How can ICTs Contribute towards a More Sustainable Future?

Since antiquity technological innovations endanger environmental balance and there is major need to keep this balance in check. Any new technology generates more business activity, leading to increased resource extraction and waste and directly affecting natural ecosystems. Thus technological progress and economic growth are based on unsustainable practices. In the last few decades, information and communication technologies (ICT) accelerated globalized business activity by making the world smaller, more connected and smarter. ICT gradually transformed all aspects of human life including work, learning, and leisure; it has a global impact on business processes and practices, communication, logistics and transportation, finance, and commerce among other aspects. This resulted in wealth accumulation, resource depletion and social divide which have led to problems, directly and indirectly, such as scarcity of natural resources, global warming, climate change, population growth, and increasing youth unemployment. This chapter outlines some of the challenges of the new technologies and ICT practices. It proposes a practice-oriented framework for adoption of more sustainable ICT strategy in companies.

Smart Sustainable Marketing of the World Heritage Sites

This chapter revisits the author's earlier findings that scrutinized online marketing strategies employed by the world heritage sites (WHS) based on a predetermined set of sustainability indicators. Recent data shows that, for the most part, the WHS continue to lack behind in sustainable initiatives to promote their sites in a responsible manner. Only slight improvement is noted in terms of efforts to seek host community views on how the local heritage should be showcased and the manner on which culturally appropriate representations can be promoted. In the light of unexpected decreased visitation levels at most of the WHS, as reported by literature, a retro brand marketing strategy is suggested which strives to marry the rich historical past of the sites with the present need. A smart sustainable marketing agenda is proposed to improve brand equity and facilitate coordination between different stakeholders of the heritage sites and to attract increased visitations.

Renewable Energy Technologies, Sustainable Development, and Environment

The move towards a low-carbon world, driven partly by climate science and partly by the business opportunities it offers, will need the promotion of environmentally friendly alternatives, if an acceptable stabilisation level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is to be achieved. This chapter presents a comprehensive review of energy sources, and the development of sustainable technologies to explore these energy sources. It also includes potential renewable energy technologies, efficient energy systems, energy savings techniques and other mitigation measures necessary to reduce climate changes. The chapter concludes with the technical status of the ground source heat pumps (GSHP) technologies. The purpose of this study, however, is to examine the means of reduction of energy consumption in buildings, identify GSHPs as an environmental friendly technology able to provide efficient utilisation of energy in the buildings sector.

Energy Sustainability of Countries

The provision of adequate, reliable, and affordable energy, in conformity with social and environmental requirements is a vital part of sustainable development. Currently, countries are facing a two-fold energy challenge: on the one hand they should assure the provision of environmentally sustainable energy, while, on the other, energy services should be reliable, affordable, and socially acceptable. To evaluate such aspects of energy services one needs energy sustainability barometers, which provide the means to monitor the impacts of energy policies and assist policymakers in relevant decision making. Although sustainability is an ambiguous, complex, and polymorphous concept, all energy sustainability barometers incorporate the three major sustainability dimensions: social, economic, and environmental. In this chapter, we review three models for assessing the sustainability of energy development of countries: ESI, SAFE, and EAPI. We also present a brief discussion of the results, the applied methodologies, and the underlying assumptions of these sustainability barometers.

The Influence of Information and Communication Technologies on Societies and their Cultures

In this chapter, the various ways technologies have exerted influence upon cultures and societies since the dawn of human existence is examined. Be it man-made fire, sharpened stone tools and weapons, or cave paintings, humans are always inventing “something” to sustain or improve their lives and/or livelihoods, and generally make their existence more tolerable – and comfortable. The culture surrounding and thus influenced by technological advances differs from traditional definitive criteria of groups. A technologically-influenced society and culture is identified by its populace's ability to access and use its defining technologies. Nowadays social communication and interactions often occur with others across cultures, continents and socioeconomic systems as constantly evolving information technologies emerge as communication tools. In order to understand the role of technology's influence on our societies, we must understand the historical significance of various information and communications technologies' influence on culture and how changes in our interactions and relationships across all groups have occurred as a result.

