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Prefabricated buildings (PBs) have proven to effectively mitigate carbon emissions in the construction industry. Existing studies have analyzed the environmental performance of PBs considering the shift in construction methods, ignoring the emissions abatement effects of the low-carbon practices adopted by participants in the prefabricated building supply chain (PBSC). Thus, it is challenging to exploit the environmental advantages of PBs. To further reveal the carbon reduction potential of PBs and assist participants in making low-carbon practice strategy decisions, this paper constructs a system dynamics (SD) model to explore the performance of PBSC in low-carbon practices.

This study adopts the SD approach to integrate the complex dynamic relationship between variables and explicitly considers the environmental and economic impacts of PBSC to explore the carbon emission reduction effects of low-carbon practices by enterprises under environmental policies from the supply chain perspective.

Results show that with the advance of prefabrication level, the carbon emissions from production and transportation processes increase, and the total carbon emissions of PBSC show an upward trend. Low-carbon practices of rational transportation route planning and carbon-reduction energy investment can effectively reduce carbon emissions with negative economic impacts on transportation enterprises. The application of sustainable materials in low-carbon practices is both economically and environmentally friendly. In addition, carbon tax does not always promote the implementation of low-carbon practices, and the improvement of enterprises' environmental awareness can further strengthen the effect of low-carbon practices.

This study dynamically assesses the carbon reduction effects of low-carbon practices in PBSC, informing the low-carbon decision-making of participants in building construction projects and guiding the government to formulate environmental policies.

In this chapter, the authors envision a new framework for technology-enabled local engagement. This framework would exploit web-based collaboration technology in order to create local engagement panels that represent a cross section of ordinary residents. For concreteness, the authors illustrate the framework in a proposed study called “Clearing the Air” would enable residents in the areas of Southern California that are most impacted by the logistics industry to have substantive and constructive opportunities to engage local officials on the complex economic and environmental matters related to logistics and emissions in the Southern California region. The authors propose methods to evaluate best practices in the use of collaboration technology, in particular, to learn whether the technology enables and empowers the engagement panels to participate in air quality governance at a high level and helps local officials better understand the considered opinions of residents on these important matters. If successful, this framework would integrate the policy views of individual residents alongside those of organized stakeholders, experts, and agency officials in the policy process.

This paper presents a new and well-structured framework that aims to assess the current environmental impact from a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions perspective. This tool includes a new set of Lean Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which translates the well-known logic of Overall Equipment Effectiveness in the field of GHG emissions, that can progressively detect industrial losses that cause GHG emissions and support decision-making for implementing improvements.

The new metrics are presented with reference to two different perspectives: (1) to highlight the deviation of the current value of emissions from the target; (2) to adopt a diagnostic orientation not only to provide an assessment of current performance but also to search for the main causes of inefficiencies and to direct improvement implementations.

The proposed framework was applied to a major company operating in the plywood production sector. It identified emission-related losses at each stage of the production process, providing an overall performance evaluation of 53.1%. The industrial application shows how the indicators work in practice, and the framework as a whole, to assess GHG emissions related to industrial losses and to proper address improvement actions.

This paper scrutinizes a new set of Lean KPIs to assess the industrial losses causing GHG emissions and identifies some significant drawbacks. Then it proposes a new structure of losses and KPIs that not only quantify efficiency but also allow to identify viable countermeasures.

An in-depth analysis of how senior managers in a large multinational corporation interpret their social and environmental responsibilities revealed that, notwithstanding formal corporate interpretations, discrepancies persisted in their interpretation of what was expected of them and how to implement it. Two fault lines emerged: (1) an instrumental versus a normative interpretation of corporate societal responsibilities, and (2) a focus on ‘doing less/no harm’ versus ‘doing more good’. This chapter introduces a theoretical framework that combines these fault lines to form four quadrants that each represent a different set of challenges managers face as they commit to improving their organisation’s impact on society. Rather than adjudicate between them, a holistic interpretation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) takes all four types into account. But the four types of challenges differ considerably in nature and thus in the strategic approach that is necessary to deal with them. In this chapter, each quadrant is discussed in detail. What characterises the issues in this quadrant, what mindset, and what strategy are necessary to address them? The chapter concludes with the observation that the framework, and the taxonomy of types of CSR challenges that it brings to the fore, creates greater awareness of how industries are confronted with different sets of challenges and thus need different strategic approaches. A better understanding of these differences may lead to more support, in particular for those managers who work in industries that face a disproportionate share of one particular type of challenges, the ‘nasty trade-offs’.

Combustion of fuel with oxidizer inside a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine forms inevitable oxides of nitrogen (NOx) due to high temperature at different locations of the combustion chamber. This study aims to quantify NOx formed inside the combustion chamber using two fuels, a conventional diesel (n-heptane) and a biodiesel (methyl oleate).

This research uses a computational fluid dynamics simulation of chemically reacting fluid flow to quantify and compare oxides of nitrogen (NOx) in a compression ignition (CI) engine. The study expends species transport model of ANSYS FLUENT. The simulation model has provided the temperature profile inside the combustion chamber, which is subsequently used to calculate NOx using the NOx model. The simulation uses a single component hydrocarbon and oxygenated hydrocarbon to represent fuels; for instance, it uses n-heptane (C₇H₁₆) for diesel and methyl-oleate (C₁₉H₃₆O₂) for biodiesel. A stoichiometric air–fuel mixture is used for both fuels. The simulation runs a single cylinder CI engine of 650 cm³ swept volume with inlet and exhaust valves closed.

