GEOG 261/361--Decision Methods for Environmental Management and Policy

Information resulting from environmental assessments needs to be systematically organized and analyzed to be useful in the decision making process. This course provides a survey of methods, tools, and processes that are currently used to aid environmental decision makers (who may include policy makers, environmental managers, and stakeholders)

Benchmarking in Tourism Destination, Keeping in Mind the Sustainable Paradigm

Tourism destination benchmarking and the assessment of tourism management performances are a crucial and challenging task in the direction of evaluating tourism sustainability and reshaping tourism activities. However, assessing tourism management efficiency per se may not provide enough information concerning long-term performances, which is what sustainability is about. Natural resources management should therefore be included in the analysis to provide a more exhaustive picture of long-run sustainable efficiency and tourism performances. Indeed, while the environmental endowment of a site is a key feature in tourism destination comparison, what really matters is its effective management. Therefore, in this paper we assess and compare tourism destinations, not only in terms of tourism services supply, but also in terms of the performance of environmental management. The proposed efficiency assessment procedure is based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). DEA is a methodology for evaluating the relative efficiency when facing multiple input and output. Although the methodology is extremely versatile, for the sake of exemplification, in this paper it is applied to the valuation of sustainable tourism management of the twenty Italian regions.Data envelopment analysis, Sustainable tourism indicators

Managing Interacting Criteria: Application to Environmental Evaluation Practices

The need for organizations to evaluate their environmental practices has been recently increasing. This fact has led to the development of many approaches to appraise such practices. In this paper, a novel decision model to evaluate company’s environmental practices is proposed to improve traditional evaluation process in different facets. Firstly, different reviewers’ collectives related to the company’s activity are taken into account in the process to increase company internal efficiency and external legitimacy. Secondly, following the standard ISO 14031, two general categories of environmental performance indicators, management and operational, are considered. Thirdly, since the assumption of independence among environmental indicators is rarely verified in environmental context, an aggregation operator to bear in mind the relationship among such indicators in the evaluation results is proposed. Finally, this new model integrates quantitative and qualitative information with different scales using a multi-granular linguistic model that allows to adapt diverse evaluation scales according to appraisers’ knowledge

Using Data Envelopment Analysis to Evaluate Environmentally Conscious Tourism Management

This paper discusses a methodology to assess the performances of tourism management of local governments when economic and environmental aspects are considered as equally relevant. In particular, the focus is on the comparison and efficiency assessment of Italian municipalities located on the costal areas. In order to assess the efficiency status of the considered management units, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a methodology for evaluating the relative efficiency of decision making units, is applied. The efficiency index measure used in DEA analysis accounts for both environmental and economic features correlated to the tourism industry. Further, potential managerial improvements for those areas resulting far from the efficiency frontier can be investigated.Data envelopment analysis, Sustainable tourism

Which competitive advantages can firms really obtain from ISO14001 certification?

Ten years after the introduction of ISO14001, in this paper we present empirical evidence about the competitive advantages that managers associate to this environmental practice, from a sample of industrial firms located in Spain. The results indicate that the potential competitive advantages are: improvement of the internal efficiency, differentiation advantages, attention to the stakeholders’ requirements, enhancement of the competitive position in the sector and financial savings. Nevertheless managers’ expectations of improving internal efficiency might be the real reason that encourages firms to make the voluntary decision of investing in ISO14001 certificationPeer Reviewe

Lean and green – a systematic review of the state of the art literature

The move towards greener operations and products has forced companies to seek alternatives to balance efficiency gains and environmental friendliness in their operations and products. The exploration of the sequential or simultaneous deployment of lean and green initiatives is the results of this balancing action. However, the lean-green topic is relatively new, and it lacks of a clear and structured research definition. Thus, this paper’s main contribution is the offering of a systematic review of the existing literature on lean and green, aimed at providing guidance on the topic, uncovering gaps and inconsistencies in the literature, and finding new paths for research. The paper identifies and structures, through a concept map, six main research streams that comprise both conceptual and empirical research conducted within the context of various organisational functions and industrial sectors. Important issues for future research are then suggested in the form of research questions. The paper’s aim is to also contribute by stimulating scholars to further study this area in depth, which will lead to a better understanding of the compatibility and impact on organisational performance of lean and green initiatives. It also holds important implications for industrialists, who can develop a deeper and richer knowledge on lean and green to help them formulate more effective strategies for their deployment

Internal Green Supply Chain Management Practices Influence on Firm Performance

Green supply chain management (GSCM) is a valuable tool for manufacturing companies that seek to reduce the environmental impact and also improve their firm performance. However, in South America, this topic is just emerging. Based on a survey of 216 respondents, this paper assesses the impact of the implementation of internal green supply chain management practices (internal environmental management and eco-design) on environmental, operational and economic performance of Peruvian manufacturing companies. The data was analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that internal environmental management positively influences the three aspects of firm performance but eco-design only influence environmental and operational performance. The practical implications of this research suggest that managers should put their efforts on implementing internal GSCM practices to obtain the benefits on performance. Keywords: Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM), Internal Environmental Management (IEM), Eco-Design (ED), firm performance, Per

Towards Sustainable Performance: Promoting Eco-Design in Green Supply Chain Management Practices

This paper explores the green supply chain management practices adoption among Malaysian ISO 14001 certified manufacturing companies. The green practices that are measured in this research are eco-design, green purchasing and reverse logistics. This study used survey to collect responses from 616 manufacturing companies, with a response rate of 24.68%. The findings provided evidence that the level of green supply chain management practices has been implemented to a greater extent among responding firms. Specifically, the results have empirically proven that eco-design was the most highly adopted green practices among these manufacturing firms. In view of these findings, green supply chain management practices that involve external relationship with suppliers and customers (green purchasing and reverse logistics) have comparatively lower adoption than internally-focused green supply chain management practices (eco-design), which involves fewer external relationships. This paper provides the possible reasons for eco-design being the most adopted green practise among Malaysian ISO 14001 certified manufacturing companies and provides suggestions for firms in view of enhancing their sustainable performance through promoting eco-design in their green practices

Building a competitive advantage through sustainable operations strategy

This paper addresses an important gap in sustainability and technology management studies: the strategies for sustainable operations. Based on analysis of cases from automotive, textile, chemical, and food processing industries, the authors discuss the responses companies take to environmental and social pressures when aiming at increasing profitability. Our findings show that adaptations of traditional operations strategy frameworks can be useful when developing and assessing sustainability strategy for operations. Lastly, we also offer definitions for ‘sustainable operations strategy’ and ‘sustainable technology’ as those are not yet established in the literature. We consider the contribution of this article to be linked to the development and evaluation of sustainable operations strategies, which will invariably include the choice and use of technologies