Analysing costs for bio-based materials in agriculture : an application of activity based costing on crop coverage

The transition to a sustainable economy is a major challenge of our time that concerns most sectors in our society. Environmental, economic and social aspects are all important dimensions of sustainability, and agriculture is one of the most essential industries for the transition. The implementation of a bio-economy, i.e. an economy based on bio-materials and products, is seen as a key strategy towards sustainability. In this thesis a bio-based method for crop coverage in was investigated. By analysing activities applying a process perspective, information about cost systems and the economics of using bio-materials in agriculture were revealed. The main purpose of this study was to conduct an economic analysis of a bio-based production method in agriculture. The aim was to investigate existing cost activities which occur when using mulch film, and then to calculate the cost outcome for the different types of mulch film. The aim also included to find differences and similarities between the different types of mulch film, regarding the cost activities outcome. Activity Based Costing, which requires both quantitative and qualitative data, was the main theoretical framework in the analysis. The study also applied the mixed methods as research method. For this study, it means collecting and analysing both quantitative and qualitative data about the activities performed in the process. Six respondents were interviewed regarding the mulch film process and the costs it generates. The analysis was made by comparing the data from the respondents and the cost calculated with ABC. The result of the mulch film process was structured as phases containing activities, which occur during the mulch film process. Purchase, storage, lay out, maintenance service, end of season and final management were identified as existing phases. Delivery material, stock-keeping, setup machine, placing, and maintenance service were identified as principal activities existing in the phases. The activity of cultivation, collection and recycling depended and varied between the different mulch film materials. The analysis was conducted from a process perspective. All indirect costs (generated from the cost activities), as well as the direct costs (direct material and labour), were compared to one another as costs per hectare. The study shows the resources with the largest influence on the total result; extra labour and fuel. In some cases, indirect material such as irrigation tubes had a significant share of the indirect costs. A further analysis was made by comparing the bio-based mulch film process with other mulch film alternatives. The analysis also contains a critical reflection of the limitations of this study and the ABC method. The process perspective provided an informative overview of the costs connected to the mulch film process. The ABC method could probably be a useful and informative tool for understanding economic consequences of implementing certain sustainable methods in agriculture

Analysing costs for bio-based materials in agriculture : an application of activity based costing on crop coverage

The transition to a sustainable economy is a major challenge of our time that concerns most sectors in our society. Environmental, economic and social aspects are all important dimensions of sustainability, and agriculture is one of the most essential industries for the transition. The implementation of a bio-economy, i.e. an economy based on bio-materials and products, is seen as a key strategy towards sustainability. In this thesis a bio-based method for crop coverage in was investigated. By analysing activities applying a process perspective, information about cost systems and the economics of using bio-materials in agriculture were revealed. The main purpose of this study was to conduct an economic analysis of a bio-based production method in agriculture. The aim was to investigate existing cost activities which occur when using mulch film, and then to calculate the cost outcome for the different types of mulch film. The aim also included to find differences and similarities between the different types of mulch film, regarding the cost activities outcome. Activity Based Costing, which requires both quantitative and qualitative data, was the main theoretical framework in the analysis. The study also applied the mixed methods as research method. For this study, it means collecting and analysing both quantitative and qualitative data about the activities performed in the process. Six respondents were interviewed regarding the mulch film process and the costs it generates. The analysis was made by comparing the data from the respondents and the cost calculated with ABC. The result of the mulch film process was structured as phases containing activities, which occur during the mulch film process. Purchase, storage, lay out, maintenance service, end of season and final management were identified as existing phases. Delivery material, stock-keeping, setup machine, placing, and maintenance service were identified as principal activities existing in the phases. The activity of cultivation, collection and recycling depended and varied between the different mulch film materials. The analysis was conducted from a process perspective. All indirect costs (generated from the cost activities), as well as the direct costs (direct material and labour), were compared to one another as costs per hectare. The study shows the resources with the largest influence on the total result; extra labour and fuel. In some cases, indirect material such as irrigation tubes had a significant share of the indirect costs. A further analysis was made by comparing the bio-based mulch film process with other mulch film alternatives. The analysis also contains a critical reflection of the limitations of this study and the ABC method. The process perspective provided an informative overview of the costs connected to the mulch film process. The ABC method could probably be a useful and informative tool for understanding economic consequences of implementing certain sustainable methods in agriculture

The process of setting science-based supply chain greenhouse gas emission targets - An exploratory study of IKEA Component’s scope 3 target setting process

