This case study provides an analysis of the way in which a leading airline company in the world, Air France-KLM, applies Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within its business activities. The analysis is based on a conceptualisation of the term itself and the policy of and activities performed by the company. Other companies in the airline industry regard the Air France-KLM as a ‘good practice’ since it acts in an exemplary way on the integration of sustainability in the three major domains of CSR: economy, people and environment. It caters for environmental protection, customer experience, responsible human resources and local development. A challenge remains for the whole of the airline industry: to reconsider the very purpose of their business and start working on CSR 2.0. In CSR 2.0 sustainability, scalability, responsiveness and ‘glocality’ become part of an airline’s very DNA and are not regarded mere ‘defensive’ measurements for satisfying the ‘customer’ and politics.
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We examine the ways in which a hidden crisis can be exposed from a communication point of view. In which way can organisations create general awareness of a crisis and try to understand the dynamic nature of interactions? With the help of discourse analysis, we have examined the interactional achievements of two crisis entrepreneurs in the domain of education in the Netherlands: a rector of a secondary school and the founders of BON, a social movement aimed at improving the quality of education. In this way, we will illustrate the discursive practices that play an active role when certain players signal a crisis.
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The article evaluates the effectiveness of implementing a Dutch certifiable scheme for carbon reporting. This CO2 Performance Ladder is described as a energy management schemes and focuses on CO2 emission reduction in the construction industry sector. A literature study was combined with interviews.
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All over the world entrepreneurs drive changes. They develop new products and services, inspire others and take decisions that result in growth of their businesses. But the world around entrepreneurs is changing and so are entrepreneurs. Life-long selfemployment or permanent wage employment are of the past. And the way people perceive self-employment is changing as well. And so must our thinking. Changes in our society call for policies and programmes in support of enterprising people. Diversity, mobility and connectivity offer new opportunities for enterprising people. Markets are changing, become more accessible and there is less need to be bound physically to one place for an entrepreneur. New avenues for business are open thanks to our improved access to information, our connectivity globally through social media and our ability to travel freely and frequently from one country to another. With less focus on life-long (self) employment people now combine paid work (or unpaid – house- work) with self-employment, or opt for just parttime entrepreneurship. New, hybrid forms of enterprising emerge. This combining of work with self-employment is rather common in developing countries, but in Europe it is a phenomenon not yet reported on in statistics and for which policy makers and service providers have no answers yet. Neither exist clear definitions or classifications. This book may serve as an eye-opener: hybrid entrepreneurs are indeed around us and deserve our attention. The research unit Financial Inclusion and New Entrepreneurship of The Hague University of Applied Science challenges policy makers, academics and service providers (such as educational institutes, business advisers and financial institutions) to pay more attention to hybrid entrepreneurs, those enterprising people who intend to create new values for a fair and sustainable society. They might not yet been seen, but they exist…..
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The aim of this document is to outline the preliminary requirements and steps needed to fully establish frameworks for certification systems across Europe, specifically to support and incentivize the restoration of peatlands and to provide a framework for reducing GHG emissions from degraded and mismanaged peatlands on a large scale. This will ensure that peatlands across Europe fulfil their potential to become a net carbon sink by 2050, while optimizing ecosystem service provision in a way that is fully consistent with all the relevant European policies. This report covers the following topics: - Analysis of current Carbon Credit systems and other incentives to support wet peatlands. - Economic land use analysis relating to peatlands. - Outline of a framework to support rewetting and peatland restoration. - Recommendations for an Eco-Credit system across Europe.
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Dit rapport behandelt hoe in Nederland tot een meer integraal en gebalanceerde set keurmerken/labels (K&L) gekomen kan worden. Het schetst een routekaart (hierna te noemen “roadmap”) voor de primaire producenten van vlees in Nederland, hun consumenten(organisaties) en de overheid als facilitator. De proposities zijn onderbouwd d.m.v. onderzoeksactiviteiten van het project Duurzaam Vlees Natuurlijk!
