Green marketing is now recognised amongst academics as a reputable area of study and conventional marketing has taken a step back as green marketing comes into prominence in the fight against unsustainability. A number of organisations are using green marketing as a tool to differentiate their market offerings from those of their competitors in an effort to gain a strong position in today’s markets. These organisations are seeking to exploit consumers‟ growing environmental concerns and increasing green purchase intentions in order to acquire market share in the newly developed green consumer markets. The Generation Y cohort, born between 1986 and 2005, are the most technologically astute generation to date. When segmenting the Generation Y cohort, the black Africans hold the majority share, comprising 84 percent of the Generation Y cohort and approximately 32 percent of the entire South African population. Owing to its sheer size, the black Generation Y cohort presents as an attractive and lucrative market segment, especially those who hold a tertiary education. Individuals who pursue a higher education are linked to higher future earning potential. The primary objective of this study was to propose and empirically test a model of the antecedents of black Generation Y students‟ green purchase behaviour within the South African context. The proposed model suggests that environmental knowledge, subjective norms, and perceived behaviour control have a direct positive influence on environmental attitude, which, in turn, has a direct positive influence on green purchase intentions. Moreover, the model infers that green purchase intensions have a direct positive influence on environmental purchase behaviour, while accounting for the mediating effects of perceived price (price) and perceived quality (quality). The sampling frame for the study comprised the 25 public registered HEIs situated in South Africa. From this initial list of 25 registered institutions, a judgement sample of four institutions in the Gauteng province was chosen, of which two included country-based universities and two city-based universities. Of the four universities, two were traditional universities, one a university of technology and one comprehensive university. Lecturers at each of the four campuses were contacted and asked if they would act as gatekeepers to the student participants. A convenience sample of 500 students across these four campuses was taken in 2014. Of the questionnaires completed, 332 were usable. The statistical analysis of the collected data included exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis, structural equation modelling and independent sample t-tests. The findings of this study indicate that South African black Generation Y students are knowledgeable about the environment, consider the opinions of their peers regarding the environment, perceive their actions as having a positive effect on the environment and display strong pro-environmental attitudes towards the environment. Moreover, they display positive intentions to purchase green products and aim to behave in a pro-environmental manner. The influence of green purchase intentions on green purchase behaviour is partially mediated by the perceived price and quality of green products. This may explain the noticeable gap between environmental awareness and lack of actual green product purchases. Environmental knowledge and perceived behaviour control had a significant direct effect on black Generation Y students‟ environmental attitude, which, in turn, has a significant direct influence on black Generation Y students‟ green purchase intentions. Similarly, subjective norms and environmental knowledge had a significant direct effect on green purchase intentions. This study contributes to developing the green consumer profile of the black Generation Y consumer in South Africa. Furthermore, the study will aid in identifying the green consumer behaviour patterns amongst the South African youth. This study offers a conceptual model that illustrates the antecedents of black Generation Y students‟ green purchasing behaviour. The findings of this study will be helpful to national and international marketers seeking to profile and target the lucrative green market segment in South Africa. / PhD (Marketing Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

Exploring the impacts of green implementations in supply chain management in small medium enterprises. Purpose: To explore what impacts green investments have in supply chain management. Research questions 1: What impacts have green implementations had on supplier relationships? Research question 2: What impacts have laws and regulations had on green supply chain management?

Problem – Logistics services worldwide are not considered to be environmental sustainable because of their high emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHG) as well as its air, soil and water pollution. Since fourth party logistics providers (4PLs) manage the entire supply chain they can reduce their harmful environmental impact on a large scale through green logistics innovation., There are however difficulties for 4PLs to innovate in green logistics.  Purpose – This paper investigates how 4PLs generate and manage green logistics innovation. It also explores what drivers and barriers there are for developing green logistics innovation.  Method – This paper is based on a single case study that uses CIMO logic in the theoretical framework to thoroughly explore and clarify the area of green logistic innovation among 4PLs. Semi structured interviews and a questionnaire were constructed as the main source for gathering empirical evidence.   Results – The case company provided evidence for how 4PLs innovate by being close to their suppliers and customers and finding new opportunities for green logistics innovation. Drivers and barriers are also identified for green logistics innovation.  Conclusions – The study shows how 4PLs can manage and generate innovations as well as create their own playing field by developing competence for new areas of business, enlarging the boundaries for 4PLs to innovate in. The study also shows the importance of considering the goods as a factor in green logistics (particularly reverse logistics).

