Transnational Corporate Regulation through Sustainability Reporting: A Case Study of the Canadian Extractive Sector

Despite the benefits transnational corporations (TNCs) offer, they remain largely unregulated entities, enabling environmental, social, and human rights violations to be overlooked. Canadian extractive sector TNCs operating internationally are frequently cited as major perpetrators of such violations. Literature on new governance and self-regulation as well as global corporate social responsibility (CSR) increasingly offers disclosure and reporting as a solution for TNC regulation. This study examines disclosure in international CSR frameworks, and the reflexive law and new governance theories explaining the role of such disclosure and reporting. Mirroring international CSR initiatives, Canadian jurisdictions are increasingly recommending disclosure for its extractive sector TNCs, including through its securities laws. Securities law provides a promising foundation for sustainability reporting because of its existing disclosure framework and its ability to compel disclosure. This potential of Canadian securities law also provides a basis for comparison with the Global Reporting Initiative, the leading sustainability reporting standard

Dynamic effects on capillary pressure-saturation relationships for two-phase porous flow: implications of temperature

Work carried out in the last decade or so suggests that the simulators for multiphase flow in porous media should include an additional term, namely a dynamic coefficient, as a measure of the dynamic effect associated with capillary pressure. In this work, we examine the dependence of the dynamic coefficient on temperature by carrying out quasi-static and dynamic flow simulations for an immiscible perchloroethylene–water system. Simulations have been carried out using a two-phase porous media flow simulator for a range of temperatures between 20 and 80 C. Simulation domains represent 3-D cylindrical setups used by the authors for laboratory-scale investigations of dynamic effects in two-phase flow. Results are presented for two different porous domains, namely the coarse and fine sands, which are then interpreted by examining the correlations between dynamic coefficient(s) and temperature, time period(s) required for attaining irreducible water saturation, and the dynamic aqueous/nonaqueous phase saturation and capillary pressure plots. The simulations presented here maintain continuity from our previous work and address the uncertainties associated with the dependency of dynamic coefficient(s) on temperature, thereby complementing the existing database for the characterization of dynamic coefficients and subsequently enabling the users to carry out computationally economical and reliable modeling studies

Computational modelling of two-phase porous flow: "effects of temperature on dynamic co-efficients"

Traditional continuum scale models for multiphase flow in porous media rely upon “Capillary Pressure, Saturation & Relative Permeability” relationships which do not necessarily illustrate the dynamic capillary pressure effects on the flow behaviour. As such, simulators for multiphase flow in porous media must include additional terms(s) associated with dynamic capillary pressures. For such reasons, investigations targeting at measurements of dynamic coefficients and its dependency on various physical parameters are of great interest. In this work we therefore examine the dependence of the dynamic coefficient τ on temperature T by carrying out quasi-static and dynamic flow simulations for an immiscible perchloroethylene (PCE)-water system exhibiting a drainage process. Simulations are carried out using a twophase porous media flow simulator STOMP for a range of temperatures between 20C-80C on 3-D cylindrical domains which correspond to laboratory scale domain set-ups used previously by the authors. Results are presented for coarse and fine sands at 40C and are interpreted by examining the correlations between dynamic coefficient(s) and temperature, time period(s) required for attaining residual saturation and the dynamic aqueous/non-aqueous phase saturation and capillary pressure plots. Our simulations maintain a continuity from our previous work and reduce the inconsistencies associated with the dependency of dynamic coefficient(s) on temperature which should subsequently enable the users to carry out computationally economical and reliable modelling studies at various length scales of observation