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Ten Facts About Land Systems For Sustainability, Patrick Meyfroidt, Ariane De Bremond, Casey M. Ryan, Emma Archer, Richard Aspinall, Abha Chhabra, Gilberto Camara, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Esteve Corbera, Ruth Defries, Sandra Díaz, Jinwei Dong, Erle C. Ellis, Karl Heinz Erb, Janet A. Fisher, Rachael D. Garrett, Nancy E. Golubiewski, H. Ricardo Grau, J. Morgan Grove, Helmut Haberl, Andreas Heinimann, Patrick Hostert, Esteban G. Jobbágy, Suzi Kerr, Tobias Kuemmerle, Eric F. Lambin, Sandra Lavorel, Sharachandra Lele, Ole Mertz, Peter Messerli, Graciela Metternicht, Darla K. Munroe, Harini Nagendra

Geography

Land use is central to addressing sustainability issues, including biodiversity conservation, climate change, food security, poverty alleviation, and sustainable energy. In this paper, we synthesize knowledge accumulated in land system science, the integrated study of terrestrial social-ecological systems, into 10 hard truths that have strong, general, empirical support. These facts help to explain the challenges of achieving sustainability in land use and thus also point toward solutions. The 10 facts are as follows: 1) Meanings and values of land are socially constructed and contested; 2) land systems exhibit complex behaviors with abrupt, hard-to-predict changes; 3) irreversible changes and path dependence …

Sustainability Education At The University Of Montana, Zoe M. Transtrum

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Sustainability education has become increasingly important to prepare the next generation of professionals to address immense challenges such as climate change. Institutions of higher education play a critical role in developing student understanding and perceptions of sustainability through their curricula, specifically in the three pillars of sustainability: ecology, economy, and society. This research paper explores sustainability education at the University of Montana to answer the following questions: (1) To what extent do sustainability-focused and sustainability-inclusive courses at the University of Montana include themes or concepts from all three pillars of sustainability; (2) Do courses at UM impact student understanding, beliefs, …

Achieving Sustainability Through Reducing Risks During Architecture Design Process: A Lean Management Perspective, Sherouk Abdelrehim, Ayman Ahmed Ezzat Othman

Architectural Engineering

The construction industry, as one of the largest industries in the world, plays a critical role in achieving national and international social and economic sustainable development goals. Socially, it is concerned with delivering long-term projects that turn client and end-user requirements into designs that specify technical aspects, functional specific requirements, and standards of quality. Economically, the construction industry contributes to a country's gross domestic product (GDP) by creating jobs and providing the country's infrastructure. the construction industry's nature is more vulnerable than other industries. This is believed to be due to the complex and dynamic nature of construction projects, as …

Iere Annual Report 2022, Erin Largo-Wight, James W. Taylor, Kelly A. Rhoden

Annual Reports

2022 Annual Report of the Institute for Environmental Research and Education

Exploring The Integration Of Corporate Sustainability Into Small-Scale Business Activities, Olushola O. Odutola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small and medium-scale enterprises contribute 49% of the gross domestic product in Nigeria. The lack of research studies on how small and medium-scale enterprises integrate corporate sustainability into their business operations might present challenges for policymakers in achieving Nigeria’s sustainable development goals (SDG). The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore how managers of small and medium-scale enterprises integrate the corporate sustainability dimensions into their business operations based on the concepts of the corporate entity, corporate nature, and corporate obligations. The central research question of this study was how managers of small and medium-scale enterprises integrate the economic, …

The Diffusion Of A Discipline: Examining Social Marketing's Institutionalization Within Environmental Contexts, Liz Foote

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

As a social change discipline, social marketing has demonstrated its effectiveness in addressing many types of wicked problems. However, despite its utility in environmental contexts, it is neither well known nor widespread in its uptake in these settings. This study’s purpose is to reveal opportunities to drive the adoption, implementation, and diffusion (“institutionalization”) of social marketing within the domains of environmental sustainability and natural resource conservation. This research considers the use of social marketing as an innovative practice within a diffusion of innovations framework and uses a systems lens to examine early adopter social marketing professionals and the institutional contexts …

Growing Green Finland: A Short-Term Study Abroad Program With A Sociological Focus, Natasha Ann Cary-Waselk

