Growth, Development and Sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irina-Virginia Dragulanescu

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Describing the relationship of interdependence through the materials balance, will be argued how the economy is a subset of the environment and the environment the natural limit to any economic initiative, or the limits imposed by the laws of thermodynamics. The theoretical debate moves, then, from the concept of growth to that of development, understood this in its three dimensions: economic, social, environmental. Bring the different environmental positions in four versions of sustainability, with the gained awareness that it’s “a spectrum of overlapping sustainability positions from very weak to very strong”.

The Direction of Terengganu Tourism Industry in Sustaining Business Growth: A Conceptual Framework

OpenAIRE

Muhammad Abi Sofian Abdul Halim; Zainuddin Zakaria; Mohd Tajul Hasnan; Syafini Muda

2012-01-01

Business sustainability is recognized as a crucial catalyst to the industrial direction and business growth in any industry. This paper focuses on the Terengganu tourism industry efforts to create long term business Sustainability through higher profitability, effective management, business performance, and competitive advantage. The state of Terengganu in the East-Coast of Peninsular Malaysia is strategically located as a tourist destination. Therefore, the state tourism board needs to incul...

Higher Education Institutions: A Strategy towards Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Casarejos, Fabricio; Frota, Mauricio Nogueira; Gustavson, Laura Morten

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to guide higher education institutions (HEIs) in accomplishing sustainability goals while strengthening their associated systems and processes. Pursuing this goal, this study proposes a conceptual framework for modeling the HEI organizational environment; a set of strategic sustainability actions to drive…

Microfoundations for Sustainable Growth with Eco-Intelligent Product Service-Arrangements

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Najine Ameli

2013-03-01

Full Text Available This paper argues that the contemporary growth paradigm needs to be reconsidered on a micro level of consumption and product service-systems. This becomes necessary since a dynamic link between macro strategies and micro implementation of sustainable growth is missing up to date. Therefore, mainstream sustainability strategies of efficiency and consistency are extended by sufficiency in order to integrate strategies for individual welfare within their social environment. Limits to and drivers for growth are revised and updated socially in terms of qualitative values, diminishing marginal utility or symbolic social distinction. We elaborate a definition of sustainable growth that fosters individual welfare by enhancing social enactment within the boundaries of environmental space. Shifting focus on social aspects in design fosters more sustainable production and consumption patterns while sustaining individual welfare. We derive latent indications for eco-intelligent product service-arrangements and evaluate to concepts by referring to introduced definitions and according indications. With doing so, we illustrate new pathways for the translation of sustainable growth and strategies into product service-systems.

Sustainability Policy and Sustainability in Higher Education Curricula: The Educational Developer Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Baughan, Patrick

2015-01-01

Various studies have investigated the views of higher education staff and students about sustainability, yet educational developer perspectives are under-represented in the research. This project gathered educational developer perspectives about sustainability in the curriculum. It sought to capture their views about a national sustainability…

Sustainable Growth and Ethics: A Study of Business Ethics in Vietnam between Business Students and Working Adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lam D. Nguyen

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Sustainable growth is not only the ultimate goal of business corporations but also the primary target of local governments as well as regional and global economies. One of the cornerstones of sustainable growth is ethics. An ethical organizational culture provides support to achieve sustain- able growth. Ethical leaders and employees have great potential for positive influence on decisions and behaviors that lead to sustainability. Ethical behavior, therefore, is expected of everyone in the modern workplace. As a result, companies devote many resources and training programs to make sure their employees live according to the high ethical standards. This study provides an analysis of Vietnamese business students’ level of ethical maturity based on gender, education, work ex- perience, and ethics training. The results of data from 260 business students compared with 704 working adults in Vietnam demonstrate that students have a significantly higher level of ethical maturity. Furthermore, gender and work experience are significant factors in ethical maturity. While more educated respondents and those who had completed an ethics course did have a higher level of ethical maturity, the results were not statistically significant. Analysis of the results along with suggestions and implications are provided.

Using GIS for Developing Sustainable Urban Growth Case Kyrenia Region

Science.gov (United States)

Kara, C.; Akçit, N.

2018-03-01

It is critical to develop urban layers for analysis sustainable urban development possibilities within planning process. Kyrenia Region has many physical, environmental or economic issues that may danger the growth possibilities in sustainable manner. From this point, this study uses different spatial layers such as slope, distance to roads, distance to central zone, vegetation, soil productivity, environmental protection zones, distance to open/green space, distance to education for supporting sustainable urban growth policies and define suitable areas for urban development within this perspective. The study tries to convert sustainable urban growth policies such as; compact growth, environmental protection, equal accessibility to basic services; into spatial layers and establish proper framework for multi criteria evaluation in Kyrenia Region within using geographical information systems. It shows suitability values for Kyrenia region and constraints zones at final section. It clearly presents the suitable areas for the sustainable urbanization and also unsuitable or risky areas for reducing the possible disasters and may happen in the future.

Sustainability Curriculum in Higher Education: A Call to Action

Science.gov (United States)

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, 2010

2010-01-01

This report is a culmination of the ideas presented during AASHE's Summit on Sustainability in the Curriculum to address how higher education institutions can further infuse sustainability topics into college and university curricula. Recognizing the scale of the challenges faced by higher education and the urgency with which changes must be…

Higher education, Graduate unemployment, Poverty and Economic growth in Tunisia, 1990-2013

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Haifa Mefteh

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the relationship between economic growth, higher education, unemployment and poverty using properties of time series variables while applying the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS method. Our study thus contributes to the existing literature by giving the first integrated approach to examine the four way linkages in the Tunisian background over the period 1990-2013. This paper holds that higher education can impact unemployment and graduate unemployment causes poverty which would affect economic growth. Our empirical results show that there is bi-directional causal relationship between per capita gross domestic product (GDP and poverty rate (POV and also between Number of graduate students (GRA and School enrollment tertiary education (ENR besides unidirectional causal relationship which running from Number of graduate students to Unemployment with tertiary education (UNP, from Higher education expenditure (EXP to poverty rate and from Unemployment with tertiary education to poverty rate. Our empirical results also verified the existence of positive effect of ENR, GRA and POV on economic growth, while, UNP and EXP have negative determining influence on economic growth with only GRA statistically significant. These empirical insights are of particular interest for the policy makers as they help build sound economic policies to sustain economic development and improve the higher educational quality.

From Policy to Pedagogy: The Implications of Sustainability Policy for Sustainability Pedagogy in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Timmerman, Nora; Metcalfe, Amy Scott

2009-01-01

In response to the growing number of sustainability policies being enacted at higher education institutions, this article examines the relationship between policy and pedagogy, asking how policy texts can both enable and impede the implementation of sustainability pedagogy in higher education. To explore this question, we have undertaken a case…

Higher Education for Sustainable Development: A Systematic Review

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yen-Chun Jim; Shen, Ju-Peng

2016-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to provide a complete understanding of academic research into higher education for sustainable development (HESD). Design/methodology/approach: This study utilizes a systematic review of four scientific literature databases to outline topics of research during the UN's Decade of Education for Sustainable Development…

Bitcoin as digital money: Its growth and future sustainability

OpenAIRE

Pradipta Kumar SAHOO

2017-01-01

This paper examines the comprehensive idea about the growth and future sustainability of bitcoin as a cryptocurrency. The transaction volume of bitcoin is used as the growth of the bitcoin and the bitcoin log return is used for testing the volatility which is helpful for the future sustainability of bitcoin. The study period says that the growth of bitcoin’s transaction volume is an increasing trend as more day to day transaction is minting with the exchange of Bitcoin. The stu...

Sustainable Growth and Ethics: A Study of Business Ethics in Vietnam between Business Students and Working Adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lam D. Nguyen

2013-05-01

Full Text Available 1024x768 Sustainable growth is not only the ultimate goal of business corporations but also the primary target of local governments as well as regional and global economies. One of the cornerstones of sustainable growth is ethics. An ethical organizational culture provides support to achieve sustainable growth. Ethical leaders and employees have great potential for positive influence on decisions and behaviors that lead to sustainability. Ethical behavior, therefore, is expected of everyone in the modern workplace. As a result, companies devote many resources and training programs to make sure their employees live according to the high ethical standards. This study provides an analysis of Vietnamese business students’ level of ethical maturity based on gender, education, work experience, and ethics training. The results of data from 260 business students compared with 704 working adults in Vietnam demonstrate that students have a significantly higher level of ethical maturity. Furthermore, gender and work experience are significant factors in ethical maturity. While more educated respondents and those who had completed an ethics course did have a higher level of ethical maturity, the results were not statistically significant. Analysis of the results along with suggestions and implications are provided. Normal 0 false false false IN X-NONE X-NONE

The Contribution of Sustainability Assessment to Policy Development in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Lambrechts, Wim

2015-01-01

This article builds upon the experiences and results of the application of sustainability assessment instruments in higher education. First, a short overview of existing sustainability assessment tools will be provided, as well as their contribution towards the integration of sustainability in higher education. Second, a reflective case focuses on…

Four Impediments to Embedding Education for Sustainability in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Gale, Fred; Davison, Aidan; Wood, Graham; Williams, Stewart; Towle, Nick

2015-01-01

Higher education institutions have an unavoidable responsibility to address the looming economic, environmental and social crises imperilling humans and ecosystems by placing "education for sustainability" at the heart of their concerns. Yet, for over three decades, the practice of 'higher education for sustainability' (HEfS) has…

A Methodology for Sustainability Evaluation and Reporting in Higher Education Institutions

Science.gov (United States)

Madeira, Ana C.; Carravilla, Maria Antonia; Oliveira, Jose F.; Costa, Carlos A. V.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology that allows higher education institutions (HEIs) to promote, to evaluate and to report on sustainability. The ultimate goal of the afore-mentioned methodology is to help HEIs achieve sustainability. First, a model entitled Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (SusHEI) that generally…

Is Higher Education Economically Unsustainable? An Exploration of Factors That Undermine Sustainability Assessments of Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Maragakis, Antonios; van den Dobbelsteen, Andy; Maragakis, Alexandros

2016-01-01

As students continue to review the sustainability of higher education institutions, there is a growing need to understand the economic returns of degrees as a function of a sustainable institution. This paper reviews a range of international research to summarize the economic drivers of higher education attainment. Although the cost inputs to…

Mapping the relationship between higher education and sustainable development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holm, Claus; Martinsen, Anders

2015-01-01

are in a conflict with each other and with respect to understanding of as well higher education, in casu the curriculum and assessment activity of the university, as sustainable development – and, first of all, it gives rise to very different conditions for future forms of life and learning inside as well......The article presents different approaches to the relationship between higher education and sustainable development. The purpose is firstly to provide an overview of four main approaches to this relationship and these approaches’ key conflicts. Secondly, the purpose is to argue that the approach...... "lifelong learning skills for a resilient life" is beginning to establish itself as part of a main conflict with the approach "necessary knowledge for a secured life". That is to say that these two approaches to the question of the relationship between higher education and sustainable development...

Sustainability in Higher Education: An explorative approach on sustainable behavior in two universities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Juárez Nájera (Margarita)

2010-01-01

textabstractThis thesis focuses on identifying psychological factors related to personality features which can influence sustainable behavior of individuals in higher educational institutions (HEI), as well as to present the areas where these individuals work, and in which higher education for

Fiscal Deficit, National Saving and Sustainability of Economic Growth in Emerging Economies: A Dynamic GMM Panel Data Approach

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Buscemi Antonino

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The neoclassical growth models argued that the movement to steady states; technology, exogenous rate of savings, population growth and technical progress stimulate higher growth levels (Solow 1956. Contrary to the neoclassical argument, endogenous growth model argues that, in the theory of endogenous growth, government play a significant role in promoting accumulation of knowledge, research and development, public investment, human capital development, law and order can generate growth both in the short and long run. Moreover, they assumed technical progress as endogenous variable for growth (Barro 1995. This study analyze the effects of fiscal deficit on sustainability of economic growth and provided new empirical evidence on the effects of fiscal deficit on saving and sustainability of economic growth based on the assumption of endogenous growth model. We estimated using the reduced form of GMM method for dynamic panels covers 1990-2009 for three emerging countries that includes China, India and South Africa.

Higher Education Sustainability Staffing Survey, 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, 2011

2011-01-01

This paper shows that despite national unemployment rates that hovered near 10 percent in 2010, those with positions in the higher education sustainability workforce report a sense of job security and feel satisfied with the work they are doing. With 433 completed surveys, the results offer a comprehensive look at the demographics, roles, salaries…

Sustained growth but non-sustainable urbanisation in Penang, Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Fold, N; Wangel, A

1998-05-01

Penang, Malaysia, has been a city characterized by urban growth and rapid industrialization for the past 25 years. Foreign capital, especially from the transnational electronics industry, has spurred the process of urban growth in the city. While the state government is clearly trying to copy and adapt some form of a Singapore model of development and growth in Penang, the quantitative and qualitative demands for labor exceed the available supply from the country's northern states. Local and national labor policies are decided without the involvement of trade unions, which lack the strength to substantially improve wages or influence the institutions of the labor market. Therefore, an energized labor market attempts to balance the upgrading of skills and the control of wages. Focus upon sustainable urbanization will renew the debate on urban, export-oriented industrialization in southeast Asia.

THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRASOV GROWTH POLE

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Aida CATANA

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The demographic dynamics analysed in the context of the relationship between economic development and social inclusion presents an image of the sustainable development of a community as well as the manner how the financial resources have been used. With an allocation of 74.3 million euro in the programming period 2007-2013, the Brasov Growth Pole has pursued the contribution to the achievement of sustainable development since 2005 by the participation in the Agenda 21. The implementation of projects with European financing in areas such as transport, social and educational infrastructure or tourism have generated changes/demographic movements, which this paper proposes to present. The evolution of the stable population, its dynamics at the level of each locality that is part of the Brasov growth pole as well as the dynamics of the number of employees or the development of the unemployment rate are presented by the cluster analysis. The effects of the European financing obtained from Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 are thus reflected in the sustainable development of the Brasov growth pole from the point of view of the dynamics of the population

Tourism in Austria: biodiversity, environmental sustainability, and growth issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Malik, Muhammad Asad Saleem; Shah, Syed Asim; Zaman, Khalid

2016-12-01

This study examined the long-run and causal relationships between international tourism, biodiversity loss, environmental sustainability, and specific growth factors under the premises of sustainable tourism in Austria, by using a consistent time series data from 1975 to 2015. The results reveal that inbound tourism, per capita income, and population density affected the potential habitat area while population density largely affected the food production in a country. Inbound tourism and population density both deteriorate the environmental quality in a form of increasing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions and fossil fuel energy consumption while per capita income reduces the fossil fuel energy consumption. Food exports increase per capita income, while food imports and population density both decrease economic growth. Inbound tourism and economic growth advance population density while forest area and food exports decrease the population density. The study supports growth-led tourism and growth-led food production in a country.

SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND ECO-EFFICIENCY

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Mariana\tLUPAN

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The current economic and social contexts have brought forth the issues regarding growth and sustainability. The concept of growth has always been linked to an increase in consumption levels, and this inevitably led to pressures on the environment and on the resources that support human activity. Given these circumstances, the question whether we can avoid an environmental disaster while maintaining economic growth, has become more stringent. We chose to approach this aspect by examining the concept of eco-efficiency, a concept that embodies aspects of both economic efficiency and environmental efficiency. Eco-efficiency can be regarded as the effectiveness with which resources are used in order to create products and services that satisfy human needs. Based on this idea, the last decade has produced an increasing number of studies on eco-efficiency and how it can be measured and implemented in the production of goods and services, but also in the field regarding demand patterns. An analysis regarding the aspects of eco-efficiency at the macro level of the Romanian economy is in line with the current environmental concerns, thus I have chosen to cover these questions, as well as the evolution of the locale economy towards a more sustainable development. The outcome of the examined aspects shows that, in spite of an increase in eco-efficiency levels, energy and material consumption and emissions have increased. This raises the question if measuring economic and environmental efficiency by reporting to the GDP value is becoming obsolete and if there is a need to revaluate eco-efficiency indicators in order to measure the transition to a greener and more sustainable development from different points of view.

Who Really Cares About Higher Education For Sustainable Development?

OpenAIRE

Torsten Richter; Kim P. Schumacher

2011-01-01

Problem statement: It is agreed that integrating Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) into the curricula of universities is of key importance to disseminate the idea of sustainability. Especially the curricula of teacher-training should contain elements of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) due to the crucial role of future teachers in information propagation. Approach: In order to find out about the spreading of ESD into the curricula and whether or not it is of inter...

Sustainable de-growth: Mapping the context, criticisms and future prospects of an emergent paradigm

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martinez-Alier, Joan [Department of Economics and Economic History, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain); Pascual, Unai [Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Vivien, Franck-Dominique [Department of Economics, Universite de Reims Champagne Ardenne (France); Zaccai, Edwin [Institute for Environmental Management and Land Planning, Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)

2010-07-15

'Sustainable de-growth' is both a concept and a social-grassroots (Northern) movement with its origins in the fields of ecological economics, social ecology, economic anthropology and environmental and social activist groups. This paper introduces the concept of sustainable de-growth by mapping some of the main intellectual influences from these fields, with special focus on the Francophone and Anglophone thinking about this emergent notion. We propose hypotheses pertaining to the appeal of sustainable de-growth, and compare it to the messages enclosed within the dominant sustainable development idea. We scrutinize the theses, contradictions, and consequences of sustainable de-growth thinking as it is currently being shaped by a heterogeneous body of literature and as it interacts with an ample and growing corpus of social movements. We also discuss possible future paths for the de-growth movement compared to the apparent weakening of the sustainable development paradigm. (author)

Building Better Buildings: Sustainable Building Activities in California Higher Education Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Sowell, Arnold; Eichel, Amanda; Alevantis, Leon; Lovegreen, Maureen

2003-01-01

This article outlines the activities and recommendations of California's sustainable building task force, discusses sustainable building activities in California's higher education systems, and highlights key issues that California is grappling with in its implementation of sustainable building practices. (EV)

A Systems Model to Make, Market, and Lead Your Way towards Sustained Growth

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Raman Kumar Agrawalla

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Business enterprises exist in a world that is fiercely competitive, tied with huge global uncertainties. They always encounter increasing pressure on prices and margins. Hence, irrespective of their domain of operations and industry, businesses are naturally concerned about their growth, specifically sustained profitable growth, in today’s world. Marketing is a key business function to market and lead a business towards sustained profitable growth but the problem is it lacks a systems perspective in its operations, strategy, and practice. Further, given the confluence and systemic interactions of various economic, digital, and competitive forces; the challenge for different business functions—including marketing—increases tremendously. In this context, it is important for business enterprises to have a systems perspective to find their ways to growth that will be sustained. This calls for a holistic approach to assimilate and steer the business functions in any enterprise. The present conceptual paper focuses on an important business function for sustained growth in a holistic way and presents a systems model, called ‘Value Based Business Approach (VBBA-marketing’, which has potential to guide and steer companies and business enterprises to create a path for their sustained profitable growth.

Empowerment for Sustainability in Higher Education through the EYE Learning Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Tassone, Valentina C.; Dik, Giel; van Lingen, Thekla Anna

2017-01-01

Purpose: While empowerment for sustainability is considered a major objective within sustainability-oriented educational programs and policies, little is known about the actual process of empowering students for sustainability through higher education. This study aims to explore this field, by introducing the EYE (Educating Yourself in…

Sustainable energy supply - a key to global growth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wright, J.K.

2002-01-01

From this overall concept of what constitutes sustainability, a range of considerations on equity of energy supply across regions, time scales over which fuel and energy source mixes and technology changes and the like, can be developed. Within the spatial dimension, considerations of sustainability that operate at the global scale need to be translated to the operations of large and small companies, national and local governments down to individual households. It is a complex mix in an increasingly complex world. But one thing is certain, the world's energy demand is going to continue to increase. This demand will be largely satisfied by fossil fuels and this use is not sustainable using current technology in the long term. Massive changes are required to turn the world around onto a more sustainable pathway that will probably take many decades even to make a significant start. The aim of this paper is to briefly explore some of the possible technological options that will guide us on the road to a more sustainable energy future. A genuinely sustainable energy system that also promotes sustainable growth with an improving standard of living for all is obviously a major challenge. At the same time the global demand for energy will continue to increase. On the global scale, the prospect of climate change imposes a major long-term constraint on the use of GHG emitting fuels and generating technologies. The long-term development of a sustainable energy system will require multiple interventions and a pluralistic approach to energy management. Ingredients within the mix are likely to require: 1. innovation in the way we currently generate and supply power 2. continued integration and greater penetration of renewables 3. greater use of embedded and distributed energy generation 4. aggressive end-use efficiency 5. development of technologies to enable continued use of fossil fuels until the transition to sustainability is completed. A combination of market and regulatory

Driving Economic Growth: Higher Education--A Core Strategic Asset to the UK. Higher Education in Focus: Driving Economic Growth

Science.gov (United States)

Universities UK, 2011

2011-01-01

This publication highlights the critical role UK universities will continue to play in reviving and sustaining economic growth across the country. Using a range of visual data and statistics, it highlights that the UK's future success depends on developing innovation and the knowledge economy in what is an increasingly competitive global…

An Integrated Diagnostic Framework to Manage Organization Sustainable Growth: An Empirical Case

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Jingxiao Zhang

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This research aims to develop a quantitative diagnostic framework by combining the Weisbord six-box model with the growth management model to focus on an organization’s internally driven sustainable management system. The research adopted an instrument developed by Preziosi and an extended Weisbord six-box model. The research employed a survey to collect 180 samples in a Chinese petrol company and applied the comparative method: (a the average score method; and (b the entropy method to confirm the growth level of the company. The survey also attempted to identify corresponding top growth influence factors using the obstacle degree formula. The results showed that the integrated diagnostic framework worked well to diagnose a regional but large Chinese petroleum company. In other words, the research successfully quantified the growth position and top influence factors and helped put forward specific suggestions to drive the organization of sustainable development. The method confirmed this organization during the fourth phase of five phases. In addition, top influence factors hindering the internal growth were (a the lack of task engagement with energy and time; (b the lack of personal work units; and (c a poor division of labor for reaching sustainable growth rates. The research provides a generic theoretical framework support to incorporate growth management models into an organizational diagnosis to obtain sustainable growth. It further highlights and practices guidelines in examining actual growth management levels in companies and discusses top influence factors to design efficient management systems to pursue organizational growth in a multitude of industrial contexts.

Entropy, limits to growth, and the prospects for weak sustainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krysiak, Frank C.

2006-01-01

In this paper, we analyze the consequences of mass and energy conservation and the second law of thermodynamics for economic activity. In contrast to former studies, we deduce our results formally from a general model of production and consumption. We show that in a static setting for economies containing irreversible processes, a non-zero resource input as well as non-zero emissions are necessary to sustain a positive level of consumption. We generalize this result to a dynamic setting and apply it to the growth discussion and the sustainability discourse. Thereby we show that limits to growth of production and consumption are likely to exist and that the concept of weak sustainability is either morally unattractive or physically infeasible. (author)

Learning Apart Together: Towards an Integrated Competence Framework for Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Higher Education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lans, T.; Blok, V.; Wesselink, R.

2014-01-01

Sustainable entrepreneurs, i.e. those who proactively facilitate latent demands for sustainable development, are now in higher demand than ever before. Higher (business) education can play an important role in laying the foundation for these sustainable entrepreneurs. Traditionally, however,

Role of ICT in Managing Higher Education for Sustainable ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

It highlighted the ranking of some factors hindering effective usage of ICT in the management of higher education for sustainable development. In light of these findings, it is recommended that ICT facilities are made available and accessible in higher institutions and that relevant end-user training be provided to enhance ...

The Sustainable Development Goals: An Experience on Higher Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bárbara Crespo

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Sustainable development is acquiring high attendance in higher education. In fact, one of the targets for the Sustainable Development Goals announced by the United Nations in September 2015 aims to ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, thorough education on sustainable development. The current study focuses on the evaluation of individual works based on the sustainable development suggested to students in a subject of the Master’s of Thermal Engineering at the University of Vigo. In addition, a sustainable holistic rubric is presented, which was used to analyze the ability of the students to incorporate sustainability principles in their work. The rubric was based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the associated targets of the United Nations, more specifically on the Goals 7, 8, 12, and 13. A total of 10 works were evaluated. As a general conclusion, it was found that the students generally do not consider or consider to a lower extent the economic criteria opposite to the environmental, technical, and social dimensions. The environmental sub-criterion were applied to a greater extent in the development of the works. However, the technical and social dimensions were included to a greater or lesser extent depending on the type of work developed.

The Earth Charter in Higher Education for Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Weakland, Joseph P.; Corcoran, Peter Blaze

2009-01-01

A central challenge of sustainable development is to provide material sufficiency for the human population while preserving the integrity of Earth's biosphere. Current modes of economic production and consumption accomplish neither of these ethical imperatives. Institutions of higher education must show leadership in the transition to sustainable…

Does Firms’ Innovation Promote Export Growth Sustainably?—Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms

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Liangfeng Hao

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Recent theoretical analysis and empirical studies have emphasized that firms’ innovation could significantly improve export growth. However, the positive effect of innovation on exports is likely to change due to unstable domestic offsetting for innovation and increasing worldwide competition for trade. This study aims to explore the dynamic link between them. We first develop a theoretical model between innovation and export growth based on the theory of heterogeneity. Export growth is measured through the dimensions of extensive margin and intensive margin so as to better investigate the effect of innovation on export performance. The propositions of mechanism analysis reveal that the effect of innovation on exports is non-linear rather than sustainable. An empirical study is followed to test the propositions by using data from a representative panel of Chinese manufacturing firms. Consistent with the theoretical predictions, the results show an inverted U-shaped relationship between innovation and extensive margin and a U-shaped relationship between innovation and intensive margin. The non-linear relations are verified by a threshold effect test. Further study shows less innovation and more firms on the left side of the relation curves. The distribution suggests irregular innovation ability among the exporters. Moreover, the role of innovation is more important for export growth and the corresponding threshold is higher in terms of high technological sectors. The contribution of this study is to introduce a comprehensive framework to investigate the dynamic effect of innovation on export growth, serving as a modest spur to induce the following studies to explore the sustainability of innovation effect.

Tragedy of the Commons, Business Growth and the Fundamental Sustainability Problem

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Edward J. Garrity

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This paper reviews the major issues involved in Hardin’s [1] tragedy of the commons, written over 44 years ago, and examines whether these issues are still relevant today. We assert that this model still provides important insight to aid in the solution to our global problems. In particular, we maintain that the underlying issues of growth against limits and bounded rationality are still not adequately recognized and addressed; this underlies many of the reasons for our unsustainable world. Examples from fisheries management are used to examine potential solutions and reveal weaknesses in current approaches. We show how our current, restricted mental models promote social injustice and blind us to developing sustainable solutions. Both the neo-liberal economic view of business that directly seeks growth and the new sustainable development view that indirectly supports growth are leading our global economy in the wrong direction and away from prosperity and sustainability. Current thinking has not realized Hardin’s message that sustainability is of the class of no technology solution problems. We conclude with recommendations to radically advance a new world view and business paradigm.

Plant Growth-Promoting Microorganisms for Environmental Sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Abhilash, P C; Dubey, Rama Kant; Tripathi, Vishal; Gupta, Vijai K; Singh, Harikesh B

2016-11-01

Agrochemicals used to meet the needs of a rapidly growing human population can deteriorate the quality of ecosystems and are not affordable to farmers in low-resource environments. Here, we propose the use of plant growth-promoting microorganisms (PGPMs) as a tool for sustainable food production without compromising ecosystems services. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adjustment of growth and central metabolism to a mild but sustained nitrogen-limitation in Arabidopsis.

Science.gov (United States)

Tschoep, Hendrik; Gibon, Yves; Carillo, Petronia; Armengaud, Patrick; Szecowka, Marek; Nunes-Nesi, Adriano; Fernie, Alisdair R; Koehl, Karin; Stitt, Mark

2009-03-01

We have established a simple soil-based experimental system that allows a small and sustained restriction of growth of Arabidopsis by low nitrogen (N). Plants were grown in a large volume of a peat-vermiculite mix that contained very low levels of inorganic N. As a control, inorganic N was added in solid form to the peat-vermiculite mix, or plants were grown in conventional nutrient-rich solids. The low N growth regime led to a sustained 20% decrease of the relative growth rate over a period of 2 weeks, resulting in a two- to threefold decrease in biomass in 35- to 40-day-old plants. Plants in the low N regime contained lower levels of nitrate, lower nitrate reductase activity, lower levels of malate, fumarate and other organic acids and slightly higher levels of starch, as expected from published studies of N-limited plants. However, their rosette protein content was unaltered, and total and many individual amino acid levels increased compared with N-replete plants. This metabolic phenotype reveals that Arabidopsis responds adaptively to low N by decreasing the rate of growth, while maintaining the overall protein content, and maintaining or even increasing the levels of many amino acids.

BUILDING NEW BUSINESS MODELS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

OpenAIRE

Taco C. R. van Someren; Shuhua van Someren-Wang

2011-01-01

Considered are issues of methodology and methods, as well as ideology of strategic innovation. Using the tools of this approach is offered as mechanisms to develop and build business models for sustainable socio-economic economic growth and development of different regions. The connection between key problems of sustainable development and management policy of different economic entities is studied. The consultancy company Ynnovate’s experience in addressing these issues in the EU and China i...

Energy efficiency, sustainability and economic growth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ayres, Robert U.; Turton, Hal; Casten, Tom

2007-01-01

This paper explores two linked theses related to the role energy in economic development, and potential sources of increased energy efficiency for continued growth with reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The first thesis is that, while reduced GHG emissions are essential for long-term global sustainability, the usual policy recommendation of increasing energy costs by introducing a carbon tax may be relatively ineffective under current market structures and have an unnecessarily adverse impact on economic growth. Our second thesis is that there exists a practical near-term strategy for reducing GHG emissions while simultaneously encouraging continued technology-driven economic growth. Moreover, this strategy does not require radical new technologies, but rather improved regulation or-more precisely-better deregulation of the electric power sector. In respect to the first of our two theses, this paper addresses a deficiency in neoclassical economic growth theory, in which growth is assumed to be automatic, inevitable and cost-free. We challenge both the assumption that growth will continue in the future at essentially the same rate ('the trend') as it has in the past, and the corollary that our children's children will inevitably be richer and better able to afford the cost of repairing the environmental damages caused by current generations [Simon et al., The state of humanity. Cambridge MA: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.; 1995

Sustainability, Indicators, and Institutions of Higher Education. Chapter 42

Science.gov (United States)

Indicators of commitment to sustainability commonly applied to institutions of higher education provide no estimate of the actual effects that these institutions have on the persistence or prevalence of the socioecological systems that encompass them. Emergy methodology provides ...

Economic Recovery: Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth in a Post-Crisis Economy

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-22

Mankiw , Principles of Economics (Ft. Worth, Dryden Press, 1998), p556, and Robert J. Barro, “Are Government Bonds Net Wealth?” Journal of Political...CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Economic Recovery: Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth in a Post...2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED 00-00-2010 to 00-00-2010 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Economic Recovery: Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth in a Post

Aligning Strategy with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs: Process Scoping Diagram for Entrepreneurial Higher Education Institutions (HEIs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Fleacă

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Seeing that the prosperity of people and society is possible with the aid of sustained and inclusive economic growth of all countries and regions, the sustainable development of our world has gained the particular attention of a wide range of decisional factors; civil society, the business sector, and the scientific community. Education has a decisive impact on changes in the way that societies are coping with national, regional, and global challenges and opportunities brought by sustainable development. The paper addressed the lack of capacity of higher education institutions (HEIs to integrate the principles and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning, which hampers the capability to act as an entrepreneurial university. Embarking on the path of sustainable development goals (SDGs requires HEI to design, launch, implement, and customize specific processes architecture to govern the advance of the sustainability approach. The authors applied the process scoping diagram to capture and conceptualize the educational model needed to guide the HEI through the process of change in its daily operations. The SIPOC method (Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer was applied and with the aid of Visio software tool, the processes relationships were articulated and embedded in the educational model of HEI. Finally, the authors shared their views on the scalability of the model, which may be customized and harmonized in accordance with different HEI’s circumstances and priorities.

Developing a Sustainable Practical Model of Graduate Employability for Higher Education

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Ahmed Umar Rufai

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to evolve a sustainable practical model of employability skills that is sure to capture relevant learning aspects of a particular occupational discipline to be used as framework for Undergraduate students to develop their employability potentials. The study was conducted in three Universities and Polytechnics each with three multi-national companies. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. Using purposeful sampling 18 academic staff and 3 professionals representing company employers were selected as the study participants. The study evolved a model that is work-based, explicit in its outcome, fully articulated and realistic in terms of employability skill experiences. The proposed model can be used to establish a common higher education programme or curricula that is work-based and skill experience oriented, that can encourage students in higher education to think about work place learning more explicitly and reflectively, that will in turn help them to develop a broad range of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values, each of which ultimately contribute in some manner to graduate employability.  The paper is considered a contribution to the evolution and growth of knowledge on the linkage between higher education and workplace, through which the ‘skill gap’ occurring between the demand of employment and the level of educational preparation of graduates can be bridged. Keywords: Employability, Higher Education, Graduates, Model/Framework,   academic staff, Employers/Professionals

Cell longevity and sustained primary growth in palm stems.

Science.gov (United States)

Tomlinson, P Barry; Huggett, Brett A

2012-12-01

Longevity, or organismal life span, is determined largely by the period over which constituent cells can function metabolically. Plants, with modular organization (the ability continually to develop new organs and tissues) differ from animals, with unitary organization (a fixed body plan), and this difference is reflected in their respective life spans, potentially much longer in plants than animals. We draw attention to the observation that palm trees, as a group of monocotyledons without secondary growth comparable to that of lignophytes (plants with secondary growth from a bifacial cambium), retain by means of sustained primary growth living cells in their trunks throughout their organismal life span. Does this make palms the longest-lived trees because they can grow as individuals for several centuries? No conventional lignophyte retains living metabolically active differentiated cell types in its trunk for this length of time, even though the tree as a whole can exist for millennia. Does this contrast also imply that the long-lived cells in a palm trunk have exceptional properties, which allows this seeming immortality? We document the long-life of many tall palm species and their inherent long-lived stem cell properties, comparing such plants to conventional trees. We provide a summary of aspects of cell age and life span in animals and plants. Cell replacement is a feature of animal function, whereas conventional trees rely on active growth centers (meristems) to sustain organismal development. However, the long persistence of living cells in palm trunks is seen not as evidence for unique metabolic processes that sustain longevity, but is a consequence of unique constructional features. This conclusion suggests that the life span of plant cells is not necessarily genetically determined.

Sustainable development and low carbon growth strategy for India

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parikh, Kirit

2012-01-01

For India, sustainable strategy means one that is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. This calls for rapid economic growth to deal with poverty and human development. However, the relatively meagre energy resources of the country pose a huge challenge. At the same time concern for climate change has raised the bar on the use of the one energy resource that India has in some abundance, namely coal. India's strategy for sustainable development has to explore all options of reducing energy needs, enhancing efficiency of use of conventional energy resources and develop new and renewable sources. The paper identifies various technical options, their potential roles and alternative policy measures to realize them in a cost effective manner. Even for the same objectives different policy instruments are available and how one chooses a particular instrument is often critical for the success. Self-implementing incentive compatible policy that does not create vested interests that would get entrenched should be preferred. -- Highlights: ► Energy efficiency is critical for sustainable development. ► India can reduce its emission intensity by 25 % by 2020 as proposed by India at Copenhagen. ► With a more aggressive effort even 35% reduction is attainable even with 8% or 9% growth. ► Energy efficient appliances, vehicles, buildings and industrial processes are needed. ► Policies that incentivize adoption of these pose critical challenges.

Armenia; The Road to Sustained Rapid Growth-Cross-Country Evidence

OpenAIRE

Garbis Iradian

2003-01-01

This study examines the growth determinants and the economic policy challenges that Armenia faces to sustain the rapid growth of the past two years. The paper also seeks to answer the following two questions: Why has Armenia performed relatively better than other transition economies? What are the roles of macroeconomic policies and the level of financial intermediation in explaining growth differences? The paper also draws upon past cross-country experiences by estimating panel regressions o...

Is the growth stimulation by low doses of glyphosate sustained over time?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cedergreen, Nina

2008-01-01

The herbicide, glyphosate, has been shown to stimulate growth in a range of species when applied at doses of 5-60 g a.e. ha -1 , corresponding to realistic spray drift events. This study investigates growth of shoot parameters over time to detect whether the glyphosate induced growth increase was sustained and had a final effect on reproduction. The results showed that an actual biomass growth rate increase took place within the first week after spraying with glyphosate doses -1 . This initial growth boost kept treated plants larger than untreated plants for up to six weeks, but at harvest there was no significant difference between control plants and treated plants. Possible effects of glyphosate hormesis on the competitive ability of spray drift affected plants are discussed. - Glyphosate induced hormesis in barley is not sustained over time

Is the growth stimulation by low doses of glyphosate sustained over time?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cedergreen, Nina [Department of Agricultural Sciences, Faculty of Life Science, University of Copenhagen, Hojbakkegard Alle 13, 2630 Tastrup (Denmark)], E-mail: ncf@life.ku.dk

2008-12-15

The herbicide, glyphosate, has been shown to stimulate growth in a range of species when applied at doses of 5-60 g a.e. ha{sup -1}, corresponding to realistic spray drift events. This study investigates growth of shoot parameters over time to detect whether the glyphosate induced growth increase was sustained and had a final effect on reproduction. The results showed that an actual biomass growth rate increase took place within the first week after spraying with glyphosate doses <60 g a.e. ha{sup -1}. This initial growth boost kept treated plants larger than untreated plants for up to six weeks, but at harvest there was no significant difference between control plants and treated plants. Possible effects of glyphosate hormesis on the competitive ability of spray drift affected plants are discussed. - Glyphosate induced hormesis in barley is not sustained over time.

Growth curves and sustained commissioning modelling of renewable energy: Investigating resource constraints for wind energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davidsson, Simon; Grandell, Leena; Wachtmeister, Henrik; Höök, Mikael

2014-01-01

Several recent studies have proposed fast transitions to energy systems based on renewable energy technology. Many of them dismiss potential physical constraints and issues with natural resource supply, and do not consider the growth rates of the individual technologies needed or how the energy systems are to be sustained over longer time frames. A case study is presented modelling potential growth rates of the wind energy required to reach installed capacities proposed in other studies, taking into account the expected service life of wind turbines. A sustained commissioning model is proposed as a theoretical foundation for analysing reasonable growth patterns for technologies that can be sustained in the future. The annual installation and related resource requirements to reach proposed wind capacity are quantified and it is concluded that these factors should be considered when assessing the feasibility, and even the sustainability, of fast energy transitions. Even a sustained commissioning scenario would require significant resource flows, for the transition as well as for sustaining the system, indefinitely. Recent studies that claim there are no potential natural resource barriers or other physical constraints to fast transitions to renewable energy appear inadequate in ruling out these concerns. - Highlights: • Growth rates and service life is important when evaluating energy transitions. • A sustained commissioning model is suggested for analysing renewable energy. • Natural resource requirements for renewable energy are connected to growth rates. • Arguments by recent studies ruling out physical constraints appear inadequate

The impact of risk management on internal and sustainable growth rate: Evidence from Tehran Stock Exchange

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamid Reza Vakili Fard

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Measuring the relative risk of firms has been an open discussion among researchers. There are many studies on learning how leverage may influence on growth of the firms. This article reviews the relationship between risk management, internal and sustainable growth of accepted companies in Tehran stock exchange. The survey considers three types of risks including operating, financial and compound and investigates their relationships with internal growth rate as well as sustainable growth rate. Using some regression techniques, the study has determined negative and meaningful relationships between different types of leverage on side and internal as well as sustainable growth on the other side.

Sustainable economic growth and exhaustible resources: A model and estimation for the US

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Almuth Scholl

2002-01-01

Full Text Available This paper studies current models on sustainable economic growth with resource constraints and explores to what extent resource constraints can be overcome by substitution and technological change. We also study the problem of intergenerational equity and the different criteria that have been suggested in the literature. The central part of this paper is the presentation of stylized facts on exhaustible resources and an estimation of a basic model with resource constraints for US time series data. The estimated years left until depletion and the empirical trends of the ratios of capital stock and consumption to resources seem to indicate that there might be a threat to sustainable growth in the future. In our estimation, we obtain parameter values, which help to interpret the extent to which growth with exhaustible resources is sustainable.

Energy, Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: Five Propositions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven Sorrell

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper advances five linked and controversial propositions that have both deep historical roots and urgent contemporary relevance. These are: (a the rebound effects from energy efficiency improvements are significant and limit the potential for decoupling energy consumption from economic growth; (b the contribution of energy to productivity improvements and economic growth has been greatly underestimated; (c the pursuit of improved efficiency needs to be complemented by an ethic of sufficiency; (d sustainability is incompatible with continued economic growth in rich countries; and (e a zero-growth economy is incompatible with a fractional reserve banking system. These propositions run counter to conventional wisdom and each highlights either a "blind spot" or "taboo subject" that deserves closer scrutiny. While accepting one proposition reinforces the case for accepting the next, the former is neither necessary nor sufficient for the latter.

How to Assess Transformative Performance towards Sustainable Development in Higher Education Institutions

Science.gov (United States)

Mader, Clemens

2012-01-01

This article highlights the role of sustainability appraisal for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Traditional HEI appraisal systems lack a way to assess the integration of sustainability principles reflecting societal needs with the consequences of research, education and management of HEIs. Two appraisal systems are discussed. The Austrian…

CRESCIMENTO ECONÔMICO E SUSTENTABILIDADE / Economic Growth and Sustainability

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Gilberto Montibeller-Filho

2007-06-01

Full Text Available The subject “economic growth and sustainability” refers to the relationship between economicgrowth and its positive impact on the wellbeing of the population and on the environment. It is,therefore, about economic, as well as social and environmental, sustainability, i.e. the root ofthe sustainable development paradigm. A historical review is needed for understanding theroots of the emergence of this new socio-political and scientific paradigm. It starts from themoment when the economy was mainly viewed as an evil against the environment, to the pointwhen the new sustainable development, or eco-development, is developed. Then the paperpresents the present, and most important, ways that several public and private actions attemptto develop their economic activities guided by this paradigm, emphasising the Brazilian context.

