Sustainable Vision Research Articles

Rebuilding Libya a Bird’s Eye View

There are numerous important human activity factors which cause drastic reduction of the population of migratory birds as well as resident birds in the Libyan coastal areas and inner land too. Resulting into the deterioration of the ecosystems which support life, urban health, and simultaneously causes loss of urban heritage and place identity. The urban sprawl has increased significantly over the past few decades as a result of population growth and economic activity. This rapid urbanization seriously invaded agricultural land and natural environment to the extent of endangering rural and urban landscape. In the absence of legislative regulations; this uncontrolled spatial development is threatening wildlife habitat. Therefore, we see how urban expansion has gone out of control in many Libyan cities to an alarming rate surmounting the increase rate of population caused by extensive economic policies. These policies lack an ecological vision of preservation of cultural and natural heritage which would have ensured the realization of healthy ecosystem and a sustained vision towards the future of rebuilding Libya. This paper aims to identify the relationship between built environment and natural habitat for migratory and resident birds. The paper is using archival research methods by drawing together mortality causes from various sources so that human related factors can be placed in perspective with one another and perhaps, eventually, with other mortality factors in future studies. The paper attempts to shed light on the dangers faced by these birds including those inflicted by human activities. Finally, the paper tries to formalise general outlines for presenting safer urban environment for birds in the city. A strategy for green buildings and sustained urban design in order to preserve the fragile natural landscape and the endangered biological diversity in our Libyan cities.

Sustainability assessment of a community open space vision

Urban sustainability visions must address diverse challenges spanning social and ecological issues yet urban visions are often weak in sustainability, demonstrating a need for a strong and holistic assessment of visioning processes, their outputs, and outcomes. Through a case study of a community visioning process for an urban neighborhood-scale open space in South Carolina, United States, this paper presents key insights from a novel approach for assessing the sustainability of visioning projects, framed around a program evaluation logic model. It describes a mixed-methods assessment of the case including: (1) a qualitative analysis of the visioning process that inspects the quality of the participatory process that generated the vision; (2) a content analysis of the vision report—the process output—that analyzes the sustainability content of the stakeholders’ ideas; and (3) a quantitative natural capital assessment that compares the vision against alternative plausible scenarios proposed by stakeholders to the visioning process’ outcomes and evaluates the ecological integrity of the vision. The research finds that the vision was crafted through a fair participatory process that created stakeholder satisfaction, that the vision emphasizes social capital and equity and justice over other sustainability ends, and that the neighborhood vision may generate stronger ecosystem services than other proposed options suggesting opportunity for positive feedbacks. Despite a positive assessment, the assessment used here showed there was room to co-create a stronger vision of a sustainable future that strives to achieve multiple sustainability principles across human and natural systems. Contributing to the literature on urban sustainability assessment, this paper demonstrates a novel and holistic approach to assessing sustainability of local urban planning processes and their outcomes and concludes with recommendations for streamlining such assessments to better inform policy decisions before they are made.

Expanding Maternal and Neonatal Survival in Indonesia: A program overview

The Expanding Maternal and Neonatal Survival (EMAS) program was implemented from September 2011 to March 2017 to support the Indonesian Ministry of Health to improve the quality of emergency obstetric and newborn care, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of emergency referrals, and increase accountability through local government and civic engagement. EMAS worked in over 400 public and private referral hospitals and community health centers (puskesmas) in six provinces where over 50% of all maternal deaths were occurring. Mentoring was the main method used to improve performance at facilities and within referral systems. The use of data for prospective assessment of indicators of improved quality of care and referral efficiency was strengthened. Case reviews were used to examine contextual factors contributing to maternal deaths in EMAS-target hospitals and external evaluations were used in retrospective assessments of effectiveness of approaches. The vision of sustainability was infused into EMAS approaches from the outset. Collaboration and advocacy with district health offices in EMAS-supported districts enabled self-funding of selected interventions within 23 of 30 EMAS districts and 35 non-EMAS districts. Articles in this Supplement describe outcomes and impact of EMAS approaches over the term of the program.

