This paper investigates the effect of seashell (SS) powders of 75 μm size, reinforced in multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-added nylon 66 polymer composite, by studying its mechanical and thermal properties for suitable application in the automotive industry. Seashells were collected from the seashores and the mechanical ball milling method is employed to ground the SSs into powders using a sieve machine, and the desired particulate size of 75 μm is obtained. These particulate SSs are reinforced in the matrix of nylon 66 in different proportions, viz., 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15% by weight along with 1 wt.% of MWCNTs. Twin-screw extruder and injection molding are employed to prepare the testing specimens. Mechanical and thermal tests were carried out as per ASTM standards. From the mechanical and thermal analyses, it is observed that tensile strength and coefficient of linear thermal expansion decrease with an increase in SS content, whereas flexural strength, shore hardness, impact strength, Vicat softening point, and heat deflection temperature rise with higher wt.% of SSs. This is owing to the thermoplastic’s decreased flexibility, which increases its resilience to deflection and load and its high thermal stability. The added MWCNTs improved the bonding strength and mechanical properties due to their higher surface areato- volume ratio.

Voice assistance (VA) has been widely adopted in the tourism and hospitality industry to interact and communicate with tourists and provide useful travel recommendations. Although more companies in tourism have adopted environmental sustainability practices and tourists have increased their sustainability awareness, lack of research has been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of VA in promoting sustainable consumption of tourism products or services. This study proposes that customising environmental sustainability messages for tourists with different cultural orientations and VA use purposes can enhance their engagement with the VA, which can affect their consumption decision. The results from a scenario-based experiment demonstrate that tourists with interdependent/independent cultural orientation have higher engagement with the environmental sustainability messages communicated by the VA when they are with a non-transactional/transactional purpose. Implications for tourism marketing strategies are discussed.

Sustainability management has evolved into a concept for enhancing corporate sustainability by incorporating corporate social responsibility into the concept of sustainable development. Universities are expected to play a key role in creating a new paradigm for sustainability management by educating and nurturing future human resources. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the role of universities in introducing sustainability management indicators and practice in order to examine what role universities can play in promoting sustainability management and to fulfill their functions and roles. This study examined the current status of and the necessity for universities’ sustainability management and the international norms in order to promote sustainability management of universities. Then, the case study of domestic universities suggested practical implications for each factor of GRI guidelines. In order to develop the academic discussion, I hope that the elements for sustainability management presented in this study can be used as basic data.

The purpose of this research was to identify how students used social media during their experience with study abroad programs that focus on social and environmental sustainability. Key research questions included: Did students and program faculty directors perceive social media as beneficial or challenging to program goal? How did social media contribute to the overall learning process? How can this knowledge inform the design and implementation of future study abroad experiences? Surveys were conducted with students participating in three study abroad programs in three countries with varying levels of internet access. We found that most students used social media as a familiar support system to help acclimate to a foreign land, through the formation of cohesive peer groups and establishment of communication channels with family and friends. However, both students and program directors acknowledged the challenges of social media dependency. We conclude that judicious use of social media, when coupled with conscious immersion into the local environment and culture can enhance study abroad programs; and offer suggestions for future program planning.

The fashion supply chain, even if represents one of the most important economies of the European industry, is one of the most polluting industries in the world, being a huge consumer of water, electricity and chemicals, and discharging massive quantities of wastes to land. Despite this fact, only few contributions have offered an analysis of the practices adopted by fashion companies to reduce its environmental impact. This paper present an empirical study on the sustainability practices adoption of Italian companies in the fashion Clothing, Leather industries. The research has been conducted through an online survey submitted to a sample of 192 Italian companies, having respectively the 14 and 15 ATECO 2007 code in the AIDA database, with a response rate of 13%. The results have been analyzed through the statistical software SPSS, in order to conduct a cluster analysis and 6 different clusters have been identified. Companies belong to cluster 1 do not apply any sustainability practices, even if they are coherent with what they declare on their website. Companies of cluster 2 adopt some practices, but sustainability is not integrated into their culture. Cluster 3 is composed by companies that declare a high interest to the environment, mainly for marketing reason. This way, companies of this group represent the ones more misaligned and not consistent from the practices declared on their website and the one really implemented. Cluster 5 is composed by companies endorsing environmental sustainability as a part of the company values and a high level of practices implemented is reported. Last, companies belonging to Cluster 6 have the environmental sustainability as a strategic objective and implements sustainability practices in a consistent and coordinated way.

