The purpose of this study is to provide a content analysis of specific studies that involve sustainable information and communication technology (ICT) use in K-12 education in the U.S. The results from the content analysis were used to identify factors that may contribute to the sustainable implementation of technologies in K-12 instruction. Factors from specific studies from 2000 to 2018 that have implemented ICT in instruction for three years or more were analyzed. The findings from the analysis may be helpful in developing a conceptual framework listing possible sustainability factors for K-12 school districts using technology in instruction. The results may also be beneficial to educational policy makers, school administrators, and educational stakeholders.

Sustainability is a growing concept amongst education and throughout everyday life. This thesis takes a deeper look into what environmental sustainability indicates in terms of curriculum in co-curricular programming at the University of the Pacific and how that relates to current trends at other institutions in the tertiary sector. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the extent to which the Pacific Mountains, Ocean, Valley Experience (M.O.V.E.) impacted first-year students' awareness and understanding of sustainability. The students surveyed show strong evidence finding that first-year students who participated in M.O.V.E. (1) felt their experience provided them with new knowledge about sustainability and (2) felt comfortable defining what sustainability means to them. Definitions of economic, social, and environmental sustainability are given and provide evidence for overlapping relationships. A brief history regarding sustainability in relation to its evolution throughout higher education is reviewed. Many colleges and universities have become conscious to the ideas surrounding environmental sustainability and have made many strides on their campuses to address this issue. Sustainability education is defined and issues surrounding its new development in higher education are addressed. There are various avenues colleges and universities take in order to fulfill environmentally sustainable practices, such as building LEED certified structures o·n campus, developing programs and curriculum to educate for eco-justice, and aligning mission statements to reflect the campus's commitment to sustainable practices. A further look into what criteria are being used to rate colleges and universities regarding their commitment to sustainable practices is assessed. This paper concludes with areas needed for further research on sustainability education with respect to methods of implementation and practice in higher education.

A need to develop creative practices in child therapy, which address elements of environmental and therapeutic sustainability, is evident. Practices that are accessible, affordable, adaptable, and cross cultural offer therapeutic options that are applicable in a range of contexts. This study explored the potential for nature-based material used in therapy, to facilitate narrative identity development. The therapy process preceding the study entailed the use of an Embodiment Projective Role (EPR) ideas for narrative play therapy, incorporating nature as metaphorical material in exploring identity. As a descriptive qualitative study the collaborative narrative inquiry allowed for an account of identity development through the co creation of a significant statement of self research document. The inquiry into six children's identity documents, differing in age and gender, yielded intentional states of being as identity conclusions. Statements of what was done, statements of knowledge about self, and statements of how their identity informed decision making, were made. Identity conclusions were reached by every participant and the knowledge that was co created resulted in rich feelings across all participants. Participants acknowledged the sustainability of the therapeutic process through concrete natural reminders. When engaging in revisiting conversations with their caregivers, it was evident that each participant had experienced changes that enriched their daily life experiences following the research. The research fulfilled objectives of contributing knowledge of alternative, sustainable therapeutic resources and creates opportunities for continued research and practice in narrative nature based play therapy. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Psychology / PhD / Unrestricted

Many states within the U.S., including Florida, have seen steady population growth since the 1950s. While population growth can lead to economic growth, excessive growth of urban areas can lead to negative externalities such as road congestion, air and water pollution, decreased access to open space, habitat loss, and habitat fragmentation. This realization has led to increasing political and stakeholder pressure to more comprehensively assess impacts of land-use planning projects on human-natural systems. The Ecosystem Services Assessment (ESA) approach is a relatively new approach which is described in the peer-reviewed literature as comprehensive and holistic. This dissertation study researched the potential of an ESA approach as a planning tool in Florida by addressing the following research questions: 1) What are the guidelines for best practices in ESAs from the literature? 2) How are ESAs currently used in land-use planning projects in Florida? 3) How is the traditional approach used in land-use planning projects in Florida? 4) What are key differences between the ESA approaches used in the case studies and the guidelines for best practices in ESAs? 5) What are key differences between an ESA approach and a traditional approach as they are currently used in Florida? The research questions were investigated through the use of an online survey, in-depth interviews, and analysis of three Florida case studies. Experts in the field of ecosystem services research were interviewed to assess how ESAs are used in Florida and to gather background information for the online survey and case studies. The target group for the online survey included respondents working for local, state, regional, federal and tribal government agencies, non-profit organizations, research institutes, universities, and other relevant persons who had been involved in projects in which ecosystem services were valuated, quantified, or described. The case studies that were assessed for this research are the Central Everglades Planning Project, the Florida Conservation Lands study, and the Tampa Bay Project. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2015. / May 19, 2015. / Ecosystem Services, Integrated Systems Analysis, Natural-human Systems, Natural Resource Management, Sustainable Development, Valuation / Includes bibliographical references. / Timothy Chapin, Professor Directing Dissertation; Keith Ihlanfeldt, University Representative; Christopher Coutts, Committee Member; Jeffrey Chanton, Committee Member.

