abstract: Restaurants have a cumulative impact on the environment, economy, and society. The majority of restaurants are small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). Review of sustainability and industry literature revealed that considering restaurants as businesses with sustainable development options is the most appropriate way to evaluate their sustainable practices or lack thereof. Sustainable development is the means by which a company progresses towards achieving an identified set of sustainability goals and harnesses competitive advantage. The purpose of this thesis is to identify barriers to implementing sustainable practices in restaurants, and explore ways that restaurateurs can incorporate sustainable business practices. Energy consumption, water use, waste production, and food throughput are the four sustainability indicators addressed in this thesis. Interviews were conducted with five Tempe, Arizona restaurants, two of which consider their operations to be sustainable, and three of which are traditional restaurants. Results show that for traditional restaurants, the primary barriers to implementing sustainable business practices are cost, lack of awareness, and space. For sustainability-marketed restaurants, the barriers included a lack of knowledge or legal concerns. The sustainability-marketed restaurants have energy-efficient equipment and locally source a majority of their food purchases. There is a marked difference between the two types of restaurants in perception of barriers to sustainable business practices. I created a matrix to identify whether each indicator metric was applicable and present at a particular restaurant, and the potential barriers to implementing sustainable practices in each of the four indicator areas. Restaurants can use the assessment matrix to compare their current practices with sustainable practices and find ways to implement new or enhance existing sustainable practices. Identifying the barriers from within restaurants increases our understanding of the reasons why sustainable practices are not automatically adopted by SMEs. The assessment matrix can help restaurants overcome barriers to achieving sustainability by highlighting how to incorporate sustainable business practices. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Sustainability 2011

abstract: Economic development over the last century has driven a tripling of the world's population, a twenty-fold increase in fossil fuel consumption, and a tripling of traditional biomass consumption. The associated broad income and wealth inequities are retaining over 2 billion people in poverty. Adding to this, fossil fuel combustion is impacting the environment across spatial and temporal scales and the cost of energy is outpacing all other variable costs for most industries. With 60% of world energy delivered in 2008 consumed by the commercial and industrial sector, the fragmented and disparate energy-related decision making within organizations are largely responsible for the inefficient and impacting use of energy resources. The global transition towards sustainable development will require the collective efforts of national, regional, and local governments, institutions, the private sector, and a well-informed public. The leadership role in this transition could be provided by private and public sector organizations, by way of sustainability-oriented organizations, cultures, and infrastructure. The diversity in literature exemplifies the developing nature of sustainability science, with most sustainability assessment approaches and frameworks lacking transformational characteristics, tending to focus on analytical methods. In general, some shortfalls in sustainability assessment processes include lack of: * thorough stakeholder participation in systems and stakeholder mapping, * participatory envisioning of future sustainable states, * normative aggregation of results to provide an overall measure of sustainability, and * influence within strategic decision-making processes. Specific to energy sustainability assessments, while some authors aggregate results to provide overall sustainability scores, assessments have focused solely on energy supply scenarios, while including the deficits discussed above. This paper presents a framework for supporting organizational transition processes towards sustainable energy systems, using systems and stakeholder mapping, participatory envisioning, and sustainability assessment to prepare the development of transition strategies towards realizing long-term energy sustainability. The energy system at Arizona State University's Tempe campus (ASU) in 2008 was used as a baseline to evaluate the sustainability of the current system. From interviews and participatory workshops, energy system stakeholders provided information to map the current system and measure its performance. Utilizing operationalized principles of energy sustainability, stakeholders envisioned a future sustainable state of the energy system, and then developed strategies to begin transition of the current system to its potential future sustainable state. Key findings include stakeholders recognizing that the current energy system is unsustainable as measured against principles of energy sustainability and an envisioned future sustainable state of the energy system. Also, insufficient governmental stakeholder engagement upstream within the current system could lead to added risk as regulations affect energy supply. Energy demand behavior and consumption patterns are insufficiently understood by current stakeholders, limiting participation and accountability from consumers. In conclusion, although this research study focused on the Tempe campus, ASU could apply this process to other campuses thereby improving overall ASU energy system sustainability. Expanding stakeholder engagement upstream within the energy system and better understanding energy consumption behavior can also improve long-term energy sustainability. Finally, benchmarking ASU's performance against its peer universities could expand the current climate commitment of participants to broader sustainability goals. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Sustainability 2011

