scholarly journals Considerations, benefits and unintended consequences of banning plastic shopping bags for environmental sustainability: A systematic literature review

2021 ◽  
pp. 0734242X2110039
Author(s):  
Asphat Muposhi ◽  
Mercy Mpinganjira ◽  
Marius Wait
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Policy Option ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Transient Nature ◽  
Plastic Bags ◽  
Plastic Bag ◽  
Foamed Plastics

Although the ban on plastic bags is gaining in prominence as a policy option to manage plastic bag litter, there are mixed views on its rationale and effectiveness. This study employs a systematic literature review to understand considerations, benefits and unintended consequences of banning plastic bags. The review’s results pointed to the limited success of a plastic bag ban owing to lack of suitable alternatives, limited state capacity to monitor and enforce the ban, thriving black market, structural and instrumental power of the plastic industry. The power of the industry was manifested by the covert practice of deflecting accountability to consumers by focusing on business-oriented solutions, including an inclination towards self-regulation. The findings of this study underscored the need for a global treaty to address the transient nature of plastic bag litter and moving away from the symbolic gesture of targeting only plastic shopping bags but considering the environmental impact of all forms of plastic such as straws, foamed plastics, plastic bottles and caps. There is a general consensus in literature that the end of plastic shopping bags is not nigh due to their utilitarian benefits. This study therefore recommends the promotion of a circular economy focusing on ecological modernisation, sustainable plastic bag manufacturing and recovery strategies such as recycling as a long-term strategy. A significant strand of literature reviewed also recommends the adoption of community-driven approaches such as voluntary initiatives as opposed to a plastic bag ban as they proved to be effective in promoting environmental citizenship behaviours in countries such as Finland.

scholarly journals Sustainability Requirements of Digital Twin-Based Systems: A Meta Systematic Literature Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5519
Author(s):  
Rui Carvalho ◽  
Alberto Rodrigues da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Data Communication ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Reducing Costs

Sustainable development was defined by the UN in 1987 as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, and this is a core concept in this paper. This work acknowledges the three dimensions of sustainability, i.e., economic, social, and environmental, but its focus is on this last one. A digital twin (DT) is frequently described as a physical entity with a virtual counterpart, and the data, connections between the two, implying the existence of connectors and blocks for efficient and effective data communication. This paper provides a meta systematic literature review (SLR) (i.e., an SLR of SLRs) regarding the sustainability requirements of DT-based systems. Numerous papers on the subject of DT were also selected because they cited the analyzed SLRs and were considered relevant to the purposes of this research. From the selection and analysis of 29 papers, several limitations and challenges were identified: the perceived benefits of DTs are not clearly understood; DTs across the product life cycle or the DT life cycle are not sufficiently studied; it is not clear how DTs can contribute to reducing costs or supporting decision-making; technical implementation of DTs must be improved and better integrated in the context of the IoT; the level of fidelity of DTs is not entirely evaluated in terms of their parameters, accuracy, and level of abstraction; and the ownership of data stored within DTs should be better understood. Furthermore, from our research, it was not possible to find a paper discussing DTs only in regard to environmental sustainability.

scholarly journals Non-monetary intervention to discourage consumption of single-use plastic bags

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
GAURI CHANDRA
Keyword(s):  
Rebound Effect ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Response Format ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Plastic Bags ◽  
Plastic Bag ◽  
Single Use ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Randomized Controlled Experiment ◽  
A Charge

Abstract The over-utilization of plastic bags has pushed governments to implement a mix of policy measures ranging from banning the bags altogether to charging a fee for them. However, these policies are often accompanied by unintended consequences. Paying for plastic bags, in particular, may crowd out the negative emotions tied to their harmful impact on the environment, and may be subject to a ‘rebound effect’. In a randomized controlled experiment, I tested four different treatments aimed at nudging or encouraging consumers to carry their own bag to the stores. Specifically, I tested the effects of changing the framing of the question regarding carrier bags at the checkout till in stores using a yes/no response format, in which the yes option corresponds to the desired behaviour. The treatment with the yes/no framing format was found to have as strong and significant an effect as a charge of 5 pence per bag on discouraging single-use plastic bag consumption.

