scholarly journals E-Retailers and Environmental Sustainability

Author(s):  
Peter Jones ◽  
Daphne Comfort ◽  
David Hillier

The aim of this paper is to offer an exploratory review of the extent to which the world’s leading e-retailers are communicating the environmental impact of their business and their environmental sustainability agendas to their customers. The paper draws its empirical material from the most recent information on environmental sustainability posted on the world’s leading e-retailers’ corporate web sites. The findings reveal that the majority of the world’s leading e-retailers publicly report on their commitment to environmental sustainability which embraces climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, waste management, water management, bio-diversity and nature conservation. However the authors argue that these commitments can be interpreted as being driven as much by business imperatives and the search for efficiency gains as by any genuine commitment to environmental sustainability and that they are couched within existing business models centred on continuing growth. As such E-retailers are currently pursuing a ‘weak’ rather than a ‘strong’ model of sustainability.

Author(s):  
Peter Jones ◽  
Robin Bown ◽  
David Hillier ◽  
Daphne Comfort

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an exploratory review of the sustainability agendas being addressed and publicly reported by the UK's leading data centre operators. The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the characteristics of sustainability and an outline of the origins and development of data centres within the UK. The chapter draws its empirical material from the most recent information on sustainability posted on the UK's leading data centre operators' corporate web sites. The findings reveal that all the UK's leading data centre operators provide only limited information on their commitment to sustainability with the dominant focus being on its environmental dimension and with little attention being paid to social and economic issues. More critically, the authors argue that these commitments are driven more by the search for efficiency gains, that they are couched within existing business models centred on continuing growth, and that as such the UK's leading data centre operators are pursuing a ‘weak' rather than a ‘strong' model of sustainability. The chapter suggests that the leading data centre operating companies may need to extend their sustainability reporting and to introduce external assurance procedures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 4998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Borgonovo ◽  
Cecilia Conti ◽  
Daniela Lovarelli ◽  
Valentina Ferrante ◽  
Marcella Guarino

Ammonia (NH3), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from livestock farms contribute to negative environmental impacts such as acidification and climate change. A significant part of these emissions is produced from the decomposition of slurry in livestock facilities, during storage and treatment phases. This research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the additive “SOP LAGOON” (made of agricultural gypsum processed with proprietary technology) on (i) NH3 and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, (ii) slurry properties and N loss. Moreover, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method was applied to assess the potential environmental impact associated with stored slurry treated with the additive. Six barrels were filled with 65 L of cattle slurry, of which three were used as a control while the additive was used in the other three. The results indicated that the use of the additive led to a reduction of total nitrogen, nitrates, and GHG emissions. LCA confirmed the higher environmental sustainability of the scenario with the additive for some environmental impact categories among which climate change. In conclusion, the additive has beneficial effects on both emissions and the environment, and the nitrogen present in the treated slurry could partially displace a mineral fertilizer, which can be considered an environmental credit.


Author(s):  
Hans C Ossebaard ◽  
Peter Lachman

Abstract The challenges for health care continue to grow and in the 21st century healthcare policymakers and providers will need to respond to the developing impact of global warming and the environmental impact of healthcare service delivery. This cannot be viewed apart from the current Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which is likely to be linked to the climate crisis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
H Harris ◽  
C Rizan ◽  
M Bhutta

Abstract Background The operating theatre is resource intensive and surgery is a major contributor to the environmental impact of healthcare. Our survey aims to explore the behaviours and attitudes of surgeons towards climate change and understand the barriers towards sustainable practice. Method We invited surgeons and surgical trainees to take part in a voluntary online survey between June- October 2020 and disseminated this via the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Edinburgh, and Ireland, ASIT, and to surgeons locally. Results We received 116 responses from 14 different surgical specialties, across all grades. The majority (107/116 respondees) said that they were concerned about climate change. This concern had led to change in surgeons’ personal lives (98/116) and professional lives (63/116). Most respondees agreed that surgeons have a responsibility to be aware of the environmental impact of surgical services (101/116). Surgeons were generally not aware of any environmental training or education in the workplace and felt efforts towards improving surgical sustainability in their workplace were minimal. Surgeons would welcome more national guidance (103/116) and would welcome more regulation and monitoring (93/116). Conclusions Our results indicate that surgeons are concerned about climate change and they are willing to engage in efforts to transition to more sustainable practice.


Author(s):  
Asma Esseghir

<p>Awareness of climate change dangers on environmental sustainability has prompted some researcher to understand the explanatory factors behind increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Being the most important anthropogenic GHG in the atmosphere and the main cause of the environmental degradation, this paper aims to investigate the factors that are associated with variations in CO2 emissions in the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) countries from 1990 to 2010, in order to design and implement appropriate policies. We use the Dynamic Common Correlated Effects (DCCE) estimation method regarding its power in the presence of heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence between variables. We find that improvement in energy efficiency and increasing use of renewable energy would positively affect CO2 emissions abatement. However, economic growth and industrialization development affect it negatively. Country analysis shows that the negative effect of economic activity on CO2 appears more in developing countries. Industrialization negatively affects CO2 emissions - mainly in developed countries. The positive effect of renewable energy as well as energy efficiency in curbing CO2 emissions is well pronounced in developed countries. Results also prove that the UfM developed and developing countries illustrate complementarities and necessities of exchanging and sharing to fight against climate change.</p>


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Pfeiffelmann ◽  
Stephen Wagner ◽  
Terry Libkuman

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-198
Author(s):  
Yongjoon Kim ◽  
Sung-Eun Yoo ◽  
Ji Won Bang ◽  
Kwansoo Kim ◽  
Donghwan An

2020 ◽  
pp. 161-165
Author(s):  
Bertram de Crom ◽  
Jasper Scholten ◽  
Janjoris van Diepen

To get more insight in the environmental performance of the Suiker Unie beet sugar, Blonk Consultants performed a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study on beet sugar, cane sugar and glucose syrup. The system boundaries of the sugar life cycle are set from cradle to regional storage at the Dutch market. For this study 8 different scenarios were evaluated. The first scenario is the actual sugar production at Suiker Unie. Scenario 2 until 7 are different cane sugar scenarios (different countries of origin, surplus electricity production and pre-harvest burning of leaves are considered). Scenario 8 concerns the glucose syrup scenario. An important factor in the environmental impact of 1kg of sugar is the sugar yield per ha. Total sugar yield per ha differs from 9t/ha sugar for sugarcane to 15t/ha sugar for sugar beet (in 2017). Main conclusion is that the production of beet sugar at Suiker Unie has in general a lower impact on climate change, fine particulate matter, land use and water consumption, compared to cane sugar production (in Brazil and India) and glucose syrup. The impact of cane sugar production on climate change and water consumption is highly dependent on the country of origin, especially when land use change is taken into account. The environmental impact of sugar production is highly dependent on the co-production of bioenergy, both for beet and cane sugar.


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