High Environmental Performance Research Articles

Firm Environmental Innovation Behavior Under Heterogeneous Demand: An Adaptive, Agent-Based Modeling Approach

Because of the complexity and diversity of human behavior, social systems are unpredictable and difficult to quantify. With the development of computer technology, scholars have begun to construct artificial systems to simulate real social systems in order to explore the trajectory of social phenomena. In this paper, we combined complex system modeling theory with a computational experimental method to construct an adaptive, multi-agent-based system. For this purpose, we constructed heterogeneous firm and consumer agents. Each agent has its own properties, behavioral rules, and interaction rules, which can be adjusted according to its experiences. Our model is based on an abstraction of the real world. We first applied the model to simulate consumers' product selection process and firms' product innovation deci- sion-making process. Then, we analyzed the internal mechanisms affecting consumers' green demand and firms' envi- ronmental behavior. The experimental results revealed that consumer preferences for products with high environmental performance encourage firms to pursue environmental innovation. When green demand among consumers is sufficiently high, firms can obtain high economic profits when they engage in environmental innovation, whereas when green demand among consumers is low, the government should intervene with mechanisms such as subsidies or incentives to encourage firms to engage in environmental innovation. However, as a rapid increase in green demand would quickly lead to a market monopoly, firms should respond to changes in the market in a timely manner to avoid being eliminated from the market.

Estructura organizativa para la gestión ambiental del polo turístico de Puerto Padre

Partiendo de la base de que la tendencia turística mundial está motivada hacia lugares en los que prevalece el contacto directo con la naturaleza y en los que prime un sentimiento ecologista y de responsabilidad con el ambiente, se hace de extrema importancia el tratamiento a la temática ambiental y su gestión para el desarrollo de la actividad turística. Súmese a ello que la industria turística en ocasiones atenta contra los ecosistemas en que se desarrollan; algunos como las zonas costeras tienen una alta vulnerabilidad. El trabajo que presentamos tiene por objetivo proponer una estructura organizativa para favorecer el desempeño de la gestión ambiental en el polo turístico del municipio Puerto Padre, en la provincia de Las Tunas, Cuba. Éste se basa fundamentalmente en la evaluación de la gestión ambiental a partir de la aplicación de un sistema de indicadores. En el mismo se caracteriza el polo turístico y se evalúa el desempeño ambiental de la estructura organizativa. Finalmente se propone una estructura organizativa que coordina la gestión ambiental a través de la participación de los actores implicados. Para la elaboración de la investigación se utilizaron métodos teóricos y empíricos que permitieron la elaboración de la estructura organizativa para la gestión ambiental en una zona costera turística que permitirá un desempeño ambiental superior, así como un turismo con mayor calidad.

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) for wind energy planning: Lessons from the United Kingdom and Germany

This paper reports on SEA applied in the wind energy sector in the UK and Germany. Based on a review of 18 SEAs, it is found that the quality of SEA documentation is variable, with over a third of them being deemed unsatisfactory. Furthermore, SEA processes are conducted to varying degrees of effectiveness, with scoping a strength but impact prediction and mitigation weaknesses. Generally speaking, the influence of SEA on German wind energy plan making was found to be low and the influence of SEA on UK plans deemed to be moderate. The German plans had a low influence mainly because of a perceived high environmental performance of the underlying plans in the first instance. Substantive outcomes of SEA are not always clear and the influence of SEA on decision making is said to be limited in many cases. Finally, a lack of effective tiering between SEA and project level EIA is also observed. In addition, our findings echo some of the weaknesses of SEA practice found in previous studies of SEA effectiveness, including poor impact prediction and significance sections and a lack of detailed monitoring programmes for post plan implementation.

Green Firm‐Specific Advantages for Enhancing Environmental and Economic Performance

One of the most important determinants of a firm's motivation to invest in higher environmental performance is whether such investments will lead to higher economic returns. Although several studies have explored links between environmental and economic performance, strategic insights into which capabilities and resources drive improved environmental and economic performance are lacking. Nine green firm‐specific advantages (Green FSAs) can facilitate the implementation and enhancement of environmental management practices related to planning, organization, operations, and communications. They are ecosystem services internalization Green FSAs, sustainable thinking Green FSAs, cradle‐to‐cradle Green FSAs, eco‐efficiency Green FSAs, eco‐innovation Green FSAs, solution‐oriented Green FSAs, sustainable reputation Green FSAs, eco‐networking Green FSAs, and localized Green FSAs. These Green FSAs have the potential not only to increase environmental performance, but also to enhance efficiency, reduce waste, improve compliance measures, and save additional costs, all of which will ultimately result in higher levels of economic performance. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Designing innovative productive cropping systems with quantified and ambitious environmental goals

