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This paper presents new research on the potential pathways for integrated adaptation that could make England's suburbs more resilient to future climate conditions. It focuses on the role of central government, local agencies and householders in making adaptations to the built and natural environment.

This paper uses evidence from three facilitated workshops run with built environment and policy professionals associated with climate change adaptation in three cities in England: Oxford, Bristol and Stockport. The workshop contributions are presented in relation to the potential role that central government, local agencies and residents could play in adapting suburbs.

Central government, local agencies and householders form an interconnected network of agents responsible for adaptive action in suburbs. Professional and institutional stakeholders expect central government to take a lead and ensure planning policies and building regulations support effective adaptation. However, those local authorities and agencies that are expected to offer leadership locally do not have the resources to make adaptation happen on the ground. Overall, the stakeholders in this research believe that effective adaptation in suburbs may only happen once householders and government have experienced worsening climatic conditions. This could be a very costly stance in the long term.

This paper provides empirical evidence on how stakeholders engaged in suburban adaptation are making changes now, and on how they envisage change in the future. It reveals clearly the challenges involved in integrating mitigation and adaptation actions and highlight the complexities around implementation on the ground.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of narratives in biodiversity reports as a mechanism to raise the awareness of biodiversity’s importance. By classifying biodiversity narratives into 14 categories of biodiversity values this paper investigates whether the explanations for biodiversity conservation used by UK local councils are line with shallow, intermediate or deep philosophies.

This study used content analysis to examine the disclosures on biodiversity’s importance in the biodiversity action plans published by UK local councils. The narratives were first identified and then allocated into 14 categories of biodiversity value. Then, they were ascribed to either shallow (resource conservation, human welfare ecology and preservationism), intermediate (environmental stewardship and moral extensionism) or deep philosophies.

UK local councils explained biodiversity’s importance mainly in terms of its instrumental value, in line with shallow philosophies such as human welfare ecology and resource conservation. UK local councils sought to raise awareness of biodiversity’ importance by highlighting values that are important for the stakeholders that are able to contribute towards biodiversity conservation such as landowners, residents, visitors, business and industries. The authors also found that local councils’ biodiversity strategies were strongly influenced by 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity.

This paper is one of the few accounting studies that engages with the literature on environmental ethics to investigate biodiversity. In line with stakeholder theory, it indicates that explanations on biodiversity’s importance based on anthropocentric philosophies are considered more effective in informing those stakeholders whose behaviour needs to be changed to improve biodiversity conservation.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to answer specific research questions by investigating two case studies which involve large global mining multinational enterprises (MNEs) and how they implement sustainable development programs across rural communities in Tanzania. The author specifically examines how MNEs use internal stakeholders that is employees, as intermediaries, to influence external stakeholders, the local communities, to address social problems.

The author uses an exploratory research method which involves MNEs and 18 communities in western Tanzania as the cases. Semi-structured interviews, observation and the use of relevant archival documents was used to collect data.

This study suggests that, if MNEs are to leverage sustainability initiatives in rural communities, they must consider implementing a locally oriented strategy in their overall business activities that incorporates meaningful engagement initiatives with their employees and with the communities.

Despite the study was limited to one country, the results point to the importance of incorporating the role of community institutional environments’ influence over MNEs sustainability activities which could be generalized to other developing countries such as the case study of Tanzania.

This paper contributes to the nascent but growing literature on the role of business in the community, how employees as intermediaries facilitate effective CSR in communities, and the overall impact of community institutional environment on businesses. The author provides some practical policy implications related to MNE-community relationships in developing countries.

There is an urgent need to translate climate change awareness into tangible climate adaptation strategies. The built environment is identified as one of the kick-off points in making climate change adaptation as the built environment shares a dual-way relationship. While the built environment largely contributes to the climate change-triggering factors, it also becomes highly vulnerable in the face of climate change impacts. Tied up with the interconnectedness of the built environment processes and associated systems, the involvement of numerous stakeholders from different spectrums creates the need for a holistic and multi-stakeholder approach in developing climate response strategies for the built environment. Accordingly, this study aims to identify the roles and responsibilities of the different built environment stakeholders in climate change adaptation.

The study consisted of a scoping review at the initial stage, contextualising studies based on secondary data, and semi-structured expert interviews in five different countries: the UK, Sweden, Malta, Spain and Sri Lanka. The paper summarises the findings of the individual country-level desk studies and 65 built environment stakeholder interviews representing national and local governments, communities, academia and research organisations, civil organisations, professional bodies and the private sector. The findings were validated through focus group discussions in two stakeholder seminars.

The findings summarised a set of key roles and sub-roles for each stakeholder category, considering the current status and needs. The national governments need to set a long-term vision, enabling multi-sector interventions while promoting investment and innovation in climate change adaptation. The local governments overlook local adaptation plans, while the community is responsible for decarbonising operations and practising adaptation at the local level. Civil organisations and professional bodies are the voice of the community, linking policy and practice. Academia and research are responsible for nurturing skills and new knowledge, and the private sector must contribute by adopting climate resilience into their business portfolio and corporate social responsibility.

This research is part of an Europe-Union-funded research project, Built Environment leArning for Climate Adaptation (BEACON), which aims to develop skills and competencies of the built environment professionals so that they will be adequately equipped to handle the adaptation process of the built environment needs to adapt in facing the climate change impacts.

The paper provides an in-depth analysis of the roles and responsibilities pertaining to each category of the different stakeholders in effectively adapting the built environment to withstand the climate change consequences. Demarcation of each stakeholder’s roles and responsibilities separately facilitates collaboration and coordination between the different parties and provides a more holistic approach to climate change adaptation in the built environment.

