Aggregate eco-efficiency indices for New Zealand – a Principal Components Analysis

Eco-efficiency has emerged as a management response to waste issues associated with current production processes. Despite the popularity of the term in both business and government circles, limited attention has been paid to measuring and reporting eco-efficiency to government policy makers. Aggregate measures of eco-efficiency are needed, to complement existing measures and to help highlight important patterns in eco-efficiency data. This paper aims to develop aggregate measures of eco-efficiency for use by policy makers. Specifically, this paper provides a unique analysis by applying principal components analysis (PCA) to eco-efficiency indicators in New Zealand. This study reveals that New Zealand's overall eco-efficiency improved for two out of the five aggregate measures over the period 1994/95 to 1997/98. The worsening of the other aggregate measures reflects, among other things, the relatively poor performance of the primary production and related processing sectors. These results show PCA is an effective approach for aggregating eco-efficiency indicators and assisting decision makers by reducing redundancy in an eco-efficiency indicators matrix.Policy development, policy evaluation, Aggregate indices, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

Achieving target skills in increments using PBL courses in chemical engineering program at RMIT University

Graduating Chemical Engineering students are expected to have acquired a number of technical and generic skills that include design, project management, communication and team work. In the new Chemical Engineering program at RMIT University, students are offered opportunities to develop these skills in stages through project-based learning (PBL) courses. Each semester has a PBL course which integrates horizontally the scientific and engineering concepts taught in other courses in that semester. The PBL courses in senior years, however, aim to achieve not only the horizontal integration of concepts from that semester but also vertical integration of concepts taught in previous years. In all PBL courses (eight in total), the development of generic skills is given equal opportunity. However the development of design skills are achieved in stages and it occurs mainly in six of the PBL courses. This incremental progression of design skill development prepares the students to face the final year capstone design project with confidence and excitement. The high satisfaction level in the design project as indicated by a high good teaching score (GTS) of 82% in 2008 shows that the progressive development of technical and generic skills using PBL courses is an effective means of preparing work-ready graduates

Effectiveness of placement and non-placement work integrated learning in developing students' perceived sense of employability

Engineering employers continue to report dissatisfaction with the skills of new graduates at the same time as employment outcomes continue to fall. Work experience is generally considered the best way to develop employability, but there are too few work placements to meet demand. Non-placement authentic work integrated learning (WIL) is an alternative but there is very little research to show if learning outcomes are equivalent. This paper compares student outcomes from placement and non-placement authentic WIL. The non-placement WIL module used a real project from a local engineering company, jointly scoped, developed, supervised and assessed by engineers from the company and the author. Students also participated in a series of skill based workshops developed and facilitated by the author. At the start of semester non-placement students rated themselves significantly lower than their peers who had completed a 12 weeks of engineering work experience on a number of employability skills. The students also struggled to engage with the WIL project initially. However attendance, participation, and individual assignment submission rates improved with consistent implementation of classroom conditions that simulated the workplace. After completing the WIL module, the gap between non-placement and placement students had all but disappeared. This paper shows that working closely with an industry partner to jointly design, supervise and assess students undertaking an authentic project is effective in increasing students' confidence in their work readiness, to a level similar to students who had work experience. The survey used to assess student perceptions of work readiness and graduate employability is a useful tool for curriculum development

Climate's Long-term Impact on New Zealand Infrastructure (CLINZI) - A Case Study of Hamilton City, New Zealand

Infrastructure systems and services (ISS) are vulnerable to changes in climate. This paper reports on a study of the impact of gradual climate changes on ISS in Hamilton City, New Zealand. This study is unique in that it is the first of its kind to be applied to New Zealand ISS. This study also considers a broader range of ISS than most other climate change studies recently conducted. Using historical climate data and four climate change scenarios, we modelled the impact of climate change on water supply and quality, transport, energy demand, public health and air quality. Our analysis reveals that many of Hamilton City's infrastructure sectors demonstrated greater responsiveness to population changes than changes in gradual climate change. Any future planning decisions should be sensitive to climate change, but not driven by it (even though that may be fashionable to do so). We find there is considerable scope for extending this analysis. First, there is a need for local infrastructure managers to improve the coverage of the data needed for this kind of study. Second, any future study of this kind must focus on daily (rather than monthly) time steps and extreme (as well as gradual) climate changes.Climate change, infrastructure, integrated assessment, adaptation, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, International Relations/Trade, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries, Political Economy,

Higher Education, Management Control and the Everyday Academic

This contribution to the Festskrift for Hanne Norreklit examines how the use of management controls by senior management of universities impacts on the everyday academic. This examination is rooted in two interrelated issues, being, first, what should the purpose of a university be and second, what should they look to contribute to society. To keep the analysis that follows manageable, England provides a representative setting due to these issues having been heavily debated there within recent decades. While these debates continue, market-orientated understandings have come to dominate, influencing the focus of successive governments and, in turn, the situated practices of universities. Specifically, this has changed the focus of senior managers, at universities, away from their traditional remit towards revenue generating activities. Key to their efforts is the understanding that external impressions of their university, as provided by, for example, rankings, will affect financial performance. This results in senior management increasingly managing for the rankings and other such external signifiers. In so doing, they have progressively introduced management control regimes that focus the organisation’s activities onto the external signifiers. However, as senior managements’ performance, and thereby rewards, has become increasingly linked to the external signifiers, their focus has narrowed only to the output metrics of the management controls they have put into place. Hence, they become wilfully ignorant of the wider impact these management controls have, and the pressure cooker situation this creates for many everyday academics. While this outcome has been well documented in the extant literature, this article adds, through the analysis of exemplars, how this is resulting in the grimmest of situations, with dire consequences. As part of noting that this could, and should, be different, speculation is raised over whether other management controls may act as release valves to this pressure cooker situation