AbstractAgriculture must face a number of very pressing environmental issues. We used the prototyping method to design three innovative cropping systems, each satisfying three ambitious goals simultaneously: (1) overcoming a major environmental constraint, which represents a major break regarding objectives to be reached in current cropping systems (differing between systems: a ban on all pesticides but with chemical nitrogen (N) fertilizer permitted; reducing fossil energy consumption by 50%; or decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50%), (2) meeting a wide range of environmental criteria and (3) maximizing yields, given the major constraint and environmental targets. A fourth cropping system was designed, in which the environmental and yield targets were achieved with no major constraint (the productive high environmental performance cropping system (PHEP) system). The performances of these innovative cropping systems were compared to a conventional system in the Ile-de-France region. We used a three-step prototyping method: (1) new cropping systems were designed on the basis of scientific and expert knowledge, (2) these system prototypes were assessed with tools and a model (ex ante assessment) adjusted to the set of constraints and targets, with optimization by an iterative process until the criteria were satisfied and (3) evaluation in a long-term field experiment (ex post assessment), which is currently underway. We describe only the first two steps here, together with the results of the prototypes assessment with tools and a model. The pesticide, energy and GHG constraints were fulfilled. All these innovative systems satisfied environmental criteria in terms of nitrogen and phosphorus management, pesticide use, energy consumption and crop diversity. For the pesticide-free system, the soil organic matter indicator was lower than expected due to frequent plowing (every 2 years) and yields were 20–50% lower than for the PHEP system, depending on the crop considered. We focus our discussions on the design methodology and the availability of scientific knowledge and tools for projects of this type.

Are ‘Green Brides’ More Attractive? An Empirical Examination of How Prospective Partners’ Environmental Reputation Affects the Trust-Based Mechanism in Alliance Formation

There is theoretical and empirical evidence that firms’ environmental performance has ramifications for their appeal to various stakeholders. Yet, we know little about how this plays out in the context of strategic alliance formation. Stated differently, research is lacking on how ‘green’ prospective alliance partners are estimated by the initiating firm. This article employs strong environmental reputation as a proxy for high environmental performance and explores implications for the well-established alliance formation trust-based mechanism, under the strategic cognition perspective. The ensuing hypotheses are subjected to empirical scrutiny through an experimental method. A random sample of 138 CEOs and top managers of Norwegian manufacturing firms completed a scenario-based questionnaire. The results show that two out of three trust dimensions are affected and, moreover, that two out of three—but not the same—trust dimensions influence partner attractiveness. Several theoretical and managerial implications, and future research opportunities, are derived from the findings.

Experimental Analysis of Natural Gravel Covering as Cool Roofing and Cool Pavement

Passive solutions for building energy efficiency represent an interesting research focus nowadays. In particular, natural materials are widely investigated for their potential intrinsic high thermal energy and environmental performance. In this view, natural stones represent a promising solution as building envelope covering and urban pavement. This paper concerns the experimental characterization of several low-cost and local gravel coverings for roofs and urban paving, properly selected for their natural high albedo characteristics. To this aim, the in-field albedo of gravel samples is measured with varying grain size. These in-field measurements are compared to in-lab measurements of solar reflectance and thermal emissivity. The analysis shows a significant variation of the albedo with varying grain size. Both in-lab and in-field measurements agree that the stones with the finest grain size, i.e., fine sand, have the best optic-thermal performance in terms of solar reflectance (62%). This feature results in the reduction of the surface temperature when exposed to solar radiation. Moreover, a natural mixed stone is compared to the high reflectance stone, demonstrating that the chosen stone presents an intrinsic “cool” behavior. Therefore, this natural, low-cost, durable and sustainable material could be successfully considered as a natural cool roof or cool paving solution.

