An Eco-Industrial Park-Based Method for Net Zero Community Creation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garrett Hairston ◽  
Astrid Layton

Abstract Much emphasis is placed on the role of Net Zero Communities (NZCs) in achieving a sustainable future. Systems research on the topic, including the application of bio-inspired techniques already used on other human networks, is currently hindered by the lack of case studies documenting the structure and quantity of energy, water, and waste flows within realistic NZCs. This work proposes and preliminarily tests a method of generating a database of hypothetical-realistic NZCs by expanding the system boundaries for well-documented Eco-industrial Park (EIP) networks. The expansion includes residential and commercial actors from the community surrounding the EIP. Past studies using Ecological Network Analysis (ENA) to improve the environmental and economic performance of these EIPs have resulted in a quantitative database of case studies. Combining these industrial hubs to nearby residential, commercial, agricultural, etc. actors can generate potential multi-use networks on which similar design work can be conducted. Three EIP to NZC cases are generated and analyzed focusing on their system structure. Cyclicity, an ENA metric used to quantify the presence and complexity of cyclic pathways in a network, has been shown to promote the efficient use of resources in both biological and human networks. Cyclicity values for the original EIP networks, the community additions, and the potential NZC case studies reveals that there are many meaningful interactions that occur between actors that are only visible once the system boundaries are expanded to the NZC level. This offers a glimpse into the potential benefits of approaching the NZ problem, and sustainable living more generally, on a system scale — an analysis that will be further enabled by the generation of an NZC database initiated by this work.

2021 ◽  
Vol 903 (1) ◽  
pp. 012001
Author(s):  
G Galford ◽  
L M Tucker

Abstract Single family houses contribute substantially to climate change in the US and other parts of the world. In the US specifically, most housing has been designed by builders and developers. The motivation has not been sustainability and a knowledge of how to design net zero energy and net zero water dwelling is not commonly understood. This paper seeks to use a historical model as viewed through the lens of the Living Building Challenge to demonstrate how an architect designed historic example might provide a way of implementing a cutting-edge approach to sustainable housing today. Arthurdale was an early 20th century housing experiment that was conceptualized to provide for sustainable living in rural Appalachia. This paper presents the history of the region, an overview of the houses and the Living Building Challenge and then analyses how this historic prototype might model a sustainable housing development today using the Living Building Challenge system.


Author(s):  
Dan Johansson ◽  
Mikael Wiberg

Mobility has become an omnipresent part of our modern IT society. Alongside the general taxonomy of mobile users, terminals, sessions, and services, there are also more specialized forms of mobility. Context-Awareness Supported Application Mobility (CASAM) or “Application Mobility” is one such form that is explored in this chapter. CASAM builds on the idea of using context to move an application between different devices during its execution in order to provide relevant information and/or services. The authors use a concept-driven approach to advance mobile systems research, integrating it with a more traditional user-centric method and a case study, further exploring the concept of CASAM. To empirically situate our design work they conducted an empirical study of a home care service group serving the Swedish municipality of Skellefteå, followed by an exercise in matching the properties of the CASAM concept in relation to problems within current workflow.


Author(s):  
Paulo Marques

One central problem preventing widespread adoption of mobile agents as a code structuring primitive is that current mainstream middleware implementations do not convey it simply as such. In fact, they force all the development to be centered on mobile agents, which has serious consequences in terms of software structuring and, in fact, technology adoption. This chapter discusses the main limitations of the traditional platform-based approach, proposing an alternative: component-based mobile agent systems. Two case studies are discussed: the JAMES platform, a traditional mobile agent platform specially tailored for network management, and M&M, a component-based system for agent-enabling applications. Finally, a bird’s eye perspective on the last 15 years of mobile agent systems research is presented along with an outlook on the future of the technology. The authors hope that this chapter brings some enlightenment on the pearls and pitfalls surrounding this interesting technology and ways for avoiding them in the future.


2009 ◽  
pp. 3300-3319
Author(s):  
Paulo Marques ◽  
Luís Silva

One central problem preventing widespread adoption of mobile agents as a code structuring primitive is that current mainstream middleware implementations do not convey it simply as such. In fact, they force all the development to be centered on mobile agents, which has serious consequences in terms of software structuring and, in fact, technology adoption. This chapter discusses the main limitations of the traditional platform-based approach, proposing an alternative: component-based mobile agent systems. Two case studies are discussed: the JAMES platform, a traditional mobile agent platform specially tailored for network management, and M&M, a component-based system for agent-enabling applications. Finally, a bird’s eye perspective on the last 15 years of mobile agent systems research is presented along with an outlook on the future of the technology. The authors hope that this chapter brings some enlightenment on the pearls and pitfalls surrounding this interesting technology and ways for avoiding them in the future.


