Corporate Social Responsibility: A Real Options Approach to the Challenge of Financial Sustainability

BackgroundIn contemporary complex societies, social values like ethics, corporate social responsibility, and being respectful with the environment, among others, are becoming social requirements. Corporations are expected to fulfill them and, according to empirical evidence, an overwhelming majority aspires to good social valuation. At the same time, the maximization of market share value in the long run continues to be the central corporate goal. Making environmental and social expenses compatible with value creation is a central challenge for corporations since it implies the financial sustainability of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Methods and Results

The value creation capacity of CSR projects, mainly through innovation, is widely acknowledged in economic literature and corporate practice. This fact arouses the need of having a quantitative framework capable of summarizing the value creation capacity of the variables involved in CSR projects. With this aim we build up a sensitivity analysis of real option ratios that studies and quantifies the value creation capacity of CSR projects connected with innovation. Ratio analysis has the advantage of being scale independent. Hence, it furnishes a homogeneous framework to express the interaction of value creation variables and, thus, supports strategic thinking quantitatively. Often, CSR expenses can be regarded as preliminary projects that create the opportunity to undertake a full future project. For them, we obtain the minimum expectations scenario that makes financially sustainable a preliminary project that can be interpreted as a call option. We propose a classification of CSR projects from the decision analysis perspective following a two-fold approach: Their relationship with value creation and their links with existing corporate activities. This classification of CSR projects aims at contributing to choose the best capital budgeting method to study the financial sustainability of the project and identifying those CSR projects that fulfill the required features to be studied from the real options perspective.     

我国农业生态效率的时空差异

农业生态效率是按照定量化的方式反映区域农业发展可持续发展水平,可以作为决策者制定政策的一个抓手。利用基于机会成本的经济核算方法对我国2003—2010年的农业生态效率进行总体分析与评价,并利用回归模型分析农业生态效率的影响因素。结果表明:我国农业生态效率总体水平比较低,但呈逐年好转的趋势,其中劳动力资源和COD环境要素在不同时期对生态价值增长起到关键性作用;农业生态效率空间分布特征显著,秦岭-淮河以北的省市区和传统粮食主产区的农业生态效率相对较低;区域资源环境禀赋条件有助于农业生态效率的提高,但是农资投入和农业政策支持与农业生态效率呈显著负相关,未来进一步提升农业生产资源与环境要素合理配置是保障农业生产可持续的必然选择。     

A PCA-based method for construction of composite sustainability indicators

Purpose

Sustainable manufacturing is practiced globally as a comprehensive strategy for improving the sustainability performance of the manufacturing industry. While sustainability is characterized into such three dimensions as economic, environmental, and social, currently, there is no quantitative method yet to measure the so-called ??sustainability?? in the manufacturing industry. The objective of this research is to develop a comprehensive and effective quantitative method to measure the overall sustainability performance of manufacturing companies.

Methods

In this paper, an integrated methodology is presented for the development of composite sustainability indicators based on principal component analysis (PCA). In developing this integrated approach, both industry and academia surveys are conducted to identify what sustainability indicators are favored by the sustainable manufacturing community. A unique index is then generated to measure the overall sustainability performance of industrial practices. The methodology can be used for benchmarking the overall sustainability performance of various manufacturing companies.

Results

A case study is conducted on a total of 11 global electronic manufacturing companies. The overall sustainability performance of these companies are measured, benchmarked, and ranked. The results showed that PCA is an effective approach for constructing composite sustainability indicators across environmental, economic, and social dimensions.

Conclusions

From this research, it is found that industry and academia have different views on the sustainability measurement, evidenced by different weights put on the same indicator in industry and academia. The case study demonstrated that the methodology presented in this paper is an effective tool for comprehensive measurement of sustainability performance of manufacturing companies. Strengths and weaknesses of each company can be identified. Then, the recommended improvements can be suggested based on the study of each of the individual indicators.     

