Four Strategic Postures for Sustainability in the Project-Based Organization

Sustainability is one of the most important challenges of our time. How can we develop prosperity, without compromising the life of future generations? Companies are integrating sustainability in their strategies, processes and actions. In the implementation of strategies, projects play an essential role. Delivering business strategy through projects is even more eminent for project based organizations (PBOs) that execute projects as their core business. This chapter will discuss the question What strategic postures a PBO can take on the consideration of sustainability in its projects, while aligning with both the strategy of the client organization and its own strategy. Based upon an analytical analysis, the authors develop four possible strategic postures on sustainability in the projects of a PBO that provide guidance for the consideration of sustainability in these projects.

A Research of the Influence on the Consumer Behavior From CSR Information Embedded in the Process of Online Purchasing

As the online purchasing is becoming prevalent, more and more corporates started to show their CSR information in the processes of online retail. For example: some CSR information could be showed in the “COMMODITY DETAILS”. Could this kind of information affect consumer behavior? By recognizing three types of embedded CSRC information, according to the consumer behavior experiments, this paper will show CSR's influences on the consumer behavior such as evaluation of the company, purchasing intention, and purchasing intention. By the comparison of the results after three types' CSR communication, we found that CSR information could significantly affect consumer behavior and the consumer response will differ from different types of CSR information embedded.

Green Environment and Management

This chapter on environmental management system (EMS) addresses the relationship between organizational factors and environmental goals. Because the increasing awareness about environment affects the related groups and forces the firms have an environmental approach. The global competition, regulations and other pressures can change the tools of the sustainability. So, the firms start to consider an environmental management system as an innovative instrument as well as an adaptation strategy. Because, environmental standards and policies give the firm an opportunity to improve the business performance. From this viewpoint, this chapter provides an overview of the context, organizational drivers and implementation of the EMS.

Cleaner Production in the Brazilian Sucroenergy Sector

This chapter presents a discussion about the real role of companies as social and environmental agents, which is increasingly gaining momentum and timeliness. With industrial expansion and increasing pollution, it has become imperative that companies assume not only the role of producers of goods and services, but also those responsible for the implementation of environmental management systems and their instruments. The Cleaner Production is a process in the production process that helps in the environmental preservation, since it establishes the following order of priority for waste management: elimination - reduction - reuse - treatment - final disposal. In the sugar-energy sector, considered as one of the greatest precursors of environmental degradation by deforestation and burning, Cleaner Production is fundamental for the rational use of natural resources and for minimizing the environmental impacts caused by productive operations.

Risk Implications of Heavy Metal Contamination in Agricultural Soil and Crop Productivity

Heavy metals especially lead, nickel, cadmium, copper, cobalt, chromium and mercury are more toxic and chief contaminants of the environment. Agricultural soils in many parts of the world are slightly to moderately polluted with heavy metals due to increase in geologic and anthropogenic activities (use of phosphate fertilizers, sewage sludge application, dust from smelters, industrial waste). Plants growing on these contaminated soils showed toxicity symptoms that results in reduce growth and activity which declined the productivity and posing threats to agro-ecosystems. They put plants under stress and affect their physiology. In this chapter, we have summarized the effects of heavy metals on plants including both symptoms and productivity.

Improving Renewable Energy Source in Automotive Applications

With the rapid development of automobile industry, people have become more and more aware of the shortage of the traditional automobile energy and the irreversible pollution to the environment. Sustainable development will be the first place in the automobile industry, but there is no clear evidence to identify the most effective specific solution. This chapter is divided into two parts, the first part aims to analyze the evaluation of automotive sustainable development by synthesis. A new hybrid multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) model that combines DEMATEL technique and DANP method is proposed. By analysis and comparison, the result shows that renewable energy source is the main influencing criteria that affects the automobile sustainable development. Based on this, the second part of this chapter provides an effective solution. An advanced energy storage based on the super capacitor of self-generating wireless charging is designed to be used in automotive applications. It has advantages of short charging time, high power conversion efficiency and low power consumption.

Sensitization of Sustainable Manufacturing Strategies to Benefit Indian SMEs

In recent times, globalization policy eliminates the restriction of market boundaries, enabling all manufacturers to exploit the markets of developing countries, due to which, the environmental regulations in the developing countries are evolving to secure their nature with stringent regulation. In this view, this article is written to impart knowledge on sustainable manufacturing to all manufacturers. However, for successful implementation of sustainable manufacturing practices, formulation of strategies is found to be essential. In this view, critical insights have been presented by reviewing existing practices of sustainable manufacturing, how to deploy them and their correlation with the environmental benefits are mapped to support practicing managers. The practices discussed in the chapter include process optimization in view of the environment energy modeling, waste minimization options, better end-of-life policies, material efficiency and need to employee training.

Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Business Strategic Planning in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Approximately 90% of companies are Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Their importance in the economy lies in the fact that they account for almost 60% of the jobs in the world, number which could be greater in developing countries. All these companies have an environmental impact that is almost imperceptible when observed individually, but if observed and analyzed as a whole, this impact is actually relevant. It is therefore important for these companies to include the concept of sustainability within their processes, which is difficult given the informal way they have managed their activities and processes. On the other hand, there are two paradigms that rule the concept of sustainability, weak sustainability and strong sustainability. As it will be presented in this chapter, both concepts are opposed and companies are normally oriented towards weak sustainability, because they are more interested in economic growth than in caring for the environment.

Green Entrepreneurship in Transitional Economies

With environmental pollution, climate change and resource scarcity being serious global issues, green entrepreneurship is increasingly seen as an approach to simultaneously address economic performance, environmental impact and social responsibility. As green entrepreneurship needs to consider both venture performance and social responsibility, it will be subject to legitimacy constraints at the institutional level. Especially for transition economies in different countries, institutional uncertainty is a key factor. Better green performance can be easily achieved if green startups have a higher level of legitimacy. However, against the background of transitional economies, the increase in institutional uncertainty will damage the promotion of political legitimacy and make the enterprises subject to political legitimacy constraints lose their green performance. Overall startups in different industries need to develop green actions under the pressure of institutional constraints, and governments also need to improve policies and regulations quickly.

Green Innovation in the Absence of Social Trust

In recent years, food safety has become an urgent problem to be solved, especially in China's dairy industry. After the 2008 Chinese milk scandal, how to rise again by green innovation is a very important issue. As a representative of China's dairy enterprises and with the enterprise positioning of “a milk manufacturing service provider that commits itself to human health”, MengNiu Dairy has achieved “MengNiu speed” and “MengNiu miracle” attracting worldwide attention within ten years. Therefore, the green innovation strategy implemented by MengNiu Dairy is worthy of research. In this paper, MengNiu Dairy, the leading dairy enterprise in China, was taken as the research object, and the author mainly applied narrative research method to analyze the green innovation strategy implemented by MengNiu Dairy from all aspects, and summarized that through the combination of charity marketing and green innovation, MengNiu Dairy developed the system and model of sustainable strategy, which had far-reaching significance in its development and adapting to the current environment at home and abroad.