With our country's unsustainable building practices in the residential sector, there is a need to explore new types of housing to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of current building customs. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in tiny homes characterized as livable dwelling units typically under 400 square feet. However, there is a gap in scholarly knowledge that formally examines how the environmental impact and behaviors of tiny home occupants change after downsizing from a larger home. The purpose of this study was to provide measurable evidence to explore the relationship between downsizing to a tiny home and the corresponding environmental impact. This study, which employed an exploratory sequential mixed design approach, was conducted to measure the ecological footprints of tiny home downsizers. Eighty individuals who have lived in their tiny homes for at least a year volunteered to take an online survey used to calculate their ecological footprints in prior larger homes and current tiny homes. Following the survey, nine interviews were conducted to create an inventory of noteworthy behaviors in each participant's lifestyles that potentially influence ecological footprint changes. Data collected from the survey and interviews were analyzed separately and then comparatively to explore relationships between tiny home living and environmental impacts. This study found that among 80 tiny home downsizers located across the United States, the average ecological footprint was 3.9 global hectares (gha). This footprint was substantially less than the average previous ecological footprint of 7.0 gha and the national average of 8.4 gha. All five footprint components were positively influenced, showing that downsizing can influence many parts of one's lifestyle. Over 100 behaviors were identified that could contribute to ecological footprint changes. The overall insights derived from this study indicate that positive environmental impact behaviors outweigh negative ones by approximately six to one when downsizing to a tiny home. In addition, 100% of participants demonstrated an overall positive ecological footprint. The findings and conclusions of this study provide important insights for the sustainable housing industry that can inform policy and practice, with implications for future research in the sustainable residential field. / Doctor of Philosophy / With our country’s unsustainable building practices in the residential sector, there is a need to explore new types of housing to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of current building customs. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in tiny homes characterized as livable dwelling units typically under 400 square feet. However, there is a gap in knowledge to understand how the environmental impact and behaviors of tiny home occupants change after downsizing from a larger home. The purpose of this study was to see whether there is a relationship between downsizing to a tiny home and a changing environmental impact. This study measured the ecological footprints of tiny home downsizers. Eighty individuals who have lived in their tiny homes for at least a year volunteered to take an online survey used to calculate their ecological footprints in prior larger homes and current tiny homes. Following the survey, nine interviews were conducted to identify noteworthy behaviors in each participant’s lifestyles that potentially influence ecological footprint changes. Findings were analyzed and compared to explore relationships between tiny home living and environmental impacts. This study found that among 80 tiny home downsizers located across the United States, the average ecological footprint was 3.9 global hectares (gha). This footprint was substantially less than the average previous ecological footprint of 7.0 gha and the national average of 8.4 gha. All five footprint components were positively influenced, showing that downsizing can influence many parts of one’s lifestyle. Over 100 behaviors were identified that could contribute to ecological footprint changes. This study indicates that positive environmental impact behaviors outweigh negative ones by approximately six to one when downsizing to a tiny home. In addition, 100% of participants demonstrated an overall positive ecological footprint. The findings and conclusions of this study provide important insights for the sustainable housing industry that can inform policy and practice, with implications for future research in the sustainable residential field.

Sensors in smart-item environments capture data about product conditions and usage to support business decisions as well as production automation processes. A challenging issue in this application area is the restricted quality of sensor SAP HANA is a pioneering, and one of the best performing, data platform designed from the grounds up to heavily exploit modern hardware capabilities, including SIMD, and large memory and CPU footprints. As a comprehensive data management solution, SAP HANA supports the complete data life cycle encompassing modeling, provisioning, and consumption. This extended abstract outlines the vision and planned next step of the SAP HANA evolution growing from a core data platform into an innovative enterprise application platform as the foundation for current as well as novel business applications in both on-premise and on-demand scenarios. We argue that only a holistic system design rigorously applying co-design at different levels may yield a highly optimized and sustainable platform for modern enterprise applications.

More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and this figure is expected to increase. The worldwide trend is in the direction of urbanization. Building sustainable cities is one of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) initiated by United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. In the anthropocene of human induced climate change, what makes a city sustainable? This paper takes Beijing as the case study, uses building smart infrastructures and lowering ecological footprints as the main thread, uses a mixed research method of questionnaires, interviews and site survey, and discusses four aspects -- transportation, waste management, green spaces and energy saving buildings -- from employees’ perspectives of how to a build a sustainable city. This paper also discusses the relations between smart infrastructure and the resilience of a city, and relations between lowering ecological footprints and a green city, and draws a conclusion that a resilient and green city is a sustainable city. We can build a sustainable Beijing only through vigorously developed public transportation, well managed waste, the development of diversified green spaces, and buildings that efficiently use natural resources as energy supplies.

