Integrating corporate social responsibility,health improvement,and community support in development programmes: a case for enhancing the application of health impact assessment in programme implementation in the Niger Delta region

Transnational corporations (TNCs) invest enormous resources in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. However, the effectiveness and mode of execution of these CSR activities have been subjects of continuing debate. This research was therefore carried out to elicit the perspectives of members of four local communities about the impact of the CSR interventions in the areas of health improvement and participation by members of the communities in the Niger Delta. Semi-structured questionnaires were self-completed by 182 members of the local communities in the Niger Delta; the respondents gave detailed feedback about community feelings for TNCs and their CSR efforts. The findings showed that the people generally have negative views towards the CSR practices of the TNCs. The result of a two-paired t-test showed this to be true for both men and women (P =?.888, CI 95). While 69.8% of the respondents felt that the TNCs did not bring any development to their community, 87.9% had high fear of getting a disease due to the community they live in; interestingly, 90.1% wanted to be involved in decisions concerning their communities. This research therefore proposes the increased use of health impact assessment as an approach to integrate health considerations and community participation into the evaluation and implementation of development programmes in the Niger Delta. Such an approach has the potential to make CSR initiatives more effective, transparent, and minimise the tensions between communities and TNCs.     

COMMUNITY RESPONSE TO STORMWATER POLLUTION IN AN URBANIZED WATERSHED1

ABSTRACT: A model is developed and tested to identify the factors influencing variation in community response to stormwater pollution. Basic constructs of the model use environmental hazard theory, integrated with analysis of community demographic and political forces affecting local government decision processes. Community stormwater response is measured by an index comprised of 12 response indicators. Selection criteria for the response indicators include their effectiveness, variability, and general representation of the spectrum of stormwater response activity. Observable activities are scored progressively based upon their relative ecosystem impacts. Weighted and unweighted indicator scores are computed, with a survey of stormwater experts providing the basis for the weights. Results indicate a wide variation in response levels among the selected communities. Regression analysis identifies four significant predictors of response at the watershed scale: the mean age of householder over 25, the total tax rate, community type (city or township), and the amount of green staff (presence of recycling coordinators, foresters, or environmental planners). This mix of predictors demonstrates the applicability of hazard theory to stormwater response, as community stormwater response is influenced by the capacity and economic means to effect change - two central constructs of hazard theory.     

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF WESTERN WATER DEVELOPMENT1

ABSTRACT: Social scientists were included in the planning and design for an integrated, trans-basin water resource project. Within this complex project, a socioeconomic impact assessment (SIA) concentrated on identifying the social, political, and economic issues and potential impacts inherent in developing a city's water rights. Before the SIA began, some of the development alternatives had already generated widespread hostility and organized opposition from communities within the watershed. The SIA involved residents of affected communities in the study design and project planning. The study found a number of components that constituted the concerns, beliefs, and expectations about perceived, potential impacts that might result from the different alternatives. In most cases these issues constituted threats to valued environmental resources, valued community resources, the social environment, the economic base, and a secure future. The social science component was a key factor in the ultimate decision to pursue a particular alternative which was sensitive to the social and political issues, minimized environmental and socioeconomic impacts, and ultimately had support among the communities potentially affected. The experience from this case study suggests that the approach used can be applied successfully in the planning of other water development projects and result in cooperation from the wide range of interest groups that often present costly obstacles to such projects.     

Environmental and economic aspects of production and utilization of RDF as alternative fuel in cement plants: A case study of Metro Vancouver Waste Management

Municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal and management is one of the most significant challenges faced by urban communities around the world. Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) over the years has utilized many sophisticated technologies and smart strategies. Municipalities worldwide have pursued numerous initiatives to reduce the environmental burden of the MSW treatment strategies. One of the most beneficial MSWM strategies is the thermal treatment or energy recovery to obtain cleaner renewable energy from waste. Among many waste-to-energy strategies, refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is a solid recovered fuel that can be used as a substitute for conventional fossil fuel. The scope of this study is to investigate the feasibility of RDF production with MSW generated in Metro Vancouver, for co-processing in two cement kilns in the region. This study investigates environmental impacts and benefits and economic costs and profits of RDF production. In addition, RDF utilization as an alternative fuel in cement kilns has been assessed. Cement manufacturing has been selected as one of the most environmentally challenged industries and as a potential destination for RDF to replace a portion of conventional fossil fuels with less energy-intensive fuel. A comprehensive environmental assessment is conducted using a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. In addition, cost–benefit analysis (CBA) has been carried out to study the economic factors. This research confirmed that RDF production and use in cement kilns can be environmentally and economically viable solution for Metro Vancouver.     

Developing river and lake basins for sustained economic growth and social progress

It is evident that river basin development in Africa can do much to provide environmental stability to wildly erratic hydrologic and climatic cycles, to produce more food and to contribute to economic growth. The experience to date of river basin development in Africa has not proven as positive as in many developing countries. There are too many examples of ill-conceived and ill-suited schemes that contribute to further environmental degradation, social dislocation and hardship, and weaken already stressed national economies. The experience in Africa suggests that the real challenge for Africans to achieve environmentally self-sustaining water resources development lies in establishing the appropriate social and environmental context for physical development to take place. Attention needs to focus on regional development, multi-objective planning, community participation, environmental resiliency, the institutional arrangements for regional development, and the political and economic conditions within the basin states.     

INTEGRATING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT STREAM NATURALIZATION NEAR CHICAGO,ILLINOIS1

ABSTRACT: Many urban and suburban communities in the Midwest are seeking to establish sustainable, morphologically and hydraulically varied, yet dynamically stable fluvial systems that are capable of supporting healthy, biologically diverse aquatic ecosystems — a process known as stream naturalization. This paper describes an integrated research program that seeks to develop a scientific and technological framework to support two stream naturalization projects near Chicago, Illinois. The research program integrates theory and methods in fluvial geomorphology, aquatic ecology, hydraulic engineering and social theory. Both the conceptual and the practical challenges of that integration are discussed. Scientific and technical support emphasize the development of predictive tools to evaluate the performance of possible naturalization designs at scales most appropriate to community based projects. Social analysis focuses on place based evaluations of how communities formulate an environmental vision and then, through decision making, translate this vision into specific stream naturalization strategies. Integration of scientific and technical with social components occurs in the context of community based decision making as the predictive tools are employed by project scientists to help local communities translate their environmental visions into concrete environmental designs. Social analysis of this decision making process reveals how the interplay between the community's vision of what they want the watershed to become, and the scientific perspective on what the watershed can become to achieve the community's environmental goals, leads to the implementation of specific stream naturalization practices.     

An institutional theoretic investigation on the links between internationalization of Chinese manufacturers and their environmental supply chain management

Increased market internationalization with more and stricter environmental regulations in different countries has caused manufacturers to extend their environmental management practices to cover their supply chain partners. Thus, environmental supply chain management (ESCM) has become an important competitive and environmental strategy for manufacturers to pursue. China, as a global manufacturer, is also facing this balance of economic development with environmental protection. The literature remains unclear on whether internationalization is beneficial or costly when it comes to environmental management practices such as ESCM within China. Further insight into this issue will be useful for organizations in developing and emergent economies to more effectively prepare for internationalizing their operations and markets. Using internationalization drivers that propel the implementation of environmental management practices in the Chinese manufacturing industry, we applied cluster analysis to group a sample of 377 Chinese manufacturers surveyed in 2007 into three clusters: mature internationalization, emergent internationalization, and domestic-focused. Institutional theory within an internationalization context sets the theoretical foundation for evidence that the international environmentally oriented institutional drivers encountered are positively associated with the adoption of ESCM practices by Chinese manufacturers. We also find significant differences in the environmental, economic and operational performance outcomes across the three manufacturer clusters. We conclude that manufacturing organizations experiencing internationalization with a greater extent of adopting ESCM practices tend to perform better.     

