- Go to the Sessions
-
- a. Environmental Sustainability
- b. Corporate Sustainability Strategy
- c. Social Values for a Sustainable Economy
- d. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources
- e. Sustainable Urban Development
- f. Sustainable Development Policy and Practice
- g. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation
- h. Remote Sensing for Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity, Sustainable Agriculture
- i. Related Topics
- Event Details
Call for Papers
The World Sustainability Forum 2012 (WSF-2012) will cover timely research topics concerned with sustainability and sustainable development. The conference will include nine topical sessions focusing on:
1. Environmental Sustainability (Section A).
2. Corporate Sustainability Strategy (Section B).
3. Social Values for a Sustainable Economy (Section C).
4. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources (Section D).
5. Sustainable Urban Development (Section E).
6. Sustainable Development Policy and Practice (Section F).
7. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation (Section G).
8. Remote Sensing for Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity (Section H)
9. General and Related topics (Section I)
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with issues related to recent insights and advances in these topics. In particular, the conference will encourage both theoretical and practical debates surrounding environmental, economical and social contexts for those who want to go beyond the buzzword.
The conference will be completely free of charge―both to attend and for authors to publish―and is sponsored by MDPI and the scientific journal Sustainability. Selected papers will be published in the journal Sustainability.
The 2nd World Sustainability Forum Conference will be held at www.sciforum.net, a new platform developed by MDPI to organize electronic conferences for scholars.
Please submit your abstract with max 2500 character (in English) by September 10, 2012. Abstracts should be submitted online at https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf2/page/call. All submissions will be reviewed by our scientific committee. For accepted abstracts, a full draft paper should be submitted by October 15, 2012.
Paper Submission Guidelines
For information about the procedure for submission, peer-review, revision and acceptance of conference proceedings papers, please refer to the section "Instruction for authors":
https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf2/page/instructions
Conference Chairs
[email protected]
Sessions
A. Environmental SustainabilityB. Corporate Sustainability Strategy
C. Social Values for a Sustainable Economy
D. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources
E. Sustainable Urban Development
F. Sustainable Development Policy and Practice
G. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation
H. Remote Sensing for Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity, Sustainable Agriculture
I. Related Topics
Instructions for Authors
Submissions should be done by the authors online by registering with www.sciforum.net, and using the "New Submission" function once logged into system.
1. Scholars interested in participating with the conference can submit their abstract (about 200-300 words covering the areas of manuscripts for the proceedings issue) online on this website until 10 September 2012.
2. The Conference Committee will pre-evaluate, based on the submitted abstract, whether a contribution from the authors of the abstract will be welcome for 2nd World Sustainability Forum.
All authors will be notified by 25 September 2012 about the acceptance of their abstract.
3. If the abstract is accepted for this conference, the author is asked to submit his manuscript, optionally along with a PowerPoint and/or video presentation of his/her paper, until the submission deadline of 15 October 2012.
4. The manuscripts and presentations will be available on https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf2/page/call for discussion and rating during the time of the conference 1 – 30 November 2012.
5. The Open Access Journal Sustainability will publish the proceedings of the conference as a Special Issue. After the conference, the Conference Committee will select manuscripts that may be included for publication in this Special Issue. Five of the manuscripts with the highest scientific quality will be published free of charge following a successful peer-review.
Manuscripts for the proceedings issue must have the following organization:
First page:
Title
Full author names
Affiliations (including full postal address) and authors' e-mail addresses
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Methods
Results and Discussion
Conclusions
(Acknowledgements)
References
Manuscripts should be prepared in MS Word or any other word processor and should be converted to the PDF format before submission. The publication format will be PDF. The manuscript should count at least 3 pages (incl. figures, tables and references). There is no page limit on the length, although authors are asked to keep their papers as concise as possible.
Authors are encouraged to prepare a presentation in PowerPoint or similar software, to be displayed online along with the Manuscript. Slides, if available, will be displayed directly in the website using Sciforum.net's proprietary slides viewer. Slides can be prepared in exactly the same way as for any traditional conference where research results can be presented. Slides should be converted to the PDF format before submission so that our process can easily and automatically convert them for online displaying.
