Insurance and flood risk reduction in Ghana: do insurers penalise homeowners who take precautionary measures?

Today, many advocate insurance as a tool for coping with natural disasters. Beyond providing prompt financial relief to victims of disasters, insurance can also incentivise individuals to invest in preventive measures if insurers reward such efforts with reduced premiums. However, insurers might be unable to reward investments in precautionary measures with lower premiums if they are ill-informed about individual-level risks. Here, we explore how Ghanaian home insurers respond to investments in flood risk reduction by asking them to quote premiums for four identical buildings; two had investments in flood risk reduction, while the other two had none. We find that insurers did not reward investments in risk reduction, with some charging higher premiums for elevated buildings, suggesting they have interpreted such preventive measures as a sign of high flood risk. This failure to reward investments in precautionary measures may discourage insured homeowners from investing in risk reduction.     

昆明市城区初中生绿色生活方式初步研究

初中生是未来环保事业的主力军,在他们中间倡导并实施健康绿色生活方式不仅有利于中学生身心健康,而且还可以通过他们影响周围的人,因而有利于资源节约型社会的构建。本研究选取了昆明市城区的8所中学作为调查对象,通过问卷调查,分析了昆明市城区初中生绿色生活意识的水平及其内部差异,并认为应该对初中生大力开展“绿色生活”环境教育活动,且不同学校、男女生应该有不同环境教育的重点和方式。     

秦淮河流域沿岸居民环境责任意识研究调查

环境意识作为一种社会意识和价值观念,引导着人类在生产生活中对待环境的态度和行为。本文对秦淮河流域沿岸居民关于环境意识的调查,运用SPSS软件分析,结果表明:居民环境责任意识与利益关注对环境态度和环境保护行为显著正向影响,居民环境态度对环境行为显著正向影响;居民的环境意识与环境行为存在明显不一致性;居民在日常生活上是浅层次的环境保护型环境意识,环保行为上为政府依赖型,居民对环境问题认识的基本驱动力是利益关系;人口统计特征变量在不同假设路径中均存在显著性差异。     

商场工作人员自我效能感与火灾时行为的结构方程模型分析*

为充分发挥商场工作人员在火灾风险下的疏导作用,提高疏散效率。引入火灾安全意识、行为选择动机、火灾认知能力为中介变量,研究商场工作人员自我效能感与火灾时的有利行为、不利行为之间的关系,构建结构方程模型;对西安市某大型商场212名工作人员进行问卷调查,运用Amos24.0软件进行分析。研究结果表明:自我效能感主要通过火灾安全意识、行为选择动机、火灾认知能力对商场工作人员发生火灾时的行为产生影响,这3个中介变量对商场工作人员发生火灾时的有利行为呈显著正相关,对不利行为呈显著负相关;火灾认知能力对商场工作人员发生火灾时的有利行为影响最大,行为选择动机对商场工作人员发生火灾时的不利行为影响最大。研究结果可为商场火灾安全疏散管理提供有效依据,对商场火灾疏散具有重要意义。     

Understanding why consumers in China switch between wild,farmed, and synthetic bear bile products

An important rationale for legally farmed and synthetic wildlife products is that they reduce illegal, wild-sourced trade by supplying markets with sustainable alternatives. For this to work, more established illegal-product consumers must switch to legal alternatives than new legal-product consumers switch to illegal wild products. Despite the widespread debate on the magnitude and direction of switching, studies among actual consumers are lacking. We used an anonymous online survey of 1421 traditional Chinese medicine consumers in China to investigate switching among legal farmed, synthetic, and illegal wild bear bile. We examined the past consumption behavior, applied a discrete choice experiment framed within worsening hypothetical disease scenarios, and used latent class models to investigate groups with shared preferences. Bear bile consumers (86% respondents) were wealthier, more likely to have family who consumed bile, and less knowledgeable about bile treatments than nonconsumers. Consumer preferences were heterogenous, but most consumer preferences switched between bile types as disease worsened. We identified five distinct latent classes within our sample: law-abiding consumers (34% respondents), who prefer legal products and were unlikely to switch; two all-natural consumer groups (53%), who dislike synthetics but may switch between farmed and wild; and two nonconsumer groups (12%), who prefer not to buy bile. People with past experience of bile consumption had different preferences than those without. Willingness to switch to wild products was related to believing they were legal, although the likelihood of switching was mediated by preferences for cheaper products sold in legal, familiar places. We found that consumers of wild bile may switch to legal alternatives, given the availability of a range of products, whereas legal-product consumers may switch to illegal products if the barriers to doing so are small. Understanding preferences that promote or impede switching should be a key consideration when attempting to predict consumer behavior in complex wildlife markets.     

