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The implementation of sustainability-oriented practices in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been discussed frequently over the years. Recent studies on sustainability have focused mainly on links between ecological and economic sustainability. This exploratory study aims to explore institutional barriers and facilitators regarding the implementation of sustainability-oriented practices in the Indonesian batik industry and to provide policy recommendations. The Indonesian batik industry is well-known for its cultural heritage and for being part of the Indonesian identity. Batik products are mostly hand-crafted by women crafters. The study used in-depth insights from two focus groups conducted with entrepreneurs active in the batik industry, while also building on earlier empirical insights. The lack of customer knowledge and socio-cultural and regulatory factors were found to be barriers to sustainability in batik SMEs. Ecological, technological, socio-cultural, and political factors were found to facilitate achieving sustainability objectives. This study contributes to the sustainable entrepreneurship and women entrepreneurship literature by considering facilitators and barriers as they are experienced by batik entrepreneurs and by furthering the conceptualization of sustainable entrepreneurs as either “committed” or “followers”.

This paper is devoted to how a team of experts scientifically supported redesigning the curriculum of an elective study program that promotes competences for sustainable development. In contrast to other case studies of higher education for sustainable development (HESD), the paper does not present the outcome of the curricular-redesign process but focuses on its scientific support. It shows how this process was initiated and facilitated. It understands curricular redesign as a social process. The premises are, first, that supporting curricular processes means guiding the decision-making of those in charge but not making decisions in their place, and second, that the redesign of a curriculum has to consider the existing institutional situation as well as empirical and theoretical expectations. The article discusses how scientific support can help a curricular redesign draw on both experience-based knowledge and sound HESD theories and findings. Furthermore, it reflects on the role of those supporting such a process and on how they can help the actors find a realistic compromise between the existing situation and the perceived ideal. This requires competences in mining, aggregating, and reprocessing knowledge in the field of HESD, as well as in designing and supporting an interdisciplinary process.

Sanctuaries are widely regarded as a protected area where fishing has been placed under some restrictions by local, state, regional and national authorities for the conservation and management of fisheries resources. These sanctuaries have a broad array of positive and negative social, economic, cultural and political impacts on fishers. This study aims to analyze the socio-economic and ecological benefits and costs of hilsa sanctuaries to protect single most important hilsa species using Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA). Under the Protection and Conservation of Fish Act of 1950, six sites along the Padma, Meghna, Tetulia, and Andharmanik rivers have been designated as hilsa sanctuaries. Findings of the current study revealed that most fishers perceived production of hilsa and other species were increased as a direct consequences of sanctuaries establishment. However, a considerable proportion of hilsa fishermen was found to have low socioeconomic capital, as measured by monthly income, housing circumstances and asset ownership. During the restricted fishing season in the sanctuaries, these households are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. The government’s compensation scheme is a good example of payment of ecosystem services in an open water fishery; however, this scheme does not include all the affected fishers. It is found that hilsa sanctuaries lead to income loss of the poor fishers which is insufficiently compensated by government support program. To compensate income loss, fishers resort illegal fishing which undermine the success of sanctuary. If the sanctuaries are to function effectively, affecting fishers must be addressed by offering enough compensation schemes so that fishers are able to support their families. Moreover, some fishers believed that a co-management approach involving fishers and government is the possible best management option for operating sanctuaries in a sustainable way.

