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Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) play a significant role in the socio-economic stimulation of South Africa. Particularly, South African SMMEs are believed to contribute around 50% to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while simultaneously employing up to 80% of the national workforce. Prior research does however suggest that these business entities have among the worst sustainability rates in the world as up to 75% fail after being in operation for three years. A probable reason for the latter dispensation is the non-management of economic factors, one of which is that of Taxation. Taxation is a mandatory obligation imposed on citizens of a country to fund state expenditure. For this working paper, Customs and Excise Taxation is focused on; Taxation that is levied on goods and/or services that are hazardous to both human- and environmental health and wellness. Over the years, Customs and Excise Taxation has not only been imposed on tobacco products, alcoholic products and plastic bags but have also increased year-on-year, to date. As such, the perception was formulated by the author that the sustainability of South African (retail) SMMEs, especially those who sell tobacco products, alcoholic products and plastic bags, are adversely affected by the year-on-year increases of Customs and Excise Taxation. The primary objective of this working paper is to ascertain whether the perception formulated shows truth, in theory. This working paper therefore takes on a non-empirical, exploratory approach that makes use of a qualitative research methodology. Stemming from the findings, thus far, it appears that Customs and Excise Taxation adversely influences the sustainability of South African SMMEs that sell tobacco products, alcoholic products and plastic bags.

Inland valleys are becoming increasingly important agricultural production areas for rural households in sub-Saharan Africa due to their relative high and secure water availability and soil fertility. In addition, inland valleys are important as water buffer and biodiversity hot spots and they provide local communities with forest, forage, and fishing resources. As different inland-valley ecosystem functions may conflict with agricultural objectives, indiscriminate development should be avoided. This study aims to analyze the diversity of inland valleys in Sierra Leone and to develop guidelines for their sustainable use. Land use, biophysical and socio-economic data were analyzed on 257 inland valleys using spatial and multivariate techniques. Five cluster groups of inland valleys were identified: (i) semi-permanently flooded with good soil fertility, mostly under natural vegetation; (ii) semi-permanently flooded with very low soil fertility, abandoned by farmers; (iii) seasonally flooded with low soil fertility under low input levels, used for rainfed rice and off-season vegetables for household consumption and market; (iv) well drained with moderate soil fertility under medium input levels, used for rainfed rice and off-season vegetables for household consumption and market; and (v) well drained with moderate soil fertility under low input levels, used for household consumption. Soil fertility, hydrological regime, physical and market accessibility were the major factors affecting agricultural intensification of inland valleys. Opening up the areas in which inland valleys occur through improved roads and markets, and better water control through drainage infrastructures along with an integrated nutrient management would promote the sustainable agricultural use of inland valleys.

The dataset includes 90 global food system and land use scenarios developed with the model BioBaM-GHG 2.0. The scenarios have been developed for assessing the global potential of forest regeneration for climate mitigation to 2050 under various food system pathways, i.e. diets, crop yield developments, land requirements for energy crops, and two variants of grassland use. The scenarios include the following data on country level: Land use and land-use change, cropland area by crop group, grazing area by quality classes, crop production by crop groups, crop consumption by crop groups and use types, crop wastes (losses), net imports/exports, production and consumption of animal products, grass supply and demand, GHG emissions from land-use change, GHG emissions from agricultural activities, and total cumulated GHG emissions. The main model result in this context, cumulative carbon sequestration from forest regeneration until 2050, is calculated as difference between the parameters "GHG emissions from land use change (cumulative) (Mt CO2e)" and "GHG emissions from land use change excluding C stock changes from natural succession (cumulative) (Mt CO2e)". Please refer to the related publication "Exploring the option space for land system futures at regional to global scales: The diagnostic agro-food, land use and greenhouse gas emission model BioBaM-GHG 2.0" (Kalt et al., 2021 - currently under review at Ecological Modelling) for further information. This work was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) within project P29130-G27 GELUC.

The potential impact of the ICT, Food and Agriculture and Finance sector on children in Serbia and opportunities for shared valued partnerships with organisations and institutions supporting children and their rights. The major impact area for all three examined business sectors is the marketplace, from ensuring that products and services are safe to children and seeking to support children’s rights through them, and in using marketing and advertising that respect and supports children and their rights. The mapped key impact area creates related risks, which are also associated with the use and availability of products and services, their responsible promotion, and environmental risks posed to the local community. The opportunities for shared value partnerships for all three sectors can be found in advocacy initiatives on raising awareness on perceived risks that children could be exposed to using companies’ product and services and agenda-setting through influential sectoral platforms. Besides, child rights consideration should be integrated into all appropriate corporate procedures and committed by management processes. When it comes to financing, it should be covered from a broader angle, from strategic grants and contribution in-kind to the engagement of employees in terms of their time and expertise, and customers around the cause of the support and promotion of children’s rights in Serbia. Finally, a clear untapped potential can be found in innovative products and services and the expertise of the leading companies in the sector, which would make their offer more inclusive and impact on the overall well-being of children, thereby creating a business contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.