scholarly journals Nudging in Supermarkets to Reduce Plastic Bag Consumption Among Customers: A Framework for Change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Lim
Keyword(s):  
Information Needs ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Potential Solution ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Complex Information ◽  
Plastic Bags ◽  
Daily Food ◽  
Plastic Bag ◽  
Food Needs

Despite good intentions, the increasing number of plastic bag bans aimed at alleviating marine plastic pollution saw a correlated increase in the number of unintended consequences that emerged alongside the bans, suggesting that human behavior towards plastic bag consumption have not changed, but merely shifted, and are feeding into other major international environmental catastrophes. Nudge theory, which helps people make better choices for themselves without inhibiting their free will, is a potential solution that has been shown to play a subtle but important role in providing options under circumstances where complex information needs to be streamlined for the wider community, avoiding any unintended consequences and behavioural shifts that might arise from instruments that diminishes autonomy. It is therefore timely to look into the insights of nudge theory to encourage a positive behavioural change to reduce plastic bag consumption. Here we apply a systematic literature review to show how successful applications of nudges in supermarkets can be leveraged to reduce plastic bag consumption. We find that the current applications of nudges in various industries worldwide, including supermarkets have produced positive and encouraging results, as well as producing lasting behavioural change among the wider community. Supermarkets are identified as a powerful deployment site of these nudges due to their positioning as a dominant provider of plastic bags to the wider community, as well as being the largest and leading provider of daily food needs. Finally, we synthesise our findings to produce a coherent and testable framework of actionable interventions that supermarkets can employ to nudge customers towards reduced plastic bag reliance, accompanied with a visual timeline of a customer shopping in a supermarket experiencing these nudges.

scholarly journals Environmental and Social Sustainability in UK Construction Industry: a Systematic Literature Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Fotios Misopoulos ◽  
Vicky Manthou ◽  
Zenon Michaelides
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Sustainable Construction ◽  
Community Sustainability ◽  
Bottom Line

Research on sustainability in the construction industry is common in construction journals addressing the potential adverse effects conventional practices have in the construction community. Sustainability is addressed through the environmental, social and economic impacts in literature and researchers and practitioners always drive the need for an equal attention on these three dimensions, but not so successfully at present. Sustainability covers a broad content with various suggested approaches arising from different countries all over the world. Previous studies have investigated sustainable construction issues as a global concept and in individual developed countries such as the US, Australia, and China. The aim of this research is to investigate the extent of coverage, by academia, of the sustainability concept in UK construction industry, with a focus on the environmental and social aspects of sustainability, based on the Triple Bottom Line framework. The researchers conducted a systematic literature review, searching relevant articles with predefined criteria in two major bibliographical databases, which offer great coverage of the existing academic journals in social sciences. The study utilised the PRISMA reporting approach and the search resulted in thirty-one suitable articles. The findings revealed that environmental sustainability receives much more attention than social sustainability. Added emphasis is given to green buildings and materials used. Government regulations seem to be the leading driver for adopting sustainable practices, while lack of knowledge/awareness of sustainable best practices is the leading challenge.

The role of environmental sustainability in the freight transport mode choice

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 560-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anu Bask ◽  
Mervi Rajahonka
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Freight Transport ◽  
Intermodal Transport ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Transport Mode ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
The Eu

