Within the transnational legal sphere, internal and external private legal systems regulate alongside a pluralism of national and international legal systems. This thesis explores the elements of transnational private legal systems that are external to a single organization or company and whether they can elevate the higher-order principle of sustainability within the mining sector. A private legal system would broadly incorporate legal rules and obligations for corporate governance, and specifically for integrating sustainable development into the mining industry. Using the lens of reflexive law, this thesis explores five observable trends of a private legal system: interorganizational network; regulatory hybridization; private juridification; civic constitutionalism; and international judicialisation. A variety of methodological tools are used to determine if the first three trends, which are linked to the emergence of private legal obligations, exist. Through qualitative content analysis this thesis adds to the empirical literature supporting reflexive law and provides insights into the ability of private legal systems to govern resource issues. The evidence of any private juridification and civic constitutionalism occurring within the mining sector is detailed, and the consequences for the regulation and development of a sustainable mining industry that result from that juridification is discussed. / Graduate / 0616 / 0366 / 0551 / adamnott@shaw.ca

As the level of goverrument closest to the people, local authorities have been credited with a key role in action towards sustainable development (United Nations, 1992). This thesis describes research which addresses mechanisms for evaluating sustainable development practice by local govemment. A review of approaches to measuring progress, in economic, social and environmental terms, identified sustainable development indicators as an evaluation framework whose applicability to local government warrented further research. A review of research literature highlighted the need for a dynamic and cyclical research approach which would acknowledge the contested and valueladen nature of both sustainable development and the research endeavour. The fieldwork is written up in three stages. The first stage explores the scope for transferring experience from public sector quality and performance indicators work. The second stage is a thin and linear description of the process of Fife Regional Council's role as a pilot authority in a Local Government Board Sustainability Indicators project. The third stage uses the wide range of written and experiential data gathered through the role of Project Consultant/Researcher to the Fife project to present a rich description of 'Sustainability Indicators for Fife'. The dialectic and hermeneutic framework adapted for this study enabled a detailed examination of the iterative movement between the sustainable development framing of the whole report and the process of crafting individual indicators. The study concludes that sustainable development indicators have considerable value as a performance management tool for use in local government, particularly in the context of the Local Agenda 21 and Community Planning initiatives. However, it is the quality and approach to local governance that will have an overiding impact on the achievement of effective action towards sustainable development. Recommendations are made for good practice and for further research.

Civil aviation provides for large scale, rapid, safe and reliable transport over long distances. In the last half of the 20th century, the reliability of air transport has increased, safety has improved and costs have reduced: the volume of civil aviation has greatly increased and demand continues to rise. The social and economic benefits arising from aviation are substantial while its environmental costs are significant and increasing: with current technologies aviation is considered to be essentially unsustainable. Sustainable development as a concept, arose in the latter part of the 20th century. It may be regarded as a journey of changes through time, a journey navigating a wide range of changes in technology and behaviour thought to be needed to move towards a better level of sustainability. There is a need to apply the principles of sustainable development to the practice of the civil aviation industry. The research on which this thesis is based draws on sustainable development literature, general systems theory and quality principles to derive a holistic and systemic sustainable development model, and a methodology for deriving indicators of sustainable development. These are then applied to the civil aviation system, to select and construct indicators of sustainable development in civil aviation. The indicator selection process is participative, and seeks the views of stakeholders of UK civil aviation. Stakeholders are asked, via a Delphi study, to give their views on the meaning of sustainable aviation, and on the most important aspects of sustainable development in civil aviation. The research proposes a set of 29 indicators for sustainable development in civil aviation, including institutional and regulatory indicators. The research findings suggest that, amongst UK civil aviation stakeholders, there is some consensus on the important sustainability issues facing civil aviation, and on their choice of indicators. There is little understanding of the meaning of sustainable aviation, and disagreement on policies to adopt in favour of sustainable development in aviation. Amongst stakeholders from civil aviation organisations, there is strong opposition to regulatory or economic policies in favour of sustainable development. While the safety of civil aviation is institutionalised, there is evidence to suggest that opposition to other aspects of sustainable development is embedded in the regulatory and operational organisations of civil aviation in the UK.

