The exact contribution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to a company as well as to its stakeholders should be measurable in order to be evaluated correctly. The difficult task of measuring the results of CSR has been a matter of significant research both by academics and by practitioners. Some of the literature on corporate social responsibility combines CSR with stakeholder theory introducing corporate social performance. The literature has attempted to describe emerging models of the issues that lead to a coherent model of what would represent corporate social performance. However, it is the case that social aspects are “soft” in nature, therefore being difficult to quantify. Innovated methods of performance measurement such as that of Balanced Scorecard has lately been introduced in some companies in their attempt to include non-financial indicators to give a more balanced and forecasting power to the traditional financial performance assessment system, but the view of corporate social responsibility is rarely taken into account. Furthermore, management frameworks that try to cover social and environmental aspects, such as Global Reporting Initiative, by providing a number of related performance measures, are not able to connect them with corporate strategy and are poor evaluators of cause-effect relationships. In the present paper, a CSR performance measurement framework based on the adoption of the Balanced Scorecard approach is presented. For the development of the proposed framework, the existing assessment of CSR and Corporate Sustainability actions of the Greek companies of different sectors was analysed in order to identify common practices in CSR performance evaluation as well as existing limitations. Taking into account the social indicators suggested by the traditional balanced scorecard views, an extension of its structure is proposed in order to better embody the environmental and social aspects of company performance.

In Brazil's littoral, many iron ore industries are located in areas of restinga, a type of coastal ecosystem; such industries represent stationary sources of iron and acid particulates. The industrial sector is under expansion, threatening the already fragile ecosystem. In the present study, the simulated impact of these emissions was studied on the early establishment stages of two native plant species, Sophora tomentosa and Schinus terebinthifolius. The results indicate that S. tomentosa display deficient germination and low root tolerance when exposed to iron dust and acidity. Toxic iron concentrations were found to accumulate only in the roots of S. tomentosa plants exposed to increasing doses of iron dust. In these plants, initial growth was reduced, leading to the conclusion that S. tomentosa was unable to regulate, and, thus, to overcome, the effects of the iron dust in the substrate. In contrast, the germination, root tolerance index, and initial growth of S. terebinthifolius were not affected by iron dust and acidity, revealing the species' resistance to these pollutants. We propose that under similar field conditions, S. tomentosa would be adversely affected, whereas S. terebinthifolius would thrive. On a long-term basis, this imbalance is likely to interfere in the vegetational composition and dynamics of the affected ecosystem.

Long-term flights or the establishment of permanent bases in space provide serious challenges for life support systems. Plants are essential companion life forms for such space missions, where human habitats must mimic the cycles of life on earth to generate and recycle food, oxygen and water. Nowadays, the chemical-mechanical recycling systems used in the international space station are much more compact, less labour intensive and more reliable than plant-based systems, but these systems would be too expensive for the long-term human exploration. In order to improve living conditions for humans and plants, we need an accurate characterisation of the mass transfer phenomena related to condensation of humid air. We are interested in developing an experimental protocol, which would help us to establish a theoretical model describing the heterogeneous transfers along a wall or a plant in an air-conditioned environment. Initially, we started in dry conditions by measuring the velocity profiles within the boundary layer that develop on a horizontal or a vertical flat plate in a wind tunnel. The velocity ranged from 0.5 to 2.5 m s⁻¹. Existing coupled heat and mass transfer measurement results relevant to our applications are discussed.

