In this thesis, the need for the step by step transformation of industry towards sustainability is emphasized. This work involves looking at the Olive Oil Industry (OOI) from a systems perspective through the lens of Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) and applying backcasting from a principled view of socio-ecological sustainability. A specific project is also looked at, the Integrated Waste Management Project (IWMP), which aims at contributing to the sustainability of this particular industry. The OOI was analysed through the ABCD methodology, a tool used in planning for SSD, and measures were drawn up to guide the industry’s transformation. Following this analysis, the IWMP was examined within the context and results of the OOI research. Overall, the industry is transitioning and the IWMP is a good opportunity and contributor to the evolution of the Olive Oil Industry towards sustainability. At the same time, OOI and other industries would benefit greatly from embracing a systems perspective and a strategic approach for sustainable development.

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Shelter poses global sustainability challenges, as the population increase accelerates and resources dwindle. It is crucial for initiatives addressing the growing housing demand to incorporate a sustainability perspective. Open source, a form of Internet information-sharing, is being utilised by various housing initiatives worldwide. However, a sustainability perspective is not always included in a robust and holistic way, despite the negative impacts for human needs and ecosystems resulting from many aspects of current housing practices. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development includes basic conditions for a sustainable society and a planning and decision-making methodology to move systematically towards sustainability. It provides a robust method for organizing, evaluating and using tools to aid in handling sustainability challenges effectively. This thesis aims to contribute to the development of affordable, sustainable design solutions, by modelling the incorporation of the FSSD into open source housing initiatives. A case study of a housing project under development in Ghana is used. Despite the complexity of the system under study, the research concludes that bringing a strategic sustainable development perspective to open source approaches can act as leverage for housing to move towards sustainability. Within this context, guidance is provided for approaching open source housing to contribute to SSD. / <p>charcolatebar@live.ca</p>

Abstract: Given the global sustainability challenge; effective organizational Social Responsibility (SR) guidelines must set best-practices that acknowledge environmental constraints and strive for a sustainable society. SR has historically underrepresented environmental issues and needs to shift from a reactive focus on societal stakeholder demands, to a proactive whole-systems planning framework. There is a risk that unless SR guidelines consider both social and environmental issues together, they may generate negative outcomes to organizational viability. This research finds key Sustainable Development concepts that should be integrated within SR guidelines and uncovers an overall goal of SR as assisting organizations in moving towards a sustainable society. A Sustainable Society is defined in the research according to a set of scientific principles, based on environmental constraints and fundamental social needs. This clear goal enables the organization to ‘backcast’ from this success point in order to take effective strategic steps. The authors recommend the incorporation of critical concepts from Strategic Sustainable Development, a proven organizational sustainability planning framework, into SR guidelines to increase their effectiveness in strategic SR decision-making. The ISO 26000 SR Guideline is used as a case study.

Today, global socio-ecological problems are too complex and urgent for isolated actions, and cross-sector collaboration is increasingly required to generate transformational change towards a sustainable future. Partnerships between businesses and civil society organisations (CSOs) in particular have the potential to achieve the required change for sustainability. However, the ‘backcasting’ approach used in this study highlights a gap between current approaches and what partnerships might look like in a sustainable future. Research draws on literature, eighteen interviews and an action research project with Interface Europe. Results indicate that: 1) in the current paradigm shift, collaboration provides a competitive advantage; 2) individual, organisational and societal benefits of partnering are significant; 3) understanding the art and science of partnering is needed to make them work 4) organisational development and strategy affect partnership type and outcomes; 5) Corporate Social Responsibility efforts initiate cross-sector partnerships, but are responsive and fall short of being strategic; 6) articulation of visions for a sustainable future is rare and; 7) most partnerships are not aligned with core business strategies. In conclusion, dialogue across all sectors is advocated to co-create a sustainable future and The Natural Step Framework is recommended to align business planning and partnership strategies with sustainability. / <p>Andrew Outhwaite (arouthwaite@gmail.com) Miriam Karell (jazzminq@gmail.com) Richard Blume (rblume@gmail.com) Website http://partnerships4SSD.blogspot.com</p>