Syfte & forskningsfråga: Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att utreda och analysera hur olika faktorer kan påverka efterfrågan och försäljning av elbilen. Syftet är också att identifiera förutsättningar för elbilens framtid och betydelse inom bilsektorn. Uppsatsens forskningsfråga formulerades utifrån uppsatsens syfte och frågan är följande: Vad krävs för att elbilen ska nå ut till en bredare målgrupp i framtiden? Metod: Vår uppsats är baserad på en kvalitativ forskningsmetod för att vi ska få en djupare förståelse kring det valda forskningsområdet. Vi har strävat efter en induktiv ansats i studien men vi är medvetna om att vi har deduktiva inslag, vilket har bidragit till att uppsatsen har en abduktiv karaktär. Vi valde att ta med respondenter med olika positioner från både bilföretag, bilmagasin samt en intresseorganisation för att få en mer bredare syn på forskningsområdet. Sammanlagt har vi sju respondenter samt två fokusgrupper som har bidragit med information till det empiriska materialet i uppsatsen. Slutsatser: I vårt avslutande kapitel besvarar vi våra delsyften som vi har i studien samt vår forskningsfråga om vad som krävs för att elbilen ska nå ut till en bredare marknad i framtiden. Vi anser att elbilen har goda förutsättningar till att utvecklas ännu mer samt spridas till fler kundsegment. Vi har genom vår teoretiska och empiriska analys identifierat att statliga incitament och förmåner, en ökad medvetenhet bland kunderna samt en sänkning av priset är de främsta faktorerna som kan bidra till en utökning av elbilen på marknaden.

Green building has become a popular topic of debate and discussion among stakeholders in higher education. Public expectations for colleges and universities to invest in green building are on the rise. These expectations are fueled in large part by the growing awareness of the detrimental impact of traditional building practices among students and other stakeholders. Community college leaders find themselves on the cusp of a serendipitous convergence—evidence suggests that green building is becoming increasingly cost effective, and supports positive growth of student learning outputs on standardized tests. This research was designed to capitalize on the tremendous opportunity to probe the experiences of faculty and students in these new green facilities, towards a more robust understanding of how educators can maximize the effect of new and emerging building projects across the country. Using reflexive photography, photo elicitation, and qualitative interviews, compelling stories from teachers and learners were collected and analyzed. Research synthesis includes recommendations for communication and organizational learning strategies, an argument for using green community colleges as a testing ground for innovation, and notes on the unique needs of faculty and students in a green community college. / text

This item was digitized as part of the Million Books Project led by Carnegie Mellon University and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cornell University coordinated the participation of land-grant and agricultural libraries in providing historical agricultural information for the digitization project; the University of Arizona Libraries, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Office of Arid Lands Studies collaborated in the selection and provision of material for the digitization project.

The last decades have been characterized by urbanization due to that the cities have widened and increased remarkably in number of inhabitants. The urbanization trend has led to a high pressure on land resources in the city. Many municipalities have therefore developed urban densification as a city development strategy. However, it is not uncommon that urban densification claims the green spaces as a suitable area in exploitation purpose. The reduced urban green areas have contributed to the valuable natural and cultural values are lost. To take compensatory measures of green spaces exploitation has therefore become an increasingly important tool for the modern urban planning. Though urban green spaces have a lot of positive effects in human health and for the environment, many municipalities in Sweden still do not have a strategy of the city greenery neither a strategy of compensation measures. This paper aims to investigate and to examine the extent to which compensation measures have been taken for a sample of zoning plans in the cities Umeå, Skellefteå and Piteå. The analysis is based on municipal guide lines of land and water use as well as the zoning plans and interviews with responsible officials in each city. To answer the questions to which compensation measures are used in exploitation of urban green areas and how the urban environment in each town has changed over time a literature study was made as well as a spatial overview in GIS and presentation of relevant data. The findings in this study shows that all the investigated cities have adopted a population goal that increases pressure on new housing. Neither of the studied zoning plans has applied adequate compensation measures even though the exploitation is planned on urban green spaces. Neither do any of the municipalities have a strategic approach for urban green areas despite the national authority Boverkets (2012) recommendation for achieving a sustainable urban planning in the present and in the future.

