Architecture Commons^™

Discovering Landscape Urbanism Within Resilient Landscape:Searching From Natural Setting To Structured Ground, Ayasha Siddiqua

NAKHARA (Journal of Environmental Design and Planning)

Settlements in urban and rural areas treat landscapes differently. In urban areas within the structured layouts, the landscape is likely to be dominated by human activities; settlements in natural settingsrequire a more sensitive approach to landscapes. But in both cases landscapes are strong, driving forces to guide settlement design. This can range from details to larger arenas, direction of future requirements, adjustments to future growth, coping with probable diffi culties and providing alternate solutions. Landscape urbanism has inherited some issues and concepts derived from resilient landscapes. To search for urbanism within a resilient landscape this paper examines two distinct examples …

Analysis Of The Emergence And Decline Of Waterfront Markets In The Nakhonchaisri Basin: Based On Spatial Configuration, Tapanee Rattanathavorn, Pornchai Jittiwasurat

NAKHARA (Journal of Environmental Design and Planning)

This article has as its objective to explain the emergence and decline of waterfront markets in the Nakornchaisri basin, Nakornpathom Province, Thailand, with a focus on spatial confi gurationcharacteristics and spatial centrality using spatial confi guration analysis and principles. The analysis incorporates the theories of natural movement, movement economy process, and spatial centrality. The space syntax program was used in the analysis to produce a spatial model map representing transportation route networks of the past and the present for comparison to determine how and why the changes occurred. The study results reveal that waterfront markets experienced three major periods of …

Lao Immigrant Cultural Adaptation In Southwestern Louisiana's Urban Landscapes, Phanat Xanamane

NAKHARA (Journal of Environmental Design and Planning)

In their 30-year history in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, Lao immigrants have continually reasserted their identity through various social, economic, and cultural modes connected to a set of embedded relationsor ecologies. A unique set of adapted spatial typologies that reinforced Lao village culture and social networks on multiple scales emerge from the translation of the ecologies. Mappings, diagrams, and photomontages help reveal these settlement patterns and adaptations of space and building types. The paper offers a framework for how contemporary cultural groups can be studied through the lens of architectural and urban design theory. It shows how social groups like immigrants …

Bs News January/February

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Floristic Composition, Diversity And Structure Of The Kimboza Forest In Morogoro Region, Tanzania, David S. Kacholi

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Kimboza forest reserve in Morogoro region, is an important biodiversity hotspot among the Eastern Arc forests of Tanzania. High population pressure and encroachment threatens its conservation values. This is based on a study which aimed at investigating the composition, diversity, and structure of the tree community in the forest. All trees with DBH ≥ 10cm were inventoried from 0.72ha in a total of 18 plots of 20m × 20m placed randomly from the forest edge to the interior. Most important families and species were determined using familial importance value (FIV) and species importance value (IVI) indices, respectively. Diversity was analyzed …

Project Burg, 2010, San José State University, Danielle Siembieda-Gribben

SWITCH

“PROJECT BURG,” installed at San José State University, anthropomorphizes a building by connecting energy systems such as cold water and electricity with human systems like the respiratory system. The installation invites viewers to understand their building’s needs and rethink how we care for our built environments.

Bs News November/December

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Capital Cost Comparisons Between Low Impact Development (Lid) And Conventional Stormwater Management Systems In Florida, Daniel C. Penniman, Mark Hostetler, Tatiana Borisova, Glenn Acomb

Suburban Sustainability

Low impact development (LID), an ecologically sensitive development strategy and stormwater management (SWM) method, is beginning to be implemented in more suburban and metropolitan projects. However, construction firms that work in Florida have been relatively slow to adopt LID. One significant reason being that many professionals in the development community believe LID practices raise the cost of construction compared to conventional, “pipe and pond” methods. Our objective for this study was to determine how specific capital costs differed between LID and conventional SWM methods. We surveyed a group of LID-experienced design professionals to collect cost data from projects that were …

