Issue #1 (Volume 7 2016)

The authors develop a two-country, two-firm intra-industry trade model. Each firm is operating at its home country and producing homogeneous goods to be consumed in both countries. Governments apply quantity restriction on pollution. Every individual country is affected from the pollution generated during the production process of its own firm. The model shows that efficiency in pollution abatement technology plays a crucial role on welfare maximizing effort of governments. A critical level of pollution abatement technology determines the preponderance of environmental misgivings in welfare maximizing behavior. The more efficient the firms in pollution abatement technology, the less stricter the governments will be in their policies to reduce negative environmental externalities

The paper examines the relationship among foreign aid, per capita GDP, energy consumption, foreign direct investment and carbon emissions in Pakistan. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing technique is used for empirically testing using annual data from 1972 to 2013. The study uses carbon dioxide emission (CO₂) as an indicator of environment quality. The two components of foreign aid (foreign loans and foreign grants) are used to measure the environmental impact of foreign assistance in Pakistan. The study finds that energy consumption, per capita GDP and FDI contribute positively to raise the carbon emissions in the country. Furthermore, foreign loans and grants are also found significant contributors to the degradation of environmental quality in case of Pakistan. Similarly, the short run results of the model indicate that the signs of the coefficients are consistent with the long run estimates. On the basis of its findings, the study suggests that effective policies be followed for reducing (CO₂) emissions along with regulating FDI-environment and per capita GDP-environment relationship

Hydropower as a renewable energy source is a serious future alternative to organic fuel power and environmental protection. Its use is least damaging to the environment in comparison to thermal and nuclear power. Hydropower is a constant generating source and a type of energy that yields most return.
Based on this approach, the article assesses the hydropower development, reveals the reasons behind the hindrance of renewable energy source development, evaluates the tendencies and development prospects, draws the conclusions and presents the recommendations. This article reflects the concept of the latest findings of scientific research and practical interface. Planning, design, construction and operation of hydropower facilities, must be determined on how they may affect the natural state of water bodies, it is imperative to analyze and assess the environmental protection effectiveness. Natural water bodies should not be modified without an environmental impact assessment

Selection processes of credible candidates in competitions are often flawed. The flaws may be deliberate when there is corruption. In other cases the flaws occur because of the decision makers’ inadequacies. Many competitors do their best in developing exceptional proposals, but unfairness of the decision makers undermines these efforts. Ideally, undeserving candidates should be disqualified, and deserving ones be allowed to contest. Systematic methods should be used in the proposal evaluation, and the process should be verifiable. This paper discusses scientific methods proposed for use to select a criterion-based worthy competitor in service provider selection problems. The method is a technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). TOPSIS is a mathematically-derived statistical method useful to offset the biases in the selection process. Features that address both added value and reduced costs are incorporated in the TOPSIS selection process. A numerical example is included to demonstrate TOPSIS fortes

The paper addresses the low research standing of Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU). SMU is a university established on 1st January 2015 in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Its weaknesses were inherited through history. The former Medical University of Sothern Africa (MEDUNSA) and University of Limpopo (UL) are the SMU’s predecessor universities from which SMU emerged. One main weakness is that UL appointed managers on Medunsa campus to head divisions but disregarding merit. Hence, many current SMU managers do not necessarily possess the qualities required for a research campus that is technology dominated. In particular, some staff and managerial appointments made prior to the SMU formation, which SMU had to inherit are the causes of deficiencies in SMU’s research and information development. The paper develops an approach for SMU to enable existing resources of information technology and communication (ICT) and statistical sciences to improve research on SMU campus. The approach developed is robust. It also has a built-in monitoring evaluation and control element. Benchmarks are used in the method development

The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are important to the South African economy and social development. This paper discusses the case of Ga-Rankuwa Township SMEs, causes of their proven failure and the methods used by the SMEs owned by people who came from foreign countries and operating in this township. These foreign SMEs did not have access to loans for business. On the other hand the local ones could apply for the loans but many did not know how and where. The locals then forfeited the opportunity, but still refused to partner with foreign ones who could assist them. The foreign ones were more successful in using business skills and knowledge to nurture their SMEs. They also contributed to the township’s economy by employing local people. Recommendations include that local SMEs should partner with foreign ones to develop synergies, and that the SME agency, Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) should design policies for foreign SME access to business loan funds by ensuring and enforcing local empowerment as part of their loan access package

