Download or read book Environmental Benchmarking for Local Authorities written by Agathe Bolli and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Handbook on Applying Environmental Benchmarking in Freight Transportation written by Laurence O'Rourke and published by Transportation Research Board. This book was released on 2012 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "NCFRP Report 21: Handbook on Applying Environmental Benchmarking in Freight Transportation identifies and evaluates approaches that can be used by public and private entities to estimate, monitor, and reduce freight emissions and impacts across the supply chain by examining how benchmarking can be used as a management tool in the freight and logistics industry to promote environmental performance. The handbook provides a step-by-step overview of the benchmarking process and describes a framework for applying this process to freight carriers, shippers, and freight hubs"--Foreword.
Download or read book Proceedings of the Management 2008 conference In Times of Global Change and Uncertainity written by Róbert ŠTEFKO and published by FON. This book was released on with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Toward Sustainable Communities written by Mark Roseland and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2012-07-01 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The single most useful resource out there on how to build and grow sustainable places The need to make our communities sustainable is more urgent than ever before. Toward Sustainable Communities remains the single most useful resource for creating vibrant, healthy, equitable, economically viable places. This comprehensive update of the classic text presents a leading-edge overview of sustainability in a new fully illustrated, full-color format. Compelling new case studies and expanded treatment of sustainability in rural as well as urban settings are complemented by contributions from a range of experts around the world, demonstrating how "community capital" can be leveraged to meet the needs of cities and towns for: Energy efficiency, waste reduction, and recycling Water, sewage, transportation, and housing Climate change and air quality Land use and urban planning. Fully supported by a complete suite of online resources and tools, Toward Sustainable Communities is packed with concrete, innovative solutions to a host of municipal challenges. Required reading for policymakers, educators, social enterprises, and engaged citizens, this "living book" will appeal to anyone concerned about community sustainability and a livable future. Mark Roseland is director of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development at Simon Fraser University and professor at SFU's School of Resource and Environmental Management. He lectures internationally, advises communities and governments on sustainable development policy and planning, and has been cited as one of British Columbia's "top fifty living public intellectuals."
Download or read book ENVIRONMENTAL BENCHMARKING FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES FROM written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Informed Cities written by Marko Joas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-30 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Informed Cities looks at the knowledge brokerage processes between cities and higher education institutions, and in particular evaluates governance mechanisms for monitoring local sustainability and the role of research within this. The first part of the book provides an analysis of tools for governing sustainable cities and develops a typology of existing tools. It then considers approaches to monitor local sustainability on a European level, focusing on a number of key tools such as the Covenant of Mayors, Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities, and Green Capital Award. The second part of the book introduces an explorative application of two tools that the author team have used in practice to monitor local sustainability, Urban Ecosystems Europe and Local Evaluation 21, presenting and evaluating European level data collected from local governments. The third part of the book looks deeper into a number of case studies discussing how a working and rewarding city-university connection can be created and nourished in an administrative and political setting. Finally, the last part of the book reflects on lessons learned from the application of the tools and accompanying research process and makes recommendations for further developing monitoring tools for urban sustainability on a European level. This book will be essential reading for professionals in urban and regional planning who are tasked with monitoring the effects of sustainability policies, as well as for graduate students in planning, environmental governance, sustainable development and related disciplines.
Download or read book Environmental Economics and Investment Assessment written by K. Aravossis and published by WIT Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current emphasis on sustainable development is a consequence of the general awareness of the need to solve numerous environmental problems resulting from our modern society. This book addresses the topic of Investment Assessment and Environmental Economics in an integrated way; in accordance with the principles of sustainability; considering social and environmental impacts of new investments. Bringing together papers from the First International Conference on Environmental Economics and Investment Assessment, papers encompass topic areas such as: Economy and the Environment; Investment Planning and Assessment; Environmental Economics and Entrepreneurship; Environmental Investment Planning; Sustainable Environmental Management; Environmental Impact Assessments and Investments; Environmental Performance Indicators; Environmental Management Systems; Legislation and Law Enforcement; Cost Benefits Analysis; Natural Resources Management; Social Issues and Environmental Policies; Risk Management in Environmental Investment; Location Optimization.