Social Media for Environmental Sustainability Awareness in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Hamid, Suraya; Ijab, Mohamad Taha; Sulaiman, Hidayah; Anwar, Rina Md.; Norman, Azah Anir

2017-01-01

Purpose: The explosion of social media use such as Facebook among higher education students is deemed to have great potential in widely disseminating environmental sustainability awareness. The paper aims to capture, summarise, synthesise and comment on the role of social media to garner interest of students and staff on environmental…

Rapid Urban Growth and Land Use Patterns in Doha, Qatar: Opportunities for Sustainability?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vivek Shandas

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Amidst chaotic growth of Asian cities, the expansion of urban infrastructure in the Middle East's Gulf region is arguably outpacing any other region on the planet. Yet we have a limited understanding of the types of urban form or the extent to which this rapid urbanization is giving rise to sustainable patterns of growth. We ask, what is the pace and character of urban growth in one Middle East city, Doha, Qatar. By using remotely sensed imagery from 1987 to 2013, we examined the pace, quality, and characteristics of urban growth. We further use the results to create a typology of urban growth that integrates historical and spatial dimensions for describing the qualitative aspects of growth and its implications on regional landscapes. Our results suggest that Doha is creating development patterns similar to many Western cities, and that planners may need to consider whether the emerging urban form offers opportunities for more sustainable growth in the future.

Ethical Internationalisation in Higher Education: Interfaces with International Development and Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Pashby, Karen; de Oliveira Andreotti, Vanessa

2016-01-01

This analysis is situated within a larger project focusing on ethics and internationalisation in higher education. Internationalisation is occurring at a fast pace and encompasses overlapping and contradictory aims largely framed by market imperatives. At the same time, institutions of higher education increasingly promote sustainability. We use a…

Sustainable Economic Growth: a Perspective for Macedonia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sevil Rexhepi

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Retrospective analysis shows that since 1990’s, ex-socialist economies were in transition. This process was multidimensional and had deep roots. In most transition economies, output (GDP is determined by the availability of labour, capital and their productivity (TFP. Hence, these indicators are not generating the business cycles, which is typical for market economies in the long-term. At this point, it is vital to understand the reasons of low-level of capital accumulation in transition economies in order to find opportunities to make better use of physical, human and social capital. Furthermore, it is observed that in these economies, institutions needed to be re-established or the rules of the game needed to be changed to regulate incentive structures that will lead to growth. The main objective of this research is to identify the peculiarity of economic growth in Macedonia and to examine if achieving smart growth in long-term is possible; which is supported by fundamental notions of sustainable development.

Role of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria in Agricultural Sustainability-A Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Vejan, Pravin; Abdullah, Rosazlin; Khadiran, Tumirah; Ismail, Salmah; Nasrulhaq Boyce, Amru

2016-04-29

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) shows an important role in the sustainable agriculture industry. The increasing demand for crop production with a significant reduction of synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides use is a big challenge nowadays. The use of PGPR has been proven to be an environmentally sound way of increasing crop yields by facilitating plant growth through either a direct or indirect mechanism. The mechanisms of PGPR include regulating hormonal and nutritional balance, inducing resistance against plant pathogens, and solubilizing nutrients for easy uptake by plants. In addition, PGPR show synergistic and antagonistic interactions with microorganisms within the rhizosphere and beyond in bulk soil, which indirectly boosts plant growth rate. There are many bacteria species that act as PGPR, described in the literature as successful for improving plant growth. However, there is a gap between the mode of action (mechanism) of the PGPR for plant growth and the role of the PGPR as biofertilizer-thus the importance of nano-encapsulation technology in improving the efficacy of PGPR. Hence, this review bridges the gap mentioned and summarizes the mechanism of PGPR as a biofertilizer for agricultural sustainability.

Stock Market and Sustainable Economic Growth in Nigeria

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Erasmus L Owusu

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the relationship between stock market evolution and sustainable economic growth in Nigeria. The study employs Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL-bounds testing approach and a combined stock market indicators index to examine the relationship. The paper finds that, in the long run, stock markets have no positive and at best mixed effect on economic growth in Nigeria. This finding supports the numerous past studies, which have reported negative/mixed or inconclusive results on the effects of stock markets on economic growth. The paper, therefore, concludes that, there is the need for increasing financial deepening and the removal of bottlenecks in the financial sectors of the economy by providing further public and institutional education on the value of stock markets for economic development.

Ecological network analysis for economic systems: growth and development and implications for sustainable development.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jiali; Ulanowicz, Robert E

2014-01-01

The quantification of growth and development is an important issue in economics, because these phenomena are closely related to sustainability. We address growth and development from a network perspective in which economic systems are represented as flow networks and analyzed using ecological network analysis (ENA). The Beijing economic system is used as a case study and 11 input-output (I-O) tables for 1985-2010 are converted into currency networks. ENA is used to calculate system-level indices to quantify the growth and development of Beijing. The contributions of each direct flow toward growth and development in 2010 are calculated and their implications for sustainable development are discussed. The results show that during 1985-2010, growth was the main attribute of the Beijing economic system. Although the system grew exponentially, its development fluctuated within only a small range. The results suggest that system ascendency should be increased in order to favor more sustainable development. Ascendency can be augmented in two ways: (1) strengthen those pathways with positive contributions to increasing ascendency and (2) weaken those with negative effects.

Driving factors of urban land growth in Guangzhou and its implications for sustainable development

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Xuezhu; Li, Shaoying; Wang, Xuetong; Xue, Xiaolong

2018-04-01

Since 2000, China's urban land has expanded at a dramatic speed because of the country's rapid urbanization. The country has been experiencing unbalanced development between rural and urban areas, causing serious challenges such as agricultural security and land resources waste. Effectively evaluating the driving factors of urban land growth is essential for improving efficient land use management and sustainable urban development. This study established a principal component regression model based on eight indicators to identify their influences on urban land growth in Guangzhou. The results provided a grouping analysis of the driving factors, and found that economic growth, urban population, and transportation development are the driving forces of urban land growth of Guangzhou, while the tertiary industry has an opposite effect. The findings led to further suggestions and recommendations for urban sustainable development. Hence, local governments should design relevant policies for achieving the rational development of urban land use and strategic planning on urban sustainable development.

Higher education : Features, trends and needs in relation to sustainability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maragakis, A.; Van den Dobbelsteen, A.A.J.F.

2013-01-01

The progress of sustainability within higher education has steadily increased in focus over the last decade and has increasingly become a topic of academic research. With various scholars, journals and conferences exclusively dealing with the subject, a wealth of literature has been produced on best

The Use of Biofuel for Sustainable Growth in Developing Countries

Science.gov (United States)

Tsang, J.

2014-12-01

The biofuel industry is divided into four categories comprising of feedstocks used in 1st and 2nd generation bioethanol and biodiesel. In order to identify and quantify each biofuel feedstock's potential for sustainable growth, each were evaluated according to self-developed social, financial, and environmental criteria. From the investigation and analysis carried out, 1st generation biodiesel and bioethanol were determined to be feedstocks not capable of facilitating sustainable growth. Results showed low earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of -0.5 to 1 USD per gallon for biodiesel and 0.25 to 0.5 USD per gallon for bioethanol. Results also showed a poor return on asset (ROA). The energy required to produce one MJ of 1st generation biofuel fuel was at least 0.4 MJ, showing poor energy balance. Furthermore, high land, water, pesticide, and fertilizer requirements strained surrounding ecosystems by affecting the food web, thus reducing biodiversity. Over 55% of land used by the biodiesel industry in Indonesia and Malaysia involved the deforestation of local rainforests. This not only displaced indigenous organisms from their habitat and decreased their scope of nutrition, but also contributed to soil erosion and increased the probability of flooding. If left unregulated, imbalances in the ecosystem due to unsustainable growth will result in a permanent reshaping of tropical rainforest ecosystems in Southeast Asia. Algae, an example of 2nd generation biodiesel feedstock, was concluded to be the biofuel feedstock most capable of supporting sustainable growth. This is due to its low production costs of $1-1.5/gal, high biological productivity of 5000 gallons of biodiesel per acre per year, and high ROA of 25-35%. Additionally, algae's adaptability to varying environmental conditions also makes it an appealing candidate for businesses in developing countries, where access to resource supplies is unstable. Additionally, its reduced net

The Equity Challenge in China's Higher Education Finance Policy

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Fengshou; Barrientos, Armando

2009-01-01

Sustaining China's rapid economic growth in the future will come to depend in large part on the quantity and quality of the human resources it can mobilize. The paper considers the prospects for higher education financing, and highlights the importance of improving equity in access to higher education as a precondition for a sustainable expansion…

BUILDING NEW BUSINESS MODELS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taco C. R. van Someren

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Considered are issues of methodology and methods, as well as ideology of strategic innovation. Using the tools of this approach is offered as mechanisms to develop and build business models for sustainable socio-economic economic growth and development of different regions. The connection between key problems of sustainable development and management policy of different economic entities is studied. The consultancy company Ynnovate’s experience in addressing these issues in the EU and China is shown. It is offered to the use its experience and tools in exploring the areas of cross-border economic cooperation between territories of the Russian Far East and China

Supporting the Integration of Sustainability into Higher Education Curricula—A Case Study from Switzerland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sandra Wilhelm Hamiti

2014-05-01

Full Text Available From the perspective of different stakeholders, education for sustainable development (ESD in higher education is highly desirable. In practice, however, this may present challenges, as it involves systemic and cultural changes as well as organizational transformation. A working group at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences supported such a transformative process with the aim of fostering, linking and subsequently deepening the dimensions of sustainable development in the existing curricula. By means of an assessment tool (spider diagram developed through a bottom-up action research procedure, the working group initiated a discussion on sustainability among university lecturers, research associates and students. Results support the hypothesis that resistance to incorporating dimensions of sustainability into the curriculum can effectively be avoided by such an approach. The effectiveness of the assessment tool increased the commitment and the willingness of lecturers to share a common goal of demonstrating the relevance of sustainability in higher education.

The WHS Designation—A Factor of Sustainable Tourism Growth for Romanian Rural Areas?

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Corneliu Iațu

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The presence of World Heritage Sites has been frequently used as a mean of tourism promotion and increased attractiveness. However, previous studies showed contradictory results regarding the territorial impact of World Heritage Sites, and very few researchers discussed their impact in Eastern Europe. This paper examines how the presence of World Heritage Sites in rural localities influenced the tourism growth and sustainable development in Romania after 2000. Independent Sample t-test was used to analyse the evolution of tourism and sustainable development indicators between 2001 and 2016. The results suggest an absence of a positive effect induced by World Heritage Sites in rural areas. It seems that, by itself, the brand has not enough power to sustain tourist attractiveness if it is not endorsed by national, regional, and local initiatives. These findings lead a discussion about how certain sites managed to induce a sustained tourism growth while others failed to do so.

Publication Growth in Biological Sub-Fields: Patterns, Predictability and Sustainability

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Marco Pautasso

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Biologists are producing ever-increasing quantities of papers. The question arises of whether current rates of increase in scientific outputs are sustainable in the long term. I studied this issue using publication data from the Web of Science (1991–2010 for 18 biological sub-fields. In the majority of cases, an exponential regression explains more variation than a linear one in the number of papers published each year as a function of publication year. Exponential growth in publication numbers is clearly not sustainable. About 75% of the variation in publication growth among biological sub-fields over the two studied decades can be predicted by publication data from the first six years. Currently trendy fields such as structural biology, neuroscience and biomaterials cannot be expected to carry on growing at the current pace, because in a few decades they would produce more papers than the whole of biology combined. Synthetic and systems biology are problematic from the point of view of knowledge dissemination, because in these fields more than 80% of existing papers have been published over the last five years. The evidence presented here casts a shadow on how sustainable the recent increase in scientific publications can be in the long term.

Stakeholders Perceptions of a Universal Sustainability Assessment in Higher Education--A Review of Empirical Evidence

Science.gov (United States)

Maragakis, Antonios; van den Dobbelsteen, Andy; Maragakis, Alexandros

2016-01-01

The progress of sustainability within higher education has steadily increased in focus over the last decade and has increasingly become a topic of academic research. As institutions investigate, implement and market sustainability efforts, there is a myriad of sustainability assessment methodologies currently available. This assortment of…

Leadership for Sustainability Perceptions in Higher Education Institutions in Oman

Science.gov (United States)

Hussain, Sadiq; Albarwani, Thuwayba

2015-01-01

This study explores leadership in higher education institutions in Oman where education for sustainability issues are a high priority. The Vice-chancellor of the premier university Sultan Qaboos University, Qaboos Sultanate of Oman, and his four senior management team members answer the following question: What are the concrete steps which have…

The Implementation of Sustainability Practices in Portuguese Higher Education Institutions

Science.gov (United States)

Aleixo, Ana Marta; Azeiteiro, Ulisses; Leal, Susana

2018-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to analyze the current state of implementation of sustainability development (SD) in Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs). Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was developed to measure the level of implementation of SD practices in HEIs as well as the number of rankings, certifications and…

Genetically Modified Crops: Towards Agricultural Growth, Agricultural Development, or Agricultural Sustainability?

OpenAIRE

Azadi, Hossein; Ghanian, Mansour; Ghuchani, Omid M.; Rafiaani, Parisa; Taning, Clauvis N. T.; Hajivand, Roghaye Y.; Dogot, Thomas

2015-01-01

The present debate on how to increase global food production in a sustainable way has focused on arguments over the pros and cons of genetically modified (GM) crops. Scientists in both public and private sectors clearly regard GM technology as a major new set of tools, whereas industry sees it as an opportunity for increased profits. However, it remains questionable whether GM crops can contribute to agricultural growth, agricultural development, and agricultural sustainability. This review p...

Method-Based Higher Education in Sustainability: The Potential of the Scenario Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard Beecroft

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Both sustainability and education are challenging process-oriented objectives. When the aim is to combine both notions, as in Higher Education in Sustainability (HES, it is indispensable to first establish a common ground between them. In this paper, we characterise this common ground in terms of four aspects: future orientation, normativity, global perspective, and theory engaged in practice. Based on an analysis of the common ground, one method that is well-established in a wide range of sustainability sciences shows high potential for use in HES because it covers all four aspects in detail: the scenario method. We argue that a didactical reconstruction of the scenario method is necessary to utilise its potential and develop adequate forms of teaching in higher education. The scenario method is used to construct and analyse a set of alternative future developments to support decisions that have to be made in the present. Didactical reconstruction reveals a spectrum of objectives for which the scenario method can be employed: (1 projection; (2 teleological planning and (3 an explorative search for possibilities not yet considered. By studying and experimenting with this spectrum of objectives, students in HES can develop fundamental reflexive competencies in addressing the future in different ways that are relevant for both sustainability and education.

Greening academia: Developing sustainable waste management at Higher Education Institutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, N.; Williams, I.D.; Kemp, S.; Smith, N.F.

2011-01-01

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are often the size of small municipalities. Worldwide, the higher education (HE) sector has expanded phenomenally; for example, since the 1960s, the United Kingdom (UK) HE system has expanded sixfold to >2.4 million students. As a consequence, the overall production of waste at HEIs throughout the world is very large and presents significant challenges as the associated legislative, economic and environmental pressures can be difficult to control and manage. This paper critically reviews why sustainable waste management has become a key issue for the worldwide HE sector to address and describes some of the benefits, barriers, practical and logistical problems. As a practical illustration of some of the issues and problems, the four-phase waste management strategy developed over 15 years by one of the largest universities in Southern England - the University of Southampton (UoS) - is outlined as a case study. The UoS is committed to protecting the environment by developing practices that are safe, sustainable and environmentally friendly and has developed a practical, staged approach to manage waste in an increasingly sustainable fashion. At each stage, the approach taken to the development of infrastructure (I), service provision (S) and behavior change (B) is explained, taking into account the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental (PESTLE) factors. Signposts to lessons learned, good practice and useful resources that other institutions - both nationally and internationally - can access are provided. As a result of the strategy developed at the UoS, from 2004 to 2008 waste costs fell by around Pounds 125k and a recycling rate of 72% was achieved. The holistic approach taken - recognizing the PESTLE factors and the importance of a concerted ISB approach - provides a realistic, successful and practical example for other institutions wishing to effectively and sustainably manage their waste.

Exploring sustainable behavior structure in higher education a socio-psychology confirmatory approach

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Juárez-Nájera, Margarita

2015-01-01

This book presents a social-psychology model delineating the factors that may influence in an altruistic manner sustainable behaviour (SB) of students, faculty and administrators in four higher education institutions (HEI) with very different economic and social characteristics. It presents the areas where these individuals work (education and community management), and in which of them education for sustainability is promoted, focusing on four alternative methods of learning: play, art, group therapy, and personnel management. The book is intended for bachelors and graduated students, as well as researchers in social psychology, environmental psychology, conservation psychology, environmental education, education for sustainable development, cross-cultural psychology, and social sciences.

Sustainable Leadership, Organizational Trust on Job Satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from Higher Education Institutions in Syria

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Serene Dalati

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This research develops a theoretical model of sustainable leadership, organizational trust and satisfaction at work in higher education environment in Syria. The model assesses staff perception of outstanding leadership behaviors and examines its relationship with perceived organizational trust in the field of higher education institutions in Syria. This research examines a conceptual framework identifying outstanding leadership styles and behaviors which are associated with sustainable leadership, organisational trust identified by members’ trust in their coworkers, and job satisfaction at an institutional level. The research methodology applied in this research develops a quantitative approach through application of questionnaire survey. To measure the dimensionality of scale factors an exploratory factor analysis is conducted. Reliability analysis is performed, Cronbach alpha test indicates that the research scales are internally consistent. The sample of the study employed a convenience sample from higher education institutions. The managerial implication of the research study recommends application and adoption of sustainable leadership behaviors among functional, mid and senior levels of managers and academics in management positions in higher education institutions. The limitation of research is mainly indicated in the sample size and measurement scales of sustainable leadership, organizational trust and job satisfaction.

EU policy: Which technological strategies for smart, sustainable growth?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liberali, Raffaele; )

2011-01-01

The EU's Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) was launched in November 2007 in response to issues having to do with energy and the climate. Its priority is to speed up the development and deployment of new energy technology thanks to a global approach providing coordination among member states. This plan is to position Europe as a world leader in the transition toward smart, sustainable growth

Quality Assurance in Higher Technical Education and the Context of Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development

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Olufunmilayo T. Iyunade, Ph.D

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Recent empirical evidences on higher technical education at a national scale focused on the relevance, student’s poor perception, low enrolment and progression rates, and the growing impact of globalization on the management of higher technical and vocational education with little or no reference point to the factor of quality assurance. This paper therefore correlates quality assurance factors in higher technical education and the context of youth empowerment for sustainable development. A survey of public technical colleges was done in Ogun State. From an estimate population of 637 final year students and 28 instructors and management staff, a simple of 376 students and 17 instructors and management staff were selected using the stratify random sampling technique. A 4-point rating scale validated questionnaires tagged: ‘Higher Technical Education, Youth Empowerment and Sustainable Development Scale (HTEYESDS (r=0.79, complemented with focus Group Discussion (FGD was used for data collection. Three research questions were raised and answered. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics of Pearson correlation, multiple regression and analysis of variance at 0.05 apha level. Results showed that poor quality assurance limits the capacity of higher technical education in the empowerment of youth for sustainable development (82.6%. Quality assurance factors significantly correlated with higher technical education in the empowerment of youth for sustainable development (r=0.188; P < 0.05. It was therefore recommended that government should neither neglect nor compromise the factors of quality assurance in higher technical education as they predicts youth empowerment drive in the system.

SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH THROUGH EXTERNAL TRADE

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Valentina Vasile

2016-12-01

Full Text Available A country’s economic growth is directly influenced by the external trade activity, which is considered by the majority of economists as one of the main engines of a country. How international trade can contributes to a sustainable development of a country depends broadly on the economic policies as well as on global and regional strategies to support the actions for this objective. The high level political meeting of United Nations Organization’s Member States in September 2015 has as aim the adoption of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes global economic, social and environmental goals. Any strategy or global policy influences, of course, in a direct way the international trade activities, by how these measures affect or determine relations between states to achieve the sustainable development objectives. Being involved in all sectors of economic and social life to achieve these noble goals, foreign trade is of course on the list of key areas as well as on the list of the domains being influenced by the global strategy adopted in the framework of the largest summit of its kind in the history of the United Nations. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of external trade activity of Romania, taking into account the characteristics of companies involved in exports and imports of goods in Romania as well as to identify the key areas to be further developed for a sustainable development of national economy based on export activity. Romania's sustainable development can be achieved in the medium and long term by complementary and converging actions such as increased expenditure on research and development field, attracting as a priority the Greenfield investments, increasing productivity of national capital (human, natural, technological or ensure the efficiency at microeconomic and macroeconomic level. Increasing the share of products and activities using a small amount of energy and material resources but which

The Bidirectional Causality between Country-Level Governance, Economic Growth and Sustainable Development: A Cross-Country Data Analysis

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Cristina Boţa-Avram

2018-02-01

Full Text Available In the context of contemporary society, characterized by the information users’ growing and differentiated needs, the way country-level governance and social responsibility contribute to the ensuring of sustainable economic development is a concern for all the actors of the economic sphere. The aim of this paper is to test the causal linkages between the quality of country-level governance, economic growth and a well-known indicator of economic sustainable development, for a large panel of world-wide countries for a period of 10 years (2006–2015. While there are some prior studies that have argued the bidirectional causality between good public governance and economic development, this study intends to provide a new focus on the relationship between country-level governance and economic growth, on one hand, and between country-level governance and adjusted net savings, as a selected indicator of economic sustainable development, on the other hand. Four hypotheses on the causal relationship between good governance, economic growth and sustainable development were tested by using Granger non-causality tests. Our findings resulting from Granger non-causality tests provide reasonable evidence of Granger causality from country-level governance to economic growth, but from economic growth to country-level governance, the causality is not confirmed. In what regards the relationship between country-level governance and adjusted net savings, the bidirectional Granger causality is not confirmed. The main implication of our study is that improving economic growth and sustainable development is a very challenging issue, and the impact of macro-level factors such as country-level governance should not be neglected.

Sustainability Design in Higher Education: Curriculum, Teaching Methods, and Program Integration

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Sydow, Brooke C.

2012-01-01

Due to the growing problems of an unsustainable world, this qualitative, phenomenological study was designed to investigate the process of developing and integrating sustainability curriculum into general education requirements in higher education. The researcher interviewed six participants from different parts of the world who had first-hand…

Sustainable energy prices and growth. Comparing macroeconomic and backcasting scenarios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahlroth, Sofia; Hoejer, Mattias

2007-01-01

How do results from the sustainability research world of backcasting relate to the macroeconomic scenarios used for policy evaluation and planning? The answer is that they do not, mostly - they come from different scientific traditions and are not used in the same contexts. Yet they often deal with the same issues. We believe that much can be gained by bringing the two systems of thinking together. This paper is a first attempt to do so, by making qualitative comparisons between different scenarios and highlighting benefits and limitations to each of them. Why are the pictures we get of the energy future so different if we use a macroeconomic model from when using a backcasting approach based on sustainable energy use? It is evident that the methods for producing those two kinds of scenarios differ a lot, but the main reason behind the different results are found in the starting points rather than in the methods. Baseline assumptions are quite different, as well as the interpretations and importance attached to signals about the future. In this paper, it is discussed how those two types of scenarios differ and how they approach issues such as energy prices and growth. The discussion is based on a comparison between Swedish economic and sustainability scenarios. The economic scenarios aim at being forecasts of the future and are used as decision support for long-term policies. But are the assumptions in the economic scenarios reasonable? The sustainability scenarios are explicitly normative backcasting scenarios. They do not take the issue of growth and consumption fully into account. Could they be developed in this respect? The comparison between the scenarios is also used to look closer at the issue of energy prices in a society with sustainable energy use. One of the questions raised is if a low energy society calls for high energy prices. Moreover, the effects of tradable permits versus energy taxes is analysed in the context of how energy use could be kept low

GREEN INVESTMENT: A STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND INVESTMENT

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Jaya Shukla

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Sustainable economic development has become an important area of concern due to climatic change with its long term effects. Climatic change has posed several challenges for economic sustainability of economies. Now major development projects have to comply with international environmental norms. Failure to do so may result in the delay of a project, fines including penalties for environmental damage or charges for remedial action, that affect the viability of a project or the value of any security taken. This paper investigates with help of secondary date using descriptive statistical technique opportunities and challenges of green investment. Here it is developed into suitable model for developing economies for successfully adopting green investment without much cost to their economies. The paper concludes that green investment involving direct investment and portfolio investment in firms adopting and following environmental protection norms will lead to sustainable growth and investment for economy.

Is ‘Bio-Based’ Activity a Panacea for Sustainable Competitive Growth?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Philippidis, George; M’Barek, Robert; Ferrari, Emanuele

2016-01-01

Taking a European Union focus, this paper explicitly models competing uses of biomass to quantify its contribution toward a sustainable low carbon model of economic growth. To this end, a state-of-the-art multisector multiregion modelling tool is combined with a specially developed bio-based variant

A Business Intelligence Framework for Sustainability Information Management in Higher Education

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Scholtz, Brenda; Calitz, Andre; Haupt, Ross

2018-01-01

Purpose: Higher education institutions (HEIs) face a number of challenges in effectively managing and reporting on sustainability information, such as siloes of data and a limited distribution of information. Business intelligence (BI) can assist in addressing the challenges faced by organisations. The purpose of this study was to propose a BI…

TOURISM STUDIES IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION IN SWEDEN: FOCUSING ON SUSTAINABILITY

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Olga Milinchuk

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper the Swedish higher tourism education is presented by analyzing the development of tourism education. Descriptive information of English taught University programs has been collected with a purpose to gain a deeper understanding of the general features of tourism higher education in Sweden. Methodology. The paper is based on a web-based content analysis of Swedish universities’ web-sites. In total six master degree programs at five universities were analyzed. Results of the analysis showed that the first Swedish academic program in tourism was opened in 1978 and from its inception tourism education is of growing significance. Instead of the higher number of degree programs in tourism, which are taught in Swedish, there is a limited number of those taught in English. Just one Bachelor Programme is taught in English in International Tourism is developed at Dalarna University and one Ph.D. Programme in Tourism is developed at Mid Sweden University. Master programs related to tourism are offered at Dalarna University, Linnaeus University, Lund University, Mid Sweden University, and Umeå University. Based on the curricula analysis of these programs, five main themes are identified: 1 tourism as a social phenomenon; 2 sustainable development of tourism; 3 tourism destination development; 4 economics of tourism, and 5 tourism through service studies. The findings show that the major university programs in tourism adopt an interdisciplinary approach, which combines elements of social sciences, humanities, and business administration. According to the observed curricula, the view on tourism as on social phenomenon prevails. In the studying process, the concept of sustainable development and classical social concepts such as ethnicity, gender, class, culture, and power relations are widely integrated into different tourism courses, making the programs comprehensive, and attractive for international students. The recognition of the tourism

Technical conditions for sustainable growth in economic theory. An analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Granda C, Catalina

2008-01-01

Economic theory and its models point out returns to scale, substitution among productive factors and technological progress as conditions for sustainable growth. This work aims at a critical appraisal of these conditions, particularly the ones related to substitution between natural resources and manmade capital and technical change, by recognizing the inevitable physical scarcity of resources concomitant to the human actions in a world governed by hemodynamic restrictions. To do so, the role that the mentioned conditions play in the theories of economic growth with resources is analyzed, and its limitations and objections from a biophysical perspective are indicated as well. Finally, a brief consideration as to how inappropriate the theoretical representations of economic activities are to take account of growth in spite of resource exhaustion or degradation is carried out

SUSTAINABLE GROWTH OF THE COMMERCIAL AVIATION INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA USING A SYSTEM DYNAMICS APPROACH

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B. S. TAN

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The environmental impact of the commercial aviation industry for an emerging economy like Malaysia is under-studied. The focus on the subject has thus far concentrated either on non geographical performance of the aviation industry or technical performance of aircrafts and that leaves the sustainability of the commercial aviation industry for an economy, or more specifically, an emerging economy least understood. Hence, this paper aims to investigate the sustainability of the growth of the commercial aviation industry in Malaysia and its impact upon the environment using a system dynamics approach. VENSIM is employed to model the commercial aviation industry in Malaysia as a dynamic system to evaluate the CO2 emitted from each component within the industry in order to forecast its overall CO2 emission. Results from the analysis show that sustainable growth can be affected by adopting short and long term strategies identified in this study.

Can galaxy growth be sustained through HI-rich minor mergers?

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Lehnert, M. D.; van Driel, W.; Minchin, R.

2016-05-01

Local galaxies with specific star-formation rates (star-formation rate per unit mass; sSFR ~ 0.2-10 Gyr-1) that are as high as distant galaxies (z ≈ 1-3), are very rich in Hi. Those with low stellar masses, M⋆ = 108-9 M⊙, for example, have MHI/M⋆ ≈ 5-30. Using continuity arguments, whereby the specific merger rate is hypothesized to be proportional to the specific star-formation rate, along with Hi gas mass measurements for local galaxies with high sSFR, we estimate that moderate-mass galaxies, M⋆ = 109-10.5 M⊙, can acquire enough gas through minor mergers (stellar mass ratios ~4-100) to sustain their star formation rates at z ~ 2. The relative fraction of the gas accreted through minor mergers declines with increasing stellar mass, and for the most massive galaxies considered, M⋆ = 1010.5-11 M⊙, this accretion rate is insufficient to sustain their star formation. We checked our minor merger hypothesis at z = 0 using the same methodology, but now with relations for local normal galaxies, and find that minor mergers cannot account for their specific growth rates, in agreement with observations of Hi-rich satellites around nearby spirals. We discuss a number of attractive features, such as a natural downsizing effect, in using minor mergers with extended Hi disks to support star formation at high redshift. The answer to the question posed by the title, "Can galaxy growth be sustained through Hi-rich minor mergers?", is "maybe", but only for relatively low-mass galaxies and at high redshift.

The Future We Want: Key Issues on Sustainable Development in Higher Education after Rio and the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

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Leal Filho, Walter; Manolas, Evangelos; Pace, Paul

2015-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to provide a description of the achievements of the United Nations (UN) Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) with a focus on higher education, and it describes some of the key issues which will guide sustainable development in the coming years. Design/methodology/approach: The paper initially…

Furthering knowledge of seaweed growth and development to facilitate sustainable aquaculture.

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Charrier, Bénédicte; Abreu, Maria Helena; Araujo, Rita; Bruhn, Annette; Coates, Juliet C; De Clerck, Olivier; Katsaros, Christos; Robaina, Rafael R; Wichard, Thomas

2017-12-01

Macroalgae (seaweeds) are the subject of increasing interest for their potential as a source of valuable, sustainable biomass in the food, feed, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Compared with microalgae, the pace of knowledge acquisition in seaweeds is slower despite the availability of whole-genome sequences and model organisms for the major seaweed groups. This is partly a consequence of specific hurdles related to the large size of these organisms and their slow growth. As a result, this basic scientific field is falling behind, despite the societal and economic importance of these organisms. Here, we argue that sustainable management of seaweed aquaculture requires fundamental understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms controlling macroalgal life cycles - from the production of germ cells to the growth and fertility of the adult organisms - using diverse approaches requiring a broad range of technological tools. This Viewpoint highlights several examples of basic research on macroalgal developmental biology that could enable the step-changes which are required to adequately meet the demands of the aquaculture sector. © 2017 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2017 New Phytologist Trust.

Revolutions and Second-Best Solutions: Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education

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Cotton, Debby; Bailey, Ian; Warren, Martyn; Bissell, Susie

2009-01-01

Despite widespread policy support for education for sustainable development in higher education, and a strong academic literature arguing for a radical rethink of curriculum, pedagogy and institutional culture, progress towards the educational reforms advocated remains limited. Based on in-depth interviews with lecturers at a case-study…

The Impact of the Quality of Coal Mine Stockpile Soils on Sustainable Vegetation Growth and Productivity

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Nicky M Mushia

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Stockpiled soils are excavated from the ground during mining activities, and piled on the surface of the soil for rehabilitation purposes. These soils are often characterized by low organic matter (SOM content, low fertility, and poor physical, chemical, and biological properties, limiting their capability for sustainable vegetation growth. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of stockpile soils of differing depth and quality on vegetation growth and productivity. Soils were collected at three different depths (surface, mid, and deep as well as mixed (equal proportion of surface, mid and deep from two stockpiles (named Stockpile 1: aged 10 and Stockpile 2: 20 years at the coal mine near Witbank in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Soils were amended with different organic and inorganic fertilizer. A 2 × 4 × 5 factorial experiment in a completely randomized blocked design with four replications was established under greenhouse conditions. A grass species (Digiteria eriantha was planted in the pots with unamended and amended soils under greenhouse conditions at 26–28 °C during the day and 16.5–18.5 °C at night. Mean values of plant height, plant cover, total fresh biomass (roots, stems and leaves, and total dry biomass were found to be higher in Stockpile 1 than in Stockpile 2 soils. Plants grown on soils with no amendments had lower mean values for major plant parameters studied. Soil amended with poultry manure and lime was found to have higher growth rate compared with soils with other soil amendments. Mixed soils had better vegetation growth than soil from other depths. Stockpiled soils in the study area cannot support vegetation growth without being amended, as evidenced by low grass growth and productivity in this study.

Can Higher Education Foster Economic Growth? Chicago Fed Letter. Number 229

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Mattoon, Richard H.

2006-01-01

Not all observers agree that higher education and economic growth are obvious or necessary complements to each other. The controversy may be exacerbated because of the difficulty of measuring the exact contribution of colleges and universities to economic growth. Recognizing that a model based on local conditions and higher education's response…

Sustainability Assessment of Higher Education Institutions in Saudi Arabia

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Habib M. Alshuwaikhat

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Universities are paramount change drivers in bringing about a culture of sustainability in society by setting themselves up as models and nurseries for sustainable development. Thus, assessment of sustainability integration within universities is key to their impact on sustainable development. This study conducted an assessment of different public sector universities of Saudi Arabia based on five components: (i Teaching and Curriculum; (ii Research and Scholarship; (iii Campus Operations; (iv Management and Community; and (v Financial Management. The sustainability assessment questionnaire (SAQ was utilized as a tool to discern the component-wise sustainability assessment for Saudi universities. The outcomes of the survey reveal that, in stark contrast with the universities of the developed world, offerings of sustainability relevant academic courses in Saudi Arabia are still lacking. Most Saudi universities still need to integrate research and scholarship in the area of sustainability; sustainable-campus operations in the current scenario are not sufficient. The results also reveal that sustainability-related projects are not prioritized within universities and sustainable financial management practices are not significant. This article concludes by proposing some recommendations emphasizing the importance of adopting sustainability practices in Saudi universities.

Teaching Sustainability Using an Active Learning Constructivist Approach: Discipline-Specific Case Studies in Higher Education

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Maria Kalamas Hedden

2017-07-01

Full Text Available In this paper we present our rationale for using an active learning constructivist approach to teach sustainability-related topics in a higher education. To push the boundaries of ecological literacy, we also develop a theoretical model for sustainability knowledge co-creation. Drawing on the experiences of faculty at a major Southeastern University in the United States, we present case studies in architecture, engineering, geography, and marketing. Four Sustainability Faculty Fellows describe their discipline-specific case studies, all of which are project-based learning experiences, and include details regarding teaching and assessment. Easily replicated in other educational contexts, these case studies contribute to the advancement of sustainability education.

Transport system as an element of sustainable economic growth in the tourist region

OpenAIRE

Mrnjavac, Edna

2001-01-01

Transport system is a whole composed of technical, technological, organisational, economic and legislative elements with the aim to perform transfer, loading and unloading of goods and passengers. Taking in consideration that most economic activities demand participation of certain transport system elements, any economic growth is impossible without an adequate transport system development. In order to secure environmental sustainable economic growth the economic policy subjects have to pay s...

Sales Forecasting in the Context of Seasonal Activities and Company Sustainable Growth

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Ion Stancu

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the use of the “time series model” to forecast the quarterly and yearly sales for a company with business seasonality. These sales forecasts will represent the fundamental basis for estimating the external financing, using the percentage to sales method. Sales growth rates are afterwards analysed in the context of ensuring a sustainable and self-financed growth. We focus on establishing the forecasted financial structure of the external financial requirements both in the context of using the reinvested profit complemented with credit, maintaining the debt rate constant, and in the context of total internal funding of the company economic growth, from reinvested profit.

Rewards boost sustained attention through higher effort: A value-based decision making approach.

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Massar, Stijn A A; Lim, Julian; Sasmita, Karen; Chee, Michael W L

2016-10-01

Maintaining sustained attention over time is an effortful process limited by finite cognitive resources. Recent theories describe the role of motivation in the allocation of such resources as a decision process: the costs of effortful performance are weighed against its gains. We examined this hypothesis by combining methods from attention research and decision neuroscience. Participants first performed a sustained attention task at different levels of reward. They then performed a reward-discounting task, measuring the subjective costs of performance. Results demonstrated that higher rewards led to improved performance (Exp 1-3), and enhanced attentional effort (i.e. pupil diameter; Exp 2 & 3). Moreover, discounting curves constructed from the choice task indicated that subjects devalued rewards that came at the cost of staying vigilant for a longer duration (Exp 1 & 2). Motivation can thus boost sustained attention through increased effort, while sustained performance is regarded as a cost against which rewards are discounted. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Employability: A Contemporary Review for Higher Education Stakeholders

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Small, Lynlea; Shacklock, Kate; Marchant, Teresa

2018-01-01

Higher education institutions are under pressure to produce employable graduates who are required to contribute to the sustainability of strong economic growth and development. As such, the onus is on the higher education sector to present graduates to the labour market who are both work ready and have attained employability. This article…

Sustained Angiopoietin-2 Expression Disrupts Vessel Formation and Inhibits Glioma Growth

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Ok-Hee Lee

2006-05-01

Full Text Available Systematic analyses of the expression of angiogenic regulators in cancer models should yield useful information for the development of novel therapies for malignant gliomas. In this study, we analyzed tumor growth, vascularization, and angiopoietin-2 (Ang2 expression during the development of U-87 MG xenografts. We found that tumoral angiogenesis in this model follows a multistage process characterized by avascular, prolific peripheral angiogenesis, and late vascular phases. On day 4, we observed an area of central necrosis, a peripheral ring of Ang2-positive glioma cells, and reactive Ang2-positive vascular structures in the tumor/brain interface. When the tumor had developed a vascular network, Ang2 was expressed only in peripheral vascular structures. Because Ang2 expression was downmodulated in the late stages of development, probably to maintain a stable tumoral vasculature, we next studied whether sustained Ang2 expression might impair vascular development and, ultimately, tumor growth. Ang2 prevented the formation of capillary-like structures and impaired angiogenesis in a chorioallantoic membrane chicken model. Finally, we tested the effect of sustained Ang2 expression on U-87 MG xenograff development. Ang2 significantly prolonged the survival of intracranial U-87 MG tumor-bearing animals. Examination of Ang2treated xenograffs revealed areas of tumor necrosis and vascular damage. We therefore conclude that deregulated Ang2 expression during gliomagenesis hindered successful angiogenesis and that therapies that sustain Ang2 expression might be effective against malignant gliomas.

CHALLENGES TO THE SUSTAINABILITY OF GROWTH FROM THE GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS PERSPECTIVE

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Manuela Unguru

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The Global Competitiveness Index GCI developed by the World Economic Forum is currently a wellknown and most appreciated tool for assessing global competitiveness. This article takes advantage of the complexity and richness of information embedded in this composite indicator to analyze the main challenges arising for the sustainability of growth from the perspective of global competitiveness indicators. After a brief review of the European Union (EU member states’ current state in terms of competitiveness, the investigation is focused on the performance and dynamics of the various competitiveness determinants, that explain, on the one hand, the poor ranking of Romania in the world competitiveness scoreboard and represent, on the other hand, major barriers to sustainable development.

Forced sustained swimming exercise at optimal speed enhances growth of juvenile yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi).

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Palstra, Arjan P; Mes, Daan; Kusters, Kasper; Roques, Jonathan A C; Flik, Gert; Kloet, Kees; Blonk, Robbert J W

2014-01-01

Swimming exercise at optimal speed may optimize growth performance of yellowtail kingfish in a recirculating aquaculture system. Therefore, optimal swimming speeds (U opt in m s(-1) or body lengths s(-1), BL s(-1)) were assessed and then applied to determine the effects of long-term forced and sustained swimming at U opt on growth performance of juvenile yellowtail kingfish. U opt was quantified in Blazka-type swim-tunnels for 145, 206, and 311 mm juveniles resulting in values of: (1) 0.70 m s(-1) or 4.83 BL s(-1), (2) 0.82 m s(-1) or 3.25 BL s(-1), and (3) 0.85 m s(-1) or 2.73 BL s(-1). Combined with literature data from larger fish, a relation of U opt (BL s(-1)) = 234.07(BL)(-0.779) (R (2) = 0.9909) was established for this species. Yellowtail kingfish, either forced to perform sustained swimming exercise at an optimal speed of 2.46 BL s(-1) ("swimmers") or allowed to perform spontaneous activity at low water flow ("resters") in a newly designed 3600 L oval flume (with flow created by an impeller driven by an electric motor), were then compared. At the start of the experiment, ten fish were sampled representing the initial condition. After 18 days, swimmers (n = 23) showed a 92% greater increase in BL and 46% greater increase in BW as compared to resters (n = 23). As both groups were fed equal rations, feed conversion ratio (FCR) for swimmers was 1.21 vs. 1.74 for resters. Doppler ultrasound imaging showed a statistically significant higher blood flow (31%) in the ventral aorta of swimmers vs. resters (44 ± 3 vs. 34 ± 3 mL min(-1), respectively, under anesthesia). Thus, growth performance can be rapidly improved by optimal swimming, without larger feed investments.

The impact of the quality of coal mine stockpile soils on sustainable vegetation growth and productivity

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mushia, NM

2016-06-01

Full Text Available , chemical, and biological properties, limiting their capability for sustainable vegetation growth. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of stockpile soils of differing depth and quality on vegetation growth and productivity. Soils were collected...

