Corporate Environmental and Economic Performance of Japanese Manufacturing Firms: Empirical Study for Sustainable Development

This study examines the relationship between environmental performance and economic performance in Japanese manufacturing firms. The environmental performance indicators include CO2 emissions and the aggregate toxic risk associated with chemical emissions relative to sales. Return on assets (ROA) is used as an indicator of economic performance. We demonstrate that there is a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between ROA and environmental performance calculated by aggregated toxic risk. We also find that the environmental performance increases ROA through both returns on sales and improved capital turnover. However, we observe a significant positive relationship between financial performance and environmental performance based on CO2 emissions. These findings may provide evidence for the consequences of firms' environmental behavior and sustainable development. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Cost-effective suppression and eradication of invasive predators

Introduced predators can have pronounced effects on naïve prey species; thus, predator control is often essential for conservation of threatened native species. Complete eradication of the predator, although desirable, may be elusive in budget-limited situations, whereas predator suppression is more feasible and may still achieve conservation goals. We used a stochastic predator-prey model based on a Lotka-Volterra system to investigate the cost-effectiveness of predator control to achieve prey conservation. We compared five control strategies: immediate eradication, removal of a constant number of predators (fixed-number control), removal of a constant proportion of predators (fixed-rate control), removal of predators that exceed a predetermined threshold (upper-trigger harvest), and removal of predators whenever their population falls below a lower predetermined threshold (lower-trigger harvest). We looked at the performance of these strategies when managers could always remove the full number of predators targeted by each strategy, subject to budget availability. Under this assumption immediate eradication reduced the threat to the prey population the most. We then examined the effect of reduced management success in meeting removal targets, assuming removal is more difficult at low predator densities. In this case there was a pronounced reduction in performance of the immediate eradication, fixed-number, and lower-trigger strategies. Although immediate eradication still yielded the highest expected minimum prey population size, upper-trigger harvest yielded the lowest probability of prey extinction and the greatest return on investment (as measured by improvement in expected minimum population size per amount spent). Upper-trigger harvest was relatively successful because it operated when predator density was highest, which is when predator removal targets can be more easily met and the effect of predators on the prey is most damaging. This suggests that controlling predators only when they are most abundant is the "best" strategy when financial resources are limited and eradication is unlikely. © 2008 Society for Conservation Biology.

Leveraging the repository infrastructure to curate institutional heritage materials, learning objects and data assets

Developing and maintaining a successful institutional repository for research publications requires a considerable investment by the institution. Most of the money is spent on developing the skill-sets of existing staff or hiring new staff with the necessary skills. The return on this investment can be magnified by using this valuable infrastructure to curate collections of other materials such as learning objects, student work, conference proceedings and institutional or local community heritage materials. When Queensland University of Technology (QUT) implemented its repository for research publications (QUT ePrints) over 11 years ago, it was one of the first institutional repositories to be established in Australia. Currently, the repository holds over 29,000 open access research publications and the cumulative total number of full-text downloads for these document now exceeds 16 million. The full-text deposit rate for recently-published peer reviewed papers (currently over 74%) shows how well the repository has been embraced by QUT researchers. The success of QUT ePrints has resulted in requests to accommodate a plethora of materials which are ‘out of scope’ for this repository. QUT Library saw this as an opportunity to use its repository infrastructure (software, technical know-how and policies) to develop and implement a metadata repository for its research datasets (QUT Research Data Finder), a repository for research-related software (QUT Software Finder) and to curate a number of digital collections of institutional and local community heritage materials (QUT Digital Collections). This poster describes the repositories and digital collections curated by QUT Library and outlines the value delivered to the institution, and the wider community, by these initiatives.

The link between marketing instruments and customer perceptions

Measuring marketing effectiveness is a major challenge for marketing academics and practitioners. An investigation that uses dependence analysis to examine the link between objective marketing instruments and subjective customer perceptions of them is missing from existing approaches. In examining this link, the present article redresses this deficit. A conceptual model is developed in order to structure and explain the effects of instruments on perceptions for 3 marketing instrument categories (value, relationship, and brand). The links are analyzed in an empirical study with bank customers. Instruments are measured by using objective internal data. Perceptions are measured based on a customer survey. The relationships between instruments and perceptions are examined using regression analysis. Most of the effects of instruments on perceptions are significant, signaling that the activities conducted are perceived as intended. In particular, some interesting results become evident, such as the negative effect on relationship perceptions of follow-up calls subsequent to direct mail services.

