Journal of Sustainability Research最新文献

{"title":"Analysis of a Rural Northwestern China Household Energy Use Survey Focusing on Parabolic Solar Cooker Use for Water Purification","authors":"Abigail R. Clarke-Sather, Curt J. Davis, J. Qu","doi":"10.20900/JSR20190009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20900/JSR20190009","url":null,"abstract":"Background: Billions of people lack clean drinking water access. Many of the same people lack clean cooking systems, which can purify water by boiling, a viable form of decentralized water treatment. The combined health consequences of water scarcity, waterborne disease and smoke-related illnesses from burning solid fuels indoors can be addressed via clean cooking technologies such as parabolic solar cookers (PSCs). \u0000Methods: A household energy survey in rural Anding district, Gansu province, China found the majority of households utilized PSCs solely for water purification through boiling. Households were aggregated into four categories of PSC use: All Year, Summer Only, No PSC Use (own but do not use), or No PSC (do not own). Statistical comparison of differences between household groups’ means was carried out using Excel, JMP, and SPSS. \u0000Results: Anding households surveyed fit the multiple fuel model instead of energy ladder model for boiling water by shifting between different combinations of technologies and fuels, whether clean or solid fuels. Households that used PSCs year-round paid less for energy than households that did not own PSCs. \u0000Conclusions: Anding district households successfully adopted clean cooking technology for water treatment, which suggests that other impoverished rural residents with cultural preferences for drinking boiled water and sufficient solar irradiation may adopt PSCs for an environmental and economic win. Given the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals to provide both clean water and clean cooking technology access, policies integrating PSC installation alongside water supply projects are a possible way to help achieve both goals.","PeriodicalId":275909,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainability Research","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130624118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Increasing the Impact of Sustainability Research—A New Methodology","authors":"Peter J. McManners","doi":"10.20900/JSR20190008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20900/JSR20190008","url":null,"abstract":"Making progress with implementing sustainability is vital to securing a safe future. It is no exaggeration to state that failure to address our current deeply unsustainable way-of-life is a threat to the continuation of civilisation. It is evident that sustainability is vital, but how to deliver sustainable outcomes is far from clear. The sustainability research agenda could not be more important. In this paper it is argued that the significance of fully understanding sustainability, and the urgency of implementing such knowledge, require developing new research methodology—or adjusting existing methodology—in order to match the challenge. The research community are encouraged to embrace an active role which is above and beyond neutral observer, to become actively engaged as a catalyst for change. Instead of considering possible impacts after the research is complete, desired sustainable outcomes should be incorporated from the outset, and drive the research process.","PeriodicalId":275909,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainability Research","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130542321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An Employee’s Living Wage and Their Quality of Work Life: How Important Are Household Size and Household Income?","authors":"S. Carr, J. Haar, Darrin Hodgetts, J. Arrowsmith, J. Parker, A. Young-Hauser, Siautu Alefaio-Tuglia, Harvey Jones","doi":"10.20900/JSR20190007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20900/JSR20190007","url":null,"abstract":"Living Wage (LW) campaigns normally assume a prototype household configuration in setting their LW rate, comprised of number of dependent householders and the number of incomes. This information is used to calculate the hourly pay rate required to sustain their quality of life and work life. Real households are nonetheless diverse in terms of number of householders and incomes, rendering the living wage conceptually more of a continuous variable than a single constant, across a wage spectrum. We explored this spectrum and its links to job attitudes with a nationally representative sample of N = 1011 low-waged New Zealanders. We measured each participant’s: hourly pay rate, number of household dependents and total household income, alongside individual job attitudes indicative of quality of work life (job satisfaction, work engagement, career satisfaction, meaningful empowerment, affective commitment, organizational citizenship behaviours and work-life balance). As a set, job attitudes consistently pivoted upwards into positive values approximating the campaign LW rate in New Zealand, regardless of either number of household dependents or household income (net of personal wage). However household income net of personal wage (unlike number of household dependents) buffered the gradient of the pivot upwards. The gradient was steeper (more clearly transformational and binary) among lowest-waged workers, in single-income households. To the extent that job attitudes as a set are already widely linked to individual and unit-level productivity, paying at or above the living wage threshold may bring productivity gains and thereby contribute toward decent work and economic development combined.","PeriodicalId":275909,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainability Research","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121474221","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Review of Residential Buildings’ Sustainability Performance Using a Life Cycle Assessment Approach","authors":"Shahana Y. Janjua, P. Sarker, W. Biswas","doi":"10.20900/JSR20190006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20900/JSR20190006","url":null,"abstract":"Achieving sustainable buildings is a challenging task. Building sustainability involves “green building” design and construction, taking account of both environmental elements and economic benefits, along with social obligations to the society we live in. This article aims to critically review and analyse studies of the building and construction industry that deal with aspects of sustainability, including environmental life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, social life cycle assessment and cleaner production strategies, and to examine the research gaps in order to generate recommendations for further research. About 807 refereed research articles on residential buildings published over the last 10 years (2009–2019), were downloaded, having been searched from online databases (including Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect and Compendex) using keywords. Building materials, embodied energy and operating energy were found to