Sustainable Governance Research Articles

Climate governance and carbon risk in the global energy sector: Insights into corporate environmental initiatives

This study examines the influence of sustainable governance, specifically climate governance, on carbon risk within the global energy sector. Additionally, we investigate the role of eco-innovation as a mediating factor in this relationship. By analyzing a dataset comprising 13,376 publicly listed energy companies from 91 different countries and employing Baron and Kenny's (1986) four-step mediation model, our research shows that improved climate governance mechanisms result in decreased carbon emissions from energy firms. This reduction can be primarily attributed to their increased participation in eco-innovation initiatives. Furthermore, these main findings are more pronounced in companies with robust environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. Our results also reveal various firm-level and country-level characteristics that moderate our identified relationship. Moreover, our results remain consistent even after addressing potential concerns related to endogeneity and sample selection bias. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers and managers who seek to mitigate carbon emissions within the global energy sector while fostering environmentally responsible practices to combat the impacts of climate change.

Navigating Alert Fatigue: A Case Study in Electronic Health Record Alert Design Optimization.

Clinical decision support (CDS) systems play a crucial role in enhancing patient outcomes, but inadequate design contributes to alert fatigue, inundating clinicians with disruptive alerts that lack clinical relevance. This case study delves into a quality improvement (QI) project addressing nursing electronic health record (EHR) alert fatigue by strategically redesigning four high-firing/low action alerts. Employing a mixed-methods approach, including quantitative analysis, empathy mapping sessions, and user feedback, the project sought to understand and alleviate the challenges posed by these alerts. Virtual empathy mapping sessions with clinical nurses provided valuable insights into user experiences. Qualitative findings, CDS design principles, and organizational practice expectations informed the redesign process, resulting in the removal of all four identified disruptive alerts and redesign of passive alerts. This initiative released 877 unactionable disruptive nursing hours, emphasizing the significance of proper alert design and the necessity for organizational structures ensuring sustained governance in healthcare system optimization.

Epistemic gerrymandering: ESG, impact investing, and the financial governance of sustainability

Finance plays an increasing role in the global governance of sustainability. To explain the rise of finance, scholarship is increasingly turning to the financial sector as a producer of policy-relevant knowledge. However, scholarship has paid little attention to how differences within the financial sector affect such knowledge production. This article differentiates two important ways how the financial sector addresses sustainability: investments following environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, and impact investing. Whereas diversified ESG investing is centered around index and data providers, impact investors manage non-listed assets and develop idiosyncratic ‘impact’ approaches. I introduce the term ‘epistemic gerrymandering’ to describe how impact investors tailor ‘impact’ to their financial portfolios and to explain how the resulting heterogeneity and ambiguity is stabilized. Tracing the historical development of impact investing from three distinct strands into a transnational club, I argue that the club structure, together with impact investors’ proximity to private wealth management, explains the persistence of epistemic gerrymandering. As a knowledge regime, epistemic gerrymandering reinforces three dynamics of particular importance to political economists: the subjugation of sustainability to financial returns, the restriction of access to epistemic arenas to wealthy elites, and the rechanneling of charitable and public resources to de-risk private investments.

Urban sprawl and the changing socioecological systems in peri-urban Ghana

ABSTRACT The growth of African cities is characterised by sprawl, significantly impacting social, economic and environmental systems. The change in land use due to urban sprawl often dispossesses farmers in peri-urban communities, resulting in income loss. Focusing on social and ecological changes in peri-urban communities of Ghana, this paper sheds light on land use and land cover change stemming from urban sprawl. It is argued that land governance systems that shape resource access in peri-urban areas have been transformed with farming being the most impacted. Emerging livelihoods like sand winning further compounds a precarious situation. Women and youth are the most affected, with limited options for alternative occupations and uncertain futures. It is thus imperative that policy interventions prioritise sustainable land governance and urban planning, taking into account the needs and vulnerabilities of peri-urban communities, particularly women and youth.

The Diversity of Artificial Intelligence Applications in Marine Pollution: A Systematic Literature Review

Marine pollution, a major disturbance to the sustainable use of oceans, is becoming more prevalent around the world. Multidimensional and sustainable ocean governance have become increasingly focused on managing, reducing, and eliminating marine pollution. Artificial intelligence has been used more and more in recent years to monitor and control marine pollution. This systematic literature review, encompassing studies from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, delineates the extensive role of artificial intelligence in marine pollution management, revealing a significant surge in research and application. This review aims to provide information and a better understanding of the application of artificial intelligence in marine pollution. In marine pollution, 57% of AI applications are used for monitoring, 24% for management, and 19% for prediction. Three areas are emphasized: (1) detecting and responding to oil pollution, (2) monitoring water quality and its practical application, and (3) monitoring and identifying plastic pollution. Each area benefits from the unique capabilities of artificial intelligence. If the scientific community continues to explore and refine these technologies, the convergence of artificial intelligence and marine pollution may yield more sophisticated solutions for environmental conservation. Although artificial intelligence offers powerful tools for the treatment of marine pollution, it does have some limitations. Future research recommendations include (1) transferring experimental outcomes to industrial applications in a broader sense; (2) highlighting the cost-effective advantages of AI in marine pollution control; and (3) promoting the use of AI in the legislation and policy-making about controlling marine pollution.

