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There has been a growing interest by both academics and policymakers at the local and regional scales in the development of a green economy both to promote economic development and to achieve environmental policy aims. Despite this, there is little evidence about whether either the economic or the environmental aims are being met, nor how local and regional authorities are promoting and developing green economies in their localities. In order to address these issues, this paper explores the development of the offshore wind industry in North West Germany, drawing upon sustainability transitions research and the path creation literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basic science literature strongly supports a role of oxidative stress in colorectal cancer (CRC) etiology, but in epidemiologic studies, associations of most individual exposures with CRC have been weak or inconsistent. However, recent epidemiologic evidence suggests that the collective effects of these exposures on oxidative balance and CRC risk may be substantial. Using food frequency and lifestyle questionnaire data from the prospective Iowa Women's Health Study (1986-2012), we investigated associations of 11-component dietary and 4-component lifestyle oxidative balance scores (OBS) with incident CRC using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression. Of the 33,736 cancer-free women aged 55-69 years at baseline, 1,632 developed CRC during follow-up. Among participants in the highest relative to the lowest dietary and lifestyle OBS quintiles (higher anti-oxidant relative to pro-oxidant exposures), the adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) were, respectively, 0.77 (0.63, 0.94) (Ptrend=0.02) and 0.61 (0.52, 0.71) (Ptrend<0.0001). Among those in the highest relative to the lowest joint lifestyle/dietary OBS quintile, the HR was 0.45 (95% CI 0.26, 0.77). Our findings suggest that a predominance of antioxidant over pro-oxidant dietary and lifestyle exposures—separately and especially jointly—may be inversely associated with CRC risk among older women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon an increasing academic and business interest in greening the industrial supply chains, this paper establishes the need for a state-of-the-art decision support system (DSS) for carbon emissions accounting and management, mainly across the product supply chains by identifying methodological shortcomings in existing tools, and proposing a supply chain (SC) framework which provide businesses with a holistic understanding of their supply chains and ensuring partners within supply chain collaborative networks have a shared understanding of their emissions. It describes the design and development of a DSS now known as supply chain environmental analysis tool (SCEnAT) in detail, putting its unique and innovative features into a comparative perspective vis-à-vis existing tools and software of different types. The methodological framework used to design and develop SCEnAT integrates different individual techniques/methods of supply chain (SC) mapping, SC carbon accounting, SC interventions and SC interventions evaluation on a range of key performance indicators (KPIs). These individual methods have been used and applied innovatively to the challenge of designing SCEnAT within the desired framework. Finally, we demonstrate the application of SCEnAT, especially the advantage of using a robust carbon accounting methodology, to a SC case study. The SCEnAT framework pushes the theoretical boundary by addressing the problems of intra-organisational approach in decision making for lowering carbon along the supply chain; with an open innovation, cutting edge, hybridised framework that considers the supply chain as a whole in co-decision making for lowering carbon along the supply chain with the most robust methodology of hybrid life cycle analysis (LCA) that considers direct and indirect emissions and interventional performance evaluation for low carbon technology investment and business case building in order to adapt and mitigate climate change problems. This research has implications for future sustainability research in SC, decisions science, management theory, practice and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including environmental impacts of human economic activities, regional environmental governance, and identification of ways by policy-makers to protect environment along with economic development.

