18,702 research outputs found

    Sustainable value and trade-offs: exploring situational logics and power relations in a UK brewery's malt supply network business model

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    Conceptualising firms from a business ecosystem, value-, or supply- network perspective captures the boundary-spanning nature of value creation. However, the relationship dynamics that enable or inhibit sustainable value creation, as well as the understanding of how to resolve trade-offs in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), need to be better understood. To explore these, we present a comparative case study of how situational logics and power relations are embedded in business models within a UK brewer and its malt supply chain. The exploratory case illustrates how network-centric business model innovation (BMI) resolves the trade-off between economic and environmental value through the prioritisation of sustainability-related ‘cultural’ resources. These findings suggest that organisations seeking to implement sustainable supply networks need to pay greater attention to how they use business model innovation to institutionalise situational logics that enable or inhibit sustainable value creation and resolve trade-offs

    The Effect of Chemical Amendments Used for Phosphorus Abatement on Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Emissions from Dairy Cattle Slurry: Synergies and Pollution Swapping

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    peer-reviewedLand application of cattle slurry can result in incidental and chronic phosphorus (P) loss to waterbodies, leading to eutrophication. Chemical amendment of slurry has been proposed as a management practice, allowing slurry nutrients to remain available to plants whilst mitigating P losses in runoff. The effectiveness of amendments is well understood but their impacts on other loss pathways (so-called ‘pollution swapping’ potential) and therefore the feasibility of using such amendments has not been examined to date. The aim of this laboratory scale study was to determine how the chemical amendment of slurry affects losses of NH3, CH4, N2O, and CO2. Alum, FeCl2, Polyaluminium chloride (PAC)- and biochar reduced NH3 emissions by 92, 54, 65 and 77% compared to the slurry control, while lime increased emissions by 114%. Cumulative N2O emissions of cattle slurry increased when amended with alum and FeCl2 by 202% and 154% compared to the slurry only treatment. Lime, PAC and biochar resulted in a reduction of 44, 29 and 63% in cumulative N2O loss compared to the slurry only treatment. Addition of amendments to slurry did not significantly affect soil CO2 release during the study while CH4 emissions followed a similar trend for all of the amended slurries applied, with an initial increase in losses followed by a rapid decrease for the duration of the study. All of the amendments examined reduced the initial peak in CH4 emissions compared to the slurry only treatment. There was no significant effect of slurry amendments on global warming potential (GWP) caused by slurry land application, with the exception of biochar. After considering pollution swapping in conjunction with amendment effectiveness, the amendments recommended for further field study are PAC, alum and lime. This study has also shown that biochar has potential to reduce GHG losses arising from slurry application.This research was funded by the Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Scheme and the AnimalChange Framework 7 Project (FP7-KBBE-2010-4)

    The emergence of circular economy: a new framing around prolonging resource productivity

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    In this article we use Hirsch and Levin’s (1999) notion of ‘umbrella concepts’ as an analytical lens, in order to articulate the valuable catalytic function the circular economy concept could perform in the waste and resource management debate. We realize this goal by anchoring the circular economy concept in this broader debate through a narrative approach. This leads to the insight that while the various resource strategies grouped under circular economy’s banner are not new individually, the concept offers a new framing of these strategies by drawing attention to their capacity of prolonging resource use as well as to the relationship between these strategies. As such, circular economy offers a new perspective on waste and resource management and provides a new cognitive unit and discursive space for debate. We conclude by discussing research opportunities for the IE community relating to the concept’s theoretical development and its implementation. Specifically, we pose that reinvigorating and growing the social science aspects of IE is required for both. After all, it is the wide adoption and collective implementation of an idea that shapes our material future

    Improving fertiliser management: redefining the relationship between soil tests and crop responses for wheat in WA

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    Most soils in Western Australia (WA) are highly weathered with very low levels of phosphorus. WA soils initially contained adequate indigenous soil potassium for cropping but removal of potassium over time in harvested grain has gradually resulted in the some soils becoming potassium-deficient for grain production. Fertiliser costs represent a significant part of the variable costs of growing crops in WA. Chen et al. (2009) identified the need for updated soil test interpretations due to substantial changes in farming systems, fertiliser practices and crop yield potential. The aims of this study were (1) to compile experimental data containing the standard soil test measurements and observed wheat crop yield responses for both nil and fertilised treatments across different soil types and seasons from published or unpublished sources, and (2) to critically analyse soil test-crop response relationships to derive better critical soil test values in soils and environments suitable for wheat grain production in WA

    Beyond and beneath the hierarchical market economy: global production and working-class conflict in Argentina's automobile industry

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    This paper argues that the hierarchical market economy (HME) category does not provide an adequate starting point for addressing capitalist diversity in Latin America. Building from a critical perspective on the global commodity chain (GCC) and global production network (GPN) approaches, it instead considers the impact of firms’ transnational relations and the often neglected role of working-class struggles. It will argue that capitalist diversity can only be understood at the nexus of these ostensibly global and local phenomena; and by specifying the strategic decisions taken by firms in Argentina’s automobile industry, it will account for the failure of that sector. Finally, it examines the role of working-class struggles in the industry in Córdoba, Argentina, arguing that these were vital in shaping the specific and unstable form of capitalist diversity in Argentina, as well as potential alternatives to it

    JPL microwave experiment support

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    Geological parameter effects on remote microwave radiometer response

    Surface chemistry of major rock types of Sonora Pass Test Site, California

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    Chemical study of selected rock samples tabulated as oxide percentage
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