Sustainability and Community Networks

Community networks are IP-based computer networks that are operated by a community as a common good. In Europe, the most well-known community networks are Guifi in Catalonia, Freifunk in Berlin, Ninux in Italy, Funkfeuer in Vienna and the Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network in Greece. This paper deals with community networks as alternative forms of Internet access and alternative infrastructures and asks: What does sustainability and unsustainability mean in the context of community networks? What advantages do such networks have over conventional forms of Internet access and infrastructure provided by large telecommunications corporations? In addition what disadvantages do they face at the same time? This article provides a framework for thinking dialectically about the un/sustainability of community networks. It provides a framework of practical questions that can be asked when assessing power structures in the context of Internet infrastructures and access. It presents an overview of environmental, economic, political and cultural contradictions that community networks may face as well as a typology of questions that can be asked in order to identify such contradictions.

Financial sustainability of cooperatives: a case of portuguese olive oil cooperatives

En Portugal, como en otros países, las cooperativas agrícolas tienen un papel económico importante en el sistema alimentario. Similar a otras organizaciones económicas, las cooperativas agrícolas han sido testigos de cambios estructurales en las últimas décadas en términos de modelos de gobernación y gestión. Las cooperativas agrícolas portuguesas se han visto constreñidas por su contexto a adoptar un modelo tradicional de propiedad y control. El objetivo principal de este estudio era analizar cuestiones relacionadas con la estructura de gestión y desempeño financiero de las cooperativas, basada en los datos recogidos de cooperativas de aceite de oliva situadas en la región interior norte de Portugal. La combinación de un análisis cualitativo de la estructura y toma de decisiones, una evaluación financiera y la aplicación de un enfoque en varios criterios (PROMETHEE II), los resultados están en línea con expectativas (por ejemplo, bajos niveles de participación de los miembros, gestión no profesional, ratios de rentabilidad bajos, bajo apalancamiento y una capacidad para cumplir compromisos financieros), excepto la relación entre la gestión profesional y el desempeño financiero. La existencia de gestión profesional no conduce a mejores resultados financieros. Este resultado refuerza la creencia de que las cooperativas que están estructuradas de diferente manera tienen intereses diferentes y contradictorios a las partes interesadas.

Policy Transfer and the Sustainability of Public Private Partnership in Ireland::A conceptual analysis

There has been private sector involvement in the delivery of public services in the Irish State since its foundation. This involvement was formalised in 1998 when Public Private Partnership (PPP) was officially introduced. Ireland is a latecomer to PPP and, prior to the credit crisis, was seen as a ‘rapid follower’ relying primarily on the UK PPP model in the procurement of infrastructure in transport, education, housing/urban regeneration and water/wastewater.  PPP activity in Ireland stalled during the credit crisis, and some projects were cancelled, but it has taken off again recently with part of the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Plan 2016 – 2021 to be delivered through PPP showing continuing political commitment to PPP.  Ireland’s interest in PPP cannot be explained by economic rationale alone, as PPP was initiated during a period of prosperity. We consider three alternative explanations: voluntary adoption – where the UK model was closely followed; coercive adoption – where PPP policy was forced upon Ireland; and institutional isomorphism – where institutional creation and change was promoted to aid public sector organisations in gaining institutional legitimacy. We find evidence of all three patterns, with coercive adoption becoming more relevant in recent years. Ireland’s rapid uptake of PPP differs from other European countries, mostly because when PPP was introduced in 1998, the Irish State was in an economic position where it could have directly procured necessary infrastructure. This paper therefore asks why PPP was adopted and how this adoption pattern has affected the sustainability of PPP in Ireland.  This paper defines PPP; examines the background to the PPP approach adopted in Ireland; outlines the theoretical framework of the paper: transfer theory and institutional theory; discusses the methodology; reports on findings and gives conclusions.   

Measuring the sustainability of a national economy. The application of three measures of sustainability to Ireland

An assessment of the sustainability of the Irish economy has been carried out using three methodologies, enabling comparison and evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of each, and potential synergies among them. The three measures chosen were economy-wide Material Flow Analysis (MFA), environmentally extended input-output (EE-IO) analysis and the Ecological Footprint (EF). The research aims to assess the sustainability of the Irish economy using these methods and to draw conclusions on their effectiveness in policy making both individually and in combination. A theoretical description discusses the methods and their respective advantages and disadvantages and sets out a rationale for their combined application. The application of the methods in combination has provided insights into measuring the sustainability of a national economy and generated new knowledge on the collective application of these methods. The limitations of the research are acknowledged and opportunities to address these and build on and extend the research are identified. Building on previous research, it is concluded that a complete picture of sustainability cannot be provided by a single method and/or indicator.

