The purpose of this research study was to explore how the purchasing department and aforwarding company together can promote more environmental friendly supply chains. To achieve this, the three following research questions had to be answered; RQ1: How couldbetter purchasing planning contribute to more environmental friendly supply chains? RQ2:How can the relationship between the purchasing department and its forwarding companycontribute to more environmental friendly supply chains?, RQ3: How can changes intransportation modes contribute to more environmental friendly supply chains? To be able to answer these questions, a single case study was conducted at two companies which already has an established business relationship.To ensure a rich data collection a mixed method was used, where interviews provided qualitative primary data, and quantitative data collection was conducted at both companies. The data was extracted and reduced, to ensure only the relevant information was considered in the research. All data was summarized in accordance with descriptive statistics to make it more comprehensive in the report. The interviews were performed as semi-structured interviews, which where voice recorded and then transcribed to ensure a fair analysis. A summarized version of the transcript is presented in the report.The research indicated that the choice of transportation mode is crucial to ensure more environmental friendly supply chains. When considering what transportation mode to use, itis not enough to merely consider the theoretical carbon dioxide emissions associated with the mode. One also have to take the length of the route and weight of the cargo into accountwhen evaluating which transportation mode is the most environmental friendly option for each shipment.The findings also showed the importance of purchasing planning, to make sure that available containers are fully utilized and reduce the number of transportations by merging differentshipments together. Purchasing planning will also make it possible to reduce the number of air shipments, which emits large amount of carbon dioxide and is mainly used as atransportation mode when there is a high level of urgency. In addition, the research made it clear that sustainable business relationships also cancontribute to more environmental friendly supply chains. By creating long lasting relationships with one or a few forwarders, it is possible to facilitate the achievement of the sustainability objectives. To be able to create sustainable business relationships, theindividual organizations has to achieve a high level of integration between their ownfunctions.

Thesis advisor: Andrew K. Jorgenson / The United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda (2015-2030) urges nation-states to engage in concerted efforts toward building an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient future for people and the planet. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 associated targets offer a roadmap for policymakers to achieve this complex agenda. An essential component of the quest for global sustainability is to understand the synergies and potential tradeoffs between these economic, social, and environmental targets. The theoretical and empirical tools developed in the sub-discipline of environmental sociology are particularly helpful in this regard because it is dedicated to unpacking the connections among people, institutions, technologies, and ecosystems. The first portion of this dissertation considers some of the theoretical and empirical contributions of social scientists — and in particular environmental sociologists — to our understanding of sustainability. I also highlight the origins and value of the socio-ecological measure of sustainability used in this project, namely, the carbon intensity of wellbeing (CIWB). CIWB is a ratio of CO2 per capita/life expectancy. In the second portion of the dissertation, I engage development frameworks and macro-comparative sociological theories in two cross-national empirical investigations into the relationship between education and sustainability. Education is a social institution widely regarded as a useful mechanism for enhancing human wellbeing. However, much remains unknown about its relationship with global sustainability. To address this gap in our understanding, I assess the relationship between per capita rates of educational attainment and nations’ CIWB by estimating Prais-Winsten regression models using cross-national panel data from 1960 to 2010. In the first empirical investigation presented in chapter two, I hypothesize that gains in education may be associated with more sustainable societies, drawing on the ecological modernization perspective and Amartya Sen’s conceptualization of education as the expansion of human capabilities. In this analysis, I find that education played an important historical role in reducing nations’ CIWB. However, this relationship has mostly disappeared over time for nations located in most regions. Chapter three builds on the findings of chapter two by assessing how economic factors affect the interplay between education and CIWB. Two theoretical traditions concerning global integration inform this chapter: world society and world-systems perspectives. In my analyses, I find that the magnitude of the relationship between education and CIWB varies by nations’ levels of economic development. I also find that the relationship between per capita educational attainment and CIWB is moderated by national integration into the global economy, as measured by exports as a percentage of GDP. Notably, the nature of this relationship depends on nations’ level of economic development, in that further integration into the global economy enhances the beneficial relationship between education and CIWB for high-income nations. The opposite trend can be observed in the middle- and low-income nations, whereby further integration into the global economy ameliorates the predicted beneficial relationship between education and CIWB. In all, my research contributes to sociological understandings of sustainability and if — and under what conditions — population gains in educational attainment can strengthen both human and ecological wellbeing. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

There is an urgent need to reevaluate current consumption habits and design practices in the fashion industry. In an effort to design clothing that not only lasts longer but is also kept longer, timeless aesthetics are to be considered. But what is timeless and how may it be assessed in the context of the ever-changing cultural Zeitgeist? This project is based on a participatory research process in collaboration with several people aged 60 and older.  In order to propose solutions that align with the diversity of viewpoints that came up during this research, a series of events were organised that corresponded to the different approaches to sustainable practices of the participants. The project emphasises the importance of diversifying fashion experiences for a more sustainable fashion future.