Background: The world is facing global warming because of excessive release of greenhouse gases. The Science Based Target Initiative encourages companies to do their fair share in limiting the temperature increase to 2 degrees above preindustrial temperatures. This is called setting science-based targets. Little research has been made on the target setting process and there are few practical examples of companies setting targets for their supply chain. Inter IKEA, including IKEA Components, need to go through this process and want to understand the best way to do it. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to, in cooperation with IKEA, determine how the process of setting supply chain (scope 3) GHG emission targets should be conducted and to help IKEA Components in doing this. Method: This research has a pragmatic worldview and uses an overall qualitative approach to understand the target setting process for scope 3 emissions. The research questions are answered by a mixed research design using both a case study and mathematical modeling. Conclusion: Setting targets for supply chain emissions is often complex since data availability and possibilities to impact rely on external entities. The general process should include; scoping, creating a GHG inventory, modeling, deciding on time horizons and commitment levels, communicating the targets and tracking progress. Companies can during this process choose to have a varying amount of stakeholder input. Using a bottom-up approach including more stakeholder input seems to be more appropriate for companies with less developed green supply chain management practices. A top-down approach better suits companies with well-developed sustainability practices. Following the, in this research proposed, process and insights will make setting supply chain science-based targets somewhat easier. The need for corporate climate action will only increase and more companies will need to set targets. Hopefully this research can be a small piece of the puzzle in helping these companies and contributing to a better planet

Strategic asset management for improved healthcare infrastructure planning in English NHS Trusts

The management of physical healthcare assets is vital for efficient delivery of healthcare services along with improving quality and productivity, amidst significant structural and funding re-organisation within the NHS. Capital allocations are under pressure and advanced strategic planning of healthcare infrastructure is required to maintain services. In doing so, the complexity of multiple interacting systems and mixed stakeholder expectations and competencies need to be addressed. The relationship between stakeholder public consultation and estates strategy development in theory and practice is poorly understood and further theoretical development is required to advance our knowledge in Strategic Asset Management (SAM). This thesis adopts an interpretivist paradigm, and an abductive approach with a case study design methodology. Data were collected from six case studies comprising 91 participants (focus groups and workshops); 6 unstructured interviews; 907 questionnaires; and observations resulting in over 30 hours of transcribed data, along with web-based document analyse (desk studies) within 149 NHS Trusts. The data were further analysed using thematic analyses. Findings reveal how localised conditions within individual healthcare Trusts influence the ways in which national initiatives are interpreted and incorporated; these impact existing ways of developing an estates strategy and in some cases, have implications on the usability of associated healthcare infrastructure spaces. This had clear implications on existing SAM practice, which were diverse, driven by individual project team competencies and associated project management practice. In practice, more focus was given to technical competencies (knowledge of SAM datasets and tools) and behavioural competencies were downplayed. Thus, the integrative Strategic Asset Management (iSAM) framework developed in this research, established a unique baseline to develop SAM plans from a complex interaction of care, estates and transport, providing a valuable resource for healthcare planning teams. Stakeholder consultation should be selective (representative sample) and the content of consultation should be appropriate at various SAM stages. Trusts should clearly indicate how their plans have been influenced, given the feedback from stakeholder consultation. Thus, moving it from a tick box exercise, to one that adds value in the decision making process. Empirical findings revealed that although literature promoted tools and methods to facilitate SAM, in practice, these were hardly used and most teams within English healthcare Trusts were not aware of best practice tools and solutions. Structuration theory was further used as a heuristic device to theoretically triangulate the empirical findings and contribute to a nuanced understanding of SAM within healthcare Trusts. In doing so, a middle range theory for integrative SAM (iSAM) was developed. It revealed that a dynamic system of individual action and organisational structure both constrained and enabled SAM. It was evident that the process of SAM is an open, emergent process of sense making rather than a pre-determined and closed process following prescriptive rules. This thesis has advanced knowledge in SAM and has raised the importance of front end project management within English healthcare Trusts. The new integrative and interdisciplinary iSAM framework facilitates the development of estates strategy and stakeholder consultation decision-making within healthcare Trusts

Prospects for Research in Transport and Logistics on a Regional: Global Perspective (I: February 2009: İstanbul: Turkey)

