The IAFOR
Academic Review
Volume 1 | Issue 9

Collected
Essays on
Sustainable
Development &the Environment II

ISSN: 2188-9570

“FROM THE EDITOR

Editorial Committee Introduction

Welcome to Issue 9 Volume 1 of The IAFOR Academic Review. One of the central missions of The International
Academic Forum (IAFOR) is to provide avenues for academics and researchers to be international, interculturaland interdisciplinary. One of the ways in which we do this is through our in-house magazine Eye Magazine, ourvarious conference proceedings, our journals, and now beginning in 2015, our special editions of The IAFOR
International Academic Review. In this edition we, the editorial committee, bring together a further selectionof interesting contributions from our prior IAFOR Conferences with respect to the discussion of Sustainable
Development and the Environment. Sustainable Development is ultimately about the interplay between
people and ecologies by helping to meet the world’s growing resource needs economically, culturally, sociallyand environmentally in the most responsible way possible. It is also about not taking the environment that
we all share for granted and making sure that our resource use has equity placed at the centre of its use andmanagement. Not just for today but also for the future. The papers selected by the editorial committee for thisspecial edition certainly reflect the international, intercultural and interdisciplinary approach that lies at the heartof both IAFOR and the global goals of sustainable development and the environments we work and live in.
Sincerely,
Michael Liam Kedzlie
Editormkedzlie@iafor.org

Contributors

Yeon Ji Kim has been participating in diverse projects related to energy and environment policy and corporate
sustainability as a researcher and business consultant. Her main research interest is the sustainability strategy
from the industrial level to the policy making level. She gained her Master’s Degree from the School of Energy
and Environment (Green School), Korea University, South Korea. Ju Youn Kang is a researcher at the Korea
Adaptation Center for Climate Change. Her main research interest is the capacity building of various climatechange stakeholders, which include policy makers, vulnerable groups, as well as the private sector. She recieved
her Master’s degree from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in National University of Singapore, Singapore.
She was also a beneficiary of Korea National Scholarship for Overseas Study.
Marianne Faith Martinico-Perez is a post-graduate student under scholarship at Nagoya University, studying at
the Environmental Systems Analysis and Planning Laboratory. Her research focus is on the national and regionalsocio-economic metabolisms. Currently, she is balancing her time as a scholar whilst also being a Government
employee in the Philippines, at the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development. Marianne is a co-authorof the “Comparative Study on Assessment of EW-MFA and its implications in Myanmar, Bangladesh andPhilippines”, which was published in the Journal of Environmental Information Science 2014. Keijiro Okuoka
is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Nagoya University, Japan where
he teaches environmental engineering in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Architecture. Prior
to that he was a Research fellow at JSPS. He holds a Master’s in Civil Engineering, from Nagoya University
and in 2013 gained his Ph.D. in Engineering from Nagoya University. He is a member of the Japan Society of
Civil Engineering and the Architectural Institute of Japan and he is a Certified Surveyor. Hiroki Tanikawa is a
Professor at the Department of Environmental Engineering and Architecture at Nagoya University’s Graduate
School of Environmental Studies, Japan. He gained his Doctorate in Engineering from Kyushu University,
specialising in the engineering of environmental systems. He has been a visiting academic at the School ofEnvironment and Development, at the University of Manchester, UK, from 2004 to 2005, and was previously an
Assistant Professor at Wakayama University, Japan.
Magdalini Makrodimitri is currently pursuing an EPSRC funded Ph.D. in the performance evaluation of

4 | The IAFOR Academic Review Eighth Edition

FROM THE EDITOR

historic structures in the UK at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Architecture. Magdalini also holds
a Research Associate position within the Low Carbon Building Group at the Oxford Institute of Sustainable
Development, where she works on TSB, HEIF-4 and RCUK/ESRC funded research projects focusing on
building performance evaluation (BPE). Magdalini is a licensed Architect Engineer who graduated from the
National Technical University of Athens in 2008 and also holds an M.Sc. degree in Environmental Design andEngineering, awarded by University College London in November 2009. Her publications include papers on theenergy efficient refurbishment of existing housing stock in the UK and sustainability, energy management andpreservation of historic buildings of the public sector. James Campbell is an architect and architectural historian.
He has practised as an architect in the UK, Hong Kong and the United States. Dr. Campbell is a Fellow of theSociety of Antiquaries and Chairman of the Construction History Society. He is Director of Studies and Fellow
in both Architecture and History of Art in Queens’ College, Cambridge.
Tyson Weaver is actively involved in researching how firms make decisions and develop strategies, when focusing
on the development of new renewable energy. His published work has investigates the hydropower and offshore
wind industries, focusing on independent power producer strategies in both domestic and international markets.
Mr. Weaver holds a M.Sc. in Renewable Energy from Finland and has formerly worked in the wind and hydroindustry in the USA. Tyson Weaver is based at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology
Management, Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim Norway. Mr. Weaver also has
research affiliations with Sogn and Fjordane University College, Norway. Markus Steen’s academic interests
lie in regional and industrial development, production networks, innovation, entrepreneurship, policy, energy,
petroleum, environment, and sustainability. His most recent project focuses on industrial and technologicaldevelopment related to renewable energy, particularly offshore wind. A key focus is on the transfer of knowledge
and resources from offshore O&G to offshore wind. The overarching ambition is to contribute to understandingsof how new industries emerge and new technological/industrial paths are created. Markus is based at the
Department of Geography, Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway.
Clara Chidammodzi is a doctoral student at Nagoya University, Graduate School of Environmental Studies.
She graduated with a B.Sc. in Environmental Science and Technology in 2007. After graduation, she worked as
an Irrigation Water Management Specialist at the Government of Malawi’s Department of Irrigation Services.
She later joined Nagoya University and in 2013 obtained a Master’s Degree in Environmental Studies. Clarais currently conducting research on the Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) of Lake Malawi and ispiloting an indicator-based tool for monitoring and assessing ILBM in Lake Malawi. She is also a research
assistant at the Nagoya University Global Center of Excellence. Victor Shiholo Muhandiki is a Professor in
the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Nagoya University, Japan. With his earlier education at the
University of Nairobi, Kenya, he then came to Japan, attaining his Ph.D. in 2001 from the Kyoto University
Graduate School of Engineering focusing on environmental geo-engineering. His research specialisation iswater resources management and environmental policy and his particular area of interest has been assessment ofIntegrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM). He has also been involved in studies on development of evaluation
methods for Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects in the water and environment sectors.
George Martin is a sociologist who specialises in urban sustainability. His most recent collaboration is with
H. Feng, D. Yu, Y. Deng, M. Weinstein, and G. Martin on “System Dynamic Model Approach for Urban
Watershed Sustainability Study”, International Journal of Sustainable Development 5 (December, 2012): 69-80.
He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and lives in New York City, London, and California. He
is Professor Emeritus at Montclair State University, US; Visiting Research Associate at University of California,
US; Visiting Professor, Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, UK; and Senior Editor of thejournal, Capitalism Nature Socialism.
Miho Kamei is currently working for the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) in Japan asa Research Associate. She is also an experienced architect and city planner. Before joining NIES, Ms. Kamei
studied a M.Sc. in Sustainable Urbanism at University College London, Bartlett School of Planning, UK.

The IAFOR Academic Review Eighth Edition | 5

How Does the Energy Industry Deal with Climate Change?
Perception and Actions of the Energy Industry on Climate Change

By Yeon Ji Kim, Korea University, South Korea &Ju Youn Kang, The Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change, South Korea
Abstract
The extent and pace of climate change is already beyond our expectation. Its impacts are now experienced in every
country. There is no time to lose; not only to mitigate green gas emission for slowing down the current pace of change,
but also to learn how to live with expected impacts, which were induced by previously emitted green gases. The energy
industry, a motive power for economic development, is the main culprit of climate change but, at the same time, it isalso vulnerable and sensitive to the change. This paper quantitatively and qualitatively analyzes perception and actionsof major energy companies and discovers good examples for responding to climate change. First, this paper explores
how the key bodies in the energy industry perceive and respond to climate change. The study utilizes companies'
sustainability reports including annual reports from major 77 energy companies from the fortune 500 businesses (2012),
and analyzes the disclosure patterns of the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) indicators. It also refers to the Carbon
Disclosure Project (CDP) Global 500 on the Climate Change responses. Second, this paper selects the best cases ofclimate change response by the industrial value chain from production to transmission and scrutinizes them. It is
discovered that many companies consider climate change as a challenge as well as an opportunity, but the extent of
their responses were varied. It also proposes some suggestions on climate change response policies of the energy
industry. The findings of this paper have practical significance, as it is one of rare researches on a specific private sector’s
response to climate change. Furthermore, it has policy implications for decision makers not only in the business sector
but also in governments to support sustainable businesses and sustainable world.

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition3

1. Introduction
The extent and pace of climate change is already beyond our expectation. Its impacts are now experienced in every
country. Rapid climate change has been severe and has created many problems throughout the world. Among thevarious definitions available for climate change, the definition offered by the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change is the most comprehensive. According to this definition, climate change is the change in thestatistical properties of the climate system over long periods of time, regardless of cause. (IPCC, 2001) Moreover,climate change refers to a change in climate that is directly or indirectly attributed to specific human activity that alters
the composition of the global atmosphere, and this change is above and beyond the natural climate variability observed
over comparable time periods. (IPCC, 1994)
Demand for energy and associated services, to meet social and economic development and improve human welfare andhealth, is increasing. (IPCC, 2011) All societies require energy services to meet basic human needs and to serve
productive processes. Since approximately 1850, global use of fossil fuels has increased to dominate energy supply,
leading to a rapid growth in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. (IPCC, 2011) Accordingly, the energy industry is being
blamed for much of the observed climate change because this industry is a major source of carbon dioxide, which has
been shown to contribute to climate change. However, this industry is also vulnerable to impacts of climate change,
and those impacts must be analyzed to make plans not only for mitigation but adaptation to climate change. These
activities will eventually increase the sustainability of the energy industry. This paper analyzes the risks andopportunities of the energy industry created by climate change, and summarizes how the energy industry copes withthese risks and opportunities. This paper also highlights the current and emerging best practices within the energy
industry and provides future recommendations for policies regarding climate change for policy makers and managers
in the energy industry.
Companies in this sector have large fixed assets with long lifetimes assets that are vulnerable to climate impacts
predicted to become increasingly severe over time. (Ceres, 2011) Therefore, it faces climate change impacts on its own
operations. Furthermore, the mining companies face potentially significant risks from the physical effects of climatechange, largely because the sector is very water- and energy intensive and operates in some very politically challenging
countries. (Ceres, 2011) These activities will help the energy industry’s sustainability. This paper is to discover the risks
and opportunities of climate change in the energy industry and summarize how the energy industry copes with theserisks and opportunities. To promote the idea in the industry it also highlights the current and emerging best practices.
Finally it will help provide recommendations for policy makers and managers in the energy industry.

2. Research Resource and Structure
Companies that compete globally are increasingly required to commit to and report on the overall sustainability
performances of operational initiatives. (Carin Labuschagne, 2003) The Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) and
Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) provide with very useful tool to figure out the sustainability trend. The GRI’s vision
is that reporting on economic, environmental, and social performance by all organizations becomes as routine andcomparable as financial reporting. (GRI, 2009) Companies will disclose all relevant sustainability information using
GRI guidelines, as well as additional sector-relevant indicators. (Ceres, 2011) Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)—
Since 2003, the CDP has been requesting information from corporations on their greenhouse gas emissions footprint
and the risks, including physical risks, related to climate change. In 2011, more than 3,700 companies responded to
the CDP questionnaire. This research focuses on the energy industry in terms of the climate change. Scope of energy
industry is vast and it also has the anterior and posterior effects. Given the immense and diverse nature of this industry,
this research cannot cover all corporations within this market segment. Therefore, the focus of this research is limited
to corporations in the energy industry that were named on the Fortune 500 list in 2012. This includes also companies
in the category of Oil, Gas, Fuels, Energy Equipment, and Services and corporations within the energy industry as
defined by the GRI and the CDP. This paper explores how the key bodies in the energy industry perceive and respondto climate change. The study utilizes companies' sustainability reports including annual reports from major 77 energy
companies.
3. Climate Change Risk and Opportunity
Climate change can definitely affect business operations. Indeed, these changes can present both risks andopportunities. Table 1 shows the climate change phenomena and the predicted future trend for each phenomenon.
Potential impacts of climate change – on natural resources, unmanaged ecosystems, sea level rise and water resources

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition4

– are hard to be estimated and make prevention actions.
Table. 1 Climate Change Phenomenon Likely to Affect to the Energy Industry (IPCC) 1
Phenomenon

Likelihood of trend

Contraction of snow cover areas, increased thaw in permafrost regions, decrease in
sea ice extent

Virtually certain

Increased frequency of hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation

Very likely to occur

Increase in tropical cyclone intensity

Likely to occur

Precipitation increases in high latitudes

Very likely to occur

Precipitation decreases in subtropical land regions

Very likely to occur

Decreased water resources in many semi-arid areas, including western U.S. andMediterranean basin

High confidence

Corporations can make decisions whether to take action or not in the face of specific results of climate change. If theydecide to take action, two approaches are available, i.e., mitigation and adaptation. According to the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) definition, climate change mitigation focuses on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions and/or enhance the removal of these gases from the atmosphere through carbon sinks. (B. Metz etal., 2001) In contrast, adaptation to global warming is a response that seeks to reduce the vulnerability of biologicalsystems to climate change effects. Even if emissions are stabilized relatively quickly, climate change and its effects canlast many years, thereby making adaptation necessary. (Farber, Daniel, 2007) In actuality, adaptation is a necessary
strategy for all players in the energy industry and should be used to complement any climate change mitigation efforts.
Adaptation, sustainable development, and enhancement of equity can be mutually reinforcing. ( Grida.no , 2001)

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
1

Definitions of likelihood ranges used to express the assessed probability of occurrence: virtually certain >99%, very
likely >90%, likely >66%.
Source: Summary for Policymakers, IPCC Synthesis report, November 2007 http://www.ipcc.ch/

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition

54. Perception of Climate Change from a Corporate Perspective
The energy industry heavily depends on natural resources, such as fossil fuels, water, and land. Moreover the energy
industry will confronted with the resource management crisis. Water is one of the critical resources. Water risk wasraised by business executives in the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2013. More than 1.2 billion people already facewater scarcity. By 2025, two-thirds of the world population will experience water stress. (Bloomberg 2013) The issuesof complex linkages between food, energy, and water will be raised more and energy sector will take more risk on theiroperation. Water stress will be more severe according to the IPCC scenario. In fact, 76% of the total water demandcomes from the energy industry in Northeast Asia with the current pattern of energy use and energy mix. The energy
companies in this study have indicated that they have adopted a heightened sense of awareness of the risks andopportunities induced by climate change. According to the CDP survey in 2012, the energy industry recognizes moreclimate risks (e.g., managing emissions and disclosing the alignment of the overall business strategy) thanopportunities.2
The energy companies indicate a heightened sense of awareness of the risks and opportunities. According to the CDP
survey in 2012, the energy industry considered climate change as a risk rather than an opportunity. Such as managing
emissions and disclosing an alignment of the overall business strategy. 3 Threats to business continuity due to increases
in intensity and frequency of extreme events caused by climate change can be significant risks created by climate change.
These extreme events can threaten the raw material supply and distribution chains, which would clearly affect theindustry’s ability to produce the needed energy. In actuality, adaptation is a necessary strategy for all stakeholders in
the energy industry and should be used to complement any climate change mitigation efforts.
Uncertainty about climate change regulations and increased costs due to the introduction of carbon taxes can create
significant doubt in the business environment and business operations. Therefore, the changes made by the government
in an effort to address climate change risk also make an impact on the financial side of the energy companies. Moreover,in terms of environmental management, optimistic emission reduction efforts result in significant cost implications forall energy sector companies. Additionally, changes in consumer needs from conventional energy to renewable energy
are changing the face of the energy industry. For a conventional energy corporation, this could possibly present a major
negative impact on their revenue.
Despite the many associated risks, climate change also creates some benefits. For example, companies that are up-todate with climate change policy changes can make additional revenue from reducing emissions, and they can be a player
in the emission trading market. Also it is expected to see new market creation (ex. energy efficiency technologies,
renewable energy) and it will create massive investment.

5. Disclosure Analysis
This paper is based on disclosure information collected in the form of the GRI indicator. The GRI disclosure index iscomposed of the items. Table 2 described and covers all corporate activities in relation to climate change. The ten
indicators in the GRI index relate to the adaptation and mitigation activities associated with climate change.
Table. 2 GRI Indicators relating to Climate Change
Indicator

Explanation

EC2

Financial implications and other risks and opportunities for the organization’s activities due to climatechange.

EN2

Percentage of materials used that are recycled input materials.

EN5

Energy saved due to conservation and efficiency improvements.

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
2
3

Survey rate is not the same at the each industry level within the energy industry.
Survey rate is not the same at the each industry level in the energy industry.

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6

EN6

Initiatives to provide energy-efficient or renewable energy-based products and services, andreductions in energy requirements as a result of these initiatives.

EN7

Initiatives to reduce indirect energy consumption and reductions achieved.

EN10

Percentage and total volume of water recycled and reused.

EN18

Initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reductions achieved.

EN13

Habitats protected or restored.

EN14

Strategies, current actions, and future plans for managing impacts on biodiversity.

EN26

Initiatives to mitigate environmental impacts of products and services, and extent of impact
mitigation.

Figure 1 shows the percentage of energy industry companies on the 2012 Fortune 500 list that used the GRI indicators
for their sustainability reporting. It is worthy of note that the general energy industry has a high rate of reporting.
Nevertheless, engineering companies report at the minimum rate. Also, note that the companies that publishedsustainability reports without reporting the GRI indicator were not included in this quantitative analysis.
Figure 2 shows that the disclosure rate in the energy industry by sector. The disclosure rate is very high in the oil andgas equipment industry, whereas the pipeline industry has the lowest disclosure rate as it is associated with manyenvironment impacts and sensitive issues. The disclosure patterns for environment information and climate change
information is similar in most segments of the industry, but the reports from the electric, mining/crude oil, andpetroleum refining segments reveal more climate change activities than general environmental activities.

5%
9%Electric

28%

4%

EnergyEngineering
Mining/Crude Oil17%

Oil and Gas Equipment
Petroleum Refininig
Pipeline

13%

Utilities: Gas and Electric8%
16%

Figure 1. Reporting Rate by Sector in the Energy Industry

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7

60%

53%
46%

50%

46%

39%

40%
30%

56%

32%
25% 24%

42% 43%37%29%

19% 19%20%
10%0%Electric

EnergyMining/CrudeOil

Oil and Gas
Equipment

Average of Climate Change Disclosure %Petroleum
Refininig

Pipeline

Utilities: Gas
and Electric

Average of EN Disclosure %Figure 2. Comparison of Disclosure between Climate Change and Environment by Sector
The nature of the disclosure can be categorized into the following four categories: recognition adaptation, mitigation,and the others. The average of adaptation disclosure in the energy sector is higher than the mitigation disclosure. The
percentage of material used is the lowest disclosed indicator. Recognition of climate change is also not highly disclosed
as it is an initial step to respond to climate change. Companies often report to recognize climate change in a certain
year, and they only report to the follow-up measures in the following years. Adaptation and mitigation activities areoften treated as the activities of risk management, and new market development and creation in the energy industry.
Figure 3: Disclosure Rate By Category (i.e., recognition, adaptation, mitigation, and the others)

4

Figure 4 shows the disclosure rate for each indicator. Companies are very active in reporting EN 27 and EN15. Amongthe adaptation indicators, EN 26 got the highest disclosure rate. In terms of mitigation, EN 18 had the highest
disclosure rate, and EN2 had the lowest.

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
4

Fortune 500, 2012 Oil and gas and utility industry, 38 out of 72 were only eligible produced the reliable information,2010 -2012 data

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8

Figure 3. Disclosure Rates according to GRI Indicators

31%
32%

EN30
EN29
EN28
EN27
EN26
EN25
EN24
EN23
EN22
EN21
EN20
EN19
EN18
EN17
EN16
EN15
EN14
EN13
EN12
EN11
EN10
EN9
EN8
EN7
EN6
EN5
EN4
EN3
EN2
EN1
ec2

39%

21%

42%

26%
25%
39%

33%

38%

29%

39%

33%
24%

43%

39%

33%
35%
33%

27%

31%
32%

36%
36%
36%

30%
29%

38%
38%
40%

33%

6. Action Analysis - Adaptation/Mitigation
This paper analyzes the self-reported information in relation to climate change of the Fortune 500 energy
corporations. Although the presented data is based on limited information, it illustrates the level and scope of activities
on climate change within the industry. Figures 5 and 6 show some companies’ activities related to climate change
adaptation and mitigation. It is challenging to illustrate their activities as its extent and pattern are varied. However,to indentify the difference among the companies, the paper categorizes the companies according to their business type(e.g. upstream, and downstream), and pays attention to the difference between the categories. There is some limitationin this analysis. First, the boundary between downstream and upstream is unclear. Second, it is difficult to assess thecompanies’ activities as some of them are only pledged and not yet proved to be implemented.
Consequently, more activities related to adaptation are found than the activities in relation to mitigation. For theadaptation strategies, weather is a very important action variable. Such companies as EVN conducted risk site
assessments. The facilities of Encana, Wood Group, and FirstEnergy are well suited to endure potential temperature
and weather-related shifts. Moreover, some companies took action on adaptation in their business plans byimplementing employee training and resource management. Based on their recognition that water will be affected byclimate change, Transocean and Sempra Generation implemented water recycling in effluent processing to allow thereuse of residual water. Exxon spanned multiple industries and developed new technologies that can improve resilience
to climate change. Occidental Petroleum adopted a long-term view of research on climate change and the potential
human influences on the climate. Furthermore, some companies (e.g., the EDF Group) even tried to promote energy
efficiency with the end user.