The pattern for variation of velocity, an important flow parameter, which affects combustion and subsequently oxides of nitrogen (NOx) formation at different piston locations, is similar for the two fuels. The variations of in-cylinder temperature and NOx formation with crank angles have similar patterns for the fuels, diesel and biodiesel. However, the numerical values of in-cylinder temperature and mass fraction of NOx are different. The volume averaged static peak temperatures are 1,013 K in case of diesel and 1,121 K in case of biodiesel, while the mass averaged mass fractions of NOx are 15 ppm for diesel and 141 ppm for biodiesel. The temperature rise after combustion is more in case of biodiesel, which augments the oxides of nitrogen formation. A new parameter, relative mass fraction of NOx, yields 28% lower value for biodiesel than for diesel.

This work uses a new concept of simulating simple chemical reacting system model to quantify oxides of NOx using single component fuels. Simplification has captured required fluid flow data to analyse NOx emission from CI engine while reducing computational time and expensive experimental tests.

Road transport is an important sector of the economy, however, its negative impacts on the environment, human health and sustainability of potential economic growth are significant. Transport externalities tend to be neglected within the market process. The damage generated through significant externalities of road transport in Czechia was identified, based on unique data processing, to reach almost 3.5 billion € annually. This chapter presents an overview of internalization taxes and fees, their current rates and generated receipts. If excise duty is disregarded as fundamentally unsuitable for the internalization of externalities, then the receipts from other applied taxes and fees, particularly the road tax, seem to be insufficient. Although economic growth is encouraged, its form is not sustainable in view of the rising phase of the Kuznets curve and the related irreversible environmental impacts.

The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of fuel blends containing ethanol and gasoline in spark ignition engines. The aim is to explore alternative fuels that can enhance performance while minimizing or eliminating adverse environmental impacts, particularly in the context of limited fossil fuel availability and the need for sustainable alternatives.

The authors used the Ricardo Wave software to evaluate the performance of fuel blends with varying ethanol content (represented as E0, E10, E25, E40, E55, E70, E85 and E100) in comparison to gasoline. The assessment involved different composition percentages and was conducted at various engine speeds (1,500, 3,000, 4,500 and 6,000 rpm). This methodology aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how different ethanol-gasoline blends perform under different conditions.

The study found that, across all fuel blends, the highest brake power (BP) and the highest brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) were observed at 6,000 rpm. Additionally, it was noted that the presence of ethanol in gasoline fuel blends has the potential to increase both the BP and BSFC. These findings suggest that ethanol can positively impact the performance of spark-ignition engines, highlighting its potential as an alternative fuel.

This research contributes to the ongoing efforts in the automotive industry to find sustainable alternative fuels. The use of Ricardo Wave software for performance assessment and the comprehensive exploration of various ethanol-gasoline blends at different engine speeds add to the originality of the study. The emphasis on the potential of ethanol to enhance engine performance provides valuable insights for motor vehicle manufacturers and researchers working on alternative fuel solutions.

The case study has been prepared for management students/business executives to understand electric vehicle (EV) business, business environment, industry competition and strategic planning and strategy implementation.

The size of the Indian passenger vehicle market was valued at US$32.70bn in 2021; it was projected to touch US$54.84bn by 2027 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of more than 9% during the period 2022–2027. The passenger vehicle industry, a part of the overall automotive industry, was expected to grow at a rapid pace, as the Indian economy was rising at the fastest rate. However, the Government of India (GoI) had put a condition on the growth scenario by mandating that 100% of vehicles produced would be EVs by 2030. Tata Motors (TaMo), a domestic player in the market, had been facing a challenging competitive environment. Although it had been incurring losses, it had successfully ventured into the EV business. TaMo had taken advantage of the first mover by creating an electric mobility business vertical to enable the company to deliver on its aspiration of providing innovative and competitive e-mobility solutions. TaMo leadership had been putting efforts to scale up the electric mobility business, thus, contributing to GoI’s plan for electric mobility. Shailesh Chandra, president of electric mobility business, had a big task in hand. He had to scale up EV production and sales despite insufficient infrastructure for charging and shortages of electronic components for manufacturing.

The case study has been prepared for management students/business executives for strategic management class. It is recommended that the case study is distributed in advance so that the students can prepare well in advance for classroom discussions. Groups will be created to delve into details for a specific question. While one group will make their presentation, the other groups will question the solution provided and give suggestions.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

We conduct a multidisciplinary systematic literature review on climate neutrality in the supply chain. While carbon neutrality has gained prominence, our study argues that achieving carbon neutrality alone is not enough to address climate change effectively, as non-CO₂ greenhouse gases (GHG) are potent contributors to global warming.

We used multiple databases, including EBSCO, ProQuest, Science Direct, Emerald and Google Scholar, to identify articles related to climate neutrality in the context of non-CO₂ gases. A total of 71 articles in environmental science, climate change, energy systems, agriculture and logistics are reviewed to provide insights into the climate neutrality of supply chains.

We find that, in addition to CO₂, other GHG such as methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and fluorinated gases also significantly contribute to climate change. Our literature review identified several key pillars for achieving net-zero GHG emissions, including end-use efficiency and electrification, clean electricity supply, clean fuel supply, “GHG capture, storage and utilization,” enhanced land sinks, reduced non-CO₂ emissions and improved feed and manure management.

We contribute to the literature on climate neutrality of supply chains by emphasizing the significance of non-CO₂ GHG along with CO₂ and highlighting the need for a comprehensive approach to climate neutrality in addressing climate change. This study advances the understanding of climate neutrality of supply chains and contributes to the discourse on effective climate change mitigation strategies. It provides clear future research directions.