Petroleum industries in the U.S. attract increased scrutiny from governmental bodies, businesses, and the civil society for their lack of sustainability practices, such as air emissions control, the use of cleaner fuels, and water pollution mitigation. Although the short-term cost of implementing these practices may be high as stated by a sample of the industry's leaders, long-term benefits include lower business costs and a reduction of the adverse impacts on society, the environment, and the economy. This multiple-case study highlighted the practices of several petroleum industry leaders who demonstrated an exception to these practices-who have been clear thought leaders in the delivery of both environmental sustainability and profitability. Data collection included in-depth interviews with 16 purposively selected petroleum business participants supplemented by a review of archival records containing annual sustainability reports. The participants were experts who practiced sustainability as part of their work-related activities. Data saturation occurred when no new data or patterns emerged. Methodological triangulation occurred as evidenced by the convergence of data from the different sources. Yin's 5-step analysis, which guided the coding process, yielded 3 main themes: environmental air quality, fuel, and water. These themes aligned with practices identified from the review of 20 archival reports across a 5-year period. Key practices identified from the archival records included flaring reduction, natural gas utilization, and water re-cycling. The implications for positive social change include the potential for the preservation of resources for present and future generations when all companies operating in the petroleum industry embrace sustainability.

This study began by questioning pedagogical approaches to sustainability and scrutinizing the paradigmatic assumptions inherent to those approaches. The following text focuses the investigation of a means through which students might be educated not about sustainability, but in sustainability. Differentiating between the two calls into question the ideological categorization – e.g., separate ecological and social perspectives – that has resulted from dominant sustainability paradigms. The essence of these paradigms discloses a common interest in the consequences of human action, a finding which suggests (a) that sustainability and sustainability education ought to be primarily concerned with considering the past and potential consequences of a specific action, and (b) that this is best accomplished by assembling the perspectives of those affected by the consequences, and those who might be able to expound upon those perspectives. Using an architectural study abroad program as point of intervention, critical communication pedagogy is considered for its potential to assemble and examine multiple perspectives and enhance the overall effectiveness of sustainability education. / text

Sustainability means providing for the necessities of today without endangering the necessities of tomorrow within the technical, environmental, economic, social/cultural, and individual contexts. The assessment tools available to study the sustainability of the built environment are limited in their approach and lacking in their content due to several reasons: (1) differences amongst the actors within the industry; (2) fragmentation as represented by lack of communication and understanding between the industry and those whom it serves; and (3) regionalism as represented by the disconnection between the construction projects and their host community systems. The narrow focus of the currently available assessment methods does not collectively address the technical, environmental, economic, social/cultural, and individual sustainability indicators as well various aspects of sustainability. To this end, this research develops three innovative system-based concepts to assess sustainability of civil infrastructure projects: (1) work, (2) nature, and (3) flow. The “work benchmark” defines the socio-behavioral relationships amongst the products and the actors of the built environment. It also attempts to delineate how the end-product is affected by how well the producers are connected to the product. The “nature benchmark” focuses on the effects of the built process on the environment through studying the interaction between the construction actors, their associated processes, and the end-products within their host systems. The “flow benchmark” identifies the overall system changes within the host systems and the effects of these changes on the natural environment and the socio-economic setting. For testing and evaluation of “nature” and “work” on five different types of civil infrastructure projects, the author utilized a three-step methodology comprising: (1) structured survey; (2) data collection; and (3) analysis. In order to avoid being unrepresentative of the industry, the author chose projects with different scopes representing a wide spectrum of construction projects. This process provided an improved understanding of the environmental, social, and economic effects of these projects from a systems perspective. For future work, the concept of “flow” will be further explored using macro-level system dynamics modeling, micro-level agent-based simulation, and multi-objective optimization to measure the overall system change.

