Potable water is a necessity and unfortunately, it can be contaminated in many different ways. This paper specifically addresses the case scenario when, water has been contaminated by radionuclides. The mucilage of Opuntia ficus-indica (OFI), has been proven to be a great flocculating agent, turbidity reducer, crude oil dispersant and an environmentally friendly substance as an absorbent of water contaminants. In this work, the OFI mucilage was investigate to evaluate its capacity to separate radioactive ions from water. The surrogate approach is modeled based on water studies performed by Willi A. Brand, who proved that radioactive isotopes behave similar to their stable isotope, which can be easily experimented on without running the risk being exposed to radioactive harm. The surrogate model was used in conjunction with a trial and error method to determine optimum removal of Iodine and Cesium. A wide range of OFI concentrations and pH values were tested, which allowed for the determination of the optimal conditions for which cactus mucilage can remove the desired elements. The cactus mucilage is acidic by nature and experiments were performed to determine if its performance is affected by the changes in pH. This work is one of its kind in which a natural material can be used to remove potentially harmful radioactive ions from water.

he Department of Energy names executing and integrating high-performance sustainable design and green building best practices a Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan goal under the Executive Order 13514 (U.S DOE, 2009). As sustainability becomes a primary goal for engineers, a decision making framework is needed to guide their choice of materials and processes; and then to carry out the evaluation of their chosen design. Sustainable design process, and the products developed through its application, work concurrently with functionality and sustainability evaluation methodologies to cultivate a continuous loop of design, implementation, assessment and improvement. In this context, an alternative insulation prototype exploring the use of evacuated packets of pyrogenic silica substituting for conventional insulation for refrigeration applications was developed and assessed. Assessment criteria included experimental comparison of heat transfer characteristics and the energy efficiency of the new insulation as well as its life cycle as it related to environmental sustainability. Results indicate that by utilizing alternative insulation design, heat flux decreased by an average of 36%, and energy efficiency improved by 5.1% over a 24 hour period. The new insulation design also resulted in improved environmental sustainability, resulting in a savings of 0.257 metric tons of CO2e over 20 years for a single unit. Results provide an alternative insulation design for use in commercial insulation applications, and a framework by which to assess the efficiency and environmental performance of similar products.

The purpose of this qualitative macromarketing investigation is to explore the issue of the sustainability of marketing systems. Drawing on complex systems thinking, an alternative logic of marketing systems and a methodological basis for interpreting communicated meanings are developed. The alternative logic of marketing systems recognises the unity of a difference between a marketing system and its environment. This insight has become a cornerstone for synthesising the systeming methodology. Systeming comprises the philosophy, the model, and the method of interpreting communication-as-self-observation of marketing system agents. Data, communication by hybrid car manufacturers and consumers, were collected from netnographic sources such as corporate websites, reports posted online, weblogs, and consumer forums. The interpretation of these data was accomplished using systeming procedures, e.g. communication analysis, distinction identification, re-entry description, and logical level tracking. The systeming analysis of the hybrid car marketer and consumer communications illustrates that meaning-creation in the system is underpinned by purposeful human behaviour in reducing complexity of marketplace experience into a meaningful pattern, sustainability. Both manufacturers and consumers claim to become sustainable in reference to being unsustainable by creating self-referential differences, operating in different interaction contexts, and expanding meaning paradoxes. The interpretation shows that interactive meaning-creation in the system is inherently contradictory. Manufacturers expand (give a logical form to) contradictions through introducing hierarchical meaning structures, temporality, new functions, and communicative transvection. Consumers deal with the contradictions through enriching co-creation experiences and learning the proper continuation of specific hybrid car driving practices. The significant insight gained from this investigation is that the hybrid car marketing system is not a passive entity; it is the locus of purposefully expanding meanings. Two modes of sustainability with regard to the hybrid car marketing system can be distinguished: the content of communication that denotes enacted meanings of sustainability and the form of communication that indicates how sustainable these sustainability enactments are. The content/form distinction implies that the sustainability of the hybrid car marketing system is a matter of interactive meaning-creation between system agents. The sustainable development process, in at least a mobility domain, is driven by purposeful social interaction rather than static product attributes. This investigation is innovative because it a) offers a conceptualisation of a marketing system as a meaning flow; b) synthesises and compiles a methodology and method for interpreting communication in a marketing system; c) reveals systemic insights into the hybrid car marketing system; d) characterises the sustainability dimension of the hybrid car marketing system; e) explains a conceptual ground for reconciling the marketing system and society; f) provides a general macromarketing perspective to scrutinise recent conceptual developments in the marketing discipline; g) unifies marketing systems thinking with recent advancements in the marketing discipline, such as the service-dominant logic, and consumer culture theory; and, also, h) provides recommendations for a number of micro-managerial situations from a holistic perspective.