Bakgrund: Miljöhänsyn utgör en påtaglig konkurrensfaktor hos dagens företag. Samtidigt finns barriärer mot grönare verksamheter. Miljöaktiviteter upplevs problematiska att operationalisera och att affärsmässigt motivera. Forskare har identifierat lean-modellens resurseffektivitet och operationaliseringsverktyg som en potentiell lösning. Däremot finns begränsat stöd för hur lean kan miljöanpassas i en inomorganisatorisk kontext. Således är det relevant att kartlägga hur svenska lean-företag organisatoriskt samordnar miljöaspekter och lean-aktiviteter. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att utreda hur miljöaspekter och lean-aktiviteter organisatoriskt kan samordnas för att realisera de fördelar ett integrerat arbetssätt kan medföra. Därtill ger studien konkreta rekommendationer för verksamheter liknande de studerade. Metod: Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi. Den empiriska undersökningen utgörs av en fler-fallstudie innefattande 23 intervjuer med lean- och miljörespondenter på 12 företag. Företagen har klassificerats i en kartläggande analysmodell för att ge upphov till diskussion om styrningsområdenas integreringspotential. Slutsats: Resultatet visar trots positiv teoretisk motivering samt förståelse för lean-modellens positiva miljöpåverkan att majoriteten av de studerade verksamheterna inte nått höga integreringsnivåer. Vi menar att miljöarbetet bör anpassas för att passa lean-modellens struktur. En tydligare miljömässig ansvarsfördelning, tvärfunktionellt arbete, ned-brutna miljömål, integrerad måluppföljning samt inkludering av miljö-aspekter i daglig styrningsmetodik kan medföra såväl kostnads-besparingar som stärkt miljömässig hållning. / Background: In today’s businesses the awareness is increasing on the environmental impact as a significant competitive factor. At the same time, companies face barriers developing into a greener company. The environmental activities are experienced as challenging to operationalize and commercially justify. Researchers have identified resource efficiency and the operationalizing tools of the lean model as potential solutions. However, there is limited research on how lean can be adapted to environmental aspects in an organizational context. This study is therefore essential to chart how Swedish manufacturing companies co-ordinates the lean and environmental activities organizationally. Aim: The purpose of the study is to investigate how lean and environmental activities can be coordinated organizationally to obtain the advantages of an integrated approach. This in order to present recommendations for similar companies. Methodology: The study has been conducted with a qualitative research strategy. The empirical study includes 23 interviews with lean and environmental respondents from 12 manufacturing companies in a multiple case study design. The companies have been charted in an analytical model to provide a discussion on potential integration of the management areas. Conclusion: The findings of the study indicate that the majority of the companies have not reached a high integration level despite theoretical statements and the awareness that positive effects of the lean-model can be obtained through an environmental perspective. We consider that the environmental activities should be adapted into the lean-model structure. More distinct delegation of environmental responsibilities, cross-functional teams, degraded goals, integrated measuring systems and inclusion of the environmental aspects in the daily management can result in financial savings and enhanced environmental sustainability.

This thesis applies the runoff process in ostrovská Bystřice river catchment in Ore Mountains. For this purpose we used runoff precipitation model HEC-HMS. Our specific goal is to model the soil runoff, which is observed on eleven runoff precipitation events in the period 2009 - 2013. We analyzed basic physical characteristics of soils, which occur in observed river basin. The results were afterwards used to set up parameters of studied methods. We found out, that the moisture from antecedent precipitation influences modeling of soil runoff. The antecedent precipitation conditions the change of basic physical characteristic. We disregarded the influence of evapotranspiration and effect of vegetation on soil runoff. For the parameterization we have chosen two methods, which describe soil runoff. It was SCS CN and Green Ampt methods. These two methods have been compared on sample of resulting events. The methods were manually and automatically calibrating. The results showed on the insignificant difference between both observed methods. No better significant predicative capacity was manifested for one or other methods. Key worlds: soil runoff modeling, SCS CN, Green Ampt, HEC-HMS, infiltration

This thesis deals with green public procurement as an instrument for integrating environmental considerations info public procurment. It focuses on legislative framework for public procurement in Czech republic and in the world, the assessment of environmental and economic effectiveness of green public procurement. It deals with the history of green public procurement and potential benefits of the environmental performance of public administration on the environment. The practical part is based on interviews with qualified primarily purchasing department selected organizations, which should follow the Government Resolution of 14 June 2010 Rules for application of the requirements for the award of public contracts and purchases of state and local governments, as described in the theoretical part.