Conceptualizing and incorporating social sustainability in the business world

One of the most important challenges faced by business managers today is the integration of sustainability into their core functions. The contemporary enterprise is forced to leap forward from the mere adoption of green practices toward rethinking, redesigning, and redeveloping business practices in a more sustainable way. Most of the initiatives in this attempt have so far emphasized primarily the economic and environmental aspects of sustainable development and overlooked the social dimension of sustainability. As more organizations commit to sustainability, there is an increasing concern to incorporate social sustainability throughout their business operations. To conceptualize and integrate the notion, some organizations use preexisting indicators to demonstrate the value and impact of sustainability, while others look beyond the measurement of impacts by constructing their own system of indicators. This paper draws on a comprehensive literature review to determine a broadly acceptable framework of social sustainability indicators to be conceptualized and integrated into the business world. Findings suggest that economic and environmental sustainability can be driven together with core social factors including fairness and equality, poverty, health, education, delinquencies, demography, culture, and employee engagement within an organization. These results offer insight into the emerging phenomenon of formulating sustainable business strategies for organizations based on social indicators to attain the ultimate sustainable outcomes. This study is among the first to identify social sustainability indicators from societal and corporate perspectives. It offers a comprehensive social sustainability framework that may be adopted by organizations in the business world.     

ToSIA—A tool for sustainability impact assessment of forest-wood-chains

Within the forest sector, the sustainability concept has evolved from a narrow focus on sustainable wood production to a much broader evaluation of environmental, social, and economic sustainability for whole value chains. A new software tool - ToSIA - has been developed for assessing sustainability impacts of Forest-Wood-Chains (FWCs). In the approach, FWCs are defined as chains of production processes (e.g. harvesting-transport-industrial processing), which are linked with products (e.g. a timber frame house). Sustainability is determined by analysing environmental, economic, and social sustainability indicators for all the production processes along the FWC. The tool calculates sustainability values as products of the relative indicator values (i.e. indicator value expressed per unit of material flow) multiplied with the material flow entering the process. Calculated sustainability values are then aggregated for the segments of the FWC or for the complete chain. The sustainability impact assessment requires carefully specified system boundaries. ToSIA uses a data-oriented approach that is very flexible in the focus of the analysis and the selection of indicators of sustainability. An example of alternative Norway spruce management systems in Southern Germany and their effects on six sustainability indicators is presented. The less intensive management system with natural regeneration and motor-manual harvesting shows higher carbon storage and slightly less energy use. It creates more employment and higher labour costs, but the average rate of accidents is also higher. ToSIA offers a transparent and consistent methodological framework to assess sustainability impacts in the forest-based sector as affected, e.g. by changes in policies, market conditions, or technology. The paper discusses strengths and limitations of the approach and provides an outlook on further development perspectives of the methodology.     

Assessing landscape values: a proposal for a multidimensional conceptual model

To evaluate a specific form of resource management, for example, the maintenance of valuable cultural landscapes, the contributions of many different viewpoints must be considered. In this paper, a model for assessing and integrating the different aspects contributing to landscape evaluation is proposed. Some results of its use in landscape assessment in the Madrid region (central Spain) are discussed.The model takes into account five assessment dimensions which are considered to be independent—the ecological, productive, economic, social and cultural evaluative systems and it recognises and assumes conflicts and trade-offs between these components. The inclusion of the production system as an independent assessment dimension is original and is justified because it is the link that connects the ecological and economic systems. Since this dimension acts most directly on the ecosystem, the production system includes the attribute of ecological or strong (in the sense of [For the Common Good, Beacon Press, Boston, 1994]) sustainability.The evaluation method places special emphasis on defining a conceptual framework, and from this defines scenarios in comparison with which particular development models (landscape planning, resources management) can be evaluated. Seven scenarios, coming from a hypothetical, traditional sustainable scenario of resources management, are defined. One of these, the sound sustainable scenario, is defended as the only one viable in the long term, particularly in developing countries.This method was employed to evaluate the agricultural and natural landscape of the Madrid region municipalities. The multivariate approach adopted was based on the selection of indicator sets for each evaluative dimension. The structure of relationships among indicators was then analysed separately for each dimension and values assigned to the municipalities according to their position on the main axes of the multivariate analyses. Each municipality was assigned to one of the seven development scenarios by means of discriminant analysis. The approach’s greatest assets are its flexibility in the selection of the indicators and the efficacy in its monitoring and comparison of the different analysed cases once a rigorous conceptual framework was established.The paper discusses the conditions for the sustainability of the human activities and provides a method for evaluating and comparing scenarios of resources management.     