The association between the adoption of an environmental management system with organisational environmental performance

This paper examines the adoption and effectiveness of environmental management initiatives. Specifically, it examines the association between the adoption of an environmental management system (EMS), both ISO14001-certified and non-certified, and the use of nine specific environmental management initiatives with environmental performance. Data were collected by mail survey questionnaire from a stratified random sample of 899 senior financial officers in Australian manufacturing organisations. The findings indicate that while organisations with an EMS achieved higher environmental performance, ISO14001 certification did not affect environmental performance. In addition, four environmental management initiatives were positively associated with environmental performance: having a documented plan of action for complying with relevant regulations; communicating documented procedures to employees; training employees to implement environmental procedures; and conducting internal and external audits to monitor the impact of operations on the environment. The findings provide management with an insight into the emphasis they should place on environmental management initiatives to improve their environmental performance.

Is environmental management an economically sustainable business?

This paper investigates whether environmental management is an economically sustainable business. While firms invest in green production and green supply chain activities with the primary purpose of reducing their environmental impact, the reciprocal relationships with economic performance need to be clarified. Would firms and suppliers adjust their environmental strategies if the higher economic value that environmental management generates is reinvested in greening actions? We found out that environmental management positively influences economic performance as second order (long term) target, to be reached conditioned by higher environmental performance; in addition, firms can increase their performance if they reinvest the higher economic value gained through environmental management in green practices: While investing in environmental management programs is a short term strategy, economic rewards can be obtained only with some delays. Consequently, environmental management is an economically sustainable business only for patient firms. In the evaluation of these reciprocal relationships, we discovered that green supply chain initiatives are more effective and more economically sustainable than internal actions.

Experimental assessment of the energy consumption of urban rail vehicles during stabling hours: Influence of ambient temperature

Urban rail has widely recognised potential to reduce congestion and air pollution in metropolitan areas, given its high capacity and environmental performance. Nevertheless, growing capacity demands and rising energy costs may call for significant energy efficiency improvements in such systems. Energy consumed by stabled rolling stock has been traditionally overlooked in the scientific literature in favour of analysing traction loads, which generally account for the largest share of this consumption. Thus, this paper presents the methodology and results of an experimental investigation that aimed to assess the energy use of stabled vehicles in the Tyne and Wear Metro system (UK). It is revealed that approximately 11% of the rolling stock's total energy consumption is due to the operation of on-board auxiliaries when stabled, and investigation of these loads is therefore a worthwhile exercise. Heating is responsible for the greatest portion of this energy, and an empirical correlation between ambient temperature and power drawn is given. This could prove useful for a preliminary evaluation of further energy saving measures in this area. Even though this investigation focused on a particular metro system in a relatively cold region, its methodology may also be valid for other urban and main line railways operating in different climate conditions.

A workflow task scheduling algorithm based on the resources' fuzzy clustering in cloud computing environment

SummaryCloud computing is the key and frontier field of the current domestic and international computer technology, workflow task scheduling plays an important part of cloud computing, which is a policy that maps tasks to appropriate resources to execute. Effective task scheduling is essential for obtaining high performance in cloud environment. In this paper, we present a workflow task scheduling algorithm based on the resources' fuzzy clustering named FCBWTS. The major objective of scheduling is to minimize makespan of the precedence constrained applications, which can be modeled as a directed acyclic graph. In FCBWTS, the resource characteristics of cloud computing are considered, a group of characteristics, which describe the synthetic performance of processing units in the resource system, are defined in this paper. With these characteristics and the execution time influence of the ready task in the critical path, processing unit network is pretreated by fuzzy clustering method in order to realize the reasonable partition of processor network. Therefore, it largely reduces the cost in deciding which processor to execute the current task. Comparison on performance evaluation using both the case data in the recent literature and randomly generated directed acyclic graphs shows that this algorithm has outperformed the HEFT, DLS algorithms both in makespan and scheduling time consumed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Multi-Objective (Energy, Economic and Environmental Performance) Life Cycle Analysis for Better Building Design

Design improvement is critical for achieving a low-cost and high energy-efficient building with low carbon emissions. Thus, designers need to consider many factors (such as energy, economic and environmental performance) in the early design stage. This paper presents a multi-objective analysis for better building design and compares the EDH-based design improvements (introduced by the author in a previous work, EDH means energy difference between households) with seven potential improvement measures commonly used in achieving a better overall performance for the energy, economy and environment. A typical residential building in China was modeled for a number of simulations, and the simulation results were used to carry out a life cycle-based performance analysis. Seven potential improvement options that are commonly used are compared, and the results show that it is difficult to identify an option that has a better performance in all these three aspects. On the other hand, EDH-based design improvement achieves relatively high energy, economic and environmental performance compared to the former seven options. Moreover, EDH-based design improvement can provide designers with flexible options to select from in order to address diverse demands for building aesthetics, function, and so on, or to avoid potential difficulties when some kinds of materials or measures that are planned to be used are unavailable locally.