"Disenchanted" Democracy at the Crossroads of Late Modernity (Two German Concepts) Abstract The Thesis introduces two descriptions of democracy which represent recent contribution of German social science to the international academic discourse on the crisis of democratic governance in changing conditions of contemporary modernity. Specifically, these are the concepts of "simulative democracy" by Ingolfur Blühdorn and "decentered democracy" by Helmut Willke. Within the German academia, both social theorists are respected personalities; meanwhile in the Czech environment, their conceptualizations reaching beyond the normative borders of liberal democracy have not yet been reflected. The question whether liberal democracy is an adequate form of political self-organization of a society at its current stage of development is approached by each of the authors from a different analytical perspective: Blühdorn critically analyzes traditional intentions of the post-enlightenment democratization and its ambition towards the formation of emancipated and responsible citizen. He considers the evaluation of modern emancipatory processes as a necessary step before assessing prospects for an authentic and environmentally sustainable democratic order. The starting point for Willke's reflections on democratic forms of...

SAMMANFATTNING Titel: Värdesätts företags rapporterade hållbarhetsinformation mer eller mindre av investerare, efter att den blivit lagstadgad?  Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi  Författare: Eva-Maria Johansson och Ann-Louise Larsson  Handledare: Jan Svanberg  Datum: 2021 – januari  Syfte: Företags hållbarhetsredovisning och nyttan med den för investerare, har under många år varit ett aktuellt ämne inom företagsekonomisk forskning. Flertalet tidigare studier har undersökt hur företags hållbarhetsredovisning påverkar hur ett företag värderas av investerare på kapitalmarknaden. Få studier har dock gjorts på den svenska börsmarknaden, och framförallt studier som fokuserar på samtliga delar inom hållbarhetsredovisningen. Denna studie ser därför ett stort intresse i att undersöka om 2016 års lagstadgade hållbarhetsrapportering har påverkat värderelevansen för hållbarhetsprestanda för företagens marknadsvärden på den svenska börsmarknaden.  Metod: I denna studie har en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi tillämpats, med en longitudinell forskningsdesign. Sekundär data inhämtades från Thomson Reuters databas för de 61 företag på Stockholmsbörsen med ESG-betyg för åren 2014-2019. Dataanalyser genomfördes via flertalet regressionsanalyser i statistikprogrammet SPSS.  Resultat & slutsats: Resultaten visar att det finns värderelevans för hållbarhetsprestanda och att den är positivt relaterad till företagens marknadsvärden. Däremot har inga resultat kunnat påvisa att lagändringen givit effekt på hur företagens hållbarhetsrapporter värderas på aktiemarknaden.  Examensarbetets bidrag: Denna studie är relevant för både forskningen och företagen med resultat om huruvida lagstadgat hållbarhetsarbete ger ekonomiska fördelar ur ett värderings- och kapitalmarknadsperspektiv. Den är även den första i sitt slag att undersöka om den lagstadgade hållbarhetsrapporteringen 2016 har värdemässig relevans för marknadsvärdet för företag på den svenska börsmarknaden.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Eventuella skillnader i värderelevans för ESG-betygets olika dimensioner och underkategorier skulle kunna undersökas genom en uppdelning av betygets olika delar för att utröna en eventuell utjämnande effekt. Ytterligare studier skulle också kunna göras med en annan proxy för hållbarhetsprestanda som inkluderar de företag som fallit utanför denna studies urval med anledning av förekomst av ESG-betyg.  Nyckelord: Hållbarhet, hållbarhetsprestanda, ESG, ESG-betyg, värderelevans, lagstadgad hållbarhetsrapportering, hållbarhetsrapport. / ABSTRACT Title: Is a company's reported sustainability information valued higher or lower by investors, after it has become statutory?  Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration  Author: Eva-Maria Johansson and Ann-Louise Larsson  Supervisor: Jan Svanberg  Date: 2021 – January  Aim: Corporate sustainability reporting and the benefits of it for investors, has for many years been a current topic in business economics research. Several previous studies have examined how companies' sustainability reporting affects how a company is valued by investors in the capital market. However, few studies have been conducted regarding the Swedish stock market, especially studies that focus on the total spectrum of sustainability reporting. This study therefore sees great interest in examining whether the 2016 statutory sustainability reporting has affected the value relevance of sustainability performance for companies' market values in the Swedish stock market.  Method: In this study, a quantitative research strategy has been applied, with a longitudinal research design. Secondary data were obtained from Thomson Reuters' database for the 61 companies on the Stockholm Stock Exchange with ESG ratings for the years 2014-2019. Data analyzes were performed through several regression analyzes in the statistical program SPSS.  Result & Conclusions: The results show that there is value relevance for sustainability performance and that it is positively related to companies' market values. On the other hand, no results have been able to show that the law change has had an impact on how companies' sustainability reports are valued in the stock market. Contribution of the thesis: This study is relevant for both research and companies with results on whether statutory sustainability work provides economic benefits from a valuation and capital market perspective. It is also the first of its kind to examine whether the statutory sustainability reporting in 2016 has value relevance for the market value of companies on the Swedish stock market.  Suggestions for future research: Possible differences in value relevance for the different dimensions and subcategories of the ESG grade could be investigated by dividing the different parts of the grade in order to ascertain a possible leveling effect. Additional studies could also be performed with another sustainability performance proxy that includes those companies that fell out of the scope of this study due to the presence of ESG ratings.  Key words: Sustainability, sustainability performance, ESG, ESG rating, value relevance, statutory sustainability reporting, sustainability report.

