Review of interventions to encourage SMEs to make environmental improvements

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the world economy but they are thought to be responsible for around 60% of all carbon dioxide emissions and 70% of all pollution. SMEs often have major problems with limited resources, limited knowledge, and limited technical capabilities to deal with their own negative environmental impact. SMEs exhibit widely differing characteristics and commitment where environmental issues are concerned. Yet under these conditions they are all expected to engage in environmental improvement. Interventions that encourage environmental improvement are often polarised between regulation and legislation at one extreme and voluntary environmental agreement at the other. It is clear that a holistic mixture of interventions is necessary to achieve maximum engagement and environmental improvement by all SMEs. In this paper we categorise the different levels of environmental commitment observed in SMEs and develop a selection or ‘toolkit’ of intervention strategies that might be deployed within each category of SME.

Obesity prevention : the role of policies, laws and regulations

The commercial drivers of the obesity epidemic are so influential that obesity can be considered a robust sign of commercial success – consumers are buying more food, more cars and more energy-saving machines. It is unlikely that these powerful economic forces will change sufficiently in response to consumer desires to eat less and move more or corporate desires to be more socially responsible. When the free market creates substantial population detriments and health inequalities, government policies are needed to change the ground rules in favour of population benefits.
Concerted action is needed from governments in four broad areas: provide leadership to set the agenda and show the way; advocate for a multi-sector response and establish the mechanisms for all sectors to engage and enhance action; develop and implement policies (including laws and regulations) to create healthier food and activity environments, and; secure increased and continued funding to reduce obesogenic environments and promote healthy eating and physical activity.
Policies, laws and regulations are often needed to drive the environmental and social changes that, eventually, will have a sustainable impact on reducing obesity. An 'obesity impact assessment' on legislation such as public liability, urban planning, transport, food safety, agriculture, and trade may identify 'rules' which contribute to obesogenic environments. In other areas, such as marketing to children, school food, and taxes/levies, there may be opportunities for regulations to actively support obesity prevention. Legislation in other areas such as to reduce climate change may also contribute to obesity prevention ('stealth interventions'). A political willingness to use policy instruments to drive change will probably be an early hallmark of successful obesity prevention.

Intervention strategies to engage small and medium sized enterprise in environmental good practice

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the world economy but they are thought to be responsible for around 60% of all carbon dioxide emissions by businesses in the UK and 70% of all pollution. SMEs often have major problems with limited resources, limited knowledge and limited technical capabilities to deal with their own environmental impact. SMEs exhibit widely differing characteristics and behaviours where environmental issues are concerned. Yet under these conditions they are all expected to engage in environmentally responsible business for the greater good of society. Interventions that encourage good environmental behaviour are often polarised between regulation and legislation at one extreme and voluntary environmental agreements at the other. It is clear that a holistic mixture of interventions is necessary to achieve maximum engagement by all SMEs. This paper categorises the main behaviours observed in SMEs towards environmental issues and develops a selection or 'tool kit' of intervention strategies that might be deployed within each category of SME for maximum effect.

The impact of small business on the environment

Objectives: Small businesses are estimated to contribute a significant proportion of global pollution, yet there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. The main aim of this research was to conduct an exploratory analysis of small business’s environmental impact in terms of waste, water and energy.

Prior work: Due to the negative impact small businesses are reported to have on the environment, their disengagement in environmental management practices has caused international concern. Much of the literature has concentrated on identifying the barriers and drivers of small business engagement. Little empirical work being conducted on the actual impact of they have on the environment or on the influence of the local context on their environmental practices.

Approach: A survey was developed and distributed to 466 small businesses within two light industrial areas in Perth Western Australia, which achieved a response rate of 87%. This survey will be replicated after a 12 month intervention is conducted. The two light industrial areas were selected as their Local Government Authorities are looking for businesses within their boundaries to improve their environmental performance.

Results: Initial results suggest that the small businesses do have a considerable impact on the environment in terms of waste disposal. Moreover, their environmental management practices concerning waste, energy and water were found to differ depending on the local contexts in which the small businesses operate.

Implications: As small businesses are both economically and socially important to all major industrialised nations, empirical research that provides evidence of their impact on the environment is critical. The implication here is that if the context in which these businesses operate influences the practices employed, developing strategies that acknowledge the influence and consequences of context may be more effective than those currently available. Differences identified within practices suggest that greater awareness and education is needed on water management than energy or waste, as this is the area where small business owner-managers have shown they have less knowledge and/or active engagement.