A regional-scale sustainable development index: the case of Baja California Sur,Mexico

Sustainable development, as a multi-dimensional concept, is difficult to measure. Some efforts using indicators and indices have appeared in recent years, but most were developed on a national scale. Use of sustainability indicators has proven valuable for attaining better management of the environment by minimizing information gaps and maximizing community capabilities in terms of economic, social, environmental, and institutional sustainability dimensions. However, at least in the case of developing countries, the potential exists that national sustainability measures, based on national level indicators, may mask problems in sub-national zones with highly unsustainable conditions. This paper proposes a methodology to evaluate sustainable development at a local level, the use of which could be helpful in comparing different regions within a country or even among different countries. National sustainability indicators should result from a combination (whether additive or proportional) of regional sustainability indicators, as developed in this paper.     

Hybrid process-criterion benchmarking methodology framework to support sustainability performance assessment and reporting

The conception, design, and implementation of sustainable development strategies in an organization aims at meeting and balancing economic, social, and environmental needs of internal and external stakeholders. While the principles and fundamentals of sustainability assist during the conception and design phases, the implementation process of management strategies – impacted directly or indirectly by internal and external factors – may identify areas of competitive advantages or challenges that would impede the projects and organizations’ performance targets. An organization is not an isolated entity and its performance is often compared against others in the market arena; therefore, assessment tools, benchmarking processes, and reporting strategies become essential for the understanding of the efforts made towards the implementation of plan, policies, and programs at the organization and project levels. A framework for a hybrid process-criterion benchmarking methodology is proposed in this paper. The framework integrates the Rank Xerox benchmarking process and the Wa-Pa-Su project sustainability rating system assessment methodology. The proposed hybrid process-criterion benchmarking methodology encourages the diversification in the development and implementation of sustainable and environmental rating systems in industry contexts (e.g., oil and gas, mining, heavy industrial, and energy) and aims for the improvement of existing sustainability performance assessment and reporting practices. It also assists the quantitative assessment process of advances and/or setbacks in sustainability performance and the implementation of continuous performance improvement programs.     

产业生态系统多尺度能值整合评价方法

能值分析方法为自然环境资源与人类社会、经济的统一评价提供了新的思路,但面对当今产业生态学发展的实践需求,在多尺度整合分析、动态模型构建等方面仍显薄弱,需要与经济学等其他学科相对成熟的分析方法与模型加以整合。文章以能值综合方法为核心介质,从成本分析与效果分析的整合、能值分析与区域经济分析的整合,以及能值分析表与投入-产出矩阵模型的整合三个方面进行了产业生态学的能值整合研究方法的具体构建,以促进能值理论方法与产业生态学研究需求的进一步耦合。     

Multicriteria analysis applied to the sustainable agriculture problem

SUMMARY

The aim of this paper is to present an operational approach to compare the relative sustainability of existing farming systems. Sustainability rests on the assumption that an equilibrium must exist among three domains: social, economic and ecological. If we are to look for a solution to the problem, we must face a multi-dimensional approach. We propose that multicriteria analysis, a multi-dimensional method, is an appropriate methodology to study the issue. As sustainability cannot be measured directly, the way out is to use indicators. We have performed a thorough analysis of four farming systems existing in Guaíra, SP, Brazil to validate the methodology. Thirty indicators of sustainability (ten ecological, ten social, and ten economic) were defined and used to perform the analysis. The results of the multicriteria analysis proved useful because of its capability of reducing the dimensionality of the problem. From the three dimensions of sustainability, a final score was derived that can easily compare the relative sustainability of each farming system.     

Sustainable development indicators: a case study on the city of Flagstaff and Coconino county

The application of capitalist theory and the perception of an autonomous economy have created a range of environmental and social ramifications not addressed via traditional economic reasoning. In order to effectively and efficiently abate sustainability issues, the sustainable development discourse developed evaluation methods such as sustainable development indicators to gauge progress towards sustainability in communities without using traditional cost–benefit methods of analysis. The indicators created in this work are intended to be applied as a method of project evaluation in local community development departments. Using local growth management policy as a basis, these indicators have been designed to show how a development project contributes to policy goals that relate to all three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic, and socio-economic.     

