Published Papers

Purpose

Considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors is vital in climate change mitigation. Energy companies must incorporate ESG into their business plans, although it unquestionably affects their corporate financial performance (CFP). This paper aims to investigate the effect of ESG on energy companies’ profitability through return on assets by analysing the combined score and individual dimensions of ESG.

Green roofs are artificial ecosystems that provide a nature-based solution to environmental challenges such as climate change and the urban heat island. Green roofs aid in the conservation of both cooling and heating energy; deposition of particulates and mitigation of air pollution; control of runoff and water pollution; promotion of biodiversity; and provision of aesthetic and health benefits. This research is a holistic review of the green roof literature and provides a global perspective of the subject with a classification of modelling studies; and an extensive review of contributions to energy conservation, carbon sequestration, mitigation of air pollutants, runoff control; and urban noise reduction. The review covers the system’s thermal performance modelling through several methodologies; experimental studies; parametric studies to assess the impact of various parameters on the system’s energy efficiency using several configuration parameters such as leaf area, foliage height and density, plant coverage, roof insulation, soil thickness, and irrigation; energy benefits; and environmental benefits including air pollutants mitigation, carbon sequestration, runoff control and urban noise reduction. Finally, review was complemented with a life cycle assessment study of green roofs, which examined the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing and construction, transportation, and disposal.

Given the widely acknowledged negative impacts of fossil fuels, both on human health and on potential climate change,it is of interest to compare the impacts of low carbon alternative energy sources such as nuclear energy, hydropower, solar, wind and biomass. 

The sustainability agenda is becoming an important element in business education. This is because there is a growing understanding of the need to develop strategic thinking that safeguards the long-term sustainability of business. To that end the Agent-based Computational Economics of the Global Energy System (ACEGES) project is introduced as a novel framework for developing a new generation of long-term decision scenarios. At a more general level, the project raises awareness of sustainable thinking in long-term business planning by means of controlled computational experiments. This paper describes the ACEGES tool, which has been introduced at a business school in the UK to educate students in the art and science of sustainable strategic thinking. 

At the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, great emphasis was placed on energy efficiency in the Opening Session. That message, and indeed the subject of energy more generally, largely disappeared in the forty chapters and 600 pages of Agenda 21 that emerged from Rio. This situation has largely remained in subsequent UN deliberations. Closer focus on climate change, deforestation, and poverty has failed to produce significant benefits.

By 2010, world carbon dioxide emissions from the use of fossil fuels had risen over 46% from 1990 levels. Renewable energy projects have been pursued with scant regard for efficiency or costs to users. Still 2.7 billion people-some 40% of the World's population-rely overwhelmingly on traditional biomass; 1.5 billion others have no electricity supply; and a further 1 billion only have sporadic supply. Fossil fuels continue to provide nearly 85% of the World's primary energy, while renewable energy sources provide about 13%-of which traditional biomass accounts for 10.2% and all other renewable resources for only 2.8%. Of this 2.8%, hydropower accounts for 2.3%, wind power for 0.2%, and direct solar energy and geothermal for 0.1% each.

Not one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) produced in 2000 refers to energy. Then in 2005 UNDP, together with the World Bank and ESMAP, produced "Energy Services for the Millennium Development Goals", which pointed out that "failure to include energy considerations in national MDG strategies and development planning frameworks will severely limit the ability to achieve the MDGs." It also stated: "Increased energy efficiency-whether during generation/production, transport/ transmission, or end-use-can have wide-ranging benefits." In 2010, the UN Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC) report "Energy for a Sustainable Future" referred to improving energy access and strengthening energy efficiency as the "two priorities". AGECC's Chairman (and Head of UNIDO) stated that "a vast potential for energy efficiency improvements across the supply and delivery chain remains largely untapped." Also in 2010, the UN's General Assembly proclaimed 2012 the International Year for Sustainable Energy. Will there be a new, and more effective, focus on energy and efficiency in its provision and use?