contribute chiefly to the environmental and socio-economic objectives of the construction industry. Many studies covered only the life cycle tools (such as environmental life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, and social lifecycle assessment) used in the sustainability assessment process. The “carbon footprint” concept is the most commonly used indicator in building sustainability assessments, underlining the urgent need to deploy more diverse environmental impact categories in order to avoid trade-offs among environmental, social and economic objectives. The social life cycle assessment tool needs a methodological breakthrough to improve its application in the building industry. In most of the studies, only an approximate evaluation of buildings’ service life is the main consideration in life cycle assessments, while the important factor of the quality of the materials used in buildings is often neglected. However, a methodological approach to estimate the service life of structures that considers the durability of different building components would provide a more realistic life cycle assessment. Hence it would be judicious to address the thematic and methodological gaps identified in this paper, thereby optimising the understanding and communication of life cycle outcomes in building sustainability.","PeriodicalId":275909,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainability Research","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115972189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Infrastructure as a Deeply Integrated Sustainable Urban Project","authors":"C. Cucuzzella, Sherif Goubran","doi":"10.20900/JSR20190005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20900/JSR20190005","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores infrastructure projects that present a conscious merging between urban transformation, community development, culture, and technology through sustainable design. When urban projects successfully and meaningfully include all these dimensions, we refer to them as “blended infrastructure” projects, since they offer much more than just infrastructure. A literature review pertaining to the rejuvenation and renewal of cities reveals that infrastructure projects have the potential to be at once, smart and ecological as well as cultural and deeply integrated urban interventions. We, therefore, propose that ‘blended infrastructure’ projects are those that profoundly integrate anthropological and technological dimensions. These two poles are the basis of our analysis method. Our methodology, which includes a mapping tool, is used to cartograph a series of design projects. We select two sets of projects for analysis. First, we select “light infrastructure” projects that are not yet built, still in an imaginary phase, which have a common underlying positive intention of bringing sustainability to the city. Second, we select heavier, already built, infrastructure projects, those subjected to real-world constraints, i.e., economic, political, etc. These polarities (light and imagined vs. heavy and realized) will help test the applicability of this mapping approach on different types of infrastructures. By studying projects on either side of a spatial design spectrum, we aim to understand which types of projects have a potential to be “blended infrastructure” projects—and therefore, deeply integrated sustainable urban interventions, as key contributions to the future of our cities","PeriodicalId":275909,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainability Research","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114505748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Linking the Sustainable Development Goals through an Investigation of Urban Household Food Security in Southern Africa","authors":"James Sgro, B. Frayne, C. McCordic","doi":"10.20900/JSR20190004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20900/JSR20190004","url":null,"abstract":"Background: It has been theorised that there are a network of relationships linking the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whereby achieving one SDG may have spillover effects for other SDGs. This discussion is relevant to the multidimensional stressors experienced by poor urban households in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We evaluate whether variations in the gender of a household head (SDG 5), education level of a household head (SDG 4) or household wages (SDG 8) are predictive of household food security (SDG 2) among over 6000 poor urban households surveyed in eleven cities in Southern Africa. These comparisons are made using regression analysis and machine learning techniques while controlling for, and comparing against, the contribution of household size, the age of the household head, and the number of household dependents to household food security prediction. Results: Of the variables investigated, our study finds that household wages and the education level of the household head are important predictors of food security among the surveyed households. This investigation also identifies a potentially indirect relationship between the gender of the household head and household food security when other variables are controlled. Conclusions: These findings suggest a predictive relationship between SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) while highlighting a curious indirect relationship between SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 2 among poor urban households in Southern Africa. By understanding these relationships, it may be possible to chart efficient policy pathways towards SDG achievement in Southern African cities","PeriodicalId":275909,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainability Research","volume":"116 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132852741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Environmental Recovery of Abandoned Mining Areas in Spain: Sustainability and New Landscapes in Some Case Studies","authors":"C. J. P. Abad","doi":"10.20900/JSR20190003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20900/JSR20190003","url":null,"abstract":"The closure of open-cast mines has prompted the appearance of large, run-down and environmentally degraded spaces. Current legislation requires that such spaces, which mining marked so heavily over such long periods of time, must be restored. The measures adopted have such a wide-ranging territorial impact that they represent the creation of new landscapes in line with strict environmental sustainability criteria. Reducing slopes and banks, securing and decontaminating soils, filling the large mining holes and planting native plant species and crops have been the main solutions applied in the old mining areas. The black colour of the mines has been replaced by a new green colour in line with the natural environment, in a relatively recent and constant process that some authors relate to the concept of regenerative development, different but linked to the more traditional sustainable development. The analysis conducted in this research focuses on several Spanish cases that are highly representative, both nationally