Heavy metals and organochlorine residues were determined in water, sediment, fish muscle, and freshwater shrimps from aquatic environments in urban and peri-urban areas in Morogoro, Tanzania. Most of the water samples had heavy metal concentrations below WHO acceptable water quality guidelines. All sediment samples had comparable heavy metal concentrations that suggest natural rather than anthropogenic origin. Hexachlorobenzene, α-hexachlocychlohexane, cis-chlordane, trans-nonachlordane, cis-nonachlordane, pp'-DDE, op'-DDD, pp'-DDD, op'-DDT, and pp'-DDT in hairy river prawn (Macrobrachium rude), African sharptooth catfish (Clarias gariepinus), and Wami tilapia (Oreochromis urolepis) were detected at significant concentrations above the methods' detection limits. The ratio of pp'-DDT to [summation operator]DDTs was 0.4 in O. urolepis and 0.3 in C. gariepinus, which indicated previous rather than current use of DDT. In M. rude, only pp'-DDE was detected and in O. urolepis and C. gariepinus there were higher levels of pp'-DDE than pp'-DDT, which demonstrate uptake of pp'-DDE, rather than pp'-DDT, from the environment. Bioaccumulation of organochlorines and mercury was the highest in C. gariepinus, cadmium in M. rude, and lead in both M. rude and O. urolepis. Maximum detected levels of organochlorine pesticides and heavy metals in M. rude, O. urolepis, and C. gariepinus were below the maximum permissible concentrations recommended by FAO/WHO. It is concluded that, at present, the contribution of anthropogenic sources in pollution of aquatic environments in Morogoro urban and peri-urban areas are low and that the concentrations of heavy metals and organochlorine pesticides in water and fish do not indicate a risk to the consumers.

In this paper, Taguchi method was applied to determine the optimum condition for Pb (II) removal from aqueous solution by spent Agaricus bisporus. An orthogonal array experiment design (L₉(3⁴) which is of four control factors (pH, t (contact time), m (sorbent mass), and C ₀ (initial Pb (II) concentration)) having three levels was employed. Biosorption capacity (mg metal/g biosorbent) and percent removal (%) were investigated as the quality characteristics to be optimized. In order to determine the optimum levels of the control factors precisely, range analysis and analysis of variance were performed. The optimum condition for biosorption capacity was found to be pH = 5.00, t = 5.0 h, m = 0.010 g, and C ₀ = 50 mg/L. And for percent removal, the optimum condition was found to be pH = 4.00, t = 4.0 h, m = 0.100 g, and C ₀ = 50 mg/L. Under these optimum conditions, biosorption capacity and percent removal can reach 60.76 mg/g and 80.50%, respectively.

The ionic composition of total suspended particulate (TSP) and fine (PM₂.₅) fractions was investigated from an 1,100 site in the middle of Mt. Halla in Jeju Island, Korea from March to November 2006. The sum concentrations of cation and anion species in TSP fraction were 205 ± 170 and 183 ± 164 neq m⁻³, respectively, while those for PM₂.₅ as 118 ± 129 and 88.5 ± 89.3 neq m⁻³, respectively. In TSP, the concentration of the major ions changed in the order of SO₄ ²⁻ > NH₄ ⁺ > Ca²⁺ > Na⁺ > NO₃ ⁻ > Mg²⁺ > K⁺ > Cl⁻, while its PM₂.₅ counterpart as NH₄ ⁺ > SO₄ ²⁻ > Ca²⁺ > NO₃ ⁻ > Na⁺ > Mg²⁺ > K⁺ > Cl⁻. Inspection of the temporal variabilities of ionic components indicated that most ions peaked in spring or fall months. The back trajectory analysis showed that the atmospheric composition of the major ionic species was affected fairly sensitively by long-range transport from China under the favorable meteorological conditions. In contrast, the lowest ionic concentration levels were seen most abundantly, when air masses passed from South Sea. Hence, the analysis of ionic concentration data suggests that their distributions are controlled by the combined effects of various source processes including the most prominent Chinese origin and the meteorological condition favorable for such transport.

We tested the hypothesis that there would be measurable losses of phosphorus (P) from surficial sediments of Upper Klamath Lake (UKL), Oregon, if sediments were a source of P during an algal bloom. We compared concentrations of total and forms of P at various depths in cores collected before and after the onset of a large Aphanizomenon flos-aquae bloom. Concentrations of inorganic P were determined in extraction solutions of MgCl₂ (1 M, pH 8), citrate-dithionite-bicarbonate, and 1 M HCl. Sediments below 2 cm were dominated by residual P which is defined as total P minus inorganic P. During the study period, data from the top 2-cm of sediment indicated (a) significant decrease in total P concentration, primarily associated with iron oxyhydroxides at one site, and (b) significant increase in total P concentration associated with residual P at a second site. Data from two other sites indicated no net changes in concentrations of total P.

