Why, how and what do organizations achieve with the implementation of environmental management systems? Lessons from a comprehensive review on the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme

The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) was established in 1993 in the European Union as a voluntary instrument facilitating the implementation of organisational environmental policies and management of environmental aspects. We present a comprehensive literature review on EMAS research, organized according to three broad questions: Why do organisations choose EMAS? How is the scheme implemented and adapted to organisational characteristics? And what results are achieved? We have built analysis matrices to critically review 80 articles published over the past two decades and to identify the recurrent research themes addressing each question. We found that the decision to adopt EMAS is motivated by a set of internal and external factors, compounded by the potential of an organisation to combine the scheme with other EMS standards and environmental management tools. These themes are the ones most extensively covered by existing literature. To answer the question on how organisations implement and adapt to the scheme, two themes have been identified covering EMS planning and operation issues and sectoral approaches. Results show that the focus has been put on development of methods for assessing the significance of environmental aspects, implementing environmental policies and developing indicators for tracking performance and elaborating environmental statements. The development of sectoral approaches that adapt EMAS to characteristics of different economic activity sectors is also emerging as a critical research development. Finally, the themes addressing results achieved with EMAS implementation have only recently surfaced in the literature. The achievement of sustained environmental performance improvements through EMAS adoption is both contested and supported in the reviewed studies. On the other hand, improvements in the relationships with stakeholders arise as one of the most important intangible outcomes of the scheme. We conclude our review by advancing a systematic set of future research opportunities in this field.publishersversionpublishe

Playing the new devil’s advocate role in facilitated modelling processes to address group homogeneity

To address complex issues, facilitated modelling aims to represent and accommodate plural worldviews from many stakeholders and experts. In these contexts, group homogeneity can become problematic when participants’ plurality of perspectives and information is missing and people attending facilitated sessions have similar problem perceptions and interests. This is a challenge because it can lead to narrow discussion, groupthink and undermine output quality. Despite not being uncommon, effective approaches to deal with homogeneity are hardly reported. This paper presents a new role—the New Devil’s Advocate—in which some facilitators leave their neutrality-oriented stance and act as the missing stakeholders. The paper illustrates a first application to a group model building process aimed at supporting the development of energy efficiency policies in the UK. To evaluate the results, workshop transcripts were coded, participants’ and facilitators’ feedback collected, and the modelling output assessed with respect to the New Devil’s Advocate interventions during the workshop. Although the role performance appears to increase facilitators’ workload and be influenced by role performers’ personality and background, the analysis shows positive results as a promising practice to address homogeneity. Additionally, it offers a practical experience of how facilitation teams may temporarily abandon neutrality and intervene on content

Playing the new devil’s advocate role in facilitated modelling processes to address group homogeneity

Funding Information: We are very grateful to the BEIS team, who accepted to be challenged by this new role in their workshop. We are deeply indebted to Nicole Bernardi, Yekatherina Bobrova, Valerio Cappuccio, Luca Cunico and Juan Pablo Ríos Ocampo for all their precious help along the way. The authors also acknowledge Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands), NOVA University Lisbon (Portugal), University of Bergen (Norway) and University of Palermo (Italy) for supporting this research within the European Master Programme in System Dynamics (EMSD). This work was supported by the UK Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) [no grant number], by a UCL Public Policy Small Grant [no grant number] and by the EPSRC Platform Grant on ‘Built Environment Systems Thinking’ [EP/P022405/1]. CENSE is financed by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P., Portugal [UID/AMB/04085/2020]. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.To address complex issues, facilitated modelling aims to represent and accommodate plural worldviews from many stakeholders and experts. In these contexts, group homogeneity can become problematic when participants’ plurality of perspectives and information is missing and people attending facilitated sessions have similar problem perceptions and interests. This is a challenge because it can lead to narrow discussion, groupthink and undermine output quality. Despite not being uncommon, effective approaches to deal with homogeneity are hardly reported. This paper presents a new role—the New Devil’s Advocate—in which some facilitators leave their neutrality-oriented stance and act as the missing stakeholders. The paper illustrates a first application to a group model building process aimed at supporting the development of energy efficiency policies in the UK. To evaluate the results, workshop transcripts were coded, participants’ and facilitators’ feedback collected, and the modelling output assessed with respect to the New Devil’s Advocate interventions during the workshop. Although the role performance appears to increase facilitators’ workload and be influenced by role performers’ personality and background, the analysis shows positive results as a promising practice to address homogeneity. Additionally, it offers a practical experience of how facilitation teams may temporarily abandon neutrality and intervene on content.publishersversionpublishe

