This study focuses on the viability of locating a company that manufactures high-technology products in South Africa. A small electronics manufacturing company called Nortech is used as a case study, and the results of the case study analysis provide an insight into the state of the high-tech electronics industry in South Africa. The economic models of Heckscher and others regarding factors of production, and the value-chain model of Porter as it related to the strategy of location of business activities, was used as a theoretical basis for the study. A theoretical model was constructed using these classical theories, modified to suit modern Knowledge-based economies, and this was used as a framework with which to analyse the case study. The case study of Nortech is presented by means of a discussion of the company history, mission, and vision, and an analysis of the product offering, competitive environment, and Research and Development skills. The focus throughout the analysis is on the relative advantages obtained through location, and the contribution of innovation and technical skills to the overall product. The context of the company within South Africa is discussed, with reference to the effect of national policy and infrastructure. The case study is evaluated within the framework of the theoretical model developed, and the relevance to the different product lines within the company. It was found that there were significant locational advantages related to high technical skills levels, flexible production methods and efficient value-chain structures. The sustainability thereof, in the light of decreased levels of national spending on Research and Development, and the continued loss of skills to foreign countries, remains a concern. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

This thesis is a study of change and adaptability in a social-ecological system. In order to contribute to efforts toward sustainability on the British Columbia coast, the study focuses on the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Ucluelet, BC to investigate four specific issues, including: how coastal communities experience and deal with change; how global environmental change affects coastal communities; the key factors that build or threaten social-ecological resilience in coastal communities; and how resilience and adaptive capacity can be built to adapt to change and, in turn, shape change for sustainability. The findings of this thesis have relevance for systems on the British Columbia coast and at large. Above all, the experience in Ucluelet shows that the resilience of these communities is not in their maintenance of stability, but rather in their ability to turn successive experiences of change into opportunities for new cycles of more sustainable development and renewal. / Graduate

This study develops and tests a method of intervention designed to incorporate the concept of sustainable development into management strategies for the natural tropical forest, in the particular case of forest exploitation by small-scale local sawmilling enterprises. Sustainable development is defined as a development process that satisfies jointly the goals of the biological, social and economic spheres of forest management. A review of orthodox management strategies suggested that they focus on maximizing benefits in only one or two of these spheres, and are inadequate to address the requirements of truly sustainable development. The stakeholder concept, adapted from modern corporate management theory, was identified as one model with the potential to satisfy the requirements of sustainable development. A management strategy based on stakeholder theory, termed the Integrated Management Approach (IMA), was developed for the case of locally-developed sawmilling enterprises dependent on the natural forest. The IMA is an iterative process based on the following steps: (1) the definition of criteria and the collection of information to describe the system as it was intended to operate (i.e., the Technical Limit of the operation) and as the enterprise is found at the time of initial intervention (i.e., the Benchmark Situation of the enterprise); (2) development of Negotiation Aims, based on the information collected, according to which the enterprise can progress towards the Technical Limits necessary for sustainable development; (3) identification of stakeholders and (4) their stakes in the enterprise; (5) assessment of stakeholder satisfaction, and negotiation from that basis towards the Negotiation Aims; (6) monitoring and iteration as necessary. Three East African sawmill enterprises were used as case studies to develop and test the IMA. The case studies exhibit many of the social, economic and biological conditions which have hindered successful implementation of traditional management systems to the natural tropical forest. The outcomes of the IMA process for each case study were compared in terms of the rating accorded criteria for each sphere and across spheres, and of the participation and satisfaction of stakeholders. In general, all parameters increased with successive iterations of the IMA, although a major change of attitude by one of the key stakeholders in the final iteration for one enterprise reversed many of the gains previously made, thereby demonstrating one of the limitations of the strategy. The results of this study suggest that the IMA has considerable potential to progress the objective of sustainable development for the case of local sawmilling enterprises operating under frontier conditions. They also suggest that the IMA should be applicable more generally, in facilitating sustainable development for a variety of enterprises based on natural resource use.

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.