A Sustainable Development Management System for the University of Coimbra

The purpose of the article is to study the process of forming a mechanism for managing sustainable development at enterprises, aimed at achieving certain goals of sustainable development. The relevance of forming a mechanism for managing sustainable development at an enterprise is indicated. The features of sustainable development of business entities are determined. The key principles of sustainable development are emphasized, which include the integration of economic, social and environmental goals into the enterprise strategy, the balance between short-term benefits and long-term prospects, innovation and the implementation of environmentally friendly technologies, transparency, responsibility and partnership with all stakeholders. The goal and objectives of managing sustainable development at an enterprise are disclosed. The principles of sustainable development management are characterized (balance, innovation, integration, transparency, long-term orientation). The stages of forming a sustainable development management system of an enterprise are determined (assessment of the current state of the existing management system, development of a mission, vision and goals of sustainable development, development of a management structure, development of sustainable development policies and standards, integration of sustainable development into business processes, planning and determination of key performance indicators (KPI), development of a training and advanced training program, assessment and monitoring of sustainable development results, adjustment of strategy and policies). The indicators used to assess the sustainable development of an enterprise (economic, environmental, social) are considered. The essence and features of monitoring the sustainable development of a company are disclosed. The components of qualitative monitoring of sustainable development are characterized. The features of monitoring planning, data collection and evaluation for monitoring and reporting are considered. The essence of sustainable development reporting and its advantages for providing information about the company's activities to stakeholders are highlighted. The advantages of operating a sustainable development management system at an enterprise are determined.

The relevance of the presented research is based on the increasing role of high quality human resources in modern processes of the urbanized territories development. The research is aimed at proposing ways to improve the human capital management system in the context of the city development innovative orientation. Achieving the goal of the research required the solution of such problem tasks as systematization of conceptually new approaches to strategic management of city systems; structural representation of the human capital characteristics system affecting the level of cities trajectories stability; justification and empirical verification of human capital reproduction strategy in a urbanized territory sustainable development management system. Novation of authors’ approach, first of all, is in the methodological basis of heuristic need to integrate the four-sector model of human capital as a social resource component of the city sustainable development into a system of territorial management. Components (sectors) of the proposed model accordingly characterize the quality of the individual human capital, standard of living, quality of social sphere and environmental quality. The features of the innovations’ reproductive functions of human resources are identified. The mechanism of rent on the human capital public expenditure and strategies of the human resources reproduction for urbanized territories sustainable innovation development are substantiated. The copyright in the field of human potential reproduction strategic management provide conditions for strengthening of the scientific component of the city innovation-oriented sustainable development management system in dynamic and contradictory environmental conditions.

Purpose– The systematic implementation and assessment of corporate sustainable development is difficult in the absence of a structured approach. The existing management systems and frameworks do not provide a balanced approach to the management of the triple bottom line of sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of developing a sustainable development management system (SDMS) and provides a basic framework for such a system.Design/methodology/approach– The paper reviews the approaches that can be employed to embody the various elements of a SDMS – including underlying values, system requirements, continual improvement, and assessment approaches. Advantages and disadvantages of developing a SDMS are also reviewed.Findings– Descriptive guidelines augmented by prescriptive requirements could provide a comprehensive guide to corporate sustainable development management and assessment through a hybrid approach. A basic structure for the descriptive guidelines, prescriptive requirements, and assessment approaches is provided.Practical implications– The paper could provide a needed starting point for managers to structure their thinking related to their organisation's sustainability initiatives.Originality/value– The existing systems and guidelines addressing sustainable development are characterised by several limitations. This paper provides a unique framework for corporate sustainable development that has not been addressed in previous publications.

PurposeThis paper seeks to identify a requirement for a new sustainable development management system (SMS) model for global business organizations (GBOs) and proposes some essential features for such a model.Design/methodology/approachThe concept is developed in four stages. First, a definition of a GBO is developed, after reviewing existing definitions and identifying their limitations. The characteristics of GBOs are reviewed, with emphasis on their implications for the management of sustainability programmes. A review of SMS literature and of existing SMS codes and standards has been made, and the limitations of existing SMSs are critically reviewed. Drawing on this three‐part analysis, a new model of an SMS suitable for use in GBOs is described.FindingsExisting definitions of global business organizations are inadequate. Existing sustainability management systems standards and codes do not meet the requirements of global businesses (or indeed of other, regional businesses) in several respects.Originality/valueThe paper shows that there are special requirements for SMSs in GBOs, and that these are not met by any of the existing models or proposals in the literature. The paper proposes a new model, which combines best‐practice from existing literature with new features.

