Normative, systemic and procedural aspects: a review of indicator-based sustainability assessments in agriculture

Methods for assessing the sustainability of agricultural systems do often not fully (i) take into account the multifunctionality of agriculture, (ii) include multidimensionality, (iii) utilize and implement the assessment knowledge and (iv) identify conflicting goals and trade-offs. This chapter reviews seven recently developed multidisciplinary indicator-based assessment methods with respect to their contribution to these shortcomings. All approaches include (1) normative aspects such as goal setting, (2) systemic aspects such as a specification of scale of analysis and (3) a reproducible structure of the approach. The approaches can be categorized into three typologies: first, top-down farm assessments, which focus on field or farm assessment; second, top-down regional assessments, which assess the on-farm and the regional effects; and third, bottom-up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary approaches, which focus on a regional scale. Our analysis shows that the bottom-up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary approaches seem to better overcome the four shortcomings mentioned above.

Practicing sustainability in PFI project management

This paper investigates the relationship of the project management in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and sustainability. A live PFI project is selected as a case study, where contract review and monitoring on project management are carried out to evaluate the sustainability of project management. The PFI procurement shows great advantages in increased contractual responsibilities of the contractor in sustainable construction, and also in practicing sustainability in project management. Six main sustainable attributes of the project management are selected to evaluate the sustainability of project management in the PFI project. The project management process in the case study is closely monitored in order to verify how the PFI project promotes sustainability in practice. The project management in the different stages of the PFI project, including tendering, design, construction and operation, contributes to the six sustainable attributes in different ways. The project management in PFI project paid more attention in sustainable development during its whole process. As the private sector is responsible to the whole life of the building project, the project manager has to consider the long-term benefits during the management process. The government should take advantages of PFI project management in practicing sustainability therefore to promote sustainable development of the national infrastructure services.

Responsible tourism and sustainability: the case of Kumarakom in Kerala, India

This paper discusses the notion of ‘responsible tourism’ and its current use within the tourism literature. We argue that the concept as used currently means everything and therefore adds nothing to the conceptual terrain of tourism trends and nomenclatures. We then introduce our own understanding of the concept arguing that while responsible tourism is linked to sustainability initiatives such as alternative tourism, ecotourism, ethical tourism, green tourism, soft tourism, pro-poor tourism, geo-tourism, integrated tourism, community-based tourism, etc it also demarcates an analytical realm of its own. We suggest that the practical use of the term in areas where it has been adopted (such as South Africa and Kerala for instance) suggests a rather restricted use. We identified this realm as the tourism sector-specific manifestation of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. Following Flyvberg's [(2006). Five misunderstandings about case-study research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(2), 219–245] call for exemplars and paradigmatic case studies to advance knowledge in a particular domain, the responsible tourism initiative in Kumarakon, Kerala, is presented. Discussion of the case study traces the particular governance context of Kerala and the position of tourism in the state economy. The responsible tourism initiatives at the state level and local level are then described highlighting the ‘how’ of the implementation and the impact that it has produced. Generic, non-prescriptive principles that could be said to be necessary in some form for the successful translation of responsible tourism principles to practices are then identified. Such an approach is contrasted with one that places faith in the voluntary adoption of ‘responsible’ practices by the private sector on its own. It is argued that responsible tourism can make a contribution to practice provided the conceptual terrain is delineated against other forms of tourism and if research within the terrain can unpack the particular forms of challenges that are thrown up by the delineation itself.

Integrating Sustainability into Brownfield Regeneration: Rhetoric or Reality? – An Analysis of the UK Development Industry

In the UK and elsewhere the use of the term ‘sustainable brownfield regeneration’ has resulted from the interweaving of two key policy themes, comprising ‘sustainable development’ and ‘brownfield regeneration’. This paper provides a critical overview of brownfield policy within the context of the emerging sustainable development agenda in the UK, and examines the development industry's role and attitudes towards key aspects of sustainable development and brownfield regeneration. The paper analyses results from a survey of commercial and residential developers carried out in mid‐2004, underpinned by structured interviews with eleven developers in 2004–2005, which form part of a two‐and‐half‐year EPSRC‐funded project. The results suggest that despite the increasing focus on sustainability in government policy, the development industry seems ill at ease with precisely how sustainable development can be implemented in brownfield schemes. These and other findings, relating to sustainability issues (including the impact of climate change on future brownfield development), have important ramifications for brownfield regeneration policy in the UK. In particular, the research highlights the need for better metrics and benchmarks to be developed to measure ‘sustainable brownfield regeneration’. There also needs to be greater awareness and understanding of alternative clean‐up technologies to ‘dig and dump’.

Reviewing the sustainability/stationarity of current account imbalances with tests for bounded integration

We investigate for 26 OECD economies whether their current account imbalances to GDP are driven by stochastic trends. Regarding bounded stationarity as the more natural counterpart of sustainability, results from Phillips–Perron tests for unit root and bounded unit root processes are contrasted. While the former hint at stationarity of current account imbalances for 12 economies, the latter indicate bounded stationarity for only six economies. Through panel-based test statistics, current account imbalances are diagnosed as bounded non-stationary. Thus, (spurious) rejections of the unit root hypothesis might be due to the existence of bounds reflecting hidden policy controls or financial crises.