The Nexus between Higher Education and Economic Growth: An Empirical Investigation for Pakistan

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Amatul R. Chaudhary

2009-06-01

Full Text Available The study investigates the role of higher education in economic growth for Pakistan between 1972 and 2005 using the application of Johansen Cointegration and Toda & Yamamoto (1995 Causality approach in Vector Autoregressive (VAR framework. It examines whether higher education affect long run economic growth in Pakistan. The empirical analysis reveals that there is a long run relationship between economic growth and higher education, which suggests that these variables are necessary for each other. The empirical results of causality test indicate that there exists a unidirectional causality running from economic growth to higher education and no other direction of causality found between these variables.

Sustainability in Higher Education's Annual Reports: An Empirical Study on Australian and Austrian Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Schaffhauser-Linzatti, Michaela Maria; Ossmann, Stefan F.

2018-01-01

Purpose: Higher education institutions are regarded as forerunners and pioneers of sustainability. However, it is to question whether they actually fulfill their role model function. This paper aims to reveal whether selected universities in Australia and Austria meet the reporting expectations about their activities on sustainability in very…

Sustainability and Built Environment: The role of Higher Education in Architecture and Building Engineering

OpenAIRE

Emilia Conte

2016-01-01

The sustainability paradigm implies a cultural shift in order to really change the world and society. Education, and specifically higher education, plays the crucial role of preparing students to be not only responsible citizens but also actors and promoters of processes and actions for a sustainable development. This is important in general and even more significant in architecture and engineering fields, as those students will be the designers of the built environment of tomorrow.This paper...

USING THE SYNERGY OF ALLIANCES AND PARTNERSHIP FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

OpenAIRE

Elena DOVAL; Oriana DOVAL

2010-01-01

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate by searching the literature that the synergy of different types of alliances and partnership brings much more opportunities for the sustainable growth of the companies. After a briefing about definitions, types and purpose of alliances and partnership the paper reminds the process of alliances and partnership formation and emphasises the main advantages and limits of alliances and partnership Finally, a new type of company is defined, i.e. ‘the s...

Sustainable Mineral-Intensive Growth in Odisha, India

Science.gov (United States)

Nayak, S.

2012-04-01

The focus of the work is to highlight the present environmental and social impacts of extensive mining on the health of the common people of Odisha. The mining activities have created havoc impact to the environment and social life of the state. Odisha has huge deposits of ores and minerals of chromite, nickel, bauxite, iron, coal, copper, manganese, graphite, vanadium etc. The mining activities have encouraged rapid urbanization and at the same time have altered the topography of these areas and extensively degraded the forest land. For long term sustainable development of the society, it is necessary to take a balanced and integrated approach towards environmental protection and economic advancement. Industries should aim at achieving their goals, through a system of permits based on best available techniques, which gives emphasis on integrated prevention and control of consumption of energy and water as well as pollution of water, air and soil. The rapid industrial growth has brought promising opportunities for economic development and poverty reduction in Odisha but at the same time has caused extensive environmental degradation. The best management practices to deal with environmental and social impacts on mineral-intensive growth are suggested in this work. In addition to lean technology, economic implications of the introduction of environmental technologies for mining activities are also discussed.

Scenario analysis for sustainable development of Chongming Island: water resources sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Ni, Xiong; Wu, Yanqing; Wu, Jun; Lu, Jian; Wilson, P Chris

2012-11-15

With the socioeconomic and urban development of Chongming Island (the largest alluvial island in the world), water demand is rapidly growing. To make adjustments to the water utilization structure of each industry, allocate limited water resources, and increase local water use efficiency, this study performed a scenario analysis for the water sustainability of Chongming Island. Four different scenarios were performed to assess the water resource availability by 2020. The growth rate for water demand will be much higher than that of water supply under a serious situation prediction. The water supply growth volume will be 2.22 × 10(8)m(3) from 2010 to 2020 under Scenario I and Scenario II while the corresponding water demand growth volume will be 2.74 × 10(8)m(3) and 2.64 × 10(8)m(3), respectively. There will be a rapid growth in water use benefit under both high and low development modes. The water use benefit will be about 50 CNY/m(3) under Scenarios I and II in 2020. The production structure will need to be adjusted for sustainable utilization of water resources. Sewage drainage but not the forest and grass coverage rate will be a major obstacle to future development and environmental quality. According to a multi-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, Scenario II is finally deemed to be the most desirable plan, suggesting that the policy of rapid socioeconomic development and better environmental protection may achieve the most sustainable development of Chongming Island in the future. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The sustainability and transition of economic growth in China: from a perspective of factor structure

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Wang Yafei; Wu Xiaohang

2008-01-01

After more than 20 years' high speed growth, the sustainable growth of Chinese economy faces serious lim-itation of resources and factors now and in the future. In order to maintain the economic growth, China has to trans, form the way of economic growth. Based on the analysis on the related theories of economic growth and the structur-al transformation in factors of production, this paper proposes that the transformation of the economic growth way has to impel the optimization and the promotion of the utilization structure of factors of production. Finally, based on the analysis of the necessity to change the pattern of economic growth, this paper proposes the strategic measures to promote the continuous economic growth and the transformation of patterns of economic growth.

The Transformation of Traditional Universities into Entrepreneurial Universities to Ensure Sustainable Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Bikse, Veronika; Lusena-Ezera, Inese; Rivza, Baiba; Volkova, Tatjana

2016-01-01

This paper aims to investigate the experience and to identify the drivers of transforming traditional universities into Entrepreneurial Universities for ensuring sustainable higher education in Latvia. Due to the wide scope, Entrepreneurial University characteristics, the present research study is limited and focuses on the university providing…

Why higher economic growth cannot always enhance human development

OpenAIRE

Ahmed, Md Montasir

2017-01-01

This paper studies why higher economic growth cannot always enhance human development. In general, these two dimensions have a strong and positive relationship, but some countries appear unable to balance this relationship. As a consequence, there are some countries with high economic growth but sluggish human development progress. This paper studies how other factors besides GDP – women labor force participation, urbanization, and inequality - are correlated to human development. I construct...

The United States after the great recession: the challenge of sustainable growth

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meltzer, Joshua [The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (United States); Steven, David [The Brookings Institution Center and the Center on International Cooperation at New York University (United States); Langley, Claire [The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC (United States)

2013-02-15

The paper outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. economic growth model, assesses its’ ability to respond to the key economic, environmental and social challenges currently facing the U.S. and proposes policies that if adopted would move the U.S. onto a more sustainable growth path. The paper provides scenarios of projected future growth trajectories, as well as recommendations for specific policies in key areas: employment, infrastructure, energy and fiscal rebalancing. To reach this goal this paper focuses on four areas for action: Increasing employment, which is the most urgent priority to accelerate recovery from the Great Recession, while addressing underlying structural issues that have led to a decade of poor economic outcomes for most citizens; Investing in the future, as the key marker of whether the United States is prepared to make farsighted decisions to improve education, build new infrastructure and increase innovation; Maximizing an increased energy endowment in a way that grows the economy, while reinforcing the trend towards reducing resource demand and reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and, Fiscal rebalancing, where the United States must insulate economic recovery from the process of fiscal reform while reducing and stabilizing debt over the long term. Finally, we argue that President Obama can re-energize America’s global leadership if he builds on a platform of domestic actions that enhance the sustainability of America’s society and economy.

Higher Education and the Minerals Boom: A View from the Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Philip

2014-01-01

This paper examines the impact of the minerals boom to date on the demand for higher education in Central Queensland, and the sustainability of higher education providers in high economic growth environments. Several datasets were used to examine changes in the demand for higher education among specific student groups within the region, the…

PENGARUH PROFIT MARGIN, ASSETS TURNOVER DAN LEVERAGE TERHADAP SUSTAINABLE GROWTH RATE PADA PERUSAHAAN SEKTOR JASA YANG TERDAFTAR DI BURSA EFEK INDONESIA PERIODE 2010-2012

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arim Nasim

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This study aims to determine the effect of Profit Margin, Assets Turnover and Leverage on Sustainable Growth Rate. The variables used are profit margin, asset turnover and leverage as independent variable and sustainable growth rate as dependent variable. This study also aims to describe the state of profit margin projected by Net Profit Margin (NPM, asset turnover proxied by Total Assets Turnover (TATO, leverage which is proxied by Debt to Equity Ratio (DER and Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR Service sector. This research was conducted on service sector companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange 2010-2012.Data obtained from website Bursa Efek Indonesia.Teknik data analysis used is multiple linear regression and use t-statistics to test the influence of each independent variable to variable Dependent partially.Previously done classical assumption test that includes data normality test, multicolinierity test, heteroskedastisitas test and autocorrelation test.Based on data normality test, multicolinierity test, heteroscedasticity test and autocorrelation test did not found any variables that deviate from the classical assumption.From the results of research Shows that profit margin positively affect sustainable growth rate, asset turnover have positive effect to sustainable growth rate, and leverage have positive effect to sustainable growth rate.

Sustainability Assessment of Higher Education Institutions in Saudi Arabia

OpenAIRE

Habib M. Alshuwaikhat; Yusuf A. Adenle; Bilal Saghir

2016-01-01

Universities are paramount change drivers in bringing about a culture of sustainability in society by setting themselves up as models and nurseries for sustainable development. Thus, assessment of sustainability integration within universities is key to their impact on sustainable development. This study conducted an assessment of different public sector universities of Saudi Arabia based on five components: (i) Teaching and Curriculum; (ii) Research and Scholarship; (iii) Campus Operations; ...

A sustainable myth : A neo-Gramscian perspective on the populist and post-truth tendencies of the European green growth discourse

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stegemann, Laura; Ossewaarde, Marinus

2018-01-01

In the search for environmentally sustainable economic paradigms, the green growth approach has been developed by the EU and economic networks, as part of a wider sustainability discourse. While the EU repeatedly promotes sustainable development in the context of its greened hegemonic economic

Seeking Learning Outcomes Appropriate for "Education for Sustainable Development" and for Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Shephard, Kerry; Harraway, John; Lovelock, Brent; Mirosa, Miranda; Skeaff, Sheila; Slooten, Liz; Strack, Mick; Furnari, Mary; Jowett, Tim; Deaker, Lynley

2015-01-01

This article shares and extends research-based developments at the University of Otago, New Zealand, that seek to explore how students' worldviews change as they experience higher education with us. We emphasise that sustainability attributes may be described in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies but that these are underpinned by…

Justifying the Ivory Tower: Higher Education and State Economic Growth

Science.gov (United States)

Baldwin, J. Norman; McCracken, William A., III

2013-01-01

As the U.S. continues to embrace a comprehensive plan for economic recovery, this article investigates the validity of the claim that investing in higher education will help restore state economic growth and prosperity. It presents the findings from a study that indicates that the most consistent predictors of state economic growth related to…

The impact of CO2 emissions on economic growth: evidence from selected higher CO2 emissions economies.

Science.gov (United States)

Azam, Muhammad; Khan, Abdul Qayyum; Bin Abdullah, Hussin; Qureshi, Muhammad Ejaz

2016-04-01

The main purpose of this work is to analyze the impact of environmental degradation proxied by CO2 emissions per capita along with some other explanatory variables namely energy use, trade, and human capital on economic growth in selected higher CO2 emissions economies namely China, the USA, India, and Japan. For empirical analysis, annual data over the period spanning between 1971 and 2013 are used. After using relevant and suitable tests for checking data properties, the panel fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) method is employed as an analytical technique for parameter estimation. The panel group FMOLS results reveal that almost all variables are statistically significant, whereby test rejects the null hypotheses of non cointegration, demonstrating that all variables play an important role in affecting the economic growth role across countries. Where two regressors namely CO2 emissions and energy use show significantly negative impacts on economic growth, for trade and human capital, they tend to show the significantly positive impact on economic growth. However, for the individual analysis across countries, the panel estimate suggests that CO2 emissions have a significant positive relationship with economic growth for China, Japan, and the USA, while it is found significantly negative in case of India. The empirical findings of the study suggest that appropriate and prudent policies are required in order to control pollution emerging from areas other than liquefied fuel consumption. The ultimate impact of shrinking pollution will help in supporting sustainable economic growth and maturation as well as largely improve society welfare.

SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR MARKET LEADERSHIP AMONGST THE PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTES IN MALAYSIA

OpenAIRE

Loh Teck Hua Author_Email:

2011-01-01

One of Malaysia’s economic goals is to become an education hub for the region. To achieve this, the Malaysian government had liberalised government policies resulting in the proliferation of Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) including private Universities and University Colleges. As competition intensifies it becomes increasingly pertinent to ask “What sustainable competitive advantage should the Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) have to achieve market leadership in th...

Management Strategies for Sustainability Education, Planning, Design, Energy Conservation in California Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Petratos, Panagiotis; Damaskou, Evangelia

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the effects of campus sustainability planning to annual campus energy inflows and outflows in California higher education. The paper also offers a preliminary statistical analysis for the evaluation of impact factors on energy outflows and a link between energy outflows and building…

Constraints on dematerialisation and allocation of natural capital along a sustainable growth path

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rodrigues, Joao; Domingos, Tiago [Seccao de Ambiente e Energia-DEM, IST, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, Lisboa 1049-001 (Portugal); Conceicao, Pedro [Center for Innovation, Technology, and Policy Research, IST, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, Lisboa 1049-001 (Portugal); Belbute, Jose [Department of Economics, University of Evora, Evora (Portugal)

2005-09-15

To study societal and biophysical constraints on sustainability, we present an extension of the neoclassical growth model with two new concepts: allocation of natural capital and dematerialisation. We consider that anthropogenic environmental impact is correlated with the material throughput of the economy (materialisation) and that, due to composition change and innovation, this throughput can be reduced-the process of dematerialisation. We also consider that the allocation of natural capital to production negatively affects the endogenous dynamics of ecosystems, reducing the total amount of environmental services ecosystems provide. According to our model, it is possible to achieve unbounded economic growth by keeping the natural system in steady state. Balanced growth, however, is only possible for special parameter values.

Computational modeling of the mechanical modulation of the growth plate by sustained loading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Narváez-Tovar Carlos A

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract This paper presents a computational model that describes the growth of the bone as a function of the proliferation and hypertrophy of chondrocytes in the growth plate. We have included the effects of the mechanical loads on the sizes of the proliferative and hypertrophic areas, the number of proliferative chondrocytes and the final size of the hypertrophic chondrocytes. The validation of the model was performed with experimental data published on other investigations about proximal tibia of rats, subjected to sustained axial stresses of 0.1 MPa, 0.0 MPa, -0.1 MPa and −0.2 MPa. Growth was simulated during 23 days, obtaining numerical errors between 2.77% and 3.73% with respect to experimental growth rates. The results obtained show that the model adequately simulates the behavior of the growth plate and the effect of mechanical loads over its cellular activity.

Four Sustainability Goals in a Swedish Low-Growth/Degrowth Context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eléonore Fauré

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Continual environmental degradation and an unfair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits are two great challenges for humanity. Economic growth is often taken for granted when planning for the future. However, it is often argued that maintaining economic growth conflicts with keeping human activities adjusted to ecological boundaries and finite resources, at least for the more-developed countries. With this paper, we present sustainability goals for building and planning in Sweden to be achieved by 2050 in a context of limited or even negative economic growth. These goals should ensure that all groups in society have sufficient resources and a good life within planetary boundaries. We select four goals in a participatory process: two environmental goals related to climate change and land use and two social goals related to welfare and participation. Our results show that achieving the environmental goals will require significant reductions of Sweden’s greenhouse gas (GHG emissions and land use compared to today’s levels. Regarding the social goals, these are, in many aspects, reasonably well fulfilled in Sweden today, although disparities remain between groups of citizens. The main challenge, however, is to ensure that these goals are fulfilled even within environmental limits and if economic growth should halt.

Effects of Population Growth and Climate Variability on Sustainable Groundwater in Mali, West Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandra Lutz

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Groundwater is increasingly relied on as a source of potable water in developing countries, but factors such as population growth, development, and climate variability, pose potential challenges for ongoing sustainable supply. The effect of these factors on the groundwater system was considered in four scenarios using a numerical model to represent the Bani area of Mali, West Africa. By 2040, population growth, climate variability, and development as urbanization, agriculture, and industry creates scenarios in which groundwater extraction is an increasingly larger percentage of the groundwater system. Consumption from agriculture and industry increases extraction rates from less than 1 to 3.8% of mean annual precipitation, which will likely affect the groundwater system. For instance, concentrated pumping in local areas may result in water level declines. The results of this study contribute to an ongoing evaluation of sustainable groundwater resources in West Africa.

Forced sustained swimming exercise at optimal speed enhances growth of juvenile yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arjan P. Palstra

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Swimming exercise at optimal speed may optimize growth performance of yellowtail kingfish in a recirculating aquaculture system. Therefore, optimal swimming speeds (Uopt in m s-1 or body lengths s-1, BL s-1 were assessed and then applied to determine the effects of long-term forced and sustained swimming at Uopt on growth performance of juvenile yellowtail kingfish. Uopt was quantified in Blazka-type swim-tunnels for 145 mm, 206 mm and 311 mm juveniles resulting in values of: 1 0.70 m s-1 or 4.83 BL s-1, 2 0.82 m s-1 or 3.25 BL s-1 and 3 0.85 m s-1 or 2.73 BL s-1. Combined with literature data from larger fish, a relation of Uopt (BL s-1 = 234.07(BL-0.779 (R2= 0.9909 was established for this species. Yellowtail kingfish, either forced to perform sustained swimming exercise at an optimal speed of 2.46 BL s-1 (‘swimmers’ or allowed to perform spontaneous activity at low water flow (‘resters’ in a newly designed 3,600 L oval flume (with flow created by an impeller driven by an electric motor, were then compared. At the start of the experiment, ten fish were sampled representing the initial condition. After 18 days, swimmers (n= 23 showed a 92% greater increase in BL and 46% greater increase in BW as compared to resters (n= 23. As both groups were fed equal rations, feed conversion ratio (FCR for swimmers was 1.21 vs. 1.74 for resters. Doppler ultrasound imaging showed a statistically significant higher blood flow (31% in the ventral aorta of swimmers vs. resters (44 ± 3 mL min-1 vs. 34 ± 3 mL min-1, respectively, under anesthesia. Thus growth performance can be rapidly improved by optimal swimming, without larger feed investments.

Sustainability Actions in Higher Education

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2017-04-13

This brochure details common sustainability actions taken by universities to reduce their energy consumption. Some of the most common actions include energy efficiency (existing building commissioning; lighting; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning upgrades; plug loads) and renewable energy (RE) (on-site or off-site solar deployment, RE procurement). We focus on the costs and benefits of energy efficiency measures and RE through the brochure while highlighting resources where readers can find more information.

How Cisco Systems Used Enterprise Architecture Capability to Sustain Acquisition-Based Growth

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toppenberg, Gustav; Shanks, Graeme; Henningsson, Stefan

2015-01-01

Value-creating acquisitions are a major challenge for many firms. The case of Cisco Systems shows that an advanced enterprise architecture (EA) capability can contribute to the four phases of the acquisition process: pre-acquisition preparation, acquisition selection, acquisition integration...... and post-integration management. Cisco’s EA capability improves its ability to rapidly capture value from acquisitions and to sustain its acquisition-based growth strategy over time....

Sustainable growth of EU economies and Baltic context: Characteristics and modelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Girts Karnitis

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The united general growth strategy for all EU Member States, a common economic and political vision as well as location in the same geographic region provides a necessary basis for the benchmarking modelling of economies. The main objective of this study is determination of the functional regularities and drivers of the growth of EU economies and the context of the Baltic States in line with the general trend of the EU, as well as development of the growth model, which can be used for sustainable planning and prediction. Analysis of several regularly published analytical indexes suggests a thesis on innovation as the real basic driving force for EU economies and outlines Innovation Performance Index, which have a very strong compliance with the economic growth of particular country. At the same time study of the data set and methodology of the Index indicates space for further optimization. By use of several linear regression tools the growth model was created. It is based on three hard independent statistical indicators (predictors only; of course, these indicators is a peak of a complex pyramid. Despite of the simplicity of the model, the long-term correlation of fitted values with the real GDP per capita is extremely strong 0.961 – 0.987.

Sustainable electricity supply in the world by 2050 for economic growth and automotive fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kruger, P.

2010-01-01

Over the next 40 years, the combustion of fossil fuels for generation of electricity and vehicle transportation will be significantly reduced. In addition to the business-as-usual growth in electric energy demand for the growing world population, new electricity-intensive industries, such as battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles will result in further growth in world consumption of electric energy. Planning for a sustainable supply of electric energy in the diverse economies of the world should be carried out with appropriate technology for selecting the appropriate large-scale energy resources based on their specific energy. Analysis of appropriate technology for the available large-scale energy resources with diminished use of fossil fuel combustion shows that sustainable electricity supply can be achieved with equal contributions of renewable energy resources for large numbers of small-scale distributed applications and nuclear energy resources for the smaller number of large-scale centralised applications. (author)

Mechanistic dissimilarities between environmentally-influenced fatigue-crack propagation at near-threshold and higher growth rates in lower-strength steels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Suresh, S.; Ritchie, R. O.

1981-11-01

The role of hydrogen gas in influencing fatigue crack propagation is examined for several classes of lower strength pressure vessel and piping steels. Based on measurements over a wide range of growth rates from 10/sup -8/ to 10/sup -2/ mm/cycle, crack propagation rates are found to be significantly higher in dehumidified gaseous hydrogen compared to moist air in two distinct regimes of crack growth, namely (i) at the intermediate range of growth typically above approx. 10/sup -5/ mm/cycle, and (ii) at the near-threshold region below approx. 10/sup -6/ mm/cycle approaching lattice dimensions per cycle. Both effects are seen at maximum stress intensities (K/sub max/) far below the sustained-load threshold stress intensity for hydrogen-assisted cracking (K/sub Iscc/). Characteristics of environmentally influenced fatigue crack growth in each regime are shown to be markedly different with regard to fractography and the effect of such variables as load ratio and frequency. It is concluded that the primary mechanisms responsible for the influence of the environment in each regime are distinctly different. Whereas corrosion fatigue behavior at intermediate growth rates can be attributed to hydrogen embrittlement processes, the primary role of moist environments at near-threshold levels is shown to involve a contribution from enhanced crack closure due to the formation of crack surface corrosion deposits at low load ratios.

Sustainability Champions? Academic Identities and Sustainability Curricula in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Bronwyn E.; Cornforth, Sue; Beals, Fiona; Taylor, Mike; Tallon, Rachel

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of academic staff who are committed to embedding sustainability within tertiary curricula and pedagogy. Design/Methodology/Approach: The focus of this paper is on a New Zealand university. A survey of staff was undertaken and in-depth interviews conducted with 11 sustainability…

Technology and sustainability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kroeze, C.; Boersema, J.J.; Tellegen, E.; Cremers, A.

2011-01-01

In ten essays, this book addresses a broad range of issues related to the interplay of sustainability and technology. How do population growth and technology relate to sustainable development? Can globalization be reconciled with sustainable development? Is sustainability a subjective or an

The Challenge to Foster Foreign Students’ Experiences for Sustainable Higher Educational Institutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomás M. Bañegil-Palacios

2018-02-01

Full Text Available While most companies are developing strategies that focus on responsibility and sustainability, recent discussions in higher educational institutions query the contribution of university social responsibility. Based on the theory of stakeholders and the new strategic paradigm of universities becoming sustainable corporations, the purpose of this paper is to determine Erasmus students’ opinions on their experiences abroad, as they relate to the importance they attribute to their emotions, and their relationship with and loyalty to their host university’s country as a tourism destination. The method inquired into Erasmus students’ impressions when studying in Spain through an ad hoc questionnaire based on academic literature and the Delphi technique. Survey data was analyzed through an exploratory factor analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling. The study is a first attempt at analyzing experiential marketing in Erasmus students, who we considered tourists. The results support experiential marketing as a key approach for achieving sustainability in universities. The paper draws attention to the need for institutions to be more aware of the needs of foreign students as important stakeholders when designing mobility programs, as well as suggestions on how this awareness can be cultivated, in order to contribute to the consolidation of the selected country as a tourism destination.

Assessing the Impacts of Chinese Sustainable Ground Transportation on the Dynamics of Urban Growth: A Case Study of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qing Zheng

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Although China has promoted the construction of Chinese Sustainable Ground Transportation (CSGT to guide sustainable development, it may create substantial challenges, such as rapid urban growth and land limitations. This research assessed the effects of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge on impervious surface growth in Cixi County, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China. Changes in impervious surfaces were mapped based on Landsat images from 1995, 2002, and 2009 using a combination of multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA and landscape metrics. The results indicated that the area and density of impervious surfaces increased significantly during construction of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge (2002–2009. Additionally, the bridge and connected road networks promoted urban development along major roads, resulting in compact growth patterns of impervious surfaces in urbanized regions. Moreover, the Hangzhou Bay Bridge promoted the expansion and densification of impervious surfaces in Hangzhou Bay District, which surrounds the bridge. The bridge also accelerated socioeconomic growth in the area, promoting rapid urban growth in Cixi County between 2002 and 2009. Overall, the Hangzhou Bay Bridge is an important driver of urban growth in Cixi County, and policy suggestions for sustainable urban growth should be adopted in the future.

Three-dimensional Printed Scaffolds with Gelatin and Platelets Enhance In vitro Preosteoblast Growth Behavior and the Sustained-release Effect of Growth Factors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Zhu

2016-01-01

Conclusions: Our experiments confirmed that the 3D printed scaffolds we had designed could provide a sustained-release effect for growth factors and improve the proliferation of preosteoblasts with little cytotoxicity in vitro. They may hold promise as bone graft substitute materials in the future.

The U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development: Progress and Challenges Ahead

Science.gov (United States)

Rowe, Debra; Gentile, Susan Jane; Clevey, Lilah

2015-01-01

There has been substantial growth in Education for Sustainability (EfS) in the United States over the past 10 years. Efforts within higher education have created thousands of new programs, majors, minors, specializations, certificates, and across-the-curricula integrations of sustainability learning with an emphasis on real-world problem-solving…

Thematic development of declarations on Sustainability in Higher Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grindsted, Thomas Skou; Holm, Tove

2012-01-01

think should be given top priority in order to develop a sustainable society. Hence, the article addresses the following issues: (1) a thematic analysis of the relation between declarations developed by the university sector and those developed by governmental and intergovernmental institutions; (2...... of the international SHE literature reveals no study that deals specifically with the interaction between declarations developed by the university sector and declarations developed by governmental and intergovernmental institutions. An analysis of this type can give us important insights in what themes these parties......) an analysis of themes the two types of declarations might have in common; and if so (3) an analysis of how they have developed during the past decade. The article finds four new themes that previous research has not identified, and shows how the valuation of nature is under reconfiguration in higher education...

Gaps in Sustainability Education: The Impact of Higher Education Coursework on Perceptions of Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, P. Brian; McAdams, Erin

2015-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to examine how both the amount and type of coursework impact students' conceptualizations of sustainability. Previous research demonstrates that academic coursework influences students' environmental attitudes, yet few studies have examined the impact of coursework on how students conceptualize "sustainability".…

Human Capital and Economic Growth - How Strong is the Nexus?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marinko Škare

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The link between human capital and economic growth still remains unexplained because of the measurement issues connected to the human capital stock. This study investigates the link between human capital stock and economic growth using inclusive wealth index and ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees as proxy for human capital stock. Data from the global workplace and inclusive wealth reports are used in order to provide an international comparison of the link between human capital and inclusive wealth. Cross country comparison show human capital largerly contribute to the inclusive wealth formation. Formal education is important but also motivating working environment is needed to achieve sustainable economic growth. The finding further indicates that standard human capital growth model should be revised taking into the account variables addressing sustainable growth (not just growth and environmental variables (work conditions affecting human capital stock. Countries encouraging investments in the development of individuals both through formal education and inspiring work environments achieve higher sustainable economic growth

Quantitative Changes in Higher Education Between 1999-2015 in Turkey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leyla YILMAZ FINDIK

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Education is the key factor to build and sustain the future of nations and it stands at the center for smart and sustainable growth. Investing on education especially on higher education, is essential for growth and employment as a more skilled and well educated workforce will support further productivity gains, innovation and wealth. Correspondingly, this results in growing and diversifying of higher education system in all countries to compete world-wide in recent decades. The Turkish higher education system has been facing an unprecedented transformation in the last decade. This transformation has been driven by economic and demographic changes. Higher education in Turkey is changing and opening up to increase in size and to respond to increasing demands from society with the efforts of competing in world-wide. The aim of this study is to investigate the quantitative changes in higher education in Turkey shedding light on the expansion in terms of universities, institutions, students, academic staff and schooling ratio in the last fifteen years starting from 1999 till 2015. The results indicate that Turkey has seen a rapid expansion and a substantial rise in the number of enrollment rate in higher education since 1999 but still not enough when compared to OECD countries.

Promoting Sustainable Economic Growth in Mexico (Fact Sheet)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Watson, A.; Butheau, M.; Sandor, D.

2013-11-01

Mexico is the second largest economy in Latin America, with rapid growth occurring in the industrial and services sectors. A forward-thinking country on climate change, the nation recognizes that the threat of higher temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, and more frequent weather-related disasters could pose a substantial risk to its expanding economy.

The I3E Model for Embedding Education for Sustainability within Higher Education Institutions

Science.gov (United States)

Cebrián, Gisela

2018-01-01

This paper presents an evidence-based model (the I3E model) for embedding education for sustainability (EfS) within a higher education institution. This model emerged from a doctoral research that examined organisational learning and change processes at the University of Southampton to build EfS into the university curriculum. The researcher aimed…

Urban Growth Dynamics in Perth, Western Australia: Using Applied Remote Sensing for Sustainable Future Planning

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Andrew MacLachlan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Earth observation data can provide valuable assessments for monitoring the spatial extent of (unsustainable urban growth of the world’s cities to better inform planning policy in reducing associated economic, social and environmental costs. Western Australia has witnessed rapid economic expansion since the turn of the century founded upon extensive natural resource extraction. Thus, Perth, the state capital of Western Australia, has encountered significant population and urban growth in response to the booming state economy. However, the recent economic slowdown resulted in the largest decrease in natural resource values that Western Australia has ever experienced. Here, we present multi-temporal urban expansion statistics from 1990 to 2015 for Perth, derived from Landsat imagery. Current urban estimates used for future development plans and progress monitoring of infill and density targets are based upon aggregated census data and metrics unrepresentative of actual land cover change, underestimating overall urban area. Earth observation provides a temporally consistent methodology, identifying areal urban area at higher spatial and temporal resolution than current estimates. Our results indicate that the spatial extent of the Perth Metropolitan Region has increased 45% between 1990 and 2015, over 320 km2. We highlight the applicability of earth observation data in accurately quantifying urban area for sustainable targeted planning practices.

Fostering inclusive, sustainable economic growth and "green" skills development in learning cities through partnerships

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlova, Margarita

2018-05-01

One of the requirements of building a learning city is working to ensure its sustainable development. In 2014, UNESCO developed a framework of the key features of learning cities, at the centre of which there are six pillars or "building blocks" which support sustainable development. This article focuses on the third of these pillars, "effective learning for and in the workplace". The author analyses a number of conditions to address this aspect in the context of "green restructuring" which is geared towards facilitating the sustainable development of learning cities. She argues that, at the conceptual level, an understanding of the nature of "green skills" (what they are) and the reasons for "green skills gaps" (why they exist) are essential for the processes of effective learning and strategy planning in sustainable city development. The specific focus of this article is at the policy level: the conceptualisation of partnerships between technical and vocational education and training (TVET) providers, industry, government and other stakeholders with the aim of fostering the production, dissemination and usage of knowledge for the purpose of sustainable economic development and the "greening" of skills. The author proposes a new model, based on the quintuple helix approach to innovation combined with a policy goals orientation framework to theorise the ways in which learning cities can foster sustainable economic growth through green skills development.

Sustainability of the effects of medicinal iron and iron rich food supplementation on haemoglobin, intelligence quotient and growth of school aged girls

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Monika Jain

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Anaemia in school aged girls is an important but neglected issue. Since iron supplementation programmes have had little reported success in reducing anaemia, interest is turning to food based approaches that have higher potential for achieving far reaching benefits. The purpose of the study was to observe sustainability of the effect of iron and food supplementation on haemoglobin (Hb, intelligence quotient (IQ and growth of the subjects. At baseline, estimation of haemoglobin (Hb, red cell indices, serum iron, total iron binding capacity, serum transferrin saturation and serum ferritin was done. IQ, weight and height were measured using standard procedures. Anaemic subjectswere divided into three groups, viz., (i twice weekly supplementation of iron folic acid syrup (53 mg iron/week; (ii daily supplementation of 4 niger seed and defatted soyaflour biscuits plus 2 lemons (45 mg iron/week and (iii control. Non anaemic group(NAC was not intervened. Endline data was collected after 120 days. Follow up for Hb, IQ, weight and height was done 4 months after cessation of supplementation. The prevalence of anaemia was 77% in the study population; 46% subjects had mild anaemia and 32% had moderate anaemia. Iron status was lower in anaemic subjects (p<0.001.Iron supplementation was more effective in raising Hb and building iron stores than iron rich food supplementation. Iron supplementation improved IQ but did not bring about catch up of anaemics to non anaemics. Iron rich food supplementation was better than medicinal iron in promoting growth in anaemic girls. The impact of iron rich food supplementation on Hb, IQ and growth sustained for 4 months while that of medicinal iron did not. Effects of food supplementation are sustainable for 4 months, therefore, this strategy holds more potential to control anaemia, in school aged girls.

Natural Disasters, Economic Growth and Sustainable Development in China―An Empirical Study Using Provincial Panel Data

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Ji Guo

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Using a newly developed integrated indicator system with entropy weighting, we analyzed the panel data of 577 recorded disasters in 30 provinces of China from 1985–2011 to identify their links with the subsequent economic growth. Meteorological disasters promote economic growth through human capital instead of physical capital. Geological disasters did not trigger local economic growth from 1999–2011. Generally, natural disasters overall had no significant impact on economic growth from 1985–1998. Thus, human capital reinvestment should be the aim in managing recoveries, and it should be used to regenerate the local economy based on long-term sustainable development.

SMART, SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH FOR 2014-2020

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Ana-Maria Popescu (Stîngaciu

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Starting with general information about the EU multiannual financial framework and the European Union’s budget, the research paper attempts to respond to some questions of general interest regarding the activities financed through EU budget, the potential causes for a low absorption rate of funding in the current financing period and concludes with some measures needed to be taken to strengthen the absorption of funding for the next financing period, 2014-2020. Based on the main theme of the Europe 2020 strategy, smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, the article attempts to outline the important role of EU allocations for the period 2014-2020 for funding the growing number of policy in which EU can be more effective in the current context, after the economic and financial crisis. The paper presents the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy and the targets for 2014-2020.

Attaining Sustainable Growth in Nigeria: Any Role for Solid Mineral Development?

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Richardson Kojo Edeme

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Using time series such as GDP per capita, solid minerals output, foreign trade balance, domestic interest rate, inflation, and gross domestic savings, for the period 1960-2015. the Linear Growth Regression model adopted for this study indicates that solid minerals positively impact on sustainable growth and is statistically significant. The study also found that solid mineral is highly significant but negatively related with foreign exchange due largely to illegal migration of mineral commodities across the borders of the country. In view of this, there is need for conscious inter-agency collaboration to track the volume of mineral resources illegally escaping the shores of the country without being accounted for. Besides, there should be more attention on developing the solid mineral sector to help insulate the economy from the vagaries of the present economic woes given the rising demand in solid mineral resources globally.

Higher Education for Sustainability: Can Education Affect Moral Perceptions?

Science.gov (United States)

Felgendreher, Simon; Löfgren, Åsa

2018-01-01

A considerable literature looks at universities' approaches to integrating sustainable development into teaching and learning, but less is known about how Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) affects student attitudes, values and norms. To our knowledge, only a few studies have quantified such effects of changes in curricula. This study…

The theory of sustainable Tourism Development

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Alberta Tahiri

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Tourism is a phenomenon that has seen a rapid multi fold increase and growth since the middle of the twentieth century. For host communities and countries, the development of tourism has offered numerous advantages, as well as some significant challenges and difficulties. In recent decades, the awareness has been strengthened that tourism needs to be developed following the sustainable development concept. This approach eliminates or significantly decreases the negative impacts of tourism growth and sets the basis for long-term enjoyment of benefits. In the field of tourism, sustainable development translates in two important categories of considerations: conserving natural environment and resources and the biodiversity and conserving the living cultural heritage and traditions. Designing sustainable tourism development strategies should be done in cooperative efforts by the state, businesses and local communities. The strategies need to focus on maximizing the potential positive and eliminating or minimizing potential negative impacts. Impact monitoring and evaluation mechanisms need to be set up, including identification of performance indicators. When tourism growth emerges from a carefully designed and implemented strategy, tourism is documented to contribute to generating foreign exchange earnings, creating employment and income, and stimulating domestic consumption. It also brings about social and cultural development of the host communities. Researches have shown that smaller and developing countries specialized in tourism experience higher economic growth compared to countries without significant tourism industry. Contemporary economic and statistical methods ensure that the contribution of tourism in national economies can be precisely and easily measured, which in itself can be used as an indicator in assessing the impact and effects of tourism growth.

SUSTAINABILITY OF ECONOMIC GROWTH AND INEQUALITY IN INCOMES DISTRIBUTION

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Bogdan Ion Boldea

2012-07-01

correlation between the explanatory variables and the country-specific effects. For a robustness assessment, we also apply the so-called GMM-System estimation. According to our results, an increase in the volatility of the social output (a decrease in the sustainability of the growth processes leads to a greater inequality in incomes distribution. Such outcome appears to be robust to the changes in estimation methodology

Informational Asymmetry, Sustainable Growth, Exploitation and Obligation Risks

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Ion Stancu

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Our paper starts from the relationship, apparently contradictory, between the better informed economic agents (managers, bankers and the agents less informed than the first to be mentioned (the investors: shareholders and creditors. The asymmetric information concerns the company’s performance (or of its investment projects and the company’s ability to put up with different manifestations of the risk associated with this kind of performance. Based on this asymmetric information, the better informed agents can profit, to their own advantage, from the others’ lack of information. Consequently, the signals should be sent so as to allow a clear distinction of profitable companies from unprofitable ones, signals which cannot be copied by the managers with an underperforming management: a. The sustainable growth based on retained earnings financing and also co-financed by managers; b. The degree of operational leverage to be proportional with the increase of modernizing managerial and technological expenses; c. The degree of financial leverage to be proportional with the volume of debts.

Integrating Sustainable Development in Higher Education through Experience-Based Learning: Insights from Experts in Team (EiT) for Developing a Combined Theoretical Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Otte, Pia Piroschka

2016-01-01

Universities are understood to play an essential role in the promotion of sustainable development. However, the recognition of sustainable development in higher education poses multiple challenges to the traditional higher education system. This article introduces a course concept called "Experts in Teams" (EiT) as a new platform of…

Understanding water deficit stress-induced changes in the basic metabolism of higher plants - biotechnologically and sustainably improving agriculture and the ecoenvironment in arid regions of the globe.

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Hong-Bo; Chu, Li-Ye; Jaleel, C Abdul; Manivannan, P; Panneerselvam, R; Shao, Ming-An

2009-01-01

Water is vital for plant growth, development and productivity. Permanent or temporary water deficit stress limits the growth and distribution of natural and artificial vegetation and the performance of cultivated plants (crops) more than any other environmental factor. Productive and sustainable agriculture necessitates growing plants (crops) in arid and semiarid regions with less input of precious resources such as fresh water. For a better understanding and rapid improvement of soil-water stress tolerance in these regions, especially in the water-wind eroded crossing region, it is very important to link physiological and biochemical studies to molecular work in genetically tractable model plants and important native plants, and further extending them to practical ecological restoration and efficient crop production. Although basic studies and practices aimed at improving soil water stress resistance and plant water use efficiency have been carried out for many years, the mechanisms involved at different scales are still not clear. Further understanding and manipulating soil-plant water relationships and soil-water stress tolerance at the scales of ecology, physiology and molecular biology can significantly improve plant productivity and environmental quality. Currently, post-genomics and metabolomics are very important in exploring anti-drought gene resources in various life forms, but modern agriculturally sustainable development must be combined with plant physiological measures in the field, on the basis of which post-genomics and metabolomics have further practical prospects. In this review, we discuss physiological and molecular insights and effects in basic plant metabolism, drought tolerance strategies under drought conditions in higher plants for sustainable agriculture and ecoenvironments in arid and semiarid areas of the world. We conclude that biological measures are the bases for the solutions to the issues relating to the different types of

Stabilizing Sustainability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reitan Andersen, Kirsti

The publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987 put the topic of sustainable development on the political and corporate agenda. Defining sustainable development as “a development that meets the needs of the future without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs......” (WCED, 1987, p. 43), the Report also put a positive spin on the issue of sustainability by upholding capitalist beliefs in the possibility of infinite growth in a world of finite resources. While growth has delivered benefits, however, it has done so unequally and unsustainably. This thesis focuses...... on the textile and fashion industry, one of the world’s most polluting industries and an industry to some degree notorious for leading the ‘race to the bottom’ in global labour standards. Despite being faced with increasing demands to practise sustainability, most textile and fashion companies continue to fail...

Validating the Need to Include the Economic Returns of Graduates as a Metric of a Higher Education Institutions Level of Sustainability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maragakis, A.; van den Dobbelsteen, A.A.J.F.; Maragakis, Alexandros

2016-01-01

Higher education institutions play an important role in sustainability, in their own management and operation, in research and education, and in the undergraduate and graduate degrees they deliver. Often ignored, economic sustainability and future perspectives of students are important indicators

Estimating Potential GDP for the Romanian Economy and Assessing the Sustainability of Economic Growth: A Multivariate Filter Approach

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Dan Armeanu

2015-03-01

Full Text Available In the current context of economic recovery and rebalancing, the necessity of modelling and estimating the potential output and output gap emerges in order to assess the quality and sustainability of economic growth, the monetary and fiscal policies, as well as the impact of business cycles. Despite the importance of potential GDP and the output gap, there are difficulties in reliably estimating them, as many of the models proposed in the economic literature are calibrated for developed economies and are based on complex macroeconomic relationships and a long history of robust data, while emerging economies exhibit high volatility. The object of this study is to develop a model in order to estimate the potential GDP and output gap and to assess the sustainability of projected growth using a multivariate filter approach. This trend estimation technique is the newest approach proposed by the economic literature and has gained wide acceptance with researchers and practitioners alike, while also being used by the IMF for Romania. The paper will be structured as follows. We first discuss the theoretical background of the model. The second section focuses on an analysis of the Romanian economy for the 1995–2013 time frame, while also providing a forecast for 2014–2017 and an assessment of the sustainability of Romania’s economic growth. The third section sums up the results and concludes.