In the UK, there is significant focus on external certification organizations to verify management system standards of companies operating in the country. For example, in the oil and gas industry, there are external certification requirements for the subject matter areas of quality; health, safety, and the environment (HSE); and sustainable development. The challenge lies not in meeting the requirements of external certification standards but rather in approaching the process as a whole instead of by separate subject matter areas. To address this challenge, an oilfield services company with operations in the UK developed an integrated management system for all subject matter areas. The company integrated the subject matter areas into a single approach and derived benefits from this streamlined initiative. The company, which has had long-standing, robust management systems for quality, HSE, and sustainable development, integrated these subjects into one management system instead of considering each subject within its own individual system. The initiative involved designing the process and procedures, implementing the system into operational planning, and developing certain key features such as customized dashboards for line managers to track outcomes. After a year of implementation, the integrated management system has provided significant benefits in strategic risk-based planning as well as continuous improvement. Metrics are monitored using a dashboard approach to provide management with an immediate overview of performance, which not only raises awareness but also increases focus on key indicators in decision making and planning. The integration process has also resulted in a significant streamlining of the management system structure and documentation. This integrated approach has led to ongoing performance improvements throughout the procurement and operational lifecycle management.

Sustainable development is one of today's dominant target directions of development of modern human civilization, which provides for the compatibility of the states of the economic, ecological and social subsystems of society both within the borders of a single country and in the global space as a whole. In this regard, the issue of conceptual and applied foundations of sustainable development is a current subject of scientific research and practical development for specialists and individual institutions of various directions. Expanding and improving the tools of sustainable development research, including the formalization of a general approach to modelling the decision-making task of ensuring sustainable development, its support and management. The conceptual basis of the structural components of the management system of sustainable development, which is formed by three subsystems, namely the management subsystem or the governing body, the external environment subsystem, the managed subsystem or the subsystem that is the object of management, is revealed. The general approach to the formalization of the decision-making task in this management system is analyzed. The characteristic features of the influence of elements of the control subsystem and the external environment on the states of the subsystem object are justified, which are related to the structure of the elements of the admissible sets of states and the specificity of the external environment, which can be passive or active in relation to the influence on the object. The concept of the balance of economic, ecological and social components in the decisions of the management subsystem and the states of the subsystem object has been concretized. Such balance is proposed to be modelled with the help of Pareto optimal dominance of the specified decisions and states, which can be established in the case of constructing their criterion evaluations. The formalized approach to construction of a general model of the decision-making process in the sustainable development management system has obvious practical significance, which consists in the specification of real tasks related to the construction of sets of permissible states of subsystems components of the control system, and most importantly, sets of permissible decisions of the control subsystem, criteria for evaluating these decisions and the definition and selection of so-called balanced solutions in the sense of sustainable development.

Management of the sustainable development of regional infrastructure systems (IS) over time intervals of more than 20 years is one of the fundamental scientific problems of modern management theory. In this paper, such control objects, designed to serve the population with resources, goods and services, are considered on the universal scientific platform of natural-industrial systems (NIS), which are purposeful and developing organizations. The meaning of NIS management is associated with ensuring the movement of IS towards sustainable development goals (SDG), characterized by a set of social, economic and environmental factors (indicators) that are important for the life of not only present, but also future generations of citizens. Technological tasks of sustainable development today are being solved on the basis of the ideas of a circular and green economy: complex processing of raw materials and materials, saving resources, organizing nature-friendly technologies, etc. At the same time, the mechanism for transferring existing objects of the regional economy to the trajectory of sustainable development is unclear. Two features in NIS control problems distinguish them from those known in classical control theory: 1 - NIS evolution during long-term operation; 2 - the need to use non-traditional subsystems in the control system: long-term forecasting SDG; medium-term planning of organizational and automatic controls; control over the stability of the movement of NIS to SDG. This paper proposes a hybrid sustainable development management system that combines continuous information flows received from the control object with discrete flows from an expert system for diagnosing problem situations that are arised during the long-term operation of NIS.

