Sustainability metrics for the business enterprise

Sustainable development poses challenges and opportunities to the development and management of business and technological systems. Most significantly, sustainability moves beyond meeting an economic and environmental bottom line to a triple bottom line of integrated economic, environmental, and social factors. Over 30 years there has been a paradigm shift that has led to the greening of industrial practices with regards to the environment. As evidence continues to demonstrate linkages between environmental causes and effects, problem-solving techniques have been developed to meet both economic and environmental goals along with metrics to measure environmental performance. Today, sustainable development presents another paradigm shift and adds social considerations as a third element to the bottom line. This article describes the evolution from greening to sustaining and outlines the implication of developing metrics in the sustainable development context.© 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Minimising waste in the food and drink sector: using the business club approach to facilitate training and organisational development

The aim of the East Anglian Waste Minimisation in the Food And Drink Industry Project was to develop waste minimisation capability in food and drink sector companies by providing a structured training programme and consultancy support to participating members of a business club. The business club forum provided the structure within which interactive training and development sessions were delivered. Expertise and assistance in implementing waste minimisation and waste management programmes was given to member companies at their sites.The project resulted in pound 1,800,000 per annum of identified savings with pound 1,100,000 of verified savings already achieved. Training and development contributed fundamentally to these project outcomes and achievements.The structured training package used three different approaches or methods. Teaching and workshop sessions were used to present interactive training on waste minimisation practice. These were supplemented by interactive 'report-back' sessions where the 'project champions' presented progress reports to the club on waste minimisation at their sites.An overview of the business club approach is described, together with an account of the successes and challenges of applying a structured training and development programme and the barriers to waste minimisation that were overcome. Training effectiveness was measured according to reaction, learning, application and impact.     

Remote sensing for land management and planning

The primary role of remote sensing in land management and planning has been to provide information concerning the physical characteristics of the land which influence the management of individual land parcels or the allocation of lands to various uses These physical characteristics have typically been assessed through aerial photography, which is used to develop resource maps and to monitor changing environmental conditions These uses are well developed and currently well integrated into the planning infrastructure at local, state, and federal levels in the United States.Many newly emerging uses of remote sensing involve digital images which are collected, stored, and processed automatically by electromechanical scanning devices and electronic computers Some scanning devices operate from aircraft or spacecraft to scan ground scenes directly; others scan conventional aerial transparencies to yield digital images. Digital imagery offers the potential for computer-based automated map production, a process that can significantly increase the amount and timeliness of information available to land managers and planners.Future uses of remote sensing in land planning and management will involve geographic information systems, which store resource information in a geocoded format. Geographic information systems allow the automated integration of disparate types of resource data through various types of spatial models so that with accompanying sample ground data, information in the form of thematic maps and/ or aerially aggregated statistics can be produced Key issues confronting the development and integration of geographic information systems into planning pathways are restoration and rectification of digital images, automated techniques for combining both quantitative and qualitative types of data in information-extracting procedures, and the compatibility of alternative data storage modes     

沈阳市商业性污染防治对策

本文在论述沈阳市城市景观空间格局的基础上,从商业景观的布局和产业组成等方面探讨了商业性污染产生的原因及其基本规律,最后提出了加强沈阳市商业景观建设及商业性污染防治的对策。     

Training for jobs

In the past much of the training effort of public agencies was not aimed at specific job vacancies or at areas of skill shortages. In contrast, targeted training aims to provide identified disadvantaged groups with training to enable them to compete for identified job vacancies. This paper looks at the success of targeted training through three examples, at how its effectiveness can be improved, and the role of local government in initiating and developing such training.     

Shopping studies for regional planning

This paper is based on a shopping study carried out by the Department of Geography, University of Utrecht, during 1983. It is concerned with retail planning research for larger regions and starts with a state of the art review of retail planning research in the Netherlands. The aim, in developing a new research strategy, was to reduce time and costs through using computer facilit es for both data handling and data collection. There is discussion of methodology and some outcomes to demonstrate the possibilities of the strategy.     

Sustainability implications for water resources planning and management

Sustainability has proved to be a unifying concept that emphasizes the need for us to consider the impacts of what we do in our generation on those who follow us in future generations. While we cannot know with certainty what these impacts may be, or what future generations will want or value, we can attempt to include what we think they will want or value in our current planning and management models. In this way we may at least estimate what they would like us to do today to allow them to better satisfy their needs and desires in the future. This then becomes a multiple objective planning problem, where if conflicts exist, trade offs can be identified and debated. This paper presents some approaches for doing this, and discusses how they may be applied in practice in the water resources sector.     

A planning and decision-making framework for ecological restoration

A broad and objective perspective of ecological and socioenomic knowledge is required to underlie a scientific approach to the problems of terrestrial restoration ecology. Uncertainty associated with limited scientific knowledge highlights the crucial importance of the interaction between science and policy in weighing ecological restoration alternatives in relation to other management options. In this paper, we provide a pragmatic definition for restoration ecology that is suitable for extensive terrestrial applications and present a decision framework to help organize and clarify different phases of the decision process as it is related to ecological restoration. We argue that restoration planning should include a wider spectrum of participants and decisions than have traditionally been employed.     