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9

Figure 5. Adaptation Activities Analysis

Figure 6 Mitigation Activities Analysis

Mitigation related activities were not reported as much as the adaptation related activities, but some promising
activities was found in the disclosed information. Profac, Chevron, and British Gas expanded their operations into therenewable sector. CoconoPhillps diversified their energy sources. In terms of the carbon issues, Schlumberger, Husky
Energy, Eni, and DTE Energy actively used carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

7. Findings and Discussions
Climate change will likely impact the production, demand, and distribution of energy. As the energy industry has
contribute to increasing CO2, the action made by the energy business for climate change can help to mitigate the speedof climate change over all. At the same time, the energy industry is the one to be prepared for responses to this rapidchange in order to survive. It is encouraging that this industry is showing signs of recognizing the risks andopportunities induced by climate change. Adaptation and mitigation actions are slightly propagated in the oil and gas
industry. Even though there are some recognition and engagement actions, by the nature of corporate, pursuit ofprofits, their actions are very limited.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, U.S.), climate change will likely impact the production,
demand, and distribution of energy. Although the energy industry has contributed to the increase in carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere, the actions taken by the energy industry in an effort to address climate change can help to mitigate
the overall speed of climate change. Furthermore, this industry needs to be prepared for these rapid changes in orderto survive. The fact that this industry is showing signs of recognizing the risk and opportunities induced by climatechange is encouraging. However, adaptation and mitigation actions in the oil and gas segments still are few. Even
though we can identify some prevention and engagement actions, these actions are limited due to their impact on
profits. Nevertheless, mitigation and adaptation actions will improve corporate sustainability. In conclusion, to
promote actions on the industrial level, strategic alliances are needed. Additionally, stakeholder management, including
customers, is needed. Moreover, some actions are also needed on the policy making level. Global agenda setting, andquality and quantity assessment in terms of mitigation and adaptation are needed. The GRI index is fairly a good
indicator and can be used generally to share the company information with the related stakeholders. Political power
and market power is very essential to make a real change. The industry by itself is difficult to be changed. Therefore,
appropriate incentives as well as supports from outside are necessary for the industry to be change. Especially, politicalstability can act as an incentive. Furthermore, carbon taxes and subsidies for low carbon technology can also help theoverall corporate strategy. If the carbon trading market is normalized and fully established with various stakeholders
including the corporate that emit carbon dioxide, those corporate will be more active on these issues. These components
are interlinked with one another. Last but not the least, education on sustainability and climate change to the public(e.g., stakeholders, customers, and communities) is also important. Many companies have mentioned that the change
in consumer’s attitude is one of the highest risks associated with climate change. This type of education will beeventually a help to the corporation’s business.

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition108. Concluding Comments and Research Implications
One of the more significant findings deducted from this study is that many companies in the energy industry starts toconsider climate change as a challenge as well as an opportunity, but the extent of their responses were varied. The
findings of this paper have practical significance, as it is one of rare researches on a specific private sector’s response to
climate change. Furthermore it has policy implications for the decision makers not only in the business sector but also
in governments to support sustainable businesses and sustainable world.
To date, little research relating to climate change adaptation and mitigation in the oil and gas industry has been
published. There is no unified method to check corporate actions related to climate change. Cost-benefit analysis is
only applicable if the variances of both costs and benefits are finite. In the case of climate change, the variances of the
net present marginal costs and benefits of greenhouse gas emission reduction need to be finite. Finiteness is hard, if
not impossible to prove. (Richard, 2003) However, an experimental and trial analysis can be initiated first, and it will
eventually be a help to make the market more climate change friendly.
Even though this study could serve as a good start toward creating a research model, it is limited in terms of the quality
and quantity of the data used. This research is entirely based on corporate sustainability reports. It must be noted that
self-reports from corporations can be biased. Also, there is a possibility that some corporations may be active in theseissues without reporting their activities. Furthermore, the disclosure information reported may not accurately reflect
their actual adaptation or mitigation actions. Indeed, the quantity of information does not necessarily relate to thequality of action, and the reporting culture and rules vary according to the source of energy and the region in which
the energy is produced. The current indicator frameworks that are available to measure overall business sustainability
do not effectively address all aspects of sustainability at operational level, especially in developing countries such as
South Africa. Social criteria, specifically, do not receive due considerations. (Carin Labuschagne, 2003)
The time period for which the data represents is also very limited. In fact, the corporate sustainability report covers aperiod no longer than 5 years. Most of companies also publish the reports less than two times. Lack of available
information makes difficult for this research to figure out a significant trend of the energy industry. Moreover,comparing the actions of the companies is also difficult due to time and regional variations. This research used thesustainability report that has been published for the past 3 years. Nevertheless, the time period for the data collectionis hard to coordinate for all of the companies becuase the regional and national laws do not apply to the each company
in the same manner. Lastly, this paper is based on the energy companies on the Fortune 500 list; therefore, it is not agood representation of the renewable energy industry, which is still in its infancy.

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References
CDP - Driving sustainable economies https://www.cdproject.net
Global Reporting Initiative https://www.globalreporting.org/
Modeling the Impacts of Climate Change on the Energy Sector: a Swiss perspective , Camille Gonsethy andMarc Vielle, Research group on the Economics and Management of the Environment(reme.epfl.ch)30 mai 2012
(Annex I. In: Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment
Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (B. Metz et al. (eds.))[Farber, Daniel A. Adapting to Climate Change: Who Should Pay"], 23 FLA. ST. U. J. LAND USE & ENVTL.
L. 1, 8 (2007)
Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability". Grida.no. Retrieved 2010-08-29
Climate Change. Education Center – Arctic Climatology and Meteorology. NSIDC National Snow and Ice Data
Center. ; Glossary, in IPCC TAR WG1 2001.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change". 21 March 1994.
Adapting to Climate Change: A Guide for the Energy and Utility Industry Tiffany Finley, Associate,
Advisory Services Ryan Schuchard, Manager, Climate and Energy, BIS
IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation- This Summary for
Policymakers was formally approved at the 11th Session of Working Group III of the IPCC, IPCC, 2011
Assurance statement practice in environmental, social and sustainability reporting: a critical evaluation B
O'Dwyer, DL Owen - The British Accounting Review, 2005
Corporate environmental disclosures about the effects of climate change E Stanny, K Ely - Corporate Social
Responsibility and Environmental Management, Volume 15, Issue 6, pages 338–348, November/December, 2008
Assessing the sustainability performances of industries
Carin Labuschagnea, Alan C. Brenta, Ron P.G. van Erck, Journal of Cleaner Production Volume 13, Issue 4, March
2005, Pages 373–385, 2003
From Risk to Opportunity Insurer Responses to Climate Change , E Mills Ceres Report, 2009
Corporate governance and climate change: Making the connection DG Cogan ,Cres, 2006
The Road to 2020: Corporate Progress on the Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability, Ceres, 2011
Physical Risks from Climate Change: A guide for companies and investors on disclosure and management ofclimate impacts,Ceres, 2011
Water Risk to Business Is No Small Drip (Bloomberg 2013.01.30)
Is the uncertainty about climate change too large for expected cost-benefit analysis? Richard S. J. Tol ,Climatic Change, 2003
Estimates of the damage costs of climate change. Part 1: Benchmark estimates,Richard S.J. Tol,
Environmental and Resource Economics, 2002
Opening image credit: East Greenland Terra MODIS ice cap covering the Arctic Ocean. Flickr Creative
Commons/gsfc (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)	  The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition

12

Resource Consumption, Material Flow and Economic Growth:
the Case of the Philippines

By Marianne Faith G. Martinico-Perez, Keijiro Okuoka & Hiroki Tanikawa,
Nagoya University, Japan

Abstract
This study utilizes the method of Economy-wide Material Flow Analysis (EW-MFA) to examine the trends inthe resource consumption, material flow and economic growth from 1985 to 2010 in an archipelagic, developing
and newly industrialized country, the Philippines. Disaggregate presentation of EW-MFA indicators in terms ofmaterial categories such as fossil fuel, biomass, ore and industrial minerals, and construction minerals attempts toelucidate the consumption patterns and the impacts to the environment. Since only few studies on the EW-MFA
were done in the developing countries, this research can be regarded as one of the first attempts to study the
economic growth of the Philippines in terms of physical dimensions. Results show that the annual amount of permaterial category of DMC increased significantly with biomass (70%) and construction minerals (13%) as themost consumed materials in 1985, however, construction minerals increased to 41% while the biomass decreased
to 42% in 2010. The IPAT (Impact (I) = Population (P) x Affluence (A) x Technology (T)) analysis shows that
population (P) and affluence (A) are the key driving forces of resource consumption in the Philippines. The
decoupling condition of resource consumption from economic development shows varying trends of nondecoupling and relative decoupling in a 25-year period reflecting the development plans and strategies
implemented throughout the study period. The results of this research are intended to assist in the future
development strategies towards the sustainable resource management and sustainable development in thePhilippines.

Key Words: Material Flow, Consumption, Decoupling, Economic growth

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1.  

Introduction

It is the ultimate goal of every economy to reach a certain degree of development and so for last decade, global
efforts to improve the low-income economies had resulted to unprecedented growth of economies and uplifted
the significant number of populations out of the poverty line all over the world. Tantamount to the growth of
economies is rapid withdrawal and utilization of the materials and energy from the environment. While theseresources provide the basic needs of the socio-economic system, the extraction, processing and utilization of theseresources bring disturbance to the natural ecosystem affecting biodiversity, displacement, and wastes discharged
to the environmental system. This environmentally unsustainable global consumption of natural resources
resulted to the numerous environmental problems being experienced encompassing the developed and developing
economies all over the world. The rate of resource consumption has been rapidly increasing, with the industrialized
and developed countries consume greater amount of resources than the developing counterparts and more so if
the developing countries would follow the trends of resource consumption in these developed regions.
The worldwide uneven distribution and the supply of the natural resources are also important factors to consider
in the current trends of resource consumption. While the developed countries such as Japan and other European
countries are now gearing towards utilizing technological innovations, putting institutional framework andpolicies in placed to de-link or decouple the resource consumption and economic growth, the developing
economies at the early stage of economic growth should also consider growth patterns and strategies that promotesustainable resource consumption. The resource decoupling would occur when the growth in the resource
consumption is lower than the economic growth, and while this concept is not a panacea to the current complex
socio-economic and environmental issues, it is still important to look into as decoupling encourages the increasein the resource efficiency and productivity.
The Asia-Pacific region is regarded as not only the center of economic growth in the world in terms of financial
production and consumption but at the same time, this region has the highest growth rates in the demand andutilization of materials and energy (Giljum et. al, 2010), registering the regional average of 85% per capita material
use terms with that of the rest of the world. The fast phase of economic growth in this region has been considered
to be unsustainable as characterized by the rapid growth of population; increased resource utilization and rapid
urbanization challenge the region’s sustainable development (UNEP, 2013). The current patterns of economic
growth in Asia would later affect the global demand and consumption of materials and the subsequently affect
the global environment such as increased emission of greenhouse gases and other forms of wastes.
To determine the resource consumption of the region or country, the development of physical accounts to quantify
the flow of resources from environmental system to socio-economic system using the economy-wide material flow
accounts (EW-MFA) is one of the important methods that gained popularity in providing useful information on
the resource extraction, consumption patterns and growth of the economies that could be used and related to theglobal, regional, national and local socio-economic and environmental issues. The EW-MFA is well studied andadopted framework in the developed countries but not widely applied in the developing countries. Recently,
comparative case study on assessment of economy-wide material flow accounts and implications was conducted
for the developing countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh and Philippines. Similarly, the study on driving factorsof resource flows in Myanmar, the Philippines and Bangladesh have been undertaken (Kyaw, et. al, 2014).
Studies incorporating resource consumption indicators with economic growth by utilizing the decoupling analysis
were done for China, Russia, Japan and United States (Wang, et. al, 2013) and Czech Republic (Kovanda et. al,2007).
The Philippines is one of the countries in Asia Pacific region that pledged commitment to the joint Asian policy
called the Manila Declaration on Green Industry in Asia in 2009. This declaration called for the need to increase
resource efficiency, inclusive economic growth in the developing countries and reduction of resource consumption
in the high-consuming countries in the region. As a newly industrialized country, it is timely to look into thePhilippines’ scenario of resource consumption in disaggregated, per material flow and implications on economic
growth. This study also attempts to determine the drivers of resource consumption and look into the pattern of
economic growth and resource consumption in terms of decoupling analysis to provide basis for the sound resource
management in the Philippines.
This research is organized as the following; Section 1 gives the introduction and background of this research,
Section 2 presents the socio-economic system of the Philippines while the Section 3 presents the methodology in

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14

the calculation of EW-MFA indicators and identifying the driving factors and decoupling trends. Section 4shows the discussion and analysis of trends of the indicators of EW-MFA. The driving factors of resource
consumption and the decoupling trends in the national economy of the Philippines are also discussed in thischapter. Section 5 presents the conclusion and recommendations for future research.
2.

The Philippine’s Socio-Economic System

The Philippines is an archipelagic country lying in the southeastern coast of Asia composed of 7,107 islands
stretching to an area of 300,000- square kilometer or 29.8 M hectares. Manila is the capital city and at center of
economic activities in the country. Philippines is one of the member states of Association of South East Asian
Nations.
2.1

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Population

The Philippine population is characterized by a high birth rate and gradually declining mortality rate. Since theinternational migration is relatively nil, the growth in population is greatly attributed to the natural increase or
the excess of births over deaths (PSY, 2010). The population increased from 54 M in 1985 to 93 M in 2010
(Worldbank, 2014) with compounding annual growth rate of 2%. The disparity in the spatial distribution of thecountry’s population maybe attributed to its geographical, socio-economic and climatic conditions. Similar to theglobal trend of urbanization, the urban population of Philippines rose from 48% in 2000 to 61% in 2007. It has
population density of 308 per square kilometers in 2010 (PSY, 2010).
The performance of the Philippine economy has been characterized by a regular pattern of boom and bust growth
cycle since the 1970’s. Because of this, the GDP (constant, 2005) modestly increased from 49,277 Million US$
in 1985 to 131,131 Million US$ in 2010 (Worldbank, 2014) with compounding annual growth rate of 4%. The
per capita GDP (constant 2005) also grew modestly from $912 in 1985 to $1,406 in 2010. The potential growthof per capita GDP appeared to be significantly constrained by a high population growth rate.
2.2

Structural Economic Transformation

There is a gradual shift in the Philippines’ economic structure changing from the high share of agriculture in the
GDP to growing shares of industrial and service sectors. Table 1 shows the changes in the economic structure of
the Philippines from 1985 to 2010. In 2010, the industry and service sectors comprised 88% of the shares tonational GDP. In terms of per sector share in GDP, the share of agriculture showed decline from 24.6% in 1985
to 12.3% in 2010. Similarly, industry share decreased from 35 % in 1985 to 33% in 2010, while the services
increased from 41% in 1985 to 55% in 2010.
Table 1. The Philippines’ Key Socio-Economic Indicators from 1985 to 2010
Indicators

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

54

62

70

78

86

93

Population density,(people/km2)

182

208

233

260

288

308

GDP, million US$(2005 constant)

49,277

62,10069,12582,354

103,066

131,131

GDP, US$ (2005
constant)/capita

912

1,002

993

1,061

1,201

1,403

Agriculture (value
added, % of GDP)

25

22

22

14

13

12

Population, million

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Industry (value added, %of GDP)

35

34

32

34

34

33

Services (value added, %of GDP)

41

44

46

52

54

55

(Sources: Worldbank 2014 and Philippine Statistical Yearbook, various years)
3.  

Methodology

3.1  Sources of Data

The methods for the estimation of the indicators and the categorization of the major types of resources in thisstudy of material flow accounting and analysis are based on the standardized and methodological guidebook
released by Eurostat (2001, revised 2009). Table 2 shows the four major resource types or categories of thematerials accounted for in this research and the sources of data. The data for indicators of material flow accounts
are also presented at this level of disaggregation. The quantity of all material per categories is expressed in termsof their mass (weight in tonnes) per year. In this research, the physical material flow is determined with the focus
on the direct material flow or the economically used resources only. This research does not consider the indirectmaterial flows or unused materials associated to the exports or imports and the hidden material flows from thedomestically extracted materials such as the mining overburden or unused byproducts from agricultural harvests.
Table 2. Data Sources and the Four Major Resource Categories of EW-MFA
Material Category
Biomass

Sub categories
From agriculture, forestry,
and fishery

Data Sources
Philippine Statistical Yearbook
Bureau of Agricultural Statistics
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic
Resources

Fossil Fuels

Fossil energy carriers suchas coal, oil, natural gas, andothersPrecious metals and basemetals ores, industrial
mineral, and others
Sand and gravel, and others

Philippine Statistical Yearbook
Department of Energy

Ores and Industrial
Minerals
Construction Minerals

Philippine Statistical Yearbook

Philippine Statistical Yearbook

3.2   Calculation of EW-MFA Indicators
3.2.1  

Domestic extraction (DE)DE refers to the amount of the materials obtained from the Philippine environment. It is estimated by using theequation below.
!

!!"(!) =!! ! + !! ! + !! ! + !! ! !
!

DE($) =

( B( $+ F( $ + M( $ + C( $ The DE(t) stands for domestic extraction at year t totaling of all

types of material types from x to y for each type of categories. The material categories are: Bx(t) refers to theextracted biomass of specific material x in specific year t, Fx(t) is the amount of extracted fossil fuel x in specificyear t, Mx(t) refers to the extracted metal ores and industrial minerals type x, and while the Cx(t) is amount of
extracted construction minerals x in specific year t.
3.2.2  

Direct material input (DMI)The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition

16

DMI refers to the direct input of materials into the Philippine economy. It is estimated as equivalent to the sumof amount of domestically extracted materials and the imported materials per category as shown in the equation
below:

DMI($) = DE $ +( I(($)!

!!"#(!) = !" ! + !

( I(($)

DMI($) = DE $ +

!!(!)
!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In this equation, the DMI(t) is domestic inputs at specific year t, DE(t) is the domestic extraction at specific year t,
and Ix is amount of imports x at that specific year t. Variety of imports material types varying from x to y are taken
into account.
3.2.3  

Domestic material consumption (DMC)

DMC refers to the amount of materials remained and utilized in the Philippine economy. It is calculated bysubtracting the amount of exported materials to the amount of DMI as shown in the equation below.
!

!!"# ! = !"# ! −( E( $

DMC $ = DMI $ -­‐‑
DMC $ = DMI $ -­‐‑ ( E( $!! ! !
!

The DMC(t) stands for direct material consumption at year t and Ex(t) refers amount of exports type x at year t.
Same as imports, all export types from x to y are taken into consideration in detail.
3.2.4  

Physical trade balance (PTB)

PTB indicates the physical trade surplus or deficit of an economy. It is estimated by subtracting the quantity ofthe physical imports I(t) from the quantity of the physical exports E(t) in year t as shown in the equation below.

!"#(!) = !(!) − !(!) !
3.3  PTB($) = I($) -­‐‑E($) PTB($) = I($) -­‐‑E($)

Analysis of Data

The indicators of EW-MFA depict the physical magnitudes of the economy and show the general and overview
of the quantitative picture to describe the material flows in the light of economic activities (Xu and Zhang, 2007).
Using these indicators, further analysis can be done to elucidate the complex relationships between theenvironment and socio-economic systems.
3.3.1  

IPAT Analysis: Drivers of Resource Consumption in the Philippines

This study utilized the method of IPAT model adapted as by Eurostat (2002), where the environmental impact(I) is the product of population (P), affluence (A), and technology (T), substituting the DMC to represent theenvironmental impact (Xu and Zhang, 2007). The driving factors of the resource consumption and economic
growth in the Philippines for 25 years is determined with the IPAT expressed as follows,

DMC = ∆P×

456
6

578

456

578

×
DMC = ∆P×
×
456
6
456
!"#
!"#

!"# = ! ∆!!×! ! !×! !"#!

where I corresponds to the DMC, P is Population, A refers to the GDP/capita, and T denotes the Material Intensity,
MI or equivalent to the DMC/GDP.

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition173.3.2  Decoupling Analysis

Based on the method introduced by the OECD (2002), decoupling factor is calculated as follows:
Error!
expected.Error!
expected.

Decoupling factor (Df) =

Digit
Digit

where Df refers to the decoupling factor, EP refers is the environmental pressures, and DF is the driving force.
In this study, resource consumption or DMC is used to represent environmental pressure and GDP represents
the economic driving force and the interpretation of the calculated decoupling factor is based on the table below(Wang et. al, 2013).
Table 3. Decoupling factors and corresponding degree of decoupling
Degrees of Decoupling

Decoupling factor, Df

Absolute decoupling

D f ≥1

Relative decoupling

0 < Df <1

Non-decoupling

D f ≤0

4.

Results and Analysis of Data

4.1  Indicators of EW-MFA in the Philippines

4.1.1 Domestic Extraction

Million tonnes

Figure 1 shows the material domestic extraction (DE) in Philippines from 1985 to 2010. The quantity of DE
was more than doubled in 25 years, from 116 million tonnes (Mt) in 1985 to 335 Mt 2010. Biomass andconstruction material were the two most extracted materials in the Philippines comprising 95% in 1985 and 90%
in 2010, respectively. The amount of biomass grew from 94 Mt in 1985 to 157 Mt in 2010. The active construction
activities in the economy resulted to the increase in the extraction of construction minerals from 17 Mt in 1985
to 146 Mt in 2010. In 1997, the significant increase in the amount of construction minerals was accounted to thesudden increase of sand and gravel extraction from an amount of 31 Mt in 1996 to 77 Mt in 1997, same year atwhich the construction industry grew to 21% (MTPDP, 2010), the highest growth from 2004 to 2010. Sand andgravel are the basic minerals utilized in the infrastructures required to support the needs of the growing economy
Domestic Extraction in Philippine Economyof the Philippines.

400
350
300
250
200
150
100

Fossil Fuels

Ores and Industrial Minerals

Biomass

Figure 1. Domestic extraction in the Philippine economy from 1985 to 2010

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18

Construction Minerals

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

0

1985

50

4.1.2

Direct Material Input

Figure 2 illustrates the trends on the direct material input (DMI) in terms of the four major material types. DMI
was estimated from the sum of DE and the quantity of import. The DMI doubled from 135 Mt in 1985 to 379
Mt in 2010. The biomass remained to be the highest material input for the 25-year period, comprising 44% of
DMI. Both the input of fossil fuels and biomass were more than doubled, from 16 Mt and 96 Mt in 1985 to 32
Mt and 169 Mt in 2010, respectively. The ores and industrial materials increased from 6 Mt in 1985 to 29 Mt in2010. The DMI of construction minerals rose significantly from 17 Mt in 1985 to 148 Mt in 2010. The majorityof direct material input was attributed by the domestic extraction (from 86% in 1985 to 89% in 2010), while theshare of imports in DMI varied from 9% to 17% in a 25-year period.
Million tonnes

Domestic Material Input

400
300
200

Fossil Fuels

Ores and Industrial Minerals

Biomass

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

0

1985

100

Construction Minerals

Figure 2. Direct material input in the Philippines from 1985 to 2010
4.1.3 Domestic Material Consumption
The domestic material consumption (DMC) measured in this study refers to the natural materials (without waterand air) obtained from the Philippine environment, used and remained in economy after the exported materials
were deducted, and the quantity of the imported materials were added. The amount of the consumed resourcesin the Philippine economy increased from 128 Mt in 1985 to 353 Mt in 2010 as shown in Figure 3. The biomass
had 72% share (92 Mt) and construction minerals had 13% (17 Mt) share of DMC in 1985. In 2010, however,the share of construction minerals rose to 42% (148 Mt), a share almost equivalent to biomass with 43% (152Mt). While the ores and industrial mineral and fossil fuels grew continuously in amount, it remained within 15%of the annual DMC.