The Framing of Urban Sustainability Transformations

Transformational change is not always intentional. However, deliberate transformations are imperative to achieve the sustainable visions that future generations deserve. Small, unintentional tweaks will not be enough to overcome persistent and emergent urban challenges. Recent scholarship on sustainability transformations has evolved considerably, but there is no consensus on what qualifies transformational change. We describe variations in current discussions of intentional sustainability transformations in the literature and synthesize strategies from funding institutions’ recent requests for proposals for urban sustainability transformations. Research funding initiatives calling for transformational change are increasingly common and are an important driver of how transformational change is articulated in research-practice in cities. From this synthesis, we present seven criteria for transformational change that provide direction for framing and implementing transformational change initiatives.

Perspective on pricing district heating pricing in Sustainable energy systems

District heating systems play an important role for increased system efficiency and reduced climate impact. However, the heat market is changing in many ways. Some example of that is that current climate change reduces the heat demand for the buildings, more energy efficient houses are being built, and the competition from other heating actors escalates. Increased knowledge and cooperation with customers is therefore crucial for the district heating industry. Today, several real estate companies are considering replacing installed district heating and instead investing in their own heat pump solutions, which means that the energy utilities are facing reduced demand of heat. In this perspective, it is important to open up for increased cooperation between different energy sources. No energy source alone can fulfil a regions total demand of heat. Increase cooperation between different sectors, and a systems perspective with regard to the region's total energy demand, is therefore crucial to alter the use of energy towards more sustainability. Attractive price models that encourage energy efficiency and lead to reduce system cost must be developed embracing broth users and suppliers for the whole energy system. The aim of this study is to show what measure for energy supplier and energy users that leads to both reduced climate impact as well as reduced system cost for the whole energy system. The study analyses price models for district heating and future heat demand in a region. A system perspective is applied using a back-casting angel with a desirable sustainable vision.

The sustainability awareness of Brazilian consumers of cotton clothing

Abstract. Clothing production is part of a large chain of businesses, ranging from agribusiness (production of various fibers and cotton) to textiles (spinning, dying), garment making and distribution. Manufacturing of apparel is an essential commercial chain for the developing countries Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Since the clothing industry presents several segments with potential pollution, the consumer vision of sustainability is necessary to promote an essential environmental balance. The present study aimed to evaluate the Brazilian consumer awareness about the impact of clothing production in the environment. An online questionnaire was distributed to an available sample that resulted in 503 responses. Questions were related to the consumers' lifestyle and consumption. Data were organized in a spreadsheet, and the Ecological Footprint (EF) was estimated. Data mining was applied to model the attributes that influence the EF of consumers, and to classify the consumer Ecological Footprint (Bad, Moderate or Good). After estimating the EF of all responses, we applied the cluster analysis to understand how the consumer's group. The results indicated that women spent more on cotton clothes than men. Most of the respondents (62%) are not aware of the clothing production chain and its potential for pollution. Although the consumers are generally concerned with sustainability (66%), most interviewees are not aware of the manufacturing processes of the worn garments neither the impact the cotton manufacturing might cause to the environment. The studied Brazilian consumers show that, although they wear clothes made of cotton, they are not aware of how the production is. Men do not know and do not care about this fact, as can be observed by the decision tree. Another point was that consumers (65%) seek to buy generic products from sustainable companies, but they do not know if the clothing manufacturer is sustainable. It is also observed that the values spent on clothes do not seem to be related to the Ecological Footprint. For the key questions of the questionnaire, the answers by income bracket were checked to verify the relationship with the lifestyle. We concluded that the Ecological Footprint of the consumers increase as their expenditure are greater also in the lifestyle requirements.

Circular, Green, and Bio Economy: How Do Companies in Land-Use Intensive Sectors Align with Sustainability Concepts?

The UN Agenda 2030 deems the private sector pivotal in co-governing sustainability issues. Despite intense research on corporate sustainability there is no explicit analysis of which policy-driven concepts companies choose to forward their sustainability visions and practices. This is relevant because communication of corporate sustainability contributes to legitimizing or delegitimizing company actions, while simultaneously feeding back into public thinking and actions towards sustainability transformations. We addressed the research gap by considering three sustainability concepts mainstreamed at the global level: Circular economy (CE), Green economy (GE), and Bioeconomy (BE). Content analysis was performed on 123 reports from DJSI World companies in five land-use intensive sectors (forest, food, beverages, mining, and energy). Results suggest CE to be omnipresent and homogeneous across all companies and sectors. GE was the second most frequent concept, especially in forest and mining. BE was under-represented in all reports, with the exception of the forest sector. Interlinkages between concepts were few. The CE-BE connection appeared to be the strongest, concerning efficiency and recycling of bio-based resources. The analysis of global sustainability concepts from the perspective of corporate disclosure enables a timely discussion on the role and limits of the business organizations as a participant to sustainability transformations globally.