The power of purchase: addressing sustainability through public procurement

This article focuses on sustainable development and public procurement and reflects on the significance of questioning the goals sustainable public procurement seeks to achieve. While it is recognised that developing appropriate legal frameworks and regulatory tools for environmental, social and economic quality assurance is important, achieving sustainable procurement nevertheless remains political. With the forthcoming adoption of new European Union Public Procurement Directives, the article provides a timely reminder that for sustainability to be integral to good procurement, the power of purchase must capture a paradigmatic shift from doing things better to doing better things.

Wall materials and techniques available for low cost housing in Khartoum from a sustainability point of view

Khartoum like many cities in least developing countries (LDCs) still witnesses huge influx of people. Accommodation of the new comers leads to encroachment on the cultivation land leads to sprawl expansion of Greater Khartoum. The city expanded in diameter from 16.8 km in 1955 to 802.5 km in 1998. Most of this horizontal expansion was residential. In 2008 Khartoum accommodated 29% of the urban population of Sudan. Today Khartoum is considered as one of 43 major cities in Africa that accommodates more than 1 million inhabitants. Most of new comers live in the outskirts of the city e.g. Dar El-Salam and Mayo neighbourhoods. The majority of those new comers built their houses especially the walls from mud, wood, straw and sacks. Selection of building materials usually depends on its price regardless of the environmental impact, quality, thermal performance and life of the material. Most of the time, this results in increasing the cost with variables of impacts over the environment during the life of the building. Therefore, consideration of the environmental impacts, social impacts and economic impacts is crucial in the selection of any building material. Decreasing such impacts could lead to more sustainable housing. Comparing the sustainability of the available wall building materials for low cost housing in Khartoum is carried out through the life cycle assessment (LCA) technique. The purpose of this paper is to compare the most available local building materials for walls for the urban poor of Khartoum from a sustainability point of view by going through the manufacturing of the materials, the use of these materials and then the disposal of the materials after their life comes to an end. Findings reveal that traditional red bricks couldn’t be considered as a sustainable wall building material that will draw the future of the low cost housing in Greater Khartoum. On the other hand, results of the comparison lead to draw attention to the wide range of the soil techniques and to its potentials to be a promising sustainable wall material for urban low cost housing in Khartoum.

Retrofit city futures: visions for urban sustainability

This report (which is part of the EPSRC Retrofit 2050 project) sets out three contrasting long term (2050) visions for retrofit city-regional futures, developed through an in-depth participatory backcasting and foresight process. These contextual scenarios are intended as a tool which can be adapted and used by a wide variety of stakeholders and organisations to stimulate discussion and inform future policy and long-term planning.

Educating integrated catalysts: transforming business schools toward ethics and sustainability

Joining the sharpening critique of conventional University-based business school education, we argue that educating integrated catalysts is necessary to meet current sustainability challenges. The key feature of moving toward the integration required at the individual level is focusing on developing students' capacity for moral and cognitive maturity. Practically, this makes the practice of genuine dialogue focal as core interpersonal method for educating management students. In supporting such education, business schools must however first transform themselves. Acting as transformative social enterprises, they can demonstrate being a part in critically questioning and improving the impact and relevance of management on the flourishing of wider society and the practice of an ethically oriented economy. We offer practical suggestions and implications for future business education reform.

World soybean trade : growth and sustainability

Soybeans can be consumed directly as food, and in China hey are the major ingredient in food products such as tofu and soy milk, but direct consumption is small relative to their wider use in animal feed, and it is the requirement for livestock feed that drives international trade. Rapid growth of economies and population, especially in Asia, has led to increased demand for animal protein and cooking oil. This paper analyses the recent growth in supply of soybeans from North and South America to China, and considers the factors that may affect this trade in future; a contrast is made with supply from North and South America to Europe, which has not been increasing. The constraints preventing an increase in supply of soybeans to Europe are reviewed. The paper concludes with brief discussion of the factors which will affect world markets for soybeans and soybean products in future.

Globalization and new policy concerns: the WTO and the EU's sustainability criteria for biofuels

The transfer of some decision-making authority from the domestic to the supranational arena as a result of the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 potentially changed domestic policy dynamics. The WTO agreements reflect the trade policy concerns addressed in the Uruguay Round in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This article applies and adapts historical institutionalism to explain how international organizations may constrain and facilitate certain domestic policy options. It demonstrates that, while the WTO legal framework has become more receptive of environmental sustainability concerns, the social sustainability concerns that were increasingly entering the debate over biofuel policies were not easily accommodated, and this was seen as a constraint on the content of the European Union’s (EU) policy adopted in 2009. Only the environmental dimension of a broader concept of sustainability was included in the policy design.