A conceptual framework for analyzing sustainability strategies in industrial supply networks from an innovation perspective

This article proposes a new conceptual framework concerning the implementation of sustainability in supply networks from an innovation perspective. Based upon a recent qualitative literature review in environmental, social/ethical and logistics/operations management journals, this article summarizes and analyses the approaches found. Concluded is that even though innovation, socialization, experimental learning and cultural perspectives have been acknowledged as being relevant to explaining supply network dynamics in general, they are rarely included in the current frameworks concerning sustainability. The question still remains why companies influenced by the same external factors and similar in size and power develop a different strategy towards sustainability aspects in their supply network. The article demonstrates with the first results of a survey held in the fashion/clothing sector the relevance of this question.The proposed conceptual framework states that the capability to develop a strategy is influenced by the innovation power of the “focal” company and its supply network. The three implementation strategies presented in the framework are: resign, offensive and defensive. Two propositions are defined to be tested. These propositions focus on the relation between the level of innovation power and the implementation strategy concerning sustainability. Factors used to characterize the innovation power of the “focal” company are: external orientation and transparency, cooperation between departments, learning and adapting, leadership, autonomy and possibility for experimenting, and result driven. Cooperation in the supply networks is characterized by factors like trust, reputation, joint programmes, and cooperative information systems throughout the supply network.In empirical research, strategies found will be related with the level of innovation power. This level will be measured using the factors mentioned. The results might add a new innovation dimension to an improved conceptual framework within the interdisciplinary field of sustainability and supply network research.     

Practising interdisciplinarity in the interplay between disciplines: experiences of established researchers

This paper focuses on the practice of interdisciplinary research and its relationship with disciplines within the context of sustainability research. Disciplines are defined as institutions, i.e. conventions, norms or formally sanctioned rules that coordinate human action [Vatn, A., 2005. Institutions and the Environment. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK). These institutions coordinate the practice of research. The central claim of this study is that interdisciplinary research occurs at the interplay between disciplinary institutions. These ideas are developed through the analysis of nine qualitative interviews conducted with established researchers who share an interest in studying issues of environmental sustainability. Specifically, this analysis identifies the motives of researchers who engage in interdisciplinary research and discusses the key characteristics of interdisciplinary research practice. The findings suggest that interdisciplinary research practice relies on disciplinary institutions as points of theoretical and methodological reference. Yet, the paper points at tensions that occur between the practice of interdisciplinary research and the practice of more traditional disciplinary research.     

Going beyond the rhetoric: system-wide changes in universities for sustainable societies

In October 2008, the 5th Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU) international conference was held in Barcelona, Spain. It dealt with the need to rethink how our higher educational institutions are facing sustainability. This special issue has been primarily derived from contributions to that conference. This issue builds upon related academic international publications, which have analysed how to use the critical position of universities to accelerate their pace of working to help to make the transition to truly SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES!This issue focus is on the ‘softer’ issues, such as changes in values, attitudes, motivations, as well as in curricula, societal interactions and assessments of the impacts of research. Insights derived from the interplay of the ‘softer’ issues with the ‘harder’ issues are empowering academic leaders to effectively use leverage points to make changes in operations, courses, curricula, and research. Those changes are being designed to help their students and faculty build resilient and sustainable societies within the context of climate change, the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), and the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).The overall systems approach presented by Stephens and Graham provides a structured framework to systematize change for sustainability in higher education, by stressing on the one hand the need for “learning to learn” and on the other hand by integrating leadership and cultural aspects. The “niche” level they propose for innovative interactions between practitioners such as EMSU is exemplary developed by all of the other documents in this special issue. To highlight some of the key elements of the articles in this issue, there are proposals for new educational methods based in sustainability science, a set of inspirational criteria for SD research activities, new course ranking and assessment methods and results of psychological studies that provide evidence that participatory approaches are the most effective way to change values within university members in order to facilitate the development and sharing of new sustainability norms.     

