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.     

天目湖沙河水库水生态安全状况长期变化及影响因素

为构建更为合理的个性化水库水生态安全评价指标体系,以我国东南低山丘陵地区水源地型水库天目湖沙河水库为例,基于2010~2020年逐月水生态监测数据,分析了水库水生态安全状况长期变化特征及影响因素,提出了以满足沙河水库水生态服务功能为目标的生态安全评价方法.结果表明,季节上,夏秋季SD相对较低,而总磷（TP）、浮游植物叶绿素a（Chl-a）、高锰酸盐指数和蓝藻生物量（BM_c）相对较高;空间上,不同区域的水体透明度（SD）存在显著差异（P<0.05）,多年均值呈现河流区 < 过渡区 < 湖泊区的现象,其他指标均呈现出河流区较过渡区和湖泊区高的现象;垂向上,5~9月随热分层出现,许多指标出现分层,其中异味物质2-甲基异莰醇（MIB）和Chl-a在水深4 m处出现最大值,硅藻生物量（BM_b）和BM_c最大值分别在水深2 m和0.5 m处出现.基于水生态指标的变化特征认识,应充分考虑水库水生态安全的时空差异性,将水生态安全风险较高的春夏季作为评价期,以Chl-a为核心指标,结合SD和MIB等指标,通过建立关键指标与其他指标的相关关系,构建了沙河水库水生态安全评价体系;评价结果表明,沙河水库10年来水生态安全状况整体优良,但年际波动较大,不同区域的得分差异大,对于存在热分层的区域应采取季节性分3层采样调查数据进行评估.本研究表明在湖库水生态安全管理中选取个性化方案监测评估的必要性;总磷偏高和藻类疯长引发的水体透明度下降和异味物质含量升高是影响亚热带地区水库生态服务功能的主要因素,年际间较大尺度的水文气象条件变化给水库水生态安全带来较大不确定性.     

Home composting as an alternative treatment option for organic household waste in Denmark: An environmental assessment using life cycle assessment-modelling

An environmental assessment of the management of organic household waste (OHW) was performed from a life cycle perspective by means of the waste-life cycle assessment (LCA) model EASEWASTE. The focus was on home composting of OHW in Denmark and six different home composting units (with different input and different mixing frequencies) were modelled. In addition, incineration and landfilling was modelled as alternatives to home composting. The most important processes contributing to the environmental impact of home composting were identified as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (load) and the avoided emissions in relation to the substitution of fertiliser and peat when compost was used in hobby gardening (saving). The replacement of fertiliser and peat was also identified as one of the most sensible parameters, which could potentially have a significant environmental benefit. Many of the impact categories (especially human toxicity via water (HTw) and soil (HTs)) were affected by the heavy metal contents of the incoming OHW. The concentrations of heavy metals in the compost were below the threshold values for compost used on land and were thus not considered to constitute a problem. The GHG emissions were, on the other hand, dependent on the management of the composting units. The frequently mixed composting units had the highest GHG emissions. The environmental profiles of the home composting scenarios were in the order of −2 to 16 milli person equivalents (mPE) Mg⁻¹ wet waste (ww) for the non-toxic categories and −0.9 to 28 mPE Mg⁻¹ ww for the toxic categories. Home composting performed better than or as good as incineration and landfilling in several of the potential impact categories. One exception was the global warming (GW) category, in which incineration performed better due to the substitution of heat and electricity based on fossil fuels.     

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.     

Lagging or leading? Exploring the temporal relationship among lagging indicators in mining establishments 2006–2017

Problem: Safety management literature generally categorizes key performance indicators (KPIs) as either leading or lagging. Traditional lagging indicators are measures related to negative safety incidents, such as injuries, while leading indicators are used to predict (and therefore can be used to prevent) the likelihood of future negative safety incidents. Recent theory suggests that traditional lagging indicators also possess characteristics of leading indicators, and vice versa, however empirical evidence is limited. Method: The current research investigated the temporal relationships among establishment-level injuries, near misses, and fatal events using injury and employment data from a sample of 24,910 mining establishments over a 12-year period. Results: While controlling for employee hours worked, establishment-level reported injuries and near misses were associated with of future fatal events across the sample of mines and over the time period studied. Fatal events were also associated with increases in future reported near misses, providing evidence of a cyclic relationship between them. Discussion: These findings challenge the strict categorization of injuries, near misses, and fatal events as lagging indicators. Practical applications: Understanding the KPIs that should be used to manage organizational safety, and how they can be used, is of critical practical importance. The results of the current study suggest that, depending on several considerations, metrics tied to negative safety incidents may be used to anticipate, and possibly prevent, future negative safety events.     

