Green Manufacturing Practices and Performance among SMEs

Due to the rise in environmental awareness, green technologies and practices have become the conscientious imperative expected from all manufacturing industries. Consequently, environmental initiatives are becoming an essential part of the strategic planning in organizations, including the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Thus, the objectives of this study were to determine the extent of implementation in green manufacturing practices among the SMEs as well as to examine the relationship between those practices and manufacturing performance. Data was collected via a survey from 544 SMEs across all types of industries located throughout Malaysia. Results of the analysis showed that there is an encouraging level of implementation in green practices among the SMEs, with the optimization of processes to reduce solid waste being the top practice. The results also revealed that green practices within the inbound and production phase of the manufacturing lifecycle significantly affected manufacturing performance but not practices within the outbound phase.

Longer Use, Better Use

An effective insight about ICT environmental sustainability requires to pay attention also to the software features, this being another responsible for the CO2 emissions of the ICT sector. The main concerns of green ICT are related to the energy consumption in the computer’s use phase, which doesn’t depend only on hardware but also on software configuration and from its efficiency. Software is also responsible for the induced hardware obsolescence; the computer lifecycle is shorter than the potential one. A software based approach, as proposed in the chapter, will also allow a longer use for PCs, respecting the environment, saving energy, emissions, and money and, in the meantime, moving toward the cloud computing paradigm. A sustainable balance between innovation, economy, and green aptitude can help to use computers better and longer. Cloud computing, broadband Internet, and thin client are key elements to reach an environmentally sustainable ICT. Environmental benefit starts from a different approach to an old issue, in a re-combination strategy.

Green Computing to Green Business

In recent years, environmental and energy conservation issues have taken the central theme in the global business arena. The reality of rising energy cost and their impact on international affairs coupled with the different kinds of environmental issues has shifted the social and economic consciousness of the business community. “Greening” the computing equipment is a low-risk way of doing business. It not only helps the environment but also reduce costs. It is also one of the largest growing trends in business today. Hence, the business community is now in search of an eco-friendly business model. This chapter highlights the concept of green computing, green business, and their needs in the current global scenario.

Empirical Study on the Correlations of Environmental Pollution, Human Capital, and Economic Growth

Based on 1990-2007 data in Guangdong China, this chapter studies the correlation of environmental pollution, human capital, and economic growth. The results show that Guangdong’s economic growth deteriorates the environmental quality. Highly skilled human capital is one of the main engines of the economic growth and the growth promotes the human capital’s accumulation. Upgrading the human capital helps controlling pollutant emission and environmental pollution depresses the human capital accumulation. Furthermore, the authors hope that understanding the individual relationships between environmental pollution and human capital or economic growth will help the environmental protection authority or governments in China to make more effective and efficient regulations or policies to coordinate the country’s sustainable development.

A Method for Examining SME Descriptions of Environmental Sustainability Online

This chapter contributes to green ICT/IS research by presenting a content analysis method for analysing the environmental sustainability descriptions on small and medium enterprise (SME) websites. Past research focuses on large firms, and few past studies have explored how firms of any size describe sustainability online. The chapter presents the method’s four steps: 1) identifying sources of SME websites; 2) determining if websites describe sustainability; 3) archiving the website content for later analysis; and 4) coding the website content using a structured coding framework developed by combining the literature on IS and sustainability. The authors anticipate the method will be useful to researchers and practitioners. The chapter gives examples of these uses such as qualitative and quantitative research objectives and practical outcomes (e.g. SME website design guidelines for incorporating sustainability content) which could result from applying the method.

Web-Based Digital Habitat Ecosystems for Sustainable Built Environments

This chapter introduces the Digital Ecosystem (DE) concept and its application in the home environments. DEs are clusters of distributed and diverse digital components, which interact with each other in a self-organising, scalable, and sustainable manner. This could be viewed similar to the interaction of living organisms in a biological ecosystem. The DE concept has traditionally found widespread use in the business environments. However, the concept can well be applied to the home environment, giving rise to the concept of Digital Habitat Ecosystem (DHE). Thus a DHE refers to a cluster of devices for measurement, control, and sensing of environment parameter with the help of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The primary incentive behind this chapter is to show how the DHE concept can be used for maximising the utilisation of vital resources, such as water and electricity, in the home environment and leading to a more sustainable living. Furthermore, the work outlined in this chapter proposes Digital Habitat Ecosystem Architecture (DHEA), which integrates the various digital elements of a home network in a holistic manner. However, there are some current digital system architectures such as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) available these days; this chapter discusses the shortcomings of the SOA architecture and how the proposed DHEA will rectify the same. In addition, this chapter gives an overview of the static web based model of the home management system, how dynamic DHE varies from those existing models.

Not Madness but Business

This chapter aims to shed light on the nature of the current paradigm shift in the field of architecture and building sector towards a concern for environmental problems, ecological awareness, and thus, sustainable design, green technologies, and materials. Having conceived architecture and building practices as one of the leading economic activities globally, this chapter elucidates the role of architecture in creating business opportunities. The chapter tackles the subject from the perspective of technology and it analyzes the recent debates as well as developments in theory of architecture and building practice in construction industry. This chapter mainly argues that the ongoing paradigm shift moves beyond mere concern with environmental issues and creates an industry and economy of its own. The chapter introduces key concepts in the fields of green building and green architecture.

EcoRide

In this chapter, the authors present a modular mobile system utilizing social and localization information in the purpose of city traffic optimization on a single person scale. The system operates based on human behaviour and presents the recommendations to reduce car traffic without overloading public transport. Since the system is meant to work with single humans, the success will depend on a person’s willingness to use the recommendations. Therefore, the solution needs to be user friendly, simple to use, and mobile. That is why it is based on two popular and easy to use technologies – social websites and mobile phones.

Green, Sustainable, or Clean

Since antiquity, human activity and technological innovations endanger environmental balance. Any new technology generates more business activity, leading to increased resource extraction and waste and directly menacing natural ecosystems. As a result, technological progress and economic growth are based on unsustainable practices. In the last few decades, ICT has accelerated and globalized business activity and many problems emerged as scarcity of natural resources, global warming, and population growth are only few of them. For less than 20 years, information technologies made the world smaller and smarter. ICT transformed all aspects of human life including business processes and practices, communication, logistics and transportation, learning, entertainment, commerce, and many others. The present research aims to outline some of the challenges to new technologies and IT/IS practices. It proposes a practice-oriented framework for adoption of green IT/IS strategy in companies. While literature is dominated by specific technological issues, businesses still miss the general vision of sustainable/green/clean technologies and how to adopt green IT/IS. Therefore, the discussion section of this chapter proposes an analysis of wider practices and initiatives leading to green IT/IS.

Green IT Strategies

This chapter clarifies the linkages of strategy types and levels that relate to Green IT: business, sustainability, and IT strategy. The significance of aligning IT with business and environmental strategies is pointed out. It is emphasized that trade-off decisions are inherent to strategic management and essential for competitive positioning. Following this, a choice-based conceptual framework for the strategic alignment of Green IT is presented. The underlying strategy framework consists of three different strategy levels (corporate, competitive, functional) and domains (business, IT, sustainability). The conceptualized framework facilitates a holistic Green IT alignment with the aid of a five-step process. In the scope of this alignment process, four different Green IT strategies are presented. These strategies are subdivided along two dimensions: competitive advantage and focus. This research is supposed to provide new insights concerning the strategic impact of Green IT and to assist practitioners in identifying the Green IT strategy that corresponds most appropriately to their firm-specific context.