Typical of most developing world cities, the City of Johannesburg, South Africa, faces many waste management challenges. One of which is a lack of awareness of, and compliance with, waste management legislation, recycling and composting by the general public. Thus, the city has to deal with high levels of solid waste generation and subsequent pressure on its landfill sites. The city also has to adhere to various pieces of waste management legislation, with recycling and composting being two essential elements thereof. This study outlines a commercial composting initiative designed by the municipality of Johannesburg to redirect organic green waste from landfill sites to a compost production plant. The study found that although the Panorama Commercial Composting Plant is reducing the amount of solid organic waste disposed of in the city’s landfills, better planning could increase the amount of green organic waste thus diverted. Furthermore, the adoption of a centralized, mechanized system has significantly hampered the generation of employment opportunities, while simultaneously forcing operational costs up. Finally, the lack of a coherent marketing and branding strategy has restricted compost sales. Thus, the Panorama Commercial Composting Plant is currently not recouping its costs nor generating the number of work opportunities it could. Some recommendations to rectify this are then made

The article focuses on the periods of program and school evaluation in particular. The article traces school evaluation through various periods. These periods are: Age of originality (1444-1700), Age of reform (Prior 1900), Efficiency and testing (1900-1930), Tylerian period (1930-1945), Age of innocence (1946-1957), Age of development (1958-1972), Age of professionalism (1973-1983) and Age of expansion and integration (1984-2000). From these ages, the article is able to identify as to how Whole-school Evaluation in South Africa has been able to draw important lessons towards ensuring quality assurance in education

This study employs a life-cycle evaluation model of due recyclable waste (DRW) to analyze its optimal waste recycling fee (WRF) and subsidy. The results suggest that the government could set the optimal WRF and subsidy of DRW under the assumptions of the relationship that exist between the WRF and the subsidy for the budgetary constraints, but not set for the externality of DRW, and the environmental consciousness of individuals. And the different purposes of the WRF and subsidy are the reasons why a life-cycle evaluation model of due recyclable waste (DRW) is necessary to analyze its optimal waste recycling fee (WRF) and subsidy

Throughout the world, countries and companies are directing their attention towards actions to protect the planet. An important focus area during various initiatives is the aim to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climatic system. Various targets are set by governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the South African Government is, among others, investigating a carbon tax policy to facilitate their transition to a greener economy. This paper analyzes the sustainability reports of the top ten manufacturing companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the disclosures of emissions were evaluated against a checklist that was developed through a literature review comprising various sources.
From the results of the research, it is evident that all the companies reviewed are aware of the importance of emissions disclosure and the impact that emissions have on climate change. Companies, in general, adhere more to the qualitative, narrative type of requirements than to the more quantitative, performance-related reporting of emissions. In this study the reporting of the companies specifically on Scope 3 emissions were inadequate. More attention should be given to measure performance and to improve their systems to quantify data

This article aims to investigate the users’ perception of decision-usefulness of environmental reports produced by listed South African companies. The results of this questionnaire survey indicate that the users do read environmental reports, and that they employ the reports for making various decisions for various purposes such as education or research, own knowledge and to hold companies accountable. In addition, environmental reports are also used, to a lesser extent, to decide whether or not to; buy a company’s products, invest or disinvest from a company, partner with a company, support or launch action against a company.
The results further indicate that users generally perceive environmental reports to be useful for the purpose which they were used, as most users perceive them to be understandable and relevant, and to a lesser extent reliable, timely, verifiable and comparable. The results also reveal that most users are not satisfied with the decision-usefulness of the environmental reports. They thus provide various suggestions for improvement of the reports, most of which focus on the reliability and relevance of the reports. Taken together, the results indicate that users perceive the environmental reports produced by listed South Africa companies to be decision-useful, however there is a need for improvement of the reports particularly regarding their reliability

The broad aim of this research is to assess the relevance of environmental reports produced by the Top 100 listed South African (T100LSA) companies. The study is motivated by a lack of research on the relevance of environmental reports in South Africa, given the dramatic increase in the number of companies producing these reports as well as the expansion of the volumes of the reports produced. A content analysis of environmental reports contained in the Integrated Annual Reports (IARs), sustainability reports and companies’ corporate websites is conducted using a control list.
The findings of the study reveal that in general, the environmental reports produced by the T100LSA companies are relevant as most companies have disclosed how they select stakeholders for engagement, their methods of engagement, engagement process and outcomes and how content reported on is selected. In addition, the companies have disclosed how they address and respond to key stakeholders’ concerns as well as their initiatives to encourage stakeholders to participate in the companies’ activities. Furthermore the companies disclose their general performance indicators. However, there is a need for improvement in the disclosure of metric to quantify the effectiveness of the stakeholder engagement and reference to GRI sector specific indicators when selecting content to report on. More importantly, there is a need to improve on the use of on-line features to enhance relevance of the reports such as encouraging users to be part of the writing process by enabling them to edit, analyze and share the reported information, and tracking their use of on-line reports