The environmental consequences of consumerism are starting to demand change on the part of consumers, businesses, and the public sector. As consumer activity has been found to be a primary cause of environmental degradation and natural resources depletion, consumers need to become educated and involved in sustainability efforts (Sheth et al., 2011). In the current marketplace, however, consumers generally make purchase decisions without considering the environmental impact of those choices. This paper examines a sustainability claim, which allows consumers to consider the negative consequences of their decisions. Additionally, the consequences are communicated using message framings varying between the personal impact and company impact framing. This paper also considers differing levels of a consumer’s environmental involvement. Consistent with the theoretical concepts of social judgment, in conjunction with self-determination, the findings from this research offer an important expansion on prior work: here, the level of EI determined a boundary condition for the effects of sustainability labeling and message framing. While both groups of consumers evaluated the ad containing full information more favorably than the one with partial information, high-EI consumers preferred the ad focusing on the company’s impacts regarding the environment. Arguably, presenting the responsibilities of the company clarified and justified the use of the claim. However, extrinsic rewards and self-enhancement motives may not be key motivators for high-EI consumers. In fact, asking high-EI consumers to conserve nature and minimize their environmental impacts may be ineffective, since they typically respond more to their personal beliefs. Conversely, extrinsic rewards and recognition seem to be prime motivators for low-EI consumers. To encourage consumers to make more mindful consumption decisions, a communication tool that incorporates sustainability labeling and environmental impact framing seems to offer much promise. Indeed, the ability to connect environmental impacts with consumer choices appears to be an important determinant of the effectiveness of sustainability communication. If an ad fails to clearly convey to consumers the environmental impact of purchasing specific products, the provision of sustainability information on product packaging is of no practical value. A more transparent approach of presenting sustainability information may prove helpful to both consumers and the environment.

The study attempts to assess the level of environmental sustainability awareness in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In the process, the study tries to assess the impact of extracurricular activities in increasing awareness of environmental sustainability. A survey questionnaire was administered to the students of Prince Sattam University and other universities of Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire comprises statements on simple environmental conservation activities, which we come across on a daily basis. Hypothesis testing is used to identify significant differences across different categories of respondents. Further, the method of binary logistic regression is used to analyze the data. Though all the respondents agree that conserving the environment is important still there are significant differences across categories when it comes to believing in and practicing environmentally-responsible behavior. The results show that environmental awareness can be increased using awareness activities on sustainability issues in a University setting. The study concludes that increasing the number of extracurricular activities on environmental topics as only 38% of the respondents reported any activity related to the environment in the past year. The findings of this study suggest that increased awareness of environmental issues can boost the sustainability awareness, which will ultimately lead to a sustainable environment.

The objective of this research is to apply more scientific, quantitative methods and procedures of environmental investigation to the development of the natural environment and the improvement of the human environment during the establishment of a sewage treatment plant and special facilities using environmental accounting. This research was performed to develop a method of strategic environmental assessment on the operation of sewage treatment plant and reuse of shellfish seeding areas through the use of environmental accounting based on EMERGY evaluation. The result was applied to marine environment policy in order to evaluate the real wealth of the regional environment and economy for both the present phase and the proposed developed phase. Using results from the comparison of EMERGY indices between the present situation and future scenarios, cost benefit analysis was performed for three different scenarios: (1) construction of a new sewage treatment plant, (2) relocation and recovery of the shellfish seeding area , and (3) relocation and re-seeding of shellfish area and construction of a new sewage treatment plant. Cost-benefit ratios of the three scenarios are 1.88, 0.94, and 1.38, respectively.