Behavioral Economics and Corporate Sustainability

By John Byrd, PhD and Kent Hickman, PhD

The likelihood of meaningful legislation supporting a shift towards more sustainable practices by business and individuals seems miniscule. Without government policies or incentives the move to sustainability depends largely on the voluntary actions of companies. Companies choose the types of products they produce–the materials they are made of, their recyclability, their energy consumption, their durability–and how the products are manufactured–production efficiency, working conditions and so on. In theory individuals, through their consumption choices, can send a message to companies about the types of products they want. But if the range of choices doesn’t include price competitive green alternatives this message never gets back to corporate decision makers. … Continue Reading

Re-establishing ancient agricultural practices: Lessons from the recent past (Part Three)

By Jennifer Huebert

In this three part series, several recent efforts to re-establish forgotten or fading agricultural practices were reviewed. The first instalment presented key criteria to consider for an effective revival of these food-production technologies. Three case studies were profiled in the second instalment: runoff agriculture in the Israeli desert, forest gardening in Central America and raised-bed agriculture in the Andean highlands. Each example illustrated a distinct problem with a unique history to consider. In this final instalment, I review how each revival effort addressed these criteria and reflect on the importance of studying the distant past to make informed decisions about the future. … Continue Reading

Re-Establishing Ancient Agricultural Practices: Lessons from the Recent Past (Part Two)

By Jennifer Huebert

Forgotten or fading traditional agricultural practices may be able to address modern-day agricultural challenges. In this series, several recent efforts to re-establish such practices are reviewed. Each example illustrates a distinct problem, and has a unique history to consider. In the last issue, key criteria for an effective revival of forgotten agricultural technologies were outlined, and a case study from an Israeli desert was presented. This second installment highlights two additional case studies: one from the forests of Central America and another from the Andean highlands. … Continue Reading

The Politics of Fossil Fuels: Obstacles to Wind Energy Development in Kansas

By Dr. Gary Brinker

Coal and oil have always been the life-blood of the industrial economy.  Historically, these energy resources had been so plentiful that, until the latter part of the 20^th century, few believed that we could exhaust their supply.  And although the chronic negative health effects from inhaling coal dust and the exhaust of burning fossil fuels were recognized early in the industrial era, the full extent of the threat to human health and survival has only recently been realized and acknowledged.  The most recent threat to the global ecology in the form of global climate change has energized a social movement to convert energy production to non-fossil sources deemed more environmentally friendly and biologically benign, such as solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal and bio-fuels. … Continue Reading

Re-establishing Ancient Agricultural Practices: Lessons from the Recent Past (Part One)

By Jennifer Huebert

Editor’s Note: This article is the first of three case studies investigating ancient agricultural practices. Look for the next installment in the Winter 2012 issue.

One of today’s most pressing global issues is the need to produce food more efficiently in order to feed the growing world population (1). This issue has been addressed with solutions ranging from genetically modified food plants to mechanized large-scale monoculture cropping practices. However, modifications people make to the landscape to cultivate food create significant and often destructive changes in the environment (2). Conscious efforts must be made to sustain agroecosystems and conserve natural resources so they can function in perpetuity. … Continue Reading

Panacea or Platitude: Integrated Water Resource Management – Conceptually Sound But Fundamentally Flawed

By Rhett Larson

Water is unique in that it is often viewed simultaneously as a fundamental human right and yet an increasingly valuable natural resource largely integrated with private real property rights. Because of this dichotomy, water policy lends itself to similar dichotomous discussions, with aspirational platitudes met with pragmatic skepticism. In recent years, this dichotomy has crystallized around the concept of “integrated water resource management” (“IWRM”). IWRM is commonly defined as, “A process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems” (1). This essay describes the objectives of IWRM, examines its limitations in the context of one hotly contested river basin—the Colorado River Basin—and offers pragmatic suggestions on how to realize the aspirations of IWRM.

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Building Businesses through Cleaner Cooking Fuels in Ghana

by Edward Burgess, Research Editor for The Sustainability Review

For this interview, we spoke with Dr. Mark Henderson, Director of the Global Resolve project at Arizona State University. We discussed some of his latest research efforts in Ghana, Africa where he and his colleagues are working with local villages to design technologies and businesses that could improve the health and well-being of the local people and their environment.

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Closing the Energy Efficiency Information Gap for Small Businesses

Small businesses are vital to the health of the United States’ economy. They provide essential goods and services, employ millions of Americans and generate half the U.S. nonfarm GDP (1). Businesses of all sizes prioritize cost reductions, but small businesses‘which lack the monetary, personnel, and technological resources of large corporations‘are often more sensitive to cost variability. This sensitivity to cost fluctuations is especially pronounced for energy expenditures, which cost U.S. small businesses approximately $130 billion each year (2). By decreasing energy expenditures, small businesses can increase efficiency across their operations, strengthen their financial prospects and minimize their impact on the environment.

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Peak phosphorus: the crunch time for humanity?

by Dana Cordell, Stuart White and Tom Lindström

The element phosphorus underpins our ability to produce food. Yet only recently has a vigorous debate emerged regarding the longevity of the world’s main source of phosphorus – phosphate rock.