In the last ten years, the fossil fuel divestment movement at higher education institutions has emerged as a key component of the global climate movement. It has also posed a challenge to the dominant paradigm of sustainability in higher education by calling on institutions to help incite outward systemic change to ensure justice for those most impacted by environmental problems, rather than simple efforts to green the campus. As the movement sees a resurgent escalation in the U.S., this study uses data from active and inactive campaigns across the country to assess the key characteristics of institutions and campaigns that have been involved. Records from an organization involved in national coordination of the movement, campaign Facebook pages, and an online survey distributed to campaigns were used to obtain data. The results provide an overview of the current state of active campaigns and divested institutions, where divestment activity occurs and at what type of institutions, the types of groups leading campaigns and their goals, how campaigns construct their arguments, and the barriers and drivers faced by campaigns. The study offers valuable insight into the nature of the movement during its first ten years with implications for both higher education institutions and activist participants. Institutions should embrace divestment as a necessary direction for sustainability in a time of societal crisis and work to break down barriers faced by campaigns that attempt to initiate this process. The movement, though robust in the Northeast and on the West Coast, may need to work to expand, particularly into areas in the South and western half of the country that have had very few campaigns. In addition, though justice has been heralded as a key tenet of the movement, campaigns were found to be limited in their conception and application of this principle by often employing it in the abstract rather than in regards to recognition of specific populations impacted by injustice or action to mitigate such injustices. This could be further developed in the movement, for example, through more focus on solidarity with frontline communities or targeting communities in need for reinvestment.

