This thesis examines the sustainability of fifteenth-century manuscripts. It analyses the durability of manuscripts, and the ways in which people recycled and reused their books. During the long fifteenth-century (here, 1375-1530), book production in England flourished, driven by increased demand for books. Yet while the fast-developing commercial book trade produced new books in great quantity, significantly, older books were also sustained, recycled and reused. Although there is awareness within medieval scholarship of recycled manuscript components, such as flyleaves, no sustained study has yet been undertaken into recycled and reused materials in fifteenth-century manuscripts, or into book production's practices and processes of reuse. In addition, previous book history studies of recycling have focused on the book material reuse that followed the Dissolution. By contrast, this study offers a broader exploration of sustainable practices in fifteenth-century manuscript culture, as well as in-depth analysis of manuscript examples, to argue that book producers made and reused books in sustainable ways. The introduction outlines key concepts and relevant scholarship, such as studies that follow the material turn, and ecocriticism. The four chapters that follow address sustainability from different angles, focusing primarily on the evidence both in and written on books themselves. Chapter 1 explores the craftsmanship of parchment- making through contemporary recipes and physical evidence in manuscripts. Chapter 2 presents case studies of parchment reused sustainably in books, as off-cuts, quire guards, flyleaves, pastedowns, limp covers, and palimpsests. Chapter 3 surveys spaces reclaimed in books for opportunistic mark-making, in the form of doodles, jottings, and short verses. Chapter 4 presents three surveys of second-hand books and the inscriptions written onto their leaves. A conclusion draws together the findings. This thesis augments and nuances current scholarship by arguing that fifteenth-century reuse and recycling of book materials were customary aspects of book production and symptomatic of more widespread sustainability in manuscript culture.

Many higher education institutions (HEIs) have started to incorporate sustainable development (SD) into their system. A variety of sustainability assessment tools (SATs) have been developed to support HEIs to systematically measure, audit, benchmark, and communicate SD efforts. In recent years, stakeholders have increasingly asked HEIs to demonstrate their impacts on SD. These impacts are the direct and indirect effects an HEI has outside of its organizational boundaries on society, the natural environment, and the economy. This study analyzes to what extent SATs are capable of measuring the impacts that HEIs have on SD. A mixed-method approach, using descriptive statistics and an inductive content analysis, was used to examine 1134 indicators for sustainability assessment derived from 19 SATs explicitly designed for application by HEIs. The findings reveal that SATs largely neglect the impacts HEIs have outside their organizational boundaries. SATs primarily use proxy indicators based on internally available data to assess impacts and thus tend to focus on themes concerning the natural environment and the contribution to the local economy. Updating existing SATs and developing new ones may enable HEIs to fully realize their potential to contribute to SD.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-06-11Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:42:01Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 frigo_ms_dr_botfca.pdf: 918232 bytes, checksum: 5a31eb1dab6ae0414c4294ca6e5b0941 (MD5) / O conhecimento da produção e dispêndio de energia pela agricultura é fundamental devido à importância estratégica que ocupa como produtora de insumos energéticos para outros setores econômicos, como é o caso do biodiesel produzido a partir de culturas oleaginosas; desta forma o presente estudo teve como objetivo determinar os custos parciais da implantação e condução do agroecossistema milho em consórcio com pinhãomanso, sob três diferentes sistemas de condução (sequeiro, irrigado e fertirrigado com água residuária da suinocultura) do ponto de vista energético e econômico, em experimento conduzido de acordo com o sistema produtivo da agricultura familiar da região oeste do Paraná. Tal estudo se justifica devido à escassez de dados tanto energéticos como econômicos da cultura do pinhão-manso em condições brasileiras, bem como em sistema consorciado sob condições tecnológicas da agricultura familiar do oeste paranaense e, sobretudo das questões ambientais envolvidas neste estudo como o reuso de águas e o uso racional de fontes energéticas não-renováveis. O experimento foi conduzido de acordo com as técnicas empregadas por agricultores familiares da região oeste paranaense, no período de fevereiro de 2008 a maio de 2008 para a cultura do milho e de fevereiro de 2008 a novembro de 2009, para a cultura do pinhão-manso, no Núcleo Experimental de Engenharia Agrícola (NEEA), pertencente à Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná (UNIOESTE), campus de Cascavel/PR... / Knowledge of production and energy expenditure in agriculture is crucial due to strategic importance which occupies as a producer of energy inputs to other economic sectors, such as biodiesel produced from oilseed crops, so this study aimed to determine partial costs of deployment and conduct of corn intercropping agroecosystem with physic nut, under three different management