Paris, Panels, and Protectionism: Matching US Rhetoric with Reality to Save the Planet

US rhetoric has not matched reality in the free trade or sustainability contexts, as may be seen by the ongoing debates surrounding a range of behaviors that violate international trade rules. The US government\u27s failure to adhere to the rules that it was instrumental in crafting sets a particularly troubling precedent. These trade distortions reduce trust and respect among countries and undermine efforts to combat climate change. Simultaneously, we are witnessing a growing preference for minilateral agreements, as may be seen in the Obama Administration\u27s push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and US-EU Trade Pact. This trend is likely to continue as Donald Trump has signaled his intention to move away from multilateral trade deals and favor bilateral accords. The Chinese government has pursued a similar approach in the context of financial governance and, with its recent creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, has also exhibited a willingness to circumvent existing global institutions. Concurrently, the international community has been engaged in negotiations under the umbrella of the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change to mitigate the threat of global climate change and similarly promote sustainability, most recently via the Paris Agreement. This Article identifies a series of inconsistencies in US trade policies and completes a comparative case study of the ongoing disputes between China and the United States surrounding solar energy subsidies in hopes of finding opportunities for collective action that promotes both free trade and sustainability. It also pinpoints roadblocks to promoting both the free trade and sustainability movements, and through the lens of the literature on polycentric governance, discusses the trend towards--as well as the benefits and drawbacks of--minilateral and multilateral approaches to furthering sustainable development

The inclusion ofEnvironmental concerns in the development of Biofuel Policies for Transport

Biofuels are providing an increasing percentage of the transportation fuel in Europe. The reference value given for a potential expected market increase has been 5 % by the end of 2010, presumably half of this increase would need to be supplied by trade and international biofuel markets according to the European Commission. An important question that needs addressing is whether international trade on biofuels for transport can be developed in a way that is socially and environmentally sustainable. This paper attempts to provide an initial answer to this question. The paper provides a comparative review of the characterization and accounting of environmental impacts of biofuel production, distribution and consumption that informs the development of local policies and decisions about import/export capabilities in selected countries. The paper consists primarily on a summary report on the findings of a desk-study review of official national published reports, websites, and comparative international studies. The scope of the search considered general assessment on biofuels published in at least three European countries, international organizations and a couple of other main biofuel producer/consumers (US, Brazil). The findings are grouped in categories: regarding the assumptions and emphasis given in each country/study, listing the environmental implications considered and the development of frameworks to handle the sustainability impacts of biofuel production. The results seek to highlight critical findings and compare diverse policy development in terms of areas of emphasis, emerging concepts, use of frameworks for analysis of environmental impacts, setting of targets and conditions for sustainability. The study reveals that significant uncertainty remains in methodologies and factors used to assess environmental impacts.– including calculations of GHG and energy balances. Further development of the life-cycle assessment tool for biofuels is essential specifically to give greater attention to subjects such as human, social and ecological health, biodiversity and land changes, all of which need to be featuring as prominently in the assessment as the concerns about climate change and resource depletion. The need for the emergence of new institutions at the local level that can give credibility to monitoring efforts and global implementation of stringent sustainability standards for biofuel production, distribution and consumption appears to be one of the greatest and more difficult challenges that needs addressing

Green human resource management: a comparative qualitative case study of a United States multinational corporation

This article explores the ways in which a multinational company (MNC) approaches Green Human Resource Management (HRM) in its British, German and Swedish subsidiaries. The authors analyze the similarities and differences in Green HRM approaches in these three European subsidiaries of a US restaurant chain. This enables the comparison of Green HRM practises and behaviors, and considers the factors that influence the subsidiaries in this particular domain. Therefore, this research addresses the current lack of international comparative research in the field of Green HRM. The methodological approach is multi-case study with 50 participants, using semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The results show evidence of pro-active environmental management, reflected through a range of operational and people-centred initiatives across the three European countries. Although there is an overarching commitment to environmental sustainability, the positioning and alignment of the environment and HR function differ amongst the subsidiaries, as does the way in which the subsidiaries choose to engage the workforce in environmental sustainability. The study identified a number of factors which explain the differences in approach including, amongst others, strategic and performance drivers and cultural dimensions, such as relationships with key stakeholders

Green human resource management: a comparative qualitative case study of a United States multinational corporation

This article explores the ways in which a multinational company (MNC) approaches Green Human Resource Management (HRM) in its British, German and Swedish subsidiaries. The authors analyze the similarities and differences in Green HRM approaches in these three European subsidiaries of a US restaurant chain. This enables the comparison of Green HRM practises and behaviors, and considers the factors that influence the subsidiaries in this particular domain. Therefore, this research addresses the current lack of international comparative research in the field of Green HRM. The methodological approach is multi-case study with 50 participants, using semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The results show evidence of pro-active environmental management, reflected through a range of operational and people-centred initiatives across the three European countries. Although there is an overarching commitment to environmental sustainability, the positioning and alignment of the environment and HR function differ amongst the subsidiaries, as does the way in which the subsidiaries choose to engage the workforce in environmental sustainability. The study identified a number of factors which explain the differences in approach including, amongst others, strategic and performance drivers and cultural dimensions, such as relationships with key stakeholders