The importance of scientific literacy in fostering education for sustainability: Theoretical considerations and preliminary findings from a Brazilian experience

Scientific literacy can be considered as a new demand of post-industrial society. It seems necessary in order to foster education for sustainability throughout students' academic careers. Universities striving to teach sustainability are being challenged to integrate a holistic perspective into a traditional undergraduate curriculum, which aims at specialization. This new integrative, inter- and transdisciplinary epistemological approach is necessary to cultivate autonomous citizenship, i.e., that each citizen be prepared to understand and participate in discussions about the complex contemporary issues posed by post-industrial society. This paper presents an epistemological framework to show the role of scientific literacy in fostering education for sustainability. We present a set of 26 collaborative concept maps (CCmaps) in order to illustrate an instance of theory becoming practice. During a required course for first-year undergraduate students (ACH 0011, Natural Sciences), climate change was presented and discussed in broad perspective by using CCmaps. We present students' CCmaps to show how they use concepts from quantitative and literacy disciplines to deal with the challenges posed by the need of achieving a sustainable development.     

Sustainability experiments in Asia: innovations shaping alternative development pathways?

Global sustainability is increasingly influenced by processes of industrialisation and urbanization in non-OECD countries, especially in Asia. Growth models suggest that developing economies and regions will become first relatively more resource- and pollution-intensive, before converging on more resource-efficient and low-pollution production and consumption patterns expressed in developed countries. Alternative less resource- and pollution-intensive growth models for latecomer countries promise social and economic benefits in the short- and long-term. Drawing on insights from system innovation research on long-run change in socio-technical systems, we discuss the potential role of ‘sustainability experiments’ to generate innovations that will constitute new ‘greener’ growth models. We observe a great number of technology-based initiatives that we characterize as sustainability experiments in East and South Asian countries. These experiments emerge in the context of the growth of new socio-technical regimes in key sectors, including energy, transport, manufacturing, food and the built environment. We set out a conceptual framework for assessing the role of experiments, and for evaluating how they link with and become anchored into alternative more sustainable regimes. In this paper we argue that sustainability experiments represent a significant new source of innovation and capability-formation, linked to global knowledge and technology flows, which could reshape emergent socio-technical regimes and so contribute to alternative development pathways in latecomer countries. We conclude by summarizing the six papers published in this Special Issue.     

A taxonomy of metrics for testing the industrial ecology hypotheses and application to design of freezer insulation

Industrial ecology is sometimes referred to as the science of sustainability, but unlike mature sciences, it has yet to establish reliable modes of inquiry or a uniform framework for dialogue—partly because sustainability is difficult to characterize, and partly because industry–environment interactions are difficult to model quantitatively. A number of sustainability metrics have recently been proposed that partially address the quantification problem, but inevitably oversimplify the problem of sustainability characterization. This paper proposes an overarching taxonomy for classifying the quantitative criteria of sustainability as financial, thermodynamic, environmental, ecological, socio-political or aggregated. Several examples are presented. Pollution potential, which is an environmental metric related to the ideal thermodynamic work (of mixing) per mole required to remove pollutants from the environment, is discussed in particular. However, because no single metric can capture sustainability per se, industrial ecology may be limited to elucidating the trade-offs that exist between different types of complementary (rather than substitutable) criteria. The life cycle of polyurethane foam insulation in freezer applications is presented as a quantitative example of how different environmental criteria can lead to different design recommendations. Lastly, the framework proposed herein suggests a research agenda for industrial ecology, especially regarding the linkages between different measures of sustainability and cross-comparison of the investigative methods found in different sciences related to sustainability.     

Greening the state? The framing of sustainability in Dutch infrastructure governance

This paper investigates how the notion of ‘sustainability’ is strategically framed in the context of Dutch infrastructure governance in the Netherlands. By conducting a frame analysis (based on policy documents, websites and semi-structured interviews), the paper discerns six sustainability frames. These frames concern substantive (e.g., more focus on ecology), process (activating new networks) and organizational (e.g., new practices of work) aspects. The paper also illustrates how these sustainability frames relate to the changing institutional context of infrastructure policy and governance more broadly. The paper discusses some of the productive and challenging implications of the dynamics of sustainability in today’s complex and multi-dimensional world of governance.     

Learning settings to face climate change

Meeting the manifold challenges connected to climate change makes high demands on individual competencies. To prepare actors for those challenges learning settings are needed in higher education that are suitable for that goal. A theoretical framework for relevant key competencies can be found in the discourse of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). In this paper we introduce and discuss two learning settings that employ adapted sustainability science approaches: the syndrome approach and scenario analysis. Both approaches are discussed with reference to their didactic goals to foster the acquisition of the corresponding competencies. The usefulness of these two approaches in creating appropriate learning settings is demonstrated in empirical studies.     