An Analysis Of Safety Culture & Safety Training: Comparing The Impact Of Union, Non-Union, And Right To Work Construction Venues, Harry Miller Csp, Tara Hill, Kris Mason, John S. Gaal Edd

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

The construction industry is one of the most dangerous sectors of the US economy. As such, the safety attitudes and climate within small (residential) contracting firms may play a role in providing a safe culture and working environment. The intent of this practitioner-based research study is to compare and determine if there is a difference in safety practices—based on documented field inspections and their related original number of violations observed by OSHA—between union residential carpentry contractors in the St. Louis area and:

1) non-union residential carpentry contractors in the St. Louis area;

2) non-union residential carpentry contractors across Missouri; and …

The Paradox Of Multi-Stakeholder Collaborations: Insights From Sustainable Silicon Valley’S Regional Co2 Emissions Reduction Program, Peter Melhus, Bruce Paton

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

Significant progress toward sustainability will require effective collaboration among governments, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and citizens. But research on multi-stakeholder collaborative efforts as tools for achieving environmental results has identified an apparent paradox. Collaborative efforts can be extremely effective in enlisting participation of diverse participants, heightening awareness of critical problems, and catalyzing actions in the absence of clear public policy requirements; however, they may not be effective at achieving specific quantitative objectives. This paper illustrates this paradox, based on the experiences of the “Sustainable Silicon Valley” (SSV) project in the San Francisco (California) Bay Area. SSV is a multi-stakeholder collaboration among …

The Localism Movement: Shared And Emergent Values, Nancy B. Kurland, Sara Jane Mccaffrey, Douglas H. Hill

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

Localism, a movement to encourage consumers and businesses to purchase from locally owned, independent businesses rather than national corporations, has grown rapidly in the past decade. With several national, federated organizations and popular “buy local” campaigns, the localism movement has the potential to affect buying patterns, marketing, and distribution in American business. Yet localism remains understudied by researchers. This article, based on data from 38 interviews with localism leaders, identifies four of the movement’s priorities: independent ownership, local buying, local sourcing, and pragmatic partnering. In addition, we analyze the movement’s emerging values, including responsibility to workers and to the natural …

The Role Of The Environmental Manager In Advancing Environmental Sustainability And Social Responsibility In The Organization, Lisa Greenwood, Joseph Rosenbeck, Jason Scott

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

A changing business climate has led many organizations to embrace environmental sustainability and social responsibility; however, organizational roles and responsibilities in sustainability initiatives have not been clearly defined. This paper specifically examines the role of environmental managers in advancing environmental sustainability and social responsibility. It is part of a broader study to identify the extent to which various departments or functional units within an organization are prepared to play a role in these initiatives based on a survey of various professionals in relation to activities and action items derived from the ISO 26000 standard on social responsibility. As expected, the …

The Importance Of Human Resource Management In Strategic Sustainability: An Art And Science Perspective, Harold Schroeder

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

Strategic sustainability is associated with significant business benefits as well as positive environmental impacts, yet many organizations fail to recognize the potential of this approach, and neglect the factors necessary for its successful implementation. This article recommends an art and science based approach to strategic sustainability and discusses the important role of Human Resource professionals in contributing to the success of this approach. A number of key areas of responsibility for the HR department in relation to strategic sustainability are discussed and the importance of a more proactive approach on the part of HR professionals is noted.

Rolling Out Corporate Sustainability Accounting: A Set Of Challenges, Dimitar Zvezdov

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

The benefits of improving corporate environmental and social performance have been addressed by an increasing number of companies in the past two decades. However, not all companies have been interested in the topic since it first came up. Thus, companies’ attempts to quantify sustainability performance typically start with a qualitative understanding of the impacts of the environment and society on corporate economic performance and vice versa. At the forefront of corporate sustainability accounting practice, research has highlighted the attempt of various companies to expand and transform sustainability information collection practices into regular, day-to-day activities known as sustainability accounting. However, this …

