Imagining Corporate Sustainability as a Public Good Rather than a Corporate Bad

Corporations have been criticized for their environmental misdeeds for over a century, so it is not surprising that many view corporate approaches to sustainability with skepticism. Reports of green-washing and other forms of misleading advertising by a handful of corporations only serve to reinforce this negative perception.The Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Busines

Competing and Learning in Global Value Chains - Firms’ Experiences in the Case of Uganda. A study of five export sub-sectors with reference to trade between Uganda and Europe

Executive Summary and Chapter 5: Presentation and discussion of main finding

Pterodactyl: Trade Study for an Integrated Control System Design of a Mechanically Deployable Entry Vehicle

This paper presents the trade study method used to evaluate and downselect from a set of guidance and control (G&C) system designs for a mechanically Deployable Entry Vehicle (DEV). The Pterodactyl project was prompted by the challenge to develop an effective G&C system for a vehicle without a backshell, which is the case for DEVs. For the DEV, the project assumed a specific aeroshell geometry pertaining to an Adaptable, Deployable Entry and Placement Technology (ADEPT) vehicle, which was successfully developed by NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) prior to this study. The Pterodactyl project designed three different entry G&C systems for precision targeting. This paper details the Figures of Merit (FOMs) and metrics used during the course of the projects G&C system assessment. The relative importance of the FOMs was determined from the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which was used to develop weights that were combined with quantitative design metrics and engineering judgement to rank the G&C systems against one another. This systematic method takes into consideration the projects input while simultaneously reducing unintentional judgement bias and ultimately was used to select a single G&C design for the project to pursue in the next design phase

Tanzania: Data Strategy And Capacity Building

Tanzania has seen significant improvements to its national development data infrastructure in recent years. In February 2016 the country adopted an Open Data Policy aimed at increasing access to government data and promoting increased transparency and partnerships for social and economic development. Key government data has been made available for use by civil society organizations (CSOs) and the media through an open data portal. Additionally, the 2016-2021 National Development Plan includes among its key objectives the need to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets into its Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.However, existing data initiatives are largely government driven and do not take into account data from or about civil society actors. In particular, Tanzania lacks a dedicated platform and framework for collecting, sharing and analyzing data on philanthropy. In September 2015, inspired by similar initiatives in other East African Countries, the Foundation for Civil Society partnered with the East Africa Association of Grantmakers (EAAG) to form the Tanzania National Philanthropy Forum (TPF). The launch of the TPF marks an opportunity for the philanthropy community in Tanzania to come together and strengthen its voice and influence in national development processes

Current commercialization status of electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) digital microfluidics.

The emergence of electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) in the early 2000s made the once-obscure electrowetting phenomenon practical and led to numerous activities over the last two decades. As an eloquent microscale liquid handling technology that gave birth to digital microfluidics, EWOD has served as the basis for many commercial products over two major application areas: optical, such as liquid lenses and reflective displays, and biomedical, such as DNA library preparation and molecular diagnostics. A number of research or start-up companies (e.g., Phillips Research, Varioptic, Liquavista, and Advanced Liquid Logic) led the early commercialization efforts and eventually attracted major companies from various industry sectors (e.g., Corning, Amazon, and Illumina). Although not all of the pioneering products became an instant success, the persistent growth of liquid lenses and the recent FDA approvals of biomedical analyzers proved that EWOD is a powerful tool that deserves a wider recognition and more aggressive exploration. This review presents the history around major EWOD products that hit the market to show their winding paths to commercialization and summarizes the current state of product development to peek into the future. In providing the readers with a big picture of commercializing EWOD and digital microfluidics technology, our goal is to inspire further research exploration and new entrepreneurial adventures

Parts and materials application review for space systems

Parts and materials application review for project management of space systems engineerin

Sustainable product development strategies: Business planning and performance implications

Copyright © 2012 by Institution of Mechanical Engineers. This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below.Manufacturing firms are under many financial and competitive pressures which focus attention on the performance of their manufacturing processes. In this paper the opportunities for improving the environmental impact of products within the constraints of existing manufacturing infrastructure are examined. Approaches which support sustainability in two aspects are proposed, firstly, the provision of products to the users in ways which extend the product life and secondly, manufacturing approaches which reduce resource usage. This paper outlines three different sustainable development strategies for different product types and describes the cost implications for manufacturers across the life-cycle. The performance measures affected by these strategies are examined drawing on product development case studies from a number of high technology sectors to highlight the different approaches taken. The results are intended to aid manufacturers during the earliest stages of business planning to consider alternative product development approaches which are more sustainable