This research explores the current and potential green initiatives to advance the sustainability agenda in property management. It outlines the environmental protection strategies adopted in housing management in achieving sustainable development goals. This research also studies how eco-friendly objectives could tie in with other environmental and social goals in sustainable development. The research involves a review of available evidence in an attempt to identify and recognize good practice/instances where green measures are actively promoted in private housing estates. The researcher tries to advance and examine the key issues and challenges that are at stake respecting sustainable development in the context of property-related decision making, and at the same time, suggests how environmental considerations can be integrated into all aspects of a housing project from planning to implementation. The study draws on evidences emerged from relevant literature reviews, interviews and a case study in exploring the role of housing management in promoting sustainability in the scope of realizing green measures. In addition, the researcher would mention the local policy background and discuss the efforts by the government in related to sustainable development. In the final section, the limitations followed by recommendations towards the subject matter would be revealed. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

No description available.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Abstract not available

Over the past decade, the business sector has come under increasing pressure to improve their environmental, safety, and health (ESH) performance. This pressure has stemmed from both external and internal sources with the organization. Public image, legislative and regulatory requirements, stakeholder awareness of environmental performance, sustainable development, and changing corporate values are driving forces that are leading companies to take a serious look at their ESH function. The increased focus on the business and sustainable aspects of ESH issues has created a demand by management to assess the current organizational strategy related to ESH. Strategy, in this respect, can be thought of as the manner in which issues are approached and handled. Unfortunately, a comprehensive approach does not exist for assessing the ESH and sustainable development strategies of an organization and linking it to the overall competitive strategy of the organization. Developing a framework for assessing the ESH strategies in an organization was the focus of this study. The major portion of the research was the development of profiles for each of the four strategy developmental levels under the elements of an ESH management system. Six elements were identified from the literature that comprise an ESH function's strategy: 1) Strategic plan, 2) structure, 3) finance, 4) technical, 5) evaluation, and 6) information management. Within each of these elements, profiles were created for each of the strategy developmental levels that these elements may utilize: Resistive, adaptive, proactive, and sustainable. The study went beyond previous research by including safety and health aspects into the environmental strategy typologies, looking at ESH elements other than the strategic plan and structure, and providing a more detailed and comprehensive explanation of the strategy levels. These profiles were peer reviewed then transformed into a series of questions that qualitatively assess the ESH strategies used within an organization. A pilot study was completed of a large high-tech manufacturing organization in Portland, OR. The pilot study demonstrated the usefulness of the tool to identify areas of improvement in an ESH function. Use of this assessment tool is the first step an organization needs to take to understand where they exist in the scale of ESH strategies, and if this is the ideal strategy to follow. / Graduation date: 2002

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

No description available.

There is growing recognition internationally of the shift in natural resource management away from top-down, technocratic management towards participatory approaches that incorporate local communities and other stakeholders in decision-making. Natural resources and their management are also increasingly seen to play a role in development, providing the resources necessary to drive local economic development and poverty alleviation schemes. These shifts are evident in both forestry and fisheries literature and co-management policies. Co-management is a mature theory of participatory environmental governance. Participatory Forest Management (PFM), which is a co-management approach to governance in forest management, comprises a major shift in government policy in terms of managing the people-forest interface in South Africa. Democratic approaches such as comanagement are commendable; however, the reality surrounding the lack of capacity for decisionmaking by local people and the complex scientific nature of forest management makes the implementation of this approach difficult. This study adopts a critical approach to participatory practices in forestry, and questions whether participation is occurring or whether it is merely rhetoric - a disguise for an eco-modernist, technocratic problem solving approach that still employs top down management. Ecological modernisation is a policy-orientated discourse, which is used to construct environmental problems in a particular way, and so influence the manner in which they are addressed. The mainstream ecological modernisation approach, which is a weak ecological modernisation approach (Christoff, 1996), is arguably the prevailing mainstream environmental management approach in the developed and also latterly, the developing world (Christoff, 1996; Blowers and Pain, 1999; Murphy, 2000; Scott and Oelofse, 2005). According to Oelofse et al. (2006), Laros (2004) and Scott and Oelofse (2005) this weak mainstream approach has been transferred from the developed countries, where it has been institutionalised for over two decades, to developing countries such as South Africa, and has become the “rationale for environmental management” (Oelofse et al. 2006:61) in these countries also. However, within the ecological modernisation approach, shifts are taking place towards what Christoff (1996) refers to as ‘strong’ and Beck (1995) as ‘reflexive’ ecological modernisation, which acknowledge the use of more participatory, communicative and deliberative approaches to addressing environmental problems (Christoff, 1996; Blowers and Pain, 1999; Scott and Oelofse, 2005). The southern Cape PFM case study in South Africa is presented as an opportunity to explore these ideas. This thesis explores the relationship between PFM and ecological modernisation through an analysis of PFM discourse, and expands the conceptualisation of ecological modernisation by applying it to an environmental policy process in a developing world context. Through an analysis of the implementation of PFM using Hajer’s (1995; 2003) argumentative approach to discourse analysis, the appropriateness of the form of co-management, typified by PFM to the South African context, is challenged. Research findings reveal that the manner in which PFM is implemented in the southern Cape comprises a weak ecological modernisation approach to environmental management because the participatory element of PFM was found to be problematic. The nature of participation occurring at a local level differs greatly from the policy being advocated at a national level. The discourse of PFM has been institutionalised nationally as a policy and an approach to indigenous forest management, which resonates with strong ecological modernisation. Locally, however, although a degree of discourse structuration has occurred, it appears that the co-management approach being implemented is a weak form, which is more consistent with weak ecological modernisation. South Africa’s context as country in transition places it in an awkward position with regard to the application of ecological modernisation as an environmental problem-solving approach. A strong ecological modernisation approach would seem to be the most appropriate given South Africa’s context; however, there are limitations that indicate why a strong ecological modernisation discourse becomes weak at the level of implementation. Even if weak ecological modernisation were pursued, it would appear that South Africa might not yet be ready to apply such a programme effectively. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

No description available.