Ecosystem-Service Tradeoffs Associated with Switching from Annual to Perennial Energy Crops in Riparian Zones of the US Midwest

Integration of energy crops into agricultural landscapes could promote sustainability if they are placed in ways that foster multiple ecosystem services and mitigate ecosystem disservices from existing crops. We conducted a modeling study to investigate how replacing annual energy crops with perennial energy crops along Wisconsin waterways could affect a variety of provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. We found that a switch from continuous corn production to perennial-grass production decreased annual income provisioning by 75%, although it increased annual energy provisioning by 33%, decreased annual phosphorous loading to surface water by 29%, increased below-ground carbon sequestration by 30%, decreased annual nitrous oxide emissions by 84%, increased an index of pollinator abundance by an average of 11%, and increased an index of biocontrol potential by an average of 6%. We expressed the tradeoffs between income provisioning and other ecosystem services as benefit-cost ratios. Benefit-cost ratios averaged 12.06 GJ of additional net energy, 0.84 kg of avoided phosphorus pollution, 18.97 Mg of sequestered carbon, and 1.99 kg of avoided nitrous oxide emissions for every $1,000 reduction in income. These ratios varied spatially, from 2- to 70-fold depending on the ecosystem service. Benefit-cost ratios for different ecosystem services were generally correlated within watersheds, suggesting the presence of hotspots – watersheds where increases in multiple ecosystem services would come at lower-than-average opportunity costs. When assessing the monetary value of ecosystem services relative to existing conservation programs and environmental markets, the overall value of enhanced services associated with adoption of perennial energy crops was far lower than the opportunity cost. However, when we monitized services using estimates for the social costs of pollution, the value of enhanced services far exceeded the opportunity cost. This disparity between recoverable costs and social value represents a fundamental challenge to expansion of perennial energy crops and sustainable agricultural landscapes.     

湿地生态系统服务、功能和价值评价研究进展

随着对湿地重要性认识的加深,湿地生态系统的服务价值越来越受到人们的重视.湿地生态系统服务价值评价的成果可为制定惩处破坏者及补偿损失者政策提供科学依据.本文在界定湿地生态系统服务、功能和价值之间关系的基础上,总结了当前湿地生态系统服务功能价值评价的方法和应用特点,主要包括市场价格法、生产函数法、机会成本法、影子工程法、生产力变化法、人力资本法、旅行费用法、享乐价值法、权变价值评估和生态价值法.讨论了影响评价结果的因素及相关研究中存在的问题,并对今后的发展前景进行展望.     

Conservation of biodiversity in the Arabuko Sokoke Forest, Kenya

Using an economic approach to provide a rationale for rainforestconservation has been a popular exercise in recent years. This paper uses suchan approach to assess the net value of the Arabuko Sokoke Forest in Kenya. Theeconomic benefits associated with the forest derived by local and globalpopulations are estimated by combining evidence from existing studies and theresults of a contingent valuation study carried out by the authors. Thesebenefits are set against the cost of preserving the forest to the Kenyan ForestDepartment. Even when the opportunity cost of the forest land is omitted fromthe costs of forest preservation, and when the revenues generated from theGlobal Environment Facility (GEF) funded project are included, the costs offorest conservation outweigh the benefits. It is only when non-use andexistencevalues are included (which are not realised by the Kenyan population) that theforest benefits exceed the costs. The paper concludes by arguing that, althoughsome projects within the Arabuko Sokoke Forest have been successful incapturingsome of the economic value associated with the forest, more needs to be done todesign additional capture mechanisms so that a greater proportion of the globalbenefit of the forest can be realised by local populations and localgovernments.     

自然资本流变及其对生态系统服务价值的演变路径

生态系统服务价值化是将生态系统惠益于人类社会的价值进行量化,以评估生态系统服务状态,便于生态系统监测和管理。自然资本是生态系统服务的来源,结合自然资本视角进行生态系统服务价值化,其成果有利于提高生态系统保护政策制定的精准性和统筹力,有利于创新生态系统服务评估方法。通过梳理自然资本概念的缘起与发展过程,认为自然资本经历了"同义指代"、"边界明晰"、"多领域交汇"和"隐喻多义"四个阶段逐步丰富的过程。当今针对自然资本研究的三种主流视角,即将自然资本视为"产生经济价值的资产"、"产生服务流的存量"和"金融资本"为生态系统服务的价值化提供了多种途径。生态系统服务价值化的过程要体现可持续发展的基本目标,保证自然资本的稳定,维持人类社会代际公平。以此为前提,鼓励生态系统价值化视角的多样性。价值化途径应关注生态系统服务的时空动态变化、多种服务协同作用和供需权衡。生态系统服务价值化是自然资本金融杠杆化的推手,应警惕有可能带来的金融风险和生态风险。     

