Banking on Shared Value: How Banks Profit by Rethinking Their Purpose

This paper articulates a new role for banks in society using the lens of shared value. It is intended to help bank leaders, their partners, and industry regulators seize opportunities to create financial value while addressing unmet social and environmental needs at scale. The concepts included here apply across different types of banking, across different bank sizes, and across developed and emerging economies alike, although their implementation will naturally differ based on context

Practice-informed research: An alternative paradigm for scholastic enquiry in the built environment

This paper introduces the concept of practice-informed research. It offers this as an alternative approach to scholarship that has the potential to increase the relevance of research within universities, and to generate an increased level of dialogue between academics and practitioners. The article demonstrates the long academic pedigree of the proposed approach through an examination of established theoretical perspectives. It seeks to encourage debate about the legitimacy of academic research in a vocational subject area, and to encourage the adoption of a greater breadth of research approaches within the built environment subject area

Life cersuds: A proposal to adapt our cities to climate change

En un momento como el actual, en el que se debate con intensidad sobre el futuro de nuestras ciudades, surgen nuevos retos que han de ser abordados desde una reflexión multidisciplinar abierta a la experimentación, la innovación y la trans - ferencia del conocimiento. En este contexto emergente podemos situar el proyecto LIFE CERSUDS, Ceramic Sustainable Urban Drainage System, una propuesta integrada en el programa LIFE de la Unión Europea en la que confluyen instituciones académicas, institutos tecnológicos, entidades públicas y empresas privadas. Dicha propuesta responde al problema del agua y el sellado del suelo en la ciudad mediante el desarrollo de un sistema urbano de drenaje sostenible que utiliza cerámica de bajo valor comercial como material permeable de pavimentación, aportando una solución aplicable en infraestructuras verdes. El presente artículo realiza un análisis crítico de la iniciativa, entendiéndola como un espacio de colaboración interdisciplinar en el que el proyecto ca - naliza la indagación sobre un problema concreto: la adaptación de las ciudades al cambio climático. Como resultado, se observa la oportunidad que suponen para la investigación, la actividad profesional y la docencia estos nuevos marcos transversales de trabajo que han de dar respuesta a los problemas de nuestra sociedad, pero también la necesidad de consolidar una aún incipiente cultura de la colaboración.At a time like today, when intense debate is taking place on the future of our cities, new challenges are arising which must be tackled from a multidisciplinary reflection open to experimentation, innovation and knowledge transfer. The LIFE CERSUDS project, Ceramic Sustainable Urban Drainage System, can be viewed as an example of this emerging context. This project is part of the European Union’s LIFE programme and brings together academic institutions, technological institutes, public entities and private companies. This proposal addresses the problem of water and soil sealing in cities by developing a sustainable urban drainage sys - tem which uses low commercial value ceramic tiles as a permeable paving material, thus providing a solution which can be applied to green infrastructures. This paper provides a critical analysis of this initiative, considering it to be a space for interdisciplinary collaboration in which the project channels research into a specific problem: the adaptation of cities to climate change. As a result, it is possible to identify the opportunity that these new transversal work frameworks represent for research, professional activity and teaching, which must provide a response to the problems of our society, but also the need to consolidate a still incipient culture of collaboration

Economia circular e objetivos de desenvolvimento sustentável: principais tendências de pesquisa

Purpose: this work aimed to analyze the scientific literature related to the Circular Economy (CE) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to identify its main research trends.Design/methodology/approach: for this purpose, bibliometric and scientometric analysis of the scientific production indexed in the Web of Science database was applied. The scientometric analysis was performed using the CiteSpace software, one of the most influential network software currently.Findings: the results point out trends and challenges for the evolution of sustainability research based on aspects of the 2030 Agenda and the Circular Economy. In particular, trends involve great advances in the number of publications and citations, interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity of research categories, dense research network between countries, author co-citation analysis, network of main keywords, identification of keywords with citation burst and their distribution in timelines, and, finally, classification of studies in thematic clusters.Practical implications: the implication of the study is twofold: it will support the development of sustainability based on the 17 SDGs, with the circular economy being one of the areas in growth and development of solutions for sustainability, and it will help guide the overcoming of thematic gaps.Originality/value: this study is the first one that we are aware of to carry out a scientometric and bibliometric analysis aligning the two themes, CE and SDGs. Thus, we contribute to the literature by unveiling the main trends in the field and identifying research directions, which is particularly useful in new and challenging themes for the academic community and for managers.Objetivo: este trabalho objetivou analisar a literatura científica relacionada à Economia Circular (EC) e aos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODSs) com vistas a identificar suas principais tendências de pesquisa.Design/metodologia/abordagem: para tanto, foi aplicada análise bibliométrica e cientométrica da produção científica indexada na base de dados Web of Science. A análise cientométrica foi realizada com auxílio do software CiteSpace, um dos mais influentes softwares de rede da atualidade.Resultados: os resultados apontam tendências e desafios para a evolução da pesquisa de sustentabilidade baseada nos aspectos da Agenda 2030 e da Economia Circular. Em particular, as tendências envolvem grande avanço do número de publicações e de citações, interdisciplinaridade e multidisciplinaridade das categorias de pesquisa, rede densa de pesquisa entre países, análise de cocitação de autores, rede de principais palavras-chave, identificação de palavras-chave com explosão de citações e sua distribuição em linhas do tempo, e, por fim, classificação dos estudos em cluster temáticos.Implicações práticas: a implicação do estudo é dupla: apoiará o desenvolvimento da sustentabilidade baseada nos 17 ODS, tendo na economia circular uma das áreas em crescimento e desenvolvimento das soluções para a sustentabilidade, e auxiliará no direcionamento da superação de lacunas temáticas.Originalidade/valor: este estudo é o primeiro de que temos conhecimento a realizar análise cientométrica e bibliométrica alinhando os dois temas, EC e ODS. Assim, contribuímos com a literatura ao desvendar as principais tendências do campo e identificar direções de pesquisa, o que é particularmente útil em temáticas novas e desafiadoras para a comunidade acadêmica e para gestores

Islamization of Contemporary Architecture: Shifting the Paradigm of Islamic Architecture

Islamic architecture is often thought as a history course and thus finds its material limited to the cataloguing and studying of legacies of successive empires or various geographic regions of the Islamic world. In practice, adherent professionals tend to reproduce high styles such as Umayyad, Abassid, Fatimid, Ottoman, etc., or recycle well known elements such as the minarets, courtyards, and mashrabiyyahs. This approach, endorsed by the present comprehensive Islamic revival, is believed to be the way to defend and revitalize the identity of Muslim societies that was initially affected by colonization and now is being offended by globalization. However, this approach often clashes with the contemporary trends in architecture that do not necessarily oppose the essence of Islamic architecture. Furthermore, it sometimes lead to an erroneous belief that consists of relating a priori forms to Islam and that clashes with the timeless and universal character of the Islamic religion. The key question to be asked then is, beyond this historicist view, what would be an “Islamic architec-ture” of nowadays that originates from the essence of Islam and that responds to contemporary conditions, needs, aspirations of present Muslim societies and individuals. To what extends can Islamic architecture bene-fits from modern progress and contemporary thought in resurrecting itself without loosing its essence. The hypothesis of the study is that, just as early Muslim architecture started from the adoption, use and re-use of early pre-Islamic architectures before reaching originality, this process, called Islamization, could also take place nowadays with the contemporary thought that is mostly developed in Western and non-Islamic environ-ments. Mechanisms in Islam that allowed the “absorption” of pre-existing civilizations should thus structure the islamization approach and serve the scholars and professionals to reach the new Islamic architecture. The objectives of the paper consist of counter-criticizing orientalists' views that overwhelm our libraries and references systems, and that consider the first stage of Islamic civilization, within which architecture is part, as a mere cut-and-paste process and, at best, a synthesis of these pre-Islamic heritages, and overcoming the prevailing historicist approach, and open new scopes for future generations to instate a new era of islamization that permits digesting the contemporary Western thoughts in a conscious, critical, and constructive way

Philanthropy Insights

The Philanthropy Insights Report is based on research aimed at furthering the overall understanding of philanthropy in South Africa.The report was written in collaboration with various philanthropic experts from different fields.The different subsections will provide you with a deeper insight into philanthropy and guidance on starting your philanthropic journey