An institutional understanding of triple bottom line evaluations and the use of social and environmental metrics

Measuring social and environmental metrics of property is necessary for meaningful triple bottom line (TBL) assessments. This paper demonstrates how relevant indicators derived from environmental rating systems provide for reasonably straightforward collations of performance scores that support adjustments based on a sliding scale. It also highlights the absence of a corresponding consensus of important social metrics representing the third leg of the TBL tripod. Assessing TBL may be unavoidably imprecise, but if valuers and managers continue to ignore TBL concerns, their assessments may soon be less relevant given the emerging institutional milieu informing and reflecting business practices and society expectations.

Sustainable urban development : a quadruple bottom line assessment framework

Sustainable development has long been promoted as the best answer to the world's environmental problems. This term has generated mass appeal as it implies that the development of the built environment and its associated resource consumption can both be achieved without jeopardising the natural environment. In the urban context, sustainability issues have been reflected in the pomotion of sustainable urbanisation in a manner that allows future generations to repeat this process. This paper attempts to highlight an increasing urgency in formulating a suitable model for assessing sustainability at urban level, because this is where the bulk of a nation's population reside, and where sustainability problems mostly occur. It will also point out to the increasing importance of governance in facilitating urban sustainability research. This assessment involves the use of physical, social, environmental and goverance aspects in assessing the extent to which development of an urban settlement is sustainable. Specifically, this assessment model is carried out to determine whether or not sustainable urban development pratice is implemented in the provision of residential development, and in particular whether the development of master-planned residential communities have more desireable outcomes compared to traditional residential subdivision.

Fashion retailing and the bottom line : The effects of generational cohorts, gender, fashion fanship, attitudes and impulse buying on fashion expenditure

This study examines the influence of demographic ( eg. gender and generational cohort) and psychographic ( eg. fashion fanship, attitudes and impulse buying) drivers on frequency and levels of expenditure on fanship purchases, Using regression analysis, the results suggest that for weekly and monthly expenditure, gender and fashion fanship were significant influences, while for yearly expenditure, gender and impulse buying were significant. Attitudes towards fanship had no significant influence on expenditure. Females purchase more often and were significantly different from males on yearly expenditure, fashion fanship, attitudes and impulse buying. Generation Y is higher on purchase frequency, fashion fanship, attitudes and impulse buying compared with other cohorts under investigation.

The importance of a triple bottom line approach for safeguarding urban water quality

Water environments are greatly valued in urban areas as ecological and aesthetic assets. However, it is the water environment that is most adversely affected by urbanisation. Urban land use coupled with anthropogenic activities alters the stream flow regime and degrade water quality with urban stormwater being a significant source of pollutants. Unfortunately, urban water pollution is difficult to evaluate in terms of conventional monetary measures. True costs extend beyond immediate human or the physical boundaries of the urban area and affect the function of surrounding ecosystems. Current approaches for handling stormwater pollution and water quality issues in urban landscapes are limited as these are primarily focused on ‘end-of-pipe’ solutions. The approaches are commonly based either on, insufficient design knowledge, faulty value judgements or inadequate consideration of full life cycle costs. It is in this context that the adoption of a triple bottom line approach is advocated to safeguard urban water quality. The problem of degradation of urban water environments can only be remedied through innovative planning, water sensitive engineering design and the foresight to implement sustainable practices. Sustainable urban landscapes must be designed to match the triple bottom line needs of the community, starting with ecosystem services first such as the water cycle, then addressing the social and immediate ecosystem health needs, and finally the economic performance of the catchment. This calls for a cultural change towards urban water resources rather than the current piecemeal and single issue focus approach. This paper discusses the challenges in safeguarding urban water environments and the limitations of current approaches. It then explores the opportunities offered by integrating innovative planning practices with water engineering concepts into a single cohesive framework to protect valuable urban ecosystem assets. Finally, a series of recommendations are proposed for protecting urban water resources within the context of a triple bottom line approach.

Conceptualizing a bottom-up approach to service bundling

Offering service bundles to the market is a promising option for service providers to strengthen their competitive advantages, cope with dynamic market conditions and deal with heterogeneous consumer demand. Although the expected positive effects of bundling strategies and pricing considerations for bundles are covered well by the available literature, limited guidance can be found regarding the identification of potential bundle candidates and the actual process of bundling. The contribution of this paper is the positioning of bundling based on insights from both business and computer science and the proposition of a structured bundling method, which guides organizations with the composition of bundles in practice.

Effects of opening in the cross girders of the flat bottom rail wagons to the load transferring mechanisms when used as road bridge deck

A Flat Bed Rail Wagon (FBRW) has been proposed as an alternative solution for replacing bridges on low traffic volume roads. The subject matter for this paper is to investigate the impediment to load transfer from cross girders to main girder, through visually identifiable structural flaws. Namely, the effect of having large openings at close proximity to the connection of the main girder to the cross girder of a FBRW was examined. It was clear that openings locally reduce the section modulus of the secondary members; however it was unclear how these reductions would affect the load transfer to the main girder. The results are presented through modeling grillage action for which the loads applied onto the FBRW were distributed through cross girders to the main girder.

From the bottom-up : redesigning the international legal response to anthropogenic climate change

The design of the Kyoto Protocol renders it incapable of effectively responding to the problem of anthropogenic climate change. Therefore, this article explores the opportunity to construct a new, principled legal approach to respond to climate change that is premised on nationally derived legal responses. To do so, this article considers the theoretical foundation of the international legal response to climate change – Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons‟ – and the systemic design faults of the Kyoto Protocol. This article also suggests four principles – a judicious mix of legal instruments, flexibility, intrinsic legal coherence, and quantifiable and achievable targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas intensity – that are necessary to guide the creation of a nationally derived legal response to climate change. This approach is intended to provide the catalyst for new bilateral and multilateral arrangements that can, with the passing of time, generate sufficient momentum to drive the creation of a new and effective cooperative international legal framework to mitigate anthropogenic climate change.

An improved boundary layer scaling with ramp heating on a sloping plate

A scaling analysis for the natural convection boundary layer adjacent to an inclined semi-infinite plate subject to a non-instantaneous heating in the form of an imposed wall temperature which increases linearly up to a prescribed steady value over a prescribed time is reported. The development of the boundary layer flow from start-up to a steady-state has been described based on scaling analyses and verified by numerical simulations. The analysis reveals that, if the period of temperature growth on the wall is sufficiently long, the boundary layer reaches a quasi-steady mode before the growth of the temperature is completed. In this mode the thermal boundary layer at first grows in thickness and then contracts with increasing time. However, if the imposed wall temperature growth period is sufficiently short, the boundary layer develops differently, but after the wall temperature growth is completed, the boundary layer develops as though the startup had been instantaneous. The steady state values of the boundary layer for both cases are ultimately the same.

ACE research vignette 014 : how does networking contribute to the bottom line? - The value of purpose-driven networking

This series of research vignettes is aimed at sharing current and interesting research findings from our team and other international researchers. In this vignette, Dr Martie-Louise Verreynne from the University of Queensland Business School summaries the findings from a paper written in conjunction with Sarel Gronum and Tim Kastelle from the UQ Business School that examined if networking really contributes to small firms' bottom line. Their findings show that unless networks are used for productive means, efforts to cultivate and maintain them may be wasteful.