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Fossil Fuel Asset Risk Analysis: Clark University Endowment, Travis A. Dodge, B. Maiwand Akbari

Student Works

The environmental and social risks of climate change are well known and perhaps inevitable. The economic and financial risks are less so. The many financial risks associated with climate change embedded in endowment portfolio fossil fuel holdings are leading many institutional stakeholders to enter into dialogue and take action. Divestment is emerging as an effective strategy for limiting portfolio exposure and tackling climate change itself.

Our team’s goals were to assess whether the Clark University endowment portfolio faces any of these risks and evaluate the impacts on asset values. Our findings show that the Clark endowment does face these same …

Leviathan Inc. And Corporate Environmental Engagement, Po-Hsuan Hsu, Hao Liang, Pedro Matos

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In a special report in 2010, The Economist called the resurgence of state-owned mega-enterprises, especially those in emerging economies, “Leviathan Inc.”, and warned about the dangers of the state capitalism model. Traditionally, state-owned firms have been criticized for poor governance and questionable efficiency. In fact, they may be better positioned to deal with market failures and externalities. Our findings based on publicly-listed firms in 45 countries suggest that government-controlled companies engage more in environmental issues, and this engagement does not come at a cost to shareholder value. The effect is more pronounced among firms in emerging market economies and in …

Shareholder Advocacy In Corporate Elections: Case Studies In Proxy Voting Websites For Retail Investors, Robin Miller

Sustainability and Social Justice

One of the key rights shareholders retain is the right to vote on issues affecting the companies in which they invest. This voting right is seen as one of the primary means of exercising diligent corporate governance (Cole 2003, Fairfax 2009). Only 28 percent of individual investors vote in corporate elections compared with 91 percent of institutional investors. Informed voting decisions at corporate elections can be very information intensive, and theories of rational apathy and the free rider problem may explain a lack of participation from individual investors.

Many shareholders cannot attend annual corporate meetings, so they …

Sustainable Architecture Design: Environmental And Economic Benefits, Michael Babcock

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis examines the movement of environmentalism, and its impact on architecture and construction. During an interview with a professional architect, a basis for research of sustainable design was devised, when he explained that “good” architecture attempts to holistically integrate the external and built environment. Presently, the main measurement for sustainability is energy efficiency. Therefore, architects constantly implement new technology in an attempt to unify both the external and built environment in an energy efficient manner. Furthermore, this thesis provides an environmental and financial cost analysis of implementing sustainable design and build. Research shows that the life cycle and up-front …

Food Waste At Retail, Erin G. Killeen Davis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food waste at retail represents forgone sales and embodies store management and disposal costs. Fresh produce is the largest contributing sector to food waste at retail and bulky, seasonal products are an added challenge when stores experience a high waste event. In order to improve, retailers need to better understand the costs of food waste, as well as how management strategies can impact these costs.

Using pumpkins as an example of bulky, seasonal products, a twofold research project was conducted to better understand contributors to, and costs of food waste at the retail level. In part one, using data from …

Research Of The Sustainability Of U.S. Public Debt And The Influence For Chinese Economy And Finance, Zikun Xu

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

In the summer of 2010, the U.S. debt ceiling dispute attracted the attention of the world, and financial markets were shocked when Standard & Poor's finally cut the United States AAA rating. But with the increase of the debt ceiling as well as the European sovereign debt crisis intensified, the U.S. national debt problem was temporarily covered up. It must be noted, however, that the U.S. national debt has ballooned to the highest level since World War II, the ratio of national debt to GDP has reached to nearly 100%, coupled with the long-term U.S. fiscal deficit and the continuing …

Development Of A Sustainable Water Resource Financing Mathematical Model For Donors And End-Users, Sahar Zavareh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Rural villages and underdeveloped communities represent the largest group challenged by poor water supply and sanitation with inequalities in resources to adequately implement potential solutions and even more with their high risk level of financing, funding is particularly challenging for water projects. Innovative financing alone will not eliminate the burdens of rural villages and underdeveloped communities. The purpose of this thesis is to address the lack of sustainable water financing of water projects in rural areas using a novel framework of a mathematical model based on "system dynamics" using optimal feedback control theory to maximize the performance of a water …

The Myth Of Endless Accumulation: A Feminist Inquiry Into Globalization, Growth, And Social Change, Martha Freymann Miser

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This theoretical dissertation examines the concept of growth and its core assumption—that the continual accumulation of wealth is both socially wise and ecologically sustainable. The study challenges and offers alternatives to the myth of endless accumulation, suggesting new directions for leadership and social change. The central question posed in this inquiry: Can we craft a more ethical form of capitalism? To answer this question, the study examines conventional and critical globalization studies; feminist scholarship on standpoint, political economy, and power; and the Enlightenment notions of progress and modernism, drawing on a number of works, including Aristotle on the three intelligences, …

A Cost Benefit Analysis Of Utilizing Solar Panels On Bates Nut Farm, Brandon Walter Ness

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.

Frameworks For Systemic And Structural Analysis Of Financial Innovations In Infrastructure, Ali Mostafavi, Dulcy M. Abraham

Infrastructure System-of-Systems (I-SoS ) Research Group

Financial innovations have emerged globally to close the gap between the rising global demand for infrastructures and the availability of financing sources offered by traditional financing mechanisms such as fuel taxation, tax-exempt bonds, and federal and state funds. The key to sustainable innovative financing mechanisms is effective policymaking. This paper discusses the theoretical framework of a research study whose objective is to structurally and systemically assess financial innovations in global infrastructures. The research aims to create analysis frameworks, taxonomies and constructs, and simulation models pertaining to the dynamics of the innovation process to be used in policy analysis. Structural assessment …

Special Edition Of Journal Of Business Ethics, Marilynn P. Fleckenstein Ph.D., Patrick Flanagan, Victoria Shoaf Ph.D., Patricia Werhane Ph.D.

Patrick Flanagan

DePaul University hosted the 14th Annual International Conference Promoting Business Ethics, at The Standard Club in Chicago, November 1–3, 2007. Academic and business leaders came together to explore the important ethical issues facing the business community in the twenty-first century. The articles in this special volume of The Journal of Business Ethics have been selected from the many presentations at this conference. Sponsored annually by the Vincentian Universities in the United States (DePaul University, in Chicago, Illinois; Niagara University in Niagara Falls, NY; and St. John’s University in Queens, NY) this conference promotes the mission of St. Vincent DePaul, the …

Special Edition Of Journal Of Business Ethics, Patrick Flanagan, Marilynn P. Fleckenstein Ph.D., Victoria Shoaf Ph.D., Patricia Werhane Ph.D.

Patrick Flanagan

The articles in this special volume of Journal of Business Ethics have been selected from the many presentations at this conference and represent a cross section of the topics and issues covered at the Vincentian Business Ethics Conference at the Manhattan campus of St. John's University in the fall of 2009. Sponsored annually by the Vincentian universities in the United States (DePaul University, in Chicago, Illinois; Niagara University in Niagara Falls, NY; and St. John’s University in Queens, NY), this conference promotes the mission of St. Vincent DePaul, the seventeenth-century Roman Catholic saint who serves as the patron of these …