自然资本价值核算研究综述

目前国内外对自然资本价值核算的理论与方法尚未取得共识,无疑制约了自然资本核算在生态环境保护中积极作用的发挥。基于此,本文分别从自然资本内涵及其价值核算理论基础、国内外自然资本存量与流量核算方法实证研究、自然资本货币化价值核算的合理性等方面对已有文献进行梳理与分析,发现目前自然资本核算研究主要集中在生态产品的功能量与价值量核算而缺少生态资产货币价值量核算的研究;当前采用的生态产品价值量核算的生态系统类型系数表、本地化生态过程模型、能值当量替换三种方法在精度适用性、应用推广性和计算便捷性上各有优劣,尚待进一步的深入研究;最后对自然资本货币核算的一些争论进行了分析。通过上述研究和分析,提出如下新认识：（1）自然资本相关概念尚不统一,已经形成的认识包括：自然资本具有一定的稀缺性和使用价值,资本可分为存量资本（又称生态资产）和流量资本（又称生态系统服务）;（2）自然资本核算技术繁多,研究成果的横向比较性较差,需要通过标准化核算技术方法和建立生态环境资源数据库等措施,进一步提高核算结果的准确性和可比性;（3）相比于基于生态系统类型价值系数方法和基于非市场化货币的当量替代方法,基于本地化参数的生态系统服务过程方法更能够反映本地生态环境特征,评估分析的准确度更高,生态管理抓手更多;（4）尽管自然资本货币核算理论和实践应用仍存在一些争论,但各国政府和各类组织都在推动自然资本核算工作,自然资本的探索性核算成果已在各国生态补偿和生态损害修复等方面发挥积极作用。     

小良热带植被生态恢复过程土壤保持的经济价值动态特征

以热带植被退化生态系统恢复过程中的长期连续的动态监测资料为基础,应用时空互代法、机会成本法、市场价值法和影子工程法等方法,对小良极度退化生态系统的热带植被恢复中的土壤保持生态经济动态特征进行研究。结果表明：（1）退化森林生态系统恢复到30a林龄时土壤保持量已趋于饱和。边际效用递减到0时土壤保持总效用达到最高,土壤侵蚀基本控制。（2）土壤保持的经济价值具有时效依赖性。退化生态系统植被在20a林龄前恢复经济价值呈快速增长;20a林龄后增长趋势放缓,人工植被对水土的保持能力基本接近天然混交林;（3）土壤保持的经济价值同生态效应具有一致性。小良退化生态系统恢复到20a林龄,林木林冠较茂密,郁密度达到85%左右,土壤肥力增加,土壤侵蚀基本得到控制,同时植物多样性和生物多样性指数增高,其经济价值呈快速上升趋势,到20a林龄后土壤保持经济价值增长趋势平缓。（4）恢复的森林生态系统在不同林龄时的土壤保持经济价值与一些区域自然森林生态系统具有一致性。     

Reinforcing the Ecosystem Services Perspective: The Temporal Component

Founded upon sustainability science, the ecosystem services concept is increasingly defined by an economic valuation approach to natural capital. This latter-day addition risks subsuming the central message of the ecosystem services concept: that humanity is reliant upon the natural world. Three arenas of inappropriate application of the economic valuation approach to ecosystem services are detailed, these are defined as ecological, social-natural, and socioeconomic problems. Each problematic arena suggests the primary shortcoming of the economic valuation approach: it lacks an incorporation of the temporal component. More clearly incorporating the natural conditions and processes which compose and maintain human benefits into the ecosystem services concept will more fully reflect contemporary economics and sustainability science. The framework of Social-ecological Systems (SES) theory provides a broad foundation for the economic valuation of ecosystem services. Emphasizing the importance of human and environmental change, SES theory encapsulates a needed awareness of the dynamic interactions which compose ecosystem services.     

