Supplier assessment based on corporate social responsibility criteria in Indian automotive and textile industry sectors

Mandatory disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting forces supply chain members to consider CSR issues in developed countries. Researchers have viewed CSR content within different themes, such as human (social), ethical and environmental perspectives. So far, in India, very little research has been done to study the impact of human issues in employment (social), ethical issues in business operations and pollution (environmental) issues at both regional and specific sector level. This paper emphasises the perspective view of supplier selection, considering CSR issues as opposed to traditional methods using conventional selection criteria such as cost, quality, delivery and service. It employs six CSR criteria such as discrimination, abuse of human rights, child labour, long working hours, unfair competition and pollution to assess small- and medium-sized suppliers who produce and deliver products to the automotive and textile industry sectors. The results of this study indicate that to prevent discrimination against pay variation, minimise cases of abuse of human rights and incidence of child labour, suppliers must put in place proper policies and procedures regarding employment contract, identification and verification records. Furthermore, to reduce unfair competition, suppliers of both automotive and textile sectors may introduce processes for investigating reports of unethical conducts and take severe disciplinary action. The suppliers of both automotive and textile sectors believe that the competitive advantage can be achieved through environmental oriented business practices. However, they differ in their approaches in attaining this objective.     

Financing of wasteland afforestation in India

India has vast tracts of wastelands, which have been lying barren for ages. Most such lands are physically suitable for growing trees and thus could be put to socially productive uses. However, although usually economically viable, afforestation requires massive initial investment, generally beyond the means of the landowners. Also, government budgetary allocations do not cover current needs. In this situation, institutional credit is required. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) of India has recognized this need and has devised a number of different schemes to provide refinance facilities to individuals and organisations. Although the number of forestry schemes refinanced by NABARD has increased rapidly in the past, they currently constitute only about 1% of the total number of loans sanctioned, and only about 2% of NABARD's cumulative loan disbursement to date. In fact, since 1992, the share of afforestation schemes has declined. A number of factors have been identified as major constraints, including time-consuming and complicated procedures for accessing land; restrictions on harvesting and selling trees; delays in sanctioning and disbursement of bank credit; non-remunerative prices for tree products; and flawed public policies and programmes. This article argues that unless these constraints are overcome, NABARD will not be able to play an effective role in speeding up development programmes in the forestry sector. It further argues that most of the current constraints on institutional credit for wasteland afforestation can be removed or relaxed. Practical strategies are suggested to mobilize more funds and channel more institutional credit for wasteland afforestation in India.     

Spatial GHG Inventory: Analysis of Uncertainty Sources. A Case Study for Ukraine

A geoinformation technology for creating spatially distributed greenhouse gas inventories based on a methodology provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and special software linking input data, inventory models, and a means for visualization are proposed. This technology opens up new possibilities for qualitative and quantitative spatially distributed presentations of inventory uncertainty at the regional level. Problems concerning uncertainty and verification of the distributed inventory are discussed. A Monte Carlo analysis of uncertainties in the energy sector at the regional level is performed, and a number of simulations concerning the effectiveness of uncertainty reduction in some regions are carried out. Uncertainties in activity data have a considerable influence on overall inventory uncertainty, for example, the inventory uncertainty in the energy sector declines from 3.2 to 2.0% when the uncertainty of energy-related statistical data on fuels combusted in the energy industries declines from 10 to 5%. Within the energy sector, the ‘energy industries’ subsector has the greatest impact on inventory uncertainty. The relative uncertainty in the energy sector inventory can be reduced from 2.19 to 1.47% if the uncertainty of specific statistical data on fuel consumption decreases from 10 to 5%. The ‘energy industries’ subsector has the greatest influence in the Donetsk oblast. Reducing the uncertainty of statistical data on electricity generation in just three regions – the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Luhansk oblasts – from 7.5 to 4.0% results in a decline from 2.6 to 1.6% in the uncertainty in the national energy sector inventory.     

An Ethical Toolkit for Food Companies: Reflections on its Use

Nowadays many debates are going on that relate to the agricultural and food sector. It looks as if present technological and organizational developments within the agricultural and food sector are badly geared to societal needs and expectations. In this article we briefly present a toolkit for moral communication within the food chain. This toolkit is developed as part of a European research project. Next, we discuss what such a toolkit can bring about, given the characteristics of the present day agricultural and food sector and its wider context. We defend that the toolkit can be seen as one of the mechanisms that can help enterprises in the agricultural and food sector to be accountable. It should, however, be complemented with other mechanisms, first, to empower the wider public and, second, to stimulate a dialogue, on a more equal footing, between public authorities, citizens, and economic actors.     