区域科学发展不同评价体系比较研究

构建区域科学发展评价体系需要解决区域发展要素协同演化的综合测度问题,通过利益统筹引导区域资源和谐配置.现有不同评价体系在设计原理、指标构成、数据处理与权重分配方面具有差异性.但评价结果具有相似性.它们的共性之处在于:以五个统筹为基础,逻辑主线是调解人与人之间、人与自然之间的矛盾;大多采用层次分析法和模糊数学法,不能反映出指标之间的包含关系、相关关系以及逻辑关系,可能导致具有高度相关性的指标被重复使用;仅适台一般区域评价,不适合特定区域评价;评价方法较为单一、评价指标设置过多、以人为本的思想尚未充分体现.本文提出了进一步的研究内容:以实现包容性增长为目标构建区域发展要素资本体系;指标的内在逻辑关系围绕经济学模式、社会学模式、生态学模式展开;并将区域可比性、区域特殊性、区域层次性、发展潜力性、指标前瞻性等纳入评价体系的范畴.     

我国“十二五”SO_2和NO_X污染控制对策分析

大气污染治理是环境保护的重要内容。十二五时期,我国大气污染控制指标需根据国情调整。本研究针对我国目前主要大气污染物SO2、NOX及日益严重的大气复合污染问题,分析了近20年排放量、空气质量变化、控制状况。结果表明:SO2排放总量控制取得一定成效,但缺乏质量指标控制约束;NOX排放增加引发了多种复合型环境问题,部分抵消了SO2控制效果,总体上空气质量并未大幅度提升。对此,借鉴国外控制方法,提出十二五期间应进一步改善控制措施建议:SO2在总量控制基础上加入质量控制,分三类区域以不同标准和手段控制;NOX纳入约束性考核指标;选定重点行业和重点区域,对SO2、NOX采取总量与质量双重控制,并建立相应的政策支撑体系。     

The relationship among biodiversity,governance, wealth,and scientific capacity at a country level: Disaggregation and prioritization

At a global level, the relationship between biodiversity importance and capacity to manage it is often assumed to be negative, without much differentiation among the more than 200 countries and territories of the world. We examine this relationship using a database including terrestrial biodiversity, wealth and governance indicators for most countries. From these, principal components analysis was used to construct aggregated indicators at global and regional scales. Wealth, governance, and scientific capacity represent different skills and abilities in relation to biodiversity importance. Our results show that the relationship between biodiversity and the different factors is not simple: in most regions wealth and capacity varies positively with biodiversity, while governance vary negatively with biodiversity. However, these trends, to a certain extent, are concentrated in certain groups of nations and outlier countries. We discuss our results in the context of collaboration and joint efforts among biodiversity-rich countries and foreign agencies.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0581-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

An Index to Determine Vulnerability of Communities in a Coastal Zone: A Case Study of Baler, Aurora, Philippines

A coastal community vulnerability index (CCVI) was constructed to evaluate the vulnerability of coastal communities (Buhangin, Pingit, Reserva, Sabang, and Zabali) in the municipality of Baler, Aurora, Philippines. This index was composed of weighted averages of seven vulnerability factors namely geographical, economic and livelihood, food security, environmental, policy and institutional, demographic, and capital good. Factor values were computed based on scores that described range of conditions that influence communities’ susceptibility to hazard effects. Among the factors evaluated, economic and livelihood, policy and institutional and food security contributed to CCVI across communities. Only small variations on CCVI values (i.e., 0.47–0.53) were observed as factor values cancelled out one another during combination process. Overall, Sabang received the highest CCVI, which was contributed mainly by geographical and demographic factors. This technique to determine factors that influenced communities’ vulnerability can provide information for local governments in enhancing policies on risk mitigation and adaptation.     

南京市臭氧、VOCs和PANs污染特征及变化趋势

对2013—2016年基于国家环境空气质量监测站以及省建大气多参数站所获取的南京市O_3、NO_2、CO、VOCs、PANs观测结果进行综合评价,结果表明:2016年南京市O_3第90百分位日最大8 h平均质量浓度比2013年上升33.3%,超标天数中O_3引起的超标占比增至32.0%。南京市区大气中非甲烷总烃冬季浓度高于夏季,含氧挥发性有机物则与之相反;在5—9月,含氧挥发性有机物组分在日变化过程中出现峰值的时间先后顺序依次为醚、醛、酮类,且O_3和过氧乙酰硝酸酯(PANs)生成存在有一定的线性关系。VOCs/NOx比值表明南京市处于VOCs控制区,因此对NO_2浓度下降不敏感,植物源挥发性有机物连续3年上升,夏季大气光化学反应活性未显著下降,这些现象是城市O_3浓度维持在较高水平的重要因素。