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This study aims to describe the process leading the climate emergency declaration (CED) at the University of Salamanca. In contrast to similar initiatives, this was achieved with the participation of students on the social movement Fridays For Future Salamanca.

The context of the CED is described. Statements in Spanish universities are used for comparison and internal reports and evaluations were analyzed to measure the progress. Testimonies from the proponents of the declaration and from the agents implementing actions were classified to describe the roles and dynamics involved in the participatory process. Twitter and newspapers are also used to complete the data triangulation.

The results show that Climate Emergency has been enriched by a bottom-up approach, generating challenges and opportunities to take into account when considering community participation. A university that aspires to be a role model for a low-carbon future needs to address how to construct efficient participatory mechanisms. In that matter, the authors propose their experience that might be useful for other institutions.

The CED is a common practice in universities but it is not always associated with specific actions and policies. In this case, the main feature is the students participation, in particular the social movement Fridays For Future.

This study aims to introduce a new instrument to assess the perception of the university community after the Climate Emergency Declaration (CED) and its application at the Universidad de Salamanca (USAL) in Spain. This CED includes a comprehensive program to reduce the carbon footprint and the introduction of the education for sustainable development in the curriculum. This study aims to understand the gap between perception and reality in the program's implementation and verify whether the student organization's initial push translates into higher approval ratings.

The authors conducted a cross-sectional analytical study. In this research, the authors used a sample of 731 people from the USAL community (67% students, 20% academics and the rest administrative and service staff).

The findings revealed that PhD students are the group with the highest perception of the policies implemented by the university to fight climate change, even higher than academics. In addition, the perception of the food, energy and sustainable mobility aspects of the program are good predictors: of the knowledge of the indicators and of the policy dimensions within the CED.

The university community perception survey for a CED process provides a gateway into the gaps between perception, expectations and reality. Moreover, it is helpful to engage its members in action plans to fight climate change and its impacts.

The purpose of this empirical case study is to study and explain the role of public leadership in the expansion of municipal climate action in Canada.

In 2017 and 2018, the authors conducted13 semi-directed interviews with municipal staff and elected officials from three municipalities, a documentary analysis of primary and secondary sources. Interviews and documentation collected were also coded using the software NVIVO 12. The authors compared three municipal case studies: the City of Toronto (Ontario), the City of Guelph (Ontario), and the Town of Bridgewater (Nova Scotia).

The authors found that leadership is a prominent factor explaining the expansion of municipal climate action in Canada. Municipal climate action is initiated and championed by an individual, elected officials or municipal staff, who lead and engage in the development of policy instruments to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change. These leaders facilitate the formulation and implementation of instruments, encourage a paradigm shift within the municipality, overcome structural and behavioural barriers, and foster collaboration around a common vision. Optimal municipal climate leadership occurs when the leadership of elected officials and municipal is congruent, though networks play a significant role by amplifying municipal sustainability leadership. They support staff and elected officials leadership within municipalities, provide more information and funding to grow the capacity of municipalities to develop instruments, to the point that conditions under which municipalities are driving climate action are changing.

This paper hopes to contribute to better understand under what conditions municipalities drive change.

There is an international scholarly recognition that municipalities should be further explored and considered important actors in the Canadian and international climate change governance. Gore (2010) and Robinson and Gore (2015) highlighted that we are yet to understand the extent to which municipalities are involved in climate governance in Canada. This article directly addresses this gap in the current scholarly literature and explores the expansion of climate municipal leadership with the aspects of interviews.

This paper aims to discuss the practical dilemmas of institutional change to tackle the climate crisis in a UK university, identifying key assumptions and issues that block meaningful change. The research was part of an initiative to define a theory of change (ToC) to meet the university’s institutional climate commitments.

The findings are based on interviews with members of an inter-disciplinary ToC working group, a staff–student climate coalition and student representatives at the university. Interviewees were purposively selected to gain insights into assumptions about the nature of the university and its role in tackling the climate crisis, which must be addressed for the university to effectively implement its climate plan.

This paper identified tensions between the university’s role as a public and commercial institution, a lack of clarity over decision-making processes and the difficulties in balancing (and being transparent about) actions with commitments to tackle the climate crisis. A democratic and flexible approach to change is essential to mitigate these issues, providing an opportunity to reflect on the diversity of the university community and openly debate goals and commitments.

In setting out the initial steps of a ToC in a UK university, this paper offers practical insights for higher education institutions looking to change practices. By highlighting assumptions at a particular institution, this paper also contributes a level of granularity to a growing field of research on efforts in higher education institutions to tackle the climate crisis.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the theme of managing operations and supply chains in the so-called “new normal”. It reflects the themes emerging from recent research and how these might be conceptualized.

The article reviews research presented at the EurOMA 2021 conference and eight papers subsequently developed into full journal papers. It considers conceptual themes contained in these papers and how they reflect recent turbulent events in the external business environment.

The article notes the themes of resilience in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic, environmental sustainability, especially climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals, and the significance of digital technologies. Additional themes relating to inter-organizational relationships, complexity and manager cognition are also considered. In order to provide useful insights for future disruptions, general concepts on epistemology and responsiveness are described.