New science for global sustainability? The institutionalisation of knowledge co-production in Future Earth

In the context of complex and unprecedented issues of global change, calls for new modes of knowledge production that are better equipped to address urgent challenges of global sustainability are increasingly frequent. This paper presents a case study of the new major research programme “Future Earth”, which aims to bring ‘research for global sustainability’ to the mainstream of global change research. A core principle of Future Earth is the co-production of knowledge with extra-scientific actors. In studying how the principle of co-production becomes institutionalised in the emerging structure of Future Earth, this paper points to the existence of three distinct rationales (logics) on the purpose and practice of co-production. Co-production is understood as a way to enhance scientific accountability to society (‘logic of accountability’), to ensure the implementation of scientific knowledge in society (‘logic of impact’), and to include the knowledge, perspectives and experiences of extra-scientific actors in scientific knowledge production (‘logic of humility’). This heterogeneous conception of knowledge co-production provides helpful ambiguity allowing actors with different perspectives on science and its role in society to engage in Future Earth. However, in the process of designing an institutional structure for Future Earth tensions between the different logics of co-production become apparent. This research shows how logics of accountability and impact are prominent in shaping the development of Future Earth. The paper concludes by pointing to an essential tension between being inclusive and transformative when it comes to institutionalising new modes of knowledge production in large research programmes.     

农户土地利用对环境压力的适应研究进展

农户视角土地利用对环境压力的适应研究已成为气候变化和持续性科学领域的热点。 文章从适应能力决定因素识别、适应障碍和限制因素诊断、适应的生态环境后果评估三个方面综述了农户土地利用对环境压力的适应研究取得的重要进展;梳理了农户适应环境压力的研究方法：综合指数法、参与式评估法、统计和计量经济模型法、适应的共同管理模型法。基于已有研究的特征和转型适应的需要,提出了有待进一步研究的问题：①构建适应研究的理论框架,为经验研究提供理论支撑;②重视提高农户适应能力的制度政策和农户适应实践的生态环境后果评估,为持续适应提供依据;③跨多层次主体综合考察农户土地利用适应过程机理; ④基于系统论思想、多学科和跨学科知识,以及现有方法论基础,构建涉及多层次利益相关主体的农户土地利用对环境压力的适应共同管理模型,以实现适应的科学的社会治理。     

Addressing the dynamics of agri-food systems: an emerging agenda for social science research

The ‘modernist’ project that has come to dominate food and agricultural policy has failed to provide sustainable outcomes for many poor people in developing countries. Conventional agricultural science is not able to explain let alone address these concerns because it is based on a static equilibrium-centred view that provides little insight into the dynamic character of agri-food systems. This paper analyses how prevailing narratives of technological change and economic growth have come to dominate key food and agriculture policy debates. It seeks to counter these orthodox notions by emphasising that agri-food systems are embedded in complex ecological, economic and social processes, and showing how their interactions are dynamic and vulnerable to short-term shocks and long-term stresses like climate change. The paper makes the case for a deeper understanding of diverse ‘rural worlds’ and their potential pathways to sustainability through agriculture. Moreover, it argues for a normative focus on poverty reduction and concern for the distributional consequences of dynamic changes in agri-food systems, rather than aggregates and averages. Finally, it sets out an interdisciplinary research agenda on agri-food systems that focuses on dynamic system interactions in complex, risk-prone environments and explores how pathways can become more resilient and robust in an era of growing risk and uncertainty.     

Games by which to learn and teach about sustainable development: exploring the relevance of games and experiential learning for sustainability

This paper discusses the roles of games in experiential learning for sustainability. It includes applied emphases upon four topics: (1) The challenges of sustainable development education with the need for interdisciplinarity, knowledge, skills and attitudinal training and with a special focus upon the urgent needs for paradigm, context and practice changes to help ensure that we make progress toward sustainable societies. We emphasize that these characteristics challenge existing teaching and educational philosophies and methods. (2) The theory of experiential learning, as developed by David Kolb in the nineteen eighties. We underscore that experiential learning is a good model for education for sustainability. (3) The usefulness of games as tools in learning processes. Various aspects of games are discussed such as the ‘functions of games’ and ‘the different categories of games,’ and ‘the role of games in learning and particular in experiential learning.’ These three aspects form the theoretical part of the paper. (4) Brief reviews of some illustrative games. The authors provide practical advice on how to play games in the context of learning for SD. They underscore facets such as the contextualization of games, technical aspects of playing games and the debriefing after the games have been played. The authors conclude the paper with conclusions that games are potentially relevant in all of the four learning phases of experiential learning. Games are especially relevant in phase four. In this phase games can contribute to helping learners to effect shifts in their personal paradigms, context and practice that are needed for sustainable development. The final conclusion is that many games exist and have been proven to be helpful. Educators are invited to change their curricula to facilitate usage of games as integral components of their educational philosophy tools and practice.     