There are many opportunities for consumers to design their lives more sustainably. While a rapidly growing body of literature has investigated how consumers can reduce carbon footprints in key con- sumption areas, such as food, housing and mobility, an overall framework that allows structuring those options across all consumption areas is still missing. Hence, this paper presents a novel and systematic framework to identify improvement options that promote climate change mitigation and structure them based on their primary mode of impact on GHG emissions. The framework targets consumer practices and focuses on ambitious, but technically and socioeconomically feasible strategies for consumers to lower their carbon footprint. Four major categories for reducing consumption-based emissions form the basic framework, which are then subdivided into behavioural strategies and sub-strategies. The practical application of the framework is illustrated by using food consumption as an example. Systematically identifying improvement options can advance a holistic understanding of the range of behavioural strategies targeting consumer choices that operate at different stages in the supply chain. It thus provides a starting point for addressing critical questions related to the role of consumers in supporting climate change mitigation. (authors' abstract)

This research explores perceptions of the context, contribution, challenges and critical success factors in the adoption of sustainability footprint strategy amongst Scottish SMEs. Critics of sustainability footprint measurement insist that by nature it records historical impact and does not incorporate the views of future generations and are a luxury for most firms except those achieving near monopolistic profits. Recent UK greenhouse gas policy initiatives are specifically targeted at large organisations and do not provide the institutional support required to assist SME's in greenhouse gas emissions reporting. Despite overwhelming evidence as to the benefits of sustainability footprint tools such as carbon footprints very few companies set emissions targets. Surprisingly still there is limited research conducted as to the benefits of sustainability footprint tools to SMEs and their perceptions as to its contribution to business success. Interviewees highlight that case study Scottish SMEs are driven to implement sustainability footprints to pre-empt future GHG legislation, process improvement, cost reduction, senior management commitment, emissions reduction, CSR and waste reduction. However the emphasis on GHG emissions has contributed to “carbon myopia” an exclusive focus on carbon footprint measurement. This research supports the view of senior management commitment as critical to the success of sustainability footprint measurement initiatives but policymakers also have an enabling role by ensuring fair competition, access to grants, mandatory guidelines for SMEs, tax incentives, fines, legislation, emissions league table and carbon reporting as a pre-qualification criteria for government tenders. Scottish SME interviewees adopt a sustainability negative perceptual orientation suggesting barriers to placing sustainability on the agenda such as implementation cost, lack of knowledge, sustainability competing with other issues on the agenda, time constraints, the transience of sustainability, inability to recoup carbon footprint costs, failure to recognise benefits, generational issues and communication Scottish SME case studies however reveal an ambivalent “love hate” relationship amongst interviewees with sustainability which varies depending on the proximity of the individual to the economic, social or environmental issue. Thereby underlining the importance of management's ability to influence stakeholders to remain sustainability positive in orientation through training, instruction and supervision that promotes sustainable behaviour. The Sustainable Strategic Growth Framework is proposed as a solution to the Sustainability/CSR Dilemma and to align employee behaviour with sustainability objectives.

An increasing demand for food, and in particular animal products, is putting high pressure on natural resources, often at places distant from the consumption. Nitrogen and phosphorus are essential nutrients in food production but an excessive use can cause environmental impacts such as eutrophication that can harm ecosystems services vital to local communities. This study developed sub-national spatially explicit N and P footprints that were extended with an assessment of nutrient leaching risk and risk of impact on biodiversity. The consumption of N and P in Brazilian soybean production at municipal level was estimated for the whole of Brazil as well as for UK soybean demand. This was then combined with the risk of nutrient leaching (Nrisk and Prisk) and species richness (Nbio and Pbio). The results showed high Nbio and Pbio in Mato Grosso, Paraná, and Rio Grande do Sul. The same analysis of the effects of UK soybean demand showed a higher risk of impacts in Rondônia and less in Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul compared to total Brazilian soybean production. A municipal case study showed that the demand of Brazilian soybean in the UK, EU, and China generated different spatial patterns of impact risks at municipal level. Spatially explicit footprints that also encompass risks of impacts are important for being able to identify the responsible consumer and parts of the supply chain where sustainability interventions will be most effective. There are several opportunities for future development within this research field as data availability is continuingly increasing.