Exporting dams: China's hydropower industry goes global

In line with China's "going out" strategy, China's dam industry has in recent years significantly expanded its involvement in overseas markets. The Chinese Export-Import Bank and other Chinese financial institutions, state-owned enterprises, and private firms are now involved in at least 93 major dam projects overseas. The Chinese government sees the new global role played by China's dam industry as a "win-win" situation for China and host countries involved. But evidence from project sites such as the Merowe Dam in Sudan demonstrates that these dams have unrecognized social and environmental costs for host communities. Chinese dam builders have yet to adopt internationally accepted social and environmental standards for large infrastructure development that can assure these costs are adequately taken into account. But the Chinese government is becoming increasingly aware of the challenge and the necessity of promoting environmentally and socially sound investments overseas.     

An institutional framework for analysis of voluntary policy: the case of voluntary environmental agreements in Kita Kyushu,Japan

This paper seeks to understand the effect of social, economic and political conditions on the selection and effectiveness of voluntary policy in Japan. Borrowing from two sets of literature, the paper develops a two-dimensional framework for analysis of voluntary policy that helps clarify the contextual factors that determine voluntary policy choice and effectiveness. The establishment of voluntary agreements in Japan are then investigated and the specific experiences of one Japanese city's experience, Kita Kyushu. Findings show that insufficient national and local statutory regulations, local citizen pressure resulting from significant pollution problems, city-controlled non-regulatory resources, and local level regulatory power determined Kita Kyushu's policy choice and the resulting effectiveness of voluntary environmental agreements. Findings then indicate where the Japanese experience falls within the framework. The usefulness of the framework for analysis and practice is then reinforced, and challenges for some of the basic assumptions of current theory are suggested.     

Corporate Ethics in the Era of Globalization: The Promise and Peril of International Environmental Standards

The growing assumption thattransnational corporations (TNCs) will apply``best practice' and ``international standards'in their operations in developing countries hasseldom been checked against close observationof corporate behavior. In this article, Ipresent a case study, based on field research,of one voluntary initiative to useinternational standards and best practice forenvironmental protection in the AmazonRainforest, by a US-based oil company,Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) in Ecuador. The moststriking finding is that the company refuses todisclose the precise standards that apply toits operations. This, and the refusal todisclose other important environmentalinformation, make it impossible to verifyindependently Oxy's claims of environmentalexcellence, or assess the effectiveness of theinitiative. At the same time, Oxy uses theinvocation of international standards to wrapitself in a veneer of corporate responsibility;reassure government officials and localresidents; cultivate confusion about standardsand practices that apply to the operations;deflect meaningful oversight and transparency;and arbitrarily legitimize norms that have beendefined by special interests. In short,international standards offer great promise forneeded environmental improvements; but can alsobe used to impede, rather than advance,corporate responsibility and the development ofeffective environmental law at the nationallevel. These findings suggest that for theapplication of international standards to bemeaningful, the international community needsto move beyond statements of principle anddevelop mechanisms that can be used toevaluate, verify, and monitor independentlyenvironmental claims by TNCs.     

论我国绿色会计理论体系的构建

运用系统论的思想和方法,对我国绿色会计理论体系的基本框架进行了构建,提出绿色会计理论体系作为系统是由若干个要素或子系统组成的有机整体.这些子系统之间既具有一定的联系,又都有其特定的功能作用,都要受到一定的社会、经济和生态资源等外部环境因素的影响.绿色会计理论体系的组成要素包括绿色会计的理论基础、职能、目标、对象、假设、原则、确认、计量和报表等内容.在此理论的基础上,提出了一些具体实施的可行性建议.     

Measuring total sustainable incomes from multifunctional management of Corsican Maritime Pine and Andalusian Cork oak Mediterranean forests

Enough advances have recently been made in income accounting theory to recommend that environmental services accruing either to the forest owner or to the general public should be included in the forest accounting system. In this study, the results of two case studies, one in Bonifatu, Corsica (France) and the other in Alcornocales, Andalusia (Spain), show that private environmental services provide the majority share of social total sustainable income in Alcornocales (29%), whereas public environmental services are the most relevant in Bonifatu (32%). The social total sustainable income measured by the agroforestry accounting system is, respectively, 1.6 and 2.4 times higher than the income estimated by economic accounts for forestry in Alcornocales and Bonifatu forests.     