The article discusses general principles across cutting-edge research in operations and supply chain management, to support improved performance to add economic and social value.

Global temperature has risen by 1°C since 1900, while since the 1990s the Arctic has recently experienced an accelerated warming of about double the average rate of global warming. Nearly all climate scientists agree that the main cause of this temperature rise is ever-increasing accumulations of ‘greenhouse gases’, especially carbon dioxide and methane, within our atmosphere. Sea level rise could easily exceed one metre this century under ‘business as usual’. However, global warming is not just about rising temperatures, melting ice and rising sea levels, but it also affects the frequency and severity of many extreme weather events. Planetary warming is not a uniform process, can spring surprises in regional climate change and is probably linked with the tendency for Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes to have more extreme (variously hot/cold/dry/wet) weather, especially during the recent period of rapid Arctic warming. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that human activity through enhanced greenhouse gas emissions is largely responsible for recent climate change and accompanying extreme weather, and we are already clearly seeing these changes. However, it is equally evident that, although initial remedial steps are being taken, finding an adequate solution will not be easy unless much larger changes are made to the way in which we all live. Limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures would require global carbon dioxide emissions to decrease by approximately 40–60% by 2030 relative to 2010 levels. This can only be achieved through a collective solution that fully involves diverse communities, among them religious stakeholders.

The architectural profession faces an increasingly complex ethical landscape. In recent decades, the ethical foundations for architecture – formally defined in professional codes of conduct and reflected in regulatory frameworks – have expanded to incorporate imperatives derived from environmental and social responsibilities. The present research examines how these expanding ethical expectations are reflected in, and supported by, recent research about architectural ethics.

Analysis is based on a systematic review of recent research (2002–2023) focussing on ethical values and associated behaviours in the architectural profession. The review identifies 37 research articles (from a starting set of 2,483 articles), which are analysed empirically and then qualitatively to draw out views around three types of ethical behaviour. The paper then discusses how these findings align thematically with the evolving ethical needs of architectural practitioners (as defined in the professional codes of ethics and conduct of the RIBA in the UK, AIA in Australia and the AIA in the USA).

While business ethics remains the focus of past research, there has been a rise in research about ethics and social and environmental factors. The content of professional codes reflects this shift, setting the conditions for architects to aspire to increased expectations of environmental and social responsibility.

This article undertakes the first systematic review of recent research about architectural ethics and its alignment with the content of contemporary professional codes. Organised thematically, recent research about ethical values and associated behaviours can offer guidance for the evolving ethical needs of architects.

The shift toward a circular economy (CE) represents a collaborative endeavor necessitating the presence of efficient frameworks, conducive contexts and a common comprehension. This research serves as a pivotal stride towards this goal, presenting an exclusive prospect for the investigation and fusion of these frameworks, with particular emphasis on the Quintuple Helix Model (5HM), into a unified theoretical framework that underscores the core principles of the CE. This study is centered on three pivotal questions aimed at decoding the CE transition in specific regional settings.

Adopting an abductive approach firmly anchored in a two-stage qualitative process, this study specifically merges the foundational principles from institutional theory, entrepreneurship literature and CE frameworks to provide insights into the dynamics of circular ecosystems, with a specific focus on the Huelva region in Spain.

The findings demonstrate significant potential in the CE, ranging from the integration of product and service systems to innovations in eco-industrial practices. Yet, a notable deficiency exists: the absence of institutional entrepreneurs, highlighting the essential role that universities can play. As recognized centers of innovation, universities are suggested to be key contributors to the transformation toward a CE, aligning with their societal and economic responsibilities.

This study highlights the importance of managing relationships with entities like SMEs and policymakers or academia for effective CE adoption. Policymakers can refine strategies based on the research’s insights, while the impact of university-driven circular ecosystems on sustainable societies is another crucial area for research.

The sustainability models cited in CE literature may not be comprehensive enough to prevent problem shifting, and it can be argued that they lack a sound theoretical and conceptual basis. Furthermore, the connections between sustainability objectives and the three levels of the CE operating system remain vague. Additionally, there is insufficient information on how regions foster the involvement of the environment in fivefold helix cooperation and how this impacts the CE.

At the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit, the Club of Rome in collaboration with a network of global contributors issued a statement calling for nations to declare a planetary emergency. The statement calls for urgent action to prevent a global crisis due to the impact of human activity on the stability of the Earth’s life-support systems. Implications of the planetary emergency pose intriguing challenges for how managers address paradoxical sustainability challenges across spatial and temporal scales. In this chapter, the authors have two aims. First, the authors show that the planetary emergency is inherently paradoxical. To do this, the authors build an embedded view of the planetary emergency and argue that it is paradoxical due to key dynamics that emerge across organizational, economic, social, and environmental systems over time. Second, the authors advance paradox theory by exploring the paradoxical nature of the planetary emergency and propose a three-sequence framework for collective action including: (1) building a view of the planetary emergency across spatial and temporal scales, (2) collectively making sense of the planetary emergency, and (3) levering a paradoxical view of the planetary emergency to ensure effective action.