Resumo: A bacia do Rio Capivara, composta por um mosaico de ambientes com diferentes formações de vegetação natural (floresta estacional semidecidual, cerrado e matas ciliares), encontra-se bastante fragmentada em função das perturbações provocadas pelo homem, com a predominância de pastagens, plantações de cana-de-açúcar e laranja, além de reflorestamentos de eucalipto. Inserida nesta bacia está a Fazenda Experimental Edgardia, pertencente à Universidade Estadual Paulista, Campus de Botucatu. Esta área apresenta como principais classes de uso e ocupação do solo pastagem, plantio de arroz em área de várzea e fragmentos de vegetação natural (floresta estacional semidecidual e cerradão). O presente estudo teve como objetivos determinar a riqueza, ocorrência, freqüência de ocorrência e abundância relativa de espécies de mamíferos de médio e grande porte e sua relação com o mosaico vegetacional. Foi realizado levantamento buscando-se registros indiretos como vestígios (pegadas e fezes) em trilhas, ao longo de um ano. Foram também utilizadas duas armadilhas fotográficas (câmaras com infravermelho) a fim de complementar a identificação das espécies. Os dados da ocorrência de carnívoros foram georreferenciados e inseridos em um sistema de informação geográfica de modo a cruzar a distribuição espacial das espécies com a cobertura vegetal. De março de 2004 a março de 2005 foram percorridos 242,01 km e registradas por meio dos dois métodos de amostragem 20 espécies de mamíferos silvestres de médio e grande porte. No ambiente de floresta/cultura de arroz (Estrada da bica) foram registradas 11 espécies, na cultura de arroz (Estrada da várzea) nove, na floresta/várzea (Monte redondo) nove, na várzea/pastagem com regeneração de vegetação natural (Capivara) oito, na transição de floresta/cerradão (Trilha barra longa) oito, na floresta (Castanheira)... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The Capivara River basin, formed by a habitat mosaic with different natural vegetation formation (seasonal semideciduous forest remnants and riparian forests) is very fragmented due to disturbances caused by humans, mainly pastures, sugarcane and orange plantations and eucalyptus forests. Along this basin is the "Edgardia" Experimental Farm, which belongs to the Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Campus of Botucatu. The area uses are mainly pastures, rice plantations in varzea areas and natural vegetation fragments (native semi deciduous forest remant and tropical Brazilian savannah). This study aimed at to determine the richness, occurrence frequency and relative abundance of medium- and large-sized mammalian species and their relation to the vegetation mosaic. Data were collected from indirect records (footprints and feces) in trails during one year long. Two photographic traps (with infrared cameras) were also used to complement species identification. Data from occurrence of carnivores were georeferrenced and input in a geographical information system in order to cross species spatial distribution to vegetation covering. From March 2004 to March 2005, 242.01 km were tracked and recorded through two sampling methods for 20 native medium and large-sized mammalian species. 11 species were recorded in the forest/rice plantation environment (Estrada da Bica), 9 species in the rice plantation (Estrada da varzea), 9 in the forest/varzea (Monte Redondo), 8 in the varzea/pasture with natural vegetation regeneration (Capivara), 8 in the transition area of forest/savanna (Trilha Barra Longa), 7 in the forest (Castanheira), 5 in the transition area of forest/savanna (Carmelucho), 5 in forest/pasture (Fundo da Bica), and 4 in the forest/pasture (Trilha do IB). Expected total richness values by Mao Tau were close... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Orientador: Vera Lex Engel / Coorientador: Renata Cristina Batista Fonseca / Banca: Kléber Pereira Lanças / Banca: Jorge Jim / Banca: Laura Cullen Júnior / Mestre