Politicising the sustaining of water supply in Ireland - the role of accounting concepts

This article is © Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here: https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing LimitedThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Emerald via the DOI in this record.Purpose This paper examines how the Irish government mobilised accounting concepts to assist in implementing domestic water billing. While such is commonplace in other jurisdictions and is generally accepted as necessary to sustain a water supply, previous attempts were unsuccessful and a political hot potato. Design/methodology/approach We use an actor-network theory inspired approach. Specifically, the concepts of calculative spaces and their ‘otherness’ to non-calculative spaces are used to analyse how accounting concepts were mobilised and the effects they had in the introduction of domestic water billing. We utilise publically available documents such as legislation, programmes for government, regulator publications, media reports and parliamentary records in our analysis over the period from 1983 to late 2014. Findings Our analysis highlights how the implementation of domestic water billing involved the assembling of many divergent actors including the mobilisation of accounting concepts. Specifically the concept of ‘cost’ became a contested entity. The government mobilised it in a conventional way to represent the resourcing of the water supply. Countering this, domestic water users associated ‘cost’ with a direct impact on their own resources and lives. Thus, an entity usually associated with the economic realm was embroiled in political processes, with much of what they were supposed to represent becoming invisible. Thus we observed accounting concepts being mobilised to support the gaining of a specific political ends, the implementation of domestic billing, rather than as part of the means to implement a sustainable water supply within Ireland. Research limitations/implications This research has some limitations, one being we draw on secondary data. However, our research does provide a detailed base from which to continue to study a new water utility over time. Originality/value This study demonstrates the complications that can occur when accounting concepts are associated with gaining of a political ends rather than as a means in the process of trying to achieve a sustainable water supply. Further, the process saw the creation of a new utility, which is a rare occurrence in the developed world, and a water utility even more so; this study demonstrates the role accounting concepts can have in this creation.CPA Irelan

Effect of mixing conditions on mechanical properties of polylactide/montmorillonite clay nanocomposites

Biopolymer nanocomposites are of great interest to the packaging industry as they can overcome the inferior properties of biopolymers compared with synthetic polymers. However, studies on property improvement have been inconclusive about optimum filler levels and mixing conditions. This article reports on a systematic study of effect on mechanical properties of varying melt mixing conditions and filler level in PLA organoclay composites. Samples were mixed in a batch mixer at various temperatures, times, and speeds, at three filler levels. Tensile properties were measured and morphology characterized using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS)

Core values as a management control in the construction of “sustainable development”

AcceptedArticleThis is the author's post-print version of a manuscript accepted for publication in Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management (2015) Vol 12 Issue 2 doi: 10.1108/QRAM-04-2015-0040Purpose: This paper examines a management control constructed by senior managers, a core value focused on sustainability, as it travels through time and space. The criticality of sustainable development suggests the need to understand the effects that core values have on organisational actions. Design/methodology/approach: We utilise a case study methodology carried out at a multinational organisation. Our analysis was informed by actor-network theory which allowed us to place the organisation’s sustainability focused core value at the centre of our research. Findings: We found that management control, in the form of a sustainability focused core value, took on an active role in the case organisation. This enabled the opening of space and time that allowed actors to step forward and take action in relation to sustainable development. We show how the core value mobilised individual actors at specific points in time but did not enrol enough collective support to continue its travel. The resulting activities, though, provided a construction of sustainable development within the organisation more in line with traditional profit seeking objectives rather than in relation to sustainability objectives, such as inter- and intra-generational equity. Research limitations/implications: These findings suggest possibilities for future research that examines the active role that management controls may take within sustainable development. Originality/value: This paper shows the active role a management control, a sustainability focused core value, took within an organisation. This builds on the research that examines management control in relation to sustainability issues and sustainable development as well as the literature that examines core values

Life cycle assessment of a residential building: quantity take-off and data input techniques

LCA is a useful tool to assess the environmental impact of buildings. However, to do so accurately requires availability of regional life cycle inventory data, relevant scaling factors and reliable estimation of variables. This paper reports on how building plans, quantity take-off and scaling factors can be used to build an LCA model of a residential building. AccuRate and SimaPro were used to model the data. It was found that the environmental impact varies substantially with the phase of the building life cycle. Varying building life span affects the robustness of results

The network effects of core values on management controls

Paper presented at American Accounting Association Management Accounting Section Conference 2013, New Orleans, 10-12 Jan 2013Simons’ (1995b, 2000) levers of control have become one of the most prominently utilised management control system frameworks in the accounting literature. In this paper we focus on core values, which guide and motivate an organisation, an area of the framework not examined in the accounting literature. Specifically we examine the process through which a new core value develops. We also show how this process is influenced by and acts upon the other levers of control. We highlight how this process initially involves few actors, little complexity and creates a descriptive definition for the core value. Based on this descriptive definition more actors become involved, resulting in more complexity and focuses on these actors trying to develop an understanding of the practical relevance of the new core value. The process of developing the core value and the search for practical relevance necessitates the creation and transformation of other management controls. These management controls in turn change the core value and other actors within the process. The process of search and discovery provides belief control through embedding elements of the core value in the management controls that were created or transformed. While the core value may be displaced its effects on other controls remain in place thus showing how and why controls embody both technical and social elements