Aligning sustainability and corporate strategies: the case of hybrid-electric vehicles and Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles

Este estudo analisa a integração da sustentabilidade ambiental na estratégia das empresas no contexto da indústria automobilística. A implementação de estratégias de sustentabilidade e o desenvolvimento de veículos híbrido-elétricos são investigados com referência ao caso de um ator principal na indústria. Entre as aplicações de mobilidade eléctrica, que irá aumentar a presença no mercado nos próximos anos devido às regulamentações rigorosas e as preferências dos clientes, a pesquisa está focada em veículos híbrido-elétricos. As estratégias de sustentabilidade das grandes fabricantes de automóveis e as implicações subsequentes em termos de desenvolvimento de produtos, com uma atenção especial aos veículos elétricos híbridos, foram analisados através de dados secundários. Além disso, os dados primários foram coletados sobre a estratégia de sustentabilidade de um ator importante na indústria e usados para realizar um estudo de caso. A análise incidiu sobre os fatores críticos e os aspectos que têm impacto sobre as estratégias de sustentabilidade, que visam reduzir o impacto ambiental da indústria automobilística, e sobre o desenvolvimento de veículos híbridos. A análise dos dados mostrou que a Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) teve uma ênfase menor na mobilidade eléctrica em termos de relatórios de sustentabilidade. A conclusão apresenta uma avaliação da estratégia corporativa da FCA, em termos de sustentabilidade ambiental, e apresenta um quadro para o desenvolvimento de veículos híbridos com quatro abordagens diferentes que têm impacto sobre a estratégia de sustentabilidade de uma montadora.

Fostering Children and Adolescents in Situations of Abandonment, Violence and Separation

Childhood protection is undergoing several changes. Our study aimed to outline the complex network of meanings which includes adoption as well as institutional and family foster care, by combining theory, research and practice. We investigated various contexts and protagonists: judicial system, foster institutions, birth parents, foster and adoptive parents, and families and their children. Diverse data collection procedures were used: socio-demographic investigations, case-studies, follow-ups, interviews, analysis of foster institutions and legal court documents. Results pointed to "invisibility" of birth family, frequent child (re)abuse, failures in the network of protection, meanings of "healthy family" and role of attachment concepts. Implications for social policies and social practices are discussed.

A data driven study of relationships between relief and farmland abandonment in a Mediterranean region

The environmental, cultural and socio-economic causes and consequences of farmland abandonment are issues of increasing concern for researchers and policy makers. In previous studies, we proposed a new methodology for selecting the driving factors in farmland abandonment processes. Using Data Mining and GIS, it is possible to select those variables which are more significantly related to abandonment. The aim of this study is to investigate the application of the above mentioned methodology for finding relationships between relief and farmland abandonment in a Mediterranean region (SE Spain).We have taken into account up to 28 different variables in a single analysis, some of them commonly considered in land use change studies (slope, altitude, TWI, etc), but also other novel variables have been evaluated (sky view factor, terrain view factor, etc). The variable selection process provides results in line with the previous knowledge of the study area, describing some processes that are region specific (e.g. abandonment versus intensification of the agricultural activities). The European INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC) establishes that the digital elevation models for land surfaces should be available in all member countries, this means that the research described in this work can be extrapolated to any European country to determine whether these variables (slope, altitude, etc) are important in the process of abandonment.

Human factors aspects of using head up displays in automobiles: a review of the literature.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Side impact crashworthiness of full-size hardtop automobiles. Final report. Phase II.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

An analysis of the automobile market: modeling of the long-run determinants of the demand for automobiles. Volume III: appendices to the Wharton E.F.A. Automobile Demand Model. Final report.

Transportation Department, Washington, D.C.