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This study uses material flow analysis to estimate the material stocks and flows and associated upfront embodied carbon emissions for gravity building structural systems in the United States. Seven scenarios that align with the shared-socioeconomic pathways are conceptualized and used to estimate floor space and structural material demands through 2100. These scenarios consider aggressive, moderate, and low adoption rates of timber-based structural materials. Under all scenarios, total floor space is projected to increase to a maximum upper-bound of 202% (162,187 m2) between 2020 and 2100. The results indicate that the associated increase demand for structural materials cannot be met solely by urban mining of decommissioned buildings. Assuming present-day carbon emissions intensities of structural materials, the average upfront embodied carbon intensity for gravity superstructures in the building stock decreases from 49 kg CO2e/m2 in 2020 to 29 kg CO2e/m2 in 2100 under the scenario with aggressive adoption of timber-based systems.

Digital tools help facilitate the implementation of sustainability practices in the built environment in the era of rapid urban developments. However, the extant literature revealed salient gaps in the use of cloud-based systems and digital tools to evaluate buildings' sustainability performance. Consequently, the current study aims to develop and implement a cloud-based sustainability assessment (CSA) system to evaluate and compare the sustainability performance of buildings based on the Building Sustainability Assessment Method (BSAM) scheme green rating system. A design science research (DSR) approach was adopted in designing, developing, and validating the CSA system. The developed CSA system is based on the SaaS model of cloud computing. The methods evaluation validation of the CSA system when compared with other systems revealed that the developed CSA system would result in higher time and learning efficiency for the users. The findings from the case study validation of the CSA system, using four building projects, indicate that the developed artefact offers a better secured, automated, reliable, and value-adding tool for the building sustainability assessment process. It also eases the automated process of updating data, evaluating, and comparing building projects towards improving the overall building sustainability profile. More so, the CSA system has a great potential to assist stakeholders in their buildings’ sustainability decision-making process and enhancing sustainable development.

Urbanization often entails a surge in urban temperature compared to the rural surroundings: the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Such a temperature increase triggers the formation of pollutants worsening the urban air quality. Jointly, bad air quality and UHI affect ecosystems and human health. To alleviate the impacts on the population and the environment, it is crucial to design effective UHI‐mitigation measures. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an assessment tool able to capture the complexity of urban settlements and quantify their impact. Yet, as currently implemented, LCA neglects the interactions between the built environment and the local climate, omitting the resulting impacts. This study reviews the existing literature, showing the lack of studies that organically include interactions between the built environment and local climate in LCA. This forms the basis to identify the unsuitability of the current LCA framework for comprehensively capturing the impact of urban settlements. To overcome this limitation, this research offers a pathway to expand the LCA methodology, indicating the necessity to (a) couple the LCA methodology with climate models or physical relations that quantify the interactions between the local climate and the built environment; (b) include novel impact categories in LCA to address such interactions; and (c) use existing or ad hoc developed characterization factors to assess the impacts related to the UHI effect. The LCA community can build on the frame of reference offered by this research to overcome the current limitations of LCA and enable its use for a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of UHI and its mitigation measures.

The British Standards Institute has recently published the world’s first standard on the circular economy. The standard is intentionally broad and inclusive to suit all types of organisations and products. However, when it comes to complex products such as buildings – with large numbers of stakeholders, long lifespans and high uncertainties about future scenarios and formed of multiple products interacting both temporally and geographically – there is a question as to whether the inclusiveness and breadth of BS 8001:2017 are best suited to promoting real change. This briefing presents a review and a critique of BS 8001 from the perspective of buildings. The paper demonstrates that the standard collates much of the existing information on the circular economy in a commendably comprehensive document. Although it offers a useful resource for the novice, within the context of buildings, the standard does not deal with their complexity. It therefore falls short of identifying effective approaches to reducing the environmental impacts and waste streams caused by buildings and thus misses the opportunity to accelerate the transition to a ‘circular’ built environment. The final section offers some additional documents and resources that could be helpful to those wishing to adopt circular economy principles within the built environment.