Many Ways to Rome: Exogenous and Endogenous CSR Pathways to Environmental and Social Performance

It is often taken for granted that corporate social responsibility (CSR) will bring about social benefits and environmental improvements. Yet there is little empirical evidence of outcomes of CSR initiatives for the natural environment or the wider society as studies have focused on the influence of CSR on financial performance rather than its societal outcomes. This study begins addressing this gap in the literature by empirically studying the environmental and social performance of CSR in 19 European companies. We analyse which configurations of institutional constraints and organizational CSR practices influence environmental and social performance. Based on this analysis, we identify two pathways that can lead to high environmental and social performance and we scrutinize configurations that lead to low performance. The exogenous pathway is characterized by the use of externally certified management tools and certificates and a high importance of external rating schemes. This pathway seems typical for large publicly listed firms. The endogenous pathway, in turn, includes firms that are characterized by internally developed means of conducting CSR.

Green Marketing in Automobile and Ancillary Industry: Issues and Implications

Due to the challenges of global warming, nations and people have high concerns for environment protection at the time demand by consumer groups for environmentally friendly products has also increased which led to the emergence of a ‘new marketing philosophy’, known as ‘green marketing’. An increasing integration of aeconomies and growing concern of customers for environment is resulting into higher environmental performance expectations from the industries even in developing countries. Green marketing can be considered to be contributing towards enhancing the environmental performance of industry and an important element of the evolution of the Indian automobile industry as it responds to challenges of environmental regulations, increasing customer expectations and economic pressures. This research paper is an attempt to understand the green marketing practices of automobile and ancillary industry in and around Pune. It also attempts to study underlying factors (controllable and uncontrollable) and their impact on the implementation of green marketing practices and reasons for their implementation. In addition it attempts to study the challenges in executing green marketing practices in Indian context and solutions devised by industries to these challenges. Based on extensive literature review, a hypothesis was formulated and a detailed questionnaire was prepared and circulated among automobile and ancillary industries. The hypothesis was tested by using Friedman test followed by paired sample t test. The results indicate significant variation in terms of the green marketing practices implementation and underlying reasons for their implementation. Uncontrollable forces like, Government Regulations, ccompetitor's environmental activities forcing firm to change conventional activities into environmental friendly activities. They have more influence in comparison with controllable factors on initiating and implementing green marketing practices.

Sustainable feasibility of solar photovoltaic powered street lighting systems

In the last few years, due to soaring fuel prices and gas emissions, renewable energy technologies have been suggested as the power source for infrastructures. The interest in solar photovoltaic (PV) assisted street lighting systems stems from the fact that they are sustainable and environmentally friendly compared to conventional energy powered systems. The present paper investigates and compares the economic feasibility of two types of systems: islanded and grid-connected system, for the street lighting systems in Hunan Province, China. Based on two options of solar panel materials, a simulation model of the system is developed for economic, technical and environmental feasibility. The comprehensively sustainability feasibility of these systems is conducted taking into account the cost, energy generation, CO2 emissions and renewable fraction. Radar plot is employed to integrate all the sustainability indicators into a general indicator, which presents system’s sustainability as a real number in the interval [0,2]. Results show that for street lighting systems of all the cities, single crystal panel has a larger number of annual electricity generation, less emissions and higher environmental performance, but is more expansive than polycrystalline. It is also found that when the feed-in tariff higher than 1.27CNY/kWh, the cost of energy (COE) of the solar powered lighting systems is less than a pure grid powered system. This will incite the use of solar PV in infrastructures. Through comparing the scores of sustainability, it is found that the Loudi system has the highest feasibility while the Yongzhou system has the lowest in the province.