In the last 50 years, Pacific Island Countries (PICs) have experienced unprecedented levels of urban development. During this time, the general failure of traditional industrialised planning models to be successfully adapted in PICs has resulted in the need to explore alternative models for urban settlement in the Pacific. In this way, the incorporation of tree based agricultural systems (agroforestry) into urban settlements has considerable potential to address many of the problems associated with rapid urbanisation such as food security, waste management, environmental degradation and unemployment. Research in the Pacific has already shown how urban agroforestry systems can improve food security, increase access to nutritional foods, recycle organic waste, create employment and protect fragile ecological systems. However, in Pacific towns and cities urban agroforestry systems are rarely developed beyond a homegarden setting. The growth of urban centres in the Republic of Kiribati is an example of the challenges confronting many rapidly urbanising PICs. With infertile soils, severely restricted land and water resources and an emerging economy, Kiribati is a developing nation where sustainable development faces some of its greatest challenges. Due to rapidly expanding urban populations, the Kiribati Government is currently investigating the development of future planned urban settlements. In such a scenario, potential exists to extend urban agroforestry systems beyond a homegarden setting and explore alternative models for sustainable urbanisation in the Pacific. This research uses a mixed methods case study approach to investigate the potential role of food producing urban agroforestry systems in future planned urban settlements in Kiribati. More specifically, qualitative procedures are used to explore issues surrounding the promotion and development of urban agroforestry systems in future planned urban settlements while quantitative procedures are used to analyse the nutritional contribution of these systems. Findings from this study show that although urban agroforestry is a highly sustainable land use it faces two main challenges in Kiribati: (i) people’s perception that urban agroforestry systems are a relatively low value land use and (ii) the general inability of the Kiribati Government to effectively regulate urban land uses. However, in the event that urban agroforestry systems were deliberately included at a settlement wide scale beyond a homegarden setting, this study highlights the initial importance of equally allocating productive lands to individual households. Furthermore, the results emphasise the value of simple on-site composting technologies as components of the broader urban agroforestry system. Finally, the marginal nature of the atoll environment is evident in findings on the nutritional contribution of urban agroforestry species in future planned urban settlements. In summary, while considerable constraints must be overcome to ensure the long term viability of planned urban agroforestry systems at a whole of settlement scale, it is argued that such an approach is one of the most cost effective, culturally acceptable and environmentally responsible methods for addressing a range of urban issues in the Pacific and is therefore an essential component to the design of future planned urban settlements in Kiribati.

Since the Rio de Janiero Conference held in 1992, there has been greater pressure worldwide to vigorously pursue the conception of sustainable construction for the purpose of creating a healthy built environment using resource-efficient, ecologically-based principles. / This dissertation aims to examine the impact of environmental issues on a construction firm???s strategy and action and to provide a theoretical and practical framework for the construction industry to move towards sustainability. / After reviewing the literature on sustainable construction, corporate environmentalism, stakeholder theory and environmental management systems, a theoretical framework was proposed. Relationships among stakeholder pressures, a top management commitment, the pro-activeness of an environmental strategy, a perceived environmental performance and competitive advantages were hypothesised. / A two-stage methodology was employed. The first stage involved exploratory interviews with managers of six local contractors. These interviews have provided a list of items for measuring the domain of constructs. In the second stage, the hypothesised model was empirically tested based on the findings of the questionnaire survey. / Evidently, small contractors in Hong Kong are different from large contractors in their culture and some of their practices of sustainability. Most small contractors adopt the reactor approach inasmuch as they take action only when confronted by an internal or external crisis. However, the large contractors usually adopt ???beyond compliance??? environmental policies. Their more proactive strategies are associated with a deeper and broader coverage of their stakeholders. / The data from this research further suggests that top management commitment emerges as a key variable of pro-activeness of an environmental strategy. A proactive environmental strategy influenced environmental performance and competitive advantage / To encourage contractors to continuously improve their suitability performance, there must be close co-operation among the government, clients, educational and professional institutions, contractors, subcontractors, and industry practitioners at all levels. To give contractors the opportunity of implementing sustainability, clients should give consideration to sustainability performance in tender evaluation and a sustainable certification scheme should be implemented by the government to recognise the outstanding performance of organisations. The government should rely on direct regulatory controls only if the industry becomes hazardously environmentally inefficient. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2006

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2003.

