This book analyzes new forms of capitalism that are manifesting under the pressures of global transformation. By studying economic and environmental indicators in various parts of the world, it seeks to reconcile economic growth with environmental and social sustainability, which is an important issue in both developed and emerging economies. These indicators include the explosive development of digital technologies and new global value chains, which are reshaping economies and societies all over the world. The contributing authors also address the challenge of immigration, the sustainable development transformation, the ties between productivity and social rights, automation and global value chains, the energy transition, and innovation and sustainable growth.

The author looks at the prospects for a transition from natural gas to low carbon gas, which could take several decades, and at how this will depend on the evolution of the fossil fuel industry. She investigates the technologies and energy systems for making the best use of renewable gas resources.

This book features articles that analyze current agricultural issues and knowledge. It also proposes novel, environmentally friendly solutions that are based on integrated information from such fields as agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economics and the social sciences.Coverage examines ways to produce food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. Inside, readers will find articles that explore climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control and biodiversity depletion. Instead of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach, which seeks to limit negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats challenges at their source. Because most societal issues are in fact intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainable agriculture will bring solutions that have the potential to build a more peaceful world. This book will help scientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers and politicians build safer agriculture, energy and food systems for future generations.

This book presents a cross-disciplinary approach to smart grids, offering an invaluable basis for understanding their complexity and potential, and for discussing their technical, legal, economic, societal, psychological and security aspects. Smart grids are a complex phenomenon involving new, active roles for consumers and prosumers, novel social, political and cultural practices, advanced ICT, new markets, security of supply issues, the informational turn in energy, valuation of assets and investments, technological innovation and (de)regulation. Furthermore, smart grids offer new interfaces, in turn creating hybrid fields: with the increasing use of electric vehicles and electric transportation, smart grids represent the crossroads of energy and mobility. While the aim is to achieve more sustainable production, transportation and use of energy, the importance of smart grids actually has less to do with electricity, heat or gas, and far more with transforming the infrastructure needed to deliver energy, as well as the roles of its owners, operators and users. The immediate goal is to contribute positively to a sustainable world society. The chapters are revised and expanded texts based upon lectures delivered at the Groningen Energy Summer School 2014. Questions for further discussion at the end of each chapter highlight the key themes that emerge. The book offers an indispensable resource for researchers, professionals and companies in the power supply industry, and for students seeking to broaden and deepen their understanding of smart grids.

This book is committed to provide a holistic view of corruption in the public construction sector, a sector that has been perceived as the most corrupt in the world. Relying on the new findings achieved from a series of qualitative and quantitative studies, this book unveils the specific forms of corruption, the principal causes of corruption, and the prevailing anti-corruption strategies that are used by the current practice. Furthermore, this book provides two metrics that can assess the potential of corruption and the risk of collusion in given public construction projects, respectively. This book will enhance industry and research communities' understandings of corruption in the public construction sector. It is also informative to policy-makers and can help them come up with some more effective strategies to eliminate corruption in the public construction sector.

This book examines the energy footprints of various industrial sectors, including the bio- and hydrogen energy systems, and explores the scope for improvement, particularly in India. It focuses on the consumption and conservation of energy, which are the key elements of any industry's sustainability strategy.

The book reveals how green buildings are currently being adapted and applied in developing countries. It includes the major developing countries such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Cambodia, Ghana, Nigeria and countries from the Middle East and gathers the insights of respected green building researchers from these areas to map out the developing world's green building revolution. The book highlights these countries' contribution to tackling climate change, emphasising the green building benefits and the research behind them. The contributing authors explore how the green building revolution has spread to developing countries and how national governments have initiated their own green building policies and agendas. They also explore how the market has echoed the green building policy, and how a business case for green buildings has been established. In turn, they show how an international set of green building standards, in the form of various techniques and tools, has been incorporated into local building and construction practices. In closing, they demonstrate how the developing world is emerging as a key player for addressing the energy and environmental problems currently facing the world. The book helps developers, designers and policy-makers in governments and green building stakeholders to make better decisions on the basis of global and local conditions. It is also of interest to engineers, designers, facility managers and researchers, as it provides a holistic picture of how the industry is responding to the worldwide call for greener and more sustainable buildings.