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Energiebeheer gericht aanpakken, Het analyseren van doelstellingen, resultaten en impacts van energie- en broeikasgasbeheersprogramma’s in bedrijven (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands): De wereldwijde uitstoot van broeikasgassen moet drastisch worden teruggebracht om de mondiale stijging van de temperatuur tot het relatief veilige niveau van maximaal 2 graden Celsius te beperken. In de komende decennia zal de verbetering van de energie-efficiëntie de belangrijkste strategie zijn voor het verminderen van de energiegerelateerde uitstoot van broeikasgassen. Hoewel er een enorm potentieel is voor verbetering van de energie-efficiëntie, wordt een groot deel daarvan nog niet benut. Dit wordt veroorzaakt door diverse investeringsbarrières die de invoering van maatregelen voor energie-efficiëntie verbetering verhinderen. De invoering van energiemanagement wordt vaak beschouwd als een manier om dergelijke barrières voor energiebesparing te overwinnen. De invoering van energiemanagement in bedrijven kan worden gestimuleerd door de introductie van programma's voor energie-efficiëntie verbetering en vermindering van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen. Deze programma's zijn vaak een combinatie van verschillende elementen zoals verplichtingen voor energiemanagement; (ambitieuze) doelstellingen voor energiebesparing of beperking van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen; de beschikbaarheid van regelingen voor stimulering, ondersteuning en naleving; en andere verplichtingen, zoals openbare rapportages, certificering en verificatie. Tot nu toe is er echter beperkt inzicht in het proces van het formuleren van ambitieuze doelstellingen voor energie-efficiëntie verbetering of het terugdringen van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen binnen deze programma's, in de gevolgen van de invoering van dergelijke programma's op de verbetering van het energiemanagement, en in de impact van deze programma's op energiebesparing of de vermindering van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen. De centrale onderzoeksvraag van dit proefschrift is als volgt geformuleerd: "Wat is de impact van energie- en broeikasgasmanagement programma’s op het verbeteren van het energiemanagement in de praktijk, het versnellen van de energieefficiëntie verbetering en het beperken van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen in bedrijven?".
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In this paper, the performance gain obtained by combining parallel peri- odic real-time processes is elaborated. In certain single-core mono-processor configurations, for example, embedded control systems in robotics comprising many short processes, process context switches may consume a considerable amount of the available processing power. For this reason, it can be advantageous to combine processes, to reduce the number of context switches and thereby increase the performance of the application. As we consider robotic applications only, often consisting of processes with identical periods, release times and deadlines, we restrict these configurations to periodic real-time processes executing on a single-core mono-processor. By graph-theoretical concepts and means, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions so that the number of context switches can be reduced by combining synchronising processes.
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This article investigates the phenomenon of rebound effects in relation to a transition to a Circular Economy (CE) through qualitative inquiry. The aim is to gain insights in manifestations of rebound effects by studying the Dutch textile industry as it transitions to a circular system, and to develop appropriate mitigation strategies that can be applied to ensure an effective transition. The rebound effect, known originally from the energy efficiency literature, occurs when improvements in efficiency or other technological innovations fail to deliver on their environmental promise due to (behavioral) economic mechanisms. The presence of rebound in CE contexts can therefore lead to the structural overstatement of environmental benefits of certain innovations, which can influence reaching emission targets and the preference order of recycling. In this research, the CE rebound effect is investigated in the Dutch textile industry, which is identified as being vulnerable to rebound, yet with a positive potential to avoid it. The main findings include the very low awareness of this effect amongst key stakeholders, and the identification of specific and general instances of rebound effects in the investigated industry. In addition, the relation of these effects to Circular Business Models and CE strategies are investigated, and placed in a larger context in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding about the place and role of this effect in the transition. This concerns the necessity for a new approach to how design has been practiced traditionally, and the need to place transitional developments in a systems perspective. Propositions that serve as theory-building blocks are put forward and include suggestions for further research and recommendations about dealing with rebound effects and shaping an eco-effective transition. Thomas Siderius, Kim Poldner, Reconsidering the Circular Economy Rebound effect: Propositions from a case study of the Dutch Circular Textile Valley, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 293, 2021, 125996, ISSN 0959-6526, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.125996.
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