Lack of sustainable strategic approaches has led to non-functional, unsafe, inaccessible, and fragmented urban green infrastructure within cities. In sub-Saharan African cities, the development and management of urban green infrastructure are not realized in many instances due to a lack of priorities and resources. The objective of the study is to develop strategic approaches that help to overcome the challenges of urban green infrastructure and promote a sustainable development and management system in Ethiopia with special references to the emerging towns of Oromia special zone that surrounds Finfinne. To design sustainable strategic approaches for an urban green infrastructure development and management system, the study collected data using key informant interviews, focus group discussion and document reviews. Findings identify seven potential strategic approaches that are needed to create a sustainable urban green infrastructure development and management system. Hence, improving the quantitative, qualitative, and accessibility standards on the provision of urban green infrastructure is needed for sustained development. Moreover, advanced development in budget allocation, capacity building, legal and institutional framework, awareness creation, and stakeholder’s involvement are also needed to promote a sustainable development and management system of urban green infrastructure in the urban centers of Ethiopia in general and emerging towns in particular.

PurposeThe concepts of sustainable development (SD) and management systems (MS) are finding increasing acceptance in a variety of fields, including academy, politics, and non‐governmental organizations. These concepts are also being used by the general population. This paper aims to describe the perception of different experts by discussing the usefulness of sustainability management systems (SMS) as holistic systems that might integrate environmental, social, and economic elements.Design/methodology/approachThis research was framed by the general systems theory and its nature is totally qualitative and exploratory in order to understand the significant attributes that affect or benefit a management system to reach sustainability. A total of 14 interviews were conducted with several experts around the world. Some are professional persons in sustainability issues in general, and some in environmental, health and safety (EHS) issues in particular.FindingsThe results shows that, although there is a continuous debate on the sustainability approach, several core elements can be addressed for sustainability management systems (SMS). For instance, 71.4 percent of the interviewees agreed that management systems are useful for sustainable development, or at least potentially useful, and 42.9 percent of the experts declared that having a clear understanding of the long‐term economic benefits for the company is an important incentive for their implementation.Research limitations/implicationsInterviews were conducted with a limited number of experts and there was no field verification of claims. Therefore, conclusions derived from these sources depend on the veracity of the information provided by participants. Expert bias may also have an impact on the outcomes of this research.Practical implicationsThe findings provide management systems' practitioners with key elements when sustainability management systems are being created, maintained and evaluated.Originality/valueThe findings are not results from general concepts, but rather elicited from empirical data from fourteen sustainability, and health and safety experts around the world.

The study identifies human-centred changes in the management strategy of multi-level economic trends under the influence of ESG-transformation. The objective of the article is to find ways of strategy for building human capital and minimizing HR risks installations in the management system of the specified economic trends. The research methodology provides for a consistent macro-meso-microanalysis of the impact of the changed conditions on the basic aspects of strategic management, starting from the macro level, with the definition of qualitative and quantitative parameters of likely HR benefits/risks related to implementing of human-oriented principles of sustainable management at all levels. The result of the study is a theoretical and methodological foundation and empirical verification of the strategy for increasing human capital in the sustainable management system. It has been justified that in the face of new global challenges, the systemic algorithm for the formation of this complex strategy should provide a complete, objective and internally consistent three-level expert-econometric analysis of human-oriented macro-, meso- and micro-economic strategies for managing economic trends. The requirements for strategic decision-making tools are formulated at the macro-, meso- and micro-level of the sustainable HR management system, as well as recommendations for economic actors on the use of expert-econometric tools for analyzing the reasons for slowing down the process of accumulation of human capital in the post-pandemic area, as well as for developing suitable public policy measures aimed at sustainable development of human capital are given.KeywordsHuman capitalHR-risksStrategic managementEconomic trends of sustainable and innovative developmentESG transformationJEL ClassificationJ24C54J64

