Analysis of Sustainable Business Models: Exploratory Study in Two Brazilian Logistics Companies

Over the years, researchers have presented different concepts regarding business models. There is no unanimity, but there is a general agreement that a business model is the representation of how a company conducts its business. Subsequently, interest in the topic has increased and has come to be considered by companies that, driven to incorporate a positive contribution to sustainability into their values, began to face economic development that considers social and environmental aspects instead of worrying only about profit for the shareholders. The general objective of this research is to identify how the merger of two Brazilian logistics companies with different customer segments can positively contribute to the defense of sustainability, considering social and environmental aspects. As a methodology, a literature review on business models, conceptual business models, and sustainable business models was used to legitimize issues relevant to the themes. The case studies allowed for a measurement of the productivity of the areas of the chosen companies, and a survey of used business processes and technological systems, in addition to diagnosing the level of maturity of these areas. An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses in these areas, within the studied companies, resulted in a solution that allowed for the optimization of processes and savings in human and material resources, and the identification of qualitative benefits arising from mergers, improvements in productivity and services, the standardization of processes, and the implementation of innovative digital technologies.

Design and Development of Hybrid Converter for Marine Applications

Recently, there has been an increase in the growth and advancement of electric propulsion in marine electrical drives. A maximum amount of energy is utilized by ships for propulsion drives. To be aware of it and develop an optimized structure to improve the effectiveness of the propulsion system with power consumption is necessary. The proposed paper aims to develop a model and perform functional analysis as per the above understanding and requirements. The factors considered include greenhouse gas emissions, CO2 emissions, environmental aspects, and the availability of non-renewable resources, which leads to the introduction of renewable energy as a replacement method of power generation. For this work, two different renewable sources, such as solar and wind energy, were chosen. The combination of these two resources can manipulate the voltage and satisfy the load in a desirable way. For voltage improvement, a high gain converter with a minimal number of active and passive components is selected. This system adopts a storage system to meet the needs in the future. The inverter switches are controlled by the recommended control algorithm, which can balance and provide adequate power towards the drive by a feedback control loop. The speed of propulsion in the drive is adjusted by the induction motor coupled with the propeller. The analytical study of the proposed system is carried out in MATLAB software. The simulation study revealed the effectiveness of this modern optimization technique.

Sustainable Cocoa Value Chain

In the last decades, the focus of studies on cocoa value chain (CVC) has changed from the low income of farmers and the shortcomings of the educational and financial systems to the incorporation of innovations, supported on sustainability principles. However, classical theories based on economics are insufficient to understand sustainability phenomenon, and the investigation in the field is still dispersed. This study represents one first attempt to synthesize findings on the topic, in line with the triple bottom line (TBL) scenarios. TBL provides a useful framework to understand the social, economic, and environmental aspects along the CVC. This chapter performs a systematic literature review on sustainability scenarios applied to CVC, each one representing one of the three dimensions of sustainability. At the final, an agenda for future research on the topic is suggested, uncovering a set of future study propositions.

The Role of the Geospatial Information System (GIS) in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent an innovative strategy to transform the socio-economic and environmental aspects of communities. Sustainable development provides the communities with a set of substantial challenges that are totally geospatial in concept and practice. Most of these challenges can be identified, examined, and visualized within a spatial framework. Despite of noteworthy progress in geospatial information system and science, the lack of comprehensive impressions in planning necessitates the integrative role of geospatial information. This study aims to investigate this role in contributing to SDGs by describing each single goal and following objectives. Furthermore, spatial and non-spatial issues regarding every specific SDG will be accurately discussed to determine the spatial aspects in practice. In this way, the communities will be empowered by unique opportunities to integrate and represent geospatial information into the global agenda in a specific manner, specifically in contributing data resources toward measuring and monitoring the 17 SDGs.

Environmental Aspects of the European Experience in Landscape Planning

Understanding all the possibilities of environmentally oriented landscape planning will contribute to the effective environmental planning of the territory and nature management in general. Accordingly, the purpose of the study was to investigate the experience of the European countries towards the introduction of an effective system of environmentally oriented landscape planning and improvement of territories, as well as their protection. For this purpose, it is necessary to comprehensively study the strengths and weaknesses of existing developments in the field of environmentally oriented landscape planning in Europe. An analysis of the best practices of environmentally oriented landscape planning in such countries as Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, etc. has been conducted. The findings allowed to state that the effectiveness of development and implementation of substantial planning for landscape design depends not only on the volume and depth of research, but to a very large extent from their reasonable and productive organisation. The paper summarises that in environmentally oriented landscape planning, it is first necessary to determine the reasons for planning. Before choosing the object and territory of planning, it is necessary to find out: who are the potential customers and investors – their goals and motivation; what are the problem situations and conflicts in nature management in the area; what is the practical use of the results of landscape planning; the purpose of the territory, including cartographic; the availability of source information, and more. And then make decisions regarding the stages of landscape planning, taking into account the environmental component and, accordingly, the implementation of the idea of landscape planning.