Evaluation for sustainable land use in coastal areas: A landscape ecological prospect

Evaluation of sustainability is the core of research on sustainable land use. To a certain extent, traditional social, economic and ecological evaluation for sustainable land use can be regarded as an appraisal on the temporal scale without evaluation of spatial patterns. Landscape ecology can help to realize spatial evaluation for sustainable land use. In this paper, we construct landscape ecological indicators for evaluating sustainable coastal land use from the aspects of landscape productivity, threats and stability, to realize a synthetic temporal-spatial evaluation. These cover the five pillars of sustainable land use, i.e. productivity, security, protection, viability and acceptability. The results of applying landscape ecological evaluation to a case study in Wudi County in China show that land use sustainability is somewhat low and there are great regional differences between its 11 villages. We classified the 11 villages into 5 grades: strong sustainable land use, sustainable land use, weak sustainable land use, weak unsustainable land use, and strong unsustainable land use. Each grade has different land use characteristics and differs in the counter-measures required. But the core countermeasures in all the grades are to improve landscape productivity, to reduce human threats and to optimize landscape patterns.     

Governing trade-offs in ecosystem services and disservices to achieve human–wildlife coexistence

Sustaining wildlife populations, which provide both ecosystem services and disservices, represents a worldwide conservation challenge. The ecosystem services and Ostrom's social–ecological systems frameworks have been adopted across natural and social sciences to characterize benefits from nature. Despite their generalizability, individually they do not include explicit tools for addressing the sustainable management of many wildlife populations. For instance, Ostrom's framework does not specifically address competing perspectives on wildlife, whereas the ecosystem services framework provides a limited representation of the social and governance context wherein such competing perspectives are embedded. We developed a unified social–ecological framework of ecosystem disservices and services (SEEDS) that advances both frameworks by explicitly acknowledging the importance of competing wildlife perspectives embedded in the social and governance contexts. The SEEDS framework emulates the hierarchical structure of Ostrom's social–ecological systems, but adds subsystems reflecting heterogeneous stakeholder views and experiences of wildlife-based services and disservices. To facilitate operationalizing SEEDS and further broader analyses across human–wildlife systems, we devised a list of variables to describe SEEDS subsystems, such as types and level of services and disservices, cost and benefit sharing, and social participation of stakeholders. Steps to implement SEEDS involve engaging local communities and stakeholders to define the subsystems, analyze interactions and outcomes, and identify leverage points and actions to remedy unwanted outcomes. These steps connect SEEDS with other existing approaches in social–ecological research and can guide analyses across systems or within individual systems to provide new insights and management options for sustainable human–wildlife coexistence.     

基于人群健康的污染产业转移环境效应研究——以广东省陶瓷行业为例

产业转移是经济发展过程中常见现象；产业生产与资源环境之间密不可分的关系决定了产业转移必然引起资源环境状况的变化。为评价产业转移对改善区域整体环境状况的作用，构建了以环境经济损益分析定量评价产业转移的环境效应的方法框架，并以广东省陶瓷行业转移为例，研究了基于人体健康的污染产业转移的环境效应。研究结果显示，一般而言，由于污染排放变化，产业迁出地将产生环境效益，同时承接地将发生环境损失。当产业转移产生环境净效益时，意味着整体区域环境的改善。这种改善主要得益于产业迁出地和承接地之间存在的社会经济特征差异、具有经济技术可行性的污染控制技术的推广以及环境自净能力的合理利用等因素的综合作用。为促进区域协调发展，区域内产业转移过程中，应采取优化产业转移目录、加强环境管理、建立环境信息公开和公众参与制度和统筹协调区域内的污染控制责任和环境利益等环境治理措施。     

An approach to evaluation of sustainability for Guangzhou's urban ecosystem

Guangzhou has ambitions to build itself into a world class metropolis by 2010. Sustainable development is the only way to achieve this magnificent goal. Based on the ecological perspective of sustainable development and the principles of ecosystem integrity, this paper develops an approach for evaluation of sustainable development in Guangzhou between 1986 and 1995. A hierarchical evaluation system of four tiers of sustainability indicators was established. Using the method of fuzzy multistage synthetic evaluation, sustainability development level index, QIx, was calculated for the indicators at the B, C, D, and E tiers. Development stages were identified based on these index values. The coordination degree among the economic, social, and natural subsystems was also computed. Further, an overall sustainability index for each year was computed by combining the development level index and the coordination degree. It was found that the urban ecosystem in Guangzhou had generally become more sustainable, in spite of fluctuations in coordination degree. The development level index of the economic subsystem has surpassed that of social and natural subsystems since 1995. Appropriate measures must be taken to ensure coordinated development among the subsystems for the purpose of sustainable development.     