Globally, many politicians and business leaders are discussing the best way to transition towards a green or low carbon economy. For many countries, this involves a reliance on clean tech, but green entrepreneurs, or ecopreneurs, are implicated as actors taking forward this transition. The following case studies discuss the emergence of rhetoric around green economies and green entrepreneurs before considering a couple of real examples of entrepreneurs running green businesses. The cases will conclude with some questions for thinking about whom green entrepreneurs are, what types of businesses green entrepreneurs might run, and how more businesses can be encouraged to operate with green-orientated philosophies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT This article is focused upon exploring the development of the green economy in particular locations, with the aim of identifying why some cities and regions have been successful in engendering green growth. To date we have little idea where the green economy is developing, nor much insight, beyond anecdotal evidence, into why certain cities and regions appear to be more successful than others in this regard. We position our analysis within the context of research on socio-technical transitions that has theorized the potential shift to a more sustainable economy. We review the literature on sustainability transitions and the development of the multi-level perspective encompassing niches, regimes and landscapes. However, most research into socio-technical transitions has not given adequate consideration to the influence of places and spatial scale in these transition processes, and we therefore critique the socio-technical transitions literature from a geographical perspective. In this article we are interested in four key questions. What role does the enabling and facilitative state play in these cities and regions? What new institutional forms and governance structures are being developed? How do actors in particular cities and regions construct their green vision, and how do they encourage other actors to buy-in to this vision? How are links across levels and spatial scales developed to connect niches with the regime? We address these through a focus upon the Boston city-region in the USA, drawing upon both primary and secondary research material. We utilize this case study example to re-examine and re-theorize work on sustainability transitions from a spatial perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Making the transition to a green economy is a major policy driver in the UK and other countries. Entrepreneurs are suggested as being at the forefront of this transition and as a driving force for sustainability. These “green entrepreneurs” may represent a new type of entrepreneurial behaviour combining economic, environmental and social aims. In this paper, we present empirical work conducted with green entrepreneurs in the UK green building sector. Buildings have significant impacts on the environment, both in terms of materials and post-construction energy demands. Drawing on sustainability transitions theory, we examine the role of green entrepreneurs in affecting change and suggest that green building niches are less consensual than previously theorised. In theorising green entrepreneurs, we also point to the need to consider them within wider networks of activity rather than as lone actors and the implications this has for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a broad term encompassing 3D printing and several other varieties of material processing, which involve computer-directed layer-by-layer synthesis of materials. As the popularity of AM increases, so to do expectations of the medical therapies this process may offer. Clinical requirements and limitations of current treatment strategies in bone grafting, spinal arthrodesis, osteochondral injury and treatment of periprosthetic joint infection are discussed. The various approaches to AM are described, and the current state of clinical translation of AM across these orthopedic clinical scenarios is assessed. Finally, we attempt to distinguish between what AM may offer orthopedic surgery from the hype of what has been promised by AM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schedule 11 of the Environment Act 1995 underpins the requirement for consultation on air quality issues. The ongoing air quality review and assessment process represents one of the largest locally based science policy and communication initiatives ever undertaken in the UK. This paper outlines the practice of consultation and communication for Air Quality Management (AQM) and reviews the interaction between Environmental Health professionals, as the leading actor in the AQM process and other stakeholders involved in air quality consultation, including the public. Results are presented from a widespread questionnaire survey of English local authorities. Data indicate that the majority of air quality consultation has been carried out with statutory consultees (by sending the review and assessment reports) and the public (via websites and leaflets) in the form of information dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deutz P. and Gibbs D. Industrial ecology and regional development: eco-industrial development as cluster policy, Regional Studies. Aspects of industrial ecology fit closely with work in regional development investigating clustering, networking, and local economic development. However, there has been limited cross-fertilization between these bodies of literature. This paper uses an empirical focus on eco-industrial developments in the USA to postulate that industrial ecology can be viewed as a distinct cluster concept and to consider the implications of this for both industrial ecology and regional development policies. [image omitted] Deutz P. et Gibbs D. L'ecologie industrielle et l'amenagement du territoire: le developpement industriel ecologique comme politique d'agglomeration, Regional Studies. Des aspects de l'ecologie industrielle sont en correlation etroite avec des recherches dans le domaine de l'amenagement du territoire qui examinent l'agglomeration, la connexion et le developpement local economique. Cependant, il y a eu peu de synergie entre ces faisceaux de documentation. Cet