Integrating planning and sustainability theory for local benefit

The premise of this article is that prevailing planning theory has emerged primarily from a Newtonian (modernist) social context and is not well integrated conceptually with current developments in sustainability theory as represented by its various contributory disciplines. Approaches in the biophysical sciences, for example, are increasingly based on nonlinear, complexly interrelated conceptions of revolutionary development, whereas planning approaches are typically more compartmentalised, mechanistic and linear in character. To construct more workable linkages for local community/environmental planning, revolutionary theory is employed in this article to deal with the epistemological and methodological differences indicated. The proposed synthesis combines mutually reinforcing conceptions of epistemology, cultural pluralism, community and progress. Implications for practice of local planning are drawn with reference to the long-term goal of socioenvironmental sustainability, defined as a balance of economic, environmental and equity considerations.     

Procedure for assessing visual quality for landscape planning and management

Incorporation of aesthetic considerations in the process of landscape planning and development has frequently met with poor results due to its lack of theoretical basis, public involvement, and failure to deal with spatial implications. This problem has been especially evident when dealing with large areas, for example, the Adirondacks, Scenic Highways, and National Forests and Parks. This study made use of public participation to evaluate scenic quality in a portion of the Niagara Escarpment in Southern Ontario, Canada. The results of this study were analyzed using thevisual management model proposed by Brown and Itami (1982) as a means of assessing and evaluating scenic quality. Themap analysis package formulated by Tomlin (1980) was then applied to this assessment for the purpose of spatial mapping of visual impact. The results of this study illustrate that it is possible to assess visual quality for landscape/management, preservation, and protection using a theoretical basis, public participation, and a systematic spatial mapping process.     

Environmental business management practices for a new age

At the end of the 20th century, business finds itself in a period of transformation and a new emphasis on environmentally responsible practices. Leading-edge companies are now integrating environmental concerns into everyday business activities. Competitive issues, which led to the formation of just-in-time production processes, are now forcing companies to better understand their effects on the environment. Business leaders must now look at environmental issues as opportunities, not burdens. With innovative use of “industrial ecology,” companies can set the stage for long-term growth into the next century. “Business men go down with their businesses because they like the old way so well they cannot bring themselves to change.” Henry Ford.     

Combining land-use planning and tenure security: a tenure responsive land-use planning approach for developing countries

There is tenure insecurity around land ownerships and land rights in most developing countries. There are also many land-use planning projects being implemented in these countries. Often, land-use planning exists in these countries but is not formally linked with tenure security. This study argues that combining them by conducting land-use planning in a way that promotes tenure security presents a new approach. A central premise for the rationale of this intervention is that processes of land-use planning may inadvertently increase tenure security. By way of methodology, it evaluates land-use planning case studies from Africa, Asia and South America. It uses the three case study examples to build a case for making tenure security one of the major planned outcomes of a land-use planning process and provides a detailed framework for operationalising the concept. Its main contribution to the literature is that it introduces the concept of tenure responsive land-use planning.     

Using ecological knowledge for development planning

Since October 1977, the East-West Environment and Policy Institute in Honolulu has been conducting a multinational collaborative project to enhance the preparation and utilization of natural systems assessments in developing countries. This paper presents some of the findings to date: 1. Channels are developing rapidly for transferring ecological knowledge into political and administrative decision making. 2. The systematic approach of ecology is replacing environmental quality as the organizing concept for information about natural resources and the environment. 3. Benefit-cost analysis is a promising method for integrating ecological knowledge into economic development decision making. 4. The lack of baseline information, inventories, and predictive capability will not be remedied soon or easily; thus priorities for ecological research are essential.This paper is adapted from a presentation at the Fifth Symposium on Tropical Ecology of the International Society for Tropical Ecology, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 19 April 1979. Environmental Management, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 13–20     

Developing a collaborative model for environmental planning and management

Methods for involving the public in natural resource management are changing as agencies adjust to an increasingly turbulent social and political environment. There is growing interest among managers and scholars in collaborative approaches to public involvement. Collaboration is conceptually defined and elaborated using examples from the natural resource management field. This paper then examines how collaboration theory from the organizational behavior field can help environmental managers to better understand those factors that facilitate and inhibit collaborative solutions to resource problems. A process-oriented model is presented that proposes that collaboration emerges out of an environmental context and then proceeds sequentially through a problem-setting, direction-setting, and structuring phase. Factors constraining collaboration are also specified, including organizational culture and power differentials. Designs for managing collaboration are identified, which include appreciative planning, joint agreements, dialogues, and negotiated settlements. Environmental managers need new skills to manage collaboration within a dynamic social and political environment. Further research is needed to test the propositions outlined here.     

Metal prices and the business cycle

Metal price fluctuations have recently been of interest not only because of their cyclical volatility but also of their interaction with business cycles. A related issue is whether metal prices move together sufficiently to collectively reflect macroeconomic influences. Correlation or the tendency for prices to move together has been termed “comovement”, where the commonality in prices reflects the tendency of commodity markets to respond to common business cycle and trend factors. Metal prices are known to respond to macroeconomic influences and the latter might well explain the common factor which causes them to move together. Our goal is to provide an estimate of the common factor in metal prices and to relate this factor to important macroeconomic influences. The prices we study are for aluminum, copper, tin, lead and zinc; the macroeconomic variables include industrial production, consumer prices, interest rates, stock prices, and exchange rates. Our results confirm that the common factor in metal prices can be related to such macroeconomic influences.     

The state of environment and business

“There are several Microsofts waiting to come forth in the clean energy business, and we'll all wish we'd have invested in them in the late 1990s when they were still tiny.” — John Palmisano, Enron Corporation ©2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.