the impact of renewable energy consumption to economic growth a panel data application internationally the importance of renewable energy in the energy mix has been increasingly appreciated the advantages of the renewable energy usage for the world s energy security and the environment are indisputable and much discussed in the literature however its effects on the economic welfare of the countries are yet to be examined fully and described quantitatively the purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of the renewable energy consumption to economic welfare by employing panel data techniques the results show that the influence of renewable energy consumption or its share to the total energy mix to economic growth is positive and statistically significant from a policy point of view promoting renewable energies bears benefits not only for the environment but also for the economic conditions of the countries

valuing the attributes of renewable energy investments increasing the proportion of power derived from renewable energy sources is becoming an increasingly important part of many countries s strategies to achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions however renewable energy investments can often have external costs and benefits which need to be taken into account if socially optimal investments are to be made this paper attempts to estimate the magnitude of these external costs and benefits for the case of renewable technologies in scotland a country which has set particularly ambitious targets for expanding renewable energy the external effects we consider are those on landscape quality wildlife and air quality we also consider the welfare implications of different investment strategies for employment and electricity prices the methodology used to do this is the choice experiment technique renewable technologies considered include hydro on shore and off shore wind power and biomass welfare changes for different combinations of impacts associated with different investment strategies are estimated we also test for differences in preferences towards these impacts between urban and rural communities and between high and low income households

assessment of public acceptance and willingness to pay for renewable energy sources in crete abstract the aim of this study is to analyse and to evaluate the citizens public acceptance and willingness to pay wtp for renewable energy sources res in crete for this purpose a contingent valuation study was conducted using a double bound dichotomous choice format to elicit people s wtp and factors affecting it residents of 1440 households all over crete were interviewed face to face major conclusions can be used as a basis for sustainable energy planning for policies and the formulation of awareness campaigns and for res investment programs and projects in order to prepare implementation conditions and enhance public acceptance of renewable energy investments and programmes mean wtp per household was found to be 16 33 to be paid quarterly as an additional charge on the electricity bill larger willingness to pay was reported by those with high family income and residence size those having a higher level of energy information and awareness concerning climatic change those who have invested in some energy saving measures and those who suffer from more electricity shortages than others

integration of carbon risks and opportunities in enterprise risk management systems evidence from australian firms this study addresses managerial perceptions of risks and opportunities related to carbon pricing and emission management and the factors that affect the extent to which carbon related risks and opportunities are integrated into the organisation s formal enterprise risk management erm system we assess the role played by internal governance features resource availability managerial perceptions on competitive pressures and industry type on the inclusion of carbon risks within the erm system based on survey responses from 96 senior managers in australian carbon intensive firms i e firms listed in the 2009 publication of data under section 24 of the national greenhouse and energy reporting nger act 2007 we find that the extent of carbon risk integration is positively associated with the existence of a formal carbon strategy senior management involvement internal audit oversight resource personnel and funds availability and energy sector membership the paper also provides several insights into the perceptions of risks and opportunities confronting an organisation as a result of carbon pricing mechanism

barriers to the development of china s shale gas industry abstract shale gas has become a promising onshore energy prospect in china as much as the country aspires for greater energy independence through the use of its shale gas reserves this process is slowed down by the combined weight of relative inexperience lack of technology geographical complexity a hostile economic environment a disincentive pipeline regime and a complex land ownership system to foster a better understanding of the current circumstances of the country s shale gas sector a panel of scholars and experts shared their perspectives and insider knowledge on china s shale gas industry it was found that some of the country s man made institutional barriers are factors that have been hindering shale gas development in china in addition to natural conditions such as water concerns and the complex geography of shale fields resolving this situation necessitates breaking the monopoly that major state owned oil companies have over high quality shale gas resources opening pipeline network access providing geological data developing the domestic oil service market creating conditions for fair competition between service providers and improving the water management system

the innovation impact of the eu emission trading system findings of company case studies in the german power sector abstract this paper provides a detailed analysis of how the european emission trading system eu ets as the core climate policy instrument of the european union has impacted innovation towards this end we investigate the impact of the eu ets on research development and demonstration rd d adoption and organizational change in doing so we pay particular attention to the relative influences of context factors policy mix market factors and public acceptance and firm characteristics value chain position technology portfolio size and vision empirically our qualitative analysis is based on multiple case studies with 19 power generators technology providers and project developers in the german power sector which were conducted in 2008 09 we find that the innovation impact of the eu ets has remained limited so far because of the scheme s initial lack of stringency and predictability and the relatively greater importance of context factors additionally the impact varies significantly across technologies firms and innovation dimensions and is most pronounced for rd d on carbon capture technologies and organizational changes our analysis suggests that the eu ets on its own may not provide sufficient incentives for fundamental changes in corporate innovation activities at a level which ensures political long term targets can be achieved

the social costs of monopoly and regulation posner reconsidered focuses on social costs of monopoly and trade regulation in the united states benefit of marginal changes on antitrust activities equality of cost in obtaining monopoly and expected profit of monopolist elasticity of inputs in obtaining monopoly ebsco

does recognition of climate change related risks and opportunities determine sustainability performance abstract climate change has continued to dominate both the political and business agenda for many years now this research aims to provide empirical evidence on the determinants of sustainability performance it draws upon prospect theory and resource based view framework to understand whether sustainability performance is driven by corporate recognition and framing of climate change issues i e as risks and or opportunities recognising the wide visibility and strong economic impact of large corporations the world s largest 500 companies top500 is the focus in this study to facilitate the investigation the top500 list is merged with corporate knights list of the global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world climate change data are taken from the carbon disclosure project survey findings confirm that recognition of climate change as a net risk is significant and negatively correlated to sustainability performance supporting prospect theory predictions the five year average profitability of firms and their recognition anticipation of climate change opportunities are also found to be significant and positively related to sustainability performance these imply in a manner consistent with the resource based view argument that proactivity is determined by a firm s commitment to look for opportunities that while necessitating deployment of substantial resources creates unique competitive edge

the democracy deficit of corporate social responsibility in post neoliberal times an analysis of the argentinian and ecuadorian experiences several evaluations of contemporary left of center governments in south america suggest that natural resource governance in the region has become post neoliberal only in the sense that states augmented the appropriation and distribution of rent motivated by sustained international demand for commodities the political ecologies of mining remain characterized by increasing demands for more democratic decision making as occurred in the 1990s in order to explain this continuity most studies focus on the interactions between states and civil societies they state that a pragmatic stance on resource governance regards rent capture and distribution over the development of mechanisms for inclusion in decision making these assessments give only a partial account of the interactions involved in such dynamic they underestimate corporate behavior as a central component of emerging forms of governance we argue that companies were central actors of the production of mining conflicts during the 1990s and still exert an important degree of influence in resource governance through corporate social responsibility csr strategies our findings show that since the neoliberal legal and administrative reforms of the early 1990s argentinian and ecuadorian governments have supported a system of mining governance that regards the economic interests over the demands for more democratic decision making nevertheless even after recognizing the deleterious effects of neoliberal csr practiced by companies left of center governments have not been able to steer corporate behavior in a new direction

