There are diverse distributed Renewable Energy (RE) trading business models (BM) which enable consumer-prosumer/generator energy trading; however, their efficiency and effectiveness in creating a stable RE market with enhanced economic values are not properly investigated. This paper intends to investigate the impact of diverse distributed RE trading paradigms on creating a stable RE market with enhanced

Urban parks play a crucial role in conserving the biophysical environment, yet conservation efforts mostly focus on biodiversity hotspots, iconic mammal species, and nature conservation areas. A challenge in enhancing the role of urban parks in conservation relates to the varied, and often conflicted, priorities of communities and city authorities in the engagement process. Using a qualitative research

Local governments are at the forefront of climate change adaptation planning. Although there is significant research on adaptation planning processes, there is scant empirical evidence of how local governments are completing the adaptation planning cycle by monitoring or evaluating their efforts. This leads to a fundamental lack of understanding about what actions work, in which contexts, and why?

Communities that are more resilient to seismic hazards are often able to retain their functions in a time of crisis and experience faster recovery. This study develops a holistic approach for assessing community seismic resilience in thirteen sub-city districts of Mashhad. Three resilience properties (robustness, resourcefulness, and redundancy) are matched with six community resilience dimensions

Who uses open spaces, when, and why, are critical questions for planning and managing green and blue spaces in urban areas. We argue that use needs to be studied across a range of ages and spaces. We studied the open space use and preferences of 15 three-generation families, interviewing children, parents and grandparents. Members of each family lived close to each other so had access to the same open

Service-based alternatives to private vehicles and public transport are increasing. These innovations are hoped to boost the transition to sustainable mobility, addressing challenges such as congestion, air quality and the large share of CO2 resulting from traffic. To achieve this transition, there is an urgent need for collaboration between private companies and public authorities, especially locally

This paper analyses the effectiveness of traditional water governance in Flood-based Livelihood Systems (FBLS), which harness floods that could have caused environmental degradation. Ostrom’s Governing the Commons Principles, widely recognized for the effective management of shared resources, is used as a framework. The paper draws from discussions with 300 farmers and pastoralists in Tana River FBLS

Measures that integrate social, economic and ecologic land use functions have increasingly raised the interest of scholars and practitioners concerned with sustainability. However, achieving effective integration involves important governance challenges. One challenge is that actors need to work across social, cognitive and physical boundaries. This article studies how actors span, but also challenge

Given the important role of environmental amenities such as ecosystem services on human well-being, this study investigates the unfair distribution of access to urban cooling ecosystem services in Tehran in order to examine urban environmental justice through the following methodological steps: (1) mapping socio-economic inequality through eleven indicators reflecting socio-economic status ranked by

Implementation outcomes of the Ambient Air Quality Directive (AAQD) (2008/50/EC)) are weak across European Union (EU) member states. In the UK, Local Authorities (LAs) must work toward reducing air pollution, however, means of assessing the extent and effectiveness of their contribution are limited. This paper develops a framework to evaluate policies implemented by UK LAs to address air pollution

This paper discusses trends in recent academic literature on cumulative effects assessment (CEA) in the field of environmental impact assessment (IA). We performed an inductive, thematic analysis of peer-reviewed literature published between 2008 and 2018. We find that most academic research on CEA originates in North America, and much of it is situated in periodicals other than the leading IA journals

Increasing diversification, urbanization, economic restructuring, and distances, as well as declining economic dependence on forestry, are changing the characteristics of forest ownership and the conditions for environmental governance. Through an interview-based case study of Swedish forestry industrial actors, this article examined the organizational and governing aspects and implications of recent

We developed an overarching multi-level mediation model using 199 responses from 53 companies from the industrial sector in Jordan to examine (1) the mediation effect of firm-level environmental climate on the relationship between formal regulatory institutions and firm-level strategic environmental actions, and (2) the role that informal institutions conveyed via political, normative, and business

The Mediterranean region is exposed to desertification risk because of the joint impact of soil degradation, land-use change and global warming, although the individual role of such drivers has been occasionally investigated. The present study clarifies the spatial linkage between desertification risk and urbanization, intended as a pervasive form of landscape transformation in Southern Europe, by

Informal settlements in developing megacities are often vulnerable to extreme heat and other environmental hazards. Yet, understanding of this vulnerability remains limited due to inadequate attention to the relationships between characteristics of the built environment and land surface temperature. To address this, we focus on the Mumbai region and employ a Geographically Development-Weighted Regression

