Thesis (M.Com. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Thesis (M.Com. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

In manufacturing, cutting fluids promote machining performance by removing heat, lubricating the cutting zone, flushing away chips, and preventing in process corrosion. To synthetize conventional metalworking fluids (MWFs), aside from choosing from a selection of base oils, an array of additives are also typically added. In traditional cutting fluid applications, the cost of waste fluid treatment is enormous. Moreover, the treatment is not always effective and disposal may lead to unexpected environmental contamination. The bacteria and chemical elements in the waste liquids may also introduce health and safety concerns. For the milling process at the micro-scale, i.e., micro-milling, traditional flood cooling may not be suitable. Since the cutting zone between the tool flank and workpiece is in the order of micrometers, the liquid surface tension of flood coolant would impede effective cooling and lubrication of the cutting fluid especially at a high spindle speed for tools. So for micro-milling, some researchers have tried to use minimum quantity lubrication method to apply cutting fluids. Other semi-dry methods like atomization method based on an ultrasonic atomizer have also been tested. However, even though these systems are able to decrease the amount of cutting fluids, the atomization of conventional cutting fluids with harmful surfactants (especially water miscible MWFs) and additives inside would still pose problems related to health hazard and contamination. Thus, new systems and/or green cutting fluids that eliminate the use of undesired surfactants or additives need to be developed. In this thesis, efforts to solve these problems for micro-milling operations are presented. Firstly, canola oil is selected and used to be emulsified in distilled water through ultrasonic atomization without any surfactant. Then, the emulsified water and oil solution is applied as cutting fluid in micro-milling, and the cutting performance results are compared to those with dry machining and traditional cutting fluid – 5% TRIM aqueous solution. The experimental results show that smaller chip thickness, and burr amount are observed with canola oil-in-water emulsion compared to conventional MWF. Reduction of almost 30% in cutting forces has also been achieved. Secondly, development of a new atomization-based cutting fluid system is introduced. Both cooling and lubricating capabilities of the cutting fluids are achieved using air-mixed water and oil mists, requiring no surfactants. Experiments are then conducted to evaluate the new system and the air-mixed jet of independently atomized water and oil sprays and compared to results with water only, oil only, and conventional cutting fluid (5% TRIM) conditions. The results reveal the mixture of water and oil leads to best performance in cooling and lubrication during micro-milling. The new system is proved to be effective in cooling and lubricating the cutting zone for both Al6061 and steel 1018. This atomization system is considered as a novel application method to apply totally green cutting fluids. Finally, a novel environmentally friendly additive was added to conventional cutting fluids. In this thesis, lignin powder obtained from wood is considered as one kind of these “green” additives. It is firstly tried to be dissolved in 5% TRIM aqueous solutions in 8 different concentrations through injection and atomization methods. Then, those lignin containing cutting fluids are used to run micro-milling experiments and compared with 5% TRIM. Nine MWFs are all nebulized by a nebulizer to cool and lubricate the workpiece. The results show that the concentration of 0.015% lignin leads to the least cutting forces, tool wear and burrs. The obtained solution (f) with 0.15% lignin inside causes cutting forces that are just 50% in value of those with 5% TRIM. Considering lignin’s anti-oxidative characteristic and its performance in improving machining processes, it is a promising additive in MWFs. / Graduate / 0346 / 0548 / yanqiaoz@uvic.ca