Enhancing information about sustainability features for sustainable housing delivery

Sustainability practices in government regulations and within the society influence the delivery of sustainable housing. The actual delivery rate of Australian sustain-able housing is not as high as other countries. There is an absence of engagement by stakeholders in adopting sustainable housing practices. This may be due, in the current Australian property market, to confusion as to what sustainability features should be considered, given the large range of environmental, economic and social sustainability options possible. One of the main problems appears to be that information demanders, especially real estate agents, valuers, insurance agents and mortgage lenders do not include sustainability perspectives in their advice or in their decision processes. Information distribution in the Australian property market is flawed, resulting in a lack of return-on-investment value of ‘green’ features implemented by some stakeholders. This paper reviewed the global sustainable development concept and Australian sustainable assessment methods. This review identified the possibility of a research project which aimed at identifying and integrating different perceptions and priority needs of the information demanders, for developing a model for the potential implementation of sustainability features distribution in the property industry. This research will reduce confusion on the sustainability-related information which can influence the decision making of stakeholders in the supply and demand of sustainable housing.

DArT markers: Diversity analyses and mapping in Sorghum bicolor

The sequential nature of gel-based marker systems entails low throughput and high costs per assay. Commonly used marker systems such as SSR and SNP are also dependent on sequence information. These limitations result in high cost per data point and significantly limit the capacity of breeding programs to obtain sufficient return on investment to justify the routine use of marker-assisted breeding for many traits and particularly quantitative traits. Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT™) is a cost effective hybridisation-based marker technology that offers a high multiplexing level while being independent of sequence information. This technology offers sorghum breeding programs an alternative approach to whole-genome profiling. We report on the development, application, mapping and utility of DArT™ markers for sorghum germplasm. Results: A genotyping array was developed representing approximately 12,000 genomic clones using PstI+BanII complexity with a subset of clones obtained through the suppression subtractive hybridisation (SSH) method. The genotyping array was used to analyse a diverse set of sorghum genotypes and screening a Recombinant Inbred Lines (RIL) mapping population. Over 500 markers detected variation among 90 accessions used in a diversity analysis. Cluster analysis discriminated well between all 90 genotypes. To confirm that the sorghum DArT markers behave in a Mendelian manner, we constructed a genetic linkage map for a cross between R931945-2-2 and IS 8525 integrating DArT and other marker types. In total, 596 markers could be placed on the integrated linkage map, which spanned 1431.6 cM. The genetic linkage map had an average marker density of 1/2.39 cM, with an average DArT marker density of 1/3.9 cM. Conclusion: We have successfully developed DArT markers for Sorghum bicolor and have demonstrated that DArT provides high quality markers that can be used for diversity analyses and to construct medium-density genetic linkage maps. The high number of DArT markers generated in a single assay not only provides a precise estimate of genetic relationships among genotypes, but also their even distribution over the genome offers real advantages for a range of molecular breeding and genomics applications.

TU10025 Erosion control - turf research and development facility

The aim of this project is to construct a large-scale erosion control education and demonstration facility at Redland Research Station. This will be done in collaboration with the Australian turf industry (as members of the steering committee) and consultant researcher Dr Rob Loch (project partner). The project will employ a part-time industry development officer (IDO) for Turf Australia to increase engagement with the project by the target audience. The project’s main strategy is to extend the research results from HAL funded project Optimising Turf Use to Minimise Soil Erosion on Construction Sites TU08033 so that the maximum return on investment can be derived for the turf levy payers and HAL from that study.

Implementing sustainable farming practices in the Herbert: The Oakleigh Farming Company experience

The Oakleigh Farming Company has been progressively changing its farming practices on its property at Cordelia in the Herbert River District. During the last ten years the changes have included the adoption of raised beds at 1.8m row spacing, controlled traffic and dual row planting using double disc opener planters. This paper describes some of the changes that have been made to the farming system and examines their impact on farm productivity and economic performance. Since changing to the current farming system, the farm gross margin has increased from $789/ha to $897/ha. In addition to the numerous cost savings, the new farming system has reduced the time spent on tractors by 54% across the whole farm. Return on investment on the 1997 farming system was 1.6% versus 2.7% on their current farming system. The farming company is continually looking for new ways to improve profitability and believes that innovation is critical for the long term sustainability of the sugar industry.

