City officials are in the position to adopt and implement policies within their jurisdiction that can have lasting impacts for businesses, people, and the environment. Sustainability research has highlighted the need to protect the environment by adopting policies which support the three E's of sustainable development (environment, equity, and economy). Stepping aside from the traditional mechanisms for building a successful city focused on economy first can be challenging for policy makers. The problem city officials face is that changes towards environmental protectionism have long been considered harder on city economy than traditional development focused on economic prosperity. Additionally, sustainability planning is thought to mitigate potential negative impacts that planning for environmental protectionism and social equity may have on economic prosperity. To examine this problem faced by city officials, ordinal regression analyses was used to analyze (1) the possible effects of environmental protectionism and social equity on a city's economic prosperity, and (2) whether sustainability planning has a moderating affect between environmental protectionism, social equity, and economic prosperity. This analysis demonstrates that environmental protectionism and social equity are not associated with a decline in economic prosperity. Sustainability planning was directly associated with increased economic prosperity but did not moderate the relationship between environmental protectionism and economic prosperity.

Energy access remains a significant challenge in nations lacking access to resources and strong infrastructure systems, creating barriers to economic development and to increased standards of living. Small scale biomass gasification energy (BGE) systems have been developed to meet energy needs in rural areas, creating synergies between agricultural and agro-forestry systems through utilization of biomass feedstock for energy generation. The sustainability of such systems requires sophisticated planning and coordination of the biomass supply chain. The goal of this thesis is to investigate and improve structural and process related characteristics of sustainability assessments for small scale bio-energy systems, specifically focusing on establishment and management of biomass supply chains through the development and dissemination of a generic sustainability assessment framework for biomass supply chains of small-scale BGE systems in rural East Africa. Building on a preliminary sustainability assessment framework (Christensen, 2013; Joerg, 2013) this research develops an assessment tool designed to capture sustainability requirements of the biomass supply chain in the ecological, social, and economic spheres through testing on three case studies in rural Uganda. Application and analysis of a preliminary framework on pilot projects in a rural east African context using Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methodologies contributes to development of strategies for energy system analysis and building stakeholder capacity to incorporate social, economic, and environmental considerations. The assessment process is outlined, including scoring, data collection, contextual considerations. Model application is discussed, including the impact of weighting on decision outcomes, uncertainty management, sensitivity analysis, and identification of tradeoffs among criteria. Finally, discussion of tool usefulness verses usability contributes to bridging academic research with practitioner priorities.

This paper examines an effort to develop community capacity to engage in sustainability planning as part of a Peace Corps Municipal Services Development project in Areguá, Paraguay. It sketches the context in which the initiative occurred, outlines relevant academic research on community sustainability planning, and describes the strategies adopted to assist Areguá in securing the critical mass of community capacity necessary to engage in sustainability planning. The paper concludes with an outline of continuing challenges for sustainability in Areguá and a description of means by which those concerns might be addressed. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

No description available.

Climate change and its impacts are currently affecting countries all around the world. Sweden is facing an increased risk of landslides, floods and a rising sea level that will cause major damage to infrastructure in the future. Sustainable Development Goal number 13 aims to mitigate these risks and others by strengthening different climate adaptation systems and reducing human impact on the environment. The overall purpose of this study was to investigate Sweden’s commitment to goal 13 and review the progress so far. In addition, it aimed to identify what national climate initiatives are in place and how integrated the goal is at the local level. Through official documents from the Swedish government and the United Nations, scientific research articles, and interviews with involved actors at the local level, a detailed overview of Sweden’s work on sustainable development goal 13 was produced. The research showed that Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goal 13 are well integrated in the different levels of governance, and recent initiatives are leading Sweden in the right direction to reaching the different targets set by the goal. However, certain areas within Sweden’s climate work seem to still lack proper guidance and will require changes in the near future if more progress is to be made. Consumption-based emissions produced outside of Sweden’s borders remain high, a specific national climate scenario has not been elaborated and municipalities sometimes appear to lack the necessary resources and support to effectively plan for climate change. In addition, it became apparent that the sub targets for goal number 13 in some cases did not have clear indicators. This ultimately limited to what extent Sweden’s progress could be identified and measured with respect to these targets. / Klimatförändringen påverkar för närvarande länder runt om hela världen. Sverige står inför en ökad risk för jordskred, översvämningar och en stigande havsnivå som kommer att orsaka stora skador på infrastrukturen i framtiden. Mål 13 för hållbar utveckling siktar på att mildra konsekvenserna genom att stärka olika klimatanpassningssystem och minska människors påverkan på miljön. Det övergripande syftet med denna studie var att undersöka Sveriges engagemang för mål 13 och framstegen hittills. Dessutom skulle studien identifiera vilka nationella klimatinitiativ som fanns och hur integrerat mål 13 var på lokal nivå. Genom officiella dokument från den svenska regeringen och FN, vetenskapliga forskningsartiklar, och intervjuer med involverade aktörer på lokal nivå, producerades en detaljerad översikt av Sveriges arbete med hållbarhetsmål 13. Forskningen visade att Agenda 2030 och mål 13 är väl integrerade i de olika nivåerna. Med de initiativ som nyligen genomförts verkar Sverige vara på väg i rätt riktning för att uppnå de olika delmålen under hållbarhetsmål 13. Vissa områden inom Sveriges klimatarbete förefaller dock fortfarande sakna lämplig vägledning och kan komma att kräva förändringar inom en snar framtid om mer framsteg ska kunna uppnås. Konsumtionsbaserade utsläpp producerade utanför Sveriges gränser är fortfarande höga, ett specifikt nationellt klimatscenario har inte utarbetats och kommuner anser sig ibland sakna nödvändiga resurser och stöd för att effektivt planera för klimatförändringar. Dessutom försvårades arbetet på lokal nivå av att delmålen för mål nummer 13 i vissa fall inte hade tydliga indikatorer. Detta begränsade i slutändan i vilken utsträckning Sveriges framsteg kunde identifieras och mätas med avseende på dessa mål.

