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Some universities have a commitment to both academic education and sustainable development, and the sustainable development goals can support several sustainable actions that universities may take as principles and attitudes. From this perspective, the purpose of this study is to present environmentally sustainable practices at a federal university in Brazil and to analyze and discuss the potential environmental impacts associated with an environmentally sustainable practice implemented using life cycle assessment (LCA) and its benefits for the university’s decision-makers.

To accomplish that, the study combines a description of environmentally sustainable practices at the 13 campuses of the Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR) in terms of education, water and electricity consumption, waste management and emissions. As a result of this analysis, one campus identified that a high volume of disposable plastic cups were being disposed of, for which the use of reusable plastic cups was introduced. In addition, an LCA study (ISO 14040:2006 and 14044:2006) quantified the benefits of the introduction of said reusable plastic cups.

The results show that the university is working on environmentally sustainable initiatives and policies to become greener. At the same time, using a systematic LCA made it possible to measure that replacing disposable plastic cups for reusable ones reduced waste generation but increased water consumption on the campus. Faced with this, a sensitization was carried out to reduce water consumption. Finally, the current study provides lessons on the environmental performance to universities interested in sustainable practices, fostering perspectives for a better world. The findings of this study encourage organizations to accomplish environmental actions toward greener universities. The study shows that institutions need to be reflective and analytical about how even “greening” measures have impacts, which can be mitigated if necessary.

The sustainable practical implications were reported, and an LCA was conducted to assess potential environmental impacts of reusable plastic cups. It was identified that raw material production is the phase that generates most environmental impacts during the life cycle of the product, along with the consumer use phase, due to the quantity of water used to wash the reusable cups. In addition, the practical contributions of this study are to provide insights to institutions that aim to use environmental actions, i.e. suggestions of sustainable paths toward a greener university.

This is one of the first studies to investigate and discuss sustainable practices at UTFPR/Brazil. The study assessed one of the practices using a scientific technique (LCA) to assess the impacts of reusable plastic cups distributed to the students of one of the 13 campuses. Although there are other studies on LCA in the literature, the value of this study lies in expanding what has already been experienced/found on the use of LCA to assess environmental practices in university campuses.

The purpose of this paper is to explore different types of packaging paradoxes and the reasons for their existence in food supply chains.

The research uses a multiple case study approach with rich empirical data from seven leading companies in Swedish food supply chains. The research uses coding and a paradox theory lens to analyse packaging paradoxes, both within and between companies in a supply chain.

The paper provides a novel theoretical lens which uses comprehensive empirical data to identify and categorise four types of packaging paradoxes on two system levels in food supply chains. It presents detailed descriptions of, and underlying reasons for, the paradoxes. It also discusses strategies required to manage packaging paradoxes.

Future research should confirm and extend the findings in this study by incorporating data from companies in other countries. It should cover the importance of paradoxes, their impact on company performance and innovation, and how different paradoxes are related to each other. It should also investigate strategies to manage paradoxes further.

The findings should help companies acknowledge and identify management principles for packaging paradoxes in food supply chains.

It is the first study which systematically explores packaging paradoxes in food supply chains. The study offers a new approach to understand the complexity of packaging decisions in food supply chains. It contributes to the packaging logistics literature by extending theoretical knowledge about conflicts of interest related to packaging. The management discussion offers initial insights into management of packaging paradoxes and directions for future research.

This chapter explores the potential economic advantages and disadvantages of reusable plastic containers (RPCs) in the transport of fresh produce from growers to retail stores. The empirical research linking packaging to quantifiable economic and social benefits is reviewed. This study answers the question – what are the economic and social impacts of increased standardization of bulk packaging in the North American fresh produce supply chains? Implications for the potential use of RPCs and its impact on sustainability are explored.

The chapter describes data from grocery retailers who have implemented both one-way and reusable plastic containers for fresh produce distribution. A Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TD-ABC) analysis was conducted to capture and evaluate process times and product damage associated with the typical deployment of bulk containers in the grocery retailers’ distribution centers (DC), retail stores, and asset recovery centers of the supply chain. Economic measures were implemented and together with the social dimensions provided insights about sustainability-based implications.