Where does sustainable growth end? Inaugural speech; Waar eindigt duurzame groei? Inaugurele rede

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gerlagh, R.

2010-11-15

After a brief explanation about several characteristics of capitalism, a number of environmental issues are discussed, paying particular attention to the climate issue. In this context an answer is given to the question what sustainability means and how sustainability can be implemented. A price tag needs to be attached to the use of nature and the environment. Several examples are given in support of the value of scarce nature and how difficult it is to distribute this value evenly. Finally, insight is given in the conditions for sustainable growth as well as the main obstacles. [Dutch] Na een korte uiteenzetting van enkele kenmerken van het kapitalisme wordt een aantal milieuproblemen voor het voetlicht gebracht met speciale aandacht voor het klimaatprobleem. In deze context wordt de vraag beantwoord wat duurzaamheid betekent en hoe duurzaamheid kan worden geimplementeerd. Aan het gebruik van natuur en milieu moet een prijskaartje komen te hangen. Er worden voorbeelden gegeven waaruit blijkt hoe waardevol schaarse natuur is, en hoe moeilijk het is deze waarde eerlijk te verdelen. Tenslotte wordt inzicht gegeven in de voorwaarden voor duurzame groei, en de belangrijkste obstakels.

Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainability Reporting in Higher Education: An Analysis of Key Internal Stakeholders' Expectations

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrero-Ferrero, Idoya; Fernández-Izquierdo, María Ángeles; Muñoz-Torres, María Jesús; Bellés-Colomer, Lucía

2018-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of stakeholder engagement in the context of sustainability reporting (SR) for higher education institutions (HEIs), together with the materiality principle and stakeholder expectations. Design/methodology/approach: This research uses an exploratory approach based on content…

Connecting Competences and Pedagogical Approaches for Sustainable Development in Higher Education: A Literature Review and Framework Proposal

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Rodrigo Lozano

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Research into and practice of Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD have been increasing during the last two decades. These have focused on providing sustainability education to future generations of professionals. In this context, there has been considerable progress in the incorporation of SD in universities’ curricula. Most of these efforts have focussed on the design and delivery of sustainability-oriented competences. Some peer-reviewed articles have proposed different pedagogical approaches to better deliver SD in these courses; however, there has been limited research on the connection between how courses are delivered (pedagogical approaches and how they may affect sustainability competences. This paper analyses competences and pedagogical approaches, using hermeneutics to connect these in a framework based on twelve competences and twelve pedagogical approaches found in the literature. The framework connects the course aims to delivery in HESD by highlighting the connections between pedagogical approaches and competences in a matrix structure. The framework is aimed at helping educators in creating and updating their courses to provide a more complete, holistic, and systemic sustainability education to future leaders, decision makers, educators, and change agents. To better develop mind-sets and actions of future generations, we must provide students with a complete set of sustainability competences.

Leveraging Sustainability Reporting in Higher Education Institutions--A Multidimensional Research Agenda

Science.gov (United States)

Schoormann, Thorsten; Bührig, Jan; Behrens, Dennis; Knackstedt, Ralf

2017-01-01

Sustainability has become increasingly important to research and practice. In order to determine impacts, identify improvement potential and to disclose efforts towards sustainability, an organization needs appropriate reporting. Thus, sustainability reporting has become a topic of broader interest, for example, to assess own situations, enable…

Divergent Developmental Trajectories and Strategic Coupling in the Pearl River Delta: Where Is a Sustainable Way of Regional Economic Growth?

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Yi Liu

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This paper interprets regional economic sustainability in the context of the globalization of late-coming regions. Drawing upon the concept of strategic coupling from economic geography, this paper proposes two types of strategic coupling, captive and proactive coupling, for better understanding regional sustainability and resilience through the experiences of the Pearl River Delta in China. It finds that sub-regional economies under captive coupling become highly dependent on exogenous growth and are vulnerable to external shocks. This trajectory looks less sustainable according to the general understanding, but it interestingly shows better resilience during and after the 2008 global financial crisis. In contrast, the ones under proactive coupling are less volatile, but growing much slower and are less resilient. By reporting these regional economic dynamics, this paper argues that sustainability in late-coming regions cannot be explained by either intra-regional forces or the means of global integration alone. In contrast, it has to be explained by the combination of both; the alleged strategic coupling in which economic growth and learning happens. This paper thus calls for greater attention to strategic coupling, the trade-off of globalization and resilience for understanding regional sustainability, rather than purely focusing on resource utilization and ecological balance.

Food and Higher Education for Sustainable Development

Science.gov (United States)

Clugston, Richard; Calder, Wynn

2007-01-01

This article argues that food issues are an appropriate, if not necessary, topic for education for sustainable development (ESD) both in terms of teaching and institutional practice. The first section summarises critical topics for a school or university course on food. The second section cites two examples of university efforts--at the University…

Fiscal Sustainability, Public Investment, and Growth in Natural Resource-Rich, Low-Income Countries; The Case of Cameroon

OpenAIRE

Issouf Samaké; Priscilla S Muthoora; Bruno Versailles

2013-01-01

This paper assesses the implications of the use of oil revenue for public investment on growth and fiscal sustainability in Cameroon. We develop a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to analyze the effects of such investment on growth and on the path of key fiscal indicators, such as the non-oil primary deficit and public debt. Policy scenarios show that Cameroon’s large infrastructural needs and relatively low current debt levels could justify a temporary deviation from traditional ...

Biomass : the sustainable energy source for South Asia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chaturvedi, Pradeep

1998-01-01

Fuelwood and other biofuels are the indigenously available, and accessible fuels. This situation will continue in near future to at least 2010, and beyond. Recent observations have shown that decentralized growth of fuelwood varieties have reduced pressure on forests and eliminated the gap theory - consumption being higher than the regenerated supply from forests leading to deforestation - resulting in renewed confidence that fuelwood supplies will be available on a sustained basis. Continued effort for technological development, manpower development, financial back up and marketing of fuelwood will hold the key to sustainable traditional supply to the poor in South Asia region

A Dynamic Model of Sustainment Investment

Science.gov (United States)

2015-02-01

Sustainment System Dynamics Model 11 Figure 7: Core Structure of Sustainment Work 12 Figure 8: Bandwagon Effect Loop 13 Figure 9: Limits to Growth Loop 14...Dynamics Model sustainment capacity sustainment performance gap Bandwagon Effect R1 Limits to Growth B1 S Work Smarter B3 Work Bigger B2 desired...which is of concern primarily when using the model as a vehicle for research. Figure 8 depicts a reinforcing loop called the “ Bandwagon Effect

Assessment and Evaluation of Higher Education in Business Management: An Analysis of the Brazilian Case in the Light of Social Learning Theory for Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Brunstein, Janette; Jaime, Pedro; Curi, Denise Pereira; d'Angelo, Marcia Juliana; Mainardes, Emerson Wagner

2015-01-01

This article presents an analysis of Brazilian National System of Higher Education Assessment (SINAES) in the light of social learning for sustainability theory. The aim is to contribute to the advancement of debates surrounding education for sustainability and the improvement of public policy evaluation in higher education. The analysis is…

Mycelial growth observation of Pleurotus eryngii (Higher Basidiomycota In Vitro

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Mustafa Nadhim Owaid

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Five agro-substrates including date palm fibers (fibrillum, wheat straw, white sawdust and their combinations were investigated to grow Pleurotus eryngii. The longer mycelium complete time within bags was 20 days on sawdust (S4, in contrast, the shorter time for mycelium overgrew was completed after 15 days on date palm fiber (S5. In significant (p<0.05, S5 showed the higher growth intensity level (vigorous growth than other substrates. Thus use of date palm wastes (S5 medium may be useful for successfully cultivation king oyster mushroom in farm.International Journal of Environment Vol.5(3 2016, pp.1-10

The Roles of Public Higher Education Expenditure and the Privatization of the Higher Education on U.S. States Economic Growth

Science.gov (United States)

Curs, Bradley R.; Bhandari, Bornali; Steiger, Christina

2011-01-01

Previous empirical literature finds that government expenditure on higher education has a negative, or null, effect on U.S. economic growth rates. This empirical result may be driven by omission of an important variable--the privatization of higher education. Using state-level panel data from 1970 to 2005, this analysis investigates whether the…

Validating the Need to Include the Economic Returns of Graduates as a Metric of a Higher Education Institutions Level of Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Maragakis, Antonios; van den Dobbelsteen, Andy; Maragakis, Alexandros

2016-01-01

Higher education institutions play an important role in sustainability, in their own management and operation, in research and education, and in the undergraduate and graduate degrees they deliver. Often ignored, economic sustainability and future perspectives of students are important indicators too. The research presented in this paper validates…

1. Dimensions of sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Repetto, R.

1992-01-01

This chapter discusses the following topics: the concept of sustainable development; envisioning sustainable development (economic dimensions, human dimensions, environmental dimensions, technological dimensions); policy implications (economic policies, people-oriented policies, environmental policies, creating sustainable systems); and global issues (effect of war on development and the environment and the debt burden). This chapter also introduces the case studies by discussing the levels of economic development and comparing key trends (economic growth, human development, population growth, and energy use)

[Sustainable development of the three economic patterns in China: The application of genuine progress indicator in the sustainability assessment of six typical cities.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jing; Huang, Lu; Yan, Li Jiao

2016-06-01

Three economic patterns, i.e., Zhujiang Model, Wenzhou Model and Sunan Model, were all generated in the developed areas of China. Sustainability assessment of those areas plays an important role in guiding future development of the economy of China. Genuine progress indicator (GPI) was adopted in this study to evaluate the sustainability of 6 typical cities (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wenzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou) of the three economic patterns from 1995 to 2012. During the study period, the values of GDP for the six cities had experienced exponential growth, while the values of GPI started to increase since 2005 after a relatively constant period between 1995 and 2005. The gap between GPI and GDP had been widening from a historical perspective. Zhujiang Model made great progress in economic growth, however, the economic, social, and environmental costs were evident. It should tackle income inequality, traffic jam, and environmental pollution to reach sustainability. The development of Wenzhou Model slowed down in the late pe-riod, with inadequate potential to develop. Its income inequality was tough, social and economic development was slow, and the economic development pattern needed to be urgently changed. Sunan Model had a higher value of GPI and the potential to reach sustainability, with remarkable growth of economy, median level of the GPI costs, and steady improvement of social development, although its natural resources were depleted. Three economic patterns should focus on the three dimensions of sustainability (economy, environment, and society), and Zhujiang Model and Wenzhou Model needed to be more active to search for transition of their development.

Sustained growth but non-sustainable urbanisation in Penang, Malaysia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wangel, Arne; Fold, Niels

1998-01-01

of trade unions, which lack the strength to substantially improve wages or influence the institutions of the labour market. So a frenzied labour market tries to balance the upgrading of skills and the control of wages. The paper concludes that a focus on sustainable urbanisation will renew the debate...

Competitiveness - higher education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Labas Istvan

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Involvement of European Union plays an important role in the areas of education and training equally. The member states are responsible for organizing and operating their education and training systems themselves. And, EU policy is aimed at supporting the efforts of member states and trying to find solutions for the common challenges which appear. In order to make our future sustainable maximally; the key to it lies in education. The highly qualified workforce is the key to development, advancement and innovation of the world. Nowadays, the competitiveness of higher education institutions has become more and more appreciated in the national economy. In recent years, the frameworks of operation of higher education systems have gone through a total transformation. The number of applying students is continuously decreasing in some European countries therefore only those institutions can “survive” this shortfall, which are able to minimize the loss of the number of students. In this process, the factors forming the competitiveness of these budgetary institutions play an important role from the point of view of survival. The more competitive a higher education institution is, the greater the chance is that the students would like to continue their studies there and thus this institution will have a greater chance for the survival in the future, compared to ones lagging behind in the competition. Aim of our treatise prepared is to present the current situation and main data of the EU higher education and we examine the performance of higher education: to what extent it fulfils the strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth which is worded in the framework of Europe 2020 programme. The treatise is based on analysis of statistical data.

Sustainable energy-economic-environmental scenarios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2002-03-31

IIASA's Environmentally Compatible Energy Strategies (ECS) Project has proposed a quantitative 'working definition' of sustainable development E3 (energy-economic-environmental) scenarios. ECS has proposed four criteria for sustainability: economic growth is sustained throughout the time horizon; socioeconomic inequity among world regions is reduced over the 21st century; reserves-to-production (R/P) ratio for exhaustible primary energy resources do not decline; and long-term environmental stress is mitigated. Using these criteria, 40 long-term E3 scenarios generated by ECS models were reviewed and analyzed. Amongst the conclusions drawn were: slow population growth or stabilization of global population appears to be prerequisite for sustainable development; economic growth alone does not guarantee a sustainable future; carbon intensities of total primary energy must decrease faster than the historical trend; strategies for fossil fuel consumption must aim at non-decreasing R/P ratios; and carbon emissions must be near or below today's levels at the end of this century. The analysis of sustainable development scenarios is an important step towards formulating long-term strategies aimed at climate stabilization. 6 figs., 1 tab.

Smart Growth for a Sustainable Urban Environment - Concepts and Practice in US and China (CLASS PRESENTATION)

Science.gov (United States)

This is an invited seminar to a class of undergraduate and graduate students at DAAP of the University of Cincinnati. It provides students the concepts and trends in smart growth and sustainable urban development in U.S. and China. The materials are drawn from my research and m...

Christian Higher Education: The Gospel in the Context of Terrorism and Persecution

Science.gov (United States)

Agang, Sunday Bobai

2016-01-01

Education is central to any society's civilization, growth, development, security, stability, and sustainability. That is why all progressive societies give it priority. Christian higher education meets these needs and beyond. It is rooted in God's moral vision and perspective. Its primary aim is to inculcate moral and ethical values and…

Scan for sustainability in higher education 2010 [in the Netherlands]; Scan duurzaamheid ICT in hoger onderwijs 2010

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Van Westrienen, G. [SURFfoundation, Utrecht (Netherlands)

2010-12-15

A scan among nine higher education institutions in 2010 shows that much can be gained by using sustainable ICT. The higher education can save at least 44 percent on energy use of ICT equipment at work stations and in data centers. [Dutch] Een scan in 2010 bij negen hogeronderwijsinstellingen toont dat met duurzame ICT nog veel winst is te behalen. Het hoger onderwijs kan zeker 44 procent besparen op het energieverbruik van ICT-apparatuur op werkplekken en in datacenters.

Structural and mechanistic analysis of engineered trichodiene synthase enzymes from Trichoderma harzianum: towards higher catalytic activities empowering sustainable agriculture.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumari, Indu; Chaudhary, Nitika; Sandhu, Padmani; Ahmed, Mushtaq; Akhter, Yusuf

2016-06-01

Trichoderma spp. are well-known bioagents for the plant growth promotion and pathogen suppression. The beneficial activities of the fungus Trichoderma spp. are attributed to their ability to produce and secrete certain secondary metabolites such as trichodermin that belongs to trichothecene family of molecules. The initial steps of trichodermin biosynthetic pathway in Trichoderma are similar to the trichothecenes from Fusarium sporotrichioides. Trichodiene synthase (TS) encoded by tri5 gene in Trichoderma catalyses the conversion of farnesyl pyrophosphate to trichodiene as reported earlier. In this study, we have carried out a comprehensive comparative sequence and structural analysis of the TS, which revealed the conserved residues involved in catalytic activity of the protein. In silico, modelled tertiary structure of TS protein showed stable structural behaviour during simulations. Two single-substitution mutants, i.e. D109E, D248Y and one double-substitution mutant (D109E and D248Y) of TS with potentially higher activities are screened out. The mutant proteins showed more stability than the wild type, an increased number of electrostatic interactions and better binding energies with the ligand, which further elucidates the amino acid residues involved in the reaction mechanism. These results will lead to devise strategies for higher TS activity to ultimately enhance the trichodermin production by Trichoderma spp. for its better exploitation in the sustainable agricultural practices.

Prediction of future urban growth using CA-Markov for urban sustainability planning of Banda Aceh, Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Achmad, A.; Irwansyah, M.; Ramli, I.

2018-03-01

Banda Aceh experienced rapid growth, both physically, socially, and economically, after the Tsunami that devastated it the end of December in 2004. Hence policy controls are needed to direct the pattern of urban growth to achieve sustainable development for the future. The purpose of this paper is to generate a growth model for Banda Aceh using the CA-Markov process. By knowing the changes in land use between 2005 and 2009 from the results of previous research, simulations for 2013, 2019 and 2029 using the application of Idrisi@Selva. CA-Markov models were prepared to determine the quantity of changes. The simulation results showed that, after the Tsunami, the City of Banda Aceh tended to grow towards the coast. For the control of the LUC, the Banda Aceh City government needs to prepare comprehensive and detailed maps and inventory of LUC for the city to provide basic data and information needed for monitoring and evaluation that can be done effectively and efficiently. An institution for monitoring and evaluation of the urban landscape and the LUC should be formed immediately. This institution could consist of representatives from government, academia, community leaders, the private sector and other experts. The findings from this study can be used to start the monitoring and evaluation of future urban growth. Especially for the coastal areas, the local government should immediately prepare special spatial coastal area plans to control growth in those areas and to ensure that the economic benefits from disaster mitigation and coastal protection are preserved. For the development of the city in the future, it is necessary to achieve a balance between economic development, and social welfare with environmental protection and disaster mitigation. iIt will become a big challenge to achieve sustainable development for the future.

Analyzing Growth Opportunity of Port from the Resource-based Perspective The Case of Port of Tanjung Pelepas Malaysia

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Muhammad Subhan

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Capturing growth opportunity has become a major integral activity of any port to sustain growth and competitive advantage. One of the famous strategies in leveraging sustainable growth and competitive advantage is the resource-based theory application into port strategic management, viewing resources of the port (internal and external and its capabilities as the sources for achieving competitive advantage. In this study, we attempt to identify, exploit, and analyze growth opportunity of a Malaysian port from the perspective of the theory. We analyze the port’s resources in terms of values, uniqueness, inimitability, durability, and substitutability. The result is then compared with its rival ports in the region. This study recognizes that the port has successfully identified and exploited its resources for capturing growth opportunity and competing with other ports in the region. We perceive that the port will sustain its growth and competitive advantage as a major port in the region based on its current performance and rivalry circumstances. This study signifies that the higher the level to which resource-based theory of competitive advantage is applied, the higher and longer the growth and competitive advantage will be achieved by the port.

Open Innovation Projects in SMEs as an Engine for Sustainable Growth

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Byungun Yoon

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Most innovation activities that are inevitable for sustainable growth are coordinated via research and development (R&D projects, which can differ widely in terms of both project and open innovation characteristics, even when conducted within the same firm. Therefore, it is important to consider the peculiarities of R&D projects when evaluating the performance of open innovation strategies, as well as to explore how the benefits and costs of open innovation are shaped by cross-level interactions. This study identifies the differences between successful and unsuccessful open innovation projects, in both firm-level and project-level terms. We focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs, which usually lack the full set of internal resources and competences required to effectively develop, produce, and commercialize their innovations, and thus must adopt open innovation approaches more actively for sustainability. Adopting an empirical approach, we conducted a survey of 517 Korean SMEs and analyzed 241 successful and unsuccessful open innovation projects in depth. By combining measurements at the firm and project levels, this study provides new insight into the intra-organizational challenges of implementing open innovation projects, which are not only helpful to strategic decision-makers in SMEs, but also to those who make policies for them.

Technological Innovation of Higher Education in New Zealand: A Wicked Problem?

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Marshall, Stephen

2016-01-01

New Zealand, like many countries, faces the challenge of building and sustaining an educated population. Particular challenges are posed by the need to educate an increasing proportion of the population to higher levels in order to support the growth of a modern skills and knowledge economy, as opposed to an economy built on low-cost labour and…

Nanodiamond-based injectable hydrogel for sustained growth factor release: Preparation, characterization and in vitro analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Pacelli, Settimio; Acosta, Francisca; Chakravarti, Aparna R; Samanta, Saheli G; Whitlow, Jonathan; Modaresi, Saman; Ahmed, Rafeeq P H; Rajasingh, Johnson; Paul, Arghya

2017-08-01

Nanodiamonds (NDs) represent an emerging class of carbon nanomaterials that possess favorable physical and chemical properties to be used as multifunctional carriers for a variety of bioactive molecules. Here we report the synthesis and characterization of a new injectable ND-based nanocomposite hydrogel which facilitates a controlled release of therapeutic molecules for regenerative applications. In particular, we have formulated a thermosensitive hydrogel using gelatin, chitosan and NDs that provides a sustained release of exogenous human vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) for wound healing applications. Addition of NDs improved the mechanical properties of the injectable hydrogels without affecting its thermosensitive gelation properties. Biocompatibility of the generated hydrogel was verified by in vitro assessment of apoptotic gene expressions and anti-inflammatory interleukin productions. NDs were complexed with VEGF and the inclusion of this complex in the hydrogel network enabled the sustained release of the angiogenic growth factor. These results suggest for the first time that NDs can be used to formulate a biocompatible, thermosensitive and multifunctional hydrogel platform that can function both as a filling agent to modulate hydrogel properties, as well as a delivery platform for the controlled release of bioactive molecules and growth factors. One of the major drawbacks associated with the use of conventional hydrogels as carriers of growth factors is their inability to control the release kinetics of the loaded molecules. In fact, in most cases, a burst release is inevitable leading to diminished therapeutic effects and unsuccessful therapies. As a potential solution to this issue, we hereby propose a strategy of incorporating ND complexes within an injectable hydrogel matrix. The functional groups on the surface of the NDs can establish interactions with the model growth factor VEGF and promote a prolonged release from the polymer network

Revitalization of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria for sustainable development in agriculture.

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Gouda, Sushanto; Kerry, Rout George; Das, Gitishree; Paramithiotis, Spiros; Shin, Han-Seung; Patra, Jayanta Kumar

2018-01-01

The progression of life in all forms is not only dependent on agricultural and food security but also on the soil characteristics. The dynamic nature of soil is a direct manifestation of soil microbes, bio-mineralization, and synergistic co-evolution with plants. With the increase in world's population the demand for agriculture yield has increased tremendously and thereby leading to large scale production of chemical fertilizers. Since the use of fertilizers and pesticides in the agricultural fields have caused degradation of soil quality and fertility, thus the expansion of agricultural land with fertile soil is near impossible, hence researchers and scientists have sifted their attention for a safer and productive means of agricultural practices. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) has been functioning as a co-evolution between plants and microbes showing antagonistic and synergistic interactions with microorganisms and the soil. Microbial revitalization using plant growth promoters had been achieved through direct and indirect approaches like bio-fertilization, invigorating root growth, rhizoremediation, disease resistance etc. Although, there are a wide variety of PGPR and its allies, their role and usages for sustainable agriculture remains controversial and restricted. There is also variability in the performance of PGPR that may be due to various environmental factors that might affect their growth and proliferation in the plants. These gaps and limitations can be addressed through use of modern approaches and techniques such as nano-encapsulation and micro-encapsulation along with exploring multidisciplinary research that combines applications in biotechnology, nanotechnology, agro biotechnology, chemical engineering and material science and bringing together different ecological and functional biological approaches to provide new formulations and opportunities with immense potential. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Sustainable School Leadership: The Teachers' Perspective

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Cook, John W.

2014-01-01

Sustainable school leadership is essential to the academic growth of students and professional growth of faculty and staff. Shedding light on what constitutes sustainable leadership from the perspective of teachers will increase our understanding of how specific leadership practices and processes impact those in the learning community who are…

Green economic growth premise for sustainable development

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Carmen Lenuţa TRICĂ

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Accelerating the global issues such as natural resource depletion, damage to the natural environment, economic and financial crises and consumption growth led to the shift of the development paradigm from consumption to sustainable development and recognition of the new path, namely green economy.At the European level a number of international organizations discussed issues of transition to green economy (EC, UNEP, OECD. In 2008, UNEP launched “Green Economy Initiative to Get the Global Markets Back to Work”, aiming to mobilize and re-focuse the global economy towards.This is the twin challenge of moving towards a green economy: radically reducing the footprint of developed countries, while simultaneously raising levels of social and material well being in developing countries.Without public intervention, the related market failures (i.e. market prices that do not fully reflect the environmental degradation generated by economic activity may delay or even prevent the development of environmentally-friendly technologies.Furthermore, in sectors such as electricity, network effects arising from existing infrastructures create additional barriers to the adoption of alternative sources of power, further hampering incentives to invest in new technologies.Given that the transition to a green economy requires increasing of investment in economic sectors that contribute to enhancing of natural capital and reduce environmental risks, we intend to analyze the main measures taken by Romania to ensure transition to green economy.

Integrated use of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, biogas slurry and chemical nitrogen for sustainable production of maize under salt-affected conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmad, M.; Jamil, M.; Akhtar, F.U.Z.

2014-01-01

Salinity is one of the most critical constraints hampering agricultural production throughout the world, including Pakistan. Some plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) have the ability to reduce the deleterious effect of salinity on plants due to the presence of ACC-deaminase enzyme along with some other mechanisms. The integrated use of organic, chemical and biofertilizers can reduce dependence on expensive chemical inputs. To sustain high crop yields without deterioration of soil fertility, it is important to work out optimal combination of chemical and biofertilizers, and manures in the cropping system. A pot trial was conducted to study the effect of integrated use of PGPR, chemical nitrogen, and biogas slurry for sustainable production of maize under salt-stressed conditions and for good soil health. Results showed that sole application of PGPR, chemical nitrogen and biogas slurry enhanced maize growth but their combined application was more effective. Maximum improvement in maize growth, yield, ionic concentration in leaves and nutrient concentration in grains was observed in the treatment where PGPR and biogas slurry was used in the presence of 100% recommended nitrogen as chemical fertilizer. It also improved the soil pH, ECe, and available N, P and K contents. It is concluded that integrated use of PGPR, biogas slurry and chemical nitrogen not only enhanced maize growth, yield and quality but also improved soil health. So, it may be evaluated under field conditions to get sustained yield of maize from salt-affected soils. (author)

Higher Education in the Sustainable Development Goals Framework

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Owens, Taya Louise

2017-01-01

Agenda 2030 for sustainable development focuses attention on lifelong learning opportunities for all. The new targets expand on their predecessors, the Millennial Development Goals, by both widening and deepening the scope of system-wide quality education systems. Whilst the Millennial Development Goals focused attention on universal primary…

Professional Development of Sustainability Competences in Higher Education

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Lambrechts, Wim; Verhulst, Elli; Rymenams, Sara

2017-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to provide insights into the relation between professional development (PD) and organisational change processes towards sustainability, with a specific focus on empowerment. Design/methodology/approach: The paper builds upon a constructivist approach, combining a literature review, a desk research on key publications and…

Maintaining the CSR-identity of Sustainable Entrepreneurial Firms: The role of corporate governance in periods of business growth

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Roelofsen, M.; Blok, V.; Wubben, E.F.M.

2015-01-01

This chapter focuses on the maintenance of the CSR-identity of sustainable entrepreneurial firms (SEFs) during periods of business growth. Our aim is to explore to what extent corporate governance mechanisms can be seen as effective mechanisms to maintain the CSR-identity of growing SEFs. To this

Farming Chicago: Prospects for Higher Education Support of Sustainable Urban Food Systems in the U.S. Heartland

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Rosing, Howard; Block, Daniel R.

2017-01-01

The article highlights recent food policies in Chicago with the goal of exploring how higher education institutions can contribute to development of sustainable food resources for residents of North American cities. Thousands of Chicago residents face daily challenges accessing fresh food due to income constraints and/or lack of proximity to food…

Smart Green Campus : How IT can Support Sustainability in Higher Education

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Henk Plessius; Joris Mens; Pascal Ravesteijn

2014-01-01

Author supplied: Within the Netherlands the interest for sustainability is slowly growing. However, most organizations are still lagging behind in implementing sustainability as part of their strategy and in developing performance indicators to track their progress; not only in profit

Environmental Sustainability: Study an Institution of Higher Education Public of the State of Santa Catarina

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Stephanie Kalynka Rocha

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The paper has the general objective of analyzing the environmental sustainability of an Institution of Higher Education (IHE Public of the State of Santa Catarina. To meet this objective has to reach the specific objectives: to check the number of IHEs in Brazil and Santa Catarina; to identify the number of public and private institutions and to propose a management model 5W2H to deficit sustainability criteria. The methodology and the objectives considered descriptive, with the technical procedures has the case study and the approach problem qualitative. The methodology is divided into three phases: the first phase it is the theoretical basis, it approaches social and environmental responsibility; environmental management and environmental management system. In the second phase it is the analysis of the results where first there was the amount of IHE and distribution in administrative categories. In the third phase, it has been the purpose of responding to a checklist of 154 questions developed by Pieri et al (2011 and Environmental Management Plan Summary (5W2H. In the end it is concluded that the institution submitted a global sustainability index of 32 %, being regarded as weak, proposing with the 5W2H tool, an action for each criterion, as the inclusion of recyclable products in acquisitions; recycling of waste; accessibility to the handicapped; and creating actions that approximates the IHE to the society. It is hoped that the proposed actions that the institution to put them into practice, increase the environmental sustainability index, benefiting society and the environment.

Sustainability Reporting for Start ups:Recommendations for customized Instruments to promote Sustainability

OpenAIRE

Schäfer, Barbara

2015-01-01

Sustainable development can be enforced by external interventions, such as laws and regulations. Sustainability research however finds that innovation, often emerging in the form of entrepreneurship, has the largest potential to contribute to sustainable development.Entrepreneurship is considered an important driver of economic growth, job creation and productivity. New businesses show innovative and creative potential to replace old products and to contribute to quality of life improvements....

Repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate: an overview for surgeons.

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Sangji, Naveen F

2014-10-01

The Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula is used to control Medicare spending on physician services. Under the current SGR formula, physicians face an almost 24% cut to the Medicare fee schedule on April 1, 2015. The US House Way & Means and Energy & Commerce Committees and the Senate Finance Committee released jointly proposed legislation to permanently repeal the SGR, and transition Medicare physician payment to a value-based payment method. This review summarizes the key components of the proposed legislation, and discusses some of the political challenges ahead. House Committees on Energy & Commerce and Ways & Means, and the Senate Committee on Finance staff write-ups. Physician Medicare reimbursement will move from a volume-based model to a value-based model over the next decade. Surgeons should remain engaged with the political process to ensure repeal of the SGR. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Transnational Higher Education and Sustainable Development: Current Initiatives and Future Prospects

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Koehn, Peter H.

2012-01-01

Tertiary educational institutions increasingly are relied upon for sustainable development initiatives. This policy research note analyzes newly available data regarding seven key dimensions of 295 transnational sustainable development projects involving US universities. Comparative regional analysis of the projects profiled in the APLU/AAU…

Optimistic about sustainable growth and employment. An entrepreneurial vision on the opportunities for the Netherlands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-04-01

The Dutch economy can benefit from the significant perspectives that are offered by economic developments in Asia and South America by utilizing and expanding its current strengths. Sustainable growth and full employment are within reach. Cutbacks and reforms must not be 'depressing' but deliver additional growth and new opportunities. That is the core message of 'optimistic, the long-term vision of VNO-NCW (The Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers), MKB (Netherlands Federation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) and LTO Nederland (Dutch Federation of Agriculture and Horticulture). Their thoughts and plans with regard to strengthening the position of the Netherlands in the economic world top should play a role in the run-up to the elections and in forming the cabinet. [nl

Impact of demographic ageing on sustainability of public finance in Serbia

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Zdravković Aleksandar

2012-01-01

(three scenarios, the projections of total pension expenditure (as a percentage of GDP are produced for the period 2010-2050. The results indicate that the growth rate of pension expenditure over the past few years is unsustainable in the long run. However, there is fiscal space for continuous real growth of pensions that does not jeopardize the budget deficit on the medium term, and leads to long-term reduction of the share of pension expenditures in GDP. The proposed change would not affect sustainability of the pension system and consequently public finance in Serbia, even in completely certain circumstances of significant increase in the number of elderly and their pressure on the workforce. In this context, critical review of the current government approach to the pension growth dynamics was given from the perspective of medium-term sustainability of pension system, which resulted in appropriate recommendations. Generally, the intent of the Government of the Republic of Serbia on the indexation of pensions represent a good solution long term, but the premise of increasing pensions for a part of real GDP growth, if it is higher than 4%, is subject to criticism from the point of view of medium-term sustainability. The crisis cycle of the Serbian economy, similarly to that on a global level, has its maximum and minimum phase. After a maximum of the crisis is reached, there should be a few years of economic stagnation followed by gradual, and then by faster economic growth. Due to the projection of a relatively higher rate of economic growth and GDP in a future economic recovery, there is an increased risk that such a growth could be followed by sudden jumps in the growth of pensions, which could result in unsustainable funding of pension system. Therefore, the Government should impose some limitations in terms of the maximum increase in pension per annum in case of intensive and high economic growth.

Innovative Management for Organizational Sustainability in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Barnard, Zenia; Van der Merwe, Derek

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the innovative management strategies at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) during volatile post-merger years, in its quest for a sustainable future. It illustrates how the institution went from a place of relative uncertainty and volatility to a place of progression and stability by…

Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals leads to lower world population growth.

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Abel, Guy J; Barakat, Bilal; Kc, Samir; Lutz, Wolfgang

2016-12-13

Here we show the extent to which the expected world population growth could be lowered by successfully implementing the recently agreed-upon Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs include specific quantitative targets on mortality, reproductive health, and education for all girls by 2030, measures that will directly and indirectly affect future demographic trends. Based on a multidimensional model of population dynamics that stratifies national populations by age, sex, and level of education with educational fertility and mortality differentials, we translate these goals into SDG population scenarios, resulting in population sizes between 8.2 and 8.7 billion in 2100. Because these results lie outside the 95% prediction range given by the 2015 United Nations probabilistic population projections, we complement the study with sensitivity analyses of these projections that suggest that those prediction intervals are too narrow because of uncertainty in baseline data, conservative assumptions on correlations, and the possibility of new policies influencing these trends. Although the analysis presented here rests on several assumptions about the implementation of the SDGs and the persistence of educational, fertility, and mortality differentials, it quantitatively illustrates the view that demography is not destiny and that policies can make a decisive difference. In particular, advances in female education and reproductive health can contribute greatly to reducing world population growth.

Higher dietary diversity is related to better visual and auditory sustained attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Shiraseb, Farideh; Siassi, Fereydoun; Qorbani, Mostafa; Sotoudeh, Gity; Rostami, Reza; Narmaki, Elham; Yavari, Parvaneh; Aghasi, Mohadeseh; Shaibu, Osman Mohammed

2016-04-01

Attention is a complex cognitive function that is necessary for learning, for following social norms of behaviour and for effective performance of responsibilities and duties. It is especially important in sensitive occupations requiring sustained attention. Improvement of dietary diversity (DD) is recognised as an important factor in health promotion, but its association with sustained attention is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the association between auditory and visual sustained attention and DD. A cross-sectional study was carried out on 400 women aged 20-50 years who attended sports clubs at Tehran Municipality. Sustained attention was evaluated on the basis of the Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test using Integrated Visual and Auditory software. A single 24-h dietary recall questionnaire was used for DD assessment. Dietary diversity scores (DDS) were determined using the FAO guidelines. The mean visual and auditory sustained attention scores were 40·2 (sd 35·2) and 42·5 (sd 38), respectively. The mean DDS was 4·7 (sd 1·5). After adjusting for age, education years, physical activity, energy intake and BMI, mean visual and auditory sustained attention showed a significant increase as the quartiles of DDS increased (P=0·001). In addition, the mean subscales of attention, including auditory consistency and vigilance, visual persistence, visual and auditory focus, speed, comprehension and full attention, increased significantly with increasing DDS (Pvisual and auditory sustained attention.

Sustainability in the Higher Education System: An Opportunity to Improve Quality and Image

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Daniela M. Salvioni

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In view of the increasing importance attributed to social responsibility and stakeholder relationship management, more universities have expanded their research topics and their educational programs through the years. High attention is dedicated to the dominant principles and values of internal and external relations, to the innovation processes designed to ensure an approach to sustainable development. However, less attention is dedicated to the sustainability governance orientation and to the development of a strong institutional culture of sustainability, which is a key success factor to improve the quality and the image. This article observes the sustainability governance orientation, through the analysis of the information on the websites of three fair groups of universities in the international Top 500-ARWU (Academic Ranking of World Universities 2015 ranking. The aim is to verify if there is a link between the degree of sustainability culture in the management and the positioning of the universities in the international ranking. In addition, the analysis is compared with self-assessment data carried out by the same universities in terms of performance sustainability through the STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System online platform. As principal consideration, we have noted that the best universities in the ranking have a management approach based on a shared vision of sustainability development of their university leaders, who play an essential role affirming and disseminating a sustainability culture. All this opens broader future implications intended to highlight the importance of management sustainability as a quality improvement factor of universities.

Sustainability in higher education in the context of the UN DESD: a review of learning and institutionalization processes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wals, A.E.J.

2014-01-01

This contribution is grounded empirically in a review of UN’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN DESD) which the author was commissioned to carry out by UNESCO. The review’s section on the learning processes taking place in the higher education arena forms the basis of this article.

Indicators for sustainable tourism: The case of Cambodia

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Nhep Tinat

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Most research on tourism in Cambodia so far has focused on growth. There is very limited research on indicators for sustainability. A failure to create indicators for sustainable tourism may lead to short-term growth but the country will suffer in the long run. Sustainability really matters in tourism especially in a new destination like Cambodia. Cambodia has no clear indicators determining tourism sustainability. Cambodia’s tourism is remarkably flourishing, but behind this growth some challenges exist: Cultural and environmental impacts, economic leakage, sex tourism, drug trafficking and disease transmission. These concern tourism sustainability. This research intends to fill a significant gap regarding challenges hampering sustainable tourism, particularly creating indicators, by studying the activities of Cambodia’s tourism. The aim is to contribute to developing more comprehensive policies and measures that address problems by drawing on the activities and perspectives of the country’s tourism stakeholders: These include public and private actors, NGOs, local people and tourists.

EMODnet MedSea Checkpoint for sustainable Blue Growth

Science.gov (United States)

Moussat, Eric; Pinardi, Nadia; Manzella, Giuseppe; Blanc, Frederique

2016-04-01

The EMODNET checkpoint is a wide monitoring system assessment activity aiming to support the sustainable Blue Growth at the scale of the European Sea Basins by: 1) Clarifying the observation landscape of all compartments of the marine environment including Air, Water, Seabed, Biota and Human activities, pointing out to the existing programs, national, European and international 2) Evaluating fitness for use indicators that will show the accessibility and usability of observation and modeling data sets and their roles and synergies based upon selected applications by the European Marine Environment Strategy 3) Prioritizing the needs to optimize the overall monitoring Infrastructure (in situ and satellite data collection and assembling, data management and networking, modeling and forecasting, geo-infrastructure) and release recommendations for evolutions to better meet the application requirements in view of sustainable Blue Growth The assessment is designed for : - Institutional stakeholders for decision making on observation and monitoring systems - Data providers and producers to know how their data collected once for a given purpose could fit other user needs - End-users interested in a regional status and possible uses of existing monitoring data Selected end-user applications are of paramount importance for: (i) the blue economy sector (offshore industries, fisheries); (ii) marine environment variability and change (eutrophication, river inputs and ocean climate change impacts); (iii) emergency management (oil spills); and (iv) preservation of natural resources and biodiversity (Marine Protected Areas). End-user applications generate innovative products based on the existing observation landscape. The fitness for use assessment is made thanks to the comparison of the expected product specifications with the quality of the product derived from the selected data. This involves the development of checkpoint information and indicators based on Data quality and

Higher Education Curriculum for Sustainability: Course Contents Analyses of Purchasing and Supply Management Programme of Polytechnics in Ghana

Science.gov (United States)

Etse, Daniel; Ingley, Coral

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the degree of attention to and the nature of sustainability issues in the curriculum of the Higher National Diploma (HND) Purchasing and Supply Management programme of Ghana. Design/Methodology/Approach: Documentary research is the approach used to analyse the curriculum document for the programme…

Sustainable urban transport indicators: tool for evaluating transport sustainability in the mega cities of Pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Imran, M.

2005-01-01

Urban Transport is an important sector to accomplish the goal of sustainable development in Pakistan. This is important because of the high growth of the transport sector's energy consumption, road crashes and greenhouse gas emissions. This becomes significant in the Pakistani cities where motor vehicle fleet is growing at two to three times the rate of population. Transport Policies has resulted high growth of urban road traffic, increasing air and noise pollution throughout the country. This situation raised the question how to achieve sustainable urban transport in the mega cities of Pakistan? Development of sustainable urban transport indicators will provide an opportunity to analyze current transport policies to assess Pakistan progress towards or away from sustainability. Medium Term Development Framework (2005-10) has selected to analyze against establish sustainable urban transport indicators for Pakistan. On the basis of analysis, it has found that MWF has tried to address transport problem in a piecemeal manner, rather than adopting a holistic approach. Implementing MTDF policies on transport is not fully matched with a long term commitment to achieving sustainable development in Pakistan. (author)

A new approach to the renewable energy-growth nexus: evidence from the USA.

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Gozgor, Giray

2018-03-29

The climate change is one of the leading problems in the today's world. The rise of the renewable energy meets the sustainable growth objectives since it can decelerate the climate change. For this purpose, this paper investigates the relationship between the renewable energy consumption and the economic growth in the United States (USA). Theoretically, the paper constructs the growth model that captures the effects of the economic complexity indicator as a measure of capabilities and productivity for exporting the "complex" (high value-added) products. Empirically, the paper uses the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimations and observes that both the economic complexity and the renewable energy consumption lead to a higher rate of economic growth in the USA for the period from 1965 to 2016. The paper also discusses the potential policy implications of the results for achieving the sustainable growth objectives.