Accessibility and trust: the two dimensions of consumers’ perception on sustainable purchase intention

The aim of this article is to shed new light on which dimensions compose sustainable purchase intention (SPI) with the purpose of understanding what moves consumers to a potentially more sustainable behaviour. Even though several studies have researched which factors influence consumer’s intention to buy in a more sustainable way, no comparable research in consumer behaviour was found studying these dimensions in a triple bottom line perspective (profit, people, and planet) that could also provide future corporate and academic applications. Therefore, this article proposes a new construct – Consumers’ Perception on SPI, defined using the C-OAR-SE procedure and measured using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis using two different samples. In-depth interviews and online survey to actual consumers of sustainable products were undertaken in partnership with a sustainable project using its database, guaranteeing that real consumers’ perceptions were gathered for this study. The construct is proposed with two dimensions (measured by nine items): Accessibility (including facets such as product lower pricing, availability in stores, and being sold within a convenient proximity to home) and Trust (including consumers needs such as: to get to know and trust products through understanding the labels; to have had good experiences in the past or simply to have new trial opportunities). Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Sustainability of Nations

SUMMARY

A method is presented to interrelate the development of economy, environment and social quality in communities. Economy and environment, in initial development stages, oppose each other. Social welfare and economy generally develop simultaneously. To assess overall progress in sustainable development, an integrated and quantifiable framework is presented which defines five levels of sustainability. Increasing sustainability is characterized by growing responsibility for the impacts of man's actions in space and time. Through increased eco-efficiency and changed awareness, nations and companies arrive at a synergistic relationship between environment and economy. It is indicated that social security benefits expenditure increases by a factor 3.5 and carbon dioxide emissions per capita decreases by a factor 3 at each higher level of sustainability. Quantified differences in sustainability levels of 24 nations are shown. Priorities for improving and safeguarding sustainability are indicated.     

Raising awareness of transport issues: The potential to bring about behavioural change?

Changes in the directions of transport policy in the UK in the last few years have led to a wider consideration of possible measures to bring about behavioural change, in particular measures which have the potential to reduce car dependence. Among the measures currently being implemented by local authorities are public awareness or travel awareness campaigns. This paper examines the findings of a research project which evaluated a travel awareness scheme in the context of an integrated transport policy. The research project monitored the attitudes, beliefs and intentions of a sample of the residents who had been targeted by the Maidstone Initiative for Sustainable Transport (MIST) implemented by Kent County Council and Maidstone Borough Council. The research project found some remarkably consistent attitudes about car and bus travel over a period of three years, It also found that whilst people seem to be aware of the impact of travel on the environment they do not consider the environmental impact with the same degree of importance as other attributes of travel. A further finding was a hidden desire to switch modes from the car. The paper will conclude by looking critically at the future for travel awareness campaigns.     

Exploring price effects on the residential water conservation technology diffusion process: a case study of Tianjin city

Reforms of the water pricing management system and the establishment of a flexible water pricing system are significant for cities in northern China to tackle their critical water issues. The WATAP (Water conservation Technology Adoption Processes) model is developed in order to capture the water conservation technology adoption process under different price scenarios with disaggregate water demands down to the end use level. This model is explicitly characterized by the technological selection process under maximum marginal benefit assumption by different categories of households. In particular, when households need to purchase water devices in the provision market with the consideration of complex factors such as the life span, investment and operating costs of the device, as well as the regulated water price by the government. Applied to Tianjin city, four scenarios of water price evolutions for a long-term perspective (from year 2011 to 2030) are considered, including BAU (Business As Usual), SP1 (Scenario of Price increase with constant annual rate), SP2 (Scenario of Price increase every four years) and SP3 (Scenario of Price increase with affordable constraint), considering many factors such as historic trends, affordability and incentives for conservation. Results show that on aggregate 2.3%, 11.0% and 18.2% of fresh water can be saved in the residential sector in scenario SP1, SP2 and SP3, respectively, compared with the BAU scenario in the year 2030. The water price signals can change the market shares of different water appliances, as well as the water end use structure of households, and ultimately improve water use efficiency. TheWATAP model may potentially be a helpful tool to provide insights for policy makers on water conservation technology policy analysis and assessment.     

Factors influencing the implementation of a safety management system for construction sites

The objective of the study was to determine the influential safety factors that governed the success of a safety management system for construction sites. The number of incidences among construction workers and the level of awareness on matters concerning safety were also determined. The study involved a self-administered three-part questionnaire among the workers and interviews with industry experts involved in brick-laying, concreting and in related assorted trades. Part A of the questionnaire concerned personal particulars, Part B involved training and experience and Part C was based on 28 industry-accepted safety factor elements. The construction sites ranged from high rise buildings, landed houses and infrastructure renovation. The sample size was 275. From the survey it was found that the most influential safety factor was personal awareness followed closely by communication. Suggestions and recommendations on equipment design and improved work practices and procedures to improve the efficiency and productivity of construction workers were proposed. Management was urged to get their workers better informed about safety matters.