the impact of legitimacy pressure and corporate profitability on green innovation evidence from china top 100 abstract green innovation is an important approach for achieving sustainable development most research on determinants of corporate green innovation has focused on either external or internal drivers combining institutional theory and resource based view the scientific value of this study lies in simultaneously exploring the influence of external legitimacy pressure and internal corporate profitability and their interaction on green innovation samples of the top 100 listed companies in china from 2008 to 2012 were used and the results demonstrated that legitimacy pressure from stakeholders has a significantly positive influence on both corporate green product innovation and process innovation the results also revealed that corporate profitability positively affects green product innovation while there was found to be no significant influence on green process innovation moreover corporate profitability positively moderates the relationship between legitimacy pressure and green product innovation the results show that not only the single factor of external legitimacy pressure and internal profitability but also their interaction affects corporate green innovation practices this offers an integrating perspective on how corporations can be more innovative in sustainability

determinants of ghg reporting an analysis of global oil and gas companies corporate reporting on climate change is of increasing academic interest but is often considered solely from the firm perspective this article extends current knowledge by considering how institutional pressures influence the greenhouse gas ghg reporting practices of multinational oil and gas companies the results show that regulation under the eu emissions trading scheme and reporting according to the global reporting initiative gri guidelines leads to better quality and more extensive reporting although generally adopting proactive climate change strategies european companies do not have superior ghg reporting practices corporate media visibility does not impact ghg reporting practices which may be a reflection of the obscure portrayal of climate change in the print media or the fact that coverage is generally positive this article adds to the current literature on ghg reporting practices demonstrating that institutional theory along with stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory can give further insights into explaining the ghg reporting practices of multinational companies

why do manufacturing facilities introduce environmental management systems improving and or signaling performance abstract in this paper we explore the motivation for the introduction of environmental management systems and their certification a distinction is drawn between their role in bringing about better compliance or improved performance and as external indicators of good environmental practices to both other market participants and regulatory authorities drawing upon a database of approximately 4000 facilities in seven oecd countries empirical evidence is found for the role that both factors play in encouraging the adoption and certification of ems s but that the relative importance of different factors varies according to facility size

reshaping markets for the benefit of energy saving abstract energy saving is an important option for preventing emission of greenhouse gases furthermore when energy saving is reducing the spatial and temporal density of energy consumption it supports a rising market share of renewable energy sources last but not the least energy saving plays a role in reducing the vulnerability for import dependency and supply disruptions despite these virtues energy saving and energy efficiency being typically demand side options appear to be harder to sell than the other options which focus on the supply side the currently prevailing market based approach in energy policy initially brought setbacks for energy saving the introductory article and the selected contributions to this special issue intend to show that markets can and should be shaped to the benefit of the uptake and of the potential of energy saving to this end all elements of the energy efficiency delivery context should be addressed in energy saving policies learning measurement and observation are important tools in this reshaping process all contributions are based on papers of the european council for an energy efficient economy 2003 summer study

determinants and policy implications for household electricity saving behaviour evidence from beijing china this research sets out to explore the possibilities for further saving in household electricity consumption through a study of the residents willingness and behavioural characteristics in electricity saving as applied within a chinese context based on an extensive literature review the authors argue that economic benefits policy and social norms and past experience may have a positive correlation with household electricity saving behaviour while the discomfort caused by electricity saving activities may exert a negative effect on it through a sample of 816 randomly selected residents in beijing the propositions are examined using logit regression analysis the conclusions support the ideas concerning both the positive influence of economic benefits policy and social norms and past experience as they affect broader electricity saving behaviour and the negative influence of the discomfort caused by electricity saving activities finally some inferences are drawn and suggestions are offered for policy makers and further studies

household energy use applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision making and behaviour household energy conservation has emerged as a major challenge and opportunity for researchers practitioners and policymakers consumers also seem to be gaining greater awareness of the value and need for sustainable energy practices particularly amid growing public concerns over greenhouse gas emissions and climate change yet even with adequate knowledge of how to save energy and a professed desire to do so many consumers still fail to take noticeable steps towards energy efficiency and conservation there is often a sizeable discrepancy between peoples self reported knowledge values attitudes and intentions and their observable behaviour examples include the well known knowledge action gap and value action gap but neither is household energy consumption driven primarily by financial incentives and the rational pursuit of material interests in fact people sometimes respond in unexpected and undesirable ways to rewards and sanctions intended to shift consumers cost benefit calculus in favour of sustainable behaviours why is this so why is household energy consumption and conservation difficult to predict from either core values or material interests by drawing on critical insights from behavioural economics and psychology we illuminate the key cognitive biases and motivational factors that may explain why energy related behaviour so often fails to align with either the personal values or material interests of consumers understanding these psychological phenomena can make household and community responses to public policy interventions less surprising and in parallel can help us design more cost effective and mass scalable behavioural solutions to encourage renewable and sustainable energy use among consumers

mainstreaming green product innovation why and how companies integrate environmental sustainability green product innovation has been recognized as one of the key factors to achieve growth environmental sustainability and a better quality of life understanding green product innovation as a result of interaction between innovation and sustainability has become a strategic priority for theory and practice this article investigates green product innovation by means of a multiple case study analysis of 12 small to medium size manufacturing companies based in italy and canada first we propose a conceptual framework that presents three key environmental dimensions of green product innovation such as energy minimization materials reduction and pollution prevention as identified in the life cycle phases of products based on insights gained from in depth interviews we discuss firms motivations to develop green products environmental policies and targets for products different dimensions of green product innovation and challenges faced during developing and marketing of green products results from the study are then synthesized and integrated in a toolbox that sheds light on various aspects of green product innovation and provides solutions to challenges and risks that are faced by firms finally implications for managers academia and public policy makers are discussed

climate change accounting and the australian mining industry exploring the links between corporate disclosure and the generation of legitimacy abstract this paper explores how disclosure is used by key bodies in the australian mining industry as a means to respond to climate change and ensure their social licence to operate the study utilises a legitimacy theory framework and a multi case analysis to examine the environmental disclosure practices via a variety of media of two companies and two industry bodies within australia s mining industry it is revealed that a combination of legitimising strategies is undertaken by key bodies in the australian mining industry however to differing degrees depending on the organisation there is also support for the notion that different media plays a critical role in facilitating the legitimacy seeking behaviours of the companies and industry bodies this study extends existing literature on legitimacy theory by highlighting the value of utilising this perspective to explore contemporary phenomena such as corporate responses to climate change the findings of this study have practical significance as they are expected to have important policy ramifications one of the differentiating features of this paper compared to prior studies utilising a legitimacy theory framework is the examination of legitimising disclosure strategies at an industry level which complements a company level analysis moreover variations in legitimising disclosure strategies and communication media employed may be due to their focus on differing conferring publics and stakeholder groups

wind power implementation the nature of public attitudes equity and fairness instead of backyard motives abstract public attitudes anywhere in europe show moderate to strong support for the implementation of renewable energy nevertheless planning wind power developments appears to be a complicated matter in most countries the problems that have to be dealt with during decision making processes on the siting of wind turbines are usually referred to as mere communication problems however public attitudes towards wind power are fundamentally different from attitudes towards wind farms this gap causes misunderstandings about the nature of public support for renewables in particular where planners easily assume support for renewables can be generated by information campaigns emphasising the environmental benefits whereas opposition to renewable energy schemes can be explained by a selfish not in my backyard attitude both explanations used by planners authorities and unfortunately by many scholars are falsified furthermore policies that still take this common knowledge for granted can have negative consequences for the implementation rates of renewables visual evaluation of the impact of wind power on landscape values is by far the dominant factor in explaining why some are opposed to wind power and others are supporting it moreover feelings about equity and fairness appear the determinants of backyard motives instead of selfishness