The New Zealand aquaculture industry during the late 1990s and early 2000s experienced a significant and sustained period of growth. Greenshell mussels (Perna canaliculus) are proving to be a popular and valuable cultured species, with large domestic and international markets. Traditionally, these bivalves have been farmed within enclosed embayments and on relatively small scales (~3 Ha). The recent expansion of the industry coupled with the near saturation of existing 'traditional' sites and new culture technologies has led the industry toward alternate environments, notably exposed offshore sites. Initial proposals within the Bay of Plenty have included multiple farms of ~4500 Ha each. This novel approach to shellfish culture created uncertainty with respect to potential environmental impacts, cumulative effects, and sustainable carrying capacities within these exposed open-coast locations. In zoning for Aquaculture Management Areas (AMAs), environmental managers must be informed of each of these aspects to ensure the rational and sustainable use of the coastal-marine space. The overall goal of this study is to determine the potential for environmentally sustainable large-scale offshore mussel culture within the Bay of Plenty marine environment. The long term sustainability of aquaculture development on an open coast is a function of many influences which can vary in both time and space. The benthic environments of the Bay of Plenty exhibit great variability in their ability to assimilate waste inputs from suspended mussel culture; a direct function of the variability in sedimentary environments and benthic habitats within the region. Specifically, silty sediments with low natural organic contents, generally found between 40 and 100 m depths are the most suitable locations for sustainable mussel aquaculture from an environmental impact perspective. Both observations and model predictions indicate productivity potential within the region to be greatest within neritic zones of the western Bay of Plenty. Local wind forcing is the predominant mechanism forcing local shelf currents. Current meter data and numerical modelling tests from this study indicate that local winds explain the majority of water current variability on the shelf, generate the delivery of new nutrients to the shelf through upwelling, and hence create the variability in productivity potential. Complicating the AMA zoning process for environmental managers, however, are existing uses of, and societal values toward, the coastal-marine environment. GIS planning tools have been shown to be effective at minimising conflicts and maximising sustainability potential through informed site selection. Within the Bay of Plenty, these preferential sites are located on the mid-shelf (60-80 m depths) offshore from Pukehina, Matata, and Whakatane. This study shows that the simulated cumulative lower trophic-level depletion impacts of two large (~5000 Ha) proposed offshore mussel farms vary seasonally as a result of subtle changes in ecosystem dynamics and mussel feeding patterns. At proposed stocking densities, largest relative impacts are expected during autumn and winter, when relative phytoplankton biomass is low and growth rates slow. During spring, while absolute impacts are greater than those during autumn/winter, greater phytoplankton-zooplankton biomass and faster growth rates result in quicker recovery times and reduced 'depletion halo' extents. Year-long predicted impacts are below those applied as 'acceptable limits of change', both within New Zealand and internationally, indicative of the ecological carrying capacity.

In the lead-up to the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, several documents were published by the mining industry declaring the important role that public sustainability reporting had to play in driving sustainable development and pointing to the Global Reporting Initiative???s (GRI) 2002 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines as a suitable vehicle for this. With the aim of finding ways to improve the quantity and quality of public sustainability reporting within the Australian coal mining industry, this study set out to investigate the current sustainability reporting practices of companies involved in the industry. A survey was conducted of the public financial and non-financial reporting practices of all companies with a significant interest in a New South Wales or Queensland coal mine. Three survey cycles were completed covering the 2001, 2002 and 2003 calendar years and the 2001/02, 2002/03 and 2003/04 financial years. The reporting practices were determined both in terms of frequency of report production and contents of reports. A GRI-based content analysis tool was used to measure the amount of sustainability information contained in the company reports. It was found that only around a quarter of companies produced a nonfinancial report and that almost half did not produce any public reports, with the number of unlisted companies publicly reporting particularly low. Whilst a wide range of reporting practices were observed with regard to content, the frequency of Economic, Environmental and Social Performance Indicators in reports was generally found to be low. An investigation of the regulatory reporting requirements on companies was then conducted to determine what sustainability information companies could report with data that they already had at hand. The same GRI-based content analysis tool was used to analyse a variety of regulatory documents. It was found that companies did not publicly disclose a significant amount of the environmental data that they are required to report to regulators. The study also evaluated the reporting capacity of non-reporters and found that, with the exception of Governance Structure and Management Systems elements, large unlisted companies had similar regulatory reporting requirements to listed companies. However, smaller unlisted companies had fewer requirements to report Profile and Economic elements. Finally, the influences of company ownership structure, non-financial reporting status, industrial sector, nationality and participation in voluntary initiatives on sustainability reporting practices were investigated. It was concluded that in order for public sustainability reporting to be a useful tool in driving sustainable development, focus needed to shift from ???best practice??? to ???common practice??? so that a critical mass of reporters is amassed to allow benchmarking of performance.

