Public investments in sustainable technology: an evaluation of North Carolina's Green Business Fund

North Carolina's Green Business Fund, a state-level sustainability–technology program, is evaluated in terms of net economic surplus. To conduct this evaluation, this paper develops and implements an economic model from which values of producer and consumer surplus can be measured. Data limitations drive modeling choices, namely the model must be applicable when the researcher is unable to decompose revenues into separate prices and quantities. The method used in this paper is an extension of one previously used to examine SBIR programs facing similar data limitations. An additional facet of the modeling method is a specification such that the presence of an existing technology can also be taken into account. This allows the evaluation to focus only on newly created surplus. The findings from this evaluation suggest that the Green Business Fund has resulted in a positive net social surplus and, when imposing an elasticity of demand drawn from the literature on other sustainability-based technologies, a benefit-to-cost ratio of above 2.     

Where There Is No Company: Indigenous Peoples,Sustainability, and the Challenges of Mid-Stream Mining Reforms in Guyana's Small-Scale Gold Sector

Much of the hype behind ‘sustainable mining’ elaborates ‘best practices’ using a spatial and temporal framework primarily applicable to large-scale, company-driven mines unfolding in the future. This approach confines already producing fields to peripheral concerns and obscures artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) production from mainstream debates on sustainable mining and indigenous rights. The article provides an overview of mining reforms on multiple scales and a case study of Guyana's gold sector. Looking closely at ASM processes in the Upper Mazaruni river basin, the traditional homeland of the indigenous Akawaio and Arekuna, the evidence reveals a compelling case for denying the hype of sustainable mining. Oddly enough, indigenous involvement with mining presents a unique opportunity to rethink progressive ASM designs for two key reasons. First, vested interests in long-term survival on the same land are a qualitative advantage for overcoming the limits of short-term, fragmented engagements with mid-stream ASM activity. Second, the embedded ecological knowledge of indigenous communities can inform more inclusive, place-based interdisciplinary frameworks for reforming ASM and building lasting solutions through a holistic approach.     

The Environmental Paradox of the Welfare State: The Dynamics of Sustainability

Thus far, there has been a reluctance to instigate a dialogue and engage with the tensions between two literatures with significant insights for each other. The first is the literature on the fiscal sustainability of welfare states, which is invariably predicated upon future growth primarily to manage demographic changes. The second is the post-growth literature, which has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years due to an environmental critique of economic growth. Both literatures contain implications for the analysis of welfare state sustainability. The primary contribution of this paper will be to explore the intractability of the tensions between these discourses and the difficulty of mapping out a progressive policy direction in the twenty-first century which meets both our environmental and social sensibilities. It is claimed that in the post-industrial world the fiscal sustainability of welfare capitalism is dependent upon public expenditure financed indirectly an environmentally unsustainable growth dynamic, but that ironically any conflagration of public welfare programmes is likely to be counter-productive as the welfare state is able to promote de-carbonisation strategies and notions of the public good as well as promoting monetarily and ecologically efficient public welfare services.     

生产商联合构建废旧家电逆向物流系统的研究

我国家用电器进入报废高峰期,而家电回收、处理市场较为混乱,没有形成科学、成熟的体系,导致大量废旧家电得不到合理处理,造成环境污染和资源浪费等问题。在对我国废旧家电回收处理现状进行深入分析的基础上,整合回收渠道,拆分处理环节,构建了以回收、物理拆卸、化学处理、产品再制造等四个环节为主的家电逆向物流系统。有效克服负旧家电有毒物质对环境的破坏,使可利用零部件和稀贵金属得到充分再利用,实现生态效益、经济效益双重最大化的目标。同时利用数学方法和模糊层次分析法对该系统经济效益和综合效益进行评估,验证了该系统构建的合理性和可行性。     

一种新的服务开发理念:可持续服务创新

随着环保和可持续发展的观念日益深入人心,环保意识和环保消费创造了新的市场需求,不仅在制造业领域,而且在服务业领域都应当重视和实践可持续发展式的经营管理。将可持续发展的思想用于服务创新理论的理念,对实施可持续服务创新具有重要意义。归纳总结可持续服务创新的主要途径,旨在引起服务业对可持续发展思想的足够重视,为实施可持续服务创新提供一定的参考。     

