The Impact of Multi-Level Governance on Energy Performance in the Current Dutch Housing Stock \ud

The housing sector is responsible for 33% of total CO2 emissions in the Netherlands. As such, large reductions in CO2 emissions can be gained by increasing the energy performance in the existing housing stock. Yet, several barriers make this difficult. Renovation investments and maintenance costs are high while badly needed norms for energy improvement are absent. Furthermore, market developments and sectoral policies reflect a complex institutional environment in which many actors are interdependent, but also lack an individual sense of urgency regarding energy consumption. In this article, we try to determine how multi-level governance in Dutch housing affects the outcomes of policies aimed at CO2-reduction in the existing housing stock. We examined two housing sectors in the Netherlands: social housing and owner occupancy. We focus on policy implementation problems in the early 2000s. It turns out that the complex multi-level environment severely impedes the realization of ambitious policy goals.\ud \u

Public housing and the value of apartment quality to households

The application of hedonic price approaches to obtain estimates of the households' value of apartment characteristics is invalid for regulated housing markets such as public housing. We introduce and apply an alternative method that allows us to estimate the renters' marginal willingness to pay for apartment characteristics based on residential mobility. We focus on the households' marginal willingness to pay for quality of apartments. We find that, on average, households place a monetary value on quality which is close to the non-profit housing associations' costs of providing quality. © 2011 Elsevier B.V

Feeling Safe in the Dark : Examining the Effect of Entrapment, Lighting Levels, and Gender on Feelings of Safety and Lighting Policy Acceptability

This research examined to what extent physical factors, notably lighting and entrapment (blocked escape), and individual factors, notably gender, affect feelings of safety and the acceptability of reduced lighting levels. The authors reasoned that acceptability of reduced street lighting depends on perceived safety, which in turn depends on entrapment, lighting, and gender. Virtual representations of a residential street were used, systematically manipulating entrapment and lighting levels. As expected, people felt less safe in lower lighting and higher entrapment settings, and these settings were evaluated as less acceptable. Although women perceived a situation as less safe compared with men, the authors found no gender differences in acceptability, which extends previous research. Importantly, as hypothesized, perceived safety mediated the effect of lighting on acceptability levels, suggesting that people can accept lower lighting levels when social safety is not threatened

Responsible chain management: a capability assessment framework

In recent years, increased attention has been paid to issues of responsibility across the entire product lifecycle. Responsible behaviour of organizations in the product chain is dependent on the actions of other parties such as suppliers and customers. Only through co-operation and close interaction between the different parties involved is it possible to come to a specified form of responsible chain management. Drawing on stakeholder theory and literature on the resource-based view of the firm, this article presents a framework for assessing the organizational capabilities of responding to claims from internal and external parties. Interpretations of stakeholder interests, integration into business processes, monitoring these processes, and communication with stakeholders are the central processes in this framework. The application of this framework to three cases of responsible chain management illustrates the functioning of the framework as a tool for assessing organizational capabilities

Complexity and Transition Management

This article presents a framework, transition management, for managing complex societal systems. The principal contribution of this article is to articulate the relationship between transition management and complex systems theory. A better understanding of the dynamics of complex, adaptive systems provides insight into the opportunities, limitations, and conditions under which it is possible to influence such systems. Transition management is based on key notions of complex systems theory, such as variation and selection, emergence, coevolution, and self-organization. It involves a cyclical process of phases at various scale levels: stimulating niche development at the micro level, finding new attractors at the macro level by developing a sustainability vision, creating diversity by setting out experiments, and selecting successful experiments that can be scaled up

Способ бескоксовой переработки ванадийсодержащего рудного сырья с получением легированной ванадием стали, горячих металлизованных окатышей и ванадиевого шлака

Изобретение относится к области металлургии, в частности к процессам металлизации и электросталеплавильному производству. В шахтной печи осуществляют металлизацию ванадийсодержащего рудного сырья с использованием в качестве восстановителя горячих восстановительных газов, поступающих из газификатора с жидкой ванной, где с одновременным получением газа производятся ванадийсодержащий полупродукт и ванадийсодержащий шлак. Металлизованное сырье, ванадийсодержащий полупродукт, металлургический скрап подают в дуговую электропечь для выплавки стали. Перед подачей в электропечь ванадийсодержащий полупродукт поступает в агрегат деванадации для окисления ванадия с получением рафинированного полупродукта и ванадийсодержащего шлака. После чего рафинированный полупродукт, металлизованное сырье и металлургический скрап подают в электропечь. В электропечи вначале проплавляют рафинированный полупродукт и металлургический скрап, сливают шлак и на полученный расплав подают и проплавляют металлизованное сырье до получения стали. Ванадийсодержащий шлак, полученный при деванадации ванадийсодержащего полупродукта, а также не использованное для выплавки стали металлизованное сырье, полученное в шахтной печи, используют как товарную продукцию. Преимуществом предлагаемого изобретения является удешевление процесса получения легированной ванадием стали, снижение энергоемкости процесса и увеличение степени извлечения ванадия на всех стадиях технологической цепочки

‘Test Driving’ a Financing Instrument for Climate Adaptation: Analyzing Institutional Dilemmas using Simulation Gaming

Urban physical public infrastructure is a frontline defense mechanism to manage and mitigate climate-related impacts. Market instruments are often cited as possible means to spread risk and reduce financial burdens on the public sector. The authors argue that existing research tends to focus on the technical issues of instruments and neglects considering institutional dynamics that may enable or constrain local market-based financing mechanisms. In this article, three core dilemmas (values uncertainty, planning horizon, and indirect benefits) are used to analyze the responses of practitioners to a possible financing instrument. The findings indicate that the practitioner’s responses to tax increment financing were largely shaped by the adaptation dilemmas and not the characteristics of the instrument per se. By mapping the dilemmas onto whether they would recommend it, participants imposed a financial barrier on climate adaptation investments. The authors conclude that a key imperative in the design of policy instruments is to pay attention to the congruency of informal institutions at the ‘street level’ in order to be in-step with the current sociopolitical conditions. The findings also point to four key attributes that a local market-based instrument would need to be aligned and responsive to the Dutch planning and development context