Realizing IT Value at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

How can senior IS executives successfully shepherd IT initiatives through complex organizations? This paper prescribes an integrated IT investment management process incorporating four recommended activities: *strategic planning, *quality function deployment, *activity analysis, and *responsibility assignment. The process, tools, methods, and organizational learning were drawn from two projects at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. The integrated process for IT investment management can help senior IS executives prioritize projects and align responsibility and accountability for IT initiatives that require complementary organizational changes to activities across the entire value chain to realize full benefits

Defining the Legal and Policy Framework to Stop the Dumping of Environmentally Harmful Products

Environmental dumping is a practice historically associated with the export of hazardous product waste from a developed country for irresponsible and often illegal disposal in a developing country. Now, with the industrialization and globalization of China and other developing countries, environmental dumping can involve both developing and developed countries as origin and destination. This dumping can be especially harmful to attempts to control under the Montreal Protocol ozone-depleting and climate-forcing chemical substances and/or products requiring unnecessarily high energy consumption. While developing country Parties to the Montreal Protocol are allowed to delay their phasedown of climate-forcing and ozone-depleting hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) during a multi-year grace period, there are advantages to earlier implementation when superior alternatives are already available at reasonable costs, as is the case for many uses of HFCs today. Thus, developing countries can benefit under the Protocol from setting controls for environmental dumping. This article aims to give policymakers, especially those in developing countries, a legal and policy “toolkit” that can be used to stop unwanted environmental dumping. It includes an examination of the history of environmental dumping, illustration of such dumping in practice, a detailed explanation and examination of the legal and policy tools, and a summary of the consequences of environmental dumping

Pollution Prevention and Business Management. Curricula for Schools of Business and Public Health. Volume 1: Modules 1-3

These instructional modules are based on the premise that sustained economic development is dependent upon sustained protection ofthe environment. They also reflect the fact that preventing waste is far more cost effective than managing the waste once it is generated. Pollution prevention not only offers businesses a competitive opportunity, it is a natural extension of sound management practices. Incorporating pollution prevention into business management and government regulation will enhance longterm economic prosperity.published or submitted for publicatio

The Economic Impact of Infrastructure Improvements Proposed by the Connecticut Light and Power Company

infrastructure improvements

Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center To the Urban Fringe

Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center To the Urban Fringe is prepared by the Urban Agriculture Committee of the Community Food Security Coalition to raise awareness of the ways that urban agriculture can respond to food insecurity. The document advocates for policies that promote small-scale urban and peri-urban farming, and thereby prepare the next generation of urban farming leaders

Commercial Applications of Microalgae

The first use of microalgae by humans dates back 2000 years to the Chinese, who used Nostoc to survive during famine. However, microalgal biotechnology only really began to develop in the middle of the last century. Nowadays, there are numerous commercial applications of microalgae. For example, (1) microalgae can be used to enhance the nutritional value of food and animal feed owing to their chemical composition, (2) they play a crucial role in aquaculture and (3) they can be incorporated into cosmetics. Moreover, they are cultivated as a source of highly valuable molecules. For example, polyunsaturated fatty acid oils are added to infant formulas and nutritional supplements and pigments are important as natural dyes. Stable isotope biochemicals help in structural determination and metabolic studies. Future research should focus on the improvement of production systems and the genetic modification of strains. Microalgal products would in that way become even more diversified and economically competitive

Ampliación del concepto “Producción más limpia”

“Cleaner production “ (CP) emerged in the aftermath of the 1987 Brundtland Commission (WCED, 1987) call for less and more efficient energy and materials use efficiency and the suggestion to substitute more harmful products (for the environment and health) by less dangerous ones. Cleaner production was the reply of industry to the inter-sectorial and socio-economic call for sustainable development. The technical aims widened. Originally they were targeted to improve en-vironmentally inferior products to less inferior ones. Today the goal is producing is quality products us-ing renewable energy efficiently and producing zero waste, while emitting no pollution.The perspective of the scope also changed from en-vironmental sustainability to the wider “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR). This includes that post-modern companies have not only responsibili-ties on their economic performance and the environ-ment, but should also act on issues including human rights and resources, business ethics, and community involvement. This widening of contents necessitates more and better adapted methods. During the past 45 years the number of assessment methods (preventing pollution and its effects) increased significantly from environmental aspects (EIA), over health (HIA) and policy aspects (SEA), to sustainability assessment, addressing not only environmental, but in an inte-grated way also social, economic, and ethical issues of the evaluation.This paper reviews this evolution of ideas. It provides not only the concepts, but is equally based on case studies and examples illustrating different aspects of this evolution. It acts as a guide towards contempo-rary CSR and advocates its support towards educa-tion and research.“Producción más limpia” (CP) surgió a raíz de la Comi-sión Brundtland de 1987 con el objetivo de requerir me-nos energía y de manera más eficiente con respecto a su uso, sugiriendo sustituir los productos más nocivos (por el medio ambiente y la salud) por menos peligroso; la pro-ducción más limpia, fue la respuesta de la industria a la llamada inter-sectorial y socioeconómica para el desarro-llo sostenible. Los objetivos técnicos se abrieron ya que originalmente estaban dirigidos a mejorar los productos de calidad medioambiental inferior a los menos inferio-res. Hoy en día el objetivo es producir productos de calidad utilizando energía renovable eficiente y productoras de re-siduos cero, mientras que emite ninguna contaminación.Desde la perspectiva del ámbito de aplicación se incorpora la sostenibilidad ambiental a la “Responsabilidad Social Empresarial” más ancha (RSE). Esto incluye que las em-presas de post-modernos no sólo tienen responsabilidades sobre su desempeño económico y el medio ambiente, sino que también deben actuar en temas como los derechos hu-manos y los recursos, la ética empresarial, y participación de la comunidad. Esta ampliación de contenidos requie-re más y mejor adaptados métodos. Durante los últimos 45 años el número de métodos de evaluación (prevención de la contaminación y sus efectos) aumentó significativa-mente de los aspectos ambientales (EIA), más de la salud (EIS) y los aspectos de política (SEA), con la evaluación de la sostenibilidad, abordar no sólo el medio ambiente, pero en una también forma integrada social, económica, y las cuestiones éticas de la evaluación.Este documento analiza esta evolución de las ideas. Ofre-ciendo no sólo los conceptos, sino que se basa igualmente en estudios de casos y ejemplos que ilustran diferentes aspectos de esta evolución. Actúa como una guía hacia la RSE contemporánea y aboga por su apoyo hacia la educa-ción y la investigació