Zoekresultaten

Toukomst of Groningen: linking public with policy

Simulating waste separation policies for the circular economy

This research contributes to understanding and shaping systems for OFMSW separation at urban Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs, such as offices, shops and service providers). Separating SMEs’ organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) is both an opportunity and a serious challenge for the transition towards circular cities. It is an opportunity because OFMSW represents approximately 40% of the total waste mass generated by these companies. It is challenging because post-collection separation is not feasible for OFMSW. Therefore, SMEs disposing of waste should separate their solid waste so that processing the organic fraction for reuse and recycling is practical and attainable. However, these companies do not experience direct advantages from the extra efforts in separating waste, and much of the OFMSW ends up in landfills, often resulting in unnecessary GHG emissions. Therefore, governments and waste processors are looking for ways to improve the OFMSW separation degree by urban companies disposing of waste through policies for behaviour change.There are multiple types of personnel at companies disposing of waste. These co-workers act according to their values, beliefs and norms. They adapt their behaviour continuously, influenced by the physical environment, events over time and self-evaluation of their actions. Therefore, waste separation at companies can be regarded as a Socio-Technical Complex Adaptive System (STCAS). Agent-based modelling and simulation are powerful methods to help understand STCAS. Consequently, we have created an agent-based model representing the evolution of behaviour regarding waste separation at companies in the urban environment. The model aims to show public and private stakeholders involved in solid waste collection, transport and processing to what extent behaviour change policies can shape the system towards desired waste separation degrees.We have co-created the model with participants utilising literature and empirical data from a case study on the transition of the waste collection system of a business park located at a former harbour area in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. First, a conceptual model of the system and the environment was set up through participatory workshops, surveys and interviews with stakeholders, domain experts and relevant actors. Together with our case participants, five policies that affect waste separation behaviour were included in the model. To model the behaviour of each company worker’s values, beliefs and norms during the separation and disposal of OFMSW, we have used the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) Theory by Stern et al. (1999). We have collected data on waste collection behaviour and separation rates through interviews, workshops and a literature study to operationalise and validate the model.Simulation results show how combinations of behaviour profiles affect waste separation rates. Furthermore, findings show that single waste separation policies are often limitedly capable of changing the behaviour in the system. Rather, a combination of information and communication policies is needed to improve the separation of OFMSW, i.e., dissemination of a newsletter, providing personal feedback to the co-workers disposing of waste, and sharing information on the (improvement of) recycling rates.This study contributes to a better understanding of how policies can support co-workers’ pro-environmental behaviour for organic waste separation rates at SMEs. Thus, it shows policymakers how to stimulate the circular transition by actively engaging co-workers’ waste separation behaviour at SMEs. Future work will extend the model’s purpose by including households and policies supporting separating multiple waste types aimed at various R-strategies proposed by Potting et al. (2016).

Public procurement as a strategic instrument to meet sustainable policy goals: the experience of Rotterdam.

The Dutch government, in alignment with the Paris climate agreement, has expressed the ambition to reduce CO 2 emissions in the Netherlands by 49% in 2030 compared to 1990. As freight transport is recognized as a serious CO 2 emitter, this sector is confronted with a substantial part of the target. For cities, the reduction of the urban freight transport emissions is, next to the CO 2 reduction, also important to improve the air quality. Dutch municipalities take an active role in coordination, facilitation and acceleration of the emission reduction processes, not only via regulation but also by using their public procurement power. This paper describes the City of Rotterdam's experiences from the EU Horizon 2020 BuyZET project. This project was launched in November 2016 and includes the cities of Rotterdam, Oslo and Copenhagen. The project aims at understanding and optimising the impact of public procurement activities on transport patterns and emissions in cities as well as to find innovative and sustainable delivery solutions for goods and services-related transport in order to reduce emissions.

An introduction of accidents’ classification based on their outcome control

Most safety oriented organizations have established their accidents classification taking into account the magnitude of the combined adverse outcomes on humans, assets and the environment without considering the accidents‟ potential and the actual attempts of the involved persons to intervene with the accident progress. The specific research exploited a large sample of an aviation organization accident records for an11 years‟ time period and employed frequency and chi-square analyses to test a new accident classification scheme based on the distinction among the safety events with or without human intervention on the accident scene, indicating the management or not of their ultimate consequences. Furthermore, the research depicted the effectiveness of personnel strains to alleviate the accident potential outcomes and studied the contribution of time, local and complexity factors on the accident control attempt and the humans‟ positive or negative interference. The specific newly proposed accident classification successfully addressed the “controlled” or “uncontrolled” traits of the safety events studies, prior their severities consideration, and unveiled the effectiveness of personnel efforts to compensate for the adverse accident march. The portion between controlled and uncontrolled accidents in terms of the human intervention along with the effectiveness of the later may comprise a useful safety performance indicator that can be adopted by any industry sector and may be recommended through international and state safety related authorities.

Regional innovation policy reinforces the workplace innovation capacity of SMEs companies

Between 2009 and 2013 a project has been executed in the Utrecht region to strengthen the workplace innovation capacity of SMEs (My Company 2.0). The participating companies were asked to fill in a questionnaire on the workplace innovation capacity of the company at two moments: at the beginning (T0) and at the end of the project (T1). The workplace innovation capacity was measured with questions about the organization (responds on changing demands in the environment), labor (employee flexibility), strategy (innovation with other companies) and market (improvement or renewal of products/services). We divided the companies (n=103) into two groups, namely companies that implemented an intervention an companies that did not. We found that the companies that received an intervention during the project had a significantly higher score with regard to the workplace innovation capacity at T1 compared to T0. The companies in which no intervention took place had a small (not significant) decrease in workplace innovation capacity between the baseline- (T0) and the post- test (T1). We also compared the data with data from a national reference population. It appeared that the companies in our study scored higher in workplace innovation capacity at both measurements (T0 and T1) than the reference population

Strategic decisionmaking on innovations in SME's.

It is important for the current small and medium sized companies to innovate and thereby still to be able to compete with the cheaper companies from the east. Within Fontys University a project has been started to develop an innovative education for its future curricula. More attention is paid to competence learning and 'learn to learn'-principles instead of cognitive learning. This has resulted in a so-called 'major-minor' system. In the Netherlands this system of education is commonly used at the Universities. The major, at Fontys, is a three-year primary education, which aims to develop the student's discipline. The minor are two education entities restricted, for the size of 30 ECTS, which students can choose. Within the Fontys University a study has started to develop a minor education on the topic "strategically decision-making on innovations in a SME". Fontys wants to train its students for this task in the SME, because it is assumed that many higher educated personnel will find work in the SME. Furthermore it is assumed that there is a growing need for higher educated personnel in possession of competences about strategic decision-making and implementing an innovative organisation. In the autumn of 2006, as a result of the present developments, a minor will be started on the topic 'strategically decision-making on innovations'. This paper describes the progress of the developments of the minor.