All stages of life are important for any human being and each one of these can be as complex as health problems that affect physical and emotional over time, one of the more difficult circumstances that can occur are terminal or chronic diseases, when there is no cure and you have to live with the diagnosis and associated symptoms most of the time. In Colombia there is a very large gap in front of this problem, that’s where the need lies for both who is diagnosed and their family in relation to resources such as time, cost of living, expenses associated with the disease and in many cases the willingness to take care of them. It is here where the idea of providing medical support in an ethical and professional way, the care and accompaniment according to each case, adjusted to the needs of each patient, with the aim of maintaining and / or improving the quality of life of valuable people within the family nucleus, as well as to accompany them in the difficult process of deterioration of their bodies until the end of their days and that finally it is as less painful as possible for both parties. Todas las etapas de la vida son importantes para cualquier ser humano y son cada vez más complejas a medida que se van presentando problemas de salud afectando la integridad física y emocional con el paso del tiempo, una de las circunstancias más difíciles que se puede presentar son las enfermedades terminales o crónicas, cuando no existe cura alguna y se tiene que convivir con el diagnóstico y los síntomas asociados la mayoría del tiempo. En Colombia existe una brecha muy grande frente a esta problemática, donde se encuentra la necesidad tanto para el paciente, como para su familia desde el punto de vista de los recursos tales como el tiempo, el costo de vida, los gastos asociados a la enfermedad y en muchas ocasiones la disposición de cuidarlos. Es aquí donde nace la idea de brindar de una manera ética y profesional el apoyo médico, el cuidado y acompañamiento según sea cada caso, ajustado a la necesidad de cada paciente, con el objetivo de mantener y/o mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas dentro del núcleo familiar, así como de acompañarlos en el difícil proceso de deterioro de sus cuerpos hasta el fin de sus días, logrando ser lo menos doloroso posible para ambas partes.

In this article, we call for greater recognition of friendship as a basic social relation that should play a pivotal role in re-imagining social resilience if it is to be future-proof in the face of social upheaval, such as the current pandemic. Drawing on existing research and early scoping of emergent information about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we suggest that friendship is an important component of heterogenic social realities. The specific focus of our discussion is twofold. Firstly, attention is paid to the narrow lens of social policy that privileges particular familial set-ups and living arrangements, and in doing so marginalises groups which are already disenfranchised; secondly, we consider the dangers of nationalism and Eurocentrism as they relate to these issues. We suggest that thinking in terms of friendship can open up new avenues of academic and political imagination, offering strategies with greater potential for building socially resilient communities.

Ocean plastic pollution has been identified as one of the biggest environmental threats of our time. As large islands of plastic waste such as the Pacific Gyre amass through the forces of intercontinental currents (Law et al., 2010), remote beaches in the pathway of these currents become repositories for discarded ocean plastic (Barnes and Milner, 2005), with only a small percentage of the total amount being usefully repurposed by locals. This paper details the scope of developing a prototype model for gathering plastic waste from the shoreline and remanufacturing it into filament for 3D-printing, using single screw extrusion. Through a small pilot study centred around visiting beach locations with a group of school-age children to collect ocean plastic and subsequent participation in a 3D-printing workshop, this paper describes a methodology for developing public engagement programmes that focus on a model of environmental and social sustainability. It examines how field research, based on participant observation, is utilized to evaluate the feasibility of conducting workshops with school-age children to use 3D-printing in an environmentally beneficial way. Through actively engaging children in the remanufacturing process, this prototype model could be used widely in affected localities to create awareness and develop alternative strategies for dealing with the increasing proliferation of environmentally hazardous ocean plastic, in turn leading to improved social capital across global communities.