<p> We are now challenged with design-oriented goals of sustainability initiatives requiring energy efficiency in the built environment. Stricter energy codes have added more potential fuel load to a structure and its building envelope. However, these sustainability initiatives do not explicitly consider the fire risks and hazards posed by green building designs, significantly affecting the fire protection and life safety of buildings. At present, a quantitative method to compare the relative fire performance of green building materials and the hazards associated with them is not available. The objective of this research is to propose a semi-quantitative fire hazard assessment, assigning values to selected fire hazard variables. The framework to quantify the impact of sustainable initiatives to a model project is provided; the green building facade elements are the focus of the analysis in this research. </p><p> A recent hypothetical case study[67] is the model project for this research, used to demonstrate the novel framework for the development of a semi-quantitative method. It compares the relative fire performance of green building initiatives and the hazards associated with them on a high-rise residential building using cross-laminated timber. The approach employs an index method, establishing an order of magnitude, with relative rankings based on engineering judgement and experience. Levels of impact are assigned; relative hazard levels are estimated, as a weighted function of the importance or influence, of the hazard impact on the various green elements; decision-making matrices are developed and an overall hazard ranking of the building with the designed green building initiatives calculated. </p><p> Some features present mild or moderate hazard to the green building, others present high or severe hazards. The greatest concern is from the facade components; these are related to the energy efficiency credits in green building rating programs. A range of potential mitigation measures are suggested, based on synergistic effects, to provide a means of reducing the fire hazards associated with the green building initiatives. Without mitigating strategies, the fire hazards from green building initiatives can increase, life safety can decrease, and/or building performance in comparison with conventional construction can decrease. An alternate fire risk assessment method is used to compare and evaluate the semi-quantitative technique developed. </p><p> Quantifying the fire hazards of green building initiatives is critical to the performance of all structures. The sustainable intent for a building design must, therefore, be integrated into the approach to provide fire and life safety protection strategies. This integrated approach to design and construction could improve the building performance, reducing risk and achieving synergies, yielding economic, environmental, and human benefits. </p><p>

<p> Church financial leaders were affected by the economic crisis after the 2008 recession. In a 2009 group study conducted nationwide with church financial leaders, 57% stated that the economy had a negative effect on their church budgets. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore successful strategies that some church financial leaders used to ensure financial sustainability during economic crises. Resource dependence theory was the conceptual framework. Data were collected from 6 church financial leaders at 4 churches in the northeastern region in the United States; church financial leaders were selected through purposeful sampling to participate in semistructured interviews. Data were also collected from church documents, such as financial records and budget statements. These data were analyzed to identify emerging themes using Yin&rsquo;s 5-phase process: compiling, disassembling, reassembling (and arraying), interpreting, and concluding. The 3 themes that emerged from the data analysis were (a) provide strategies to acquire external resources, (b) specify plans to establish internal strategic factors, and (c) provide strategies to improve financial and strategic management. Findings and recommendations of the study could contribute to positive social change by providing church financial leaders with successful strategies to ensure financial sustainability during economic crises and by increasing church revenue and improving social programs, which help improve the needs of staff, members, and people in the community.</p><p>

<p> Addressing current environmental, economic, and social challenges requires a transformation in thinking. Education, if reoriented toward sustainability, has the potential to promote environmentally responsible behavior and advance society toward environmental, economic, and social well-being. Teachers have an important role in this shift in education, both as models of environmental sensitivity and as agents of change. Beginning and experienced teachers alike struggle to adapt to a model of education that allows young people to build the experience and skills necessary to address the sustainable development goals outlined by the United Nations. </p><p> This mixed-methods case study presents practices from whole-school sustainability programs in four U.S. K-12 institutions, with the purpose of providing resources and examples for further development of K-12 whole-school sustainability programs. Based on results from 35 interviews, four classroom observations, and four campus tours, I provide other school administrations and staff with institution-appropriate pathways towards implementing and refining their own whole-school sustainability education programs.</p><p>

<p> Companies experience a problem implementing corporate social responsibility reporting standards due to geographical differences, an over-abundance of guidelines, regulatory disparities, and varying levels of stakeholder requirements. These diverse conditions result in inadequate reporting of sustainability efforts and a lack of consistency of what actually gets reported. This exploratory, qualitative case study was based on a theoretical framework consisting of Freeman&rsquo;s stakeholder theory, Suchman&rsquo;s legitimacy theory, and Spence&rsquo;s signaling theory. The sample consisted of six respondents from a research population of 100 multinational corporations (MNCs) with successful reporting practices. The instrument used was a researcher-developed questionnaire. The study addresses three research questions: How did leadership identify sustainability reporting standards, guidelines, or frameworks that would be appropriate for their company; how did the needs of the company&rsquo;s stakeholders for reporting differ from the standards selected; and what CSR activities, indicators, or disclosures are not being included in the guideline that the company might want to report based on the needs of the stakeholders? Based on the results, nine themes emerged: (a) External motivational factors and stakeholders are critical to deciding which reporting guideline to use; (b) the CSR reporting method chosen is selected in order to meet the needs of the most influential actors; (c) companies augment reports with self-created KPIs based on influential actors and situational requirements; (d) the CSR reporting process requires greater internal collaboration within an organization; (e) changes to business strategy and resource allocation may be necessary; (f) both external and internal stakeholders are a source of valuable input and feedback regarding the produced reports; (g) collecting material and nonmaterial data is useful in producing reports and improving transparency; (h) companies want to see the impacts of their use competitors&rsquo; CSR activities and to use their reports to improve their own CSR activities and reports; and (i) standardization of reporting guidelines would benefit all stakeholders by allowing companies to become more transparent, improve comparisons between companies, and provide incentive to improve CSR processes. This research contributes to the growing body of knowledge on CSR reporting and allows companies to better understand CSR reporting process in their own environments.</p><p>

