• Energy Research

In the last years, the concept of “smart city” has been the subject of increasing attention in urban planning and governance due to the sustainability challenges and great technological advancements. Although the relevant literature highlights those smart cities can create a fertile environment to drive innovation from a technological, managerial and organizational, and policy point of view how smart cities function, in terms of their value chain and in light of sustainability and circularity is still an open question. Based on these considerations, this work aims to investigate how smart cities deliver value by combining environmental, societal, and financial priorities to re-imagine their core business models and shift the boundaries of urban competition in light of circular economy principles. To reach this goal, the tool Sustainable Business Model Innovation Canvas has been applied in the urban context with the aim to create and leverage an environmental and societal surplus in light of circularity in the smart city framework. Preliminary results shed light on new vistas on the future and new challenges of smart cities particularly relevant for facing the current complexity of the economy, social, and environmental changes.

PurposeSustainability is increasingly at the forefront of the public debate in Europe and the world. However, despite this increased interest, research seems to have partially ignored the importance of its social dimension and the issues related to social equity, people care, protection and personal development at all stages of society and, consequently, of business. Accordingly, this paper aims at investigating the “soft” dimensions of sustainability, integrating its mainstream “technical storyline” with a “human/social storyline”.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper a taxonomy of the main key drivers of the soft dimension of sustainability is proposed and tested on a sample of Italian companies. Through interviews with their managers, actions and needs in terms of sustainability soft drivers are identified.FindingsThe achieved results demonstrated that the case companies differently integrated the soft dimensions of sustainability within their companies. All the sample companies are aware of the role of social sustainability. According to the proposed taxonomy, the systemic drivers of soft sustainability are the main shared ones.Originality/valueThe paper provides new insights into the essence of the organizational soft dimensions and their centrality in the overall achievement of sustainability for companies. It also offers managerial insights into how to effectively manage these dimensions and policy implications about the need for clearer consideration.

Objectives. From a technical, economic, and environmental point of view, the decommissioning of offshore oil platforms is one of the most serious problems facing the oil and gas industry in a long-term perspective. This work aims to investigate the perspective of some stakeholders’ categories belonging to the decommissioning industry about the future of these installations. Methodology. An empirical analysis has been carried out based on the definition of a case study regarding the Italian oil and gas industry. Primary data were collected through multiple-choice questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Findings. The results of the analysis show an emerging sustainable approach regarding the decommissioning of offshore platforms. Circular Economic (CE) initiatives are mainly considered as value co-creation driver regarding the future of these structures. Research limits. The main limitation is related to the sample which is restricted to Italian industry and is related only to certain categories of stakeholders. Practical implications. This work offers several insights about different decommissioning scenarios. Further research could regard the possibility to extend the analysis in other industries and contexts. Originality of the study. The study improves the attention towards the decommissioning of oil and gas offshore platform, its environmental impact and public awareness, from users to local governments.

The growing complexity of environmental challenges has progressively led to the emergence of Sustainable Business Models (SBMs) able to embed economic, environmental, and social flows in a unified value network. All sectors are demanding innovative and sustainable solutions, including the oil and gas industry, which aims to address the issues about the decommissioning of offshore platforms. However, although the relevant literature highlighted the potentialities related to a multi-reuse of these structures, the effect of Sustainable Decommissioning (SD) on macro-environmental factors is still an open question. Based on these considerations, this study follows a Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental (PESTLE) analysis according to semi-structured interviews conducted with oil and gas key informants and stakeholders in the Italian context. The results of the analysis can provide a novel thinking for addressing the challenges related to a sustainable decommissioning of offshore platforms and shed light on the importance of synergistic efforts by local entrepreneurship and institutional arrangements to combine economic and environmental sustainability with social needs. This paper can contribute to the emerging field of sustainable business models related to the decommissioning of offshore platforms and suggests avenues for future research.

Recently, some critical events (e.g., the economic decline, the growing socio-ecologic burden, even more demanding customers, etc.) have led several companies to re-think their “shoring” decisions. Therefore, many of them decided to reshore manufacturing or to bring back home production activities previously offshored. This phenomenon represents one of the current imperatives for research. In fact, the location where manufacturing takes place has a massive influence on the sustainability of firms on a local and global level. Therefore, to better understand what makes reshoring strategies sustainable as well as to identify the drivers that can boost it, further research is still needed. The explorative nature of this paper recognizes some motivations or drivers for making reshoring strategies sustainable. To this end, a structured and narrative literature review has been conducted to grasp and describe the main motivations and implementation characteristics that can make reshoring decisions sustainable. The achieved results better define reshoring and the influence that some drivers, especially digital innovation, can play on the related strategies and on their sustainability. In doing so, this work is one of the first contributions that jointly approaches reshoring, sustainability, and digital innovation.