total CO2 emission are positively correlated but without significance. In particular, business operational efficiency integrating social responsibility for anti-global warming initiatives ( ¼ total CO2 emission level) could be applied to distinguish differences in terms of operational efficiency among industries. Research limitations/implications – Japanese firms adopt a voluntary environmental disclosure; therefore this study is constrained by the availability of long-term data. Social implications – This study enables environmentally conscious investors and fund managers to distinguish the operationally efficient industries when taking environmental performance into account. Originality/value – The study is a novel attempt to analyze inter-industry differences in terms of operational efficiency when considering environmental conservation through the DEA method using a four-step analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sugar industry generates a great impact in the environment. At present, one of the novel methods to quantitatively evaluate the environmental impacts generated by products and processes is the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), methodology that is very used in developed countries, but still is incipient in Latin America. The results obtained in Cuba contribute an integral methodology that allows a scientific environmental analysis and that quantitatively evaluates the total environmental impact generated by the sugar industry, including the two stages of the process: Agricultural Stage and Industrial Stage. In the present work this methodology is applied to quantify the environmental impact of the sugar mill Panchito Gomez Toro by means of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with the Eco-indicator 99 and Software SimaPro 7,1. The results show that used methodology constitutes a valuable tool to evaluate the environmental performance of the sugar production and is verified scientifically that the greater contribution to the impact of this process is given by the agricultural stage and in this one, by the Land use, the production and use of chemical fertilizers and fuels. The greater impact in the industrial stage is given by the co-generation of electricity with bagasse, due to the emission of particulate material. The contribution of the process to the Fossil Fuel category shows the high efficiency in the energy generation that is obtained in the mill Panchito Gomez Toro. The combination of the use of the gas treatment with other measures of Cleaner Productions allows a reduction in the value of the majority of the considered impact categories, mainly, in the categories of respiratory inorganic compound effects, Acidification / Eutrofication and fossil fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial symbiosis, representing resource sharing and byproduct use among colocated firms, is a key concept of industrial ecology. Local co-operation in industrial symbioses can reduce raw material use and waste disposal, but material and energy flows extending outside symbiosis boundaries con cause considerable environmental impacts. These external impacts are often ignored in industrial symbiosis studies. In this study, we compared process, hybrid and input—output life cycle assessment (LCA) approaches in quantifying the overall environmental impacts of a forest industrial symbiosis, situated in Kymenlaakso, Finland. Conclusions from an earlier process-LCA were strengthened by the use of hybrid-LCA as local emissions were found to cause less than half of the global impacts. In some impact categories, the whole impact was caused by supply chain emissions (land use, metal depletion and ozone depletion). The cutoff in process-LCA was found to be less than 25%, except in metal depletion and terrestrial ecotoxicity. Input—output LCA approximated hybrid-LCA results well in most impact categories, but seriously underestimated land use and overestimated terrestrial ecotoxicity. Based on the results we conclude, that input-output based LCA can be used to analyze the global impacts of an industrial symbiosis, but a careful interpretation of the results is necessary in order to understand the influence of aggregation and allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Spanish hospitality industry is facing environmental challenges which require organizations and individuals to learn new skills and practices and create new environmental knowledge. Understanding the nature and role of prior knowledge for sustainable development is a necessary step towards understanding if new environmental practices will be adopted successfully. This research focuses on unlearning and its impact on environmental knowledge by carrying out an empirical investigation of the unlearning context in 127 Spanish hospitality companies. The findings indicate that a process for consolidating emergent understandings would appear to be an intermediary step between the forgetting of old knowledge and the application of new environmental knowledge. Consequently, it is important that managers provide an appropriate unlearning context to support the openness of individuals to new ideas and environmental awareness. Otherwise, individuals may be fearful of or confused by the prospect of unlearning old habits and routines. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper presents a methodology that can be used in industry to calculate the ecological footprint. The procedure takes into account international experience and adapting to the conditions of the Cuban sugar industry. The application of the methodology to measure the environmental performance of industry, this performance is influenced by technology, technological discipline and application of cleaner production measures. This tool allows space-time assessments of different industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, it is analyzed the necessity of the bioethanol production as a form of contributing to solve the problems of the energy matrix of Cuba, and a prospective vision of the investigative necessities settles down for the bioethanol production, considering the readiness of the bagasse of cane of sugar like matter prevails, as well as the economic, energy and environmental requirements of its productions. The concerning aspects settle down to the uncertainty in the development of processes of the