The resumption of Japan’s NPPs has become a controversial issue since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. Although local agreement is a significant process of the resumption, the attitude of the general public toward the local agreement process has received little attention. This study uses a postal questionnaire survey with stratified random sampling to investigate the case of the Hamaoka

This paper proposes a novel methodological approach to help decision-makers in SMEs evaluate and prioritize sustainability reporting (SR) standards. It can thus help SMEs to overcome some of the problems they encounter when initiating SR. In order to explore this decision in more depth, a set of decision criteria are identified, reflecting the costs and benefits that could be derived from SR adoption

This study examines the consequences of droughts on the aggregate economic growth and the growth of agriculture, industry and service sectors respectively. The benefits of financial relief post-drought and the efficacy of irrigation infrastructure is also statistically tested considering a sample of 45 districts in one of the largest states in India, Madhya Pradesh. A two-step GMM procedure is applied

We focused on the barriers to the implementation of enabling environments for sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Based on interviews and desktop research, we analyzed overall framework conditions in these countries as well as implementation practices in three cities. Our findings demonstrate that the main problem was the deficit of strategic foresight for urban

Consideration of alternatives for a development project, with the prime objective of selecting the most appropriate alternative that supports sustainability of the environmental resources, should be the heart of an EIA study. This study was undertaken to examine how alternatives were addressed in 46 EIA reports for infrastructural projects accorded environmental clearance in India, adopting the yardsticks

Governments all over the world experience institutional conflicts in transforming their fossil-based energy system into a more renewable one. Between national, regional, and local tiers of government tensions rise on meeting renewable energy objectives. Under the institutional arrangement of subsidiarity, decisions on renewable energy policy objectives are taken on the international level, while the

The consideration of urban ecosystem services becomes increasingly important when planning compact cities. We implement a multi-objective optimization approach to support decision-makers in their efforts to develop green and dense cities. Embedded in a participatory process, the applied genetic algorithm allows us to assess spatial tradeoffs between urban ecosystem services and compactness. The optimization

Ethiopia faces serious threats in food production and rural livelihoods, mainly due to population growth and unsustainable use of natural resources. The general objective of the study was to examine the practices and challenges in integrated watershed management in the Gonji Kolela District of the Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as the chi-square test, independent

Due to the high concentration of people and infrastructures in European cities, the possible impacts of climate change are particularly high (cities’ social, economic and technical vulnerabilities). Adaptation measures to reduce the sensitivity of a city to climate risks are therefore of particular importance. Nevertheless, it is also common to develop compact and dense urban areas to reduce urban

Eco-friendly smart home services (ESHS) positively promote environmental protection. In this study, we investigate the factors influencing consumers’ intention toward adopting ESHS. We use the theory of planned behavior as the basic theoretical support and further extend it by incorporating the constructs of information publicity, perceived risk, environmental consciousness, and compatibility. We survey

The 2030 Agenda and its SDGs call for cross-sectoral collaboration and societal transformation. Translating these indivisible goals to the local level is an important undertaking for municipalities given their wide range of responsibilities. This paper explores SDG localization in a Swedish municipal organization, providing analyses on management practice, having an integrated approach to sustainability

Large enterprises have been at the forefront of environmental management with active participation in industrywide programs and adoption of a ‘beyond compliance’ approach. The present study revisits the premise of environmental–financial linkage in an Indian context with a focus on large listed enterprises. We develop a comprehensive dataset of 459 large listed Indian companies covering major manufacturing

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has set out guidance to move countries forward via National Adaptation Plans, but many of these have proven non-implementable because they are generic and lack details on community needs. Here we review what vulnerability risk assessments (VRA) characteristics are considered desirable but absent, and thence develop an Evaluation Tool, for systematically

The 2015 Peril of Flood Act mandates that municipalities in Florida, USA consider sea level rise (SLR) in the coastal element of the comprehensive plan. Because the mandate lacks specificity, planning actors have broad discretion on how to respond. This paper examines how state, regional, and local level actors are implementing the mandate through a case study of the Tampa Bay region. Documents and

Motivation crowding theory examines how external intervention may undermine intrinsic motivation. Earlier research has shown that intrinsic motivation plays a decisive role in fostering environmental performance of households and consumers, but that external pressures may “crowd out” the intrinsic motivations. Similar patterns could be expected in business organizations. However, only a few studies

