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Construction and demolition waste (CDW) continuously causes environmental and social problems. These formidable challenges lead to sustainable issues and are an increasingly urgent issue worldwide. Prior studies have neglected to link the triple bottom line (TBL) to a reliable estimation or empirical model for estimating CDW production performance and lack empirical sensitivity analysis in profit maximization. This study proposes an attribute analysis to build a cost–benefit analysis (CBA) to obtain profit maximization.

This study uses fuzzy set theory to develop a cost and benefit analysis (CBA) model to assess the sensitivity analysis in terms of its performance on addressing the environmental, economic and social aspects. The model is used to weigh the sum of benefits such as financial gain and total costs of actions taken to mitigate the negative impacts.

Based on the sensitivity analysis conducted, the environmental, economic and social mean scales were significantly changed, i.e. increased, and profits increased drastically. The results provide an insight into environmental legislation compliance, environmental investment and environmental impact as the cause attributes for the CDW recycling profit increase. The results prove that sensitivity analysis is viable to infer that a sustainable production performance can achieve more revenue and profit through an adequate selection of attributes regarding the TBL aspects to address the firm's uncertainty problem in multiple criteria analysis.

This study builds a CBA model to maximize profits for recycled CDW material by linking of environmental, economic and societal aspects for recycled CDW assessments. It considers a sustainability structure with criteria based on TBL aspects to assess production performance to realize the Sustainable Development Goals and presents fuzzy set theory and sensitivity analysis to solve the uncertainty problem in the construction industry.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent the implementation of internal environmental management and voluntary environmental information is related to organisational change.

Organisational change literature provided a framework for the analysis of the materials which were collected through a mixed method. Data on internal environmental management were collected through a survey, while a quality disclosure index was used to assess the quality of the environmental voluntary disclosure. Interviews were used to enhance the quantitative results interpreted according to the four pathways proposed by Tilt (2006) and characterised by several levels of internal environmental management and voluntary disclosure.

The results indicated that companies implement more internal activities than external disclosure. Environmental planning and operational practices were the most important changes carried out. When environmental management accounting and environmental disclosure were also implemented, environmental aspects were more integrated within companies, thus revealing that a more structured integration of sustainability aspects within organisational values had taken place. The results underline the importance of primarily establishing a set of internal changes, driven by environmental planning, to promote organisational change.

The study presents a larger empirical analysis of the organisational change pathways followed by companies, showing similarities and differences among the four pathways. The results underline the importance of both dimensions for studying organisational changes. The framework of Tilt has been enriched, considering a more precise explanation of the internal aspects and adding the concept of the quality of disclosure as proxy to assess organisational change.

Organisational change is investigated through an extensive analysis of internal and external aspects and collecting quantitative and qualitative evidence. The analysis complements previous sustainability accounting literature focussed on the analysis of internal environmental management and external disclosure.

Although studies in corporate sustainability have been vastly growing, there has been an increasing demand for more industry-specific sustainability reporting studies to develop a greater understanding of industry differences in sustainability reporting practice. This study aims to measure the quality of sustainability disclosures in the current leading environmentally sensitive industry in Australia – the resources industry.

A scoring index was developed to measure economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability by integrating the fundamental principles of the hard and soft disclosure items from Clarkson et al.’s (2008) environmental index into the social and economic aspects of the Global Reporting Initiative framework. Subsequently, the index was used to assess sustainability disclosures in the annual and sustainability reports of resources companies in Australia.

The main findings show that companies report more of soft disclosure items than the hard ones. It is also found that companies report most sustainability information in the economic aspect rather than the social and the environmental aspects of sustainability. Most companies disclose sustainability information in their annual reports with few companies producing stand-alone sustainability reports.

This study addresses the need for more industry-specific sustainability studies by focusing on Australia’s resources industry. It also contributes to the lack of an existing tool to measure disclosures based on companies’ true contributions to sustainability by developing a new scoring index for hard and soft sustainability disclosures, which includes all three aspects of sustainability (i.e. economic, environmental and social).

Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

Australia has a huge stock of community buildings built up over decades. Their replacements consume a large sum of money from country’s economy which has called for a strategy for their sustainable management. For this, a comprehensive decision-making structure is an utmost requirement. The purpose of this paper is to capture their sustainable management from four aspects, i.e. environmental, economic, social and functional.

The design process follows an extensive review of environmental and life cycle assessments and company context documents. Extracted factors are tailored to community buildings management following expert consultation. However, the resulted list of factors is extremely large, and “factor analysis” technique is used to group the factors. For this, an industry-wide questionnaire across Australian local councils is employed to solicit opinions of the list of factors.

The analysis has pinpointed 18 key parameters (criteria) to represent all four aspects. This paper presents the preliminary findings of the factors and the analysis results based on the questionnaire responses.

The final decision-making structure incorporates all these aspects and criteria. This can be used to develop a decision-making model which produces a sustainability index for building components. Asset managers can mainly use the sustainability index to prioritise their maintenance activities and eventually, to find out cost-optimisation options for them.

