A comprehensive IS-enabled framework and IS research agenda to improve contributions to environmental sustainability by universities

For more than 25 years, universities have been acknowledged as having the potential to make crucial contributions to addressing the challenges of environmental sustainability. During this time, many universities have undertaken activities in support of sustainability, although few have succeeded in realizing their potential to make significant contributions in research and education or as adopters of sustainable practices within their institutions.This paper aims to assist universities to improve their contributions to the challenges of environmental sustainability by: reviewing current literature guiding universities to support sustainability; identifying gaps in the literature; and, proposing a composite framework to facilitate contributions by IS-enabled innovations that significantly improve the level of sustainability behaviours and practices in universities. An IS research agenda integrated with the Composite Framework is proposed.<br /

Transforming University Contributions to the Challenges of Environmental Sustainability: A Field Study

In 1987, the United Nation’s Brundtland Commission on Environment and Development appealed for educational institutions to put the world onto the paths to sustainability. Since the 1980s, many universities have attempted to make crucial contributions to addressing the challenges of sustainability, at some level. Unfortunately, despite considerable activity, few universities have succeeded in realizing their potential to make significant contributions to environmental sustainability in research or education or as adopters of sustainable practices within their institutions. This paper aims to assist universities in achieving greater contributions to the challenges of sustainability by examining drivers, inhibitors, activities and outcomes in a longitudinal field study of sustainability initiatives at a single university over a period of 20 years. Insights include the key role for IS-enabled innovation and integrated roles for IS scholars

Is-Enabled Innovation To Overcome Resistance And Improve Contributions To Sustainability By Universities: An Is Research Agenda

Since 1987, universities have been acknowledged as having the potential to make a crucial contribution to addressing the challenges of sustainability. Although many universities have attempted to make contributions towards sustainability at some level, few have succeeded in realizing their potential to make significant contributions in research, education or as adopters of sustainable practices within their institutions. This paper aims to assist universities to improve their contributions to the challenges of sustainability by clarifying the drivers and inhibitors of organizational initiatives and by proposing a model of IS- enabled innovation for universities to promote renewed efforts. An IS research agenda is proposed that is integrated with the model of IS-enabled organizational innovation to support adoption and diffusion of IS-enabled innovation in this domain

Evidence follows rhetoric -evaluating cultural development in an adaptive frame: Cultural development and Australian local government

ABSTRACT Over the last 50 years, local government in Australia has increasingly practiced cultural development as a means of supporting community cohesion, wellbeing, sense of identity and economic development. The practice includes activities intended to elicit, express or explore aspects of community life that lend themselves to these goals, including arts practices that are generally integral to the activities. The requirement of funding bodies to evaluate the effectiveness of subsidised programs has led to a tendency to view the arts instrumentally, that is, as a means to an end. That tends to leave discussion of the intrinsic value of the arts relatively undeveloped or unresolved. The paper argues for the use of an adaptive frame for evaluating cultural development and for cultural development&apos;s institutional contribution to local government and its communities to be better recognised. Integrated strategies are available for a systems view of cultural development and the paper discusses how this can contribute to governance approaches in local government

Schizophyllum commune: An unexploited source for lignocellulose degrading enzymes

Lignocellulose represents the most abundant source of carbon in the Earth. Thus, fraction technology of the biomass turns up as an emerging technology for the development of biorefineries. Saccharification and fermentation processes require the formulation of enzymatic cocktails or the development of microorganisms (naturally or genetically modified) with the appropriate toolbox to produce a cost-effective fermentation technology. Therefore, the search for microorganisms capable of developing effective cellulose hydrolysis represents one of the main challenges in this era. Schizophyllum commune is an edible agarical with a great capability to secrete a myriad of hydrolytic enzymes such as xylanases and endoglucanases that are expressed in a high range of substrates. In addition, a large number of protein-coding genes for glycoside hydrolases, oxidoreductases like laccases (Lacs; EC 1.10.3.2), as well as some sequences encoding for lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) and expansins-like proteins demonstrate the potential of this fungus to be applied in different biotechnological process. In this review, we focus on the enzymatic toolbox of S. commune at the genetic, transcriptomic, and proteomic level, as well as the requirements to be employed for fermentable sugars production in biorefineries. At the end the trend of its use in patent registration is also reviewed.We are thankful to the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT) since OETH received a scholarship during the elaboration of this work. We also thank the financial support received from SEP-PRODEP- UAEMOR- PITC- 381. RABG received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Quebec Government

Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Wastes to Improve Ethanol and Biogas Production: A Review

Lignocelluloses are often a major or sometimes the sole components of different waste streams from various industries, forestry, agriculture and municipalities. Hydrolysis of these materials is the first step for either digestion to biogas (methane) or fermentation to ethanol. However, enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocelluloses with no pretreatment is usually not so effective because of high stability of the materials to enzymatic or bacterial attacks. The present work is dedicated to reviewing the methods that have been studied for pretreatment of lignocellulosic wastes for conversion to ethanol or biogas. Effective parameters in pretreatment of lignocelluloses, such as crystallinity, accessible surface area, and protection by lignin and hemicellulose are described first. Then, several pretreatment methods are discussed and their effects on improvement in ethanol and/or biogas production are described. They include milling, irradiation, microwave, steam explosion, ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX), supercritical CO2 and its explosion, alkaline hydrolysis, liquid hot-water pretreatment, organosolv processes, wet oxidation, ozonolysis, dilute-and concentrated-acid hydrolyses, and biological pretreatments