Stabilization and recycling of contaminated marine sediments

The paper deals with the treatment and reuse of submarine sediments, i.e. a relevant environmental issue due to the annual huge quantities of dredged sediments (over half contaminated) in Europe. In a vision of sustainability and circular economy, stabilization and solidification (S/S) treatments represent an interesting solution for both environmental protection and reuse of sediments in engineering works. The investigation involved polluted clayey sediments taken up to depths of about 1.5m from the seafloor of the Gulf of Taranto (South of Italy). The research investigates the effects of a treatment with cement and lime enhanced by the addition of green additives, such as active carbon and biochar, for chemical remediation. The last one is a promising and cheap adsorbent material, that is the by-product of - mainly - agricultural waste pyrolysis. The first results suggest that appropriate mix designs and curing times could allow the reuse of sediments by both improving their geotechnical characteristics and making them environmentally acceptable in accordance to end-of-waste criteria.

Sustainable development viewed from the lens of Islam

The 'sustainable development' movement arose as a reaction to the myopic formulation of development exclusively in terms of economic growth by neoclassical economics, regardless of its disastrous effects on the planet as well as on the people. The sustainable development movement has made much progress in highlighting the deficiencies of existing economic theory, but its practical import has been insufficient. The purpose of this article is to articulate the Islamic conception of the sustainable development vision and to briefly describe the tools, incentives, and guidelines that Islam offers. The Islamic conception of development is inherently sustainable (as defined by the sustainable community) due to its focus on responsible consumption, empathy for others, and recommendations for simpler lifestyles. Furthermore, the Islamic tradition provides concrete practical tools - such as legal instruments for the state as well as incentives to individuals - that can help in practically implementing the sustainable development vision.

Improved metrics for assessment of immortal materials and products

An emergent vision for industrial sustainability is moving beyond the circular economy into the possibility of "immortal" products. This requires development of methods to enable the reliable and scalable production of novel products and systems that possess the inherent ability to sense and repair damage enabling in service healing and immortality. In the literature, this is mostly described by the self-healing property of the materials (polymers, metals, composites, ceramics and bio and non-bio hybrid systems). Self-healing systems are generally classified according to material type and self-repairing autonomy. This paper presents a brief review of existing immortal products and current methods of assessment. The paper presents an amalgamation of published research in the form of new process windows for the selection of self-heling materials and systems. Another contribution is made by the development of new metrics for assessing self-healing capability, with a vision to produce healing metrics that incorporate technical performance, as well as social, environmental and economic impact.

Sustainability in Asia: Family Business at the Forefront

We interview the leaders of six successful family firms based in SE Asia about their efforts to make their organizations more sustainable. Although the sectors, histories, and locations of these firms differ, they share visions of sustainability rooted in continuing success for the family and the community. In reviewing these cases, we were struck by similarities in the sources that pushed these firms towards sustainability initiatives, the challenges of implementing them, and the winning strategies that helped the leaders of these firms overcome these challenges. After presenting the six cases, we develop these themes in more detail to suggest implications and consider the relevance of these efforts to global sustainability efforts.

Vulnerability of Al-hodidah wetlands in Yemen: main socio-economic causes

Abstract Wetlands provide a lot of benefits to local people such as cultivation, recreation, education, timber production, etc. Like any other country in the world, the aquatic biodiversity of wetlands in Yemen faces several threats as well as a regime of unsustainable human pressures. Several coastal wetlands were lost due to many problems. Understanding of the current situation could identify strategies to ensure the long-term conservation of wetlands. Therefore, this study aims to present the direct and indirect socio-economic causes of the coastal wetland degradation in Yemen. Ra's Eisa area (Al-hodidah coast in Red Sea) was chosen as the case study, while various people (decision makers, experts, practical coordinators and local people) were interviewed. The results show that livestock, agricultural production and wastes are the main socio-economic causes, in addition to tourism and Ra's Eisa Port activities near the wetland area. These causes are a result of the vegetative cover removal in the wetlands. The conclusion shows that the wetlands classification, awareness programs and emergency protection project should be implemented for all stakeholders especially local people. Finally, recommendations are suggested to guide decision-makers to achieve a sustainable vision for wetlands.