article porte de facon empirique sur les developpements industriels ecologiques aux E-U afin de postuler que l'on peut envisager l'ecologie industrielle comme une notion indeniable d'agglomeration et en considerer les retombees a la fois pour l'ecologie industrielle et les politiques d'amenagement du territoire. Ecologie industrielle Parcs industriels ecologiques Symbiose industrielle Agglomerations regionales Connexion Deutz P. und Gibbs D. Industrieokologie und Regionalentwicklung: oko-industrielle Entwicklung als Cluster-Politik, Regional Studies. Die Aspekte der Industrieokologie sind eng mit der Arbeit der Regionalentwicklung verzahnt, was die Untersuchung von Clusterbildungen, Netzwerken und lokaler Wirtschaftsentwicklung anbelangt. Die gegenseitige Befruchtung zwischen diesen Literaturkorpern fiel jedoch bisher eher begrenzt aus. In diesem Beitrag wird anhand eines empirischen Fokus auf den okoindustriellen Entwicklungen in den USA postuliert, dass sich die Industrieokologie als eigenstandiges Cluster-Konzept betrachten lasst, und es werden die Auswirkungen auf die Politiken fur Industrieokologie und Regionalentwicklung untersucht. Industrieokologie Oko-Industrieparks Industriesymbiose Regionalentwicklung Cluster Netzwerke Deutz P. y Gibbs D. Ecologia industrial y desarrollo regional: desarrollo ecoindustrial como politica de aglomeracion, Regional Studies. Los aspectos de la ecologia industrial estan estrechamente vinculados al trabajo en el desarrollo regional que estudia la aglomeracion, las redes y el desarrollo economico local. Sin embargo, la mutua hibridacion entre estos organismos de literatura ha estado limitada. En este articulo usamos un enfoque empirico sobre los desarrollos ecoindustriales en los EE.UU. para postular que la ecologia industrial puede considerarse un concepto distintivo de aglomeraciones y para considerar que efectos tiene esto en la ecologia industrial y las politicas de desarrollo industrial. Ecologia industrial Parques ecoindustriales Simbiosis industrial Desarrollo regional Aglomeraciones Redes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Krueger R. and Gibbs D. 'Third wave' sustainability? Smart growth and regional development in the USA, Regional Studies. Increasingly concepts of sustainable development are finding their way into local and regional development strategies. This is also true in the USA, though not through the Local Agenda 21 process, as is the case in much of the rest of the world. The approach to 'sustainable development' in the USA is a set of policy approaches collectively referred to as 'smart growth'... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on investigating the role that sustainability entrepreneurship may have in engendering a shift in the practices and operations of contemporary capitalism. Sustainability entrepreneurs are increasingly seen as being in the vanguard of a shift to a new form of capitalist development that can help to address fears over global warming, climate change and their associated negative environmental impacts. Such developments can be set within a wider popular and academic discourse of ecological modernisation, at the heart of which is a relatively optimistic view of the potential for technological change to lead to solutions for environmental problems. This paper focuses on a subset of sustainable entrepreneurs termed 'ecopreneurs' who seek to combine business practice with sustainable development and so transform their business sectors. The paper suggests that work on sustainable entrepreneurship could be substantially improved by an engagement with the literature on transition management in science and technology studies and makes some suggestions as to how such a research agenda could be advanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There exists a clear imperative across the EU and within the UK towards the enhanced integration of community knowledge in environmental and health decision-making processes. The underlying social force that underpins this dynamic is the drive for a more accountable, transparent and publicly acceptable decision-making arena. However, relatively little research has been undertaken on the evaluation of local air quality management consultation in particular. In this context, the paper presents an evaluation of evidence resulting from questionnaire survey and case study research undertaken in the first round of the statutory process of local air quality management (LAQM), in which local authorities are required to consult on their air quality findings and intentions. We suggest that local authority perceptions of the relative abilities of differing stakeholders' grasp of air quality science, the process that translates that science into policy, and the institutional and organizational status of stakeholders (i.e. whether they are statutory or non-statutory stakeholders) may tend to transitively determine the choice of consultation methods used, the communication strategies chosen and the relative integration of stakeholder feedback into the LAQM decision-making process. In order to interrogate this potentially problematic chain of risk communication events, a preliminary conceptual model has been developed to enable the interrogation of the pathways through, and the obstacles to, the translation of air quality knowledge. The task is to unveil the sequential chains of association that comprise the LAQM risk communication process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although the "new" economic geography has explored links between the subdiscipline's traditional areas of study and cultural, institutional, and political realms, environmental issues remain comparatively underresearched within the subdiscipline. This article contends not only that the environment is of key importance to economic geography, but also that economic geographers can make an important contribution to environmental debates, through providing not just a better analysis and theoretical understanding, but also better policy proscription. Rather than claim new intellectual territory, the intention is to suggest potential creative opportunities for linking economic geography's strengths with those insights from other theoretical perspectives. In particular, this article focuses upon linking insights