Sustainability is becoming more of a strategic tool in many companies today and will become even more important in the future. Hemfrid is today looking at many new business areas and has realized the importance of including sustainability in its new businesses. However, the link between sustainability and business development has not been researched in a larger extent and therefore there are no good methods to use. Therefore, the aim of this report is to provide a method and tool for Hemfrid to integrate sustainability aspects into their business development processes. To fulfil this aim, an analysis of current scientific literature and models within the areas of sustainability and business development was done. Based on those models, with a foundation in the Sustainable Development Goals, a model was created. To be able to weigh different impact area against each other, an MCA was conducted. Finally, the model was assessed through external feedback and through a SWOT analysis. The model is based on 14 of the 17 SDGs with specific impact categories for all of them. A tool was created in Excel to easily assess the impact of the new business development projects. Lastly a seminar was held with Hemfrid’s management team facilitating the model. / Hållbarhet håller idag på att utvecklas från ett område som de senaste åren varit en operationellt fokuserad verksamhet till något som mer och mer närmar sig strategiarbete. Som en del av den här utvecklingen börjar många företag konstatera att integrationen av hållbarhet i deras affärsutvecklingsarbete blir en fråga som blir allt viktigare. Hemfrid har de senaste 20 åren växt fram till ett marknadsledande företag inom hushållsnära tjänster där hemstädning för privatpersoner är den dominerande tjänsten. Hemfrid har valt att fokusera på att ge sina anställda kollektivavtal och trygg anställning och fokusera på sina anställda och kunder och i dagsläget tittar man på många nya affärsutvecklingsmöjligheter för att fortsätta erbjuda sina kunder hjälp i sina hem. I och med Hemfrids fokus på hållbarhet med schyssta arbetsvillkor och miljövänliga produkter har de även insett vikten av att även på ett tidigt stadium få in hållbarhetstänk i sitt affärsutvecklingsarbete. Denna rapport syftar därför till att skapa en modell och verktyg för Hemfrid för att integrera hållbarhetsaspekter i deras affärsutvecklingsarbete. Hemfrid-modellen är framtagen med de globala hållbarhetsmålen som utgångspunkt där olika kriterier identifierades inom varje mål som Hemfrid sedan kan utvärdera sina affärsutvecklingsprojekt utifrån. En litteraturstudie är även gjord där det identifierats nio ytterligare modeller inom hållbarhet respektive affärsutveckling som på olika sätt varit användbara för att skapa kriterier och övergripande användning av Hemfrid-modellen. Varje mål är viktat utifrån Hemfrids nuvarande verksamhet och strategi för att spegla företagets hållbarhetsprioriteringar. Verktyget är framtaget i Excel, baseras på en Multikriterieanalys och ger Hemfrid ett enkelt sätt att på en 5-gradig skala, för varje mål, utvärdera om kriterierna förändras från en skala mycket sämre till mycket bättre jämfört med dagens produkter eller tjänster. Verktyget visualiserar sedan om projektet som helhet är bra eller dåligt hållbarhetsmässigt samt vilka mål man har väldigt positiv påverkan på och bör kommunicera mot sina kunder samt vilka man bör se över och förbättra. Vidare har verktyget testats på två olika affärsutvecklingsprojekt där representanter från hållbarhetsavdelningen och affärsutvecklingsenheten fått ge feedback på användning och modellen har även presenterats och diskuterats tillsammans med Hemfrids ledning för att förankra modellens användande inom bolaget. Slutligen gjordes även en SWOT-analys där modellen visade vara över lag positiv. De negativa delarna med modellen ligger i att den är en förenkling av verkligheten och inte kommer kunna ta upp alla hållbarhetsaspekter som finns samt att det i användandet av modellen finns risk att man gör subjektiva bedömningar och ger sig själv bättre poäng än vad man egentligen borde. Modellen kommer dock kraftigt förenkla integrationen av hållbarhet i affärsutvecklingsprocesserna på Hemfrid och kommer användas för att försäkra att Hemfrid fortsätter vara starka inom hållbarhet och att erbjuda sina kunder smarta lösningar.

