scholarly journals A REVIEW OF SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT TOOLS ON PRIORITIZING PHYSICAL SAFETY AND COMFORT TO EFFECTIVELY CONTROL ACCIDENTS IN STREETS OF COLOMBO

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Kumaraguruparan ◽  
◽  
K.W.J.P. Wijesundara ◽  
U.G.D Weerasinghe ◽  
◽  
...  

The definition of sustainability has evolved since it was defined by the Brundtland commission in 1987, and become comprehensive over time with defined social, environmental and economy based ‘Sustainable Development Goals’. Today the necessity and feasibility of inclusion of safety and comfort as key components of sustainable development of urban streets has become vital considering the number of accidents and crimes taking place in urban contexts. High number of road accidents have been recorded in Colombo as noted from the report issued by the Sri Lanka Department of Census and Statistics. This is primarily due to lack of regulations or any ratification on enforcing physical safety and comfort aspects. Therefore considering the principles of sustainability, and sustainability rating being established an universal quality assessment tool, it is important to incorporate physical safety and comfort as an element of sustainability in designing urban streets. The analysis is done by defining sustainability through literature review, identifying the research gap on physical safety and comfort using VOSviewer software, and assessing the significance of safety and comfort in designing urban streets using available online data.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akhanova ◽  
Nadeem ◽  
Kim ◽  
Azhar

: Many building assessment tools exist for guiding building facilities toward sustainability. Some tools are internationally recognized while others are for specific countries based on local needs. This study endeavored to develop a building sustainability assessment framework for Kazakhstan. The framework was developed based on the review of building performance assessment methods such as leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED), building research establishment environmental assessment methodology (BREEAM), comprehensive assessment system for building environmental efficiency (CASBEE), and international initiative for sustainable built environment (SBTool), and considering the local conditions in Kazakhstan. A two-round Delphi survey was employed to develop the assessment categories and indicators by local experts from the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Mean and standard deviation values were used to analyze the survey data and to make the decision on the level of agreement amongst the Delphi panelists. The proposed framework consists of nine assessment categories, 46 assessment indicators, and 142 parameters covering the four climatic regions in Kazakhstan and considering the environmental, social, and economic perspectives of the country’s sustainable development goals. The introduction of the framework is expected to serve as a reference for establishing the regional building sustainability assessment tool that will aid to increase the awareness of the public and help policymakers to solve sustainability-related issues in Kazakhstan.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heloisa Cronemberger de Araújo Góes ◽  
Alessandra Magrini

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to gather elements to propose a sustainability assessment tool (SAT) to be used in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Brazil and the related program to be created for SAT dissemination and HEI monitoring, publication of results and benchmarking. Design/methodology/approach The characteristics of eight SATs were identified, seven of which are applied through widely known international programs to identify aspects to be considered in the definition of the Brazilian model. Findings In Brazil, stakeholders usually do not know how HEIs develop their potential to contribute with the construction of a sustainable development model. There currently is an international trend, which Brazil must join, to assess HEI sustainability through SATs. The comparison between different international SATs and respective programs yields some recommendations for a Brazilian model, such as definition of their purpose, types of questions to be used, the possibility to apply SATs to HEI sub-units, means of dissemination and others. Research limitations/implications The research limitation is the difficulty to obtain information allowing a deeper understanding of sustainability-related activities developed by Brazilian HEIs. Practical implications This paper provides a base on which to construct SAT and program models tailored for Brazil. Originality/value This is the first paper that stresses the importance of adopting a SAT tailored for Brazil, by comparing and discussing models that may be used for that purpose.


2013 ◽  
Vol 361-363 ◽  
pp. 119-122
Author(s):  
Xiao Peng Zhang ◽  
Bo Yang Zhao ◽  
Wei Qin

It is the aim of this paper to discuss and search for the suitable scale and platform of sustainability assessment of area scale residential development in China, to contribute to the research of sustainability assessment and thus to promote the sustainable development in Chinese urbanization. The status quo of sustainability assessment in China and the scale definition of globe assessment tools for area scale are reviewed firstly to define the problem. And then, an analysis of Chinese urban system, land ownership and market and residential development are made to establish the combined hierarchical structure. Finally based on the previous research, residential district and regulatory plan are chosen by this research as the implement scale and platform of sustainability assessment for area scale residential development, together with the benefits analysis. The suggested assessment scale and platform could connect the existing sustainability assessment on city & building scale and promote sustainable development realize from targets to measures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2060
Author(s):  
Doriane Desclee ◽  
David Sohinto ◽  
Freddy Padonou

Contributing to Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030 is a shared objective of all institutions and people. The challenges differ according to the characteristics of every context. In developing countries, strongly dependent on the agricultural sector, agricultural supply chains are recognized as crucial for economic growth and enablers for livelihood improvement. Moreover, sustainable development issues are correlated and can meet in agricultural supply chains. For several decades, parallel to decision-makers, the research community has elaborated sustainability assessment tools. Such tools evolved to fit with actuality, but it is challenging to find decision-making support tools for sustainable development adequate in agricultural supply chains and developing countries contexts. There is a necessity to define evidence-based tools and exhaustive analytical frameworks according to sustainability multidimensionality and strategical tradeoffs necessity. The VCA4D method aims to go beyond the limits of previous methods. It proposes a combination of multidisciplinary analytical tools applied empirically to analyze agricultural supply chains in their context. It provides evidence-based analytical results allowing to identify enablers for strategic sustainable and inclusive interventions. However, to even better meet contextual exhaustiveness’s expectations and indicators’ robustness to lead to relevant interventions, we should insist on a stricter framing of contextual data collection processes.