Accelerating biodiversity change is a defining characteristic of the Anthropocene, and evidence accumulated from almost 30 years of research is often invoked to suggest that these changes will have catastrophic effects on ecosystems and the services they provide to humanity. In this thesis I use theory, empirical analysis and their combination to address key remaining issues surrounding the relationship between biodiversity, ecosystem function and ecosystem services. First, while the asymptotic relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function is substantiated from experiments that randomly assemble plant communities, the response of ecosystems to directional biodiversity loss is highly variable. In the first two chapters I investigate how species level attributes (vulnerabilities, functional contributions) and community dynamics (compensation, non-random extinction) scale to affect individual and multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously. Second, a narrow set of plant-based ecosystem functions have come to dominate the field, and with few exceptions, linking these to the ecosystem services that directly affect human well-being has been challenging. Inland fisheries provide millions of people with their primary source of essential nutrients (e.g., protein, omega-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc), but are threatened by hydropower development, overfishing and climate change. The last three chapters explore how fish biodiversity both responds to these threats, influences fisheries production and affects nutritional security in the Amazon, Earth’s largest and most productive river basin. Additionally, I evaluate how alternative strategies to ameliorate fisheries declines that hinge on substituting wild fish with farmed animals can meet nutritional goals. By combining theoretical and empirical approaches and integrating concepts from ecology, fisheries, nutrition and economics, this body of work illuminates key drivers surrounding the variation observed in how ecosystems respond to biodiversity change, and the implications of these changes for the sustainability of aquatic food systems. Compensation can maintain biomass production, but incur strong changes in community composition. Differences in species vulnerabilities as well as in their functional contributions can predict the degree to which these compositional changes affect ecosystem functions. When considering critical ecosystems services, such as the contribution of inland fisheries to human nutrition, declining biodiversity always comes at the cost of increasing nutritional risk. This risk cannot be minimized by substituting wild fish with poultry or aquaculture species. Thus, investment in managing biomass production together with biodiversity, such as through protecting key habitats, maintaining riverine connectivity and enacting temporary closures, will maximize the long-term contribution of wild fisheries to human nutrition. Additionally, diversifying farmed animal production by interspersing high valued species with highly nutritious species can deliver both economic and food security benefits. More broadly, by illuminating how biodiversity contributes to the sustainability of food systems, this thesis provides new basic and applied dimensions to the field of biodiversity and ecosystem function. Further, the findings presented here demonstrate how an interdisciplinary approach can shed light on the intertwined relationships between biodiversity, ecological dynamics and Earth’s ongoing sustainability.

The purpose of this research report was to establish what the key contributing factors are towards the long-term sustainability of family owned agribusiness in South Africa. The reason this study was conducted in the agribusiness sector is that 90% of agricultural enterprises in South Africa are reportedly family-owned. Succession was chosen as a key construct, considering the fact that the ability of enterprises to have long-term sustainability is influenced by whether or not they have a plan for succession. A case study method of analysis was used to collect data, which involved interviewing four commercial farming families in the Eastern Free State. It was established from the interviews that each family had unique drivers that enabled or inhibited the succession process. A comparative analysis was conducted to analyse the key factors responsible for a smooth transition and what the barriers were. The research study was also intended to assess how succession planning within South African family-owned agribusinesses was unique. The political context in the country had a major influence on how these farming families would plan for their sustainability going forward. The papers thus examined how these reasons affected black and white commercial farmers differently. The literature that was reviewed was based on the nature of family business succession planning as well as the agriculture sector in both a global and South African context. The theory base used was that of the Conceptual Model of Satisfaction with the Succession Process Sharma et.al. (2003) supported by other theoretical frameworks. The intent was to bring about knowledge that could contribute to the study of family businesses and to find key insights that may be useful to stakeholders in the agricultural sector be it from a firm, advisory, or policy formulating perspective. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The impact of the global financial crisis, which has its origins in the United States, reverberated through the private sector and brought some country economies to their knees. This highlighted the interconnectedness of world economies. Big companies filed for bankruptcy whiles others were acquired in a bid to avoid total annihilation. Unemployment levels reached terrifying heights. While the world economy was unravelling and the legitimacy of governments was determined by their ability to alleviate the financial pressures their citizens were under; another group was feeling the pressure. However, the impact the financial crisis has had on group has not received nearly as much attention. Although the non-profit sector may not feature highly on the economic scales and matrices; it is part a part of the global economic fabric. It receives funds from governments, corporates, foundations, philanthropists and individual citizens. The size of the donations they receive correlates to the size of the disposable income of their donors. It therefore follows that when the world economy unravelled; non-profit organisations saw a marked decline in the funds received. This paper sets to establish not only how the South African non-profit sector responded to what became a funding crisis for them; but also to test their responsive strategies within the framework of the strategy process. An exploratory research method was used to investigate this problem, and the results showed on the one hand, a spirited sector that has taken the challenge on by adopting more commercial thinking to ensure their financial sustainability. On the other it was found that challenges with a key strategic partner prevailed as well as the challenge of accepting the incongruence of embracing commercial practices vis-à-vis holding deep social mission values. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / zkgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted