The objective of our thesis was to conduct a pilot study to evaluate if an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for textiles in the EU could be a socioeconomically beneficial policy to complement the EU Waste Framework Directive’s amendment of separately collected textiles. The aim was to investigate if the policy could achieve increased circular design of textiles as well as if it could work as a management plan for the increased collection rates. The evaluation was made with a Cost-Benefit Analysis, using the French EPR-system for textiles as a base. It was further complemented with previously conducted research of EPR-systems for other waste streams in the EU, as well as by previously conducted investigations for other national implementations of producer responsibilities for textiles. In additional support, we used data for differences between the member states in the European Union and conducted an expert interview. The EPR was compared to a situation where the municipalities in the member states would instead be responsible for the separate collection of textiles. The result of our investigation illustrates how both alternatives generate a net-loss, the Municipal Responsibility with - €7,611,410,291 and the Extended Producer Responsibility with - €6,012,109,341 during the first year of implementation. The EPR alternative generates a lower net-loss during the first three years of implementation. The producer responsibility is however the less beneficial alternative four years after implementation, since the decreased opportunity cost of labour generated through the hiring of unemployed assumed under the producer responsibility is deducted. The producer responsibility does however generate benefits through clearly defined responsibility of the textiles placed on the European market and gives incentives for increased fibre-to-fibre recycling and for increased durability of textiles. The initiative therefore generates both higher quantifiable-and non-quantifiable, environmental benefits than the alternative. We conclude that an Extended Producer Responsibility should be further examined as a complement to the regulation of separate collection of textiles, to reach an increased circular textile industry.

This thesis consists of five papers, four of them basically concerning environmental issues, while the fifth paper addresses the issue of measuring output from the educational sector. The first paper starts from the fact that industrial activity causes environmental damage. Therefore, public authorities are called upon to regulate the behavior of producers by, e.g., legislating maximally allowed emission levels, which give rise to abatement costs. In this paper, marginal abatement costs (MACs) are estimated and a procedure to empirically analyze why MACs may vary between producers is suggested. The main focus is on whether the MACs in the Swedish pulp industry reveal that differences between counties in, e.g., economical characteristics, were influential when the authority, during 1983-1990, restricted 12 geographically scattered plants regarding emissions. The result indicates that county differences were influential. The second paper analyses and suggests a procedure for testing the Porter hypothesis. Part of this hypothesis is based on the argument that increased environmental stringency not only brings a cleaner environment, but also makes the polluting producers aware of the opportunity of using resources more efficiently. The particular test suggested considers whether there is a positive correlation between producers’ technical output efficiency and environmental stringency, approximated by a regulatory intensity index. It is empirically applied on 12 Swedish pulp plants during 1983-1990. No support for the Porter hypothesis is found in this particular case. The third paper deals with the climate policy issue. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union agreed to reduce its emission of greenhouse gases by 8 percent in comparison with the level in 1990. The Burden-Sharing Agreement (BSA) further redistributes the 8 percent reduction target among the member states. This paper evaluates the BSA both from an economical and a political perspective, i.e., whether cost-efficiency and equity, respectively, were considered when the BSA was settled. The empirical result indicates that both efficiency and equity were considered as important to the BSA. The fourth paper evaluates the Swedish Producer Responsibility Ordinance (PRO), fully implemented in 1994, which states that sorted out, domestically collected waste paper, must be recycled by the paper industry and, therefore, cannot be incinerated by the heating industry in purpose of recovering energy. The result indicates that this policy has contributed to inefficient waste paper allocation among some of the paper producers. The result further indicates that the priority made by the PRO, i.e., that waste paper recycling is preferable to incineration, should be reconsidered. The fifth paper relates the empirical attempts of measuring output from the educational sector to theoretical results about the welfare significance of a comprehensive Net National Product (NNP) measure. It is shown that economic theory provides a more focused way of interpreting such output estimates. The paper also contains estimates of the output from the Swedish educational sector. Among the results, it is shown that the private gross output value produced by higher education is approximately 2 percent of GDP. Furthermore, the private rate of return on investments in higher education in Sweden is calculated to 8.6 percent.

Ontarians are producing more waste per capita than previous generations and consuming more bottled water. Using the product policy quadrangle developed by Oosternhuis (1996), the research examines four components of Ontario bottled water packaging policy— policy objectives, policy instruments, product groups and actors. Interviews with Ontario experts reveal stakeholder communication and Extended Producer Responsibility can promote packaging minimization. There was no agreement about whether Ontario has a waste policy framework to support bottled water waste reduction, reuse and recycling. Stakeholders did agree that a policy framework can help to promote packaging minimization. The discussion will examine the following: various concepts to support zero waste, eco-labelling, policy objectives, enforcement, use of language, focus on financial obligations, deposit-return systems, refillable containers, bottle standardization, waste minimization, how waste is measured, an evaluation of the waste hierarchy, reporting waste reduction and reuse, learning from history and alternative methods of encouraging the consumption of municipal water. The research recommends these changes be implemented with the development of the new Waste Diversion Act. The research recommends that Ontario implement Integrated Product Policy and Extended Producer Responsibility to support packaging minimization.