Cost-effectiveness of a national initiative to improve hand hygiene compliance using the outcome of healthcare associated staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia

Background The objective is to estimate the incremental cost-effectiveness of the Australian National Hand Hygiene Inititiave implemented between 2009 and 2012 using healthcare associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia as the outcome. Baseline comparators are the eight existing state and territory hand hygiene programmes. The setting is the Australian public healthcare system and 1,294,656 admissions from the 50 largest Australian hospitals are included. Methods The design is a cost-effectiveness modelling study using a before and after quasi-experimental design. The primary outcome is cost per life year saved from reduced cases of healthcare associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia, with cost estimated by the annual on-going maintenance costs less the costs saved from fewer infections. Data were harvested from existing sources or were collected prospectively and the time horizon for the model was 12 months, 2011–2012. Findings No useable pre-implementation Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia data were made available from the 11 study hospitals in Victoria or the single hospital in Northern Territory leaving 38 hospitals among six states and territories available for cost-effectiveness analyses. Total annual costs increased by $2,851,475 for a return of 96 years of life giving an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of $29,700 per life year gained. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis revealed a 100% chance the initiative was cost effective in the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland, with ICERs of $1,030 and $8,988 respectively. There was an 81% chance it was cost effective in New South Wales with an ICER of $33,353, a 26% chance for South Australia with an ICER of $64,729 and a 1% chance for Tasmania and Western Australia. The 12 hospitals in Victoria and the Northern Territory incur annual on-going maintenance costs of $1.51M; no information was available to describe cost savings or health benefits. Conclusions The Australian National Hand Hygiene Initiative was cost-effective against an Australian threshold of $42,000 per life year gained. The return on investment varied among the states and territories of Australia.

Besides tracking: Simulation of RFID marketing and beyond

This paper asks a new question: how we can use RFID technology in marketing products in supermarkets and how we can measure its performance or ROI (Return-on-Investment). We try to answer the question by proposing a simulation model whereby customers become aware of other customers' real-time shopping behavior and may hence be influenced by their purchases and the levels of purchases. The proposed model is orthogonal to sales model and can have the similar effects: increase in the overall shopping volume. Managers often struggle with the prediction of ROI on purchasing such a technology, this simulation sets to provide them the answers of questions like the percentage of increase in sales given real-time purchase information to other customers. The simulation is also flexible to incorporate any given model of customers' behavior tailored to particular supermarket, settings, events or promotions. The results, although preliminary, are promising to use RFID technology for marketing products in supermarkets and provide several dimensions to look for influencing customers via feedback, real-time marketing, target advertisement and on-demand promotions. Several other parameters have been discussed including the herd behavior, fake customers, privacy, and optimality of sales-price margin and the ROI of investing in RFID technology for marketing purposes. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Bank Run Risk and Optimal Reserves

We characterize the optimal reserves, and the generated probability of a bank run, as a function of the penalty imposed by the central bank, the probability of depositors’ liquidity needs, and the return on outside investment opportunities.

Lecciones de una crisis anunciada

Resumen: El autor examina las razones de la crisis actual e identifica dos clases de causas, las próximas, relacionadas con las particularidades específicas adoptadas por los mercados financieros, y las remotas, vinculadas a las transiciones culturales que acompañaron al cambio del capitalismo industrial al financiero Entre las causas próximas identificadas se encuentran la desregulación y la falta de supervisión del sector financiero iniciadas a partir de los años 70 en los EEUU, la necesidad de rendimientos cada vez mayores generada por los fondos de pensión y la utilización de modelos con supuestos y herramientas que, en última medida, subestimaban el riesgo de las inversiones. El segundo grupo, las causas remotas, esta compuesto por aquellas que cambiaron el marco cultural de la sociedad occidental. El autor sostiene que las teorías económicas sobre el accionar humano han logrado influenciarlo y que el paradigma de sociedad esta virando hacia uno que no incluye otro valor que la eficiencia, donde la empresa no es vista como una asociación sino como una mera mercancía.

Impact calculator

Evaluate the efficiency of your change initiative The Impact Calculator can be used to demonstrate the impact of a process redesign or system implementation by quantifying the tangible benefits or efficiency gains that can be derived from it: identifying and recording the efficiency savings and costs of a process redesign determine if and when a return on investment (ROI) is made identify and measure as many benefits as you wish quantifying efficiency savings in monetary and non-monetary terms