Besides their active participation within the forum, authors are also encouraged to submit video presentations. If you are interested in submitting, please contact the conference organizer – [email protected] to get to know more about the procedure. This is an unique way of presenting your paper and discuss it with peers from all over the world. Make a difference and join us for this project!
Submission: Manuscripts should be submitted online at https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf2/page/call by registering and logging in to this website.
Accepted File Formats:
MS Word: Manuscript prepared in MS Word must be converted into a single file before submission. When preparing manuscripts in MS Word, the World Sustainability Forum Microsoft Word template file must be used. Please do not insert any graphics (schemes, figures, etc.) into a movable frame which can superimpose the text and make the layout very difficult.
LaTeX: ensure to send a copy of your manuscript as a PDF file also, if you decided to use LaTeX. When preparing manuscripts in LaTeX, please use the MDPI LaTeX template files.
Manuscript Preparation
Paper Format: A4 paper format, the printing area is 17.5 cm x 26.2 cm. The margins should be 1.75 cm on each side of the paper (top, bottom, left, and right sides).
Formatting / Style: The paper style of the Journal Sustainability should be followed. You may download a template file to prepare your paper. The full titles and the cited papers must be given. Reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ], and placed before the punctuation; for example [4] or [1-3], and all the references should be listed separately and as the last section at the end of the manuscript.
Authors List and Affiliation Format: Authors' full first and last names must be given. Abbreviated middle name can be added. For papers written by various contributors a corresponding author must be designated. The PubMed/MEDLINE format is used for affiliations: complete street address information including city, zip code, state/province, country, and email address should be added. All authors who contributed significantly to the manuscript (including writing a section) should be listed on the first page of the manuscript, below the title of the article. Other parties, who provided only minor contributions, should be listed under Acknowledgments only. A minor contribution might be a discussion with the author, reading through the draft of the manuscript, or performing English corrections.
Figures, Schemes and Tables: Authors are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color. Full color graphics will be published free of charge. Figure and schemes must be numbered (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, etc.) and a explanatory title must be added. Tables should be inserted into the main text, and numbers and titles for all tables supplied. All table columns should have an explanatory heading. Please supply legends for all figures, schemes and tables. The legends should be prepared as a separate paragraph of the main text and placed in the main text before a table, a figure or a scheme.
Potential Conflicts of Interest
It is the authors' responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state here "The authors declare no conflict of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Financial support for the study must be fully disclosed under "Acknowledgments" section. It is the authors' responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state here "The authors declare no conflict of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Financial support for the study must be fully disclosed under "Acknowledgments" section.
MDPI AG, the publisher of the Sciforum.net platform, is an open access publisher. We believe that authors should retain the copyright to their scholarly works. Hence, by submitting a Communication paper to this conference, you retain the copyright of your paper, but you grant MDPI AG the non-exclusive right to publish this paper online on the Sciforum.net platform. This means you can easily submit your paper to any scientific journal at a later stage and transfer the copyright to its publisher (if required by that publisher).
List of accepted submissions (82)
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sciforum-002593 | Do We Need a New Paradigm to Facilitate Policy Effectiveness under the CBD? | N/A |
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It is nothing new that governments advance self interested policies during international policy negotiations and that the knowledge of policy experts reflects frameworks which are weaved into international policies. But it is unclear though if policy makers take deliberate steps to eliminate potential ineffective models when crafting international regulatory instruments. Using the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as a focus, this paper examines how an environmental regime\'s policies can build on sustainable institutional systems, enhance sustainable policy frameworks, save scarce resources, improve informed & effective community participation, and legitimise policy objectives. By examining whether multidisciplinary approach and knowledge can enhance the achievement of policy goals, as well as expose possible setbacks to achieving effective regime policies, this paper espouses multidisciplinary tools for understanding regime policy. It highlights potential topics for contemporary policy debates and themes for further research in the field of policy making. It is argued that debates about policy discourses in the 21st century ought to concern the degree of policy effectiveness: not policy ineffectiveness per se. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002513 | Using Transportation to Assess Optimal Value Chain Configuration for Minimal Environmental Impact | N/A |
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Transportation of feedstock, product and energy is key to forming the links in any supply chain. In terms of the overall environmental impact the transportation stages can also be a significant contributor. With a particular focus on energy, water and emissions, this paper examines the use of transportation to minimize environmental impacts of the supply chain, using the example of primary aluminium production from bauxite. A "radius of reduction" methodology is demonstrated using transport distance to balance the potential benefit of relocating production or utilising alternative facilities that may have better energy, emissions or resource usage. This approach is shown to be a useful tool for supply chain planning, purchasing or sales strategy, and in a broader assessment of industry potential. The ability to reduce energy and emissions are shown to be highest, while the water usage and costs associated with a carbon tax are less avoidable through relocation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002667 | Geoethics and Sustainability | N/A |
