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Treball Final de Grau en Finances i Comptabilitat. Codi: FC1049. Curs acadèmic: 2019/2020 In recent years there has been a rise in businesses investing in social and ethical issues. The sustainable development goals published in 2015 by the UN provide a globally agreed framework to make the world more sustainable. Companies have been given the opportunity to help the environment and society through their actions whilst increasing their value and return and improving their reputation. A method for doing so is by following the principles of responsible investment and incorporating environmental, social and governance criteria into long-term businesses strategies. Spanish banks are actively working to achieve the sustainable development goals by investing in sustainable finance, social projects, housing programmes, etc. to meet societal needs whilst extending their market scope and achieving corporate growth and financial success. The main focus of their actions lays with two specific goals: ending poverty and providing decent work and economic growth for all.

This thesis is motivated from the fundamental decision problem in today's manufacturing industry which could be summarized as one simple question: how is it possible to achieve economic growth by taking advantage of the latest technologies while protecting the environment? The machine tool has undergone a remarkable change in recent years and the classical concept of an independent, manually operated machine tool, specially dedicated to a particular machining process no longer belongs to the production environment. The increasing usage of computer control and measuring equipment as well as workpiece and tool handling devices has transformed the machine tool into a sophisticated hybrid production system having a lower demand for human supervision of the process. All these efforts are gathered together in order to achieve a high productivity system able to machine different parts respecting quality requirements at the lowest cost. In addition, increasing attention to the environmental and health impacts by governmental regulations and by growing awareness in society is forcing manufacturers to find environmentally friendly designs and machining strategies. The objective of this research is to propose a multicriteria decision aid methodology (MCDA) for evaluation of the use phase of a machine tool system by jointly considering economical, technical and environmental criteria which allows the decision maker to be in a better position to make sustainable decisions. The evaluation is carried out at two levels by addressing the process level with its local cutting area effects and the main activities of the machine tool system by giving full consideration to reduction/elimination of the cutting fluid and reduction of the overall energy consumption. After carefully reviewing previous research, a consistent hierarchical evaluation criteria structure and an entity relationship diagram characterizing the organizational scheme of a database, which stores the data to be used in the evaluation process, is proposed for each level. As a second step, this thesis proposes a model for estimation of the mechanical energy requirements of the cutting subsystem of a machine tool based on the cutter location data, the cutting parameters and the technical specifications of the spindle and feed axes. The MCDA methodology and the energy consumption model were implemented in a software tool using the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) language and was validated through various tests consisting in the machining of different milling and drilling features of a prismatic part by employing different cutting parameters and cooling/lubrication alternatives. In addition to the cutting tests, an extensive monitoring of the power share amongst the main subsystems of a modern machining center was carried out and a power data collection framework was proposed. The acquisition, interpretation and storage of the experimental data were supported by a measurement platform developed in the LabVIEW environment.

The development and commercialization of novel sophisticated products, exerts a significant burden on the environment, throughout its life-cycle. Moreover, the environmental impact also generates a significant impact onto the socio-economic dimensions. Therefore, it is imperative to include criteria for addressing socio-economic and environmental sustainability. Previously developed approaches for sustainability evaluation, were comprehensive, resource intensive and lacked simplicity. The proposed framework for Sustainable New Product Development, utilizes a Systems Engineering Approach based on multi-criteria analysis. The investigation also proposes 2 capital budgeting based methods for evaluation, namely NPV@ Sustainability and Profitability Index @ Sustainability using Life Cycle Assessment. These evaluation methods express the financial cash flows in accordance with the impact associated with the sustainability criteria and the core project milestones of the product development endeavor. The evaluation methods, together with the product development framework, are applicable during key decision points of Stage 2 and 3, in the Stage-Gate Process of New Product Development. Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Achievement of sustainable development in light of ongoing climate change and biodiversity pressures benefits from the deployment of innovations that foster engagement and uptake across all levels, mobilises finance flows commencement to the scale of the challenge, and enables the dissemination of transition solutions that support the low carbon economy. This research investigates the relationship between the legal architecture of market mechanisms under international law and the role of private actors, and how this contributes to sustainable development. Through an exploration of how market mechanisms under the climate change and biodiversity regimes have achieved environmentally sound outcomes, been advanced in sectoral approaches, and facilitated via bilateral and multilateral trade and investment relationships, important insights are identified regarding the composition of effective law and governance architectural approaches. Leveraging experiences derived from treaty practice viewed through an interactional account of international law, this assessment elucidates the important role played by alignment of legal regimes, robust transparency measures, and complementary schemes such as stakeholder-endorsed certifications in buttressing the established measures to ensure sustainable development outcomes and contributes to understanding the role of private actors in the operationalisation of environmental agreements. Research findings suggest it is the interaction of norms across the international legal architecture, informed by relationships within and across relevant treaty systems and the general corpus of international law, and actualised through engagement with private actors as a component of market mechanisms that provides the opportunity for congruence of practice, forging of shared understandings, and normative internalisation and ownership among communities of practice that stimulates both innovative solutions and ambitious action.