Although there have been many studies on responsible enterprises, they have been mostly conducted in high-income societies and focused on organizational issues. Scant research has addressed consumer preferences for responsible enterprises, particularly in less developed regions. This study addresses this gap by examining the antecedents of consumer purchase intentions for products and services from

Groundwater resources are essential for the supply of drinking water in the European Union but significant uncertainties surround their quality. In this context, our article analyzes the factors that influence the cooperation of key stakeholders to prevent the risk of diffuse pollution from agriculture. We built on the institutional rational choice approach and the social-ecological system framework

In environmental governance, participatory modes of political decision-making and planning are becoming more prevalent. A rationalist model of governance would assume that instrumental rationales prevail in choosing participatory process designs. Some argue, however, that public policy-makers also follow administrative or governance ‘culture’. The concept of participatory governance culture assumes

Travel cost (TC) data are often collected on-site, raising the question of on-site sampling bias. In addition, the motivations behind visiting a recreational area are diverse and differ across individuals, with the potential implications that preferences for trips are heterogenous. This is particularly true for recreational fishing areas that include multiple sites and within which multiple fishing

The present research aimed at designing a model of sustainability-oriented responsible entrepreneurship among local producers of agricultural inputs. The paper highlights causal, contextual, and intervening conditions for sustainability entrepreneurship among these local producers. In addition, the necessary action strategies are provided to develop sustainability-oriented responsible entrepreneurship

The magnitude and consequences of current global environmental challenges require partnerships across sectors and scales. Accordingly, there is a need to learn from partnerships that have been effective. This article analyses a successful national partnership that is contributing to implementation of the Montreal Protocol. It uses a case study methodology that draws on expert views from industry, government

Increased resource demand due to rapid urbanization has made cities like Mashhad highly dependent on their surroundings for resource supply and waste disposal, and has negatively impacted their local-regional hinterlands. To reduce the metabolic footprint of cities and create an environmentally restorative relationship between cities and their supporting ecosystems, a transition toward local alternative

Campus district energy (DE) systems present opportunities to reduce energy costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, manage peak loads, and increase the share of renewable energy. We investigate the opportunities and barriers to expanding campus DE systems off-campus through surveys and interviews with 18 campus DE managers and providers, and a case study modeling heat demand near campus. The impact

Odisha, an eastern Indian state, has reported an increasing number of human-elephant conflicts in recent years. Odisha's economic survey (2014–15) reveals that, up until January 2014, about 42,371.86-hectares of forest land had been destroyed for developmental activities. The loss of natural habitat has increased the frequency of conflict. The household survey conducted in nine villages within the

In recent years, drought has had detrimental impacts on agricultural activities in Iran, so it is of crucial importance to employ drought-coping strategies. As such, the main idea of this research was to discover the factors affecting the use of preventive behaviors by farmers to cope with drought. This research can deepen agricultural decision-makers’ understanding of the use of drought management

The present study aims to measure the efficiency of desirable output (Rice) in the presence of undesirable output (CO2), for selected Asian countries. An attempt has also been made to identify how great a reduction in CO2 emission is required to make agricultural practices efficient and sustainable. DDF and SBM-DEA are used to calculate the efficiency of 28 Asian countries for the period 2002 to 2014

Environmental innovation is an important variable in the study of strategic management. However, studies on the effect of environmental innovation have drawn different conclusions. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis to reanalyze the relationship between environmental innovation and firms’ performance, based on 33 empirical studies, and we evaluated the moderating effects of the economic development

Jharkhand is one of the most biodiversity-enriched regions in India because of its origin and diverse physiographic and climatic conditions. It comprises 29.61% forest area which exceeds the national average of 23%. However, the biodiversity rich status of this region may also be attributed to its higher tribal population. Jharkhand has 26.3% tribal population of the total population in the state belong

This article examines how the political economy of waste utility services is changing in response to circular economy programs. It focuses on the financial composition, economic position and geography of three sectors: waste recycling, incineration, and urban waste reuse. Building on an empirical analysis of these sectors in the Netherlands, specifically the Amsterdam city-region, it puts forward three

Human health and well-being benefits have increasingly been associated with contact with nature. However, limited research has focused on the influence of ecosystem type and quality on these outcomes. This paper reports on the results of an in-situ survey of 467 visitors to an Ontario protected area. Results revealed high overall restorative outcomes across all ecosystem types, with greater benefits