Ontarians are producing more waste per capita than previous generations and consuming more bottled water. Using the product policy quadrangle developed by Oosternhuis (1996), the research examines four components of Ontario bottled water packaging policy— policy objectives, policy instruments, product groups and actors. Interviews with Ontario experts reveal stakeholder communication and Extended Producer Responsibility can promote packaging minimization. There was no agreement about whether Ontario has a waste policy framework to support bottled water waste reduction, reuse and recycling. Stakeholders did agree that a policy framework can help to promote packaging minimization. The discussion will examine the following: various concepts to support zero waste, eco-labelling, policy objectives, enforcement, use of language, focus on financial obligations, deposit-return systems, refillable containers, bottle standardization, waste minimization, how waste is measured, an evaluation of the waste hierarchy, reporting waste reduction and reuse, learning from history and alternative methods of encouraging the consumption of municipal water. The research recommends these changes be implemented with the development of the new Waste Diversion Act. The research recommends that Ontario implement Integrated Product Policy and Extended Producer Responsibility to support packaging minimization.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第19156号 / 地環博第131号 / 新制||地環||27 / 32107 / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)准教授 森 晶寿, 教授 劉 徳強, 准教授 吉野 章 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

This research explores how provincial governments in Canada can foster environmental leadership in business firms, and develops a framework to guide provincial policy and regulatory decisions with respect to environmental leadership. The research question is: How can provincial governments in Canada support environmental leadership in businesses? Environmental leadership is defined as voluntary beyond compliance behaviour. In order to answer the research question, what motivates and challenges environmental leadership must also be explored. Three case studies are used in this research: the electronics extended producer responsibility (EPR), marine and agriculture sectors. Data was collected through surveys and interviews with businesses, officials and organizations in each of the case studies. The focus is on British Columbia, although data was also collected from other Canadian provinces. Results demonstrate that the electronics EPR sector is characterized by compliance and coordination issues: businesses focus on meeting rather than exceeding regulations, and they identified a strong need for improved harmonization and coordination between jurisdictions on EPR regulations. The marine sector is characterized by businesses taking matters into their own hands, due to weak regulations accompanied by strong community pressures. The agriculture sector is characterized as one of contestation and capacity: contestation over what is environmental leadership (whether or not it requires beyond compliance steps such as organic certification), and capacity concerns, due to the high need identified for support, education and training for farmers. Five themes cut across the three case studies. First, environmental leadership is an ongoing process rather than a relatively fixed category in which businesses can be placed. Second, although social licence is important in all three cases, the licence comes from different sectors of society: consumers, community or citizens. In the electronics EPR sector, the social licence pressures come primarily from customers; in the marine sector, from communities; and in the agriculture sector, from citizens as a whole, comprised of both customers of agricultural products and communities that live near farms. Third, corporate culture or visionary leadership is important in driving environmental leadership. Fourth, a need exists for greater leadership by government, by strategic planning, taking advantage of new markets, resolving conflicts, greater harmonization and coordination of regulations. Fifth, continuous learning within a firm is important in environmental leadership, be it through formal training, sharing of expertise and knowledge, or through ongoing reflection on business practices. Key policy implications are that provincial governments use a broader mix of regulatory tools: accompanying stringent standards with training and education; support for transition to greener technologies or processes; and public education on the purpose of regulations, how they work, and the role of all sectors of society in achieving social goals. Cross government cooperation and harmonization of regulations could be improved, especially in the electronics EPR sector. The results of this research should assist in identifying ways for government to foster environmental leadership in businesses, through new approaches to governance and selection of policy instruments. / Graduate

