Water in your coffee? Accelerating SDG 6 through voluntary certification programs

2021 ◽  
Vol 324 ◽  
pp. 129252
Author(s):  
Lena Partzsch ◽  
Karia Hartung ◽  
Jule Lümmen ◽  
Celine Zickgraf
Keyword(s):  
Certification Programs ◽  
Voluntary Certification

Certification for Food Service Managers: A Survey of Current Opinion

1990 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSAN C. SPEER ◽  
BERNARD E. KANE
Keyword(s):  
Food Service ◽  
Voluntary Programs ◽  
Food Protection ◽  
Current Opinion ◽  
Certification Programs ◽  
Voluntary Certification ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Handling Practices ◽  
Food Handling Practices ◽  
Service Managers

The current opinion of state food protection directors toward certification was determined by a survey mailed to directors in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. There was a 96% return rate for the survey. Results of the survey reveal that 3 states (6%) have statewide mandatory certification programs; 17 states (35%) have voluntary programs; and 20 states (42%) have local jurisdictions with certification programs. A majority of directors (68%) would like to see either a mandatory or voluntary certification program in place in their state, and 73% of the respondents believe that certification programs do improve food handling practices. Barriers to developing statewide programs include financial resources, pragmatic design of training programs in rural states, and uniform requirements for certification. Respondents' comments are used to detail the implications of these barriers.

scholarly journals Bunching with the Stars: How Firms Respond to Environmental Certification

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Houde
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Consumer Surplus ◽  
Product Line ◽  
Certification Program ◽  
Environmental Certification ◽  
Pricing Decisions ◽  
Certification Programs ◽  
Strategic Behaviors ◽  
Voluntary Certification

Voluntary environmental certification programs have been a popular tool used by governments, industry groups, and nonprofit organizations alike. A central question in the design of such programs is who should pay for them. In a context where firms respond strategically to a certification, the answer to this question is a priori ambiguous and, ultimately, empirical. This paper provides important insights on this question using ENERGY STAR, a voluntary certification program for energy-efficient products, as a case study. I show that firms are highly strategic with respect to this certification and extract consumer surplus associated with certified products via three mechanisms. They offer products that bunch at the certification requirement, differentiate certified products in the energy and nonenergy dimensions, and charge a price premium on certified products. I use these findings to motivate a structural econometric model with firms’ strategic behaviors with respect to product line and pricing decisions and to investigate the incidence of a certification licensing fee to fund the certification program. This paper was accepted by Juanjuan Zhang, marketing.

scholarly journals Development of the System of Customs Examinations in Ukraine in the Context of Compliance with the Requirements of the European Union

2019 ◽  
pp. 106-117
Author(s):  
Оleksandr Punda ◽  
Daria Arziantseva
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Certification Programs ◽  
Expert Opinions ◽  
Judicial Practice ◽  
International Trends ◽  
Priority Task ◽  
Voluntary Certification ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The Right

The issues of improvement of the system of customs examinations in Ukraine in the context of compliance with the requirements of the European Union are researched. One of the elements of the adaptation process is the implementation of European regulations on the organization and conduct of examinations by customs laboratories and the use of the best national practices in regulating the activities of the customs institutions. It has been determined that modern cooperation in harmonizing national legislation with the requirements of the European Union in the field of expert activity encourages the formation of the unified understanding of the content of expert competencies, expert training and certification programs, as well as mutual accreditation of expert structures. This allows us to recognize the methodological support of expert activity and to obtain expert opinions on the basis of studies conducted in customs laboratories of other countries. To this effect, within the framework of harmonization there is a need for the unified procedures of approbation and valuation techniques for goods examining. It has been noted in the work that the mutual validation of research methods in the framework of examinations and their voluntary certification in the bodies of conformity assessment of the WTO member states is the matter of great importance. In this regard, the priority task of the development of the institute of customs examination in Ukraine is to increase the reliability of expert opinions and the prevention of expert errors. It has been specified that the judicial practice of considering cases in the customs sphere indicates the presence of procedural, legal, organizational, and methodological errors in the appointment, organization and conduct of customs examinations. The main international trends in the development of the institution of examination as an expert form of specialist knowledge is the convergence of the Anglo-American and continental systems of law in matters of examination. The necessity of securing in the customs legislation the right of the declarant to pose their own questions when the examination is conducted, to be present during the selection of samples or studies as part of the examination, to get acquainted with the methods and tools used to conduct research has been proved.