Modern digital technologies have the great potential to improve the sustainability of fish farming in artisanal fisheries. However, in spite of the popularity of these technologies for fish farming in other parts of the world, Brazil still lags behind. To fill this gap, this study has conducted the first field study in implementing the IoT sensor technologies in Southern Brazil and documents the experiences in this paper. More specifically, it discusses developing sustainable artisanal fisheries infrastructure using these technologies with reference to southern Brazil, where the study explores the use of sensor technology in aquaculture and its effectiveness in reducing waste and improving productivity. The overarching goal of the project is to demonstrate how simple data collection using IoT sensors and its analysis can support artisanal freshwater fish farms in Brazil and beyond to increase production, reduce waste, and thereby improve their sustainability. The pilot implementation of these technologies has demonstrated the potential of increasing the productivity of the artisanal fisheries, reducing waste (e.g., loss of farmed fish, optimised feeding to reduce waste of feeds), and improving the sustainability of aquaculture. This paper documents the valuable firsthand experiences of selecting, adapting, and implementing the IoT sensor technologies with close cooperation from local research institutions and artisanal fish farmers. The paper describes the different implementation stages and use interviews with stakeholders as a testimony of the effectiveness of the IoT technology adoption.

The new European organic regulation 2018/848 aims to phase out the use of non-organic seeds in organic farming by 2036. At present, achieving this goal in countries with a poorly developed organic seed sector is difficult, and therefore there is a great need to increase organic seed supply by promoting the development of the organic seed sector in Europe. This paper presents a conceptual framework to secure voluntary stakeholder involvement in the process of a gradual increase in the supply of organic seeds for organic farming. Stakeholders showed a high motivation to commit to concrete action points for moving forward. In addition, further actors were involved in the fulfillment of the commitments, a sign of a positive network effect in favor of organic seed production and use. The study indicates application potential and can complement mandatory policy instruments. Further progress monitoring is necessary to ensure that established structures maintain their function, and to keep the shared sense of responsibility alive.

The building sector has a significant potential to reduce the material resource demand needed for construction and therefore, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Digitalization can help to make use of this potential and improve sustainability throughout the entire building’s life cycle. One way to address this potential is through the integration of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) into the building process by employing Building Information Modeling (BIM). BIM can reduce the effort needed to carry out an LCA, and therefore, facilitate the integration into the building process. A review of current industry practice and scientific literature shows that companies are lacking the incentive to apply LCA. If applied, there are two main approaches. Either the LCA is performed in a simplified way at the beginning of the building process using imprecise techniques, or it is done at the very end when all the needed information is available, but it is too late for decision-making. One reason for this is the lack of methods, workflows and tools to implement BIM-LCA integration over the whole building development. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop an integrated BIM-LCA method for the entire building process by relating it to an established workflow. To avoid an additional effort for practitioners, an existing structure for cost estimation in the Swiss context is used. The established method is implemented in a tool and used in a case study in Switzerland to test the approach. The results of this study show that LCA can be performed continuously in each building phase over the entire building process using existing Building Information Modeling (BIM) techniques for cost estimation. The main benefit of this approach is that it simplifies the application of LCA in the building process and therefore gives incentives for companies to apply it. Moreover, the re-work caused by the need for re-entering data and the usage of many different software tools that characterize most of the current LCA practices is minimized. Furthermore, decision-making, both at the element and building levels, is supported.

Universities are under mounting pressure to partner with societal stakeholders and organizations to collaboratively create and implement sustainability-advancing knowledge, tools, and societal transformations. Simultaneously, an increasing number of societal organizations are reaching out to partner with universities to achieve organizational objectives and increase the effectiveness of strategies to further societal sustainability. Using a conceptual framework of “sustainability co-creation”, this study empirically examines the historical and ongoing experiences of five organizations in Japan that actively partner with universities to enhance sustainability activities and strategies to transform society. We examine motivations for partnering with universities, innovative models of practice, factors hampering the co-creative potential of the university, and desired changes to overcome these. Our empirical study leads to the proposal of a typology that might assist in categorizing and understanding key attributes of differing types of sustainability co-creation. We build our typology from two perspectives: First, in terms of the primary objective of the co-creation (ranging from knowledge production to the transformation of society), and second, in terms of the approach taken (ranging from either socially or technologically-centered). We then reflect on the organizations’ experiences to offer several strategies that could increase the effectiveness of the university when partnering with stakeholders in sustainability co-creation. We also highlight several factors effecting the university’s capacity to move beyond knowledge production towards implementation measures to transform society with external stakeholders.