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Although the relationship between board gender diversity and a firm’s financial performance has been investigated before, the current study provides a valuable contribution by exploring the complex phenomenon of the mediating impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance on a firm’s financial performance. The current study aims to explore whether corporate social responsibility (represented by the proxy variable of CSR reporting) mediates the relationship between boardroom gender diversity and firm performance. We use the pooled ordinary least square (OLS) regression to examine the above relationship by using data from 2008 to 2015. To control the likelihood of endogeneity we also use one-year lagged and two-stage least square (2SLS) regression models. Our results show that boardroom gender diversity is significant, positively correlated with firm performance, and CSR fully mediates the relationship between boardroom gender diversity and firm performance. In addition, four control variables (independent director, Chief executive officer (CEO power), board member meeting frequency, Big4, and leverage) have some influence on firm performance. These findings hold for a set of robustness tests. Our findings have the implication for the investors and regulators. For investors, our results show that the existence of female directors on the board can improve the firm performance. For regulators, our results advise the worldwide policy maker to give the importance to boardroom gender diversity. The paper contributes to the existing studies, by pioneering the investigations of the mediating role of CSR in the relation between boardroom gender diversity and firm performance in Chinese context.

In the past, different forecasting models have been proposed to predict greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, most of these models are unable to handle non-linear data. One of the most widely known techniques, the Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), can deal with nonlinear data. Its ability to predict GHG emissions from road transportation is still unexplored. This study aims to fulfil that gap by adapting the ANFIS model to predict GHG emissions from road transportation by using the ratio between vehicle-kilometers and number of transportation vehicles for six transportation modes (passenger cars, motorcycle, light trucks, single-unit trucks, tractors, and buses) from the North American Transportation Statistics (NATS) online database over a period of 22 years. The results show that ANFIS is a suitable method to forecast GHG emissions from the road transportation sector.

In previous studies mainly focusing on determinants of adaptation, evidence of the dynamic process of adaptation decision-making is negligible. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of socio-cultural factors, changes in household characteristics, and climate variables on the transition from non-use to use of adaptation strategies. The study integrated primary data collected from households with secondary rainfall and temperature data. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using a dynamic random-effects probit model and a thematic approach, respectively. The result shows strong evidence of path dependence in which use of a strategy during the previous year significantly increases its current use. Climate-related risk perception and factual knowledge may not necessarily prompt adaptation action, whereas access to financial resources and farming-related trainings were consistent positive predictors of farmers’ adaptation decisions. The findings entail that economic capacity and the associated intrinsic motivation help few farmers to utilise robust and contesting adaptation strategies. For most households, economic problems and the consequent fatalistic attitude and risk-avoidance behaviour induce either non-use or use of responsive and accommodating strategies aimed at ensuring survival. Path dependence in non-use of adaptation strategies and sub-optimal adaptation actions demand effective institutional supports to address the behavioural and economic barriers of these households in order to build overall community resilience.

Sustainability and sustainable development are political and essentially contested social phenomena. Despite this ambiguity, they continue to hold a central position as apolitical concepts in much of social science and policy making. In Europe, public procurement is increasingly used as a tool to reach sustainability, a fact that actualizes an inherent tension between politically charged objectives on the one hand, and technological processes and market logics on the other. Therefore, in this article, we investigate this tension by studying policies relating to sustainable public procurement of the built environment in the EU. We argue that governing any policy domain entails the construction and representation of particular policy problems. Hence, we focus on how the ‘problems’ of sustainable public procurement are represented in EU policy guidance and best practice documents. Our analysis shows that these central policy documents are dominated by a problem representation where unsustainability is constructed as technical design flaws and market failure. This has the primary effect that it renders sustainable development as, primarily, a technical issue, and beyond politics. Therefore, we conclude that current policy reproduces ‘weak’ forms of sustainable development, where the practice is depoliticized and premised upon continued growth and innovation.

