Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe role and impact of businesses in transition processes depend on the strategic positioning of firms regarding long‐term sustainability goals. Even though businesses are key actors for transition processes, the literature still lacks an extensive exploration of operational guidelines to support organisations in navigating the complexities of wider sustainability transitions. In this study, contributions from sustainability transitions research to the study of strategic planning processes in a business context were explored to address this gap. A procedure was developed to guide organisations towards development of sustainability transition strategies, which was further tested in a case study from the Portuguese tourism sector. The proposed approach builds on the transition management framework and a set of transversal sustainability elements: a holistic view of sustainability, long‐term thinking, stakeholder involvement and innovation. The testing of the proposed procedure resulted on the co‐creation of a sustainability transition strategy in a hotel which highlighted the need for participatory and long‐term oriented approaches to support businesses in their transformation processes. Improvement opportunities were identified regarding external stakeholder involvement and the integration of innovation elements while co‐creating organisational sustainability transition strategies.

The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) was established in 1993 in the European Union as a voluntary instrument facilitating the implementation of organisational environmental policies and management of environmental aspects. We present a comprehensive literature review on EMAS research, organized according to three broad questions: Why do organisations choose EMAS? How is the scheme implemented and adapted to organisational characteristics? And what results are achieved? We have built analysis matrices to critically review 80 articles published over the past two decades and to identify the recurrent research themes addressing each question. We found that the decision to adopt EMAS is motivated by a set of internal and external factors, compounded by the potential of an organisation to combine the scheme with other EMS standards and environmental management tools. These themes are the ones most extensively covered by existing literature. To answer the question on how organisations implement and adapt to the scheme, two themes have been identified covering EMS planning and operation issues and sectoral approaches. Results show that the focus has been put on development of methods for assessing the significance of environmental aspects, implementing environmental policies and developing indicators for tracking performance and elaborating environmental statements. The development of sectoral approaches that adapt EMAS to characteristics of different economic activity sectors is also emerging as a critical research development. Finally, the themes addressing results achieved with EMAS implementation have only recently surfaced in the literature. The achievement of sustained environmental performance improvements through EMAS adoption is both contested and supported in the reviewed studies. On the other hand, improvements in the relationships with stakeholders arise as one of the most important intangible outcomes of the scheme. We conclude our review by advancing a systematic set of future research opportunities in this field. ; publishersversion ; published

AbstractHighly improbable events can have a substantial impact on complex socio‐economic systems and are frequently difficult to predict beforehand but easy to explain afterwards. Antifragile systems can withstand and benefit from this kind of outlier events, whereas merely robust systems cannot in any case. Yet the aim to design robust systems is almost as old as the system dynamics field itself. This research therefore aims to investigate the extent to which an antifragile system design criterion is more valuable than a robust one. By means of an extensive literature review, a simulation model was constructed, which is demonstrated to be antifragile. Comparing the antifragile and robust versions of the model shows that the former—as theorized—yields more favourable results in an environment with impactful outlier events. Implementing antifragility in systems involves the difficult task of changing policies (and, eventually, the mental models) of decision‐makers. Consequently, this research concludes that antifragility should not and cannot always be attained; its feasibility is to be assessed at the start of a system dynamics modelling project.

AbstractSeveral authors have described the usefulness of participatory system dynamics approaches in environmental decision‐making processes, particularly in supporting problem scoping and policy analysis. This paper explores how these approaches may be expanded to provide a coherent, deliberative platform, which structures Integrated Sustainability Assessments (ISA) of policy proposals. The proposed ISA framework forms a five‐stage feedback and learning process including scoping, visioning, model building, simulation/assessment and monitoring. We discuss these elements considering a set of best practice principles for participation in environmental assessment and decision making. Subsequently, we lay out a roadmap for implementing and testing the framework. We conclude that participatory modelling has a strong potential for supporting ISA processes. It allows stakeholders to build alternative policies, to reflect on their long‐term dynamics, and to gain insights on the interrelationships underlying persistent sustainability problems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Improving formulation and implementation of sustainable strategies is increasingly dependent upon more integrated and participatory decision‐making processes. This paper explores the use of qualitative system dynamics tools and a participatory modelling approach to support scoping stages of an integrated sustainability assessment (ISA) process. To facilitate mapping of maritime sustainability issues in Portugal, a series of preparatory interviews allowed eliciting stakeholders' perceptions and their alignment with current public policies. In the subsequent participatory modelling workshop, stakeholders deliberated on maritime problems and constructed causal loop diagrams, identifying feedback structures and voting on leverage points to intervene in the system. Overall results show that the process generated positive outcomes at individual and group levels, stimulating basic systems thinking knowledge and skills. Although further time for model iteration was suggested, the proposed approach promoted learning and a transition toward a shared and more holistic view of maritime problems and its underlying causal interrelationships. This is a promising result for the use of participatory modelling approaches as platforms supporting emerging ISA frameworks. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This report constitutes the main deliverable of WorkPackage 2 of GoverNat, "Assessing multilevel activities in water and biodiversity governance", dealing with an assessment of state-ofthe- art European water and biodiversity governance, based on the analysis of a series of casestudies developed by GoverNat fellows. The cases, all dealing with participation in multi-level governance of water and biodiversity in Europe, were analysed with the support of the framework for analysis and evaluation of multi-level participatory processes developed in GoverNat. A free narrative, describing the main aspects of each case was also prepared. A total of 24 cases were analysed. Information for this analysis was gathered either directly by the fellows (e.g. through interviews) or relying on previously published materials. The cases should enable the test of the scientific hypothesis and the fundamental premises of the GoverNat project: that participatory processes are positive elements in new modes of environmental multi-level governance. The cases described showed a high degree of variability in several aspects such as geographical location, territorial scale, characteristics of the resource at stake, typology of problem described, and characteristics of the decision-making process and corresponding outcome. The different backgrounds of GoverNat fellows, which lead them to use different "lenses" when looking at the cases, introduced yet another level of variability in the analysis of the cases. [...]