The soils of Audrain County, Missouri

Caption title.At head of title: University of Missouri, Agricultural Experiment Station ... U. S. Department of Agriculture. Bureau of Soils ... Soil survey of Missouri

A Mixed-Methods Study Assessing Special Education Preservice Candidates\u27 Preparedness for Their First Year of Teaching

This study employed a Likert-type survey, Praxis/Pathwise written observations, as well as guided and open-ended reflections to assess the perceptions of preparedness for the first year of teaching for special education student teaching candidates. Cooperating teachers completed the survey and Praxis /Pathwise observations. University supervisors completed Praxis/Pathwise observations and responded to and analyzed guided and open-ended reflections. The survey instrument was based on the research literature and included responsibilities typically required of special educators (e.g., completing paperwork, planning, assessment, etc.). Results indicated general congruence among the three data sources, but also indicated that two cooperating teachers were reluctant to provide negative feedback, indicating to university supervisors a need to provide guidance and assurance of the value of providing less positive assessments of their student teachers’ preparedness. This ongoing research study supports efforts toward accreditation and program improvement. The methods may be generalized to other programs, even when the actual data collection instruments may differ

Environmental assessment of two business models - a life cycle comparison between a sales and a rental business model in the apparel sector in Sweden

This report presents and applies a new method for environmentally assessing business models from a life cycle perspective. The method is meant to be useful for companies to guide their business decisions toward decoupling of economic activity from environmental impact. The basis of the method is an integrated economic and environmental perspective and a functional unit based on profit is employed, after which Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is carried out. This Business Model LCA is applied on a Swedish company and their current business model (sales) compared to an alternative business model (rental). Jackets are chosen as the products to represent the business of the company. Results indicate that a company can achieve more decoupling by renting jackets instead of selling them, although the results are sensitive to some economic parameters (like rental efficiency and rental price) and to customer habits, which can significantly compromise the overall performance of the rental model. The central feature of the developed method is that, by coupling the economic and physical flows of a business model, it allows a company to directly see the impact of business decisions on their environmental performance and plan their activities accordingly

Switching the focus from product function to business profit: Introducing business model LCA

Recent years have seen much interest in business models as vehicles towards sustainability (cf. Boons & L\ufcdeke-Freund 2013). However, conventional LCA with its product focus fails to capture the environmental impacts of a business model. Here, a novel LCA methodology for assessing the environmental performance of business models is presented, Business Model LCA. The methodological innovation is underpinned by an understanding of differences between product and business: While a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need, it will by itself will not make money — a business is an arrangement of people, processes and tools around a product to enable it to make money. From a business perspective, the product is a means to an end. To reflect this relationship, BM-LCA centres its analysis on the business. A key innovation is made to the functional unit (defined as ‘profit per time unit’). From this follows the coupling of the business system with its monetary flows to the product system with its material and energy flows. To achieve this, a conventional mapping of the product’s technical system is complemented with an actor mapping. Their coupling is made via a set of equations describing socio-material interactions in the form of product-related economic exchanges of the business organisation. BM-LCA was developed through a case study comparing two business models (a sales model and a rental model) of a sustainability-dedicated company in the garment sector. The BM-LCA study produced useful and novel insights and the method enables analysis of economic decoupling in business practice. BM-LCA is also compared to other LCA approaches used for similar aims and discussed with regard to its usefulness to business model innovation for sustainability. In conclusion, BM-LCA represents an important contribution to environmental business analysis and opens up a new avenue of research where LCA and business scholars can collaborate

Business model life cycle assessment: A method for analysing the environmental performance of business

This paper introduces business model life cycle assessment (BM-LCA), a new method for quantifying the environmental impacts of business models. Such a method is needed to guide business decisions towards decoupling economic activity from environmental impact. BM-LCA takes the business model itself as the unit of analysis and its economic performance as the basis of comparison. It can be applied to any type of business model involving material or resource use. In BM-LCA, monetary flows are coupled to material and energy flows. The methodology expands on conventional life cycle assessment (LCA) by elaborating the goal and scope definition and dividing it into two phases. The first descriptive phase details the business models to be compared. It includes a mapping of product chain actors and identifying business operations and transactions related to the product. The second coupling phase defines a profit-based functional unit and sets up the coupling equations expressing the economic relations to the product. Thereafter, conventional LCA procedures are followed to assess environmental impacts. The key innovation on LCA methodology is the development of a functional unit that captures the economic performance of a business model and links it to a product system. BM-LCA provides thus an important link between LCA and business competitive advantage

Towards sustainable business models with a novel life cycle assessment method

Business model (BM) innovation for sustainability is hampered by a lack of tools for environmental assessment and guidance at the BM level. Conventional life cycle assessment (LCA) neglects the economic and socio-technical mechanisms within a BM, and tools based on the BM canvas (BMC) cannot provide recommendations substantiated by environmental data. Here, a new method, BM-LCA, is applied to a case comparing the selling and renting of jackets, using profit as basis of comparison. Results identify how business parameters influence environmental performance, permitting analysis for decoupling within a business practice. This is made possible by the unique way the method links physical life cycle and the monetary flows of a BM. Usefulness of BM-LCA is discussed relative to BM innovation, business strategy and similar tools. BM-LCA provides insights into a broad range of BM elements and emerges as useful for business strategy. By measuring BM environmental performance, it helps determine what BM to compete with and support critical analysis of business against greenwashing. BM-LCA also enables identification of BM elements in greatest need of environmental innovation. BM-LCA appears as a promising tool for guiding business companies towards sustainability, filling a space between LCA and BMC. The method offers a practical way for business and LCA experts to merge their respective knowledge

Implementing the vision of the high school principal

The purpose of this study was to identify the characterisitics, behaviors, and strategies used by three North Carolina principals in the implementation of their visions of the effective high school. The selected population was composed of those schools nominated by North Carolina for recognition by the 1988-1989 Secondary Schools Recognition Program (SSRP). This descriptive, ex post facto study of three one-shot case studies used content analysis of the SSRP nomination form as a foundation. This analysis was supplemented by data from the School Climate and Context Inventory (SCCI), three on-site visits to each school for the purpose of interviewing school community members and observing the principal in action within that community. All data were analyzed in light of information gleaned from a review of the literature related to effective high schools, the role of the principal, vision, change, and exemplary schools. The study data identified 45 characteristics, behaviors, or strategies used by the selected principals in implementing their visions of the effective high schools. Six conclusions were drawn for use by principals in implementing their visions for their high schools