Citizen Science (CS) projects vary greatly. The aims and goals of a CS project determine the type of citizen involvement and the tools to be used, which in most cases also entail information and communication technology (ICT) that facilitates public participation in scientific research. Resource limitations in CS projects often require adopting suboptimal tools, which, however, may come with hidden

Human health and well-being benefits have increasingly been associated with contact with nature. However, limited research has focused on the influence of ecosystem type and quality on these outcomes. This paper reports on the results of an in-situ survey of 467 visitors to an Ontario protected area. Results revealed high overall restorative outcomes across all ecosystem types, with greater benefits

This study examines the consequences of droughts on the aggregate economic growth and the growth of agriculture, industry and service sectors respectively. The benefits of financial relief post-drought and the efficacy of irrigation infrastructure is also statistically tested considering a sample of 45 districts in one of the largest states in India, Madhya Pradesh. A two-step GMM procedure is applied

Citizen Science (CS) projects vary greatly. The aims and goals of a CS project determine the type of citizen involvement and the tools to be used, which in most cases also entail information and communication technology (ICT) that facilitates public participation in scientific research. Resource limitations in CS projects often require adopting suboptimal tools, which, however, may come with hidden

A perpetual lack of adequate resources to conserve and protect nature requires managers to prioritize some conservation efforts over others. Conservation managers tend to resist prioritization based on one specific goal, preferring to compare the outcomes of conservation programs with the achievement of diverse goals. We describe a conservation index based on a survey of management at the Israel Nature

This paper provides a meta-synthesis review of land conflict management measures in peri-urban areas and categorizes them into: (a) containment measures; (b) controller measures; (c) moderator measures and (d) intensifier measures. This paper argues that, despite these measures, the peri-urban areas are still plagued by complex land conflicts from different aspects. Such a process requires effective

This study explores the mechanism of how trade openness (TO) affects CO2 emissions via the scale and technique effects in the Asian region over the 1990–2015 period. The results obtained by employing cross-sectional augmented estimators indicate that: (i) trade-induced technology innovation (TI) reduces CO2 emissions; (ii) trade-facilitated economic growth results in higher CO2 emissions; (iii) the

This study suggests a novel progress in the change journey toward sustainability by empirically investigating the mediation role of employee engagement with environmental initiatives between green HRM practices and individual green behavior. Further, this study invoked the classical theory of person-organization-fit to examine the role of certain personality traits in moderating the associations between

The feasibility of a photovoltaic project depends on strategic decisions such as the location of the power plant. This article contributes to the literature by proposing a novel algorithm employing non-radial data envelopment analysis and a clustering method, including single-period and multi-period models, to select appropriate locations to establish photovoltaic sites. This algorithm evaluates the

Projects that undergo environmental impact assessment (EIA) are rarely rejected. Online registries and anecdotal evidence suggest that authorities approve almost all proposed and assessed projects, though often with mitigation requirements. The objective of this study was: 1) to identify the rules or criteria that reviewers and authorities must observe when considering the acceptance or rejection of

Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) reintroduction is taking place in England with potential benefits for flood alleviation and biodiversity; however there is also opposition. One area of controversy relates to fish and fishing. A previous meta-analysis of research into beaver-fish relationships found perceived benefits of beavers amongst fish and beaver “experts” included increased fish abundance and productivity

This paper explores what happens when the ideal of sustainable development meets the real and pressing problems in coastal zone planning. Insights into how coastal zone planners understand environmental problems and navigate political visions, knowledge requirements, stakeholder involvement and local conditions, are key to understanding how to develop a holistic approach in line with sustainable development

Flooding has affected over two billion people since 1995. While gray infrastructure such as levees and dams has traditionally been used to mitigate this hazard, many communities are looking for approaches to augment or replace some of these structural solutions. Propelled by the regulatory support for green infrastructure approaches for stormwater management, some communities are also looking to green

Farm relocation is applied in numerous spatial planning processes, including the conversion of agricultural land for nature development or urbanization. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative study on farm relocation. With the aim of identifying main problems and success factors related to farm relocations, we performed in-depth interviews with relocated farmers in the Netherlands and

A city is a place where many initiatives, people, and social and urban challenges meet. This article brings together the cumulative knowledge of eight researchers who have been studying community-based initiatives (CBIs) via case studies in various countries. In some countries, citizens were not satisfied with government-provided services, or services were lacking. Governments in other countries faced