Download or read book International Environmental Management Benchmarks written by David M.W.N. Hitchens and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows what sustainable development means for the business community and presents best practice approaches in environmental management from Japan, the USA, Brazil and seven European countries. It stresses that international competitiveness depends on the effective use of innovative management tools and has to be supported by an intelligent system of environmental regulation. Experts with many years of practical experience share their knowledge of how to achieve excellency in environmental performance, and present concrete steps towards a sustainable company.
Download or read book Sustainability and Health written by Valerie A. Brown and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Radical changes in the biosphere and human interaction with the environment are increasingly impacting on the health of populations across the world. Diseases are crossing the species barrier, and spreading rapidly through globalised transport systems. From new patterns of cancer to the threat of global pandemics, it is imperative that public health practitioners acknowledge the interdependence between the sustainability of the environment and the sustainability of the human species * Why are issues of global and local sustainability of increasing impotance to the public's health? * Why do issues of sustainability require new practices within the professions of public health? * How can future and current public health practitioners develop those new practices? Drawing on scientific evidence of global and local environmental changes, Sustainability and Health offers a thorough background and practical solutions to the overlapping issues in environment and health. It examines potential and existing responses to global and local environment and health issues involving individuals, community, industry and government. The authors introduce a range of emerging conceptual frameworks and theoretical perspectives, link IT and epidemiology and explain how scoping can link program design, delivery, data collection and evaluation in projects from their very beginning. Public health practitioners need to be able to manage health issues that cut across environmental, economic and social systems and to develop the capacity for leadership in facilitating change. Incorporating learning activities, readings, international case studies and an open learning approach, this is a valuable resource for students of public and environmental health, as well as medical, environmental and health science professionals.
Download or read book Benchmarking Handbook written by B. Andersen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1995-12-31 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benchmarking is a powerful tool for improvement. It is one of the fastest-growing techniques for quality and performance improvement and attracts massive attention. Now, more than ever, there is a clear need for straightforward guidelines to help companies make the most of benchmarking. This book addresses that need.
Download or read book Process Benchmarking in the Water Industry written by Renato Parena and published by IWA Publishing. This book was released on 2002-03-01 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Free market mechanisms increasingly influence former monopoly sectors such as water and wastewater services with requirements for more transparency and efficiency. Small and large-scale consumers alike demand greater insight into how drinking water tariffs are structured and into the level of service. Public and private shareholders require guarantees on water supply at a reasonable price, with the requisite quality (both of service and product) and reliability together with careful eco-management. Developing sound policies requires information on key industry issues such as water resources, public health, water services, the environment and the cost of providing the level of the service demanded by customers and regulators. Similarly, informed decision-making on issues of ownership, industry structure, competition policy and effective regulation requires accurate analysis of performance across the industry throughout the world. In many sectors of industry Performance Indicators and Benchmarking exercises are widely used as suitable management tools for gaining and maintaining continuous improvement and competitive advantage. Addressing the need to promote best practice principles as part of the advocacy for the advancement of water and sanitation services is currently one of the major governance issues that IWA is challenged to tackle. The objective is to develop generally accepted procedures and methodologies able to provide decision makers with an overall perception of the utility performance as a sound basis for making strategic choices. This requires the definition of a reference framework for Performance Indicators and Benchmarking methodologies, as well as adequate models of aggregation that fit the basic needs of the key types of user. The Task Force on Performance Indicators (operating within the IWA Operation and Management Specialist Group) and the Task Force on Benchmarking (operating within the IWA Statistics and Economics Specialist Group) were set up with the remit to develop the definition of such a common language. The Task Force on Benchmarking carried out a survey among the countries represented inside the Statistics and Economics Specialist Group with the aim of designing a framework of the various national approaches to Benchmarking in terms of: The type, degree evolution and main adopted concepts of Benchmarking Development of the above concepts in focusing Benchmark objectives The survey indicated that, in the main, initiatives of Process Benchmarking are voluntary and non-systematic. It is evident that many water utilities are on what the European Foundation for Quality Management calls the "start-up" level in terms of Business excellence (or continuous improvement) and are keen to find best practices to compare with. The Task Force on Benchmarking moved to the second step, borrowing the European Commission's DG III recommendation that identify benchmarking as an important tool to improve competitiveness of small and medium sized enterprises in Europe according to the methodologies developed and applied in large corporations. With the objective of developing a generally accepted concept and a methodology with wide applicability, deeper analyses were then made of Process Benchmarking procedures adopted in the Nordic countries and in The Netherlands. As a result this Manual aims to present well-devised guidelines for establishing a management tool based on the use of Process Benchmarking methodologies that will allow future systematic and rigorous performance comparisons to be made within the water industry. Contents Main benchmarking experiences in a water context How far we are on benchmarking Benchmarking methodologies in the Netherlands and the Nordic countries One coherent philosophy for two different approaches Process Benchmarking approach Key numbers and definitions References Relations between process benchmarking and performance indicators Introduction letter and questionnaires
