Product Stewardship in Action
Author | : Helen Lewis |
Publisher | : Routledge |
Total Pages | : 227 |
Release | : 2017-09-08 |
Genre | : Business & Economics |
ISBN | : 135128486X |
Product Stewardship in Action describes how and why leading companies are taking responsibility for the environmental impact of their products and packaging. Product stewardship, often referred to as "extended producer responsibility" or EPR, is the idea that everyone that benefits commercially from a product, including manufacturers, distributors and retailers, has a shared responsibility to minimize its environmental impacts. Written primarily for a business audience, it draws on the knowledge and experience of industry practitioners and other experts to provide a structured approach to product responsibility within firms. This will help those new to the field, as well as more experienced practitioners, to develop an effective response to stakeholder concerns about the environmental impacts of their products and packaging. Unlike other resources on product stewardship and EPR, which tend to focus on the design or evaluation of public policy, this book highlights the business case for action. It argues that companies can achieve "shared value" — both public and commercial value — when they take a proactive and knowledge-based approach to the life-cycle management of their products. Product Stewardship in Action focuses on product stewardship as an effective business strategy rather than a philanthropic exercise. To be effective it needs to be based on a good understanding of product impacts and stakeholder concerns, and the risks and opportunities that these present to the business. The most effective responses will be those that address material issues in the product life-cycle while supporting the achievement of other corporate goals and priorities.
Handbook of Engaged Sustainability
Author | : JOAN MARQUES. |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : |
Release | : 2019 |
Genre | : Environmental economics |
ISBN | : 9783319531212 |
This handbook is based on the premise that in order for sustainability to be sustainable, a profound psychological transformation has to take place at the individual and collective level. Focusing on the practice of environmental sustainability, this handbook will explore the application of sustainability in a wide variety of contemporary contexts -- from economics of consumption and growth to government policy, sustainable cities, and sustainable planet. The editors believe that the way to achieve sustainable, harmonious living in all spheres is through lived or engaged sustainability at the personal, team, and organizational levels. It is impossible to separate economic development issues from environment issues. In its most practical aspect, sustainability is about understanding the interconnections among environment, society, and economy. This book aims to provide a comprehensive overview of current theories and approaches in the area of engaged sustainability for academics, researchers and practitioners. Specifically, it will focus on making responsible decisions that will reduce humanity's negative impact on the environment. While various social and political initiatives for sustainability are welcome, one cannot really enact sustainability into legislative laws. Something has to change fundamentally at the level of a common person in the street. The Handbook of Engaged Sustainability acknowledges the classic literature, theories and principles in the area of sustainability, but also provides new theories and approaches from global scholars and practitioners in the field. It will also provide a well-structured pedagogical framework with real life case examples. The aim of this handbook is to expand the reader's thinking to one of "big-picture awareness" and a "cosmic vision" of sustainability, a vision that extends from our neighborhoods to our communities, to states, countries, globe, galaxy, and envelops the entire Universe! This book will serve.
Alternative Pathways in Science and Industry
Author | : David J. Hess |
Publisher | : MIT Press |
Total Pages | : 345 |
Release | : 2007-03-16 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 0262263149 |
In Alternative Pathways in Science and Industry, David Hess examines how social movements and other forms of activism affect innovation in science, technology, and industry. Synthesizing and extending work in social studies of science and technology, social movements, and globalization, Hess explores the interaction of grassroots environmental action and mainstream industry and offers a conceptual framework for understanding it. Hess proposes a theory of scientific and technological change that considers the roles that both industry and grassroots consumers play in setting the research agenda in science and technology, and he identifies "alternative pathways" by which social movements can influence scientific and technological innovation. He analyzes four of these pathways: industrial opposition movements, organized against targeted technologies (as in the campaign against nuclear energy); technology- and product-oriented movements, which press for alternatives (as does the organic food movement); localism, which promotes local ownership (as in "buy-local" campaigns); and access pathways, which support a more equitable distribution of resources. Within each pathway, Hess examines reforms in five different areas: agriculture, energy, waste and manufacturing, infrastructure, and finance. The book's theoretical argument and empirical evidence demonstrate the complex pattern of incorporation (of grassroots innovations) and transformation (of alternative ownership structures and the alternative products themselves) that has characterized the relationship of industry and activism. Hess's analysis of alternative pathways to change suggests ways economic organizations could shift to a more just and sustainable course in the twenty-first century.
