The Use of Life Cycle Management Principles in Biosystems Engineering： A Pragmatic Approach to Solving Agri-industrial Sustainability Problems

LCM （life cycle management） is a systematic approach, mindset and culture that considers economic, social, and environmental factors among other factors in the decision making process throughout various business or organizational decisions that affect both inputs and outputs of a product or service life cycle. It is a product, process, or activity management system aimed at minimizing environmental and socio-economic burdens associated with an organization＇s product or process during its entire life cycle and value chain. LCM＇s application is gaining wider acceptance both in the corporate and governmental organizations as an approach to reduce ecological footprints and to improve the sustainability of human activities. But where and how can it be used in agricultural engineering applications？ This study highlights the potential areas of LCM application in agricultural and allied sectors and how it can be utilized. The study revealed that LCM tools such as design for environment and life cycle analysis can be used to evaluate the environmental impacts of-and to improve the products, equipment, and structures produced by biosystems engineers as well as the processes used to generate them.

A Comparative Analysis of Disclosures in Annual Reports

Public companies issue periodic annual reports to give information about the past financial and operational results while presenting the future strategies. Companies release non-financial information concerned with corporate sustainability issues like market share, customer loyalty, supply chain management, corporate governance, and human resources in annual reports as well as the audited financial reports. Annual reports, one of the important instruments of transparency and disclosure, are widely used by shareholders and stakeholders. Recent laws and regulations in the US, European Union, and Turkey require enhanced disclosures in annual reports. In the first part of this study, a comparative regulatory framework for annual reports will be established under the Sarbanes Oxley Act （SOX）, the Securities and Exchange Commission （SEC） filing requirements, the New Turkish Commercial Code, and regulations of Capital Markets Board （CMB） of Turkey. In the second part of this study, annual reports of four sample companies listed in the New York Stock Exchange （NYSE） and Corporate Governance Index of Borsa Istanbul will be discussed in the light of disclosure requirements of Form 20-F. Findings of this study support the hypothesis which states that regulatory environment has a positive impact on the quantity and quality of disclosures. Attention is drawn to the need for global standardization to reduce the reporting variances and the need for independent audit of annual reports to increase the reliability.

Global Major Progress and Trends in the Implementation of Agenda 21

This paper summarizes, from a global perspective, the major progress in the implementation of the Agenda 21 since the UN Conference on Environment and Development. The results show that global economy has achieved a substantial growth, and positive progress has been made in poverty eradication, urbanization, and conservation and intensive use of natural resources. However, relevant international conventions and commitments have not yet been completely fulfilled. The paper further analyzes the current major challenges and future trends of global sustainable development. It is argued that there are three major challenges:1) fatal global environmental issues posing an increasing threat to human survival; 2) more and more severe global competition for developing spaces; and 3) issues highlighting global people's livelihood. There are four trends of global sustainable development:1) sustainable development will further turn from concept into global action; 2) green will be the main trend of global development; 3) emerging developing countries will become the main driving force of global sustainable development; and 4) international relations in the field of sustainable development will turn to competitive co-operation.

Six Sigma： The Panacea to Sustainability

Whilst there are a number of qualified methodologies, the researchers have opted to utilise the tools available through Six Sigma to prove that Six Sigma can be used to save resources and improve quality and process. Five industry sectors were identified as the ones to be surveyed using quantitative and qualitative methods and finally piloting the results on five different SMEs. Since this is a relative new methodology to the Cypriot entrepreneur and regrettably at the time of carrying out the study an international financial crisis caused a lot of financial problems to many respondents and as such could not see the immediate effects or benefits of Six Sigma and were reluctant to co-operate or participate. The Six Sigma methodology can be customized to industrial sectors and a tailored version of the methodology can be developed for a particular process or problem. The paper illustrates the problem areas identified from both the qualitative and quantitative research per industry. This is the first study carried out on Six Sigma in a small economy like Cyprus and tested on five industry sectors using both qualitative and quantitative methods

Problems in Higher Vocational Education Teaching and Corresponding and Countermeasures and Suggestions——Taking Jiangsu Vocational College of Agriculture and Forestry as an Example

Higher vocational education, as an important component of higher education, is a newly emerging higher education type, and an important way to achieve the goal of popularization of higher education. At present, China is in an important period of adjustment and optimization of industrial structure, vigorous development of new industries, and the higher vocational education undertakes the arduous task of improving the quality of workers and cultivate specialized personnel, who are an indispensable important force in the process of modernization. It is related to the future development of education, but also to the overall development of economy and society of China. Taking Jiangsu Vocational College of Agriculture and Forestry as an example, the existing problems in higher vocational education teaching were pointed out based on the analysis on its sustainable development status, and the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions were proposed.

