Over the past years, many universities have integrated sustainability into their education, research, outreach, and operations. Within education, competences regarding sustainable development (SD) ...have been defined, courses on sustainability have been developed, and manuals and methods for teaching SD have been developed and integrated in curricula. The integration of competences for SD in higher education programs can be seen as an important step in achieving sustainability in higher education. Although these competences are defined and described in different models and settings, little information is available on the actual status of the integration of competences for SD in different study programs. In order to find out how and to what extent these competences are already present, the existing competence schemes of study programs within two Belgian universities were analyzed in the fields of business management, office management, and applied information technology. Results of the analysis show that competences for SD related to responsibility and emotional intelligence are widely integrated, while competences for SD dealing with system orientation, future orientation, personal commitment, and action taking are virtually absent. The analysis also shows that many competences for SD could be discovered within the selected study programs, though in an implicit and fragmented way, thus not covering all necessary fields of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. This calls for an adjustment of the study programs to clearly and explicitly integrate competences for SD, especially those related to system orientation, future orientation, personal involvement, and action taking.
During the last two decades, many higher education institutions have become involved in embedding sustainable development into their academic systems. The research for this paper was built upon ...discussions on declarations, charters, and other initiatives designed to commit their institutions to education for sustainable development. It analyses if such commitment leads to more sustainable development implementation within the academic institution. The research was performed using a survey, based upon a literature review of 60 peer-reviewed papers. The survey was divided into eight categories: background; institutional framework; campus operations; education; research; outreach and collaboration; on-campus experiences; and assessment and reporting. The survey was answered by 84 respondents from 70 institutions, worldwide. The responses were analysed via descriptive analysis, grounded theory, and inferential statistics. The results revealed that there were many examples of sustainable development implementation throughout the system; however, generally the efforts tended to be compartmentalised. The analyses also highlighted strong linkages between the institution's commitment to sustainability, implementation, and signing a declaration, charter, or initiative. The findings suggested that academic leadership's commitment was a leading cause for signing a declaration, charter, or initiative, and implementing sustainable development. The research team provided recommendations for higher educational leaders, including acknowledge that the higher education institution system is comprised of several inter-related elements; commit to sustainability by integrating it into policies and strategies; show the commitment by signing a declaration, charter, or initiative; establish short-, medium-, and long-term plans for its institutionalisation; and ensure that sustainable development is implemented throughout the system.
•A literature review was done to explore SD implementation in HEIs.•A survey was developed to explore SD commitment and implementation in practice.•The survey was answered by respondents from 70 HEIs.•The results showed strong links between SD commitment and implementation.•Most SD efforts were not holistically integrated throughout the HEI system.
Food production and consumption have remarkable negative environmental effects, in particular food waste. Food waste occurs throughout the entire food system, but households make the largest ...contribution. Reducing unnecessary waste of food represents a crucial step toward overcoming global issues of food waste, hunger, and climate change. Identifying barriers in reducing food waste is important not only to government and policymakers, but also to food producers, retailers, and marketers. Therefore, the objective of this research was to find out how consumer behavior in daily food provisioning affects food waste. An online survey was set up to question Dutch consumers (partly) in charge of the household’s food management. A total of 211 consumers participated in answering questions on household composition, food management behavior (e.g., food purchase planning) and food waste awareness (i.e., concern about wasting food and intention not to waste food). Results show that purchase behavior in-store was the main driver of food waste. Specifically, participants indicated that buying more food than needed often had led to food waste. In addition, intention not to waste food acted as a moderator in the relationship between planning behavior and food waste. Age appears to have a diminishing impact on wasting food.
