Sustainability’s Correlation to Profit

Sustainability and its correlation to profits in hospitality institutions is the subject of this paper. The lack of knowledge about sustainability and the benefits of sustainable practices are discussed. The evaluation of a GreenSeal (2010) Bronze certification G46-Restaurant audit is also examined. Research includes the review of industry experts’ findings on the subject and the social costs and benefits are evaluated based on the goal of economic, ecological, and social sustainability

Space benefits: The secondary application of aerospace technology in other sectors of the economy

Benefit cases of aerospace technology utilization are presented for manufacturing, transportation, utilities, and health. General, organization, geographic, and field center indexes are included

Improving Institutional Access to Financing Incentives for Energy Demand Reductions

We developed this project in response to a growing local­level demand for information and guidance on accessing local, state, and federal energy financing programs. Knowledge regarding these programs is currently scattered across independent websites and agencies, making it difficult for a lay user to identify available options for funding energy efficiency efforts. We collaborated with The Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor nonprofit, to develop an information­based tool that would provide tailored recommendations to small businesses and organizations in need of financing to meet their energy efficiency aspirations. The tool was developed for use by The Ecology Center along with an implementation plan to strengthen their outreach to local stakeholders and assist their efforts in reducing Michigan’s energy consumption. We researched and analyzed existing clean energy and energy efficiency policies and financing opportunities available from local, state, federal, and utility entities for institutions in the educational, medical, religious, and multi­family housing sectors. The design and content of the tool and its accompanying educational materials was influenced by a series of social surveys and interviews conducted with local business and nonprofit representatives. The surveys and interviews revealed the level of existing institutional knowledge on energy efficiency, local barriers to accessing financing and implementing projects, and the motivations and concerns of individuals regarding efficiency upgrades. The resulting information tool will help fulfill the project’s goal of improving accessibility to energy efficiency financing for qualified stakeholders in Washtenaw and Oakland Counties.Master of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/117631/1/Improving_Inst_Access_to_Fin_Incentives_MP.pd

Industry and Tertiary Sectors towards Clean Energy Transition

The clean energy transition is the transition from the use of nonrenewable energy sources to renewable sources and is part of the wider transition to sustainable economies through the use of renewable energy, the adoption of energy-saving measures, and sustainable development techniques. The clean energy transition is a long and complex process that will lead to an epochal change, and it will allow safeguarding the health of the environment in the long term. For its success, it necessitates contribution from everyone, from the individual citizen to large multinationals, passing through SMEs; national and international policies play a key role in paving the way to this process. This Special Issue is focused on technical, financial, and policy-related aspects linked to the transition of industrial and service sectors towards energy saving and decarbonization. These different aspects are interrelated and, as such, they have been analyzed with an interdisciplinary approach, for example, by combining economic and technical information. The collected papers focus on energy efficiency and clean-energy key technologies, renewable sources, energy management and monitoring systems, energy policies and regulations, and economic and financial aspects

Best Environmental Management Practice in the Fabricated Metal Product manufacturing sector

This report encloses technical information pertinent to the development of Best Environmental Management Practices (BEMPs) for the Sectoral Reference Document on the Fabricated Metal Products manufacturing sector, to be produced by the European Commission according to Article 46 of Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009 (EMAS Regulation). The BEMPs, both of technological and management nature (identified in close cooperation with a technical working group) address all the relevant environmental aspects of the Fabricated Metal Products manufacturing facilities. The BEMPs described in this report provide guidance on the cross-cutting issues and optimisation of utilities of the manufacturing facilities. Moreover, the BEMPs cover also the most relevant manufacturing processes, looking at energy and material efficiency, protecting and enhancing biodiversity, using of renewable energy and using rationally and effectively chemicals e.g. for cooling of various machining processes. Each BEMP gives a wide range of information and outlines the achieved environmental benefits, appropriate environmental performance indicators to measure environmental performance against the proposed benchmarks of excellence, economics etc. aiming at giving inspiration and guidance to any company of the sector who wishes to improve its environmental performance.JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

Responsible Environmental Behavior, Energy Conservation, and Compact Fluorescent Bulbs: You Can Lead a Horse to Water, But Can You Make It Drink?

Despite professing to care about the environment and supporting environmental causes, individuals behave in environmentally irresponsible ways like driving when they can take public transportation, littering, or disposing of toxic materials in unsound ways. This is the author\u27s fourth exploration of how to encourage individuals to stop behaving irresponsibly about the environment they allege to care deeply about. The prior three articles all explored how the norm of environmental protection could be enlisted in this effort; this article applies those theoretical conclusions to the very practical task of getting people to switch the type of light bulb they use. To accomplish this, the article synthesizes the previous articles into an assumption about the critical role of norms in changing personal behavior and tests that assumption by exploring how to make individuals more responsible consumers of electricity and adhere to the concrete norm of energy conservation by swapping out their incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent lights (“CFLs”). The agreed upon goal behind energy conservation is to reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuel-based energy production, thus reducing the emission of harmful airborne pollutants and greenhouse gases as well as the related environmental harms associated with coal production. One way to reduce residential energy consumption is to persuade individuals to switch to CFLs. Up to ninety percent of energy produced by incandescent bulbs is lost as heat; switching to CFLs is one way to prevent this energy loss