中国工业节能:循环经济发展的驱动因素分析

工业是发展循环经济的关键领域,工业节能则是衡量循环经济发展水平的重要指标。不同的工业行业的能耗效率是不一样的,优化工业结构即增加能耗效率高的行业的比重而降低能耗效率低的行业的比重会产生一定的节能效果;提高工业行业的能耗效率能够产生明显的节能效果,而科技进步则是提高能耗效率的主要途径。循环经济的外部性原理说明,具有正外部性的经济活动因为私人收益小于社会收益,经济活动主体缺乏投资热情,这类经济活动会存在发展动力不足的现象。工业节能如果是存在正外部性的经济活动,则也会存在发展动力不足现象。工业节能的正外部性会表现在工业节能和工业的利润总额之间的关系上,即工业节能并不能促进工业利润总额的增长,两者甚至会有负相关关系。在上述论断的基础上,本研究分析中国工业结构变动的节能效果以及工业节能和工业利润总额的关系。方便起见,将工业节能的途径区分为结构调整节能和循环经济节能两类,分别探讨两类途径对中国工业节能的作用。依据循环经济与科技变革之间的关系,将工业行业分为A类循环经济行业和B类循环经济行业,并推断A类行业的节能量同利润总额存在相互促进的关系,B类则呈负相关,进而运用面板数据分析技术验证上述论断。如果工业节能具有正外部性,则B类循环经济行业应该明显多于A类。研究结果表明:从2006年至2013年,中国工业结构调整的节能效果非常微弱,中国工业节能主要是通过发展循环经济而取得的;循环经济具有正外部性,大多数行业的节能量与利润总额呈负相关关系;A类和B类工业行业循环经济发展水平和发展动力存在明显差异;科技进步在循环经济发展过程中发挥着决定性的作用。本研究建议,政府在推进工业节能工作的时候,应实施有差别的产业政策,相比于A类循环经济行业,对B类循环经济行业应给予更多政策优惠;提供循环经济补助资金和发展循环经济公共技术是提高工业节能效果的两大重要政策工具。     

Exergy efficiency analysis of a refurbished dwelling: a case study in Ljubljana,Slovenia

Buildings contribute almost half of the world's carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Energy and water consumption are some of the largest and fastest growing pressures on the global environment. The use of energy is mainly attributed to the heating and cooling of buildings. The type of materials used in the construction of buildings plays a significant role in the life-cycle emissions of each dwelling. Changing the material use in the construction of an existing building and adding insulation could have a major impact on energy use and the environment of the building in its entire life cycle. This paper investigates the amount of exergy savings and the decrease in CO₂ emissions resulting from the refurbishing of an existing building in Ljubljana. This study results from the growing awareness that in the choice of building materials, the designer must consider not only the requirements of the owner and occupier of the building, but also the resulting energy savings, the resource base and the effects of the manufacturing and processing of building materials on the environment. The exergy efficiency of the material use is calculated and the environmental impact assessment of energy and material use is accounted for.     

Musculoskeletal Symptoms in Two Plants in the Electrical Sector

The study consisted of describing, using a questionnaire, the musculoskeletal symptoms in two industries in the electrical sector. The questionnaire was distributed to more than 600 workers in the two industries. The questionnaire described four types of variables: usual population data (age, gender, experience, etc.), certain work variables, the regions of the body affected in the past 12 months and in the past 7 days, and the severity of the symptoms. Ten variables were used to provide a symptom severity index. In the two plants, the women reported more frequent and more serious problems than the men and the least experienced workers were the most affected. In Plant 1, the questionnaire pinpointed two work sectors, whereas in Plant 2, the problems were found not to be concentrated in a few sectors, but distributed among different jobs throughout the entire plant.     

Causation of Severe and Fatal Accidents in the Manufacturing Sector

The main purpose of this paper is to identify the most frequent causes of accidents in the manufacturing sector in Andalusia, Spain, to help safety practitioners in the task of prioritizing preventive actions. Official accident investigation reports are analyzed. A causation pattern is identified with the proportion of causes of each of the different possible groups of causes. We found evidence of a differential causation between slight and non-slight accidents. We have also found significant differences in accident causation depending on the mechanism of the accident. These results can be used to prioritize preventive actions to combat the most likely causes of each accident mechanism. We have also done research on the associations of certain latent causes with specific active (immediate) causes. These relationships show how organizational and safety management can contribute to the prevention of active failures.     

Hybrid input-output analysis to evaluate economic impacts of biomass energy

ABSTRACT

The introduction of the new biomass industry exerts influences that change the interactions among economic sectors by drawing the resources for generating electricity, pricing alterations from the existing market and competitively selling electricity to the power grid. These influences should be described and identified to ensure the benefits to the local economy. In this article, we deem to test the potential of hybrid I-O analysis to analyze the economic impacts and address the change in characteristics of the economic impacts of the biomass power plant. The resource utilization data from the existing biomass power plant located in Kochi Prefecture (Japan) is collected and then analyzed by a hybrid input-output (I-O) analysis. We found that (1) the use of cutoff function could determine the new economy’s structure included the biomass power plant where the allocation of resource in the economy is changed according to the consumption and production of the biomass power plant, (2) The power plant increases the total production of Kochi prefecture’s economy, and this benefit overthrows the negative effect of the loss of resource demand of the existing economic sectors. The use of the hybrid I-O to forecast the economic impacts on the local economy could enhance the decision made by the policymaker.     

Occupational health and safety issues in the informal economic segment of Pakistan: a survey of construction sites

This research covers the current status of occupational health and safety (OHS)-related practices in the informal construction segment of Pakistan. Data were collected, through interviews, from 316 construction sites employing 3577 workers. The results of the study reveal that both employers and workers lack knowledge of OHS laws/standards and no practices of this nature are enacted at these construction sites. Alarmingly, work-related accidents, whenever they happen, are not given due attention and there is no formal injury-report system. The informal construction industry employs a huge portion of the informal workforce, and lack of OHS happens at tremendous human cost. These research findings may thus play their role in strengthening the case for reforms in the sector. This study, if properly utilized, may also enable employers of the sector by increasing their knowledge about OHS practices and, as a result, trying to offer safer environments for their workers.