Browsing by Author "Huisingh, Donald"
Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Bridges for a more sustainable future: joining Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU) and the European Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP) conferencesPublication . Lozano, Rodrigo; Ciliz, Nilgun; Ramos, Tomás B.; Blok, Vincent; Caeiro, Sandra; van Hoof, Bernardus; Huisingh, Donald
- Co-creating a sustainability performance assessment tool for public sector organisationsPublication . Ramos, Tomás B.; Domingues, Ana Rita; Caeiro, Sandra; Cartaxo, Joana; Painho, Marco; Antunes, Paula; Santos, Rui; Videira, Nuno; Walker, Richard M.; Huisingh, DonaldOrganisations are increasingly being pushed to manage, assess and report their sustainability performance, including public sector organisations (PSO). Several approaches were developed to implement sustainability assessments at the organisation level. However, the majority are still for the private sector and are often not supported by active stakeholder involvement. Several PSO have adapted private-oriented models to assess their sustainability performance, which are often not adequate due to public administration, whose main mission is to provide public services. The present work aims at developing a conceptual framework to support PSO and to assess their sustainability performance. The proposed approach is supported by two sustainability performance assessment systems – Formal and Informal Sustainability Performance Assessment. The Formal Sustainability Performance Assessment system, which is the main focus of this paper, consists of a checklist of objectives and practices and a set of twenty-nine (29) performance indicators. An initial proposal was drawn from the literature review and then assessed through a participatory process involving practitioners and academics in semistructured interviews, questionnaire surveys and a collaborative workshop. The Portuguese central public administration was used as a case study. The developed checklist of objectives and practices and related performance indicators will allow PSO to assess and communicate complex information about organisational sustainability. Reference values support the normalization of indicators’ results, and consequently, the comparison of sustainability-related performance between PSO integrated into the context of the Portuguese central public administration. This research contributes to the debate on organisational sustainability assessment and communication, and the importance of selecting and developing sustainability indicators using co-creation processes with key stakeholders.
- Employee-driven sustainability performance assessment in public organisationsPublication . Coutinho, Vera; Domingues, Ana Rita; Caeiro, Sandra; Painho, Marco; Antunes, Paula; Santos, Rui; Videira, Nuno; Walker, Richard M.; Huisingh, Donald; Ramos, Tomás B.Organisations are increasingly adopting sustainability performance assessment tools. However, these formal organisational sustainability assessments are typically managed and prepared by technical staff. There is a lack of research on approaches that enable a stakeholder-driven performance assessment. This paper develops a framework of informal/complementary stakeholder-driven sustainability performance assessment, from the perspective of employee voluntary collaboration. The framework composes a checklist of questions covering the main sustainability domains: perceptions, individual practices, and voluntary monitoring indicators. In an exploratory case study in a public organisation, the checklist was evaluated by employees in a participatory workshop. The evaluation criteria of understanding and usefulness were rated more positively than reliability. This paper shows a novel way of integrating employee inputs for informal sustainability assessment and supports the importance of empowering public organisations, thereby increasing their understanding of sustainability management frameworks.
- Experiences from the implementation of sustainable development in higher education institutions: environmental management for sustainable universitiesPublication . Ramos, Tomás B.; Caeiro, Sandra; van Hoof, Bart; Lozano, Rodrigo; Huisingh, Donald; Ceulemans, KimDuring the last decades several international initiatives have emphasised that education is an imperative for societies to become more sustainable. This special volume stream is comprised of 33 papers that illustrate some of the efforts being taken by higher education institutions to contribute to sustainability. The majority of the papers were presented at the European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production e Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities conference in Istanbul, Turkey in 2013. The papers address topics such as implementation of sustainable development, stakeholder engagement and participation, campus operations, sustainability reporting and assessment, organisational change management, and curriculum development. the papers in this special volume stream provide significant steps for the higher education for sustainable development discipline by exploring new and rethink theories, approaches, concepts, methods, and frameworks, as well as providing case studies and guidelines for practitioners. As the collection of papers shows, there have been many efforts in the implementation of sustainable development in higher education institutions; however, there are still many challenges to integrate sustainable development into their systems, and many opportunities for research in the topic.
- Procedures and criteria to develop and evaluate household sustainable consumption indicatorsPublication . Caeiro, Sandra; Ramos, Tomás B.; Huisingh, DonaldCommunication about very complex problems like household sustainable consumption in simple terms is still a major challenge. Despite the diversity of tools to measure household consumption, clearer indicators are needed to more effectively communicate with the general public. The main objective of this research was to develop an approach to define the main procedures and criteria to built household sustainable consumption assessment tools based on indicator sets. A review of available household sustainable consumption assessment metrics and related initiatives was conducted; this included a comparative analysis of the different approaches. The review revealed that the majority of these initiatives are focused upon specific domains (e.g. energy or waste), but none used an integrated approach in the sustainable consumption domains. Furthermore, it was found that few methods used indicators to measure and assess household sustainable consumption. Principal components and a checklist of key good-practice factors that a household sustainable consumption indicator system should include were developed. Due to the need to communicate effectively, to engage stakeholders and to address the complexity involved in the measurement and assessment of household sustainable consumption, the proposed integrated approach was designed to evaluate household sustainable consumption.
- Sustainability policies and practices in public sector organisations: the case of the portuguese central public administrationPublication . Figueira, Inês; Domingues, Ana Rita; Caeiro, Sandra; Painho, Marco; Antunes, Paula; Santos, Rui; Videira, Nuno; Walker, Richard M.; Huisingh, Donald; Ramos, Tomás B.The adoption of sustainability policies and practices in organisations is a rising trend, in particular in companies. Public sector organisations are also following this occurrence but with slower signs. Despite a relevant amount of research work on sustainability practices implemented by private organisations and by some public agencies, central public sectors have been left out of the scope of these studies. The main goal of this research is to identify the sustainability profile (including adopted policies and practices) of the public organisations, using the Portuguese Central Public Administration as a case study. A questionnaire survey was developed and submitted to Portuguese public sector organisations that fulfilled the following criteria: (i) to belong to the Portuguese Central Public Administration and (ii) to have the major area of activity at the national level. The statistical population was also defined on the basis of these criteria. Descriptive statistics and frequency analysis were used to explore the results in the organisations surveyed. The overall results demonstrate a low adoption level of integrated sustainability policies and practices, despite the expected positive trends related with the mandatory social and economic practices. This research contributes to new knowledge by characterising the sustainability profile of the Portuguese central public sector and where actions are needed, leading to a better transition to sustainable societies. The developed questionnaire can be used in other geographical, institutional and cultural contexts to define sustainability profile of worldwide public organisations, working also as a benchmarking tool.