This data set provides detailed numerical data on the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) analysis for assessing and comparing the environmental impact related to the treatment of sewage sludge (SS) in open windrow facilities for the production of compost and in an anaerobic digester for the production of biogas. The collection of the data is included in eleven tables, in which the machinery and duration for biogas and compost production procedures, as well as comparative data regarding the environmental impact category emissions for both scenarios are shown . Furthermore, electricity consumption and embodied energy for each scenario compared to other studies are given. The system boundary conditions were determined with the use of the Gabi software.

This dataset contains raw model results from 2 different scenario's as part of a publication on the the Power-to-H3 concept for system integration in a neigbhourhood energy- and water system. It is being made public to act as supplementary data for publication(s) and the PhD thesis of Els van der Roest. Also, it might be used by other researhers. The dataset was created during model runs in the period between January 2019 - April 2019. Abstract of the paper: In the transition from fossil to renewable energy, the energy system should become clean, while remaining reliable and affordable. Because of the intermittent nature of both renewable energy production and energy demand, an integrated system approach is required that includes energy conversion and storage. We propose a concept for a neighbourhood where locally produced renewable energy is partly converted and stored in the form of heat and hydrogen, accompanied by rainwater collection, storage, purification and use (Power-to-H3). A model is developed to create an energy balance and perform a techno-economic analysis, including an analysis of the avoided costs within the concept. The results show that a solar park of 8.7 MWp combined with rainwater collection and solar panels on roofs, can supply 900 houses over the year with heat (20 TJ) via an underground heat storage system as well as with almost half of their water demand (36,000 m3) and 540 hydrogen electric vehicles can be supplied with hydrogen (90 tonnes). The production costs for both hydrogen (8.7 €/kg) and heat (26 €/GJ) are below the current end user selling price in the Netherlands (10 €/kg and 34 €/GJ), making the system affordable. When taking avoided costs into account, the prices could decrease with 20–26%, while at the same time avoiding 3600 tonnes of CO2 a year. These results make clear that it is possible to provide a neighbourhood with all these different utilities, completely based on solar power and rainwater in a reliable, affordable and clean way.

This paper evaluated the environmental effects of socially responsible investments (SRIs) in European countries and analyzed the differentiation between them in terms of SRIs and selected features in the environmental dimension. The first section of the paper discusses contemporary trends in Europe and in certain European countries, whilst the second compares SR environmental investments and environmental factors in selected European countries from a multidimensional perspective. The aim of the study was to identify and evaluate these trends as well as to find similarities and differences between European countries, and subsequently to indicate groups of countries with similar approaches to pro-ecological investments. In order to solve the problem, descriptive and multidimensional statistical methods were used, namely correspondence analysis (CA). Although the research results clearly revealed upward tendencies in the volume of SR environmental investments in the analyzed period, they nonetheless represent a relatively low share in the total number of socially responsible investments. The overall growth in SRIs in Europe may have resulted from the more intense activities of policymakers in some countries as a consequence of concluding agreements reached during the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in 2015. The results of the study also revealed no significant correlations between SR environmental investments and environmental variables among the European countries analyzed; hence, there is no substantial evidence that investors’ assets contribute to the improvement of the environment.

Abstract To achieve the EU climate and energy objectives, a transition towards a future sustainable energy system is needed. The integration of the huge potential for industrial waste heat recovery into smart energy system represents a main opportunity to accomplish these goals. To successfully implement this strategy, all the several stakeholders' conflicting objectives should be considered. In this paper an evolutionary multi-objective optimization model is developed to perform a sustainability evaluation of an energy system involving an industrial facility as the waste heat source and the neighbourhood as district heating network end users. An Italian case study of heat recovery from a steel casting facility shows how the model allows to properly select the district heating network set of users to fully exploit the available waste energy. Design directions such as the thermal energy storage capacity can be also provided. Moreover, the model enables the analysis of the trade-off between the stakeholders’ different perspectives, allowing to identify possible win-win solutions for both the industrial sector and the citizenship.