An Entangled Model for Sustainability Indicators

Sustainable Management Systems Standards (SMSS): Structures, Roles, and Practices in Corporate Sustainability

Companies need to develop more sustainable management models to support a strategy focused on the environment and society, preventing the sole ambition to maximize economic profits. Several specific tools and frameworks have been developed for the implementation of sustainability management. However, the isolated adoption of new management practices could increase bureaucracy and constrain the development of an effective and systematic sustainability strategy. Based on the development of four case studies of relevant companies based in Portugal, this research presents a cyclical process with the structures, inputs and outputs, and roles in embodying sustainability in Integrated Management Systems (IMS). The originality of the work lies in the level of integration. Beyond identifying interconnection areas, it also specifies the Management Systems Standards (MSS) requirements in each area, assigning different roles in the integration process: drivers, efficient enablers, pathways, and evaluators. These four roles promote the claimed integration in a systematic cyclical process, plan–do–check–act (PDCA), to assist the consolidation of sustainability management. This research reinforces the added value of the IMS. It expands its scope, helping companies implement sustainability effectively and systematically, resulting in the presentation of Conceptual Sustainable Management Systems Standards (SMSS).

Seven Approaches to Manage Complex Coupled Human and Natural Systems: A Sustainability Toolbox

Since the publication of the Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, there have been numerous studies on sustainability. These studies created new knowledge and tools for understanding and managing complex coupled human and natural systems. In this Critical Review, we used a topic modeling technique to analyze 12 526 peer-reviewed research articles and identify the research questions and the approaches that were used or developed in each of the studies. These approaches were then classified by function. The analysis revealed twenty-three categories of research questions and seven functional approach classes-design for sustainability, modeling of complexity, sustainability indicators, life cycle sustainability assessment, decision making support, sustainability governance, and engagement-each of which is described here as an individual approach or tool within a larger sustainability toolbox. The article concludes with a discussion about using the sustainability toolbox as an integrated knowledge system to support transdisciplinary study and decision-making.

Network characterization of the Entangled Model for sustainability indicators. Analysis of the network properties for scenarios

Policy-makers require strategies to select a set of sustainability indicators that are useful for monitoring sustainability. For this reason, we have developed a model where sustainability indicators compete for the attention of society. This model has shown to have steady situations where a set of sustainability indicators are stable. To understand the role of the network configuration, in this paper we analyze the network properties of the Entangled Sustainability model. We have used the degree distribution, the clustering coefficient, and the interaction strength distribution as main measures. We also analyze the network properties for scenarios compared against randomly generated scenarios. We found that the stable situations show different characteristics from the unstable transitions present in the model. We also found that the complex emergent feature of sustainability shown in the model is an attribute of the scenarios, however, the randomly generated scenarios do not present the same network properties.

Applying the SDGs to Cities: Business as Usual or a New Dawn?

With growing urbanisation the sustainability of cities has become increasingly important. Although cities have been using indicators for a long time it is only in the last decades that attempts have been made to collate indicators into sets that reflect the many different aspects required to assess the sustainability of a city. The aim of this paper is to review the evolution of indicators for monitoring sustainable urban development in order to understand how ‘new’ the indicators suggested by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are for cities and the challenges they may face in using them. The review reveals that previous indicator sets emphasised environmental sustainability, health and economic growth. It is also shown that indicator sets that pre-date the SDGs lacked dimensions such as gender equality and reduced inequalities. In all, the SDG indicators provide the possibility of a more balanced and integrated approach to urban sustainability monitoring. At the same time, further research is needed to understand how to adapt the SDGs, targets and indicators to specific urban contexts. Challenges of local application include their large number, their generic characteristics and the need to complement them with specific indicators that are more relevant at the city level.

Use of behavioural and physiological responses for scoring sound sensitivity in dogs

Sound sensitive dogs have exaggerated responses to sound stimuli that can negatively impact the welfare of the dog. Behavioural reactions combined with the response to sound involve a marked autonomic imbalance towards sympathetic predominance and release of cortisol. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate, in the laboratory, the cardiac autonomic modulation using heart rate variability (HRV) analysis, serum cortisol levels and behavioural parameters in response to sounds of fireworks in dogs with a history of sensitivity to fireworks. Based on these data, and combining qualitative measures and categorical measures, we propose one short and one full index of sound sensitivity in dogs. Six privately owned dogs with no history and another twelve dogs with a history of sound sensitivity to fireworks were used. The sound stimulus consisted of a standardised recording of fireworks (180-seconds long) with a peak intensity of 103–104 dB. The cardiac intervals were recorded using a frequency meter (Polar® RS800CX model) to evaluate the HRV, and the acquired data were processed using CardioSeries 2.4.1 software. Twenty-one behavioural parameters were analysed quantitatively by time, frequency or categorically by scores and were grouped in behavioural categories of arousal, fear, relaxation and “other”. Sound sensitive dogs had exacerbated autonomic responses to the sound stimulus in the laboratory compared to non-sensitive dogs, with higher LF/HF ratios suggesting autonomic imbalance towards sympathetic predominance, but the cortisol levels were similar between the sensitive and non-sensitive dogs. Sound sensitive dogs showed pronounced responses for the parameters: alert and attention, search sound, startle, trembling, hiding, run away and less intense responses for the parameters rest and wink/sleep. Furthermore, the behavioural categories of arousal, fear, relaxation (lack of) and LF/HF were correlated to the caregiver’s perception of the sound sensitivity of the dogs. Not only the short index for sound sensitivity (behavioural categories arousal, fear and relaxation, and LF/HF ratio) but also the full index for sound sensitivity (all behavioural categories, LF/HF and cortisol levels) was highly correlated to sound fear response at home. These indexes can contribute to the development of strategies to treat sound sensitive dogs.

Tangent map intermittency as an approximate analysis of intermittency in a high dimensional fully stochastic dynamical system: The Tangled Nature model

It is well known that low-dimensional nonlinear deterministic maps close to a tangent bifurcation exhibit intermittency and this circumstance has been exploited, e.g., by Procaccia and Schuster [Phys. Rev. A 28, 1210 (1983)], to develop a general theory of 1/f spectra. This suggests it is interesting to study the extent to which the behavior of a high-dimensional stochastic system can be described by such tangent maps. The Tangled Nature (TaNa) Model of evolutionary ecology is an ideal candidate for such a study, a significant model as it is capable of reproducing a broad range of the phenomenology of macroevolution and ecosystems. The TaNa model exhibits strong intermittency reminiscent of punctuated equilibrium and, like the fossil record of mass extinction, the intermittency in the model is found to be non-stationary, a feature typical of many complex systems. We derive a mean-field version for the evolution of the likelihood function controlling the reproduction of species and find a local map close to tangency. This mean-field map, by our own local approximation, is able to describe qualitatively only one episode of the intermittent dynamics of the full TaNa model. To complement this result, we construct a complete nonlinear dynamical system model consisting of successive tangent bifurcations that generates time evolution patterns resembling those of the full TaNa model in macroscopic scales. The switch from one tangent bifurcation to the next in the sequences produced in this model is stochastic in nature, based on criteria obtained from the local mean-field approximation, and capable of imitating the changing set of types of species and total population in the TaNa model. The model combines full deterministic dynamics with instantaneous parameter random jumps at stochastically drawn times. In spite of the limitations of our approach, which entails a drastic collapse of degrees of freedom, the description of a high-dimensional model system in terms of a low-dimensional one appears to be illuminating.