This book examines the main reasons and challenges for the success of the human development approach both in theory and practice as an alternative to the economic growth model. Unlike the preceding research which has typically been either theoretical/prescriptive or empirical/descriptive, it follows a pragmatic historical and institutional methodology, since human development cannot be understood without considering the complexities added centrally by the formation process in the UNDP. Referring to the capability approach, it also addresses how to best reflect happiness within this paradigm.

In this book, a number of long-term energy scenarios are developed for Nigeria considering the impact of vital factors that may influence energy policies in the country's future energy system. The energy scenarios were developed through the Long-Range Energy Alternatives Planning System (LEAP) model. The model identified the future energy demand and supply pattern using a least-cost combination of technology options while limiting the emission of greenhouse gases. The book presents four scenarios, and key parameters considered include GDP, households, population, urbanization and the growth rates of energy-intensive sectors. Further, it highlights the findings of the cost-benefit analysis, which reveal the costs of implementing selected policies and strategies in Nigeria, including those focusing on energy efficiency and fuel/technology switching. The book also discusses the application of the LEAP-OSeMOSYS Model in order to identify lowest-cost power plants for electricity generation. Some sustainable strategies that can ensure a low carbon development in Nigeria are also explored on the basis of successful country cases in relation to the Nigerian LEAP model. As such, the book will help policy makers devise energy and sustainable strategies to achieve low carbon development in Nigeria.

Towards a Sustainable University tackles the challenge of sustainability in universities. As educational, research centres, universities should deeply contribute to building a new paradigm based on sustainability. Research on sustainable issues and teaching 'more sustainability' should become goals for the future, yet universities are also a working environment and an organization in which sustainability can be experienced. This book shows how a sustainable university can shape future citizens and future managers following the sustainable paradigm.

The proceeding of tropical agriculture is a proceeding of papers presented at the International Conference on Tropical Agriculture. Sustainability of agriculture production system is an important issue in the world, which includes all aspects of sustainable criteria, such as technical, socio-economic, and ecological aspects. This book covers sustainable tropical agriculture, sustainable tropical fisheries, sustainable tropical animal production, sustainable tropical forestry, tropical animal health, and Innovative and Emerging Food Technology and Management. The most common, challenging issues in plant, animal and fisheries production in the tropics are climate change, inefficiency production system, low technological innovation, decreasing environment quality, and the outbreak risk of pest and diseases. These issues are closely linked to the socio-economic condition of farmers as small-scale farms are dominant in this area. In addition, post-harvest technology is crucial to maintaining the high quality of products after on farm production. This volume provides the recent research and development on tropical agriculture production systems for plant, terrestrial animal and aquatic animal to establish sustainable agriculture production in the tropics.

Sustainable development and the protection of the environment are concepts that have become inescapably connected. At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September 2002, the challenges facing the global environment were discussed at length. Air, water and marine pollution continue to rob millions of a decent life, loss of biodiversity continues, fish stocks are being depleted, desertification claims more fertile land, climate changes are having devastating effects, natural disasters are more frequent and developing countries are even more vulnerable. (Principle 13). This volume examines these important issues and adapts a practical approach. It outlines the programme of sustainable development in concrete fields of economic and environmental cooperation. The concept for this volume originated from the Conference on Exploitation and Management of Natural Resources in the Twenty-First Century: The Challenge of Sustainable Development. The Conference was organised by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and the Department of Law at Queen Mary, University of London.

The aim of this book is to present qualitative and qualitative aspects of logistics operations and supply chain management which help to implement the sustainable policy principles in the companies and public sector s institutions. Authors in individual chapters address the issues related to reverse network configuration, forward and reverse supply chain integration, CO2 reduction in transportation, improvement of the production operations and management of the recovery activities. Some best practices from different countries and industries are presented. This book will be valuable to both academics and practitioners wishing to deepen their knowledge in the field of logistics operations and management with regard to sustainability issues."