Fresh produce shipments using the RPC technology had significantly less waste and damage representing potential social and economic benefits. The empirical findings included results about the economic impact of RPCs on the sustainability level of a typical supply chain for fresh food products.

The quantification of the economic and potential social sustainability for the explored packaging types constitutes an important contribution. Much of the previous research did not contain comprehensive assessments. The impact of technological change – the introduction and use of RPC in packaging – is examined. In addition, the supply chain scope for this research included most of the major activities that involve the packaging of fresh produce commodities in its practical dynamics.

Low density polyethylene, commonly known as polythene, was first synthesised by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in England in 1933. Due to its extensive usage as a packaging material, along with other uses, it has now begun to pose a serious threat to the entire ecosystem. This material, which was used to make a variety of consumer goods, is commonly used for packaging a wide range of products including foodstuffs. It has been estimated that approximately 20 billion polythene bags are used in Sri Lanka. Because polythene and plastics take a long time to decompose (20–100 years), these materials have been contributing heavily to the pollution of the environment. Unfortunately, much of the discarded polyethene ends up in garbage dumps, thereby posing a great threat not only to humans but also to animals. This study aimed to investigate the use of polythene in supermarkets in the Attanagalla division, the management of household polythene waste, and the search for alternatives to replace polythene and plastics. Data were collected by interviewing 40 consumers and getting their feedback on the use of polythene bags in which the goods were supplied to them. Observations were also made in the field. It was noted that some consumers liked to use polythene bags while many others disliked them. More than 95% of the supermarket products were packed in polythene and plastic containers and packs. It was observed that there were shortcomings in the production of reusable bags, and because of that disposable polythene bags had to be used, causing the supermarkets to incur huge costs. On average, more than five polythene bags were used per customer to pack his purchases per shop visit. This costs between Rs. 25 and Rs. 30. There seemed to be no alternative to polythene and plastic, due to the lack of suppliers for more environmentally friendly packaging materials. Therefore, it is suggested to establish a system that will supply more eco-friendly bags and educate the public on the use of environmentally friendly alternatives.

Single-use plastic bags given to shoppers by retailers have increasingly become a key target for sustainability initiatives, with bans being introduced around the world. The rationale for such bans is based on the environmental impact of single-use bags, compared to their multi-use alternatives. The arguments for bans are underpinned by assumptions about how consumers will respond to the changes, yet do not account for the known patterns of buyer and consumer behaviour from the social sciences. This lessens the delivery of desired outcomes and hampers implementation strategies. This chapter draws upon this established knowledge to demonstrate how such marketing knowledge of fundamental buyer and consumer behaviour is critical when developing and implementing a public policy programme, using the example of a retail ban on the use of single-use plastic bags in Australia. It illustrates how these known patterns hold in this context and shows how social marketing can be used to help shape programme implementation and uptake and the reinforcement of new positive behaviours.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between the various variables present in the packaging plastic waste management system in the cosmetics industry.

In this paper, the authors deal with plastic packaging waste in the cosmetic industry with the help of system dynamics. The model broadly divides the system into six sections – Cosmetic Packaging, Waste Generation, Waste Collected, Waste Sorted, Waste Treated and Waste Dumped. Businesses have been investing in each section depending on their progress and targets. The authors are looking at case studies of two leading cosmetic brands, L'Oréal and L'Occitane en Provence, to validate the industry practices against our model.

From a business perspective, using the case study methodology for L'Oréal and L'Occitane, the authors inferred that out of the various investment vehicles available, companies are targeting technological advancement and third-party collaborations as they have the potential to offer the greatest visible change. However, most of these investments are going toward the treatment subsection. Still, there is a scope for improvement in the collection and sorting subsystems, increasing the efficiency of the whole chain.

There has been a lot of research on packaging plastic waste management in the past, but only a few of them focused on the cosmetic industry. This study aims to connect all the possible variables involved in the cosmetic industry’s packaging plastic waste management system and provide a clear output variable for various businesses looking to manage their packaging waste because of their products efficiently.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors affecting Vietnamese consumers’ intention and behavior toward “bringing your own shopping bags” (BYOB) instead of using plastic bags based on integrating theories: theory of planned behavior (TPB) and norm activation model (NAM).