from ecological modernization theory, developed by environmental sociologists, with regulationist approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, concepts such as sustainable development and ecological modernization have entered into local and regional economic policies and strategies. However, integrating environmental and economic aims has proved difficult, despite arguments that sustainability enables 'win-win-win' solutions. Eco-industrial development is a recent policy initiative that attempts to integrate economic, social and environmental aims in a concrete form. Derived from concepts of industrial ecology, eco-industrial developments seek to increase business competitiveness, reduce waste and pollution, create jobs, and improve working conditions. While these initiatives are said to offer a new basis for local and regional development, there has been little critical evaluation of eco-industrial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the way that US foreign policy élites have used pretexts to manage public opinion. Policymakers, it is argued, often seize upon threatening external events, and use these events to create a favorable political climate in which to "sell" policies of militarization and external expansion to the public. The article argues that the Bush administration has used the threat of terrorism as a pretext to implement a wide range of policies that had been decided upon in advance of the 9/11 attacks. It also argues that the recent uses of pretexts by the Bush administration have strong historical precedents: extended case studies of pretexts are presented for the events surrounding the Korea crisis of 1950 and the Afghanistan crisis of 1979-1980, as well as the more recent War on Terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of environmental governance within Europe is increasingly considered to be multilevel - involving actors and institutions at local, national and international levels, and from public, private and civil society spheres. One interesting feature of the development of multilevel governance is the emergence of transnational municipal networks (TMNs). This article examines why and how TMNs have emerged in the arena of European environmental governance, and the ways in which they can be conceptualised. Some specific examples of TMNs concerned with urban sustainable development are examined in order to explore the structure and capacity of networks, the development of new forms of governance within such networks, and the nature of co-operation and competition between governments and networks. From these preliminary analyses, three key themes relating to the role of such networks in environmental governance emerge: the impact of networks on policy making; their influence in multilevel governance; and issues of representation and legitimacy. In the final section, issues for future research are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Examines the interactions and conflicts between economic development and the environment. Adoption of sustainable development as a guiding principle for global, national and local economies; Conceptualization of the relationship between economy and the environment; Observation of the nature of ecological modernization, corporate environmentalism and approaches series from political economy.

Two substantive bodies of research have developed in recent years, both of which have a focus upon local and regional scales. First, there has been the development of work on changing forms of local and regional governance. This has drawn on a range of theoretical perspectives, including notions of institutional capacity, urban regime theory and neo-regulationalist accounts. Second, a body of research has developed into environmental policy and sustainable development, but this has largely been normative and undertheorized. While these two bodies of literature have developed separately, we believe there is merit in bringing the insights from each together. A focus on local environmental policy helps to broaden our understanding of local governance and problems of after-Fordist regulation. Such a project also helps to illuminate problems in implementing policy on the environment and sustainability. The examination of changing local and regional forms of governance allows us to identify new state spaces, which may provide opportunities for the strategic insertion of environmental objectives into economic development policies. This paper seeks to theorize such environment-economy relations and emerging multi-scalar forms of environmental governance, drawing upon case study research work in six UK local authority areas. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on the role of sustainable development in environmental policy-making issues, focusing on integrating economic development and environmental protection on North-West England. Concept of sustainable development; Information on the environment in North-West England; Businesses responses to environmental pressures; Details on policy making issues.

Examines the potential role of local authorities in integrating economic development and the environment, using survey evidence from urban local authorities in England and Wales. Internal organization of local authorities; Economic development policy and initiatives; Limits to local authority actions.

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Local authorities are increasingly faced with demands and pressures to become much more responsive to environmental issues. International agreements and national legislation all put an emphasis on the local level as the most appropriate scale for action and on local authorities as the most appropriate bodies to take such action. One area of local authority competence where environmental issues have made a limited impact to date is in economic development. Yet the concept of sustainable development which forms the basis of national and European legislation and policy necessitates the integration of economic development with the environment. In this paper the main features of European policy with regard to the environment are outlined and the implications for European funding of local authority economic development strategies are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]