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Poor municipal solid waste management is a major characteristic of urban development in Africa. In Ghana, local governments are mandated to ensure the collection, treatment and disposal of solid waste. However, this has been a herculean task for local governments in Ghana, owing to inadequate resources and weak technical capacities. This has prompted calls for, and actual involvement of the private sector through public-private partnerships (PPPs) in municipal solid waste management, particularly in the urban areas. This study aims to assess the roles, effectiveness and challenges of PPPs in urban waste management in the Sunyani municipality of Ghana.

Adopting a case study design, the study used a qualitative research approach to provide in-depth insights into PPPs in municipal solid waste management in the Sunyani municipality of Ghana. Therefore, key informant interviews and two focus group discussions were conducted.

The study revealed that some policies and actions of the local government (Assembly) do not positively facilitate the effective functioning of PPPs in municipal solid waste management. There is also lack of effective stakeholder consultation, collaboration and grassroot inclusion in the PPPs which affect the effective management of the increasing volumes of solid waste being generated within the municipality.

To achieve the objectives of the PPP arrangements, local authorities should initiate steps to effectively coordinate all the involved private companies. There must also be ways of involving the beneficiaries in the design and implementation of PPPs on waste management to allow for effective grassroots and participatory monitoring and evaluation.

The uniqueness of the case study being a mid-sized and secondary city in a developing country enhances the value of the findings and the application of recommendations in cities with similar characteristics and initiatives in improving PPPs in municipal waste management.

Green, lean and six sigma (GLSS) practices are widely used and well accepted techniques that have the capability to improve the economic, social and environmental performance of Pakistani small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, implementation of these practices in an integrated approach has not yet been witnessed in Pakistani SMEs due to a variety of challenges. To overcome the implementation challenges, this study has analyzed the impact of GLSS implementation over the sustainability in Pakistani SMEs.

This study consists of two phases. In phase 1, interviews were conducted to scrutinize the elements of GLSS implementation to simplify the model and in phase 2, a questionnaire survey was conducted to collect the data from the SMEs. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach is used to analyze the relationships among the latent variables and constructs.

Results showed that, leadership for GLSS, understanding GLSS techniques and technology upgradation are considered the most important elements for GLSS implementation in Pakistani SMEs. The environmental and social perspectives have been given more weightage compared to economical perspective. This inferred that there is a need to focus more on environmental and social perspectives in SMEs as compared to economic perspectives to achieve sustainable growth. Moreover, the results of the hypothesis testing revealed that GLSS implementation has a significant positive impact over the sustainability in SMEs considering the Pakistani scenario (β = 0.529, STDEV = 0.078, t = 6.81, p = < 0.001).

This study is the first of its kind for Pakistani SMEs. The structural model developed in this study for Pakistani SMEs will help practitioners to understand the important elements of GLSS implementation and sustainability dimensions.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of electric tugboat deployment in maritime transportation, including an in-depth assessment of its advantages and disadvantages. Along with the identification of advantages and disadvantages of electric tugboat deployment, the present research also aims to provide managerial insights into the economic viability of different tugboat alternatives that can guide future investments in the following years.

A detailed literature review was conducted, aiming to gain broad insights into tugboat operations and focusing on different aspects, including tugboat accidents and safety issues, scheduling and berthing of tugboats, life cycle assessment of diesel tugboats and their alternatives, operations of electric and hybrid tugboats, environmental impacts and others. Moreover, a set of interviews was conducted with the leading experts in the electric tugboat industry, including DAMEN Shipyards and the Port of Auckland. Econometric analyses were performed as well to evaluate the financial viability and economic performance of electric tugboats and their alternatives (i.e. conventional tugboats and hybrid tugboats).

The advantages of electric tugboats encompass decreased emissions, reduced operating expenses, improved energy efficiency, lower noise levels and potential for digital transformation through automation and data analytics. However, high initial costs, infrastructure limitations, training requirements and restricted range need to be addressed. The electric tugboat alternative seems to be the best option for scenarios with low interest rate values as increasing interest values negatively impact the salvage value of electric tugboats. It is expected that for long-term planning, the electric and hybrid tugboat alternatives will become preferential since they have lower annual costs than conventional diesel tugboats.