"International Conference on Prospects for Research in Transport and Logistics on a Global - Regional Perspective" has undertaken the challenge to host very important experts and practitioners of Transport and Logistics from a large spectrum of countries. In our opinion, the conference has fulfilled the purpose of establishing an International Society; "Eurasian and Eastern Mediterranean Institute of Transportation and Logistics Association (EMIT)" that is expected to have a very promising role in the Eurasian and Eastern Mediterranean countries. The purpose of the Association is to contribute to establishing and developing the exchange of research work between all parts of the world in all fields of transportation and logistics. This proceedings book consists of 13 chapters, grouping the contributed papers into the following categories: Global Issues in Logistics and Transportation (3 papers), Regional Issues in Logistics and Transportation (2 papers), Education and Training in Logistics and Transportation (2 papers), Supply Chain Management (3 papers), Sustainable Transport Policies, Traffic Engineering (4 papers), Evaluation of Public Policies, Network Models and Environment (4 papers), Contemporary Topics in Transport and Logistics (7 papers), Transport Planning and Economics (3 papers), Planning, Operations, Management and Control of Transport and Logistics (3 papers), Transport Modeling (5 papers), Freight Transportation and Logistics Management (7 papers), Transport and Land Use (3 papers), Transport Infrastructure and Investment Appraisal (2 papers) It can be readily seen from this volume of selected papers that all papers do elaborate on rather timely problems in the fields of expertise related to Transport and Logistics, which have a considerable global importance.TÜBİTAK; Doğuş Üniversitesi ; Uluslararası Nakliyeciler Derneği ; İDO ; Tırsan ; Türk Hava YollarıCommittees, i -- Words of Welcome and Gratitude, ii -- Introduction, iii -- Chapter 1 Global Issues in Logistics and Transportation, 1 -- Potential to Reduce GHG through Efficient Logistic Concepts, 3 -- Werner Rothengatter -- A methodological framework for the evaluation and prioritisation of multinational transport projects: the Case of euro-asian transport linkages, 21 / Dimitrios TSAMBOULAS, Angeliki KOPSACHEILI -- Container port throughput performance - case study: Far east, north west european and mediterranean ports, 29 / Vesna DRAGOVIC-RADINOVIC, Branislav DRAGOVIC, Maja SKURIC, EmirĞIKMIROVlC and Ivan KRAPOVIC -- Chapter 2 Regional Issues in Logistics and Transportation, 35 -- Logistics service providers in turkey: A panel data analysis, 37 / Emel AKTAŞ, Füsun ÜLENGİN, Berrin AĞARAN, Şule ÖNSEL -- Milestones in the process of survey preparation for the logistics sector: case study for Istanbul, Turkey, 43 / Evren POSACI, Darçın AKIN -- Chapter 3 Education and Training in Logistics and Transportation, 51 -- Education in transport and logistics in an age of global economy, 53 / Yücel Candemlr -- The role of education and training in the supply chain sector, 59 / David Maunder -- Chapter 4 Supply Chain Management, 64 -- Modeling reverse flows in a closed -loop supply chain network, 67 / Vildan ÖZKIR, Önder ÖNDEMİR and Hüseyin BAŞLIGİL -- Strategic analysis of green supply chain management practices in T urkish automotive industry, 73 / Gülçin BÜYÜKÖZKAN and Alişan ÇAPAN -- A new framework for port competitiveness: the network approach, 79 / Marcella DE MARTINO, Alfonso MORVILLO -- Chapter 5 Sustainable Transport Policies, Traffic Engineering, 87 -- Clean transport: innovative solutions to the creation of a more sustainable urban transport system, 89 / Ela BABALIK-SUTCLIFFE -- Effects of urban bottlenecks on highway traffic congestion: case study of Istanbul, Turkey, 95 / Darçın AKIN and Mehtap ÇELİK -- Establishing an effective training module for IMDG code in MET institutions, 105 / Kadir CICEK, Metin CELIK -- An investment decision aid proposal towards choice of container terminal operating systems based on information axioms, 109 / Metin CELIK, Selcuk CEBI -- Chapter 6 Evaluation of Public Policies, Network Models and Environment, 115 -- Possibilistic linear programming approach for strategic resource planning, 117 / Özgür KABAK, Füsun ÜLENGİN -- A structural equation model for measuring service quality in passenger transportation, 125 / G.Nilay YÜCENUR and Nihan ÇETİN DEMİREL -- Analysis of potential gain from using hybrid vehicles in public transportation, 133 / İrem DÜZDAR and Özay ÖZAYDIN -- Optimization of e-waste management in Marmara region - Turkey, 141 / İlke BEREKETLİ, Müjde EROL GENEVOIS -- Chapter 7 Contemporary Topics in Transport and Logistics, 147 -- Future prospects on urban logistic research, 149 / Rosârio MACÂRIO, Vasco REIS -- An analyze of relationship between container ships and ports development, 155 / Branislav DRAGOVIC, Vesna Dragovic-Radinovic, Dusanka Jovovic, Romeo Mestrovic and Emir Ğikmirovic -- A holistic framework for performance measurement in logistics management, 161 / Yasemin Claire ERENSAL -- Heuristics for a generalization of tsp in the context of PCB assembly, 167 / Ali Fuat ALKAYA and Ekrem DUMAN -- Premium e-grocery: Exploring value in logistics integrated service solutions, 173 / Burçin BOZKAYA, Ronan De KERVENOAEL and D. Selcen Ö. AYKAÇ -- T ravelers response to VMS in the Athens area, 179 / Athena TSIRIMPA and Amalia POLYDOROPOULOU -- Regional airports and local development: the challenging balance between sustainability and economic growth, 189 / Rosârio MACÂRIO and Jorge SILVA -- Chapter 8 Transport Planning and Economics, 195 -- How financial constraints and non-optimal pricing affect the design of public transport services, 197 / Sergio R. Jara-Diaz and Antonio Gschwender -- Revenue management for returned products in reverse logistics, 203 / Mesut KUMRU -- Intra-city bus planning using computer simulation, 211 / Reza AZIMI and Amin ALVANCHI -- Chapter 9 Planning, Operations, Management and Control of Transport and Logistics, 217 -- A review of timetabling and resource allocation models for light-rail transportation systems, 219 / Selmin D. ÖNCÜL, D. Selcen Ö. AYKAÇ, Demet BAYRAKTAR and Dilay ÇELEBİ -- An approach of integrated logistics HMMS model under environment constraints and an application of time scale, 225 / Fahriye Uysal, Ömür Tosun, Orhan Kuruüzüm -- Freight transport planning with genetic algorithm based projected demand, 231 / Soner HALDENBILEN, Ozgur BASKAN, Huseyin CEYLAN and Halim CEYLAN -- Chapter 10 Transport Modeling, 239 -- Inverse model to estimate o-d matrix from link traffic counts using ant colony optimization, 241 / Halim CEYLAN, Soner HALDENBILEN, Huseyin CEYLAN, Ozgur BASKAN -- The impact of logistics on modelling commercial freight traffic, 251 / Ute IDDINK and Uwe CLAUSEN -- A comparative reviewof simulation-based behavior modeling for travel demand generation, 257 / Seda Yanık, Mehmet Tanyaş -- An efficiency analysis of turkish container ports using the analytic network process, 269 / Senay OĞUZTİMUR, Umut Rıfat TUZKAYA -- A multi-objective approach to designing a multicommudity supply chain distribution network with multiple capacities, 277 / Gholam Reza Nasiri, Hamid Davoudpour and B.Karimi -- Chapter 11 Freight Transportation and Logistics Management, 283 -- Evaluation of turkey’s freight transportation, 285 / Burcu KULELİ PAKand BaharSENNAROĞLU -- Short sea shipping, intermodality and parameters influencing pricing policies in the Mediterranean region: The Italian context, 291 / Monica GROSSO, Ana-Rita LYNCE, Anne SILLA, Georgios K. VAGGELAS -- Relevant strategic criteria when choosing a container port - the case of the port of Genoa, 299 / Monica Grosso, Feliciana Monteiro -- Determination of optimum fleet size and composition - A case study of retailer in Thailand, 307 / Terdsak RONGVIRIYAPANICH and Kawee SRIMUANG -- New container port development: forecasting future container throughput, 313 / Dimitrios TSAMBOULAS, Panayota MORAITI -- Sea port hinterland flows and opening hours: the way forward to make them match better 319 / Marjan BEELEN, Hilde MEERSMAN, Evy ONGHENA, Eddy VAN DE VOORDE and Thierry VANELSLANDER -- International road freight transport in Germany and the Netherlands driver costs analysis and French perspectives, 327 / Laurent GUIHERY -- Chapter 12 Transport and Land Use, 335 -- Land rent and new transport infrastructure: How to manage this relationship?, 337 / Elena SCOPEL -- Effects of pavement characteristics on the traffic noise levels, 345 / Aybike ONGEL and John HARVEY -- Fuzzy medical waste disposal facility location problem, 351 / Yeşim KOP, Müjde EROL GENEVOIS and H. Ziya ULUKAN -- Chapter 13 T ransport Infrastructure and Investment Appraisal, 357 -- Agents’ behavior in financing Italian transport infrastructures, 359 / Paolo BERIA -- Free trade agreements in the mediterranean region: a box-cox analysis, 367 / Matthew KARLAFTIS, Konstantinos KEPAPTSOGLOU and Dimitrios TSAMBOULA

Proceedings of the BEST EN Think Tank XVI: Corporate Responsibility in Tourism: standards practices and policies

BEST EN is an international consortium of educators committed to the development and dissemination of knowledge in the field of sustainable tourism. The organization's annual Think Tank brings together academics and industry representatives from around the world to discuss a particular theme related to sustainable tourism in order to move research and education in this specific field forward. We are pleased to present the proceedings of the BEST Education Network (BESTEN) Think Tank XVI entitled Corporate Responsibility in Tourism – Standards Practices and Policies. The event was held in Berlin-Eberswalde, July 12-15, 2016, in conjunction with the ZENAT Centre for Sustainable Tourism, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Eberswalde, considered one of Germany's greenest universities. The concept of corporate responsibility in tourism is a challenging one; it is subject to much critical debate, especially with regard to finding an appropriate balance between the different dimensions of standards, practices and policies. The proceedings present work by academics and practitioners worldwide, conducted on various aspects of corporate responsibility in tourism. They include abstracts and papers accepted by the scientific committee following a double blind peer review process