基于模糊Borda数法的研究生综合素质测评研究

本文从思想道德素质、学术科研素质、社会实践与文体素质三方面入手提出了研究生综合素质测评指标体系,采用基于格栅获取的模糊Borda数分析法构建了研究生综合素质测评模型。应用实例表明,该模型操作简便,具有一定的科学性和可行性。     

How much would low- and middle-income countries benefit from addressing the key risk factors of road traffic injuries?

Abstract

Despite strong advocacy, the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011–2020) is ending with most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) no closer to the Sustainable Development Goals target of reducing traffic mortality by half. In contrast, most high-income countries (HICs) have seen large benefits in recent decades from large-scale safety interventions. We aimed to assess how much LMICs would benefit from interventions that address six key risk factors related to helmet use, seatbelt use, speed control, drink driving, and vehicle design for safety of occupants and pedestrians. We use a comparative risk assessment framework to estimate mortality and health loss (disability adjusted life years lost, DALYs) that would be averted if these risks were reduced through intervention. We estimate effects for six countries that span all developing regions: China, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Iran, and Russia. We find relatively large benefits (27% reductions in road traffic deaths and DALYs) from speed control in all countries, and about 5%-20% reductions due to other interventions depending on who is at risk in each country. To achieve larger gains, LMICs would need to move beyond simply learning from HICs and undertake new research to address risk factors particularly relevant to their context.     

舟山渔民人口渔业资源可持续发展观的实证分析

采用 CHAID方法 ,对 2 0 0 2年舟山渔业人口家庭消费抽样调查数据进行了分类分析。结果表明 ,舟山渔民的收入水平在过去十年有了显著提高 ,但同时收入差异也在扩大 ,而收入水平又正是影响舟山渔民的渔业资源可持续发展观的一个非常重要的因素 ;另一个重要的影响因素是文化教育水平的差异。就政策问题对分析的结果作了初步的讨论。     

Industry Specific Sustainability Benchmarks: An ECSF Pilot Bridging Corporate Sustainability with Social Responsible Investments

This paper investigates the state of the art with respect to sustainability reporting, its linkages with the corporations, internal measurement and monitoring systems and their combined impact on the quality of contemporary sustainability benchmarks, developed by SRI analysts and so-called rating and screening agencies. This research originated from the EU-funded research initiative to create a new generation management framework for corporate sustainability and responsibility (CS-R). The aim of it is to develop a coherent set of assessment –, measurement – and monitoring tools. The sustainability benchmark tool should align the interests of corporations implementing CS-R and various organizations supporting SRI, such as fund managers, analysts and screening agencies. This paper show the essentials features of an actual sustainability benchmark which is currently under construction. This approach will have significance impact on the further development of SRI and CS-R practices, as well as support the development of sustainability reporting standards.     

Paradoxes and Dilemmas for Stakeholder Responsive Firms in the Extractive Sector: Lessons from the Case of Shell and the Ogoni

This paper examines some of the paradoxes and dilemmas facing firms in the extractive sector when they attempt to take on a more stakeholder-responsive orientation towards issues of environmental and social responsibility. We describe the case of Shell and the Ogoni and attempt to draw out some of the lessons of that case for more sustainable operations in the developing world. We argue that firms such as Shell, Rio Tinto and others may well exhibit increasingly stakeholder-responsive behaviours at the corporate, strategic level. However for reasons of strategy, lack of competency or institutional will this increasing level of corporate responsiveness may not be mirrored effectively in dealings between subsidiary business units and their most important direct stakeholders: for example local communities and in the developing world. We contrast the struggles of Shell to replicate its corporate stakeholder-responsiveness at the local level in Nigeria with the experiences of other firms that seem to have developed managerial capabilities at a somewhat deeper level throughout the firm with consequent benefits both for stakeholders and the business.