Adopting an ecological view of metropolitan landscape: the case of “three circles" system for ecological construction and restoration in Beijing area

Ecological construction and restoration for sustainable development are now a driving paradigm. It is increasingly recognized that ecological principles, especially landscape ecology theory, are not only necessary but also essential to maintain the long-term sustainability worldwide. Key landscape ecology principles--element,structure and process, dynamics, heterogeneity, hierarchies, connectivity, place and time were reviewed, and use Beijing area as a case study to illustrate how these principles might be applied to ecological construction and restoration, to eventually achieve sustainability. An example to more effectively incorporate the ecological principles in sustainable planning in China was presented.     

How the DPSIR framework can be used for structuring problems and facilitating empirical research in coastal systems

As pressures on coastal zones mount, there is a growing need for frameworks that can be used to conceptualize complex sustainability challenges and help organize research that increases understand about interacting ecological and societal processes, predicts change, and supports the management, persistence, and resilience of coastal systems. The Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) framework is one such approach that has been adopted in some coastal zones around the world. Although the application of the DPSIR framework has considerable potential to bridge the gap between scientific disciplines and link science to coastal policy and management, current applications of DPSIR in coastal environments have been limited and new innovations in the application of the DPSIR model are needed. We conducted a structured review of literature on the DPSIR framework as applied to the function, process and components of complex coastal systems. Our specific focus was on how the DPSIR framework has been used as a tool to organize sophisticated empirical scientific research, support transdisciplinary knowledge at a level appropriate for building understanding about coastal systems, and how adopting a DPSIR approach can help stakeholders to articulate and structure challenges in coastal systems and use the framework to support policy and management outcomes. The review revealed that DPSIR models of coastal systems have been largely used to support and develop conceptual understanding of coastal social–ecological systems and to identify drivers and pressures in the coastal realm. A limited number of studies have used DPSIR as a starting point for semi-quantitative or quantitative analyses, although our review highlights the continued need for, and potential of, transformative quantitative analyses and transdisciplinary applications of the DPSIR framework. The DPSIR models we reviewed were predominantly single sector, encompassing ecological or biophysical factors or focusing primarily on socio-cultural dimensions rather than full integration of both types of information. Only in eight of 24 shortlisted articles did researchers actively engage decision-makers or citizens in their research: given the potential opportunity for using DPSIR as a tool to successfully engage policy-makers and stakeholders, it appears that the DPSIR framework has been under-utilized in this regard.     

Cleaner production in New Zealand: taking stock

New Zealand has seen a significant change in attitude and behaviour toward sustainable business practices since the late 1980s when the introduction of cleaner production marked the beginning of a change in the way the relationship between business and the environment was perceived. The context of this change is important. New Zealand is unique in terms of its relative geographic isolation and as a consequence human settlers encountered a unique ecosystem, dominated by avian species and without mammalian predators. Subsequent anthropogenic activity has seriously impacted New Zealand's biodiversity and sustainability is seen by many as a way of restoring, or at least conserving the remnant of that unique ecosystem. The country's natural environment and resources, the shape of business and the health of the economy all colour the way and rate at which sustainability is adopted. This paper charts that change and provides a perspective on relevant policy, research and intervention initiatives over the last 15 years or so and discusses the challenges that face New Zealand in a global market.     

Agricultural landscape change and stability in northeast Thailand: historical patch-level analysis