Exploring the role of local community perceptions in sustainability measurements

Measuring sustainability is an integral part of decision-making processes in order to promote sustainable development. The present paper focuses on sustainability indicators as these are measured on local level and explores two main issues: firstly, the subjective measurement of indicators focusing especially on social dimensions of sustainability, secondly, the incorporation of local perceptions in sustainability assessments. These two issues are explored in the Asopos River basin in Greece, an area where significant environmental degradation has been observed in the past decades and is also under financial pressure due to the ongoing national recession. A large-scale research study was conducted measuring environmental, economic and social indicators while, at a second stage, a model was developed, estimating new indicators that incorporate local communities’ perceptions on what they considered as important for their area. The results of the study reveal that the most important indicators for the sustainable development of the area, according to locals’ perceptions, are environmental quality as well as quality of life. By contrast, trust in local and central institutions and also local enterprises were not considered as important by locals. These results illustrate the importance of combining global and national scale assessment with locally focused social measurements of sustainability in order to better understand what is important for local communities prior to embarking on public policy planning.     

Perceived importance of sustainability dimensions in the Portuguese metal industry

The growing interest of stakeholders regarding the contribution of organizations to Sustainable Development is influencing organizational behavior and strategic planning. The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the perception of the importance of organizational sustainability dimensions in a relevant economic sector: the metal industry. Survey data was collected from a sample of 211 Portuguese industries, and non-parametric statistical tests were used to validate five research hypotheses regarding the importance of the economic, environmental, social and cultural dimensions of sustainability. The results obtained demonstrate awareness of the sampled industries regarding all sustainability dimensions, recognizing that their importance has been increasing over the years, and prospecting that this importance will continue to increase in the future. The industries in this sample revealed different degrees of perceived importance for the different sustainability dimensions: the highest importance was given to the economic dimension, and culture was considered the least important sustainability dimension. However, the perception of the respondents is that these differences will be less relevant in the future. The results also show that companies with certified management systems reveal a higher perceived importance regarding sustainability dimensions. Also, industries with higher values of annual turnover, number of employees and export sales tend to give higher degrees of importance to sustainability dimensions. Considering the economic, environmental and social impacts of metal industries at an international level, the awareness of this industrial sector regarding the importance of sustainability is a relevant step to the commitment towards Sustainable Development.     

Is the economic dimension inducing the other sustainability dimensions,or is it the reverse? Perceptions from the Portuguese metal industry

ABSTRACT

In organizational sustainability, the economic dimension is recognized as having a very important role. However, the discussion regarding whether it is exclusively the economic dimension that has the power to induce the other sustainability dimensions is far from agreement. The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the perceptions regarding the existence of mutual influences between the economic dimension of sustainability and the other sustainability dimensions – environmental, social and cultural – in a relevant Portuguese economic sector: the metal industry. The analysis and statistical tests performed with the 211 collected answers led to the conclusion that the influence exerted by the economic dimension on the other sustainability dimensions is perceived as dominant, both in present and future perspectives. The results also show the perception that the economic dimension is equally influenced by the environmental and social dimensions, and in a less extent, by the cultural dimension, and that all these mutual influences are perceived to increase in the future. The existence of organizational management systems has a positive effect on the perceptions regarding the existence of mutual influences between sustainability dimensions, but only for those companies with more than one certified management system. These results confirm that organizational management systems are connected to higher degrees of awareness regarding sustainability issues. Given that the great majority of the sampled industries are SMEs, the results obtained in this research demonstrate that the existence of mutual influences between sustainability dimensions is recognized even in small-sized industries.     

An integrated indicator on regional ecological civilization construction in China

China has come up with ecological civilization as one of major goals to improve its ecological sustainability during development in future. Under this broad framework, social, economic and natural ecosystems are expected to develop in harmony. However, there is lack of evaluation mechanism for this newly proposed strategy. Therefore, in this article, ecosystem services, Ecological Footprint and gross domestic product per capita were selected in order to reflect the resource endowment, human occupation on natural capital, and the economic growth. Thus, an integrated indicator was constructed from the three indexes based on the linear correlation among them, and we provided comprehensive evaluation on ecological civilization construction in the provinces and municipalities in China in 2010. When it comes to the indicator of ecological civilization construction, Hainan province has the greatest value which is 0.5091 and Beijing municipality has the smallest value which is 0.0377. At last, the article analyzed the ecological pressure and efficiency in ecological civilization construction in China. The results contribute to scientific and objective evaluation of regional ecological civilization construction in order to properly make decisions and take actions.     

