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We propose an ethical analysis as a method to reflect on how companies’ decisions promote sustainable development. The method proceeds by first identifying the choice according to financial business interests, and by then scrutinizing this choice according to consequentialist and deontological ethics. The paper applies the method to the choice of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that a consortium of Brazilian companies (EGASUR) delivered as part of their project proposal for the realization of the Inambari hydropower dam in the Peruvian Amazon. We show that if an EIA is chosen based on the attempt to maximize the financial bottom line, it raises ethical issues both from a consequentialist perspective by involving negative consequences for various stakeholder groups, and from a deontological perspective by not complying with relevant rules, guidelines, and principles. The two ethical perspectives hence reveal where the consortium faces impediments to a genuine commitment to sustainability. Building on stakeholder interviews, observations of the project developments, and the executive summary of the actual EIA, we provide indications that EGASUR has indeed made a choice that resembles a decision based on financial interests.

Non-timber forest products have often been held out as potential tools for conservation and sustainable development, but sustainability assessments are frequently difficult and time-consuming, especially in conflict areas. Thus, rapid assessments can be useful in providing a broad overview of the harvesting system in order to generate meaningful conservation or development recommendations. Here, we use rapid assessment methodology, including semi-structured interviews and direct observations, to examine the frankincense harvesting system in Somaliland in 2010 and again in 2016 and 2017. We identified significant levels of overharvesting, driven by a breakdown of the traditional management system. Demand for resin and resin prices increased dramatically from 2010 to 2017, at the same time as the tree populations were declining, resource tenure security was weakening, drug use was increasing, and the supply chain was becoming more complex. These factors combine to incentivize short-term unsustainable practices, and the lack of traceability and transparency prevents international buyers from meaningfully engaging with the system. However, new technologies and approaches being employed mean that buyers will soon be able to clearly direct their purchasing in order to incentivize sustainable practices and purchase resin in an ethical manner.

The study analyzes whether the strategic orientation of the firm, measured in six dimensions, influences the level of outsourcing. It also analyzes whether outsourcing has an impact on organizational performance from financial and non-financial perspectives. To do so, an important European tourist destination is analyzed. The findings suggest that the majority of the strategic dimensions influence the hotel’s level of outsourcing. The defensiveness and proactive dimensions are positively related to the level of outsourcing, whereas the competitive analysis and competitive aggressiveness dimensions influence it negatively. In addition, the riskiness dimension has a positive influence, whereas the dimension related to futurity does not influence the level of outsourcing. A positive and significant relationship is found between outsourcing and financial performance, whereas for non-financial performance, the relationship is not significant.

Public policies have encouraged the proliferation of technology platforms that support the transition towards sustainable agriculture and the development of innovations in the food system. Provided the difficulty associated with assessing the outputs and outcomes of technology platforms, this work proposes a practical assessment method based on the retrieval and analysis of online documents related to the technology platforms. Concretely, the method consists of applying web scraping techniques to retrieve documents related to a technology platform from the Internet and then applying web data-mining techniques to automatically classify these documents into the functions that the platform should fulfill, which are described from the viewpoint of co-evolution of innovation. Data are automatically processed to obtain a variety of metrics, which are applied to measure the impact of European Technology Platforms (ETPs) on promoting an organic food paradigm. This method provides time-series data that helps to follow the evolution of the different functions of the platform and to describe its lifecycle. It has been applied to one platform taken as a case study, TP Organics, which represents a key platform for stakeholders that promote organic farming and agroecology as core components of an ambitious program for sustainable agriculture. The obtained online-based measures have been proven to assess the global evolution of the platform, its dissemination through the European Union (EU) Member States, and the evolution of the different functions expected to be fulfilled by it regarding the diffusion and promotion of innovations in organic agriculture.

The global energy system subsumes both extreme wealth (and waste) and extreme poverty. A minority of the global population is consuming the majority of the fossil fuel-based energy and causing global warming. While the mature industrialized economies maintain their high levels of energy consumption, the emerging economies are rapidly expanding their fossil energy systems, emulating traditional patterns of industrialization. We take a global, socio-metabolic perspective on the energy transition phases—take-off, maturation, and completion—of 142 countries between 1971 and 2015. Even within our global fossil energy system, the transition to fossil energy is still ongoing; many countries are in the process of replacing renewable energy with fossil energy. However, due to globally limited supplies and sinks, continuing the fossil energy transition is not an indefinite option. Rather than a “Big Push” for renewable energy within pockets of the fossil energy system, a sustainability transformation is required that would change far more than patterns of energy supply and use. Where this far-reaching change requires pushing back against the fossil energy system, the energy underdogs—the latecomers to the fossil energy transition—just might come out on top.

The self-consumption without surplus to the grid is one of the aspects of the new Spanish law for prosumers. Increasing the share of renewable energy sources into the grid inherently leads to several constraints. The mismatch between the energy demand and the renewable energy production, which is intermittent in nature, is one of those challenges. Storage offers the possibility to decouple demand and supply, and therefore, it adds flexibility to the electric system. This research evaluates expanding electricity self-consumption without surplus to the grid by harnessing thermal mass storage in the residential sector. The methodology is investigated by using a variable refrigerant flow air conditioner system. Because there is no option to export the excess capacity to the grid, this research proposes an approach to profiting from this surplus energy by activating structural thermal mass, which is quantified from the information acquired using a building energy model. For this purpose, an EnergyPlus model of a flat in Pamplona (Spain) was used. The optimization analysis was based on a set-point modulation control strategy. Results show that under adequate climatological circumstances, the proposed methodology can reduce the total electric energy from the grid between by 60– 80 % .

The aim of the article is to elucidate pro-environmental solutions and activities, consonant with the tenets of sustainability and enduring developmental paradigms, implemented within the infrastructural purview of the cultural institutions situated in Poznan—a municipality located in western Poland. A diagnostic scrutiny was executed encompassing the entirety of municipal cultural entities, constituting a cumulative assemblage of 15 establishments, all of which were extended invitations to participate in this investigation. Interrogations were directed towards ascertaining their strategic, environmentally conscientious determinations vis à vis the construction, renovation, or modernization of edifices during the temporal expanse of 2021 and 2022. Ultimately, responses germane to the posed inquiries were proffered by 7 institutions, as the remaining entities refrained from financial investments during the stipulated timeframe. The discerned outcomes illuminate the manifold pro-environmental measures and endeavors embraced by these institutions within the domain of infrastructural initiatives. These initiatives pertain to ecological considerations, safeguarding the natural milieu, and fortifying sustainability, encompassing facets such as energy and water conservation, the abatement of water and air contaminants, recycling endeavors, the utilization of renewable materials, the afforestation of vicinities, and the mitigation of the ostensibly designated “heat island effect”, among sundry others. These initiatives are not only significant for the current ecological situation worldwide, but they also appear to be crucial for the better future of the next generations.