A presente tese teve como objetivo identificar fatores que influenciam o comportamento de consumo ambientalmente mais favorável e, a partir desse processo, evidenciar subsídios às decisões de marketing social voltado para a adoção desse comportamento. Para atender a esse objetivo, buscou-se organizar o referencial teórico inicialmente com um entendimento sobre o relacionamento entre marketing societal e marketing social, passando pelas aplicações de marketing verde e de marketing de idéias. Na seqüência, esse referencial incorporou aspectos teóricos que envolvem o comportamento do consumidor, bem como estudos aplicados à verificação desse comportamento sob a ótica ambiental. A análise exploratória realizada a partir desse referencial teórico-empírico evidenciou a presença de distintas dimensões comportamentais dentro do construto do comportamento de consumo ambientalmente favorável, além das conclusões controversas envolvendo vários fatores de influência sobre essas dimensões comportamentais, o que deu encaminhamento para a realização de uma pesquisa de campo que contribuísse para a identificação dos fatores com influência comum nessas dimensões comportamentais. O modelo de pesquisa de campo foi de caráter descritivo, utilizando o método quantitativo por levantamento amostral junto a 509 consumidores responsáveis pelas compras do domicílio, com idade a partir de dezoito anos, residentes na Região do ABC Paulista. Os resultados gerados, a partir da utilização da técnica de análise multivariada denominada General Linear Models (GLM), mostraram três fatores de influência comum estatisticamente significante sobre as dimensões comportamentais ambientalmente mais favoráveis (interesse ambiental, inconveniência de ser ambientalmente amigável e grau de comprometimento ambiental), do conjunto de vinte e um fatores integrados ao modelo, além de outros seis descartados durante o processo de estruturação desse modelo. Esse resultado, acrescido de orientações provenientes da análise exploratória, sugeriu o desenho de um modelo de comportamento de consumo ambientalmente favorável, cuja aplicação poderá ser implementada em novos estudos, bem como um conjunto de subsídios às decisões do composto de marketing social voltado para a adoção do comportamento ambientalmente mais favorável. / This current work has the purpose of identifying factors that influence the most environmentally favorable consumer behavior and, from this process on, evidence support to social marketing decisions oriented to the adoption of such behavior. In order to understand such purpose, an organization of the theoretical references was sought, initially trying to understand the relationship between societal marketing and social marketing, moving on to green marketing applications and the marketing of ideas. After that, these references incorporated theoretical aspects that involve consumer behavior, as well as studies applied to the verification of such behavior under the environmental standpoint. The exploratory analysis carried out after this empirical theoretical set of references evidenced the presence of distinct behavioral dimensions inside the environmentally favorable consumer behavior. Besides that, the controversial conclusions involving several influence factors regarding these behavioral dimensions, led to the performance of a field research that contributed with the identification of factors that bear common influence in those behavioral dimensions. The adopted research model was the one of descriptive character, using the quantitative method by sampling 509 consumers responsible for their household purchases, aged over eighteen, resident in the São Paulo State ABC Region. The generated results, after the use of the multivaried analysis called General Linear Models (GLM), showed three factors of statistically significant common influence over the most environmentally favorable behavioral dimensions (environmental interest, inconvenience of being environmentally friendly and degree of environmental commitment), out of a set of twenty-one factors integrated to the model, besides six others turned down during this model structuring process. This result, added with orientations from the exploratory analysis suggested the drawing of a environmentally favorable consumer behavior model, whose application may be implemented in new studies, as well as a set of inputs to social marketing decisions made in order to adopt the environmentally favorable behavior.

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Content: Sheepskin, a by-product of the meat industry, is then often processed to leather, primarily for the clothing industry. Where the tanneries are distant from the abattoirs and freezing works, the raw skins have to be transported long distances to be processed. In warm weather, there is the potential for putrefaction of the skins which then have to be disposed of at a cost. Depilation, the first step of leather processing, is designed to remove the wool from the skin without damaging it. Conventional depilation involves the use of strong alkali and sulfides, that are harmful to both the environment and the personnel carrying out the process due to the potential production of hydrogen sulfide, a toxic, flammable gas. To solve this problem, scientists have been looking to depilate skins using enzymes as these are environmentally friendly. Various enzymes, such as collagenase, keratinase, protease and lipase have been shown to be able to remove hair from skin, but unfortunately usually damage it. Furthermore, at present, they are not cost effective at an industrial level. We have found a simple solution, a derivative of a dairy by-product, that prevents putrefaction, preserving the skin for days at room temperature. In addition, it allows easy removal of the wool from the skin. Scanning electron microscopy showed there was no obvious damage to the surface of the depilated skin and that the wool is cleanly removed from the hair follicle. To assess any less visible damage that may have occurred as a result of soaking the skin, biochemical analyses were carried out to measure the changes to the amino acid composition, collagen crosslinks and proteoglycan concentrations of the depilated skins. Sheepskin depilated with this method was processed to leather and its physical properties such as tear, and tensile strength analysed. Culture dependent methods were used to isolate the microorganisms present in the solution after depilation, showed that only four main species were consistently found in the depilation fluid and on the skins. Metagenomic analysis, confirmed these findings and was used to follow the changes in the microbiome during the course of depilation. This presentation will describe the progress that has been made to understand the science behind these observations and compare the properties of skins depilated using this method with those depilated using the traditional beamhouse process. Take-Away: We are using a natural product to depilate sheepskin. The sheepskin is also preserved while depilation. Microscopy, chemical analyses, physical tests, and metagenomics analysis were done to understand the process.

In this paper we investigated how small Swedish manufacturing companies are setting prices for environmentally friendly products. We have looked at five companies from different industries and interviewed them about what environmentally related laws and regulationsthey need to follow, what measures they take to reduce their impact on the environment, how they handle costs associated with those measures and how they finally are setting the pricesfor their products. With that approach we tried to get a more holistic view and build up anunderstanding of what strategies they use and how they think when it comes to setting prices. From the interviews it became clear what difficulties it involves in estimating costs for environmentally related measures and using those estimations to set prices for their products.The costs for the measures are instead integrated with costs for other activities the companyperforms. We could see that the companies tried to find a balance between different pricingstrategies; finding a balanced mix between focusing on their own costs, their competitors' prices and their customers' perceived value of the product. It also showed that the companies, due to their size with limited resources, were forced to take a more pragmatic approach forsetting prices. They couldn’t explain well why they had set a certain price but the price theyset worked in such a way that they could sell their products with a satisfying margin. The paper is organized in the following way. We will first in the background and problem statement go through briefly the history of environmentally related work and the developmentof international protocols, agreements and laws that drives companies to develop more environmentally friendly products and adapt their operations to a more environmentallyfriendly society with less climate impact. In that part it is also defined what an environmentally friendly product is. We then go through the details about the method used for the investigation which is a qualitative method built on induction and ideas from grounded theory (Bryman & Bell, 2017). After that relevant theories related to pricing strategies and environmental management accounting are summarized. We then go through the data collection in which chapter we summarize the transcriptions of the interviews and in the chapter after analyze it with the help of thematic analysis and compare the information we have gathered with related theory. The analysis is done using five different categories which are: norms and standards, incentives, environmentally related measures, costs and pricing. The idea behind this approach is to get a more complete picture of what the companies are doing (in terms of reducing the impact on the environment), why they do it (what the incentives are) and how they do it (how they estimate costs and setting prices). Finally we go through the conclusions we can draw from the investigation and propose further research.