The use of modular construction systems for residential purposes currently represents a very small proportion of all housing construction. The focus of these systems is on niche markets typified as cheap alternatives, homeowner involvement in construction or adaptations to construction constraints (build time availability, site access, etc.). Governments, regulatory bodies and industrial members are progressively moving towards increased environmentally sustainable practice. This progression is evidenced by the development of design and construction rating tools and the introduction of statutes and regulations governing construction and design. This work investigates the improvement of residential construction practice in terms of environmental sustainability outcomes through the use of modular housing systems. Two key aspects of environmental sustainability identified are embodied energy and material waste reduction. A modular system has been investigated because methods and procedures that directly relate to these two areas are well addressed by such systems. In order to validate the potential of modular systems in this environmental regard, three main areas have been addressed. The first is the ability for modular systems to generate the type of floor plans currently offered by Australian high-volume builders. Second, the environmental improvement potential offered by modular systems is addressed. Lastly are the issues of structural performance and the means of the tailoring of prefabricated modular systems to residential construction standards. Through the treatment of these three areas, potential benefits of modular systems are identified, with future work necessary to implement such benefits highlighted. The need for such improvements is noted, and a framework for evaluating future developments in this area of research is presented.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Developing an approach that delivers improved environmental performance for metal cycles is the aim of this thesis. Integral to the sustainable use of metals is the need to reduce environmental impacts associated with the mining, refining and recycling activities that supply metal to the economy. Currently, the links between the location and duration of these activities, their resultant impacts and the responsible parties are poorly characterised. Consequently, the changes to technology infrastructure and material flow patterns that are required to achieve sustainable metal cycles remain unclear to both industry and government actors. To address this problem, a holistic two-part methodology is developed. Firstly, a reference schema is developed to address the complexity of structuring analyses of the material chain at different geographical and time scales. The schema identifies actors and system variables at each scale of analysis and guides the level of information detail and performance indicators to be used in material chain characterisation. Material chain characterisation involves modelling material and energy flows for current activities as a series of connected nodes and linking these flows to resultant environmental impacts. The approach identifies the material chain activity responsible for each environmental impact and makes trade-offs between impacts explicit. Sensitivity analysis of the models identifies the key variables that enhance performance. The influence of actors over these variables is assessed to target areas for improvement. This first part of the methodology is illustrated using case studies that assess the current performance of copper material chain configurations at different geographical scales within the reference schema. The analysis of global material and energy flows indicates that the majority of environmental burden in the copper material chain is attributable to primary refining of metal from ore. Modelling of the dominant primary refining technologies using region-specific information for ore grade, technology mix and energy mix reveals that the total environmental impact differs by factors of 2–10 between world regions. The study of refined copper imports to Europe from various regions outside of Europe reveals that lower global warming impacts are achieved at the expense of increased local impacts from the producing regions. Overall, only limited improvements are possible without investing in new technology infrastructure. Evaluation of an innovative copper refining technology finds that collaboration with clean energy suppliers reduces global warming impacts more than changing process design parameters. To better assess the local impacts that are directly controllable by the technology operator, a new indicator incorporating the stability of solid waste is developed. In the second part of the methodology, the link established between actors, their control over key system variables and resultant impacts is used to design preferred future configurations for the material chain. Dynamic models are developed to evaluate transition paths towards preferred futures for individual and collaborative action by industry in the context of externally changing variables (for example, increasing demand for copper and declining available ore grades). Both new copper technology infrastructure and new material flow patterns are assessed in transitions toward preferred futures for a case study of the United States. The improvements resulting from the introduction of new primary refining technology by individual actors are negated by increasing impacts from declining copper ore grades over time. Achieving a combined reduction in local and global environmental impacts requires collaboration between industry actors to immediately increase the recycling of secondary scrap. Significantly, this methodology links actor decisions with their impacts across scales to prompt accountability for current performance and guide useful collaborations between actors. The methodology then delivers a comprehensive assessment of the scale and timing of required interventions to achieve more sustainable metal cycles.