Optimizing Total Rewards to Meet a Health Insurer's Strategic and Staffing Needs

AbstractAn American health insurance company faced large‐scale change because of legislative reform that reshaped its industry and the anticipated departure of key leaders approaching retirement. Recognizing that its workforce needed to adapt in order to drive high performance in this new environment, its leaders decided to use Total Rewards Optimization, a rigorous analysis of rewards options based on both employee views and rewards cost. The results of their efforts led to the development of a total rewards strategy to enable the organization to increase employee engagement, innovation, and performance in an increasingly demanding climate, along with a stronger leadership development process to ensure a strong pipeline of leadership talent. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The contingent effects of top management teams on venture performance: Aligning founding team composition with innovation strategy and commercialization environment

How does the relationship between founding team composition and venture performance depend on the venture's strategy and business environment? Using data from a novel survey of 2,067 firms, we show that while diverse founding teams tend to exhibit higher performance, this is not universally true. We find that founding teams that are diverse are likely to achieve high performance in a competitive commercialization environment. On the other hand, technically focused founding teams are aligned with a cooperative commercialization environment and when the enterprise pursues an innovation strategy. These results are robust to corrections for endogenous team formation concerns. The findings suggest that ventures cannot ignore founding team composition and expect to later professionalize their top management teams to align with their strategy and environment. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Responding to climate change and the global land crisis: REDD+, market transformation and low-emissions rural development

Climate change and rapidly escalating global demand for food, fuel, fibre and feed present seemingly contradictory challenges to humanity. Can greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land-use, more than one-fourth of the global total, decline as growth in land-based production accelerates? This review examines the status of two major international initiatives that are designed to address different aspects of this challenge. REDD+ is an emerging policy framework for providing incentives to tropical nations and states that reduce their GHG emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Market transformation, best represented by agricultural commodity roundtables, seeks to exclude unsustainable farmers from commodity markets through international social and environmental standards for farmers and processors. These global initiatives could potentially become synergistically integrated through (i) a shared approach for measuring and favouring high environmental and social performance of land use across entire jurisdictions and (ii) stronger links with the domestic policies, finance and laws in the jurisdictions where agricultural expansion is moving into forests. To achieve scale, the principles of REDD+ and sustainable farming systems must be embedded in domestic low-emission rural development models capable of garnering support across multiple constituencies. We illustrate this potential with the case of Mato Grosso State in the Brazilian Amazon.

The role of water auditing in achieving water conservation in the process industry

Abstract Water has traditionally been over utilised within the process industry due to its low cost. However, increasing environmental regulations, concerns around human and ecological health, and consumer expectations of high environmental performance have placed water conservation onto the agenda of the process industry. Many conceptual and mathematical techniques are available for determining appropriate water management practices to achieve this, but these are often not easily applied in complex, multi-contaminant systems such as petroleum refineries. This study investigated the use of water auditing techniques to examine water flows within a petroleum refinery, concurrently identifying practical ways for achieving water conservation. The work demonstrated that, even in a refinery with processes considered highly efficient within the industry, many opportunities existed to improve water conservation through technical, cultural and behavioural adaptations. These included the use of alternate water sources such as rainwater runoff, reuse of water within process units, and the introduction of an overarching company policy to minimise water use and effluent discharge. Water auditing was shown to be a simple yet effective method for exposing water management procedures which could be adopted for continual improvement, contributing to the emerging ideal practice of zero liquid discharge.

Responsabilidade social empresarial: análise da relação entre a receita líquida e os investimentos socioambientais da Petrobras

Este estudo insere-se no campo da Responsabilidade Social Empresarial – RSE. Procurou-se analisar o desempenho socioambiental da Petrobras, através do coeficiente de correlação entre o faturamento líquido e os investimentos em ações sociais e ambientais. Os dados foram coletados através dos balanços sociais da empresa no modelo proposto pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas – IBASE, entre o período de 1998 e 2009. Metodologicamente, trata-se de uma pesquisa documental e descritiva, com uma abordagem quantitativa. Os resultados indicaram que existe uma correlação muito forte entre a receita líquida e os investimentos socioambientais, o que significa que a empresa possui um alto desempenho socioambiental, estando este fortemente relacionado com o desempenho financeiro. Porém, a associação mais forte encontrada em relação à receita líquida, foi quanto aos indicadores sociais internos e externos, com o coeficiente de correlação r igual a 0,982 e 0,977, respectivamente, enquanto o coeficiente de correlação encontrado na relação com indicador ambiental resultou em r igual a 0,722. Considerando-se por partes, o desempenho social da empresa é maior que o seu desempenho ambiental.