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Describes a computerized system of building appraisal ‐ building quality assessment (BQA) ‐ which has been evaluated by the Building Research Establishment. BQA is a tool for scoring the performance of a building, relating actual performance to identified requirements for user groups in that type of building. It can be used as an aid for portfolio or asset management, rent reviews, investment appraisals, purchasing or selling properties, defining quality at briefing stage for new build and refurbishment, and judging alternative design proposals. Gives examples of the category classification of user requirements; the sections into which those categories divide and also the factors that comprise each section, thereby providing a common basis for measurement by different people, in different places at any time.

Focuses on a new, low‐energy, environmentally advanced building at the Building Research Establishment’s (BRE’s) site near Watford, UK. Notes that the building is part of an ongoing project between BRE, designers, manufacturers and other building professionals to investigate comfortable and healthy workplaces for the next century. Five monitoring programmes are presently under way. Describes the building’s innovative design, its computerised management system and the use of recycled materials in its construction.

There are a number of impediments to consumer adoption of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), including regulatory barriers, resources, infrastructure and vehicle characteristics themselves. These impediments also impact on other stakeholders, such as government, producers (i.e. corporations), suppliers (collaborators), competition (i.e. alternative products) and activist groups. The inter‐relationships amongst all stakeholders are complex, as one group may initiate actions that serve as impediments for others. Developing systems‐based sustainable alternatives to traditional, environmentally‐harmful automobiles requires the network of relationships between stakeholders and impediments to be considered. This paper looks at the various impediments as well as how they can affect various stakeholders. It then posits a broad based integrative approach to provide the most favourable environment for consumers to consider AFVs.

Historically, sex, tourism, and the labor market have long been inextricably linked, but media concerns about sex as the main purpose of tourism, and its effects on the host group and its sex workers, date from the mid-1990s, in the wake of the spread of HIV, the collapse of communism, the rise of the Internet, and the increasing influence of NGOs concerned with women's and children's welfare. This chapter argues that in order to understand fully the relationship between tourism, sex, and the labor market, we need to adopt a broader perspective and look at the various intersections between the three factors, and how they blend into and influence each other. It conceptualizes the three domains of tourism, sex, and work as intersecting circles and analyzes the forms of activity typical of each. “Sex tourism,” as popularly defined, is the space where all three overlap, but there are significant areas of sexual activity associated with tourism that are not commercial, and yet that generate significant and increasing business activity in some destinations. There is also a tendency for partners in commercial sex to define their relationships in terms of other sectors, as “love” or “romance.” The chapter concludes that with economic development, there is a tendency for roles in the sex industry to become increasingly professionalized and differentiated, and that as the industry is unlikely to disappear, regulation should focus on the empowerment and welfare of sex workers rather than abolition and suppression.

To identify and analyse the beliefs of value‐chain intermediaries regarding the production and marketing of food products conforming to environmentally sustainable standards.

The methodology was in‐depth, semi‐structured, face‐to‐face interviews with senior managers of food companies across the value chain.

In Australia, the demand for foods that are produced under environmentally sustainable standards has been slow to take‐off because customers do not perceive these products as offering any special benefits; customers distrust the claims made by organisations; these products are much more expensive than traditional products, and the implementation of environmental standards is expensive. Customers claim that the use of different terminologies such as organic, green and environmentally friendly in promoting food products is confusing.

Findings are not generalisable because the study is based on a small sample.

Value‐chain intermediaries are unlikely to voluntarily adopt environmental standards because of low demand for such foods and the high costs of adopting and monitoring environmentally sustainable production and marketing regimes.

The story supports previous research findings from the USA and EU.

Soon after the Lehman crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) surprised its critics with a reconsideration of its research and advice on fiscal policy. The paper traces the influence that the Fund’s senior management and research elite has had on the recalibration of the IMF’s doctrine on fiscal policy. The findings suggest that overall there has been some selective incorporation of unorthodox ideas in the Fund’s fiscal doctrine, while the strong thesis that austerity has expansionary effects has been rejected. Indeed, the Fund’s new orthodoxy is concerned with the recessionary effects of fiscal consolidation and, more recently, endorses calls for a more progressive adjustment of the costs of fiscal sustainability. These changes notwithstanding, the IMF’s adaptive incremental transformation on fiscal policy issues falls short of a paradigm shift and is best conceived of as an important recalibration of the precrisis status quo.

This study explores the implementation of sustainable finance in an Indonesian state-owned bank (“ABC Bank” or “ABC”). A case study approach is employed to deeply analyze the implementation using data collected through interviews and through a review of company documents. The frameworks from Soppe (2004) and Indonesia Regulation POJK 51 were used to examine the sustainable finance implementation. The findings show that ABC Bank exercises a sustainability commitment in implementing sustainable finance long before the government regulation is imposed on several banks as early adopters in Indonesia. The regulation requires selected banks to apply the eight principles of sustainable finance and prepare a sustainable financial action plan and sustainability report. ABC’s commitment is mainly driven by its status as a government-owned bank, thus facilitating the awareness of achieving public welfare while maintaining profitability. Social implication of this study is that developing countries often face more severe consequences of climate change than developed countries. Hence, the sustainable finance implementation can have a significant social impact to reduce the negative effect. This study contributes to the literature by exploring the initial adoption of sustainable finance by a state-owned bank attempting to balance the interests of the public and management. It also provides insights into other financial institutions adopting sustainable finance as mandated by the local obligation POJK 51.

Many manufacturers try to differentiate their products from close competitors with environmental claims that carry no independent verification. There is also little or no understanding of how much buyers are prepared to pay in higher prices or ‘trade offs’ for enhanced environmental features. A study of business‐to‐business consumers in the electrical and electronic goods sector set out to quantify how environmental issues factor in purchasing managers decisions.