Evolving Role Of Ehs Manager In Industrial Sustainability Programs — Case Studies Incorporating A Pollution Prevention Approach To Problem Solving, Anahita Williamson, David Fister, Rajiv Ramchandra

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

The role of the Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Manager has evolved over the last two decades. For many companies, the focus of the EHS Manager is shifting from solely a regulatory compliance and waste treatment or waste disposal role to incorporating a green engineering and pollution prevention approach when solving environmental problems. It is critical for the EHS Manager to have a strong understanding of Environmental Management Systems (EMS), regulatory requirements, and ISO standards pertaining to environment, health, and safety. However, having the ability to go beyond this realm and collaborate with manufacturing personnel to determine opportunities for cost …

Why Invest In Energy Efficiency? The Example Of Lighting, Dávid Andor Rácz

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

Energy efficiency can be an interesting field for alternative investments. The main question is: Are these investments worthwhile? This article presents a new approach to evaluate the risks and achievable returns of energy efficiency investments via the example of lighting devices: To the author’s knowledge, cost equivalents have not been used to compare alternative solutions in the field of energy efficiency investments. The selection of optimal technology always depends on the intensity of use and on the expected rate of return. The primacy of compact fluorescent tubes is indisputable from a financial perspective. With the LED and Compact fluorescent lamps …

Environmental Sustainability And Supply Chain Management — A Framework Of Cross-Functional Integration And Knowledge Transfer, Dorli Harms

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

The purpose of this paper is to discuss mechanisms of intra-organizational knowledge transfer within sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). Through a conceptual study design, the focus of this paper is on the transfer of SSCM-associated information and knowledge between functional units. Furthermore, the external stakeholder perspective is taken into account. To support this conceptual framework, the knowledge-based theory provides a theoretical foundation in order to study a company’s ability for knowledge sharing. Within this perspective one approach distinguishes between internal and external structures and the individual competence. These findings will be used as a basis to further develop a framework …

Today’S Environmental Manager’S Toolbox: Evaluating The Ehs Attributes Of Products, Kathryn H. Winnebeck

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

In response to the public’s interest, companies have expanded their focus on reducing their environmental footprint through designing environmentally preferable products. Corporate environmental managers typically work with product design teams on this effort. This paper explains three tools available to assist in the assessment of EHS attributes of products, namely risk assessment, alternatives assessment, and life cycle assessment. An overview, process appropriate uses, and limitations of each tool are discussed.

Sustainable Rural Entrepreneurship: A Case In Hungary, Szilvia Luda

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

Hungary, along with the other member states of the EU, is making efforts to diminish the social and economic gap between the different regions of the country. EU cohesion funds are designed to serve this goal. However, the utilization of these resources is not efficient enough. The problem is exacerbated by how the disadvantaged regions are supported. Support is provided on the basis of various indicators, such as per capita GDP, life expectancy, residents’ educational status, etc. Omitted from this indicator set is reference to the environment or other structural characteristics of the region (such as proximity to big cities; …

The Ecological Allowance Of Enterprise: An Absolute Measure Of Corporate Environmental Performance, Its Implications For Strategy, And A Small Case, André Reichel, Barbara Seeberg

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

In order to determine the sustainable ecological scale of business activities, the measure ecological allowance is introduced in this contribution. Its main idea is that every enterprise “owns” a certain allowable ecological impact that can be calculated through relating impact and economic performance. This measure then enables the evaluation of absolute environmental performance of a business enterprise, compared to only relative measures as in most other approaches. The measure is explained and detailed with a case from the German automotive industry and complimented by a scenario analysis of different configurations of self-owned and carsharing cars, including technological and economic parameters.