Global multiregional input-output databases (GMRIOs) became the standard tool for track ing environmental impacts through global supply chains. To date, several GMRIOs are available, but the numerical results differ. This paper considers how GMRIOs can be made more robust and authoritative. We show that GMRIOs need detail in environmentally relevant sectors. On the basis of a review of earlier work, we conclude that the highest uncertainty in footprint analyses is caused by the environmental data used in a GMRIO, followed by the size of country measured in gross domestic product (GDP) as fraction of the global total, the structure of the national table, and only at the end the structure of trade. We suggest the following to enhance robustness of results. In the short term, we recommend using the Single country National Accounts Consistent footprint approach, that uses official data for extensions and the national table for the country in question, combined with embodiments in imports calculated using a GMRIO. In a time period of 2 to 3 years, we propose work on harmonized environmental data for water, carbon, materials, and land, and use the aggregated Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Inter-Country Input-Output GMRIO as default in combination with detailing procedures developed in, for example, the EXIOBASE and Eora projects. In the long term, solutions should be coordinated by the international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) Statistical Division, OECD, and Eurostat. This could ensure that when input-output tables and trade data of individual countries are combined, that the global totals are consistent and that bilateral trade asymmetries are resolved.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-05-14Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:40:15Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 alves_tr_me_botfca.pdf: 2252091 bytes, checksum: d9c8e4f2ad055e63eb92098f0837d11c (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A bacia do Rio Capivara, composta por um mosaico de ambientes com diferentes formações de vegetação natural (floresta estacional semidecidual, cerrado e matas ciliares), encontra-se bastante fragmentada em função das perturbações provocadas pelo homem, com a predominância de pastagens, plantações de cana-de-açúcar e laranja, além de reflorestamentos de eucalipto. Inserida nesta bacia está a Fazenda Experimental Edgardia, pertencente à Universidade Estadual Paulista, Campus de Botucatu. Esta área apresenta como principais classes de uso e ocupação do solo pastagem, plantio de arroz em área de várzea e fragmentos de vegetação natural (floresta estacional semidecidual e cerradão). O presente estudo teve como objetivos determinar a riqueza, ocorrência, freqüência de ocorrência e abundância relativa de espécies de mamíferos de médio e grande porte e sua relação com o mosaico vegetacional. Foi realizado levantamento buscando-se registros indiretos como vestígios (pegadas e fezes) em trilhas, ao longo de um ano. Foram também utilizadas duas armadilhas fotográficas (câmaras com infravermelho) a fim de complementar a identificação das espécies. Os dados da ocorrência de carnívoros foram georreferenciados e inseridos em um sistema de informação geográfica de modo a cruzar a distribuição espacial das espécies com a cobertura vegetal. De março de 2004 a março de 2005 foram percorridos 242,01 km e registradas por meio dos dois métodos de amostragem 20 espécies de mamíferos silvestres de médio e grande porte. No ambiente de floresta/cultura de arroz (Estrada da bica) foram registradas 11 espécies, na cultura de arroz (Estrada da várzea) nove, na floresta/várzea (Monte redondo) nove, na várzea/pastagem com regeneração de vegetação natural (Capivara) oito, na transição de floresta/cerradão (Trilha barra longa) oito, na floresta (Castanheira)... / The Capivara River basin, formed by a habitat mosaic with different natural vegetation formation (seasonal semideciduous forest remnants and riparian forests) is very fragmented due to disturbances caused by humans, mainly pastures, sugarcane and orange plantations and eucalyptus forests. Along this basin is the “Edgardia” Experimental Farm, which belongs to the Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Campus of Botucatu. The area uses are mainly pastures, rice plantations in varzea areas and natural vegetation fragments (native semi deciduous forest remant and tropical Brazilian savannah). This study aimed at to determine the richness, occurrence frequency and relative abundance of medium- and large-sized mammalian species and their relation to the vegetation mosaic. Data were collected from indirect records (footprints and feces) in trails during one year long. Two photographic traps (with infrared cameras) were also used to complement species identification. Data from occurrence of carnivores were georeferrenced and input in a geographical information system in order to cross species spatial distribution to vegetation covering. From March 2004 to March 2005, 242.01 km were tracked and recorded through two sampling methods for 20 native medium and large-sized mammalian species. 11 species were recorded in the forest/rice plantation environment (Estrada da Bica), 9 species in the rice plantation (Estrada da varzea), 9 in the forest/varzea (Monte Redondo), 8 in the varzea/pasture with natural vegetation regeneration (Capivara), 8 in the transition area of forest/savanna (Trilha Barra Longa), 7 in the forest (Castanheira), 5 in the transition area of forest/savanna (Carmelucho), 5 in forest/pasture (Fundo da Bica), and 4 in the forest/pasture (Trilha do IB). Expected total richness values by Mao Tau were close... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Environmentally extended multiregional input-output (EE MRIO) tables have emerged as a key framework to provide a comprehensive description of the global economy and analyze its effects on the environment. Of the available EE MRIO databases, EXIOBASE stands out as a database compatible with the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) with a high sectorial detail matched with multiple social and environmental satellite accounts. In this paper, we present the latest developments realized with EXIOBASE 3-a time series of EE MRIO tables ranging from 1995 to 2011 for 44 countries (28 EU member plus 16 major economies) and five rest of the world regions. EXIOBASE 3 builds upon the previous versions of EXIOBASE by using rectangular supply-use tables (SUTs) in a 163 industry by 200 products classification as the main building locks. In order to capture structural changes, economic developments, as reported by national statistical agencies, were imposed on the available, disaggregated SUTs from EXIOBASE 2. These initial estimates were further refined by incorporating detailed data on energy, agricultural production, resource extraction, and bilateral trade. EXIOBASE 3 inherits the high level of environmental stressor detail from its precursor, with further improvement in the level of detail for resource xtraction. To account for the expansion of the European Union (EU), EXIOBASE 3 was developed with the full EU28 country set (including the new member state Croatia). EXIOBASE 3 provides a unique tool for analyzing the dynamics of environmental pressures of economic activities over time.