scholarly journals Review of NZEB Criteria: Design of Life Containers in Operations Area

Energies ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 467
Author(s):  
Mario Garzón-Juan ◽  
Ana Nieto-Morote ◽  
Francisco Ruz-Vila
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Efficient ◽  
Military Bases ◽  
Efficient Design ◽  
Certification Programs ◽  
Voluntary Certification ◽  
Passive Strategies ◽  
Design Requirements ◽  
Civil Sector ◽  
Energy Efficiency Standards

The Spanish Ministry of Defense is currently attempting to reduce the amount of energy that is consumed by its military bases and has therefore raised concerns about how to make their facilities more energy efficient. To fulfill this objective, the Spanish army has developed various studies and projects, as well as a technical prescription sheet that defines the thermal transmittance values of the materials that are to be used to construct the different elements of the containers that make up the temporary housing units at Spanish military camps. Both governments and private entities have developed initiatives that are aimed at improving the energy efficiency of buildings, which are classified into two groups: those aimed at the development of mandatory building codes and those that are based on voluntary certification programs. The use of passive strategies is one of the key actions that is being implemented to achieve the NZEB category, as its first requirement is to be a “very low energy consumption building”. This paper compares the energy efficiency requirements of the tents and containers that are used in military camps and the energy-efficient design requirements that are demanded by the energy efficiency standards for buildings in the civil sector. Through this comparison, we determine how energy efficient the current living spaces in military camps are in order to define strategies that can be implemented to improve the design requirements of these living spaces so to reduce the consumption and operation logistics and to improve both operability and safety in military camp facilities.

The Living Community Challenge for Environmental and Urban Sustainability

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Krinos
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
Certification Program ◽  
Certification Programs ◽  
Living Building Challenge ◽  
Green Certification

The Living Community Challenge (LCC) is a green certification program that, unlike most certification programs, is geared toward whole neighborhoods as opposed to singular buildings. Unfortunately, no existing communities have achieved Living Community Challenge certification. Still, there are many neighborhoods utilizing the ideals – known as petals – of the LCC in attempts to become more sustainable. The Living Building Challenge (LBC), the parent certification for the LCC, has seen more success than the LCC and will provide further research on the implications of its criterion. This paper will look at the hypothetical variables of the LCC, the communities trying to achieve these variables, and how elements of it could be used in relation to impoverished communities. Through case studies on groups and individuals attempting LCC and LBC certification, specifically Bend, Oregon and the BLOCK Project, the potential of the research becomes evident. This paper seeks to demonstrate how the LCC could be applied specifically in low-income areas in Gainesville, FL without achieving all the requirements of each petal.

Assessing policies to mitigate abandonment of shade-grown coffee production in forest systems amid low and uncertain prices

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Heidi J. Albers ◽  
Stephanie Brockmann ◽  
Beatriz Ávalos-Sartorio
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Biodiversity Hotspot ◽  
Payments For Ecosystem Services ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
Coffee Production ◽  
Certification Programs ◽  
Coffee Farmers ◽  
Effective Policy

Abstract Low and highly variable prices plague the coffee market, generating concerns that coffee farmers producing in shade systems under natural forests, as in biodiversity hotspot Oaxaca, Mexico, will abandon production and contribute to deforestation and reduced ecosystem services. Using stakeholder information, we build a setting-informed model to analyze farmers' decisions to abandon shade-grown coffee production and their reactions to policy to reduce abandonment. Exploring price premiums for bird-friendly certified coffee, payments for ecosystem services, and price floors as policies, we find that once a farmer is on the path toward abandonment, it is difficult to reverse. However, implementing policies early that are low cost to farmers – price floors and no-cost certification programs – can stem abandonment. Considering the abandonment that policy avoids per dollar spent, price floors are the most cost-effective policy, yet governments prefer certification programs that push costs onto international coffee consumers who pay the price premium.

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