Against the backdrop of increasingly interconnected environmental, social, and governance (ESG) challenges, enterprises must formulate sustainable strategies to achieve synergistic development among economic performance, social responsibility, and ecological conservation. As a core organizational resource, human resources serves as a critical enabler for fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR) and driving sustainable development. Whether enterprises can enhance the contribution of human resources to the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development is an important issue that currently needs to be studied in the field of human resource management. Therefore, this research follows the grounded theory method, integrates CSR and sustainable development theories, and uses systematic thinking to deeply explore the concept and structure of sustainable human resource management systems, and it develops relevant scales and combines exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis methods to revise and validate the scales. The research results show that the sustainable human resource management system is a multidimensional concept, including the following: employee rights protection, employee training and development, employee occupational health, employee relations management, and sustainable development management; its measurement scale contains five factors, with a total of 20 items. The results of factor analysis indicate that the reliability and validity tests of the developed scale have reached an ideal level. The research results enrich the concept and connotation of sustainable human resource management systems, and the development of the sustainable human resource management systems scale aims to promote the extension of the field of sustainable human resource management systems from theoretical exploration to empirical analysis research, providing a theoretical basis for Chinese enterprises to achieve sustainable development goals.

Construction accidents on infrastructure projects in Indonesia from 2017-2021 have increased by 5.65% from previous years. Construction accidents that result in property damage, death or injury to both workers and the public, pollution and environmental damage cause sustainable development goals not to be achieved. Construction accidents are not only focused on the impacts, but it is necessary to explore how the incident occurred. This is the basis for the need to integrate quality, safety, health and sustainability in construction. The current construction safety management system is not yet integrated with other management systems. This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework in the process of integrating construction quality, safety, health and sustainability management systems. Development of a conceptual framework based on literature review, ISO standards and existing construction safety planning guidelines. The development of this conceptual framework is part of a research proposal that is being formulated to develop a process protocol for integrating process of construction quality, safety, health and sustainability management systems in infrastructure projects. This process protocol can simplify the complexity and overlapping of the processes of each management system so that it is easier to understand and to implement by all project stakeholders.

Currently, the interest of domestic companies in the ESG agenda, which involves focusing on the principles of environmental, social and corporate responsibility, is rapidly growing. This leads to the need for ESG transformation of business, and, consequently, the construction of an appropriate sustainable development management system. The study conducted by the authors made it possible to identify key approaches to transforming the management system of organizations based on the ESG concept, developing appropriate short-term and long-term motivation programs, and also to propose measures for the implementation and maintenance of ESG culture.

The aim of the paper is to develop methodological approaches to the formation of a multi-level system of public administration for sustainable development on the example of Russia and China. The proposed approaches include: general characteristics of the sustainable development management system (subject, object, forms, principles, methods, result), formalization of project selection, principles for identifying project relationships, tools for prioritizing projects, a model for monitoring program performance. Multilevel implies integration not only at the national, mezzo and micro levels, but also at the supranational level - the participation of the United Nations and other international organizations, the implementation of joint projects, primarily with friendly countries. Developed on the example of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 13 “Taking urgent measures to combat climate change and its consequences”, the network management model allows formalizing the choice of projects constituting the program, principles and approaches to identifying the interconnection of projects, tools for prioritizing projects, and can be extrapolated to other SDGs with high network ranks (the degree of mutual influence on other SDGs). To assess the quality of public administration for sustainable development, the following indicators are proposed: the complexity of national programs and the quality of goal setting, adaptability and flexibility of state institutions in implementing sustainable development goals; business involvement in the transition to sustainable development; efficiency and effectiveness of the management system; compliance of legislation and law enforcement with sustainable development objectives; the level of achievement of planned results by the managed system; the degree of publicity when assessment of sustainable projects. Such a set of indicators makes it possible to integrate the assessment of the managed and the management system, to highlight the role of the management system in the results achieved by the managed system.

The U.S. military faces an increasingly diverse array of challenges in meeting its national security objectives in the twenty‐first century. One of the most critical challenges is providing realistic training for our armed forces. To address this challenge, the Department of Defense is pursuing a strategy to achieve range sustainment. This strategy dictates a need for a management structure within which the military can operate and maintain sustainable ranges. Rather than starting with a completely new structure, the Department of Defense should consider management structures currently in use around the world. The management structure described in the international standard for environmental management systems, ISO 14001, provides a very useful framework for addressing the required elements of a sustainable range management system. The ISO 14001 framework helps range managers identify gaps in any proposed management structure and determine the most effective means of integrating existing range management tools into the sustainable range management system. Two examples of existing range management tools that may be used within a sustainable range management system are geographic information systems (GISs) and the ecological model ECOS2T (Ecological Simulations for a Sustainable Tomorrow). ISO 14001 provides a useful road map for the integration of these tools into a sustainable range management system. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.