systems (rainfed, irrigated and fertirrigated with wastewater from pig farming) in terms of energy and economic experiment carried out in accordance with the productive system of family farming in the west of Paraná. Such a study is justified due to the shortage of both energy and economic data of the culture of physic nut under Brazilian conditions, as well as in intercropping system under technological conditions of the family farm west of Paraná, and especially environmental issues involved in this study as the reuse of water and the rational use of nonrenewable energy sources. The experiment was conducted in accordance with the techniques employed by farmers in the region, from February 2008 to May 2008 for corn and from February 2008 to November 2009 for the cultivation of physic nut in Experimental Center of Agricultural Engineering (NEEA), belonging to the State University of West Paraná (UNIOESTE), campus of Cascavel/PR, in the area of no-tillage. The itinerary for all technical training systems consisted of: the site preparation (application of desiccant), mechanized planting of corn, corn plant by hand, production of seedlings of physic nut, coveamento and transplant seedlings of physic nut, mowing manual, manual application of insecticide and harvesting of maize, differing only by irrigation and fertirrigation. The final product was assessed only corn. The technical coefficients, the workload, performance, identification of the tractor... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:33:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-11-23Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:23:44Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 bertazzo_cj_dr_prud.pdf: 2608317 bytes, checksum: 533d208d2fd421b0b79ead5a0fcd05d8 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Esta tese tem como objetivo principal desvelar o estado de arte da agricultura ecológica e da agricultura orgânica na região do COREDE Vale do Caí, no estado do Rio Grande do Sul e demonstrar suas viabilidades socioambiental e econômica. E, também, compreender os processos de transição ecológica vividos, analisar e mesurar as produções e, por fim, identificar as inserções de mercados para a produção orgânica regional. O desenvolvimento das agriculturas ecológicas na região teve seu início através da preocupação dos agricultores com o uso de agroquímicos e foi fomentada pelo debate com agrônomos ecologistas que trouxeram as fundamentações científicas para formação dos agricultores familiares que se interessaram por uma alternativa agrícola fora dos padrões da Revolução Verde. O campo mais fértil onde estas idéias se transformaram em ações foi em núcleos de citricultores descendentes... / This dissertation aim as its main goal to unveiling the state of art in ecological agriculture and organic agriculture in the COREDE Vale do Caí, in Rio Grande do Sul State and demonstrate their feasibility and socio-economic. As well as, understand the process of ecological transition experienced. In addition to this, this study seeks to analyze and measure the production and identify the room available in the market for the regional organic farming. Ecological agriculture in the region was developed by farmers due to their concern about agrochemical use and it was fed through debates with ecological agronomists who brought in the community the scientific foundations for the family farming people interested... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-11-10T11:09:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2013-07-02Bitstream added on 2014-11-10T11:58:08Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000725576.pdf: 94510524 bytes, checksum: f7026081aae852aea8e74664ef591e10 (MD5) / A utilização de cinzas vegetais em esmaltes cerâmicos vem de tempos remotos. Com origem no Oriente, a técnica vem sendo utilizada na contemporaneidade por vários ceramistas no Brasil e se destaca no auxílio ao desenvolvimento sustentável, pois trabalha com a reutilização de materiais. Através do fogo, folhas secas, podas de grama e resíduos de material orgânico podem ser transformados em cinzas e utilizados na composição desses esmaltes. Essa pesquisa vem dar continuidade ao estudo relacionado à utilização de cinzas vegetais na composição de esmaltes cerâmicos, investigando em especial as cinzas do bagaço da cana provenientes de uma usina, realizando queimas em diferentes argilas e fornos, além de um resgate histórico de produção de cerâmica dos países do Oriente (China, Coréia e Japão), onde a técnica teve início e se desenvolveu, chegando aos ceramistas que utilizam essa técnica de esmaltação no Brasil. / The use of plant ashes in ceramic glazes comes from ancient time. Originated in the East, this technique has been used by several contemporary ceramists in Brazil and stands out as an aid to sustainable development, as it works with reuse of materials. Throught the fire, dry leaves, grass cuttings and waste organic material can be turned into ashes and used in the composition of these glazes. This research aims to continue the study related to the use of plant ashes in the composition of ceramic glazes, investigating in particular the ash from the sugarcane bagasse. Also, aims to research the possibilities of glazing through trials with sugarcane bagasse ashes from a power plant in different clays and firing kilns, as well as a the historical production of ceramics in Eastern coutries (China, Korea and Japan), where the technique was initiated and developed, until the potters that use this unameling technique in Brazil.