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19

Fossil Fuels

Ores and Industrial Minerals

Biomass

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

1985

Million tonnes

Domestic Material Consumption in Philippine Economy

Construction Minerals

Figure 3. Domestic material consumption in the Philippines from 1985 to 2010
The quantity of biomass remained to be the significant materials in the Philippine economy, but the quantity andthe share of construction minerals in DMC began to increase in 1997. The growing amount of construction
minerals shows the increasing important role of the construction industry in the Philippine economy. It is also
indicated by the corresponding growth in the GDP in the construction industry with 10.5 % growth in 2010. The
increasing quantity of construction minerals also shows that the Philippine economy is moving towards theincrease dependence on the nonrenewable materials rather than the renewable materials or the biomass.
Such trends of material composition where the mostly consume materials are biomass and non-metallic minerals
are the common characteristic of the low income developing countries while trend in high income developing anddeveloped countries have high share of fossil fuels and metal ores due to shifting demands and consumption
pattern and growing industrial demand (Giljum et. al, 2010).

4.00
3.50
3.00
2.50
2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00

1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010

DMC (tonnes per capita)

The per capita DMC also increased slightly from 2.37 tonnes in 1985 to 3.78 tonnes in 2010. Figure 4 shows thematerial consumption perMaterial
capita broken
into major material
categories
the Philippines. The higher per capita
consumption(DMC)
perincapita
consumption of biomass is due to the significant agricultural and forestry sector in the Philippines.

Fossil Fuels

Ores and Industrial Minerals

Biomass

Construction Minerals

Figure 4. Trends on domestic material consumption (DMC) per capita in Philippines from 1985 to 2010

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition204.1.5

Physical Trade Balance

The PTB expresses the physical trade surplus or deficit of an economy. The surplus or a positive PTB value refers
to the net import of biophysical resources and deficit or the negative PTB value refers to the net exports. PTB is
estimated based on the amount of imports less than the exports. The quantity the imports, exports and PTB are
shown in Figure 5. Both imported and exported materials increased significantly in 25 years, with the amount ofimported material remained greater than the exported material. Imported materials rose from 19 Mt in 1985 to
43 Mt in 2010 while the exported materials rose from 7 Mt in 1985 to 26 Mt in 2010.

ExportImport

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

Million tonnes

External trade is important to a developing economy like Philippines. It does not only open the agricultural
products and manufactured goods of the Philippines to open market but the exchange of materials and open trade
bring the needed materials and equipment to the country that are durable and necessary to propel industries into
further productivity. Biomass consist of agricultural products comprised the highest amount of the exported
Import,exports
and physicaltrade balance(PTB) forfossil
Philippinesmaterials while thePhilippines
continues
to be dependent
on the imported
fuels to supply the energy needs.
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

PTB (I-E)

Figure 5. The trends on import, export and physical trade balance in the Philippines from 1985 to 2010
4.2

Drivers of Resource Consumption and Resource Intensity in the Philippines

With the use of IPAT analysis, the drivers of consumption in the Philippines were determined in terms of thethree important factors namely; population, affluence (GDP/capita), and technology expressed as material
intensity (DMC/GDP). The 25- year period was divided in five equal periods to determine the drivers of resource
consumption for every period as shown in the Table 4.
Table 4. Driving forces of the resource consumption in the Philippines from 1985 to 2010
Share Contribution
Using Log
Period∆DMC(I)(∆DMC∆𝑷∆𝑨 (%) ∆𝑴𝑰(T)Transformation
%)
(Mt)
(%)
(%)
P (%) A (%) MI(T)(%)
1985-1990
26
39.25
13
10
3
51
39
10
1990-1995
11
20.67
12
-1
1
103
-8
5
1995-2000
26
57.26
11
7
8
42
25
32
2000-2005
18
48.99
10
12
-5
57
69
-26
2005-2010
19
61.08
9
15
-6
47
83
-30
Note: DMC domestic material consumption, P population, A affluence, T technology = MI, Material Intensity
The change in the resource consumption from 1985 to 2000 was driven by the population growth, where theannual population growth rate in the Philippines from 1980 to 2000 was 2.35% and slightly decreased to 2.04%
from 2000 to 2007, while the growth of the Philippine economy made the affluence to be the major driver ofresource consumption in the last 10-year period of the study (2000 – 2010).

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21

The Philippine economy grew at a respectable pace over the period of 2001 to 2004, with 3 percent in 2001 to
6.7 percent in the first semester of 2004, and expanded at its fastest rate in three decades in 2007, at 7.1% GDP
growth. The global economic crisis in 2008 manifested its effect in the Philippines with the decline of GDP
growth to 1.1% in 2009 but recovered and rebound to 7.35% in 2010. This growth of economy, driven the
resource consumption showing that there is increasing part of the population who are improving in their lifestyles.
Those who can afford to buy not only the basic daily needs but enjoy other material things and quality services
also demand and consumed greater quantity resources.
The T (as expressed by material intensity measured from amount of material consumed per GDP (DMC/GDP)shows modest decrease in 2000 to 2010 as indicated by the decreasing values of -5% and -6%, respectively, butbecame negligible due to the increased in P and A. The material intensity needs to improve in a way that is related
to the growth of GDP to compensate the extractive pressures of socio-economic activities to the environment.
The material intensity is inversely related to the material efficiency, thus decreasing material intensity values meansincreasing efficiency in the consumption of the material or the resources.
The last decade of this study shows decrease in the material intensity showing the emerging awareness in thePhilippine socio-economic system on the importance of efficiency on resource consumption. This awarenessshould be supported and improved with institutional framework, adequate policies and implementation in thePhilippines that will strengthen the resource efficiency both in the important sectors such as agriculture fisheryand industries towards the goal of sustained economic development.
4.3

Decoupling of Resource Consumption and Economic Growth

In the decoupling analysis, it is aimed to depict the mutual relationship of the economic driving force andenvironmental pressure. The environmental pressure in this research is represented by the resource consumption
expressed as DMC, while the gross domestic product (GDP) is taken as the proxy for the quality of life and as
economic driving force. Similar to the IPAT analysis, the decoupling analysis was carried out in five equal years
in the 25-year period of the study.
Figure (DMC&GDP)
6 shows the decoupling trend on the resource consumption andDecoupling
economic growth from 1985 to 2010.
2005-2010
2000-2005
1995-2000
1990-1995
1985-1990(0.11)(0.08)(0.05)(0.02)No Decoupling

0.01

0.04

0.07

0.10

Relative Decoupling

Figure 6. Decoupling of resource consumption (DMC) from economic growth (GDP) in the Philippines from 1985 to2010
Based on this analysis, no decoupling occurred during the period of 1985 to 2000, as shown by the negative valuesof the decoupling factors. This indicates that for this period the growth in the resource consumption or DMC(188%) is higher than that of the GDP (167%). Relative decoupling occurred in the periods of 2000 to 2010 asshown by the positive values of the decoupling factors. Relative decoupling occurs when the growth rate ofresource consumption (DMC) is lower than the growth rate of GDP. From 2000 to 2010, the GDP grew by
156% while the DMC grew at a lower percentage of 144%.
The relative decoupling in the Philippines is quite modest since the higher the value of decoupling factor (0<Df<1),
the greater the degree at which the DMC grows at significantly lower rate than that of the GDP. Nevertheless,
it is important to recognize the beginning of the improvement in terms of resource consumption relative to theeconomic growth in the Philippines. While the Philippines continuously battles with the issues of poverty andinclusive economic growth and where resource extractive industries become the resort of economic growth, it is

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition22

also important to look into other sectors to improved and be a catalyst to economic development. At the period
at which the economy is expanding, the demand on materials such as construction minerals and fossil fuel are
expected to grow at a rapid rate, the Philippine government should formulate policies that would develop othersectors and would balance the demands from industrial sectors that would include the promoting the growth fromthe service sectors such as tourism activities.
5. Conclusion and Recommendations for Future Studies
This research illustrated the trends in the resource consumption, the flow of materials and the economic growthin the Philippines from 1985 to 2010. The extraction of the natural resources (DE) in the Philippines increased
to 289% along with the resource consumption (DMC) to 275% in the twenty-five year period of this study, while
the economic growth (GD) grew at a lower phase at 266%. The socio-economic system is on transition from therenewable material consumption (biomass) in 1985 to the nonrenewable material consumption (construction
mineral) in 2010. While this phenomenon is the usual trend in the growing economies, it is important forPhilippines should take a thorough look to improve the current resource consumption with the developing
patterns.
The resource consumption was driven by the population growth in 1985 to 2000, while the growing affluence
became apparent in 2000 to 2010. The material intensity showed a modest decrease in 2000 to 2010. However,there is a need to improve the material intensity in the utilization of the natural resources. In the analysis of
decoupling of resource consumption from economic indicator (GDP) showed relative decoupling from 2000 to
2010.
This study on the physical metabolism of the Philippines socio-economic system suggests that while the country
is at the early stage of economic growth and with abundance of natural resources, the resource management shouldbe geared towards resource efficiency to maximize the productivity in the utilization of these nonrenewable
resources. Strong institutional framework, develop policies that would achieve the sustainable development in thePhilippines.
The future research studies on the output indicators of EW-MFA and the quantifying the quantity of hidden
material flow associated with the domestic extraction in the Philippines should be taken into considerations.
Acknowledgement
This research was financially supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (S-64, 3k113002) of the Ministry of Environment, Japan.

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition23

References[1]   A. Adriaanse, S. Bringezu, A. Hammond, Y. Moriguchi, E. Rodenburg, D. Rogich, H. Schutz (1997).
Resource Flows: The Material Basic of Industrial Economies (World Resource Institute,[2]   Bringezu, S., Schutz, H., Steger, S. and Baudisch, J. (2004). International Comparison of Resource use andits relation to economic growth, the development of total material requirement, direct material inputs andhidden flows and the structure of TMR. Ecological Economics 51. pp 97-124.
[3]   Bringezu S., Schutz H., Moll, S. (2003). Rationale for the Interpretation of Economy-wide Materials Flow
Analysis and Derived Indicators. Journal of Industrial Ecology. Pp. 43 – 64.
[4]   CountryStat Philippines. Bureau of Agricultural Statistics. (http://www.countrystat.bas.gov.ph). Accessed on
27 September 2013. Accessed on 27 September 2013.
[5]   Eurostat. (2001) Economy-wide Material Flow Accounts and Derived Indicators: A Methodological Guide.
Luxembourg.
[6]   Eurostat. (2009) Economy-wide Material Flow Accounts and Derived Indicators: A Methodological Guide.
Luxembourg.
[7]   Giljum S., Dittrich M, Bringezu S, Polzin C, Lutter S. (2010). Resource Use and Resource Productivity in
Asia. Trends Over the Past 25 Years. SERI Working Paper No 11. Sustainable Europe Research Institute(SERI). Vienna, Austria.
[8]   Giljum, S. (2004) Trade, material flows and economic development in the South: The example of Chile.
Journal of Industrial Ecology 8(1-2): 241-261.
[9]   Hashimoto, S., S. Matsui, Y. Matsuno, K. Nansai, S. Murakami, and Y. Moriguchi. 2008. What factors havechanged Japanese resource productivity? A decomposition analysis for 1995–2002. Journal of Industrial
Ecology 12(5–6): 657–668.
[10]   Kovanda, J., T. Hak, and J. Weinzettel. 2010. Material flow indicators in the Czech Republic in light of
the Accession to the European Union. Journal of Industrial Ecology 14(4): 650–665.
[11]   Kovanda J. Hak T. (2007) What are the possibilities for graphical presentation of decoupling? An
example of economy-wide material flow indicators in the Czech Republic. Ecological Indicators 7. 123–132[12]   Matthews, E. Amann, C. Bringezu, S. Fischer-Kowalski, M. Huttler, W. Kleijn, R. Moriguchi, Y.
Ottke, C. Rodenburg, E. Rogich, D. Schandl, H. Schutz, H. vander Voet, E. and Weisz, H. (2000). The
Weight of Nations: Material Outflows from Industrial Economies. World Resource Institute.
[13]   Maung K.N., Komatsu T., Martinico-Perez M.G., Lwin C. M.,
Mohammad S., Sugimoto K.,
Okuoka K. , Murakami S., Tanikawa H. (2014). Assessment of Economy-wide Material Flow Accounts
and its Implications: Comparative Case Studies in Myanmar, Bangladesh and Philippines. Journal ofEnvironmental Information Science, pp. 51-60, Vol.42, No.5.
[14]   Maung K.N., Martinico-Perez M.G., Komatsu T., Mohammad S., Murakami S., Tanikawa H. (2014).
Comparative Studies on Driving Factors of Resource Flow in Myanmar, the Philippines and Bangladesh.
Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2.
[15]   Medium Term Philippine Development Plan 2011 – 2016. National Economic and Development
Authority. www.neda.gov.ph. Accessed on 18 March 2014.
[16]   OECD. (2002). Indicators to Measure Decoupling of Environmental Pressure from Economic Growth.
[17]   Philippine Statistical Yearbook (various years). National Statistical Coordination Board. Philippines.
[18]   SERI, GLOBAL 2000. Friends of Earth Europe. 2009. Overconsumption? Our use of the world’s
natural resources. Vienna & Brussels.
[19]   Schandl, H. and J. West. 2010. Resource use and resource efficiency in the Asia–Pacific region. Global
Environmental Change 20(4): 636–647.
[20]   Schandl, H. and M. Turner. 2009. The dematerialization potential of the Australian economy. Journalof Industrial Ecology 13(6): 863–880.
[21]   United Nations Environmental Programme. (2013) Recent trends in Material Flows and Resource
Productivity in Asia and the Pacific, Thailand.
[22]   Wang, H., Hashimoto, S., Moriguchi, Y., Yue, Q., and Lu, Z. Resource use in growing China: Past
trends, influence factors and future demand. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 2012, 16(4): 481–492.
[23]   Wang, H. Hashimoto, S. Yue Q. Moriguchi Y, Lu, Z. (2013).Decoupling Analysis of Four Selected
Countries: China, Russia, Japan, and the United States during 2000 – 2007. Journal of Industrial Ecology
17 (4). 618 – 628.

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[25]  

World Development Indicators. (2013) http://data.worldbank.org/indicator. Accessed in 9/11/2013.
WWF, Zoological Society of London, Global Footprint Network. 2008. Living Planet Report 2008.
WWF, Gland, Switzerland.
[26]   Xu, M. and Zhang, T. (2007). Material Flows and Economic Growth in Developing China. Journal ofIndustrial Ecology, No. 11(1), pp. 121-140.
Opening image credit: Chocolate Hills, Philipinnes. Flickr Creative Commons/Didier Baertschiger

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition

25

Surveying Historic Buildings:
Valuing Sustainability in Places of Worship
By Magdalini Makrodimitri & James W.P. Campbell
University of Cambridge, UK

Abstract:
Historic buildings contribute positively to all aspects of sustainable development. They are more thanan environmental and cultural asset; they are an important driver for economic development anddelivering social objectives. In the first instance this paper looks at the factors that need to beconsidered in order to assess the sustainable performance of listed buildings. There is an increasingawareness of the necessity of balancing comfort with energy efficiency. In order to be sustainablehistoric edifices, including places of worship – which account for a large part of the cultural heritage inthe UK– need to willing to adapt to modern comfort requirements but the question is how to do so
without risking damaging the historic fabric and exactly how far it is right to adapt these structures at
all rather than adjust our ideas of comfort. Historic buildings provide particularly difficult challenges tomanage environmentally both because alterations have to avoid destroying the historic character of thebuilding and because changes in the internal environment can easily have adverse effects on that historicfabric. The results of detailed survey of four case-studies, including monitoring, and building thermal
simulation and comfort surveys applied to historic church buildings are used here to generateconclusions on the thermal efficiency, performance and risks associated with changing micro-climaticconditions of places of worship. This paper suggests broadening existing sustainability criteria for suchedifices in order to include the wider range of factors that affect sustainability in the historic built
environment.
Keywords: historic buildings, thermal comfort, sustainability, conservation, energy

	
  
	
  

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26

Introduction
Historic buildings by definition consist of structural elements and artworks that are uniquely valuable
and laws are formulated in most countries to afford them protection against demolition. However, therising expectations of thermal comfort constitute an additional threat to the preservation of theseedifices (Camuffo et al., 2007). Even in the heritage sector, the needs of modern society cannot be
entirely ignored. And to a certain extent it can be argued that the structural materials and elements thatmake up all existing buildings, including those of historical importance, which constitute natural
resources in themselves, should be preserved where possible to achieve sustainability (Meryman, 2005).

Improving the performance of the building envelope is often the first action to be considered whenstarting any sustainable retrofit of a building. In the modern structures this is typically achieved byinsulating, sealing and draught-proofing the building envelope, which reduces heat losses in walls,
ground floors, roofs and through loose windows fittings. However, the materials that make up or arefound in older buildings require higher rates of ventilation and much of this required ventilation wasprovided in the past by fortuitous air leakage- the buildings’ “leakiness” (Heritage, 2008). It has become
increasingly apparent that sealing and draught-proofing historic buildings can cause significant
deterioration of the internal fabric and the artifacts they contain and can also have a negative impact onindoor air quality and the occupants’ health. This research paper looks at the environmental
performance of historic churches, whose construction typology - high ceilings, massive un-insulated
masonry walls, decorative finishes, etc. - provides particularly difficult environmental challenges. It
provides key insights into sustainability in the historic built environment and the factors contributing
to the sustainability of historic structures; it highlights and presents a review of the most significant
issues of revising sustainability rating systems in order to include the whole range of factors that affectsustainability in the historic built environment.

Sustainability, Climate Change And Conservation
Conservation and sustainability are related in a broader ecological sense (Rodwell, 2007). English
Heritage’s “Regeneration and the Historic Environment Heritage as a catalyst for better social andeconomic regeneration” (2005) highlights the benefits of using existing buildings rather thanconstructing new ones. In the words of another paper: “The greenest building is the one that’s alreadybuilt” (National Park Service. U.S. Department of the interior, website, 2012). One important reason
for retaining any exitsing building including those of histroic importance is that any new building will
involve considerable embodied energy (Jackson, 2005). The carbon released in building construction has
already been long expended in an existing building. Reusing buildings limits the need for new building
materials and reduces the structural waste from demolition work (English Hertiage, 2005). At the sametime, conservation is considered to be the most cost-effective form of preserving energy in the built
environment, since it appreciates the value of existing structures and thus embodied energy (Sedovic
and Gotthelf, 2011).

	
  
	
  

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27

Figure 1 Embodied energy- note that 24% spent wasted on buildings services, a figure than can besubstantially reduced by passive energy design(Cole and Kernan, 1996).

Although, the majority of historic buildings have been constructed with local materials which tend to
enclose low embodied energy, the total amount of energy possessed by both materials and the labour toconstruct the buildings is enormous (Figure 1) (Sedovic, 2003).

Sustainability needs to be seen in its broader sense and not just in terms of carbon emissions (Technical
Preservation Services, 2004). There are economic and social aspects of sustainability. On the social
level, the sense of place is often dependent on the retention of key buildings and landscapes. In
England older buildings generally have a greater economic value than new ones of similar uses. Areas
with a rich historic legacy have been show to have strong senses of local identity, and historic continuity
is an important local educational resource. Historic buildings and other historic assets of urban
environment promote community spirit and are often selected as places to host local social events(wedding, funerals, celebrations etc). Moreover historic buildings provdie a physical record of the past,
the destruction of which reduces our knowledge irreversibly. Few historic buidlings used much energy
for heating or lighting when originally constructed. Where they are inefficent it is modern adapttations
have made them so. In the past levels of comfort expected of building were far lower than today.
Extensive research has shown that historic buildings can be more environmentally sustainable and theirenvironmental performance can be, as good as, new-build projects (Pickard, 2004). On the economic
side, conservation and revival of historic environment creates jobs and thus assists the growth of local
economies (English Heritage, 2002) and there is no doubt that an environment of high quality
positively affects the performance of any business or community activities. However any scheme needs
to be aware of the risks of additions to historic building. It is not simply a matter of adding heating toexisting buildings. Siome heating can even be beneficial in certain climates, but poorly-designed heatingor cooling systems can cause deterioration to fabric and artworks, as they cause variations oftemperature and humidity beyond the limits required for conservation (Curteis, 2008).

Sustainability And Conservation
Historic environment conservation is closely connected to sustainable development and regeneration.
In the UK, government statements praise the relationship between the historic environment sector andsustainability (Pickard, 2004). It is recognised that a building can be valuable simply because it
represents the social and cultural attitudes of local people. Conservation needs to aim at preserving thecharacter and fabric of the historic building while meeting the needs of people who use them (Pearce,1989). J. Douglas in his book Building adaptation (2002) goes further, suggesting that all conservation

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition

28

work should be combined with regeneration work to improve people’s lives in ways that include thequality of local environment. English Heritage has long stressed that existing structures can be adapted
to modern needs when required. Indeed there are countless examples where this has been carried out.
Sensible alterations or the addition of existing buildings contribute to the sustainability of the urban
environment as this can offer people a sense of the familiar along with the excitement for the new(English Hertiage, 2005). Harvey (1972) warns however that it is difficult to decide how far it ispossible to alter a historic building without losing its architectural and historic qualities. In all historicbuildings including church buildings which are the focus of this paper, special attention to building
requirements and implementation of sustainable measures is essential. Places of worship are recognised
to constitute a unique type of building and thus normal conservation or environmental design methods
recommended for towns and other traditional structures are often not applicable to them (DEFRA,
2009).

Environmental Performance of Historic Structures:
The Case of English Churches
Churches constitute a signifcant part of the heritage of Western Europe. Whatever their size andreligion, from cathedrals to chapels, churches in the UK have always been seen as vitally important by
the majority of locals, congregations and visitors alike (Taylor, 2010). Unfortunately over the last few
decades many churches in the UK been abandoned (Bird, 1959). In England congretgations have beenfalling and clergy seeking to expand them are often qucik to blame cold and draughty churches. Most
historic churches remain in use for worship but with aging and dwindling congregations. Worship ischurches’ primary and main purpose, and as a rule historic buildings are best used for their intended
purpose. Alternative (conversion to housing, offices etc) tend to be espcially damaging to the special
architectural or historic interest of the building and thus not always a sustainable choice (Kelleher,
2003).

Securing sustainability of church buildings therefore means maintaining the building structure andcontents and while achieving a welcoming environmental conditions for participants. Ecclesiasticalbuildings are challenging case studies; given that churches represent a large part of the historic built
environment in the UK (Over 30,000 churches are listed in the UK, while Church of England is caring
for over 13,000 listed places of worship). As energy costs increase and congregations reduce cuttingenergy use is a necessary aim for the church. On a smaller scale, church buildings also pose particularchallenges to achieve an environmentally sustainable performance because they are complex structures;
their large volume creates additional difficulties in managing heating and air movement internally toachieve satisfactory comfort conditions; being occupied infrequently sets hurdles to the decisionmaking of installation of mechanical equipment and in parallel achieve energy conservation andacceptable comfort; and lastly as they are often buildings whose preservation is mandated by law any
environmental adaptation needs to be done with the minimum interruption to physical fabric andcontents.