Integrating in-situ data and spatial decision support systems (SDSS) to identify groundwater potential sites in the Esan plateau, Nigeria

Establishing suitable groundwater resource areas is a challenging endeavour across the globe. However, novel spatial technologies have emerged as valuable tools for the effective strategy, management, and assessment of groundwater resources, especially in data-scarce emerging economies. The current study used spatial decision support systems (SDSS) for evaluating and defining groundwater potential sites (GPSs) in Nigeria's Edo central region to promote sustainable governance of groundwater. By merging multiple groundwater contributing theme layers, a leading-edge information-based multiparametric analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was applied to define the groundwater prospective areas. By systematically assigning weights to every subject-specific layer and feature, the subject matter layers of geology, geomorphology, drainage density, slope, soil properties, landuse/landcover, rainfall distribution, hydraulic conductivity, transmissivity, curvature, proximity to surface water bodies, and elevation were generated and used for groundwater potential map generation. Each thematic layer's weights were allocated and adjusted depending on their qualities and relevance to groundwater recharge. The multicollinearity (MC) analysis was used to evaluate the model's predictive capacity. Finally, groundwater potential sites were created by integrating the theme-specific maps with the weighted total overlay computation tool. The study area contained three separate groundwater potential sites: low, moderate, and high. According to the regional geographic distribution, the largest portion of the area (65%) fell within the moderately significant groundwater potential geographical area. The high and low GPSs, which both have a low curvature and a valley plain characteristic, account for 25% and 10%, respectively, of the entire area. The outcomes were contrasted with the yield of groundwater from boreholes gathered in the study region. The validation analysis found an acceptable 88.89% similarity. This highlights the potential for the groundwater map's significant prediction. Therefore, the applied approach is a viable choice for the advancement of groundwater in the central Edo region and with comparable geology all over the globe.

Ecological Innovations in Shaping Sustainable Governance Policies

Ecological Innovations in Shaping Sustainable Governance Policies

Flexibility through bundles of capital: The capabilities of Indonesian small-scale handline tuna fishers under voluntary sustainability certification

As key tuna producers and exporters globally, developing countries are exposed to voluntary sustainability certification to respond to market and consumer demands. Only recently, small-scale fisheries have received attention in this respect. Despite small volumes traded, fishing activities are essential for maintaining the livelihoods of small-scale fishers. Their environmental footprint is lower than large-scale fisheries, yet lack of capital, capabilities, and conflicting interests along the value chain have hindered their participation in certification schemes. This study employs Sen’s capability approach to understand the extent to which a voluntary standard develops the capabilities of small-scale tuna fishers. We use a case study of the Fair Trade USA Capture Fisheries Standard (CFS) in the province of Maluku, Indonesia, established in collaboration with an Indonesian non-governmental organization, Yayasan Masyarakat dan Perikanan Indonesia. We show that fishers use a bundle of different kinds of capitals to develop their capabilities for compliance with the certification standard. This bundle of capitals consists of a combination of prescribed capitals (the capitals necessary to comply with the certification standard) and alternative capitals that fishers use to develop their abilities for their compliance. Instead of using human capital as emphasized by the certification standard, in this study, we found that fishers use social capital as their main capital to comply with the standard, which makes it the primary source for improving their capabilities. In conclusion, we found support for the need to strengthen flexibility in the implementation of sustainability standards to increase their effectiveness as a sustainability governance mechanism.

Considerations on implementing an energy efficiency program as a management tool in a public institution

A well-implemented energy efficiency program has the great ability to optimize the use of financial resources employed in institutions, being essential for efficient and sustainable governance. In this work, the perception of IFRN managers about the intention to implement an energy efficiency program on their campus, in addition to better understanding how managers see this possibility and implementation. A questionnaire was sent to all IFRN servers in management positions, resulting in 19 responses, which were analyzed with the appropriate statistical tools. The results of this analysis are presented below.