Value: This research is valuable in three ways. First, it adds to the knowledge of small business impact on the environment. Second, it identifies that context may be a factor that needs to be considered when developing strategies to engage small businesses in environmental management. Finally, it shows that the environmental management of water is the least well established environmental priority of small businesses at this time.

The structural and behaviourial barriers to sustainable real estate development

Sustainable real estate development appears, on literal translation of both terms, to be an oxymoron - however it is a concept that the real estate profession needs to embrace knowledgably. On one hand it can be argued that real estate development is required for continued economic growth and the adoption of sustainability measures is required to mitigate climate change and global warming. Over the last few years there has been growth in the number of sustainability tools available to designers and operators of buildings. For example, in the US the LEED scheme enables designers to assess the environmental impact of their design and to benchmark the sustainability of the design against industry recognised criteria. LEED follows a similar format to the UK’s Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) introduced in 1990 and the Australian ‘GreenStar’ introduced in 2004. Even though there are an increasing number of sustainability tools available to designers, it still remains that the degree of uptake of the tools has been sporadic. This paper discusses the barriers to sustainable real estate development. Firstly it identifies the barriers to uptake and secondly it establishes the structural barriers in the market which prevent the wider uptake of tools.

The impact of textile wet colouration on the environment in 2011

Wet textile colouration has the highest environmental impact of all textile processing steps. It consumes water, chemicals and energy and produces liquid, heat and gas waste streams. Liquid effluent streams are often quite toxic to the environment. There are a number of different dyeing processes, normally fibre type specific, and each has a different impact on the environment. This research investigated the energy, chemical and water requirements for the exhaust colouration of cotton, wool, polyester and nylon. The research investigated the liquid waste biological and chemical oxygen demand, salinity, pH and colour along with the energy required for drying after colouration. Polyester fibres had the lowest impact on the environment with lowest water and energy consumption in dyeing, good dye bath exhaustion, the lowest salinity levels in their effluent, relatively neutral pH effluent and low energy in drying. The wool and nylon had similar dye bath requirements and outputs however the nylon could be dyed at far lower liquor ratios and hence provided better energy and water use figures. The cotton and wool required high energy consumption in drying after colouration. Cotton performed poorly in all of the measured parameters.

Assessing impact of micro finance on poverty alleviation - Bangladesh perspective

“Micro finance” or its major part “micro credit”, both used interchangeably, is an important institutional device for alleviating poverty of the poor people. Micro finance concept was first developed and initiated in Bangladesh in the late seventies with a view to help the people living below the poverty line. Since its inception to till date, there has been tremendous growth of organizations, known as MFIs (Micro Finance Institutions), in this field to deal with the micro finance/credit activities. Despite this, the poverty situation of the poor people who have already used the micro finance programs was not improved substantially. The few MFIs have their own programs to conduct survey on impact assessment of their individual micro credit activities. The present study will focus on the impact assessment of micro finance activities on some variables of poverty alleviation, the extent to which these programs helped loanees to become micro finance graduates and the relevant suggestions as to the success of the micro finance activities.

The impact of textile wet colouration on the environment in 2011

Wet textile colouration has the highest environmental impact of all textile processing steps. It consumes water, chemicals and energy and produces liquid, heat and gas waste streams. Liquid effluent streams are often quite toxic to the environment. There are a number of different dyeing processes, normally fibre type specific, and each has a different impact on the environment. This research investigated the energy, chemical and water requirements for the exhaust colouration of cotton, wool, polyester and nylon. The research investigated the liquid waste biological oxygen demand, total organic carbon dissolved solids, suspended solids, pH and colour along with the energy required for drying after colouration. Polyester fibres had the lowest impact on the environment with low water and energy consumption in dyeing, good dye bath exhaustion, the lowest dissolved solids levels in waste water, relatively neutral pH effluent and low energy in drying. The wool and nylon had similar dyebath requirements and outputs however the nylon could be dyed at far lower liquor ratios and hence provided better energy and water use figures. Cotton performed badly in all of the measured parameters.

Assessing the impact of foreign aid: value for money and aid for trade

 Assessing the Impact of Foreign Aid: Value for Money and Aid for Trade provides updated information on how to improve foreign aid programs, exploring the concept and practice of impact assessment within the sometimes-unproblematic approaches advocated in current literature of value for money and aid for trade.
Contributors from multi-lateral agencies and NGOs discuss the changing patterns of Official Development Assistance and their effects on impact assessment, providing theoretical, political, structural, methodological, and practical frameworks, discussions, and a theory-practice nexus.
With twin foci of economics and policy this book raises the potential for making sophisticated and coherent decisions on aid allocation to developing countries.

