Explore the vast range of titles available.

Governance and Sustainability examines the possibilities of integrating the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development within the framework of governance processes and how that might steer societies towards sustainability. It takes a close look at the key actors, their agendas and methods, forms of organisation, problems and limits, as well as real-life examples for governance in different areas of society at the regional, national and international level. It is especially interested in exploring the nature of changes in the context of governance; the role of actors in such processes; and analysing how different forms of societal learning can improve governance processes. It concludes that this is a continuous process, characterised by conflicts and learning processes necessary to heighten both awareness of the complexity of the social and environmental problems faced and the prospects of implementing successful solutions.

Business-as-usual, it is widely accepted, will exceed the Earth's carrying capacity in an alarmingly short space of time. In simple terms, we need to learn to use the world's rapidly depleting resources in a significantly more efficient manner. Practical and readily adopted solutions are needed now. Eco-efficiency-or \"produce more with less\" – is achieved when goods and services satisfy human needs, increase the quality of life at competitive prices and when environmental impacts and resource intensity are decreased to a degree that keeps them within the limits of Earth's expected carrying capacity. Eco-efficiency – a term first proposed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in 1992 – is a management approach that allows businesses to carry out environmental protection measures from a market-oriented point of view, with the aim of illustrating that ecology and the economy do not need to be a contradiction. Indeed, eco-efficiency has been portrayed as a win-win-for both business and the environment. This book, which developed out of two conferences on eco-efficiency held in Düsseldorf in 1998 and 2001, is edited by Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker and his team from the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, one of the world's leading research programmes on resource productivity. The aim is not simply to explain the past and present of eco-efficiency but to look forward to and encourage a future where the comprehensive take-up of the concept by business, government and consumers could lead to innovation on a grand scale and the possibility of a giant leap beyond towards overall sustainability. There have been considerable achievements to date. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which aims to list the most sustainable corporations for investors, includes companies such as BASF, Climatex, Henkel and Matushita/Panasonic (all represented in this book), who are implementing eco-efficiency measures. A number of political initiatives have also been formed. In December 2001, the German government suggested a National Sustainability Strategy to measure Germany's sustainable development. While this not yet an accepted political target or even law, it shows that politics is moving toward binding targets for increasing efficiency. Eco-Efficiency and Beyond collects together the leading thinkers on the topic and aims to illustrate not only that the concept should be part of every business strategy but that it is a key trigger for innovation. Innovation cuts through paradoxes. It is the creation of solutions to conflicting demands. Flying in a vacuum gave us rockets and satellites; switching electrons through insulators gave us Silicon Valley and the digital age. Sustainable development presents a similar field of paradoxical innovation forces: i.e. provide affordable products and services for the growing unmet needs of the world population while reducing environmental impacts. This book is the definitive collection on eco-efficiency and will be required reading for business, government, NGOs and academicians. Introduction Jan-Dirk Seiler-Hausmann, Christa Liedtke and Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaecker 1. Thinking about sustainable production and services in a globalised world Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Member of the German Parliament, former Chair of the Bundestag Select Committee on Globalisation 2. Promoting the life-cycle economy–time to act! Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel, United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, France 3. The next sources of innovation Claude Fussler, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Switzerland 4. Sustainable politics Jan-Dirk Seiler-Hausmann, Wuppertal Institute, Germany 5. Germany's Sustainable Development Strategy Hans Martin Bury, Member of German Parliament; German Minister of State for Europe 6. The German Council for Sustainable Development Volker Hauff, Chair of the German Council for Sustainable Development 7. Think–communicate–act. Econsense Forum for Sustainable Development: A German business initiative Jürgen Zech, former member of the Board of Gerling and spokesperson for econsense, Germany 8. Launching the ISS Sustainable Development Raymond van Ermen, European Partners for the Environment, Belgium 9. Sustainable business development Michael Kuhndt, Wuppertal Institute, Germany 10. Deloitte Sustainability Reporting Scorecard Markus Lehni, Deloitte & Touche, Global Environment and Sustainability Services, Switzerland 11. Sustainability management? Don't bother! Practical steps for bringing sustainability into core management practice Peter Zollinger, SustainAbility, UK 12. Sustainable accounting initiatives in Japan: pilot projects of material flow cost accounting Katsuhiko Kokubu, Kobe University, Japan;Michiyasu Nakajima, Kansai University, Japan 13. The BASF eco-efficiency method as a sustainable decision-making tool Andreas Kicherer, BASF AG, Germany 14. Toward sustainable products and services Christa Liedtke, Wuppertal Institute, Germany 15. Climatex(R) Lifeguard(TM) upholstery fabrics: chronicle of a sustainable product redesign Albin Kälin, Rohner Textil AG, Switzerland, Alain Rivière and Ralf Ketelhut, EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, Germany, Michael Braungart, EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, Germany, and McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC, USA 16. Eco-effective design of products and production systems: eight theses on methodological and institutional prerequisites Michael Braungart, EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, Germany and McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC, USA, and Alain Riviere and Ralf Ketelhut, EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, Germany 17. Efforts in the electronics industry toward creating a recycling-based society Nobuhisa Itoh, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd, Japan 18. Ten years of sustainability at Henkel: innovative products as basis for long-term business success Rainer Rauberger and Michaela Raupach, Henkel, Corporate Sustainability Management/Reporting and Stakeholder Dialogue, Germany 19. Toward sustainable banks and insurance companies Thomas Orbach and Timo Busch, Wuppertal Institute, Germany 20. The challenge of sustainability for financial institutions Paul Clements-Hunt, Head of Unit, UNEP Finance Initiatives, Switzerland 21. Sustainability: the new paradigm in value-based corporate management Hanns Michael Hoelz, Global Head of Sustainable Development, Deutsche Bank 22. Can pension funds drive sustainable development? Inge Schumacher, UBS Global Asset Management, Socially Responsible Investments, Switzerland ...this compilation of essays from an impressive range of sustainability experts shows how and where those at the leading edge are taking the debate. - Corporate Citizenship Briefing, February/March 2004 | | The main strength of this book is that it discusses eco-efficiency at a practical level of applications. In this way the concept becomes tangible and the authors clearly go beyond the theory ... It is required reading for business, government, NGOs and academics, in the field of business management. - International Journal of Environment and Pollution Vol. 23 No. 4 (2005)