We analyse the comparative investigation into truncation vs. aggregation errors of process-based and hybrid LCA by Yang et al. 2017. We analyse the validity of their findings when the hypothetical five-sector economy is altered to account for realistic technological and sectoral interdependencies. We show that in such cases the truncation error of process-based LCA outweighs the aggregation error of hybrid LCA. To this end, we compare the dominant eigenvalue of our alternative economy with that of real economies, showing good agreement. The same validity check does not hold for the system used by Yang and colleagues. Additionally, we demonstrate that even simple process systems can have higher dominant eigenvalues, provided they are based on realistic data.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is becoming increasingly mainstream as an early-stage design-decision tool for buildings. Still, there are considerable variations in how the method is currently used, leading to limitations in comparing the results and the conclusions that can be drawn. These variations are due to several factors and LCA modellers must make multiple methodological decisions during an assessment. This has resulted, unsurprisingly, in a variety of approaches, and a wide range of outcomes. Academics have produced numerous case studies on particular buildings, aiming towards a detailed understanding of the energy and carbon impacts. However, very few case studies are detailed enough to allow for an in-depth comparison. This article investigates in detail these embodied carbon assessments, considering the data used and the methodological assumptions made. An in-depth analysis shows that there are still considerable variations in how the methodology is applied, leading to substantial limitations in comparing results and drawing conclusions. Results may differ by two orders of magnitude, thus limiting the understanding of how real mitigation might best be achieved. Without immediate action, embodied carbon will become a ‘second wave’ of performance gap in environmental assessments of buildings. Both greater transparency and greater conformity must be embraced by the LCA community and enforced by policymakers and professional bodies.

Residential buildings consume a vast amount of energy throughout their whole-life cycles with the subsequent greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted in the atmosphere. This phenomenon will only be exacerbated by projected trends in excessive urbanisation and global population. It is therefore imperative to investigate and quantiatively evaluate the environmental impacts of housing in different regions and contexts in order to enable better and more informed decisions. This is even more urgent in cases where the possibility for urban development is limited or severely constrained. Palestine represents one such areas of the world, and this research focuses on a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of contemporary and traditional housing typologies in the region. Primary data has been collected to provide a reliable basis for the LCA, which has been carried out according to the existing international standards. In addition to energy demand and GHG emissions, additional environmental impact categories have been further evaluated to provide a more holistic sustainability analysis. Results – strengthened by an uncertainty analysis – show that environmental impacts, energy use, and global warming potential for contemporary houses are for the most much higher than those for traditional houses. This is mainly due to the high impact of concrete and steel, but further exacerbated by the low impact of limestone as a suitable building material for the region. The results presented in this article signpost an important starting point in investigating the real mitigation potential of specific materials (e.g., limestone and lime mortar) when employed at scale in specific regions of the world. Our findings can also contribute to developmental policies for the region, with an aim of reducing the anthropogenic pressure on the natural environment.

The adoption of the United Nations (UN) Charter in 1945 marked the legalization of international human rights. Despite the legalized status of human rights, their violation by states is not uncommon. This article questions why a state might violate international human rights. Analyzing this issue from an economic perspective, this article advances regulatory arbitrage theory to rationalize a state’s violation of human rights. It discusses regulatory arbitrage-type behaviors among state actors that derogate from the obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights. Defending state sovereignty, minimizing regulatory or compliance costs, and prioritizing economic achievement are identified as rational arbitrage actions that circumvent international human rights. We call for competent and credible governance mechanisms that can increase the cost of arbitrage, to disincentivize state violation of international human rights.

Passive solar systems are often designed primarily with efficiency in mind, and research efforts are concentrated towards gaining an increase in performance. However, due to the multiple materials used, their manufacturing processes, a lifespan that is usually shorter than that of buildings that these systems are applied to and the waste generated when they have reached the end of their useful life, a more holistic approach to the design and performance of these systems should be adopted. This paper reports on the environmental impact of a unique integrated collector–storage solar water heater design, experimentally tested under Scottish weather conditions, considering circular economy and reuse potential. As such, the material flows and components used are mapped against the life-cycle stages of existing European standards while ensuring an optimal efficiency. End-of-life considerations and design for disassembly and reuse are assessed and discussed. Energy payback times of 4·5 and 4·6 years can be realised for a circular and a linear approach, respectively. Operational carbon dioxide savings, which far outstrip the embodied carbon dioxide, demonstrate carbon dioxide payback times of just 7 months, when replacing an electric system. The results show that a holistic design, which promotes circular economy principles, does not compromise efficiency and economic viability.