My degree project is about enabling space for cultural activities in Gnosjö. As in many other smaller communities in Sweden, the urban area has a negative population development. In the general plan from 2015, the municipality defines a number of development points that will contribute to reversing the negative population development so that more people move into the municipality. This leads to a larger tax base. The municipality’s focus area is on sustainable development and attractive living environments. Today, several of the municipality’s cultural activities lack space for their activities. The project is about meeting the wishes of the population by finding a strategy to implement these activities based on the conditions that exist. The strategy has been based on the municipality’s industrial history and the possibility of using these premises for new purposes. The project looks for a possible future scenario derived from idealism.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / This paper is a research on recent studies on the importance of global supply chains from the perspective of farmers and suppliers. For the specific case of coffee in Peru, a survey model was used for assessing integration levels at the cooperatives in Quillabamba, Cusco, which revealed that the lack of alliances between first-level suppliers and farmers/cooperatives significantly affects sustainability in supply chain management. Therefore, this study proposes a strategic sourcing model where an intermediary integrates or strengthens the relationships between smallholders and improves interrelationships within the supply chain, thereby increasing productivity, yielding higher income, and improving product quality.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and explore the influence that corporate carbon disclosure has on investor decision-­‐making and associated attitudes. The researcher conducted semi-­‐structured interviews with individual investors and institutional investors and fund managers operating in the South African environment in order to gain appropriate insights about their attitudes towards the place of carbon disclosure in the investment analyses. Additionally, semi-­‐structured interviews were held with three prominent petroleum companies operating in the oil and gas industry in South Africa. The results of the research were categorised into four themes that emerged upon analysis of the research findings, namely: the evolution of commercial thinking in terms of carbon emissions and carbon disclosure; the relevance of disclosing carbon emissions and disclosure practices; the association of risk, sustainability and liquidity and investor time horizons; and the emerging market of socially-­‐responsible investors. The researcher found that there is a positive impact on investor attitudes with regard to their investment decision-­‐making as a result of the carbon disclosure of companies. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Zoos engage individuals with species and education opportunities that they may have never meet on their own; specifically, education regarding visitor’s sustainability habits. This thesis investigates the extent to which adult participants believe their sustainability behaviors, such as recycling and water usage habits, have been impacted by their childhood zoo visitation rates, and discusses the long-term impact zoos have on what has been termed “socially acceptable sustainability behavior.” A survey of 136 Southern Illinois University Carbondale students of various majors found that a majority individual does not remember learning sustainability behaviors while visiting zoos; however, participants believe that visiting zoos has impacted their overall level of environmental concern, primarily regarding animal welfare and species conservation. The initial analysis of the findings suggest that zoos need to develop new ways of engaging visitors regarding sustainability behavior and provide post-visit experiences that reinforce and extend sustainability messages and action. Further research and analysis are required to verify these claims.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability have been rising topics in the contemporary business environment over the recent years and disclosing on sustainability have become increasingly important. While some countries have legislation mandating companies to report CSR, other countries leave the decision of reporting to the companies themselves. There are numerous ways of reporting and communicating on sustainability activity and the quality of the reports can deviate heavily between companies. Theories such as stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory suggest that entities reporting comprehensive responsibility information can achieve better financial results than their non-reporting peers. There has been a myriad of studies conducted on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance. Despite the great number of research, there have been only a few studies that have investigated the true effect of CSR disclosure. The best way for a company to communicate their sustainable agenda is to disclose it for their stakeholders. Therefore, we took it upon ourselves to fill this research gap by investigating if level of CSR disclosure has a substantial impact on corporate financial performance. We approach CSR reporting from a stakeholder perspective, which to our knowledge have not been done before.  This study examines 189 Finnish companies that are selected from a list of the 500 largest companies in Finland. These companies are divided into the subgroups GRI, CSR, and non-CSR, depending on their level of CSR disclosure. The financial information used in this study are comprised from the time period 2015-2019 and gathered from the database Orbis by Bureu van Dijk. This study investigates if there exists a relationship between level of sustainability reporting and the financial performance ratios ROA, ROE, Sales growth, and Profit margin. We find that there exists a strong positive relationship between the subgroup GRI and ROA and ROE, which implies that companies see a clear financial benefit from providing comprehensive CSR reports. Contrary, we find an increasingly negative relationship with sales growth as level of reporting increases, which suggest that CSR implementations stagnates growth. Profit margin showed a neutral behavior across all three groups. Overall, we conclude that there exists a relationship between the level of CSR reporting and financial performance, but that the results are mixed.