An Analysis of User Behavior on Smart City Facilities in Shin-chon Urban Regeneration Project

In cities where various urban problems are produced due to rapid urbanization, the public side makes an effort to create smart cities. They anticipate that smart city will enhace the competitiveness and the quality of life of urban people. The Roadmap for Urban Regeneration New Deal in Korea envisaged plans such as the activation of the Smart City Urban Regeneration New Deal and the Smart City Demonstration Project in 2018. As a result, applying various technologies from the perspective of smart city into urban regeneration are getting lots of attention especially from both central and local government. The purpose of this study is to define the concept of smart city and smart urban regeneration and analyze current status of facilities using smart city technology in urban regeneration project. With the findings, this paper plans to make some considerations while launching smart urban regeneration project. For this purpose, this study examined literature review, user surveys and interviews. As a result, it is necessary to establish a sustainable vision of the local community, publicize the introduction of facilities with local residents, and establish a practical plan and implementation system when introducing smart urban technology in urban regeneration projects.

How Does the New Urban Agenda Align with Comprehensive Planning in U.S. Cities? A Case Study of Asheville, North Carolina

Despite growing interests in sustainable urban development, planning lacks unifying themes or directives for achieving sustainability in cities. While professional rating systems provide some guidance, they can be context-specific by country and may at best target weak sustainability as their intended outcome. The United Nations’ New Urban Agenda attempts to offer a singular vision for urban sustainability, and its language appears flexible enough to apply across contexts. In this research, we explore the extent that emergent themes from the New Urban Agenda can guide urban planning for sustainability, specifically in the United States (U.S.). We develop inductive codes from the New Urban Agenda and compare these emergent themes to the content of Asheville, North Carolina’s (U.S.) comprehensive plan, Living Asheville as well as to the STAR Community rating system (Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities). We ask how well the New Urban Agenda can align with conventional U.S. planning processes and whether it offers value beyond the contributions of industry-standard practices like STAR Communities. We find that the New Urban Agenda voices common urban sustainability goals while making some new contributions, particularly in areas such as equity and governance. We conclude that in contexts like the U.S., the New Urban Agenda might be best carried out by integrating it into already existing frameworks like STAR, which have already been widely implemented. These conclusions are based on a reading of one case study city, and future research should analyze and compare themes of the New Urban Agenda and STAR and analyze case studies of multiple certified cities.

Modeling sustainability visions: A case study of multi-scale food systems in Southwestern Ontario

The process of systematically developing a sustainability vision is an important element of effective environmental management. Sustainability visions can, however, include contradictions and counterintuitive effects due to complex system behavior (e.g., feedback loops, multi-causality) and ambiguous system boundaries (e.g., choice of a scale, such as a regional or national scale). This paper proposes an innovative methodological framework for vision design and assessment (VDA) to analyze the sustainability of future visions on multiple scales with consideration of ecosystem services, and to test their plausibility based upon expert and local knowledge. First, requirements and functions of visionary system designs are identified. Second, a functional organizational analysis defines structures and processes that generate functions. Third, a literature review and participatory modeling process are conducted to analyze the system structures of visionary system designs using causal loop diagrams. Fourth, fuzzy cognitive mapping is used to assess visions based upon sustainability indicators. A case study on sustainable food systems in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, is provided to demonstrate the application of the methodology. Three designs of a sustainable food system were analyzed and tested: urban organic gardening, a local diversified organic food system and a globalized commodity-based organic food system. The results show the advantages and disadvantages of each system design and underline the sustainability benefits of a multi-scale food system based upon a combination of system designs.