Chemical Industry and with it the main addresses of the work of Science and Technological Innovation in engineering with a view to the productions of bioethanol of bagasse of cane of sugar proposing a sequence of work actions that allow to shorten the obtaining and introduction of results in the productive practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En la planta Damují de la provincia de Cienfuegos, Cuba, se produce una gran parte del papel kraft empleado en las cajas de cartón que se usan como envases y embalajes. Esta empresa ha presentado diversos problemas con las autoridades ambientales por la contaminación que genera a su río homónimo, hacia el cual vierten sus efluentes líquidos y por las emisiones de gases y el consumo excesivo de su caldera de generación de vapor. El proceso de producción estaba sujeto a la introducción de tres posibles mejoras: Cierre del circuito de agua, el cual permitiría reutilizar el agua en el proceso reduciendo su consumo actual y el uso de aditivos químicos, los cuales también se recuperan; cambio de la caldera de generación de vapor por una más eficiente, lo cual disminuiría la cantidad de vapor generado por unidad de combustible; la otra posible alternativa era la reactivación del sistema de residuales de la planta, el cual se encontraba en muy mal estado. El presupuesto de la entidad no era suficiente para llevar a cabo todas estas mejoras y se requería priorizarlas. Es por ello que se debieron aplicar estudios de Análisis de Ciclo de Vida (ACV) y la simulación del proceso para evaluar técnica, económica y ambientalmente las alternativas. Según esta investigación se pueden ejecutar, el cambio de la caldera y la reactivación del sistema de residuales o el cierre del circuito de agua, decidiéndose por esta última según los criterios planteados. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid life cycle-based trans-boundary greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint is elucidated at the city-scale and evaluated for 8 US cities. The method incorporates end-uses of energy within city boundaries, plus cross-boundary demand for airline/freight transport and embodied energy of four key urban materials [food, water, energy (fuels), and shelter (cement)], essential for life in all cities. These cross-boundary activities contributed 47% on average more than the in-boundary GHG contributions traditionally reported for cities, indicating significant truncation at city boundaries of GHG emissions associated with urban activities. Incorporating cross-boundary contributions created convergence in per capita GHG emissions from the city-scale (average 23.7 mt-CO2e/capita) to the national-scale (24.5 mt-CO2e/capita), suggesting that six key cross-boundary activities may suffice to yield a holistic GHG emission footprint for cities, with important policy ramifications. Average GHG contributions from various human activity sectors include buildings/facilities energy use (47.1%), regional surface transport (20.8%), food production (14.7%), transport fuel production (6.4%), airline transport (4.8%), long-distance freight trucking (2.8%), cement production (2.2%), and water/wastewater/waste processing (1.3%). Energy-, travel-, and key materials-consumption efficiency metrics are elucidated in these sectors; these consumption metrics are observed to be largely similar across the eight U.S. cities and consistent with national/regional averages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to review and categorize the different strategies Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs have adopted towards incorporating environmental sustainability into business administration. Design/methodology/approach -- Through extensive internet research looking at colleges and universities, data are collected from primary source web sites and administrative school contacts. There are 35 institutions whose MBA programs address sustainability in some way. Each of these institutions is then organized by location, tuition cost, enrollment, year founded, accreditation, and curriculum. Findings -- Green educational strategies differentiate themselves by the size and maturity of the program. Larger, established institutions typically opt for the green major, or a dual degree, and tend to leave systematic integration of sustainability to the individual student. Newer and smaller entrants tend to either dabble in green with a few sustainability courses, or completely embrace and systemically integrate sustainability throughout the program. Research limitations/implications -- The sample focuses on US institutions and treats sustainability as an externally validated curricular choice when it may merely be an educational fad. The sample excludes potential green MBA programs that lack a strong internet presence. Practical implications -- Four archetypes are identified: dual degree, all-green, green major, and green coursework. Institutions can analyze their performances and see where they fall on the two major continua -- integration and maturity/size. Originality/value -- Green MBA programs are relatively new on the academic landscape, and this research paper is one of the first to systematically analyze and categorize them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is currently experiencing rapid economic growth. The price of this, however, is environment pollution. Many Chinese corporations are lacking in corporate environmental responsibility (CER). Therefore, this study employs data from Chinese and multinational corporations to identify why Chinese corporations seldom engage in CER by investigating their motivations and stakeholders. The results show that the most important reason why Chinese corporations do not engage in CER is the fact that their competitive strategy of cost cutting makes them limited in resources, such as money, employees, information, or added value. Further study implies that Chinese corporations face more survival pressure, though they are willing to take environmental responsibilities as multinational corporations do. The results also imply that government and social surroundings can play an important role to arouse CER consciousness of Chinese corporations in all stakeholders. Consequently, Chinese government has a heavy duty to promote corporations to respond to their CER in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]