The energy consumption due to urbanization and man-made activities has resulted in production of waste, heat, and pollution in the urban environment. These have further resulted in undesirable environmental issues such as the production of excessive Anthropogenic Heat Emissions (AHE), thus leading to an increased Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. The aim of this study was to estimate the total AHE based on the contribution of three major sources of waste heat generation in an urban environment, i.e., buildings, vehicular traffic, and human metabolism. Furthermore, a comparison of dominating anthropogenic heat factor of Darwin with that of other major international cities was carried out. Field measurements of microclimate (temperatures, humidity, solar radiation, and other factors of climate measures) were conducted along Smith Street, Darwin City. Then, surveys were conducted to collect information regarding the buildings, vehicle traffic and Human population (metabolism) in the study area. Each individual component of AHE was calculated based on a conceptual framework of the anthropogenic heat model developed within this study. The results showed that AHE from buildings is the most dominant factor influencing the total AHE in Darwin, contributing to about 87% to 95% of total AHE. This is followed by vehicular traffic (4–13%) and lastly, human metabolism (0.1–0.8%). The study also shows that Darwin gains an average of 990 Wm−2 solar power on a peak day. This study proves that building anthropogenic heat is the major dominating factor influencing the UHI in tropical urban climates.

Microbially Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation (MICP) is a natural biocementation that takes place in corals, stromatolites and beach rocks. In recent years, researchers have explored the emulation of this process as a sustainable alternative of engineered cement. Although the natural process is undoubtedly sustainable, its engineered variant deviates substantially from the natural process. In this paper, we investigate the environmental and economic performance of the engineered biocementation process vis-à-vis present manufacturing of calcium carbonate. SimaPro 8.0 software and the Ecoinvent V2.2 database were used for materials inputs and AUSLCI along with Cumulative Energy Demand 2.01 software were used for carbon footprint and eutrophication potential. Our results show that different metabolic pathways of MICP have considerably varying environmental impact. We observe that nature performs MICP sustainably at ambient conditions and geological time scales utilizing naturally occurring sources of carbon and calcium at micromoles concentrations. Due to the mandate on duration of construction projects, highly purified reactants in a high concentration are used in the engineered process. This has a negative environmental impact. We conclude that the sustainability of engineered MICP is directly impacted by the metabolic pathway of bacteria as well as the purity of the input chemicals. A few biotic processes are superior to the present industrial process for manufacturing calcium carbonate if ingredients of laboratory grade purity are replaced by industrial grade products. A bigger dividend can be obtained by introducing industry by-products as nutrients. The results of this study help to direct future research for developing sustainable biocement for the construction industry.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jingjinji) region is the most densely populated region in China and suffers from severe water resource shortage, with considerable water-related issues emerging under a changing context such as construction of water diversion projects (WDP), regional synergistic development, and climate change. To this end, this paper develops a framework to examine the water resource security for 200 counties in the Jingjinji region under these changes. Thus, county-level water resource security is assessed in terms of the long-term annual mean and selected typical years (i.e., dry, normal, and wet years), with and without the WDP, and under the current and projected future (i.e., regional synergistic development and climate change). The outcomes of such scenarios are assessed based on two water-crowding indicators, two use-to-availability indicators, and one composite indicator. Results indicate first that the water resources are distributed unevenly, relatively more abundant in the northeastern counties and extremely limited in the other counties. The water resources are very limited at the regional level, with the water availability per capita and per unit gross domestic product (GDP) being only 279/290 m3 and 46/18 m3 in the current and projected future scenarios, respectively, even when considering the WDP. Second, the population carrying capacity is currently the dominant influence, while economic development will be the controlling factor in the future for most middle and southern counties. This suggests that significant improvement in water-saving technologies, vigorous replacement of industries from high to low water consumption, as well as water from other supplies for large-scale applications are greatly needed. Third, the research identifies those counties most at risk to water scarcity and shows that most of them can be greatly relieved after supplementation by the planned WDP. Finally, more attention should be paid to the southern counties because their water resources are not only limited but also much more sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. This work should benefit water resource management and allocation decisions in the Jingjinji region, and the proposed assessment framework can be applied to other similar problems.