Institutions to sustain ecological and social systems

Summary The foundation for a sustainable future is the continuation of ecological processes and functions across landscapes dominated by human activity; whether hunter-gathering, agriculture, pastoralism, suburban living, commercial and industrial centres or wilderness recreation. However, actions to sustain ecological systems, flows and functions must be integrated across the human dimensions of regional landscapes. Such regions encompass natural areas, human living places and a mosaic of other land uses. Institutional change is required to develop new organizational forms, adjust policies and develop adaptive capacity to demonstrate restoration and maintenance of all forms of social, economic and ecological capital. No matter where on the globe, future sustainability will depend on the system of resource governance that mediates the relationship between the society and the economy and, in contrast, the continuation of ecosystem functional processes. The present article examines the forms of capital, social and institutional change that need to be considered to make progress towards sustainable futures. The discussion further considers the spatial management context in which these interweaved social, ecological and economic processes take place.
Key words ecological, forms of capital, governance, institutions, landscape, social.     

基于NLPCA-GSO可持续发展评价——以环渤海区域为例

区域可持续发展水平、发展的持续性和系统的协调性是区域可持续发展定量评价研究的三角构架,而在传统上基于各子系统主成分分析结果直接进行形色各异的加权计算对可持续发展评价而言是有待商榷的。提出了非线性主成分分析和施密特正交化(NLPCA-GSO)相耦合的方法评价区域的可持续发展水平来弥补传统方法的不足,并由此建立区域发展持续性模型和可持续发展系统协调度模型,再以环渤海区域为实证分析其2001—2010年的可持续发展状况。结果表明:基于NLPCA-GSO的可持续发展水平模型可以很好地弥补传统主成分分析及对各子系统结果的综合评价的不足;区域发展持续性模型、协调性模型和区域可持续系统变化的滤波分析形象地揭示区域可持续发展的实质和内涵;实证研究表明环渤海区域在研究时段内可持续发展水平有所上升,而环境子系统持续性的下降是引起区域发展持续性和系统协调度的变化的主要原因。研究结果可丰富区域可持续发展评价的方法学,也可为环渤海区域的可持续发展研究奠定基础。     

Mapping the economic costs and benefits of conservation

Resources for biodiversity conservation are severely limited, requiring strategic investment. Understanding both the economic benefits and costs of conserving ecosystems will help to allocate scarce dollars most efficiently. However, although cost-benefit analyses are common in many areas of policy, they are not typically used in conservation planning. We conducted a spatial evaluation of the costs and benefits of conservation for a landscape in the Atlantic forests of Paraguay. We considered five ecosystem services (i.e., sustainable bushmeat harvest, sustainable timber harvest, bioprospecting for pharmaceutical products, existence value, and carbon storage in aboveground biomass) and compared them to estimates of the opportunity costs of conservation. We found a high degree of spatial variability in both costs and benefits over this relatively small (~3,000 km²) landscape. Benefits exceeded costs in some areas, with carbon storage dominating the ecosystem service values and swamping opportunity costs. Other benefits associated with conservation were more modest and exceeded costs only in protected areas and indigenous reserves. We used this cost-benefit information to show that one potential corridor between two large forest patches had net benefits that were three times greater than two otherwise similar alternatives. Spatial cost-benefit analysis can powerfully inform conservation planning, even though the availability of relevant data may be limited, as was the case in our study area. It can help us understand the synergies between biodiversity conservation and economic development when the two are indeed aligned and to clearly understand the trade-offs when they are not.     

山西省阳泉矿区农户可持续生计研究

矿产资源的开发,在支撑社会经济发展的同时,造成了区域资源和生态环境的改变,极大影响农户的生计方式和生活环境。基于高分辨率遥感影像分析了山西省阳泉矿区典型村庄煤矿开采前后的土地利用变化,基于可持续生计框架（Sustainable Livelihoods Framework,SLF）和参与式农村评估法（Participatory Rural Appraisal,PRA）,研究了矿区农户的生计动态及不同类型失地农户的生计可持续能力。结果表明：1）煤矿开采改变了村庄土地利用格局。耕地大面积减少,由占区域面积69.72%降为29.42%;工矿用地大幅度增加,由占区域面积7.51%增为25.01%;农村建设用地、林地、草地和水域均有不同程度的增加。2）农户的资本组合及生计方式随着煤矿开采呈现相应的动态变化,农户逐渐呈现兼业特性;不同类型失地农户的生计资本存在显著性差异。3）生计资本结构的不同造成农户生计可持续发展能力不平等,生计资本累计值越大,农户的生计可持续性越强。矿区农户生计的研究为促进农户生计资本合理配置、缓解矿区企业与农户利益冲突提供了科学依据。     