Orientador: Rosani de Castro / Coorientadora: Reagine Máximo de Souza / Banca: Barbara Stolte Bezerra / Resumo: As mais diversas organizações têm sido desafiadas a contribuir para com o Desenvolvimento Sustentável, principalmente as Instituições de Ensino Superior, pois são consideradas um dos agentes capaz de promover as mudanças que a sociedade precisa para alcançar a sustentabilidade. Com o intuito de institucionalizar a sustentabilidade, ao longo do tempo, várias IES (do mundo todo) assinaram vários documentos/declarações demonstrando seu comprometimento com a causa. Mas para que essas intenções aconteçam na prática, primeiramente, mudanças devem ocorrer no âmbito dessas instituições, precisam mudar a forma como educam, pesquisam, se relacionam com a comunidade externa, e principalmente, como desenvolvem o próprio processo de gestão e operações. No contexto brasileiro há iniciativas no setor público, como a Agenda Ambiental da Administração Pública (A3P), o programa procura impulsionar práticas sustentáveis, embora o programa não seja voltado para as IES, algumas instituições têm seguido as orientações da agenda na dimensão de gestão e operações de seus campi. As iniciativas são muitas, no entanto, não se sabe em que patamar está o processo de DS no âmbito das IES que adotam a A3P. Sendo assim, essa pesquisa tem por objetivo propor um Modelo de Maturidade em Sustentabilidade para as Instituições de Ensino Superior. Para este trabalho foi adotado como método de pesquisa a análise bibliográfica e a pesquisa Survey. Como resultado deste trabalho, é apresentado o Modelo de Maturidade e... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The most diverse organizations have been challenged to contribute to Sustainable Development, especially the Higher Education Institutions (HEI), since they are considered one of the agents capable of promoting the changes that society needs to achieve sustainability. In order to institutionalize sustainability, over the years, several HEIs have signed several documents / declarations demonstrating their commitment to the cause. But for these intentions to happen in practice, first, changes must occur within these institutions, they need to change the way they educate, research, relate to the outside community, and especially how they develop the management process itself. In the Brazilian context there are initiatives in the public sector, such as the Agenda Ambiental da Administração Pública (A3P), the program seeks to promote sustainable practices, although the program is not focused on HEIs, some institutions have followed the agenda on management and operations of their campuses. The initiatives are many, however, it is not known at what level is the sustainable development process within the scope of HEIs adopting A3P. Therefore, this research aims to propose a Maturity Model in Sustainability for Higher Education Institutions. For this work the bibliographic analysis and Survey research. As a result of this work, the is presented Modelo de Maturidade em Sustentabilidade para Instituições de Ensino Superior (MMS-IES). Its application has demonstrated that the HEIs inves... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