Comparative Environmental Performance ff Case-Studies
This study focuses on four case studies, which have been used to test and challenge current thinking on
the performance of specific heating methods with regards to building behaviour and formation of
specific microclimatic conditions; and the on-site measured values of Temperature and Relative
Humidity. Among other conclusions, the research has shown that long-term monitoring can be a
successfully employed approach for analysing the microclimate of historic buildings and churches inparticular. However, the identification of any thermal stratification inside the enormous volume ofchurch buildings is particularly difficult due to access limitations. A plethora of factors may affect theenvironmental conditions at the upper levels of the building, such as intermittent occupancy, nonspecific schedule for windows and doors opening, instantaneous operation of heating or even occasional
failure of the building envelope.

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition29

It is important to remember that in England most older churches were originally constructed without
any heating provision, heating being uncommon until the late nineteenth century. Retaining theoriginal microclimate conditions by avoiding changing heating, ventilation or other mechanical service
operations, maintains a state of equilibrium is achieved between the moisture in the building structure
and that in the air (Curteis, 2004). Among all possible influences, heating has been proven to affect the
church microclimate most intensively, especially in the case of heating use for thermal comfort
provision for short time periods which usually causes environmental distress to the building structure
and is likely to become the source of deterioration of plaster, stonework and other historic material.

The following study is based on monitoring of Great St Mary’s, St Botolph’s, All Saints church andQueens’ College chapel in Cambridge, UK, which employ representative heating methods andmechanical equipment. Each case employs a different combination of heating system and strategy thatcauses particular variations in the building environmental response.

Despite the different methods employed, the Temperature per month in all case studies shows
remarkably homogenous conditions at both the lower occupied levels and in upper parts of thebuildings. (Figure 2) The buildings with constant heating strategies (Great St Mary’s and All Saints)
maintain rather high temperature conditions (average 15°C throughout the year). The intermittentlyoperated localised heating system in St Botolph’s church has little influence on the internal
microclimate of the church which generally follows the fluctuation patterns of the external conditions;however the building still acts as a buffer zone that maintains the indoor Temperature at approximately
5°C above outdoor Temperature level. Furthermore the lack of heating at the generally heated Queens’
College chapel during out-of-term time within the heating period provides significant differences inthe thermal conditions in the chapel.
Average	  Temperatures	
  (°C)	
  per	  month	  occuring	
  in	
  Case-­‐studies	
  (Level	
  0.60m)
Dec-­‐11Jan-­‐11
20.00

Average	  Temperatures	
  (°C)	
  per	  month	  occuring	
  in	
  Case-­‐studies	
  (Upper	
  Level)Dec-­‐11Feb-­‐1115.00

Nov-­‐11Mar-­‐11

10.00

5.00

Oct-­‐11

Apr-­‐11

0.00

Sep-­‐11

Apr-­‐11

0.00

Sep-­‐11May-­‐11Aug-­‐11Mar-­‐11

10.00

5.00
Oct-­‐11Feb-­‐11

20.00

15.00
Nov-­‐11Jan-­‐11
25.00

May-­‐11Aug-­‐11Jun-­‐11Jul-­‐11Jun-­‐11Jul-­‐11Gt	
  St	
  mary's	
  Level	
  0.60mSt	
  Botolph's	
   Level	
  0.60m

Gt	
  St	
  mary's	
  Level	
  8.00mSt	
  Botolph's	
   Level	
  7.00m

All	
  Saints	
  Level	
  0.60m

Queens'	
  College	
   Chapel	
  Level	   0.60m

All	
  Saints	
  Level	  10.50m

Queens'	
  College	
   Chapel	
  Level	   9.00m

External	
  Conditions

External	
  Conditions

Figure 2: Average Temperature per month occurring on the occupancy level and upper building part in all casestudies.

Detailed analysis provides more interesting results. The regressed temperature against relative
Humidity values on a typical Sunday when services took place in all case-studies, show concentrated
values at the occupied level in all case studies. (Figure 3) However the regression analysis reveals morevaried results in the upper parts of case-studies, most significantly at St Botolph’s church which isheated intermittently. The heating systems used in three out of four cases (Gt St Mary’s, All Saints andQueens’ college chapel) produce their effect by radiant means (and convective means in some auxiliary

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition30

spaces of Gt St Mary’s) which do not introduce any further particles into the internal microclimate.
However, in the case of St Botolph’s church, which is heated only for limited hours per week, thechurch is using both radiant local heating method through heating panels on pews and portable gas
flame heaters. The gas heaters are very efficient in producing fast and relatively low cost heat, however
they have the huge disadvantage that the main combustion product of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) is
water, each 1kg of gas burned producing about 1.5kg water (Curteis, 2004). The result is that using gas
heaters in a large church for only one or two hours, causes dramatic rises in absolute humidity, resulting
in condensation, immediately after they are turned off. Thus, RH in St Botolph’s church fluctuates
rapidly compared to other intermittently heated cases, such as Queens’ college chapel when the heatingis radiant and it operates for much longer periods before it is switched off. This is important because
high levels of humidity and particularly condensation, are detrimental to pictures, timber, paintworkand plaster and also, through mould growth, to human health. The conclusion is that general low level
constant heating is better for the building. This however is not necessarily the most energy efficientsolution, nor the most comfortable.
Temperature	
  vs	
  Relative	  Humidity	
  at	
  level	
  0.60m	
  in	
  all	
  case-­‐studies	  on	
  Sunday	  16	
  January	  201180Gt	
  St	
  mary's	
  Level	
  0.60m

75

R²	
  = 	
  0.3553

St	
  Botolph's	
  Level	
  0.60m

70

All	
  Saints	
  Level	
  0.60m

RH	
  %

65

Queens'	
  College	
  Chapel	
  Level	
  0.60m

R²	
  = 	
  0.7073

60

Linear	
  (Gt	  St	  mary's	
  Level	
  0.60m)

55

Linear	  (St	
  Botolph's	
  Level	
  0.60m)

R²	
  = 	
  0.4813

50

Linear	  (All	  Saints	
  Level	
  0.60m)

R²	
  = 	
  0.8456

45Linear	  (Queens'	
   College	
   Chapel	
  Level	  0.60m)

40
5

7

9

11

13
15
Temperature	
  °C

17

19

21

Figure 3: Temperature and RH correlation on occupancy level (0.60m from floor) in case studies during atypical one-day period.
Temperature	
  vs	
  Relative	  Humidity	
  at	
  the	
  highest	
  level	  in	
  all	
  case-­‐studies	  on	
  Sunday	
  16	
  January	  2011
90
85

Gt	
  St	
  mary's	
  Level	
  8.00m

R²	
  = 	
  0.3837

80

R²	
  = 	
  0.3392

75

All	
  Saints	
  Level	  10.50m

70

RH	
  %

St	
  Botolph's	
  Level	
  7.00m

Queens'	
  College	
  Chapel	
  Level	
  9.00m

65
60

R²	
  = 	
  0.2196

Linear	
  (Gt	  St	  mary's	
  Level	
  8.00m)
Linear	  (St	
  Botolph's	
  Level	
  7.00m)

55
50Linear	  (All	  Saints	
  Level	  10.50m)

R²	
  = 	
  0.5783

45

Linear	  (Queens'	
   College	
   Chapel	
  Level	  9.00m)

40
5

10

15

20

Temperature	
  °C

Figure 4: Temperature and RH correlation on upper part of case studies (average of 8 m from floor) during atypical one-day period.

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition

31

Energy Consumption In Places Of Worship
The energy consumption of a church varies with size, age, heating type, weekly occupancy and thecommunity use of the buildings (CofE, 2008). Managing and reducing energy consumption can havesignificant benefits for everyone. Reducing energy consumption reduces costs, and helps reduce thevolume of harmful greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere (CofE, 2008). Church of
England has undertaken surveys of church halls and other ecclesiastical buildings in order to estimate
the energy consumption in its premises with the intention of producing general guidance in due course
on energy saving measures. 60 church buildings within the Diocese of London and Westminster were
inspected as part of the Church of England’s environmental audits during 2009 and 2012. Those seriesof audits were part of the Diocese of London’s response to the church of England’s environmental
campaign, named “Shrinking the Footprint”, which aims to reduce carbon emissions of the wholeorganisation’s premises by 80% by the year 2050 (CofE, 2008). The aforementioned environmental
audits examined the churches’ energy use and carbon footprint as a result of fuel and water
consumption, waste and recycling. It was found that fossil fuels constituted the largest source of carbon
dioxide emissions. The survey has also revealed that approximately 43% of churches use natural gas and
21% use oil for space heating. In addition comparison between a rural and urban church revealed thatthe two types of church varied in terms of energy use patterns. The rural church used the majority of
total energy consumed for space heating (79%) and lighting (17%), while the urban church used only
53% of total energy consumption for heating (CofE, 2008). In many cases, in the urban churches,
especially the ones that are in constant operation, energy usage can be attributed to other uses (i.e.
kitchens, cafés, offices, etc) which made up a considerable percentage of the total energy consumption.
Figures 5 and 6 illustrate findings of the survey conducted in a rural and an urban church that hosts
community actions.
Energy	  Use	  Patterns	
  in	
  two	  types	  of	
  churches
100%
90%

79%

80%
70%
60%

53%

50%
40%
30%

17%

20%
10%
0%

4%

20%
8%

6%

Hot	
  WaterLighting

Rural	
  Church

Heating

12%
1%

Kitchen	
   Small	  Power Ventilation	  Urban	
  Church	
  and	
  community	
  centre

Figure 5 Energy use patterns in a Rural and Urban church.
It is evident that the majority of energy used in both cases can be attributed to space heating. However
the average energy consumption of a rural church is estimated to be less than a tenth lower than theannual energy consumption in an urban church. (Figure 3-2) It is clear that occupancy patterns play animportant role in church buildings energy use; rural churches have limited occupancy periods comparedto urban churches and use almost all the energy they consume for space heating during church services.

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition32

Total	  Energy	
  Use	
  (kWh/year)	
  of	
  two	  types	  of	
  churches

Urban	
  ChurchRural	
  Church030,00060,00090,000120,000 150,000 180,000

Annual	  Energy	
  use	
  (kWh/year)

Figure 6 Total Annual Energy use of Rural and Urban church with community use.

Estimated	
  Annual	
  Energy	  Consumption	
  Electricity

Gas	
  

All	
  Saints
Gt	
  St	
  Mary'sSt	
  Botolph's
Queens'	
  College	
  C hapel
0

100

200
300
400
500
Energy	  C onsumption	
  (KWh/m²)

600

Gas	
  G ood	
  Practice	
  R ange
Electrricity Good	
  Practice	
  R ange

Figure 7: Estimated Annual Energy Consumption in four churches in Cambridge.

Measures for Energy Conservation in Church Buildings
Carbon dioxide emissions from churches arise from a limited number of activities. Mainly emissions
come from energy used when heating and lighting a church but at larger sites other activities like hotwater generation, kitchen and catering activities and office energy use will also contribute. It should be
noted that using energy, whether it is electrical energy or fossil fuels like gas, oil or coal, will generally
result in the release of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere (CofE, 2008). Small scale wind
generation or solar power are generally not viable for most churches in the UK. Table 1 presents asummary of suggested energy saving actions that church building managers and users could undertakein order to achieve specific potential savings on their utilities bills (see). These measures can be of low,
medium or high cost and would include:•  Establishing a schedule for energy conservation by empowering energy saving considerations
to building users:o   Inform and consistently educate users about benefits of building energy conservationand methods of reducing energy demand in their building.
o   Conduct regular monitoring of building energy consumption by either manual meterreadings or via installation of specialised monitoring equipment, e.g. energy meterswith pulse output transmitters (if affordable). This is the simplest method of energymonitoring a church without need to install any extra hardware since regular meter

	
  
	
  

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700

readings and bills are kept to compare performance annually against benchmarks(Diocese of London, 2011).
o   Map the energy use patterns within the building through observation of energy end
uses in order to identify activities that use excessive energy.
o   Introduce energy benchmarks to building users and provide them with regularfeedback in order to understand the impact of particular activities or behaviours onenergy consumption of their church.

•  Effective settings and control of heating in churches can save up to 80% of energy use(Diocese of London and Carbon Trust, 2011). Measures to improve heating controls canvary:o   Adjust temperature set-points to match requirements for heating levels in church
environments.
o   Set appropriate time schedule controls to avoid waste of energy during long period
when the building is not occupied.
o   Consider creating zones within church building according to use patterns.
o   Take advantage of the high thermal capacity of historic churches thermallyheavyweight structure.

•  Investing in energy efficient plant equipment and controls can lead to significant reduction ofenergy demand:o   Low energy lighting lamp technologies and controls, e.g. Task/Ambient Lighting
Schemes.
o   Low energy space heating systems in combination with creation of
microenvironments for occupied zones, e.g. Floor-warming, pew heating.
o   Insulation of hot water pipework.

•  Although often constrained because of heritage characteristics of church buildings that requireconservation, particular fabric improvement options may prove to be robust and offer longterm benefits to energy demand reduction:o   Add insulation where the heritage fabric allows, e.g. roof voids, but ensureventilation to minimise the risk of condensation.
o   Check completeness and improve the condition and of roof insulation.
o   Improve air tightness through repairing building envelop failures, such as sealing
penetrations and joints in walls that may form unwanted air-paths, joints of walls toroofs, cladding panels and where services penetrate.
o   Check and improve condition of windows, grouting seals, closing mechanisms tominimise air leakage paths.
o   Consider high performance glazing for replacements with argon filled voids andspecial coatings to reduce the U value to less than 2.0 W/m2K including frame.
o   Secondary Glazing with high performing glass thin gap double glazing has been usedsuccessfully in heritage building refurbishments.
o   Check seals around doors, repair or replace as necessary.
o   Consider the fitting of draught lobbies to minimise the heat loss through external
doors used continuously by public or building occupants.

•   Micro generation equipment as soon as it is not visible from important view points and does
not damage historic fabric. However, since installation of renewable energy technologies
entails high investment costs with long payback periods,
Low
and
Zero
CarbonTechnologies (LZCT) should be considered once procedural and demand reduction measures
have first been put in place. Then LZCT would offer potential for major carbon reductions.

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition34

Table 1 Suggested energy conservation action for churches based on sources:(Diocese of London and Carbon
Trust, 2011).

Improve heating controls

Establish a schedule forenergy saving

Suggested
Primary
ActionLow and Zero Carbon Technologies

FabricEnergy efficient
improveme systems andnts
controls

Suggested
Primary
ActionSuggested follow-up options/actions

Potential cost
implications

Inform/educate users about benefits of building
Zero or low
energy conservation and methods of reducing
cost
energy demand in their building
Zero or low
Regular monitoring of building energy usage
cost
Monitoring and mapping of energy use patterns
Zero or low
within the building to identify activities thatcost
use/waste too much energy
Zero or low
Provide feedback to building managers and users
cost
Zero or low
Check temperature set points
cost
Zero or low
Check time schedule of controls
cost
Check the zoning of heating and ventilating Loworsystems according to use patterns.
medium cost
Take advantage of historic churches’ thermal Zeromass properties.
cost
Suggested follow-up options/actions

or

low

Potential cost
implications

Low energy lighting
Medium cost
Low energy space heating and controls according
High cost
to occupation patterns

Estimated savings on annual fuelbills (% of total utility cost per
annum)
5% - 15%
5% - 15%
5% - 15%
5% - 15%5% – 10%5% – 10%
10 – 15%
10 – 15%

Estimated savings on annual fuelbills (% of total utility cost per
annum)Up to 50%
Up to 20%
Up to 5%Insulation of hot water pipes.

Low cost

Insulate where heritage fabric allows but ensureventilation to minimise the risk of condensation.
Improve air tightness to establish better control of
air movement through the building.

Mediumhigh costMediumhigh cost

Photovoltaic Panels: Electricity Production

High cost

Solar Thermal Panels for Domestic Hot Water
High cost(DHW) provision

Biomass heatingHigh cost

GSHP (Ground Source Heat Pumps): SpaceHigh costheatingoror

Up to 10%
1% - 10%
Up to 76% reduction of electricity(mains) consumption
Potential for 100% offsetting ofgas (mains) use for DHW
Up to 56% reduction in carbon
emissions (gas consumption may
be 0 if gas boiler is not used asback up to heating and hot water
system)Up to 34%
(GSHP) would displace gas used
for heating but with additional
electricity use and would have
longer payback period thanbiomass boilers.

Regular meter readings were made in 2010 of the four church buildings in Cambridge in order toestimate the energy consumption per month (Figure 7). The survey was conducted in four
representative churches with different types of heating strategies:

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition35-­‐  
-­‐  
-­‐  
-­‐  

Great St Mary’s church, Cambridge: Constant Central (Trench) heating
St Botolph’s church, Cambridge: Intermittent Local (Electric Panels on Pews) heating
All Saints church, Cambridge: Constant Central heating, Thermostatically controlled to keep
the church at conservation temperatures (11.5°C -12°C)
Queens’ College Chapel: Central heating with water pipes on windows level.

Queens’ college chapel and Great St Mary’s church consumed large amounts of gas (m³/m²) andelectricity (KWh/ m²) due to regular use, compared to All Saints and St Botolph’s church. The casestudies that used gas for heating space consumed much more fuel (KWh/m2) than the ‘good practice’quantity suggested by the benchmark -151KWh/m2. The electricity consumption per annum seems to
be closer to the suggested values (CofE, 2008). St Botoph’s has been shown to perform poorly inconservation terms, leaving the question of whether All Saints provides adequate thermal comfort.
Thermal Comfort in Places of Worship
One of the evident purposes of the Building Research & Information special issue ‘Comfort in a Lower
Carbon Society’ (Shove, 2008) was to underscore how cultural and historical context has a significant
impact upon the techniques of achieving human comfort deemed appropriate at the time. This
undertaking is useful because it challenges assumptions that are often otherwise made about theambient conditions with which we should provide people when these assumptions could easily lead
towards certain undesirable outcomes. Supplying the same immediate environmental conditions topeople scattered across the varied local climates around the world would require enormous amounts ofenergy. The effect of these assumptions might also mean many people could quickly become so used to
specific ambient conditions that they turn their backs on the varied benefits that often follow thedecision to spend time outdoors (Shove, 2008).

Creating thermal comfort with background heating and local supplementary warmth should more often
be considered as a heating strategy in churches. Aside from technical upgrades of the building fabrics
and services to address thermal comfort, this strategy can easily complement such upgrades and achieve
better savings (Humphreys, 2011). Studies of thermal comfort in churches have shown that theoperative temperatures that churchgoers consider thermally neutral have varied greatly in different
cultures (de Dear, 1998, Humphreys, 1976).

To enable comparison of perceived thermal comfort levels occurring in all four case studies, responses
obtained from the thermal comfort questionnaire survey that took place in all churches have beenplotted in graphs that have expressed results in percentage of total answers obtained from each case.

Figure 8 reveals that the constantly heated churches (All Saints and Gt St Mary’s) with trench LPHW
heating system are more likely to offer thermally comfortable environments in comparison to St
Botolph’s and Queen’s College chapel whose answers are distributed towards the cool range ofperceived thermal comfort graph. Although in both later churches responses present a rather normal
distribution, large percentage of respondents indicated cool and slightly cool feeling, due to lack ofconstant heat inputs and thus low radiant temperatures expected to occur in these cases.

	
  
	
  

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36

Thermal	
  Comfort	
  in	
  four	  case-­‐studies
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Cold

Cool

Slightly	
  CoolNeutralGt	
  St	
  Mary's	
  -­‐ PMV	
  in	
  seatAll	
  Saints	
  -­‐ PMV	
  in	
  seatSlighlty	
  Warm

Warm

Hot

St	
  Botolph's	
  -­‐ PMV	
  	
  in	
  seatQueens'	
  College	
  chapel	
  -­‐ PMV	
  	
  in	
  seatFigure Error! No text of specified style in document. Perceived thermal comfort levels inside all four casestudies.

Cross	
  case-­‐study	
  comparison	
  of	
  preception	
  of	
  indoor	
  thermal	
  conditions
80%
70%

Gt	
  St	
  Mary's	
  -­‐ Heating	  system	  performance

60%
50%

St	
  Botolph's	
  -­‐ Heating	  system	  performance

40%
30%

All	
  Saints	
  -­‐ Heating	  system	  performance

20%
10%
0%
Very	
  Bad

Bad

Neutral

Good

Very	
  GoodQueens'	
  College	
  chapel	
  -­‐ Heating	  system	  performance

Figure 9 Rating of overall thermal conditions occurring inside all four case-studies as indicated byquestionnaire survey respondents.

Conclusions
It is key to improve energy and environmental management of historic buildings with minimal
intrusion. As in all other sectors, sustainable development in the historic built environment becomes anecessity. It is imperative for historic structures to reduce their footprint too. However, to achieve this,from an environmental performance point of view, buildings need to satisfy three key elements:

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition37•   Energy Efficiency
Historic buildings and especially church buildings can often be found on exposed sites; structures areoften massive, porous and damp. Due to the heritage value of their fabric and artefacts they contain,
there are significant constraints on the type of environmental adaptation measures which can be used to
upgrade their efficiency. For example, thermal insulation can be installed in roofs but is very difficult toincorporate in walls without significant effects on the building’s appearance. Most improvements focus
on renewing or upgrading existing building services, mainly heating systems in historic churches.
However, building services are often difficult to select appropriately thanks to limited knowledge of themechanisms that affect building fabric conservation and occupants’ satisfaction; and due to restrictions
on budgets to run them.

•   Conservation of Historic Fabric
To maintain usability and increase interest in historic buildings, in is important to conserve fabric andconserve in vigorous and economical ways. However historic structures, such as church edifices pose
more serious difficulties in applying effective and appropriate control of the environment than otherbuilding types. Best practice scenarios and principles are essential.

•   Human Factor
Although general guidance for design criteria for comfort exists, these need to be re-assessed. The
research undertaken in four case studies in Cambridge, has proven that existing conditions should befurther investigated to take into account human perception as well, rather than simply using predicted
comfort models. Very often requirements of people, objects and fabric, appear to be in conflict;however this research suggests that it is possible to combine occupant satisfaction, conservation andenergy efficiency.
Nevertheless, it is imperative to achieve better communication among key stakeholders, including
practitioners, such as architects, conservators, building services engineers, building managers andcurators, in order to achieve effective exchanges of knowledge that can balance the requirements ofeach party and thus benefit a wider public audience and society. Interdisciplinary thinking can result inbetter solutions.
Most of the adaptation solutions already exist and do not require of very complicated andtechnologically advanced equipment. The most important requirement is having a comprehensive
insight into the environmental requirements of occupants, historic elements and the energy saving
options available. It is often said that the “best is enemy of good”, often analysis shows that trying to
improve rather than reach some notional ideal may be the best and most practical solution forinterventions in the historic built environment.