Business practices have and will continue to greatly influence and determine the shape and viability of the built environment. Traditional practices have continued to use non renewable and polluting resources such as fossil fuels, and these are rapidly becoming unviable and unacceptable within the built environment. As an alternative to these traditional practices, concerned building practitioners are applying best practice initiatives in the-belief that these produce sustainable outcomes. The research titled 'A study of the Lithgow New Government Office Development; Using Best Practice to Deliver Sustainable Developments' is based on the hypothesis that applying building industry's best practice initiatives can deliver sustainability within the built environment. This hypothesis assumes links between the applied practices, the outcome achieved and sustainability. This research tests this hypothesis with a single 'critical' case project; the recently constructed Lithgow Government Office Building (GOB) Development, and against a theoretical framework that defines sustainability. The GOB Development is a best practice example procured by a long lived and socially responsible organisation, government organisation - the Department of Commerce. This organisation adopted and applied new government policies along with best practice initiatives to produce a new benchmark - an award wining, trend-setting, seemingly sustainable development. The industry successes of the GOB Development made this a suitable single case study, one that was most likely to fare better than any other development procured at that time and by other means. The research conducted provides an insight and understanding into all the different factors during the procurement of the GOB project and highlights how these influenced the eventual built outcome and determined whether sustainability would be attained. This research assessment is seen as a crucial step in understanding the many limitations of best practice and thereby enabling the building industry's progression towards achieving sustainability within the built environment. The potential insight that can be gained from this research can enable the relationship between practice and theory to be better understood, and thereby provide the means to influence all future built outcomes. It is believed that such insight can encourage building practitioners and organisations to adopt and apply best practice initiatives as a means to achieve sustainability within the built environment.

This thesis develops suitable approaches to conduct environment-related research in organisations, as well as systematic means for understanding the emergent phenomenon of ecological modernisation in industrialised societies. The study is organised in two distinct parts: While Part I deals with environment-related theories and practices in (and around) modern organisations, Part II situates such theories and practices in an analysis of the context of the European automobile industry. The research problem is defined through several stages. The research questions driving Part I are premised on the exploratory nature of the study, developed in an unfolding interplay between the review of the literature, the collection of secondary and (exploratory) primary data, and the analysis and interpretation of the data. As the initial question is answered by reviewing the literature and interpreting the primary and secondary data, another question arises from the process, which then requires further research. Part II of the study departs from a proposition based on ecological modernisation theory, that pro-active environmental practices in corporations are part of a broader emergent sociological phenomenon, typical of modern industrialised societies. It analyses a specific socio-technical context that, hypothetically, is undergoing such process - that of the European automobile industry. Hence, the development of Part II aims at answering the following principal research question: Why is the European automobile industry undergoing ecological modernisation? Analytically, the concept of automobile field is proposed to establish a link between the product (automobile) and the context embedding its systems of production and consumption (field). The exploratory character of the study implied that the most adequate research procedures were of a qualitative nature. A combination of grounded theory and reflexive methodology is used to orientate the overall research process, which introduces a novel approach for the triangulation of qualitative data. Together, the chapters forming Part II of the thesis answer the principal research question. The fundamental technologies of the current technological regime of the automobile, as well as the economic and environmental implications of this regime are analysed. Then, an analysis of selected pilot programs to develop and commercialise electric vehicles, as well as schemes for the management of end-of-life vehicles in the Western European context is developed. Through the interplay between data collection and analysis, the thesis designs an analytical framework, built upon contingent factors, as well as circuits of political ecology, that foster or inhibit ecological modernisation in the automobile field. The study showed that the auto industry has developed incremental technological innovations and practices that resemble the pre-requisites for ecological modernisation. Radical innovations, however, are more likely to be initiated by outsiders. The concepts inherited from the past and reproduced in the present practice of car design explains such a situation as one that imposes a specific set of technologies on car manufacturing that require high levels of investment in systems of production. Such design paradigm not only imposes high break-even points for most car models; they also result in vehicles with extremely low environmental performance and entail serious limitations for increasing recycling rates of non-metallic parts. The characteristics of ecological modernisation in the European automobile industry are used to evaluate whether this phenomenon is conducive to sustainable industrial development. As an implication of this analysis, the concluding chapter presents suggestions for the enhancement of ecological modernisation theory. Fallibility is proposed as both a source of reflection about the appropriation of knowledge and a principle that can be used for the definition of eco-modernising strategies and actions. The acceptance of fallibility as an immanent characteristic of human action is critical for the approximation of the countervailing theories of ecological modernisation and risk society. Finally, if ecological modernisation is expected to facilitate sustainable industrial development, radical technological innovations may be necessary. Such radicalism in technology may need, however, an incremental institutional reform of modern societies. Together, radical technological innovations and incremental institutional reform constitute the concept of radical reformism, which is suggested for enhancement of the ecological modernisation theory, as well as for the development of its normative programmes.