A Holistic Model for Linking Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Strategic Innovation in the Context of Globalization

This chapter presents the foundations of a holistic model for connecting the key elements necessary for corporations to adopt sustainability and sustainable development in the context of the global economy and strategic innovation. The complexities of doing business on a global scale have increased dramatically over the last two decades. While sustainability involves many perspectives, strategies, actions, and management constructs, the chapter focuses on how global corporations employ strategic innovations in response to driving forces in the global economy and how they can improve their level of management sophistication in a turbulent business environment. The holistic model focuses on strategic innovations that provide more positve aspects and fewer negative ones since innovations have the potential to create dramatic new solutions with exceptional value and to eliminate or reduce negative effects and impacts. Strategic innovations include radical technological innovations, business model innovations, product developments, and organizational developments that are game changers.

A Regional Energy Planning Approach

Augmenting recent coverage of the topic of regional energy planning, this chapter introduces an Integrated Regional Energy Policy and Planning Framework (IREPP), which is conceptually comprehensive and also enhances feasibility of implementation. This framework contains important concepts of sustainable energy planning, including integrated resource planning, soft energy path, distributed generation using decentralized energy technologies, and energy-environment-economy-equity balance (E4). The IREPP also includes implementation feasibility analysis and highlights the importance of monitoring and evaluation. In the second part of this chapter, the IREPP is applied to the case of Jeju. Jeju's “Mid- and Long-Term Roadmap of Renewable Energy Planning” intends to promote renewable energy applications in order to build a carbon free energy system. This chapter evaluates Jeju's overall Roadmap via the lens of IREPP, assesses the rationale and feasibility of achieving its individual renewable target set for 2050, and, additionally, reviews progress made in some individual targets as of 2014.

Managing Project Sustainability

Managing project sustainability is becoming important in the last two decades since the Earth Summit in 1992. An increasing number of projects have built in sustainability considerations into project design and implementation. Recent research findings show that lack of sustainability knowledge for project managers is a key barrier to drive projects and programs contributing towards a sustainable society. Definitions and approaches (pillar-based and principles-based) to sustainability in project management together with project manager competence requirements are discussed. The purpose of this chapter is to devise an assessment tool for project managers incorporating the concept of pillar-based and principles-based sustainability approaches as well as the EIA-driven and objectives-led assessment methodologies. Criteria for selecting assessment scheme appropriate to various project initiatives are developed. Integrating selected assessment methodology into sustainability evaluation framework within the project life cycle forms a complete tool. This chapter contributes to devising a practical assessment tool for project managers in managing project sustainability.

Considering Sustainability in Project Management Processes

Sustainability is one of the most important challenges of our time. How can prosperity be developed without compromising the life of future generations? Companies are integrating sustainability in their marketing, corporate communication, annual reports and in their actions. The concept of sustainability has more recently also been linked to project management. Sustainability needs change of business models, products, services, resources, processes, etc. and projects are a frequently used practice of realizing change. Several studies explored how the concept of sustainability impacts project management. This chapter elaborates on the impact of sustainability found in literature and analyses the most influential standards of project management processes for their coverage of this impact. The study concludes that the most important standards of project management processes still fail to refer convincingly to sustainability considerations. Based on the author's analysis, this chapter also provides guidance for the further development of the process standards towards a ‘sustainable project management' process.

Developing Sustainable Governance Systems at the Regional Level

As a consequence of the United Nations' Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, the international community has effectively redefined environmental degradation as a problem that can be addressed by means of sustainable development. In turn, this places an onus on businesses to develop practices that reflect new norms of behaviour. This chapter offers an overview of current implementation of governance systems that relate to regional sustainability programmes and firms' activities. This work offers credibility to the field of sustainability research and practice by identifying and discussing all actors in the business community and how they interact with sustainability. This chapter looks at market-based sustainability initiatives, and, from a quality of governance perspective, investigates the strengths and weaknesses of two emissions trading schemes. It concludes with a series of reflections on market-based approaches to environmental problem solving.