The university's role in sustainable development: Activating entrepreneurial scholars as agents of change

The role of (entrepreneurial) universities as change agents in regional economic development has been highlighted previously, but how they can drive regional sustainable development in developing countries has been largely neglected to date. Using qualitative methods and building upon institutional perspectives of sustainable change, we show how being confronted with adverse poverty and pollution in local contexts can drive an entrepreneurial university to develop a sustainability vision that accordingly becomes the driver of institutional change. We demonstrate how local campus leadership, a holistic teaching and research programme, and student involvement can have significant local effects over the short term. However, we also show how liabilities of smallness hinder the creation of significant sustainable local impact. Instead, the campus becomes an incubation space for novel institutional practices for regional development. Indeed, the most promising initiatives return to the original campus for scaling up.This study helps to characterize the entrepreneurial university by first presenting universities as drivers for sustainable change through education and outreach, rather than via traditional commercialization activities and notably in developing countries. Second, the study illustrates the risks and value of creating a separate space for novel concepts for sustainable development to be tested prior to returning these concepts to the principal location.

Food Counts: Food systems report cards, food sovereignty and the politics of indicators

The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems recognized that "current systems will be held in place insofar as these systems continue to be measured in terms of what industrial agriculture is designed to deliver, at the expense of many other outcomes that really matter in food systems" (IPES 2016: 57). In response, they called for new food systems indicators rooted in social justice, support for local economies, ecological regeneration and democratic engagement. This paper reflects on the ways that indicators can serve as a tool to understand the current state of food systems, challenge existing approaches and (re)frame a future vision of equity and sustainability. Our analysis focuses on the development of Food Counts: A Pan-Canadian Sustainable Food Systems Report Card, a first attempt to bring together existing measures of social, environmental, and economic well-being to help researchers, policy makers, and practitioners examine food systems more comprehensively. The report card used a food sovereignty framework and an integrated systems perspective and make connections to a global movement for collective social change. Beyond its practical value, and particularly in the context of Canada's development of a national food policy, our analysis illuminates the limited kinds of data available, the privileging of scientific expertise over traditional knowledge, the assumed value of certain indicators, and the reductionist nature of using data to represent complex food systems. We argue that while report cards can make visible numerous food systems' elements, they can also obscure divers experiences, reinforcing unsustainable practices and policies.

One transition, many transitions? A corpus-based study of societal sustainability transition discourses in four civil society\u2019s proposals

When the civil society makes ‘transition’ its label, it cannot be assumed that different civil society actors share compatible varieties of localist or radical transformationists discourses. This study has comparatively analyzed the discourses in four civil society sustainability transition proposals using a corpus-based methodology. We found that the proposals are similar as they identify the economy as an object and an entry point for transition, frame the economy as embedded in the socio–ecological system, ascribe agency to grassroots movements for transitions from the bottom–up. We also found crucial differences among the discourses regarding the role of the State, the degree of reform or radical innovation, the degree of imaginative character of the sustainability vision, the degree of opposition to capitalism. We suggest that insights on how the civil society employs notions of transition with respect to the themes of politics, emotions and place can help advance theorizations and practices of societal sustainability transitions led by the civil society.

Assessment of the decarbonization capabilities of solar energy in the strategic Indian electricity generation sector

Increased exploitation of solar power could help in reducing hydrocarbon imports and emissions, but will require significant upfront capital investments. A clear sustainability vision will be needed to shape the strategies required for long-term decarbonization pathways.

When strategies matter: Adoption of sustainable supply chain management practices in an emerging economy’s context

Over the past few years, a growing concern has been noticed among society, government and non-government organisations for conserving the environment and adopting Sustainable Supply Chain management (SSCM) practices. However, it is not simple for industries to develop sustainability in their business operations and activities especially in emerging economies. In this sense, the purpose of present research is to recognise and analyse various strategies to implement SSCM practices in Indian context. Present research has recognized nine key strategies. Due to qualitative nature of research, Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) methodology integrated with fuzzy MICMAC analysis to further refine the hidden relationship between strategies has been attempted. The identified SSCM strategies have been categorized based on their dependence and driving power. ISM methodology offers merely binary relationship among strategies, whereas fuzzy MICMAC analysis gives accurate investigation related to dependence and driving power of strategies. Findings reveals that ‘Management involvement, support and commitment’; ‘Understanding of the sustainability impacts of their supply chain’ and ‘Establishing a vision and objectives for supply chain sustainability’ are the strategies with the topmost independence powers. The developed model will help in uncovering the interaction and dependence among the identified strategies in implementation of SSCM practices from industrial viewpoint. The inputs of experts from academia and Indian automotive manufacturing firms have been used in this research. The present work will facilitate automotive and related firms in prioritisation of strategies and managing resources in a most sustainable way in an emerging economy context.