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The purpose of this paper is to review extant literature and to provide perspectives on approaches to enhancing built environment sustainability in Africa. There is a mismatch between global societal resources and the increasing demand for natural resources. The consequences of this mismatch are prevalent in many African countries, causing the need to implement of built environment sustainability as a matter of cause.

Little research has been undertaken to date with a focus on the environmental sustainability of Africa. With this in mind the review was undertaken through a series of incremental steps. It began with an initial review, before developing through exploratory and development phases. The process culminated with the refined literature review presented.

The paper finds that a different approach is required to achieve built sustainable development for developed and developing countries, with a clear difference in terms of its application observed between the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Current energy and water crisis facing Africa is brought to the fore and an evaluation is provided of the systems being used to ameliorate its effects. The study explores a range of technological solutions that are appropriate for consideration in the African context. It also examines the barriers that need to be overcome to facilitate the widespread use of the suggested solutions in Africa.

This study examines built environment sustainability through the Africa lens. It highlights its importance and the contextual factors inhibiting the widespread uptake of built environment sustainability solutions. The study offers a number of recommendations for the future to encourage long-term built environment sustainability in Africa and more specifically the Sub-Saharan region.

This paper aims to examine the role numbers play in corporate environmental reporting. To deeply examine the ontological meanings of enumeration in the context of nature, the histories of number and accounting are explored. Some key tropes emerge from these histories, namely, distancing and control.

To explore some of the implications of quantifying nature, three years of environmental reports of ten companies from the ASX200 are analysed through a Barthsian lens. Examples of enumerating nature are highlighted and explored in terms of what this means for the corporate relationship with nature. This study has focussed on some specific aspects of nature that are commonly counted in corporate environmental reporting: carbon, energy, water, biodiversity and waste. This study explores how monetisation and obfuscation are used and how this informs the myth that nature is controllable.

This study finds that quantifying nature constructs a metaphorical distance between the company and the natural world which erodes the sense of connection associated with an authentic care for nature. These findings are critical in light of the detrimental impact of corporate activity on the natural world. The reports themselves, while promoted as a tool to help mitigate damage to the natural environment, are implicitly perpetuating its harm.

Given the extent to which companies are responsible for environmental damage and the potential capacity embedded in corporate communications, better understanding the implications of quantifying nature could powerfully instigate a new but necessary approach to nature.

The insights of this paper are relevant to those aiming to improve the underpinning approaches used in corporate environmental reporting. This paper provides new understandings of the ways quantitative expression of environmental values constructs the myth that nature is controllable.

Constant change in current market and social conditions has triggered the demand for a more adaptable building stock. The capacity to assume and accommodate change has thus become a new requirement for buildings. At the same time, there is a growing demand for more environmentally conscious buildings. New protocols, building codes, and certification systems are becoming stricter regarding buildings’ CO2 emissions, energy efficiency, and other environmental aspects. The current building industry fails to satisfy these two demands; conventional buildings rarely enable change, unless undergoing complex renovations, and rarely consider environmental features beyond mandatory legislation. In this context, this paper proposes Modular Ecotechnological Architecture as a response to both demands. The basis is an integrated design that looks at energy, water, and materials’ efficiency altogether, combined with a modular industrialized building system. The system allows buildings to grow or reduce in size according to their needs, with little impact for their inhabitants, enabling versatility for a variety of uses within the same space and over time. This paper presents the concept of this new building system together with the technical, building code-related, and economic challenges encountered throughout recent experimental projects.

This study aims to list indicators to allow construction of a ranking for environmental sustainability in towns and cities, in relation to energy and water consumption and the prevention, production and management of waste. A systematization of theoretical and empirical indices was elaborated, focused on this dimension.

The results allow presentation of a ranking supported by multivariate statistical techniques – Exploratory Factor Analysis and Principal Component Analysis – confirming its scientific quality and robustness, with this being the main contribution of the study.

The analysis of the ranking revealed the great heterogeneity of towns and cities in Portugal, with the city of Lisbon and the town of Sardoal in the Top 20, suggesting that the achievement of the goal of environmental sustainability is proactively associated with the ability to articulate resources with infrastructure and the strategic and political will applied, being essential the appeal to the individual awareness of each citizen, even if the design of green infrastructures does not depend on citizens’ behavior. This means that redesigned green infrastructures may exist, but their success depends. In addition, cities are increasingly moving toward a circular economy articulated holistically with open and participatory governance.

The empirical evidence obtained in the Portuguese context provides some implications for practice, by showing it is possible to counteract the negative effects of rapid urban growth and its environmental consequences in urban and non-urban areas.

The main contribution and innovation of this study lie in the presentation of empirical evidence that the population density of a city or town does not have a cause–effect relationship with its level of environmental sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the development and implementation of Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) and environmental management at the level of a firm in the hotel sector in Sri Lanka.

Case study method was used in the study. The primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews supported by observations of various facility centers (on-site assessment). Accounting records such as the Green Book, daily and monthly material and energy records, online resources and various other documents were content analyzed as sources of secondary data.

The study observed that the hotel had reinvigorated some of its environmental management and EMA practices in an urgent, cost-saving bid when faced with a financial crisis. Having realized their cost-saving potential and strategic benefits, the management developed these selective practices over time into comprehensive practices that are integrated into the daily management process supported by all stakeholders. The development stages of EMA reflect how the hotel moved from a survival phase to an integration phase.

The paper attempts to apply an integrated eco-control approach in an emerging South Asian country, Sri Lanka. Because eco-control of EMA is a new approach in developing countries, this paper provides important insights into the development of eco-control and EMA.