The natural resource-based view of the firm (NRBV): constraints and opportunities for a green team in professional sport

Burgeoning expectations of the sport industry’s role in managing the environmental impact on its community are increasing. While previous research has focused on factors contributing to environmental involvement, little is known about the organization’s approach in dealing with these responsibilities. An exploratory case evaluation of a Major League Baseball team in evaluating the constraints, demands and opportunities of managing environment issues is undertaken. Specifically, the Natural-Resource-Based View of the firm (NRBV) is used to frame the assessment of the team’s capabilities and strategies with consideration of internal and external dynamics. Qualitative methods were which resulted in the identified key themes and implications

Perspectives on social impact measurement and non-profit organisations

Purpose– Acknowledgement of the social impact created by organisations has become an increasingly frequent discussion among practitioners. The importance of such value creation cannot be understated, yet in an increasingly competitive funding environment, the need to articulate “true” value is paramount. The purpose of this paper is to examine how Australian and US managers of non-profit organisations (NPOs) and foundations view the measurement of the social impact of NPOs.Design/methodology/approach– The paper includes 19 in-depth interviews of non-profit professionals in the USA and Australia. Respondents included non-profit managers, foundation managers and consultants in both countries.Findings– The in-depth interviews found that in both countries respondents generally agreed that objective measures of impact are desirable, but recognised the difficulties in developing objective assessment frameworks enabling comparisons across the non-profit sector. These difficulties, as well as the implications for developing assessments of social value for NPOs, are discussed. This paper demonstrates that there is an opportunity to reposition reporting expectations. The NPO sector can pool together and build on each other’s strengths and market their outcomes as a collective entity. A sector-wide approach provides potential for much needed within-sector mentoring and will showcase the rich and varied outcomes generated by NPOs.Originality/value– This research compares viewpoints in two Western countries, thus offering at least an exploratory examination of social impact assessment from an international perspective. Additionally, this research shows commonalities in terms of what is valued and what is most difficult for non-profits when determining social impact.

A Spatial-Temporal Downscaling Approach To Construction Of Rainfall Intensity-Duration-Frequency Relations In The Context Of Climate Change

This paper proposes a spatial-temporal downscaling approach to construction of the intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) relations at a local site in the context of climate change and variability. More specifically, the proposed approach is based on a combination of a spatial downscaling method to link large-scale climate variables given by General Circulation Model (GCM) simulations with daily extreme precipitations at a site and a temporal downscaling procedure to describe the relationships between daily and sub-daily extreme precipitations based on the scaling General Extreme Value (GEV) distribution. The feasibility and accuracy of the suggested method were assessed using rainfall data available at eight stations in Quebec (Canada) for the 1961-2000 period and climate simulations under four different climate change scenarios provided by the Canadian (CGCM3) and UK (HadCM3) GCM models. Results of this application have indicated that it is feasible to link sub-daily extreme rainfalls at a local site with large-scale GCM-based daily climate predictors for the construction of the IDF relations for present (1961-1990) and future (2020s, 2050s, and 2080s) periods at a given site under different climate change scenarios. In addition, it was found that annual maximum rainfalls downscaled from the HadCM3 displayed a smaller change in the future, while those values estimated from the CGCM3 indicated a large increasing trend for future periods. This result has demonstrated the presence of high uncertainty in climate simulations provided by different GCMs. In summary, the proposed spatial-temporal downscaling method provided an essential tool for the estimation of extreme rainfalls that are required for various climate-related impact assessment studies for a given region.

Avaliação e desenvolvimento de produtos eletro-eletrônicos orientados ao meio-ambiente

Este trabalho trata sobre um assunto relativamente novo, mas com uma importância cada vez maior no desenvolvimento de produtos. Trata-se do Projeto para o Meio-Ambiente (Design for Environment - DFe). São analisados os aspectos do DFe relacionados com o desenvolvimento de produtos eletro-eletrônicos, abrangendo métricas ambientais, práticas de projeto e métodos de análise de produtos. Estes conhecimentos são aplicados no desenvolvimento de um conjunto de métricas ambientais e de uma metodologia de avaliação ambiental de produtos, a serem adotadas pela Springer Carrier SA no desenvolvimento de seus novos produtos. Esta ferramenta foi criada através da análise de uma ferramenta anterior, desenvolvida nos Estados Unidos, mas incorporou sugestões presentes na literatura e a experiência prática acumulada pelo autor. Este trabalho trata sobre um assunto relativamente novo, mas com uma importância cada vez maior no desenvolvimento de produtos. Trata-se do Projeto para o Meio-Ambiente (Design for Environment - DFe). São analisados os aspectos do DFe relacionados com o desenvolvimento de produtos eletro-eletrônicos, abrangendo métricas ambientais, práticas de projeto e métodos de análise de produtos. Estes conhecimentos são aplicados no desenvolvimento de um conjunto de métricas ambientais e de uma metodologia de avaliação ambiental de produtos, a serem adotadas pela Springer Carrier SA no desenvolvimento de seus novos produtos. Esta ferramenta foi criada através da análise de uma ferramenta anterior, desenvolvida nos Estados Unidos, mas incorporou sugestões presentes na literatura e a experiência prática acumulada pelo autor.

