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AbstractThe South African government is actively promoting small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly in the waste sector, where it is envisaged that the waste sector will contribute to the green economy through SMEs participation in waste management activities. Collectively, SMEs have the potential to exert significant pressure on the environment through the use of finite resources and generation of pollution and waste. Case studies, where interviews and documentations were used as data collection methods, on waste management supply chains are provided. Many SMEs are responding to supply chain pressure in terms of the Broad‐Based Black Economic Empowerment Act and participating in social responsibility activities. However, the majority of SMEs are not environmentally responsible and larger corporations should consider managing environmental responsibility in the supply chain as part of an effective risk management strategy. Findings support the government's vision of the creation of employment, the promotion of small business within the waste sector, and the role that SMEs play in environmental responsibility. The later through extended producer responsibility in waste management and recycling of larger business and thus, sustainable development in South Africa.

AbstractThe paper investigates the development and use of corporate social and environmental reporting by businesses within a large municipality in South Africa. There is a strong call for improved CSR, and a greater degree of accountability and transparency by business. The survey was conducted through the use of interviews following a structured questionnaire with the Global Reporting Initiative used as an appropriate framework. This approach allowed us to determine the challenges businesses face in implementing a comprehensive CSR system in the South African context and why, other than companies which are part of a group, businesses are unable or unwilling to increase external reporting. We suggest that implementation of a comprehensive and externally controlled and certified standard, such as ISO 14001 would not only reduce environmental impacts, but facilitate increased CSR. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Abstract
The changes in climatic conditions and their associated impacts are contributing to a worsening of existing gender inequalities and a heightening of women's socioeconomic vulnerabilities in South Africa. Using data collected by research methods inspired by the tradition of participatory appraisals, we systematically discuss the impacts of climate change on marginalized women and the ways in which they are actively responding to climate challenges and building their adaptive capacity and resilience in the urban areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We argue that changes in climate have both direct and indirect negative impacts on women's livelihoods and well-being. Less than one-half (37%) of the women reported implementing locally developed coping mechanisms to minimize the impacts of climate-related events, whereas 63% reported lacking any form of formal safety nets to deploy and reduce the impacts of climate-induced shocks and stresses. The lack of proactive and gender-sensitive local climate change policies and strategies creates socioeconomic and political barriers that limit the meaningful participation of women in issues that affect them and marginalize them in the climate change discourses and decision-making processes, thereby hampering their efforts to adapt and reduce existing vulnerabilities. Thus, we advocate for the creation of an enabling environment to develop and adopt progendered, cost-effective, transformative, and sustainable climate change policies and adaptation strategies that are responsive to the needs of vulnerable groups (women) of people in society. This will serve to build their adaptive capacity and resilience to climate variability and climate change–related risks and hazards.

The year 2015 saw the City of Kingston, in Ontario, Canada, commemorate what would have been the 200th birthday year of its first Prime Minister, Sir John Alexander Macdonald (hereafter referred to as SJAM). A monumental figure in helping to forge the Canadian nation, SJAM is a figure surrounded by as much praise and controversy as any political figure, both past and present. Although much is said and interpreted as to who SJAM was as a politician and a personal figure, this essay is not about analyzing him or his policies. Rather, this essay looks at how discussions surrounding SJAM are taken up in schools. We argue that SJAM can be used as a racial literacy tool for reading against dominant texts and grappling with personal and institutional implications arising from this critique of dominant texts. In the Canadian context, white privilege is a powerful entry point for engaging students with notions of complicity, accountability and responsibility. We must inform our understanding of the present with a critical trans-historical perspective, challenging popular Canadian misunderstandings of historical racial oppression, such as how we celebrate SJAM for his role in the creation of the transcontinental railway but forget the following: 1) Many Canadians—including government officials—persecuted those who physically built it; and 2) Canada itself is a nation built on the practice of slavery, on one hand, and genocide, on the other. Therefore, with the significance and opportunity of the year 2015, the City of Kingston and the Limestone District School Board opened up an inquiry-based project with 180 students in grades six, seven, and eight regarding their perspectives of SJAM. Responding to their first indepth introduction to SJAM in their history curriculum, the students were asked: "Was Sir John A. Macdonald an Effective Political Leader?" and "Does Kingston Need a New Hero?" Through enriched classroom discussions, exploration of primary and secondary sources and informative academic web conferences, issues of racism, invisible voices, and settler privilege wove a greater and more critical understanding of how racial literacy is imperative in today's schools and classrooms.

The impact of mine closure can have a devastating effect on the local economies of the towns that they once supported. Drawing on comparative, international material, this article examines the nature and effectiveness of the local economic development responses that have been initiated in the former coal-mining towns in northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Although a range of innovative locally identified strategies have been embarked upon, considerably greater effort and investment will be needed in order to catalyse significant and meaningful regeneration endeavours. (Dev South Afr/DÜI)

Quaternary records provide an opportunity to examine the nature of the vegetation and fire responses to rapid past climate changes comparable in velocity and magnitude to those expected in the 21st-century. The best documented examples of rapid climate change in the past are the warming events associated with the Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) cycles during the last glacial period, which were sufficiently large to have had a potential feedback through changes in albedo and greenhouse gas emissions on climate. Previous reconstructions of vegetation and fire changes during the D-O cycles used independently constructed age models, making it difficult to compare the changes between different sites and regions. Here, we present the ACER (Abrupt Climate Changes and Environmental Responses) global database, which includes 93 pollen records from the last glacial period (73-15 ka) with a temporal resolution better than 1000 years, 32 of which also provide charcoal records. A harmonized and consistent chronology based on radiometric dating (C-14, U-234/Th-230, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), Ar-40/Ar-39-dated tephra layers) has been constructed for 86 of these records, although in some cases additional information was derived using common control points based on event stratigraphy. The ACER database compiles metadata including geospatial and dating information, pollen and charcoal counts, and pollen percentages of the characteristic biomes and is archived in Microsoft Access (TM) at https://doi. org/10.1594/PANGAEA. 870867. ; Basque Government postdoctoral fellowship [POS_2015_1_0006]; ERC; QUEST-DESIRE (UK and France); INQUA International Focus Group ACER; INTIMATE-COST ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Quaternary records provide an opportunity to examine the nature of the vegetation and fire responses to rapid past climate changes comparable in velocity and magnitude to those expected in the 21st-century. The best documented examples of rapid climate change in the past are the warming events associated with the Dansgaard–Oeschger (D–O) cycles during the last glacial period, which were sufficiently large to have had a potential feedback through changes in albedo and greenhouse gas emissions on climate. Previous reconstructions of vegetation and fire changes during the D–O cycles used independently constructed age models, making it difficult to compare the changes between different sites and regions. Here, we present the ACER (Abrupt Climate Changes and Environmental Responses) global database, which includes 93 pollen records from the last glacial period (73–15 ka) with a temporal resolution better than 1000 years, 32 of which also provide charcoal records. A harmonized and consistent chronology based on radiometric dating (14C, 234U∕230Th, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), 40Ar∕39Ar-dated tephra layers) has been constructed for 86 of these records, although in some cases additional information was derived using common control points based on event stratigraphy. The ACER database compiles metadata including geospatial and dating information, pollen and charcoal counts, and pollen percentages of the characteristic biomes and is archived in Microsoft AccessTM at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.870867. ; Basque Government postdoctoral fellowship [POS_2015_1_0006]; ERC; QUEST-DESIRE (UK and France); INQUA International Focus Group ACER; INTIMATE-COST ; Open Access Journal. ; This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.