Showing papers in "Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability in 2017"

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the rationale for the inclusive valuation of nature's contributions to people (NCP) in decision making, as well as broad methodological steps for doing so, and argue that transformative practices aiming at sustainable futures would benefit from embracing such diversity, which require recognizing and addressing power relationships across stakeholder groups that hold different values on human nature-relations and NCP.

TL;DR: The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations present a novel approach to global governance where goal-setting features as a key strategy as discussed by the authors. But their collective success will depend on the extent to which states formalize their commitments, strengthen related global governance arrangements, translate the global ambitions into national contexts, integrate sectoral policies, and maintain flexibility in governance mechanisms.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a framework for evidence-based guidance on how tasks to mobilise, translate, negotiate, synthesise and apply multiple forms of evidence can bridge knowledge systems.

TL;DR: It is argued that this energy consumption currently is in the range of 100–500 MW and alternative schemes that are less energy demanding are outlined, and also here energy consumption is not of primary concern.

TL;DR: In this paper, the sources and effects of marine litter and the effects of policies and other actions taken worldwide are discussed and a good basis for effective action is provided. But the search for appropriate responses could be based on possible interventions and profound understanding of the context specific factors for success.

TL;DR: This paper reviewed 475 publications on human-nature connection and found that most research has concentrated on individuals at local scales, often leaving ‘nature' undefined, and identified three subgroups of publications: first, HNC as mind, dominated by the use of psychometric scales, second, HOC as experience, characterised by observation and qualitative analysis; and third, HCC as place, emphasising place attachment and reserve visitation.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify three key governance challenges that are central for implementing the sustainable development goals: cultivating collective action by creating inclusive decision spaces for stakeholder interaction across multiple sectors and scales; making difficult trade-offs, focusing on equity, justice and fairness; and ensuring mechanisms exist to hold societal actors to account regarding decision-making, investment, action, and outcomes.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose four criteria and a process to identify Essential SDG Variables (ESDGVs), which will highlight interactions and gaps in current monitoring, and suggest a research agenda to: develop and test interdisciplinary system models; test transformations theory for sustainable development; analyse policy interactions; and formulate models to support further refinements of ESDGVs and SDG monitoring.

TL;DR: The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) as discussed by the authors aims to provide a general framework for biodiversity monitoring to support decision-makers, focusing on two interconnected core components.

TL;DR: In this article, the negative impacts of large-scale land acquisitions, their hydrological dimension and how they may affect the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are analyzed. But the authors do not consider the impact of land acquisition on small-scale farmers.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the current and potential role of place-based research into informing global sustainability initiatives by assessing the strengths, challenges, and opportunities of the place-baring research.

TL;DR: In this article, the role of finance for inclusive growth and development is analyzed, and it is shown that access to financial services, primarily to credit, can enable agents to make longer-term consumption and investment plans, participate in productive economic activities and cope with adverse shocks.

TL;DR: The concept of institutional work as mentioned in this paper is a promising lens for analysing the dynamic tension between stability and flexibility in governance systems, which refers to actions through which actors create, maintain, or disrupt institutions.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report the relative contribution of student and staff travel to the carbon emissions of Dutch higher education institutions (HEIs) and examine the arguments for and against online education as a means to reduce the carbon impact of student travel.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a guiding framework for examining how different disciplines deal with the concept of "inclusive development" in the context of the Anthropocene, where they define it as focusing on social wellbeing and protecting the ecosystem services of nature.

TL;DR: In this article, a review of recent literature on this theme, illustrating challenges and opportunities influencing local action, with particular focus on municipalities, is presented, suggesting past experiences offer insights into how the SDGs may be implemented.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the sustainability of careers, departing from contemporary views on sustainable Human Resource Management (HRM) and key concepts in the current career literature, and highlight pertinent challenges for realizing continuity in careers that are: Firstly, becoming increasingly longer and less predictable; secondly, less bounded to one organizational context and characterized by new ways of working; and finally, putting an increased responsibility on the individual career actor.

TL;DR: The contribution of social learning to resilience in social-ecological systems is investigated in this article, where the authors find that social learning impacts are more frequently at local level than at higher, regional or national levels, probably depending on the overlap between participants in social learning and actors in governance and management.

TL;DR: Sustainability has attracted increasing attention from business scholars as corporations have started to take more responsibility for their environmental, social, and development impacts as discussed by the authors, and the role of business and management research in sustainability science and the potential for interdisciplinary work with other academic fields.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that absence of a causal model is reflected in the black-boxing of governance processes which is problematic for resilience studies with explanatory ambitions and introduces mechanism-based thinking as alternative research perspective that offers more analytical rigour.

TL;DR: Social impact assessment as discussed by the authors can help green initiatives gain a social license to operate by effectively managing the social issues, green initiatives will gain acceptability, legitimacy and trust, and will gain acceptance, legitimacy, and trust.

TL;DR: A deeper understanding of the relationships between urban environment and human health will help devise effective preventive interventions towards minimizing/offsetting environmental risk exposures reducing resulting health burdens, lead to healthy lifestyle and behaviour and thereby fulfil the goals of sustainable development.

TL;DR: In various scientific disciplines, resilience has become a key concept for theoretical frameworks and more practical goals as discussed by the authors, and the growing interest resulted in multiple definitions of resilience, which can be operationalized in complex social-ecological systems that are inherent to change and unpredictable outcomes.

TL;DR: Based on a review of social and political ecology literature, a differentiated research agenda focusing on drivers of accelerating resource use in the Anthropocene was proposed in this paper, which can offer crucial insights for sustainability transformations.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce a novel way of understanding organizational resilience and suggest that organizational resilience can be profitably viewed as an evolutionary process in which organizations adapt their configurations in response to changes in two external conditions (disturbance and munificence).

TL;DR: Diversity makes the financial system more resilient and there is a diverse investment demand to make the transition to a more sustainable energy system as mentioned in this paper, which will arguably also increase the flow of funds and resources to innovative, small-scale, or experimental firms that will drive the sustainability transition.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a review of current knowledge and knowledge gaps on mountain biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being under global change and argue that our ability to understand, predict, and sustainably manage mountain biodiversity and to support human wellbeing requires concerted research efforts in natural and social sciences and comparative analyses of biological and social-ecological systems within and across mountain ranges.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on co-creation processes among stakeholders in the transition arena, yet pay insufficient attention to the role of conflict and antagonistic forces in achieving a transformation through power dynamics.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reviewed the gender literature on small-scale fisheries to elaborate on the gender discrimination on; labor division, accessibility, and power relations, which hinder the sustainability and development process in marginalized communities.

TL;DR: The impact of information technology (IT) as a force of sustainability and innovation received a renewed interest as a means of achieving boundary-spanning arrangements in turbulent business environments as discussed by the authors.