The variations of tropospheric ozone levels was assessed for the first time in the Boukornine National Park (N.E. Tunisia) by detection of leaf injury development on Nicotiana tabacum “Bel-W3” exposed to environmental conditions during summer 2004. Two cultivars of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), Bel-W3 (sensitive) and Bel-B (resistant to ozone), were used for this biomonitoring study. These cultivars were dispersed in 24 different biostations, according to a square grid mesh, every 2 weeks. Four successive cultures were utilized to follow the ozone levels inside the park during the summer exposure period. Levels of ozone may vary in time and space depending on the local environmental and meteorological conditions. The results showed a positive correlation between ozone concentration and foliar injury index (FII; r = 0.958; p < 0.05). A significant positive correlation was observed between the FII of Bel-W3 tobacco plant and AOT40 (accumulated over the threshold of 40 ppb). The altitude appeared to be the most important variable explaining the variation of ozone pollution with the highest correlation coefficient (r = 0.964; p < 0.0001). The altitude was followed by topography for the prediction of ozone concentration levels. Maximal temperature was also an important factor in addition to the others in determining the FII and was negatively correlated with the FII (r = −0.979; p < 0.05). Average ambient ozone levels were positively linked to plant leaf damage. The ozone profile characterizing the study area was primarily influenced by wind direction and speed in relation to intercontinental transport, in addition to the local influence of motor vehicles traffic flow in the Tunis region.

A potential new way of producing coal fly ash-based granular synthetic aggregates (CSA) using waste coal fly ash (CFA), paper waste, lime, and gypsum and their utilization as a soil ameliorant to improve crop production in low productive acidic red soil in Okinawa, Japan were studied. The red soil was amended with CSA at three different mixing ratios (i.e., CSA/soil—1:1, 1:5, and 1:10) for the cultivation of Brassica rapa var. Pervidis commonly known as Komatsuna, and the physico-chemical parameters of CSA-soil mixtures and plant growth were analyzed. Incorporation of CSA to the red soil improved the physical and chemical properties of the soil such as water holding capacity, hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, pH, exchangeable cation concentration, cation exchange capacity, particle size distribution, soil pH, electrical conductivity, and carbon content. CSA amendment at ratios of 1:1, 1:5, and 1:10 decreased bulk density by 29.39%, 14.28% and 11.11%, respectively, compared to the original red soil. The acidic pH of the red soil (5.12) was increased to 7.13 and 6.37 by CSA/soil ratios of 1:5 and 1:10, respectively. CSA amendment in soil at 1:5 ratio increased water holding capacity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, electrical conductivity, cation exchange capacity, carbon, potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), and calcium (Ca) content by 0.06 kg kg⁻¹, ten times, 15.95 mS m⁻¹, 1.76 cmolc kg⁻¹, 6.07 g kg⁻¹, 0.42 g kg⁻¹, 0.24 g kg⁻¹, and 3.38 g kg⁻¹, respectively, in comparison to the original red soil. Heavy metal contents of the CSA-soil mixtures were below the maximum pollutant concentrations suggested by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Moreover, Na, K, Mg, Ca, copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) contents in the CSA-soil mixtures increased in comparison with the original red soil. CSA amendment in soil at the ratio of 1:5 and 1:10 resulted in an increase in plant height and plant fresh weight by three and 12 times, respectively, and there was increase in N, K, Mg, Ca, Cu, and Zn contents of the shoots. The results suggest that utilization of eccentric CSA as soil amendment agent can be regarded as an effective waste management practice.

Aerosol composition change between dust storm and non-dust storm periods in spring is studied using the total suspended particle data measured at Gosan, a background area in Korea. The concentrations of eight inorganic ions and 12 elements were analyzed for the TSP samples collected from March 1992 to May 2006. Two-step statistical analyses were carried out for the data: F test and t test. The concentrations of anthropogenic ionic species showed increasing trend since 2003. The absolute concentrations of most anthropogenic species such as sulfate or nitrate increased (from 7.33 to 9.25 µg m⁻³ and from 2.04 to 4.84 µg m⁻³, respectively) during the dust storm period. However, the enrichment factors or normalized concentrations based on Al of most anthropogenic species decreased during dust storm period (factor of 0.1-0.5). It suggests that, in general, relative importance of anthropogenic species during dust storm would be not high.