Query Filters
Journal = all
Keyword = self-help energy supply projects
Total – 5 articles
Total 5; currently 1 – 5.
Article21 October 2022
Elena Bulmer, Magali Riera Roca and Julio Blas
Adopting a long-term perspective has helped companies survive in difficult times and overcome economic crises, recessions, and pandemics such as the current COVID-19. At present, the project management approach is changing from more authoritarian management models
... Read More
Adopting a long-term perspective has helped companies survive in difficult times and overcome economic crises, recessions, and pandemics such as the current COVID-19. At present, the project management approach is changing from more authoritarian management models to frameworks that are based on the management of people and society. This article researches the concept of sustainable leadership in the project management profession. It evaluates the level of sustainable leadership among project managers in Spain using the Avery and Bergsteiner’s (2011) model of bees and locusts as a reference framework (Bee and Locust Sustainable Leadership Model). A qualitative study was carried out based on the analysis of the responses given by sixty-eight project managers in Spain who answered a 52-point ques-tionnaire. The findings yielded interesting results. It was found that in projects considered as temporal organizations, companies tended to employ a mixture of bee and locust’s leadership elements. Respondents recognized the importance of employee training and development, and most considered that it was essential to consider the environment when determining the organization’s commercial objectives. However, based on this study’s findings, the project management profession still has a long way to go as regards the practical implementation of sustainable leadership.
Access Full Article
Highlights of SustainabilityVolume 1, Issue 4 (2022)pp. 224–232
Article8 September 2022
Annalisa Stacchini, Andrea Guizzardi and Michele Costa
The first objective of this study is to analyze visitors’ perceived value of four Italian small areas, that have been granted the European Regional Development Fund’s financing for developing sustainable tourism. The second objective of this
... Read More
The first objective of this study is to analyze visitors’ perceived value of four Italian small areas, that have been granted the European Regional Development Fund’s financing for developing sustainable tourism. The second objective of this work is to investigate the influences of socio-demographic and trip-related characteristics on the tourists’ assessments of the main aspects of such destinations, for detecting variables useful for market segmentation and for designing better-targeted marketing actions. These areas host protected natural reserves, historical heritage, rural or mountain traditions, and ways of life, the conservation of which is combined with local economic growth through the development of green, cultural, and slow tourism. Thus, insights on how visitors’ perceived value is configured there might provide hints useful for upgrading the local tourism supply consistently with the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 for sustainable development and the European Green Deal Strategy. Results confirm that the perceived value is a fundamental construct, as it strongly and positively influences satisfaction, intention to recommend, and destination image. The value of sustainable destinations, as perceived by visitors, is mainly based on the affective benefits that sustainable experiences provide, starting from positive social interactions making tourists feel welcomed. The tourist segment valorizing sustainable destinations is mostly composed of old people and low-income travelers, who seek basic services and facilities, as their satisfaction depends mainly on relaxing immersed in pristine nature.
Access Full Article
Highlights of SustainabilityVolume 1, Issue 3 (2022)pp. 202–223
Article11 July 2022
Peter Jean-Paul, Tek Tjing Lie, Timothy N. Anderson and Brice Vallès
Disaggregated data is often used to model the cost-benefit of residential energy management systems. However, obtaining such data is time-intensive and monetarily expensive. This hinders the depth of analysis that can be done on these systems
... Read More
Disaggregated data is often used to model the cost-benefit of residential energy management systems. However, obtaining such data is time-intensive and monetarily expensive. This hinders the depth of analysis that can be done on these systems and negatively influences their large-scale uptake. This study proposes a novel generalised model of these systems that uses smart meter load profile data to model their cost-benefit. Using two years of half-hourly electricity consumption data from 5379 households in London, the model was used to examine how sociodemographic, tariff structures, and the choice of operational objectives of these systems, interact to influence their cost-benefit. The results showed that the proposed model produced reliable cost-benefit results within what is normally obtained in literature. The model demonstrated that applying one set of objectives to different customers leads to an inequitable distribution in benefits; rather, an optimal set of objectives for a given customer under a specific tariff structure can be found to produce a more equitable distribution in benefits across all customers. The proposed model is replicable and uses data that can be obtained easily and cheaply from smart meters, making it versatile for large-scale cost-benefit analysis by any electricity retailer.
Access Full Article
Highlights of SustainabilityVolume 1, Issue 3 (2022)pp. 134–158
Article17 May 2022
Alfred Söderberg
The market share of e-bikes has increased extensively in Europe over the last decade. How this trend will affect the transport system depends to a large extent on the substitution effect which needs to be determined
... Read More
The market share of e-bikes has increased extensively in Europe over the last decade. How this trend will affect the transport system depends to a large extent on the substitution effect which needs to be determined in detail to allow projections on the potential of e-cycling as a means to promote sustainable transport systems. Further, little is known about what psychological determinants influence e-bike use, an important topic for policy makers that wish to promote e-cycling. This study aggregates GPS data from two randomised controlled trials in Sweden to determine the effect of e-bike use on travel behaviour. Motives behind e-bike use are investigated within a pathanalytic structural model, based on an expanded theory of planned behaviour. The results reveal that, on average, total cycling increased by 4.5 kilometres per person and day during the trials and its modal share measured in distance increased by 19%. E-bike use was predicted by the intention to bike to work, which in turn mediated the effects of attitudes and self-efficacy on e-cycling. Attitude mediated the indirect effect of personal norm on intention and collective efficacy amplified the effect of self-efficacy on intention. The results show that e-cycling has a large potential to contribute to a sustainable transport system. Policy makers could increase the use of e-bikes by strengthening individuals’ attitudes toward cycling and perceived self-efficacy to e-cycle, by making environmental personal norms more salient and by highlighting collective action in the effort to limit environmental degradation.
Access Full Article
Highlights of SustainabilityVolume 1, Issue 2 (2022)pp. 88–104
Review8 March 2022
Hwang Yi and Abhishek Mehrotra
Sustainable buildings tend to maximize power and information rather than efficiency. The multidimensional concepts and tools provided by systems ecology and thermodynamics aid the understanding of building performance and sustainability as part of the global and
... Read More
Sustainable buildings tend to maximize power and information rather than efficiency. The multidimensional concepts and tools provided by systems ecology and thermodynamics aid the understanding of building performance and sustainability as part of the global and complex thermodynamic phenomena in living systems—energy is not concentrated, but it flows, increasing the flow rate of useful energy. From such an extended macroscopic perspective, this paper addresses holistic eco-systemic criteria of building performance evaluation, focusing on emergy (spelled with an “m”) and information—the two critical indices of extensive and intensive analysis. Emergy aggregates the utmost and upstream energetic impacts, whereas information evaluates the structural pattern of the energy-flow distribution. These indices are theoretically correlated under the principles of ecological energy transformation and are often practically compatible. To clarify the definitions and appropriate scientific contexts of the new indices for environmental building studies, we review information theory, ecological theorems, and a few pioneering studies. Emergy and information have a great potential for advanced environmental building analysis, but building-scale implementation of emergy, information, and system principles remains a scientific challenge. The findings call for further research into the improvement of building-specific emergy/information data and reliable evidence of the analogy between building and open living systems.
Access Full Article
Highlights of SustainabilityVolume 1, Issue 1 (2022)pp. 12–40