Sustainability Issues Related to the Engineering Geology of Long Linear Developments

The development of long linear structures such as roads, rail roads, tunnels, canals and pipelines often has unique engineering geology challenges. These include geological modeling, the identification of material strength and support factors, stability and risk issues, material excavation characteristics and the proposal of techniques for overcoming geotechnical problems, which are normally assessed as part of the conventional engineering geological investigation. An additional factor that is becoming increasingly important but is seldom included in investigations is the sustainability of the geotechnical inputs, in contrast to the sustainability of the project which is generally included. Sustainability issues revolve around the non-renewable nature of most construction resources and there is no doubt that the injudicious use of these construction materials and construction water is not sustainable in the long term: it is thus essential that the engineering geo-logical investigation should take cognizance of such issues and be adapted to provide the design engineer with the information that will maximize the sustainability options. This will also require a closer on-going relation-ship between the engineering geologist and the design engineer. This paper highlights significant sustainability issues (note that these differ from conventional environmental issues) and suggests some mitigating solutions. The sustainability issues discussed include primarily material and water usage, with some reference to energy conservation (mostly through alternative material usage and processing techniques and transportation).

Economics and Management of Shipbuilding Clusters： Possibilities for Integrating Croatian Shipbuilding in the EU Shipbuilding Industry

If managed properly, the shipbuilding industry could have a high multiplication effect. This is why it is often considered as the key industry in economic development in many national economies, especially those in transition. The three major players in the global shipbuilding industry are South Korea, China and Japan. Europe is positioned forth, but its market share is decreasing rapidly. This is also the case with the Croatian shipbuilding industry. This paper aims to critique the level of adaptability of Croatian shipyards to the rapidly changing environment of global industry. It also relates the question of survival and sustainable development of Croatian shipbuilding and strategic positioning of European shipbuilders. The results of this research had shown that without clusterizing the shipbuilding industry at EU integration level, and not at national levels, Europe will soon loose the struggle for market position improvement or even maintenance to the far more organized Asian rivals. Findings regarding the Croatian shipbuilding industry indicate the absence of a viable strategy on the national level. Furthermore, the paper tries to prove that success will be based on the possibility and will of Croatian shipbuilders to form strong collaborations mad business networks with subcontractors and other institutions. This should not be limited only at national level, but should incorporate different kinds of EU shipbuilding consortiums and clusters as well as other forms of strategic alliances.

Offsite Manufacturing： A Survey on the Current Status and Risks of Offsite Construction in Iran

Iran needs around 1.5 million residential homes to be constructed annually to answer its cumulative demand by 2025. Given the current situation of the Iranian construction industry, it seems almost impossible to achieve this objective by using traditional methods of construction alone. Offsite manufacturing （OSM） can potentially increase the housing output in Iran thanks to its advantages over traditional methods of construction. However, OSM imposes a different set of risks which should be studied in the Iranian context. This study aims to investigate the readiness of the Iranian construction industry if offsite methods were to be introduced to the country in large industrial scales. To this end, a questionnaire survey was conducted to identify the risks and required actions in order to achieve successful application of these methods. Several subjects including costs, practicality, design and construction processes, demand, governmental policies, technology, and sustainability issues were investigated as the core research areas. The results revealed that, considering the current situations, it would be highly risky to introduce offsite methods of construction to Iran. Research findings highlight some key areas including design and construction processes, economies of scale, governmental supports, and education, which should be addressed to mitigate the identified risks.

Standardization Framework of Marine Sustainable Development Evaluation System

The core concepts of standardization framework of marine sustainable development evaluation systemare fairness and justice and the aim of sustainable development is to pursue development beneficial bothfor the current and future generations.Scientific evaluation of sustainable marine development is importantfor ensuring an accurate level of marine development.Establishing a scientific evaluation system is of greatimportance in the planning of marine development.Standardization of such an evaluation system needs tobe based on comprehensive work and must be founded on both marine science and modern managementprinciples.This paper analyses the current marine standards situation and looks at the assessment systemfor marine sustainable development.It also lists the main reasons for the standardization of a sustainablemarine development evaluation system and analyses five existing marine standardization problems whichare a constraint to this standardization.Finally a framework of marine sustainable development evaluationsystem standardization is established.The conclusion incorporates some advice on how to promote thisstandardization.