forecasting job creation from renewable energy deployment through a value chain approach abstract this paper introduces a new approach to the study of the socioeconomic impact of renewable technologies through the analysis of the reinforcing effects of the expansion of this industry and the specific characteristics of the employment along the value chain the method proposed is based on the collection critical analysis and presentation of the results obtained using primary information sources the model design includes contributions extracted from a prior analysis of the existing assessment methods to lessen the uncertainty of the job ratios often used in these types of analysis one factor to be taken into account is the high degree of development in the sector and above all the maturity of the technology considered from the point of view of the industry fabric the economy of scale and technological development actually influences the human resources needs sometimes increasing the demand for professionals within the scope of r d and sometimes reducing jobs in the manufacturing industry which is gradually applying processes with a greater degree of automation the influence of these experience curves is different for every single stage of the value chain trade balance of technologies is also crucial for local employment generation an analytical model was developed based on the above assumptions and applied to the spanish pv industry this industry has been playing a leading role in the expansion of renewable energy and offers a high potential towards the short term development of the smart grids in this country this model represents very well the history of the spanish pv industry reflected through the evolution of the jobs and is shown to be the foundation of a methodology for prospective studies in the social and economic impacts of renewables

a practical approach for the management of resources and reserves in small scale mining abstract artisanal asm and small scale mining ssm are well known sources of environmental health and safety risk nonetheless due to the massive increase in the price of gold in the last few years asm and ssm units have rapidly appeared and are operating in many remote locations around the world this trend is bound to last since there are no valid alternative livelihoods for the operators in the sector and the attractiveness of the profit does not counterpoise any concern about the environment or safety the most viable solution for such activities is a shift towards responsible operations this can be done by turning an asm operation into a sustainable and profitable ssm industrial extractive unit for doing so capital investment is needed from external investors the main task therefore is to make asm attractive for investment the approach proposed in this work is based on a main differential from large scale mining the attractiveness for external investment only lies in proving in the early stages of the business a minimum mineral reserve that is able to rapidly return the investment committed to upgrade the artisanal operation into a small scale industrial one plus an attractive profit this is done by introducing the concepts of minimal reserve to be proved and replication the paper proposes a practical methodology for the evaluation of the minimal reserve to be proved based on mining and processing capex and opex a portion of the profits of the operation on such minimal reserve is to be shared between the stakeholders of the business and another is to be re invested in future exploration with this last share the process of proving the reserve can be consequently replicated to the next portion of the mineral resource this methodology is applied to prove viable a real ssm unit in ecuador the results are compared with large scale reserve estimations the order of magnitude of the volume that needs to be proved at the start to make the operation viable varies by 1 1000 in favor of ssm

energy consumption and economic growth parametric and non parametric causality testing for the case of greece abstract the objective of this paper is to contribute towards the understanding of the linear and non linear causal linkages between energy consumption and economic activity making use of annual time series data of greece for the period 1960 2008 two are the salient features of our study first the total energy consumption has been adjusted for qualitative differences among its constituent components through the thermodynamics of energy conversion in doing so we rule out the possibility of a misleading inference with respect to causality due to aggregation bias second the investigation of the causal linkage between economic growth and the adjusted for quality total energy consumption is conducted within a non linear context our empirical results reveal significant unidirectional both linear and non linear causal linkages running from total useful energy to economic growth these findings may provide valuable information for the contemplation of more effective energy policies with respect to both the consumption of energy and environmental protection

energy saving in swedish households the relative importance of environmental attitudes the objectives for energy saving in the housing sector set by recent swedish energy and climate policies are quite demanding this article uses nation wide swedish survey data from 2004 to 2007 to explore the potential for achieving those targets earlier findings that socio economic characteristics such as age housing type and income are strongly linked to higher propensities to save on heating and hot water usage are confirmed by ordered logistic regression models however general environmental attitudes are also found to play a crucial role when assessing the relative importance of socioeconomic factors and environmental attitudes the effect on energy saving is generally greater for the former than the latter in addition important interaction effects are identified in relative terms the effect of environmental attitudes is clearly stronger among households in apartment blocks than among those in detached housing and stronger among households with higher income than among those with lower income we end by discussing the implications for the selection and targeting of policy measures to tap the energy savings potential in the population

how environmental regulations affect innovation in the australian oil and gas industry going beyond the porter hypothesis the impact of environmental regulation on innovation is of central interest to many industries and policy makers alike while traditional research adopts a top down view of regulation and attempts to measure the innovation response the more bottom up view of contemporary theory argues that firms produce innovations that exceed compliance levels as a competitive strategy we approach this dichotomy by investigating innovation introduced by australian oil and gas firms in light of environmental regulatory compliance burden and firm level characteristics including competitive capabilities analyses of survey responses executive level interviews and conference proceedings reveal both regulatory top down and competitive advantage bottom up perspectives explain innovation in this industry regression analyses reveal that product service and novel innovations all types are related to a high compliance burden competitive skills research and development activity and engagement in formal collaborations interview and conference data add nuance to our findings revealing collaborative compliance frameworks result in similar innovation outcomes

comparative statics of a monopolistic firm facing price cap and command and control environmental regulations abstract an exhaustive comparative statics analysis of a model of a monopolistic firm facing price cap regulation and a variety of commonly implemented command and control environmental regulations is carried out the comparative statics are intrinsic to each of the models and thus form their basic empirically testable properties several unanticipated results emerge from the analysis in particular it is shown that a subset of the intrinsic comparative statics are qualitatively invariant to all of the commonly employed command and control environmental regulations that a price cap regulated profit maximizing monopoly might face while others are specific to the type of command and control environmental regulation in place

sustainability in mining minerals and energy new processes pathways and human interactions for a cautiously optimistic future the supply of minerals and energy is critical to global society however this supply is associated with social and environmental impacts leading to concerns of generational and intergenerational equity in light of these concerns a call for papers for a special volume on the mining industry was issued with the view that such academic work could assist in reducing the negative impacts associated with this industry this paper introduces the special volume the sustainability agenda of the minerals and energy supply and demand network an integrative analysis of ecological ethical economic and technological dimensions the special volume contains 84 articles divided into several themes sustainability accounting and reporting corporate social responsibility future mining challenges integrative frameworks for sustainability management aspects mining in a developing context and new frontiers in the oil and gas industry the special volume also includes two letters on contemporary issues with commentaries on these from experts in the fields viz community conflict and land rehabilitation insights obtained across these themes are summarized and recommendations are made of what is needed to build upon the findings of this special volume a research agenda is proposed for the future from the gaps and synergies identified the overall contribution of this special volume is that it renews the debate on the sustainability challenges for the mining industry and provides transdisciplinary insights into resolving some of these challenges