Sustainability is an area of growing pertinence as our future and the future of our planet depends on its acceptance and application. Determining patterns in pro-sustainable attitudes and behaviors, and revealing motivations behind these behaviors have important implications for the future of sustainability education. The primary objective of this study is to discover the relationships between educational experience and sustainability attitudes and behaviors in elementary school students. A secondary objective is to determine the motivation behind pro-sustainability behaviors and to establish the role this plays in educational programs. The study utilizes mixed methodology through two modes of data collection: 1. Student surveys, and 2. Teacher questionnaires. The surveys are self-report and were analyzed quantitatively to determine patterns. Ninety seven students (63 from a school with sustainability based curriculum, Sustainability Academy at Barnes (SAB), and 34 from a general curriculum school without a specific sustainability focus, CP Smith) in grades 3-5 completed a 20 question survey which measured sustainability attitudes and behaviors. Students involved in a sustainability education program scored higher on every indicator, and highest and lowest indicators for attitude and behavior were the same for both schools, showing distinct areas of strengths and needs. The average mean scores for attitudes were higher than the average mean scores for behavior for both schools. SAB students had a significantly higher amount of correlations between attitudes and behaviors than C.P Smith students did. The questionnaires are qualitative and are structured, with open ended responses. The questionnaires were completed by the five teachers of the SAB students who completed the survey. The eighteen questionnaire questions are focused on what sustainability means to the teachers, how it is used in their curriculum, and perceived student sustainability attitudes/behavior. Social justice was the most mentioned concept relating to sustainability. Other important factors were: community, opportunity, adult role models, and socio-economic barriers to sustainable attitudes and behaviors. Students from the sustainability focused program seemingly hold both sustainability based attitudes and behaviors as a higher priority; however, the schools had the same areas of needs. Future sustainability education curriculum would benefit from focusing on transportation and alternatives to consumption. Also, attitudes towards recycling/reusing and borrowing have shown to be closely tied to attitudes in other areas of sustainability; therefore, strengthening attitudes in these areas will likely affect attitudes across sustainability. A cross curricular sustainability program with a focus on social justice issues and experiential learning, experienced with strong role models, appears to develop students with more advanced sustainability attitudes and behaviors than programs with no sustainability curriculum.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, May 2010. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 23, 2010). "Department of Political Science." Includes bibliographical references.

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This qualitative case study seeks to explore and understand how managers work with and perceive the sustainability engagement of a large multinational corporation. The analytical framework used was based on the techniques and procedures of grounded theory as described by Corbin and Strauss (2008), following the key concepts of theoretical sampling and constant comparison of findings. The findings of this study show that engaging in sustainability is a complex process where clear targets and communication is perceived to be crucial for the sustainability performance of the corporation. However, if sustainability is driven by business and becomes a natural part of the everyday work of managers it is perceived as profitability work and a ticket to play. By describing the work, stories, and perceptions of managers working in a corporation, the findings of this study can contribute to contemporary research on sustainability that is often normative in its nature, only telling corporations what to do, but not how this can be done and how it can be perceived. This study also helps inform practitioners, managers as other stakeholders, of how a sustainability engagement affects everyday work.

abstract: Many global development initiatives focus on improving access to safe and affordable water. Governments and infrastructure in rapidly urbanizing cities struggle to meet the increased demand for water, especially in peri-urban and informal settlements of sub-Saharan Africa. The private sector, in the form of small water enterprises (SWEs), plays an increasing role in satisfying demand for water, but their greater effects have seldom been investigated. This research explores how SWEs affect access to household water in a peri-urban settlement of Accra, Ghana and investigates their social, economic, and environmental impacts in the community. This research also examines how SWEs influence security and sustainability goals within the framing concepts of the US Army’s Stability doctrine and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The methods employed in this study were interviews, observation, and review of existing literature and case studies. Results of this qualitative analysis reveal that while SWEs increase and diversify local access to clean water, provide economic opportunities and jobs—especially to women—they also present environmental and health concerns when unregulated and unaddressed by educators, city officials, and community leaders. Further, in cases where municipal governments cannot provide safe and consistent access to clean water in the given location, results show that SWEs enterprises can work in cohesion with both the SDGs and the US Army stability goals. Moving forward, city officials, development programs, and US Army stability doctrine should consider supporting SWEs to increase water access and improve other developmental outcomes, while working to avoid potentially negative environmental and health outcomes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Sustainability 2019

Sustainability indicates one of the core topics among society as well as in current business life. On this account it seems highly important to elaborate further on this crucial issue. This research focuses in particular on the implications of the implementation of Corporate Sustainability on the organizational as well as the private values of the employee. To analyse this issue, both theoretical secondary literature and empirical data from expert interviews was used. The research indicated three core findings. 1.) A unified and globally accepted definition and interpretation of Corporate Sustainability seems to be missing. This led to the understanding that organizations use various different methods and tools during the implementation of Corporate Sustainability. 2.) On the basis of the first finding as well as the theoretical background and empirical input, a framework was drawn which may guide organizations during the implementation of Corporate Sustainability. 3.) On the basis of this framework and the interpretations of scholars and experts it emerged, that the key issue during the implementation of Corporate Sustainability seems to be the corporate culture and values. Therefore, it emerges, that the employee has to take a central or key role within such an attempt, as the organizational culture is defined as the sum of the individual values of the employees. In principle, as found, indicates Corporate Sustainability a rather extensive change process, which has its roots and implications on the employee and their values.