On the Sustainability Performance of the European Union’s Economic Recovery Strategy – A Case Study with Lessons for Policymakers

Economic Recovery ◽

The European Union ◽

Recovery Strategy ◽

Environmental Considerations ◽

Development Objectives

Abstract The European Union pursues an economic recovery strategy with explicit environmental considerations but less clear alignment with broader sustainable development objectives. Using as a case study one national Recovery Plan that was published in May 2021, we perform a rapid but detailed sustainability assessment of its measures. At times when policymakers need immediate advice, this framework helps identify weaknesses and guide the inclusion of sustainability-oriented policies in national budgets.

On the Sustainability Performance of the European Union’s Economic Recovery Strategy – A Case Study with Lessons for Policymakers

10.21203/rs.3.rs-583734/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Theodoros Zachariadis

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Economic Recovery ◽

The European Union ◽

Recovery Strategy ◽

Environmental Considerations ◽

Development Objectives

Abstract The European Union pursues an economic recovery strategy with explicit environmental considerations but less clear alignment with broader sustainable development objectives. Using as a case study one national Recovery Plan that was published in May 2021, we perform a rapid but detailed sustainability assessment of its measures. At times when policymakers need immediate advice, this framework helps identify weaknesses and guide the inclusion of sustainability-oriented policies in national budgets.

Viability and Sustainability Assessment of Bioenergy Value Chains on Underutilised Lands in the EU and Ukraine

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14061566 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (6) ◽

pp. 1566

Author(s):

Cosette Khawaja ◽

Rainer Janssen ◽

Rita Mergner ◽

Dominik Rutz ◽

Marco Colangeli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Value Chain ◽

Bioenergy Crops ◽

Value Chains ◽

The European Union ◽

Feed Production ◽

A Value ◽

Sustainability Assessments ◽

Selection Of

Bioenergy represents the highest share of renewable energies consumed in the European Union and is still expected to grow. This could be possible by exploring bioenergy production on Marginal, Underutilised, and Contaminated lands (MUC) that are not used for agricultural purposes and therefore, present no competition with food/feed production. In this paper, the viability and sustainability of bioenergy value chains on these lands is investigated and measures for market uptake were developed. Using three case study areas in Italy, Ukraine, and Germany, a screening of MUC lands was conducted, then an agronomic assessment was performed to determine the most promising crops. Then, techno-economic assessments followed by sustainability assessments were performed on selected value chains. This concept was then automated and expanded through the development of a webGIS tool. The tool is an online platform that allows users to locate MUC lands in Europe, to define a value chain through the selection of bioenergy crops and pathways, and to conduct sustainability assessments measuring a set of environmental, social, and economic sustainability indicators. The findings showed positive results in terms of profitability and greenhouse gas emissions for bioethanol production from willow in Ukraine, heat and power production from miscanthus, and biogas and chemicals production from grass in Germany. The webGIS tool is considered an important decision-making tool for stakeholders, which gives first insights on the viability and sustainability of bioenergy value chains.

Sustainability Assessment of Public Transport, Part I—A Multi-Criteria Assessment Method to Compare Different Bus Technologies

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13020825 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 825

Author(s):

Jonas Ammenberg ◽

Sofia Dahlgren

Keyword(s):

Fossil Fuels ◽

Public Procurement ◽

Assessment Method ◽

County Level ◽

Participatory Process ◽

Problem Context ◽

The Public ◽

Sustainability Assessments

This article departs from the perspective of Swedish regional transport authorities and focuses on the public procurement of bus transports. Many of these public organizations on the county level have the ambition to contribute to a transition involving the continued marginalization of fossil fuels and improved sustainability performance. However, there are several renewable bus technologies to choose between and it can be difficult to know what alternative (or combination) is preferable. Prior research and the authors’ experiences indicate a need for improved knowledge and supportive methods on how sustainability assessments can support public procurement processes. The purpose of this article is to develop a multi-criteria assessment (MCA) method to support assessments of public bus technologies’ sustainability. The method, which was established in an iterative and participatory process, consists of four key areas and 12 indicators. The article introduces the problem context and reviews selected prior research of relevance dealing with green or sustainable public procurement and sustainability assessments. Further on, the process and MCA method are presented and discussed based on advice for effective and efficient sustainability assessments. In the companion article (Part II), the MCA method is applied to assess several bus technologies involving biodiesel, biomethane, diesel, electricity, ethanol and natural gas.