Sociology and Anthropology

This paper is an example of theory-based practice in the field of international education through program and course design. Environmental sociology will be the focus of the class readings, discussions, and course work as well as on-ground programming. This topic ties specifically to the on-ground programming in Finland. Students will take the knowledge learned in the course surrounding sustainability, wellbeing practices, and sociology and learn more about these topics through immersion and community interaction. Through specific course design, students will not only learn about environmental sociology, but will have continuous learning experiences through course work, excursions, reflection, peer-to-peer learning, and …

Sustainability In The New England Ski Industry, Sydney E. Gendreau

Honors Theses and Capstones

The goal of this study is to explore the extent to which sustainable investments are worthwhile for the New England ski industry. Research has shown that the New England ski industry will be greatly impacted by the effects of climate change within the near future. Anthropogenic climate change over the next several decades will cause frequent low snow winters, increases in night time winter temperatures, and overall shorter winters. Detailed economic analysis has shown that low snow and warm winters result in roughly $54 million in lost revenue for the New Hampshire ski industry in the past (Burakowski, Magnusson, 2012). …

Farmers Markets And Single-Use Plastic: Why Environmentally Conscious Consumers Don’T Bring Reusable Bags, Scott Hardy, Jill Bartolotta

Journal of Extension

This study looks at the role of Extension in helping local officials reduce plastic bag use at farmers markets in three Lake County, OH communities. We distributed free reusable bags to shoppers and conducted an education and outreach program. We then took observations to determine if the free reusable bags were being used. We also invited shoppers to take a voluntary survey about their environmental attitudes, why or why not they use the reusable bags, and how best to reduce plastic bag use moving forward. Results from the study suggest that supplying free reusable bags at farmer markets is not …

Sustainable Development Among Four–Year Higher Education Institutions In The United States: A Geographic And Anthropological Perspective, Kori Nadine Armstrong

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the factors that contribute to the cultural characteristics of sustainability among higher education institutions (HEIs) in the United States to shed light on how they represent themselves as sustainable. It documents four-year HEIs in the United States that self-identify as sustainable; evaluates how these institutions portray themselves to society as sustainable; and documents who is leading sustainability on U.S. college campuses. This dissertation fills an important gap in the literature on sustainable development in higher education that Holm and others (2016) have identified. Although education for sustainable development (ESD) has been recognized as an important topic, and …

Carbon Footprint Assessment And Emissions Reduction Strategies For The University Of Texas At Arlington, Dravid Sabarish Villavan Kothai

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

In the past decade, many universities have started to ascertain their emissions and benchmark their progress towards sustainability and climate control. The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) is no exception in working toward the goal of carbon neutrality. While UTA continues to grow and transform, its goal is to simultaneously reduce energy intensity and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To this end, the Office of Sustainability is maintaining a carbon inventory for each year to track GHG emissions and provide information to guide reduction strategies. The primary objectives of this research were: 1. To update UTA’s greenhouse gas emissions inventory …

China's Food Pagodas: Looking Forward By Looking Back?, Yifei Li, Dale Jamieson

Journal of Food Law & Policy

In this Article we provide a close analysis of the Chinese Dietary Guidelines – the Food Pagoda. Our focus on the dietary guidelines is motivated by two main considerations. First, the guidelines represent the most comprehensive, nationwide, state sponsored effort to educate the people of China about food. Like citizens in most countries, Chinese people are presented with numerous, often competing, messages from scientists, food gurus and online influencers. The dietary guidelines are different in that they are backed by an entire suite of governmental resources for nationwide dissemination through hospitals, schools, public billboards, TV and radio ads, among others. …

Avocado Mania: The Rise And Costs Of Our Obsession With Avocados, Rosa C. Lourentzatos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The past two decades have seen a surge in global demand for avocados, which have become popular among middle- and high-income fractions of society in developed regions of the world. Avocados are predominantly consumed far from their centers of origin and out of their traditional cultural context. The United States imports 87 percent of its avocados from a single region in Mexico, Michoacán. The systems of production and provision that have risen to meet the demand for this fashionable fruit have had devastating social and environmental effects, including deforestation, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, pollution, displacement of indigenous populations, food insecurity, …

Connecting Communities To Coastal Resilience: Enhancing Sustainability Through Public Participation In Salt Marsh Management And Restoration In Suffolk County, Ny, Jennifer L. Mcgivern

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coastal resiliency is becoming significantly more critical to the livelihood of coastal communities as the frequency and intensity of storm events increases and is exacerbated by rising sea levels due to climate change. In October 2012 Superstorm Sandy impacted the New York-New Jersey area costing over $70 billion in storm damages and 147 lives lost, as storm surges surpassed record highs for the region. Protruding more than 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean with over 1,000 miles of shoreline, Long Island is particularly vulnerable to the increasingly ferocious and numerous storms as well as the rising sea levels that climate …

