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Environmental management systems (EMS) have been adopted by organizations to ensure the continuous improvement of environmental aspects. The latest revision of ISO14001 in 2015 provides opportunities to align and manage strategic initiatives in organizations, such as employing a lifecycle perspective, circular economy strategies, and stakeholder interactions that go beyond operational optimizations. To date, this is limited in Danish organizations, where the focus of EMS is on optimizing production processes (resource and energy savings). Simultaneously, Danish organizations are pursuing circular economy through new product designs, business models, etc., without having integrated these initiatives into their EMS. In this paper, the opportunities for integrating circular economy initiatives in EMS based on ISO14001:2015 are highlighted through a mixed-method, three-step research strategy: 1) mapping the status of ISO14001 in Danish companies through qualitative interviews and a national survey, 2) developing potential circular EMS policies and objectives, and 3) interviewing focus groups to explore the potential for circular economy initiatives in EMS. Based on a review of the ISO14001 standard, the potential for integrating and aligning with circular economy was established, and the focus group interviews enriched this potential. The focus group companies all work with EMS and circular economy; however, they have not yet integrated both. These companies can see the benefits of having a systematic and dynamic strategy towards circular economy, and they can see the benefits of broadening the scope of EMS. Expanding EMS to encompass circular principles requires a broader scope of the system to include products, services, business model designs, and partnerships.
Heidi Simone Kristensen; Mette Alberg Mosgaard; Arne Remmen. Integrating circular principles in environmental management systems. Journal of Cleaner Production 2020, 286, 125485 .
AMA StyleHeidi Simone Kristensen, Mette Alberg Mosgaard, Arne Remmen. Integrating circular principles in environmental management systems. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2020; 286 ():125485.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHeidi Simone Kristensen; Mette Alberg Mosgaard; Arne Remmen. 2020. "Integrating circular principles in environmental management systems." Journal of Cleaner Production 286, no. : 125485.
In this paper, material flows and resource potentials for plastics at a national level in Denmark are mapped using an Environmentally Extended Multiregional Input-Output (EE-MRIO) database. EE-MRIO offers an operative improvement to current and prevalent methods for assessing the industrial and societal metabolism of resources, including plastics. The Exiobase is applied to map (1) the major sources, (2) calculate the total supply, (3) uses of plastics and waste generation, and (4) end of life pathways in order to indicate the potentials of plastics in the circular economy in Denmark with a focus on recycling. Furthermore, it elaborates how and why this method for performing Mass Flow Analysis (MFA) differs from mainstream assessments of material flows and from default uses of national statistical data. Overall, the results are that Denmark has a total supply of ≈551 kilotonnes (Kt) of plastics, out of which ≈522 Kt are used domestically and ≈168 Kt of plastic waste are generated annually. Out of the yearly amount of plastic waste, ≈50% is incinerated and 26% is recycled. These results indicate significant potentials for applying circular economy strategies and identify relevant sectors for closing the plastic loops. However, other initiatives are necessary, such as improvements in product design strategies, in the collection and sorting systems as well as in cross-sectoral collaboration.
Edward Vingwe; Edgar Towa; Arne Remmen. Danish Plastic Mass Flows Analysis. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9639 .
AMA StyleEdward Vingwe, Edgar Towa, Arne Remmen. Danish Plastic Mass Flows Analysis. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (22):9639.
Chicago/Turabian StyleEdward Vingwe; Edgar Towa; Arne Remmen. 2020. "Danish Plastic Mass Flows Analysis." Sustainability 12, no. 22: 9639.
Public procurement is the acquisition of products and services needed for public organizations to fulfill their functional objectives. Public procurement can also be a tool to meet horizontal objectives such as environmental or social ones. In this paper, public procurement is highlighted as a tool for the transition to circular economy. However, circular public procurement cannot be confined to just a procurement department as it requires collaboration internally across departments and externally with partners in the supply chain. The current practices within public procurement are explored in the analyses of eight proactive Danish municipalities, with a focus on the development from green to circular public procurement. This research is based on practices and learning theory to understand what actually happens in an organization, in other words, how people work. The difference between practices and policies is noticeable in public procurement, as policies stipulate general guidelines, while the inclusion of green and circular aspects depend on the competences of each individual procurement department. Tools supporting this inclusion are at the center of successfully using public procurement to support environmental concerns, for example, through the application of ecolabels, while the lack of circular public procurement tools presents a barrier for further uptake. In several of the cases explored, green public procurement practices are driven by demand from end-users, while the rather fewer experiences with circular public procurement are project-based and driven by management. From the procurement departments’ point of view, circular procurement is still perceived as “new and difficult,” and the principles of circular procurement are vague. Also, circular public procurement requires competences that are not present in the procurement departments today, and therefore their understanding of circular procurement is restricted to a few well-known cases.