This book provides advanced analytics and decision management techniques and tools for developing sustainable competitive advantages in the studied target context. In order to achieve sustainable economy, the capacity to endure, it is essential to understand and study the mechanisms for interactions and impact from and among these perspectives.

This thesis documents almost twenty years of the author's work on the development and implementation of a new approach to holistic community development in remote and disadvantaged villages in Nepal. It describes the theoretical basis of the work, the main research activities, and the practical outcomes of the implemented programs. One of the fundamental cornerstones of holistic community development is the provision of appropriate and sustainable solutions for the long-term development of local communities. This requires that people's own identified needs be recognized and addressed in partnership with them in holistic ways. The author explains the many synergies that result from this holistic approach to community development. Another cornerstone of his approach is to utilise the communities' locally available renewable resources for long-term sustainable development. One of the key findings of the thesis is that improved access to energy services, such as cooking with a smokeless metal stove in a clean indoor environment, basic indoor lighting, and increased food production and safe food storage (through a greenhouse and a solar drier respectively), need to be at the very heart of any long-term holistic community development project. The thesis demonstrates that tapping into locally available renewable energy resources and converting them, through contextualized and locally manufactured renewable energy technologies, has a central role in long-term holistic community development programs. Such programs are successful because they provide both appropriate technologies and life-changing experiences for the local users involved.

This volume offers a comprehensive survey and a close analysis of efforts to develop actionable climate information in support of vital decisions for climate adaptation, risk management and policy. Arising from submissions and discussion at the 2011 Open Science Conference (OSC) of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), the book addresses research and intellectual challenges which span the full range of Program activities.

The latest scientific knowledge on climate change indicates that higher greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere through unchecked emissions will provoke severe climate change and ocean acidification. Both impacts can fundamentally alter environmental structures on which humanity relies and have serious consequences for the food chain among others. Climate change therefore poses major socio-economic, technical and environmental challenges which will have serious impacts on countries' pathways towards sustainable development. As a result, climate change and sustainable development have increasingly become interlinked. A changing climate makes achieving Millennium Development Goals more difficult and expensive, so there is every reason to achieve development goals with low greenhouse gas emissions. This leads to the following five challenges discussed by Challenges and Solutions for Climate Change: 1. To place climate negotiations in the wider context of sustainability, equity and social change so that development benefits can be maximised at the same time as decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. 2. To select technologies or measures for climate change mitigation and adaptation based on countries' sustainable development and climate goals. 3. To create low greenhouse gas emission and climate resilient strategies and action plans in order to accelerate innovation needed for achieving sustainable development and climate goals on the scale and timescale required within countries. 4. To rationalize the current directions in international climate policy making in order to provide coherent and efficient support to developing countries in devising and implementing strategies and action plans for low emission technology transfers to deliver climate and sustainable development goals. 5. To facilitate development of an international framework for financial resources in order to support technology development and transfer, improve enabling environments for innovation, address equity issues such as poor people's energy access, and make implementation of activities possible at the desired scale within the country. The solutions presented in Challenges and Solutions for Climate Change show how ambitious measures can be undertaken which are fully in line with domestic interests, both in developing and in developed countries, and how these measures can be supported through the international mechanisms.

This book gathers the latest innovations and applications in the field of resource-saving technologies and advanced materials in civil and environmental engineering, as presented by leading international researchers and engineers at the 2nd International Scientific Conference EcoComfort and Current Issues of Civil Engineering, held in Lviv, Ukraine on September 16-18, 2020. It covers a diverse range of topics, including ecological and energy-saving technologies; renewable energy sources; heat, gas and water supply; microclimate provision systems; innovative building materials and products; smart technologies in water purification and treatment; protection of water ecosystems; and architectural shaping and structural solutions. The contributions, which were selected using a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaborations.