<p>Jamaica?s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have a high failure rate. In 2016, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) recorded Jamaica's SME start-up rate at 4.06% and the discontinuance rate at 9%. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive multiple case study was to explore the strategies some Jamaican SME owners used to achieve business sustainability in the manufacturing sector for longer than 5 years of operation. The conceptual framework used was the entrepreneurship theory, which provided insights into business sustainability. A purposive sample of 5 owners of SMEs who had achieved business sustainability in the manufacturing sector for longer than 5 years of operation were the participants in this study. Semistructured interviews of participants and review of company documents produced in-depth insights into the strategies they used to achieve business sustainability. Coding keywords, sentences, and ideas from the interviews and company documents and categorizing them was the approach taken for data analysis, using methodological triangulation. The themes from the study were entrepreneurial characteristics, competitive advantages, resource management, customer relationship management, quality management, and marketing. Implications for social change include the potential to provide strategies that support SMEs? business sustainability and lead to greater job creation and ultimately the Jamaican government?s ability to fund social projects.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:33:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-12-12Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:45:20Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_as_dr_prud.pdf: 1708997 bytes, checksum: 05c4f11632d13a9ce51d5bb03785b817 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A ideia da construção de diversos índices e indicadores vem ganhando força como subsídio para o monitoramento das ações em políticas públicas no que diz respeito à qualidade de vida e à qualidade ambiental. No entanto, as formulações desses índices e indicadores podem não oferecer um retrato dos reais aspectos das desigualdades sociais e dos elementos condicionantes para uma vida com qualidade e um ambiente sustentável. Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo principal analisar as possíveis relações entre as dimensões da sustentabilidade e os aspectos das desigualdades sociais, segregação ambiental, segregação espacial e classes de renda no espaço urbano. A estratégia de pesquisa foi através da investigação dos referenciais teóricos e pela análise das experiências realizadas, sendo elas: Seattle Sustentável, IQVU de Belo Horizonte, Diputació de Barcelona, Índice de Sustentabilidade de Blumenau, Mapa de Exclusão/Inclusão Social de São Paulo, a Experiência Jaboticabal Sustentável e a Proposta de Sistema de Indicadores Sociais Georreferenciados para o Planejamento e a Gestão Local. A pesquisa foi realizada no município de Formosa, GO, a coleta de dados entre janeiro e julho de 2010 e estabeleceu-se como estratégia o processo participativo por meio da formação de um grupo de sujeitos locais, sendo o levantamento de dados realizado em 225 domicílios de nove bairros, em setores censitários urbanos delimitados pelo IBGE, representativos à totalidade populacional urbana. Os critérios para identificação dos bairros foram baseados por acentuadas diferenças, tais como a estrutura urbana, condições ambientais, sociais e econômicas, dentre outras. A análise dos dados foi pela técnica comparativa dos indicadores utilizados, classificados e enquadrados em função dos princípios das dimensões ambiental, social... / The idea of building several indexes and indicators has been gaining power as an aid for monitoring the actions of public policies regarding to quality of life and environmental quality. However, the formulations of these indexes and indicators may not provide a picture of the real issues of social inequality and the determining factors for a quality life and a sustainable environment. This research aims at analyzing the possible relationships between the dimensions of sustainability and the aspects of social inequality, environmental segregations, spatial segregation and income classes in urban space. The search strategy was through the investigation of theoretical analysis and experiments, which were: Sustainable Seattle, IQVU of Belo Horizonte, Diputació of Barcelona, Sustainability Index of Blumenau, Map of Social Exclusion / Inclusion of São Paulo, Sustainable Experience Jaboticabal and Proposal of System of Social Indicators Georeferenced for Planning and Local Management. The research was conducted in the city of Formosa, GO, the data collection was between January and July 2010 and had established itself as strategy the participatory process through the formation of a group of local people, and the data collection conducted in 225 households of nine neighborhoods in urban census tracts defined by IBGE, represent the entire urban population. The criteria for identification of neighborhoods were based in significant differences, such as urban structure, environmental conditions, social and economic, among others. Data analysis was by the technique of used comparative indicators, sorted and classified according... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

abstract: The production of nanomaterials has been increasing and so are their applications in various products, while the environmental impacts and human impacts of these nanomaterials are still in the process of being explored. In this thesis, a process for producing nano-titanium dioxide (nano-TiO2) is studied and a case-study has been conducted on comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the application of these nano-TiO2 particles in the sunscreen lotion as a UV-blocker with the conventional organic chemical sunscreen lotion using GaBi software. Nano-TiO2 particles were identified in the sunscreen lotion using Transmission Electron Microscope suggesting the use of these particles in the lotion. The LCA modeling includes the comparison of the environmental impacts of producing nano-TiO2 particles with that of conventional organic chemical UV-blockers (octocrylene and avobenzone). It also compares the environmental life cycle impacts of the two sunscreen lotions studied. TRACI 2.1 was used for the assessment of the impacts which were then normalized and weighted for the ranking of the impact categories. Results indicate that nano-TiO2 had higher impacts on the environment than the conventional organic chemical UV-blockers (octocrylene and avobenzone). For the two sunscreen lotions studied, nano-TiO2 sunscreen variant had lower environmental life cycle impacts than its counterpart because of the other chemicals used in the formulation. In the organic chemical sunscreen variant the major impacts came from production of glycerine, ethanol, and avobenzone but in the nano-TiO2 sunscreen variant the major impacts came from the production of nano-TiO2 particles. Analysis further signifies the trade-offs between few environmental impact categories, for example, the human toxicity impacts were more in the nano-TiO2 sunscreen variant, but the other environmental impact categories viz. fossil fuel depletion, global warming potential, eutrophication were less compared to the organic chemical sunscreen variant. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Chemical Engineering 2014