Surely one of the greatest achievements of the current phase of globalization has been the spurt of economic growth in countries that were desperately poor just a few decades ago and some of which, even now, carry huge burdens of poverty. This spurt in economic growth and the consumption growth that accompanied it have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and, concurrently, provided a gli...

A brief history of transportation and the environment The relationship between transportation, technology and the environment is long standing. In the early 1920s, the car was first viewed as an improvement over the horse-polluted city environment. By the early 1930s, interest in an Interstate Highway System grew as a means to help get cars and trucks out of the mud. But, as automobile ownershi...

The present study assesses the environmental sustainability, or the ecosystem support, of ethanol produced from sugarcane and examines the environmental feasibility of a large-scale production through the use of: emergy methodology. The study includes agricultural and industrial stages, as well the sugarcane transport, and was accomplished for two scenarios: a) only the directly consumed resour...

Environmental sustainability can be applied to software systems in two different understandings — either as green in software systems (greening of IT / green IT) or as green through software systems (greening by IT). Currently it is not clear how environmental sustainability can be systematically supported as an objective in requirements engineering for either of these two understandings. This ...

Purpose – The study aims to propose a methodology with systematic metrics for logistics service providers (LSPs) to develop their environmental sustainability performance in the context of green supply chain management. Design/methodology/approach – An integrated analytical approach which combines Analytical Network Process (ANP) with Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is proposed to develop LSP...

In this introduction to the Special Issue on Physical Geography and Environmental Sustainability, the links between a variety of physical landscapes located throughout the world and long-term wellbeing are considered from a systems approach. Twelve papers were published as part of this call, with half from Asia, especially China. They represent a contribution across topographic landscapes, from...

Our planet is undergoing radical environmental and social changes. Sustainability has now been put into question by, for example, our consumption patterns, loss of biodiversity, depletion of resources, and exploitative power relations. With apparent ecological and social limits to globalization and development, current levels of consumption are known to be unsustainable, inequitable, and inacce...

The concept of industrial ecology have been applied to local and regional sustainability goals and policies in many countries. To promote the growth of green industry and the formation of a “recycle-oriented society,” the Taiwanese government also launched an ecoindustrial parks project in 2002. This research examines stakeholder perceptions of the environmental science and technology park (EST...

a r t i c l e i n f o This paper examines the strategic environmental assessment (SEA)–sustainability relationship over the past decade, from 2000 to 2010, focusing in particular on the incorporation of sustainability in SEA. A total of 86 papers from the academic literature containing the terms 'sustainability' or 'sustainable development' and 'strategic environmental assessment' were identifi...

This paper investigates the adoption of an Enterprise Architecture (EA) for improving the effectiveness of sustainability reporting through facilitating business-IT alignment and the incorporation of sustainability management and reporting into the strategy of a company. The paper highlights significant differences between voluntary and mandatory reporting of companies in South Africa with rega...