The study used a combination of in-depth interviews and large-scale surveys. Data were collected from 536 Vietnamese consumers to explore the relationship among eight factors in the research model, including behavior, intention, attitude (AT), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control, the ascription of responsibility, awareness of consequences and personal norm (PN). The data collected went through quantitative analysis steps, including Cronbach’s alpha reliability test, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling for scales and hypotheses testing by using SPSS and AMOS data analysis tools.

The results show that in a developing country like Vietnam, attitude and PNs have a stronger impact on intention toward BYOB than other factors, and the study also reveals the moderate relationship between intention with actual behavior toward BYOB. The proposed hypotheses are all accepted except the hypothesis about the relationship between SN and PNs.

The main limitation of this paper is that the integrative model of TPB and NAM only explains 57% of the variance of the intention toward BYOB.

Based on the results of the study, the author makes some suggestions for Vietnamese state management agencies to promote BYOB.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents for the first time the application of an integrated model of TPB and NAM to learn about the intention and behavior toward BYOB.

Plastic has been a very useful material which is very cheap, easy to carry and is resilient to biodegradation. That is why plastic has been used, sometimes reused, and overused due to the reasons mentioned above. As a result, landfills and oceans are full of plastic. But if we consider all the negative health effects, environmental / ecological effects it has in present times, we can understand that it is environmentally very expensive to use plastic. Bangladesh is a relatively young country with dense population and limited resource. Proper management of plastic remains an issue with the country. Considering these, this chapter focuses on how plastic is used, how it is treated as waste and what can be possible solutions in reducing the amount of plastic in Bangladesh.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors affecting Vietnamese consumers' intention and behavior towards “bringing your own shopping bags” (BYOB) instead of using plastic bags based on the theory of interpersonal behavior (TIB).

We used a combination of in-depth interview and large-scale survey methods with the official research sample of 536 Vietnamese consumers to explore the relationship among factors in the research model including: attitude, affect, social factor, facilitating conditions, intention and behavior towards BYOB instead of using plastic bags. The collected data went through quantitative analysis steps including Cronbach's Alpha reliability test, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) for scales and hypotheses testing.

The results show that intention towards BYOB has a positive effect on consumers' behavior towards BYOB. Facilitating conditions have a stronger and more positive influence than attitude and affect intention towards BYOB. Meanwhile, the hypothesis about the relationship between social factors and intention towards BYOB was rejected by this study.

The main limitation of this paper is that the findings of the present study are limited to elements of the TIB.

Based on the results of the study, we made some suggestions for state management agencies and retailers to promote intention and behavior towards BYOB instead of using plastic bags.

This study applies the TIB to understand the relationship between factors such as attitude, affect, social factors and facilitating conditions on intention and behavior towards BYOB instead of using plastic bags.

Marketing Management, Consumer Behavior.

This case is suitable to be used in advanced undergraduate and MBA/MSc level.

This case highlights the initiative taken by Malaysian government in order to launch and implement “No Plastic Bag” campaign. The objective of this campaign is to discourage consumers from using plastic bags since plastic is not biodegradable and thus a big threat to the environment. As a result of this campaign, all supermarkets, hypermarkets, or department stores stopped providing plastic bags to the customers while shopping which was a usual practice before to carry the purchased stuffs. Consumers left with two options: either carrying their own bag during purchase or purchasing the plastic bag from the cashier for 20 sen. Azmir, the managing director of ForU hypermarket, was receiving several complaints from his customers since they need to pay for the plastic bag which made him ponder about how to make customers accept the “No Plastic Bag” policy wholeheartedly.

This case illustrates:

• The challenges faced by the Malaysian government in implementing “No Plastic Bag” campaign.

• The need for considering heavy promotional effort in creating awareness among citizens about green issues.

• The necessity to understand different mentality and behavioral pattern of consumers in embracing green consumption behavior.

The challenges faced by the Malaysian government in implementing “No Plastic Bag” campaign.

The need for considering heavy promotional effort in creating awareness among citizens about green issues.

The necessity to understand different mentality and behavioral pattern of consumers in embracing green consumption behavior.