techno economic evaluation of innovative steel production technologies at current primary steel production levels the iron and steel industry will fail to meet the 80 emission reduction target without introduction of breakthrough technologies wortler et al 2013 19 the current research analyses the technical and economical long term potential of innovative primary steel production technologies in germany throughout 2100 techno economic models are used to simulate three innovative ore based steelmaking routes verses the reference blast furnace route bf bof the innovative routes in focus are blast furnace with ccs bf ccs hydrogen direct reduction h dr and iron ore electrolysis ew energy and mass flows for the production of one tonne of crude steel cs are combined with hypothetical price cost and revenue data to evaluate the production routes economically technically and environmentally this is a purely theoretical analysis and hence further external factors that may influence practical implementation or profitability are not considered different future developments are considered by using three scenarios representing an ambitious a moderate and a conservative transformation of the german energy sector in general looking into the future bares various uncertainties which should be reflected in a suitable manner according to the present scenario analysis chances are that with rising prices for coal and co2 allowances bf bof and even bf ccs become unprofitable by mid century with a high share of renewable energy sources and high prices for co2 allowances h dr and ew become economically attractive in the second half of the current century when bf based routes are long unprofitable energy and raw material efficiency is significantly higher for h dr and ew and furthermore the 80 reduction target by 2050 can be achieved in the ambitious scenario however high investment costs and high dependency on electricity prices prohibit a profitable implementation before 2030 2040 without further subsidies ew is the most energy and resource efficient production route since continuous electricity is needed for the continuous operation the electricity costs are 20 40 higher than for h dr with high capacity hydrogen storage units even though hydrogen production implies efficiency losses compared to the ew route the decoupling of hydrogen production from continuous operation of the steel plant through hydrogen storage offers the opportunity to use cheap excess renewable electricity this makes the h dr economically and environmentally the most attractive route and provides a crucial contribution to stabilize the grid and to store excess energy in a 100 renewable energy system

corporate reputation and collective crises a theoretical development using the case of rana plaza banking scandals accounting fraud product recalls and environmental disasters their associated reputational effects as well as company response strategies have been well reported in the literature reported crises and scandals typically involve one focal company for example bp and the 2010 deepwater horizon accident as business practices change and company supply chains become more complex and interlinked there is a greater risk of collective crises where multiple companies are associated with the same scandal we argue that companies are likely to behave differently in a group setting compared to when faced with a crisis individually using an inductive approach we examine the case of the rana plaza building collapse we find that organizations with a history of similar crises adopt defensive strategies and communicate much later compared to organizations which adopt accommodative strategies contrary to the individual case in a collective crisis accommodative strategies result in more negative reputational damage and a higher burden of responsibility we propose that the relationship between crisis response strategy and organization reputation is moderated by the crisis setting we extend the logic of crisis management and corporate reputation to incorporate the case of a collective crisis

cradle to cradle design creating healthy emissions a strategy for eco effective product and system design eco effectiveness and cradle to cradle design present an alternative design and production concept to the strategies of zero emission and ecoefficiency where eco efficiency and zero emission seek to reduce the unintended negative consequences of processes of production and consumption eco effectiveness is a positive agenda for the conception and production of goods and services that incorporate social economic and environmental benefit enabling triple top line growth eco effectiveness moves beyond zero emission approaches by focusing on the development of products and industrial systems that maintain or enhance the quality and productivity of materials through subsequent life cycles the concept of eco effectiveness also addresses the major shortcomings of eco efficiency approaches their inability to address the necessity for fundamental redesign of material flows their inherent antagonism towards long term economic growth and innovation and their insufficiency in addressing toxicity issues a central component of the eco effectiveness concept cradle to cradle design provides a practical design framework for creating products and industrial systems in a positive relationship with ecological health and abundance and long term economic growth against this background the transition to eco effective industrial systems is a five step process beginning with an elimination of undesirable substances and ultimately calling for a reinvention of products by reconsidering how they may optimally fulfill the need or needs for which they are actually intended while simultaneously being supportive of ecological and social systems this process necessitates the creation of an eco effective system of nutrient management to coordinate the material flows amongst actors in the product system the concept of intelligent materials pooling illustrates how such a system might take shape in reality 2006 published by elsevier ltd

institutionalizing sustainability an empirical study of corporate registration and commitment to the united nations global compact guidelines abstract drawing upon institutional and stakeholder theories we explore the causal mechanisms of institutionalization and their influence on sustainable development initiatives to test our arguments we study the registration patterns of 394 large corporations from 12 western european and latin american countries into the united nations global compact results indicate that the normative and mimetic mechanisms of institutionalization i e academe and peer influence are better indicators of sustainable development initiatives than the coercive one i e government regulation the implications of these findings are consequential if sd practices continue as an ethical choice and not a mandated obligation for corporate decision makers

renewables diffusion and contagion effect in italian regional electricity markets assessment and policy implications abstract in the electricity market sudden price jumps occur more frequently than in other markets due to the peculiarity of electricity furthermore the structural spot characteristics of the electricity market determine high price variability all these characteristics have been accentuated by the dramatic increase of renewable energy supply in italy starting in 2010 these features suggest the possibility of contagion effects across italian regional electricity markets considering contagion such as a sudden and significant increase in cross market links arising from a shock to a specific market in this paper we investigate whether such a renewable energy increase has affected the contagion behavior in the italian electricity spot market taking into account both the difference between interdependence and contagion and the direction of the shock we find empirical evidence with significant tests that no changes have occurred in interdependence mechanism nor in contagion effects due to renewable energy sources development in italy

green insurance subsidy for promoting clean production innovation abstract green insurance is introduced to advance green development in recent years and this article addresses the effects of insurance subsidy with game theory model some useful results are achieved first uncertainty deters firms innovation while both mature technology and high production efficiency stimulate firms innovation second interestingly green insurance cannot improve innovation and expect profits of firms but green insurance reduces risk finally both green insurance subsidy and governmental subsidy promotes firms innovation but green insurance subsidy owns lower risk than direct subsidy to innovate

from the editors common method variance in international business research jibs receives many manuscripts that report findings from analyzing survey data based on same respondent replies this can be problematic since same respondent studies can suffer from common method variance cmv currently authors who submit manuscripts to jibs that appear to suffer from cmv are asked to perform validity checks and resubmit their manuscripts this letter from the editors is designed to outline the current state of best practice for handling cmv in international business research

the mining industry under the thumb of politicians the environmental consequences of the spanish coal decree abstract the so called coal decree royal decree 143 2010 and subsequent royal decree 1221 2010 have modified the historical use of coal trends in the spanish economy since 2010 the use of domestic coal in spain s electricity sector will be promoted by the royal decree until 2014 this energy strategy on the one hand and political decision on the other were advanced under the flag of energy security and the fulfillment of the 9th principle of the international council of mining and metals icmm which specified that sustainable development in mining areas should maintain among other things employment the mutual understanding between the government and the local mining industry is confronted with vast criticism at the institutional firm and social levels regarding a the disparities generated between electricity generation technologies b the increase of electricity market prices the national competition commission reported the royal decree and c subsequent environmental harm the coal decree has changed the gradual decrease of coal in the spanish energy mix since the end of the 1990s the environmental efficiency gains accumulated over the past several years would be lost as a result of this change of direction in policy in the last fifteen years the coal industry in spain has been under pressure from political decisions that have forced the dismantling of the industry a labor reconversion of mining areas and the conversion of coal fired power plants into combined cycle gas power plants this situation considerably reduced co2 emissions from coal combustion in spain improving the environmental efficiency of the entire economy for many years nevertheless the implementation of the royal decree has changed these trends this paper will examine the environmental consequences of the coal decree from 2010 to 2014 based on actual economic and energy demand requirements and actual electricity mix composition a post keynesian energy age model to forecast energy demand and the derived co2 emissions will be applied to evaluate the change in the reduction of emissions observed in the electricity sector since 2005 and in the spanish economy since 2010 the results will be compared to other alternative scenarios of co2 emissions evolution