	
  
	
  

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References
Bird, P. 1959. Churches, Artists, and People. Studies in Conservation, 4 (2).
Camuffo, D., Pagan, E., Schellen, H., Limpens-Neilen, D., Koslowski, R. & Bratasz, L. 2007. Church
Heating and the Preservation of the Cultural Heritage. Guide to the Analysis of the Pros and Cons of
Various Heating Systems. Results of the European project Friendly Heating (EVK4-CT-200100067), Brussels, European Comission.
Cofe 2008. Shrinking the footprint, The Church of England’s National Environmental Campaign,
Guidance on Energy Efficient Operation and Replacement of Plant and Equipment.
Deliverable D9 Carbon Management Programme. London: Church of England.
Curteis, T. 2004. Environmental Conditions in Historic Churches: Examining their effect on wall
paintings and polychrome surfaces Transactions of the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors'
Association, 5 36 - 46.
Curteis, T. 2008. The survey and identification of environmental deterioration. The Building
Conservation Directory. London: Cathedral Communications Ltd.
De Dear, R. J., & Brager, G.S. 1998. Developing and adaptive model of thermal comfort andpreference. . ASHRAE Transactions, 104 (1).
Defra 2009. Waste Strategy, Annual Progress Report 2008/09. London: Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs.
Diocese of London 2011. Options, Challenges, Solutions, Limitations. Environmental Challenge.
London: Diocese of London.
Diocese of London And Carbon Trust 2011. Generic Building Solutions. In: ARUP (ed.).
Douglas, J. 2002. Building adaptation. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
English Heritage 2002. Heritage Dividend 2002. Swindon: English Heritage.
English Hertiage 2005. Regeneration and the Historic Environment. Heritage as a catalyst for bettersocial and economic regeneration. London: English Heritage.
Harvey, J. 1972. Conservation of Buildings, London John Baker.
Heritage, E. 2008. Energy conservation in traditional buildings. London: English Heritage.
Humphreys, M., Nicol, F., & Roaf, S. 2011. Keeping warm in a cooler house creating thermal comfort
with background heating and local supplementary warmth. Historic Scotland Technical Paper
14. Scotland: Historic Scotland.
Humphreys, M. A. 1976. Field studies of thermal comfort compared and applied. Journal Inst. Heaing.
& Ventilation. Engineering 44 5-27.
Jackson, M. 2005. Embodied Energy and Historic Preservation: A Needed Reassessment. APT
Bulletin, 36 (4): 47-52.
Kelleher, S. (ed.) 2003. New Work in Historic Places of Worship, Swindon: English Heritage
Maddex, D. & National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States 1981. New energy from old
buildings, Washington, D.C., Preservation Press.
Meryman, H. 2005. Structural Materials in Historic Restoration: Environmental Issues and Greener
Strategies. APT Bulletin, 36 (4): 31-38.
Pearce, D. 1989. Conservation today. London.
Pickard, R. 2004. The Role of Historic Buildings in Urban Regeneration: Eleventh Report of Session
2003–04. House of Commons ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions
Committee. London: The Stationery Office Limited.
Rodwell, D. 2007. Conservation and Sustainability in Historic Cities, Oxford, Blackwell publishing Ltd.

	
  
	
  

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Sedovic, W. 2003. History's Green Genes. The second International conference on Sustainability(GreenBuild), 12-14 November 2003. Pittsburgh, PA: Green Building Council.
Sedovic, W. & Gotthelf, J. H. 2011. Paradox to Paradigm. Sustainability & Performance of Heritage
Buildings. Proceedings of Energy Management in Cultural Heritage conference, 6-8 April 2011.
Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Shove, E., Chappells, H., Lutzenhiser, L., & Hackett, B. 2008. Comfort in a lower carbon society.
Building Research & Information, 36 (4): 307-311.
Taylor, J. 2010. Listed Places of Worship. The Building Conservation Directory. London: Cathedral
Communications Ltd.
Opening image credit: King's College Chapel, Cambridge. Flickr Creative Commons/ seier+seier

	
  
	
  

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Firm Level Motivations and Barriers for Initiating
Sustainability Transitions in the
Norwegian Energy System
By Tyson Weaver & Marcus Steen,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

1. Contextures of Sustainability Transitions
It is well understood that humankind is set upon an unsustainable trajectory. In attempts tounderstand how we can begin to make a shift towards a more sustainable path, academics have begun
devising several emerging theories of sustainability transitions. The transfer of resources from nonsustainable to sustainable sectors, a process that Cooke (2012) has defined as transversality, is crucial tosucceeding the grand energy system transition. This restructuring of societal production andconsumption patterns will not occur overnight, and thus transitions are understood to be long-term
processes spanning multiple decades (Konrad et al., 2008, Farla et al., 2012). As a point of departure
we find it prudent to share Jørgensen’s belief that sustainability should be considered as a journey,rather than a destination. What is the role of dominant firms in this journey? Do they take a proactive
or reactive stance? What are their motivations for pursuing sustainability? What barriers stand in theirway? These questions have been posed before, yet there is much work to be done to complete ourunderstanding.

	
  
	
  

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According to Moors et al. (2004) transitions are regarded as large societal transformation processes
which are not deterministic or predetermined, and involve the emergence and diffusion of newtechnologies into user domains with societal embedding. With the pursuit of sustainability at the focal
point, understanding how processes unfold that engage transitions is of importance to scholars andother stakeholders alike. Much focus has been placed upon framing sustainability transitions in a larger
systems perspective which has shed light on the bigger picture but according to Farla et al. (2012) these
insights may have overshot more actor oriented analyses. In light of much work that has been done in
the technological innovations systems and strategic management frameworks, we have begun tounderstand how niche innovations have the capability to disrupt the existing regime and force
prevailing actors to respond to such niche innovations. A prevailing a priori assumption in the strategic
niche management and technological innovation systems literature is that incumbents resist changes
within the regime, are focused upon pursuing their status quo through the control of resources, andmost importantly, take a reactionary stance towards green innovations that guide the regime towards
sustainability transitions (Jacobsson and Lauber, 2006). Whilst there is antecedent evidence to support
this claim, we believe one in the same as Bob Dylan in that the ‘times are a changin’. Whilst new
entrants may at times be credited for the creation of niche green innovations that promote thesustainability agenda, we argue that it is the incumbents who embrace these that realize the rollout
from niches to full scale market economies with these innovations.
It has been well versed that disruptions to the regime can come from innovations or landscape forces,
but what is overlooked is the transformation from inside the regime itself. We argue that the role oftransversality at the incumbent level of the regime is constrained by the firms’ dynamic capabilities andmotivationally impinged upon their future strategic orientations. The article is structured as follows.
First we discuss the role of incumbents in regimes, followed by linking extant grounded theories instrategic management to discourse in sustainability transitions. We follow with presenting the research
backdrop and questions for empirical investigation. Section 4 outlines our methodological approach,with ensuing results presented in section 5. We conclude with some theoretical implications forsustainability transitions and propositions for further research.

1.1.   Incumbents and the triple P
A key node in sustainability transitions theory is the role of firms. The success of sustainability oriented
transition management depends greatly on interactions, performance (Morioka et al., 2006), andintentions of the stakeholders involved. In the case of actors within the energy regime, one of thelargest challenges to achieving sustainability transitions is surmounting the path dependence and lockin conundrum. This entrapment in existing systems may be difficult to dislodge (STRN, 2010), but wemust be mindful that transitions unfold over longitudinal time scales and thus it is most interesting togain more insight into the timing of actor engagements that disrupt, or perhaps intervene upon,
existing path dependencies.
It has been commonly argued that niche actors create protected spaces in a technological regime, andincumbents are forced to respond to such new innovations (Hockerts and Wüstenhagen, 2010, Farla etal., 2012). We have thus set forth an empirical analysis of the energy regime in Norway in attempts touncover several key facets of how sustainability transitions unfold at the regime level. Contrary to
Penna and Geels assessment (2012), we posit that a number of incumbent actors proactively engage
into the green innovation agenda on their own volition.
1.2.   On the need for the inclusion of complementing theories
It has been stated there are many theoretical advancement opportunities in sustainability transitions
theory through the inclusion and incorporation other existing and established theoretical knowledge
bases (Markard et al., 2012). Amongst these vast opportunities, we have chosen to incorporate
doctrines rooted in strategic management studies into our theoretical framework.
One of the key theoretical challenges in sustainability transitions is the appropriate construct of its
conceptualization when so many factors are at play. Jørgensen (2012) proclaimed one and the same
highlighting the need ‘to combine an analytical understanding of… path dependent dynamics of

	
  
	
  

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dominant societal configurations…with a process oriented understanding of situated actor’s possibilities
of engaging in transitional processes.’ This vulnerability creates opportunities for sustainability
transitions to come under stark criticism from distinct academic disciplines. Ranging from policy tosociety to industry regimes which all take a stake and play a role in transitions, proponents of themultilevel perspective have worked feverishly to address this theoretical demurring (Geels, 2011, Smithet al., 2010). In line with Markard et al. (2012), we believe that sustainability transitions can benefit
greatly from the inclusion of existing theories that can ultimately both critique and broaden existing
theoretical knowledge of the field.
2.   Theories On Strategic Orientations of the Firm
Strategic orientation is a concept widely used in the research field of strategic management to reflect
future directions of the firm as devised in a strategic corporate plan. It involves the conceptualization of
how a firm will position itself moving forward with the creation of a plan, and the managerial actions
to allocate of resources to implement that plan. Strategic orientations may entail a variety of options forthe firm including internationalization, diversification, and innovation activities. The underlying
rational for incorporating the following theoretical contributions from management science and theirconnection to the role that incumbents play in sustainability transitions is the simple question: how do
firms explore to create new value?
2.1.   Market and Product Mixes
According to industry life cycle theory firms must seek new ways to create value to survive the longhaul. A firm eventually finds itself seeking to take existing products or services into new markets ordevelop new ones for their existing market. This has traditionally been conceived to occur at thematurity or decline stages of the model. Firms therefore either look for new ways of consolidating or
increasing their domestic market shares (Gallego et al., 2009) through incremental product and service
innovations, or seek market expansion abroad. Managerial perceptions of stimuli, their attitudes
towards risk, and an understanding of the firms resource base create the foundation for which strategicorientation decisions of the firm are made. Firm level positing and their resource base within a given
industry will play a major role in their capability to engage into new activities. Scholars have thoroughly
investigated the identification and significance of firm resources with attention being paid to tacitknowledge, network capabilities, financial wherewithal, and innovative capabilities.
The focus of our work is then upon diversification in strategic reorientation. Diversification in
strategic management has taken a wide form of constructs over its theoretical evolution, but we choose
to focus on product and market level diversification based upon Ansoff’s seminal work (1957) reflected
in Figure 1. It is well established that diversification basically occurs along the two axes of market andtechnology, and often in ‘proximity’ to skills/technological relatedness to the ‘base position’ of a given
firm (Neffke and Henning, 2012). Theory suggests that a key element in firms’ diversification
strategies is to leverage existing resources by slowly shifting product and market penetration matrixes
further out along both axes.

	
  
	
  

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Figure 1. Product and market diversification mix; modified from (Ansoff, 1957)
2.2.   The corporation as an entrepreneur?
The recent academic definition of entrepreneurship goes far beyond its historical connotation of small
startups. Entrepreneurship embodies risk taking, proactivity, innovativeness, and strategic response to arecognized need through coordinated economic activity. Given that corporations are nothing morethan a collection of individuals, they possess the same capability to demonstrate these characteristics asa single individual. Therefore the notion of entrepreneurship has been extended beyond its neoclassicalmeaning to include all collections of individuals that exhibit such behavior, including corporations.
These newly defined boundaries have given rise to the growing body of literature on corporate
entrepreneurship. It reflects how established corporations can act entrepreneurially by venturing into
new business areas to identify and explore the potential of new business opportunities, even at times
when no existing market for the product exists (Frederiksen and Davies, 2008). Thus firms thatengage in diversification by extending their activities into areas marginally related to their current
domains of competence exhibit characteristics of corporate entrepreneurship (Burgelman, 1983).
Corporate environmental strategies began to take shape in accordance with greater demand forcorporate social responsibility throughout the 1990s, resulting in a strand of entrepreneurship literature
based around these principles. Sustainability transitions and sustainable entrepreneurship share close
linkages. According to Hockerts and Wüstenhagen (2010), sustainable entrepreneurship is the‘discovery and exploitation of economic opportunities…that initiate the transformation of a sector
towards an environmentally and socially more sustainable state’ (p.482). An alliance that the sustainable
entrepreneurship research stream shares with sustainability transitions is the notion that new entrants
disrupt stability in the regime, forcing incumbent firms to respond to new green niche innovations.
Hockerts and Wüstenhagen’s conceptual work offered us a significant takeaway: when incumbents
positively respond to market introductions from new entrants, incumbents propel transitions. They
deem incumbents engaged in these gradual transformations ‘greening goliaths,’ as strategic
reorientation repositions incumbents along new lines towards sustainability paths.
2.3.   To Track on Beaten Paths or Forge New?
The concept of organizational learning through exploration versus exploitation was championed byMarch (1991) which implied that firms choose between two trajectories to renew knowledge based
assets of the firm. Exploitation emphasizes refining the firms knowledge base through incremental
steps with high degrees of control, certainty and risk minimization (Prange and Verdier, 2011),
whereas exploration entails greater departure from the norm implying more risk of expansionary plansoutside of core competencies (March, 1991, Barkema and Drogendijk, 2007) with discovery,
experimentation, and innovation at its core (Prange and Verdier, 2011). According to (He and Wong,
2004, Benner and Tushman, 2003, Barkema and Drogendijk, 2007), firms operating in a technological

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition44

domain seeking exploitation improve on existing components within existing product and market
domains, whereas exploration implies a shift to a different technological trajectory altogether.
2.4.   Path Dependence and Lock In
As firms move further through industry life cycle their past histories may constrain what they can do in
the future (Teece et al., 1997). These path dependencies give a firm their current stock of capabilities
but also constrains future strategic options (Medcof, 2000). Path dependence is a powerful force inenergy systems (Lovio et al., 2011) as much of the existing system is characterized by stability, lock-in(Verbong and Geels, 2010) and large sunk costs into the existing infrastructure. Outside of the obvious
infrastructural lock-in that embodies energy systems, the related skills and belief systems associatedwith former legacies complicate transitions towards new systems (Verbong and Geels, 2010) or paths
breaking away from the sector all together. This entrapment in existing systems may be difficult todislodge (STRN, 2010), but it is most interesting to gain more insight into the timing of actor
engagements that disrupt, or perhaps intervene upon, existing path dependencies.
The past may not only constrain and shape on-going evolution, but also constitutes the platform forwhich diversification processes unfold, implicating an enabling view on path dependence (Martin andSunley, 2006). In line with Dewald and Truffer (2012) we argue that cross-sectorial resource transfer
will depend on firms’ historic capabilities and will be impinged upon their strategic intentions to pursue
new product and market opportunities.
3.   Motivation for this Contribution
We find it timely to research diversification and path creation within the energy system due to the factmany energy systems throughout the world are undergoing transformation along political, technical,
and socio-economic lines. Therefor the underlying tenant to this research stream is the need tounderstand processes that firms in a given regime endure, and more specifically for our work, theeffects of being exposed to new stimuli that act as triggering factors which forces firms to search for
new paths in either proactive or reactionary stances.
3.1.   Research Setting
Norway is an energy nation. As a country it is a major global producer and exporter of natural gas andoil (gas: 4th, 3rd; oil: 15th, 7th respectively). The extraction of fossil fuels on the Norwegian continental
shelf currently generate tax revenues amounting to 23% of GDP, and represent about half of totalexports, making the petroleum sector Norway’s largest industry (OED, 2013). Figure 2 reflects the
Norway’s drastic increase and imminent decline of petroleum extraction. Like many other countries
globally, available reserves are on the decline as peak oil and peak gas have already occurred in the early
2000’s (based upon known reserves).

Figure 2 Norwegian peak oil and gas (OED, 2013)
The country has amongst the highest percentage of renewable energy in its electricity supply globally(over 97%), provided namely through hydropower that was primarily built out during the water wave of
the 50s-80s. The global rise of environmental and social concerns that plagued the hydropowerindustry throughout the 1990s and 2000s drastically slowed down new development of this clean

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition45

energy resource. Of Norway’s total domestic hydropower resource base of 217 TWh, 60% has been
built out, 25% is protected, leaving 15% available for further development for future generations tomeet future energy needs (NVE, 2011).
With the EU renewable energy directive, Norway has also committed to increasing its share of primary
renewable energy consumption from the 2005 baseline year of 60,1% to 67,5% in 2020. The strategicplan of implementation has resulted in a joint subsidy support mechanism for renewable energy in the
power sector with Sweden, with both countries jointly responsible for adding 26,4 TWh of new clean
power to the common grid. Interestingly enough, the estimated production trajectory of renewableenergy share of electricity for Norway was cited at 113,6% in 2020, reflecting large renewable energy
export plans with the surplus (MPE, 2012).
Given this background context of a nation that has built strong industrial foundations around these twocore industries in which limited opportunities existed for both more fossil extraction and hydropower
development in the mid to late 2000’s, we find it most interesting and timely to empirically investigate
if and how sustainability transitions are unfolding. What will the Norwegian energy systemtransformation look like? Will the oil and gas sector strategically reorient itself from grey to green?
Given the favorable existing high penetration of renewables in the power sector, what technologies will
be utilized in expanding production?

3.2.   Research Question
In light of the aforementioned literature review, we propose the following research question:
What are firm level motivations and barriers for pursuing diversification within the energy regime?
That transitions unfold over long time scales, we find it prudent to investigate why firms are interested
in pursuing the ‘green agenda,’ and equally importantly, what barriers stand in the way of doing so.
Understanding that motivations and barriers come from both inside the regime and the externallandscape, we developed two frameworks that reflect both internal and external motivations andbarriers as depicted in Figures 3 and 4. Furthermore we developed our framework to test whether firms
in the energy system are more proactive or reactive, based upon their motivations for engaging into new
activities that promote sustainability transitions.

Figure 3. Motivational framework for pursuing diversification within the energy system

Figure 4. Barriers framework for pursuing diversification within the energy system
4.   Methodological Structure
Our research design for answering the aforementioned research questions consisted of an industry wide
web based survey throughout the energy sector in Norway. Our strategic sample and respondent list

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition46

was collected and compiled through industry representative organizations, consisting of 783 firms in
total. We grouped our respondents into three primary classifications as reflected in Figure 5: energy
producers, product suppliers, and service suppliers. Our belief is that incumbents within theseclassifications play different roles in the shaping of the industry, and our goal was to capture theseregime dynamics.
In line with Cooke’s (2011) notion of transversality, our methodological approach to track
diversification has been tailored to fit the sustainability transitions framework as we sought to underpin
transfer of resources between non-sustainable sectors (oil and gas) to sustainable ones (renewableenergies). Diversification options were thus limited to renewable energies, as opposed to a variety ofindustries outside the energy sector for which we could not make the clear argument and distinction of
resource transfer leading to sustainability transitions.
4.1.   Research Model
Figure 5 reflects our methodological approach in a research model. We sought to capture a current
picture of incumbents’ current situation, i.e. what their business dynamic is. This involved a number ofdescriptive elements about their firm and current activities, in addition to managerial perceptions about
former and future market developments. This structure sought to underpin product and market level
diversification as laid forth in Figure 1.

Figure 5. Research model for strategic reorientation in transversality
4.2.   Measures and Analysis
Key measures utilized a seven point Likerts scale, indicating degrees of assessment with the variables
presented. Survey results are presented as descriptive statistics below.

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition47

5.   Results
The survey produced 220 responses, a response rate of 28%. Individuals with senior leadership roles
make up 55% of total respondents. Figure 6 shows the industry composition of each according to thefirms’ stated primary activity. Figure 7 breaks down the activities of the incumbents in both regimes.
140

Oil	
  &	
  gas

120

Hydropower

100

Nett/Fiber

80

Onshore	
  wind60

Offshore	
  wind40

Energy	  efficiency

20

Solar
Wave	
  energy

0
Energy	  producer

Product	
  supplierService	  supplier

Figure 6. Activities of the respondents

Figure 7. Composition of the respondents’ main sectors

Following our framework in Figure 3, motivational results for pursuing transversality within the energy
system are presented in Figure 8.
70

60

50

Low	
  returns	
  in	
  main	  sector

Reduce	  dependance	
  on	
  main	  sector

Possibilities	
  for	
  competance	
  &	
  resources

Create	  more	  attractive	
  workplace	
  (HR	
  strategy)

Positioning	
  for	
  future

Follow	  competition

Follow	
  customersMore	
  attractive	
  business	
  opportunities

Stagnation	
  or	
  downturn	
  in	
  main	  sector

40

30

20

10

0
Not	
  important

2

3

4

5

Figure 8. Motivations for pursuing sustainability transitions

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition

48

6Really	  important

50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10

Lack	
  of	
  internal	
  knowledge	  resources

5

Lack	
  of	
  financial	
  capacity

Unpredictable	
  politics

Unpredictable	
  subsidy-­‐tax	
  programs

Lack	
  of	
  access	
  to	
  competent	
  workers

Lack	
  of	
  access	
  to	
  new	
  natural	
  resource	
  areas0Low	
  risk

2

3

4

5

6

High	
  riskFigure 9. Barriers to pursuing sustainability transitions

6.   Theoretical Implications for Sustainability Transitions
Industry plays a critical role in sustainability transitions as the link between technology and society(Morioka et al., 2006). In addressing the compound problems of lock-in and path dependence within(energy) regimes, it is well understood that ‘uncertainties about future market and regulations hinder
the commitment of firms to the development (or implementation) of sustainable
technologies…because of market uncertainties and fear of cannibalising their existing products’ (Geels
et al., 2008). This antecedent conclusion offers us several takeaways when analysing incumbents within
their prospective regimes. First, a strong market demand for new green innovations must exist forincumbents to pursue them. Second, the policy and regulation of their existing business line and thetechnological maturity of the new innovation being pursued must align in a way that allows firms toenvisage a promising economic future in the new green innovation while simultaneously supressing theoutlook for their existing (unsustainable) business activity. Thus regulation plays a key role inadvancing transitions by creating frameworks that offer a roadmap towards sustainability, and thus a
way to begin the transition out of path dependency and lock-in of existing systems. Given that all
firms pursuing multiple paths face internal competition for resources, the allocation of such resources
between new and old activities characterizes the managerial challenge of pursing sustainability
transitions.