Sustainability Aspects of the Wheat Sector

In the frame of the present study, we examined the wheat sector with respect to economic and social sustainability. Accordingly, two research questions were formulated： （1） Is wheat production sustainable in economic terms？ and （2） Is wheat production sustainable in social terms？ Our view is that the content of sustainability can be defined on a case-by-case basis, and in our case, wheat production provides this content. To answer the research questions, we collected statistical data on the production area, average yield, production volume, selling price, consumption of wheat, and evaluated the tendencies prevalent in the sector. We suppose that in social terms, sustainability means maintaining consumption at least at a constant level, knowing that this sector produces considerable share of the direct and indirect food raw materials. A chief dilemma is that world population is continuously growing, although the size of the cultivated area in the wheat sector has not indicated significant changes over the past few decades. Unless increasing the yields, severe decrease may occur in the per capita production of wheat in the long run. In this case, the current consumption level will not be sustainable in the medium run. In addition, in the long run, it may even have influence on the consumption level of other commodities.

Explored on more fair and sustainable social security system

The third plenary session of the 18 through ＂the central committee of the communist party of China on deepening reform of certain major issue decision＂ is put forward for the first time, to establish a fair and sustainable social security system. This article mainly about fairness in social security and the sustainable problem preliminary exploration, proposed ＂sustainable＂ attaches great importance to the ＂fair＂ and ＂, deepen the reform of the social security system.

Research on the exports trade of Shandong agricultural products

This paper analyses the internal problems and external constraints against the further development of exports trade of Shandong agricultural products. The countermeasures in solving those problems and constraints are recommended to ensure a sustainable development of Shandong regional agricultural products exports.

A Review： Investigation of Bioplastics

Because of increasing environmental concerns/legislative pressure for plastics waste and rapid increases in the cost of petroleum, the development of ＂environmental friendly＂ materials has attracted extensive interest. Recently, bioplastics are one of the most innovative environmental friendly materials developed. Therefore, this paper will look at aspects of the bioplastics from the perspective of sustainability, advantages/disadvantages and standards. The global bioplastics market is thought to be growing at a rate of 20%-25% per year. They have some advantages such as lower carbon footprint, independence, energy efficiency, and eco-safety. However, they have some disadvantages such as high cost, recycling, reducing raw materials, misused of terms and lack of legislation. For the sustainability, recycling systems and production technology may be developed for bioplastics and by-product should be used for their production. Also, there is much standardization about them. It is important to have comparable international standard methods. Therefore, there is an urgent need to standardize all details. A new guide and standard for just bioplastics should be developed for production, usage and bioplastic waste management for every country in the world.

Study on City Environment,Safety and Health from the Viewpoint of Ecological Risks

Urban ecological risk analysis is a relatively new study field.Rapid industrial modernization and urbanization have significantly improved the living standards of the city.However,as environmental,safety and health issues are causing widespread concern,these problems have potential serious threat on ecosystems and human health.So how to solve many problems arising from city has become a key to sustainable development of human civilization.The present article analyzed the major problems that the city confronts and pointed out the main measures from the aspects of urban environment,safety and health.

Carbon Footprint across the Coffee Supply Chain： The Case of Costa Rican Coffee

The issue of carbon emissions has been on the corporate sustainability agenda for some years. For those working in agricultural supply chains, the challenges remain significant, given the diverse direct and indirect emissions occurring throughout the value chain. This study determines the carbon footprint of the supply chain of Costa Rican coffee exported to Europe, using best practice methodology to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, it was found that the total carbon footprint across the entire supply chain is 4.82 kg CO2e kgx green coffee. The carbon footprint of the processes in Costa Rica to produce l km of green coffee is 1.77 kg CO2e. The processes within Europe generate 3.05 kg CO2e kg-1 green coffee. This carbon footprint is considered as ＂very high intensity＂. This paper also identifies the sources of the most intense emission and discusses mitigation possibilities on which efforts must be focused.

