Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment for Decision-Making


Book Description

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment for Decision-Making: Methodologies and Case Studies gives readers a comprehensive introduction to life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) methodology for sustainability measurement of industrial systems, proposing an efficiency methodology for stakeholders and decision-makers. Featuring the latest methods and case studies, the book will assist researchers in environmental sciences and energy to develop the best methods for LCA, as well as aiding those practitioners who are responsible for making decisions for promoting sustainable development. The past, current status and future of LCSA, Life Cycle Assessment method (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA), the methodology of LCSA, typical LCSA case studies, limitations of LCSA, and life cycle aggregated sustainability index methods are all covered in this multidisciplinary book. - Includes models for assessing sustainability in environmental, energy engineering and economic scenarios - Features case studies that help define the advantages and obstacles of real world applications - Presents a complete view, from theory to practice, of a life cycle approach by exploring the methods and tools of sustainability assessment, analysis and design of sustainability assessment




Ethics and Decision-Making for Sustainable Business Practices


Book Description

Alongside increasing demands for transparency and accountability, business governance is transforming due to decades of economic turmoil, regulatory reform, and technological change. There is now a holistic approach to this concept, as it is no longer just about running companies and organization efficiently. Ethics and Decision-Making for Sustainable Business Practices is a critical scholarly resource that examines issues of sustainability, ethics, governance, and cultural influence in the business world. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as entrepreneurship, cost management, environmental business, and cultural diversity, this book is geared towards managers, leaders, researchers, and organizations interested in the integration of sustainable business practices.




Sustainable Values, Sustainable Change


Book Description

“Systematically investigates the philosophical foundations of sustainable development in the context of the history of environmental policy. . . . Compelling.” —Choice Sustainability is a nearly ubiquitous concept today, but can we ever imagine what it would be like for humans to live sustainably on earth? One of the most trafficked terms in the press, on university campuses, and in the corridors of government, sustainability has risen to prominence as a buzzword before the many parties laying claim to it have agreed on how to define it. But the term’s political currency urgently demands that we develop an understanding of this elusive concept. While economists, philosophers, and ecologists argue about what in nature is valuable, and why, in Sustainable Values, Sustainable Change, Bryan Norton offers an action-oriented, pragmatic response to the disconnect between public and academic discourse around sustainability. Looking to the arenas in which decisions are made—and the problems driving these decisions—Norton reveals that the path to sustainability cannot be guided by fixed objectives; sustainability will instead be achieved through experimentation, incremental learning, and adaptive management. Drawing inspiration from Aldo Leopold’s famed metaphor of “thinking like a mountain” for a spatially explicit, pluralistic approach to evaluating environmental change, Norton outlines a new decision-making process guided by deliberation and negotiation across science and philosophy. Looking across scales to today’s global problems, Norton urges us to learn to think like a planet. “An excellent distillation of Norton’s extensive and groundbreaking work.” —Ben Minteer, Arizona State University, author of Refounding Environmental Ethics “Engaging and important.” —Sahotra Sarkar, University of Texas at Austin, author of Environmental Philosophy: From Theory to Practice




Working Toward Sustainability


Book Description

A comprehensive introduction to the ethics of sustainability for empowering professionals and practitioners in many different fields By building the framework for balancing technological developments with their social and environmental effects, sustainable practices have grounded the vision of the green movement for the past few decades. Now deeply rooted in the public conscience, sustainability has put its stamp on various institutions and sectors, from national to local governments, from agriculture to tourism, and from manufacturing to resource management. But until now, the technological sector has operated without a cohesive set of sustainability principles to guide its actions. Working Toward Sustainability fills this gap by empowering professionals in various fields with an understanding of the ethical foundations they need to promoting and achieving sustainable development. In addition, Working Toward Sustainability: Offers a comprehensive introduction to the ethics of sustainability for those in the technical fields whether construction, engineering, resource management, the sciences, architecture, or design Supports nine central principles using case studies, exercises, and instructor material Includes illustrations throughout to help bring the concepts to life By demonstrating that sustainable solutions tart with ethical choices, this groundbreaking book helps professionals in virtually every sector and field of endeavor work toward sustainability.