Most notably, this is the first study to apply all four sustainability aspects (environmental, economic, social and functional) to develop a decision-making structure for Australian community buildings’ sustainable management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) related activities in small to medium sized construction enterprises within Australia. Reasons behind the implementation level are also evaluated.

Quantitative and qualitative company level data from 28 Australian small to medium sized construction enterprises were collected using an in-depth questionnaire. Levels of CSR implementation in three aspects, namely, environmental, social and ethical, were measured. Each aspect was broken down into sub-areas and implementation scores were aggregated and normalised. Awareness level and concern for economic aspect, the two hypothesised reasons for level of implementation, were also measured. Non-parametric correlation analyses were used to examine the hypotheses.

The findings suggest small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) incorporate some aspects of CSR into their business activities even though they do not refer to the practices as CSR, as none of them have a formal CSR policy in place. Most SMEs in the construction industry implement ethical and economic aspect of CSR; however implementation across environmental and social issues is limited. Non-parametric correlation analyses show that higher awareness of CSR issues leads to higher levels of implementation and that concern about economic aspect is not a reason why CSR is not implemented into business practices.

Everett Rogers’ diffusion paradigm can also be applied to CSR implementation, but more research works are required to theoretically and empirically examine the relationships between CSR implementation and economic aspect.

It is apparent that there is a significant gap in the research regarding Australian SMEs and sustainability issues as the majority of the literature is focused upon large organisations even though the approaches taken by SMEs towards CSR are very different to those of large corporations. The SME business sector is a significant sector in terms of its environmental, economic and social impacts. Hence recognition of this sector is growing and is now becoming the focus of an agenda to promote the implementation of CSR practices in SMEs. This paper aims to provide useful and detailed information to add to what is currently an underdeveloped body of knowledge in this area.

A systems perspective of waste management allows an integrated approach not only to the five basic functional elements of waste management itself (generation, reduction, collection, recycling, disposal), but to the problems arising at the interfaces with the management of energy, nature conservation, environmental protection, economic factors like unemployment and productivity, etc. This monograph separately describes present practices and the problems to be solved in each of the functional areas of waste management and at the important interfaces. Strategies for more efficient control are then proposed from a systems perspective. Systematic and objective means of solving problems become possible leading to optimal management and a positive contribution to economic development, not least through resource conservation. India is the particular context within which waste generation and management are discussed. In considering waste disposal techniques, special attention is given to sewage and radioactive wastes.

This paper is interested to assist organizations in the task of selecting and use appropriate indicators for their environmental evaluation procedure (EPE). This maximizes the successful deployment of the EPE process and as a consequence the introduction of good environmental practices. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

It consists of a proposal for a combined methodology based on the simultaneous use of environmental risk (ER) approach and RPN-based allocation method.

In the developed methodology, the authors use the principles of risk assessment and purpose a new formulation of weight allowance with reference to the severity of ERs and significance of environmental aspects.

Methodology suggested constitutes an invaluable help to implementation EPE process and as a consequence the introduction of good environmental practices.

Methodology suggested facilitates the process of environmental performance evaluation providing substantial assistance to one of the most important stages that is to decide which particular indicators will be considered.

This study of environment management systems implementation in Swedish universities contributes to the dialogue about the role of management systems as tools in developing sustainability in higher education.

The empirical study is based on Government directives that make environmental management systems implementation compulsory for all public organisations in Sweden, annual environmental reports of Swedish universities for the years 1997‐2002, their internet home pages, and a survey.

Many universities focus only on direct environmental aspects like paper use and waste handling, even though the main tasks of the universities, namely education, research and co‐operation with the surrounding society, that is the indirect aspects, are likely to have a considerable environmental impact. The organisation of the environmental work and the placement of the environmental coordinator also vary. Two main patterns appear; the coordinator has a function in the service department or an administrative function in the president's office. The goal of certification increases the likelihood of the environmental coordinator being placed in the president's office.

The aim is to increase the understanding of why and how a concept that was first introduced in industry is applied to institutions of higher education.

While in recent years the aspect of operation ecology is already widely introduced into the daily business of many banks, the issue of considering environmental aspects in external business relations as a part of sustainable business practice is a rather new and more difficult task. While the incorporation of environmental issues in credit management and investment funds becomes practice in some European and US banks, guidelines for the consideration of sustainability aspects in structured trade and commodity finance are rather more rare. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the existing opportunities to include environmental concerns into these two business sectors and to analyse which environmental criteria might be practicable. Above all the study is based on the consideration of financing trade with unsustainable or environmentally harmful substances. Concerning the sustainability aspects of these substances we revealed four criteria which will render substances as unsustainable. These are substances that are not degradable or only degradable over a long period of time, substances that are harmful to the environment and human health, and those that appear on regulatory or recommended negative lists. To give practical advice for banks, we identified products containing problematic substances and production processes causing problematic emissions. As a result we derived substance and product lists that may be used to help the organisational philosophy towards sustainability. The implementation of these lists would be a good starting point for financial institutions entering into a new area of sustainable business.