footloose and pollution free in numerous studies economists have found little empirical evidence that environmental regulations affect trade flows in this paper we propose and test several common explanations for why the effect of environmental regulations on trade may be difficult to detect we demonstrate that whereas most trade occurs among industrialized economies environmental regulations have stronger effects on trade between industrialized and developing economies we find that for most industries pollution abatement costs are a small component of total costs and are unrelated to trade flows in addition we show that those industries with the largest pollution abatement costs also happen to be the least geographically mobile or footloose after accounting for these distinctions we measure a significant effect of pollution abatement costs on imports from developing countries and in pollution intensive footloose industries

a resource based perspective on corporate environmental performance and profitability drawing on the resource based view of the firm we posited that environmental performance and economic performance are positively linked and that industry growth moderates the relationship with the returns to environmental performance higher in high growth industries we tested these hypotheses with an analysis of 243 finns over two years using independently developed environmental ratings results indicate that it pays to be green and that this relationship strengthens with industry growth we conclude by highlighting the study s academic and managerial implications making special reference to the social issues in management literature

energy consumption and economic growth a causality analysis for greece abstract this paper investigates the causal relationship between aggregated and disaggregated levels of energy consumption and economic growth for greece for the period 1960 2006 through the application of a later development in the methodology of time series proposed by toda and yamamoto 1995 at aggregated levels of energy consumption empirical findings suggest the presence of a uni directional causal relationship running from total energy consumption to real gdp at disaggregated levels empirical evidence suggests that there is a bi directional causal relationship between industrial and residential energy consumption to real gdp but this is not the case for the transport energy consumption with causal relationship being identified in neither direction the importance of these findings lies on their policy implications and their adoption on structural policies affecting energy consumption in greece suggesting that in order to address energy import dependence and environmental concerns without hindering economic growth emphasis should be put on the demand side and energy efficiency improvements

adolescents and electricity consumption investigating sociodemographic economic and behavioural influences on electricity consumption in households with respect to changes in the energy systems of many countries electricity consumption in households is an important topic extensive research has investigated the various determinants of electricity consumption however insights into how specific sociodemographic behavioural and attitudinal determinants influence residential electricity consumption are still scarce in this study we used hierarchical regression analysis to systematically investigate these determinants including household engagement in electricity saving along with a wide range of other measures in a sample of german households n 763 special attention was given to households with adolescents and children by analysing the influence of the number of adolescents on electricity consumption in a path model our results indicate that sociodemographic influences can be explained by the purchasing and use behaviours of residents our findings also suggest that the use of behavioural information provides a more detailed picture of the conditions of electricity consumption and thus allows for more appropriate policy planning

sustainability reporting among mining corporations a constructive critique of the gri approach abstract the environmental crisis is giving rise to growing public demand for socially responsible and ecologically viable mining practices large mining corporations are responding by advancing the idea of a sustainable mining industry these responses are accompanied by concerted efforts to advertise a company s relative progress in this direction through the publication of sustainability reports based on the global reporting initiative gri framework many scholars contest the effectiveness of that framework arguing that gri based reports can mislead decision makers who are concerned with sustainability or even camouflage unsustainable practices particularly at the site level few scholars however have scratched below the surface of criticism in order to consider how to improve the effectiveness of that framework this article takes a closer look at this problem by answering the following question what needs to be changed in mining corporations gri based frameworks for the purpose of promoting more meaningful and reliable sustainability performance information this article followed a qualitative methodological approach based on literature reviews and 41 semi structured interviews the analysis was guided by an evaluation of the extent to which the predominant gri based approach to sustainability reporting meets a number of principles of sustainability assessment and reporting known as the bellagiostamp principles this paper outlines a number of specific changes that should be promoted in mining corporations frameworks if their reports are to provide meaningful and accurate information about sustainability progress such changes include a more systematic consideration of site level performance scenario building and legacy effects overall this article corroborates the view that meaningful and reliable standardized disclosures of contributions to sustainability are unlikely to emerge any time soon the geographical dispersion of mining facilities imposes substantial difficulties to the contextualization of sustainability evaluations

green r d for eco innovation and its impact on carbon emissions and firm performance abstract over the past four decades the results of the debates about the relationship between corporate environmental performance and corporate financial performance have remained inconclusive due to the lack of theoretical underpinning and availability of data this paper examines the impact of green research and development investment for eco innovation on environmental and financial performance the research is based on the resource based view and the natural resource based view which explicitly recognize the importance of resources and capabilities using a sample of japanese manufacturing firms during the period of 2001 2010 the study focuses on green research and development investment as a key proxy of eco innovation and carbon emissions in environmental performance our results show the presence of a negative relationship between green research and development and carbon emissions while green research and development is positively related to financial performance at the firm level our findings explicitly support that in order for firms to adopt a proactive environmental strategy to manage their environmental and financial performance to the best advantage they urgently need to organise unique resources and capabilities the findings of this study provide valuable insights and basis of scientific debate on how firms to engage unique organizational resources and capabilities for superior corporate environmental and financial performance

housing related lifestyle and energy saving a multi level approach abstract a new instrument for measuring housing related lifestyle hrl is introduced and employed for identifying national and cross national hrl segments in 10 european countries n 3190 the identified hrl segments are profiled and the practical importance of hrl for everyday energy saving efforts in the home and for the energy consumer s openness to new energy saving opportunities i e energy saving innovativeness is investigated the hrl instrument s 71 items load on 16 dimensions within five lifestyle elements multi group confirmatory factor analysis reveals that the instrument possesses metric but not scalar measurement invariance across the 10 countries multilevel latent class analysis is used to classify participants to hrl segments and the 10 countries into regions with similar segment structure the optimal solution has seven hrl segments and three country classes which are profiled in terms of relevant background characteristics a multivariate glm analysis reveals that when differences in housing related lifestyles are controlled neither country of residence nor the interaction between lifestyle and country of residence influence energy saving innovativeness or everyday energy saving efforts however these two behavioural tendencies vary significantly and substantially between lifestyle segments the study shows that hrl segmentation is a useful tool for creating more targeted and effective energy saving campaigns

corporate climate risk management are european companies prepared abstract in recent years scholars have published numerous studies dealing with the consequences of climate change for businesses activity however a more holistic understanding of companies perceptions of and responses to physical regulatory and market related climate risks across a wider range of sectors is still missing to address this gap this paper provides an empirical analysis of corporate climate risk perception and countermeasures for companies in industries regulated and not regulated by climate policy drawing on data from the carbon disclosure project of a size matched sample of 126 european based companies it is shown that most firms feel less exposed to physical and market risks than to regulatory risks this is because physical risks are expected to materialize in the more distant future and the realization of market risks is considered rather unlikely moreover the results indicate that firms in regulated industries implement more regulatory response measures than firms that are part of non regulated industries while interestingly there are no significant differences between the two groups in exposure and responses to physical and market risks by discussing climate related risks and highlighting the significant role of regulation in spurring corporate action in the context of climate change this paper holds important implications for corporate managers and policy makers

