The evaluation of the urban ecosystem conditions and environment while cities that are still growing economically, are highly necessary for reliable assessment of sustainability in big cities. The urban green spaces are valuable sources of evapotranspiration process generated by trees and vegetation which mitigates urban heat islands (UHI) in the cities. The Land Surface Temperature (LST) is closely related to the distribution of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) characteristics and can be used as an indicator of the urban environment conditions and development. This research evaluates the patterns of LST distribution by means the Thermal Spatial Distribution Signature (TSDS) procedure using Thermal Infrared (TIR) data obtained from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM). A set of eighteen images, between 1985 and 2009, were used to study the urban environment during the summer season, in 47 neighborhoods in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. At neighborhood scale, results show a non-linear inverse correlation (R2=0.55) between vegetation index and LST. The overall average of the LST is 300.23 K (27.8˚C) with a standard deviation of 1.25 K. The max difference found between neighborhoods was 2.83 K.

Well-functioning 'liveable' cities should be sustainable and their consumption of natural resources and production of waste must fit within the capacities of the local, regional and global ecosystems. It is increasingly becoming suggested that an Urban Metabolism (UM), approach could help city decision-makers (e.g. planners) take account of numerous critical influencing factors related to the inward outward flow(s) of natural resources (e.g. food, water and energy) and accumulation of waste. The paper identifies the precursory step for any UM study (Mass Flow Analysis - MFA) and applies it to a case study (Birmingham, UK) in order to show how it could contribute to the measurement, assessment and understanding of liveability, defined as 80% reduction in carbon (from 1990 levels); resource secure (an ethos of One planet living); with maintained or enhanced wellbeing. By provided focus upon an individual resource stream (i.e. water) at multiple scales (city to individual) it is shown that MFA can be used as a starting point to develop realistic and radical engineering solutions. However further work is required for it to be truly reflective of broader aspects of urban liveability.

Health organizations should be a reference in Corporate Social Responsibility and the encouragement of environmental sustainability, since the protection of the enironment implicitly involves the development of preventive measures in the field of health. Concern for the environment has typically been focused on manufacturing plants; however, health care organizations (HCO) are the only ones which generate all the classes of waste, with 20% of them dangerous due to their infectious, toxic or radioactive nature. Despite the extensive literature analysing environmental matters, there is no model to evaluate environmental sustainability in HCO's objectively. This contribution presents a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis model which integrates the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and utility theory to evaluate environmental sustainability in HCO's. The model uses criteria assessed by number of admissions and services provided annually; in this way the results can be compared over time within an organization and between different organizations, providing a tool for comparison or benchmarking between HCO's. The model has been applied to two HCO's of very different sizes.

This study attempts to develop a stakeholder-based framework incorporating environmental analyses in auxiliary product design and development through a case study. The case firm is a manufacturer and trader of mining machinery specified on a variety of electronic measuring devices for mine pressure and safety. Based on its existing research and development capacity, the firm has designed and manufactured a series of auxiliary products relating to measuring solution concentration including milk thickness, alcohol degree, antifreeze liquid thickness, and so on. These new products are expected to apply widely in schools, restaurants, families, winery industry, and automobile industry. Although the auxiliary products share some technique characteristics with the mainstream products, the firm faces problems in continuously developing and renewing these auxiliary products in an environmental friendly way, for they involve a different application context from the mining context that the firm is grounded on and is familiar with. To address this problem, this study advises with a framework based on stakeholder environmental concerns. It argues the stakeholders for auxiliary products are different from those for the mainstream products, so are environmental concerns of stakeholders. Identifying and addressing the new environmental concerns  would spot the key points for further sustainable product innovation and enhance the competitive advantages in marketing. This frameowork may provide new insights for eco-design and development with a focused context of auxiliary products.

Concern on financial stability of commercial banks is an ongoing issue, requiring permanent reviewing of regulatory frameworks and developing new approaches. Currently static regulatory methodologies are prevailing, which set pre-defined minimal requirements on limited financial parameters, such as capital or liquidity. The number of such indicative parameters cannot reflect overall performance of a bank because the set of monitored parameters is insufficient and because each financial stability parameter is monitored separately. Moreover, such parameters are static. Dynamic setting of values of minimal or desired parameters of financial performance of commercial banks should be more effective, in case we decide that we ought to vary requirements on banks over changing macroeconomic environment. Evaluation based on multiple criteria decision-aid (MCDA) methods comprises simultaneously several multidimensional criteria and provides results of evaluation in a clear form for both financier and everyman-depositor. Such an evaluation of financial stability state of the banks is providing more holistic approach. Moreover, it can considerably reduce information asymmetry between depositors and commercial banks, which may have positive effect on financial stability.Existing methodology of absolute MCDA evaluation provides an efficient tool of altering benchmark banks, hypothetical best and worst banks, comparing to which the evaluation is carried out, thus allowing to alter requirements for banks upon shifts of financial environment.