It has long been recognised that environmental matters are important to the survival of the construction industry. Yet, in general, the construction industry continues to degrade the environment, exploiting resources and generating waste, and is reluctant to change its conventional practices to incorporate environmental matters as part of the decisionmaking process. Building development involves complex decisions and the increased significance of external effects has further complicated the situation. Cost benefit analysis (CBA) is one of the conventional tools used widely by public and private sectors when appraising projects. It sets out to measure and compare the total costs and benefits of different projects that are competing for scarce resources in monetary terms. However, there are growing concerns that the values of environmental goods and services are often ignored or underestimated in the CBA approach which has led to the overuse and depletion of environmental assets. Consequently, CBA's usefulness and relevance in this respect is increasingly controversial. Project development is not just concerned with financial return, but is also conscious of the long-term impacts on living standards for both present and future generations. Sustainable development is an important issue in project decision-making and environmental effects need to be incorporated into the evaluation process. A multi- dimensional evaluation approach attracts increasing attention around the world as the way to incorporate environmental issues in the decision-making process. This approach uses the conventional market approach to monetarise economic aspects of a development, whilst using a non-monetary approach to evaluate the environmental matters. The purpose of this thesis is to critically examine the impact of construction activities on the environment and methods of quantifying environmental matters. This thesis also evaluates the principal sustainable development determinants for modelling, and evaluating long-term environmental performance of buildings during the project appraisal stage. Projects can be assessed using an index system that combines the principal determinants of sustainable development. The four criteria as identified in this research are financial return, energy consumption, external benefits and environmental impact. The derived sustainability index combines the four identified attributes into a single decision-making tool. The attributes are each expressed in units that are best suited to their quantitative assessment. The development of a sustainability index is a way of combining economic and environmental criteria into the decision-making framework. The sustainability index has also been developed into computer software called SINDEX to be used as a benchmarking tool to aid design and the sustainability assessment of projects. SINDEX is a sustainability modelling tool used to calculate and benchmark sustainable performance of proposed buildings, new and existing facilities. Conventional project appraisal techniques measure net social gain to select a project, whilst the sustainability index measures the relative ranking of projects from a sustainable development view. Buildings have a long life, so any improvement in appraisal techniques for choosing the best option amongst the alternatives will significantly reduce their future environmental impact. As such, a methodology that embraces various criteria in relation to project development is crucial in this respect. The development of a sustainability index is a way to combine multiple criteria measured using different units. Using the sustainability index will greatly assist the construction industry to realise sustainable development goals, and thereby make a positive contribution to identifying optimum design solutions.

No description available.

This research examines ways to assess the built environment (BE) for its impacts on the ecosystems and its sustainability in terms of social, economic and environmental aspects on an urban scale. The examination is based on the argument, acknowledged in the literature, that urbanisation is one of the leading causes of unsustainable development, and that the BE makes a significant contribution to this. In order to accomplish this, urban dynamics are identified and mapped with respect to the built environment, and the relationship between urbanisation, the built environment, and the ecosystem is closely examined. The thesis argues that the common denominator in all efforts to move closer to sustainability is an effective assessment method, which not only quantifies the impacts but also informs and educates. The current methods used for assessment of the impacts of BE are found to be inadequate. An appraisal of contemporary assessment methods addressing sustainability and environmental issues at micro (individual building) and macro (urban system) levels is conducted to understand the mechanics of assessment theories. Based on this, a framework for a new assessment system which has the potential to overcome some of the observed weaknesses of the existing ones is proposed. Using multi-criteria analysis principles, this system uses ecological footprint and spatial analysis as its operational engine. It is then applied to a part of the Sydney Central Business District (CBD) for an integrated sustainability assessment. The ecological footprint of the building stock, transport, roads, waste disposal and water supply is calculated as a measure of the environmental impact of the built environment. In addition to this, ???return on investment??? (rental return on construction costs) as a measure of the economic aspect, embodied energy as a measure of material consumption, and ???proximity to facilities??? as a measure of the social benefit of the building stock, are calculated to assess the study area performance on these aspects. These are used to compute an integrated sustainability index for the study area. Various attributes of the built environment, such as total constructed area, height of building, road density etc., are analysed against the ecological footprint to understand the patterns of relationships between urban morphology and the state of sustainability.

Since the Rio de Janiero Conference held in 1992, there has been greater pressure worldwide to vigorously pursue the conception of sustainable construction for the purpose of creating a healthy built environment using resource-efficient, ecologically-based principles. / This dissertation aims to examine the impact of environmental issues on a construction firm???s strategy and action and to provide a theoretical and practical framework for the construction industry to move towards sustainability. / After reviewing the literature on sustainable construction, corporate environmentalism, stakeholder theory and environmental management systems, a theoretical framework was proposed. Relationships among stakeholder pressures, a top management commitment, the pro-activeness of an environmental strategy, a perceived environmental performance and competitive advantages were hypothesised. / A two-stage methodology was employed. The first stage involved exploratory interviews with managers of six local contractors. These interviews have provided a list of items for measuring the domain of constructs. In the second stage, the hypothesised model was empirically tested based on the findings of the questionnaire survey. / Evidently, small contractors in Hong Kong are different from large contractors in their culture and some of their practices of sustainability. Most small contractors adopt the reactor approach inasmuch as they take action only when confronted by an internal or external crisis. However, the large contractors usually adopt ???beyond compliance??? environmental policies. Their more proactive strategies are associated with a deeper and broader coverage of their stakeholders. / The data from this research further suggests that top management commitment emerges as a key variable of pro-activeness of an environmental strategy. A proactive environmental strategy influenced environmental performance and competitive advantage / To encourage contractors to continuously improve their suitability performance, there must be close co-operation among the government, clients, educational and professional institutions, contractors, subcontractors, and industry practitioners at all levels. To give contractors the opportunity of implementing sustainability, clients should give consideration to sustainability performance in tender evaluation and a sustainable certification scheme should be implemented by the government to recognise the outstanding performance of organisations. The government should rely on direct regulatory controls only if the industry becomes hazardously environmentally inefficient. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2006