the role of income in energy consumption behaviour evidence from french households data the main purpose of this paper is to characterise quantitatively the impact of income on household energy consumption in the residential and transport sectors starting from the data collected in a paper survey we analyse the extent of the constraint experienced by households in terms of equipment purchasing behaviour and daily energy consumption this analysis shows that the least well off households are particularly constrained since the share of their budget represented by these energy services is very large 15 25 and this corresponds to a level of energy service well below that of the better off households the case of space heating shows a factor of 2 in terms of level of comfort achieved between the extreme 10 percentiles these households also face a strong capital constraint for equipment purchases this leads either to a large increase in the required rate of return or to a reduction in the proportion of households that are prepared to replace their equipment earlier the least well off households are thus doubly constrained since it is more difficult for them to invest in our opinion it is crucial to take into account this observation in the context of political measures aimed at reducing households co2 emissions

accelerated electricity conservation in juneau alaska a study of household activities that reduced demand 25 abstract an avalanche destroyed the main hydroelectric transmission line to juneau alaska in april 2008 diesel generated electricity was substituted causing electricity prices to increase 500 for 45 days electricity demand fell by 25 during the supply disruption most of the reduction occurred before the higher rates were implemented some conservation about 8 of historic consumption persisted after the transmission line was repaired and prices returned to normal consumers reduced energy use through a combination of new habits and technical improvements a survey of residential consumers indicated that the average household undertook 10 conservation actions with major changes in lighting space heating fuel switching and water and appliance use we propose a method for prioritizing conservation actions for promotion according to their impact in electricity savings as a function of popularity effectiveness and persistence and a dynamic framework for electricity use before during and after a supply disruption i e both the magnitude and rates of change in electricity conservation

the message and methods of ethical investment abstract this paper examines a high profile and often provocative segment of the financial industry that of ethical or socially responsible investment by offering an ethical or sustainable product which has the potential to influence so many stakeholders the financial industry is in a unique position to guide change towards corporate sustainability however what message is ethical investment really giving to companies and the financial industry are ethical investors and their rating agencies capable of effectively influencing corporations towards more sustainable patterns of production and consumption and are their approaches consistent with the principles of cleaner production this paper first gives an overview some of the definitions ethical investment and the scale of activities under this umbrella term then the actual screening methods and their application is examined a typology of the different ethical mutual funds is given and two cases of ethical funds are described robur s environmental fund and sustainable asset management s sustainability rating tool each are analysed in terms of their potential to either reveal or conceal cleaner production innovations by the firms they assess in order to ascertain where ethical investment might lead companies the effects of ethical investment on companies and back on the asset management companies themselves is explored a reflexive model of corporate and finance sector learning based on the ethical screens is proposed

energy efficiency economics and policy energy efficiency and conservation are major factors in the reduction of the environmental impact of the energy sector particularly with regard to climate change energy efficiency also contributes to reducing external dependence and vulnerabilities in the energy domain in this paper we discuss the factors that influence energy efficiency and conservation decisions and the most appropriate policies for their promotion although not all public policies seem justified we argue that specific policies for promoting energy conservation may be required preferably based on economic instruments or on the provision of information to consumers

has renewable energy induced competitive behavior in the spanish electricity market abstract recent energy policy has favored a massive introduction of renewable energy sources on electricity markets which has greatly impacted their performance first the electricity price has decreased as a consequence of the so called merit order effect another relevant effect is associated to the intermittent nature of renewable energy which has increased the cost of ancillary services a third and important aspect less addressed in the literature is the induced change in the strategic behavior of the conventional electricity producers in principle the entry of new generators in a concentrated market would make it more competitive and change the strategic behavior of the incumbents we test this hypothesis for the spanish wholesale market while we find no significant change in behavior for nuclear hydropower and coal a change is observed in combined cycle bidding strategies after the entry of renewable generators our analysis shows that the massive entry of renewable energy sources made other generators behavior more competitive in the short run but the effect was not persistent

the profitability of canadian defence contractors abstract in this paper we employ a simultaneous equations approach to test the hypothesis that firm profitability is affected by or affects the degree to which a firm is involved in defence contracting we find no evidence of any link between corporate profitability and defence contracting activity in canada moreover our data do not support the hypothesis that a positive effect of defence contracting is offset by the government pursuing a bailout contract award strategy based on the nature of the canadian defence procurement system we argue that our results indicate that the government has used its monopsony powers to restrict the rate of return earned on defence contracts to equal that earned in commercial operations thus firms which earn excess profits in commercial markets will also earn excess profits in defence markets

does the development of environmental innovation require different resources evidence from spanish manufacturing firms in recent years environmental innovations are getting increasingly at the center both of the scientific debate and of the policy maker agenda adopting the resource based view this paper provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the specific role of internal external and hybrid resources in the environmental innovation development using a dataset of 4829 spanish manufacturing firms and estimating probit models it is found that internal resources have greater importance for environmental innovations moreover green innovators seem to be characterized by more intensive external relationships for hybrid resources acquisition of equipment but not of patents is more relevant finally evidence suggest the relevance of complementing the analysis of the external factors triggering environmental innovations with those of the internal resources the firm has access to in order to fully understand and support the development of environmental innovations

online sustainability communication practices of european seaports abstract although ports have a direct and substantial impact on the social and physical environments in which they operate studies on corporate sustainability focussing on ports are scant this study investigates the under researched topic of sustainability communication practices in the european seaport sector its purpose is to analyse to what extent if any are there differences in these practices it seeks to capture the influence of national institutions and some port specific characteristics in sustainability reporting using content analysis we analysed the extent and content of corporate sustainability information disclosed in the websites of 186 european seaports we used an institutional theory framework the varieties of capitalism approach as lens of analysis multivariate ordinal regressions were used to analyse the influence of national institutions on disclosure we found that sustainability communication varies from country to country not entirely in accordance with the varieties of capitalism framework despite the majority of ports identified by our study having already included corporate sustainability topics in their online communication practices we conclude that there is still much work to be done

the impact of environmental performance on firm performance short term costs and long term benefits abstract we examine the intertemporal effect of environmental performance on financial performance and propose a method to assess the environmental performance in a fuller manner based on the weighting various pollutants according to their dangerousness to environment using our improved measures of environmental performance applied to the firm level data from the czech republic the results suggest that while the effect of environmental performance on financial performance is negative for environmental performance lagged by 1 year lag it becomes positive for 2 years lag as a consequence our findings indicate that porter hypothesis holds in the long run

redefining innovation eco innovation research and the contribution from ecological economics while innovation processes toward sustainable development eco innovations have received increasing attention during the past years theoretical and methodological approaches to analyze these processes are poorly developed against this background the term eco innovation is introduced in this paper addressing explicitly three kinds of changes towards sustainable development technological social and institutional innovation secondly the potential contribution of neoclassical and co evolutionary approaches from environmental and innovation economics to eco innovation research is discussed three peculiarities of eco innovation are identified the double externality problem the regulatory push pull effect and the increasing importance of social and institutional innovation while the first two are widely ignored in innovation economics the third is at the least not elaborated appropriately the consideration of these peculiarities may help to overcome market failure by establishing a specific eco innovation policy and to avoid a technology bias through a broader understanding of innovation finally perspectives for a specific contribution of ecological economics to eco innovation research are drawn it is argued that methodological pluralism as established in ecological economics would be very beneficial for eco innovation research a theoretical framework integrating elements from both neoclassical and evolutionary approaches should be pursued in order to consider the complexity of factors influencing innovation decisions as well as the specific role of regulatory instruments and the experience gathered in ecological economics integrating ecological social and economic aspects of sustainable development is highly useful for opening up innovation research to social and institutional changes 2000 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

