Environmental Sustainability Awareness in Product Design Practices: A Survey of Italian Companies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Favi ◽  
Michele Germani ◽  
Fabio Gregori ◽  
Marco Mandolini ◽  
Marco Marconi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Environmental Decisions ◽  
Industrial Companies ◽  
Sustainable Products ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Market Requirement ◽  
A Current

This paper aims to analyze the attitude and the awareness of environmental sustainability issues within diverse Italian industrial companies. A survey has involved a balanced sample of companies operating in different industrial sectors. Considering the survey’s results it can be concluded that: (i) environmental sustainability is an opportunity and a current market requirement, (ii) environmental sustainability is not formalized, since specific methods and tools are not used in technical departments, and (iii) environmental decisions are mainly made by specific key figures (i.e. energy/environmental manager). This analysis can be considered as a useful starting point for the framework formalization of eco-design approaches and tools able to bring eco-design principles into the work of technical departments with the aim to foster the future development of green and sustainable products and services.

Using proximity in sustainable product design

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth MUGGE ◽  
Lise MAGNIER ◽  
Jan SCHOORMANS
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Construal Level Theory ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Construal Level ◽  
Sustainable Product Design ◽  
Product Experience ◽  
Sustainable Products ◽  
Sustainable Product

This research examines proximity as a new interesting strategy to include in the design of more sustainable products. Drawing from the construal level theory, we posit that the environmental sustainability of a product embedding a form of proximity to an environmental solution in its design will be perceived as more concrete and will trigger higher prosocial product experience. To test this assumption, we used spatial proximity by manipulating the location from where the recycled plastic of a bottle of dishwashing soap was reclaimed. Based on the responses of 130 individuals recruited from a panel of consumers, we found that product environmental sustainability is perceived as more concrete and prosocial product experience is higher when proximity is embedded in product design than when far distance or no distance are embedded in the product design. This paper contributes by investigating how product design itself can help to enhance the acceptance of more sustainable products and by applying the Construal Level Theory to the field of product design.

Radical Tense-Indexical Historicality and the De Se

KronoScope ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-27
Author(s):  
Carl Humphries
Keyword(s):  
Alternative View ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
De Se ◽  
Temporal Expressions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Self Reference ◽  
A Current ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract “Being is said in many ways,” claimed Aristotle, initiating a discussion about existential commitment that continues today. Might there not be reasons to say something similar about “having been,” or “having happened,” where these expressions denote something’s being located in the past? Moreover, if history – construed not only as an object of inquiry (actual events, etc.) but also as a way of casting light on certain matters – is primarily concerned with “things past,” then the question just posed also seems relevant to the question of what historical understanding amounts to. While the idea that ‘being’ may mean different things in different contexts has indisputable importance, the implications of other, past-temporal expressions are elusive. In what might any differences of substantive meaning encountered there consist? One starting point for responding – the one that provides the subject matter explored here – is furnished by the question of whether or not a certain way of addressing matters relating to the past permits or precludes forms of intelligibility that could be said to be ‘radically historical.’ After arguing that the existing options for addressing this issue remain unsatisfactory, I set out an alternative view of what it could mean to endorse or reject such an idea. This involves drawing distinctions and analogies connected with notions of temporal situatedness, human practicality and historicality, which are then linked to a further contrast between two ways of understanding the referential significance of what is involved when we self-ascribe a relation to a current situation in a manner construable as implying that we take ourselves to occupy a unique, yet circumstantially defined, perspective on that situation. As regards the latter, on one reading, the specific kind of indexically referring language we use – commonly labelled “de se” – is something whose rationale is exhausted by its practical utility as a communicative tool. On the other, it is viewed as capturing something of substantive importance about how we can be thought of as standing in relation to reality. I claim that this second reading, together with the line of thinking about self-identification and self-reference it helps foreground, can shed light on what it would mean to affirm or deny the possibility of radically historical forms of intelligibility – and thus also on what it could mean to ascribe a plurality of meanings to talk concerning things being ‘in the past.’

What makes leaders resilient? An exploratory interview study

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 281-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Förster ◽  
Stephanie Duchek
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Individual Traits ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
German Regions ◽  
Resilience Factors ◽  
Behavioural Factors ◽  
Effective Development

Can the boss take the heat? Is he or she tough enough for the job? Can they take it, endure the pressure, tolerate or stand up to it? Although we know that resilient leaders are essential for a healthy and efficient workforce, the resilience of leaders itself is still largely unexplored. Our study aims to identify distinctive resilience factors in leadership and help close this research gap. We interviewed 27 leaders from various industrial sectors, German regions and leadership positions. In a qualitative content analysis, we identified 77 individual, situational and behavioural factors that seem to impact on the resilience of leaders. We divided these factors into meaningful categories and integrated them into a framework appropriate for leadership. This framework shows that in addition to individual traits and abilities, situational factors (private and work environment) and behavioural factors (personal and interpersonal behaviour) are highly important and that leaders’ resilience results from an interaction of these factors. As most of the identified factors can be directly influenced by the leader or the organization, our study provides important insights into the effective development and nurturing of leaders’ resilience. Furthermore, the findings can be a helpful starting point for future empirical studies.

