Building an Environmental Sustainability Dictionary for the IT Industry

Content analysis is a commonly utilized methodology in corporate sustainability research. However, because most corporate sustainability research using content analysis is based on human coding, the research capability and the scope of the research design has limitations. The relatively recent text mining technique addresses some of the limitations of manual content analysis but its usage is often dependent upon the development of a domain specific dictionary. This paper develops an environmental sustainability dictionary in the context of corporate sustainability reports for the IT industry. In support of building said dictionary, we develop a standardized dictionary building process model that can be applied across many domains

Inside the Black Box of Dictionary Building for Text Analytics: A Design Science Approach

The purpose of this paper is to develop and demonstrate a dictionary building process model for text analytics projects following the design science methodology. Using inductive consensus-building, we examined prior research to develop an initial process model. The model is subsequently demonstrated and validated by using data to develop an environmental sustainability dictionary for the IT industry. To our knowledge, this is an initial attempt to provide a normalized dictionary building process for text analytics projects. The resulting process model can provide a road map for researchers who want to use automated approaches to text analysis but are currently prevented by the lack of applicable domain dictionaries. Having a normalized design process model will assist researchers by legitimizing their work requiring dictionary building and help academic reviewers by providing an evaluation framework. The resulting environmental sustainability dictionary for IT industry can be used as a starting point for future research on Green IT and sustainability management

Beyond sustainable buildings: eco-efficiency to eco-effectiveness through cradle-to-cradle design

Sustainable building development focuses on achieving buildings that meet performance and functionality requirements with minimum adverse impact on the environment. Such eco-efficiency strategies are however not feasible for achieving long-term economic and environmental objectives as they only result in damage reduction without addressing design flaws of contemporary industry. The cradle-to-cradle (C2C) design philosophy which has been described as a paradigm changing innovative platform for achieving ecologically intelligent and environmentally restorative buildings appears to offer an alternative vision which, if embraced, could lead to eco-effectiveness and the achievement of long-term environmental objectives. Adoption of C2C principles in the built environment has however been hindered by several factors especially in a sector where change has always been a very slow process. From a review of extant literature, it is argued that the promotion of current sustainable and/or gree n building strategies - which in themselves are not coherent enough due to their pluralistic meanings and sometimes differing solutions - are a major barrier to the promotion of C2C principles in the built environment. To overcome this barrier to C2C implementation, it is recommended that research should focus on developing clearly defined and measurable C2C targets that can be incorporated into project briefs from the inception of development projects. These targets could enable control, monitoring and comparison of C2C design outcomes with eco-efficient measures as well as serve as a guide for project stakeholders to achieve eco-effective “nutrient” management from the project conceptualization phase to the end of life of the building

Sustainable clothing: challenges, barriers and interventions for encouraging more sustainable consumer behaviour

Research with consumers has revealed limited awareness of the sustainability impact of clothing (Goworek et al., 2012). Semi-structured interviews conducted with a range of experts in sustainable clothing to increase understanding of the challenges for sustainable clothing revealed that a focus on sustainability alone will not drive the necessary changes in consumers’ clothing purchase, care and disposal behaviour for three reasons: (i) clothing sustainability is too complex; (ii) consumers are too diverse in their ethical concerns; and (iii) clothing is not an altruistic purchase. The findings identify the challenges that need to be addressed and the associated barriers for sustainable clothing. Interventions targeting consumers, suppliers, buyers and retailers are proposed that encourage more sustainable clothing production, purchase, care and disposal behaviour. These interventions range from normalising the design of sustainable clothing and increasing the ease of purchase, to shifting clothes washing norms and increasing upcycling, recycling and repair

Preparing millennials as digital citizens and socially and environmentally responsible business professionals in a socially irresponsible climate

As of 2015, a millennial born in the 1990's became the largest population in the workplace and are still growing. Studies indicate that a millennial is tech savvy but lag in the exercise of digital responsibility. In addition, they are passive towards environmental sustainability and fail to grasp the importance of social responsibility. This paper provides a review of such findings relating to business communications educators in their classrooms. The literature should enable the development of a millennial as an excellent global citizen through business communications curricula that emphasizes digital citizenship, environmental sustainability and social responsibility. The impetus for this work is to provide guidance in the development of courses and teaching strategies customized to the development of each millennial as a digital, environmental and socially responsible global citizen

Linerboard made from Soda-Anthraquinone (Soda-AQ) treated coconut coir fiber and effect of pulp beating

The performance of coir fiber in the production of linerboard made from soda-anthraquinone (soda-AQ) pulp was evaluated. Based on chemical analysis, the composition of coir fiber is suitable for the pulping process. Out of nine pulping conditions characterized, a pulping condition of 18% active alkali for 90 min cooking time was chosen. These conditions provided the highest screened yield (48.99%), a low rejection yield (0.27%), high viscosity (11.73 cP), and a kappa number (41) that is acceptable for unbleached linerboard production. Beating strengthened the coir pulp. Analyzing the beating revealed that coir pulp was optimized at 1000 to 2000 revolutions, based on a graph of freeness vs. burst index. For all beating conditions (1000 to 8000 revolutions), FESEM micrographs showed the presence of internal and external fibrillation of the fiber, which gradually increased fiber conformability and improved the inter-fiber bonding within the paper formation. Based on its burst strength of 4.57 kPa.m2/g and ring crush test of 1.76 Nm2/g, which complies with the minimum requirement of the industry standard, coir fiber can be considered an alternative fiber source for linerboard production

Proceedings of the African Diaspora Conference on Sustainable Development

The authors urge the Western donor organizations to facilitate and support the take up of such more sustainable models