Exploring environment as cross-cutting issue among Humanitarian-Development Nexus Actors

Environment mainstreaming across the humanitarian operations and long-term development programs is imperative to the new way of working agreed in the World Humanitarian Summit (2016). Mainstreaming environment in Humanitarian-Development nexus is crucial to minimize the environmental impacts of humanitarian projects and to build long term resilience against environmental and climatic risks and vulnerabilities of communities. This study explores the current environmental mainstreaming strategies of humanitarian and development organizations at the institutional and operational level based on specific attributes. This study conducts the case study of leading humanitarian and development organizations, namely, WFP, IFRC, UNDP, and USAID, based on the conceptual framework on mainstreaming strategies derived from various literature. Multiple case study approach was employed based on information collected through various secondary sources and personal consultation with the organizations. The finding of this study signifies the presence of varying environmental mainstreaming practices within the studied organizations, and comparative analysis among them is also presented. Finally, this study suggests that joint contextual environmental (and climate) analysis by humanitarian and development actors and inclusion of environmental consideration in collaborative multi-year programming to minimize environmental damage in protracted crises.

Sustainable Green Customers' Engagement through Social Media for Business Development

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals given by United Nations, many countries are now working to integrate environmental consideration into the business decision-making process to amplify economic growth along with sustainable environmental protection. Hence, organizations have begun to adopt an environmental-friendly business process. However, it can be safe to state that any sustainable success of these 'greening' activities could be impossible without engaging and involving customers in the business process. Many companies started this strategy through different media, including social media. But, Sustainable Green Customer Engagement through social media is still an elusive term for the industry. There are questions around what would work for Sustainable Green Customer Engagement that requires scholarly effort. Hence, the primary aim of this study was to provide an in-depth understanding of this fundamental issue and then propose an appropriate implication of SGCE. There is a significant gap in the literature of SGCE, especially in the social media platform. The thematic analysis from this study will assist researchers in understanding the managing process of SGCE towards further development. Moreover, the implication from this study can help the organizations and policymakers to strategize enhancing greening initiatives, which eventually will improve environmental awareness and social wellbeing.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE GREEN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION IN INDIA

In a world exhausting our natural resources, green building has become the ethical “in-thing” in an attempt to save our planet from despair. The bitter experience of global warming has alarmed and compelled the mankind to change the way they operate on earth. Within the construction industry, the green building concept evolved and it now gaining momentum rapidly across the world. Green building involves a building which incorporates environmental consideration into every stage of the building construction with the objectives to protect occupant health, improve employee productivity, use wisely natural resources and reduce the environmental impact. The use of sustainable resources in the construction industry should be enforced by the local construction regulations in order to save the environment. The study findings revealed that the green buildings provide better health for buildings occupants due to the improved indoor quality, development of more energy efficient products and the use of less natural resources for the satisfaction and welfare of building tenants, also to protect the ecosystem. The outcome of this research shows that green building benefits should encourage clients, consultants and invest in green buildings. The researchers in this paper talks about the requirement of green building constructions in India, and tries to find out the drivers which create a demand for purchase of green buildings.

How Lack of Knowledge and Tools Hinders the Eco-Design of Buildings—A Systematic Review

The building sector is responsible for extensive resource consumption and waste generation, resulting in high pressure on the environment. A way to potentially mitigate this is by including environmental considerations during building design through the concept known as eco-design. Despite the multiple available approaches of eco-design, the latter is not easily achieved in the building sector. The objective of this paper is to identify and discuss what barriers are currently hindering the implementation of eco-design in the building sector and by which measures building designers can include environmental considerations in their design process. Through a systematic literature review, several barriers to implementation were identified, the main ones being lack of suitable legislation, lack of knowledge amongst building designers, and lack of suitable tools for designers to use. Furthermore, two specific tools were identified that allow the inclusion of environmental consideration in building design, along with nine design strategies providing qualitative guidance on how to potentially minimize energy and material consumption, as well as waste generation. This paper contributes a holistic overview of the major barriers to and existing tools and method for the eco-design of buildings, and provides guidance for both future research and practice.

Specifications and types of seawall structures needed to protect beaches from sand erosion and storm disasters

When someone decides to buy a house or any other estate near the shoreline, they do not think that in future nature will impact the value of their asset significantly. Further to the risks of hurricanes or any other natural hazards (such as tsunami), waves are gradually shifting the coastlines by displacing soil from a location to various areas. In recent decades, coasts have been affected by a significant deterioration due to weather conditions, waves, and coastal soil erosion. Hence, it needs precise environmental consideration, and preserves coasts for leisure, specifying reasons that promoted effective technologies from immersed structures to coastal nourishing. Therefore, by constructing sea-walls should prevent shoreline environments, especially the mechanism of sedimentation, long-shore transfer of sand, altering the coasts to the significant proportion which results from weathering and sea waves sever. In this paper, an overview submitted to the kinds of seawalls and specifications needed to sustain the seawalls. There explained the positive and negative effects of seawalls on coastal area, and the required factors to enhance seawalls stabilization against overturning and sliding failure. Also, the developed types of seawall structures have been identified that, in addition to the more practical vertical model, the stepped, rubble-mound, and curves have also been designed. It is recommended to coastal structure designer and engineers, in the pre-construction stage should precisely be studied on the coast situation and weathering conditions in the area, that is essential to make sustainable decisions and designs for construction of these structures.

Characteristics of Buginese Traditional Houses and their Response to Sustainability and Pandemics

This study aims to analyze the characteristics of traditional Buginese houses and positive features that are beneficial to response sustainability and pandemics through literature studies and field observations. The study results show that the traditional Buginese houses were built based on local wisdom and environmental consideration from the philosophy of “Sulapa Eppa" (rectangular) with the meaning "Universe". The building typology is a stilt house consisting of three levels of the room, which symbolize the human body anatomy; head (roof/house attic), body (body-house), and foot (under the house). The Buginese traditional architecture is very responsive to nature and sustainability and contains positive features in maintaining the building occupant’s health in the past according to experience and resources at that time. These positive values can inspire sustainable designs in the future.