Background Motoring is an emancipation. It is both an individual freedom and a collective freedom with car ownership at 30, 491, 000 vehicles by 2019 in Great Britain. Yet, as the evidence of the impacts of road transport accumulates and the health and environmental aims of sustainable travel become clearer, demand for an ethical analysis also intensifies. Purpose The paper draws on a previous limited ethics-based literature on road transport. Key tenet of liberalism, of ‘freedom from’ as well as ‘freedom to’, are highlighted. This includes Edmund Burke's concept of ‘equality of restraint’ in meeting common needs. Freedom from fear of road traffic danger forms part of an individual's rights. Findings Equality of rights and freedom from fear in road use have not been key considerations for reducing risks to vulnerable road users. Indeed, ethical issues have largely been ignored. The emergence of Vision Zero within the road safety field with its focus on zero deaths and serious injuries has brought an ethics-based approach to the mainstream although it appears to be struggling to gain traction in neo-liberal societies. Conclusions The Covid-19 pandemic has led to UK governments promoting the use of walking and cycling. These modes have hitherto been left to fend for themselves in an environment where road safety has been measured by casualty reduction while fear has suppressed walking and cycling with the consequence losses to physical and mental health. We ask whether an ethics-based contribution, and lessons from Covid-19, can help re-set the direction of UK road safety policy and practice.

The use of stock options and credit default swaps (CDS) in banks is not uncommon. Stock options can induce risk-taking incentives, while CDS can be used to hedge against credit risk. Building on the existing literature on executive compensation and risk management, our study contributes novel empirical support for the role of stock options in restraining the use of CDS for hedging purposes. Based on data of CEO stock options and CDS held by 60 European banks during the period 2006–2011, we find a negative relationship between option-induced risk-taking incentives (vega) and the proportion of CDS held for hedging. However, the extent of CDS held for hedging is found to be positively related to default risk in the period leading to the financial crisis that erupted in 2007. The findings imply that restraining the use of stock options can incentivize hedging with CDS, but this risk management strategy will not necessarily produce lower default risk in times of systemic credit crisis.

This study examines whether and how CEO equity incentives relate to financing choices (i.e., debt and leases). Using manually collected CEO compensation and lease data for a sample of large UK firms, we found evidence of a negative relationship between CEO equity incentives and firm leverage. We also found that CEO equity incentives and leases are negatively related. The results are consistent with the theory introduced in this study on the substitutability of executive compensation and firm’s debt/lease financing. Our findings represent fresh empirical evidence and renewed interpretation regarding the relationship between executive equity-based incentives and firm’s financing choices. The substitutability theory we introduced here suggests that firms with greater use of debt and/or leases will implement less equity-based compensation in mitigating the agency cost of equity.

This study explores to what extent the Islamic financing instruments are used by non-financial firms and whether profitability influences such financing choice. Based on a panel data of firms from fourteen developing countries for the 2005-2009 period, we find that Islamic financing contributes a significant share of the firms’ capital structures. Less profitable firms are found more likely to use debt than equity in which case Islamic instruments were preferred over conventional debt. The finding suggests that Islamic financing does benefit less profitable firms, which is consistent with the agency cost perspective.

The built environment puts major pressure on the natural environment; its role in transitioning to a circular economy (CE) is therefore fundamental. However, current CE research tends to focus either on the macro-scale, such as eco-parks, or the micro-scale, such as manufactured products, with the risk of ignoring the additional impacts and potentials at the meso-scale of individual buildings. This article sets out to unpack the fundamental defining dimensions of a CE and frame them for CE studies for the built environment. A critical literature review forms the basis for identifying and framing such fundamental dimensions. Our contribution highlights the key roles of interdisciplinary research and of both bottom-up and top-down initiatives in facilitating the transition to ‘circular buildings’. The frame for reference has been used to capture current discourse on the sustainability of the built environment and has proved to be a valuable tool to cluster existing initiatives and highlight missing links for interdisciplinary endeavours. The article represents a contribution to the theoretical foundations of CE research in the built environment and a stepping stone to shape future research initiatives.