Despite looming ecological disaster, a persistent state of insufficient action seems commonplace amongst most organizations. This thesis critically explores how this impasse is constituted by discursive struggles surrounding the global ecological crisis. These struggles are situated within the context of global environmental governance – a power arena that has, over the past 25 years, become a defining battleground regarding environmental sustainability. Here, discourses of the ecological crisis are constituted by political contests amongst, most notably, multinational corporations, civil society organizations, and (trans)national policy actors. This thesis draws mainly from post-structural discourse theory, coupled with critical perspectives on organizations and the natural environment, to explore both the discursive practices that fix meanings surrounding the global ecological crisis, and the power effects thereof. The primary source of data is text – this study is explicitly interested in how discourses of the global ecological crisis evolve as the natural environment is (mis)represented in organizational disclosures. Despite recognition by management and organization scholars that the natural environment is indeed constructed, a functional separation between business and nature persists, the relationship of which is mostly examined from a firm-centric perspective. However, sustainability issues such as climate change transcend the confines of firm activity and operate across spatial and temporal dimensions. Hence, there is an urgent need to reconsider the business-nature dualism. To do so, this study adopts a multi-level, multi-method approach that permits a necessary degree of analytical and theoretical flexibility. The four individual articles that encompass this work, whilst drawing from different theoretical approaches, along with focusing on different levels of analysis, are underpinned by the contentious intersection between discourse, organizations and the natural environment. The first article concerns ‘macro talk’ and, operating on the field level, explores how a dominant understanding of business’ role in sustainable development is constituted during the UN Earth Summits in 1992, 2002, and 2012. The second article regards ‘corporate talk’ and, this time on an organizational level, examines how tensions between economic growth and environmental protection are avoided by the European oil and gas supermajors—BP, Shell and Total—through the practice of mythmaking. The third article takes a longitudinal approach and, also concerning ‘corporate talk’, examines how BP rearticulated a hegemonic discourse of fossil fuels, which, when enacted, reproduces corporate inaction on climate change. Finally, the fourth article emphasizes ‘resistance talk’, focusing on how climate activists, as part of the global fossil fuel divestment movement, engage in certain micro-level practices as they attempt to stigmatize the fossil fuel industry. In all, the findings from these articles suggest that organizations both represent nature as something to be conquered, dominated, and valued economically and as a pristine wilderness to be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations. In pursuing these two extremes concurrently, organizations self-perpetuate a social-symbolic deadlock that hinders finding sustainable ways for human systems to coexist with natural systems. This thesis contributes mainly to literature on organizations and the natural environment by illustrating how certain practices, mechanisms, and processes continuously redefine the business-nature relationship by facilitating a discursive struggle across multiple spatial and temporal dimensions. In doing so, there are implications both for policy and business organizations, which are discussed in the concluding chapter of this work.