Application of game theory for a groundwater conflict in Mexico

Exploitation of scarce water resources, particularly in areas of high demand, inevitably produces conflict among disparate stakeholders, each of whom may have their own set of priorities. In order to arrive at a socially acceptable compromise, the decision-makers should seek an optimal trade-off between conflicting objectives that reflect the priorities of the various stakeholders. In this study, game theory was applied to a multiobjective conflict problem for the Alto Rio Lerma Irrigation District, located in the state of Guanajuato in Mexico, where economic benefits from agricultural production should be balanced with associated negative environmental impacts. The short period of rainfall in this area, combined with high groundwater withdrawals from irrigation wells, has produced severe aquifer overdraft. In addition, current agricultural practices of applying high loads of fertilizers and pesticides have contaminated regions of the aquifer. The net economic benefit to this agricultural region in the short-term lies with increasing crop yields, which requires large pumping extractions for irrigation as well as high chemical loading. In the longer term, this can produce economic loss due to higher pumping costs (i.e., higher lift requirements), or even loss of the aquifer as a viable source of water. Negative environmental impacts include continued diminishment of groundwater quality, and declining groundwater levels in the basin, which can damage surface water systems that support environmental habitats. The two primary stakeholders or players, the farmers in the irrigation district and the community at large, must find an optimal balance between positive economic benefits and negative environmental impacts. In this paper, game theory was applied to find the optimal solution between the two conflicting objectives among 12 alternative groundwater extraction scenarios. Different attributes were used to quantify the benefits and costs of the two objectives, and, following generation of the Pareto frontier or trade-off curve, four conflict resolution methods were then applied.     

Host community attitudes towards solid waste landfill infrastructure: comprehension before compensation

One of the most controversial planning issues internationally is the siting of waste disposal infrastructure in local communities. Compensation is viewed as a possible solution to siting difficulties in many countries. However, existing empirical evidence is conflicting as to whether or not compensation-based siting has reduced opposition to such developments. Thus, before compensation policy can be considered as the solution for recognising social costs and introducing equity into the waste planning system, it is important to understand why people reject waste disposal infrastructure developments and if this rejection continues over the lifetime of facility operations. This paper utilises information gathered through surveys to examine the effects of distance, local authority consultation efforts, experience and other factors, on attitudes towards non-hazardous solid waste landfill developments in two examples of a potential and actual host communities. Our findings suggest distance proxies expectations of environmental risk in communities with no experience of living with landfill infrastructure. Community consultations by authorities are consistently important, even after a landfill has been in operation for a number of years. This suggests to policy makers to consult thoroughly and adequately before pursuing compensation policies.     

A double‐edged sword: Realities of artisanal and small‐scale mining for rural people in the Alaotra region of Madagascar

A growing number of people are entering the artisanal and small‐scale mining (ASM) sector worldwide. In Madagascar, millions of individuals depend on this informal activity. Through a case study in the Alaotra‐Mangoro region of Madagascar, our research aimed to understand the “bottom‐up” dynamics and ripple effects of the sector, by looking at the realities for rural communities where inhabitants are both directly and indirectly affected by ASM. We were interested in community members' and miners' perceptions of the socio‐economic and environmental impacts of ASM, and in identifying the factors attracting people living in one of the country's agricultural hubs to this activity. Our results show a wide diversity of push and pull factors leading people to enter the sector. Although many positive impacts of ASM exist for miners and communities within the vicinity of mines, most miner participants considered themselves worse off since starting to mine, highlighting the high risk and low probability of return of ASM. ASM's potential for local and national development will remain squandered if its negative impacts continue to go unmanaged. Accounting for local contexts and the ripple effects of ASM will be crucial in achieving safety and security for miners, and to tap into the benefits it may offer communities while minimising environmental damage.     

