A framework of actions for strong sustainability Oliveira Neto, Geraldo Cardoso de; Pinto, Luiz Fernando Rodrigues; Amorim, Marlene Paula Castro ...
Journal of cleaner production,
09/2018, Letnik:
196
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Strong sustainability (SS) aims for the maintenance of economic, environmental, and social capital through an efficient use of resources and by replacing non-renewable natural resources with ...renewable ones. Despite this, there is still a grey area the academic literature and managerial practice regarding the existence of specific actions to promote SS. Therefore, the objective of this study is to advance the development of a framework of specific actions and recommendations to assist the adoption of SS by companies. A content analysis of articles included in the Special Volumes of the Journal of Cleaner Production (SVJCP) derived from the International Workshop Advances in Cleaner Production (IWACP), and interviews conducted with experts. The study revealed that only 5% of the articles sampled are related to SS. In this context, the proposed framework of specific actions for SS contributes to the theory by proposing actions that ensure the functioning of ecological systems while promoting sustainable development. The actions identified can also be used in multi-criteria analysis and for the development of sustainability indicators. The practical contributions of this study come from suggesting the application of the actions by organizations to promote the following: (i) increasing the efficiency of resource consumption; (ii) harvesting renewable resources limited by their regeneration rates; (iii) reducing greenhouse gas emissions; (iv) reusing wastes as input in other processes; (v) replacing toxic inputs with organic ones; (vi) replacing energy from non-renewable sources with that from renewable ones; (vii) increasing affordability; and (viii) increasing sustainable manufacturing.
•Framework of actions toward strong sustainability is proposed.•Framework can encourage strong sustainability by corporates.•Actions focused on socioeconomic development through environmental conservation.
The textile industry has been concerned with the need to address the environmental and ecological sustainability of the oceans, according to a set of principles designated as the Blue Economy. ...Likewise, the textile industry has been identifying cleaner production practices with the purpose of reducing water consumption and limiting the use of toxics namely for fabric dyeing, in order to limit the disposal of toxic effluents and prevent the contamination of rivers, and oceans. This study has the objective of evaluating the Eco efficiency of a textile industry that implemented Cleaner Production practices for water reuse, and the minimization of the usage of water and materials aligned with the Blue Economy principles. The study used a case study approach, involving data collection through observation, documental analysis and interviews. The study contributes for theory by relating Cleaner Production and Blue Economy, topics that are not often explored together. It also contributes to the managerial practice offering a real case of Cleaner Production and Blue Economy strategy, leading to the minimization of environmental impacts of 516.2 thousand tons per year in several domains, including the biotic, abiotic, water and air. 96.9% of the gains were observed in the use of water resources, including economic gains from water reuse, and from the commercialization of sludge as a by-product. Despite the investment of 771.5 thousand dollars in cleaner technologies a return on investments was achieved after 29 months. The study also favoured the elimination of pollutants in the effluents that are disposed in rivers, lakes and the sea, contributing to the improvement in the health conditions of local communities.
The coronavirus pandemic meant that companies had to adapt quickly to survive the challenging scenario and avoid losing market share or even going bankrupt. In this sense, employees dedicated to ...Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) activities within organizations played a key role in ensuring that the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) were properly implemented. Even so, no studies were identified in the literature that investigated how the practices to combat COVID-19 improved the performance related to employee safety and occupational health. This is what motivates the accomplishment of this work; evaluate how these practices improve safety and health-related performance. For this, a survey of multinational companies was carried out and, together with this research, a model for structural equations was developed. In the end, a correlation test was performed. The main results showed that practices to combat COVID-19, such as the provision of sanitizers, the adoption of social distance, the creation of new work shifts, and the disinfection of workplaces were related to improvements in safety and health performance through the implementation of a risk management and biological risk mitigation program. Meanwhile, the provision of emergency assistance has found stronger relationships with managerial and strategic actions.
The concept of strong sustainability establishes ecosystem conservation as the basis for socioeconomic development. Despite the increase in the number of studies on this subject, the qualitative ...approach used in studies on strong sustainability makes the introduction of this theme difficult in the industrial context. The absence of a model of sustainability evaluation in manufacturing based on the concept of strong sustainability was the gap identified by this research. The objective of this study was to develop a model that embeds strong sustainability within the sustainability assessment of manufacturing companies. The research used survey methodology to obtain the opinion of experts on the relevance of sustainability metrics. Information collected from experts was used to calculate the weights of indicators and of the participation of each dimension in strong sustainability. The results indicated that strong sustainability consists of 48% of environmental, 29% of social, and 23% of economic factors. The model has been applied in a study of multiple cases in factories in the automotive sector, two in Brazil and two in Italy. The results revealed that the four companies were rated regular in the strong sustainability scale. However, the sustainability performances of the companies showed different patterns over five years. Furthermore, analysis of the individual performance of the dimensions showed that the economic growth of the two Brazilian factories was superior to the socio-environmental development. The result of the Italian units emphasized different priorities. A firm reached the best result in environmental performance and the other one on the social dimension.