¿Qué conocen los alumnos universitarios sobre sostenibilidad? Un estudio comparativo en universidades de países diferentes

El trabajo que presentamos se centra en un estudio comparativo sobre lo que conocen los alumnos universitarios acerca del concepto sostenibilidad. El estudio empírico, aún en curso, se basa en una encuesta on-line dirigida a alumnos de la New York University, de la Pace University y de la Universidad de Sevilla. Los resultados preliminares obtenidos nos llevan a justificar la necesaria enseñanza de dicha materia en distintos cursos y titulaciones universitarias con el fin de difundir una cultura a favor de la sostenibilidad. Y de ese modo contribuir también a garantizar el desarrollo de las generaciones futuras y a dar respuesta, asimismo, a la demanda de acciones que reclaman los organismos internacionales con objeto desarrollar el turismo de una manera sostenible.Our paper is focused on a comparative study about university’ students knowledge of sustainability. The ongoing empirical study is based on a survey that has been administered through online survey platform to a listserv of students from New York University, Pace University and Universidad de Sevilla. The preliminary results encourage us to justify the need of teaching about sustainability in different courses at university degrees in order to spread a pro-sustainability culture and contribute to guarantee the future generation development. In the same way, this project gives a response to the demanded actions that the international organizations are claiming in order to develop the tourism in a sustainable way

Critical Evaluation of Environmental, Social and Governance Disclosures of Malaysian Property and Construction Companies

There is an increasing demand from stakeholders for higher transparency on environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures. Yet not much is known about the state of sustainability reporting in Malaysia especially in the property and construction industry. This paper aims to fill this gap accordingly. Content analysis of corporate websites, sustainability and annual reports was adopted as the main methodology in this study. Findings show that corporate governance indicators are most reported by Malaysian construction companies compared to other environmental or social indicators. It was also found that details on actual health and safety performance of these companies and the initiatives implemented were largely absent from their reporting. Given the increasing number of rating tools in the capital markets which serve to rank and file companies based on their sustainability disclosures and performance such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and FTSE4Good Index, it is questionable as to how reliable this can be done for the Malaysian property and construction market. The paper will be useful to construction management practitioners and ESG analysts with a focus on Asian markets

Reactivity to sustainability metrics: A configurational study of motivation and capacity

Previous research on reactivity – defined as changing organisational behaviour to better conform to the criteria of measurement in response to being measured – has found significant variation in company responses towards sustainability metrics. We propose that reactivity is driven by dialogue, motivation and capacity in a configurational way. Empirically, we use fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to analyse company responses to the sustainability index FTSE4Good. We find evidence of complimentary and substitute effects between motivation and capacity. Based on these effects we develop a typology of reactivity to sustainability metrics, which also theorises the use of metrics as tools for performance feedback and the building of calculative capacity. We show that when reactivity is studied configurationally, we can identify previously underacknowledged types of responses. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications for studying and using sustainability metrics as governance tools for responsible behaviour

Tourist attitudes towards water use in the developing world: A comparative analysis

This paper examines tourists' attitudes towards water use based on comparative data from interviews with tourists in Zanzibar, The Gambia and Dominican Republic. Unsustainable water use, accentuated by climate change, threatens access to water which potentially forms a source of conflict between tourists, tourism businesses, residents and the environment. Additionally it raises issues about rights of access to water. The results emphasise the actual nature and scale of tourist use of water and their lack of awareness of the impacts of this use on the local environment and community. This lack of awareness becomes an added indicator of the growing unsustainability of tourism in certain destinations and needs to be considered alongside the longer-term scenarios of climate change. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

Comparative study of Sustainability Metrics for Face Milling AISI 1045 in different Machining Centers

Comunicación presentada a MESIC 2019 8th Manufacturing Engineering Society International Conference (Madrid, 19-21 de Junio de 2019)The objective of this study is to compare a set of sustainability metrics between different manufacturing resources applied to high performances machining centers. The research compares distributed scenarios in order to find the optimal conditions that allow the minimum consumed power and the minimum roughness when performing face milling operations of AISI 1045 steel. The set of experiments for the surface machining was carried out considering different path strategies in three main directions for two dimensional movements of the tool. The selected experiments considered the main axis movement, the perpendicular axis movement and a 45 degrees movement. Besides, it was considered the feed rate speed and the cutting depth. The design of experiments was developed with the Taguchi method considering an orthogonal matrix of L27 design type, and three levels of experimental design, and the analysis of variance and noise signal were performed. The methodology to determine the lowest power consumed and the best surface quality allowed to establish the working condition in the most sustainable machining. The results show how the cutting parameters influence in each manufacturing resource