Effect of Gender and Generation on the Adoption of Irrigation and Good Farming Practices in Bontanga and Golinga Irrigation Schemes in Northern Ghana

This study examined the challenges faced by men, women, and different age groups in irrigation water management and farming practices in the Bontanga and Golinga irrigation schemes. The results of the study revealed that there are significant differences in irrigation and farming practices between men and women as well as between older and younger farmers. For men, the main challenges were; limited access to financial resources for investing in modern irrigation technologies and equipment, inadequate knowledge and awareness of sustainable farming practices and water management insufficient government support, and lack of policies tailored to their specific needs. For women, these were gender inequalities and limited access to land, water, and productive resources, lack of control and decision-making power over irrigation water allocation, and limited access to training and extension services to enhance their farming skills. Youth recognized limited interest and involvement in agriculture due to the perception of low profitability and lack of modernization, inadequate access to education and training opportunities in agricultural practices and water management, and insufficient support and mentorship programs to encourage youth participation in farming.

Spatial imbalance in the digital era: how the digital economy affects urban sprawl in China

ABSTRACT Economic and social activities in the digital age have changed business forms and spatial relations, and identifying evolution of the urban form in the digital age is the key to sustainable urban governance. Based on data from prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2021, this study explores the impact of the digital economy on urban sprawl and the path to its realization, thus providing policy implications for urban governance in the digital economy era. The empirical results show that the digital economy significantly promotes urban sprawl and that the urban sprawl effect caused by the digital economy has regional and scale heterogeneity. Western and medium-sized cities show greater sprawl trends under the influence of the digital economy. Digital economy development can significantly affect residents’ lifestyles and lead to urban sprawl, such as encouraging green, digital, and suburban lifestyles. In addition, the digital economy significantly affects the demand for urban land space, such as the industrial division of labour patterns, urbanization processes, and industrial virtual agglomeration, which are indirect factors leading to urban sprawl.

Urban water security in multidisciplinary practices: A case of Lamphun Municipality, Thailand

Urban water security is a multi-faceted water, socioeconomic, and governance challenge. The complexity of translating the holistic approach into policies is an important need for improving water resource management to achieve prosperity, equity, sustainability, and good governance. The city of Lamphun is an example of the practice, which faced drought and major challenges in efficiently distributing water to industrial partners and downstream residents. The purpose of this study was to monitor urban water security and formulate a water management-based urban land use policy for Lamphun Municipality to mitigate water conflicts and ensure access to water for all residents. Therefore, the study examined urban water security using 4 indices: urban water resources, access, risks, and governance. A careful urban land use plan responsible for water security was proposed based on potential surface analysis techniques and public participation. The result of this research would not only guarantee water security, but also promote public participation and sustainable communities.

Beyond profit in family businesses: ESG-driven business model innovation and the critical role of digital capabilities

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the interaction between environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices and digital capabilities in promoting business model innovation (BMI) in family firms. Specifically, it researches how ESG practices influence BMI in family firms, breaking down this influence into its ESG components.Design/methodology/approachWe used microdata from the Flash Eurobarometer 486 survey, conducted by the European Commission in 2020, which provides detailed data on the challenges and obstacles faced by European businesses. The survey included telephone interviews with key managers from 2,483 family-owned businesses across 27 EU countries.FindingsThe analysis found that the environmental, social and governance dimensions of ESG significantly enhance business model innovation in family firms. Additionally, the interaction between environmental practices and digital capabilities significantly enhances business model innovation in family firms, while the interactions between social or governance practices and digital capabilities do not show significant effects.Research limitations/implicationsThe study supports the theoretical framework that integrates ESG practices into business model innovation, providing empirical evidence for the concept of sustainable business models. It emphasizes the importance of environmental sustainability, social engagement and robust governance in driving innovation.Practical implicationsFamily business managers can use the findings to guide their innovation strategies by integrating ESG practices with digital capabilities. Policymakers can also benefit from understanding the importance of supporting ESG practices and digitalization in family businesses, fostering a regulatory environment that encourages sustainable innovation.Originality/valueThis research expands the theoretical understanding of how ESG practices and digital capabilities interact to foster BMI, particularly in family firms. By breaking down ESG practices into environmental, social and governance components, the study offers a detailed view of their interaction with digital capabilities.

Sustainable Governance and Resilience Enhancement in Coastal Fishing Communities Amid Climate Change

Sustainable Governance and Resilience Enhancement in Coastal Fishing Communities Amid Climate Change

TRENDS IN ESG PERFORMANCE REPORTING (ENVIRONMENT SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE) IN ENTERPRISE

Implementation of ESG principles is essential for the Republic of Moldova to promote sustainable development, environmental protection, social responsibility and effective governance. This not only strengthens the country's position in the international community, but also contributes to sustainable growth and improved quality of life for its citizens. Trends in ESG performance reporting reflect a continuing evolution in companies' approach to sustainability and social responsibility, underlining the importance of integrating ESG issues into their business strategies and reporting transparent and detailed performance in these critical areas. Companies are adopting a more transparent and detailed approach to ESG reporting, including the provision of clear and accessible information on their environmental impact, social issues and corporate governance practices. ESG reports are becoming increasingly complex and comprehensive, reflecting their commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.