Urban Regeneration： Better Cities for Sustainable Development

With the increasing growing of the environmental issues and climatic change, sustainable urban development of cities became an urgent demand. Urban development relied on four pillars; the institutional, social, environmental and economic pillars. Urban regeneration is not a single concept; it is a group of strategies. This study concluded that those strategies include; the public action, certification programs and corporate responsibility theories.

The Buddhist Philosophical Perspective of Environmental Preservation and Management

At present we face a lot of environmental issues at both national and global levels. At the same time we will have to face severe environmental issues in the future. This is evident in forming the elements of earth, air, and water which reflect the human influence on organic and inorganic life. So, it is timely significant to pay attention on environmental preservation and management. The main purpose of this study is to explore how the Buddhist teaching could be used for environmental preservation and management. Accordingly, this study introduces a suitable long term environmental preservation model. The other objectives of this study are to learn Buddhism for environmental preservation and management, to create a new model which combines man and environment together, to compare Buddhist thinking and modem man＇s thinking regarding environmental preservation and management through the above and, to motivate man to preserve environment in through both direct and indirect ways. This study was based on the question whether the Buddhist philosophical teaching could be utilized to solve today＇s environmental issues？ The hypothesis was that the Buddhist philosophical teaching could be utilized for environmental preservation and management. For this purpose, the teachings of Buddha, related to environmental preservation as found in ＂Suttapil;aka＂ and ＂Vinayapi!;aka＂ were studied. In order to address these conditions we have subjected randomly collected information for interpretation and comparative analysis in qualitative research methodology. The content that has been analyzed is compared with the ethical code related to the patterns of human behavior and its relation to conservation. This has also given way to building some models related to the Buddhist teaching of environmental preservation. The objective of Buddhist philosophy is to generate sensitivity in the mind, of human beings and persuade them to preserve organic and inorganic environment, based on the view ＂Man is a creation of the environment＂. The Buddhist philosophical process of environmental preservation includes preserving flora and fauna, water, air, soil as well as garbage disposal. These elements, along with ethics, can be used in effective environment preservation. This new model of environmental preservation directs human beings towards sustainable development with a realistic vision. The Buddhist teaching on environment civilizes man＇s physical and spiritual behaviors, with a view to lead human beings towards environmental preservation with a realistic perspective.

Overview of Abandoned Mines in the Limpopo Province, South Africa： Rehabilitation Challenges

South Africa is facing enormous financial, environmental and social challenges posed by abandoned mines. This investigation focused on field verification of 850 abandoned mines and associated rehabilitation challenges in the Limpopo Province. The investigations included desktop studies, standardised field-based ranking system and sampling. The waste material samples were analysed using XRF （X-ray fluorescence spectrometry） at the Council for Geoscience Laboratory. Approximately 5% of 850 abandoned mines in the Limpopo Province require urgent rehabilitation either due to high concentrations of metals from mine dumps or presence of open shafts. For example, copper concentrations at Messina and Spoedwel were 9,719 ppm and 56,160 ppm, respectively. Birthday Gold Mine in Giyani area is characterised by un-safe open shafts and un-stable grounds which poses safety problems and limits the future land-use. Although these investigations have been conducted, it is not possible to rehabilitate all abandoned mines mainly due to limited financial resources. The abandoned mines close to human settlement are given priority due to their immediate threat to people. This study recommends that rehabilitation of abandoned mines should take cognisance of the sustainable future land use that will favour the creation of jobs and nature conservation.

Social Responsibility and Environmental Sustainability： The Case of Caixa Geral de Dep6sitos （Portugal） and Vale （Brazil）

Social responsibility requires a set of duties and obligations, whether individuals or firms in relation to society and to the communities in which the organization is operating. The tradition of social intervention in Portugal dates from the fifteenth century and the founding of Mercy. However, environmental issues have never been felt in a sensitive position in responsible business, given the weakness of industrial development which lasted until the 60＇s. In Brazil, the corporate social responsibility is still particularly a big challenge, since the actions of social responsibility have not contributed effectively to improve the living conditions of society and the transformation of existing social reality. The purpose of this study is to emphasize the perspective of environmental sustainability that underpins the more general concept of social responsibility and, through the case study Caixa Geral de Dep6sitos, assess the strengths and weaknesses of the development of measures of social responsibility in this area in Portugal, and present the case of the company Vale, carrying out business in Brazil