Sawmill Slough Preserve Expansion Proposal 2015

The Sawmill Slough Preserve is a living laboratory which not only promotes student and faculty research and education, but also, serves as a safe harbor and protects a unique biodiversity within a developing urban island environment. Many students choose UNF not just for the academic environment, but for the surrounding natural environment as well. The natural habitats and wildlife that reside on campus foster education and greatly enhance the experience of UNF students. The recommended expansion areas are fundamental in fulfilling the mission of the Preserve to encourage natural biodiversity, and the values of the University, such as “community engagement” and “responsibility to the natural environment.” The Preserve helps to make students; faculty and staff feel that there truly is “No one like you. No place like this.”https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/ecenter_presentations/1006/thumbnail.jp

Environmental Attitudes and Environmental Stewardship: Implications for Sustainability

Although shareowners and boards are critical to shaping a firm’s environmental behavior, this paper gives focus to management practitioners based on their operational functions within the firm. It argues that environmental stewardship is determined by the worldview of managers from which their attitude and ethical response to environmentally-related issues are shaped. The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale is applied to determine the environmental attitude of managers, but the discussion also considers the Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP) to provide further valuable insights to enhance the implications of worldviews on sustainability

Environmental ethics for business sustainability

The paper derives operational principles from environmental ethics for business organizations in order to achieve sustainability. Business affects the natural environment at different levels. Individual biological creatures are affected by business via hunting, fishing, agriculture, animal testing, etc. Natural ecosystems are affected by business via mining, regulating rivers, building, polluting the air, water and land, etc. The Earth as a whole is affected by business via exterminating species, contributing to climate change, etc. Business has a natural, non-reciprocal responsibility toward natural beings affected by its functioning. At the level of individual biological creatures, awareness-based ethics is adequate for business. It implies that business should assure natural life conditions and painless existence for animals and other sentient beings. From this point of view a business activity system can be considered acceptable only if its aggregate impact on animal welfare is non-negative. At the level of natural ecosystems, ecosystem ethics is relevant for business. It implies that business should use natural ecosystems in a proper way, that is, not damaging the health of the ecosystem during use. From this point of view a business activity system can be considered acceptable only if its aggregate impact on ecosystem health is non-negative. At the level of the Earth as a whole, Gaian ethics applies to business. Its implication is that business should not contribute to the violation of the systemic patterns and global mechanisms of the Earth. From this point of view a business activity system can be considered acceptable only if its aggregate impact on the living planet is non-negative. Satisfying the above principles can assure business sustainability in an ethically meaningful way. In this case business performs its duty: not to harm nature or allow others to come to harm

Sustainable Agriculture: Case Study in Barebbo Village, Bone Regency

Ecological sustainability refers to the maintenance of the environmental order on earth so that its sustainability can be maintained. Three aspects must be considered to maintain the integrity of the environmental order, namely; carrying capacity, assimilative capacity and sustainable use of recoverable resources. Environmental development management is essential for ecosystem sustainability. Macroeconomic sustainability guarantees sustainable economic progress and encourages economic efficiency through structural and national reforms. Food security is defined as a condition for the fulfillment of food for households which is reflected in the availability of sufficient food, both in quantity and quality, safe, equitable, and affordable

Environmental sustainability conducts and corporate performance in extractive sector

The subject of environmental sustainability transcends geographical zones, it attracts attention at the top-most business, governmental and civil society levels because of its current visible impacts. Despite the growing concern for a sustainable ecosystem, few applied studies have been conducted to establish the relationship between environmental sustainability and corporate performance in the extractive sector (one of the most profitable of all business sectors, yet arguably the worst culprit in environmental degradation). Therefore, this research seeks to explore the relationship between environmental sustainability and corporate performance in the extractive sector. This relationship was investigated using data from 68 companies within the extractive sector in both Europe and the Americas by the technique of multiple linear regression and event studies by one-way ANOVA. Our results show a negative relationship between environmental sustainability and profit while mixed results were obtained for relationship between environmental sustainability and firm value. In the short horizon, there is a positive relationship between environmental sustainability and firm value while a negative result was obtained in a long-horizon. The pattern of the results is most likely due to the unique nature of the sector where the demand for product exceeds supply. There is monopoly power in the form of cartels, and substitutes for the sector’s products (e.g. oil, gas, and cement) are either unavailable or inadequate. Therefore, poor attention to environmental responsibilities may not necessarily affect the profit but impact negatively on corporate value of the companies within the sector in a short-term. However, in the long-term, poor sensitivity to the environment may not be sustainable

Sustainable mining, local communities and environmental regulation

Sustainable mining is an objective as well as a tool for balancing economic, social, and environmental considerations. Each of these three dimensions of mining – and sustainable development – has many components, some of which were chosen for closer study in the SUMILCERE project. While there is no single component that in itself provides a definitive argument for or against sustainable mining, the research reveals some that have proven valuable in the process of balancing the different dimensions of sustainability. In the SUMILCERE project, comparative studies enabled us to identify factors such as the following, which are essential when discussing the balancing in practice of the three dimensions of sustainable mining cited above: the framework and functionality of environmental regulation to protect the environment (environmental sustainability); the competitiveness of the mining industry in light of environmental regulation and its enforcement (economic sustainability); public participation and the opportunities local communities have to influence their surroundings, as well as communities’ acceptance of projects (social sustainability) before and during operations; and the protection of Sámi cultural rights in mining projects (social and cultural sustainability). Although each of the three dimensions of sustainability leaves room for discretion in the weight assigned to it, ecological sustainability, protected by smart environmental regulation and minimum standards, sets essential boundaries that leave no room for compromises. Economic and social sustainability are possible only within these limits. Details of the analyses in the Kolarctic area and accounts of the methods used can be found in the cited SUMILCERE articles.publishedVersio

Sustainability: Environmental studies and public health

This special issue ‘Sustainability: Environmental Studies and Public Health’ is part of the internationally leading 'International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health’. I was invited to be the guest editor, and to oversee the refereeing process and subsequent selection of timely, relevant and high quality papers highlighting particularly novel aspects concerned with sustainability issues in environmental studies. [...

Enhancing the environmental sustainability of IT

Emerging technologies for learning report - Article exploring green I

Potential impacts for monitoring sustainability: case study of hollow fiber membrane

Sustainability level is a new indicator of quality and efficiency for product life cycle. Sustainability should be balanced among Triple Bottom Line (TBL) aspects namely environmental, economic and social elements. For monitoring the sustainability of product, a comprehensive framework considering potential impacts for sustainability assessment should be developed. Previously, several studies presented frameworks to assess the sustainability level. However, few studies relate their frameworks with the potential impact of all TBL. Determination of potential impacts with its parameter is important during framework development. Potential impacts for environmental such global warming, acidification and eutrophication should be taken seriously. In this study, potential impacts for each sustainability aspects are shown. For the case study of hollow fiber membrane the potential impacts were obtained from primary and secondary data such product specification, bill of materials, literature reviews and help of GaBi Software