GOVERNANCE OF VILLAGE ADMINISTRATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOURISM SECTOR IN BITING VILLAGE, BADEGAN DISTRICT, PONOROGO REGENCY

This research aims to understand and describe village government management in the development of the tourism sector in Biting Village, Badegan District, Ponorogo Regency. The concept of Good Village Governance is used as the theoretical foundation, emphasizing transparency, accountability, and community participation as the main principles. This study employs a qualitative approach with data collection techniques through semi-structured interviews and documentation. Data analysis is conducted using the data analysis model from Miles, Huberman, and Saldana (2014), including data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing. The results show that transparency is realized through the dissemination of information on policies, programs, and activities through various communication platforms. Accountability is evident in the monthly reporting of tourism funds and periodic evaluations. Community participation is enhanced through Village Deliberation forums and training involving various community components. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of transparency, accountability, and community participation in managing the tourism sector to achieve good and sustainable governance.

Strategic Approaches in Educational Administration and Management for Advancing Sustainable Development

Background and Aims: Educational administration and management are essential for advancing sustainable development because they shape the policies, leadership, and practices that underpin institutional sustainability initiatives. Sustainable governance and operations can foster an environmental culture and prepare students to face global challenges. This paper aims to identify, analyze, and evaluate strategic approaches for advancing sustainable development. Methodology: The methodology combines a systematic literature review with stringent data collection and analysis procedures to comprehensively examine strategic approaches in educational administration and management. The study employs a variety of data sources and analytical tools to identify effective practices, emerging trends, and gaps in the literature, providing important insights into advancing sustainable development in education. Results: The finding found that integrating sustainability into educational administration and management is critical for fostering an environmental stewardship culture and achieving long-term goals. Effective policies, transformational leadership, and active stakeholder engagement are critical to driving successful sustainability initiatives. Successful case studies, such as the Green School and UC Berkeley, demonstrate that by incorporating sustainability into the curriculum and leveraging technological innovations, educational institutions can address future challenges while increasing operational efficiency. Conclusion: Integrating sustainability into educational administration and management is critical for developing an environmental stewardship culture and meeting long-term objectives. The Green School and UC Berkeley have demonstrated how effective policies, leadership, and stakeholder engagement can improve operational efficiency and address future challenges by incorporating sustainability into curriculum and technology.

Sustainable Water Governance Based on the Local Wisdom of Tri Hita Karana and Sad Kertih Values: Impact for Environmental Sustainability

Sustainable Water Governance Based on the Local Wisdom of Tri Hita Karana and Sad Kertih Values: Impact for Environmental Sustainability

Influence of News Media Contents on Policy Makers

The research explores the influence of news media content on policymakers, using Indexing Theory and the Cascade Model to provide an empirical basis. Policymakers were interviewed, and the resulting data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The study found that media content has a significant, multifaceted impact on policy-making, particularly during the agenda-setting phase. Policymakers noted an increasing trend of media interactions affecting their decisions. While media attention can shape policy priorities, there is also a concern about the sensationalism prevalent in Pakistani media. Policymakers believe that if this sensationalism can be regulated and brought under control, the media could become a more credible and valuable source of information. This would enhance its role in contributing to sustainable governance. The study highlights the dual role of media as both an influencer and a potential partner in governance. Further research is recommended to delve deeper into these dynamics and to develop strategies for leveraging media influence constructively. The findings underscore the importance of understanding media's impact on policy-making and the need for a balanced approach to media consumption and regulation to support informed and effective governance.

Evolution of Sustainable Finance and its Opportunities: A Bibliometric Analysis

With the worldwide promotion of sustainable development, companies across all sectors strive for high profitability while prioritizing the balance between human activities and the natural environment. Sustainable Finance (SF) is proposed in response to this context. This article retrieves 650 papers on SF and energy policies from the Web of Science and Scopus database. Initially, the research does an analytical, statistical analysis that includes several aspects, such as general growth, publishing sources, research locations, and prominent scientific research institutes. The research uses the clustering method to identify the prevailing areas of study in recent years and forecast future research directions. This research identifies significant publications, esteemed experts, discoveries, and forthcoming SF and energy policy research areas. This study enables a systematic and thorough comprehension of SF and energy policy studies. Future research opportunities lie in sustainable bonds, government aid, and greenhouse gas emissions. Future investigations can be conducted by integrating Fintech, big data, and blockchain technology.