Awareness of critical public health issues stemming from historical and contemporary environmental injustice has been growing, yet institutions are still working to identify how to respond. How do we transform University Health System infrastructure, in the built environment and affiliated community assets and human capital, to center equity and the lived experience of climate injustice in urban communities? Through the application of urban bioethical principles and examination of a public state-related university and its health system in a major U.S. city, I argue that the higher education institutional climate action planning process for medical schools and their attendant university health systems, in concert with public sector actors, can be a vehicle and accelerator for achieving health equity in urban communities and suggest what exactly that could or should look like. This thesis will look at the role of university health systems in addressing climate change and mitigating its impacts. More specifically, it looks to provide context for the influence of “meds and eds” in urban communities: how their status as anchor institutions and sites of economic development implicates their responsibility to anticipate the differentiated material experience of climate change. As sites of care delivery, medical education and training, and major employers these institutions have a duty to ameliorate the associated inequitable health outcomes of climate change. I provide a model for action by all urban university health system stakeholders with recommendations to sustain equitable resilience in the face of environmental crisis. / Urban Bioethics

Das Leitbild einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung ist seit den frühen 90er Jahren zum Schlagwort für Lösungsansätze auf allen räumlichen Ebenen und für zahlreiche Institutionen und Handlungsfelder geworden. Darüber, was sich hinter dem Leitbild tatsächlich verbirgt, herrscht allerdings weder unter den Wissenschaftlern noch unter den Politikern und Vertretern gesellschaftlicher Gruppen Einigkeit. Eine genaue Operationalisierung in Politik und Planung steht noch in den Anfängen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird aufbauend auf politikwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen ein Verfahrensschema für eine schrittweise handlungsfeld- und lokalspezifische Konkretisierung von Nachhaltigkeit aufgezeigt und exemplarisch am Beispiel des Berliner Stadtverkehrs angewandt. Diesem Verfahrensschema entsprechend wird das Nachhaltigkeitskonzept zunächst auf Basis einer breiten Literaturauswertung analysiert. Dabei werden so genannte konsensuale und kontroverse Konzeptelemente unterschieden und eine eigene Position erarbeitet, die die konsensualen Konzeptelemente als obligatorisch für nachhaltige Planungsverfahren herausstellt. Im Hinblick auf die kontroversen Konzeptelemente werden begründete Prämissen darlegt. Eine wesentliche Grundlage für die Konkretisierung von Nachhaltigkeit im Verkehr und die Ableitung von Nachhaltigkeitsindikatoren für den Berliner Stadtverkehr bildet die Analyse von fünf nationalen und internationalen verkehrsbezogenen Nachhaltigkeitsstudien. Dabei wird ein weites Spektrum von Ansichten, Wissen und Erfahrungen zusammengeführt und verglichen; erfolgversprechende sowie problematische Ansätze werden aufgezeigt. Im Sinne einer "strategischen Nachhaltigkeitsplanung" erfolgt eine hierarchisierte Zielbildung mit Monitoringbausteinen. Diese wissenschaftliche Zielentwicklung (die immer auch Werturteile beinhaltet, da sie sich an den normativen Prinzipien der Nachhaltigkeit orientiert) sollte im Rahmen eines zweistufigen Prozesses einer politisch-partizipativen Zielentwicklung vorausgehen; sie liefert die erforderlichen Grundlagen für den lokalen Diskussions- und Entscheidungsprozess. Damit soll auch angedeutet werden, dass Nachhaltigkeit als ein iterativer Such- und Lernprozess zu verstehen ist. / Since the early 1990s the concept of sustainable development has been widely used in many areas and at all spatial levels. Nevertheless there is still no common understanding among scientists of what sustainable development actually means or how to define the concept and to deal with it in politics and planning. Based on findings by political scientists, the present thesis proposes a scheme for an incremental implementation of sustainable development - exemplified for urban transport in Berlin. Sustainable development is first analysed by a thorough literature survey which results in a distinction between consensual and controversial elements of the sustainability concept. The consensual elements are adopted and own views with regard to the controversial elements are specified for the following elaboration. In order to concretise sustainability in the transport area and to find indicators for sustainability in the transport sector of Berlin, five national and international studies are analysed. In terms of "strategic sustainability planning" a hierarchical definition of goals is presented with building blocks of a sustainability monitoring system. Within a participatory process on the regional level the results could be used in the Local Agenda 21 process and the on-going transport planning processes in Berlin.