Social entrepreneurship, microcredit and development challenges: a case study analysis of Banco Pérola

The term “social entrepreneurship” has been attracting growing interest from different sectors in the past years, driven by the possibility of employing business techniques to tackle recurrent social and environmental issues. At the forefront of this global phenomenon is microcredit, seen by many as an effective anti-poverty tool and having the Grameen Bank as its flagship program. While the prospects of social entrepreneurship seem promising, the newness of the concept and its somewhat confusing definition make conditions difficult to analyze this contemporary phenomenon. Therefore, the objective of this study was to discuss the challenges faced by social entrepreneurs and alternatives of development for social businesses through a case study on a Brazilian microcredit institution and inclusive business, Banco Pérola. The case addresses a growing need for case studies designed for teaching in the field of social entrepreneurship. It was focused mainly on understanding the development challenges within Banco Pérola, and built based on interviews carried out with top management, credit officer and clients of the institution, as well as on secondary data collected. An analysis of the case study was performed under a Teaching Notes. As illustrated by the Banco Pérola case, the main difficulties encountered by social entrepreneurs relate to the systematization of processes and creation of operational routines, including for performance evaluation (impact assessment tools); to the capture and management of both financial and human capital; to scaling up the business model and to the need of forging closer and more personal relationships with customers as against in traditional banking practices. In spite of certain limitations, such as the fact that the case might soon become outdated due to the fast-changing environment surrounding Banco Pérola, or the fact that not all relevant stakeholders (e.g. partners) were selected for interviews, the research objective has been achieved and the study can be seen as a contribution to spreading the concept of social entrepreneurship.

Uma metodologia para a análise do desempenho sustentável dos postos de revenda de combustível na cidade de Natal/RN, com o uso de data envelopment analysis-DEA

The increasing use of fossil fuels in line with cities demographic explosion carries out to huge environmental impact in society. For mitigate these social impacts, regulatory requirements have positively influenced the environmental consciousness of society, as well as, the strategic behavior of businesses. Along with this environmental awareness, the regulatory organs have conquered and formulated new laws to control potentially polluting activities, mostly in the gas stations sector. Seeking for increasing market competitiveness, this sector needs to quickly respond to internal and external pressures, adapting to the new standards required in a strategic way to get the Green Badge . Gas stations have incorporated new strategies to attract and retain new customers whom present increasingly social demand. In the social dimension, these projects help the local economy by generating jobs and income distribution. In this survey, the present research aims to align the social, economic and environmental dimensions to set the sustainable performance indicators at Gas Stations sector in the city of Natal/RN. The Sustainable Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) framework was create with a set of indicators for mapping the production process of gas stations. This mapping aimed at identifying operational inefficiencies through multidimensional indicators. To carry out this research, was developed a system for evaluating the sustainability performance with application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) through a quantitative method approach to detect system s efficiency level. In order to understand the systemic complexity, sub organizational processes were analyzed by the technique Network Data Envelopment Analysis (NDEA) figuring their micro activities to identify and diagnose the real causes of overall inefficiency. The sample size comprised 33 Gas stations and the conceptual model included 15 indicators distributed in the three dimensions of sustainability: social, environmental and economic. These three dimensions were measured by means of classical models DEA-CCR input oriented. To unify performance score of individual dimensions, was designed a unique grouping index based upon two means: arithmetic and weighted. After this, another analysis was performed to measure the four perspectives of SBSC: learning and growth, internal processes, customers, and financial, unifying, by averaging the performance scores. NDEA results showed that no company was assessed with excellence in sustainability performance. Some NDEA higher efficiency Gas Stations proved to be inefficient under certain perspectives of SBSC. In the sequence, a comparative sustainable performance and assessment analyzes among the gas station was done, enabling entrepreneurs evaluate their performance in the market competitors. Diagnoses were also obtained to support the decision making of entrepreneurs in improving the management of organizational resources and promote guidelines the regulators. Finally, the average index of sustainable performance was 69.42%, representing the efforts of the environmental suitability of the Gas station. This results point out a significant awareness of this segment, but it still needs further action to enhance sustainability in the long term