Quality management systems form an integral part of modern corporations. Acknowledging current socio-economic and environmental challenges, quality standards ought to be dynamic and flexible so as to cater for different markets and requirements. This book portrays a collection of international papers addressing current research and practice within the areas of engineering and technology, health and education. Amidst striving for "zero defects", "cost-effectiveness" and "tight financial budgets", quality management systems ought to embrace the creator of them all: humans; as the ancient Greek Sophist Protagoras said, "Of all money, Man is the measure" «Πάντων χρημάτων Μέτρον Άνθρωπος» (Plato, Theaetetus 166d).
Dealing with environmental issues should no longer be considered simply as a cost of doing business. Effective environmental improvements to a company’s products and services can be turned into business opportunities. This book was written with the express purpose of helping managers of companies, in particular of Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), to better deal with environmental challenges and address customer requirements, all in order to turn their environmental inve- ments into competitive market advantages. Several examples are provided throughout the book, but also warning signs (Alert Boxes). These “Alerts” are posted to help managers avoid typical traps when working with environmental considerations in business processes. The authors have many years of experience in the various aspects of impleme- ing Ecodesign. This experience includes working in industry for many years; le- ing the environmental departments in a multinational company; managing research projects in eco-product development; Life Cycle Assessment; and national and international environmental communication and marketing. This book is the latest in a series. The 2002 “Ecodesign Pilot” introduced a tool and software to help design more environmentally compatible products. It was directed specifically at designers. The 2004 book, “Ecodesign Implementation”, was written to help project managers optimize product development processes from an environmental perspective.
This book constitutes the proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Systems and Information Sciences (ICCIS), held in Manta, Ecuador, from July 27 to 29, 2020, and was jointly organized by Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí “ULEAM”, in collaboration with GDEON. ICCIS aims to bring together systems and information sciences researchers and developers from academia and industry around the world to discuss cutting-edge research. The book covers the following topics: AI, Expert Systems and Big Data Analytics Cloud, IoT and Distributed Computing Communications Database System and Application Financial Technologies (FinTech), Economics and Business Engineering m-Learning and e-Learning Security Software Engineering Web Information Systems and Applications General Track
This book, based on authoritative sources and reports, links environmental communication to different fields of competence: environment, sustainability, journalism, mass media, architecture, design, art, green and circular economy, public administration, big event management and legal language. The manual offers a new, scientifically based perspective, and adopts a theoretical-practical approach, providing readers with qualified best practices, case studies and 22 exclusive interviews with professionals. A fluent style of writing leads the readers through specific details, enriching their knowledge without being boring. As such it is an excellent preparatory and interdisciplinary academic tool intended for university students, scholars, professionals, and anyone who would like to know more on the matter.
This encyclopedia serves as a tool to support universities across the world to implement sustainable development in higher education in a number of key areas, spread over 5 volumes:1. Policy-making, visioning, structures, management and strategies 2. Teaching, learning and competencies 3. Research and transformation 4. Campus greening, design, operations and carbon impacts5. Students and stakeholders ́ initiatives and involvement The encyclopedia will be of special interest to administrators and managers at higher education institutions; academic staff (e.g. lecturers, professors, researchers); technical staff and students. Also, other groups working outside higher education, but interested on the theory and practice of sustainable development, will find its contents useful.
El principal objetivo de este libro es contribuir a la comprensión de los requisitos especificados en la Norma ISO 14001:2015 y ayudar a las organizaciones a la hora de diseñar e implantar un sistema de gestión ambiental eficaz y eficiente. La guía se ha elaborado manteniendo la secuencia de los apartados de la norma, cuyo contenido se reproduce íntegramente acompañado de comentarios y ejemplos, que ayudan a entender los requisitos del modelo de sistema de gestión ambiental propuesto, como paso previo a su aplicación en el diseño o rediseño del sistema.
The uncertainty and volatility of modern commercial environments have shifted the foundations of business success and survival. Key factors that affect firm performance and determine sustainability now include knowledge creation, knowledge management, uncertainty management, organizational intelligence, and supply chain administration. This book proposes an analytical approach to identifying and enhancing these critical factors and describes how firms can exploit their strengths and compensate for their disadvantages. Sustaining business success requires competitive strategies that are rational and analytical. Firms that know their goals have an advantage over their rivals; those that can innovate and incorporate the knowledge they develop will prosper, even in the most competitive situations. Managers and business practitioners can learn from this book how to identify the key factors that make their firms effective and successful, and how to ensure they remain sustainable over time.
Green Profits covers two tightly connected topics, environmental management systems (EMS) and pollution prevention (P2), in a single volume. Authored by an environmental engineer and an economist/planner, Green Profits shows how to implement an EMS, especially ISO 14001, so that it leads to profitable pollution prevention innovations, and how to identify and implement pollution prevention measures in a sound strategic business framework. Green Profits provides the knowledge and tools for enterprise managers to achieve the benefits of both EMS and P2, and to do so in ways that fit in with existing management systems in their enterprises.Environmental management systems are planned and organized ways for an enterprise to manage its interactions with the environment, in particular those interactions that consume resources, degrade the environment, and create human health risk. Part I of Green Profits provides a thorough and practical understanding of the elements of EMSs in general and ISO 14001 in particular, tools and techniques for implementing an EMS and achieving ISO 14001 certification, and help with getting the implementation process started.Pollution prevention involves replacing process technologies that generate pollution with those that do not or that do so much less. It focuses on improving production processes to minimize waste rather than treating effluents or emissions, which add to costs. Part II of Green Profits provides tools such as step-by-step guides to conducting a P2 audit and energy and material balances for identifying P2 opportunities in an enterprise; examples of P2 practices in specific industry sectors; and a set of tools for assessing potential P2 investments from a bottom-line point of view.With this New Handbook -- · Bring your facility into compliance · Improve your corporate image · Reduce your company's environmental liabilities · Identify and save millions of dollars from pollution prevention projects This New Handbook Includes -- · A step-by-step approach to implementing ISO 14001 · A step-by-step approach to implementing Pollution Prevention · Contains nearly 100 useful charts and tables used by the experts in establishing environmental action plans, gap analyses, establishing an Environmental Management System · Contains dozens of useful charts and calculation methods with examples for evaluating the costs and savings to your company in implementing Pollution Prevention · Dozens of industry-specific case studies that you can learn and profit from · Shows you in stepwise fashion how project financing principles and environmental cost accounting methods, when coupled with EMS can save your company moneyThis New Handbook is unique because unlike other volumes that separately cover Environmental Management Systems and Pollution Prevention, you have it all in one single volume, written by Experts that are Practitioners.