Sustainability An Interdisciplinary Endeavor

Outlining a robust strategy for sustainable city-regions that has emerged from over two-and-a-half decades of theoretical and practical work, ‘The City as Fulcrum of Global Sustainability’ cuts through the received wisdom and popular misunderstanding surrounding sustainability to demonstrate how global problems can best be addressed at the local-regional scale. Featuring an array of case studies – focusing on both strong and weak examples of sustainable cities – the text delivers a bold message to the urban planners of tomorrow: only the road less traveled holds real promise of creating sustainable city-regions, with this journey requiring the balanced guidance of ecological and technological conviviality.

This collection of essays is based on presentations given at the 4th conference in an annual endowed series held at Duquesne University, USA. It addresses emerging concerns and pivotal problems about our planet’s environment and ecology. The contributions gathered here highlight the inter-relation of topics and expertise regarding science and philosophy, ethics, religion, global issues, and generational perspectives. The book concludes with an ethical analysis of the multiple and over-lapping challenges that require urgent attention and long-term resolution. It will appeal to scholars and students in a variety of disciplines and fields that deal with the earth’s survival and flourishing.

This volume contains the papers presented at CP 2009: The 15th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming. It was held from September 20–24, 2009 at the Rectory of the New University of Lisbon, Portugal. Everyone involved with the conference thanks our sponsors for their support. There were 128 submissions to the research track, of which 53 were accepted for a rate of 41.4%. Each submission was reviewed by three reviewers, with a small number of additional reviews obtained in exceptional cases. Each review waseitherbyaProgrammeCommitteemember,orbyacolleagueinvitedtohelp by a committee member thanks to their particular expertise. Papers submitted as long papers were accepted at full length or not at all. It is important to note that papers submitted as short papers were held to the same high standards of qualityas long papers. There is thus no distinction in these proceedings between long and short papers, except of course the number of pages they occupy. As it happens, the acceptancerates of short and long papers wereverysimilar indeed. Therewere13submissionstotheapplicationtrack,ofwhich8wereaccepted, fora rateof61.5%.Papersunderwentthe samereviewprocessasregularpapers, and there was not a separate committee for reviewing application track papers. However, papers in the application track were not required to be original or novel research, but to be original and novel as an application of constraints.

This book explores sustainability and social responsibility from the point of view of accountability reporting systems. The contributions to this volume open up discussions about the theory and application of sustainability and social responsibility across various corporate sectors and assists the reader in applying sustainable corporate social responsibility reporting across those sectors. As a central theme, the book addresses how the theory and application in sustainability and social responsibility has different dimensions and aspects which are impossible to apply across different sectors. This point of view is supported by chapter contributions from countries around the world including Turkey, Serbia, Malaysia, United States, South Africa, Italy, China, Brasil, Romania, Serbia, Puerta Rico, Algeria. Academics worldwide will discover in Sustainability and Social Responsibility of Accountability Reporting Systems: A Global Approach the latest developments about corporate social responsibility and sustainability of accountability reporting systems.

This book provides a platform for discussing the challenges that organizations face in order to implement sustainability, ethics, and effective corporate governance, all of which are important elements of “standing out” from other companies. Examining the background of the New European Consensus on development with the new guiding motto ‘Our World, Our Dignity, Our Future’, the authors explore how this new legislation on sustainability issues around the world is forcing companies to deal directly with sustainability issues. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), adopted by the United Nations in September 2015, is the international community’s response to global challenges and trends in connection with sustainable development. With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at its core, the 2030 Agenda is a transformative political framework designed to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development globally. It balances the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, including the key issues of governance and peaceful and inclusive societies, and recognizes the essential interlinkages between its goals and targets, i.e., that they must be implemented as a whole and not selectively. The respective chapters in this volume raise a number of questions regarding companies’ ability to implement sustainability, ethics, and effective corporate governance. Simultaneously, they explore how organizations must adapt to sustainability-related developments.

There are thousands of environmental analyses prepared each year to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and similar programs. Written by an expert with 35 years of experience in environmental consulting, research, and education, Environmental Impact Analysis: Process and Methods makes the preparation of EIAs not only easier but more thorough. It provides a guide to successfully preparing analyses that are legally defensible; establish the base for environmental protection; and produce better projects, plans, and policies. Following an informal description of the legal requirements, the book breaks down the analysis process into a logical flow of steps and available methods to identify impacts, compare alternatives, and develop impact mitigation measures. The author illustrates each step and analysis method with examples from case studies he managed, providing insight not available from an independent review of the cases. He offers a comprehensive and consistent approach to analysis with each chapter building on information presented in previous sections. The book also describes methods from other programs such as hazardous waste clean-up and Natural Resources Damage Assessment and explains how they can be adapted for use in environmental impact analysis. It compares a diverse array of multi-level environmental impact analysis approaches. Readers learn not only how to produce an environmental document that meets regulations but also clearly maximizes the benefits of the analysis and results in a more useful product with strong stakeholder support.

This volume highlights emerging concerns and pivotal problems about our planet’s environment and ecology. The contributions gathered here highlight the importance of integrating expertise to foster strands of sustainability regarding artificial intelligence, education, health, biomedical engineering, and generational challenges. The book concludes with an ethical analysis of the multiple and over-lapping challenges that require urgent attention and long-term resolution. It will appeal to scholars and students in a variety of disciplines and fields that deal with sustainability.

This volume addresses emerging concerns and pivotal problems about our planet’s environment and ecology. The contributions gathered here highlight the inter-relation of topics and expertise regarding a vision for a healthy planet, agriculture and food, health and the environment, global issues, and generational perspectives. The book concludes with an ethical analysis of the multiple and over-lapping challenges that require urgent attention and long-term resolution. It will appeal to scholars and students in a variety of disciplines and fields that deal with the earth’s survival and flourishing.