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition49

References
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Barkema, H. G. & Drogendijk, R. 2007. Internationalising in small, incremental or larger steps?
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Benner, M. J. & Tushman, M. L. 2003. Exploitation, exploration, and process management: The
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Cooke, P. 2012. Transversality and Transition: Green Innovation and New Regional Path Creation.
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Geels, F. W. 2011. The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions: Responses to sevencriticisms. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 1, 24-40.
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Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 20, 521-536.
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Hockerts, K. & Wüstenhagen, R. 2010. Greening Goliaths versus emerging Davids — Theorizing
about the role of incumbents and new entrants in sustainable entrepreneurship. Journal ofBusiness Venturing, 25, 481-492.
Jacobsson, S. & Lauber, V. 2006. The politics and policy of energy system transformation—explaining
the German diffusion of renewable energy technology. Energy Policy, 34, 256-276.
Jørgensen, U. 2012. Mapping and navigating transitions—The multi-level perspective compared witharenas of development. Research Policy, 41, 996-1010.
Konrad, K., Truffer, B. & Voß, J.-P. 2008. Multi-regime dynamics in the analysis of sectoraltransformation potentials: evidence from German utility sectors. Journal of Cleaner Production,
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MPE 2012. National Renewable Energy Action Plan under Directive 2009/28/EC. Norwegian
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Waste Management and Pollution Control in
the Lake Malawi Basin:
Harnessing Synergies from Various Sectors for
Sustainable Lake Basin Management
By Clara L. Chidammodzi & Victor S. Muhandiki,
Nagoya University, Japan

Abstract
Lake Malawi hosts the greatest freshwater fish biodiversity in the world, and is world’s third deepest andninth largest lake by surface area. The lake and its basin offer a wide variety of values to the Malawi
population including supporting urban centers, rain-fed and irrigated agriculture, hydropower
generation, mineral resources provision, and abundant fisheries resources. Associated activities result in
the generation of wastes and pollutants that also impact on the lake basin. Management of waste is a big
challenge in Malawi, in addition to deforestation and the associated soil erosion. This paper assesses thewaste management and pollution control situation in the Lake Malawi Basin from a governance
perspective, as a rough indication of the management status of water resources in Malawi. The focus ison understanding how synergies from various related sectors such as agriculture, sanitation, forestry,mining, industry and others can be harnessed for better lake basin management. The study also assesses

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition52

the degree of point source pollution control, and solid waste management in the major cities within thelake basin. The methods employed are documents review, key informant interviews and site observations.
Results show weak enforcement of regulations and standards, poor solid waste management especially
due to challenges in collection and final disposal facilities, and while there are some efforts with respect
to non-point source pollution, deforestation and soil erosion remain a problem.
Keywords: Lake Malawi Basin, pollution control, waste management, water resources management,sustainability

1. Introduction
Lake Malawi hosts the greatest freshwater fish biodiversity in the world, and is world’s third deepest andninth largest lake by surface area (Bootsma & Hecky, 1999, 2003). The lake and its basin are shared
among Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania with the largest portions of both the basin and lake in
Malawi. This paper focuses on the lake and basin in the Malawi side. The lake and its basin offer a wide
variety of benefits to the Malawi population including supporting urban centres, rain-fed and irrigatedagriculture, hydropower generation, mineral resources provision, and abundant fisheries resources. The
lake is Malawi’s most dominant water body and stores the bulk of the renewable surface water resourcesin the country, with an average of 90km3 of live storage (GoM 2008). Its importance therefore cannot
be ignored especially with the fact that Malawi is a water stressed country with total renewable water
resources per person of less than 1,400m3/year (GoM, 2008). In addition, water is central to poverty
alleviation (Pérez-Foguet & Garriga, 2011), and in Malawi in particular, water resources are an
important driver of the economy. For instance, Lake Malawi supports hydropower generation on its only
outlet, the Shire River which generates about 95% of all electricity in the country (Chafota, Burgess, &Johnson, 2005).
Activities associated with the benefits the lake and its basin offer however, result in the generation ofwastes and pollutants that also impact on the lake and basin. If not properly managed, these wastes andpollutants can lead to the degradation of the lake basin with negative consequences on the country’s
economy and the people’s well-being. The Malawian side of the basin is largely rural and agriculture is
the main land-use activity. The basin contains two major urban centres, Lilongwe the capital of Malawi
and Mzuzu, the country’s third major city. These cities have the highest population densities in the basin
and it is assumed that they also generate the most waste. Generally, management of both solid and liquid
waste is a big challenge in Malawi, in addition to deforestation and its associated soil erosion.
Management of both solid and liquid waste is currently the responsibility of city councils but there areplans to transfer the management of wastewater to water utilities. Within the Lake Malawi Basin,
wastewater treatment works are done in Lilongwe and Mzuzu Cities. The dominant existing treatment
types only removes 30% of the organic wastes and 50% of bacteria and suspended solids (Msilimba &Wanda, 2012). This causes concern of nutrient and pollutant loading to water bodies and public healthrisk. Although the country has national effluent standards in place (for both domestic and industrial
wastewater), their enforcement is generally poor. Solid waste management services within the lake basin
are also mainly provided in the cities of Lilongwe and Mzuzu. Table 1, provides information on landarea, population and waste generation rates of the two major cities. The city councils are only able tocollect and dispose of a small fraction of the generated waste.
Table1 City Information
City
Land Area*

Population*

Population
Density*

Daily Waste
Generation** (tons)

Lilongwe456 Km²

674,400

1,479/Km²

350

Mzuzu

48 Km²

133,900

2,791/Km²

67*Land area and population data from 2011 National Statistical Yearbook**Waste generation rates provided by the city councils

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2. Why Waste Management and Pollution Control?
Waste, both solid and liquid has an impact on water resources (Yamada & Muhandiki, 2007;
Falkenmark, Anderson, Castensson & Sundblad, 1999). This impact is mainly on nutrient load,
pollution risk and suspended solids. High nutrient loads to water bodies interfere with the biochemical
structure of the water bodies and leads to eutrophication. This may cause excess growth of alga, shifts inspecies composition, changes in the food web, limitations to light penetration and public health concerns,
among others. Previous studies by other researchers in Lake Malawi identified the main issues as; (1)Water level fluctuations; (2) Changes in phytoplankton composition; (3) Threat to biodiversity; (4)Contamination; (5) Threat to fishery; and (6) Pathogens. Figure 1, shows causal chains of these main
issues (except fishery), considering only the main linkages.

Figure 1. Causal Chains of the main issues in Lake Malawi
The root causes of these issues as shown in Figure 1 are agricultural activities, industrial/mining activities,
deforestation, wastewater, biomass burning and solid waste. We did not show fishery in this figure
because it is linked with most of the issues and thus its root causes are similar to the root causes of theother issues. These six root causes are our main areas of concern and they are all in some way related with
waste and pollution issues. This is the reason our paper is focusing on waste management and pollution
control in the lake basin. We grouped the main areas of concern into two main categories of drivers of
point source pollution and drivers of nonpoint source pollution as shown in Table 2 below.
Table 2 Main Areas of Concern
Drivers of Nonpoint Source Pollution
Deforestation
Agricultural activities
Biomass burning
Solid waste

Drivers of Point Source Pollution
WastewaterIndustrial activities

A closer look at the drivers of nonpoint source pollution category however, shows that all areas except
solid waste are closely related with the agriculture and forestry sectors. Consequently, we have isolated
solid waste into its own category for better assessment.
In view of the issues highlighted, this paper assesses the waste management and pollution control
situation in the Lake Malawi Basin from a governance perspective, as a rough indication of the
management status of water resources in Malawi. Our main objectives are to assess;
1.   The degree of point source pollution control in the lake basin.
2.   The degree of non-point source pollution control in the lake basin.
3.   Solid waste management in the major cities within the lake basin.
Our overall objective is to understand how synergies from various related sectors such as agriculture,sanitation, forestry, mining, industry and others can be harnessed for better lake basin management.

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3. Methodology
In addition to reviewing several documents and publications, we conducted key informant interviews invarious institutions to understand how various mandated institutions are implementing the national
policies that govern utilization and management of the various aspects of the lake basin. These were theDepartments of Water Resources, Environmental Affairs, Irrigation, Land Resources Conservation andDevelopment (agriculture), Fisheries, Forestry, Energy and the City Councils of Lilongwe and Mzuzu
in April and May 2014. We also carried out site observations in the same period. Our assessment utilized
indicators which we selected based on the main areas of concern highlighted in previous sections andguided by literature review. The indicators are directly linked to the objectives of this paper and eachindicator has several measures or sub-indicators. Table 2 presents the indicators and measures that we
used.

Indicator

Measures1.   Degree of Point Source
Pollution Control

1.1 Percentage of Households in Lilongwe & Mzuzu Cities
connected to the public sewer line
1.2 Sewage effluent standards compliance rate of seweragetreatment plants
1.3 Wastewater sludge disposal compliance rate in cities and towns
1.4 Compliance of industries & mines with standards

2.   Degree of nonpoint
source pollution control

2.1 Proportion of land covered by forests
2.2 Reduction in hectares destroyed by bush fires
2.3 Farm area under good farming practices
2.4 Protection of catchment & littoral wetlands (swamps &marshes) & lagoons
3.1 Waste collection rate
3.2 Industrial solid waste disposal compliance
3.3 Sanitary condition of final disposal facilities
3.4 Percentage of solid waste recycled

3.   Extent of solid waste
management in thecities of Lilongwe &Mzuzu

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Table 2 Indicators and Measures
The indicators presented in Table 2 represent all the areas considered important in this study. However,
due to data limitations that we encountered, we couldn’t assess measures 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.2 and 3.4.
4. Findings
Before we present our findings, we would like to explain the rating system we have applied to theindicators. We used a scale of 1 to 5 for every indicator, where 1 is very low and 5 is very high as shownin Table 3 below. Finally, we averaged the individual indicator rates to obtain an overall rate for waste
management and pollution control in the lake basin.
Table 3 Rating Scale
Rate
Translation
1
Very Low (≤ 20%)
2
Low (21- 40%)3Moderate (41 – 60%)
4High (61-80%)
5
Very High (≥ 81%)
The following subsections provide the findings.
4.1 Degree of Point Source Pollution Control
Percentage of households connected to the public sewerage system was the only measure assessed under
this objective, as indicated in the previous section. Table 4 provides the rate of this indicator.
According to the Lilongwe City Council (LCC) only 9% of the households in the city are connected tothe public sewerage system. The majority rely on pit latrines (75%) and septic tanks (UN-HABITAT2011). When the septic tanks are full, the waste is pumped out and discharged at the sewerage treatment
plant. Wastewater sludge from the treatment plants is collected by local residents for use as manure or
fertilizer. Challenges LCC is facing in relation to wastewater management include low staffing levels,
insufficient facilities, vandalism and theft of infrastructure.
There is no public sewerage system in the City of Mzuzu and residents rely on pit latrines and septic
tanks. Mzuzu City Council (MCC) is lacking machinery and technical capacity for proper sewage
treatment.
Table 4 Rating for Degree of Point Source Pollution Control
MeasureLilongwe
Mzuzu

Rate

1.1 Public sewerage connection

1

9%

0

Indicator Rate

1 (very low)

While noting the significant data limitations we faced in assessing this objective, our findings show thatthe control of point source pollution in the lake basin is very weak.
4.2 Degree of Nonpoint Source Pollution Control
In this measure, we adopted the national level forest cover. Malawi’s target for forest cover in theMillennium Development Goals (MDGs) is 50% of land area. Forests and woodlands are estimated tocover about 34% of the total land area (FAO, 2010). This estimate is considered outdated and the 2010
State of Environment and Outlook Report for Malawi suggests that the current extent of forest cover islikely much lower. However, due to the absence of a more recent estimate, this paper adopts the FAO2010 estimate. This is 68% of the MDGs target and is given a high rating according to our criteria. In
addition, reforestation activities as well as forest and tree protection efforts have been increasing in recent

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56

years. Households and communities have also been encouraged to grow their own trees to meethousehold demands for cooking energy and construction materials, among others. Community forest
areas and regenerated forests were evident in some places during our site observation. That being said
however, many other places are still undergoing rapid deforestation.
Malawi classifies 30% of its land as arable. The Department of Land Resources Conservation andDevelopment estimates that about 50% of the country’s land is under cultivation, including marginalareas such as river banks and steep slopes. Of the arable land, the Department estimates that 30-40% iscurrently under good agricultural practices (i.e. minimal disturbance of soil, retention of crop residues
and weeds on the soil surface, crop rotation etc).
Protection of lagoons and wetlands (swamps and marhes) in the lake basin is partial. Those that are
currently under protection are the ones within national parks and wild life reserves e.g. wetlands within
Nyika National Park, Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve, Kasungu National Park and Nkhotakota Wildlife
Reserve. The lake’s littoral wetlands are not protected. Most wetlands in the basin have been modified
by anthropogenic activities (GoM 2010). We rated this measure moderate because national parks andwildlife reserves cover a considerable area of the lake basin. Table 5 presents the ratings for each of themeasures and the indicator. Overall, the findings show moderate control of nonpoint source pollution.
Table 5 Rating for Degree of Nonpoint Source Pollution Control
MeasureData

Rate

2.1 Proportion of land covered by forests

34% (FAO, 2010) – national level

4

2.3 Farm area under good agricultural practices

30-40% of Arable land

2

2.4 Protection of lagoons & wetlands (swamps &marshes)

Some protected (Under nationalparks & wildlife reserves)

3

Overall Indicator Rate

3
(moderate)

4.3 Extent of solid waste management in the cities of Lilongwe and Mzuzu
According to LCC, Lilongwe generates about 350 tons of solid waste every day. Mzuzu generates about
67 tons every day, estimated based on Population. Figure 2 provides an indication of the categories andproportions of the solid waste generated in Mzuzu City.

Figure 2. Waste Generation Categories in Mzuzu City (based on data provided by MCC)
As can be seen in Figure 2, most of the waste is generated by markets, health facilities and households.
Information on actual waste composition is currently unavailable but generally the majority of the waste
is organic. Both cities are only able to collect 30% of the waste generated. Challenges include insufficientwaste management machinery, and low stakeholder awareness and participation.
Both cities are practicing open dumping and all waste is finally disposed of at the cities’ dumpsites.
Industrial waste is disposed of in the same way. Although industries/factories generate less waste

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compared to the other categories as Figure 2 indicates (assuming the situation in Lilongwe is similar),the indiscriminate disposal of waste calls for concern as some of the industrial waste maybe hazardous.
The measure for industrial solid waste compliance is rated very low.
As both cities are practicing open dumping and not much control is exercised, the sanitary condition of
the final disposal facilities leaves a lot to be desired. Key informants at the city councils described thecondition as appalling, deplorable and pathetic. Figure 3 shows the situation when we visited the sites.
Some waste is dumped along the roads to the sites and because of that, we could not access the Mzuzu
City dumpsite because the road was blocked with waste.

Figure 3. Lilongwe City Dumpsite (above), and Mzuzu City Dumpsite (below)
Our assessment of the sanitary condition of final disposal facilities was based on the four basic sanitary
landfill conditions proposed by Thurgood et al., 1998 and we rated this measure very low because noneof the conditions is met in both cities. Table 6 shows the criteria we used in assessing this aspect. A
summary of the rates of all the measures under this objective is provided in Table 7.
Table 6 Scoring Criteria
The Four Basic Conditions for a Landfill to be Sanitary

1.   Full or partialhydrogeological isolation
2.   Formal engineering
preparations
3.   Permanent control
4.   Planned waste
emplacement & covering

Leachate collection system

Score
for
Both Cities
Yes
No
1
0

Leachate treatment system
Waste disposal plan
Final restoration plan
Trained supervision staff based at site

1
1
1
1

0
0
0
0

Layering & compacting

10

Daily covering

10

Average
Score

Total average score
Rate

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1 (verylow)

58

Table 7 Rating for Extent of Solid waste Management in the Major Cities
Measure
Data
LL

Mz

Rate
(Average forboth cities)

3.1 Waste Collection rate

30%

30%

2

3.2 Industrial solid waste
disposal compliance

All waste dumped
without categorization

All waste dumped
without categorization

1

3.3 Sanitary condition of final
disposal facilities

Open dumping

Open dumping

1

Overall Indicator Rate

1.3 (very low)

Overall rate for this indicator is very low showing that solid waste management in the major cities in thelake basin is very weak.
4.4 Summary of Findings
In summary, our findings show very weak control of point source pollution and moderate control of
nonpoint source pollution in the lake basin. We also find that solid waste management in the major cities
in the basin is very weak. Table 8 presents the summarized scores. Overall, waste management andpollution control in the lake basin is very weak.
Table 8 Summary of Indicator Rates
Indicator

Rate

1. Degree of Point Source Pollution Control
2. Degree of non-point Source Pollution Control
3. Extent of solid waste management in the cities
Overall Rate (average)

1
3
1.3
1.8

5. How Can Synergies Be Harnessed for Better Lake Basin Management?
The findings show very weak control of point source pollution and this is mainly attributed to the weakcapacity of institutions that are responsible for managing wastewater. For general point source pollution
control, indications show weak capacity for monitoring and enforcement of regulations by the institutions
with mandate e.g. the Department of Environmental Affairs. These challenges are due to low staffing
levels in the institutions and insufficient resources and equipment.
For non-point source pollution control, the major challenges are weak coordination among sectors
especially at local level of implementation. All the main sectors of concern in our study in this regard(forestry, fisheries and agriculture) have local community institutions in place responsible formanagement of local resources. However, we observed that there is no cross-sector cooperation among
these local institutions. Considering the fact that there are some cross-cutting activities that would bebetter managed jointly at the local level, this may be an opportunity that is not being embraced andthereby losing some synergies that could be harnessed. For example, river bank protection activities are
one area where joint implementation by farmer clubs, forestry management clubs and fisherfolk clubs
can be pursued. There is need to make local people aware of how linked and interdependent their various
activities are and why joint effort is required to ensure sustainability of the lake basin and their wellbeing. This needs to be encouraged by the relevant institutions e.g. the Ministries and Departments ofAgriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. This also requires traditional leaders in the communities to play arole of helping their subjects see the bigger picture and encouraging them to work together for mutual
benefit.

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Challenges leading to the very weak management of solid waste management may be attributed to weak
institutional capacity resulting from insufficient resources and equipment. More importantly, this may
also be due to weak participation of stakeholders and communities/households in overall waste
management. Both city councils have plans to promote stakeholder participation in managing waste atsource, recycling and other aspects of waste management. LCC for example, indicated that they are to
implement their plans by 2016. There is need for the city councils to vigilantly implement their plans sothat overall solid waste management may be improved as soon as possible.
It has been shown that most of the main challenges are boiling down to weak institutional capacity andultimately insufficient resources and equipment. Figure 4 shows a causal loop diagram that figuratively
portrays the linkages among the main challenges and issues, and important action points if the situation
is to be improved.

Figure 4 Causal loop diagram showing the interaction of challenges and issues in the Lake Malawi Basin
The items in boxes are the main issues in the lake identified by previous researchers, items in circles are
the main challenges identified in this study and the remaining items are factors that are interacting toaffect the main challenges and issues.
The item at the tail of the arrow causes a change in the item at the head of the arrow. A + sign at thehead of the arrow indicates that change occurs in the same direction and a – sign indicates that change
occurs in the opposite direction.
There are several loops in Figure 4 but we explain only one to aid understanding. A decrease in resourcesand equipment will result in a decrease in the capacity of institutions and this will cause a decrease incoordination among various institutions and stakeholders. In turn, stakeholder participation will decrease
and result in a decrease in community resource management. This will cause an increase in the negative
impact of agricultural activities and lake basin degradation will also increase. This will cause a decreasein food security and a decrease in the economy which will consequently cause a decrease in the availabilityof resources and equipment. This loop has a reinforcing effect i.e. we started with a decrease in resourcesand equipment and ended up with a more decrease in resources and equipment. This effect indicates thata change in resources and equipment leads to an amplified change when the effects are traced around theloop (similarly, if there is an increase in resources, it will lead to more resources being available if we trace
the effects around the loop).
From the loop diagram, we identified three main factors as the main action points to better harness
synergies for attaining sustainable management and utilization of the lake basin. These action points are
stakeholder participation, regulation enforcement and capacity of institutions. These factors are either
affecting many other factors, or are being affected by many factors or both. If efforts concentrate at

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improving these areas, overall waste management and pollution control will improve and consequently,
lake basin management will be more sustainable. Ultimately, all these three action points are affected byavailability of resources. Therefore, ensuring that sufficient resources are available to the various
mandated institutions is crucial for sustainable lake basin management. One very key factor in realizing
this is support of political leaders as they play a very important role in setting priorities. Muhandiki and
Ballatore (2007) pointed out that “For lake basin management to be successful, it is important to cultivate
political will, support, and commitment at the highest political level”. Table 9 presents the actions werecommend under each of these main action points. It should be noted however that our list ofrecommended actions is meant to act as a guide and is not exhaustive.
Table11 Recommended Actions

Action Point

Recommended Actions

Stakeholder participation

1.   Raise awareness2.   Strengthen coordination among related institutions & otherstakeholders
3.   Strengthen extension services
4.   Pursue integrated implementation of activities at local level(encourage inter-sectoral interaction of local community
institutions)5.   Encourage alternative financing mechanisms where feasible
e.g. “Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES)” etc.

Regulation enforcement

1.   Strengthen monitoring capacity & encourage participationof the general public2.   Bring offenders to book to discourage potential offenders
3.   Revise regulations as necessary

Capacity of institutions

1.   Ensure sufficient & timely Government funds for
institutions
2.   Explore innovative ways of accessing supplementary funds
e.g. PES, co-management practices, Public Private
Partnership (PPP) etc.

6. Conclusion.
We find that overall, waste management and pollution control in the Lake Malawi Basin is very weak
and threatens the sustainability of water resources in general and the lake Malawi basin in particular.
This poses possible consequences on the well-being of Malawians and the economy of the country. Thereis need to improve capacity of institutions, enforcement of regulations and stakeholder participation.
Availability of sufficient resources is necessary to improve the situation and support of political leaders isneeded to ensure that resources are available for the country to move towards sustainable management
and utilization of water resources and the lake basin.
Acknowledgement
We greatly appreciate the support and cooperation from the various institutions in Malawi that we
consulted during our study.

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References
Bootsma, H.A., & Hecky, R.E. (1999). Lake Malawi/Nyasa – An African Great Lake and Great
Resource. In Water Quality Report, Lake Malawi / Nyasa Biodiversity Conservation Project, eds. Harvey
A. Bootsma and Robert E. Hecky, 17-28. SADC / GEF.
Bootsma, H.A., & Hecky, R.E. (2003). A Comparative Introduction to the Biology and Limnology of
the African Great Lakes. Journal of Great Lakes Research 29(Suppl. 2), 3-18.
Chafota, J., Burgess, N., Thieme, M. & Johnson, S. (2005). Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa Ecoregion
Conservation Programme: Priority Conservation Areas and Vision for Biodiversity Conservation.
WWF-SARPO.
Falkenmark M., Andersson, L., Castensson, L. & Sundblad, K. (1999). Water: A Reflection of Land Use.
Stockholm: Swedish Natural Science Research Council.
Government of Malawi, GoM. (2008). Integrated Water Resources management and Water Efficiency Plan.
Ministry of Water Development and Irrigation.
Government of Malawi, GoM. (2010). Malawi State of Environment and Outlook Report: Environmentfor Sustainable Economic Growth. Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Environment.
Government of Malawi, GoM. (2011). Statistical Yearbook. National Statistical Office.
Msilimba, G. & Wanda, E.M. (2012). Wastewater Production, Treatment and Use in Malawi: National
Report. Paper Presented at the Third Regional Workshop ‘Safe Use of Wastewater in Agriculture’,
Johannesburg, South Africa, September 26-28.
Muhandiki, V.S. & Ballatore, T.J. (2007). Effective lake basin management institutions: lessons fromAfrican lakes. Water Science & Technology, Vol 56 No 1, pp 189–198.
Pérez-Foguet, A., & Garriga R. (2011). Analyzing Water Poverty in Basins. Water Resources
Management, 25, 3595–3612.
Thurgood, M., Rushbrook, P., & Pugh, M. (1998). Decision-maker's guide to solid waste landfills Summary. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.
United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT. (2011). Malawi: Lilongwe Urban
Profile. UN-Habitat-Regional and Technical Cooperation Division. Nairobi: Kenya.
Yamada, S., & Muhandiki, V., (2007). Urban Diffuse Pollution and Solutions in Japan. In Cities of the
Future: Towards Integrated Sustainable Water and Landscape Management, eds. Vladmir Novotny andPaul Brown, 157-173. London: IWA Publishing.