Higher Education R&D and Productivity Growth: An Empirical Study on High-Income OECD Countries

Science.gov (United States)

Eid, Ashraf

2012-01-01

This paper is a macro study on higher education R&D and its impact on productivity growth. I measure the social rate of return on higher education R&D in 17 high-income OECD countries using country level data on the percentage of gross expenditure on R&D performed by higher education, business, and government sectors over the period…

The Influences of Leaders and Organizational Cultures in Sustained Multi-Agency Community College Partnerships

Science.gov (United States)

Vidotto, Julie

2014-01-01

Multi-agency partnerships can be a key element in sustaining growth and outreach in higher education, and the literature clearly indicates the increasing number and diversity of collaborative structures occurring on today's college campuses. However, partnership construction is a complex endeavor and attempts often fail for many reasons, including…

Organizing the Methodology Work at Higher School

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O. A. Plaksina

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The paper considers the methodology components of organizing the higher school training. The research and analysis of the existing methodology systems carried out by the authors reveals that their advantages and disadvantages are related to the type of the system creating element of the methodology system organizational structure. The optimal scheme of such system has been developed in the context of Vocational School Reorganization implying the specification and expansion of the set of basic design principles of any control system. Following the suggested organizational approach provides the grounds for teachers’ self development and professional growth. The methodology of the approach allows using the given structure in any higher educational institution, providing the system transition from its simple functioning to the sustainable development mode. 

Ethnography of a Sustainable Agriculture Program: A Case Study of a Social Movement's Inception and Growth on a University Campus

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Triana, Benjamin

2016-01-01

This ethnography documents how the message of sustainability was interpreted and communicated through a sustainable agricultural (SAG) program at an American higher education institution. The ethnography documents the evolution of the program as the program tackled obstacles and accomplished its goals during the initial phases of the program's…

Educating for Sustainability: Perspectives and Critical Notes on Accounting Scholars’ Role in Higher Education

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del Baldo Mara

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Education for sustainable development represents a relevant issue that allows Universities to lead and respond to social needs towards a more sustainable life and a complete change in the global paradigm of education and involvement of society. A crucial point for developing a culturally sensitive vision is to deepen the scholars’ genuine commitment to sustainability. A pillar of sustainability education should rest on authenticity, intended as coherence between the scholars’ research and teaching arguments relative to sustainability and the concrete behaviors held in their professional and personal spheres of life. Starting from this premise, the papers aims to inquire if there is a decoupling between the concepts scholars contribute to promote within the sustainability discourse and the real practice of sustainability in their personal and professional experience. “Is there a missing link between what scholars teach and study, thereby contributing to sustainability research and their daily choices and style of life?” After having presented the research design and the methodological approach adopted to empirically investigate the phenomenon the attention has been focused on the social and environmental accounting research literature, where some contributions claim for the presence of “blue meanies” that invade the world of scholarship, reflection, collegiality and hinder the development of challenges toward sustainability. The preliminary results of the explorative study suggest that a lot of tension related to education for sustainability improve the transfer of sustainable values and attitudes within the scientific community and the students, while several factors hinder sustainable behaviors in the daily professional and personal life of scholars, thus undermining relationships which are a pillar of sustainability.

Investment Management in Higher Education Institutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jelena Stankevičienė

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Recently, the higher education sector faces a series of changes, such as increased competition, globalization, limited funding. Limited funding does not reveal the full potential of the higher education, too little funding restricts research performance, diminishes the quality of higher education, worsen the conditions for learning and this has important implications for sustainable value creation. The article explores relationship between education, sustainability and financial indicators in order to evaluate the situation and advancement in the European countries, applied multi-criteria evaluation method MULTIMOORA. This method aims to prove that the more encourage investment in higher education and research, the more sustainable the state is and creates sustainable value. The results revealed that the more financially stronger and stable country is, the better position by assessing both the scientific and the sustainability indicators. Financially stable country can give higher investment in education, to promote the conduct of research, create conditions for the formation of high-quality R&D, to prepare highly qualified specialists.

Sustainability of Fossil Fuels

Science.gov (United States)

Lackner, K. S.

2002-05-01

For a sustainable world economy, energy is a bottleneck. Energy is at the basis of a modern, technological society, but unlike materials it cannot be recycled. Energy or more precisely "negentropy" (the opposite of entropy) is always consumed. Thus, one either accepts the use of large but finite resources or must stay within the limits imposed by dilute but self-renewing resources like sunlight. The challenge of sustainable energy is exacerbated by likely growth in world energy demand due to increased population and increased wealth. Most of the world still has to undergo the transition to a wealthy, stable society with the near zero population growth that characterizes a modern industrial society. This represents a huge unmet demand. If ten billion people were to consume energy like North Americans do today, world energy demand would be ten times higher. In addition, technological advances while often improving energy efficiency tend to raise energy demand by offering more opportunity for consumption. Energy consumption still increases at close to the 2.3% per year that would lead to a tenfold increase over the course of the next century. Meeting future energy demands while phasing out fossil fuels appears extremely difficult. Instead, the world needs sustainable or nearly sustainable fossil fuels. I propose the following definition of sustainable under which fossil fuels would well qualify: The use of a technology or resource is sustainable if the intended and unintended consequences will not force its abandonment within a reasonable planning horizon. Of course sustainable technologies must not be limited by resource depletion but this is only one of many concerns. Environmental impacts, excessive land use, and other constraints can equally limit the use of a technology and thus render it unsustainable. In the foreseeable future, fossil fuels are not limited by resource depletion. However, environmental concerns based on climate change and other environmental

Sustainability in Chinese Higher Educational Institutions’ Social Science Research: A Performance Interface toward Efficiency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xianmei Wang

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Sustainability issues in higher educational institutions’ (HEIs research, especially in the social science field, have attracted increasing levels of attention in higher education administration in recent decades as HEIs are confronted with a growing pressure worldwide to increase the efficiency of their research activities under a limited volume and relatively equitable division of public funding resources. This paper introduces a theoretical analysis framework based on a data envelopment analysis, separating the social science research process into a foundation stage and a construction stage, and then projecting each HEI into certain quadrants to form several clusters according to their overall and stage efficiencies and corresponding Malmquist Productivity Indices. Furthermore, the interfaces are formed in each cluster as feasible potential improvement directions. The empirical results in detail are demonstrated from a data set of Chinese HEIs in Jiangsu Province over the Twelfth Five-Year period as offering a closer approximation to the “China social science research best practice”.

Sustainable growth rate 2013: time for definitive intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Hirsch, Joshua A; Rosman, David A; Liu, Raymond W; Ding, Alexander; Manchikanti, Laxmaiah

2013-07-01

Federal healthcare spending has been a subject of intense concern as the US Congress continues to search for ways to reduce the budget deficit. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that, even though it is growing more slowly than previously projected, federal spending on Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) will reach nearly $900 billion in 2013. In 2011 the Medicare program paid $68 billion for physicians and other health professional services, 12% of total Medicare spending. Since 2002 the sustainable growth rate (SGR) correction has called for reductions to physician reimbursements; however, Congress has typically staved off these reductions, although the situation remains precarious for physicians who accept Medicare. The fiscal cliff agreement that came into focus at the end of 2012 averted a 26.5% reduction to physician reimbursements related to the SGR correction. Nonetheless, the threat of these devastating cuts continues to loom. The Administration, Congress and others have devised many options to fix this unsustainable situation. This review explores the historical development of the SGR, touches on elements of the formula itself and outlines current proposals for fixing the SGR problem. A recent CBO estimate reduces the potential cost of a 10-year fix of SGR system to $138 billion. This has provided new hope for resolution of this long-standing issue.

How to stop the snowball growth? A way for sustaining public debt over generations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Catrina Ion-Lucian

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Why public debts are growing so fast in most developing countries, like a dangerous snowball which is growing and growing and no one can stop it? It is only a negative relation between high debt and real growth of economy? How can we definitively remove the Ricardian anxiety which called debt a “terrible scourge”? These are only few questions asked in the last century in relation with debt “overhang” not only by scholars, but by governments as well. This paper aims to answer to other questions like: Why debt’s rate grows faster than GDP? Why governments borrow? For current spending or for public investments? Who should benefits current loans? Who should pay for them and when? How should be the taxation along the economic cycle: neutral or countercyclical? Need we a model to sustain the public debt over generations, or it is good enough to maintain a good ration between real GDP growth and debt and that’s it?

Is our economic model compatible with sustainable development?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Røpke, Inge

2003-01-01

The paper concerns the contradictions between sustainability and the present economic growth model. The discussion relates to the work of Jan Otto Andersson.......The paper concerns the contradictions between sustainability and the present economic growth model. The discussion relates to the work of Jan Otto Andersson....

Baltic Sea Maritime Spatial Planning for Sustainable Ecosystem Services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Henning Sten; Schrøder, Anne Lise

2017-01-01

in the marine and maritime sectors with great potential for innovation and economic growth. Holistic spatial planning systems supporting sustainable development have proved themselves in terrestrial planning and are also needed at sea. Due to this reason, the BONUS BASMATI project is based on the ecosystem...... services approach to assist in assessing sustainable solutions corresponding to policy goals.......The current and potential use of the seas and oceans is often called the ‘Blue Economy’. Recently, the European Commission launched its Blue Growth Strategy on the opportunities for marine and maritime sustainable growth. The European Commission considers that Blue Growth is a long-term strategy...

The Political Economy of Recent Economic Growth in India

OpenAIRE

Raghbendra Jha

2004-01-01

The political economy of India’s economic growth is an issue of abiding interest. Higher and sustained economic growth has, all over the world, been the surest and most time tested means of raising living standards and reducing poverty. Further, given that it is a functioning democracy, economic policy in India can often be dictated by political expediency as political parties indulge in competitive populism in the face of improvements in social indicators such as literacy, infant mortality a...

Challenges of rapid economic growth in China: Reconciling sustainable energy use, environmental stewardship and social development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Yong; Oberheitmann, Andreas

2009-01-01

China aims at quadrupling per-capita GDP by 2020 compared to the year 2000. Without any energy and environmental policy measures, this tremendous economic growth would be associated with a quadrupling of primary energy consumption up to 6.3 billion tons of standard coal equivalents (sce) and energy-related CO 2 -emissions of 13.9 billion tons Against this background, this paper is to set China's need to implement its sustainable development strategy into the quantitative context of the countries economic development and subsequent economic growth-related environmental problems. China is urgently searching for a way to ease the negative implications of economic growth and has committed itself to achieve a level of 3.0 billion ton sce primary energy consumption in 2020. As a consequence, the macro-economic energy intensity has to be reduced by 53% by 2020. A reduction of 53% by 2020 would lead to an energy intensity level 30% points below the year-2000 level of developed countries. As for natural resources, the expected economic growth will lead to an increase of crude oil net-imports up to 455 million ton sce in 2020 and 650 million ton sce in 2030. As for regional income distribution, economic growth helped to decrease existing inequities

Growth of higher fungi on wheat straw and their impact on the digestibility of the substrate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moyson, E.; Verachtert, H. (Catholic Univ. of Leuven (Belgium). Faculty of Agriculture)

1991-12-01

The influence of the growth of three higher fungi on the composition of wheat straw was investigated. Pleurotus pulmonarius, P. sajor-caju and Lentinus edodes grew very well on lignocellulosic substrates, breaking down a considerable amount of lignin. The initial lignin concentration of straw was halved after 12 weeks of fungal growth, doubling the enzymic digestibility. Together with lignin, the higher fungi consumed half of the amount of hemicellulose (i.e. 15%), leaving cellulose fairly intact, which should remain as an energy source for ruminants. (orig.).

Sustainable reclaimation of alkali land

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, S.S.; Khan, A.R.

2002-05-01

The development of sodicity in pilot project area is secondary in nature due to high water table. A pilot project for reclamation of 500 ha of alkaline land was taken in Bihar, India. Due to very high content of sodium and other soluble salts physical, chemical and biological environment of soil have deteriorated, which gave poor crop yield. The application of pyrite improved the physical, chemical, biological and soil properties and provided a conducive environment for plant growth and resulted in higher crop yields. For the sustainability of reclamation work apart from other precautions, a well-planned drainage system is a basic requirement for this area. (author)

Facility for sustained positive affect as an individual difference characteristic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicola S. Schutte

2015-12-01

Full Text Available A series of studies investigated a proposed new individual difference characteristic or trait, facility for sustained positive affect, consisting of tendencies that allow individuals to maintain a high level of positive mood. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in the creation of a measure, the self-congruent and new activities (SANA scale which identified two core aspects of sustainable positive affect, engaging in self-congruent activities and engaging in new activities. A higher level of facility for sustainable affect, as operationalized by the SANA scale, was associated with maintenance of positive mood for a month, fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, less negative affect, and more life satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, work satisfaction, mindfulness, personal expansion and growth, and emotional intelligence. The results provided initial evidence that facility to maintain positive affect may be an emotion-related individual difference characteristic.

Sustainability Assessment Using a Unit-based Sustainability ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

need to balance economic growth and social progress with environmental concerns ... They play a special role in seeking solutions to societal ... development, and also helps to establish the current status of sustainability work in progress. .... departments, units and/or facets of university life (e.g. student activities or estates ...

Environmental Management and Sustainability in Higher Education: The Case of Spanish Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Leon-Fernandez, Yolanda; Domínguez-Vilches, Eugenio

2015-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to analyse trends in implementing the main initiatives in the field of environmental management and sustainability in Spanish universities, taking as a reference point the guidelines adopted by a number of universities in countries most committed to sustainable development. Design/methodology/approach: An analysis of…

Cloud Computing in Higher Education Sector for Sustainable Development

Science.gov (United States)

Duan, Yuchao

2016-01-01

Cloud computing is considered a new frontier in the field of computing, as this technology comprises three major entities namely: software, hardware and network. The collective nature of all these entities is known as the Cloud. This research aims to examine the impacts of various aspects namely: cloud computing, sustainability, performance…

Building a Sustainable Higher Education Sector in the UAE

Science.gov (United States)

Jose, Saju; Chacko, Jacob

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevant economic aspects that could affect the sustainability of the HE sector in the UAE. Design/methodology/approach: Data are collected mainly through secondary sources and based on the relevant information. Two constructs, namely, market factors and educational governance are identified…

Sustainable Universities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grindsted, Thomas Skou

2011-01-01

Declarations on Sustainability in Higher Education (SHE) can be viewed as a piece of international regulation. Over the past 30 years research at universities has produced convincing data to warn about deterioration of the environment, resource scarcity and the need for sustainability. This in turn....... Declarations tend to have impact on three trends. Firstly, there is emerging international consensus on the university’s role and function in relation to sustainable development; secondly, the emergence of national legislation, and thirdly, an emerging international competition to be leader in sustainable...

A sustainable woody biomass biorefinery.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Shijie; Lu, Houfang; Hu, Ruofei; Shupe, Alan; Lin, Lu; Liang, Bin

2012-01-01

Woody biomass is renewable only if sustainable production is imposed. An optimum and sustainable biomass stand production rate is found to be one with the incremental growth rate at harvest equal to the average overall growth rate. Utilization of woody biomass leads to a sustainable economy. Woody biomass is comprised of at least four components: extractives, hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose. While extractives and hemicellulose are least resistant to chemical and thermal degradation, cellulose is most resistant to chemical, thermal, and biological attack. The difference or heterogeneity in reactivity leads to the recalcitrance of woody biomass at conversion. A selection of processes is presented together as a biorefinery based on incremental sequential deconstruction, fractionation/conversion of woody biomass to achieve efficient separation of major components. A preference is given to a biorefinery absent of pretreatment and detoxification process that produce waste byproducts. While numerous biorefinery approaches are known, a focused review on the integrated studies of water-based biorefinery processes is presented. Hot-water extraction is the first process step to extract value from woody biomass while improving the quality of the remaining solid material. This first step removes extractives and hemicellulose fractions from woody biomass. While extractives and hemicellulose are largely removed in the extraction liquor, cellulose and lignin largely remain in the residual woody structure. Xylo-oligomers, aromatics and acetic acid in the hardwood extract are the major components having the greatest potential value for development. Higher temperature and longer residence time lead to higher mass removal. While high temperature (>200°C) can lead to nearly total dissolution, the amount of sugars present in the extraction liquor decreases rapidly with temperature. Dilute acid hydrolysis of concentrated wood extracts renders the wood extract with monomeric sugars

Monopolization versus sustainable growth – the case of postal services market in Poland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomasz Bernat

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Economies of the European Union are evolving towards the competitive development along with sustainable development. For many years, these have been the key elements of the unions strategic goals. This indicates, actions in order to achieve them on particular markets, especially on monopolized markets. These includes the postal services market. This raises the question, whether the monopolization of the area-at least a certain segment, has an impact on the biggest player on the market when taking or not taking action regarding the sustainable growth? Three hypotheses and their verification give the answer to this question. The hipotheses are as follow: the Poczta Polska SA is operator which ratify the Universal Postal Convention, therefore, pro-environmental and pro-social goals should be part of their actions; Operators involved in environmental and social activities take official strategy CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility and officially announce it publicly, for instance, on their own websites; actions speak for themselves - the entity involved in the particular area will be actively participate in it, so that its operation will be known to the public. As a research method, have been used case study and analysis of the literature. The paper highlights both academic as well as managerial implications.

Nanotechnology policy in Korea for sustainable growth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

So, Dae Sup; Kim, Chang Woo; Chung, Pil Seung; Jhon, Myung S.

2012-01-01

Korea has become one of the leading countries in nanotechnology along with the U.S., Japan, and Germany. Since 2001, the Korean Government established the “Nanotechnology Development Plan.” Since then, the trend in nanotechnology is steadily changing from fundamental research to application-driven technologies. In this paper, we examine the nanotechnology development and policy during the past decade, which includes the investments in R and D, infrastructure, and education. The Third Phase (2011–2020) on clean nanotechnology convergence and integration in information, energy, and the environmental sector is also given. Furthermore, the program on long-term strategy dealing with sustainability in resolving future societal demand and plans for sustainable energy and environmental activities will be discussed in depth. The outcomes and national evaluations of research and education are also given.

Model of sustainable development of energy system, case of Hamedan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sahabmanesh, Aref; Saboohi, Yadollah

2017-01-01

Sustainable economic growth and improvement of the social welfare depend upon the sufficient supply of energy resources, while the utilization of energy resources is one of the main factors of environmental degradation. This research is involved with development of a sustainable energy system model and a new method for sustainability assessment. This model represents the flow of energy from primary resources through processing, conversion, and end-use technologies in an optimization framework where the useful energy demand in various social and economic sectors is met. The impact of energy supply and consumption chain on the environment at each level of energy system is also embedded in the model structure. A multi-criteria analysis of changes is then applied and sustainable development indices of the whole system are concluded. Finally, effects of the energy subsidy policy and high economic growth rate on sustainability of the energy system in three scenarios are analyzed. Results demonstrate that energy subsidy decelerates the improvement rate of the total sustainability index. Also, when a high economic growth is accompanied with the energy subsidy this index reduces considerably. Results show that how penetration of renewable energy potentials changes the sustainability situation of energy systems. - Highlights: • Developing a new model for sustainable energy systems. • Presenting a new method for sustainability assessment of energy systems. • Optimizing the energy flow and capacity expansion of Hamedan energy system. • Utilizing an MCDA approach to obtain sustainability indices of the whole system. • Analysis of energy subsidy and high economic growth on energy sustainability.

Towards sustainable settlement growth: A new multi-criteria assessment for implementing environmental targets into strategic urban planning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schetke, Sophie, E-mail: schetke@uni-bonn.de [Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Dept. of Urban Planning and Real Estate Management, University of Bonn, Nussallee 1, 53115 Bonn (Germany); Haase, Dagmar, E-mail: dagmar.haase@ufz.de [Humboldt University of Berlin, Department of Geography, Rudower Chaussee 16, 10099 Berlin, Germany, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Department of Computational Landscape Ecology, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig (Germany); Koetter, Theo, E-mail: koetter@uni-bonn.de [Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Dept. of Urban Planning and Real Estate Management, University of Bonn, Nussallee 1, 53115 Bonn (Germany)

2012-01-15

For nearly one decade, the German political and research-agenda has been to a large extent determined by the ongoing question of how to limit the expansion of settlement areas around cities in order to preserve natural resources, make settlement growth more sustainable and to strengthen the re-use of existing inner-urban areas (see a.o. Koetter et al. 2009a, 2010; Schetke et al. 2009, 2010b). What is already under discussion within the international literature are the recommendations of the German Council for Sustainability to quantitatively reduce the daily greenfield consumption from the current rate of over 100 ha per day to a rate of 30 ha per day in 2020 and to bring urban infill development up to a ratio of 3:1 with greenfield development (German Council for Sustainability, 2004).). This paper addresses the added value beyond those abstract political targets and presents an innovative, multi-criteria assessment (MCA) of greenfield and infill sites to evaluate their sustainability and resource efficiency. MCA development and its incorporation into a Decision Support System (DSS) were accomplished by utilising a stakeholder-driven approach. The resulting tool can be applied in preparing and revising land-use plans. The paper presents the concept and the development process of the MCA-DSS. Test runs with planners prove that the evaluation of potential housing sites using individually weighted environmental indicators helps to identify those strategies of housing development that accord most closely with sustainability goals. The tests further show that the development of greenfield sites generally exhibits less sustainability than that of infill sites. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer This paper presents an innovative, multi-criteria assessment (MCA) of greenfield and infill sites. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The MCA evaluates sustainability and resource efficiency of potential housing sites in a stakeholder-driven approach. Black

Towards sustainable settlement growth: A new multi-criteria assessment for implementing environmental targets into strategic urban planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schetke, Sophie; Haase, Dagmar; Kötter, Theo

2012-01-01

For nearly one decade, the German political and research-agenda has been to a large extent determined by the ongoing question of how to limit the expansion of settlement areas around cities in order to preserve natural resources, make settlement growth more sustainable and to strengthen the re-use of existing inner-urban areas (see a.o. Kötter et al. 2009a, 2010; Schetke et al. 2009, 2010b). What is already under discussion within the international literature are the recommendations of the German Council for Sustainability to quantitatively reduce the daily greenfield consumption from the current rate of over 100 ha per day to a rate of 30 ha per day in 2020 and to bring urban infill development up to a ratio of 3:1 with greenfield development (German Council for Sustainability, 2004).). This paper addresses the added value beyond those abstract political targets and presents an innovative, multi-criteria assessment (MCA) of greenfield and infill sites to evaluate their sustainability and resource efficiency. MCA development and its incorporation into a Decision Support System (DSS) were accomplished by utilising a stakeholder-driven approach. The resulting tool can be applied in preparing and revising land-use plans. The paper presents the concept and the development process of the MCA-DSS. Test runs with planners prove that the evaluation of potential housing sites using individually weighted environmental indicators helps to identify those strategies of housing development that accord most closely with sustainability goals. The tests further show that the development of greenfield sites generally exhibits less sustainability than that of infill sites. - Highlights: ► This paper presents an innovative, multi-criteria assessment (MCA) of greenfield and infill sites. ► The MCA evaluates sustainability and resource efficiency of potential housing sites in a stakeholder-driven approach. ► Test runs with planners identified prominent environmental indicators

Sustained availability of trimethoprim in drinking water to achieve higher plasma sulphonamide-trimethoprim antibacterial activity in broilers.

Science.gov (United States)

Sumano, H; Hernandez, L; Gutierrez, L; Bernad-Bernad, M J

2005-02-01

(1) In order to make trimethoprim (TMP) available to broilers throughout the day, a sustained release formulation (SRF) of the drug in the form of granules was added to the water tank that supplies drinking water. (2) Broilers were initially dosed with sulphachloropiridazine-TMP (SCP-TMP 5:1) and then further medicated throughout the day, achieving in the end a dose of 30 mg/kg each of SCP and TMP (group A). Group B received a preparation with the same dose of SCP and TMP (1:1) as group A, but administered as a single dose without the SRF of TMP. Group C received the customary SCP-TMP 5:1 preparation (30 and 6 mg/kg, respectively). Water tanks were completely consumed in 3 to 4 h. (3) Broilers were bled at different times and concentration of antibacterial activity in serum determined by correlating the composite antibacterial activity of SCP and TMP with actual concentrations of these drugs by means of a microbiological agar diffusion assay. (4) Time vs serum concentrations of activity were higher in group B; the increments in the maximum serum concentration for group B over groups A and C being 39 and 67%, respectively. (5) However, the sustained concentration of activity over time, measured as the area under the cu)rve, was highest in group A. Group B had higher values for area under the curve than group C. (6) An additional dose of TMP to achieve 30 mg/kg of both SCP and TMP improves the serum concentration of this combination over the customary 5:1 proportion. The best values for sustaining antibacterial activity were obtained using a 1:1 ratio as in group A. The use of a SRF as in group A may translate into better clinical results.

Modeling change in learning strategies throughout higher education: a multi-indicator latent growth perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Coertjens, Liesje; Donche, Vincent; De Maeyer, Sven; Vanthournout, Gert; Van Petegem, Peter

2013-01-01

The change in learning strategies during higher education is an important topic of research in the Student Approaches to Learning field. Although the studies on this topic are increasingly longitudinal, analyses have continued to rely primarily on traditional statistical methods. The present research is innovative in the way it uses a multi-indicator latent growth analysis in order to more accurately estimate the general and differential development in learning strategy scales. Moreover, the predictive strength of the latent growth models are estimated. The sample consists of one cohort of Flemish University College students, 245 of whom participated in the three measurement waves by filling out the processing and regulation strategies scales of the Inventory of Learning Styles--Short Versions. Independent-samples t-tests revealed that the longitudinal group is a non-random subset of students starting University College. For each scale, a multi-indicator latent growth model is estimated using Mplus 6.1. Results suggest that, on average, during higher education, students persisting in their studies in a non-delayed manner seem to shift towards high-quality learning and away from undirected and surface-oriented learning. Moreover, students from the longitudinal group are found to vary in their initial levels, while, unexpectedly, not in their change over time. Although the growth models fit the data well, significant residual variances in the latent factors remain.

Modeling change in learning strategies throughout higher education: a multi-indicator latent growth perspective.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liesje Coertjens

Full Text Available The change in learning strategies during higher education is an important topic of research in the Student Approaches to Learning field. Although the studies on this topic are increasingly longitudinal, analyses have continued to rely primarily on traditional statistical methods. The present research is innovative in the way it uses a multi-indicator latent growth analysis in order to more accurately estimate the general and differential development in learning strategy scales. Moreover, the predictive strength of the latent growth models are estimated. The sample consists of one cohort of Flemish University College students, 245 of whom participated in the three measurement waves by filling out the processing and regulation strategies scales of the Inventory of Learning Styles--Short Versions. Independent-samples t-tests revealed that the longitudinal group is a non-random subset of students starting University College. For each scale, a multi-indicator latent growth model is estimated using Mplus 6.1. Results suggest that, on average, during higher education, students persisting in their studies in a non-delayed manner seem to shift towards high-quality learning and away from undirected and surface-oriented learning. Moreover, students from the longitudinal group are found to vary in their initial levels, while, unexpectedly, not in their change over time. Although the growth models fit the data well, significant residual variances in the latent factors remain.

Venezuela's Economic Recovery: Is It Sustainable?

OpenAIRE

Jake Johnston; Mark Weisbrot

2012-01-01

Venezuela’s current growth is generally described as unsustainable, with various negative scenarios put forth, including spiraling debt, inflation, and balance of payments crises. However, these pessimistic forecasts have been far off the mark for most of the past decade. This paper looks at the available economic data to see if Venezuela’s economic recovery could be sustained, or even accelerated. It finds that Venezuela’s current economic growth is sustainable and could continue at the curr...

Local Sustainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carrizosa Umana, Julio

1998-01-01

The current polemic about the possibilities of sustainable development has led to a renovated interest for the topic of the sustainability of the communities and the local sustainability. In front of the global sustainability whose conditions have been exposed by systemic ecologists and for macro economists, the sustainability of specific places arises in the planet whose conditions are object of study of the ecology of landscapes, of the ecological economy, of the cultural anthropology, of the environmental sociology and naturally, of the integral environmentalism. In this discussion the Colombian case charges unusual interest to be one of the few countries of Latin America, where a very dense net of municipalities exists, each one with its urban helmet and with a position and some functions defined by the political constitution of the nation. This net of municipalities and of urban helmets it also constitutes net of alternative to the current macro-cephalic situation. As well as Bogota grew, in a hundred years, of less than a hundred thousand inhabitants to six million inhabitants, each one of these municipalities contains a potential of growth that depends on the characteristics of its ecological, social, economic and politic sustainability

Inhibition of growth of experimental prostate cancer with sustained delivery systems (microcapsules and microgranules) of the luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone antagonist SB-75.

Science.gov (United States)

Korkut, E; Bokser, L; Comaru-Schally, A M; Groot, K; Schally, A V

1991-02-01

Inhibitory effects of the sustained delivery systems (microcapsules and microgranules) of a potent antagonist of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone N-Ac-[3-(2-naphthyl)-D-alanine1, 4-chloro-D-phenylalanine2, 3-(3-pyridyl)-D-alanine3, D-citrulline6, D-alanine10]LH-RH (SB-75) on the growth of experimental prostate cancers were investigated. In the first experiment, three doses of a microcapsule preparation releasing 23.8, 47.6, and 71.4 micrograms of antagonist SB-75 per day were compared with microcapsules of agonist [D-Trp6]LH-RH liberating 25 micrograms/day in rats bearing Dunning R3327H transplantable prostate carcinoma. During 8 weeks of treatment, tumor growth was decreased by [D-Trp6]LH-RH and all three doses of SB-75 as compared to untreated controls. The highest dose of SB-75 (71.4 micrograms/day) caused a greater inhibition of prostate cancer growth than [D-Trp6]LH-RH as based on measurement of tumor volume and percentage change in tumor volume. Doses of 23.8 and 47.6 micrograms of SB-75 per day induced a partial and submaximal decrease, respectively, in tumor weight and volume. Tumor doubling time was the longest (50 days) with the high dose of SB-75 vs. 15 days for controls. The body weights were unchanged. The weights of testes, seminal vesicles, and ventral prostate were greatly reduced in all three groups that received SB-75, and testosterone levels were decreased to nondetectable values in the case of the two higher doses of SB-75. LH levels were also diminished. Similar results were obtained in the second experiment, in which the animals were treated for a period of 8 weeks with microgranules of SB-75. Therapy with microgranules of SB-75 significantly decreased tumor growth as measured by the final tumor volume, the percentage change from the initial tumor volume, and the reduction in tumor weight. The results indicate that antagonist SB-75, released from sustained delivery systems, can produce a state of chemical castration and effectively

Sustainability assessment of one industrial region: A combined method of emergy analysis and IPAT (Human Impact Population Affluence Technology)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Xiaoman; Geng, Yong; Dong, Huijuan; Ulgiati, Sergio; Liu, Zhe; Liu, Zuoxi; Ma, Zhixiao; Tian, Xu; Sun, Lu

2016-01-01

Resource over-exploitation and resource depletion have received increasing attentions, especially for industrial regions. In this paper an innovative method that combines emergy analysis and an IPAT (Human Impact Population Affluence Technology) equation is developed in order to create an integrated framework for uncovering the driving forces on resource consumption in one industrial region. Liaoning province, one of the old heavy industrial bases in China, is selected as the case study region. The main results show that total emergy of Liaoning province increased from 9.25E + 23 sej in 2002 to 1.92E + 24 sej in 2012, with 165% growth on non-renewable emergy and 250% growth on imported emergy. Regional emergy/RMB ratio was higher than other developed regions and the average value of China, indicating that this province consumed more local free non-renewable resources to support its own development. The lower ESI (emergy sustainability index) indicates that Liaoning province's sustainability is still weak and far away from sustainable development. IPAT analysis further identifies that rapid economic growth was the main driving force to increase its total emergy use, while technology innovation offset the increase of total emergy use. Policy insights suggest that industrial regions should improve their energy efficiency and optimize their economic and energy structure by applying economic instruments and capacity building efforts. - Highlights: • Emergy analysis and IPAT are combined to evaluate the sustainability of Liaoning. • Total emergy of Liaoning increased from 2002 to 2011 and then decreased in 2012. • Economic scale is the key driving force to induce higher emergy consumption. • Valuable policy insights are proposed in order to promote sustainable development.

Poverty-led higher population growth in Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakibullah, A; Rahman, A

1996-01-01

This article discusses the issue whether population growth is exogenous or endogenous in the economic development of Bangladesh. Overpopulation adversely affects food supplies, foreign exchange, and human resources. Moreover, it depresses savings per capita and retards growth of physical capital per labor. Underdeveloped countries, like Bangladesh, are faced with the problem of allocating resources between infrastructure, education, and health service that are essential for human capital development and population control measures. With this, determination whether fertility is exogenous or endogenous is important for policy purposes in the context of Bangladesh. Results showed that there is a correlation between population growth and real gross domestic products per capita. Based on Granger causality test, population growth is endogenous in the development process of Bangladesh and its overpopulation is due to poverty. Thus, there is a need for appropriate policy to take measures to improve human capital and decrease fertility rates.

Academics' conceptions of teaching sustainability

OpenAIRE

Wyatt, Margaret

2017-01-01

Over the last decade a growing number of universities have committed to ensuring that sustainability is integral to higher education with the intent of preparing eco-literate graduates who can make positive contributions to the sustainability of the environment. With particular consideration for the increasingly internationalised teaching environment of many higher education institutions, this study sought to explore how academics' conceptions of teaching sustainability might d...

Policy Case Study – Food Labelling: Climate for Sustainable Growth

OpenAIRE

Cosbey, Aaron; Marcu, Andrei; Belis, David; Stoefs, Wijnand; Tuokko, Katja

2015-01-01

This study, which is part of the project entitled “Climate for Sustainable Growth“, focuses on one particular policy tool used in the agricultural sector, food labelling. It reviews food carbon labelling when put in place with clear objectives to address climate change. This study examines whether food carbon labels, as climate mitigation tools, are put in place in a sustainable way, by identifying their impacts on the three dimensions of sustainable development: 1) economic 2) social and ...

Ship Acquisition of Shipping Companies by Sale & Purchase Activities for Sustainable Growth: Exploratory Fuzzy-AHP Application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keun-Sik Park

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Strengthening sale and purchase (S&P capacity has become a fundamental requirement for sustainable growth and corporate competitiveness in the modern shipping market. However, there is a lack of research related to S&P and its priority when shipping companies attempt to implement ship acquisition through S&P activities. To fill this gap, this paper conducts an empirical analysis to analyze priority factors during the acquisition of second-hand ships from the perspective of shipping companies. Business criteria are considered to be the most important factors in the analysis of the priority of ship acquisition and investment in shipping companies. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first exploration covering Korean shipping companies’ ship acquisition through S&P activities. This study is expected to contribute to the better understanding of the role of S&P in ensuring the sustainability of shipping companies and to provide stakeholders with valuable insights.

Is South Korea’s Green Job Policy Sustainable?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yeon-Mi Jung

2015-07-01

Full Text Available South Korea’s green job policy was implemented in February 2008 as a part of low-carbon green growth policy, but has been discontinued at the present. The country’s actual energy and environmental consumption has continuously increased, and South Korean society has grown increasingly distant from sustainable development. The study constructs a theoretical framework centering on sustainable development and analyzes the process and contents of South Korea’s green job policy. We suggest four findings: First, in terms of ideology, the nation’s green job policy was based on green growth. Implemented as a strategy typical of developing countries, South Korea’s green growth was pursued as weak ecological modernization, relatively stressing economic growth and excluding citizens’ participation. Second, in terms of governance, the nation’s green job policy was led by the central government, thus nearly completely destroying existing legal and institutional infrastructures related to sustainable development. Third, South Korea’s green job policy was defined on the basis of a growth orientation and concentrated on the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and the NPP project, both of which betrayed considerable problems from the perspective of sustainable development. Fourth, green jobs were created in traditional environmental protection and pollution reduction and therefore limited.

Hard Times in Higher Education: The Closure of Subject Centres and the Implications for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian Chalkley

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Within many British Universities and, indeed, across higher education internationally, how best to provide education for sustainable development (ESD has become an increasingly important issue. There is now a widespread view that higher education sectors have a key part to play in preparing societies for the transition to a low carbon economy and the shift towards more sustainable ways of living and working. In the UK, a leading role in this field has been played by the Higher Education Academy and especially its network of 24 Subject Centres, each of which promotes curriculum enhancement in a particular discipline area. The mission of the Higher Education Academy has been to help raise the overall quality of the student learning experience across all disciplines and all Higher Education institutions (HEIs. As part of promoting and supporting many kinds of curriculum innovation and staff development, the HE Academy has championed the cause of ESD. Now, however, as a result of government spending cuts, the Academy is facing severe budget reductions and all its Subject Centres are soon to close. At this pivotal moment, the purpose of this paper is, therefore, to review the HE Academy’s past contribution to ESD and to explore the likely future implications of the demise of its Subject Centres. The paper ends by outlining some ideas as to how the ESD agenda might be advanced in the post-Subject Centre era, in the light of the Academy’s intention to support subject communities under its new structure. The paper has been developed through participation in key committees, engagement with Academy and Subject Centre staff, as well as through a literature review.

Sustainability issues in civil engineering

CERN Document Server

Saride, Sireesh; Basha, B

2017-01-01

This compilation on sustainability issues in civil engineering comprises contributions from international experts who have been working in the area of sustainability in civil engineering. Many of the contributions have been presented as keynote lectures at the International Conference on Sustainable Civil Infrastructure (ICSCI) held in Hyderabad, India. The book has been divided into core themes of Sustainable Transportation Systems, Sustainable Geosystems, Sustainable Environmental and Water Resources and Sustainable Structural Systems. Use of sustainability principles in engineering has become an important component of the process of design and in this context, design and analysis approaches in civil engineering are being reexamined to incorporate the principles of sustainable designs and construction in practice. Developing economies are on the threshold of rapid infrastructure growth and there is a need to compile the developments in various branches of civil engineering and highlight the issues. It is th...

Sustainable Business Models through Service Design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Prendeville, S.M.; Bocken, N.M.P.

2017-01-01

In the face of growing sustainability challenges, pressure on businesses to decouple environmental impacts from growth is mounting. New sustainable business models can be a systemic driver for change in industry and the wider business innovation literature suggests that strategic design approaches

Sustainable Development

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Tsegai Berhane Ghebretekle

Ethiopia is selected as a case study in light of its pace in economic growth ... Interrogating the Economy-First Paradigm in 'Sustainable Development' … 65 .... agreement, since such effective global cooperation on climate change ultimately ..... and foster innovation; reduce inequality within and among countries; make cities.

Smart Growth and Transportation

Science.gov (United States)

Describes the relationship between smart growth and transportation, focusing smart and sustainable street design, transit-oriented development, parking management, sustainable transportation planning, and related resources.

A Further Look Into The Integration of Strategic Business Sustainability and the Communication of Business Sustainability Beyond Reporting

OpenAIRE

Lew, Stephen Joo Wei

2015-01-01

There has been continuous growth in the area of sustainability reporting globally, and in the ASEAN region, Malaysia has been found to have the distinction of being the country with the highest number of sustainability reports produced. This growth is in part due to firms attempting to address the ever evolving relationship between businesses and its stakeholders over the decade which has given rise to a variety of ethical, economic, social, and even environmental challenges (ACCA, 2010; Carr...

Sustainable Academia: Translating the Vision of a Full Sustainable University into a Measurable Reality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonios Maragakis

2017-04-01

Full Text Available There is a growing public expectation that universities should start focusing on delivering sustainability. The topic of sustainability in higher education has gathered a significant amount of interest from students, academics, governments and international organizations. With a plethora of declarations, initiatives, marketing and assessments, there is a need to assess what the stakeholders want in order to make decisions regarding an institutions sustainability. Ultimately, students are the ones using these sustainability marketing materials to assist in their decision at which institution they will pursue their studies. The sheer volume of interpretations of the word sustainability with regards to higher education institution leaves ample room for potentially misguided initiatives or marketing. A universal system for assessing a higher educational institution’s sustainability has not been translated into a measurable reality. It is proposed that a universal system would help create a common understanding of sustainability within higher education institutions and would help in stakeholder understanding, institutional accountability and impactful application of sustainable initiatives. This research looked to answer if a holistic framework could be created that would aid stakeholders in reviewing a university’s level of sustainability. And, if so, if this vision of a fully sustainable university could be translated into a measurable reality. The research was approached in a structured way. Each chapter represents a published and peer-reviewed step towards addressing if a holistic framework could be created that would aid students in reviewing sustainability tools, assessments and marketing. The qualitative and quantitative conclusions from each chapter influenced the subsequent chapters, eventually leading to the creation and testing of two digital tools. The interpretations of these published chapters are found in the conclusion of this

Money and Growth: An Alternative Approach.

OpenAIRE

Ireland, Peter N

1994-01-01

This paper takes an alternative approach to the topic of money and growth by developing a model in which the effects of sustained capital accumulation on an evolving system of payments, in addition to the conventional effects of sustained inflation on growth, are examined. While the effects of inflation on growth are small, the effects of growth on the monetary system are substantial. The results are consistent with ideas about money and growth contained in work that predates that of James To...

Mything out on sustainability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rees, W.E. [British Columbia Univ., BC (Canada). School of Community and Regional Planning

2000-12-01

Two myths are deeply ingrained in our modern psyche, that of unlimited growth and technology efficiency. In that context, it becomes increasingly difficult to define sustainability. The first factor helping us define the meaning of sustainability is that there are no inherent conflicts between continuous economic growth and the environment. The second factor contradicts the first: the economy is a subsystem, fully-contained within a materially closed, non-growing biosphere/ecosphere, or better yet, that the economy is parasitic on nature. In this light, society is prevented from consuming renewable resources faster than their production rate, nor can it use those non-renewable resources faster than technology can find renewable substitutes, and finally cannot produce wastes faster than their assimilation by the biosphere. It is obvious that our society consumes resources faster than they can be produced, as evidenced by deforestation, soil degradation, falling water tables, etc. Wastes production also is faster than assimilation by the biosphere, proved by climate change, smog, air, water, and land pollution, etc. It is widely believed that the knowledge industries contribute to reducing harm to the environment, but this is not true, as the manufacturing of products is shifted to countries with less stringent environmental standards that are poorly enforced. The author emphasized the point that gains from energy efficiency lead to lower prices and higher incomes, as history demonstrated. A number of factors have an impact: (1) savings in energy efficiency might prompt consumers to use more of the goods in question, (2) efficiency-induced savings realized by individuals might lead to alternative forms of consumption which consume more energy, and (3) energy efficiency leads to higher incomes, which prompt increased levels of consumption. A reference was made to a report produced by the World Resources Institute in 1997. The report focused on the economies of Germany

Civic Education for Sustainable Development

Science.gov (United States)

Ohlmeier, Bernhard

2015-01-01

Education for sustainable development (ESD) often fails to consider the political dimension. To address this gap, this paper focuses on a specific political approach to ESD. The model presented is derived from the four sustainable growth targets of German Development Policy. Instead of relying on a neo-classical or neo-liberal economic paradigm,…

Sustainable development goals and inclusive development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gupta, J.; Vegelin, C.