The aim of my Master's thesis is to suggest suitable options that could enhance the development of tourism in the European Union with regard to their contribution to sustainable development. The basic terms and fundamental concepts related to tourism are described in the first chapter. The second chapter provides a closer look at tourism in the countries of the European Union and its institutional arrangements. Sustainable development and environmentally friendly forms of tourism are introduced in the third chapter. The following chapter talks about the EU projects related to tourism. Finally, the last chapter captures specific suggestions which, if implemented, could lead to the development of tourism.

Submerge into the world of Sustainable design with this researchproject that offers a thorough analysis of the latest techniques and examplesof environmental friendly products, learn how a decision support model isable to assist in making important design choices and discover how simple itcan be to follow a design framework to find solutions to design problems inthe most unexpected places, while at the same time creating lean “fat free”environmental products.The latest examples of environmental products include the first concept zeroemissionocean transport vessel, the Wallenius Wilhelmsen E/S Orcelle, abalanced combination of esthetics, sustainability and function in the SonyEricsson’s Green Heart packaging, and finally a great example of materialengineering Billerud’s FibreForm which is an innovative and environmentallyfriendly material that can replace plastic.Biomimicry which is a new discipline that studies “nature’s way” and thenimitates this designs and processes to solve design problems when integratedin a design framework that considers; function form and lifecycle is able toguide designers to create products that achieve environmental, social andeconomical sustainability that can raise quality of life and that enablehumanity to increase innovations without sacrificing our future.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has constantly promoted sustainable tourism development as well as played an important role since 1980; in addition, numerous standards were regulated accordingly. Under the impacts of both environment protection, energy saving and carbon reduction, the marketing strategy of numerous operators have been changes consequently. The ecological or environment lodging facilities gradually adopted by the people in this trade; nevertheless, there are still not appropriate criteria of green B&B for domestic lodge industry to carry out related strategies. One of the major aims of this study is to establish the criteria of green B&B and index of feasible implementation, and constitute index levels with fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), as the major basis of conducting survey of adoption willingness of lodge operator in implementing environment protection strategy. Next, this study intends to explore the current status of environment strategy implemented by B&B manager as well as the factors influence the adoption willingness. Third, find out any other factors and significance that could affect the adoption willingness of B&B manager to carry out strategy. Fourth, this study intends to locate the factors and significance of influencing consumer in accepting environment protection strategy (lodging willingness). There are three research targets employed by the design method of this study, namely, representative experts and scholars in the related domain, for presenting construct index and significance degree; research model establishment of B&B manager, the green B&B index are used for interview and questionnaire survey methods, so as to confirm the aim of this study; and finally the research model establishment of lodge consumer, through hierarchical regression analysis and relevant statistic analysis, to explain significant meaning and reason of variables. The research result proves that green B&B index can be simplifies into eight main dimensions and concrete strategies (management and marketing, social participation and communication, energy management, water resources management, green purchase, solid waste treatment, green restaurant and lodge activities, natural and cultural resources), for reference by verification unit. Secondly, in the research model of B&B manager, environment knowledge behavior would influence the self-efficacy, and further affect the adoption willingness. For operator, the higher the compatibility of environment strategy is, the higher of adoption willingness will be. Finally, in the research model of consumer, the higher the frequency that consumer engaged in the environment related activity, the higher the willingness of selecting green B&B will be; while environment knowledge behavior would affect the perceived caracteristics of innovation, lodge preference, and attitude of engaging in environment activity of consumer. This study defines the implication of promoting green B&B development strategy is ¡§to educate B&B managers attach more importance on environment ethics, and encourage consumer to change the attitude of recreation activity.¡¨ Furthermore, with the conception of simplified green lodge index, to direct towards tourism map planning of ecology village, apart from the unique features of ¡§green B&B¡¨ image, to minimize the impact of recreation environment. By employing innovation diffusion theory (IDT) model in the behavior prediction of environment behavior and tourism behavior strategy, the result of this study could be served as a useful reference for following researches.