This book provides insights on a broad spectrum of renewable and sustainable energy technologies from the world's leading experts. It highlights the latest achievements in policy, research and applications, keeping readers up-to-date on progress in this rapidly advancing field. Detailed studies of technological breakthroughs and optimizations are contextualized with in-depth examinations of experimental and industrial installations, connecting lab innovations to success in the field. The volume contains selected papers presented at technical and plenary sessions at the World Renewable Energy Congress, the world's premier conference on renewable energy and sustainable development. Held every two years, the Congress provides an international forum that attracts hundreds of delegates from more than 60 countries.

This book provides an essential overview of sustainable development research in Mexico. It discusses the empirical research methods and findings, as well as practical initiatives and projects being pursued in Mexico and other countries in the region. Although a number of Mexican universities are now conducting high-quality research on matters related to sustainable development, there are few publications that offer a multidisciplinary overview of research efforts for a broader audience. This book addresses that gap in the literature, providing researchers at Mexican universities - including those from other countries working in Mexico - with an opportunity to present their work, i.e. curriculum innovations, empirical work, activities, case studies, and practical projects. As such, it fosters the exchange of information, ideas and experiences, successful initiatives and best practices.

The implementation of the circular economy will entail a major transformation from a resource-destroying, linear economy to a circular one that operates within the planet's regenerative boundaries. This book presents an interim assessment of the implementation of a circular economy in the EU. It reveals what achievements have been made in various EU institutions, but which are scarcely perceived by the public; which basic scientific principles can be applied in this context; and what NGOs are demanding beyond this progress. It provides convincing arguments for abandoning the "hamster wheel" of material-based satisfaction of our needs, and shows that the primacy of the economy stands in the way of a good life for all. Given its focus, it will appeal to everyone interested in an ecologically sustainable economic system.

Gale explains why international negotiations have not produced a sustainable solution to tropical rainforest degradation. Using an innovative, critical approach to international regimes, the author analyzes the structure and operation of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). He shows how the timber industry and producing- and consuming-country governments created a blocking alliance that favoured developmentalist interests and ideas. The ITTO bolstered this alliance by permitting environmentalists merely to voice, but not to negotiate, their concerns.

This book presents the latest findings and ongoing research in the field of environmental informatics. It addresses a wide range of cross-cutting activities, such as efficient computing, virtual reality, disruption management, big data, open science and the internet of things, and showcases how these green information & communication technologies (ICT) can be used to effectively address environmental and societal challenges. Presenting a selection of extended contributions to the 32nd edition of the International Conference EnviroInfo 2018, at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre in Garching near Munich, it is essential reading for anyone looking to expand their expertise in the area.

This book is intended to support the forestry institutions in the tropical countries in the planning, assessment and systematic observation of forests required to fulfill their obligations as laid in international conventions such as the CBD and UNFCCC. Following the Rio Conference, a number of countries, donors and international organizations have implemented capacity-building projects with varying degrees of success. One main reason for the varying success rates seems to lie in the design of technical assistance programs, which have been formulated on the traditional lines of mainly generating forest resources information or transferring technology; whereas Agenda 21 requires fundamental changes in countries' institutions and approaches to planning and implementing the conservation and sustainable development of forests through a process of continuing research and analysis. The book is intended to serve the basic needs of national planning strategies and international and donor support.

This Handbook approaches sustainable development in higher education from an integrated perspective, addressing the dearth of publications on the subject. It offers a unique overview of what universities around the world are doing to implement sustainable development (i.e. via curriculum innovation, research, activities, or practical projects) and how their efforts relate to education for sustainable development at the university level. The Handbook gathers a wealth of information, ideas, best practices and lessons learned in the context of executing concrete projects, and assesses methodological approaches to integrating the topic of sustainable development in university curricula. Lastly, it documents and disseminates the veritable treasure trove of practical experience currently available on sustainability in higher education.