Cost‐effective ecological restoration

Ecological restoration is a multibillion dollar industry critical for improving degraded habitat. However, most restoration is conducted without clearly defined success measures or analysis of costs. Outcomes are influenced by environmental conditions that vary across space and time, yet such variation is rarely considered in restoration planning. Here, we present a cost‐effectiveness analysis of terrestrial restoration methods to determine how practitioners may restore the highest native plant cover per dollar spent. We recorded costs of 120 distinct methods and described success in terms of native versus non‐native plant germination, growth, cover, and density. We assessed effectiveness using a basic, commonly used metric (% native plant cover) and developed an index of cost‐effectiveness (% native cover per dollar spent on restoration). We then evaluated success of multiple methods, given environmental variation across topography and multiple years, and found that the most successful method for restoring high native plant cover is often different from the method that results in the largest area restored per dollar expended, given fixed mitigation budgets. Based on our results, we developed decision‐making trees to guide practitioners through established phases of restoration—site preparation, seeding and planting, and maintenance. We also highlight where additional research could inform restoration practice, such as improved seasonal weather forecasts optimizing allocation of funds in time or valuation practices that include costs of specific outcomes in the collection of in lieu fees.     

Translational Science by Public Biotechnology Companies in the IPO“Class of 2000”: The Impact of Technological Maturity

The biotechnology industry plays a central role in the translation of nascent biomedical science into both products that offer material health benefits and creating capital growth. This study examines the relationship between the maturity of technologies in a characteristic life cycle and value creation by biotechnology companies. We examined the core technology, product development pipelines, and capitalization for a cohort of biotechnology companies that completed an IPO in 2000. Each of these companies was well financed and had core technologies on the leading edge of biological science. We found that companies with the least mature technologies had significantly higher valuations at IPO, but failed to develop products based on these technologies over the ensuing decade, and created less capital growth than companies with more mature technologies at IPO. The observation that this cohort of recently public biotechnology companies was not effective in creating value from nascent science suggests the need for new, evidence-based business strategies for translational science.     

Firm Type,Feed‐in Tariff,and Wind Energy Investment in Germany: An Investigation of Decision Making Factors of Energy Producers Regarding Investing in Wind Energy Capacity

The development of renewable and sustainable energy is advanced by public financial support. This is particularly so in the German Energiewende, which seeks to replace nuclear and fossil electricity generation with wind, sun, and biomass. We study the impact of the (changes in the) feed‐in tariff (FIT) policy on the investment in wind electricity generation capacity in Germany in the period 2000–2014. We estimate a generic investment model that includes this support mechanism, the cost of capital, investment risks such as wind and price volatility, and manufacturing costs. We discuss specific features for different types of wind energy investors, such as the incumbents, small private investors, diversified companies, and independent power producers. We find that a change in the FIT has a negative impact on investment capacity regarding the generation of wind energy: A one monetary unit increase in the variation of the tariff is to be associated with a decrease by 0.17 megawatts of wind capacity installed. We argue that it is policy uncertainty that makes investors shy away from making real investments. We also argue that the drivers for wind energy investment can differ along different types of firms. For the traditional power producers, especially electricity price volatility, construction costs, and carbon prices seem to matter. But for the other investor types, the FIT is crucial indeed.     

