The Nobel Foundation and its role for modern day science

A short account is given of the events leading to the creation, after Alfred Nobel's death 1896, of the Nobel Foundation for the management of the funds, and of the Nobel committees in charge of the selection of the Prize winners in the five areas mentioned in the will. The impact of the various and partly recently added activities of the Nobel organizations on contemporary international scientific and cultural life is briefly discussed.     

Mitigation and adaptation synergy in forest sector

Mitigation and adaptation are the two main strategies to address climate change. Mitigation and adaptation have been considered separately in the global negotiations as well as literature. There is a realization on the need to explore and promote synergy between mitigation and adaptation while addressing climate change. In this paper, an attempt is made to explore the synergy between mitigation and adaptation by considering forest sector, which on the one hand is projected to be adversely impacted under the projected climate change scenarios and on the other provide opportunities to mitigate climate change. Thus, the potential and need for incorporating adaptation strategies and practices in mitigation projects is presented with a few examples. Firstly, there is a need to ensure that mitigation programs or projects do not increase the vulnerability of forest ecosystems and plantations. Secondly, several adaptation practices could be incorporated into mitigation projects to reduce vulnerability. Further, many of the mitigation projects indeed reduce vulnerability and promote adaptation, for example; forest and biodiversity conservation, protected area management and sustainable forestry. Also, many adaptation options such as urban forestry, soil and water conservation and drought resistant varieties also contribute to mitigation of climate change. Thus, there is need for research and field demonstration of synergy between mitigation and adaptation, so that the cost of addressing climate change impacts can be reduced and co-benefits increased.     

Environmental principles applicable to supply chains design and operation

In this paper we deal with the problem of identifying environmental principles for the design and operation of supply chains. The operations that are included in supply chains are briefly described along with the approaches that are applied in order to improve their environmental performance. A background of environmental principles for achieving eco-efficiency and building of environmentally friendly organizational systems is presented and emphasis is put on the application of such principles “from cradle to grave”. Then, environmental principles applicable to particular objects of logistics networks planning are identified and commented upon. In addition, selective case studies from the literature, which show the applicability of the formulated principles and their relevance to practice, are discussed. The paper concludes with some remarks regarding the benefits for companies and societies, in general, that occur as a result of the application of the formulated principles.