Sistemas fotovoltaicos integrados ao perfil de uso da edificação

Nos últimos anos, o consumo de energia vem crescendo mundialmente nos grandes centros urbanos, e esforços na área de eficiência energética estão sendo implantados, a fim de reduzir o consumo no horário da ponta e interrupções da rede. O aproveitamento das fontes renováveis, como o fotovoltaico em uma edificação se torna um atrativo a mais para a matriz energética num momento em que o país prima pela universalização dos serviços de energia e a classificação de edifícios comerciais, de serviço e públicos, além dos residenciais quanto à eficiência energética através do Procel Edifica (RTQ-C e RTQ-R). Os sistemas fotovoltaicos podem configurar perfis de uso nas edificações de modo a gerar energia para consumo próprio ou ligado à rede e ainda ter influência na arquitetura do prédio com revestimento: os perfis podem está em telhados, fachadas ou janelas, amenizando em alguns casos a carga térmica no prédio com sombreamento arquitetônico. Hoje, com o avanço da tecnologia no setor de armazenagem é possível, o atendimento com segurança e eficiência a uma edificação ou direcionar esta armazenagem a uma demanda específica como o atendimento à demanda de ciclo profundo, tais como, iluminação externa e recarga de veículos elétricos. Partindo da premissa de sistemas interruptos de energia, UPS, uso de fonte secundária como FV, baterias e Flywheel é apresentado uma forma de melhor gerenciar a energia armazenada, podendo estender a vida útil da bateria e conseqüentemente de todo o sistema fotovoltaico na edificação. Esta forma de armazenar energia proporciona um serviço de uso contínuo sem percepção das interrupções da rede com garantia de 20 anos, tal qual o módulo fotovoltaico, com esta proposta as perdas de energia elétrica na edificação serão atenuadas, pois a eletricidade será utilizada de forma eficiente e inteligente. O ponto de partida do estudo de caso no prédio do IBAM são os sistemas fotovoltaicos com geração distribuída (mini-redes) conectados à rede que são instalados para fornecer energia ao consumidor, complementando a quantidade de energia demandada, caso haja algum aumento do consumo de energia na edificação, ou ainda utilizar o sistema fotovoltaico na hora da ponta e interrupções do sistema da rede no período fora da ponta. A estocagem inercial por meio do Flywheel tem um papel fundamental nesta mini-rede (Flywheel, bateria VRLA, UPS, inversor e STS), pois a sua utilização pode ser apontada como uma inovação tecnológica quanto à regulação de tensão no sistema de energia elétrica, além de preparar a edificação para o smart-grid. Esta configuração de acumulação de energia permitiu a analise do deslocamento desta energia armazenada para o consumo no horário de ponta, mudando o conceito de sistemas fotovoltaicos autônomos no meio urbano e rural no país. Este conceito de armazenagem se confirma então como um aporte na eficiência de energia na edificação, podendo carrear economia de energia substancial, além de proporcionar uma confiabilidade no serviço de energia, com um baixo retorno do investimento e com uma garantia de funcionamento com pequena ou nenhuma manutenção durante o período de vida de 20 anos.

Transferência de renda e capital portador de juros: uma insidiosa captura

Esta dissertação tem como objeto de estudo a relação entre capital portador de juros e programas de transferência de renda na atualidade. O objetivo pretendido é a análise da dinâmica de organização desta forma de capital e seus desdobramentos na contemporaneidade, bem como os impactos e determinações impostas às políticas sociais em tempos de financeirização do capital. Partimos da hipótese de que os programas de transferência de renda contribuem para o processo de contra-reforma das políticas sociais, tanto pela focalização preconizada como pela priorização orçamentária, em detrimento dos demais programas e projetos da assistência social, além de permitirem a remuneração do capital portador de juros por meio dos recursos que destinam às instituições bancárias. A pesquisa realizada utilizou-se de análise documental e teórica com base na tradição marxista, buscando analisar criticamente as configurações das políticas sociais na atualidade e o papel das transferências de renda. Buscamos ainda analisar o orçamento público no âmbito federal referente à Seguridade Social e, em particular, aos programas de transferência de renda no âmbito da Assistência Social. Escolhemos estudar o orçamento da Renda Mensal Vitalícia, o Benefício de Prestação Continuada e o Programa Bolsa-Família, entre os anos de 2006 e 2009, analisando os recursos que estes destinam às instituições bancárias que operacionalizam o repasse dos benefícios. O resultado da pesquisa demonstrou que os programas de transferência de renda são estratégias de contra-reformar as políticas sociais ao incentivar o processo de assistencialização da Seguridade Social visto que apresentam um aumento contínuo e substancial no âmbito orçamentário e ao operarem com a seletividade do atendimento aos mais pobres na contramão dos princípios fundamentais presentes no texto constitucional. São ainda mecanismos de alimentação do capital portador de juros ao repassarem consideráveis somas de recursos para as instituições bancárias e inserirem a classe trabalhadora pobre no mundo das finanças.