In the last few decades, especially since the 1990s, the CSR and business ethics have become important issues. The relevance of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be detected in the business and management trainings. Economic and corporate ethics, environment management, and sustainable management gained momentum in education but it is a real concern whether it is appreciated in SMEs. The real practice depends on the behaviour of the organisation and the socially responsible attitude of the leader as the leader is the determining factor in the operation of any organization.There have been several researches carried out regarding corporate social responsibility in recent years, the results were published in specialist journals and periodicals. There are researches dealing with the correlation between individual values and business life (Agle és Calwell, 1999), however, the number of those researches that deal with specifically the relation between the practice of CSR and the individual values of corporate leaders (Koivula, 2008) are small at international level. There are not many researches dealing with the management attitude of the CEO. The study deals with a segment of CSR that is the study of the correlation the CSR-practice and the personal values and attitudes of the corporate leaders.In the present research was identified many values (universalism, benevolence, self-direction) of the CEOs which are influence the CSR-practice. The examined characteristics may carry important information from the point of view of social responsibility. The findings of the research show the exact values and their priorities to a CSR-centred leader. It also introduces the dominant values of the leaders with modern CSR approach.

The combination of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has been recently proposed as a methodological framework for the sustainability assessment and benchmarking of multiple similar entities. While important benefits are associated with this combined methodology (e.g., quantification of performance indicators and eco-efficiency verification), some underdeveloped aspects need to be addressed. In this respect, further efforts are required so that the LCA + DEA methodology succeeds in coping with the different sustainability dimensions in balance. In particular, previous studies pinpoint the need for further exploring the economic dimension of this type of assessment. Within this context, the present work presents different pathways to enhance the economic component of LCA + DEA studies. On the one hand, straightforward options for widening the economic scope of the LCA + DEA methodology include the calculation of economic savings and/or life-cycle costing indicators linked to the operational benchmarks calculated by the method. On the other hand, indirect pathways rely on the previous calculation of environmental or emergy benchmarks. Environmental benchmarks can be translated into economic terms through the monetization of externalities, while emergy benchmarks can be translated into market-driven indicators for the valuation of ecosystem services. These pathways (either separately or jointly) help boost the use of the LCA + DEA methodology for sustainability assessment.

The article is devoted to the research of household consumer spending behavior as a source of the sustainable economic development in Ukraine. The research proves that there is a reversible relation between the HDI and the level of shadow economy. In the consumer spending structure the expenditure on the environment protection, intellectual and physical development are on the lowest level whereas the expenditure on public order processing, safety and judiciary are unreasonably high. In Ukraine during 2002-2017 there is an obvious trend of the HDI increase under a fall of shadow economy level, and in 2007-2012 vice versa – under a level increase of shadow economy the HDI decreases. Economic growth, corruption overcoming, optimization of the household consumer spending structure and economic management system in order to guarantee a comfortable life for Ukrainians is an urgent and essential strategy of the sustainable development of Ukraine. The main directions of increasing the human development index are identified with the aim of determination the strategies on the way toward European integration.

In the global society eco-innovation emerged as an effort to implement sustainable development as outlined during the 2012 RIO+20 conference. States and firms have established and implemented policies and strategies for eco-innovation as one route to sustainable development. Eco-innovation has been facilitated in developed countries, especially OECD members and European countries through action plans. Recently eco-innovation policies are emerging in the developing countries. Based on this context, this research aims to analyze eco-innovation policies in Asian countries. We investigated policies related to sustainable development in 17 Asian countries with the categories of policy instruments. National policies were interpreted and compared with the classification of development stages according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). As a result this research indicates different approaches to eco-innovation in Asian countries. It offers insights to designing national strategies for eco-innovation in Asia's developing countries. Therefore this research can contribute to facilitating and diffusing eco-innovation toward sustainability in Asia.

The adsorption of three different dyes on similarly derived carbon materials from date palm leaves was studied. The adsorption kinetics and equilibrium data were investigated based on dyes adsorption tests. The break-through time was noted with a UV-VIS spectrometer to determine the maximum capacity of the date-palm leaf derived carbon material. The types of surface groups present on the carbon surface of the activated date palm leaf derived material were studied. Also, the adsorption will be carried out by dynamic process in a flow-through column and the dynamic adsorption capacity and breakthrough curve were determined.