Purpose Transport is the European Union (EU) sector that produces the second highest amount of greenhouse gas emissions. In its attempts to promote the environmentally sustainable development of transport, the EU has focussed on intermodal transport in particular – but with limited success. It is important to understand how freight transport is selected, which criteria are used and what role environmental sustainability and intermodal transport play in the selection. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of environmental sustainability and intermodal transport in transport mode decisions. The authors look at this issue from the perspective of logistics service providers (LSPs) and buyers, as they are important stakeholders in guiding this process. Design/methodology/approach To gain a holistic view of the current state of research, the authors have conducted a systematic literature review of the role of environmental sustainability and intermodal transport in transport mode decisions. The authors have further examined the findings concerning requests for quotations (RfQs), tenders and transport contracts, as these are also linked to decisions on transport choice. Findings The findings from the literature review include the results of descriptive and structured content analysis of the selected articles. They show that the discussion on environmental sustainability and intermodal transport as a sustainable mode, together with the transport mode selection criteria, RfQs/tenders and transport contracts, is still a rather new and emerging topic in the literature. The main focus related to the selection of transport mode has been on utility and cost efficiency, and only recently have issues such as environmental sustainability and intermodal transport started to gain greater attention. The findings also indicate that the theoretical lenses most typically used have been preference models and total cost theories, although the theoretical base has recently become more diversified. Research limitations/implications There is still a need to extend the theoretical and methodological base, which could then lead to innovative theory building and testing. Such diverse application of methodologies will help in understanding how environmental sustainability can be better linked to mode choice decisions. Practical implications The findings will be of interest to policy makers and companies opting for environmentally sustainable transport solutions. Social implications If the EU, shippers and LSPs take a more active stance in promoting environmentally sustainable transformation models, this will have long-lasting societal impacts. Originality/value It seems that this systematic literature review of the topic is one of the first such attempts in the current body of literature.

scholarly journals How to trigger students’ interest in digital learning environments: A systematic literature review

Seminar.net ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-84
Author(s):  
Liping P. Sun ◽  
Pirkko Siklander ◽  
Heli Ruokamo
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Digital Learning ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
Internet Connections ◽  
New Research

The digital revolution and globalization have a deep influence on education at all levels. Various digital devices do not only provide students’ Internet connections, but also create more opportunities for them to get inspired, motivated, and engaged in learning activities. Recent research shows that triggering interest can enhance students’ self-regulation, collaboration, problem-solving, and joy of learning. Previous studies show that the pedagogical use of information and communication technology (ICT) can support student-centered and collaborative learning, and develop thinking skills and creativity. However, little is known about the relevance of digital technologies for triggering interest. The aim of this study is to review existing literature in the field of the learning sciences, and provide answers for the following two research questions: 1) Which factors trigger students’ interest in ICT-based learning environments? 2) Which methods have been used for exploring triggers? The systematic literature review (SLR) methodology will be used in this study. The results will be used for developing new research for exploring triggers that can awaken students’ interest in learning. The findings will be useful for researchers and teachers to discover appropriate methods and approaches in successful integration of ICT in learning environments and the teaching process.

Sustainability as a success factor for tourism destinations: a systematic literature review

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarida Custódio Santos ◽  
Célia Veiga ◽  
José António C. Santos ◽  
Paulo Águas
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Success Factor ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Purchasing Behaviour ◽  
Tourism Destinations ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThis study sought to assess the extent to which tourism research has considered sustainability as a success factor for tourism destinations. It also aims to identify the relevance of the economic, environmental and socio-cultural dimensions of sustainability for tourist destination success, identify gaps in the literature and draw theoretical and practical implications and make recommendations.Design/methodology/approachThe research methodology consists of a systematic literature review on sustainability as a success factor for tourism destinations.FindingsResearch interest in the topic is recent and mostly focused on environmental sustainability. Developing a sustainable tourism policy and performing adequate destination management are crucial for tourism destination success. It is also acknowledged that perceiving a destination as sustainable has a significant positive impact on tourists' experiences, purchasing behaviour and loyalty.Originality/valueThis study's value arises from the fact that, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no systematic literature review was yet been performed on the topic of sustainability as a success factor for tourism destinations.

Environmental Sustainability to Support Competitiveness

2020 ◽  
pp. 99-124
Author(s):  
Anna Mazzi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Management System ◽  
Business Performance ◽  
Environmental Management System ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Strategic Factor ◽  
Business Competitiveness

The interest of scientists and companies in understanding the business implications of environmental commitments is timely; however, a dilemma remains at the firm level: is environmental sustainability a strategic factor for business competitiveness? The author contributes to this international end interdisciplinary debate through a double analysis, theoretical and empirical. Starting from a systematic literature review, the main correlations between environmental commitments and business performance are identified in a scholar's perspective. Based on the results from an Italian survey, the main added values associated with certified environmental management system are verified with a manager's perspective. Finally, the findings obtained from theoretical and empirical points of view are compared, to discuss confirmations or contradictions and underline questions still open.

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