As demands on global water resources intensify, battles are emerging over water ownership and governance. Evidence to support opposing views is scarce, however, especially with respect to the impact of ownership on water quality. Using a data set of 168,823 municipal water systems in the United States from 2010 to 2014, we find evidence that stakeholder attention moderates the effect of ownership on compliance with drinking water quality standards. Private systems’ compliance improves more rapidly with system size, consistent with greater social movement pressure, while public systems’ compliance improves more rapidly with local educational attainment, consistent with greater responsiveness to stakeholder attention and concern.

This chapter aims to determine the extent of stakeholder engagement in the sustainability accounting and reporting process in three Australian local councils. The frameworks of Arnstein (1969) and Friedman and Miles (2006) and the case study methodology are used to assess the stakeholder engagement practices of three best practice Australian local councils. The findings highlight the existence of five levels of stakeholder engagement ranging from informing to empowering. However, the extent of stakeholder engagement varied depending on the nature and purpose of engagement. This study adds to the limited literature on stakeholder engagement in sustainability accounting and reporting, especially in a public sector context. This study provides practical insights into engagement with stakeholders and is useful to both organizations and their stakeholders. Although focused on a public sector and Australian context, the findings of this study have implications for stakeholder engagement in various local and global contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the demands of the core stakeholders and how these stakeholders drive the information disclosure behaviors of the enterprise and local government.

Content analysis was conducted. The authors collected and analyzed information disclosure laws and regulations regarding environmental emergencies in China, as well as related media reports and official accident investigation report about the oil pipeline leakage and explosion accident in City Q. The authors divided the whole process of the accident into four stages, i.e., the prodromal stage, acute stage, chronic stage, and resolution stage, and then analyzed the different demands of stakeholders and the different information disclosure behaviors of the enterprise and local government during these four stages.

During the environmental emergency, the enterprise and local government exhibited information disclosure behaviors for their own benefits. There was severe information asymmetry between the enterprise and local government. Local government acted more positively in terms of information disclosure than the enterprise due to the demands of stakeholders. There were significant differences between the driving effects of different stakeholders. The effects of central government and local communities were the strongest, followed by news media and environmental organizations, whereas general public had the weakest impact. In addition, the effects of stakeholders on the information disclosure varied throughout different stages.

This paper considered a Chinese typical case study, thereby providing details of information disclosure behaviors of the enterprise and local government during an environmental emergency, and making comparative analysis on the driving effects on information disclosure by different stakeholders.

The increasing pressure for social responsibility and sustainability that multinational enterprises (MNEs) are facing in their global operations represents one important emerging phenomenon within the international business field. In this book chapter, we present an in-depth case study on how a global fashion MNE develops and implements sustainability practices in their operations in an emerging market context. The case study focusses on the MNE’s work related to energy efficiency and renewable energy in the production market of Bangladesh. The purpose of this chapter is to advance the understanding about particular practices pertinent to a proactive approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR). The chapter contributes to ongoing discussions within the international business field on the role of MNEs in driving and implementing sustainability practices. We add an in-depth understanding of the proactive CSR practices undertaken by an MNE, in an emerging market context.

This paper aims to discuss stakeholders’ understanding of sustainable tourism development and their experiences regarding the contribution of these movements to sustainable tourism development. The contribution of the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements to the success of a tourism destination is evaluated by determining local stakeholders’ perceptions of the meaning of these terms and views on their benefits.

A case study approach used semi-structured interviews to collect data from 11 purposively sampled local stakeholders. The interview questions spanned knowledge, membership and perceived benefits of the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements and the contribution of these Movements to sustainable tourism development. The data were analysed using framework analysis.

Varying levels of familiarity with the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements were evident. Clear economic and personal benefits from membership were acknowledged. It was confirmed that the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements have contributed to sustainable tourism development and that public–private partnership is key to its success.

The specific research context and limited purposive sample suggest great caution in any generalisation of the results.

Close and continued involvement of stakeholders plus membership of the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements can contribute strongly to promoting sustainable tourism development in rural areas.

It is recognised that the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements make a substantial contribution to local economies and add value to sustainable practices.

Involving local stakeholders in public–private partnerships can contribute to the success of rural tourism destinations when the Slow Food and Cittaslow Movements are considered as alternative approaches to sustainable tourism development.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent and quality of intellectual capital disclosures (ICDs) in the annual reports of the New Zealand local government sector.

This paper makes use of an ICD index constructed through a participatory stakeholder consultation process to develop a disclosure index which measures the extent and quality intellectual capital reporting in the 2004/2005 annual reports of 82 local government authorities in New Zealand. The final index comprised 26 items divided into three categories: internal, external and human capital.

The results indicate that the reporting of intellectual capital by local government authorities is varied. The most reported items were joint ventures/business collaborations and management processes, while the least reported items were intellectual property and licensing agreements. The most reported category of intellectual capital was internal capital, followed by external capital. Human capital was the least reported category.

There are a number of limitations associated with this study. First the research covered only one year (2004/2005) which makes it difficult to draw any trend conclusions. Second, differing legal reporting requirements may make it difficult to compare findings of this research with findings of research conducted in other jurisdictions. The final limitation of this study is its exploratory nature of this research and the use of a disclosure index to measure disclosure levels.

The results in this paper indicate that local authorities are disclosing some aspects of intellectual capital in their annual reports. However, there is no consistent reporting framework and many areas of ICDs do not meet stakeholder expectations.

This paper is unique in that it is the first study to make use of an ICD index to examine intellectual capital reporting by local government authorities.