Sustainability Assessment


Book Description

Currently the writing on the subject is limited and comprises, for the most part, guidance documents and completed assessments.




Sustainability and the U.S. EPA


Book Description

Sustainability is based on a simple and long-recognized factual premise: Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment. The environment provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Recognizing the importance of sustainability to its work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to create programs and applications in a variety of areas to better incorporate sustainability into decision-making at the agency. To further strengthen the scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, the EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide a framework for incorporating sustainability into the EPA's principles and decision-making. This framework, Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, provides recommendations for a sustainability approach that both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980s. Although risk-based methods have led to many successes and remain important tools, the report concludes that they are not adequate to address many of the complex problems that put current and future generations at risk, such as depletion of natural resources, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond risk management. The report recommends that EPA formally adopt as its sustainability paradigm the widely used "three pillars" approach, which means considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an action or decision. Health should be expressly included in the "social" pillar. EPA should also articulate its vision for sustainability and develop a set of sustainability principles that would underlie all agency policies and programs.




Decision Making for the Environment


Book Description

With the growing number, complexity, and importance of environmental problems come demands to include a full range of intellectual disciplines and scholarly traditions to help define and eventually manage such problems more effectively. Decision Making for the Environment: Social and Behavioral Science Research Priorities is the result of a 2-year effort by 12 social and behavioral scientists, scholars, and practitioners. The report sets research priorities for the social and behavioral sciences as they relate to several different kinds of environmental problems.




Decision Support Systems for Sustainable Development


Book Description

In recent years, much work has been done in formulating and clarifying the concept of sustainable development and related theoretical and research issues. Now, the challenge has shifted to designing and stimulating processes of effective planning and decision-making, at all levels of human activity, in such a way as to achieve local and global sustainable development. Information technology can help a great deal in achieving sustainable development by providing well-designed and useful tools for decision makers. One such tool is the decision support system, or DSS. This book explores the area of DSS in the context of sustainable development. As DSS is a very new technique, especially in the developing world, this book will serve as a reference text, primarily for managers, government officials, and information professionals in developing countries. It covers the concept of sustainable development, defines DSS and how it can be used in the planning and management of sustainable development, and examines the state of the art in DSS use. Other interested readers will include students, teachers, and analysts in information sciences; DSS designers, developers, and implementors; and international development agencies.




Strategic Decision Making for Sustainable Management of Industrial Networks


Book Description

This book presents a diverse set of decision-making methodologies to solve some of the most important decisions that most organizations face today. It is an excellent demonstration of some great challenges in our society in the area of sustainability. These great challenges, ranging from sustainability in logistics to the use of renewable energies, needs to be urgently addressed. Sustainability has become one of the most important topics in management and many organizations are taking big steps towards sustainability. Organizations are attempting to use cleaner production technologies and renewable energies sources, to improve health and safety issues within their industries and the products and services they offer. These points involve several important strategic and managerial decisions, highlighted in this book. The book can be used by decision-makers and policy-makers as exemplary guidelines to solve sustainability problems.




Sustainable Transportation and Smart Logistics


Book Description

Sustainable Transportation and Smart Logistics: Decision-Making Models and Solutions provides deterministic and probabilistic models for transportation logistics problem-solving and decision-making. The book presents an overview of the intersections between sustainability, transportation, and logistics, and delves into the current problems associated with the implementation of sustainable transportation and smart logistics in urban settings. It also offers models for addressing complex structural problems and procedures for estimating transportation externalities such as environmental and social impacts, both in industrial and government arenas, as well as decision-making models from operational, tactical, and strategic management perspectives. Sustainable Transportation and Smart Logistics also covers best practices for practical corporate policy implementation, making it a comprehensive and vital resource for researchers, graduate students, practitioners, and policy makers in transportation, logistics, urban planning, economics, engineering, and environmental science. - Examines various modes of transportation - Includes mathematical models for decision-making in a wide variety of situations - Presents public transportation and smart cities use cases