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The new scientific discipline of GEOETHICS, in the course of development during the last 20 years, has made considerable progress. To the originally preferred problems of protecting and moderating consumption of non renewable mineral resources of the Earth the priorities have been added concerning unavoidable natural disasters in connection with their presently increasing intensity. These events need to focus the actual attention and orientation of responsible activities of Earth scientists because of possibilities for both forecasting and suggesting appropriate measures for minimizing any potential expected damage. Laision of these topics with concepts of sustainability is evident. It is necessary for human kind, as well as for any further progress of its scientific background, to bring into consideration the necessity of deepening contacts of the Earth sciences with other technical and humanistic scientific fields. Geoethics may have an important role in this process as well as in introducing other new scientific domains. At any responsible level of state authorities and self-government as well as in any context of international co-operation, geoethics might be able to help in paving a better way for the needed understanding of nature by human kind. - It is also necessary to find appropriate structures which would make it possible to incorporate geoethical principles in the optimal way into the consciousness and the daily life of the global society. All efforts of not only Earth and Planetary scientists, ecologists and pedagogues but also of managers, leaders, politicians and statesmen at any level should respect – in the sense of geoethics – their own responsibility for the fate of our planet and of all its inhabitants including the future generations. - As to the final social, cultural, economic and environmental consequences for sustainability it is necessary to seek new priorities emphasizing more and more the solidarity of human kind. The needed geoethical way of thinking should be based on generally accepted moral and ethical principles achieved by mankind by various ways and experiences (in spite of some current contrary trends). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002612 | Remote Sensing of Biomass: Principles and Applications | N/A |
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Remote sensing is an important tool in determining the area and type of above-ground land-based biomass. Such information is required to compare supply and demand, determine the rate of deforestation and its causes, assess the store of carbon in biomass and the potential for increasing the store and use etc. The various types and uses of remote sensing are detailed together with their limitations, costs and benefits. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002698 | Evaluating Sustainability of Using Natural Gas as a Transport Fuel in Comparison of Two Countries: a Life Cycle Assessment Approach |
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Michael Kologrivov
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N/A |
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For reasons of sustainability, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy security, it becomes necessary to properly evaluate all of possible options for powering transportation fleet for a particular country. When doing this it is equally important to understand all the costs (economic, social, and environmental) and emissions during the fuel extraction, refining and distribution stages as well as the final combustion stage. All steps in the full pathway contribute to the final economic and environmental profile of any given fuel. The natural gas (NG) family of fuels has to be seriously considered as providing for large-scale transportation. From a combustion point of view, NG derivatives have a lower carbon-to-hydrogen ratio than oil-based fuels and should therefore be cleaner, but the upstream emissions of the fuels need to be properly understood. The supply pathways of gaseous fuels are more diverse than the oil-based fuels pathways, because the sources of gas are varied and can imply substantially different emissions profiles. It is therefore important to understand these various pathways for the country under consideration, so that profiles for each country can be documented and policy formulated accordingly. This preliminary study is conducted based on a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to evaluate potential sustainability of using gaseous fuels (CNG/LNG) for light commercial and passenger vehicles based on conditions in Australia and Ukraine, which are quite different, taking into account information on the production, distribution and use of gaseous fuel. Data for this study are mostly sourced from published literature. The results of the study reveal a significant opportunity for Australia, as well as for Ukraine to increase sustainability of the transport fleet if it takes gaseous fuels on as major source for transport vehicles. |
List of Authors (137)
Proceedings & Editors
Chair of the 2nd World Sustainability Forum
Scientific Advisory Committee
Organizing Committee
Dr. Brietta Pike (Basel, Switzerland)
Mr. Thomas Schurter (Basel, Switzerland)
List of Keynotes & Videos
Sustainable city
Energy Sustainability
Industry location assessment for multinational enterprises
A. Environmental Sustainability
Prof. Dr. Miklas Scholz, University of Salford, UK
Dr. Judith Tisdall, La Trobe University, Australia
Session Chairs
Professor Miklas Scholz, The University of Salford
Professor Judy Tisdall
B. Corporate Sustainability Strategy
Prof. Dr. John P. Ulhøi, Aarhus University, Denmark
Session Chair
Professor John Ulhoi
C. Social Values for a Sustainable Economy
Dr. Michael J. Heckenberger, University of Florida, USA
Prof. Dr. Terence J. Centner, University of Georgia, USA
Due to evidence that current economies are unsustainable, various efforts are being made to develop sustainable economies. Yet, proponents struggle to define what is meant by sustainability, particularly, in relation to contested social and cultural values. The session welcomes ideas for social values that might be incorporated into parameters for sustainable economies on topics that could include equity, empathy, education, human rights, poverty, health, environmental qualities, energy, and nutrition. We welcome ideas for a dialogue on socio-cultural values, including diverse gender, race and class-based differences, which should be considered in devising parameters for sustainability studies, such as climate change, ecological diversity and integrity, socio-economic development, urbanism, and environmental justice.