Download or read book Environmental Leadership written by Deborah Rigling Gallagher and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2012-09-06 with total page 1027 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the SAGE Reference Series on Leadership, this 2-volume set tackles issues relevant to leadership in the realm of the environment and sustainability. Volume 1 of Environmental Leadership: A Reference Handbook considers such topics as environmental thought leadership (environmental ethics, conservation, eco-feminism, collective action and the commons and what we have termed contrarians); political leadership (the environmental challenge context for the expression of political leadership); governmental leadership (government initiatives to provide leadership in environmental management); private sector leadership (private sector leadership in environmental management as individuals, through organizations or through specific initiatives); nonprofit leadership (nonprofit sector leadership in topical areas such as conservation, advocacy, philanthropy and economic development); signaling events (events and their impact on the exercise of environmental leadership through individual, political and organizational actions); grassroots activism (profiles of individual environmental activists and considerations of how environmental leadership is exercised through activism); environmental leadership in journalism, literature and the arts; and environmental leadership in education. In Volume 2 we cover topics that confront the particular intractable characteristics of environmental problem solving. Individual chapters focus on how environmental leadership actions or initiatives may be applied to address specific problems in context, offering both analyses and recommendations. Overarching themes in this volume include taking action in the face of uncertainty (mitigating climate change impacts, adapting to climate change, protecting coastal ecosystems, protecting wetlands and estuaries, preserving forest resources, protecting critical aquifers, preventing the spread of invasive species, and identifying and conserving vital global habitats); promoting international cooperation in the face of conflicting agendas (designing and implementing climate change policy, reconciling species protection and free trade, allocating scarce resources, designing sustainable fisheries, addressing global overpopulation, preventing trade in endangered species, conserving global biodiversity, and mitigating ocean debris and pollution); addressing conflicts between economic progress and environmental protection (preserving open space, redesigning cities, promoting ecotourism, redeveloping brownfields, designing transit-oriented development, confronting impacts of factory farming, preventing non-point source agricultural pollution, confronting agricultural water use, addressing the impacts of agrochemicals, designing sustainable food systems, and valuing ecosystem services); addressing complex management challenges (energy efficiency, solar energy, wind energy, hydrogen economy, alternative vehicles, solid waste disposal, hazardous waste disposal, electronic waste disposal, life cycle analysis, and waste to energy); and addressing disproportionate impacts on the poor and the weak (preventing export of developed world waste to developing countries, minimizing co-location of poverty and polluting industries, protecting the rights of indigenous peoples, preventing environmental disease, protecting children′s health, providing universal access to potable water, and protecting environmental refugees). The final three chapters examine next-generation environmental leaders.
Download or read book Benchmarking Library Information and Education Services written by David Baker and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2023-02-17 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benchmarking Library, Information and Education Services: New Strategic Choices in Challenging Times provides the foundations of ongoing research in the development of collections and services. The book contributes to practical outputs of general benefit to the sector, including customers, clients or stakeholders, offering ideas for how to identify comparative strengths and weaknesses and improve or enhance present practices regardless of how well institutions currently perform. The centerpiece of the book is a description, report and analysis of a major international QB exercise that culminates in a set of good practice statements. The benefits of the QB methodology are applicable to individual institutions. Because of the current global turbulence, individuals, leaders and whole institutions are keen to learn more about what is happening and how they can develop sustainable solutions to both immediate challenges and longer-term scenarios. These include an analysis of third sector organizations, e-libraries, marketing information services, vocational training in higher education, the creative arts, and the role of partnerships in organizational openness. - Discusses qualitative benchmarking and it's core tenets - Helps readers understand the experiences of others and compare their own experiences to learn and adapt practices - Presents tactics readers can use to identify their organization's professional identity, value and purpose - Provides an idea of what the future state of library, education and public services will look like
Download or read book Making Profits Protecting Our Planet written by and published by Asian Development Bank. This book was released on 2005 with total page 93 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book (i) identifies a range of market and social forces driving the private sector toward more responsible environmental stewardship; (ii) shows the need for governments, the private sector, and communities to adjust their relations; (iii) and argues for enhanced enforcement of environmental regulations by governments even as they reach out to the private sector for stronger collaboration in environmental protection.