The Environmentalist Movement In The World And Environmental Studies In The Marketing Literature, Bilge Nur Öztürk

Journal of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in Emerging Markets

Problems such as environmental pollution, the depletion of the ozone layer, the melting of glaciers due to global warming, the decline in clean resources and the extinction of some species have prompted people to consider the idea of a more sustainable world. In this process, humanity is going through a mental transformation and gaining some awareness. As emphasized in this study, all crises (accidents, fi res, outbreaks, etc.) experienced worldwide have been the driving forces for environmental transformations. Environmentalist movements emerging from this orientation have also found their place in the world of science and therefore in the marketing literature. …

Doing More With Less: A Quantitative Analysis Of Mindfulness, Meditation, Sustainable Consumption Awareness And Practice Among University Undergraduates, Teresa Van Horn

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Climate change, overconsumption, air, and water pollution continue to be pressing issues for society. Given the significant impact of overconsumption, the search for strategies to promote more sustainable behavior has become a topic for investigation. Universities are uniquely positioned to help students work toward sustainable solutions. This research explored the role of mindfulness in university students' sustainable consumption awareness and practice as there are gaps in the literature concerning definitions, constructs, and research regarding mindfulness and sustainable consumption.

To address these disparities, this research used stepwise regression analysis to investigate the extent to which mindfulness and select demographic measures …

Decolonization And Transformation Of Higher Education For Sustainability: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge Into Policy, Teaching, Research, And Practice

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Changes In Allochronic Breeding Populations Of Pink Salmon (Oncorhynchus Gorbuscha) Of Prince William Sound, Alaska, Claire Dormody

Master's Theses

Prince William Sound, Alaska is home to one of the largest pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) fisheries in the world. Salmon populations there have been fished commercially for over a century, and the State’s documentation of commercial fishing provides a valuable dataset in order to examine abundance trends of species in this region. For this thesis research, I analyzed the fluctuations in abundance and isolated even year and odd year breeding populations of pink salmon to assess whether there is a numerical discrepancy between pink salmon that spawn in odd years and the population that spawns in even years. Analysis of …

Consumption Behavior Of Algerians During The Period Of The Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis, Kamel Chikhi

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This Dialogue contribution is a reflection on the impact of crises and in particular that of Covid-19 on the behavior of Algerian consumers: before, during and post-crisis. It is recognized that during crises, consumers adopt unusual and more rational behaviors: buy basic necessities; save more to deal with possible difficult situations; place more importance on nutrition, health, food quality characteristics, price, psychological and socio-demographic characteristics; have purchasing and consumption intentions based on their cultural background and prefer to adopt planned behaviors. Observed events during the Covid-19 pandemic allows us to illustrate the evolution of consumption behavior of Algerians and to …

Evaluation Of Existing Climate-Change Adaptation Plans For Municipalities In Mexico: Proposition Of A “Sustainable Mac-Water Framework” That Considers Vulnerability To Impacts On Water Resources, Tsanta Rakotoarisoa

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper presents a sustainable adaptive capacity framework for water management for municipalities, named Sustainable MAC-Water framework, after assessing the strengths and weaknesses of adaptive capacity in Mexico and its municipalities. It provides municipalities with an instrument to help them create sustainable adaptive capacity plans (Sustainable MAC plans) to prevent adverse impacts on water resources and related sectors. It is based on a study of policy instruments crafted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Government of Mexico, and literature on adaptive capacity, assessment, and planning. The Sustainable MAC-Water framework recommends the establishment of a Reactive Barriers …

The Analysis Of Japanese Consumers’ Purchasing Behaviour Towards Single-Use Plastic Packaging., Yui Setojima

Business ETD Collections

In recent years, the concept of sustainability has been put into the spotlight due to greater concern of environmental issues. Plastic pollution is one of serious sustainability issues which governments are rushing into making new regulations to deal with. The Japanese government is struggling to manage Japan’s heavy use of plastics and Japanese organizations are being asked to take positive actions towards reducing the use of plastic through media coverage and public pressure. However, plastic pollution requires huge efforts not only from governments but also organizations, whether large or small, and all individuals on Earth. This research aims to investigate …

How Covid-19 Has Accelerated The Shift Towards A More Sustainable Fashion Industry, Samantha Frances Casey

