Park interpretations: an exploration of the spatial properties and urban performance of Regent's Park, London and Pedion Areos Park, Athens

The aim of this report is to investigate the effect that the spatial properties of urban parks have on their performance, in terms of their usage and their relation to the surrounding urban grid. The intention is to contribute to a broader understanding of the park space type, through the investigation of two case studies; Regent’s Park in London and Pedion Areos Park in Athens, Greece. The study focuses on the examination of the spatial characteristics that make an urban park successful and the role of the urban context. Firstly, landscape theories and ideas such as order and disorder in the gardening types are explored, and contrasted with space syntax literature. The purpose is to examine the influence of such concepts embedded in the design on the performance and usage of the parks. Secondly, the methodology of the study is presented, followed by the findings that have occurred, using space syntax standard methods. Space syntax is used both as a tool to examine the performance of the parks as well as a theoretical model, in order to define the park space type. Lastly, the findings are discussed in the light of landscape design theories and relevant researches. The conclusion is that both parks present emergent movement and occupation patterns, strongly connected to their spatial and visual properties. It is suggested that parks are unique in their topological characteristics, being distinguished by the vast freedom of choices offered to their users by the spatial configuration

Food waste generation in the hospitality and food service sector: Prevention insights from Malaysia

Food security is one of the greatest challenges the world faces today. Providing nutritious, safe and affordable food for all in a sustainable way will become even more challenging under the burden of increasing world population and global environmental change. Whist 795 million people are undernourished; one third of the food produced globally for human consumption is lost or wasted. The food waste – hunger paradox is an illustration firstly of the failing global food system, and secondly of the importance of food waste in the sustainability and food debates. Food waste represents substantial economic losses, has devastating environmental impacts, and moral and ethical implications in the face of food poverty. Due to its detrimental economic, environmental and social impacts, food waste has received increasing attention in research and policy, viewed predominately from an engineering and technological perspective. In response, this research firstly critically reviewed contemporary conceptual frameworks and reframed food waste to produce the Food Waste Hierarchy. Secondly, it critiqued the current methodological approaches and developed a new framework to investigate the scale, origin, patterns and causes of food waste generation in the hospitality and food service sector in Malaysia. Finally, the research identified the most promising food waste prevention measures for the sector. These objectives were achieved by developing and applying a mixed methods interdisciplinary approach that linked the biophysical and economic flows of food provisioning and waste generation, with the social practices associated with food preparation and consumption. The food waste prevention insights that emerged from this research call for change in both the socio-technical systems and social practices related to food production and consumption; a message relevant to the food and broader sustainability research

A Preliminary Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emission Trends in The Production and Consumption of Food in Malaysia

In the past decade, a small but growing body of research has drawn attention to the environmental concerns of rising greenhouse gas emissions associated with the consumption and production of food; this is an issue of increasing importance in Southeast Asia where rapid population growth is leading to year-on-year increases in food demand. To date, countries in Southeast Asia have shown little interest in addressing greenhouse gas emissions across the whole life cycle of food—production, processing, transportation, retailing, consumption, and final disposal—despite a growing awareness of climate change andits effects. This paper serves as a starting point to explore the relatively under-researched topic of greenhouse gas emission trends and the production and consumption of food in Southeast Asia, with particular focus on the Malaysian food sector. Previous research documenting greenhouse gas emissions from specific food products and components in the food supply chain has been used to determine the likely greenhouse gas ‘hotspots’ in Malaysia. The paper concludes by recommending the development of an overarching framework for Sustainable Food Systems in Malaysia and identifies specific areas of research to support this framework

Patterns and causes of food waste in the hospitality and food service sector: food waste prevention insights from Malaysia

Food waste has formidable detrimental impacts on food security, the environment, and the economy, which makes it a global challenge that requires urgent attention. This study investigates the patterns and causes of food waste generation in the hospitality and food service sector, with the aim of identifying the most promising food waste prevention measures. It presents a comparative analysis of five case studies from the hospitality and food service (HaFS) sector in Malaysia and uses a mixed-methods approach. This paper provides new empirical evidence to highlight the significant opportunity and scope for food waste reduction in the HaFS sector. The findings suggest that the scale of the problem is even bigger than previously thought. Nearly a third of all food was wasted in the case studies presented, and almost half of it was avoidable. Preparation waste was the largest fraction, followed by buffet leftover and then customer plate waste. Food waste represented an economic loss equal to 23% of the value of the food purchased. Causes of food waste generation included the restaurants' operating procedures and policies, and the social practices related to food consumption. Therefore, food waste prevention strategies should be twofold, tackling both the way the hospitality and food service sector outlets operate and organise themselves, and the customers’ social practices related to food consumption