Globalisation and Africa's Economic Recovery: a Case Study of the European Union–South Africa Post-Apartheid Trading Regime

Journal of Southern African Studies ◽

10.1080/0305707032000135879 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 885-901 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Richard Gibb

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

European Union ◽

Economic Recovery ◽

The European Union ◽

Trading Regime

Assessing the Sustainability Performance of Sustainability Management Software

Technologies ◽

10.3390/technologies6030088 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 88 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Eva Kern ◽

Samanthi Silva ◽

Achim Guldner

Keyword(s):

Sustainability Management ◽

Web Based ◽

Management Software ◽

Systematic Assessment ◽

Study Approach ◽

Software Products ◽

Information And Communication

Companies have made considerable progress in assessing the sustainability of their processes and products, including the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. However, it is surprising that little attention has been given to the sustainability performance of software products. For this article, we chose a case study approach to explore the extent, to which software manufacturers have considered sustainability criteria for their products. We selected a manufacturer of sustainability management software on the assumption that they would be more likely to integrate elements of sustainability performance in their products. In the case study, we applied a previously developed set of criteria for sustainable software (SCSS) using a questionnaire and experiments, to assess a web-based sustainability management software product regarding its sustainability performance. The assessment finds that despite a sustainability conscious manufacturer, a systematic assessment of sustainability regarding software products is missing in the case study. This implies that sustainability assessment for software products is still novel, corresponding knowledge is missing and suitable tools are not yet being widely applied in the industry. The SCSS presents a suitable approach to close this gap, but it does require further refinement, for example regarding its applicability to web-based software on external servers.

“Doing” Sustainability Assessment in Different Consumption and Production Contexts—Lessons from Case Study Comparison

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11247041 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (24) ◽

pp. 7041

Author(s):

Tobias Engelmann ◽

Daniel Fischer ◽

Marianne Lörchner ◽

Jaya Bowry ◽

Holger Rohn

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Data Quality ◽

Research Question ◽

Comparative Case Study ◽

Research Projects ◽

Wide Range ◽

Context Specific ◽

Sustainability Assessments

Sustainability as a guiding idea for societal and economic development causes a growing need for reliable sustainability assessments (SAs). In response, a plethora of increasingly sophisticated, standardizAed, and specialized approaches have emerged. However, little attention has been paid to how applications of SAs in different contexts navigate the challenges of selecting and customizing SA approaches for their research purposes. This paper provides an exploration of the context-specific conditions of SA through a case study of three research projects. Each case study explores the different approaches, methodologies, as well as difficulties and similarities that researchers face in “doing” SA based on the research question “What are common challenges that researchers are facing in using SA approaches?” Our case study comparison follows a most different approach for covering a wide range of SA applications and is structured along with three key challenges of doing SA: (i) Deliberation, learning and assessment; (ii) normative assessment principles; (iii) feasibility, especially regarding data quality/availability. Above all, the comparative case study underlines the role and importance of reflexivity and context: We argue that a more explicit and transparent discussion of these challenges could contribute to greater awareness, and thus, to improving the ability of researchers to transparently modify and customize generic SA methodologies to their research contexts. Our findings can help researchers to more critically appraise the differences between SA approaches, as well as their normative assumptions, and guide them to assemble their SA methodology in a reflexive and case-sensitive way.

Assessing Sustainability Performance at the Farm Level: Examples from Greek Agricultural Systems

10.20944/preprints202003.0009.v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Irene Tzouramani ◽