Background: Despite growing popularity, Circular Economy has not reached its full potential. One of the frequently mentioned success factors is the adoption of a Circular Business Model. However, ...fueled by (too) many constraints, its implementation is often hampered by so-called vicious cycles. Successful Circular Business Models require intensive collaboration between buyers and suppliers, with one of the key questions remaining who takes the initiative and leads the development: buyer or supplier? Methods: Through a single case study combining desk research, interviews, participative observations and analysis of vicious cycles, we investigate how supply chain relationships managed by the supplier can enhance the implementation of Circular Business Models. Results: We show that supplier tactics can relax constraints and break vicious cycles through (1) buyer–supplier relationship management, (2) functional integration of stakeholders and (3) incentive management. We also show that, due to supplier captive conditions, a number of enabling factors are indispensable, namely: (1) the availability of buyer incentives; (2) (joint experimenting to develop) circular knowledge; (3) sharing clear visions on circularity; (4) being transparent in possibilities; and (5) supply chain leadership. Conclusions: As a consequence, strategic trust-based partnerships are a prerequisite for turning vicious cycles into virtuous cycles. Future research should also investigate the role of the buyer, including buyer captive conditions, and how to shape supply chain leadership. Finally, the role of supplier tactics in relation to other success factors next to Circular Business Models needs to be further explored.
Social housing corporations play an important role in society as they provide affordable and good-quality housing for vulnerable citizens. Yet, the sector has to deal with the historical legacy of a ...high number of old and poorly insulated buildings. While research into the processes that drive or hinder business model innovation in this sector is scarce, this paper draws upon multiple qualitative case studies of social housing in the Netherlands to identify critical success factors for the transition to sustainable business models for new buildings and retrofits. Results show that there are four key attributes for a successful transition process: collaboration (both with supply chain partners as well as other social housing associations); continuous innovation; vision; and the role of the government (including subsidies and fiscal regulations). While economic performance was an important boundary condition, sustainability was not always seen as a strategic organizational objective, a finding that might be explained through considering the legacy of social housing corporations. Furthermore, a number of barriers were identified including the need for customer acceptance, a lack of support from the construction sector and government and macroeconomic factors such as increased construction costs.
Social entrepreneurs are generally believed to have started their venture to improve societal needs and create social value. Yet, in order to achieve continuity of their organization, they need to ...generate economic value as well. These seemingly opposite objectives of social and economic value creation can cause tensions in social enterprises. This study aims to derive in-depth insights into personal dispositions and motivations of social entrepreneurs, with a specific focus on empathy. The study assesses differences in motivations of social entrepreneurs and how moral empathy helps them to cope with tensions that arise from trying to achieve both commercial and social goals. Analysis of semi-structured interviews with 33 social entrepreneurs in Belgium explores the tension between social and economic objectives as a paradox social entrepreneurs have to deal with. First, empathy is an important motivator, but not for all entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurs who are driven by empathy often indicate that experiencing a critical life event has led to certain business choices. The life event does not always directly lead to increased empathy but often changes an entrepreneur’s career or life path. Second, while social entrepreneurs are supposed to stress social impact, some respondents firmly state that financial impact is more important to their organization. The results show that social entrepreneurs display other motivations that are typical for “traditional” (commercial) entrepreneurs as well, such as self-realization and the sense of doing meaningful work. Empathy seems to play an important role in successfully dealing with the paradox and tensions between social and economic value creation, and more specifically to prevent mission drift.