Sustainability Enhancement of a Turbine Vane Manufacturing Cell through Digital Simulation based Design

Modern manufacturing systems should satisfy emerging needs related to sustainable development. The design of sustainable manufacturing systems can be valuably supported by simulation, traditionally employed mainly for time and cost reduction. In this paper, a multi-purpose digital simulation approach is proposed to deal with sustainable manufacturing systems design through Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and 3D digital human modelling. DES models integrated with data on power consumption of the manufacturing equipment are utilized to simulate different scenarios with the aim to improve productivity as well as energy efficiency, avoiding resource and energy waste. 3D simulation based on digital human modelling is employed to assess human factors issues related to ergonomics and safety of manufacturing systems. The approach is implemented for the sustainability enhancement of a real manufacturing cell of the aerospace industry, automated by robotic deburring. Alternative scenarios are proposed and simulated, obtaining a significant improvement in terms of energy efficiency (−87%) for the new deburring cell, and a reduction of energy consumption around −69% for the coordinate measuring machine, with high potential annual energy cost savings and increased energy efficiency. Moreover, the simulation-based ergonomic assessment of human operator postures allows 25% improvement of the workcell ergonomic index.

Sustainability, creativity and innovation in project management – Model development for assessing organizational performance through projects

Today a number of studies are published on how organizational strategy is developed and how organizations contribute to local and regional development through the realization of these strategies. There are also many articles dealing with the success of a project by identifying the criteria and the factors that influence them. This article introduces the project-oriented strategic planning process that reveals how projects contribute to local and regional development and demonstrates the relationship between this approach and the regional competitiveness model as well as the KRAFT concept. There is a lot of research that focuses on sustainability in business. These studies argue that sustainability is very important to the success of a business in the future. The Project Excellence Model that analyses project success does not contain the sustainability criteria; the GPM P5 standard consists of sustainability components related either to the organizational level. To fill this gap a Project Sustainability Excellence Model (PSEM) was developed. The model was tested by interviews with managers of Hungarian for-profit and non-profit organizations. This paper introduces the PSEM and highlights the most important elements of the empirical analysis.

Green factory as a factor of sustainability: the case of GM engine plant in Joinvile - SC

The new engine plant by General Motors (GM) in Joinville-SC, inaugurated on February 27th 2013, incorporates the most advanced automotive technology processes and broad compliance with environmental standards and energy efficiency. The initiatives implemented in this industrial plant include processes with 100% of recycled industrial waste (landfill free) and pioneer systems in energy efficiency and environmental protection, qualifying the plant to obtain the global certification of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). This industrial project reveals the strategic importance of the region and of Brazil in the growth of GM in the world, becoming a reference for studies and project evaluations of "green" factories in the automotive sector. The present study performs an exploratory research based on scientific publications, assessing the direct and indirect impacts on the business outcome, resulting from implementation of industrial serviceoriented sustainability of its operations, referred to in this article as "Green Factory”. We concluded that the adopted technologies focused on sustainability, study and development, represent a new step for the design of new plants and future expansions of the company in the region, combining low operating cost, low environmental impact and conservation of natural resources.

BIJAGOS ARCHIPELAGO: Impacts and challenges for environmental sustainability

The Archipelago of Bijagos in Guinea-Bissau is currently subject to numerous external impacts affecting their secular equilibrium. The islands were never contemplated by the colonial development, with the exception of two modest ports in Bubaque and Bolama. The latter place was the capital of the country from 1913 to 1941. The archipelago has attracted increasing interest on the part of economic agents, most of which are incompatible with the guarantee of sustainable development. There has been a general impoverishment as regards the preservation of marine resources, particularly with regard to the internal demographic pressure from a population that has doubled since 1981 and due to other external factors related to the neighboring and subsequent migration depletion of resources not renewable. The article analyzes the main vulnerabilities that the archipelago is currently facing and how natural resources have been preserved. The article follows an interdisciplinary approach between different areas of knowledge especially in projects involving both different academic fields (biology, ecology, geography, anthropology and history), for the nonscientific practices that include actors and institutions.

Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index 2016: Energy, Water, and Carbon

Several studies have been undertaken or attempted by industry and academe to address the need for lodging industry carbon benchmarking. However, these studies have focused on normalizing resource use with the goal of rating or comparing all properties based on multivariate regression according to an industry-wide set of variables, with the result that data sets for analysis were limited. This approach is backward, because practical hotel industry benchmarking must first be undertaken within a specific location and segment.1 Therefore, the CHSB study’s goal is to build a representative database providing raw benchmarks as a base for industry comparisons.2 These results are presented in the CHSB2016 Index, through which a user can obtain the range of benchmarks for energy consumption, water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions for hotels within specific segments and geographic locations.

FRESH: A Food-service Sustainability Rating for Hospitality Sector Events

This report presents a metric called FRESH (for Foodservice Impact Rating for Environmentally Sustainable Hospitality Events). FRESH can be used to evaluate the performance of any foodservice meal period or event in the hospitality sector with regards to its sustainability, based on seven measurements. These measures are: a (post-consumer) food-waste indicator, a no-show indicator (when unexpectedly few people show up), an over-show measure (when too many people show up), a planning indicator (measuring intentional overproduction), a portion-size indicator (measuring per-guest consumption against expectations), an economies of scale indicator, and a post-event indicator (which depends on disposal approaches). FRESH can help managers, authorities, and potential guests evaluate the sustainability of food production in any establishment.

Design for sustainability: making green behaviour easy

Design can enable sustainable behaviour by understanding everyday needs rather than treating people as the problem.