Stewardship and the Future of the Planet
Author | : Rachel Carnell |
Publisher | : Taylor & Francis |
Total Pages | : 291 |
Release | : 2022-07-22 |
Genre | : History |
ISBN | : 1000624757 |
This volume examines historical views of stewardship that have sometimes allowed humans to ravage the earth as well as contemporary and futuristic visions of stewardship that will be necessary to achieve pragmatic progress to save life on earth as we know it. The idea of stewardship – human responsibility to tend the Earth – has been central to human cultures throughout history, as evident in the Judeo-Christian Genesis story of the Garden of Eden and in a diverse range of parallel tales from other traditions around the world. Despite such foundational hortatory stories about preserving the earth on which we live, humanity in the Anthropocene is nevertheless currently destroying the planet with breathtaking speed. Much research on stewardship today – in the disciplines of geography, urban studies, oceans research, and green business practice – offers insights that should help address the ecological challenges facing the planet. Simultaneous scholarship in the humanities and other fields reminds us that the damage done to the planet has often been carried out in the name of tending the land. In order to make progress in environmental stewardship, scholars must speak to each other across the disciplinary boundaries, as they do in this volume.
Pathways to Our Sustainable Future
Author | : Patricia DeMarco |
Publisher | : University of Pittsburgh Press |
Total Pages | : 247 |
Release | : 2017-10-24 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 0822983001 |
Pittsburgh has a rich history of social consciousness in calls for justice and equity. Today, the movement for more sustainable practices is rising in Pittsburgh. Against a backdrop of Marcellus shale gas development, initiatives emerge for a sustainable and resilient response to the climate change and pollution challenges of the twenty-first century. People, institutions, communities, and corporations in Pittsburgh are leading the way to a more sustainable future. Examining the experience of a single city, with vast social and political complexities and a long industrial history, allows a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent in adapting to change throughout the world. The case studies in this book respond to ethical challenges and give specific examples of successful ways forward. Choices include transforming the energy system, restoring infertile ground, and preventing pollution through green chemistry. Inspired by the pioneering voice of Rachel Carson, this is a book about empowerment and hope.
Perspectives on Product Stewardship
Author | : Scott Cassel |
Publisher | : Rowman & Littlefield |
Total Pages | : 429 |
Release | : 2023-08-21 |
Genre | : Technology & Engineering |
ISBN | : 1641433183 |
The massive increase in consumer product waste, its toxicity, and the complexity of materials have created an unbearable financial and management burden for municipal officials—it has become untenable. We have outgrown the era of municipalities being solely responsible for recycling. A paradigm shift is needed. The concepts of Extended Producer Responsibility and Product Stewardship play a significant role in bringing our consumption of natural resources and emission of greenhouse gases back into balance with the earth’s ability to absorb these impacts. Perspectives on Product Stewardship provides an overview on managing products throughout their life cycles in order to conserve resources, decrease environmental impact, and share the burden of responsibility. It gives the reader a broad understanding of the origins and evolution of the rapidly expanding field of product stewardship and extended producer responsibility, while providing exemplary and precautionary case studies—on paint, batteries, and packaging. Informative and timely, this reference will be useful to anyone engaged in, or embarking on, efforts to reduce impacts from consumer products: producers, retailers, waste management professionals, recyclers, governments, environmental advocates, students, and the public.
Earth Stewardship
Author | : Ricardo Rozzi |
Publisher | : Springer |
Total Pages | : 464 |
Release | : 2015-03-26 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 3319121332 |
This book advances Earth Stewardship toward a planetary scale, presenting a range of ecological worldviews, practices, and institutions in different parts of the world and to use them as the basis for considering what we could learn from one another, and what we could do together. Today, inter-hemispheric, intercultural, and transdisciplinary collaborations for Earth Stewardship are an imperative. Chapters document pathways that are being forged by socio-ecological research networks, religious alliances, policy actions, environmental citizenship and participation, and new forms of conservation, based on both traditional and contemporary ecological knowledge and values. “The Earth Stewardship Initiative of the Ecological Society of America fosters practices to provide a stable basis for civilization in the future. Biocultural ethic emphasizes that we are co-inhabitants in the natural world; no matter how complex our inventions may become” (Peter Raven).
Pathways to a New Environmental Ethic
Author | : Steven E. Alford |
Publisher | : McFarland |
Total Pages | : 211 |
Release | : 2024-08-01 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 1476692947 |
We live under the threat of humanity's self-inflicted extinction. While technological approaches to climate mitigation are admirable, our ecological crisis results ultimately from an inherited, unexamined concept of selfhood and a misconceived view of nature. The received idea that our self exists inside our skull engenders an assumption that nature is "out there," with devastating results. This book explores three new ways of thinking about the interrelation of ourselves and "nature": Merleau-Ponty's notion of embodiment, the connection between enactivism and affordances, and object oriented ontology. These approaches to selfhood reorder our moral obligations: What are our responsibilities to ourselves, our children, and nature itself? An embodied ethic can transcend cultural biases and offer a new way of confronting climate change. To meet environmental challenges, we need to change our minds about our minds.