This thesis investigates the question how emissions from land‐use displacement can be assessed and accounted for, using the example of carbon‐leakage accounting in the planned UNFCCC mechanism on ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation’ (REDD). REDD serves here as example of an international forest conservation policy that might be effective locally but could lead to displacement of deforestation to other countries. Although leakage processes within countries are initially considered, the focus of the thesis is on international displacement effects. The first part of the thesis reviews existing accounting methods for land‐use displacement from different research fields and assesses their usefulness to quantify carbon leakage from REDD. Results show that it is very difficult to assess policy‐induced (or strong) carbon leakage due to the requirement to demonstrate causal links between the policy in question and the observed land‐use changes, especially at international scale. Other accounting methods focus on demand‐driven (or weak) carbon leakage, by establishing a link between international demand and consumption patterns and land‐use changes as their  distant effects. Methods to quantify such teleconnections commonly combine land‐use accounting with tradeflow assessments to link international trade streams and consumption with environmental impacts such as land use or land‐use changes arising in the production of traded commodities. A methodological challenge is currently the quantification of emissions from land‐use change generated by distant linkages between production and consumption locations. Responding to this shortcoming, in the second part of the thesis a new method to assess these teleconnections is developed. The ‘land‐use change carbon footprint’ allows quantifying the extent to which landuse changes and associated emissions in a given country are promoted by the production of export goods, and thus are due to international demand for ‐ and consumption of ‐ forest‐risk commodities. The understanding of such distant deforestation drivers can be useful in several contexts, such as the design of conservation policies like REDD, which risk being less effective as globalized deforestation drivers pose a high risk for international leakages; or the planning of demand‐side measures that could complement supply‐side action in decreasing global deforestation levels. Demand‐side measures, such as zero‐deforestation embargos, regulations or certification schemes, could eventually contribute to decrease the risk for international land‐use displacement by addressing global consumption levels and commodity demand as one of the underlying driving forces of land‐use change and deforestation. / Avhandlingen undersöker hur utsläpp av växthusgaser, genererade genom en förskjutning av markanvändning, kan bedömas och redovisas. Detta exemplifieras genom analys av UNFCCC’s mekanism ”Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation ‐ REDD”. REDD betraktas här som ett exempel på en internationell skogsskyddspolicy som kan fungera effektivt på lokal nivå, men som ändå kan leda till förskjutning av avskogningen till andra länder. Den första delen av avhandlingen analyserar befintliga  redovisningsmetoder för förskjutning av markanvändning från olika forskningsområden och bedömer deras användbarhet när det gäller kvantifiering av koldioxidläckage från REDD. Resultaten visar att det är mycket svårt att bedöma policy‐genererat koldioxidläckage på grund av kravet att påvisa orsakssamband mellan policyn i fråga och de observerade förändringarna av markanvändningen. Andra redovisningsmetoder fokuserar på såkallade teleconnections, genom att upprätta en länk mellan internationell konsumtionsmönster och miljöpåverkan (t.ex. effekter på global markanvändning) som uppstår på grund av produktion av handelsvaror. Metoder för att bedöma sådant efterfrågestyrt koldioxidläckage brukar kombinera markanvändnings‐redovisning med bedömningar av handelsflöde för att knyta ihop internationella konsumtion med globala förändringar av markanvändningen. För närvarande är den metodologiska utmaningen att kvantifiera utsläppen från en förändrad markanvändning till följd av teleconnections. Ett förslag på en  metodlösning utvecklas inom den andra delen av avhandlingen. Indikatorn "land‐use change carbon footprint (LUC‐CFP) som kan kopplas med handelsflödesanalys ger möjlighet att kvantifiera i vilken utsträckning en förändrad markanvändning och tillhörande utsläpp i ett visst land främjas av produktionen av exportvaror. Därmed visas hur internationell efterfrågan och konsumtion av produkter fungerar som drivkraft bakom avskogning. Förståelsen för dessa globala drivkrafter kan vara användbar i flera sammanhang. Exempel är utformningen av bevarandepolicies som REDD, vilka riskerar att bli mindre effektiv när globaliserade drivkrafter bakom avskogning utgör en hög risk för internationellt läckage; eller planeringen av policyåtgärder från efterfrågesidan. Genom att ta itu med globala konsumtionsnivåer och efterfrågan på handelsvaror, som är en av de bakomliggande drivkrafterna för avskogning, kan man så småningom bidra till att minska risken för internationellt förskjutning av markanvändning.

