Large UK retailers' initiatives to reduce consumers' emissions: a systematic assessment

In the interest of climate change mitigation, policy makers, businesses and non-governmental organisations have devised initiatives designed to reduce in-use emissions whilst, at the same time, the number of energy-consuming products in homes, and household energy consumption, is increasing. Retailers are important because they are at the interface between manufacturers of products and consumers and they supply the vast majority of consumer goods in developed countries like the UK, including energy using products. Large retailers have a consistent history of corporate responsibility reporting and have included plans and actions to influence consumer emissions within them. This paper adapts two frameworks to use them for systematically assessing large retailers’ initiatives aimed at reducing consumers’ carbon emissions. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) is adapted and used to analyse the strategic scope and coherence of these initiatives in relation to the businesses’ sustainability strategies. The ISM ‘Individual Social Material’ framework is adapted and used to analyse how consumer behaviour change mechanisms are framed by retailers. These frameworks are used to analyse eighteen initiatives designed to reduce consumer emissions from eight of the largest UK retail businesses, identified from publicly available data. The results of the eighteen initiatives analysed show that the vast majority were not well planned nor were they strategically coherent. Secondly, most of these specific initiatives relied solely on providing information to consumers and thus deployed a rather narrow range of consumer behaviour change mechanisms. The research concludes that leaders of retail businesses and policy makers could use the FSSD to ensure processes, and measurements are comprehensive and integrated, in order to increase the materiality and impact of their initiatives to reduce consumer emissions in use. Furthermore, retailers could benefit from exploring different models of behaviour change from the ISM framework in order to access a wider set of tools for transformative system change

Social review

Altres títols : Environmental performance report ; Environmental and social report ; Sustainable development repor

Corporate social responsibility

Altres títols : Corporate and social responsibility ; Corporate responsibility report

Unilever Annual Accounts

Unilever va nèixer a 1930 de la fusió de la companyia holandesa Margarine Unie i l'empresa anglesa dedicada a la fabricació de sabons, Lever Brothers

Corporate social responsibility report

Altres títols : Sustainability report

Accounting for information: Information and knowledge in the annual reports of FTSE 100 companies

The purpose of this study was to assess the ways in which a sample group of companies discuss information and knowledge. Quantitative and qualitative content analyses were used to survey the way that companies present and value information and knowledge, based on the annual reports of the FTSE 100, the United Kingdom's largest publicly-listed companies. A novel content analysis approach is used, based on a set of categories proposed by Oppenheim, Stenson and Wilson. Many of the companies analysed made explicit the importance of information and knowledge, through either discussion in the text of the annual report or through an attempt to assign a monetary value to information assets. Where the importance of information and knowledge was not made explicit, the study revealed links between successful performance and effective use of information assets. Different categories of information assets were identified within the annual reports. Conclusions drawn from the analysis include that information and knowledge are demonstrably important to FTSE 100 companies, although the specific term “knowledge” does not appear to have a special significance in the companies’ lexicon; and that certain sectors, such as General Financial, General Retail, Travel & Leisure, Mining, Aerospace & Defence and Software & Computer Services, mention information and knowledge more than others

Creating a Healthy Classroom Environment in Multicultural Counseling Courses

To assist educators in developing transformative learning environments, and effectively engaging in difficult dialogues regarding multicultural counseling topics, we conducted a qualitative study to systemically examine the perceptions and reactions of twenty graduate counselor education students enrolled in a multicultural counseling course. In this particular course, students experienced various learning environments all designed to enhance the topic of the day. Students were instructed to journal their thoughts, which became the raw data that was later, analyzed for themes. Students reported a need to be in an environment where there was trust, an ongoing need to reflect on the content, and difficulty discussing their school experiences with friends/family who are not in the helping profession

Thermal breakage of window glass in room fires conditions - Analysis of some important parameters

In a compartment fire, the breakage and possible fallout of a window glass has a significant impact on the fire dynamics. The thermal breakage of glass depends on various parameters such as glass type, edge shading, edges conditions and constraints on the glass. The purpose of the present study is to investigate some of the key parameters affecting the thermal breakage of window glass in fire conditions using a recently developed and validated computer tool. Fallout is not within the scope of this study. Different boundary conditions of the glass pane (unconstrained and constrained) subjected to fire radiant heat are investigated. The analysis shows that to prevent glass thermal breakage, it is important to provide enough spacing between the frame and glass pane to accommodate the thermal expansion, and constraints on the glass structure should be avoided. The zones where the glass is likely to crack first are shown. The study also quantifies the effects of glass edge conditions on its thermal breakage in fire conditions; such analysis has not been reported in the literature due to its complexity and the statistical nature of edge flaws. The results show that an ordinary float glass mostly used in windows, with the “as-cut” edge condition would break later and is stronger than a ground edge or polished edge glass for the scenarios investigated. The study demonstrates how a predictive tool could be employed for a better understanding of thermal breakage of window glass in fires and for design guidance

The effectiveness of conventional trickling filter treatment plants at reducing concentrations of copper in wastewaters

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Science of the Total Environment. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.Eight different sewage treatment works were sampled in the North West of England. The effectiveness of the conventional treatment processes (primary sedimentation and biological trickling filters) as well as various tertiary treatment units in terms of both total and dissolved copper removal was evaluated. The removal of total copper across primary sedimentation averaged 53% and were relatively consistent at all sites, however, at three sites the removal of dissolved copper also occurred at this stage of treatment. Removal of total copper by the biological trickling filters averaged 49%, however, substantial dissolution of copper occurred at two sites, which highlighted the unpredictability of this treatment process in the removal of dissolved copper. Copper removal during tertiary treatment varied considerably even for the same treatment processes installed at different sites, primarily due to the variability of insoluble copper removal, with little effect on copper in the dissolved form being observed. The proportion of dissolved copper increased significantly during treatment, from an average of 22% in crude sewages to 55% in the final effluents. There may be the potential to optimise existing, conventional treatment processes (primary or biological treatment) to enhance dissolved copper removal, possibly reducing the requirement for installing any tertiary processes specifically for the removal of copper.United Utilities PL

Excavations and the afterlife of a professional football stadium, Peel Park, Accrington, Lancashire: towards an archaeology of football

Association football is now a multi-billion dollar global industry whose emergence spans the post-medieval to the modern world. With its professional roots in late 19th-century industrial Lancashire, stadiums built for the professionalization of football first appear in frequency in the North of England. While many historians of sport focus on consumerism and ‘topophilia’ (attachment to place) regarding these local football grounds, archaeological research that has been conducted on the spectator experience suggests status differentiation within them. Our excavations at Peel Park confirm this impression while also showing a significant afterlife to this stadium, particularly through children’s play