Stamatis Mantziaris ◽

Pavlos Karanikolas

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Sector ◽

Sustainability Indicators ◽

The European Union ◽

Agricultural Systems ◽

Farm Level ◽

Wide Range ◽

Olive Trees ◽

The Eu

In recent years, farmers and policymakers have faced ample challenges and have struggled to support the sustainability of the agricultural sector. Sustainable agriculture encompasses multiple concepts, and its performance produces extensive debate about data requirements, appropriate indicators, evaluation methods, and tools. Under the European Union (EU) financed project FLINT (Farm Level Indicators for New Topics in policy evaluation), detailed data have been collected at the farm level to provide broader coverage of sustainability indicators on a wide range of relevant topics to facilitate the assessment of sustainability performance. The approach has been applied in a pilot network of representative farms at the EU level, considering the heterogeneity of the EU farming sector to provide data infrastructure with up to date information for sustainability indicators. This study aims to assess sustainability performance at the farm level in Greece. Representative and dominant agricultural systems, such as permanent crops, olive trees, arable crops, and livestock (sheep) farms, comprise the Greek sample. It uses the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) methodology and attempts to gain insights into the sustainability performance of agricultural systems. The outcome of the sustainability assessment reveals knowledge and develops support for strategic farm choices in order to support both farmers and policymakers towards more sustainable development plans. The results indicate that three typical Mediterranean farming systems, like permanent crops, olive trees, and extensive livestock systems (sheep farms), are more sustainable in contrast to intensive and arable crop farms.

The Performance of Protected Designations of Origin: An Ex Post Multi-Criteria Assessment of the Italian Cheese and Olive Oil Sectors

Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization ◽

10.1515/jafio-2013-0017 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Anna Carbone ◽

Julie Caswell ◽

Francesca Galli ◽

Alessandro Sorrentino

Keyword(s):

Local Development ◽

Performance Criteria ◽

Local Market ◽

The European Union ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Ex Post ◽

Policy Objectives ◽

Multi Criteria Analysis ◽

Development Objectives ◽

Protected Designations Of Origin

AbstractProtected designations of origin (PDOs) and protected geographical indications (PGIs) for food products are used by the European Union with the goal of achieving several policy objectives. We build a multi-criteria analysis framework for ex post assessment of the performance of PDOs. The performance criteria are based on five policy objectives, as defined by European policy makers in regulations, with each criterion measured by a set of indicators. We apply the framework to analyze the performance of all Italian PDO cheeses and olive oils from 2004 to 2008. The results show that for the PDOs studied it is feasible, in general, to perform on all five objectives at the same time, although partial tradeoffs are present between the bargaining power and local development objectives on one side and the market performance objective on the other. A ranking of PDOs in the two sectors on all objectives using multi-criteria analysis and equal weights on all objectives shows overall higher performance for smaller PDOs that are well rooted in the territory of origin and targeted to niche market segments. Lower ranked PDOs under this scenario tend to be bigger, older, and better established in wider markets. Alternative weighting scenarios that emphasize niche/local market PDOs or market performing PDOs yield different relative rankings. The results provide insights for both policy makers and stakeholders into the evaluation of PDO policy, as well as into the performance of individual PDO products.

Assessing Sustainability Performance at the Farm Level: Examples from Greek Agricultural Systems

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12072929 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (7) ◽

pp. 2929 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Irene Tzouramani ◽

Stamatis Mantziaris ◽

Pavlos Karanikolas

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Sector ◽

Sustainability Indicators ◽

The European Union ◽

Agricultural Systems ◽

Farm Level ◽

Wide Range ◽

Olive Trees ◽

The Eu

In recent years, farmers and policymakers have faced ample challenges and have struggled to support the sustainability of the agricultural sector. Sustainable agriculture encompasses multiple concepts, and its performance produces extensive debate about data requirements, appropriate indicators, evaluation methods, and tools. Under the European Union (EU) financed project FLINT (Farm Level Indicators for New Topics in policy evaluation), detailed data have been collected at the farm level to provide broader coverage of sustainability indicators on a wide range of relevant topics to facilitate the assessment of sustainability performance. The approach has been applied in a pilot network of representative farms at the EU level, considering the heterogeneity of the EU farming sector to provide data infrastructure with up to date information for sustainability indicators. This study aims to assess sustainability performance at the farm level in Greece. Representative and dominant agricultural systems, such as permanent crops, olive trees, arable crops, and livestock (sheep) farms, comprise the Greek sample. It uses the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) methodology and attempts to gain insights into the sustainability performance of agricultural systems. The outcome of the sustainability assessment reveals knowledge and develops support for strategic farm choices in order to support both farmers and policymakers towards more sustainable development plans. The results indicate that three typical Mediterranean farming systems, namely permanent crops, olive trees, and extensive livestock systems (sheep farms), are more sustainable in contrast to intensive and arable crop farms.