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2017-05-22T19:45:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Henrique Manoel Riani Mendes.pdf: 4639180 bytes, checksum: 66cb09c6505337b611b44749fefcd115 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-22T19:45:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Henrique Manoel Riani Mendes.pdf: 4639180 bytes, checksum: 66cb09c6505337b611b44749fefcd115 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-08 / The present work sought to analyze the main concepts and practices related to the Reverse Logistic of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE), considering the urgency of structuring systems in Brazil that meets the goals imposed by the legislation. Although some companies already present solutions to serve consumers who wish to discard their products, the goals imposed by Brazilian legislation represent a great challenge to be faced by individual companies, in addition it brings a scenario of uncertainties and high costs for management. To conduct this work, a qualitative exploratory and descriptive research was carried out, through a documentary analysis, bibliographic research and interviews. At first, the WEEE Take Back system of different countries were analysed, in order to identify a reference case which was the object of an in-depth case study. The case in question was the Swiss system, recognized as the first to be implemented in the world, in addition to being structured differently from the others and presenting one of the highest collection rates of WEEE per inhabitant in the world. Next, the brazilian scenario is presented indicating how companies, manufacturers of Electrical and Electronics Equipments, are organizing themselves to structure their systems of Reverse Logistics in the country. In the conduction of this work, semi-structured questionnaires were applied to the representatives of the Swiss Management Entities (PROs), in addition to the analysis of documents and reports published by these institutions. We also consulted several articles in the literature, which were the subsidy to compare data obtained from primary sources. In general, it can be concluded that the structuring of collective systems to operationalize reverse logistics brings benefits both to the company and to the efficiency of the system. It is also recommended to create more than one PRO to take care of specific groups of products, which require different logistics operations. In this way, these PROs can become specialized in a certain logistics operation, optimizing the process and reducing costs for their associates. Finally, it is suggested that a cooperation must exist between these Management Entities, aiming at the exchange of experiences and the joint construction of requirements and quality standards for the whole system. / O presente trabalho tratou de analisar os principais conceitos e práticas relacionados à Logística Reversa de Eletroeletrônicos, tendo em vista a urgência de se estruturar sistemas no Brasil, que atendam às metas impostas pela legislação. Apesar de algumas empresas já apresentarem soluções para atender os consumidores que desejam descartar seus produtos, as metas impostas pela legislação brasileira representam um grande desafio a ser encarado pelas empresas individualmente, além de trazer um cenário de incertezas e elevado custo para a gestão. Para conduzir este trabalho, foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa exploratória e descritiva, através de uma análise documental, pesquisa bibliográfica e entrevistas. De início foram avaliados como estão estruturados os sistemas de Logística Reversa de Eletroeletrônicos de diversos países para se identificar um caso referência, o qual foi objeto de um estudo de caso aprofundado. O caso em questão foi o sistema suíço, reconhecido como o primeiro a ser implementado no mundo, além de ser estruturado de forma diferenciada dos demais e apresentar um dos maiores índices de coleta de Eletroeletrônicos por habitante no mundo. Em seguida, é apresentado o cenário brasileiro e como as empresas, fabricantes de Eletroeletrônicos, estão se organizando para estruturar seus sistemas de Logística Reversa no país. Na execução deste trabalho foram aplicados questionários semiestruturados aos representantes das gestoras suíças, além da análise de documentos e relatórios publicados por estas instituições. Foram também consultados diversos artigos da literatura, que foram o subsídio para confrontar os dados obtidos das fontes primárias. De modo geral, pode-se concluir que a estruturação de sistemas coletivos para operacionalizar a logística reversa traz benefícios tanto para a empresa, quanto para a eficiência do sistema. Recomenda-se inclusive, a criação de mais de uma Entidade Gestora para cuidar de grupos específicos de produtos, os quais demandam operações logísticas distintas. Desta forma, estas Gestoras tornam-se especializadas em determinada operação logística, otimizando o processo e reduzindo custos para suas associadas. Por fim, é sugerido que exista uma interação entre estas Gestoras, visando a troca de experiências e a construção conjunta de requisitos e padrões de qualidade para todo o sistema.

Background: A sustainable economy becomes more and more important for most parts of the society. Especially the fashion industry is being criticized for wasting resources and being non-sustainable. Therefore, some textile producers started to implement programs that are aiming on a reuse of garments. Aims of research: The purpose of this research is to discover how customers can be motivated to return unwanted garments, also considering possible hindering factors. To gather this information it is necessary to build a theoretical framework with customer-based theories. The thesis explored how a second hand multi-brand retailer can take active action in encouraging customers to return unwanted textiles. Method: This research was conducted as an inductive qualitative research. The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with several second hand retailers. The analysis was carried out following the Giogia method. Results: The thesis revealed that the garment disposal behavior is affected by various influences. Influences on the disposal behavior of garment consumers are personal values and believes. The dispose of unwanted garments is often influenced by an ease of handling and the same behavior is followed over the years simply because individuals are used to a certain garment disposal behavior. The largest hindering factors why customers do not return garments to retailers are caused by a lack of information as well as insufficient transparency. This behavior can be affected by second hand retailers by providing improved communication and a motivation to return garments by offering benefits for the customer. The size of the company does not play a major role.

The research aims at reviewing how mobile phone producers in the EU are approaching individual obsolete phone collection from private households in terms of the information provided on their websites, in addition to the collective schemes that they may be part of for complying with the WEEE Directive. In this study, competitive benchmarking was used to differentiate the accessibility level of take-back offers among the selected producers. The availability of the take-back offer and the penetration rate in the EU states are examined into a five-level metrics. The results reveal that producers have extreme offers on the availability aspect and diverging information coverage in different countries. It is inferred that a producer’s attitude toward the product take-back affects the accessibility of their take-back offers, which can be explained by several economic concerns; however, different methods in future research is needed to further investigate the reasons behind different producers’ choices.