Heidi Simone Kristensen; Mette Alberg Mosgaard; Arne Remmen. Circular public procurement practices in Danish municipalities. Journal of Cleaner Production 2020, 281, 124962 .
AMA StyleHeidi Simone Kristensen, Mette Alberg Mosgaard, Arne Remmen. Circular public procurement practices in Danish municipalities. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2020; 281 ():124962.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHeidi Simone Kristensen; Mette Alberg Mosgaard; Arne Remmen. 2020. "Circular public procurement practices in Danish municipalities." Journal of Cleaner Production 281, no. : 124962.
Currently, Kenya depends mainly on oil, geothermal energy and hydro resources for electricity production, however all three have associated issues. Oil-based electricity generation is environmentally harmful, expensive and a burden to the national trade balance. The rivers for hydropower and their tributaries are found in arid and semi-arid areas with erratic rainfall leading to problems of supply security, and geothermal exploitation has cost and risk issues amongst others. Given these problems and the fact that Kenya has a significant yet underexploited potential for photo voltaic (PV)-based power generation, the limited—although growing—exploitation of solar PV in Kenya is explored in this paper as a means of diversifying and stabilising electricity supply. The potential for integration of PV into the Kenyan electricity generation mix is analysed together with the sociotechnical, economic, political, and institutional and policy barriers, which limit PV integration. We argue that these barriers can be overcome with improved and more robust policy regulations, additional investments in research and development, and improved coordination of the use of different renewable energy sources. Most noticeably, storage solutions and other elements of flexibility need to be incorporated to balance the intermittent character of electricity generation based on solar PV.
Dominic Samoita; Charles Nzila; Poul Alberg Østergaard; Arne Remmen. Barriers and Solutions for Increasing the Integration of Solar Photovoltaic in Kenya’s Electricity Mix. Energies 2020, 13, 5502 .
AMA StyleDominic Samoita, Charles Nzila, Poul Alberg Østergaard, Arne Remmen. Barriers and Solutions for Increasing the Integration of Solar Photovoltaic in Kenya’s Electricity Mix. Energies. 2020; 13 (20):5502.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDominic Samoita; Charles Nzila; Poul Alberg Østergaard; Arne Remmen. 2020. "Barriers and Solutions for Increasing the Integration of Solar Photovoltaic in Kenya’s Electricity Mix." Energies 13, no. 20: 5502.
Product-service systems (PSS) have received attention as having the potential to meet customers’ needs by combining products and services, decrease environmental impacts and provide business opportunities for industry. PSS have the potential to facilitate sustainable production and consumption and support a transition towards a circular economy (CE). The environmental sustainability is often highlighted as a driver for and a result of PSS. However, the social dimension and the shared value created by PSS have not yet achieved the same attention. In this paper, a framework for sustainable value propositions in PSS is developed with the aim to map and understand the potential sustainable value proposition based on the three core elements of PSS: product, service and system and by investigating the economic, environmental and social value proposition and the type of interaction required for each dimension. The framework thus provides insight into the enlargement of value, when focus shifts from product to service to system. The proposed framework is exemplified by a case study of school furniture and learning environments in Denmark, where the experiences highlight that an understanding of value proposition in a system perspective provides a broader recognition of value for multiple stakeholders. In a product perspective for school furniture, the sustainable value proposition entails price and investment; comfort and design; and narrowing resource loops. In a service perspective, the sustainable value proposition entails a focus on reducing total cost of ownership; service employment; and slowing resource loops. Lastly, a system perspective entails a sustainable value proposition of solutions to societal problems through innovative design and economic savings via rental agreements; better work environment and improved learning outcome; and closing resource loops. The type of interaction changes from transactional to partnerships when moving from a product to a system focus.
Heidi Simone Kristensen; Arne Remmen. A framework for sustainable value propositions in product-service systems. Journal of Cleaner Production 2019, 223, 25 -35.
AMA StyleHeidi Simone Kristensen, Arne Remmen. A framework for sustainable value propositions in product-service systems. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2019; 223 ():25-35.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHeidi Simone Kristensen; Arne Remmen. 2019. "A framework for sustainable value propositions in product-service systems." Journal of Cleaner Production 223, no. : 25-35.