Early‐stage sustainability assessment of biotechnological processes: A case study of citric acid production

Sustainability assessment using a life‐cycle approach is indispensable to contemporary bioprocess development. This assessment is particularly important for early‐stage bioprocess development. As early‐stage investigations of bioprocesses involve the evaluation of their ecological and socioeconomic effects, they can be adjusted more effectively and improved towards sustainability, thereby reducing environmental risk and production costs. Early‐stage sustainability assessment is an important precautionary practice and, despite limited data, a unique opportunity to determine the primary impacts of bioprocess development. To this end, a simple and robust method was applied based on the standardized life‐cycle sustainability assessment methodology and commercially available datasets. In our study, we elaborated on the yeast‐based citric acid production process with Yarrowia lipolytica assessing 11 different substrates in different process modes. The focus of our analysis comprised both cultivation and down‐stream processing. According to our results, the repeated batch raw glycerol based bioprocess alternative showed the best environmental performance. The second‐ and third‐best options were also glycerol‐based. The least sustainable processes were those using molasses, chemically produced ethanol, and soy bean oil. The aggregated results of environmental, economic, and social impacts display waste frying oil as the best‐ranked alternative. The bioprocess with sunflower oil in the batch mode ranked second. The least favorable alternatives were the chemically produced ethanol‐, soy oil‐, refined glycerol‐, and molasses‐based citric acid production processes. The scenario analysis demonstrated that the environmental impact of nutrients and wastewater treatment is negligible, but energy demand of cultivation and down‐stream processing dominated the production process. However, without energy demand the omission of neutralizers almost halves the total impact, and neglecting pasteurization also considerably decreases the environmental impact.     

Global solid biomass trade for energy by 2020: an assessment of potential import streams and supply costs to North-West Europe under different sustainability constraints

The expected use of solid biomass for large-scale heat and power production across North–West Europe (NW EU) has led to discussions about its sustainability, especially due to the increasing import dependence of the sector. While individual Member States and companies have put forward sustainability criteria, it remains unclear how different requirements will influence the availability and cost of solid biomass and thus how specific regions will satisfy their demand in a competitive global market. We combined a geospatially explicit least-cost biomass supply model with a linear optimization solver to assess global solid biomass trade streams by 2020 with a particular focus on NW EU. We apply different demand and supply scenarios representing varying policy developments and sustainability requirements. We find that the projected EU solid biomass demand by 2020 can be met across all scenarios, almost exclusively via domestic biomass. The exploitation of domestic agricultural residue and energy crop potentials, however, will need to increase sharply. Given sustainability requirements for solid biomass as for liquid biofuels, extra-EU imports may reach 236 PJ by 2020, i.e., 400% of their 2010 levels. Intra-EU trade is expected to grow with stricter sustainability requirements up to 548 PJ, i.e., 280% of its 2010 levels by 2020. Increasing sustainability requirements can have different effects on trade portfolios across NW EU. Excluding pulpwood pellets may drive the supply costs of import dependent countries, foremost the Netherlands and the UK, whereas excluding additional forest biomass may entail higher costs for Germany and Denmark which rely on regional biomass. Excluding solid biomass fractions may create short-term price hikes. Our modeling results are strongly influenced by parameterization choices, foremost assumed EU biomass supply volumes and costs and assumed relations between criteria and supply. The model framework is suited for the inclusion of dynamic supply–demand interactions and other world regions.     

The role of natural regeneration to ecosystem services provision and habitat availability: a case study in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Natural regeneration provides multiple benefits to nature and human societies, and can play a major role in global and national restoration targets. However, these benefits are context specific and impacted by both biophysical and socioeconomic heterogeneity across landscapes. Here, we investigate the benefits of natural regeneration for climate change mitigation, sediment retention and biodiversity conservation in a spatially explicit way at very high resolution for a region within the global biodiversity hotspot of the Atlantic Forest. We classified current land‐use cover in the region and simulated a natural regeneration scenario in abandoned pasturelands, areas where potential conflicts with agricultural production would be minimized and where some early stage regeneration is already occurring. We then modeled changes in biophysical functions for climate change mitigation and sediment retention, and performed an economic valuation of both ecosystem services. We also modeled how land‐use changes affect habitat availability for species. We found that natural regeneration can provide significant ecological and social benefits. Economic values of climate change mitigation and sediment retention alone could completely compensate for the opportunity costs of agricultural production over 20 yr. Habitat availability is improved for three species with different dispersal abilities, although by different magnitudes. Improving the understanding of how costs and benefits of natural regeneration are distributed can be useful to design incentive structures that bring farmers’ decision making more in line with societal benefits. This alignment is crucial for natural regeneration to fulfill its potential as a large‐scale solution for pressing local and global environmental challenges.