This thesis develops suitable approaches to conduct environment-related research in organisations, as well as systematic means for understanding the emergent phenomenon of ecological modernisation in industrialised societies. The study is organised in two distinct parts: While Part I deals with environment-related theories and practices in (and around) modern organisations, Part II situates such theories and practices in an analysis of the context of the European automobile industry. The research problem is defined through several stages. The research questions driving Part I are premised on the exploratory nature of the study, developed in an unfolding interplay between the review of the literature, the collection of secondary and (exploratory) primary data, and the analysis and interpretation of the data. As the initial question is answered by reviewing the literature and interpreting the primary and secondary data, another question arises from the process, which then requires further research. Part II of the study departs from a proposition based on ecological modernisation theory, that pro-active environmental practices in corporations are part of a broader emergent sociological phenomenon, typical of modern industrialised societies. It analyses a specific socio-technical context that, hypothetically, is undergoing such process - that of the European automobile industry. Hence, the development of Part II aims at answering the following principal research question: Why is the European automobile industry undergoing ecological modernisation? Analytically, the concept of automobile field is proposed to establish a link between the product (automobile) and the context embedding its systems of production and consumption (field). The exploratory character of the study implied that the most adequate research procedures were of a qualitative nature. A combination of grounded theory and reflexive methodology is used to orientate the overall research process, which introduces a novel approach for the triangulation of qualitative data. Together, the chapters forming Part II of the thesis answer the principal research question. The fundamental technologies of the current technological regime of the automobile, as well as the economic and environmental implications of this regime are analysed. Then, an analysis of selected pilot programs to develop and commercialise electric vehicles, as well as schemes for the management of end-of-life vehicles in the Western European context is developed. Through the interplay between data collection and analysis, the thesis designs an analytical framework, built upon contingent factors, as well as circuits of political ecology, that foster or inhibit ecological modernisation in the automobile field. The study showed that the auto industry has developed incremental technological innovations and practices that resemble the pre-requisites for ecological modernisation. Radical innovations, however, are more likely to be initiated by outsiders. The concepts inherited from the past and reproduced in the present practice of car design explains such a situation as one that imposes a specific set of technologies on car manufacturing that require high levels of investment in systems of production. Such design paradigm not only imposes high break-even points for most car models; they also result in vehicles with extremely low environmental performance and entail serious limitations for increasing recycling rates of non-metallic parts. The characteristics of ecological modernisation in the European automobile industry are used to evaluate whether this phenomenon is conducive to sustainable industrial development. As an implication of this analysis, the concluding chapter presents suggestions for the enhancement of ecological modernisation theory. Fallibility is proposed as both a source of reflection about the appropriation of knowledge and a principle that can be used for the definition of eco-modernising strategies and actions. The acceptance of fallibility as an immanent characteristic of human action is critical for the approximation of the countervailing theories of ecological modernisation and risk society. Finally, if ecological modernisation is expected to facilitate sustainable industrial development, radical technological innovations may be necessary. Such radicalism in technology may need, however, an incremental institutional reform of modern societies. Together, radical technological innovations and incremental institutional reform constitute the concept of radical reformism, which is suggested for enhancement of the ecological modernisation theory, as well as for the development of its normative programmes.