The economic case for low carbon cities

In this paper, we conduct a comparative analysis of the results of five recently completed studies that examined the economic case for investment in low-carbon development in five cities: Leeds in the UK, Kolkata in India, Lima in Peru, Johor Bahru in Malaysia and Palembang in Indonesia. The results demonstrate that there is a compelling economic case for cities in both developed and developing country contexts to invest, at scale, in cost-effective forms of low-carbon development. The studies show that these cost-effective investments, for example in building energy efficiency, small-scale renewables and more efficient vehicles and transport systems, could lead to significant reductions (in the range of 14-24% relative to business-as-usual trends) in urban energy use and carbon emissions over the next 10 years. The financial savings generated by these investments would be equivalent to between 1.7% and 9.5% of annual city-scale GDP. Securing these savings would require an average investment of $3.2 billion per city, but with an average payback period of approximately two years at commercial interest rates. The results therefore show that large-scale low-carbon investments can appeal to local decision-makers and investors on direct, short-term economic grounds. They also indicate that climate mitigation ought to feature prominently in economic development strategies as well as in the environment and sustainability strategies that are often more peripheral to, and less influential in, city-scale decision making. If these findings were replicated and similar investments were made in cities globally, then we estimate that they could generate reductions equivalent to 10-18% of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2025. While the studies therefore offer some grounds for optimism, they also highlight the institutional capacities that need to be built and the policy interventions and financing mechanisms that need to be adopted before these opportunities can be exploited. If these were all in place, initiatives to exploit the cost-effective opportunities for low-carbon development in cities could build momentum for change in cities that for a time could be globally significant. However, the studies also demonstrate that, in rapidly growing cities, the carbon savings from cost-effective investments could be quickly overwhelmed – in as little as seven years – by the impacts of sustained population and economic growth. They therefore highlight the pressing need for wider decarbonization (particularly of electricity supply) and deeper decarbonization (through more structural changes in urban form and function) if truly low-carbon cities are to emerge

Guiding Nutritious Food Choices and Diets along Food Systems

Poor diets are responsible for more of the global burden of disease than sex, drugs, alcohol, and tobacco combined. Without good health, food security, and nutrition, development is unsustainable. How food is grown, distributed, processed, marketed, and sold determines which foods are available, affordable, and acceptable within the local cultural context. These factors guide food choices, influencing the quality of people’s diets, and hence they play a vital part in health. The food system is complex and is neither nutrition nor health driven. Good nutrition and human health are not seen as important supply chain outcomes, diminishing between the different processes and actors in the chain. This is in contrast to the environmental and labour concerns now also perceived as supply chain issues. Although food loss and waste is now appreciated as key to sustainable food supply chains, the critical role on nutrition security remains obscure. In a free market dispensation, the trade-offs between agricultural production and income generation versus nutrient delivery from farm to fork needs to be addressed. Investment and incentivised initiatives are needed to foster diverse food production, preservation, distribution and influence consumers’ behaviour and consumption. The decisions made at any stage of the food supply chain have implications on consumer choices, dietary patterns, and nutritional outcomes. Leveraging the entire food system is an underused policy response to the growing problem of unhealthy diets

Impact of food hubs on food security and sustainability: Food hubs perspectives from Leeds, UK

In the context of rising food insecurity, food hubs such as food pantries, food banks, community agriculture supported schemes, social supermarkets, community kitchens and cafes, have proliferated both in number and in the roles they perform. Food hubs have a range of benefits in the communities that they serve as well as the wider food system. However, more empirical evidence is required to build a compelling case for policy support. Using the area of Leeds, UK as a case study, and taking a mixed methods approach (i.e. evidence synthesis, mapping, survey and interviews) we present the food hubs’ perspectives on the benefits that they offer to food security, sustainability, resilience and food justice. Food hubs reflect on how their activities enhance sustainability, strengthen local food systems, support local economies, and improve the health, wellbeing and agency of their communities. In doing so, food hubs contribute to regional, national and global priorities on food security, health, sustainability, justice and resilience. However, to scale up or out their positive impact, food hubs require support to transition away from emergency food provision to longer-term, holistic and financially viable models that focus on community wellbeing and empowerment, healthy diets, local economies and environmental sustainability

Assessing costs of Indonesian fires and the benefits of restoring peatland

Deforestation and drainage has made Indonesian peatlands susceptible to burning. Large fires occur regularly, destroying agricultural crops and forest, emitting large amounts of CO2 and air pollutants, resulting in adverse health effects. In order to reduce fire, the Indonesian government has committed to restore 2.49 Mha of degraded peatland, with an estimated cost of US$3.2-7 billion. Here we combine fire emissions and land cover data to estimate the 2015 fires, the largest in recent years, resulted in economic losses totalling US$28 billion, whilst the six largest fire events between 2004 and 2015 caused a total of US$93.9 billion in economic losses. We estimate that if restoration had already been completed, the area burned in 2015 would have been reduced by 6$8.4 billion for 2004–2015, making it a cost-effective strategy for reducing the impacts of peatland fires to the environment, climate and human health

Global trends in environmental management system and ISO14001 research

The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) standard provides a guideline for an organisation to perform a continuous improvement to their environmental performance. In light of continued concerns over global environmental impacts and climate change, the ISO 14001 standard serves to demonstrate organisational commitment to sustainable production processes. The objective of our paper is to determine the thematic and geographical trends of published EMS research with a view of developing a coordinated and holistic research framework which can be applied to facilitate the adoption of ISO 14001 in developing and developed regions of the world. Drawn from a portfolio of 509 articles from the Web of Science database, this study investigates the global trends of ISO 14001 EMS research between 2000 and 2016. The results show a considerable increase in scientific publications; from 10 articles in 2000 to 58 articles in 2016. Three themes were identified from the analysis: socio-ecological (60%), economic implications (25%), and environmental aspects (15%). In addition to a concentration of articles towards the socio-ecological theme of research, it is found that the majority of the published research derived from Europe (40%), North America (21%), and China (11%). Articles authored by researchers from developing countries were poorly represented in the findings. In order to address the thematic and global imbalance of EMS research, a research framework is proposed that promotes multi-stakeholders inclusion (e.g. industry, academics, government, etc.), cross-country research collaboration and a focus on demand-driven approach for problem solving and policy-making