The purpose of this paper is to give suggestions for how to preserve intangible cultural heritage (ICH) towards sustainability. We will use Tibet as a case study. Understanding the importance of ICH for tourism, we scrutinize ICH through the lens of strategic sustainable development (SSD) and use tourism as a leverage point to enter into a real life situation. ICH is the root of all cultural expression. Without guarding ICH there is little meaning to the physical culture that remains and, ultimately, tourism declines. ICH is a new topic and there is little research and few ideas as to how to guide its preservation. We offer recommendations which include identifying the stakeholders, educating them, adequate marketing research especially in tourism, investing on technology of dematerialization and searching substitutions under the guidelines of the Golden Rule within the social sustainability context. Our contributions is to build a vision of success for preserving Tibetan ICH via tourism within the constraints of the four sustainability principles, and then demonstrate some prioritized actions in order to develop towards sustainability.

Adopting a Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) approach to official bilateral development assistance could result in more effective development planning that yields lasting results in developing countries. A Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development Assistance (FSSDA) based on SSD and customised to the needs of a development agency offers guidance in planning for development towards sustainability. This it does by directing donor and recipient planners in generating holistic perspectives, setting the goal of development as an attractive and sustainable society, and providing a flexible decision-making framework to guide strategic planning. Development assistance donor agencies face several difficulties in ensuring aid effectiveness. The FSSDA offers support in addressing these challenges by: positioning the creation of sustainable societies as the fundamental goal of development; allowing progress against imminent sustainability threats while minimizing the risk of unforeseen negative impacts; balancing economic, environmental and social considerations; and providing a fairer basis for aid conditionality.

Sustainability reporting is a vital tool to communicate an organisation’s sustainability performance to stakeholders. Sustainability reporting also allows an organisation to communicate its vision, goals and strategic plans. In order to be strategic towards sustainability, an organisation should have a vision of where it wants to go, and assess where it is today, so as to take the right initiatives towards its vision. This thesis focuses on how GRI sustainability reporting and strategic planning towards sustainability can be combined in an integrated process to help organisations move towards sustainability. The Integrated Process allows an organisation to gain a better understanding of its sustainability context; design resilient strategies in light of that context using a backcasting from Sustainability Principles approach; and report its sustainability performance and progress in bridging the gap towards sustainability, transparently to internal and external stakeholders. / <p>Edwin Janssen +31626078987 Rutger Verkouw +31624155241 Selene Kfoury +551138138481</p>

Institutional Investors own a large share of publicly traded companies, controlling a significant amount of the economy‟s working capital. These investors currently use little or no sustainability-related information to make their decisions, reinforcing a loop of increasingly unsustainable growth. This paper puts forward a new investment strategy that recognizes true movement towards sustainability and its link with bottom line benefits for investors: Strategic Sustainable Investing (SSI). To achieve this desired future, Institutional Investors must be able to recognize corporations that are strategically leading the transition towards sustainability. An Analysis Tool was developed to help address this need by identifying sectoral Emerging Sustainability Issues (ESI) using a consensus-based scientific definition of sustainability. Once ESIs are identified, companies‟ strategies regarding each issue are assessed. This Tool was scrutinized by a panel of experts in the financial and sustainable development industries, and was tested on three companies within the Unconventional Oil &amp; Gas Sector in Canada. Results confirmed the usefulness of a tool that can recognize which companies are leading the sustainable development agenda, and identified the need for future research on the financial materiality of sustainability-oriented actions.

Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Entwicklung einer übertragbaren Methodik zur Bestimmung des theoretischen und technischen Grünschnittpotenzials (inkl. Küchenabfall) in einem Modellgebiet. Diese soll bundesweit, im ordnungspolitisch geregelten Raum, applizierbar sein und Handlungsoptionen zur ressourceneffizienten Biomassebereitstellung liefern. In einem zweiten Schritt sollen Strategien zur Umsetzung von formulierten Zielen zur Energiebereitstellung durch Grünschnitt und unter Partizipation von lokalen Akteuren bereitgestellt werden. Hierbei werden der Top-down- und Bottom-up-Ansatz miteinander verknüpft, um zeitnah Umsetzungsprojekte zu initiieren. Ausgangspunkt ist hierbei eine detaillierte Flächenanalyse der Modellregion Havelland-Fläming (Planungsregion-HFL) nach Art der tatsächlichen Nutzung mit dem Fokus auf Siedlungs- und Verkehrsflächen, sowie Wasserflächen. Diese Flächen unterliegen vegetationstechnischen Pflegemaßnahmen und werden mit spezifischen Aufwuchsfaktoren entlang ihrer flächen- bzw. linienförmigen Ausprägung untersetzt, um das theoretische Grünschnittpoten-zial aufzeigen zu können. Gleichzeitig erfolgt die Betrachtung von Trends der Flächeninanspruchnahme in Verbindung mit dem demografischen Wandel, um zukünftige Veränderungen des Grünschnittpotenzials beschreiben zu können. Das Küchenabfallpotenzial wird auf Grundlage eines einwohnerspezifischen Aufkommens bilanziert. Auf Grundlage dieser Berechnungen wurde das Fokusgebiet Mittelbereich Bad Belzig infolge von Interessensbekundungen eruiert. Das theoretische Grünschnittpotenzial für den MB Bad Belzig umfasst eine Menge von 22.202 Mg/ a, welche durch vegetationstechnische Pflegemaßnahmen erzielt werden können. Gebäude- und Freiflächen liefern mit 52 % und ca. 11.600 Mg/ a den größten Anteil am Grünschnittpotenzial. Unter Berücksichtigung der tech-nischen sowie strukturellen und ökologischen Restriktionen umfasst das technisch-verfügbare Potenzial ein Drittel des theoretischen Grünschnittpotenzials. Mit Hilfe der Partizipation lokaler Akteure wurden Dissonanzen erarbeitet, welche Hürden bei der Erschließung des Grünschnittpotenzials darstellen. Hieraus wurden Handlungsoptionen entwickelt, die zu tragfähigen Lösungen im Zuge der „ressourceneffizienten und emissionsarmen Energiebereitstellung“ führten. Im Rahmen der Strategieentwicklung wurde der Fokus auf Grünschnitt aus der öffentlichen und privaten Grünflächenpflege gelegt. Hierbei können 4.122 Mg/ a Grasschnitt und 1.375 Mg/ a Holz akquiriert werden. Diese sollen in einer bestehenden Biogasanlage (Gras-schnitt) respektive in Sägewerken (Holz) einer energetischen Nutzung zugeführt werden. Verbleibende Potenziale, welche nicht in die Strategieentwicklung inkludiert sind, könnten durch strukturelle Veränderung zukünftig ebenso anteilig der energetischen Verwertung zugeführt werden. / In the present dissertation the development of a methodology to determine the green waste potential (incl. kitchen waste) is described in a pilot area. The methodology shall be trans-ferable to the municipal sector throughout Germany. In addition options for a resourceefficient supply of biomass shall be provided. In the second part strategies for the energetic utilization of green waste are evolved by participation of local players. In this context the top-down and bottom-up approaches are linked to initiate implementation projects within a narrow time frame. The initial point is a detailed land analysis in the pilot area Havelland – Fläming by types of actual land use. The research focuses on land used for human settlement and traffic area. Green waste originates through landscape maintenance. The arising amount can be calcu-lated with specific growth factors along the linear form or surface profile. Trends in demographic change and additional land use are considered simultaneously to determine further variations in green waste potential. The potential of kitchen waste is calculated by means of specific waste quantities per head. As a result of the calculated green waste potentials and expression of interest in the pilot area the destination area “Mittelbereich Bad Belzig” was chosen. The theoretic green waste potential in this area amounts to 22.202 Mg/ year. Yard and buildings account for 52 % respectively 11.600 Mg/ year. One third of the theoretic green waste potential is technically available considering technical, structural and environmental restrictions. Obstacles in exploitation of the green waste potential were figured out with participation of local players. Following this, courses of action were developed to lead to a resourceefficient and low-emission energy supply by previously unutilized biomass. Within the framework of strategy formation the focus was on green waste from maintenance of private and public green areas. The technically available green waste out of these types of land use amounts 4.122 Mg/ year grass cutting and 1.375 Mg/ year ligneous material. The energetic utilization shall take place in an existing biogas plant (grass cutting) respectively in sawmills. As part of structural changes in the future remaining potentials can be implemented partial in the planned energetic utilization.