This chapter will introduce the circular economy (CE) and Cradle to Cradle (C2C) models of sustainable production. It will reflect on the key blockages to a meaningful sustainable production and how these could be overcome, particularly in the context of business education. The case study of the course for bachelor’s students within International Business Management Studies (IBMS), and at University College in The Netherlands will be discussed. These case studies will illustrate the opportunities as well as potential pitfalls of the closed loop production models. The results of case studies’ analysis show that there was a mismatch between expectations of the sponsor companies and those of students on the one hand and a mismatch between theory and practice on the other hand. Helpful directions for future research and teaching practice are outlined. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319713113#aboutBook https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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This article will discuss philosophical debates on economic growth and environmental sustainability, the role of management responsibility, and the risk of subversion to business as usual. This discussion will be framed using the concepts of Cradle to Cradle (C2C) and Circular Economy about sustainable production. The case study illustrating the danger of subversion of these progressive models discussed here is based on the assignments submitted by Masters students as part of a course related to sustainable production and consumption at Leiden University. The evaluation of the supposedly best practice cases placed on the website of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation or those awarded Cradle to Cradle certificate has led some students to conclude that these cases illustrated green-washing. Larger implications of identified cases of green-washing for the field of sustainable business and ecological management are discussed. “This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in 'Philosophy of Management'. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-019-00108-x LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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Conference poster Digitally controlled systems, such as elevators, washing machines, and traffic lights, are ubiquitous in children's present-day world. However, in current educational practice, such systems are hardly being addressed, and little is known about children's initial understandings about such systems in concrete situations. Therefore, we explored grade 3 and grade 6 pupils' understandings of digital control systems in the contexts of a car park, an elevator, and an autonomous robot. We interviewed 48 pupils to explore their initial understanding of the system at hand from the perspectives of the user, the computer, and the programmer perspective. The interviews were analyzed through a directed content analysis. Results from three perspectives and three contexts are described.
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Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a fast and reliable method for the identification of bacteria from agar media. Direct identification from positive blood cultures should decrease the time to obtaining the result. In this study, three different processing methods for the rapid direct identification of bacteria from positive blood culture bottles were compared. In total, 101 positive aerobe BacT/ALERT bottles were included in this study. Aliquots from all bottles were used for three bacterial processing methods, i.e. the commercially available Bruker's MALDI Sepsityper kit, the commercially available Molzym's MolYsis Basic5 kit and a centrifugation/washing method. In addition, the best method was used to evaluate the possibility of MALDI application after a reduced incubation time of 7 h of Staphylococcus aureus- and Escherichia coli-spiked (1,000, 100 and 10 colony-forming units [CFU]) aerobe BacT/ALERT blood cultures. Sixty-six (65%), 51 (50.5%) and 79 (78%) bottles were identified correctly at the species level when the centrifugation/washing method, MolYsis Basic 5 and Sepsityper were used, respectively. Incorrect identification was obtained in 35 (35%), 50 (49.5%) and 22 (22%) bottles, respectively. Gram-positive cocci were correctly identified in 33/52 (64%) of the cases. However, Gram-negative rods showed a correct identification in 45/47 (96%) of all bottles when the Sepsityper kit was used. Seven hours of pre-incubation of S. aureus- and E. coli-spiked aerobe BacT/ALERT blood cultures never resulted in reliable identification with MALDI-TOF MS. Sepsityper is superior for the direct identification of microorganisms from aerobe BacT/ALERT bottles. Gram-negative pathogens show better results compared to Gram-positive bacteria. Reduced incubation followed by MALDI-TOF MS did not result in faster reliable identification.
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Remanufacturing is a production practice that requires the work of producers, consumers, and the government. There are benefits associated with this production model, such as improving the environment, opportunities for cost savings, and others. However, it is essential to identify the factors that affect the possibility of acceptance of this production model. This research proposes a model based on different analysis methodologies and techniques of SEM (Structural Equations Modeling) and the method of PLS (Partial Least Squares). A total of 403 responses to the survey were collected from 1 November 2021 to 15 January 2022. For the data treatment, SPSS, Excel, and WarpPLS software were used to identify the variables, factors, and their direct and indirect effects among the latent variables, referring to a scheme focused on consumer perception based on the acquisition remanufactured products. This created model served as a reference to create and develop a design and repair strategy for White goods or similar products in handling, logistics, and repair. This design strategy was transformed into a business model based on a circular economy, particularly on a Product–Service System with social, economic, and environmental benefits for producers and consumers.