Examination of Pro-Environmental Purchasing Behaviour (PPB) and its potential components. Investigation of the number and the size of relevant consumer segments. Determining the factors able to describe the segment of frequent pro-environmental purchasers. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Investigation of PPB as a total multi-item variable. Disclosure of the PPB components. Examination of the Purchase component and disclosure of its clusters. Focus on the cluster of frequent purchasers. Estimation of the demographic, attitudinal and psychographic variables able to describe and predict these consumers.

Two components of PPB were found, namely Conservation (high consumer engagement in this) and Purchase (low consumer engagement in this). Inside the Purchase component of PPB three clusters were found, indicating, respectively, low, average and relatively high consumers’ involvement. Consumers in Cluster 3 (frequent pro-environmental purchasers) are fewer than in the past. They were found to be negatively influenced by environmental unconcern attitudes and Materialism, while they were positively affected by locus of control over politics and Universalism.

No demographic profile of frequent purchasers. Geographical area limited (a potential) generalisation of results. Social desirability effect. Future research with reference to evolutions in pro-environmental post-purchasing or non-purchasing behaviours during the years of economic crisis.

Fewer consumers would buy ecological products if these were not comparable enough with the conventional products in terms of price and efficacy.

First effort to explore the impact of the economic crisis on PPB in Greece. Encompassed new categories of ecological products. Revealed two components inside PPB (Purchase and Conservation) as well as number and size of consumer segments inside the Purchase component. Formulation of a partial profile of the frequent pro-environmental purchasers. Impact of Universalism on PPB was for the first time examined.

The Covid-19 pandemic has profoundly affected urban communities, generating the need for an immediate response from local governance. The availability of urban data platforms in some smart cities helped the relevant actors to develop various solutions in an innovative and highly contextual way. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of data platforms in smart cities in the context of the Covid-19 crisis.

A total of 85 studies were identified using the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science electronic library. After applying exclusion and inclusion criteria, 61 publications were considered appropriate and reasonable for the research, being read in-depth. Finally, only 52 studies presented relevant information for the topic and were synthesized following the defined research questions. During the research, the authors included in the paper other interesting references found in selected articles and important information regarding the role of data in the fight against Covid-19 in smart cities available on the Internet and social media, with the intention to capture both academic and practical perspectives.

The authors' main conclusion suggests that based on their previous expertise in collecting, processing and analyzing data from multiple sources, some smart cities quickly adapted their data platforms for an efficient response against Covid-19. The results highlight the importance of open data, data sharing, innovative thinking, the collaboration between public and private stakeholders, and the participation of citizens, especially in these difficult times.

The city managers and data operators can use the presented case studies and findings to identify relevant data-driven smart solutions in the fight against Covid-19 or another crisis.

The performance of smart cities is a social concern since the population of urban communities is continuously growing. By reviewing the adoption of information technologies-based solutions to improve the quality of citizens' life, the paper emphasizes their potential in societies in which information technology is embedded, especially during a major crisis.

This research re-emphasizes the importance of collecting data in smart cities, the role of the diversity of their sources and the necessity of citizens, companies and government synergetic involvement, especially in a pandemic context. The existence of smart solutions to process and extract information and knowledge from large data sets was essential for many actors involved in smart cities, helping them in the decision-making process. Based on previous expertise, some smart cities quickly adapted their data platforms for an efficient response against Covid-19. The paper analyzes also these success cases that can be considered models to be adopted by other municipalities in similar circumstances.

This study explores how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food industry in Puerto Rico can enhance resilience to cope with critical infrastructure (CI) collapse due to natural disasters. This study aims to validate the food supply chain (FSC) resilience model for SMEs in rural areas.

This study used qualitative in-depth interviews to gather data and a coding process for the analysis. The participants were members of the FSC located in the municipality of Adjuntas and nearby towns in Puerto Rico. For this study, the sample participants selected to conduct the interviews were the farmers, producers and retailers.

The results show the importance of local CI backup, networks and flexibility among FSC members in alternating supply chain logistics and distribution. Other transportation modes include drone pilots, aerial and land, facilities to transport and deliver merchandise and positioning farmers and producers as important players in the FSC.

A modified FSC resilience model from previous research is presented to include SMEs located in highly vulnerable remote zones, where access to resources is limited after a disruptive event, and a typology of enterprises with local CI backup according to their level of adoption of resilient practices. This study contributes to enhancing resilience and mitigating the vulnerabilities of SMEs after the CI collapses.

The purpose of this paper is to study the benefits of construction of sustainable buildings and highlight the challenges of achieving sustainable buildings in Kosovo. The present paper not only focuses on social, economic and environmental benefits of the sustainable buildings viewed from the perspective of construction industry experts but also on the challenges that the construction industry in Kosovo faces in achieving sustainable buildings.

The present study uses a qualitative research method and semi-structured interviews as a research instrument. The present study interviews around 20 experts of real estate management, architecture, civil engineering and sustainability.

The present research finds that the citizens of Kosovo are not very well informed about the benefits of sustainable buildings due to lack of adequate promotion of such buildings. The present study finds that sustainable buildings from the view of construction professionals in Prishtina, Kosovo, have economic, social, and environmental benefits mainly in the form of energy savings, lower operational costs, reduction of pollution and CO₂ emissions and better health and satisfaction of occupants. The challenges are mainly of economic, structural and organizational and regulatory character.

The present study has great implications for the society and construction industry because it shows to the investors all the benefits of building and using sustainable buildings. The findings of the present study, to a certain extent, fill the gap of lack of information that the construction industry in Kosovo faces regarding the benefits and challenges of sustainable buildings. The construction industry, buyers and authorities can benefit from the present study since they can understand the benefits and challenges of sustainable buildings, which can encourage them to invest more in sustainable buildings.

The study is the first qualitative study about the perception of construction professionals in Prishtina, Kosovo, regarding the benefits and challenges of sustainable buildings.