abstract: Social-ecological systems (SES) are replete with hard and soft human-made components (or infrastructures) that are consciously-designed to perform specific functions valued by humans. How these infrastructures mediate human-environment interactions is thus a key determinant of many sustainability problems in present-day SES. This dissertation examines the question of how some of the designed aspects of physical and social infrastructures influence the robustness of SES under global change. Due to the fragility of rural livelihood systems, locally-managed common-pool resource systems that depend on infrastructure, such as irrigated agriculture and community forestry, are of particular importance to address this sustainability question. This dissertation presents three studies that explored the robustness of communal irrigation and forestry systems to economic or environmental shocks. The first study examined how the design of irrigation infrastructure affects the robustness of system performance to an economic shock. Using a stylized dynamic model of an irrigation system as a testing ground, this study shows that changes in infrastructure design can induce fundamental changes in qualitative system behavior (i.e., regime shifts) as well as altered robustness characteristics. The second study explored how connectedness among social units (a kind of social infrastructure) influenced the post-failure transformations of large-N forest commons under economic globalization. Using inferential statistics, the second study argues that some attributes of the social connectedness that helped system robustness in the past made the system more vulnerable to undesirable transformations in the current era. The third study explored the question of how to guide adaptive management of SES for more robustness under uncertainty. This study used an existing laboratory behavioral experiment in which human-subjects tackle a decision problem on collective management of an irrigation system under environmental uncertainty. The contents of group communication and the decisions of individuals were analyzed to understand how configurations of learning-by-doing and other adaptability-related conditions may be causally linked to robustness under environmental uncertainty. The results show that robust systems are characterized by two conditions: active learning-by-doing through outer-loop processes, i.e., frequent updating of shared assumptions or goals that underlie specific group strategies, and frequent monitoring and reflection of past outcomes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2015

abstract: Phosphorus (P) is an essential resource for global food security, but global supplies are limited and demand is growing. Demand reductions are critical for achieving P sustainability, but recovery and re-use is also required. Wastewater treatment plants and livestock manures receive considerable attention for their P content, but municipal organic waste is another important source of P to address. Previous research identified the importance of diverting this waste stream from landfills for recovering P, but little has been done to identify the collection and processing mechanisms required, or address the existing economic barriers. In my research, I conducted a current state assessment of organic waste management by creating case studies in Phoenix, Arizona and New Delhi, India, and surveyed biomass energy facilities throughout the United States. With participation from waste management professionals I also envisioned an organic waste management system that contributes to sustainable P while improving environmental, social, and economic outcomes. The results of my research indicated a number of important leverage points, including landfill fees, diversion mandates for organic waste, and renewable energy credits. Source separation of organic waste improves the range of uses, decreases processing costs, and facilitates P recovery, while creating jobs and contributing to a circular economy. Food is a significant component of the waste stream, and edible food is best diverted to food banks, while scraps are best given to livestock. Biomass energy systems produce multiple revenue streams, have high processing capacities, and concentrate P and other minerals to a greater extent than composting. Using recovered P in urban agriculture and native landscaping results in additional benefits to social-ecological systems by improving food security, reducing the urban heat island effect, sequestering carbon, and enhancing urban ecosystems. / Dissertation/Thesis / Biomass Energy Facility Spreadsheet / Anaerobic Digester Facility Spreadsheet / Raw Data from Biomass Survey / Individual Responses from Biomass Survey / Raw notes from India case studies / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2016