The outcomes of this research provide managerial insights into the practical deployment of electric tugboats and point to future research needs, including battery improvements, cost reduction, infrastructure development, legislative and regulatory changes and alternative energy sources. The advancement of battery technology has the potential to significantly impact the cost dynamics associated with electric tugboats. It is essential to do further research to monitor the advancements in battery technology and analyze their corresponding financial ramifications. It is essential to closely monitor the industry’s shift toward electric tugboats as their prices become more affordable.

The maritime industry is rapidly transforming and facing pressing challenges related to sustainability and digitization. Electric tugboats represent a promising and innovative solution that could address some of these challenges through zero-emission operations, enhanced energy efficiency and integration of digital technologies. Considering the potential of electric tugboats, the present study provides a comprehensive review of the advantages and disadvantages of electric tugboats in maritime transportation, extensive evaluation of the relevant literature, interviews with industry experts and supporting econometric analyses. The outcomes of this research will benefit governmental agencies, policymakers and other relevant maritime transportation stakeholders.

Limiting the use of antibiotics in food animals is a cornerstone of contemporary EU policy. Despite that marketing of antibiotics for growth promotion and nutrition has been banned since 2006, the use is still high and varied. This paper aims to investigate the forces behind the different usage patterns in Italy, with one of the EU’s most extensive use of antibiotics in animals, versus Sweden, with the union’s most restricted use, including how these usage patterns are related to EU and national policies.

The industrial network approach/the 4R resources interaction model is adopted to investigate the major forces behind the different antibiotic usage patterns. Furthermore, the study relies on the notion of three main characteristics related to the use of a resource activated in several user settings (Håkansson and Waluszewski, 2008, pp. 20–22). The paper investigates the Swedish and the Italian using settings, with a minimised, respectively, extensive usage of antibiotics. The study is exploratory in nature and based on qualitative data collected through a combination of primary and secondary sources.

The paper underlines the importance of integrating forces for policy to succeed in attempts to reduce the use of a particular resource. It reveals that Sweden’s radically reduced use was based on great awareness, close interactions between animal-based food producers and policy – and that integrating forces were supported by an era of state-protected food production, with promising ability to distribute the cost of change. The Italian characteristics hindering the integration of forces mounting for reduced use were restricted awareness, top-down business and policy interactions – and a great awareness about the difficulties of distributing the cost of change.

The study deals with the analysis of forces affecting the different usage of antibiotics within two EU settings. The investigation, based on the industrial network approach’s notion of connectivity of economic resources, that is, of exchange having a content and substance beyond discrete transactions, reveals how indirect related contextual forces, neglected by policy, have an important influence on the ability to achieve change, in this case of antibiotics usage patterns.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether mandatory disclosure of information accompanying the sale of real estate achieves its aim of informed purchasers.

Using a case study approach focused on mandatory disclosure in South Australia data was collected from interviews and focus groups with key personnel in the property industry involved in the production of information required to fulfil vendors’ disclosure obligations.

The authors found that purchasers are ill-served by a long and complex form of mandatory disclosure with a short time frame that prevents the use of the information provided. Without good form design and increased digital affordances provided by the cadastral and conveyancing systems, mandatory disclosure is insufficient to ensure minimisation of information asymmetry between vendor and purchaser.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first Australian qualitative study that examines the utility of mandatory vendor disclosure in real estate sales and the first to consider the impact of the digitalisation of cadastral and conveyancing systems upon the efficacy of mandatory disclosure regimes.

In line with the growing trend of companies focusing on achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs), this research paper aims to propose a classification of values of socially responsible companies aligned with the SDGs that these companies could fulfill.

The authors’ carried out a qualitative semiotic analysis of four companies as part of the corporate environmental communication initiative to focus on the corporate values conveyed in the messages. Using thematic analysis, the authors’ identified the SDGs achieved by their actions. By coding the values and the SDGs, the authors’ performed a top-down hierarchical classification, linking the value system to the SDGs.