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Drugs in Water: A San Francisco Bay Case Study

by Morgan Levy, UC Berkeley, Energy & Resources Group

This is one part of a joint Art & Research entry. See the corresponding art piece here.

Introduction

Hormones, antidepressants, antibiotics, and chemicals from personal care products have been founds in waterways nationwide (1). Most wastewater treatment plants are not equipped to filter pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) from treated wastewater and existing treatment processes do so with varying levels of success (2). Thus contaminants not removed during treatment can enter water systems such as freshwater streams and rivers, canals, lakes and reservoirs, groundwater aquifers, estuaries, and oceans (2, 3). Active pharmaceutical compounds are robust and persist in the environment. Pharmaceuticals are specifically made to withstand digestion processes in human (and animal) bodies, and some drug compounds will leave sewage plants at concentrations that are just as strong as when the water entered the sewer system (4, 5).
Two studies from the South San Francisco Bay (“South Bay”) in northern California demonstrate a geographically specific, yet nationally representative example of how PPCP contaminants enter and persist in our linked natural and human environment.

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Do Workers with Disabilities Help Sustain the Economy Through a Downturn?

By Kristen Faye Bean, MSW

Although many sustainability concerns concentrate on environmental issues, the United States’ (U.S.) economic downturn that began in December 2007 highlights issues of economic sustainability. The entire U.S. economy is struggling to sustain the power that it has upheld in the world economy. Businesses worry about maintaining profits with minimal costs, and employees are concerned about job sustainability. Employers have begun to focus on aspects of their business that are more robust to economic downturn. The layoffs since December 2007 have been distributed among many different industries; the third quarter of 2009 showed that manufacturing firms, construction, professional and technical services, and management of companies and enterprises had experienced mass layoffs (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). Because of the relatively equal distribution of layoffs, it is unclear what types of employees businesses are relying on to sustain profits with minimal costs.  This paper explores whether employees with disabilities are an integral labor market for businesses during weak economic periods.

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Too Much of a Good Thing: The Relationship between Money and Happiness in a Post-Industrial Society

By Alison Dalton Smith

Happiness is considered a universal human aspiration, but the means to achieving happiness has become inexorably entangled with gaining material possessions.  In common paradigms of economic development, Gross Domestic Product is used as a proxy for measuring the well-being of a nation’s citizens.  While this is often true in impoverished nations where basic needs are not met, there is a threshold point past which increasing economic gains no longer necessarily deliver increases in human well-being.  Beyond this threshold, economic measures are no longer adequate for accurate measurement of a nation’s human well-being. In fact, this myopic focus on economic growth has created an unsustainable way of life that is increasingly unfulfilling for those that are engaged in the cycles of consumption.  In this paper, I will address both recent patterns in human well-being in industrialized nations and more comprehensive indexes that quantify human well-being.

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Environmental Management of Multinational Corporations in India: The Case of PepsiCo.

By Manjyot Bhan

Abstract

Before the 1980s, environmental regulation in India was almost non-existent. In pursuit of economic development, the Government of India (GoI) kept environmental regulation of multinational corporations to a minimum in order to attract foreign direct investment. Multinational corporations have often been blamed for taking advantage of weak enforcements in India; however, in recent years, many of them have started to self-regulate and often set their environmental standards above the minimum compliances enforced by the GoI. My research will investigate the change in environmental management of PepsiCo, India—an American large food and beverage multinational corporation.

… Continue Reading

Transformative pedagogy: Meeting the needs of the digital generation

By Ben Miller

Traditional higher education pedagogy, or the approach to instructional design, must now come to terms with the boundless, yet challenging, opportunities made possible through information technology.  Education faces a transformative period in which characteristics of traditional in-person pedagogy interact with those of internet-based, digital learning.  The necessity of this transformation stems from the widening discrepancy between how students prefer to gather information and the pace at which information can be collected outside of traditional classrooms and the satisfaction endemic to the traditional pedagogical approach (Johnson 2005; Tapscott, 2008).  This discussion provides an overview of key characteristics of the contemporary college student, presents suggestions towards optimizing digital pedagogy design, and introduces a financial justification for shifting from traditional pedagogy to online instructional modeling.

… Continue Reading

Bus Rapid Transit as a Sustainable Public Transit Alternative

By Neal Humphrey

Abstract

In order to investigate the potential growth of public transit for the creation of a more sustainable transit paradigm, this paper seeks to explore the features of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, and compare them to the costs and benefits of other public transit options. BRT is often viewed as an intermediary transit option, providing many of the benefits of light rail systems that normal buses cannot provide, yet doing so with reduced cost and, therefore, greater potential service. As growing cities seek to meet their transit needs, Bus Rapid Transit can provide many of the benefits of both light-rail and bus services and as such may prove to be the most effective public transportation option in many communities.

This paper presents the five main components comprising the definition of a BRT system, as summarized from a variety of presentations. It discusses the implementation of these five components, related costs, and potential benefits. Importantly, it provides context of why a BRT system must be viewed as separate from a standard bus system. BRT systems can be a valuable tool to broaden public transportation accessibility, increasing the sustainability of our increasingly urban population. … Continue Reading