abstract: The aboveground surfaces of plants (i.e. the phyllosphere) comprise the largest biological interface on Earth (over 108 km2). The phyllosphere is a diverse microbial environment where bacterial inhabitants have been shown to sequester and degrade airborne pollutants (i.e. phylloremediation). However, phyllosphere dynamics are not well understood in urban environments, and this environment has never been studied in the City of Phoenix, which maintains roughly 92,000 city trees. The phyllosphere will grow if the City of Phoenix is able to achieve its goal of 25% canopy coverage by 2030, but this begs the question: How and where should the urban canopy expand? I addressed this question from a phyllosphere perspective by sampling city trees of two species, Ulmus parvifolia (Chinese Elm) and Dalbergia sissoo (Indian Rosewood) in parks and on roadsides. I identified characteristics of the bacterial community structure and interpreted the ecosystem service potential of trees in these two settings. I used culture-independent methods to compare the abundance of each unique bacterial lineage (i.e. ontological taxonomic units or OTUs) on the leaves of park trees versus on roadside tree leaves. I found numerous bacteria (81 OTUs) that were significantly more abundant on park trees than on roadside trees. Many of these OTUs are ubiquitous to bacterial phyllosphere communities, are known to promote the health of the host tree, or have been shown to degrade airborne pollutants. Roadside trees had fewer bacteria (10 OTUs) that were significantly more abundant when compared to park trees, but several have been linked to the remediation of petroleum combustion by-products. These findings, that were not available prior to this study, may inform the City of Phoenix as it is designing its future urban forests. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Sustainability 2016

Orientador: José Alcides Gobbo Junior / Banca: Daniel Jugend / Banca: Luis Carlos Paschoarelli / Resumo: O aspecto social é possivelmente o menos desenvolvido dos três pilares da sustentabilidade. Pesquisas realizadas anteriormente priorizam os assuntos ambientais e econômicos. O interesse ao desenvolvimento de embalagens tem aumentado recentemente, com vários programas e iniciativas que instigam o aprimoramento da sustentabilidade das embalagens. O desenvolvimento de embalagem sustentável deveria considerar indicadores e critérios de embalagens considerando o ciclo de vida do produto e da embalagem. Poucos trabalhos, no entanto, discutem a questão de embalagens e sustentabilidade considerando o ponto de vista da cadeia de suprimentos, mas as decisões tomadas no início do ciclo-de-vida da embalagem e do produto afetam diretamente a sustentabilidade e seu impacto sobre desempenho e custos na cadeia de suprimentos pode ser devastador. Nesse contexto, essa pesquisa busca contribuir com o entendimento dos aspectos de sustentabilidade social em embalagens. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é propor uma ferramenta para análise da sustentabilidade social em embalagens, com base na relação entre 20 critérios de embalagens e 3 princípios de sustentabilidade social (justiça, igualdade/equidade e transparência) considerados no design/desenvolvimento de embalagens. A ferramenta proposta é um questionário, que foi respondido por associados da Associação Brasileira de Embalagens, com o intuito de exemplificar a aplicação da ferramenta. Os resultados foram analisados e apresentados em gráfic... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The social aspect is possibly the least developed of the three pillars of sustainability. Previous research prioritizes environmental and economic issues. The interest in packaging development has increased recently, with several programs and initiatives that instigate the improvement of packaging sustainability. The development of sustainable packaging should consider indicators and packaging criteria considering the product's and packaging's life cycle. Few papers, however, discuss packaging and sustainability from a supply chain perspective, but decisions taken early in the packaging and product life cycle affect directly sustainability and its impact on performance and costs in the supply chain can be devastating. In this context, this research seeks to contribute to the understanding of social sustainability aspects in packaging. The main objective of this work is to propose a tool for the analysis of social sustainability in packaging, based on the relationship between 20 packaging criteria and 3 principles of social sustainability (fairness, equality/equity and transparency) on packaging design / development. The proposed tool is a questionnaire, which was answered by members of the Brazilian Association of Packaging, with the purpose of exemplifying the application of the tool. The results were analyzed and presented in radar type charts, which allow a better visualization of the issues addressed in each principle. However, due to the diversity of issues and scope of the theme, most of the packages analyzed should have, possibly, elements of social sustainability. However, a socially sustainable package should consider, in design and development processes, a fair distribution of resources in society, equality of established rights and access to information and opportunity for participation. In addition, as society is "inserted" in the environment, the discussion of environmental sustainability / Mestre