WP2: Assessing multi-level activities in water and biodiversity governance. Report

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Development Scenarios of Sustainability for Golf: The Algarve Case

Golf is becoming a major industry worldwide. The majority of the Portuguese golf courses are located in the Algarve region. Golf tourism has a great economic impact on the Algarve and is regarded by local tourism developers as a vehicle for tackling the seasonal patterns of “mass tourism”. In consideration of the concerns of those involved in regional tourism and golf, the University of Algarve has developed a prospective study on the sustainability paths of this activity, starting from an integrated analysis of the reference conditions of golf in the Algarve, with respect to environmental, economic and social dimensions. This paper presents the sustainability assessment framework developed in this study and the results from its application to the Algarve’s golf courses through the definition and evaluation of three alternative development scenarios and their associated impacts. The application of economic, social and environmental indicators was a key tool for the construction of the “baseline”, “moderate” and “intensive scenarios”. It was concluded that the development of further golf activity in the Algarve should be framed within high service and environmental quality standards. The sustainability area for golf course development should vary between 29 and 41 gold courses (equivalent of 18 holes).

Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Participatory Modeling to Elicit Behavioral Drivers in Environmental Dilemmas: the Case of Air Pollution in Talca, Chile

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the exploration of environmental modeling methods based on the elicitation of stakeholders’ mental models. This aim is motivated by the necessity to understand the dilemmas and behavioral rationales of individuals for supporting the management of environmental problems. The methodology developed for this paper integrates qualitative and quantitative methods by deploying focus groups for the elicitation of the behavioral rationales of the target population, and grounded theory to code the information gained in the focus groups and to guide the development of a dynamic simulation model. The approach is applied to a case of urban air pollution caused by residential heating with wood in central Chile. The results show how the households’ behavior interrelates with the governmental management strategies and provide valuable and novel insights into potential challenges to the implementation of policies to manage the local air pollution problem. The experience further shows that the developed participatory modeling approach allows to overcome some of the issues currently encountered in the elicitation of individuals’ behavioral rationales and in the quantification of qualitative information

Implementação do sistema GlobalG.A.P, numa exploração agrícola de Mirtilos

O setor alimentar apresenta-se cada vez mais exigente, no que a qualidade dos seus produtos diz respeito. Os consumidores começam a ler os rótulos das embalagens e a demonstrar preferência por aqueles que evidenciam boas práticas quer no tratamento do produto, quer no tratamento do meio ambiente. O GLOBALG.A.P é uma organização privada que visa a sustentabilidade e segurança da agricultura e dos produtos agrícolas a nível mundial. Para tal, baseados em referenciais próprios para o efeito, estabelecem com os produtores condições para que a certificação seja uma realidade. Este relatório surge como resultado do trabalho desenvolvido num estágio profissionalizante que combinou a implementação de certificação GLOBALG.A.P na empresa BEOOR, com a análise e identificação de pragas e doenças no laboratório de proteção vegetal na Escola Superior Agrária de Coimbra. O objetivo deste estudo foi acompanhar a condução da cultura de mirtilo, segundo o referencial GLOBALG.A.P, nomeadamente na proteção da cultura contra pragas e doenças. Palavras-Chave: Certificação; Segurança Alimentar; Agricultura SustentávelThe food sector is becoming increasingly demanding as regards the quality of its products. Consumers are beginning to read packaging labels and showing preference for those that show good practice in both product and environmental care. GLOBALG.A.P is a private organization aimed at the sustainability and safety of agriculture and agricultural products worldwide. To this end, based on their own references, they establish with the producers conditions for certification to be a reality. This report arises as a result of work carried out at a vocational internship that combined the implementation of GLOBALG.A.P certification at BEOOR with the analysis and identification of pests and diseases in the plant protection laboratory at Coimbra College of Agriculture. The objective of this study was to monitor the conduction of the blueberry crop, according to the GLOBALG.A.P framework, namely in the protection of the crop against pests and diseases. Keywords: Certification; Food Safety; Sustainable Agricultur