This paper proposes a taxonomy of themes and a research agenda on sustainable infrastructure, with a focus on sustainable buildings (SB) and green infrastructure (GI). The citation databases of Web of Science formed the basis for a novel strategic thematic analysis of co-citation and co-occurrence of keywords with a longitudinal identification of themes during the last two decades (from 1995 to 2015) of an emerging and ever growing research area. SI is a multidisciplinary endeavour, including a diversified array of disciplines as general engineering, environmental ecology, construction, architecture, urban planning, and geography. This paper traces that the number of publications in SI is growing exponentially since 2003. Over 80% of total citations are concentrated in less than 10% of papers spread over a large number of journals. Most publications originate from the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The main research streams in SI are green infrastructure, sustainable buildings, and assessment methods. Emerging and prevailing research themes include methodological issues of cost-effectiveness, project management and assessment tools. Substantive issues complement the research agenda of emerging themes in the areas of integration of human, economic and corporate social responsibility values in environmental sustainability, urban landscape and sustainable drainage systems, interdisciplinary research in green material, integrated policy research in urbanization, agriculture and nature conservation, and extensions of Green Building (GB) and GI to cities of developing countries.
Antônio Márcio Tavares Thomé; Paula Santos Ceryno; Annibal Scavarda; Arne Remmen. Sustainable infrastructure: A review and a research agenda. Journal of Environmental Management 2016, 184, 143 -156.
AMA StyleAntônio Márcio Tavares Thomé, Paula Santos Ceryno, Annibal Scavarda, Arne Remmen. Sustainable infrastructure: A review and a research agenda. Journal of Environmental Management. 2016; 184 ():143-156.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAntônio Márcio Tavares Thomé; Paula Santos Ceryno; Annibal Scavarda; Arne Remmen. 2016. "Sustainable infrastructure: A review and a research agenda." Journal of Environmental Management 184, no. : 143-156.
Traditional new product development aims to integrate people, tools, and technology to shorten time-to-market and boost economic gains. Under the triple bottom line of sustainability, the integration with the environment brings an additional layer of complexity. Sustainable new product development (SNPD) is a new and ever-growing research area. This paper offers a novel combination of systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of themes in SNPD in the past 25 years. The search for the relevant literature in Scopus citation database returned 1541 peer-reviewed papers. The analysis of co-occurrence of keywords identified the main themes of product life cycle, product design, sustainable products, production and environmental standards, innovation, human component of sustainability, supply chains, polymer, and renewable resource. Concerns with economic and environmental sustainability were present since the early research on SNPD. However, there is a growing concern with a holistic approach to SNDP integrating people, the economy, and the planet. The evolution of themes showed a need to integrate further the social aspects of sustainability into SNDP. A research agenda closes the paper proposing themes that deserve further scrutiny, related to sustainable products, product life cycle, and product design.
Antônio Márcio Tavares Thomé; Annibal Scavarda; Paula Santos Ceryno; Arne Remmen. Sustainable new product development: a longitudinal review. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy 2016, 18, 2195 -2208.
AMA StyleAntônio Márcio Tavares Thomé, Annibal Scavarda, Paula Santos Ceryno, Arne Remmen. Sustainable new product development: a longitudinal review. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy. 2016; 18 (7):2195-2208.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAntônio Márcio Tavares Thomé; Annibal Scavarda; Paula Santos Ceryno; Arne Remmen. 2016. "Sustainable new product development: a longitudinal review." Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy 18, no. 7: 2195-2208.
Different approaches to integration of management systems (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and SA 8000) with various levels of ambition have emerged. The tendency of increased compatibility between these standards has paved the road for discussions of, how to understand the different aspects of integration. The focus of the article is primarily to discuss three ambition levels of integration: from increased compatibility of system elements over coordination of generic processes to an embeddedness of an integrated management system (IMS) in a culture of learning and continuous improvements. At present, national IMS standards are being developed, and the IMS standards in Denmark and Spain are being analysed regarding the ambition level for integration. Should the ISO organisation decide to make a standard for IMS, then it would be necessary to consider the different levels of integration in order to make a coherent standard. So far, management systems have had major focus within organisations. However, in order to create competitive advantages for the organisation and contribute to a sustainable development, the IMS has to be expanded to include the whole product chain and all the stakeholders.
Tine H. Jørgensen; Arne Remmen; M. Dolores Mellado. Integrated management systems – three different levels of integration. Journal of Cleaner Production 2006, 14, 713 -722.
AMA StyleTine H. Jørgensen, Arne Remmen, M. Dolores Mellado. Integrated management systems – three different levels of integration. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2006; 14 (8):713-722.
Chicago/Turabian StyleTine H. Jørgensen; Arne Remmen; M. Dolores Mellado. 2006. "Integrated management systems – three different levels of integration." Journal of Cleaner Production 14, no. 8: 713-722.