AI and Ethics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aimee van Wynsberghe

AbstractWhile there is a growing effort towards AI for Sustainability (e.g. towards the sustainable development goals) it is time to move beyond that and to address the sustainability of developing and using AI systems. In this paper I propose a definition of Sustainable AI; Sustainable AI is a movement to foster change in the entire lifecycle of AI products (i.e. idea generation, training, re-tuning, implementation, governance) towards greater ecological integrity and social justice. As such, Sustainable AI is focused on more than AI applications; rather, it addresses the whole sociotechnical system of AI. I have suggested here that Sustainable AI is not about how to sustain the development of AI per say but it is about how to develop AI that is compatible with sustaining environmental resources for current and future generations; economic models for societies; and societal values that are fundamental to a given society. I have articulated that the phrase Sustainable AI be understood as having two branches; AI for sustainability and sustainability of AI (e.g. reduction of carbon emissions and computing power). I propose that Sustainable AI take sustainable development at the core of its definition with three accompanying tensions between AI innovation and equitable resource distribution; inter and intra-generational justice; and, between environment, society, and economy. This paper is not meant to engage with each of the three pillars of sustainability (i.e. social, economic, environment), and as such the pillars of sustainable AI. Rather, this paper is meant to inspire the reader, the policy maker, the AI ethicist, the AI developer to connect with the environment—to remember that there are environmental costs to AI. Further, to direct funding towards sustainable methods of AI.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1721
Author(s):  
Marta Estrada ◽  
Diego Monferrer ◽  
Alma Rodríguez ◽  
Miguel Ángel Moliner

Education must guide students’ emotional development, not only to improve their skills and help them achieve their maximum performance, but to establish the foundations of a more cooperative and compassionate society. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, therefore, implies focusing on emotional aspects as well as financial, social, environmental, and scientific objectives. In this line, the goal of this study is to show how emotional intelligence, which is an essential dimension in the development and management of emotional competences required to build sustainable societies, plays a key role in optimising student’s academic performance in the classroom through compassion and academic commitment. The research model was tested with a questionnaire addressed to 550 students from four higher education institutions and one secondary school. The results of a structural equation analysis confirmed the study hypotheses. Emotional intelligence was shown to be positively related to compassion and higher levels of commitment, which, consequently, led to better academic performance. This finding will encourage interest in developing emotional intelligence, not only for its long-term value in training healthy citizens, but also for its short-term results in the classroom.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franco Fassio

Food, the basic connecting unit of all the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, plays a crucial role in the ecological transition towards a circular economic paradigm. This paper takes scientific considerations as a starting point in order to contribute to the definition of a theoretical-operational framework in which to grow the Circular Economy for Food. This is a still-open question in a sector of the circular economy that is emerging as vital to sustainable development. The 3 C's of Capital, Cyclicality and Co-evolution offer a systemic, holistic vision of the food system's role. Within this conceptual framework, the designers can find the main boundaries of the system, within which to express their creativity. The aim must be to avoid damaging relationships with the best supplier of raw material known to humanity (Nature), respecting planetary boundaries and at the same time offering a fair space to civil society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. 04031
Author(s):  
Antonio Sánchez Cordero ◽  
Marta Videras Rodríguez ◽  
Sergio Gómez Melgar ◽  
José Manuel Andujar Márquez

Recently, several urban sustainability assessment tools (USAT) have appeared to reduce the human impact provided by the built environment. Few of them focus on the assessment of urban spaces like squares, streets, and parks, etc., but they don’t operation and maintenance (OM) phase is not considered. It would be necessary to develop an in use holistic urban sustainable assessment tool (UHU2SAT) to specifically assess urban spaces under OM phase. This paper provides a qualitative research among 188 studies, with the aim to classify them according to the impacts they pursue: environmental (ENV), social (SOC) economic (ECO) and Others. Finally, the SOC criteria are reduced up to 21 and arranged into 4 different groups: Human comfort, Urban mobility, SOC Cohesion, and Health & safety. These SOC criteria have been discussed and revised according to the literature review to identify the most suitable indicators for the UHU2SAT. Finally, it can be concluded that this methodology could also be useful to obtain ENV and ECO criteria to provide a holistic assessment of the sustainability.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Helen Kopnina

This article will discuss social, environmental, and ecological justice in education for sustainable development (ESD) and Education for Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG). The concept of sustainable development and, by extension, the ESD, places heavy emphasis on the economic and social aspects of sustainability. However, the ESD falls short of recognizing ecological justice, or recognition that nonhumans also have a right to exist and flourish. An intervention in the form of an undergraduate course titled Politics, Business, and Environment (PBE) will be discussed. As part of this course, students were asked to reflect on the three pillars of sustainable development: society, economy, and environment, linking these to the fourth concept, ecological justice or biospheric egalitarianism. Biospheric egalitarianism is characterized by the recognition of intrinsic value in the environment and is defined as concern about justice for the environment. Some of the resulting exam answers are analyzed, demonstrating students’ ability to recognize the moral and pragmatic limitations of the anthropocentric approach to justice. This analysis presents ways forward in thinking about the role of “ecological justice” as the ultimate bottom line upon which both society and economy are based.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. i32-i35
Author(s):  
Dineke Zeegers Paget ◽  
David Patterson

Abstract In this article, we examine the essential role of law in achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Following the World Health Organization’s broad definition of health, all SDGs can be seen to impact on human health and hence the health goal (SDG3) should be right at the centre of the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We note recent research on the contribution of law, including international human rights law, to achieving health for all and discuss the role of law in addressing seven emerging health challenges. Law can and should play an important role in achieving all health-related SDGs, by respecting, protecting and fulfilling the right to health, ensuring that no one is left behind.


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