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Urban Agriculture’s Synergies with Ecological and Social
Sustainability:
Food, Nature, and Community
George Martin
Centre for Environmental Strategy
University of Surrey, UK

Abstract
The practice of urban agriculture (UA) is a flourishing topic in environmental discourse based on its promise forincreasing sustainable food production in a world increasingly urbanized at the same time food security isthreatened by climate change. Research indicates UA has potential for a substantial contribution to foodsustainability in the global South where extensive poverty and large populations with traditional agricultural
knowledge provide the material and social bases for growing an already appreciable level of production.
However, UA may have a low ceiling in the global North due to the high value of land and the lack ofunpolluted soil (a legacy of industrial production). It has been argued that UA in the global North can overcome
this lack of affordable arable land by constructing vertical farms and expanding the production of current venues:
allotments, kitchen gardens, community gardens, and peri-urban farming. This paper considers these arguments
based on a case study of a community garden in New York City, supplemented by data from other studies. The
conclusion is that the potential for UA in the global North will likely remain low. Still, it merits policy support
on other grounds: its synergies with ecological and social sustainability. While UA may offer somewhat greater
capacity to enhance ecological sustainability than other green spaces, its synergies with social sustainability are
more substantial—generating social capital for community development, promoting environmental education,
and advancing environmental justice. These synergies warrant increased attention in urban sustainability
research.

	
  
	
  

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“The garden is the smallest parcel of the world and then it is the totality of the world.”
Michel Foucault (1986:26)

Introduction: Parsing the Potential of Urban Agriculture
My basis for parsing the potential of urban agriculture in this paper this is experiential as well as empirical: Theexperience comes from over a decade of participation in a community garden in New York as well as occasional
workdays on friends’ allotments here in the UK. Much earlier on, I grew up in a semi-rural environment in
Kentucky.
My local community garden in Manhattan, the WSCG occupies 17,500 square feet (0.16 hectare) of rising land
between two parallel streets. It is dominated by two features. At one end lies a large vegetable garden divided
into 80-odd raised plots that are six feet by five feet in size. Six plots are reserved for school children. The small
size of the plots considerably limits the scale of food production. Gardeners reported that produce served as
occasional supplements to their tables. At the other end of the Garden is an amphitheater, which is used for aseries of cultural productions throughout the summer season.
The Garden’s 300-odd members and thousands of users were found to represent a cross-section of theneighborhood’s population—with two major exceptions: Age and gender. Older women are disproportionately
represented. Studies of other urban gardens have shown similar findings (Garnett 2001: 484; Sokolovsky 2009).
The Garden is now decades old, having been developed by neighborhood activists on a rubble-filled vacant lot.
Although quite successful, it requires large amounts of labor to operate. The labor includes physical work liketurning compost and administrative work like fund-raising.
This labor falls to a small cadre of gardeners—as one told me, “our problem is that only a core does everything-a dozen or so people.” This is a common problem for community gardens, and the small core of active persons is
not always sustained. A national survey of US community gardens found that “the primary reason given for lossof [hundreds of] garden sites is lack of interest by gardeners” (ACGA 1998:3).
Urban Agriculture: Back to the future?
It was the development of agriculture some 10,000 years ago that made cities possible and it has sustained their
growth over the millennia. This sustenance is becoming problematic in an era when a majority of humans arefor the first time residing in urban areas—at the same time as the species is dealing with global climate change.
The principal threat to the human species from this climate change is to agriculture. The UN (2009; 2011)
projects a global population in 2050 of 9 billion, 70 percent of whom will live in cities. This population will
require about 70 percent more food that the 2009 population. Meanwhile, expanding cities coupled with thefloods and droughts expected from global climate change will reduce the store of arable land. The upshot ofthese changes is that our species must enhance its food production on a large scale, and do so in a sustainablefashion.
Gardening in urban areas has led to a full-blown movement which has acquired its own categorical identity—
Urban Agriculture (UA). Thus, McClintock (2010: 191) argues,
As we find ourselves once again in the throes of a crisis of capitalism, the popularity of UA in the
Global North has surged and the discourse surrounding it has shifted from one of recreation andleisure to one of urban sustainability and economic resilience. Even the terms used to describe it haveshifted in the Global North; “urban agriculture” is replacing “community gardening” in everyday
parlance’ placing it (despite its much smaller scale) in the same category as UA in the Global South . . .
.
Of course, urban agriculture is as old as cities but what is the future of its revival? The potential of UA can beanalyzed using three vectors of sustainability—food (or agricultural); ecological (or environmental); and social(or community).
Food Sustainability

	
  
	
  

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The primary focus in UA is on cities of the global South, and with good reason—it is far more widely practiced
there. The results of one comparative research project (Zezza and Tasciotti 2010) found that in cities in 11 of 15
countries (in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America), the share of households participating in foodproduction was over 30 percent. Participation was concentrated in the poorest strata of populations, with over
50 percent of the poorest quintile participating in 8 of the 15 nations. UA’s contributions to total agricultural
production ranged from a high above 20 percent in Madagascar and Nicaragua, to a low of 3 percent in Malawi.
In only 4 nations was more a one-third of agricultural production marketed. A significant additional finding of
this research was that urban agriculture was associated with indicators of dietary adequacy and diversity in a
majority of the nations.
As to the potential of UA in the global South, the researchers concluded:
On the one hand, the potential for urban agriculture to play a substantial role in urban poverty andfood insecurity reduction should not be overemphasized, as its share in income and overall agricultural
production is often quite limited. On the other hand, though, its role should also not be too easily
dismissed, particularly in much of Africa and in all those countries in which agriculture provides a
substantial share of income for the urban poor, and for those groups of households to which it
constitutes an important source of livelihoods (Zezza and Tasciotti 2010: 255).
Thus, at present UA has a reasonable potential to be a significant food producer for the poorest people living in
the poorest cities of the world, and it is receiving enhanced attention from climate change analysts. For example,
at Rio+20, Altieri (2012) made a case for a considerable scaling-up of urban agroecology in the South.
What about the potential role of urban agriculture in producing food in cities of the global North?
Summaries of four pieces of research from two countries show the following:--London could produce 18 percent of the fruit and vegetables eaten by its residents (Garnett 2001)--Oxford could produce one-half of its fruit and vegetables (FoodPrinting Oxford 2012)--Cleveland, Ohio, 11 percent of food and beverage consumption by weight and 4.5 percent byexpenditure could be produced (Grewal and Grewal 2012)--Oakland, California has a potential for vegetable production of 5 percent of current vegetableconsumption (McClintock et al. 2013)
These percentages are much higher than present production in these cities—Cleveland, for example, has thepotential to produce more than 100 times its current level of food and beverage consumption. However, thepercentages for potential production remain low and do not approach food sustainability. Thus, in Oxford, thepotential of producing 50 percent of fruit and vegetables would represent only 2 percent of the city’s overallrequirement for land to feed itself. Moreover, these maximum potential figures are even less impressive if thefollowing is considered:--We are looking only at fruit and vegetable production, which is a minority share of the human diet--Even when that share is upgraded, as in the UK Eatwell Plate (FSA 2010), to one-third of arecommended sustainable dietary allowance, the result would be that London has a maximum potentialof producing only about 6 percent of its total food needs
Additionally, there are major obstacles to reaching the potential production levels. The first is that an unknown
portion of the land that would be converted to agriculture is too contaminated to sustain food production forhumans. For example:--Nearly 60 percent of London’s vacant industrial land is contaminated and that even many allotments,
domestic gardens, and other small pockets of land are too polluted for safe food production--A study that assessed the lead contamination of soil in 12 vacant sites in Oakland, California, found ahigh level of site variability that must be taken into consideration when planning for urban farming;
significantly, sites with contamination significantly higher than the Federal screening level were in
predominantly low-income and African American neighborhoods, indicating a major environmental
justice concern (McClintock 2012)

	
  
	
  

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The other obstacle to greater urban food production is the land squeeze. Food production is land intensive andurban land has high commercial value and economic competition for its use. Thus, they feature skyscraperbuildings. For example, two-thirds of the original lot rehabilitated by the WSCG was eventually taken byresidential apartment buildings. The negotiation of conflicting land stakeholder interests is quite intense inmany cities of the North, New York and London being prime examples.
Meanwhile, these cities struggle even to maintain their current levels of green space. For example, in London,
the domestic gardens, which comprise 25 percent of the land upon which fruit and vegetables could be grown,
are declining. A recent study (Smith 2010) found that between 1998 and 2008, their area had declined by 12
percent. It is primarily being lost to paving for parking cars.
Vertical Farming?— One idea to overcome the lack of arable land in cities of the North which is gaining
traction is vertical farming, or high-rise structures devoted to food production (see Despommier 2009). Theseurban farms would use new, sustainable greenhouse technologies in order to mass-produce food, including fishand perhaps even poultry. Although not a new idea, such a skyscraper has yet to be built.
Chicago is an example. There, a “mega” indoor vertical farm is being converted from an abandoned warehouse.
FarmedHere as it is called is located in the suburbs and has 90,000 square feet in which to produce a million
pounds a year of organic greens. The plant proposes to integrate aquaponics by using tanks of fish to clean waterand provide fertilizer for the soil-less crops. It is a business that started with loan from the massive US organic
food store chain, Whole Foods (FCRN 2013). Though large in floor space, this structure is only two stories tall.
The goal of building a skyscraper for food production has yet to be met.
There are two major obstacles to achieving this goal. One obstacle is economic; i.e., the high costs ofskyscrapers. Currently, their costs are borne by corporations and governments for their offices, and by middleto-upper class residents for their homes, or state-subsidized housing for lower-income citizens. The costs are forland, for construction (or conversion), for maintenance, and for taxes. Then there are the energy and labor costsof growing food. It appears quite problematic that a successful business model for skyscraper food production
would include very high costs for its output.
In addition to economic obstacles, there are major presumptive questions about the sustainability of vertical
farms. Energy will be required to get adequate artificial light to plants that are not at windows on all the floorsof high structures in order to replace sunlight. The proponents of vertical farming recognize this sustainability
issue. Dickson Despommier, its best-known advocate, has been quoted as saying that “powering farms is still
the biggest hurdle for the industry” (Chicago Impact 2013: 2). The consensus of technology experts at aninternational meeting on vertical farming at the University of Maryland in 2012 was that there is a bottleneck inthe development of more efficient LED lighting, which is now about one-half of what it needs to be to makesuch farming economically feasible (The Vertical Farm 2013).
At least in the near and mid-term, vertical farming appears to have low potential for making a major
contribution to sustainable urban food production.
Scaling-Up Present Urban Farming? —Even if its food sustainability production prospects low, UA can still
make a material contribution to the lives of some sub-groups in some cities of the global North—for example,
for low-income immigrants with access to land, as the work of Mares and Pena (2010) indicate for community
gardens in Los Angeles and Seattle. In both cases, the gardens were large ones (14 and 4 acres) and theimmigrants came from agricultural backgrounds.
A best-case scenario for growing the scale of urban farming has been developed for Detroit, a distressed citywhich today has sizeable acreage of the vacant, publicly-owned land that would be required for the purpose(Colasanti et al. 2010). The scenario is based on the following assumptions:--Soil would be non-contaminated or de-contaminated--Field harvest could be stored as well as consumed immediately--The growing season would be extended by using “hoop houses” (passive-solar greenhouses made withplastic sheeting stretched over metal frameworks)

	
  
	
  

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In this scenario, it would be possible to supply a significant portion of the fruit and vegetables consumed
locally—about 75 percent of vegetables and nearly 50 percent of fruits.
However, there are caveats to this scenario:--If Detroiters increased their fruit and vegetable consumption to government-recommended andsustainable dietary allowances, three times as many acres would be required--The significantly scaled-up gardening would require substantially more human labor, the source of
which is unknown
That is the story at the moment for sustainable food production in cities of the North. What about theecological and social sustainability vectors of UA?
Ecological Sustainability
All urban green spaces, including gardens, enhance natural environments is a number of significant ways (seeBousse 2009; RHS 2011):--Contributing to biodiversity through sustaining a variety in flora and fauna--Contributing to species preservation by providing food and habitat--Reducing soil erosion and retarding flooding--Mitigating the urban heat island effect
While community gardens likely are no better than other urban green spaces in providing these contributions toecological sustainability, they are more likely to provide opportunities to link ecological and social sustainability;
for example in environmental justice projects.
Thus, Palamar’s (2010) case study of New York’s Green Guerrillas illustrates the possibilities of for integrating
ecological restoration and environmental justice within an urban setting. Additionally, in a study of community
gardens in the San Francisco Bay area, Ferris et al. (2001: 567) concluded, that “community gardens can be very
positively linked to the implementation of Local Agenda 21 and sustainability policies and at the same timeused to promote environmental equity.”Social Sustainability
As to social sustainability, UA offers a range of contributions--in health, education, and community
development (see Relf 1992). With regard to health, gardens provide locally-accessible and free opportunities
for both physical and mental well-being. Gardening is by nature a physical pursuit. Its physicality ranges fromthe fine motor involvement of cutting flower stems to the aerobic gross motor tasks of turning a compost pile
(Brown and Jameton 2000: 28, citing Mattson 1992). While gardening has positive consequences for physicalhealth, it also “has been observed to be a way to relax and release stress” (Brown and Jameton 2000: 28). Thus,
in addition to promoting physical health, gardens can support mental health—for their users as well as theirgardeners. They provide a small plot of nature for people living in large and dense cities, access to which can bea form of therapy allowing for solitude, escape, serenity, and reflection. Such access has been found to be related
to mental health by mitigating a psychological “nature deficit disorder” (Louv 2008).
It is with regard to education that community gardens may make their most significant contributions. The
educational programs they provide for school children can be a vehicle through which coming generations areprovided a structured opportunity to learn-by-doing some of the basic principles of ecological sustainability.
Thus, in the WSCG, classes from nearby schools engage over the course of a term in sustainable agricultural
practices such as working compost bins and growing organic vegetables. These classes have led to the creation ofa small garden at the primary school across the street.
It is in community development that community gardens have received the most attention. They have beenfound to “contribute to neighborhood satisfaction, sense of community belonging, and social contacts”(Comstock et al. 2010, citing Clayton 2007; Kearney 2009). They have also been found to enhance community
pride and serve as an impetus for broader community improvement by improving relationships among people(Comstock et al. 2010, citing Wakefield et al. 2001).

	
  
	
  

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One study of an urban multi-ethnic area concluded that the social benefits of any public open space are to“provide relief from daily routines, sustenance for people’s sense of community, opportunities for sustaining
bonding or making bridges, and influence tolerance and raise people’s spirits” (Cattell et al. 2008: 544). Finally,
UA has been found to create opportunities for leadership development and community organizing and in thisway contributes to neighborhood social capital (Brown and Jameton 2000: 29).
The social capital manifested in urban gardens is mobilized through political activity and they have become
meaningful arenas for political action. Community gardens are increasingly landscapes that support and connect
three vital spheres of political mobilization: Environment, food, and space. For example, a study of community
gardens in Toronto by Baker (2004: 306) argues that: “By digging into their small plot of land, gardeners arechallenging conventional ideas of urban planning and design, working on community-development projects,
engaging with place-based social movements, and creating alternative food systems.”
In Canada, an emergent community food-security movement aims to cultivate democratic food practices byraising awareness of where food comes from and by promoting locally grown food. This practice has as a model,“Food Citizens,” who not only are consumers but also who are engaged in their communities and have an
intimate connection to their food (Baker 2004:306; Welsh and MacRae 1998). Another framing of the newconnections between urban space and food is that of “civic ecology” (Tidball and Krasny 2007: 158), a term thatembraces the management of nature, public education, and community development within urban settings.
Conclusion: Maximizing the Food, Ecological, and Social Sustainability of Urban Agriculture
While there is potential for increasing UA, it is probable that this will occur in the global South. There,widespread and deep poverty creates a material need and social basis for enhancing the already appreciable levelof urban food production. Also, Altieri (2012: 17) noted also that “the reason why the potential resides in theSouth and not in the North is because in developing countries still resides a large peasant-indigenous
population, with a rich traditional agricultural knowledge and a broad genetic diversity which conforms the basisof resilient diversified agroecosystems.”
In the global North, UA has the potential to increase but its ceiling appears low due to the commercial value ofreal estate, a lack of safe land for growing food, the sheer amount of land needed to produce food, and questions
about its energy sustainability. At least in the foreseeable future, the best prospects for any vertical farming lie inturning the spaces on the rooftops of urban buildings into gardens. This would require no new land and noenergy for artificial light.
One model of the city for expanding food production is the regional or ecosystem approach. The ecologicalregion focuses on the natural sustainability of urban agglomerations through the preservation of ecologicallysignificant land such as wetlands, and the redevelopment of a regional agriculture (Luccarelli 1995). A
schematic for a zonal scaling of agriculture in urban agglomerations might look like the following:
1.   Core or inner city: Some fruit and vegetables. Continue to develop community gardens but direct
the focus to social sustainability.
2.   Suburbs: Even more fruit and vegetables, possibly with some poultry (meeting both public healthand sustainability concerns). Expand allotment systems.
3.   Exurbs: Small farms producing fruit, vegetables, and poultry that are taken to farmer’s markets in
the inner city.
4.   Periphery: Small and medium size farms producing fruit, vegetables, poultry, pork, and dairy, theproduce of which is marketed through retail outlets across the urban agglomeration.
Even assuming such a zonal scaling and a considerable increase in food production, UA will not be able toproduce at least two groups of food, one that is a necessity—that is the food that requires large-scale land use,
including all grains—and one that is discretionary—that is the exotic components of modern urban diets; forexample, bananas and citrus in cities like London and New York.
In conclusion, the potential of the contemporary upsurge in urban agriculture is assessed as follows:
1.   Agricultural (food): Limited potential and concentrated in the provision of fruit and vegetables,
and in the South

	
  
	
  

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition682.   Ecological (environmental): Meaningful potential but no more so than other urban green spaces
except for synergies with social sustainability
3.   Social (community): Substantial potential, especially in the mobilization needed for furthering
education for sustainability and environmental justice
These considerations are by nature preliminary. We have a lot of questions about urban food production and adearth of information. This means that UA can be the basis of a rich research agenda. In terms of knowledge weare probably at the end of the beginning of this research agenda.
Finally, whatever their agricultural, ecological, and social assessments, it needs to be said that urban gardens arealso important resources for the personal lives of city dwellers.
Like all urban gardens, the WSCG is only a very small piece of nature in a very large city, but like all of nature it“has unusually potent power to heal broken human landscapes and to humanize and reinvigorate distressed cities
and built environments . . . to restore community and hope at the same time that urban ecosystems are repaired”(Beatley 2011: 9).
The garden is indeed a “totality” for urbanites—providing for community solidarity, for a direct connection tonature, and for some food.

	
  
	
  

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References
ACGA. 1998. “National Community Garden Survey.” Philadelphia: American Community Garden
Association.
Altieri, Miguel A. 2012. “The scaling up of agroecology: spreading the hope for food sovereignty andresiliency.” Rio+20 Position Paper, Sociedad Cientifica Latinoamericana de Agroecologia (SOCLA). <http://www.agroeco.org/socla>
Baker, Lauren E. 2004. “Tending Cultural Landscapes and Food Citizenship in Toronto’s Community
Gardens.” Geographical Review 94: 305-325.
Beatley, Timothy. 2011. Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning. Washington, DC:
Island Press.
Bousse, Yannick Steven. 2009. “Mitigating the urban heat island effect with an intensive green roof during
summer in Reading, UK.” Reading: MSc Dissertation, Urban Sustainability, Reading University.
Brown, Kate H. and Andrew L. Jameton. 2000. “Public Health Implications of Urban Agriculture.” Journal of
Public Health Policy 21: 20-39.
Cattell, Vicky, Nick Dines, Wil Gesler, and Sarah Curtis. 2008. “Mingling, observing, and lingering: Everyday
public spaces and their implications for well-being and social relations.” Health & Place 14: 544-561.
Chicago Impact. 2013. “’Mega’ Indoor Vertical Farm: Chicago Suburb New Home to Nation’s Largest Such
Facility.” Huff Post, April 18. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/mega-indoor-vertical-farm>
Clayton, S. 2007. “Domesticated nature: motivations for gardening and perceptions of environmental impact.”
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An Analysis of the Comprehensive Effectiveness ofTokyo’s Climate Policies
By Miho Kamei,
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan

Abstract
This paper focuses on two Tokyo climate initiatives, which aim to meet climate change mitigation measures,such as carbon reduction targets and energy efficiency measures. The first initiative is the Tokyo Cap andTrade Program, which was launched in April 2010 by Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG). This was
the world’s first cap-and-trade programme that included facilities in the public, commercial, and industrial
sectors (TMG, CCS 2007). While the Tokyo Cap and Trade Program focuses on CO2 reduction by
restricting energy consumption, the Tokyo Green Building Program focuses on energy efficiency measuresthat employ environmentally friendly design principles. Both initiatives have a multiplier effect that meetsthe overall low-carbon and energy efficient objectives established by the city. These initiatives significantly
contribute to demand-side management efforts to reduce energy consumption and change humanbehaviours, thus raising the awareness of a range of stakeholders and users. Alongside the difficult energy
issues incurred by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, energy management and decentralised
energy systems employing renewable energy have been strongly emphasised. Even though local climatechange policies are limited by, the resources and powers of local government, these climate initiatives should
be expected not only to promote climate mitigation measures, but also to create fundamental social
structural changes including governance and institutional frameworks and even funding mechanisms.
Therefore, this paper attempts to explore co-benefits and find the linkage across climate policies, planningpolicies, and other social factors.
Keywords: Climate Change, Sustainable Development, Energy Efficiency

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition731.   Introduction
Tackling climate change is an inevitable factor in ensuring the world’s long-term future. The increasing
efforts of global warming can no longer be ignored. Most of governments throughout the world have alreadymade significant efforts to improve energy efficiency, establish and realise carbon reduction targets, andprotect energy security for projected increases in demand.
Tokyo is located in the central main island in Japan, has a population of approximately 13 million, and aland area of 2,188 square kilometers.