The temporal nature of agricultural landscape change, where both intra- and inter-annual processes and changes are often at work, renders traditional methods of landscape change assessment not completely effective. Additionally, seasonal and longer-term shifting patterns of cultivation can sometimes appear as permanent landscape change when in fact they actually are simply a local change in spatial arrangement. To address these complexities, this work tests an approach that is longitudinal in character and based upon assessing the structure of landscape change as well as the landuse/landcover (LULC) change. Set in rural northeast Thailand, patch dynamics are examined through use of LULC change trajectories built from an image time series and temporal patterns built from pattern metrics. The given unit of observation is the pixel, and its “life history” is constituted by the values derived from the images of a satellite time series, which are then reconstituted at the patch level for better ecological interpretation. The hypothesis that underpins this approach is that the nature of the trajectory is associated with the function of the land in that patch and in the neighborhood of surrounding patches. Hence, different trajectories of LULC spatial arrangement may suggest, for example, differences in the stability or dynamics of LULC over time and space, which are further suggestive of land sustainability or resilience, or conversely land conversion or dynamism. The study area for this research is a marginalized, agrarian environment in northeast Thailand, a region that has undergone deforestation of upland forests for the cultivation of commercial field crops, intensification of lowland rice for subsistence as well as local and regional sales and global export, and LULC scenarios altering the savanna landscape that serves as the background matrix. The analysis here characterizes the relative stability and temporal dynamics of LULC at the patch level. Pattern metrics calculated at the patch level are assessed as the spatial organization of landscape units that represent: (1) transitional areas of LULC dynamics occurring as peripheral expansion, (2) LULC change from forest to agriculture through deforestation, or (3) agriculture to forest through secondary plant succession, with savanna serving as a transitional matrix. In short, this paper proposes and tests a method for assessing the temporal persistence of LULC through pattern metrics. The method contributes a technique for analyzing the landscape ecology of sites as a function of their stability/dynamics within a scale-explicit context, and contributes to the growing body of work on relating scale, pattern, and process.     

Developing policy integrating sustainability: A case study into aviation

Support for the notion that policy should embrace sustainability is widespread but the actual incorporation of the concept into policy is proving to be difficult. To insert the word into a policy document, accompanied by some marginal changes, is enough to allow policy makers to claim that sustainability has been considered. The novel research reported here has applied sustainability analysis to the case of aviation which is one of the areas of policy where the conflict between environmental and economic objectives is most intense. It was found that sustainable policy options are blocked whilst sustainability is regarded as an add-on to existing policy. The policy stalemate exists because it is neither understood nor accepted that sustainability requires systemic change. The empirical stage of the research comprised 28 stakeholder interviews and identified four categories of action with the potential to break the stalemate in aviation which could be applied also to other areas of policy: long-term strategic planning; facilitation of dialogue between stakeholders; government support for innovation; and educating the public. The study concluded that fundamental change to the process of crafting policy is required if sustainability is to fulfil its potential to reconcile environmental and economic objectives.     

Shaping sustainable technology development in the coatings chain Defining boundaries,environmental problems and main players

To meet the requirements of sustainable technology development, innovation processes should go beyond optimization, retroffitting and redesign based on incremental innovation, to focus particularly on breakthrough innovations. The aim of current research looks forward to building insights in the field of environment, technology and innovation to design and test a methodology for medium-, long-term innovation planning of future technological options towards sustainability in the paint and coatings chain, and to draw conclusions under which conditions this methodology is feasible. This paper describes the conceptual and theoretical framework as well as the integrated chain, the main environmental problems and the main actors in the network under research.     

Pathways of system transformation: Strategic agency to support regime change

There is a well-recognised need to transform existing systems of production and consumption towards a more sustainable orientation. However, there is much uncertainty about how to achieve sustainability transitions in practice, and what transition advocates and actors can do to catalyse and steer regime transformation. We therefore need evidence of how transitions are operationalised, in order to better understand the on-ground dynamics of regime change. To address this gap, this research paper examines three contemporary cases of transformational change in the Australian urban water sector and the dominant strategic approach to change adopted in each city. It focuses on the strategic behaviour of actors, in particular examining how agents navigate and respond to the opportunities and constraints of their context, and what initiatives (or combination thereof) can facilitate innovation diffusion and regime transformation. The results reveal three distinct patterns of change, each of which favour particular strategic interventions by transition proponents.In order to incubate transformational change, the results suggest that actors may be best served by initially employing strategies that are immediately compatible with their existing context. However, examination of the strengths and weaknesses of each pattern confirm that no single strategic approach is in itself sufficient, and in order to embed a novel innovation and bring about regime change, actors will eventually need to broaden the range of interventions used. The results also reveal the possibility of a ‘pattern-dependence’ that actors need to deliberately work to overcome in order to fully mainstream the desired change. These findings therefore provide insight into the links between regime transformation, patterns of change and actor strategies while also offering practical guidance that can be used to inform the design and implementation of regime transformation agendas and programs.