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With this project we strived to contribute to structural reduction of post-harvest food losses and food quality improvement in the Kenyan avocado and dairy value chains through the application of technical solutions and tools as well as improved coordination in those food chains. The consortium had four types of partners: 1. Universities (2 Kenyan, 4 Dutch), 2. Private sector actorsin those chains, 3. Organisations supporting those chains, and 4. Network partners. The applied research has been implemented in cooperation with all partners, whereby students at involved universities conducted most of the field studies and all other consortium partners support and interact depending on the phases.The FORQLAB project targeted two areas in Kenya for both commodities, a relatively well-developed chain in the central highlands and a less-develop chain in Western-Kenya. The research methods were the business to business and multi-stakeholder (living lab) approaches to increase the potential for uptake of successful interventions in the chain. The project consisted of four phases: 1. Inventory and inception, 2. Applied research, 3. Spreading research outputs through living lab networks, 4. Translation of project output in curricula and trainings. The outcomes were: two knowledge exchange platforms (Living Labs) supported with some advice for sustainable food loss reduction, a research agenda, proposals for ICT and other tech solutions and an implementation strategy; communication and teaching materials for universities and TVETs; and knowledge transfer and uptake.
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The circular economy (CE) is heralded as reducing material use and emissions while providing more jobs and growth. We explored this narrative in a series of expert workshops, basing ourselves on theories, methods and findings from science fields such as global environmental input-output analysis, business modelling, industrial organisation, innovation sciences and transition studies. Our findings indicate that this dominant narrative suffers from at least three inconvenient truths. First, CE can lead to loss of GDP. Each doubling of product lifetimes will halve the related industrial production, while the required design changes may cost little. Second, the same mechanism can create losses of production jobs. This may not be compensated by extra maintenance, repair or refurbishing activities. Finally, ‘Product-as-a-Service’ business models supported by platform technologies are crucial for a CE transition. But by transforming consumers from owners to users, they lose independence and do not share in any value enhancement of assets (e.g., houses). As shown by Uber and AirBNB, platforms tend to concentrate power and value with providers, dramatically affecting the distribution of wealth. The real win-win potential of circularity is that the same societal welfare may be achieved with less production and fewer working hours, resulting in more leisure time. But it is perfectly possible that powerful platform providers capture most added value and channel that to their elite owners, at the expense of the purchasing power of ordinary people working fewer hours. Similar undesirable distributional effects may occur at the global scale: the service economies in the Global North may benefit from the additional repair and refurbishment activities, while economies in the Global South that are more oriented towards primary production will see these activities shrink. It is essential that CE research comes to grips with such effects. Furthermore, governance approaches mitigating unfair distribution of power and value are hence essential for a successful circularity transition.
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Steeds meer bedrijven publiceren naast hun financieel jaarverslag een integrated report, waarin naast financiële waarde ook over maatschappelijke waarden wordt gerapporteerd. Uit een rapport van KPMG (2017) blijkt dat 93% van de grootste bedrijven van de wereld een integrated report publiceert. Met de opkomst van integrated reporting is hier echter ook de nodige kritiek op ontstaan. Zo zouden bedrijven het integrated report vooral gebruiken om zich duurzamer voor te doen dan ze daadwerkelijk zijn (‘greenwashing’). In dit artikel wordt een analyse van de Triple Depreciation Line (TDL) beschreven. De TDL is een raamwerk, waarmee in potentie (voor een deel) tegemoet wordt gekomen aan de huidige kritiek op integrated reporting zoals bijvoorbeeld ‘greenwashing’. In dit artikel concluderen wij dat de TDL in zijn huidige opzet in de praktijk moeilijk toepasbaar is en doen wij aanbevelingen voor een meer praktische toepassing van dit raamwerk. Dit leidt tot een aangepast TDL-raamwerk, waarbij wij beargumenteren dat de toepassing van dit aangepaste raamwerk de potentie heeft om de transitie naar een duurzame economie aanzienlijk te versnellen.
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This chapter explains in brief what is needed to achieve more sustainable manufacturing processes. It develops both aspects of sustainable, economic, and technical feasibility with most focus on the latter. Remanufacturing processes are described together with relevant factors that enhance their effectivity and efficiency. An overview is given of what kind of shopfloor innovations are required in the near future and some suggestions on how digital and other Industry 4.0 technologies could help to move toward circular manufacturing.
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Like the professionals, design students tend to avoid the complexity of the user context, and moral issues are largely overlooked. This inspired us to explore whether we could engage design students in thinking about moral issues by exploring different ethical frameworks in their designing. As a case environment we chose smart-grid product service combinations. In this paper we first discuss the ethical frameworks of four selected philosophers’: Plato, Rousseau, Kant, & Mill. Then we will describe the student design process, the resulting four smart grid service concepts and the user insights that came from a user evaluation. We discuss how this approach allowed the students to get insights in their own ethical stance and how they allowed users to reflect on possible futures. We also discuss how these ‘probing’ concepts were used within the larger smart grid project.
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