Achieving sustainable development has been hampered by trade-offs in favour of economic growth over social well-being and ecological viability, which may also affect the sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the member states of the United Nations. In contrast, the concept of inclusive

Structural change and higher educated labour in Indonesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Pasay, N H

1990-12-01

This paper describes an impending shortage of higher-educated labor in Indonesia. Dynamic change is occurring in both Indonesia's population and economy. Its rapidly growing population demands annual national economic growth of 2.2% to avoid declining per capita output. Accordingly, investments have surged in banking and manufacturing industries as Indonesia undergoes structural change from an agricultural to service-based economy. Plagued by a majority of low productivity, elementary-level educated workers, increased productivity is called for to ensure continued development. As the age structural shift progresses, many of these workers will be absorbed in the services sector. Jobs exist requiring workers of all skill levels. This paper is mainly concerned, however, with higher-educated labor's failure to be oriented to the research and development required for sustained economic growth and development, and their entry into clerical positions potentially filled by less educated and less skilled labor. The services sector, particularly public services, is responsible for absorbing much of this labor. As professional, technical, and managerial capabilities and qualifications become increasingly needed in the near future as sector investments take effect, a shortage of higher-educated labor will become apparent. Policy makers are advised to anticipate these shortages and contemplate investments in human capital to facilitate a more smooth adjustment to structural change.

Benchmarking the Netherlands. Benchmarking for growth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

This is the fourth edition of the Ministry of Economic Affairs' publication 'Benchmarking the Netherlands', which aims to assess the competitiveness of the Dutch economy. The methodology and objective of the benchmarking remain the same. The basic conditions for economic activity (institutions, regulation, etc.) in a number of benchmark countries are compared in order to learn from the solutions found by other countries for common economic problems. This publication is devoted entirely to the potential output of the Dutch economy. In other words, its ability to achieve sustainable growth and create work over a longer period without capacity becoming an obstacle. This is important because economic growth is needed to increase prosperity in the broad sense and meeting social needs. Prosperity in both a material (per capita GDP) and immaterial (living environment, environment, health, etc) sense, in other words. The economy's potential output is determined by two structural factors: the growth of potential employment and the structural increase in labour productivity. Analysis by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) shows that in recent years the increase in the capacity for economic growth has been realised mainly by increasing the supply of labour and reducing the equilibrium unemployment rate. In view of the ageing of the population in the coming years and decades the supply of labour is unlikely to continue growing at the pace we have become accustomed to in recent years. According to a number of recent studies, to achieve a respectable rate of sustainable economic growth the aim will therefore have to be to increase labour productivity. To realise this we have to focus on for six pillars of economic policy: (1) human capital, (2) functioning of markets, (3) entrepreneurship, (4) spatial planning, (5) innovation, and (6) sustainability. These six pillars determine the course for economic policy aiming at higher productivity growth. Throughout

Benchmarking the Netherlands. Benchmarking for growth

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2003-01-01

This is the fourth edition of the Ministry of Economic Affairs' publication 'Benchmarking the Netherlands', which aims to assess the competitiveness of the Dutch economy. The methodology and objective of the benchmarking remain the same. The basic conditions for economic activity (institutions, regulation, etc.) in a number of benchmark countries are compared in order to learn from the solutions found by other countries for common economic problems. This publication is devoted entirely to the potential output of the Dutch economy. In other words, its ability to achieve sustainable growth and create work over a longer period without capacity becoming an obstacle. This is important because economic growth is needed to increase prosperity in the broad sense and meeting social needs. Prosperity in both a material (per capita GDP) and immaterial (living environment, environment, health, etc) sense, in other words. The economy's potential output is determined by two structural factors: the growth of potential employment and the structural increase in labour productivity. Analysis by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) shows that in recent years the increase in the capacity for economic growth has been realised mainly by increasing the supply of labour and reducing the equilibrium unemployment rate. In view of the ageing of the population in the coming years and decades the supply of labour is unlikely to continue growing at the pace we have become accustomed to in recent years. According to a number of recent studies, to achieve a respectable rate of sustainable economic growth the aim will therefore have to be to increase labour productivity. To realise this we have to focus on for six pillars of economic policy: (1) human capital, (2) functioning of markets, (3) entrepreneurship, (4) spatial planning, (5) innovation, and (6) sustainability. These six pillars determine the course for economic policy aiming at higher productivity

Sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boiteux, M.

2004-01-01

Marcel Boiteux evokes the results of the work on the sustainable development by the Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. This is a vast political programme with the goal of allowing all humanity to live well in growing unity while protecting the environment and favouring economic growth. (author)

Economics of Sustainable Development. Competitiveness and Economic Growth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorel AILENEI

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Economic growth is one of the most important issues of humanity. Both in national economies and world economy, recession and prosperity periods are regularly succeeding with different amplitudes. But beyond these fluctuations and their effects, the results are important: performance and economic growth. Because of the problematical issue of economic growth, the authors are trying to critically reflect on the economic growth concept and on its implications on the praxis area. Although there is a large literature about economic growth modeling, it is intriguing that there still are some serious obstacles for conceptualization and praxis. Only the simple fact that the economic growth process needs serious thinking on the time dimension is sufficient for understanding the real difficulties of this problematical issue. As for the economic growth praxis, a clear analysis of the interests system within an economy is needed. Without trying to find miraculous solutions for the economic growth issue, the authors suggest a clear and correct analysis of this important subject.

Single-provenance mature conifers show higher non-structural carbohydrate storage and reduced growth in a drier location.

Science.gov (United States)

Piper, Frida I; Fajardo, Alex; Hoch, Günter

2017-08-01

Since growth is more sensitive to drought than photosynthesis, trees inhabiting dry regions are expected to exhibit higher carbohydrate storage and less growth than their conspecifics from more humid regions. However, the same pattern can be the result of different genotypes inhabiting contrasting humidity conditions. To test if reduced growth and high carbohydrate storage are environmentally driven by drought, we examined the growth and non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) concentrations in single-provenance stands of mature trees of Pinus contorta Douglas and Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex C. Lawson planted at contrasting humidity conditions (900 versus 300 mm of annual precipitation) in Patagonia, Chile. Individual tree growth was measured for each species and at each location as mean basal area increment of the last 10 years (BAI10), annual shoot elongation for the period 2011-14, and needle length for 2013 and 2014 cohorts. Additionally, needle, branch, stem sapwood and roots were collected from each sampled tree to determine soluble sugars, starch and total NSC concentrations. The two species showed lower mean BAI10 and 2013 needle length in the dry site; P. ponderosa also had lower annual shoot extension for 2011 and 2014, and lower 2014 needle length, in the dry than in the mesic site. By contrast, NSC concentrations of all woody tissues for both species were either similar or higher in the dry site when compared with the mesic site. Patterns of starch and sugars were substantially different: starch concentrations were similar between sites except for roots of P. ponderosa, which were higher in the dry site, while sugar concentrations of all woody tissues in both species were higher in the dry site. Overall, our study provides evidence that reduced growth along with carbon (C) accumulation is an environmentally driven response to drought. Furthermore, the significant accumulation of low-molecular weight sugars in the dry site is compatible with a prioritized C

Analysing Italian Regional Patterns in Green Economy and Climate Change. Can Italy Leverage on Europe 2020 Strategy to Face Sustainable Growth Challenges ?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco BONSINETTO

2013-12-01

Full Text Available European cities and regions are facing the crucial challenge of greening their economy towards more sustainable patterns. Politicians and policy-makers should promote new policies for sustainable growth including renewables, greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency and biodiversity. All of these aspects can be considered as a boost for local and regional economy. In this regard, European countries and regions can benefit from the Europe 2020 Strategy which is defined as Europe’s blueprint for a smart, sustainable and inclusive future, providing a ten year roadmap for growth and jobs. EU2020S was designed as a European exit strategy from the global economic and financial crisis in view of new European economic governance. This study discusses the above issues regarding Italy and intends to provide some answers on the perspectives of the new EU2020S. It draws from a research project supported by ESPON, the S.I.E.S.T.A. Project, focused on the territorial dimension of the EU2020S. Therefore, this paper aims at analyzing Italian regional patterns on climate change, green economy and energy within the context of EU2020S and at providing policy recommendations for better achieving the goals of the Strategy.

Sustainability: A Tedious Path to Galactic Colonization

OpenAIRE

Dutil, Y.; Dumas, S.

2007-01-01

Civilization cannot sustain an exponential growth for long time even when neglecting numerous laws of physics! In this paper, we examine what are fundamental obstacles to long term survival of a civilization and its possibility to colonize the Galaxy. Using the solar system as a reference, resources available for sustained growth are analyzed. Using this information, we will explore the probability of discovering a civilization at its different stage of energy evolution as estimating some pos...

G20 Priorities and Decisions under Turkey’s 2015 Presidency: Implementation, Inclusiveness and Investment for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marina Larionova

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Turkey held the presidency of the G20 (Group of 20 from December 2014 to November 2015. During this period geopolitical tensions started to spread beyond the borders of the regions involved. Turkey went through a challenging time, with a slowing economy, two elections in 2015, revived political confrontations, two million refugees and frustrations in securing its borders and handling terrorism. Turkey defined three priorities for its presidency: inclusiveness, implementation and investment for growth. To combat inequality and ensure inclusive growth, it aimed to address the issues of small and medium-sized enterprises, such as access to finance, skills and global value chains, employment for youth and women, and support to the development of low-income countries. Inclusiveness was also explicit in G20 engagement with social partners. Implementation was emphasized, particularly related to the imperative to deliver on the G20 members’ commitments regarding growth strategies made at the 2014 Brisbane Summit. This article assesses the G20’s performance under the Turkey presidency within a functional paradigm focusing on the three main objectives of plurilateral summitry institutions: strengthening capacity for political leadership to launch new ideas and overcome deadlocks, reconciling domestic and international pressures, and consolidating collective management. To attain those objectives, institutions are expected to demonstrate leadership, solidarity, sustainability, acceptability, consistency and continuity. Efficiency is perceived as G20 performance on a combination of the criteria. Given the G20’s ultimate mission to achieve strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth, all the issues on Turkey’s G20 agenda were grouped according to these four growth pillars. G20 performance on each of the issue areas was assessed on six criteria using a three-point scale: high (1, medium (0 and low (−1 degree of performance. The overall

Sustainable Practices Innovation

Science.gov (United States)

Better sustainability means more environmentally conscious and efficient businesses and communities. EPA helps modify the way we consume energy, deal with waste, and grow our economy through programs such as Energy Star, E3, Smart Growth, and WaterSense.

THE UNSUSTAINABILITY OF 'SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT' IN A ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

central concept in environmental education. (EE). In 1980 the ... sustainability along the lines of current growth patterns. .... necessarily base their decisions on the need or wish to care for .... on which to base the immense project of sustainable.

Multiple growth regimes: Insights from unified growth theory

OpenAIRE

Galor, Oded

2007-01-01

Unified Growth Theory uncovers the forces that contributed to the existence of multiple growth regimes and the emergence of convergence clubs. It suggests that differential timing of take-offs from stagnation to growth segmented economies into three fundamental regimes: slow growing economies in a Malthusian regime, fast growing countries in a sustained growth regime, and economies in the transition between these regimes. In contrast to existing research that links regime switching thresholds...

Engineering biological systems toward a sustainable bioeconomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Lopes, Mateus Schreiner Garcez

2015-06-01

The nature of our major global risks calls for sustainable innovations to decouple economic growth from greenhouse gases emission. The development of sustainable technologies has been negatively impacted by several factors including sugar production costs, production scale, economic crises, hydraulic fracking development and the market inability to capture externality costs. However, advances in engineering of biological systems allow bridging the gap between exponential growth of knowledge about biology and the creation of sustainable value chains for a broad range of economic sectors. Additionally, industrial symbiosis of different biobased technologies can increase competitiveness and sustainability, leading to the development of eco-industrial parks. Reliable policies for carbon pricing and revenue reinvestments in disruptive technologies and in the deployment of eco-industrial parks could boost the welfare while addressing our major global risks toward the transition from a fossil to a biobased economy.

Use and usefulness of sustainability economics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bartelmus, Peter [Bergische Universitaet Wuppertal (Germany)

2010-09-15

Sustainable development is at the roots of sustainability economics. Baumgaertner and Quaas (2010) define sustainability economics as the combination of economic efficiency and justice in the distribution of nature's services. Van den Bergh (in press) criticizes their approach as 'axiomatic' and incomplete, lacking a discussion of environmental externalities and dogmas like the 'GDP dogma'. The focus on non-measurable welfare or happiness in both articles impairs the use and usefulness of their sustainability notions for applied economics and policy. Alternatively, environmentally modified national accounts offer a quantifiable sustainability concept of produced and natural capital maintenance. For practical reasons, sustainability economics should therefore deal with sustainable economic performance and growth. Coordination with other social goals has to be left to politics. (author)

A Study of Sustainable Assessment Theory in Higher Education Tutorials

Science.gov (United States)

Beck, Robert J.; Skinner, William F.; Schwabrow, Lynsey A.

2013-01-01

A study of sustainable assessment theory in nine tutorial courses at four colleges demonstrated that three long-term learning outcomes improved: Independence, Intellectual Maturity and Creativity. Eight of 10 traits associated with these outcomes were validated through internal reliability, faculty and student rubrics, and faculty case studies…

Impact of Population Aging on Asia's Future Growth

OpenAIRE

Park, Donghyun; Shin, Kwanho

2011-01-01

First, the expert contributors argue, Asia must find ways to sustain rapid economic growth in the face of less favorable demographics, which implies slower growth of the workforce. Second, they contend, Asia must find ways to deliver affordable, adequate, and sustainable old-age economic security for its growing elderly population. Underpinned by rigorous analysis, a wide range of concrete policy options for sustaining economic growth while delivering economic security for the elderly are the...

Dynamic structure in self-sustained turbulence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Itoh, K.; Itoh, S.; Yagi, M.; Fukuyama, A.

1995-06-01

Dynamical equation for the self-sustained and pressure-driven turbulence in toroidal plasmas is derived. The growth rate of the dressed-test mode, which belongs to the subcritical turbulence, is obtained as a function of the turbulent transport coefficient. In the limit of the low fluctuation level, the mode has the feature of the nonlinear instability and shows the explosive growth. The growth rate vanishes when the driven transport reaches to the stationarily-turbulent level. The stationary solution is thermodynamically stable. The characteristic time, by which the stationary and self-sustained turbulence is established, scales with the ion-sound transit time and is accelerated by the bad magnetic curvature. Influences of the pressure gradient as well as the radial electric field inhomogeneity are quantified. (author)

Personal growth initiative among Industrial Psychology students in a higher education institution in South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Angelique de Jager-van Straaten

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Personal growth initiative (PGI is an important characteristic of workplace counsellors. Industrial and organisational (I-O psychologists often assist employees with counselling for work-related and personal problems, and therefore PGI is an important research topic for this profession. Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure the PGI of I-O psychology students in a higher education institution in South Africa, as well as to explore differences in PGI between demographic groups. Motivation: According to the scope of practice for psychologists, growth and development of employees form part of an I-O psychologist’s responsibilities. PGI is an important characteristic of I-O psychologists as it enables them to efficiently assist employees in growth and development processes. Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional survey design was used. A purposive non-probability sample (N = 568 of I-O psychology students was taken from a higher education institution in South Africa. A biographical questionnaire and the personal growth initiative scale (PGIS were used as measuring instruments. Main findings: The results indicated that (1 the PGIS is a valid and reliable measure of PGI, (2 PGI is prevalent amongst I-O psychology students and (3 PGI differs between certain demographic groups. Practical implications: The findings of this study will assist in the future development of a training programme for I-O psychology students to equip them with the counselling skills they need to function in a counselling role. Contribution: This study contributes to knowledge regarding the importance of PGI for I-O psychology students. The study will also assist higher education institutes to adapt their training programmes in order to prepare I-O psychology students for their role as counsellors. More knowledge will also be provided with regard to the functioning of the PGIS.

HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE GROWTH OF MENIAL JOBS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Łukasz Albański

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Young people are confronting a world in which they may not achieve economic strides their parents did. Almost all will have been awarded university degree, worth far less (in the terms and conditions of their employment than that of their parents, if they themselves graduated from university. In the article the author discusses the relationship between higher education and stratification. The concepts of meritocracy and credentialism are considered and a particular attention is paid to an equal/unequal access to education dilemma. Discussed is why a liberal arts education is losing ground and why it is being made a scapegoat for graduate unemployment. Does the nightmare of Weber’s “iron cage of rationalization” come true and is the contemporary university in the service of an economic order with all the related technical requirements of machine production? In the second part of the article the role of meritocratic discourse and educational credential inflation is considered as well as the growth of menial jobs for young people as a case in Poland.

A territorial understanding of sustainability in public development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peti, Marton, E-mail: mpeti@vati.hu

2012-01-15

Sustainability theories in European Union (EU) development policies are facing significant challenges: it is difficult to transmit context-specific, publicly communicable messages; the recent development policies strengthen the concurrent development paradigm of economic growth and competitiveness; 'climate change' became a more popular environmental integration term than sustainability in the last few years. However, due to the recent crises of the economic growth, there is a great chance to reintroduce a sustainability-based development. A territorial/regional understanding of sustainability can also be an answer for the current challenges, a platform for refreshing the concept with relevant, specific messages that are close to the everyday life. This paper summarises the 'territorial system'-based basic principles of territorial sustainability in a model called AUTHARSIIV (AUTonomy, HARmony, Solidarity, Innovation, Identity and Values). This is a supplementary sustainability content specified for the context of spatial/regional development or planning. The paper also examines the presence of 'general and territorial sustainability' in regional development programmes, and case studies on applying the territorial sustainability principles in planning, assessment, and implementation. According to the results, sustainability is rarely adapted to the conditions of a given sector or a region, and the territorial aspect of sustainability is underrepresented even in territorial programmes. Therefore, the paper proposes a new planning and assessment system that is based on a set of regionally legitimate sustainability values.

Process framework for identifying sustainability aspects in university curricula and integrating education for sustainable development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holm, Tove; Sammalisto, Kaisu; Grindsted, Thomas Skou

2015-01-01

Sustainability aspects in higher education must be enhanced with more concrete actions. Universities are globally required to have quality assurance to secure and improve teaching and learning, and they use management systems to this aim. Integrating education for sustainable development...... and management systems are alike in that they are based on continuous improvement and systematic thinking; for both processes all stakeholders need to be involved. Although quality assurance is compulsory for higher education, education for sustainable development has barely been examined or integrated...... in this context. This article examines how voluntary integration of education for sustainable development into management systems at universities could facilitate a scheme to overcome the challenges to integrating education for sustainable development that were identified in previous research. For this, a process...

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THE PROBLEM OF A NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Condrea DRAGANESCU

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The paper aimed to approach the topic of a new strategy for the sustainable and competitive development of Romanian agriculture and especially for animal husbandry. In this purpose, a large variety of studies was investigated and the opinions of well-known personalities were used to present in a critical manner the history of sustainable development concept, principles, causes, reasons, moments, events, institutions involved at international, European and national level, achievements. The study is focused on Romania, starting from the actual situation of animal husbandry and learning from the country own and others experience. During the last centuries, the scientific studies noticed that the growth trends of the world population and resources utilization which could determine complications for survival of human society. The first Report of The Club of Rome (1972 concluded mathematically that " if the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resources depletion continue to remain unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime in the next hundred years",..that is in the 21 century. As a reply, the international and national bodies adopted recommendations for a sustainable development. This study analyzed the problems of sustainable development of animal production in Romania, taking into consideration that the conversion rate of energy provided by plants to animal products is about 20%, and this decrease of the number of population is supported by agricultural food production. Two production systems are proposed: (1. Intensive production systems, with high forage conversion, in favorable agricultural country area; (2. extensive (free-ranging, transhumance, pendulation, sustainable, biological production in not or less favorable agricultural area (mountain area, etc.

Assessing the Impact of a Program Designed to Develop Sustainability Leadership amongst Staff Members in Higher Education Institutes: A Case Study from a Community of Practice Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Alkaher, Iris; Avissar, Ilana

2018-01-01

This study focuses on the impact of a sustainability leadership development program (SLDP) designed to develop staff members as leaders who encourage sustainability practices within institutions of higher education (IHE). Using the framework of community of practice (CoP), we explored the program's contribution by interviewing 16 staff members who…

Globalization, Sustainable Development and Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Toakley, Arthur Raymond

2004-01-01

Globalization is a natural outcome of the sustained technological and economic growth, which originated with the Industrial Revolution in Britain during the 18th century. This path to continuing economic growth spread initially to continental Europe and North America, and brought with it the creation of large towns and substantial social change.…

Urban development in Freiburg, Germany – sustainable and neoliberal?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mössner, Samuel

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In recent years, sustainable urban development has emerged as a relevant but contested field in urban studies. A broad and diverse literature has discussed sustainable development from various perspectives. Some authors have researched urban sustainability from a technocratic perspective, looking for technical and managerial solutions. Others have shed light on the political dimension of urban sustainable development in our times of urban neoliberalization. This branch of literature focuses on the problematic relationship between market-oriented growth on the one hand and aspects of equality and justice on the other hand, which come along with the idea of sustainability. This article argues that the professionalization and new forms of urban management, as well as a shift towards urban governance and citizens’ participation have intensified consensual practices of urban regulation. Sustainable politics that have occurred in many cities around the world place emphasis on justice, tolerance and participation as the principal drivers for urban development. Empirical evidence shows, however, that these goals are subjugated to economic growth. Drawing on empirical work carried out in Freiburg, Germany – a city long hailed as a forerunner of urban sustainable development – this article promotes the opinion that the idea of ‘sustainable development’ in its current form is nothing more than an oxymoron, aimed and invented as a fuzzy concept in order to disguise the fundamentalist believe in growth that lies beyond such development.

Sustaining an Acquisition-based Growth Strategy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henningsson, Stefan; Toppenberg, Gustav; Shanks, Graeme

Value creating acquisitions are a major challenge for many firms. Our case study of Cisco Systems shows that an advanced Enterprise Architecture (EA) capability can contribute to the acquisition process through a) preparing the acquirer to become ‘acquisition ready’, b) identifying resource...... complementarity, c) directing and governing the integration process, and d) post-acquisition evaluation of the achieved integration and proposing ways forward. Using the EA capability in the acquisition process improves Cisco’s ability to rapidly capture value from its acquisitions and to sustain its acquisition...

Revitalizing Higher Education. Issues in Higher Education, Volume 3. First Edition.

Science.gov (United States)

Salmi, Jamil, Ed.; Verspoor, Adriaan M., Ed.

This volume contains 13 papers on experiences with reform and innovation in higher education and their implications for developing countries. Four themes are highlighted: higher education and development, performance assessment, sustainable financing, and effectiveness in governance and management. The papers include: "Introduction:…

Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

IAS Admin

known to improve plant growth in many ways when compared to ... roles in agricultural productivity. ... Sustainable agriculture: Sustainable agriculture involves the successful management of agricultural re- ... For the first time Kloepper et al.

Public Debt, Corruption and Sustainable Economic Growth

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Eunji Kim

2017-03-01

Full Text Available There are many studies that look into the relationship between public debt and economic growth. It is hard to find, however, research addressing the role of corruption between these two variables. Noticing this vacancy in current literature, we strive to investigate the effect of corruption on the relationship between public debt and economic growth. For this purpose, the pooled ordinary least squares (OLS, fixed effects models and the dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM models (Arellano-Bond, 1991 are estimated with data of 77 countries from 1990 to 2014. The empirical results show that the interaction term between public debt and corruption is statistically significant. This confirms the hypothesis that the effect of public debt on economic growth is a function of corruption. The sign of the marginal effect is negative in corrupt countries, but public debt enhances economic growth within countries that are not corrupt, i.e., highly transparent.

Sustainability and the UK’s Leading Retailers

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Peter Jones

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper provides a review of the sustainability commitments and achievements currently being publicly reported by the UK’s leading retailers and of the nature of the reporting process, and also offers some reflections on the ways these retailers are addressing and pursuing sustainability agendas. The paper begins with a short discussion of the characteristics of sustainability and draws its empirical material from the most recent information on sustainability posted on the top ten UK retailer’s corporate websites. The findings reveal that the top ten UK retailers’ sustainability commitments and achievements embrace a wide range of environmental, social and economic issues but that the reporting process has a number of weaknesses that undermine its transparency and integrity. More critically, the authors argue that these commitments are principally driven by the search for efficiency gains and that they are couched within existing business models centered on continuing growth. Thus, the leading UK retailers are, at best, currently pursuing a “weak” rather than a “strong” model of sustainability; in pursuing continuing growth, they are effectively ignoring the fact the current patterns of consumption may be unsustainable in the long term. The paper provides an accessible review of the sustainability agendas being pursued by the UK’s leading retailers and as such it will interest academics, students and practitioners interested in retailing and corporate sustainability.

Analysis of the Sustainable Growth Indicator in the Area of Climate Change from the Point of View of Europe 2020 Strategy Performance

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Dagmar Blatná

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to present the results of an analysis of the indicator Greenhouse gas emissions (GGE. The GGE is one of the headline indicators tracked under the EU’s main socioeconomic strategy until the year 2020 – the EUROPE 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. In the area of sustainable growth, the Resource-efficient Europe initiative was established. For 2020, the EU has made a unilateral commitment to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions from its 28 member states by 20 % compared to 1990 levels. The GGE indicator shows total man-made emissions of the so-called Kyoto basket of greenhouse gases. It presents annual total emissions in relation to those observed in 1990. The aggregate greenhouse gas emissions are expressed in units of CO2 equivalent. The development of the GGE indicator in the EU and in the Czech Republic from 2000 to 2014 from the point of view of the ability to achieve the Strategy objectives is analyzed. In terms of the level of the analyzed indicator, the set of the EU countries can be divided into two significantly different groups – the euro area and the non-euro area; or into groups by the year of their joining the EU. Analyses of the dependency between the growth of GGE and the GDP growth for both the set of the 28 EU countries and the Czech Republic are presented as well.

A territorial understanding of sustainability in public development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Péti, Márton

2012-01-01

Sustainability theories in European Union (EU) development policies are facing significant challenges: it is difficult to transmit context-specific, publicly communicable messages; the recent development policies strengthen the concurrent development paradigm of economic growth and competitiveness; ‘climate change’ became a more popular environmental integration term than sustainability in the last few years. However, due to the recent crises of the economic growth, there is a great chance to reintroduce a sustainability-based development. A territorial/regional understanding of sustainability can also be an answer for the current challenges, a platform for refreshing the concept with relevant, specific messages that are close to the everyday life. This paper summarises the ‘territorial system’-based basic principles of territorial sustainability in a model called AUTHARSIIV (AUTonomy, HARmony, Solidarity, Innovation, Identity and Values). This is a supplementary sustainability content specified for the context of spatial/regional development or planning. The paper also examines the presence of ‘general and territorial sustainability’ in regional development programmes, and case studies on applying the territorial sustainability principles in planning, assessment, and implementation. According to the results, sustainability is rarely adapted to the conditions of a given sector or a region, and the territorial aspect of sustainability is underrepresented even in territorial programmes. Therefore, the paper proposes a new planning and assessment system that is based on a set of regionally legitimate sustainability values.

Differences in energy expenditures and growth dilution explain higher PCB concentrations in male summer flounder

Science.gov (United States)

Madenjian, Charles P.; Jensen, Olaf P.; Rediske, Richard R.; O'Keefe, James P.; Vastano, Anthony R.; Pothoven, Steven A.

2016-01-01

Comparison of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentrations between the sexes of mature fish may reveal important behavioral and physiological differences between the sexes. We determined whole-fish PCB concentrations in 23 female summer flounder Paralichthys dentatus and 27 male summer flounder from New Jersey coastal waters. To investigate the potential for differences in diet or habitat utilization between the sexes, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios were also determined. In 5 of the 23 female summer flounder, PCB concentrations in the somatic tissue and ovaries were determined. In addition, we used bioenergetics modeling to assess the contribution of the growth dilution effect to the observed difference in PCB concentrations between the sexes. Whole-fish PCB concentrations for females and males averaged 87 and 124 ng/g, respectively; thus males were 43% higher in PCB concentration compared with females. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios did not significantly differ between the sexes, suggesting that diet composition and habitat utilization did not vary between the sexes. Based on PCB determinations in the somatic tissue and ovaries, we predicted that PCB concentration of females would increase by 0.6%, on average, immediately after spawning due to release of eggs. Thus, the change in PCB concentration due to release of eggs did not explain the higher PCB concentrations observed in males. Bioenergetics modeling results indicated that the growth dilution effect could account for males being 19% higher in PCB concentration compared with females. Thus, the bulk of the observed difference in PCB concentrations between the sexes was not explained by growth dilution. We concluded that a higher rate of energy expenditure in males, stemming from greater activity and a greater resting metabolic rate, was most likely the primary driver for the observed difference in PCB concentrations between the sexes.

Differences in Energy Expenditures and Growth Dilution Explain Higher PCB Concentrations in Male Summer Flounder.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charles P Madenjian

Full Text Available Comparison of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB concentrations between the sexes of mature fish may reveal important behavioral and physiological differences between the sexes. We determined whole-fish PCB concentrations in 23 female summer flounder Paralichthys dentatus and 27 male summer flounder from New Jersey coastal waters. To investigate the potential for differences in diet or habitat utilization between the sexes, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios were also determined. In 5 of the 23 female summer flounder, PCB concentrations in the somatic tissue and ovaries were determined. In addition, we used bioenergetics modeling to assess the contribution of the growth dilution effect to the observed difference in PCB concentrations between the sexes. Whole-fish PCB concentrations for females and males averaged 87 and 124 ng/g, respectively; thus males were 43% higher in PCB concentration compared with females. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios did not significantly differ between the sexes, suggesting that diet composition and habitat utilization did not vary between the sexes. Based on PCB determinations in the somatic tissue and ovaries, we predicted that PCB concentration of females would increase by 0.6%, on average, immediately after spawning due to release of eggs. Thus, the change in PCB concentration due to release of eggs did not explain the higher PCB concentrations observed in males. Bioenergetics modeling results indicated that the growth dilution effect could account for males being 19% higher in PCB concentration compared with females. Thus, the bulk of the observed difference in PCB concentrations between the sexes was not explained by growth dilution. We concluded that a higher rate of energy expenditure in males, stemming from greater activity and a greater resting metabolic rate, was most likely the primary driver for the observed difference in PCB concentrations between the sexes.

Sustainable Development and Sustainable Growth: Conceptual Plane or Points on a Conceptual Plain?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ulhøi, John Parm; Madsen, Henning

The world's natural resources are being battered on all fronts. Human activities which consume such resources need to be reconsidered in a way which will allow the regenerative capacity of these assets to function. In view of the potential danger of the concept of sustainable development (SD...

Port Stakeholder Summit: Advancing More Sustainable Ports (April 2014)

Science.gov (United States)

EPA's National Port Stakeholders Summit, Advancing More Sustainable Ports, focused on actions to protect air quality while reducing climate risk and supporting economic growth, making ports more environmentally sustainable.

Export growth, energy costs, and sustainable supply chains

Science.gov (United States)

2010-11-01

The report examines sustainable supply chains in North America and the role played by rail intermodal : operations in lowering ten-mile fuel and emission costs. It examines whether current systems favor imports : over exports a current complaint ...

How sustainable is the use of peat for commercial energy production?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schilstra, AJ

The sustainability argument that more peat grows in Finland than is used does not hold. On designated peatlands, growth is about 85 times slower than peat use; growth elsewhere in Finland does not add to available resources. Claiming undisturbed peatlands as carbon sinks for sustainable peat use is

How sustainable is the use of peat for commercial energy production?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schilstra, AJ

2001-01-01

The sustainability argument that more peat grows in Finland than is used does not hold. On designated peatlands, growth is about 85 times slower than peat use; growth elsewhere in Finland does not add to available resources. Claiming undisturbed peatlands as carbon sinks for sustainable peat use is

THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DIVERSIFICATION OF THE LABOUR MARKET IN THE INDUSTRIAL AREAS AFFECTED BY RESTRUCTURING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marius Eremia VLAICU POPA

2013-06-01

Full Text Available In the context of what is implemented through dualism "ecosystem-efficient", sustainable development involves the care of the human potential of the present situation and the future of its natural resources, energy, materials and information. As an effect of responsibility for future generations, the efficient use of resources requires, at the same time, the operation of a sustainable economy, by diversification and development of the labour market in order to meet present and future demands of human society. At local and regional level, through the closing of mines and large enterprises, with an effect in restructuring the economic sector and employment, development strategies and rehabilitation of the affected industrial areas as a common principle approach, analyzing the problems, defining the objectives and policies, identifying actions to attack problems and provide for mechanisms that will enable the progress control. In this paper it is presented the concept of sustainable development as imperative for economic growth, diversification and development of the labour market, being dealt the representative criteria and principles of sustainable development strategy of any company. Are defined the components and objectives of a strategy for local and regional development of industrial areas affected by the restructuring.

Children between Sustainable Development and Commercials

Science.gov (United States)

Péter, Lilla; Balázs, Szilvia

2009-01-01

Our paper deals with the relationship between sustainability, media advertisements and their effect on children. This topic is highly actual today, as the children of today, who grow up in front of the TV will be the consumers of tomorrow. The perpetual growth of consuming and gathering material goods is not serving the sustainable development.…

Sustainability or Bust: Malaysian Home Buyers’ Stated Preferences for Sus-Tainable Housing

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Syahid A.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The lack of data on sustainable home buying behaviour in developing countries such as Malaysia is due to the absence of sustainable housing itself. However, it is still possible to solicit home buyers for their stated preferences and quantify its effects on housing demand. In this study, a sample of 300 responses to a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE on sustainable housing features was analysed using the “support.CEs” program. This study found that the addition of sustainable features; renewable energy generation, enhanced soundproofing and ventilation, energy saving features, and higher green area ratios significantly increase home buyer’s willingness to pay (WTP for sustainable housing.

Advancing higher education for sustainable development: international insights and critical reflections

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lozano, R.; Lozano, F.J.; Mulder, K. de; Huisingh, D.; Waas, T.

2013-01-01

Historically, universities have played many roles in transforming societies, by educating decision-makers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and academics. However, education and research on sustainability in universities is at an early stage in many institutions. This introduction highlights findings from

Heterogeneity and scale of sustainable development in cities.

Science.gov (United States)

Brelsford, Christa; Lobo, José; Hand, Joe; Bettencourt, Luís M A

2017-08-22

Rapid worldwide urbanization is at once the main cause and, potentially, the main solution to global sustainable development challenges. The growth of cities is typically associated with increases in socioeconomic productivity, but it also creates strong inequalities. Despite a growing body of evidence characterizing these heterogeneities in developed urban areas, not much is known systematically about their most extreme forms in developing cities and their consequences for sustainability. Here, we characterize the general patterns of income and access to services in a large number of developing cities, with an emphasis on an extensive, high-resolution analysis of the urban areas of Brazil and South Africa. We use detailed census data to construct sustainable development indices in hundreds of thousands of neighborhoods and show that their statistics are scale-dependent and point to the critical role of large cities in creating higher average incomes and greater access to services within their national context. We then quantify the general statistical trajectory toward universal basic service provision at different scales to show that it is characterized by varying levels of inequality, with initial increases in access being typically accompanied by growing disparities over characteristic spatial scales. These results demonstrate how extensions of these methods to other goals and data can be used over time and space to produce a simple but general quantitative assessment of progress toward internationally agreed sustainable development goals.

Heterogeneity and scale of sustainable development in cities

Science.gov (United States)

Brelsford, Christa; Lobo, José; Hand, Joe

2017-01-01

Rapid worldwide urbanization is at once the main cause and, potentially, the main solution to global sustainable development challenges. The growth of cities is typically associated with increases in socioeconomic productivity, but it also creates strong inequalities. Despite a growing body of evidence characterizing these heterogeneities in developed urban areas, not much is known systematically about their most extreme forms in developing cities and their consequences for sustainability. Here, we characterize the general patterns of income and access to services in a large number of developing cities, with an emphasis on an extensive, high-resolution analysis of the urban areas of Brazil and South Africa. We use detailed census data to construct sustainable development indices in hundreds of thousands of neighborhoods and show that their statistics are scale-dependent and point to the critical role of large cities in creating higher average incomes and greater access to services within their national context. We then quantify the general statistical trajectory toward universal basic service provision at different scales to show that it is characterized by varying levels of inequality, with initial increases in access being typically accompanied by growing disparities over characteristic spatial scales. These results demonstrate how extensions of these methods to other goals and data can be used over time and space to produce a simple but general quantitative assessment of progress toward internationally agreed sustainable development goals. PMID:28461489

Engineering sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prendergast, J.

1993-01-01

This article discusses sustainable development, a policy which attempts to balance environmental preservation and economic growth, and promises a way to provide a decent life for Earth's human inhabitants without destroying the global ecosystem. Sustainable development is an effort to use technology to help clean up the mess it helped make, and engineers will be central players in its success or failure. Key aspects include more efficient energy use through conservation measures and switching to renewable sources, waste minimization, much greater recycling and reuse of materials, more comprehensive economic/environmental assessments employing life-cycle analyses, and better management of resources

Rural Tourism: Development, Management and Sustainability in Rural Establishments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan-José Villanueva-Álvaro

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Tourism is one of the economic driving forces of Spain: the consolidation of existing tourist destinations and new market niches encourage an upward trend of tourism. The economic impacts produced by tourism are one of the major concerns of the authorities; the question is whether it is possible to continue growing without compromising our environment. This work attempts to answer this issue by analysing one of the tourism segments with higher growth in recent years: rural tourism. Using a model of partial least squares (PLS, we will analyse the environmental impacts from the point of view of the supply and its relationships with the environmental management conducted. We will also analyse the rural establishments from a global point of view and, depending on their category, explain the factors which determine the sustainable behaviour of providers, and identify that the establishments of low categories have a more sustainable conduct.

The Necessity of Innovation for the Sustainable Development of Romanian Entrepreneurship

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Dovleac L,

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Entrepreneurship is an important pillar for the economic growth, generating businesses and jobs. Above that, entrepreneurship is a necessity in our society, due to the higher rate of unemployment among young people all over European Union. In Romania, there is a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship and many people have the courage to start a business. This paper aims to find how these new businesses can be strengthened, in order to become sustainable and what the importance of innovation in this process is.

Rapid warming forces contrasting growth trends of subalpine fir ( Abies fabri ) at higher- and lower-elevations in the eastern Tibetan Plateau

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Wenzhi; Jia, Min; Wang, Genxu; Zhu, Wanze; McDowell, Nate G.

2017-10-01

Tree radial growth is expected to increase at higher elevations under climate warming, while lower elevation tree growth is expected to decline. However, numerous studies have found tree radial growth responds consistently to climate along elevational gradients. Here, we sampled five plots across the subalpine Abies fabri forest belt on Gongga Mountain in the eastern Tibetan Plateau to determine tree radial growth trends and responses to climate. Three commonly used detrending methods all consistently showed that tree radial growth at high elevation (> 3100 m) increased, while tree growth declined at the lower elevations (2700 m–2900 m) over the last three decades. Increasing late-growing season temperature positively (p < 0.05) correlated to tree radial growth at higher elevations, but the sign of this relationship reversed to become negative at lower elevations. Moving-window correlation analyses indicated the difference between high and low elevations response to temperature variation increased strongly with warming. Placing our result into the global context, 62% of 39 published studies found that trees along elevation gradients respond divergently to warming, and that these are located in warmer and wetter regions of the Earth. Notably, 28% of studies found non-significant responses to temperature at both high and low elevations. Our findings in the subalpine mountain forest in the eastern Tibetan Plateau were consistent with the majority of published datasets, and imply increasing temperature benefit for tree populations at higher elevation, while warming dampens growth at lower elevations.

AN OVERVIEW OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS

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Cristian CRISTU

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Sustainable development requires better quality of life for present and future generations. Additional data is required to measure lasting progress, that tracks economic growth. The objectives that take these aspects into consideration should be accompanied by economic, social, environmental and demographic indicators. Thus, sustainable development indicators satisfy these requirements. The articles makes an analysis of the main indicators of sustainable development. Even though it is important to observe them at a macro, European level, it is necessary to take into consideration the specific situation existing at a local and regional level, as well. Equally important is the integration of objectives aimed at sustainable development into the national policies. Economic improvement can be achieved through jobs and sustainable consumption.

An international waste convention: measures for achieving sustainable development.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyers, Gary D; McLeod, Glen; Anbarci, Melanie A

2006-12-01

Waste is a by-product of economic growth. Consequently, economic growth presents challenges for sustainable resource management and development because continued economic growth implies continued growth in waste outputs. Poor management of waste results in the inappropriate depletion of natural resources and potentially adverse effects on the environment, health and the economy. It is unsustainable. This paper begins by outlining the magnitude of and the current response to the growth in the quantity of waste outputs. This is followed by a consideration of why the international response to date, including the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21, fails to address the issue adequately. The paper concludes with a discussion on why and how an international treaty or other measure could advance sustainable development by providing an appropriate framework within which to address the problem.

Philippine Tourism: Evolution towards Sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pilapil-Añasco Cherry

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Tourism industry in the Philippines has been identified as one of the powerful engines for a strong and sustained economic growth. To determine whether the Philippine tourism industry is moving towards sustainable development, this paper explores the evolution of the tourism industry in the Philippines by tracing its historical transformations and determining its typology. Four major periods has been recognized, namely: 1] pre-martial law era (years before 1972; 2] martial law era (1972-1986; 3] post-martial law era (1986-2000; and 4] 21st century era (2001-present. The eras are based on the country’s major political regimes. Corresponding events and numerous initiatives undertaken by the government agencies, non-government organizations and private sectors that significantly affect the tourism industry are described and analyzed. It is concluded that tourism is a well established industry in the Philippines that contributes to an inclusive economic growth of the country. The continued concerted efforts of all the stakeholders of the industry in the implementation of all these initiatives will surely lead to a sustainable Philippine tourism.