As society is continuously embracing Information Technologies (IT) in different fields from everyday life, the construction industry will also be affected by this transformation. With the recent deployment of IT for the construction industry, new opportunities and approaches are being sought to enhance the buildings efficiency, sustainability, and general quality. Among the most recognized IT, Building Information Modelling (BIM) stands out as a major industry change driver. By allowing multi-disciplinary information to be overlaid into a single model, BIM creates an opportunity to incorporate sustainable measures in a project. BIM can act throughout all the building lifecycle, making it an added value for the customer and society. Digitalization impacts will benefit the whole society, with better constructions that consume fewer resources and operate more efficiently. This chapter identifies the current IT applications for the construction industry with focus on BIM method. Current applications, benefits and challenges are identified, as well as software and procedures. Moreover, the integration process of digital technologies to enhance constructions sustainability is analysed, highlighting the impact on project development and quality. Despite the increased use and benefits of IT, current tools and working methods are not properly oriented for sustainability purposes yet. Nevertheless, IT has great potential for sustainable construction, and it is an essential tool for developing high-performance buildings. Main contributions are given during the early project phases, either by providing reliable data for decision-making or to increase process efficiency.

Under the pressure of shortening product life cycle to cope with turbulent market environment, manufacturing industry has to re-configure factory more and more in order to promote sustainable growth. Therefore the modularization and standardisation become key objectives for life cycle oriented plant design. This paper introduces the implementation of modular plant design, which is a result of EU-funded project "Modular Plant Architecture" (MPA). Object Oriented, Virtual Reality and Discrete Event Simulation technologies are adopted in this project.

The knowledge economy has featured the last few decades and the innovation is the strategic factor to improve the competitiveness of a country or a region. Within this context, the knowledge production and the technology transfer to companies have been becoming increasingly important components to be competitive in the global economy. In very different countries, public policies have been implementing in order to foster the collaborations between research centers and business, increase the number of patents, support for new business creation as a spin-off of public sector research. Intermediate structures intended to promote the convergence of businesses and public sector research (universities and research institutions) have been multiplied. This phenomenon regards, more or less, all technological fields. In this paper we examine the technology transfer mechanism in the energy sector and in particular we focus our research in spin off firms which operate in the energy sector. The energy sector is facing two big issues: the growing electricity demand and the environmental challenges. In such field, the energy sector plays a main role in the mitigation of climate change, to increasing efficiency and to guaranteeing energy security. For this reason the innovation in energy technology has become over the years a crucial strategic factor both for governments and companies. If it is refered to renewable energy, we can find out that the amount of investment (government and corporate) in research and development increased during the period 2004-2014 up to 129%: from $5.1 billion in 2004 to $ 11,7 billion in 2014. (Global Trends In Renewable Energy Investment 2015 - Frankfurt School-UNEP Centre ). Also the number of patent applications has increased from 2003 to 2013, about 65% more.(WIPO data elaborated by Istituto per la competitività ). According to some studies the innovation process not only affects big companies but also SMEs. The smaller companies make a greater effort in R&D, measured in relative terms with respect to sales, in particular the younger firms are more likely to perform R&D. What we want to examine in this paper is the incidence of R & D investment on the creation of start-ups, in particular as research results and patents produced within universities and research institutes have enabled the creation of spin off firms in the energy sector. Our research has focused on Italian spin off firms by analyzing the characteristics of these companies making a comparison with those of other sectors.