Worldwide, recognition of the growing risk faced by communities in many countries from natural hazard events has stimulated interest in promoting people's capacity to co-exist with often beneficial, but occasionally hazardous, natural processes by encouraging the adoption of preparedness measures. Starting from recognition that levels of hazard preparedness are generally low, this paper examines how people's decisions about hazard mitigation derive from how they interpret the hazards, their relationship with the hazards and the sources of information about hazards. It describes how interpretive processes at the person (outcome expectancy), community (community participation and collective efficacy) and societal (empowerment and trust) level interact to predict levels of hazard preparedness. The data support the argument that the effectiveness of public hazard education strategies community preparedness can be increased by integrating risk management activities with community development strategies. The cross-cultural validity of the model is discussed using data from communities in New Zealand, Indonesia and Japan. Testing the model across countries and hazards (e.g. earthquakes, volcanic hazards) supports its all-hazards and cross-cultural applicability. The theoretical (e.g. identifying the degree to which the processes that underpin how people respond to hazard threats are culturally equivalent) and practical (e.g. providing a common basis for collaborative learning and research between countries and providing risk management agencies in different cultures with access to a wider range of risk management options) implications of the cross-cultural equivalence of the model are discussed.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is subject to challenges that undermine this process as an effective safeguard to biodiversity. Internationally, effective EIA is hindered by the following issues: a low priority assigned to the consideration of biodiversity and a limited capacity to carry out assessments; a lack of formalised procedures and inconsistent methodologies to address biodiversity within the EIA framework; and a lack of formal requirements for post-project monitoring of biodiversity aspects. Traditionally effectiveness studies in this regard have focused on evaluating the procedural aspects of EIA, and have focused less on the substantive outcomes of the post-authorisation phase of a proposed project. While South Africa has a considerable body of literature pertaining to the procedural aspects of EIA, there remain two substantial gaps in the literature. Firstly, there is an evident absence of effectiveness studies in South Africa that focus primarily on biodiversity-specific procedure. Secondly, almost no research has been conducted in South Africa which investigates the outcomes of mitigation measures, mandatory monitoring, reporting and compliance with biodiversity aspects of EIA. This research therefore aims to fill these gaps by investigating the quality of information generated in five EIAs in the Western Cape. It also examines the implementation success of mitigation measures aimed at managing unavoidable impacts in the post-authorisation phase of these projects. This research has adopted a case study methodological approach. Five EIAs were selected from a sample of 9. In no order of significance, the variables considered most important in the sampling protocol were: the presence of a biodiversity-related specialist report; availability of environmental assessment documentation; overall cases to represent at least two different local jurisdictions; and the uniqueness of adopted biodiversity-related mitigation measures. The primary method used to evaluate the quality of biodiversity-related information is a Key Performance Indicator analysis, whereby the performance of cases is measured against legal and best-practice reporting principles. The substantive outcomes of EIA have been investigated by means of site inspections and interviews with key stakeholders. This research has found that the five cases performed well with complying with best-practice EIA procedure, indicating a 53% full compliance, 29% partial compliance and 18% of best-practice principles were not complied with at all. This research has shown that direct impacts on biodiversity (such as the physical removal of indigenous vegetation) are adequately identified, and indirect impacts (typically those impacting off-site and on ecological processes) are poorly identified in EIA. Therefore, the information required to avoid impacts on biodiversity is available, but this research has found that it is underutilized in this regard. Notably, avoidance of impacts was undermined inadequate site and layout alternatives and poor decision making in terms of the regular authorisation of irreversible impacts on biodiversity. Conversely, only 18% of mitigation measures were fully complied with, 36% were partially complied with, and 45% of mitigation measures were not complied with. These results indicate a poor performance of EIA in the implementation stage of a project lifecycle. This research has concluded this is most likely due to a poor conversion of recommended mitigation measures into conditions of authorisation and a limited capacity of the competent authority to perform compliance monitoring.