Towards Sustainable Production and Consumption: Preparedness for Product Service System Concept

Eco-efficiency strategies and policies, which have resulted in environmental gains that translate into increased resource efficiency and lower levels of emissions, in particular CO2 emissions along the life cycle of products and services, might be offset by rising levels of consumption on the demand side. Hence, both sides of the coin i.e. the system of production and consumption systems need to be assessed if more sustainable patterns are to be achieved. Establishing sustainable production and consumption systems can be possible via functional thinking practices. Functional thinking takes the focus from provision of resource intensive product to satisfaction of needs and wants through service systems, where material products are treated as capital assets rather than consumables. An application of functional thinking is the Product Service System (PSS) concept. Providers of PSS applications aim to generate profit not from selling as many material products as possible, but from providing a function of the product or service. Potential environmental benefits of PSS applications stemming from decreased use of virgin materials in production and lessened resource consumption at the use phase are being recognized. Applications of PSS can be seen in many sectors such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT), energy, transportation, food and in many forms such as remanufacturing, demand side management, chemical management services, car sharing schemes, functional designs, etc. However, supply and use of such applications might need considerable assessment of business practices and consumer behaviour. For business, designing and implementing PSS applications might require a new set of internal conditions such as shifting the business vision and adjusting the corporate culture to provision of functions. On the other hand, understanding of individual and social factors guiding the consumers' acceptance of PSS applications is required.This paper is an extract from a study, which is conducted with the aim of provision of a direction enhancing business ability to offer new or improved PSS applications with increased consumer acceptance and in turn enhanced resource efficiency. Applications in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector are chosen as the focus of the paper. Although it is debated that this fast developing sector can potentially contribute to dematerialisation of systems, limitations within the sector still remain unclear. Here, it is aimed to suggest an overview of the aspects for business preparedness and consumer acceptance of PSS applications providing particular functions in the ICT sector. The focus is on the company level dynamics, despite it is recognized that factors of macro level preparedness such as infrastructure availability, economic and social conditions, public support, etc. are essential to consider for system preparedness

Responsible corporate governance: An overview of trends, initiatives and state-of-the-art elements. What sort of globalisation is sustainable?

Transnational corporations' (TNCs) economic operations cover numerous countriesand can be diverted between several continents. These units have reached a level ofsignificance, having not only economic, but also social and environmental implications. This justifies that they shall be treated separately as a social phenomenon,when considering strategies for the development towards sustainability.This paper presents the concept of Responsible Corporate Governance (RCG), asa strategy to govern TNCs. RCG is suggested as a stakeholder based policyinstrument, which aims at allocating responsibilities to societal actors aiming atcorporate accountability. RCG recognises that the process of societal change isstrongly based on what can be called as bottom up-processes. Learning processestake place through the interaction of the different societal members, whicheventually leads to macro changes. Therefore, governing TNCs towards sustainability improvements is considered to be a collective process including all stakeholders. Firstly, the paper places the concept of RCG in the ongoing debateof political modernization based on the fact that society develops overtime and thepolitical system must correspondingly modernize. In this context, politicaloverload developed as a consequence of increased resource interdependencies isexplained and as a resolution, network approach is discussed. Secondly, demands on the orientation of the TNCs in terms of accountability and innovative actionare brought forward. Here, the paper also lists down corporate elements (stakeholder empowered corporate governance, management and performanceevaluation systems, transparency enhancement and accountability verification), which need to be in place to attain an accountable orientation in the society.Following, using an analytical framework, the orientation and capabilities of each societal actor (environmental non-governmental organisations, financial institutions, intergovernmental organisations) to affect improvements in the corporateresponsibility elements are investigated and recommendations for their effectiveorientation are listed. --

Erfolgreich sein - erfolgreich bleiben : Unternehmens-Check für Unternehmen mit türkischem Migrationshintergrund ; ökonomische, soziale und ökologische Erfolgsfaktoren für kleinere und mittlere Unternehmen

Der Check zeigt Unternehmen mit Migrationshintergrund, wo sie stehen, wenn sie den ökonomischen, ökologischen und sozialen Herausforderungen des Marktes erfolgreich begegnen wollen. Außerdem zeigt er ihnen Verbesserungsansätze auf. Der Unternehmens-Check wurde auf der Grundlage einer eingehenden Analyse der typischen Herausforderungen und Potentiale von Unternehmen mit Migrationshintergrund entwickelt. Schnell wurde dabei auch klar, dass der Unternehmens-Check für unterschiedliche Migrationshintergründe anders aussehen sollte, da die Herausforderungen sich doch deutlich unterscheiden. In Zusammenarbeit mit Unternehmensverbänden und Unternehmen, die bereits erfolgreich am Markt tätig sind, wurden deshalb drei spezifische, auf die Bedürfnisse der unterschiedlichen Migrantengruppen abgestimmte Varianten entwickelt - für Unternehmen mit türkischem Migrationshintergrund, italienischem Migrationshintergrund und russischem Migrationshintergrund

Responsible corporate governance : an overview of trends, initiatives and state-of-the-art elements ; what sort of globalisation is sustainable?

Transnational corporations' (TNCs) economic operations cover numerous countries and can be diverted between several continents. These units have reached a level of significance, having not only economic, but also social and environmental implications. This justifies that they shall be treated separately as a social phenomenon, when considering strategies for the development towards sustainability. This paper presents the concept of Responsible Corporate Governance (RCG), as a strategy to "govern" TNCs. RCG is suggested as a stakeholder based policy instrument, which aims at allocating responsibilities to societal actors aiming at corporate accountability. RCG recognises that the process of societal change is strongly based on what can be called as bottom up-processes. Learning processes take place through the interaction of the different societal members, which eventually leads to macro changes. Therefore, governing TNCs towards sustainability improvements is considered to be a collective process including all stakeholders. Firstly, the paper places the concept of RCG in the ongoing debate of political modernization based on the fact that society develops overtime and the political system must correspondingly modernize. In this context, political overload developed as a consequence of increased resource interdependencies is explained and as a resolution, network approach is discussed. Secondly, demands on the orientation of the TNCs in terms of accountability and innovative action are brought forward. Here, the paper also lists down corporate elements (stakeholder empowered corporate governance, management and performance evaluation systems, transparency enhancement and accountability verification), which need to be in place to attain an accountable orientation in the society. Following, using an analytical framework, the orientation and capabilities of each societal actor (environmental non-governmental organisations, financial institutions, intergovernmental organisations) to affect improvements in the corporate responsibility elements are investigated and recommendations for their effective orientation are listed