A system dynamics-based framework for examining Circular Economy transitions

Funding Information: The authors would like to sincerely thank the Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination ( CAPES ), from Brazil, for financially supporting this research. CENSE is supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology ( FCT ) through the strategic project UIDB/04085/2020. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The AuthorsDecision-makers in the public policy and business arenas need tools to deal with multiple sources of complexity in Circular Economy (CE) transitions. System Dynamics (SD) facilitates coping with increased complexity by enabling closed-loop thinking via identifying the causal structures underlying behaviour and permitting to proactively experiment with the system through simulation. This research aims to propose and test an SD-based framework for examining CE transitions to supporting decision-making at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. Two inductive model-based cases studies led to formalising the framework, finally tested in a third deductive model-based case study. The framework is built upon the well-known stages for building SD simulation models and complemented with domain-specific activities, guiding questions, and expected outcomes when examining CE transitions. The SD-based framework is the first modelling-oriented prescriptive approach to help researchers and practitioners examining CE transitions on their journeys to understand and facilitate changes through SD simulation models.publishersversionpublishe

Participatory systems mapping for sustainable consumption: Discussion of a method promoting systemic insights

The paper describes our usage of and experience with the method of participatory systems mapping. The method, developed for the purpose of facilitating knowledge brokerage, builds on participatory modelling approaches and applications and was used in several events involving both researchers and policy makers. The paper presents and discusses examples of how different types of participatory interaction with causal loop diagrams ("system maps") produced different insights on issues related to sustainable consumption and enabled participatory reflection and sharing of knowledge. Together, these insights support a systemic understanding of the issues and thus the method provides instruments for coping with complexity when formulating policies for sustainable consumption. Furthermore the paper discusses the ability of the method - and its limits - to connect mental models of participants through structured discussion and thus bridge boundaries between different communities

Business plan: Synbus

O business plan desenvolvido tem como objetivo sustentar a criação de uma plataforma de publicidade digital nos autocarros da Carris chamada Synbus. Pretende-se que o projeto apresentado constitua uma evolução dos modelos de negócio que vigoram atualmente no segmento de publicidade exterior em Portugal, cuja incorporação das inovações tecnológicas na mensagem transmitida aos consumidores, é diminuta. Para tal, é sugerida uma parceria com o principal operador no transporte público da cidade de Lisboa, a Carris, equipando os seus autocarros com capacidade de transmitir quatro elementos principais: marketing e informações locais baseado na posição em tempo real do autocarro, notícias e agenda cultural, comunicações da Carris e anúncios diretos. A metodologia subjacente ao projeto compreendeu o desenvolvimento de uma revisão literária sobre os temas de publicidade exterior e modelos de negócio, seguida de um estudo de mercado através de uma análise PESTEL, análise do mercado português de publicidade externa, os seus operadores e tipos de oferta. Foi elaborado um inquérito, apresentado no anexo 1, de forma a aprofundar a perceção desta tecnologia por parte dos passageiros da transportadora, aferindo as oportunidades e ameaças inerentes ao projeto, sistematizadas através de uma análise SWOT. Posteriormente, foi empregue o Modelo de Negócios de Osterwalder e Pigneur para construir as bases e estratégias sobre as quais será desenvolvida a Synbus e os planos financeiros associados. Nestes moldes, o projeto foi avaliado aproximadamente em 973 mil euros, com a recuperação do investimento realizada em menos de três anos.The business plan developed aims to support the creation of a digital advertising platform on Carris’ buses called Synbus. This project is intended to be an evolution of the business models currently used in outdoor advertising in Portugal, whose incorporation of technological innovations in the message transmitted to consumers, is moderately insignificant. In order to do so, it is proposed a partnership with the main public transport operator in the city of Lisbon, Carris, equipping its buses with the capacity to transmit four main elements: marketing and local information based on the real time position of the bus, news and cultural agenda, Carris’ communications and direct ads. The methodology underlying the project included the development of a literary review on outdoor advertising and business models, followed by a market analysis using the PESTEL scheme, an analysis of the Portuguese outdoors advertising market, its operators and types of offer. A survey was developed in order to deepen the perception of this technology by the passengers of the carrier, assessing the opportunities and threats inherent to the project, systematized through a SWOT analysis. Subsequently, the Osterwalder and Pigneur Business Model was used to build the bases and strategies on which Synbus will be developed and the associated financial plans. This way, the project was valued at approximately 973 thousand euros, with the recovery of the initial investment in less than three years