The aim of this paper is to carry out a systematic literature review for the development of a conceptual model that deals with the relationship between knowledge sharing, Information Technology (IT) ...infrastructure, and innovative capability. The examination and synthesis of the theoretical and the empirical articles show that there are direct relations between the three constructs, observing that relations of interaction also represent forms of significant influences on the capacity of the firms to innovate. The literature review conducted in this study opened the possibility to develop a theoretical model that stimulates future research involving effects of interaction between variables associated with innovation, knowledge and IT. Researchers interested in evaluating simultaneous, direct and interaction effects on innovative capability can use the theoretical model developed as the basis for conducting empirical tests. Organisational managers can incorporate the findings of interaction effects into their knowledge management, innovation and IT models. The results show that the literature about knowledge sharing can consider direct impacts and interaction effects, considering their combination with IT infrastructure to enhance companies' ability to innovate. These findings suggest that companies' innovative potential can be incremented by efforts to integrate knowledge sharing processes with IT infrastructure components.
This article aims to analyse the contribution of Information Technology (IT) infrastructure responsiveness in the initiative of using knowledge sharing to enhance the technological innovation ...capability of industrial companies. The research uses a sample of 90 multinational companies, and structural equation modelling to assess the hypotheses. The results show that initiatives to encourage knowledge sharing positively impact the technological innovation capability. Additionally, the research presents empirical evidence that the responsiveness of the IT infrastructure can induce knowledge sharing as a factor in expanding the technological innovation capability. Understanding how knowledge sharing can enhance technological innovation capability can help organisational theorists predict behaviours based on this innovative capability. Additionally, this understanding may expose mechanisms that enhance the effects of this sharing. This research contributes to the insertion of new views on studies involving the effects that IT responsiveness can exert on the technological innovation capability of companies.
Due to the increasing demand for water supply of urban areas, treatment and supply plants are becoming important to ensure availability and quality of this essential resource for human health. ...Enabling technologies of Industry 4.0 have the potential to improve performances of treatment plants. In this paper, after reviewing contributions in scientific literature on I4.0 technologies in dam operations, a study carried out on a Brazilian dam is presented and discussed. The main purpose of the study is to evaluate the economic, environmental, and social advantages achieved through the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in dam operations. Unlike automation that just respond to commands, AI uses a large amount of data training to make computers able to take the best decision. The current study involved a company that managed six reservoirs for treatment systems supplying water to almost ten million people at the metropolitan area of São Paulo City. Results of the study show that AI adoption could lead to economic gain in figures around US$ 51,000.00 per year, as well as less trips between sites and less overtime extra costs on the main operations. Increasing gates maneuvers agility result in significant environmental gains with savings of about 4.32 billion L of water per year, enough to supply 73,000 people. Also, decreasing operational vehicle utilization results in less emissions. Finally, the AI implementation improved the safety of dam operations, resulting in social benefits such as the flood risk mitigation in cities and the health and safety of operators.
This study addressed the development of a pilot plant for pyrolysis of scrap tires to obtain carbon black and other byproducts. The work was motivated by the goal of contributing to the development ...and dissemination of knowledge about existing technologies that allow modern economies to transform waste into valuable products, by documenting and discussing an empirical application in Brazil. Thispaper describes the development of a market for steel scrap, pyrolytic oil and carbon black products obtained from a vacuum pyrolysis process. The research work was conducted in Brazil, and was guided by the twofold purpose of reducing the environmental impacts, while gaining economical sustainability. Modern economies increasingly need to devise strategies to address energy generation while preserving natural ecosystems. These strategies include leveraging the use of renewable energy sources. Acknowledging that scrap tires hold an enormous potential as a sustainable energy option, this study aimed to contribute to the development and maturity of eco-friendly processing approaches to realize its full potential. The work involved a preliminary phase concerned with the operation of vacuum pyrolysis of scrap tires at a laboratorial scale, followed by the design of the pilot plant that operated for 10 years, at the time of the study, with a 100 kg/h batch flow. Results show that the yield of the pyrolysis process was 41% pyrolytic oil, 38% carbon black, 12% gas, and 8.9% steel scrap, with a calorific value of 36 MJ/kg per tire. The carbon black was composed of 90% carbon, and the pyrolytic oil was composed of 66% gasoline and 33% other oils, which have higher quality and can be commercialized with a potential profit over 3 million dollars/year.
Large textile industries are deploying Industry 4.0 Technologies (I4.0T) aiming to develop a micro-level circular economy (CECP), considering cleaner production practices as a strategic tool. ...However, due to the environmental impact generated by the textile industry, it has not yet achieved Strong Sustainability (SS), denoting an important path to be pursued by managers and shareholders in view of meeting the 2030 agenda. With this, the objective of this study is to evaluate whether the adoption of I4.0T promotes CECP-driving SS actions in large textile industries located in Brazil. A survey was the research method adopted, and for data analysis, structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses and Pearson correlation between variables. It was concluded that the adoption of I4.0T promotes CECP. However, they neglect SS actions. Facilitators for CECP practices were big data, augmented reality, and autonomous robots. In terms of SS, I4.0T has a low impact on increasing resource consumption efficiency, reusing waste as input in other processes, and increasing access to commodities. This research contributes to the linking I4.0T, CECP, and SS theory. Moreover, with the dissemination of knowledge to managers about the I4.0T that generates the CECP, it is possible to develop sustainable strategies in operations. However, to move in this direction, it is essential that there is a collective effort of the government, companies, and society, starting by raising awareness about the importance of SS in the textile sector.
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