The Place of Content and Pedagogy in Shaping Sustainability Learning Outcomes in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Mintz, Keren; Tal, Tali

2018-01-01

This research investigates the ways in which undergraduate courses dealing with the environment address sustainable development (SD), and contribute to the development of sustainability learning outcomes (SLO). The participants in the study were 13 instructors, and 360 students who were enrolled in 13 courses that addressed the environment in a…

Sustainable procurement for greener logistics in the Higher Education sector

OpenAIRE

McLeod, F.; Cherrett, T.; Bailey, G.; Allen, J.; Browne, M.; Leonardi, J.; Aditjandra, P.; Zunder, T.

2015-01-01

Purpose: Using the University of Southampton as a case study example, this paper reviews how procurement practices (i.e. purchasing of goods and services) of large organisations impact upon goods and service vehicle activity, with a view to investigating what approaches may be taken to reduce carbon footprint and improve environmental sustainability. The approaches considered included consolidation of suppliers, buyers (individuals and departments), orders and consignments. Research Approach:...

Pretest-Posttest-Posttest Multilevel IRT Modeling of Competence Growth of Students in Higher Education in Germany

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schmidt, Susanne; Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Olga; Fox, Gerardus J.A.

2016-01-01

Longitudinal research in higher education faces several challenges. Appropriate methods of analyzing competence growth of students are needed to deal with those challenges and thereby obtain valid results. In this article, a pretest-posttest-posttest multivariate multilevel IRT model for repeated

The Growth Delusion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bob Lloyd

2009-08-01

Full Text Available Concern for the environment and a move towards “sustainable development” has assisted progress in a wide range of renewable energy technologies in recent years. The science suggests that a transition from fossil fuels to sustainable sources of energy in a time frame commensurate with the demise of the fossil fuels and prevention of runaway climate change is needed. However, while the movement towards sustainable energy technologies is underway, the World does not want to give up the idea of continuing economic growth. In recent times the financial collapse of October 2008 has given rise to yet another set of pleas from corporations and politicians alike to restart the growth machine. The transition to renewable energy technologies will be difficult to achieve as nowhere within existing economic and political frameworks are the limits to when growth will be curtailed being set. It is possible that the irrational insistence on endless growth as a non negotiable axiom, by a large proportion of the world’s population, may in fact be akin to the similarly irrational belief, by a similarly large proportion of the world’s population, that a supernatural being controls our existence and destiny. The irrationality of religion has recently been examined by Richard Dawkins in “The God Delusion”. Dawkins’ book is used as a starting point to investigate similarities between a belief in God and a belief in continuous growth.

A critical realist perspective on decoupling negative environmental impacts from housing sector growth and economic growth

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xue, Jin

2012-01-01

The question that motivates this article has been a matter of dispute: Is it possible to combine perpetual economic growth and longterm environmental sustainability based on the premise that economic growth can be fully decoupled from negative environmental impacts? The article addresses...... this question from the position of critical realism. An empirical study focusing on the housing sector is conducted, indicating that housing stock growth and economic growth have been, at best, weakly decoupled from environmental impacts. In the long run, it seems implausible that the degree of decoupling can...... be increased at a rate sufficient to compensate for continual growth in the volume of housing stock. A further elaboration of the topic at an ontological level leads to the conclusion that continual economic growth and long-term environmental sustainability can hardly be combined....

Goal Orientation, Deep Learning, and Sustainable Feedback in Higher Business Education

Science.gov (United States)

Geitz, Gerry; Brinke, Desirée Joosten-ten; Kirschner, Paul A.

2015-01-01

Relations between and changeability of goal orientation and learning behavior have been studied in several domains and contexts. To alter the adopted goal orientation into a mastery orientation and increase a concomitant deep learning in international business students, a sustainable feedback intervention study was carried out. Sustainable…

THE ROLE OF THE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT IN CAPITALISTIC FIRM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gazzola Patrizia

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The aim and the central topic of this research is the understanding of the importance of Sustainable growth strategy approach as a driver to achieving top-line growth and bottom-line results. The main contributions of this line of research are to demonstrate the idea that the sustainability report is an instrument for social interaction and social cost/benefit analysis and to show that such an instrument can describe, comment on and sum up the firm's own behaviour aimed at sustainable growth. The work integrates the CSR management literature with a large body of research in accounting and finance. This study draws from theoretical research about the nature of the corporation, its role in society and contributions by recent research on corporate social, environmental, ethical responsibility and accountability. Our research demonstrates that the economic existence of the capitalistic firm as a producer of economic and financial values must be appreciated, in terms of the sustainability of the development path of the firm, and evaluated by a wide range of social performance measures of outcome or benefit. It also shows how the Sustainability report emphasizes the link between firm and territory, and affirms the concept of the firm as an entity that, by pursuing its own prevailing interests, contributes to improving the quality of life of the members of the society in which it operates. This paper contributes primarily to the academic debate by reviewing past attempts to theorise CSR and stakeholder dialogue, identifying gaps and weaknesses, and proposing the Sustainable Growth implementation processes for the creation of value. It also highlights the relationship between CSR activity and corporate image and performance. The research shed light on aspects of CSR activity for which little is known and much less is being understood; namely, the channels and the mechanisms through which the CSR impact is perceived and realized for creation of value

Sustainable Academia : Translating the Vision of a Fully Sustainable University into a Measurable Reality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maragakis, A.

2017-01-01

There is a growing public expectation that universities should start focusing on delivering sustainability. The topic of sustainability in higher education has gathered a significant amount of interest from students, academics, governments and international organizations.

With a plethora of

Assessing the Financial Sustainability of China’s Rural Pension System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lijian Wang

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Considering the rapid growth of China’s elderly rural population, establishing both an adequate and a financially sustainable rural pension system is a major challenge. Focusing on financial sustainability, this article defines this concept of financial sustainability before constructing sound actuarial models for China’s rural pension system. Based on these models and statistical data, the analysis finds that the rural pension funding gap should rise from 97.80 billion Yuan in 2014 to 3062.31 billion Yuan in 2049, which represents an annual growth rate of 10.34%. This implies that, as it stands, the rural pension system in China is not financially sustainable. Finally, the article explains how this problem could be fixed through policy recommendations based on recent international experiences.

The Hidden Benefits of Part-Time Higher Education Study to Working Practices: Is There a Case for Making Them More Visible?

Science.gov (United States)

Callender, Claire; Little, Brenda

2015-01-01

Within the UK, part-time study is now seen as important in meeting wider government objectives for higher education (HE) and for sustainable economic growth through skills development. Yet, measures to capture the impact of HE may not be wholly appropriate to part-time study. In particular, the continuing focus on tangible, economic measures may…

Does the Gold Standard label hold its promise in delivering higher Sustainable Development benefits? A multi-criteria comparison of CDM projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drupp, Moritz A.

2011-01-01

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has a twin objective: to help developed countries reduce GHG emissions, and to support developing countries in achieving Sustainable Development (SD). As a response to the widespread criticism of the CDM's unsatisfactory SD record, initiatives have developed premium labels like the Gold Standard, which applies two additional 'screens' to filter CDM projects for higher SD benefits. In order to determine whether Gold Standard projects can be associated with higher local SD benefits, this paper evaluates the potential benefits of 48 CDM projects using a multi-criteria method and building on existing work. The 18 evaluated Gold Standard projects are compared to a 'representative portfolio' of 30 unlabeled CDM projects in order to capture the 'full' effect of the additional Gold Standard requirements, which is further decomposed into the two 'screen' effects. The results suggest that Gold Standard Certified Emission Reductions can be associated with higher potential local SD benefits when compared to the 'representative portfolio' of unlabeled CDM projects, while the comparison of projects of the same type remains inconclusive. The results support previous findings showing that renewable energy projects may deliver comparatively high SD benefits. - Research highlights: → This study evaluates and compares the potential contribution of unlabeled- and Gold Standard labeled CDM projects to Sustainable Development (SD), extending the previously assessed projects as well as the methodological approach. → Gold Standard labeled Certified Emission Reductions (CER) can be associated with higher potential SD benefits compared to unlabeled projects. → A decomposition analysis shows that the Gold Standard s SD surplus must be primarily attributed to the favorable contribution of renewable energy projects to SD. → Policy makers might thus shift incentives towards renewable energy projects and buyers of CERs may shift their offset

Environmental law and sustainable development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Oliva Sirgo Álvarez

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This article analyses the origin and birth of the human right to a safe and healthy environment in order to allow everyone to live a dignified and quality life. It also analyses the essential content of sustainable development, which must always guide the development of environmental law to ensure a healthy environment for human present and future generations, and a sustainable economic growth that contributes to the development of equal opportunities for all people.

NIGERIA’S ECONOMIC GROWTH THROUGH TOURISM PROMOTION/SUSTAINABILITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victor N. ITUMO

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Nigeria is currently facing economic growth and development challenge. The economic challenge is occasioned by mono-cultural economic reliance on the single resource of crude oil export revenue as well as other internal and international effects that affect her economic drive for heightened growth and development. The Nigerian government had over the years searched for ways of diversifying its economy for greater growth and development especially given the various challenges in the economy, mainly the steep reduction in crude oil revenue arising from volatility of global oil price. This paper therefore uses the research methodology of case study to do a holistic assessment of the possibility of Nigeria diversifying into her tourism potentials for economic growth and development. This would be done equally by drawing relevant comparative analysis of other countries bringing economic benefits in Africa and across the globe.

GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: THE ROMANIAN CASE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cecilia – Nicoleta Jurcuț (Aniș

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In an increasingly open and integrated world economy, competitiveness and sustainability have become a central preoccupation of both advanced and emerging countries. Thus, the goal of this paper is to research the interconnection between the competitiveness and sustainable development factors, based on the development of the concepts and current research tendencies. Using extensive data over a period of 10 years, this study explores and tests the sign of the relationship between national competitiveness and sustainable development indicators. Our findings are the basis of developing new models describing the relationships between competitiveness, economic growth and sustainability, justified by the need of sustainable economy’s development to increase the national competitiveness, in order to attract financial resources necessary for financing the growth of the economy and economic entities.

Nr 257 - Opinion presented on the behalf of the Commission of sustainable development and land planning on the finance bill for 2013 (nr 235), Volumes 1-10, ecology, sustainable development and planning, regional policies, research and higher education

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krabal, Jacques; Sermier, Jean-Marie; Gaillard, Genevieve; Baupin, Denis; Pauvros, Remi; Benisti, Jacques Alain; Fromantin, Jean-Christophe; Calmette, Alain; Plisson, Philippe; Ginesy, Charles-Ange

2012-01-01

This huge document comprises ten volumes which present and discuss public programs (objectives, strategies, plans, and actions), public finances, economic activity data and evolutions, debates by commissions, and amendments on different issues. A first set of issues deals with ecology, sustainable development and planning: protection of the environment and risk prevention (volume 1), and then with sustainable development policies (vol. 2), landscapes, water, biodiversity, and geographic and cartographic information (vol. 3), ecological transition (vol. 4), road, railway and water transports (vol. 5), air transports (vol. 6), maritime affairs (vol. 7). The next volume addresses regional policies (vol. 8). The last parts concern research and higher education: research in the field of sustainable development (vol. 9) and in the fields of environments and resources (vol. 10)

Returns on Sustainable Mutual Funds in India

OpenAIRE

Jain, Anant

2011-01-01

The world has seen a huge growth in investment through the sustainable sector. But the study on the cost in construction and measuring the performance of such investments is confined to the limited countries. Thus to compare the performance of the sustainable investment with that of traditional investments it is necessary to increase the sample size of the study. Considering this in mind the paper aims to study the performance and risk of the sustainable mutual fund investments with that of t...

Economic development and foreign direct investment: How to create sustainable development an analysis of the potential for sustainable development on the Indian subcontinent

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Homlong Nathalie

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Focusing critically on the effects of the conditions for foreign direct investment on sustainable growth in the recipient country, this paper analyzes the potential for investments in environmental innovations in India. The definition of sustainability applied in this paper incorporates economic development and investment which promotes environmentally and socially friendly production and innovation. As the Indian economy experienced strong growth in GDP in recent years, but is still lagging behind in providing the basic needs of clean water, clean air and proper waste management for households and companies, the necessity for sustainable development exists. From a methodological point of view this paper uses macroeconomic data to evaluate quantitatively the potentials and needs of Indian states. This results in a state ranking showing the potential for sustainable development in selected Indian states, based on economic and environmental indicators.

Building skills for sustainability: a role for regional research networks

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Pranab Mukhopadhyay

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In South Asia, as local and regional environment problems grow, societal demand for new sustainability knowledge has outpaced its supply by traditional institutions and created a niche for research networks and think tanks. We discuss the role of networks in producing knowledge by using the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE as a case study. We argue that geographic research networks can contribute to the growth of sustainability knowledge through (1 knowledge transfer, (2 knowledge sharing, and (3 knowledge deepening. By analyzing qualitative and quantitative information, we showed that although SANDEE participants gained significant intangible advantages from the network, there was also a noted tangible gain is in terms of a higher international publication rate. The SANDEE experience also suggests that policy outcomes are more likely to emerge from the buildup of human capital rather than from direct research interventions.

Neoliberal governance, sustainable development and local communities in the Barents Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Monica Tennberg

2014-04-01

Full Text Available There are currently high hopes in the Barents Region for economic growth, higher employment and improved well-being, encouraged by developments in the energy industry, tourism and mining. The article discusses these prospects from the perspective of local communities in five locations in the region, which spans the northernmost counties of Finland, Norway, Sweden and Northwest Russia. The communities studied are remote, relatively small, multicultural, and dependent on natural resources. The salient dynamic illuminated in the research is how ideas of sustainability and neoliberal governance meet in community development. While the two governmentalities often conflict, they sometimes also complement one another, posing a paradox that raises concerns over the social aspect of sustainable development in particular. The article is based on international, multidisciplinary research drawing on interviews as well as statistical and documentary analysis.

Predicting the Performance and Survival of Islamic Banks in Malaysia to Achieve Growth Sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mazuin Sapuan Noraina

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In Malaysia, the growth of the Islamic financial industry has increased tremendously in line with the Government’s ambition to make Malaysia as an international hub for Islamic finance since 2010. With the increasing number of foreign players in this industry plus with the increasing demand from domestic and foreign customers would further enhance the possibility for Malaysia to achieve this ambition. Currently, according to the Economic Transformation Programme, 2012 Malaysia is the world’s third largest market for Shariah assets that cover Islamic banks, Takaful, and sukuk. Malaysia as one of the main contributors to the global Islamic financial assets with Islamic assets in Malaysia grew by 23.8% in 2011 from RM350.8bil to RM434.6bil. The issues of predicting the performance and the survival of Islamic Banks in Malaysia become amongst crucial issues in academic research. By employing multi – layer perceptron neural network and pooled regression, we found that total assets/ size of the Islamic banks (GROWTH have high weightage and significantly influence in predicting the performance and the survival of Islamic banks in Malaysia. With the increasing number of Islamic banking institutions in Malaysia, this study can give insight on the sustainability of the Islamic banking system in Malaysia for the benefit of the investors, shareholder and depositors.

ELECTRICITY SUPPLY, FOSSIL FUEL CONSUMPTION, CO2 EMISSIONS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: IMPLICATIONS AND POLICY OPTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chibueze Eze Nnaji

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the causal relationship among electricity supply, fossil fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and economic growth in Nigeria for the period 1971-2009, in a multivariate framework.Using the bound test approach to cointegration, we found a short-run as well as a long-run relationship among the variables with a positive and statistically significant relationship between CO2 emissions and fossil fuel consumption. The findings also indicate that economic growth is associated with increased CO2 emissions while a positive relationship exists between electricity supply and CO2 emissions revealing the poor nature of electricity supply in Nigeria. Further, the Granger causality test results indicate that electricity supply has not impacted significantly on economic growth in Nigeria. The results also strongly imply that policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions in Nigeria will not impede economic growth. The paper therefore concludes that a holistic energy planning and investment in energy infrastructure is needed to drive economic growth. In the long-run however, it is possible to meet the energy needs of the country, ensure sustainable development and at the same time reduce CO2 emissions by developing alternatives to fossil fuel consumption, the main source of CO2 emissions.

Developing a Sustainable Practical Model of Graduate Employability for Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Rufai, Ahmed Umar; Bakar, Ab Rahim Bin; Rashi, Abdullah Bin Mat

2015-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to evolve a sustainable practical model of employability skills that is sure to capture relevant learning aspects of a particular occupational discipline to be used as framework for Undergraduate students to develop their employability potentials. The study was conducted in three Universities and Polytechnics each with…

Is rapid growth in Internet usage environmentally sustainable for Australia? An empirical investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Salahuddin, Mohammad; Alam, Khorshed; Ozturk, Ilhan

2016-03-01

This study estimates the short- and long-run effects of Internet usage and economic growth on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions using annual time series macro data for Australia for the period 1985-2012. Autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) bounds and Gregory-Hansen structural break cointegration tests are applied. ARDL estimates indicate no significant long-run relationship between Internet usage and CO2 emissions, which implies that the rapid growth in Internet usage is still not an environmental threat for Australia. The study further indicates that higher level of economic growth is associated with lower level of CO2 emissions; however, Internet usage and economic growth have no significant short-run relationship with CO2 emissions. Financial development has both short-run and long-run significant positive association with CO2 emissions. The findings offer support in favor of energy efficiency gains and a reduction in energy intensity in Australia. However, impulse response and variance decomposition analysis suggest that Internet usage, economic growth and financial development will continue to impact CO2 emissions in the future, and as such, this study recommends that in addition to the existing measures to combat CO2 emissions, Australia needs to exploit the potential of the Internet not only to reduce its own carbon footprint but also to utilize information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled emissions abatement potential to reduce emissions in various other sectors across the economy, such as, power, renewable energy especially in solar and wind energy, agriculture, transport and service.

The macroecology of sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Burger, Joseph R.; Allen, Craig D.; Brown, James H.; Burnside, William R.; Davidson, Ana D.; Fristoe, Trevor S.; Hamilton, Marcus J.; Mercado-Silva, Norman; Nekola, Jeffrey C.; Okie, Jordan G.; Zuo, Wenyun

2012-01-01

The discipline of sustainability science has emerged in response to concerns of natural and social scientists, policymakers, and lay people about whether the Earth can continue to support human population growth and economic prosperity. Yet, sustainability science has developed largely independently from and with little reference to key ecological principles that govern life on Earth. A macroecological perspective highlights three principles that should be integral to sustainability science: 1) physical conservation laws govern the flows of energy and materials between human systems and the environment, 2) smaller systems are connected by these flows to larger systems in which they are embedded, and 3) global constraints ultimately limit flows at smaller scales. Over the past few decades, decreasing per capita rates of consumption of petroleum, phosphate, agricultural land, fresh water, fish, and wood indicate that the growing human population has surpassed the capacity of the Earth to supply enough of these essential resources to sustain even the current population and level of socioeconomic development.

Sustainable recycling service- IKEA Espoo/Vantaa

OpenAIRE

Vlahakis, Lindell; Sapkota, Bishnu

2014-01-01

Sustainability has been an essential element in business operations over a decade due to the fact of rising concern for the environment; climate change, pollution, wildlife and forest, and social causes. Economic, social and environmental growth needed to be endeavored in order to achieve sustainable development. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) tends to enforce strategies of the company towards social and environmental responsibility. However, CSR is customarily limited to good governan...

Plant growth-promoting actinobacteria: a new strategy for enhancing sustainable production and protection of grain legumes.

Science.gov (United States)

Sathya, Arumugam; Vijayabharathi, Rajendran; Gopalakrishnan, Subramaniam

2017-06-01

Grain legumes are a cost-effective alternative for the animal protein in improving the diets of the poor in South-East Asia and Africa. Legumes, through symbiotic nitrogen fixation, meet a major part of their own N demand and partially benefit the following crops of the system by enriching soil. In realization of this sustainability advantage and to promote pulse production, United Nations had declared 2016 as the "International Year of pulses". Grain legumes are frequently subjected to both abiotic and biotic stresses resulting in severe yield losses. Global yields of legumes have been stagnant for the past five decades in spite of adopting various conventional and molecular breeding approaches. Furthermore, the increasing costs and negative effects of pesticides and fertilizers for crop production necessitate the use of biological options of crop production and protection. The use of plant growth-promoting (PGP) bacteria for improving soil and plant health has become one of the attractive strategies for developing sustainable agricultural systems due to their eco-friendliness, low production cost and minimizing consumption of non-renewable resources. This review emphasizes on how the PGP actinobacteria and their metabolites can be used effectively in enhancing the yield and controlling the pests and pathogens of grain legumes.

Sustainable Energy Survey. Main report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-02-01

This report shows the results of a quick survey of current developments in the Dutch sustainable energy market. The companies and organizations, which are all members of the branch organizations under the umbrella of the Duurzame Energie Koepel, were interviewed about their situation in relation to the credit crisis and their vision on what is needed to put a halt to (further) slumping in the sustainable energy branch and in fact to promote the growth in turnover and employment. [nl

Hydropower and Sustainable Development: A Journey

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schumann, Kristin; Saili, Lau; Taylor, Richard; Abdel-Malek, Refaat

2010-09-15

Hydropower produces 16% of our electricity; it is one of the world's major renewable energy resources. It is playing an important role in enabling communities around the world to meet their power and water needs. The pace of hydropower growth has been rapid but sometimes with little guidance to ensure development is based on sustainability principles. Some of the most promising initiatives to fill the void, such as the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, have been driven by the hydropower sector itself. Efforts focus on carrying forward this momentum to obtain a tool for hydropower sustainability agreed across sectors and stakeholders.

2. Industrial countries: Promoting sustainable growth in a global economy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hammond, A.; MacKenzie, J.

1992-01-01

The chapter discusses the following topics: dimensions of sustainable development; energy resources (energy transitions, energy efficiency, renewable energy resources, economic and regulatory policies); agricultural and forest resources (effects of present policies, unsustainable practices, needed policy reform); waste, pollution, and sustainable technologies (cleanup strategies, more efficient manufacturing, emerging technologies); and a global context. It is concluded that the US could markedly improve its efficiency in using energy and other natural resources and, at the same time, reduce local and regional pollution, avoid waste, and lower its contribution to the threat of global warming. With appropriate, market-based policies, these steps need not carry heavy economic penalties and could indeed improve the country's economic competitiveness. To a large degree, similar steps could be taken, with equal benefit, in other OECD countries. Many promising new technologies exist that are both more efficient and more sustainable. The US and other OECD countries will need to move toward such technologies, and toward policies that encourage their development and use, to improve not only their own destinies but also those of other countries

PATHWAYS TO SUSTAINABLE BANKING MANAGEMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dragan (Santamarian Oana Raluca

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This paper describes one of the major challenges of the future: the sustainable development of the society. Sustainability is now increasingly recognized as central to the growth of emerging market economies. For the banking sector, this represents both a demand for greater social and environmental responsibility as well as a new landscape of business opportunity. Several years ago, the main part of the banks did not consider the social and environmental problems relevant for their operations. Recently, the banks began to realize the major impact of the sustainable development over the way of ulterior development of the society and, implicitly over the way of creating of the banking value in the future. In this context, the development of a banking management system, based on sustainable principles represents one of the provocations of these days.Starting from literature in the sustainable banking management field in this paper are presented several relevant issues related to risk management in the context of sustainable banking financing: the need to implement the sustainable management principles in financial and banking industry; the role of banks in sustainable development of society; social and environmental risk management policies, events that have shaped the role of the banking sector in sustainable development; international standards regarding sustainable banking management such us: Equator Principles for sustainable investment projects’ financing or GRI principles for sustainable reporting. Furthermore, we developed a practical case study related to the implementation of sustainable banking management at Bank of America.

Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment: Evaluating Residential Development Sustainability in a Developing Country Context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tan Yigitcanlar

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Rapid urbanization, improved quality of life, and diversified lifestyle options have collectively led to an escalation in housing demand in our cities, where residential areas, as the largest portion of urban land use type, play a critical role in the formation of sustainable cities. To date there has been limited research to ascertain residential development layouts that provide a more sustainable urban outcome. This paper aims to evaluate and compare sustainability levels of residential types by focusing on their layouts. The paper scrutinizes three different development types in a developing country context—i.e., subdivision, piecemeal, and master-planned developments. This study develops a “Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment” tool and applies it to compare their sustainability levels in Ipoh, Malaysia. The analysis finds that the master-planned development, amongst the investigated case studies, possesses the potential to produce higher levels of sustainability outcomes. The results reveal insights and evidence for policymakers, planners, development agencies and researchers; advocate further studies on neighborhood-level sustainability analysis, and; emphasize the need for collective efforts and an effective process in achieving neighborhood sustainability and sustainable city formation.

Analysis of sustainability metrics and application to the catalytic production of higher alcohols from ethanol

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Patel, A.D.; Telalovic, S.; Bitter, J.H.; Worrell, E.; Patel, M.K.

2015-01-01

Use of sustainability metrics can help channel chemical research toward important long-term societal goals. For effective outcomes, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the sustainability assessment methods that can be applied in the chemical process development chain. In

Analysis of sustainability metrics and application to the catalytic production of higher alcohols from ethanol

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Patel, Akshay D.; Telalović, Selvedin; Bitter, Johannes H.; Worrell, Ernst; Patel, Martin K.

2015-01-01

Use of sustainability metrics can help channel chemical research toward important long-term societalgoals. For effective outcomes, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the sustaina-bility assessment methods that can be applied in the chemical process development chain. In

Sustainable development: downwards and upwards strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Claval, Paul

2006-01-01

The idea of sustainable development, which was officialised by the Brundtland Report in 1987, was born from the will to reconcile the defence of ecological equilibria with the necessity to offer better conditions of life to the developing countries. It was supported from the start by the most important ecological NGOs. Following Solow, economists showed that, under specific conditions, economic growth was not conducive to environmental degradation. In 1992, the Rio de Janeiro Conference transformed sustainable growth into a political obligation for political authorities, whatever their scale. Because of the urgency created by climatic change, targets were fixed at the top level, and then applied to every State. Other procedures, which give more initiative to the local and national levels, are also used

Growth hormone transgenic tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) compensate for increased metabolic rate to preserve exercise performance and hypoxia tolerance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

McKenzie, D.J.; Martínez, R.; Morales, A.

2001-01-01

Transgenic tilapia hybrids (Oreochromis mossambicus × O. hornorum) carrying a single copy of a homologous cDNA growth hormone exhibit higher growth rates than their wild-type conspecifics (Martinez et al. 1999). Swimming respirometry was employed to determine whether the increased growth rate...... higher in transgenics, such that aerobic scope was similar in both groups, and there was no difference in maximum sustainable U (5.2 ± 0.5 vs. 4.5 ± 0.7 bl s-1 in transgenics vs. wild-types, respectively). Following 2 h recovery from exercise, tilapia were exposed to progressive hypoxia (stepwise......Pa, respectively). The results indicate that stimulation of growth consequent to ectopic expression of growth hormone in transgenic tilapia (Martinez et al. 1999) is linked to increased rates of maintenance metabolism. The swimming and hypoxia experiments indicate, however, that the transgenics were able...

Participatory processes and institutional debate activities as key complementary aspects for embedding sustainability in higher education

OpenAIRE

Esteban, F.; Ferrer Balas, Dídac; Barceló García, Miquel

2008-01-01

Introducing sustainable development into educational programs of universities tend to be approached under two complementary strategies: “top-down” and “bottom-up”. Top-down strategies promote the adaptation of the institutional framework to the new challenges that sustainable development generates into technical expertise areas. Bottom-up strategies focus on institutional activities oriented to convincing or supporting lecturers in integrating sustainable development in their d...

Non-growth transition in the housing sector

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xue, Jin

This article examines the extents to which economic growth and housing stock growth has been decoupled from negative environmental impacts over the latest two decades in the metropolitan areas of Hangzhou (China) and Copenhagen (Denmark). Research results show that housing stock growth and economic...... growth has been, at best, weakly decoupled from environment impacts, implying that the goal of sustainable housing development has not been fulfilled by the decoupling strategies. The long-term incompatibility between housing stock growth and environmental sustainability suggests the necessity of non......-growth in the housing sector in order to reduce the environmental impacts from housing consumption to be within the ecological capacity. On the basis of an analysis of drivers of housing stock growth, the visions for a non-growth housing stock in both city regions are imagined in terms of potential risks...

Gambling on growth.

Science.gov (United States)

Feeney, A

1990-01-01

When the assumption is made that economic growth must be increased by 10% to accommodate population increases and to reduce poverty, the question is raised as to whether or not sustainable development is possible. The human population increased 3 times since 1900, and global economic activity has increased 7 times faster than population. Use of fossil fuels has increased by 30 times, and industrial production has increased by 50 times. The by-products of population growth and economic activity are loss of tropical rainforests; species extinction; desertification in Africa, India, and the US; toxic and radioactive pollution; and greenhouse warming and ozone depletion. The atmosphere's stability and human habitation is threatened. Sustainable development, as defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in "Our Common Future," is meeting present needs but not at the expense of future needs. Economic growth must proceed at different rates in different countries to close the gap between the rich and poor. Economic expansion has been criticized by the president of Negative Population Growth and the Environmental Defense Fund's coordinator of reform for the World Bank's environmental policies and Third World countries. US government response during the Reagan administration has been indifference, while support has come from the World Resources Institute, the Worldwatch Institute, the US National Wildlife Federation, and the Population Reference Bureau. Recent support has come from signers of the "G-7 Summit" and from IBM and the Dow Chemical Company. A few shared tenets are 1) that economic development is not sustainable, 2) environmental reforms are necessary to make development sustainable, 3) a trade-off is needed to increase Third World energy use, and 4) population must be stabilized. Many proposals have been offered including reducing population to 2 billion, or 40% of the current level. Reducing poverty globally is an environmentally sound

THE INVESTMENT IN HUMAN CAPITAL, AN INTRISIC FACTOR OF THE SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CRISTINA TEODORA BALACEANU

2011-04-01

Full Text Available The educational system will need to direct its actions and programs towards the identification of the current and future values of the labour market, starting from the existing and potential labour resources, anticipating first and foremost the adjusting of the economy to fast-developing fields and domains, put forward by the State via the Fast-developing Field Strategies or even via the Fast-developing National Strategy. It will accordingly generate a binder between the demands of the labour market as a response to the developing necessities of the economy, and the training/specialization of the labour force as offered by the national syllabus. By these means the educational system would create a labour force compatible with the labour market, which is both a premiss for the increasing level of employment and for the sustainable economic growth. Our task is therefore to provide a concept of education related to technological progress, based on the model of Nelson and Phelps, and a suggestion for investments and education policies.

Sustainable Enterprise Excellence and the Continuously Relevant and Responsible Organization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Edgeman, Rick; Bøllingtoft, Anne; Eskildsen, Jacob Kjær

2013-01-01

Innovation and sustainability are critical to the design, activities, results, and financial viability of organizations. These support one another, with “sustainable innovation” addressing economic sustainability, and “innovating for sustainability” addressing societal and environmental...... sustainability. Both sustainable innovation and innovation for sustainability have gained traction as partial means of confronting economic, environmental and societal challenges. Although garnering footholds is promising, the growth rate of these challenges has thus far exceeded trajectory, scale, and velocity...... issues surrounding enterprise innovation and sustainability efforts and capabilities. Innovation and sustainability of the necessary trajectory, scale, and velocity are strategically integrated to deliver what we refer to as innovating sustainability. This provides an accelerated means path toward...

Agriculture and Water Policy : Toward Sustainable Inclusive Growth

OpenAIRE

Ahmed, Syud Amer; Gautam, Madhur

2013-01-01

This paper reviews Pakistan's agriculture performance and analyzes its agriculture and water policies. It discusses the nature of rural poverty and emphasizes the reasons why agricultural growth is a critical component to any pro-poor growth strategy for Pakistan. It supports these arguments by summarizing key results from recent empirical analysis where the relative benefits of agricultur...

Competitive Strategy and Sustainable Performance: The Application of Sustainable Balanced Scorecard

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Riana Sitawati

2015-03-01

This study aims to help fill the knowledge gap of Indonesian hotel managers by providing empirical evidence on how competitive strategy could play a role in improving hotel sustainable performance (HSP. The Sustainable Balanced Scorecard (SBSC approach was used to measure HSP based on financial, customer, internal business process, learning and growth, and social and environmental perspectives. A mixed methods research approach was used to test the relationships among the above mentioned variables. Online survey and in-depth interviews were used to collect data. The quantitative data were analysed using Partial Least Square (PLS. The results revealed that competitive strategy, particularly in the form of differentiation, had a significant influence on HSP.

Sustainability in Australia, past, present and future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sligar, J.

2001-01-01

Over the last 50 years Australia has generally maintained adequate energy supplies to its population in an increasingly efficient and sustainable manner It has also been able to help sustain other economies in supplying energy resources of coal, gas and uranium. This provides 20% of Australia's export income, contributing to the quality of life experienced by Australians.Presently the reserve margin in the electricity power system is adequate and, with the exception of oil, ample local energy resources are available. Over the same period the doubling in energy generation efficiency has matched the population growth in NSW The same contributions by technology and population can be expected over the next 50 years. The growth in demand has however increased by a factor of about five.Sensible demand management could reduce this to a more acceptable figure over the next 50 years as shown in two possible scenarios. This, coupled with ongoing energy exports will help sustain the quality of life in this economy

Sustaining the Higher Education Hub Model: The Challenge of Adequate Academic and Social Support Structures for International Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cameron Richards

2011-11-01

Full Text Available In recent years, the Education Hub (EH concept has perhaps become the single most important focus of higher education policy in most Asian countries. A particular Asian Education Hub model (e.g. Cheng, 2010 is now globally influential with its emphasis on how governments can harness direct as well as indirect economic benefits of a higher education system. Such a model aims to prepare students for employment in an emerging global economy and also to attract fee-paying international students in terms of education as not just a public good but a key and increasingly important area of national investment and economic development. In a related paper which focused on a comparison between distinct Malaysian and Singaporean versions of Asian EH l models developed over the last two decades (Richards, 2011c, we investigated the dangers as well as opportunities at stake. In this paper, we investigate the linked idea that sufficient academic and social support structures for supporting international as well as local students provide the crucial key to the factors of sustainability needed to support the various versions of the general strategy of Higher Education internationalisation.

Hype, harmony and human factors: applying user-centered design to achieve sustainable telehealth program adoption and growth.

Science.gov (United States)

Rossos, P G; St-Cyr, O; Purdy, B; Toenjes, C; Masino, C; Chmelnitsky, D

2015-01-01

Despite decades of international experience with the use of information and communication technologies in healthcare delivery, widespread telehealth adoption remains limited and progress slow. Escalating health system challenges related to access, cost and quality currently coincide with rapid advancement of affordable and reliable internet based communication technologies creating unprecedented opportunities and incentives for telehealth. In this paper, we will describe how Human Factors Engineering (HFE) and user-centric elements have been incorporated into the establishment of telehealth within a large academic medical center to increase acceptance and sustainability. Through examples and lessons learned we wish to increase awareness of HFE and its importance in the successful implementation, innovation and growth of telehealth programs.

Dematerialization and capital maintenance. Two sides of the sustainability coin

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bartelmus, Peter [Wuppertal Institute, Doppersberg 19, D-42103 Wuppertal (Germany)

2003-08-01

The reductionist trend of equating sustainable development with sustained economic growth needs to be reversed. New accounts and balances help to operationalize the elusive notion of sustainability: they provide a coherent picture of the interaction between environment and economy. 'Greened' national accounts measure economic sustainability in terms of (produced and natural) capital maintenance; balances of material flows assess ecological sustainability as the dematerialization of production and consumption. Both concepts aim to preserve environmental assets, but differ in scope, strength and evaluation of sustainability. First results for Germany indicate weak sustainability of the economy; strong sustainability is not in sight because of insufficient reduction of material throughput. Attaining sustainability through integrated policies needs the support of share- and stakeholders of sustainable development.

Dematerialization and capital maintenance. Two sides of the sustainability coin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bartelmus, Peter

2003-01-01

The reductionist trend of equating sustainable development with sustained economic growth needs to be reversed. New accounts and balances help to operationalize the elusive notion of sustainability: they provide a coherent picture of the interaction between environment and economy. 'Greened' national accounts measure economic sustainability in terms of (produced and natural) capital maintenance; balances of material flows assess ecological sustainability as the dematerialization of production and consumption. Both concepts aim to preserve environmental assets, but differ in scope, strength and evaluation of sustainability. First results for Germany indicate weak sustainability of the economy; strong sustainability is not in sight because of insufficient reduction of material throughput. Attaining sustainability through integrated policies needs the support of share- and stakeholders of sustainable development

Natural Disasters in a Two-Sector Model of Endogenous Growth

OpenAIRE

Masako Ikefuji; Ryo Horii

2006-01-01

Using an endogenous growth model with physical and human capital accumulation, this paper considers the sustainability of economic growth when the use of a polluting input (e.g., fossil fuels) intensifies the risk of capital destruction through natural disasters. We find that growth is sustainable only if the tax rate on the polluting input increases over time. The long-term rate of economic growth follows an inverted V-shaped curve relative to the growth rate of the environmental tax, and it...

Theory and practices on innovating for sustainable development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Krozer, Yoram

2016-01-01

This book explains how income growth and better environmental qualities go hand in hand, and reviews the drivers and barriers to sustainable innovation on the basis of real-life cases. It discusses why innovation-based income growth reduces environmental impacts and how the huge global markets for

Sustainable Development Policy for the Environomy: Population, Land-use, and Development

Science.gov (United States)

Ravago, M.; Roumasset, J.

2009-12-01

Despite its inertia and avowed purpose of being practical and feasible, sustainability science has yet to embrace the policy sciences. The existing sustainability science agenda emphasizes the importance of taking a systems approach and stresses capturing many interactions between natural and human systems. In order to incorporate policy analysis, we first trace the history of thought of sustainable development, including its definition and operationalization. After rejecting the popular Venn diagram approach to sustainable development (environment, economy, society) as non-operational and unfettered preservationism as counterproductive, two promising approaches to sustainable growth are contrasted. Negative sustainability is an injunction not to deplete the total value of natural and produced capital, leaving all other questions of economic and environmental management unanswered. To fill the void, we offer positive sustainability, which maximizes intertemporal welfare while incorporating interlinkages within the total environomy. This provides an operational framework for sustainable growth, including the efficiency values of produced and natural capital. In addition, sustainable development must include the optimal patterns of production, consumption, and trade. We illustrate particular patterns of unsustainable development by drawing on lessons from cultivation patterns in the Philippines. In the province of Bukidnon, Philippines the traditional drivers of agricultural expansion were logging and forest fires. In recent decades, intense vegetable cultivation coupled with access to roads and lack of well-defined property rights drive intensification and environmental degradation. Population in the province has risen and grew more than the national average. The high population growth, combined with distorted economic policies, has resulted in extreme population pressure in the province, which decreased the fallow period and caused erosion, falling yields, and

Metropolitan Innovation and Sustainability in China—A Double Lens Perspective on Regional Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiangdong Chen

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This study proposes and integrates a double lens investigation framework on sustainability and diversities of innovation at the city level in China. Lens I concerns economic performance with the energy intensiveness of the production mode and Lens II involves a four-dimensional model with the current and potential elements of innovation at the city level. Based on 106Chinese cities data, sample cities grouped in Traditional Regions (TRs, Top Economic Regions (TEs and New Economy Regions (NEs of the 9 groups are clarified via the Investigation Lens I, with respect to production power, market openness and energy intensive use. The further research findings through the Investigation Lens II show that there are clear connections between innovation and sustainability and such connections are diversified due to economic reasons but also importantly, due to potential factors of human resource and knowledge creation. Cities in TEs group and especially NEs group in China are important on innovation and sustainability while southern cities in China are more innovative, with a higher potentiality of economic growth than cities in northern China. Industrial tradition and business culture can be one of the key factors influencing local innovation and sustainability.

Striving for Economic and Political Sustainability

OpenAIRE

Rothman, Andy

2010-01-01

Hu Jintao, China’s president and Communist Party chief, is asking his government to abandon its 25-year-old policy of striving for the fastest possible economic growth, regardless of the costs to society and the environment. Instead, he wants China to balance sustainable growth with a programme to redress the many negative consequences of two decades of 9%-plus GDP growth. Although we do not expect Hu to fix China’s health care system or to deliver a clean and green environment in just five y...

A Sustainability Education Academic Development Framework (SEAD)

Science.gov (United States)

Holdsworth, Sarah; Thomas, Ian

2016-01-01

Academic development is one means of reorientating education within higher education (HE) to include sustainability principles. This paper identifies the requirements of academic development programmes that will provide educators with the skills to engage students in the ideas of sustainability and sustainable development. In order to determine…

The evaluation system of city's smart growth success rates

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Yifan

2018-04-01

"Smart growth" is to pursue the best integrated perform+-ance of the Economically prosperous, socially Equitable, and Environmentally Sustainable(3E). Firstly, we establish the smart growth evaluation system(SGI) and the sustainable development evaluation system(SDI). Based on the ten principles and the definition of three E's of sustainability. B y using the Z-score method and the principal component analysis method, we evaluate and quantify indexes synthetically. Then we define the success of smart growth as the ratio of the SDI to the SGI composite score growth rate (SSG). After that we select two cities — Canberra and Durres as the objects of our model in view of the model. Based on the development plans and key data of these two cities, we can figure out the success of smart growth. And according to our model, we adjust some of the growth indicators for both cities. Then observe the results before and after adjustment, and finally verify the accuracy of the model.

Finding pathways to national-scale land-sector sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Lei; Bryan, Brett A.

2017-04-01

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets under Agenda 2030 of the United Nations map a coherent global sustainability ambition at a level of detail general enough to garner consensus amongst nations. However, achieving the global agenda will depend heavily on successful national-scale implementation, which requires the development of effective science-driven targets tailored to specific national contexts and supported by strong national governance. Here we assess the feasibility of achieving multiple SDG targets at the national scale for the Australian land-sector. We scaled targets to three levels of ambition and two timeframes, then quantitatively explored the option space for target achievement under 648 plausible future environmental, socio-economic, technological and policy pathways using the Land-Use Trade-Offs (LUTO) integrated land systems model. We show that target achievement is very sensitive to global efforts to abate emissions, domestic land-use policy, productivity growth rate, and land-use change adoption behaviour and capacity constraints. Weaker target-setting ambition resulted in higher achievement but poorer sustainability outcomes. Accelerating land-use dynamics after 2030 changed the targets achieved by 2050, warranting a longer-term view and greater flexibility in sustainability implementation. Simultaneous achievement of multiple targets is rare owing to the complexity of sustainability target implementation and the pervasive trade-offs in resource-constrained land systems. Given that hard choices are needed, the land-sector must first address the essential food/fibre production, biodiversity and land degradation components of sustainability via specific policy pathways. It may also contribute to emissions abatement, water and energy targets by capitalizing on co-benefits. However, achieving targets relevant to the land-sector will also require substantial contributions from other sectors such as clean energy, food systems

Evolution of sustainability in supply chain management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rajeev, A.; Pati, Rupesh K.; Padhi, Sidhartha S.