Session Chairs
Professor Michael Heckenberger
Professor Terence Centner
D. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources
Prof. Dr. Jesus Martinez-Frias, CSIC-INTA, Spain
This session aims to merge two topics of maximum scientific, technological and social-cultural interest (the so called twin pillars of sustainable energy policy): the objective of efforts to diminish the amount of energy required to provide products and services and the energy which comes from natural resources, which are naturally replenished . Energy is one of the hot themes of Rio+20 where one of the key questions is: How can we provide access to clean energy for everyone, and make sure that the energy we produce doesn’t contribute to climate change? It is well known that the more we use renewable energy, the more we benefit the environment, which has positive returns for everybody’s way of life. The session will describe the state-of-the-art, highlighting recent developments in both “pillars”. We also welcome contributions on advances in analytical techniques as well as other multidisciplinary issues from an earth and planetary perspective.
Session Chairs
Professor Jesus Martinez-Frias, Instituto de Geociencias, IGEO (CSIC-UCM)
Professor Jesus Martinez-Frias, Instituto de Geociencias, IGEO (CSIC-UCM)
E. Sustainable Urban Development
Dr. Michael J. Heckenberger, University of Florida, USA
The idea of sustainable urban development dates to the early 20th century, but radical 20th century changes in global population (<10% in 1900; >50 % in 2012) and associated size and distribution of cities and land-use, even in most remote areas of the globe, underscores the critical importance of urban sustainability, including global ecology and climate change. This session addresses major themes in urban studies in terms of sustainability, such as history and form, urban development and planning, environmental and social justice, socio-cultural diversity, public space and land-use, and the aesthetics and representations of urban life, and the tension between scientific models and applications and the diversity and socio-cultural rights of local groups and contexts, including minorities, marginalized groups and other vulnerable groups that comprise the majority of people affected by contemporary urbanism.
Session Chair
Professor Michael Heckenberger
F. Sustainable Development Policy and Practice
Prof. Dr. Christopher Koroneos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Prof. Dr. Sharon Megdal, University of Arizona, USA
The term \'sustainable development\' was defined by the report entitled Our Common Future released in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), the United Nations Brundtland Commission, as the development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. The concept of sustainable development takes into consideration the three constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and sociopolitical sustainability. All these three dimensions must be given equal weight. Thus, some key issues that must be taken into consideration to ensure that development was sustainable, could be:
• Water Issues
• Energy
• Food Security
• Environmental Degradation
• Climate Change
• Population and Human Resources
• Industry
• Issues of Urban Living
• North-South Dialogue
• Economic Development and Environment
• Trade and Environment
Session Chairs
Professor Christopher Koroneos
Dr. Sharon Megdal, University of Arizona
G. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation
Prof. Dr. Marc A. Rosen, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada
Show all published submissions (4) Hide published submissions (4)
Submissions
List of Papers (4) Toggle list
H. Remote Sensing for Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity, Sustainable Agriculture
Prof. Dr. Daniele Riccio, University of Napoli Federico II, Italy
Session Chair
Professor Daniele Riccio