64 research outputs found
Productive Inclusion of Smallholder Farmers in Brazil?s Biodiesel Value Chain: Programme Design, Institutional Incentives and Stakeholder Constraints
One of the principal challenges in sustainable development, especially in developing countries, is to build institutions that generate positive environmental and social externalities by helping individuals to perceive a positive relationship between self-interest and ?the common good?. Collective engagement can enable individuals to overcome self-interestedness and work toward shared goals, but ?getting the institutions right? requires an understanding of how the particular set of market and non-market relationships really work for participants. In the context of the biodiesel value chain in Brazil, this paper explores how institutional arrangements need to evolve if they are to foster the productive and sustained inclusion of small farmers and promote sustainable innovation as a regional economic development strategy, one that helps reduce social vulnerability without increasing environmental risks. The paper uses the institutional analysis and design (IAD) framework, which looks at how actors are involved in repetitive situations affected by a biophysical world, a cultural world and a set of rules, in order to understand how different institutional structures can accommodate the power of both internal and exogenous forces that shape the trajectory of sustainable innovation. After a general overview of stakeholders and policy instruments in the biodiesel programme, the paper provides a brief institutional analysis of the interaction between actors and processes, with a view to offering insights into the current effectiveness of the programme as a sustainable rural development tool. (...)Productive Inclusion of Smallholder Farmers in Brazil?s Biodiesel Value Chain: Programme Design, Institutional Incentives and Stakeholder Constraints
Beyond win-win: a syncretic theory on corporate stakeholder engagement in sustainable development
This article explores the concept of syncretism to articulate the construct of a novel theoretical approach that may help to accelerate progress in developing substantively more sustainable business activities. One reason why the integration of environmental and social responsibility in business has been so difficult to achieve in practice is that it is not just a battle of competing business logics, but a battle of faiths. The concept of syncretism, with its roots in religious synthesis, may be far more relevant and useful than conventional approaches to combining the two which rarely seem to rise above a âwin-winâ appeal to logic. The connectionist logic of syncretism may show us a way beyond paradigmatic conformity in business sustainability research so that scholars with diverse theoretical backgrounds might have a common ground for discussion, find constructive connections, and engage in potentially more insightful and creative interactions to develop our understanding of corporate sustainability
A review of the recent developments of Green Banking in Bangladesh
This paper aims to explore the emergence of âGreen Bankingâ in Bangladesh, with a focus on the role of financial regulation and regulators in greening the financial sector. It also examines the contribution and involvement of banks and non-bank financial institutions in promoting green economic transition. The study is based on the review of secondary data collected from various sources, such as quarterly reports, annual reports, websites of the central bank of Bangladesh, and other commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions as well as various articles, and newspapers reports on green banking in Bangladesh. The collected data is reviewed using descriptive statistics. The research results reveal that the central bank of Bangladesh played a major role in greening the financial system of the country by implementing various green policies and regulatory measures. Although Bangladesh is still far behind the developed countries in terms of environmental performance, the country has made a remarkable progress in initiating and expanding green banking practices, infrastructure development, and accelerating green growth in recent years
Multinational mining enterprises and small-scale artisanal miners:from confrontation to cooperation
Isnât it time we transitioned to integrated sustainability? De-codifying the hard-soft divide from a systems-theoretic perspective
Green Growth Policy, De-Growth, and Sustainability: The Alternative Solution for Achieving the Balance between Both the Natural and the Economic System
âWe are ethically obliged and incited to think beyond what are treated as the realistic limits of the possibleâ [...
What Characteristics Do the Firms have That Go Beyond Compliance with Regulation in Environmental Protection? A Multiple Discriminant Analysis
This paper is focused on analyzing the characteristics of firms that have environmental performance beyond the requirements of regulation in environmental protection. To identify such characteristics, we propose a value and context model building on environmental paradigms as conceptualized by Dryzekâs environmental discourse theory. Using multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) to analyze data collected from a multi-respondent survey of Argentinean polluting firms, we identify distinctive characteristics of firms going beyond regulation and firms that do not comply with regulation. In particular, comparing with other five environmental discourses, endorsement of green growth is evaluated in its connection with compliance patterns. We find that supporting green growth discourse (also known as ecological modernization) is one of the characteristics of those firms that go beyond compliance in their environmental performance
Detecting Areas of Potential High Prevalence of Chagas in Argentina
A map of potential prevalence of Chagas disease (ChD) with high spatial
disaggregation is presented. It aims to detect areas outside the Gran Chaco
ecoregion (hyperendemic for the ChD), characterized by high affinity with ChD
and high health vulnerability.
To quantify potential prevalence, we developed several indicators: an
Affinity Index which quantifies the degree of linkage between endemic areas of
ChD and the rest of the country. We also studied favorable habitability
conditions for Triatoma infestans, looking for areas where the predominant
materials of floors, roofs and internal ceilings favor the presence of the
disease vector.
We studied determinants of a more general nature that can be encompassed
under the concept of Health Vulnerability Index. These determinants are
associated with access to health providers and the socio-economic level of
different segments of the population.
Finally we constructed a Chagas Potential Prevalence Index (ChPPI) which
combines the affinity index, the health vulnerability index, and the population
density. We show and discuss the maps obtained. These maps are intended to
assist public health specialists, decision makers of public health policies and
public officials in the development of cost-effective strategies to improve
access to diagnosis and treatment of ChD.Comment: Proceedings of the 2019 World Wide Web Conference. May 13-17, 2019.
San Francisco, CA, US
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