Submitted by Elba Lopes (elba.lopes@fecap.br) on 2018-05-23T18:14:58Z No. of bitstreams: 2 CATARINA DE OLIVEIRA CANO.pdf: 298081 bytes, checksum: 95d335f591fe7e4831eef6f1191a5d09 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-23T18:14:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 CATARINA DE OLIVEIRA CANO.pdf: 298081 bytes, checksum: 95d335f591fe7e4831eef6f1191a5d09 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-29 / The subject of this survey is to verify whether the positive and negative news in regards of sustainability, released by Valor Economico vehicle of communication in the period of January 1st, 2010 to June 30th, 2016, had greater negative or positive impact to the companies pertaining to the ?????ndice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial (ISE)???, Business Sustaining Rate, or not belonging to the ?????ndice de Sustentabilidade (N??o ISE)??? sustaining rate (non ISE).In total, 66 companies were analyzed, taking as a basis the market model. Afterwards, the average of accumulated abnormal returns were tested to verify if it is significantly different to zero. The focal point was the event date (0,0) and, from this date on, it was evaluated the windows (-22,0), (-15,0), (-10,0),(-5,0), (-4,0), (-3,0), (-2,0), (-1,0), (0,0), (0,+1), (0,+2), (0,+3), (0,+4), (0,+5), (0,+10), (0,+15) and (0,+22). Supposing the connection between the companies members to ISE, a more expressive impact due to the own guidelines and requirements to the rate???s insertion, an event survey was made aiming to verify the presence of statistically significant abnormal returns around and in the news??? announcement date. The results of the analysis indicate the existence of an expressive negative abnormal return before the event, and non-significant abnormal return after the event and absence of abnormal returns around the event, proposing effect previous to the dated of announcement, which suggests privileged or considered information. / O objetivo do presente estudo, ?? verificar se not??cias p??blicas, positivas e negativas relacionadas ao tema sustentabilidade, divulgadas por meio de an??ncios, no per??odo de 01.01.2010 a 30.06.2016 no ve??culo de comunica????o Jornal Valor Econ??mico, apresentaram mais impacto negativo ou positivo para empresas pertencentes ao ??ndice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial (ISE) ou n??o componentes ao ??ndice de Sustentabilidade (N??o ISE). No total, 66 empresas foram analisadas, tomando como base o modelo de mercado (market model). Posteriormente, a m??dia dos retornos anormais acumulados foi testada para verificar se ?? significativamente diferente de zero. O ponto central foi o pr??prio dia do evento (0,0) e, a partir desta data, avaliou-se as janelas (-22,0), (-15,0), (-10,0),(-5,0), (-4,0), (-3,0), (-2,0), (-1,0), (0,0), (0,+1), (0,+2), (0,+3), (0,+4), (0,+5), (0,+10), (0,+15) e (0,+22). Tendo como pressuposto a liga????o existente entre empresas componentes ao ISE, um impacto mais expressivo pelas pr??prias diretrizes e requisitos para inser????o ao ??ndice, foi realizado um estudo de evento com o intuito de verificar a exist??ncia de retornos anormais estatisticamente significantes em torno e na data do an??ncio da not??cia. Os resultados da an??lise indicam a exist??ncia de um retorno anormal significativamente negativo antes do evento, um retorno anormal n??o significativo ap??s o evento e a aus??ncia de retornos anormais significativos em torno do evento, sugerindo um efeito anterior a data do an??ncio, o que pressup??e informa????o privilegiada ou cogitada.