This research unveils various relationships between corporate communication values and the practical implementation of specific SDGs. This paper sheds light on the central role of utilitarian values in achieving SDGs 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13 and highlights the importance of existential values in reaching SDGs 8, 9, 10, 12, 11 and 17. Conversely, no utilitarian values contribute to the realization of SDGs 7, 8, 11, 13 and 17, while no existential values enable the achievement of SDGs 7, 12, 13 and 17.

This research makes a valuable contribution to the achievement of the SDGs by adopting a streamlined approach that aligns with specific company values. The classification of values by SDG provides an in-depth understanding of commitments toward these goals and promotes more coherent integration into corporate culture and business practices. This approach ensures that sustainable progress is aligned with the values communicated in their long-term strategy, enabling businesses to effectively address crises.

The study aims to determine whether a relationship exists between the potential significance of corporate controversies for stakeholders and how organisations respond to them in their annual and sustainability reports.

This paper employs content analysis on annual and sustainability reports of 48 listed companies from the Refinitiv database. The logit regression was used to estimate the model.

The study revealed that the main factors increasing the probability of a controversial issue being addressed in a corporate report are the controversy’s potential significance, companies’ financial performance and lawsuits.

Our study has three major limitations. These are a relatively small sample of companies and reports, focusing on disclosures made in corporate reports and omitting other channels of communication, for example, social media, and a certain amount of subjectivity in the process of coding information.

Former studies show that corporations face a serious risk of their hypocritical strategies becoming too evident for stakeholder groups. Our findings suggest that the risk is already materialising and may undermine the idea of CSR and sustainability reporting.

Our research focuses on high-profile adverse incidents widely reported in the media, the omission of which from corporate reports seems to constitute a particular case of organised hypocrite. It also demonstrates that companies use an impression management strategy to defuse adverse publicity and that major controversies cause minor ones to be omitted from their reports.

Wind energy has developed rapidly becoming a promising source of renewable energy. Although wind energy is described as clean energy, the problem of blade disposal has emerged from decommissioned wind turbines in the renewable energy sector, these blades manufactured from composite materials are almost impossible to recycle.

This study proposed a methodological workflow for an educational approach toward accelerating the transition to a circular economy (CE) through a case study reusing wind turbine blade waste. The participants were undergraduate students. In the quantitative case study approach of students’ coursework, innovative architectural reuse was the basis of the methodology for creatively reusing blade waste. Students reused the blades as building elements.

The workflow could be beneficial to the renewable energy sector and the architecture, engineering and construction industry. The results show that the impact of creative reuse is positive as it reduces the energy consumed by conventional recycling processes, reduces carbon dioxide-equivalents and preserves the structural properties of the blades.

The research reported in this study is exploratory and findings may not be generalizable due to the location and limited number of participants in the design process. Also, the empirical data collected were limited to the views and opinions of the students and instructor.

The novel workflow provided evidence at the end of the course that participating students became more interested in CE and were able to think more independently about CE. Creative reuse promotes circularity, reducing virgin material extraction and carbon emissions.

This research paper aims to evaluate the sustainability knowledge and background of students, staff and faculty regarding current university sustainability practices and individual behaviors at Central Michigan University (CMU); to compare sustainability background and knowledge based on academic discipline of enrollment or employment; and to assess sustainability awareness and interest of the campus community to guide future sustainability initiatives and resources at CMU.

An electronic cross-sectional survey was used to collect anonymous responses through Qualtrics, and then results were analyzed through SPSS. Analyses were performed based on the academic structures at CMU.

This research has found that students in STEM fields are more inclined to have pro-sustainability attitudes, knowledge and behaviors, compared to those studying the arts and business. Additionally, results indicate that there is a significant difference in knowledge between the students, and the staff and faculty respondents regarding sustainability knowledge and application, with the staff and faculty consistently demonstrating more pro-sustainability knowledge and behavior.

While research has previously been conducted on sustainability attitudes and behaviors, this research is unique because it ties sustainability knowledge to academic discipline. Additionally, it serves to gauge which sustainability programs and topics members of the campus community are most interested in, and which areas they are most willing to support.