Of all industrial sectors, the built environment puts the most pressure on the natural environment, and in spite of significant efforts the International Energy Agency suggests that buildings-related emissions are on track to double by 2050. Whilst operational energy efficiency continues to receive significant attention by researchers, a less well-researched area is the assessment of embodied carbon in the built environment in order to understand where the greatest opportunities for its mitigation and reduction lie. This article approaches the body of academic knowledge on strategies to tackle embodied carbon (EC) and uses a systematic review of the available evidence to answer the following research question: how should we mitigate and reduce EC in the built environment? 102 journal articles have been reviewed systematically in the fields of embodied carbon mitigation and reduction, and life cycle assessment. In total, 17 mitigation strategies have been identified from within the existing literature which have been discussed through a meta-analysis on available data. Results reveal that no single mitigation strategy alone seems able to tackle the problem; rather, a pluralistic approach is necessary. The use of materials with lower EC, better design, an increased reuse of EC-intensive materials, and stronger policy drivers all emerged as key elements for a quicker transition to a low carbon built environment. The meta-analysis on 77 LCAs also shows an extremely incomplete and short-sighted approach to life cycle studies. Most studies only assess the manufacturing stages, often completely overlooking impacts occurring during the occupancy stage and at the end of life of the building. The LCA research community have the responsibility to address such shortcomings and work towards more complete and meaningful assessments.

Islamic financing instruments can be categorised into profit and loss/risk sharing and non-participatory instruments. Although profit and loss sharing instruments such as musharakah are widely accepted as the ideal form of Islamic financing, prior studies suggest that alternative instruments such as murabahah are preferred by Islamic banks. Nevertheless, prior studies did not explore factors that influence the use of Islamic financing among non-financial firms. Our study fills this gap and contributes new knowledge in several ways. First, we find no evidence of widespread use of Islamic financing instruments across non-financial firms. This is because the instruments are mostly used by less profitable firms with higher leverage (i.e., risky firms). Second, we find that profit and loss sharing instruments are hardly used, whilst the use of murabahah is dominant. Consistent with the prediction of moral-hazard-risk avoidance theory, further analysis suggests that users with a lower asset base (to serve as collateral) are associated with murabahah financing. Third, we present a critical discourse on the contentious nature of murabahah as practised. The economic significance and ethical issues associated with murabahah as practised should trigger serious efforts to steer Islamic corporate financing towards risk-sharing more than the controversial rent-seeking practice.

This study investigates the relationship between the use of stock options and bank risk in the context of the 2007–2008 financial crisis for banks that are authorised to accept deposits in the United Kingdom. These banks are affected by the European regulation on variable pay, but, to our knowledge, their usage of stock options has not been examined in previous studies. Paying bankers with stock options can generate two types of managerial incentives, namely, incentives to improve performance and incentives to take risk. Controlling for incentives to improve performance, we find that banks’ total risk and insolvency risk increase with the risk-taking incentives induced by stock options. We also find that this relationship is more pronounced surrounding the crisis period. The findings of this study can serve as institutionally relevant empirical support for the European regulation on variable pay.