Engaging citizens and stakeholders in the transition of contemporary energy systems towards renewables is a crucial requirement, as energy transitions are not just a matter of technological innovation but complex processes resulting from the interactions of technological and social components. Engagement may support the transition by fostering the diffusion of new practices and behaviors, by integrating different perspectives, knowledge and experiences thus improving the innovation process itself, by eventually improving the public acceptance and lowering the potential public conflicts and by producing direct and indirect economic impacts. The chapter starts from the clarification of the differences between engagement and acceptance that, even if often considered as synonymous by decision-makers, are deeply diverse concepts, the former pertaining to the realm of active participation, while the second to the realm of passive reception. First, an exploration of the diverse dimensions of social acceptance (sociopolitical, community and market) and its main determinants is provided and a model of engagement process is described with specific attention to the most diffused strategies put in place to strengthen the process itself and to its results that may widely vary from a mere acceptance to a convinced support even to the reinforcement of the conflict and the zero option. Secondly, the focus moves to the institutionalization of the public engagement within the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework promoted by the European Commission with the aim of aligning the techno-scientific developments to the needs and the expectations of society and that formally recognizes the relevance of engaging the public in the innovation process. Finally, attention is paid to the direct and indirect that an effective public engagement activity may produce at the different levels of the economic system: at the micro-level of firms' R&D and market strategies, through strengthening their competitiveness; at the meso-level of local development processes through empowering the role of citizens in shaping and influencing the energy sector thanks to engaging tools such as deliberative polling and energy communities; at the macro-level of the national political economy through the promotion of co-production of services and public-private partnership.

In July 2016 the SheepToShip LIFE project was financed by the EU LIFE Programme Climate Action 2014-2020 with the aim to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the dairy sheep sector in Sardinia, an absolute leader on dairy sheep raising [4]. In particular, the main objective of the project is to reduce by 20% in 10 years GHG emissions (nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide) from the Sardinian dairy sheep supply chain. The immediate goals of the project are to encourage the environmental improvements of production systems in the sheep sector and to demonstrate the environmental, economic and social benefits deriving from eco-innovation in the dairy industry and sheep farming sector. Additionally, its actions promote the implementation of environmental policies and rural development, guided by the Life Cycle Thinking approach, and aimed at enhancing the environmental quality of local sheep's milk and cheese supply chains. Furthermore, one of the project scopes is to increase the level of knowledge and awareness of stakeholders and the general public regarding the environmental sustainability of products made from sheep's milk and their contribution to the mitigation of climate change. With this approach, the project expects to achieve the development of a common methodology for analysing the life-cycle of sheep's milk supply chains. This procedure will be used to determine the environmental impact of the sheep's milk business in Sardinia, including the environmental hotspots of the life-cycle of Sardinian Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) sheep's cheese, and will be tested in several cases study (sheep farms and sheep dairy businesses) through the introduction of low-input techniques compatible with maintaining quality standards of products.

Treball Final de Màster Universitari en Llengua Anglesa per al Comerç Internacional. Codi: SAR016. Curs: 2018/2019 Over the years, the sea has become the transport of the world. The arrival of the Globalization together with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution entailed a dramatic development of international seaborne trade, which nowadays, is regarded to be the main asset of the global economy. The increase in countries’ production, the modernization of vessels’ characteristics and capacity, and the introduction of containers were some of the main reasons that triggered that situation. During the 20th century, shipping companies evolved and developed a liner shipping service that offered scheduled shipments of containers with economical rates. The popularity of this service grew rapidly in line with the emergence of new types of containers that enabled the transport of a wider variety of goods, such as project cargo. Apart from raw materials, industries manufactured and exported assembled products of considerable dimensions and weights. These exceeded elements were labeled under the name of project cargo and required special handling specifications. Among the different types of project cargo, renewable energy components have gained importance during the last decades due to the awareness-raising movement towards clean energies. In this regard, leading countries in the sector, such as Spain are gearing their commercial interests towards developing potential markets, such as Tunisia. Based on this information, the current study is aimed at developing a resources improvement proposal for a Spanish shipping company specialized in project cargo and representing a regular line of containers, called Integral Shipping. The proposal exposed in the ongoing project has been called the HUB-100 Project and presents a possible one-year export operation involving the transport of 100 windmill components, particularly hubs, containerized through a regular line of containers. In essence, it is intended to provide an optimization of two already existing services in the company by proposing a combination of both, and thus, use the regular line of containers for exporting project cargo. Ultimately, through its possible implementation, it is expected to ensure a more competitive employment of the regular line of containers, currently only devoted to the export of packaged goods, and also, boost the complete project cargo service Integral Shipping already offers, and therefore, improve the company’s international status.