renewable energy consumption and economic growth evidence from a panel of oecd countries abstract this study examines the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth for a panel of twenty oecd countries over the period 1985 2005 within a multivariate framework given the relatively short span of the time series data a panel cointegration and error correction model is employed to infer the causal relationship the heterogeneous panel cointegration test reveals a long run equilibrium relationship between real gdp renewable energy consumption real gross fixed capital formation and the labor force with the respective coefficients positive and statistically significant the granger causality results indicate bidirectional causality between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in both the short and long run

the exploitation of electricity production projects from renewable energy sources for the social and economic development of remote communities the case of greece an example to avoid abstract since 2009 an anarchic policy has been followed by the investors regarding the submission of a large number of applications in greece for the construction of electricity production projects from renewable energy sources r e s applications and licenses without any strategic design usually of extremely large size in relatively small insular territories often violating several environmental or cultural constraints defined in the relevant legislation applications and licenses that have been submitted without informing the local communities neglecting the existing industrial agricultural or domestic activities the land properties and consequently provoking the common sense and reverting the generally positive common attribute about r e s recorded in greece before 2008 these applications and licenses exhibit low maturity characterized by violation of environmental constraints disapproval of local communities inadequacy to procure the required land properties and lack of r e s potential measurements ultimately they exhibit very low probabilities to be implemented furthermore all these premature applications cover large geographical territories preventing thus other mature and more realistic r e s projects from applying for licensing consequently the existing applications and licenses instead of promoting the r e s development in greece continue to keep it steady this article aims at the investigation of the causes that resulted in the above described negative reality potential deficiencies of the existing legislative framework are analyzed some characteristic examples of the submitted applications or issued licenses are presented and their technical and economic feasibility is evaluated finally the article proposes measures for the rational development of r e s electricity production projects in greece these measures aim to combine the maximization of the r e s development with the protection of the local communities furthermore they aim to support the participation of local investors and public organizations in the r e s projects this perspective will maximize the social and economic benefits to the local communities

energy savings from housing ineffective renovation subsidies vs efficient demolition and reconstruction incentives abstract energy savings in the housing sector are key to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions policies to incentivize energy savings are however disparate between countries taking into account environmental aspects and consumer surplus the paper uses a stylized economic model to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of three economic instruments subsidies for renovation subsidies for demolition and reconstruction projects and subsidies for building new houses on virgin land the assessment also relates to differentiated value added taxes and other financial incentives such as green loans in a counter intuitive way the model highlights that subsidies for renovations with minor energy gains worsen the overall energy consumption of housing due to the inducement of lock ins with energy inefficient houses structural changes are needed in the use of policy instruments first commonly applied support schemes for renovations with minor energy savings should be abolished second scarce public resources should incentivize deep renovation and demolition and reconstruction finally taxes should apply on the use of virgin land to persuade households with a high willingness to pay for a new house to invest in demolition and reconstruction

a system dynamic approach for exploring the effects of climate change risks on firms economic performance a number of studies have recently examined the potential relationships between climate change and the business community the majority of such studies have emphasized statistical and benchmarking techniques to identify how climate change could have implications on firms operations and their economic performance these techniques draw primary data from questionnaire surveys and corporate environmental reports in an ex post basis a fact that provide evidence in a linear probabilistic and static character these studies have provided limited insights regarding the future complex effects of climate change on corporate economic performance this paper aims to contribute to this literature by developing a dynamic model to investigate the evolutionary trends of the relationships between climate change risks financial performance and the operational processes of firms the main scope is to identify how physical regulatory reputational and litigation risks will affect day to day operations an integrated model will be established in order to improve managers and academics understanding of climate change and business performance four scenarios will also be tested to illustrate what if relationships in the presence of climate change risks finally the proposed model is based on the corporate climate change management system thinking system dynamic and stella software

sustainability as it pertains to minerals and energy supply and demand a new interpretative perspective for assessing progress this paper addresses the pressing research gap that demands an overarching framework to assess the progress of mining minerals and energy supply and demand networks towards sustainable development the framework proposes a hierarchy from sustainable development which begins at the global scale to operating sustainably which begins at the level of unit operations the two concepts overlap in the middle with a focus upon regional economies guidance is provided to assess the performance of both dynamic dimensions sustainable development is assessed in terms of equity and operating sustainably is assessed in terms of the changing states of maturity of the activities being monitored the papers from this special volume were the input sample to assess the extent to which these performance dimensions were being addressed in analysing the progress towards sustainable development it was found that papers were mainly focussed on equity within supply countries but they provided little attention to the other three equity conditions proposed demand met at a reasonable price future needs met and profitable transfer agents the transition towards operating sustainably was promising with results that revealed progress along the proposed four stage maturity journey which includes 1 solely profit maximising 2 efficiency focussed 3 integrating by connecting and 4 adaptable resilient a comprehensive definition for operating sustainably is proposed for discussion and refinement it is suggested that the definition proposed can be used for selecting appropriate indicators for measuring and documenting progress

the devil is in the details household electricity saving behavior and the role of information abstract the purpose of this paper is to analyze swedish households willingness to increase their daily efforts to save electricity the analysis builds on a broad theoretical framework which embraces both economic and norm based motivations in explaining household behavior the paper pays particular attention to the role of information about the availability of different behavioral changes that can be undertaken at the household level the empirical results are based on a postal survey that was sent out to 1200 swedish households and the econometric analysis is carried out within a so called ordered probit framework our results indicate that costs environmental attitudes and social interactions are all important determinants of electricity saving activities within swedish households we tested the hypothesis that information about available savings measures that is presented in a more concrete and specific way is more likely to affect stated behavior than is more general information and the data collected support this notion the paper ends by discussing some implications of these results for the design of future informative policy measures in the energy efficiency field

socio economic determinants of energy consumption an empirical survey for greece abstract the present study identifies and evaluates the macroeconomic factors that determine energy consumption in greece this study is based on annual time series data covering the period ranging from 1975 2013 the augmented dickey fuller adf test and kpss test are employed in order to test stationarity of the data confirming that all the variables are i 1 within the next step of the methodology we employed a vecm model in order to detect causality among the variables through the granger causality test similarly the impulse response analysis provides that urbanization infrastructure trade income population growth and foreign direct investment are the main determinants of energy consumption in greece during the period surveyed the findings suggest that in order to fulfill the energy demand in the country the decision makers need to formulate energy policy in favor of enlarging the supply of energy and especially renewable energy to foster the process of economic growth and development especially in the times of crisis the particular determinants are a necessity to initiate economic growth

social acceptance of renewable energy sources a review of contingent valuation applications abstract this paper presents a literature review addressing the public acceptance of renewable energy as a replacement for fossil fuels in electricity production this review was motivated by the global tendency for a substitution of conventional fuels by renewable energy sources res during the global financial crisis it studies research on the preferences and attitudes of local communities towards investments in renewable energy projects and their perception of the use of new energy technologies in their daily lives through various case studies worldwide an effort is made to identify the parameters that influence consumers energy behaviour together with their interest or lack thereof in the environmental impact of using fossil fuels to produce energy and their willingness to reduce it applications of contingent valuation are examined which are employed to analyse public attitudes towards the use of res for electricity production willingness to pay is observed to be correlated to socioeconomic characteristics including education interest in environmental issues and knowledge of res finally the profile of a typical green energy consumer and appropriate policy paths for the penetration of res into the energy market are outlined