The emergence of highly complex sustainability challenges in modern society has led to the necessity of searching for more effective approaches to education for sustainable development. Research has ...shown that reflection leads toward more profound levels of engagement with respect to sustainable actions. Therefore, higher education has a role to play in stimulating reflection in light of sustainability. Art-based techniques, which have not been included alongside traditional teaching methods, have begun to gain the attention of researchers and teachers in higher education as they produce a deeper impact and involvement and can have a positive influence on the minds and hearts of the students. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that poetry can contribute to integrating the arts and humanities in management education. The potential effect of poetry on business management majors is being explored as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility course. Poetry has considerable potential as an innovative approach to teach sustainability, but it is rather unusual in business education. Poetry was chosen as an enabler for reflection and emotions. This original teaching project was followed by a research project relying on reflective assignments. A rereading of Walter Benjamin's
Illuminations
from the perspective of sustainability studies was a source of inspiration, in particular “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” “The Storyteller” and “Unpacking My Library.” The paper assumes that Benjamin's ideas relate to a slow journey involving “awakening,” “wisdom” and “in a process,” three elements that are at the core of promoting a sustainability mindset. The research project consisted of four reflection assignments students had to comply with: reading and interpreting poetry; searching for a poem which would be most appropriate for the discussed sustainability topic; creating their own poem and reflecting on the whole task. The research took place in the second semester of 2020 and first semester of 2021, all in COVID-19 pandemic context. Students' participation was not mandatory, but the majority joined. Their perceptions and impressions reinforce the existing knowledge about the emotional power of poetry to encourage reflection. The results show that poetry plays a relevant role in encouraging future managers to develop a frame of mind that incorporates sustainability and responsibility. Business students are open to this approach because it adds a new and unexpected dimension to their studies. Despite the urge to integrate reflections, this is still an exception for the majority of management courses. The results suggest that poetry is a relevant instrument to promote a more sustainable mindset among future managers. Paradoxically, by emphasizing a slow journey, i.e., allowing time for integrating reflective practices, a transition toward sustainability in daily managerial processes can be accelerated.
Transport and logistics activities contribute heavily to global sustainability problems, yet the implementation of corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting in the sector lags ...behind. This paper aims to analyze sustainability reporting in the logistics sector, with focus on environmental, social and economic indicators. An extensive operationalization of sustainability indicators is used to examine and analyze the sustainability reports of 52 organizations in the logistics sector worldwide. Results show that the sector does not agree on the materiality of sustainability indicators. Furthermore, sustainability reporting seems to be incompatible with daily operations, leading to obscurity in reports. This contrast, between the necessary existence of organizations in the logistics sector and their undesirable environmental and social effects, calls for future research into how organizations are coping with this paradox. A viable way forward is needed in order to ensure materiality in the sectors’ efforts toward sustainability reporting.
Companies are pressured by regulatory authorities, consumers and other stakeholders to improve their environmental performance. Within globalized supply chains, corporate sustainability performance ...is inevitably influenced by the behaviour of suppliers. Gathering reliable traceability data from suppliers (e.g. regarding raw materials) is an important, yet difficult issue to contribute to (measuring) environmental sustainability. Most studies overlook the importance of sharing traceability data, and lack a holistic approach to the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability. Our study sets focus on whether traceability data exchange within the dyadic relationship between the focal firm (buyer) and its major suppliers positively correlates with the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of reward and coercive power use on traceability data and on corporate sustainability dimensions. The findings of a survey among 136 purchasing professionals in the manufacturing industry confirm the positive effect of sharing traceability data on the buyer's corporate sustainability performance. The use of reward power encourages suppliers to share traceability data, while coercive power does not influence on information sharing. Within buyer-supplier relationships, buyers should be aware of the importance of reward power in the process of traceability information sharing.
•Sharing of traceability data positively affects buyers' environmental, economic and social sustainability.•Reward power encourages suppliers to share traceability data.•Findings suggest no effect of coercive power on information sharing.•Sharing traceability data contributes to the resilience of supply chains.•Sharing traceability data is of critical importance for supply chain disruptions, such as driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 19th century, four zoological gardens were created in Belgium. The first was founded in Antwerp in 1843, followed by Ghent, Brussels (both in 1851) and Liège (1865). The Brussels zoo was ...conceived as a “salon public”, a public parlour offering nice walks, enlivened with an animal collection to ward off boredom and stimulate scientific interest. This article, more than a factual history based on archives, attempts to place the zoo in the spirit of the age and the modes of thought of the 19th century. The zoo profiled itself as a scientific institution in the city, engaging in (theoretical) classification and (practical) acclimatization. Its cultural activities, perhaps even more than its animals, made it a popular attraction for the middle classes.
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