Impacts of virtual communication on business travel: the Finnish perspective

Objectives The main objectives of this study were to compare the manager’s perceptions of costs and benefits of business travel with virtual communications, to understand companies’ perspective and preferences to business travel and virtual communications in terms of cost and environmental implications and to identify the impacts of virtual communication on business travel in Finland/Finnish companies. Summary During the last decades virtual communication has improved and the methods for virtual communication play a big role in today’s business environment. While better methods for communication in the virtual environment have been adopted in companies around the globe, also the amount of business travel have increased significantly. This thesis identifies from a managerial perspective what impacts the virtual communication has on travel. The study focuses on the perceptions of managers at four international companies operating in Finland. Conclusions Virtual and physical methods for interaction are both available in today’s business environment. The viewpoints of the managers interviewed for the thesis, as well as the scholarly literature in the field, supports the complementary relationship between the two, as both have the potential to benefit the companies from economic, social and environmental aspects

Certification of public organic procurement in Denmark, Finland, Italy and Norway as compared to Germany

In the iPOPY project (innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth), one of the tasks was to map the challenges linked to the supply chains of organic food, and to which extent the participating countries have developed any form of certification of out-of-home food serving. For primary production and processing, regulations have been developed on the EU level. Norway, as a member of the EEA, is obliged to follow these EU regulations. However, the EU regulations on organic agriculture do not comprise catering, restaurants and other out-of-home food service. Hence, various countries have developed different systems to certify e.g. restaurants wanting to market their organic menus. This report describes the systems in Denmark, Finland, Italy, Norway and Germany. Germany has been used as a reference, since this country is especially familiar to the first author of the report, Dr. Carola Strassner, due to former work and analyses. The report is based on information acquired from certification bodies and experts in each country by questionnaires communicated via e-mail, and subsequent telephone interviews. There is a great variation between the countries with respect to certification of (public) food serving. Denmark has a voluntarily system with a bronze, silver and gold medal assigned to increasing levels of organic food. Finland has no mandatory certification of public organic food serving, but a well developed voluntarily system with five levels assigning increasing shares of organic food. The system includes advice and a certificate to be used in marketing. In Italy, certification is not mandatory, but activities are going on to establish a voluntarily or mandatory system. In Norway and Germany, certification of public organic food serving is mandatory. The Italian experts interviewed welcomed future common standards in this field, whereas the other countries with better established systems did not see any need for change. With respect to school food service, certification of the organic food will imply some additional work. However, a certification will contribute to increase people‘s trust in the food service, and also inform the users and thereby communicate the efforts to increase the consumption of organic food

Right Research

"Educational institutions play an instrumental role in social and political change, and are responsible for the environmental and social ethics of their institutional practices. The essays in this volume critically examine scholarly research practices in the age of the Anthropocene, and ask what accountability educators and researchers have in ‘righting’ their relationship to the environment. The volume further calls attention to the geographical, financial, legal and political barriers that might limit scholarly dialogue by excluding researchers from participating in traditional modes of scholarly conversation. As such, Right Research is a bold invitation to the academic community to rigorous self-reflection on what their research looks like, how it is conducted, and how it might be developed so as to increase accessibility and sustainability, and decrease carbon footprint. The volume follows a three-part structure that bridges conceptual and practical concerns: the first section challenges our assumptions about how sustainability is defined, measured and practiced; the second section showcases artist-researchers whose work engages with the impact of humans on our environment; while the third section investigates how academic spaces can model eco-conscious behaviour. This timely volume responds to an increased demand for environmentally sustainable research, and is outstanding not only in its interdisciplinarity, but its embrace of non-traditional formats, spanning academic articles, creative acts, personal reflections and dialogues. Right Research will be a valuable resource for educators and researchers interested in developing and hybridizing their scholarly communication formats in the face of the current climate crisis.

From 2007-2010

To become sustainable, or green, is in Nordea not a process that is forced upon the organization by top management. On the contrary, it is a smooth and soft process lead by champions and supported by the management team. One could compare the process with the game curling, where a small grain of sand might stop the curling stone to reach the nest. In the greening process of Nordea it is a risk that the process might be set back for several years if it is not carefully managed. To ensure that no grain of sand hinders the process, a slow and incremental strategy is in place. The process is supported and encouraged by the management and grounded in the corporate values...

Lifelong guidance policy and practice in the EU

A study on lifelong guidance (LLG) policy and practice in the EU focusing on trends, challenges and opportunities. Lifelong guidance aims to provide career development support for individuals of all ages, at all career stages. It includes careers information, advice, counselling, assessment of skills and mentoring

Academic Flying and the Means of Communication

This open access book shines a light on how and why academic work became entwined with air travel, and what can be done to change academia’s flying habit. The starting point of the book is that flying is only one means of scholarly communication among many, and that the state of the planet now obliges us to shift to other means. How can the academic-as-globetrotter become a thing of the past? The chapters in this book respond to this call in three steps. It documents the consequences of academic flying, it investigates the issue of why academics fly, and it begins an effort to think through what can replace flying, and how. Finally, it confronts scholars and scientists, students, activists, research funders, university administrators, and others, with a call to translate this research into action