Financing of International Business Through Private Equity

2019 ◽  
pp. 83-109
Author(s):  
Katarína Čulková ◽  
Adriana Csikósová ◽  
Mária Janošková
Keyword(s):  
Private Equity ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Industrial Companies ◽  
Massive Growth ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Equity Funds ◽  
The Usa ◽  
National Governments

The global financial crisis has greatly limited access to both public and private sources of finance in the recent decades. Markets and national governments emitted low interested and multi-structured financial means with low liquidity. In the post-crisis period national governments tend to regulate their financial sectors more strictly, paying more attention to risky and low interest financial sources, necessary for investments, on which private equity is dependent. Private equity funds grew significantly in the last two decades, both in the USA and in Europe. Such new ways of debt financing and cheap money support massive growth in the industrial sectors of individual countries. This research is studying the positive impact of private equity on management of the whole industries and economies in Europe. Our analysis stems from the general assumption that private equity has positive influence on industrial performance and our empirical data evidences that private equity reacts to economic decrease more intensively than under the business model without financial leverage. The goal of this chapter is to show how private equity contributes to the growth of industrial sectors, performance of industrial companies, with a special emphasis on the mining sector.

scholarly journals Bioactive Properties of Fruits and Leafy Vegetables Managed with Integrated, Organic, and Organic No-Tillage Practices in the Mediterranean Area: A Two-Year Rotation Experiment

Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Costanza Ceccanti ◽  
Marco Landi ◽  
Daniele Antichi ◽  
Lucia Guidi ◽  
Luigi Manfrini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bioactive Compounds ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Cropping System ◽  
Conservation Agriculture ◽  
Leafy Vegetables ◽  
No Tillage ◽  
Cash Crops ◽  
Starting Point

The sustainability of current farming systems has been questioned in the last decades, especially in terms of the environmental impact and mitigation of global warming. Also, the organic sector, which is supposed to impact less on the environment than other more intensive systems, is looking for innovative solutions to improve its environmental sustainability. Promisingly, the integration of organic management practices with conservation agriculture techniques may help to increase environmental sustainability of food production. However, little is known about the possible impact of conservation agriculture on the content of bioactive compounds in cash crops. For this reason, a two-year rotation experiment used 7 cash crops (4 leafy vegetables and 3 fruit crops) to compare integrated (INT), organic farming (ORG), and organic no-tillage (ORG+) systems to evaluate the possible influence of cropping systems on the nutritional/nutraceutical values of the obtained fruits and leafy vegetables. The results pointed out specific responses based on the species as well as the year of cultivation. However, cultivation with the ORG+ cropping system resulted in effective obtainment of fruits and vegetables with higher levels of bioactive compounds in several cases (11 out 16 observations). The ORG+ cropping system results are particularly promising for leafy vegetable cultivation, especially when ORG+ is carried out on a multi-year basis. Aware that the obtained data should be consolidated with longer-term experiments, we conclude that this dataset may represent a good starting point to support conservation agriculture systems as a possible sustainable strategy to obtain products with higher levels of bioactive compounds.

Mental health and addictions policy priorities and performance measurement frameworks

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-112
Author(s):  
Frank Sirotich ◽  
Carol E. Adair ◽  
Janet Durbin ◽  
Elizabeth Lin ◽  
Christopher Canning
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Measurement Framework ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Common ◽  
Performance Domains ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Measurement Practices

To inform the future development of a pan-Canadian Mental Health and Addictions (MHA) performance measurement framework, we undertook a review and comparison of current provincial/territorial MHA policies and performance measurement frameworks. Most did not have performance measurement approaches that were explicitly linked to policy actions but eleven acknowledged the importance of performance measurement. Among the provinces with a framework, there were few performance domains in common. The common policy priorities and areas of convergence in current performance measurement practices may provide a useful starting point for the development of a pan-Canadian MHA performance measurement framework.

scholarly journals The Role of Operating Income on the Internal Long-Term Financing Decisions

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Hisham I. Ahmaro ◽  
Abdul Khaliq M. Alrawi
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Operating Income ◽  
Financial Decisions ◽  
Financing Decisions ◽  
Industrial Companies ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
High Investment ◽  
Internal Financing

This paper aims to demonstrate the roles and importance of the operating income of the management of Jordanian industrial companies, and the extent to which they depend on it to make the necessary financial decisions in order to meet their long-term needs. The data was collected from the financial reports of companies representing the study community for the period 2012-2016, after being classified by different industrial sectors. The research employed the operating incomes as an independent variable and long-term internal financial decisions as a dependent variable. The results of the data analysis showed a disparity between the different industrial sectors. The Engineering and Construction industries achieved the highest average of the ratio of long-term internal financing by 0.986, due to the importance of this activity on the Jordanian economy and the size of the high investment in it from the researchers' point of view. The lowest average was shown in the Paper and Cardboard sector by 0.550, due to the lack of investments in it compared to other industrial sectors that are more important to the Jordanian economy. The overall annual average of long-term domestic financing for all sectors was 0.892. The results also showed a statistically significant role for operating income in long-term internal financial decisions by the management of Jordan's public industrial joint stock companies.

Framing Sustainability in Human-Centered Product Design

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lora A. Oehlberg ◽  
Alice M. Agogino ◽  
Sara L. Beckman
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Mission Statement ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
User Needs ◽  
User Research ◽  
Sustainable Solutions ◽  
Sustainable Products ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Minimal Environmental Impact

Engineers today have access to a myriad of tools for developing sustainable products that have minimal environmental impact. Although consumer interest in sustainability is increasing, it is still not foremost on the minds of many consumers. Engineers are thus faced with the dilemma of developing sustainable solutions for consumers who may not yet want or be able to articulate sustainability needs. We explore this issue by examining user research conducted by students in a graduate-level product design course. We present findings on how users define and describe sustainability, how sustainability needs interact with other user needs, and what tradeoffs people make and feelings people have when faced with sustainability trade-offs. We present a case study of one design team’s findings about sustainability, and how those findings affected the formulation of the team’s mission statement and product strategy. Based on these results, we propose recommendations for how to facilitate the design of innovative and sustainable consumer products.

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