Download or read book Audit and inspection of local authorities written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-07-07 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Local authority control of audit and performance provides opportunities to improve value for money and to focus more closely on local priorities. However, there are significant risks to accountability for public money unless new legal and practical arrangements are put in place to uphold the vital principle of auditor independence. Until now the Audit Commission has been the regulator, commissioner and major provider of local government audit services (undertaking 70% of the local government audit and commissioning the remaining 30% under contract from five private audit firms). Under the changes proposed, local government will in future appoint their own auditors. The Government plans to introduce a public audit bill in the autumn. The Committee argues this legislation must set out a number of key principles to govern public audit arrangements in the future: strict adherence to the principle of auditor independence; a majority of independent members on any local audit committee; additional safeguards to ensure the continued effectiveness of public interest reporting; a proportionate and risk based approach to the scope of local government audit - to permit local innovation and application, particularly with regards to local value for money work. The Committee also welcomes the LGA's proposals for sector-led performance management, but calls on the Government to clarify arrangements for intervention in the exceptional cases of serious corporate or service failure. It also repeats its call for the Government to examine the contribution which robust local government scrutiny arrangements could make to improving local government performance.
Download or read book Sustainability and Resilience Planning for Local Governments written by Haris Alibašić and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-06-19 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book details a process of creating a long-term sustainability and resilience plan for local governments to use in designing and implementing sustainability and resilience-related policies, initiatives, and programs. It offers guidance and methods in applying sustainability and resilience strategies to attain the prosperity of organizations and communities. The recommendations in this book are based on the author's years of experience in directing applied resilience and sustainability planning for a local government, and years of research covering diverse aspects of sustainability and resilience from climate change, climate preparedness and readiness, quadruple bottom line strategy, greenhouse gas emission reduction policies, climate adaptation and mitigation to sustainable energy policies and initiatives. Chapter one defines terms related to sustainability and resilience and addresses how the topics reshape local governments and communities. Chapter two maps out the sustainability and resilience process for organizations and communities, determining the appropriate steps to be taken at each level of sustainability and resilience planning. Chapter three identifies community and organizational level engagement, with internal and external stakeholders, including designs necessary throughout these processes. Chapter four contains measuring, tracking, monitoring and reporting methods using the quadruple bottom line strategy, and developing a sustainability and resilience progress report to ensure accountability, transparency, and good governance. Then, chapter five details the implementation of a sustainability and resilience plan once it is established, describing potential programs and initiatives to achieve sustainable and resilient communities. Chapter six describes the intersection between sustainability and resilience, and chapter seven examines the tools and resources available to create a practical sustainability and resilience plan. Chapter eight concludes the text by addressing the future of sustainability and resilience, and complexities of the modern dynamics of the interconnected systems in cities, counties, and organizations, and recommends how local government administrators in their planning methods and strategies must consider these challenges.
Download or read book Creating Sustainable Community Programs written by Mark R. Daniels and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2001-02-28 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public opinion polls consistently reveal the lack of confidence, disillusionment, and mistrust that citizens feel toward government. Daniels and his contributors believe that the relationship between citizens and their governments can be changed by facilitating greater citizen collaboration with government, particularly through local sustainable programs. As the case studies show, often sustainable community programs are created through grassroots movements that are initiated and managed by citizens themselves, bringing them in contact with their local elected and appointed officials. Unlike traditional programs that are administered by local officials on behalf of their citizens, once sustainable community programs are created, citizens administer their own programs in collaboration with local officials. The case studies look at a variety of sustainable programs, primarily in the United States, that help to deal with issues such as recycling, transportation, microcredit, site redevelopment, pollution, health care, and hunger. Creating Sustainable Community Programs is the first book on sustainable programs that is intended for an audience of public administration scholars, researchers, and students as well as practitioners who are searching for ways to change the relationship between citizens and their governments.