Assessing Corporate Sustainability Through Ratings: Challenges And Their Causes, Sarah Elena Windolph

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

Assessing corporate sustainability is increasingly practice-relevant, not least because the capital market and other markets have been paying growing attention to the topic. Recently, ratings have become an important assessment approach and nowadays a variety of organizations and financial service providers conduct their own ratings. Yet, despite their growing popularity, ratings are criticized in research and practice. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to systematize the challenges that corporate sustainability ratings face: lack of standardization, lack of credibility of information, bias, tradeoffs, lack of transparency, and lack of independence. Furthermore, the paper discusses the causes of these challenges and …

Corporate Environmental Sustainability Beyond Organizational Boundaries: Market Growth, Ecosystems Complexity And Supply Chain Structure As Co-Determinants Of Environmental Impact, Stefano Pogutz, Valerio Micale, Monika Winn

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

“Corporate Environmental Sustainability” has become a widely used term. It implies that an individual firm has the capacity to effectively manage and control the harm inflicted upon the natural environment by its processes, products and business models – a notion we refer to as an organization’s “manageability of environmental impact”. This paper argues that the organization-level concept of corporate sustainability cannot be meaningfully discussed unless it is understood in light of three conditions: market growth dynamics, ecosystems complexity, and supply chain structure. These economic, ecological and industry-organizational conditions outside the organization’s boundaries severely limit an organization’s manageability of its environmental …

Contradictions Inherent In The Management Of Natural And Industrial Disasters, Sándor Kerekes

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

These days people keep wondering whether the world is more dangerous now than it was before. Do natural disasters really happen more frequently or is it just that the damage they cause that has become greater? The situation is not quite clear. As a result of the globalizing world and advanced communication infrastructure, the number of known / reported catastrophes is relatively high, but that does not necessarily mean there has been an actual increase in frequency. The red mud spill in Hungary was a special combination of industrial and natural disasters. This is one of the reasons why it …

Environmental Sustainability: A Definition For Environmental Professionals, John Morelli

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

While acknowledging the need for “sustainability,” this paper summarizes the problems that have been encountered in our understanding and use of this concept. It explores the efforts of others to define the concept within the context of specific disciplinary areas and sets forth a proposal for a basic understanding of the term “environmental sustainability” as an expansion of our common perception of the nature of human activity so as to more clearly connect it with the ecological concept of interdependence and to serve as a goal for environmental managers.

Rise And Fall Of The Concept Sustainability, Kiss Károly

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

Sustainability is a key concept when we discuss the effects of human population and activity on nature and the biosphere. Still, especially in Europe, for years it has been used in many other senses both in economics and sociology. Its original meaning has been greatly distorted and extended; it has been misused and abused. This paper examines why this happened and what is the new meaning (if any) of the concept. It also discusses the interpretation of the concept sustainability on different levels—global, national, industrial, and corporate—as the author sees it. Emphasis is placed on the difference between environmental protection …

Bs News September/October

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Bs News July/August

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Prairie To Prairie: Ungrowth In American Cities, Catalina Freixas, Pablo I. Moyano Fernandez

Suburban Sustainability

The city of St. Louis has suffered tremendous population loss since the 1950s, and is currently a major shrinking city in America. This sustained population loss and its accompanying economic decline has led to many negative effects, including crime, food deserts and property abandonment. Eco-urbanism, which advocates a shift from conventional planning goals of economic and population growth to environmental sustainability and increased quality of life, holds promise for the city of St. Louis, where opportunities for implementing eco-urbanism strategies are more plentiful due to the abundance of vacant land.

This paper examines the current role eco-urbanism plays in St. …

Bs News May/June

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

The Economic Impact Of Commensal Rodents On Small Businesses In Manhattan’S Chinatown: Trends And Possible Causes, Anthony Almeida, Robert Corrigan, Ronald Sarno

Suburban Sustainability

Given the history of well-documented rodent infestations in New York City we were interested in assessing the economic impact of rats and mice on small businesses in The Lower East Side of Manhattan. Via mailed surveys and on-site interviews , we quantified damage to structures, loss of saleable goods and merchandise, the cost of pest-control professionals, and/or self-applied poison/traps. Overall, 16% of business (n = 76) responded to our queries. To those businesses reporting some level of rodent damage, average losses included $513 in merchandise, $726 in pest-control fees, $371 in repair costs to structure, and $125 in do-it-yourself deployment …