Na atualidade que protagonizamos as questões ambientais envolvendo a proteção ao meio ambiente estão sendo debatidas pela sociedade de forma multi, inter e transdisciplinar. Os debates e discussões científicas apontam para a necessidade de se repensar a utilização do meio de uma forma sustentável. A condição do Brasil como país detentor da maior diversidade biológica do mundo impõe a essa nação um compromisso maior com a preservação e proteção da biodiversidade. Neste sentido, este trabalho tem como objetivo demonstrar quais são as possibilidades de promovermos a proteção da biodiversidade, a partir do entrelaçamento entre o Direito, a Bioética e a Educação Ambiental. A proposta investigativa, está baseada em pesquisa bibliográfica, promovendo uma reflexão em torno da interdisciplinaridade do tema, utilizando-se do método lógico-dedutivo. A legislação ambiental brasileitra é uma das mais completas de todo o mundo, porém sua efetividade e a eficácia da aplicabilidade de suas normas ainda carecem de aperfeiçoamento. O presente trabalho demonstrou que por meio do Direito e da Bioética seria possível exercer a proteção do patrimônio genético do país. Isso porque, além dos diplomas legais que visaram conferir essa proteção, dois eventos internacionais que foram a Conferência da Diversidade Biológica e o Protocolo de Nagoya serviram como marcos de tutela para a preservação do patrimônio genético e do conhecimento tradicional associado. Ainda se observou que uma educação ambiental crítica é capaz de emancipar o sujeito e fazer com que ele exerça uma conduta ética para a formação de uma sociedade ambientalmente sustentável e socialmente justa. At present we experience environmental issues involving environmental protection are being debated by society of multi form, inter- and transdisciplinary. The debates and scientific discussions point to the need to rethink the use of the environment in a sustainable manner. The condition of Brazil as holder of the greatest biological diversity in the world requires that nation a greater commitment to the preservation and protection of biodiversity. Thus, this paper aims to demonstrate what are the chances we promote the protection of biodiversity, from the interweaving of law, bioethics and environmental education. The investigative proposal is based on bibliographical research, promoting a reflection on the theme of interdisciplinarity, using the logical-deductive method. Brazilian environmental legislation is one of the most complete of the world, but its effectiveness and the effectiveness of the application of its standards still need improvement. This study demonstrated that through the Law and Bioethics would be possible to exercise the protection of the genetic heritage of the country. That's because, in addition to legislation that aimed to confer this protection, two international events that were the Conference Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol served as supervisory frameworks for the preservation of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. Although it was observed that a critical environmental education is able to emancipate the subject and make him exercise ethical conduct for the formation of an environmentally sustainable and socially just society.

The crisis we are going through has revealed serious systemic inconsistencies and risks. Insistently from different perspectives, a change in the economic model isrequested, in its values and functioning principles. An urgent need to introduce,among others, new dimensions: ethics, social responsibility, sustainability and a wellunderstood long term approach, is demanded. Social Economy and Cooperativism have been proposing for a long time a different business model which stimulates asustainable, more balanced and fair development, based on social and environmental values. La crisis que estamos viviendo ha puesto de manifiesto las graves inconsistencias y riesgos del sistema. Insistentemente se oyen voces pidiendo un cambio en el modelo económico, en sus valores y principios de funcionamiento. Reclaman la necesidad urgente de introducir, entre otras, una dimensión ética, de responsabilidad social, de sostenibilidad y largo placismo bien entendido. La Economía Social y el Cooperativismo llevan tiempo proponiendo un modelo diferente de empresa que impulsa undesarrollo sostenible, más equilibrado y justo, basado en valores sociales y medioambientales.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the impact of transformational leadership and ethical leadership on innovation. Drawing on social learning and social information processing theory, this research focusses on team level processes. This study considers direct effects as well as indirect and moderated indirect effects through team engagement and team developmental climate.DESIGN: This study follows a positivist research paradigm and a survey method, using questionnaires containing items on all variables of interest. The sample consists of 325 employees of an Irish energy company. Data were analysed in SPSS23 and AMOS25, using a range of statistical tests, whereby hierarchical linear regression is used to test the hypothesised relationships.FINDINGS: The results show that both leadership concepts are directly and indirectly related to team innovation through team engagement and through team developmental climate. Team developmental climate further moderates the relationship between both leadership constructs and innovation through team engagement. Similarly, team engagement moderates the relationship between both leadership concepts and innovation through team developmental climate. When controlling for the respective other leadership variable however, the effect of ethical leadership became statistically non-significant and therefore redundant in the presence of transformational leadership.ORIGINALITY: This study extends the literature in several ways. First, it explores the relationship between ethical leadership and innovation as an outcome which is neglected in the literature. Second, it expands the knowledge on the relationship between transformational and ethical leadership and innovation by investigating the role of team developmental climate and team engagement, and looks at the team processes involved by conceptualising the relationship at the team level. Finally, in investigating two leadership constructs, this study contributes to current debates around the need for diverging positive forms of leadership.IMPLICATIONS: This study has clear practical implications for leaders and HR professionals. It points towards the importance of transformational and ethical leadership for innovation, and discusses how HR and leaders can create an environment that strengthens the impact of these forms of leadership on innovation.