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sustainability in fast fashion is a pertinent issue as the fashion industry is one of the most environmentally damaging industries. Fashion retailers have started to integrate sustainability initiatives, but consumer preference is vital to making firms change their practices. As the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in 2020, worldwide lockdowns exposed the fragility of the consumer-driven fast-fashion business model. This thesis will examine how COVID-19 has and will continue to impact sustainability in the fashion industry. More specifically, this thesis will examine the implications of consumer sustainability preferences brought about by the pandemic. These implications accelerate the preexisting sustainability trends …

The True Cost Of Clothes: Sustainability Issues In The Fashion Industry, Grace Costa

Student Theses 2015-Present

Fashion is one of the most environmentally harmful industries on the planet. From greenhouse gas emissions to toxic chemicals in water supplies, the price that the planet, and vulnerable populations, must pay in the production of the clothing we wear each day is not cheap. This paper discusses the role that the fashion industry plays in environmental degradation today, as well as strategies that can be employed within the industry to make it more sustainable. Chapter 1 provides an overview of and through quantitative data on why and how the manufacturing and sale of clothing is environmentally harmful. Chapter 2 …

Population Structure Drives Cultural Diversity In Finite Populations: A Hypothesis For Localized Community Patterns On Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), Carl P. Lipo, Robert J. Dinapoli, Mark E. Madsen, Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Understanding how and why cultural diversity changes in human populations remains a central topic of debate in cultural evolutionary studies. Due to the effects of drift, small and isolated populations face evolutionary challenges in the retention of richness and diversity of cultural information. Such variation, however, can have significant fitness consequences, particularly when environmental conditions change unpredictably, such that knowledge about past environments may be key to long-term persistence. Factors that can shape the outcomes of drift within a population include the semantics of the traits as well as spatially structured social networks. Here, we use cultural transmission simulations to …

International Migration From The Latin American-Caribbean Region: Taking Environmental Indicators Into Consideration, Chelsea Wepy

Student Theses and Dissertations

International migration, the act of leaving one’s country to permanently settle in another country, is driven by many socio economic/political factors, such as lack of economic opportunity, access to education, governmental corruption, and violence. These factors have proven to be the reason that many citizens within the Latin American-Caribbean region either choose or are forced to relocate internationally. While these factors are important to consider independently; these issues are often exacerbated by changes in the natural environment. The objective of my paper is to highlight the importance of considering changes in the natural environment. In doing so, I hope to …

Toward A More Holistic Worldview: Environmental Values In Context, Erica Lynne Walters

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This study extensively examines the formation of pro-environmental behaviors as mediated by the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) Theory. Using this theoretical framework, qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with a small number of Butler University students (n=10). The findings of the data collection demonstrate the limitations of the VBN Theory when applied to pro-environmental behavior. Data analysis demonstrates the role that formative experiences, environmental education, and connectedness to nature can play as intervening influences in the linear translation posited by the VBN Theory. Moreover, the confluence of various values that emerged among research participants suggests the need for a more holistic value orientation …

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

The Role Of Culture In Sustainable Communities: The Case Of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), Pamela A. Mischen, Carl P. Lipo

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

We explore how the combination of cultural heritage and present-day cultural affili- ations influences the construction of the concept of sustainability at the scale of the community using the case study of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile). We argue that overlapping affiliations—expressed through administrative culture, organizational culture, and professional culture—influence the views held by governance leaders. Furthermore, the role of cultural heritage must be considered in efforts to change and perpetuate sustainability-related behaviors within a community. Using archeo- logical and historical evidence from the pre-contact and historical record of Rapa Nui, we discuss how cultural heritage evolved endogenously in response …

Sustainability Newsletter: Vol. 5 Issue 4, Jennifer Mclaughlin

SD State Sustainability Newsletter

Content:

• Don't Dump! Donate!
• Spruce Up SDSU Day
• Sustainability Institute Coming in May
• Sustainability Tidbits

The Economic And Environmental Effects Of Recycling Plastic In South Carolina, Sophia Gouhin

Senior Theses

The state of South Carolina generated 4,809,041 tons of municipal solid waste during the fiscal year of 2019 (July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019). During this same period, the state maintained an average municipal solid waste recycling rate of 28.2% (Toomey, 2019b). This thesis gives an in-depth look in to the economic and environmental effects of recycling, specifically plastic, in South Carolina. I have researched and analyzed the process, capabilities, and impact of recycling plastic in South Carolina. This includes all seven types of plastic as classified by their chemical makeup. In addition, I surveyed South Carolina residents to …