determinants of environmental innovation in us manufacturing industries abstract this paper provides new evidence on the determinants of environmental innovation we employ panel data models to study how environmental innovation by us manufacturing industries responded to changes in pollution abatement expenditures and regulatory enforcement during the period 1983 through 1992 we find that 1 environmental innovation as measured by the number of successful environmental patent applications granted to the industry responded to increases in pollution abatement expenditures however 2 increased monitoring and enforcement activities related to existing regulations did not provide any additional incentive to innovate we also find some empirical evidence that environmental innovation is more likely to occur in industries that are internationally competitive

ceo hubris and firm risk taking in china the moderating role of managerial discretion this study linked ceo hubris to firm risk taking and examined the moderating role of managerial discretion in this relationship drawing on upper echelons theory and behavioral decision theory we

a normative empirical analysis of state duties and corporate responsibilities related to adverse human rights impacts on the amazonian minerals energy frontier abstract the article probes the existence of a minerals energy complex mec a concept developed in south africa to describe the strong interlinkages between the mining and energy sector in the brazilian amazon within the framework of the mec the authors conduct a normative analysis based on the united nations guiding principles for business and human rights ungps of the state duties and corporate responsibilities for adverse human rights impacts in the complex the authors use a single in depth case study approach focussing on the case of the belo monte hydroelectric dam in the amazonian state of para the mec proves to be a useful framework for studying the advancement of hydroelectricity and mining projects on the amazonian frontier the analysis indicates that the brazilian minerals and energy sectors are mutually dependent and have overlapping interests and decision making structures applying the mec framework to the belo monte case serves to clarify and detangle the relationships between the various actors associated with the dam s adverse impacts this provides a foundation for the normative analysis of the responsibilities and actions required of each actor based on the internationally accepted standards in the ungps by applying the mec as an analytical research framework and drawing on the ungps for normative guidance the present study contributes to the academic literature on corporate responsibility as well as providing policy and decision makers with a normative empirical analysis that can be drawn upon to improve policy and ensure that corporate activity contributes to sustainable development

are cleaner production innovations the solution for small mining operations in poor regions the case of padua in brazil abstract mining in santo antonio de padua a city located in the underdeveloped northeast area of the rio de janeiro state in brazil is currently the most important economic activity in the region unfortunately companies lag behind technologically and use rudimentary production methods which cause serious environmental problems social implications and poor competitiveness in order to seek sustainable solutions for the padua mining region local support organizations have created initiatives to develop endogenous cleaner production innovations to enhance the industry s sustainability performance during this process some barriers for mining companies to adopt these developed technologies have emerged this research draws on the cleaner production sustainability and innovation literature and uses a qualitative research with multiple sources of evidence to understand the dynamics behind the padua mining region more specifically this research explores how initiatives to improve the sustainability performance led by local support organizations took place analyzes their outcomes i e cleaner production innovations and identifies some of the barriers to technology adoption this paper offers three key research contributions first we claim that cleaner production approaches alone cannot create sustainable mining regions in emerging and developing countries but they are definitively a step in the right direction since they provide the base for expanding the scope towards sustainability second we argue that technology cannot be understood as the panacea for sustainability because it will never represent the complete solution for companies sustainability problems third we claim that companies can face a managerial trap if they pursue enhanced sustainability performance solely through the adoption of cleaner production innovations

estimating energy conservation patterns of greek households abstract this paper develops an empirical model to investigate the main determinants of household energy conservation patterns in greece employing cross section data in the empirical analysis household energy conserving choices models are employed using a discrete and a latent trait variable respectively as a dependent variable the results show that socio economic variables such as consumers income and family size are suitable to explain differences towards energy conservation preferences in addition the results suggest that electricity expenditures and age of the respondent are negatively associated with the number of energy conserving actions that a consumer is willing to adopt finally other variables such as environmental information feedback and consciousness of energy problems are characteristics of the energy saver consumer by evaluating consumer s decision making process with regards to energy conservation measures we are able to formulate and propose an effective energy conservation framework for greece an energy policy framework is among the main prerequisites not only to achieve sustainable development but also to maintain consumers quality of life

citizens views on electricity use savings and production from renewable energy sources a case study from a greek island abstract a country s economic growth is closely linked to the availability generation distribution and use of energy at the same time the increased rate of global energy consumption is a risk to development and to the efforts to safeguard people s living standards for the future the production of electricity from res substantially contributes to the energy security of states and to environmental protection greece has a valuable and exploitable potential in several res and can significantly increase their use however various significant institutional changes have taken place in greece over the last decades involving changes to the energy mix the penetration of res and attracting foreign investment the present research took place on the island of andros greece with the help of a questionnaire and face to face interviews it is noted that the respondents agree with the need to save energy and to expand the use of green energy they say they are slightly satisfied by the messages given through the mass media they have insufficient information regarding res systems that can be used in households and believe that a major subsidy from the state would lead to their purchase

the liability of good reputation a study of product recalls in the u s automobile industry in this paper we explore opposing theoretical claims about how organizational reputation affects market reactions to product defects on the one hand good reputation could be a disadvantage because expectations about product quality are more likely to be violated by defects in highly reputed products on the other hand a good reputation could be an advantage because of strong inertial effects on reputation orderings we empirically test these competing hypotheses using data on product recalls in the u s automobile industry from 1975 to 1999 our results support for the idea that reputation can be an organizational liability in that highly reputed firms suffer more market penalty as a result of their product recalls we also propose that the reputational effects are moderated by two important factors substitutability and generalism specialism our results show that having few substitutes with an equivalent level of reputation or a focused product identity stemming from specialism buffers the negative market reactions to product recalls we conclude with a discussion on the implications of these results for institutional reputation and status theories

responsible mineral and energy futures views at the nexus societal prosperity is underpinned by access to the increasingly interdependent resources of minerals and energy in an era of mineral resource constraints and radical transition in the energy sector this paper reviews the extent to which a long term view of production and use is adopted in both fields a long term view including the mineral energy nexus is deemed to be necessary although not sufficient for managing future resource constraints and energy transitions alarmingly it identifies that the future of minerals resources and production is generally considered 5 10 years ahead rather than several decades or more as for energy additionally the sectors are generally studied independently rather than with a focus on the nexus with these findings as evidence of an unaddressed problem the paper then focusses on the current forces for change in the minerals industry namely community drivers regarding social licence to operate new technologies and consumer and government drivers on responsible minerals as discussions of sustainable development become displaced by the emerging discourse of responsible minerals what is adopted and discarded whilst responsible minerals considers chain of custody it does not adopt a long term view and overlooks the mineral energy nexus using three illustrative cases at the nexus of i rare earths renewables ii coal steel and iii uranium nuclear we extend the theoretical discussion on responsible with a range of contemporary examples from the perspectives of producing australia and consuming countries japan switzerland and propose a research agenda for an expanded notion of responsible minerals which recognises the complexity of the mineral energy nexus and connects it to progressing sustainable futures