and internationally, of what the changes undertaken after mines are abandoned entail","PeriodicalId":275909,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainability Research","volume":"110 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130376983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Measuring the Initial Social Sustainability Impacts of Estate Regeneration: A Case Study of Acton Gardens, London","authors":"T. Dixon, N. Bacon, Lucia Caistor Arendar, E. Nielsen, Rosalie Callway, A. Naylor","doi":"10.20900/JSR20190002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20900/JSR20190002","url":null,"abstract":"In the context of UK housebuilding this paper explores and critically reviews the initial measurement of social sustainability in the first phase of a new housing project on a large estate regeneration development in South Acton, London (conducted in March–April 2015). The research uses an existing “ex post” social sustainability framework adopted for use in other new UK housing projects and also examines local residents’ attitudes to the first phase of the estate regeneration. The social sustainability assessment framework (created to reflect a UK housebuilder's perspective) is based on the analysis and comparison of a range of national datasets and interviews and survey work with new and existing residents and other stakeholders on the estate, and the surrounding areas. The research shows stronger ratings for a number of physical improvements in the new development, but weaker scores for local identity and links with neighbours. The research also shows a mixed picture in their attitudes towards the urban regeneration. The paper provides a critical discussion of the results and the framework, and concludes by setting out the lessons learned from the research for social sustainability assessment. The research will be useful for practitioners, housebuilders and policy makers involved in housing, and those with a wider interest in community wellbeing","PeriodicalId":275909,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainability Research","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116824211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Meeting Our Sustainability Challenges","authors":"M. Reiter, Paul A. Barresi","doi":"10.20900/JSR20190001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20900/JSR20190001","url":null,"abstract":"Our species stands at a fork in the road. One branch is paved with runaway climate change, rising seas, and the humanitarian crises likely to follow in their wake; the reduced soil fertility and loss of genetic diversity of crops associated with industrialized agriculture; life-threatening levels of air and water pollution, especially in the cities of rapidly industrializing, less developed countries; swirling mini-continents of plastic debris choking the world's oceans and the gullets of marine life; and a host of other unmet sustainability challenges that pose an existential threat to the well-being of human individuals, their communities, and their environments in developed and less developed countries alike. That branch of the road seems likely to lead us to a dead end, strewn with the bones of a failed civilization. The other branch is bright with the light of solar, wind, and other noncarbon-based energy sources; ecologically sensitive agricultural systems that nevertheless provide enough food and fiber for all; new business models that prioritize and incentivize greener and cleaner production; the proliferation of resource recovery and reuse practices and technologies in supply chains for common manufactured goods; and an emerging awareness of and interest in pursuing paths to a human future that does not merely perpetuate the unsustainable mistakes of the past. That branch of the road points the way to a world of sustainable human societies, which will qualify as such by having demonstrated a pervasive, ongoing capacity for facilitating, enhancing, and sustaining indefinitely in that facilitated or enhanced state the well-being of human individuals, their communities, and their environments [1]. Like the readership that we hope to attract, we at the Journal of Sustainability Research (JSR) choose to follow the second route, with a world of sustainable human societies as our goal. Toward that end, we seek to make the JSR a forum for the publication of scholarship likely to contribute to the realization of that vision. As the founding Editors-inChief of the JSR, we propose the following principles as essential to achieving that goal. First, the JSR should be as substantively inclusive as possible. As Editors-in-Chief, we wish to see the journal explore every angle of the multidimensional interface at which the most serious sustainability challenges emerge and must be met if the human enterprise is not merely to persist, but to thrive indefinitely on this planet. We also recognize, however, that we must approach those sustainability challenges holistically if they are to be met at all. Albert Einstein famously stated that no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. The unsustainable path on which we now Open Access","PeriodicalId":275909,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainability Research","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126072819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Collaborative Design Strategies for Climate Change Adaptation","authors":"J. Rogers, K. Bartkowicz, Lalitha Ramachandran","doi":"10.20900/jsr20210018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20900/jsr20210018","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses the outcome of a collaborative design studio that aimed to investigate climate adaptation strategies for ten Bayside municipalities in Melbourne, Australia. The studio was part of a larger, 3-phase project titled Bay Blueprint 2070 in a partnership between the UN Global Compact Cities Programme and RMIT School of Architecture and Urban Design. The aim of the studio was to identify potential adaptation strategies for 10 municipality ‘hotspots’ vulnerable to increasing coastal and catchment flooding by working with local governments, the CSIRO, and key stakeholders. The studio adopted a research approach that focused on testing future scenarios for each of the hotspots. Four scenarios were identified, the first two based on representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 8.5 Extreme and Moderate RCP 4.5. The second two focused on differing approaches to adaptation. Using the 4 scenarios, students were asked to investigate potential adaptation strategies in their responses and to explain how they considered the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability. These responses then were presented to key stakeholders for feedback. The final project outcomes provided a catalyst for conversations around what adaptation could look like and could be like into the future as an aid for decision making.","PeriodicalId":275909,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sustainability Research","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123053819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}