Author(s):  
Brian J. Corbitt ◽  
Konrad J. Peszynski ◽  
Saranond Inthanond ◽  
Byron Hill

This paper explores an alternative way of framing information systems research on the role and impact of national culture. It argues that the widely accepted structural framework of Hofstede reduces interpretation to a simplistic categorical description which in many cases ignores differentiation within cultures. The alternative model suggests, that national culture can be better understood by seeking out the dominant codes that frame the discourse pervasive in a culture and understanding how that discourse affects the obvious social codes of ritual, custom and behavior and the textual codes which express the nature of that culture. This framework is applied to two different case studies — one in New Zealand and one in Thailand — to demonstrate its applicability.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9781
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Viles ◽  
Javier Santos ◽  
Tamara Fernández Arévalo ◽  
Martín Tanco ◽  
Florencia Kalemkerian

In a circular economy (CE) environment, it is important to make good and efficient use of resources and consider that the waste generated in production processes can be a valuable resource. However, the tools and methodologies conventionally used to analyze and evaluate production systems are based on techniques focused on linear production management models, where the primary purpose is to reduce the treatment and management of waste as much as possible and where productive and environmental efficiency are not evaluated simultaneously. Changing the paradigm from a linear to a circular economy requires that a new strategy for production systems be defined, one that makes production processes simultaneously circular and efficient (in terms of quality and productivity). In this context, a holistic vision is needed when implementing CE strategies. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to provide evidence, through two real case studies in the use of water, that the management of this resource without considering systemic thinking may not be the most circular solution. Main results showed that improvements based on the traditional approach of reducing resource use cannot provide the best results if they are supported only by current process consumption without considering the circularity of resources.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4495 ◽  
Author(s):  
JinHyo Yun ◽  
Xiaofei Zhao ◽  
Tan Yigitcanlar ◽  
DooSeok Lee ◽  
HeungJu Ahn

In the age of knowledge-based economies, open innovation has increasing importance. This study aimed to explore the architectural design approaches that can revitalize innovation activities in the era of knowledge-based economies. This paper investigated global case research campuses, manufacturing systems, and innovation districts where architectural design supports innovation activities. This study developed a research framework of architectural design for innovation and applied it in the selected case studies to generate insights. First, the research campuses selected as case studies included Panopticon, DGIST Education and Research Campuses, and Apple Park. Second, the open innovation of manufacturing system architecture was analyzed through the case studies of the Ford Motor Company, Toyota Motor Corporation, and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Third, this paper studied the clustered open innovation architectures of Macquarie Park, One North, and Strijp-S Innovation Districts. The findings revealed how tacit knowledge motivates open innovation through the design of manufacturing systems, research campuses, and innovation districts through real examples and mathematical or concept model building.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 5964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minoo Tehrani ◽  
Lawrence Fulton ◽  
Bryan Schmutz

“Green Cities” are cities with the ultimate goal of achieving a net zero-carbon footprint in energy, transportation, architecture, and the activity cost chain of businesses. These cities define the future of our planet by emphasizing the efficient use of resources and the well-being of communities. This study focuses on “Green Cities” and the restaurant industry. It examines the beliefs of restaurant owners/managers on the positive impact of sustainability practices on financial situation, reputation, and attraction of customers, and the relationship between such beliefs and the extent of engagement in sustainability practices. The research also explores whether declaring a city “Green” enhances the sustainability practices in that city. The results indicate that the restaurant owners/managers in all three studied cities strongly believe that sustainability practices enhance the financial performance, reputation of the restaurant, and attraction of customers, yet a significant percentage of the wastes and by-products of the operations of the studied restaurants are discarded. In addition, the results of the study show no significant impact on sustainability practices in the studied restaurants for the declared “Green” cities of Providence (U.S.) and Nancy (France) versus the city of Springfield (U.S.). The study concludes by highlighting the potential reasons underlying the lack of sustainability practices in the restaurant industry and proposes recommendations that can enhance such practices in this industry.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bigland ◽  
David Evans ◽  
Richard Bolden ◽  
Maggie Rae

Abstract Background ‘Systems leadership’ has emerged as a key concept in global public health alongside such related concepts as ‘systems thinking’ and ‘whole systems approaches.’ It is an approach that is well suited to issues that require collective action, where no single organisation can control the outcomes. While there is a growing literature on the theory of systems leadership in a number of fields, there remains a lack of published empirical studies of public health systems leadership for professionals to learn from. The aim of the current project was to conduct cases studies in UK public health to provide empirical evidence on the nature of effective systems leadership practice. Methods Three system leadership case studies were identified in the key domains of public health: health protection, healthcare public health and health improvement. A total of 27 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data were thematically analysed to identify the components of effective systems leadership in each case and its impact. Results The thematic analysis identified themes around ‘getting started,’ ‘maintaining momentum’ and ‘indicators of success’ in systems leadership. In terms of getting started, the analysis showed that both a compelling ‘call to action’ and assembling an effective ‘coalition of the willing’ are important. To maintain momentum, the analysis identified themes relating to system structure, culture and the people involved. Regarding culture, the main themes that emerged were the importance of nurturing strong relationships, curiosity and a desire to understand the system, and promoting resilience. The analysis identified three components that could be used as indicators of success; these were a sense of enjoyment from the work, resource gains to the system and shifts in data indicators at the population level. Conclusions This study has provided insight into the nature of systems leadership in public health settings in the UK. It has identified factors that contribute to effective public health systems leadership and offers a thematic model in terms of establishing a systems leadership approach, maintaining momentum and identifying key success indicators.


2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (9) ◽  
pp. 21-24

Purpose – This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach – This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings – The authors identified eight consumer trends, i.e. always on the go, always logged-in, quality information faster, nowism, look at me now, privacy, sustainable living and return on time (RoT), present across the three life-stage segments, i.e. young free and simple, chaos in my life and got my life back. Practical implications – The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations. Originality/value – The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.


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