Integration of ecological–biological thresholds in conservation decision making

In the Anthropocene, coupled human and natural systems dominate and only a few natural systems remain relatively unaffected by human influence. On the one hand, conservation criteria based on areas of minimal human impact are not relevant to much of the biosphere. On the other hand, conservation criteria based on economic factors are problematic with respect to their ability to arrive at operational indicators of well‐being that can be applied in practice over multiple generations. Coupled human and natural systems are subject to economic development which, under current management structures, tends to affect natural systems and cross planetary boundaries. Hence, designing and applying conservation criteria applicable in real‐world systems where human and natural systems need to interact and sustainably coexist is essential. By recognizing the criticality of satisfying basic needs as well as the great uncertainty over the needs and preferences of future generations, we sought to incorporate conservation criteria based on minimal human impact into economic evaluation. These criteria require the conservation of environmental conditions such that the opportunity for intergenerational welfare optimization is maintained. Toward this end, we propose the integration of ecological–biological thresholds into decision making and use as an example the planetary‐boundaries approach. Both conservation scientists and economists must be involved in defining operational ecological–biological thresholds that can be incorporated into economic thinking and reflect the objectives of conservation, sustainability, and intergenerational welfare optimization.     

A holistic approach to the development of sustainable agriculture: application of the ecosystem health model

Serious resource depletion has made sustainable agriculture an important and pressing issue for scientists, policy makers, and stakeholders worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Researchers have focused on methods to assess agriculture correctly, and to introduce sound solutions for sustainability, but have reached no agreement. In this paper, we introduce the theoretical framework of the agro-ecosystem health model, a new holistic approach, and apply it at a regional scale using four aspects (4S): sound structure, stable function, safe service, and sustainable development. We examine how 12 indicators of an agro-ecosystem health assessment (AHA) were selected using three dimensions based on this theoretical framework. In an AHA, we used an amoeba approach to examine a high-yield agro-ecosystem in Huantai County, Shandong Province, China. The results indicate that this model of ecosystem health can reflect the complex ecological, economic, and human conditions of an agro-ecosystem and evaluate these conditions using perspectives pertinent to system structure, function, and responses (services).     

On eco-planning for an eco-demonstration park (EDP) and sustainability—Case study of the Luhua EDP in the Chongming Island of Shanghai, China

The background, concept, connotation, principles, and methods of eco-planning for an Eco-Demonstration Park (EDP) and sustainability were examined based on a case study of the Luhua EDP in the Chongming Island of Shanghai, China, which is an important part of Shanghai Eco-city planning and construction in the 21st century. By analyzing natural, social and economic conditions, calculating population using the land capacity eco-model, eco-function zoning, and eco-construction, an innovative eco-industrial structure and technical chain were formulated. A comprehensive eco-planning scheme for the EDP was proposed, including planning and management strategies for subsystems of efficient industry, good quality human settlement, high standard eco-construction and eco-tourism as well as effective environmental protection and attractive landscape. The EDP should be an area with coordinated and sustainable economic, social and environmental subsystems. Eco-planning for the EDP should be a very important part of eco-city planning and sustainability. The paper aims to set up a theoretical framework and practical basis for eco-planning and promoting harmony between human and nature.     

On eco-planning for an eco-demonstration park (EDP) and sustainability

The background, concept, connotation, principles, and methods of eco-planning for an Eco-Demonstration Park (EDP) and sustainability were examined based on a case study of the Luhua EDP in the Chongming Island of Shanghai, China, which is an important part of Shanghai Eco-city planning and construction in the 21st century. By analyzing natural, social and economic conditions, calculating population using the land capacity eco-model, eco-function zoning, and eco-construction, an innovative eco-industrial structure and technical chain were formulated. A comprehensive eco-planning scheme for the EDP was proposed, including planning and management strategies for subsystems of efficient industry, good quality human settlement, high standard eco-construction and eco-tourism as well as effective environmental protection and attractive landscape. The EDP should be an area with coordinated and sustainable economic, social and environmental subsystems. Eco-planning for the EDP should be a very important part of eco-city planning and sustainability. The paper aims to set up a theoretical framework and practical basis for eco-planning and promoting harmony between human and nature.