Figure1.1: Tokyo Facts(Source: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 2007)

Under a 10-year project started in 2007, Tokyo set a reduction target of 25 per cent for greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions below year 2000 levels by 2020 (TMG CCS 2007). As for per capita emissions, Tokyo
is 20−30 per cent lower than London and New York. However, the GHG emissions in the Tokyo region
are continuing to increase (TMG CCS 2007). The Tokyo region requires dynamic structural changes tomeet reduction targets in each sector.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) has implemented a number of mitigation strategies towards
long-term climate change strategies. However, the effects of these policies have not been practicallymonitored. By focusing on two main climate change initiatives established by TMG, effective mechanisms
and institutional patterns will be investigated.
In order to achieve target GHG emission mitigation and adaptation objectives, TMG must accelerateenergy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives throughout the city. Energy efficiency and renewableenergy initiatives on such a scale will require substantial amounts of capital and effective organisational
structures. In addition, the linkages between sustainable development and climate change strategies should
be considered in an urban context.
This paper aims to observe the good practice of climate change policy measures on a city scale. Governments
have little experience in initiating change by using legislation, policies, and regulations (Girardet 1999). As
for low-carbon infrastructure development relating to climate change, implementations are tailored to local

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situations. Thus, it is important to identify what circumstances and what type of stakeholders should be
involved in each implementation.
By gathering feedback from a set of stakeholders, the overall effects and practicality will be assessed in arealistic approach to find pragmatic results in the short term. Subsequently, the long-term effectiveness ofthe measures implemented should be investigated.
2. Research Questions
What policies can succeed in delivering low-carbon and energy-efficient infrastructures in Tokyo?
Investigating two Tokyo city initiatives – the Tokyo Cap and Trade program and the Tokyo Green
Building program
2.1 Key Questions
The list of the key questions that will be discussed in the report is shown below.
• What are the current climate policies for the deployment of energy efficiency
and renewable energy in the Tokyo region?
• How important is planning for the strategic deployment of renewable energy
and promoting energy-efficiency measures to meet climate mitigation targets
in a Tokyo context?
3. Literature Review
3.1. Climate Change Strategy, World Overview and Cities
The Stern Review (2006) identified three sets of policy measures that are essential to shift the economy
into low-carbon development. First, carbon pricing provides an economic incentive for key players topromote the transformation of the low-carbon market because it encourages players to minimise the impact
associated with their investments and production on their economic well-being. Second, tailoredtechnology support that enhances the performance and cost-effectiveness of new carbon-reducing
technologies is necessary. In addition, this could create sufficient demand for new technologies. Third,
experience regarding energy-efficiency opportunities should be shared more broadly beyond sectors andcountries, which will require a shift from current institutional and behavioural patterns. These shifts can bepromoted by specific policies and programmes. Therefore, tackling climate change and improving energyefficiency requires a widespread and broad portfolio of climate-friendly technologies. On the supply-side,increasing quality, efficiency and scale − while reducing costs – is nessesary (Neuhoff 2011).
To achieve this, governments are likely to implement policies to enhance new carbon intensive technologies
for achieving targets. These policy frameworks encourage private actors, which accelerate theimplementation of new technology at affordable prices to the market. In addition, international cooperation
can enhance such a long-term policy framework (Neuhoff 2011). However, while green economy tends tobe encouraged in a climate policy context and sustainable development, Constable (2011) warns that there
are supporting papers that estimate the transition to renewable energy will cause a significant amount of
job loss over the twenty years. It must be noted that a purely market-driven process will not be able to

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promote the changes that are most needed; therefore, governments at the global, national, and local levels
must create relevant policy frameworks to support sustainable social and economic activities. These points
may not be able to be ignored when governments plan dramatic fundamental social system changes.
On the other hand, renewable energy resources can significantly minimise the risks of climate change causedby rising GHG, which are emitted in large part by the burning fossil fuels. Renewables can also reduce
dependence on imports that might cause economic and political instability (Neuhoff 2004). Renewable
technologies can already be cost-competitive provided a renewable plant is located in an area with sufficient
resources and low-cost access to the grid (Ueta 2011).
In terms of the potential of decentralised energy systems to contribute to carbon savings and energy
efficiency, Girardet (1999) stated the importance of comprehensive strategies for transforming cities; forexample, the very density of urban forms offers opportunities for energy efficiency in transport access, homeheating, and delivery of services. Local level policies can create much potential for specific urban
transformations and social structural changes in local context, and policy implementation must be tailoredvery closely to local situations (Giradet 1999). Giradet also recommended the transferability of the besturban practices and flexibility of direct access to best practice examples through a dynamic system ofdecentralised co-operation between cities.
To promote decarbonisation on an urban scale, Rydin (2011) indicated that decentralisation of energy
generation is a distinct practice and that a number of high-income countries that have heavily centralised
systems tend to shift to decentralised systems. In this process, spatial planning and regulations cancontribute to promoting greater decentralisation of energy systems. However, spatial planning andregulation are not enough, on their own, to ensure successful deployment of energy technologies. Energy
systems have to be operationalized; thus institutional arrangements are significant as well as delivering
reasonably priced energy alongside carbon reductions. Considering these institutional arrangements
includes the range of stakeholders within spatial planning governance networks. The important point isthat decentralised energy systems need − most importantly − to involve not only energy infrastructure
providers, but also organisations to manage the infrastructures, which means communities and local
business may be included within decentralised systems. (Rydin 2011).

3.2 Tokyo’s Climate Change Strategy
TMG has set a GHG reduction target of 25% from the 2000 level by 2020. As the first step of its climatechange mitigation strategy, TMG stated two principles. First, promotes reduced energy consumption bycompleting implementation of energy conservation programs as well as providing new building regulations.
Second, it encourages the use of renewable energy and enhances the new energy market (TMG CCS 2007).
3.3 Current Status
3.3.1 Trends of Green Gas Emissions within Tokyo
Green gas emissions in Tokyo have increased by 3.3 per cent in 2005 compared to the 1990 levels. Carbon

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Dioxide (CO2) dominated 96.3 per cent of emissions and increased 5.7 per cent from1990.

Table 3.1: CO2 Emissions in Tokyo (tentative values for fiscal 2005)(Source: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 2007)

As for the CO2 by sector, its percentage in the commercial sector has increased by seven per cent from1990 to 2005 based on the composition ratio. Concerning the trends after 2000, the transportation andindustrial sectors tend to decrease, while the commercial sector and household sectors indicate a continuous
upward trend. Considering these trends, TMG has decided to take action to reduce CO2, particularly inthe commercial and residential sectors (TMG 2008).
3.4.2 GHG emissions and Energy Consumption Trends for Tokyo
Energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) accounted for around 95 per cent of GHG emissions in Tokyo. CO2
emissions in the city have increased, and energy consumption has also expanded ten per cent over the period.
However, comparing FY2006 with FY2000, CO2 emissions in Tokyo decreased by two per cent and energy
consumption decreased around four per cent (TMG 2010)

By energy type, electricity dominated approximately 50 per cent of CO2 emissions in Tokyo, followed byfuel Oil (28%) and city gas (17%). Since FY1990, the emissions of city gas steeply decreased due to the
obvious shift from gas to fuel oil and other factors. CO2 emissions from the use of fuel oil and LPG havedecreased by around 20
However, emissions fromhave increased around 15

Table 3.2: Energy Consumption by sector in Tokyo(Source: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 2010)

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77

per

cent.

electricity

use

per cent, alongwith city gas use (TMG 2010).

Table 3.3: CO2 Emissions and Energy Consumption by energy type fuel in Tokyo
4.

(Source: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 2010)

Methodology
Public policies should be assessed to identify their effectiveness in achieving their stated objectives. In
addition, other possible approaches that might be able to achieve similar goals should be identified. This
thesis focuses on two climate initiatives and the renewable strategy set by Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
By analysing each policy’s driving forces and barriers, the key factors that are likely to realise the policy
objectives, or lead to difficulties will be identified.
4.1 Document Analysis
Most of the basic information regarding Tokyo’s climate change strategy was collected from the official
website of Tokyo Metropolitan Government. This is a first logical step to identify key policies and strategies
set by TMG.
The documents that will be analysed are listed below. However, there were no up-to-date documents
available on either the website or the office. Therefore, it was difficult to find the latest data, especially data
generated after the Great East Earthquake of 2011.
-  Tokyo Climate Change Strategy (TMG CCS 2007)-  Tokyo Climate Change Strategy Progress Report (TMG PR 2010)-  Tokyo’s Climate Change Measures (TMG CCM 2007)-  On the path to a low carbon city (TMG LCC 2011)-  Tokyo Renewable Energy Strategy (TMG RES 2006)-  Stakeholder meeting report (TMG SMR 2007, 2008)-  Tokyo Metropolitan Environmental Mater Plan (TMG EMP 2008)

4.2 In-depth Interview
In order to collect realistic data, an in-depth interview is necessary. Several hypotheses and detailed
questions will be developed, and then interviews will be conducted with several key actors and stakeholders
relating to climate change and energy issues in Japan and within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
This process can help understand real situations and obtain the latest primary information, since policy
documents do not always provide detailed, realistic data.

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Most interviews lasted for approximately one hour. Climate change and energy issues are currently very
sensitive topics in Japan, thus most interviewees were not willing to allow the interview to be recorded.
However, most interviewees were willing to provide internal specific documents as well as official
information. Also, they permitted the interviewer to take notes. Therefore, a great deal of documents andbrochures could significantly support the analysis of the results of these interviews recorded as notes andtranscripts.

Actor
Organization
METI
TMG

Kyoto University
Chiyoda-ku

Interviewee
METI 1
TMG 1
TMG 2
TMG 3
KYOTO 1
Chiyoda 1

Position/Department
Chief Negotiator of COP15 for Japan
Planning official, Environmental Dep.
Energy Efficiency official , Environmental Dep.
Renewable Energy official, Environmental Dep.
Professor, Chair of FIT committee of METI
Official, Planning Dep.

Table 4.1: Interviewees’ List for Actors (2012)
Stakeholder
Keidanren
Japan Business Federation
Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Tokyo Electric Power Company
Japan Council for Renewable Energy
Tokyo Building Owners and TBOMA 1
Management Association

Keidanren 1
JBF 1
TCCI 1TEPCO 1
JCRE 1
Official

Official, Environmental Dep.
Official, Environmental Dep.
Official, Environmental Dep.
Operator (Public Information)
Official, Environmental Dep.

Table 4.2: Interviewees’ List for Stakeholders (2012)
5. Case Background
5.1 Tokyo’s Climate Change Strategy Policy Measures
As CO2 emissions trends in the commercial and residential sectors increase, TMG has launched specificpolicy measures to reduce CO2 emissions in large facilities and office building sectors (TMG 2010). This
paper investigates two major initiatives; namely, the Tokyo Cap and Trade Program and the Tokyo Green
Building Program.
5.1.1 Tokyo Cap and Trade Program
TMG set a cap at the city level on emissions from large commercial and industrial buildings. This program
focuses on mainly demand-side management. Since the implementation, there is high expectation on its
effectiveness as a measure set by local government (Nishida and Hua 2011).
This program was planned to target existing buildings that consumes large amounts of energy. Thus the

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program covers about 1,300 large–scale facilities that emit 40 per cent of all CO2 emissions in thecommercial and industrial sectors. The total cap on the targeted sector is six per cent below base-year for
the first five years (2010-2014). In the second stage, these facilities will be expected to reduce their emissions
17 per cent below base-year emissions.
The responsibility for emissions reduction falls onto building owners, with whom tenants are required tocooperate with the building owners to achieve reduction targets and report the progress. Building owners
who fail to meet the reduction targets are fined as much as US$600 and surcharged a maximum of 1.3 times
the cost of unfilled reductions (Nishida and Hua 2011).
This scheme allows business owners to choose the most cost effective methods of reducing emissions,
including emission trading. For instance, this program introduced three types of emission offsets such as
emission reduction from small and medium size facilities, renewable energy credits, and emission reduction
outside of Tokyo (TMG 2007). While CO2 emission mitigation is the main goal of Japan’s Cap and Trade
Program, it may have a beneficial effect on creating new markets for green products and technologies(Nishida and Hua, 2011).
Another significant feature is that, in TMG’s program, the carbon market is organized as semi-closed andis no linked to other global markets. This mechanism can reduce the risk of market-based trading schemes.
Also, this program was designed in a simple way that targets only energy-based CO2 emissions with clear
data sources that exist for CO2 inventory calculation. Such simplicity helped stakeholders to understandthe programme.
In TMG’s Cap and Trade Program, consensus building was a significantly important key factor to motivateand engage stakeholders. After announcing the program in 2007, TMG collected opinions from businesssectors, NGOs, academics and other main stakeholders (Nishida and Hua, 2011). The key system forbuilding effective consensus consists of expert panels, stakeholder meetings, and forums, seminars, andworkshops. In the Japanese policy-making process, these consensus processes featuring a wide range ofstakeholders in a public place is rare.

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Table 5.1: Tokyo Cap and Trade Program(Source: On the Path to a Low Carbon City: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 2010)

5.1.2 Tokyo Green Building Program
Every new construction a large building (over 5,000 square meters in total floor area) in the Tokyo region
is required to employ environmentally friendly design principles. Under this program, more than 1,500
buildings have disclosed their ‘Green Specs’ since 2002. Through this rating and reporting system, theTokyo Green Building Program aims to create a greener building market in which energy-efficient andenvironmental buildings can be more valued than less-green buildings. The most recent revisions to theprogramme added the requirement of a feasibility study for the use of renewable energy devices on site
(TMG PR 2010).
In the Tokyo Green Building Program, environmental performance is evaluated by twelve items in the four
categories (see Table 5.2). Each item will be described as part of a three grade rating system (TMG PR2010). After addressing the Tokyo Green Building Program in 2002, all large-scale buildings have beenassessed for environmental performance, then the results are published on the city’s website.

Table 5.2: Tokyo Green Building Program(Source: On the Path to a Low Carbon City: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 2010)

6 Finding and Analysis
6.1-Introduction
TMG focuses on two principles for climate change mitigation measures. The one is energy efficiency
measures and the other is deployment of renewable energy. To realise these principles, the Tokyo Cap andTrade Program and the Tokyo Green Building Program have had remarkable effects in the Tokyo context(TMG CCS 2010). These policies can create a positive linkage between regulation, planning policy, andthe development of market mechanisms. The alliance between CO2 reduction programs and green
infrastructure deployment may have a positive multiplier effect. Furthermore, a wide range of stakeholders
such as NGOs, industry representatives, experts, and citizens have participated actively and played an
important role in the policy-making process and implementation phase (TMG CCS 2007). This may leadto a significant change in institutional patterns and the creation of innovative market mechanisms for
deployment of low-carbon and energy efficiency infrastructures in the Tokyo context.

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition816.2 Analysis of the Tokyo Cap and Trade Program
TMG implemented its cap-and-trade program in 2010. After 2010, affected building owners have legal
obligations to reduce their CO2 emissions by a certain amount. Most new, large facilities are energy efficientand are utilising as many green technologies as they can afford. Also, a number of old facilities have beenrenovated to be energy efficient under this policy (TMG PR 2010).
The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) relating to this policy will be identified
through the use of document analysis and in-depth interview data.
6.2.1 STRENGTHSIn terms of energy efficiency measures, Tokyo’s Cap and Trade Program has directly contributed to efforts
to reduce CO2 emissions and improve energy efficiency in large office building sectors. This has also
succeeded in enhancing building owners’ awareness of their need to reduce CO2 emissions. Tokyo Cap andTrade Program targets only energy-based CO2, thus energy efficiency measures were identified as mucheasier to understand for building owners than CO2 emissions measures because they can track them bychecking their energy bills, and energy efficiency measures can directly contribute to cost efficiency itself;thus, building owners are willing to improve energy efficiency measures for their facilities (TMG
interviewee 2 2012).
6.2.2 WEAKNESSESAs for CO2 emissions measures, however, it can be seen that it is still difficult to motivate building owners
and tenants to make efforts to reduce CO2 emissions unless they can obtain benefits by reducing CO2
emissions or pay a penalty for not doing so. Thus, Tokyo’s Cap and Trade Program can encourage building
owners to meet its requirements as a strict obligation. However, there has been enormous discussion relating
to the equity issue with this scheme. Specifically, it has been argued that there are no practical common
indicators to identify precise energy efficiency measures for different specifications of buildings which werebuilt in different periods and have different functions (Keidanren interviewee 2012, TBOMA interviewee2012).
6.2.3 OPPORTUNITIESThe program allows building owners to use three types of offset options – buying credits from small andmedium size facilities owners, adopting renewable energy, and reducing emissions outside of Tokyo – whichbrings multiple benefits for green technology deployment by creating new markets (TMG interviewee 12012).
The available offset options also lead to positive linkages with the energy efficiency measures achieved bysmall and medium facilities, as well as the expansion of green technologies. TMG has promoted energy
efficiency measures for small and medium office facilities, and the housing sector, not as an obligation but
as a voluntary action. Currently TMG has raised awareness heavily in this sector, because approximately 50
per cent of CO2 emissions from the commercial and industrial sector were generated by medium and small
facilities (TMG interviewee 2 2012).
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The threat in Tokyo’s Cap and Trade Program is that carbon is not a visible product. Therefore, it might
be difficult to control in a limited region, making an international framework essential. However, organising
the futures market to include carbon, thus enabling it to be given the same value as other commodities,
might threaten the world market trading system. This point was emphasised by most of the interviewed
business-sector stakeholders.
6.3 Analysis of Tokyo’s Green Building Program
Energy efficiency measure is one of the big pillars of Tokyo climate change strategy. Japan has alreadyproved its high energy efficiency in transport and building sectors comparing to other developed countries.
To achieve climate change mitigation target, Tokyo has still much potential to upgrade their assets to be
more energy efficient (TMG interviewee 1 2012).
6.3.1 STRENGTHSThe CO2 and energy efficiency reporting system established in the office building and housing sector under
the Tokyo Green Building Program has significantly raised people’s awareness of energy efficiency
measures. The system is a very practical way to show people how much energy they have consumed andhow it influences their energy bills. As long as it is impossible to regulate medium and small businesses,
promoting behavioural change may significantly reduce the total amount of CO2 emissions and inefficientfacilities. TMG interviewee 2 (2012) emphasised it becomes obvious to people that they can change theirordinary behaviours, or at least make an effort to do so, when they recognise their energy bills can bedramatically reduced.
6.3.2 WEAKNESSES
Little information has been provided to building owners to employ energy-efficiency equipment and latest
green technologies for their buildings. Moreover, TMG has not prepared enough subsidies for building
owners to upgrade the facilities. (TMG interviewee 1 2012) In addition, CO2 emissions in building scaleheavily rely on the energy use of tenants, however, this policy focuses on only building owners, that is notpractically effective to reduce overall energy demand in a city (TMG interviewee 2 2012).
6.3.3 OPPORTUNITIES
After the Great East Japan Earthquake, people had to immediately change their behaviour relating toenergy use due to significant energy shortages. It was an unprecedented situation that required strictmeasures; however, people in affected regions clearly demonstrated that it is possible to significantly reduce
one’s energy demand by changing one’s daily behaviours (TMG interviewee 2 2012). An interviewee withTEPCO stated that there is an effective plan to provide smart meters to every household in the country,
which will be subsidised by the central government in the near future. He also explained the importance ofdemand-side management to reduce the total amount of energy demand and CO2 emissions on the basisof the hard experience gained in the aftermath of the earthquake. This demand-side management, such as
human behavioural changes, can significantly influence environmental performance under the Tokyo Green
Building Program.
6.3.4 THREATSThis policy covers only large-scale buildings over 5,000 square meters, however, 50 per cent of CO2
emissions are still emitted by small and medium size buildings that are very difficult to regulate and control

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through policy due to the complexity of grasping real facility data that is spread throughout the urban scale,in industrial and commercial sector in Tokyo (TMG interviewee 2 2012).
7. Conclusions
7.1. Introduction
Two key events have highlighted the need for fundamental social structural changes in Japan. Firstly,
climate change is one of the greatest concerns on a global scale, including in Japan. A new global andnational framework for tacking climate change issues is essential; moreover, cities’ action plans cancontribute considerably to reducing environmental risks in the short and long term. Tokyo’s climate change
strategy is one of the progressive examples of how an area can set its own targets for CO2 reductions andenergy efficiency measures.
Secondly, the other significant event was the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. After this event,Japan required physical and social mechanism changes due to massive energy issues caused by nuclear power
accidents and successive energy security problems. Specifically, Tokyo had sourced most of its energy from
nuclear reactors in the Tohoku region that were destroyed in the earthquake. The earthquake showed thatmegacities that with centralised energy systems that rely on energy supply that comes from outside theircities must reconsider their future energy systems.
7.2 Key Findings across the Two Initiatives
In terms of energy efficiency measures, Tokyo’s Cap and Trade Program has significantly contributed toraise citizens’ awareness and provided a number of energy efficiency measures for existing large facilities inTokyo. Upgrading facilities may lead to the creation of an effective green technology market. TMG has
attempted to enhance these new market mechanisms to deploy green innovations, thus creating an effective
free market. Tokyo’s Green Building Program has also succeeded in providing realistic visible data regarding
energy efficiency measures by using a rating report system. Both the Tokyo Cap and Trade Program andthe Tokyo Green Building Program can encourage renewable energy use for offsetting carbon credits andenhancing energy self-sufficiency.
The expansion of renewable energy production, on the other hand, comes with limitations for installing
solar PV on the roofs of buildings, because it is not very cost effective and current solar PV performance
has not been proven to produce sufficient energy for megacities such as Tokyo (TMG interviewee 3 2012).
However, TMG takes the CO2 credits offset outside Tokyo and renewable energy production into accountfor creating new social systems to change the existing systems. Specifically, Tokyo’s Renewable Energy
Strategy requires upgrading the energy network infrastructure on a national scale. This also requires social
structural change to realise the shift from the current centralised energy system to a decentralised energy
system, including institutional pattern change.
A decentralised energy system might be key to replace the current nuclear and fossil fuel-based energy
system with one that is based on renewable energy. However, this change requires enormous contributions
from the political system to transform and upgrade existing physical infrastructures. A number of papers;
for instance, those listed in the literature review section (3.5), and an interviewees stated that there are few

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition84

contributions from the planning system to control a practical local master plan; moreover, municipalities
have little power to put their own needs into a local master plan. Therefore, significant structural changes
to the planning system are also required because renewable energy relies heavily on the local context.

Table 7.1: Tokyo Cap and Trade Program Analysis (Driving forces and Barriers)

Table 7.2: Tokyo Green Building Program Analysis (Driving forces and Barriers)

The IAFOR Academic Review – Ninth Edition85

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The IAFOR
Academic Review
Volume 1 | Issue 9

Collected Essays on Sustainable
Development & the Environment II

Published by The International Academic Forum(IAFOR), Japan
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