2017-01-01

have urged several researchers and industry experts to work on Sustainable Production and Consumption issues within the context of Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM). This paper comprehensively covers the exponential growth of the topic through an evolutionary lens. This article attempts...... to understand the evolution of sustainability issues by analysing trends across industries, economies, and through the use of various methodologies. A comprehensive thematic analysis was performed on 1068 filtered articles from 2000 to 2015, highlighting the development and importance of the body of knowledge....... The study proposes a conceptual framework to classify various factors along the triple bottom line pillars of sustainability issues in the context of supply chains. An in-depth study is conducted on 190 articles covering all pillars of sustainability (as per the proposed conceptual framework) on SSCM. We...

Is Nuclear Energy Sustainable - A Comparative Perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirschberg, S.

2002-01-01

The electric utility sector is of central importance for economic growth and social development. While numerous societal and economic benefits arise from electricity production, it can also have impacts which may not be fully and unanimously reconciled with the concept of sustainability. Moving the electricity sector towards sustainable development calls for the integration of environmental, social and economic aspects in the decision-making process. As an input to such a process, one needs to assess how the different options perform with respect to specific sustainability criteria. As a part of the ''Comprehensive Assessment of Energy Systems'', carried out by the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the electricity and heat supply systems are examined in view of sustainability criteria and the associated indicators, thus allowing operationalization of the sustainability concept

Wind energy for a sustainable development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karagali, Ioanna; Hasager, Charlotte Bay; Sempreviva, Anna Maria

2014-01-01

of both the wind energy related research activities and the wind energy industry, as installed capacity has been increasing in most of the developed and developing countries. The DTU Wind Energy department carries the heritage of the Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy by leading the research......Wind energy is on the forefront of sustainable technologies related to the production of electricity from green sources that combine the efficiency of meeting the demand for growth and the ethical responsibility for environmental protection. The last decades have seen an unprecedented growth...... developments in all sectors related to planning, installing and operating modern wind farms at land and offshore. With as many as 8 sections the department combines specialists at different thematic categories, ranging from meteorology, aeroelastic design and composite materials to electrical grids and test...

Organizational resilience: Sustained institutional effectiveness among smaller, private, non-profit US higher education institutions experiencing organizational decline.

Science.gov (United States)

Moran, Kenneth A

2016-06-04

analysis was used to examine the direct and interaction effects between organizational decline, organizational rigidity response, organizational resilience response, and institutional effectiveness, controlling for age of institution and level of endowment. The study validated previous threat-rigidity response findings that organizational decline alone does not adversely impact institutional effectiveness. The direct effect of Goal-Directed Solution Seeking and Role Dependency organizational resilience factors had a positive, significant correlation with the Student Personal Development institutional effectiveness factor. The interactive effect of Goal-Directed Solution Seeking organizational resilience factor during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Professional Development and Quality of Faculty institutional effectiveness factor. The interactive effect of Avoidance during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Faculty and Administrator Employment Satisfaction institutional effectiveness factor. The interactive effect of Diminished Innovation, Morale, and Leader Credibility rigidity response factor and Avoidance organizational resilience factor during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Professional Development and Quality of Faculty institutional effectiveness factor. Lastly, the interactive effect of Increased Scapegoating of Leaders, Interest group Activities, and Conflict rigidity response factor and Avoidance organizational resilience factor during organizational decline had a positive, significant correlation with the Faculty and Administrator Employment Satisfaction institutional effectiveness factor. Factors of organizational resilience were found to have a positive effect among smaller, private non-profit higher educational institutions associated with this study toward sustaining institutional effectiveness during organizational decline. Specifically, the

The Role of Institutions of Higher Education in Sustainability: The Comprehensive, Public, Land-Grant University

Science.gov (United States)

Patrick J. Pellicane

2006-01-01

This paper introduces a background discussion of the importance of sustainability in the 21st century, the issues surrounding how we learn, the role of science, and the importance of interdisciplinarity with respect to ecological and socio-economic sustainability. Furthermore, background information is provided about the history and origins of the American public, land...

The young and active travellers' attitudes towards sustainable leisure tourism

OpenAIRE

Lindholm, Lauha

2016-01-01

This bachelor thesis studies the travellers’ attitudes towards sustainable tourism. Due to the size of the topic a limitation was made to specify in young and active travellers attitudes and moreover to focus on the leisure tourism. Sustainability is a hot topic in all fields of business but it is not yet a standard. Sustainable business is business that takes the future in notice. Considering the fast growth of the tourism industry, sustainable development will be necessary and needed. ...

Evaluating Sustainability Education: Lessons from International Development Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Koehn, Peter H.; Uitto, Juha I.

2014-01-01

Since the mid 1970s, a series of international declarations that recognize the critical link between environmental sustainability and higher education have been endorsed and signed by universities around the world. While academic initiatives in sustainability are blossoming, higher education lacks a comprehensive evaluation framework that is…

Heritage contribution in sustainable city

Science.gov (United States)

Rostami, R.; Khoshnava, S. M.; Lamit, H.

2014-02-01

The concept of sustainability has been an integral part of development work since the late 1970s. Sustainability is no longer a buzzword but a reality that must be addressed by cities all over the world. Increasing empirical evidence indicates that city sustainability is not just related to technical issues, such as carbon emissions, energy consumption and waste management, or on the economic aspects of urban regeneration and growth, but also it covers social well-being of different groups living within increasingly cosmopolitan towns and cities. Heritage is seen as a major component of quality of life, features that give a city its unique character and provide the sense of belonging that lies at the core of cultural identity. In other words, heritage by providing important social and psychological benefits enrich human life with meanings and emotions, and raise quality of life as a key component of sustainability. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine the role that built cultural heritage can play within sustainable urban development.

Heritage contribution in sustainable city

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rostami, R; Khoshnava, S M; Lamit, H

2014-01-01

The concept of sustainability has been an integral part of development work since the late 1970s. Sustainability is no longer a buzzword but a reality that must be addressed by cities all over the world. Increasing empirical evidence indicates that city sustainability is not just related to technical issues, such as carbon emissions, energy consumption and waste management, or on the economic aspects of urban regeneration and growth, but also it covers social well-being of different groups living within increasingly cosmopolitan towns and cities. Heritage is seen as a major component of quality of life, features that give a city its unique character and provide the sense of belonging that lies at the core of cultural identity. In other words, heritage by providing important social and psychological benefits enrich human life with meanings and emotions, and raise quality of life as a key component of sustainability. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine the role that built cultural heritage can play within sustainable urban development

Avoiding decline: Fostering resilience and sustainability in midsize cities

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Craig R.; Birge, Hannah E.; Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon; Bevans, Rebecca A.; Burnett, Jessica L.; Cosens, Barbara; Cai, Ximing; Garmestani, Ahjond S.; Linkov, Igor; Scott, Elizabeth A.; Solomon, Mark D.; Uden, Daniel R.

2016-01-01

Eighty-five percent of United States citizens live in urban areas. However, research surrounding the resilience and sustainability of complex urban systems focuses largely on coastal megacities (>1 million people). Midsize cities differ from their larger counterparts due to tight urban-rural feedbacks with their immediate natural environments that result from heavy reliance and close management of local ecosystem services. They also may be less path-dependent than larger cities due to shorter average connection length among system components, contributing to higher responsiveness among social, infrastructural, and ecological feedbacks. These distinct midsize city features call for a framework that organizes information and concepts concerning the sustainability of midsize cities specifically. We argue that an integrative approach is necessary to capture properties emergent from the complex interactions of the social, infrastructural, and ecological subsystems that comprise a city system. We suggest approaches to estimate the relative resilience of midsize cities, and include an example assessment to illustrate one such estimation approach. Resilience assessments of a midsize city can be used to examine why some cities end up on sustainable paths while others diverge to unsustainable paths, and which feedbacks may be partially responsible. They also provide insight into how city planners and decision makers can use information about the resilience of midsize cities undergoing growth or shrinkage relative to their larger and smaller counterparts, to transform them into long-term, sustainable social-ecological systems.

Avoiding Decline: Fostering Resilience and Sustainability in Midsize Cities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Craig R. Allen

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Eighty-five percent of United States citizens live in urban areas. However, research surrounding the resilience and sustainability of complex urban systems focuses largely on coastal megacities (>1 million people. Midsize cities differ from their larger counterparts due to tight urban-rural feedbacks with their immediate natural environments that result from heavy reliance and close management of local ecosystem services. They also may be less path-dependent than larger cities due to shorter average connection length among system components, contributing to higher responsiveness among social, infrastructural, and ecological feedbacks. These distinct midsize city features call for a framework that organizes information and concepts concerning the sustainability of midsize cities specifically. We argue that an integrative approach is necessary to capture properties emergent from the complex interactions of the social, infrastructural, and ecological subsystems that comprise a city system. We suggest approaches to estimate the relative resilience of midsize cities, and include an example assessment to illustrate one such estimation approach. Resilience assessments of a midsize city can be used to examine why some cities end up on sustainable paths while others diverge to unsustainable paths, and which feedbacks may be partially responsible. They also provide insight into how city planners and decision makers can use information about the resilience of midsize cities undergoing growth or shrinkage relative to their larger and smaller counterparts, to transform them into long-term, sustainable social-ecological systems.

The CIRRUS apprach towards "Integration of sustainable development in higher technical education"

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dr. ir. Jan Venselaar

2003-01-01

Real sustainable development involves a drastic reduction in environmental ánd social effects compared to our present ways of satisfying our needs. A system approach is asked for, taking into account total chains for resource use and production, paying attention to cultural and socio-economic

Understanding "Inclusive Growth": Advancing the global agenda ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

27 mars 2013 ... Increasingly, the concept of "inclusive growth," where the benefits of economic growth are enjoyed across societies, is being recognized and advanced by many countries. Growth is less likely to be sustainable with high and/or growing inequalities, and inequality can hamper growth.

The Engagement of Students in Higher Education Institutions with the Concepts of Sustainability: A Case Study of the University of Northampton, in England

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leo Cleverdon

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Across higher education institutions there has, for some time, been a growing move towards incorporation of the concepts of sustainability into the policies and practices of the organisations. Using the University of Northampton, in the United Kingdom as a case study, this project aimed to understand the efficacy of student engagement with a sustainability project called Planet Too. The study employed a range of methods including waste and energy audits, as well as questionnaire surveys both with students and landlords to examine their environmental attitudes, beliefs, and practices. The project was able to lead to increased awareness and engagement with the concepts of sustainability amongst the students. Recycling, though it was not one of the initiatives focused upon, was a key practice mentioned by both students and landlords. The engagement of the landlords was focused primarily on conservation of energy and water. However, conservation practices generally remained static, with limited significant or long-term changes in environmental practices. The key implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations suggested.

Sustainable development - opening address 29th Annual Canadian Nuclear Society Conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lamarre, P.

2008-01-01

This paper discusses sustainable development which in a broad sense incorporates three dimensions: economic growth, environmental protection, and social welfare. The challenge for sustainable development is to address these three dimensions in a balanced way

Higher educational system of the Republic of Serbia in support of sustainable development: Challenges of the EU integration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vujičić Milica

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The paper examines the system of higher education in the Republic of Serbia in the context of educational paradigms and the development of the innovation and knowledge-based national economy. The subject of the research is higher education in Serbia in a life-long learning perspective as an essential component in achieving smart growth, capable enough to become a competent part of the European Higher Education Area. The aim of this paper is to examine the current situation in this area and the achievements of the new Strategy for Development of Education in Serbia by 2020 in the context of the expansion of higher education on the global level, as well as to emphasize the responsibility towards future generations for development of a more modern system of education based on the creativity of all participants in the learning process. In conclusion, the paper points out that the developmental orientation of educational system in the Republic of Serbia is building a new model of higher education.

Energy efficiency, human behavior, and economic growth: Challenges to cutting energy demand to sustainable levels

Science.gov (United States)

Santarius, Tilman

2015-03-01

Increasing energy efficiency in households, transportation, industries, and services is an important strategy to reduce energy service demand to levels that allow the steep reduction of greenhouse gases, and a full fledged switch of energy systems to a renewable basis. Yet, technological efficiency improvements may generate so-called rebound effects, which may `eat up' parts of the technical savings potential. This article provides a comprehensive review of existing research on these effects, raises critiques, and points out open questions. It introduces micro-economic rebound effect and suggests extending consumer-side analysis to incorporate potential `psychological rebound effects.' It then discusses meso-economic rebound effects, i.e. producer-side and market-level rebounds, which so far have achieved little attention in the literature. Finally, the article critically reviews evidence for macro-economic rebound effects as energy efficiency-induced economic growth impacts. For all three categories, the article summarizes assessments of their potential quantitative scope, while pointing out remaining methodological weaknesses and open questions. As a rough "rule of thumb", in the long term and on gross average, only half the technical savings potential of across-the-board efficiency improvements may actually be achieved in the real world. Policies that aim at cutting energy service demand to sustainable levels are well advised to take due note of detrimental behavioral and economic growth impacts, and should foster policies and measures that can contain them.

Relationships between growth, quality, and stocking within managed old-growth northern hardwoods

Science.gov (United States)

Chris Gronewold; Anthony W. D' Amato; Brian J. Palik

2012-01-01

An understanding of long-term growth dynamics is central to the development of sustainable uneven-aged silvicultural systems for northern hardwood forests in eastern North America. Of particular importance are quantitative assessments of the relationships between stocking control and long-term growth and quality development. This study examined these relationships in a...

Nuclear Power and Sustainable Development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-04-01

Any discussion of 21st century energy trends must take into account the global energy imbalance. Roughly 1.6 billion people still lack access to modern energy services, and few aspects of development - whether related to living standards, health care or industrial productivity - can take place without the requisite supply of energy. As we look to the century before us, the growth in energy demand will be substantial, and 'connecting the unconnected' will be a key to progress. Another challenge will be sustainability. How can we meet these growing energy needs without creating negative side effects that could compromise the living environment of future generations? Nuclear power is not a 'fix-all' option. It is a choice that has a place among the mix of solutions, and expectations for the expanding use of nuclear power are rising. In addition to the growth in demand, these expectations are driven by energy security concerns, nuclear power's low greenhouse gas emissions, and the sustained strong performance of nuclear plants. Each country must make its own energy choices; one size does not fit all. But for those countries interested in making nuclear power part of their sustainable development strategies, it is important that the nuclear power option be kept open and accessible

[Socioenvironmental dilemmas of sustainable development].

Science.gov (United States)

Torres, H D

1992-01-01

The literature on sustainable development published in advance of the 1992 United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro, focuses on the social politics of the environment and the problems of the correlation of population and the environment. There is an intense preoccupation with the Brazilian environmental agenda and excessive treatment of topics related to the natural environment and the tropical forest of the Amazon. The fact that 75% of the Brazilian population lives in urban areas is ignored. Some works maintain that there is profound division between the conservators of the contemporary predatory and wasteful civilization and those progressive forces that point to the direction of a socially just and ecologically sustainable civilization. Issues that cannot be reduced to environmental questions have come into the forefront in recent years: race, gender, human rights, and pacifism. The question of population growth and pressure on the finite resources have also forcefully featured in debates. The sociology of environment submits that the contemporary civilization cannot be sustained in the medium or long term because of exponential population growth, spatial concentration of the population, depletion of natural resources, systems of production that utilized polluting technologies and low energy efficiency, and values that encourage unlimited material consumption.

Industrialized Higher Education and Its Sustainable Alternatives

Science.gov (United States)

Ostenson, Joseph A.; Clegg, Joshua W.; Wiggins, Bradford J.

2017-01-01

We argue that academic life is increasingly giving way to forces of industrialization and that many of the problems confronting higher education arise within this transformation. We discuss how a culture of standardization has led to academic monocultures; how faculty autonomy has been subverted by topdown management structures; how locally based…

Sub-Saharan Africa: Sustainability Risk Discussion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victoria Bakhtina

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Africa is a rising star - one of the most desirable investment destinations in the world. Nonetheless, economic growth is uneven among African countries, and many obstacles must be overcome in order to realize the full potential of opportunity. To achieve long-term sustainable investment results, and ultimately progress towards Sustainable Development goals, many risks must be isolated, analyzed, and mitigated. This paper introduces the concept of Sustainability Risk, identifying a set of major risk components for Sub-Saharan Africa and building an integral measure to quantify the degree of remoteness of the forty-six Sub-Saharan Africa countries from the total set of threats considered. The countries are separated into distinct groups with similar characteristics in terms of Sustainability Risk, and an analysis for potential decision-making, based on the visualization of the countries' position in relation to the major sustainability threats, is performed for each group. The research identifies risks with maximum impacts.

NATURAL RESOURCES AVAILABILITY IN A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CĂTĂLINA BONCIU

2013-05-01

Full Text Available In the theoretical and practical approach of the economic life, appears more often the idea of sustainable economic development, of reconciliation between man and nature in attracting and using its resources without interfering in its natural movement and evolution. In this paper we are trying to bring to light the relation between the economic development and the mineral resources, in terms of achieving sustainable development. The place and role of natural factors in the market economy is revealed by bringing to the forefront a number of arguments that demonstrate their vital position in the sustainable growth and development.

Understanding "Inclusive Growth": Advancing the global agenda ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2013-03-27

Mar 27, 2013 ... Increasingly, the concept of "inclusive growth," where the benefits of economic growth are ... Growth is less likely to be sustainable with high and/or growing inequalities, and ... A global vision for small business in Egypt.

Measuring post-secondary stem majors' engagement in sustainability: The creation, assessment, and validation of an instrument for sustainability curricula evaluation

Science.gov (United States)

Little, David L., II

Ongoing changes in values, pedagogy, and curriculum concerning sustainability education necessitate that strong curricular elements are identified in sustainability education. However, quantitative research in sustainability education is largely undeveloped or relies on outdated instruments. In part, this is because no widespread quantitative instrument for measuring related educational outcomes has been developed for the field, though their development is pivotal for future efforts in sustainability education related to STEM majors. This research study details the creation, evaluation, and validation of an instrument -- the STEM Sustainability Engagement Instrument (STEMSEI) -- designed to measure sustainability engagement in post-secondary STEM majors. The study was conducted in three phases, using qualitative methods in phase 1, a concurrent mixed methods design in phase 2, and a sequential mixed methods design in phase 3. The STEMSEI was able to successfully predict statistically significant differences in the sample (n= 1017) that were predicted by prior research in environmental education. The STEMSEI also revealed statistically significant differences between STEM majors' sustainability engagement with a large effect size (.203 ≤ eta2 ≤ .211). As hypothesized, statistically significant differences were found on the environmental scales across gender and present religion. With respect to gender, self-perceived measures of emotional engagement with environmental sustainability was higher with females while males had higher measures in cognitive engagement with respect to knowing information related to environmental sustainability. With respect to present religion, self-perceived measures of general engagement and emotional engagement in environmental sustainability were higher for non-Christians as compared to Christians. On the economic scales, statistically significant differences were found across gender. Specifically, measures of males' self

Insulin-like growth factor 1: common mediator of multiple enterotrophic hormones and growth factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Bortvedt, Sarah F; Lund, P Kay

2012-03-01

To summarize the recent evidence that insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) mediates growth effects of multiple trophic factors and discuss clinical relevance. Recent reviews and original reports indicate benefits of growth hormone (GH) and long-acting glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP2) analogs in short bowel syndrome and Crohn's disease. This review highlights the evidence that biomarkers of sustained small intestinal growth or mucosal healing and evaluation of intestinal epithelial stem cell biomarkers may improve clinical measures of intestinal growth or response to trophic hormones. Compelling evidence that IGF1 mediates growth effects of GH and GLP2 on intestine or linear growth in preclinical models of resection or Crohn's disease is presented, along with a concept that these hormones or IGF1 may enhance sustained growth if given early after bowel resection. Evidence that suppressor of cytokine signaling protein induction by GH or GLP2 in normal or inflamed intestine may limit IGF1-induced growth, but protect against risk of dysplasia or fibrosis, is reviewed. Whether IGF1 receptor mediates IGF1 action and potential roles of insulin receptors are addressed. IGF1 has a central role in mediating trophic hormone action in small intestine. Better understanding of benefits and risks of IGF1, receptors that mediate IGF1 action, and factors that limit undesirable growth are needed.

Role of Institutions of Higher Learning in Enhancing Sustainable Development in Kenya

Science.gov (United States)

Ekene, Osuji Gregory; Oluoch-Suleh, Everlyn

2015-01-01

Education brings about a change in the individual which promotes greater productivity and work efficiency. It remains a major component in the development of human resources and it accounts for much improvements in population quality and environmental resource management; hence, sustainable development. Improvement of human resources is not…

Sustaining the Exponential Growth of Embedded Digital Signal Processing Capability

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Shaw, Gary A; Richards, Mark A

2004-01-01

.... We conjecture that as IC shrinkage and attendant performance improvements begin to slow, the exponential rate of improvement we have become accustomed to for embedded applications will be sustainable...

“Green growth”: From a growing eco-industry to economic sustainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jänicke, Martin

2012-01-01

There are many questionable assumptions in the discussion of economic growth. One of them is the idea that governments are able to achieve sustained high growth. Another one is the believe that the solution to pressing financial and social problems centers on higher growth. It is also questionalble, however, to say that giving up on economic growth as a paradigm is the necessary condition to tackle the environmental crisis. In actuality, solving such problems is about radical growth in environmental and resource-saving technologies. It is also about radical “de-growth” in products and processes that undermine long-term living and production conditions. This paper describes some best practice cases of “green growth” and the conceptual generalisations given by the OECD and other established institutions in Europe and Asia. It traces the transformation of the concept of “green growth” and evaluates the strategy that accompanies it. - Highlights: ► “Green growth”—from a sectoral to an integrated view of the economy.► Green investment can increase the GDP. ► “Green growth” is both, rapid growth of green sectors and “de-growth” of others. ► “Zero growth” is no solution of the environmental problem. ► Rich countries can achieve high speed of eco-innovation even with low growth rates.

Sustainable Venture Capital Investments: An Enabler Investigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Antarciuc

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Investing in sustainable projects can help tackle the current sustainability challenges. Venture capital investments can contribute significantly to the growth of sustainable start-ups. Sustainable venture capital (SVC research is just emerging. This paper identifies enablers for sustainable venture capital investments in Saudi Arabia taking into account different stakeholders and firm’s tangible and intangible resources. Using perspectives from venture capital experts in Saudi Arabia and the grey-based Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL method, this study pinpoints the most critical enablers and investigates their causal and effect interconnections. The methodological process consists of reviewing the SVC literature and consulting the experts to identify the SVC enablers, creating a questionnaire, acquiring the answers from four experts, analyzing the data with grey-based DEMATEL and performing a sensitivity analysis. The government use of international standards, policies and regulations for sustainable investments, the commitment of the venture capitalists to sustainability and their deep understanding of sustainable business models are the most influential enablers. The paper concludes with implications for different actors, limitations and prospective directions for the sustainable venture capital research.

LINK BETWEEN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBALIZATION OF CONTEMPORARY ECONOMY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adriana Grigorescu

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Sustainable development requires a fundamental change in lifestyle. A fully break detachment by the past requires a major reorientation of public and private behavior and mentality. The challenge lies in linking economic growth with social issues and positioning the environmental degradation. The process of globalization is connected also with environmental degradation, which is now extended as a concept of threat and security, considered individually and in connection. It has already started recognizing new global threats as well as from non -state groups and individuals. The security is being defined to include, among others, the wars between and within states, international organizations of organized crime, nuclear weapons development, poverty, viral diseases, climatic events and environmental degradation. The concerns about the global market and the global environment protection will become more related, through their mutual dependency. The relationship of global economy and environment, from a market perspective, means stimulating economic growth, a process that generates higher revenues, funds and wealth, on one hand and political will to improve environmental conservation and protection, on the other hand. But it could be seen that the developed countries have made the greatest progress in environmental protection, and even so the poor quality of the environment continues to deteriorate. In this context it is important to consider the opinion of experts on the interaction between globalization and sustainable development. The paper aims to present the views of experts from the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection (South Muntenia. The study is an empirical research based on a questionnaire applied to a sample of over 300 subjects. The research aims to set out the existence of the link between sustainable development and globalization, to identify the main advantages and disadvantages of globalization and to prioritize the main

Developments in human growth hormone preparations: sustained-release, prolonged half-life, novel injection devices, and alternative delivery routes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cai Y

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Yunpeng Cai,1,2 Mingxin Xu,2 Minglu Yuan,2 Zhenguo Liu,1 Weien Yuan2 1Department of Neurology, Xinhua Hospital, School of Medicine, 2School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China Abstract: Since the availability of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH enabled the application of human growth hormone both in clinical and research use in the 1980s, millions of patients were prescribed a daily injection of rhGH, but noncompliance rates were high. To address the problem of noncompliance, numerous studies have been carried out, involving: sustained-release preparations, prolonged half-life derivatives, new injectors that cause less pain, and other noninvasive delivery methods such as intranasal, pulmonary and transdermal deliveries. Some accomplishments have been made and launched already, such as the Nutropin Depot® microsphere and injectors (Zomajet®, Serojet®, and NordiFlex®. Here, we provide a review of the different technologies and illustrate the key points of these studies to achieve an improved rhGH product. Keywords: intranasal, pulmonary, transdermal, microsphere, microneedle, hydrogel

Use of ICT for sustainable transportation

Science.gov (United States)

Agarwal, P.; Alam, M. A.

2018-05-01

The world is experiencing an unfettered growth in terms of development but shrinking the way these developments are leading to the societal, economic and environmental changes and chaos. Sustainability is the answer and needs to be addressed effectively. ICT (Information and Communications Technology) has revolutionized the way things can change. This paper deals with sustainable transportation. Sustainable transport system is a sub topic of a bigger issue “Sustainable Development”. So what does this imply? ICT, can indeed enable the designing of smarter cities that offer a better quality of life for their residents while being more sustainable and cost effective. It is not just the citizens of a country but also the government that can gain benefit from initiatives and meet the objectives faster. This paper digs into the traditional transport systems and the sustainable transport system which we thrive for. Green vehicles/Electric Vehicles/Driverless cars/Hybrid vehicles are the need of the hour. This paper extensively explores the issues and inventions that can lead to sustainable transportation. It further explores the problems associated with them and their solutions. These solutions cover the major aspects of sustainability like meticulous planning, correct usage of ICT and a well drafted and implemented governance framework.

Radical Sustainable Innovation of office buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koch, Christian; Berker, Thomas; Koch-Ørvad, Nina

2017-01-01

by high degrees of newness in the entire life cycle. RSI should offer significant enhancements of known benefits, entirely new benefits, or substantial cost reductions, leading to the transformation of existing markets, the creation of sustainable growth, and global sustainability. Thus, if buildings were....../could be radically new. How to evaluate radicality is a major challenge. It is tentatively proposed, to use standards for sustainable office buildings. Standards are developed to accelerate the sustainable development but has to some extent come to constrain possibilities of radical innovation. As the criteria...... of newness is incorporated in standards, going beyond them, could be viewed as radical. Empirically a selection of international cases of office buildings with very high scores of BREEAM, LEED and DGNB are examined. Six selected cases were analysed more in detail, one of them, Geelens...

Growth and Development of Distance Education in India and China: A Study on Policy Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Gaba, Ashok K.; Li, Wei

2015-01-01

India and China are two fast growing economies of the world and need large skill based manpower to sustain the economic growth. The existing formal higher educational system in these countries will not be able to meet the demand of the economy. The paper will try (i) to compare the development of economy and distance education in India and China…

An Overview of Management Education for Sustainability in Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yen-Chun Jim; Shen, Ju-Peng; Kuo, Tsuang

2015-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the holistic picture of sustainability curricula in Asian higher education. Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis was conducted based on Asian management education for sustainability in higher education. Online courses arrangement, teaching methods, instructors' educational background and…

Is Decoupling GDP Growth from Environmental Impact Possible?

Science.gov (United States)

Ward, James D; Sutton, Paul C; Werner, Adrian D; Costanza, Robert; Mohr, Steve H; Simmons, Craig T

2016-01-01

The argument that human society can decouple economic growth-defined as growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP)-from growth in environmental impacts is appealing. If such decoupling is possible, it means that GDP growth is a sustainable societal goal. Here we show that the decoupling concept can be interpreted using an easily understood model of economic growth and environmental impact. The simple model is compared to historical data and modelled projections to demonstrate that growth in GDP ultimately cannot be decoupled from growth in material and energy use. It is therefore misleading to develop growth-oriented policy around the expectation that decoupling is possible. We also note that GDP is increasingly seen as a poor proxy for societal wellbeing. GDP growth is therefore a questionable societal goal. Society can sustainably improve wellbeing, including the wellbeing of its natural assets, but only by discarding GDP growth as the goal in favor of more comprehensive measures of societal wellbeing.

A Conceptual Framework for a Sustainable and CSR driven Enterprise

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clifton Singh

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Businesses need to become more inclusive and equitable in their dealings and remain the drivers of economic growth while delivering real value to stakeholders. Making sustainability a key aspect in the operations of a business is a daunting task. A number of factors influence this process not least of which are business excellence models (BEMs and the „triple-bottom-line‟ approach. This article asks what sustainability is, and what makes a business sustainable. It also explores the role that environmental sustainability plays in the notion of a business brand. A conceptual framework for a sustainable business enterprise is presented.

Estimating Green Net National Product for Puerto Rico: An Economic Measure of Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Shanshan; Heberling, Matthew T.

2016-04-01

This paper presents the data sources and methodology used to estimate Green Net National Product (GNNP), an economic metric of sustainability, for Puerto Rico. Using the change in GNNP as a one-sided test of weak sustainability (i.e., positive growth in GNNP is not enough to show the economy is sustainable), we measure the movement away from sustainability by examining the change in GNNP from 1993 to 2009. In order to calculate GNNP, we require both economic and natural capital data, but limited data for Puerto Rico require a number of simplifying assumptions. Based on the environmental challenges faced by Puerto Rico, we include damages from air emissions and solid waste, the storm protection value of mangroves and the value of extracting crushed stone as components in the depreciation of natural capital. Our estimate of GNNP also includes the value of time, which captures the effects of technological progress. The results show that GNNP had an increasing trend over the 17 years studied with two periods of negative growth (2004-2006 and 2007-2008). Our additional analysis suggests that the negative growth in 2004-2006 was possibly due to a temporary economic downturn. However, the negative growth in 2007-2008 was likely from the decline in the value of time, suggesting the island of Puerto Rico was moving away from sustainability during this time.

Estimating Green Net National Product for Puerto Rico: An Economic Measure of Sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Shanshan; Heberling, Matthew T

2016-04-01

This paper presents the data sources and methodology used to estimate Green Net National Product (GNNP), an economic metric of sustainability, for Puerto Rico. Using the change in GNNP as a one-sided test of weak sustainability (i.e., positive growth in GNNP is not enough to show the economy is sustainable), we measure the movement away from sustainability by examining the change in GNNP from 1993 to 2009. In order to calculate GNNP, we require both economic and natural capital data, but limited data for Puerto Rico require a number of simplifying assumptions. Based on the environmental challenges faced by Puerto Rico, we include damages from air emissions and solid waste, the storm protection value of mangroves and the value of extracting crushed stone as components in the depreciation of natural capital. Our estimate of GNNP also includes the value of time, which captures the effects of technological progress. The results show that GNNP had an increasing trend over the 17 years studied with two periods of negative growth (2004-2006 and 2007-2008). Our additional analysis suggests that the negative growth in 2004-2006 was possibly due to a temporary economic downturn. However, the negative growth in 2007-2008 was likely from the decline in the value of time, suggesting the island of Puerto Rico was moving away from sustainability during this time.

Sustained swimming improves fish dietary nutrient assimilation efficiency and body composition of juvenile Brycon amazonicus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gustavo Alberto Arbeláez-Rojas

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Sustained swimming (SS usually promotes beneficial effects in growth and feed conversion of fishes. Although feed efficiency is improves at moderate water velocity, more information is required to determine the contributions of this factor on growth and body composition. Body composition and efficiency responses to the use of nutrients were determined in juvenile matrinxa Brycon amazonicus (Spix and Agassiz, 1829 fed with two dietary amounts of protein, 28 or 38% of crude protein (CP, and subjected to sustained swimming at a constant speed of 1.5 body lengths s−1 (BL s−1 or let to free swimming. The fish body composition under SS and fed with 28% of dietary protein showed 22% of increased in bulk protein and a 26% of decrease in water content in the white muscle. Red muscle depicted 70% less water content and a 10% more lipid. Nutrient retention was enhanced in fish subjected to SS and a higher gain of ethereal extract sustained was observed in the white muscle of exercised fish fed with 38% CP. The interaction between swimming and dietary protein resulted in a larger bulk of lipid in red muscle. Fish fed with 28% CP under SS at 1.5 BL s−1 presented the best utilization of dietary nutrients and body composition. Thus, this fish farming procedure is proposed as a promising management strategy for rearing matrinxa.

Making sustainability work

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Binswanger, Hans Christoph

1998-01-01

Today's economic theory usually neglects the role of nature and environment. To make sustainability work it is, however, essential to (re-)integrate nature into the standard concepts of economics, especially by incorporating natural factors into the production function. It must be acknowledged that economic growth is not (only) the result of technical change but is mainly caused by rising energy-inputs into the economy, and that this is necessarily followed by resource exhaustion and pollution. Therefore, nature must not only be taken into account as a central factor of production but also in the form of environmental quality which is the basis for human quality of life. A numeric example shows that a small, but steady decrease of yearly resource consumption is already apt to redirect the economy on a path of sustainable development

Predicting areas of sustainable error growth in quasigeostrophic flows using perturbation alignment properties

Science.gov (United States)

Rivière, G.; Hua, B. L.

2004-10-01

A new perturbation initialization method is used to quantify error growth due to inaccuracies of the forecast model initial conditions in a quasigeostrophic box ocean model describing a wind-driven double gyre circulation. This method is based on recent analytical results on Lagrangian alignment dynamics of the perturbation velocity vector in quasigeostrophic flows. More specifically, it consists in initializing a unique perturbation from the sole knowledge of the control flow properties at the initial time of the forecast and whose velocity vector orientation satisfies a Lagrangian equilibrium criterion. This Alignment-based Initialization method is hereafter denoted as the AI method.In terms of spatial distribution of the errors, we have compared favorably the AI error forecast with the mean error obtained with a Monte-Carlo ensemble prediction. It is shown that the AI forecast is on average as efficient as the error forecast initialized with the leading singular vector for the palenstrophy norm, and significantly more efficient than that for total energy and enstrophy norms. Furthermore, a more precise examination shows that the AI forecast is systematically relevant for all control flows whereas the palenstrophy singular vector forecast leads sometimes to very good scores and sometimes to very bad ones.A principal component analysis at the final time of the forecast shows that the AI mode spatial structure is comparable to that of the first eigenvector of the error covariance matrix for a "bred mode" ensemble. Furthermore, the kinetic energy of the AI mode grows at the same constant rate as that of the "bred modes" from the initial time to the final time of the forecast and is therefore characterized by a sustained phase of error growth. In this sense, the AI mode based on Lagrangian dynamics of the perturbation velocity orientation provides a rationale of the "bred mode" behavior.

Sustainable Development in Higher Education: Current Practice and Future Development: A Case Study of University of Calabar-Nigeria

Science.gov (United States)

Ajake, Uchenna E.; Omori, Anne E.; Essien, Margaret

2011-01-01

The study highlighted the Nigerian Universities' new sustainable development strategies: emphasizes the role that entrepreneurship education can play in both raising awareness among young people about sustainable development and giving them the skills to put sustainable development into practice. Universities place priority on the development of…

REFERENCE MODELS OF ENDOGENOUS ECONOMIC GROWTH

OpenAIRE

GEAMĂNU MARINELA

2012-01-01

The new endogenous growth theories are a very important research area for shaping the most effective policies and long term sustainable development strategies. Endogenous growth theory has emerged as a reaction to the imperfections of neoclassical theory, by the fact that the economic growth is the endogenous product of an economical system.

Influences of Air, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Carbon Dioxide Nanobubbles on Seed Germination and Plant Growth.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, Ahmed Khaled Abdella; Shi, Xiaonan; Hua, Likun; Manzueta, Leidy; Qing, Weihua; Marhaba, Taha; Zhang, Wen

2018-05-23

Nanobubbles (NBs) hold promise in green and sustainable engineering applications in diverse fields (e.g., water/wastewater treatment, food processing, medical applications, and agriculture). This study investigated the effects of four types of NBs on seed germination and plant growth. Air, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide NBs were generated and dispersed in tap water. Different plants, including lettuce, carrot, fava bean, and tomato, were used in germination and growth tests. The seeds in water-containing NBs exhibited 6-25% higher germination rates. Especially, nitrogen NBs exhibited considerable effects in the seed germination, whereas air and carbon dioxide NBs did not significantly promote germination. The growth of stem length and diameter, leave number, and leave width were promoted by NBs (except air). Furthermore, the promotion effect was primarily ascribed to the generation of exogenous reactive oxygen species by NBs and higher efficiency of nutrient fixation or utilization.

Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabio Caporali

Full Text Available In the framework of the 16th National Meeting of the Italian Ecological Society (“Global Change, Ecological Diversity and Sustainability”, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, 19-22 September 2006, a symposium was devoted to “Agroecology and Sustainable Development”. A major goal of this symposium was to contribute to keeping the dialogue among the experts of the various disciplines alive. Sustainability of agriculture is a challenge for society world wide. Universities and society as a whole have a responsibility in re-examining current perception of nature, of the world and of human society in the light of natural resources depletion, increasing pollution and social inequalities. The urgency to address sustainability issues is increasingly being reflected in the manner in which institutions of higher education around the world are giving priority to the teaching, research and practice of sustainability. The University of Tuscia is involved in international initiatives concerning teaching and research in Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture.

Is human society in denial regarding the tough questions about sustainability?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Cairns, Jr.

2004-07-01

Full Text Available The news media report daily on unsustainable practices and events that impede progress toward sustainable use of the planet - production of greenhouse gases, biotic impoverishment, depletion of fossil waters (aquifers, human population growth, production of persistent toxic substances, loss of agricultural topsoil and land, rapid loss of old growth forests, and so on. Exponential economic growth both depletes natural capital more rapidly than it is regenerated and also gives an illusion of sustainable prosperity. Failure to act more expeditiously is almost certainly due to a number of factors; however, denial that a problem exists is, arguably, one of the most likely reasons. Just as an alcoholic or drug addict must first acknowledge that a problem exists before successful treatment is possible, so must those addicted to exponential growth on a finite planet.

Sustainable electricity options for Malaysia: the emerging importance of renewable electricity supply options

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosli, M.M.; Yusop, Y.M.

2006-01-01

Rapid economic expansion in Malaysia over recent decades has led to a large growth in demand for electricity. Demand growth has put a strain on the ability of the economy to expand its electricity infrastructure capacity rapidly to meet the surge in demand. Over the next decade or two, assuming Malaysia will continue to grow at current growth rates of 4.0%, Malaysia will require enormous supply of electricity to meet demand growth. To congregate this challenge, Malaysia needs to consider the energy supply systems that can contribute to the long-term sustainability of economy in the future. Energy supply is critical to social and economic development, and they both have direct and indirect impacts on the environment. The idea of sustainable energy frequently focuses on renewable energy (RE) resources and consideration of these resources in meeting the energy requirements of Malaysia is given high priority in this paper. This paper will embrace the issue of electricity supply resources, technologies and energy policies in accommodating the economy towards energy sustainability over the long term, thus meeting immediate energy needs. It is also the intention of this paper to highlight new and existing RE technologies and their important roles in encouraging a sustainable electricity supply growth pattern in Malaysia. RE generation systems will begin to make significant contributions to new generation capacity installations. However, political and policy reform will have to occur at an unprecedented rate for this to materialise. Malaysia Vision 2020 envisions for a caring society to evolve as part of the country ambition of achieving developed nation status. A balanced growth using sustainable development principles is advocated in which today's needs are met without compromising the needs of future generation

Envisioning and Enabling Sustainable Smart Markets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

W. Ketter (Wolfgang)

2014-01-01

markdownabstract__Abstract__ Many of the world’s most urgent problems such as climate change, population growth, poverty, malnutrition and environmental degradation not only demand solutions but also require us to find more sustainable ways of living. Market mechanisms can be effective in

Energy efficiency, human behavior, and economic growth: Challenges to cutting energy demand to sustainable levels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Santarius, Tilman, E-mail: tilman@santarius.de [Visiting Scholar, Institute of European Studies and Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, 310 Barrows Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3050 (United States)

2015-03-30

Increasing energy efficiency in households, transportation, industries, and services is an important strategy to reduce energy service demand to levels that allow the steep reduction of greenhouse gases, and a full fledged switch of energy systems to a renewable basis. Yet, technological efficiency improvements may generate so-called rebound effects, which may ‘eat up’ parts of the technical savings potential. This article provides a comprehensive review of existing research on these effects, raises critiques, and points out open questions. It introduces micro-economic rebound effect and suggests extending consumer-side analysis to incorporate potential ‘psychological rebound effects.’ It then discusses meso-economic rebound effects, i.e. producer-side and market-level rebounds, which so far have achieved little attention in the literature. Finally, the article critically reviews evidence for macro-economic rebound effects as energy efficiency-induced economic growth impacts. For all three categories, the article summarizes assessments of their potential quantitative scope, while pointing out remaining methodological weaknesses and open questions. As a rough “rule of thumb”, in the long term and on gross average, only half the technical savings potential of across-the-board efficiency improvements may actually be achieved in the real world. Policies that aim at cutting energy service demand to sustainable levels are well advised to take due note of detrimental behavioral and economic growth impacts, and should foster policies and measures that can contain them.

Growth promoting characteristics of rhizobacteria and AM Fungi for biomass amelioration of Zea mays