Urban Environmental Management in Botswana: Toward a Theoretical Explanation ofPublic Policy Failure

For the last three and half decades, Botswana has been widely acclaimed to be one of sub-Saharan Africa's longest and most stable liberal democracies, coupled with and sustained by a growing economy. One of the major contradictions, however, within this development scenario, has been the neglect of environmental problems in the country in general, and urban environmental issues in particular. Part of the problem fueling the misconception of environmental issues in Botswana is the state's domination of the country's environmental agenda. This is linked to the power disjunction in decision-making and policy processes between state and nonstate actors over the most appropriate course of action to tackle the problems. Without adopting appropriate analytical frameworks, it is possible that the problem of urban environmental mismanagement in Botswana will persist. This article examines some of the major urban environmental issues in Botswana from neighborhood, citywide, and urban–rural interface perspectives. Further, the elite theory of public policy is used to explain constraints on policy change in the urban environmental management arena in Botswana.     

Economic,social and environmental dimension of sustainable competitiveness of European countries

Over the last decade, promotion of competitiveness represents one of the central goals of economic policy of most of the countries. Moreover, in recent years, the promotion of competitiveness has been seen as a way of achieving desirable changes in economy and society. While there is no unity of views in the theory regarding the conceptual definition of the phenomenon of competitiveness, it is becoming less arguable that in strictly economic terms, competitiveness is a synonym for productivity. However, it should be noted that productivity growth that is accompanied by increasing social imbalance (for example, inequality in income distribution), on the one hand, and environmental pollution, on the other hand, cannot be a guarantee of improving the competitiveness of countries in the long run. Acknowledging precisely this fact and using the data from World Economic Forum on Global Competitiveness 2013, this paper elaborates on the phenomenon of sustainable competitiveness and tests the hypothesis about the positive impact of its social and environmental dimension on the economic dimension of sustainable competitiveness that is represented by the value of the Global Competitiveness Index. The survey of 34 countries confirmed the indisputable positive impact of the social dimension of sustainability, but also variable direction of the impact of the environmental dimension of sustainability (depending on the level of GDP per capita) on the economic dimension of sustainable competitiveness of European countries in 2013.     

Environmental management: An experiment in orientation in India

Summary Environmental management is a most critical input for achieving ecologically sound and balanced economic growth. It is essential that policy-makers and administrators accept the significance, principles and practices of environmental management, otherwise implementation of projects will not include the environmental protection measures. Environmental management training programmes for decision-makers are, therefore, essential. In India, The Department of Environment has initiated workshop for top level managers for sensitizing them to environmental management concepts. The experience in organizing and conducting such programmes may be of value to organizations in other developing countries, and is summarised in this paper.     

Towards a socio‐economic analysis of Scotland's coastal areas

Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) has evolved as a key mechanism for the delivery of sustainable development objectives within coastal regions. Yet, despite significant advancements in ICZM application over recent years, one of the most noticeable weaknesses of ICZM performance has been a failure to adequately account for the existence of socio‐economic concerns. This information deficiency is particularly apparent in Scotland. Despite significant progress in the promotion of ICZM, Scottish experiences have been characterized by a focus upon sectoral policy co‐ordination and environmental dimensions of sustainability. This paper provides an evaluation of both socio‐economic conditions and processes which impact upon coastal communities in Scotland and considers how such issues can be accounted for within future coastal management debates.     

Health, Environmental and Social Justice

Health is a basic human right. Improving health requires social and environmental justice and sustainable development. The 'health for all' movement embraces principles shared by other social movements--in sustainable development, community safety and new economics. These principles include equity, democracy, empowerment of individuals and communities, underpinned by supportive environmental, economic and educational measures and multi-agency partnerships. Health promotion is green promotion and inequality in health is due to social and economic inequality. This paper shows how health, environmental and economic sustainability are inextricably linked and how professionals of different disciplines can work together with the communities they serve to improve local health and quality of life. It gives examples of how local policy and programme development for public health improvement can fit in with global and national policy-making to promote health, environmental and social justice.