The paper presents a meta dataset covering 13 experiments on social learning games. It is found that in situations where it is empirically optimal to follow others and contradict one's own information, the players err in the majority of cases, forgoing substantial parts of earnings. The average player contradicts her own signal only if the empirical odds ratio of the own signal being wrong, conditional on all available information, is larger than 2: 1, rather than 1: 1 as would be implied by rational expectations. A regression analysis formulates a straightforward test of rational expectations which strongly rejects the null.

Is there a link between public debt and wealth inequality? Could government bondholders use intra-generational redistribution strategically to make the repayment of debt politically viable? We reconsider the model of Tabellini (J Polit Econ 99:335–357, 1991) and expose the role of coordination and divide-and-conquer. By coordinating their bond investments, the old generation splits up the young generation and secures a majority favoring debt repayment. Coordination therefore mediates the impact of wealth inequality on public debt. We test the model in a laboratory experiment and find that subjects often coordinate to exploit the link between inter- and intragenerational redistribution. Hence, coordination plays an important role in the strategic creation and exploitation of minorities, and thus in the accumulation of public debt.

IntroductionAbnormally invasive placenta (AIP) is often associated with high maternal morbidity. In surgical treatment, caesarean hysterectomy or partial uterine resection may lead to high perioperative maternal blood loss. A conservative treatment by leaving the placenta in utero after caesarean delivery of the baby is an option to preserve fertility and to reduce peripartum hysterectomy-related morbidity. Nevertheless, due to increased placental coagulation activity as well as consumption of clotting factors, a disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC)-like state with secondary late postpartum bleeding can occur.PurposeSystematic review after the presentation of a case of conservative management of placenta percreta with secondary partial uterine wall resection due to vaginal bleeding, complicated by local hyperfibrinolysis and consecutive systemic decrease in fibrinogen levels.MethodsSystematic PubMed database search was done until August 2019 without any restriction of publication date or journalResultsAmong 58 publications, a total of 11 reported on DIC-like symptoms in the conservative management of AIP, in the median on day 59 postpartum. In most cases, emergency hysterectomy was performed, which led to an almost immediate normalization of coagulation status but was accompanied with high maternal blood loss. In two cases, fertility-preserving conservative management could be continued after successful medical therapy.ConclusionBased on these results, we suggest routinely monitoring of the coagulation parameters next to signs of infection in the postpartum check-ups during conservative management of AIP. Postpartum tranexamic acid oral dosage should be discussed when fibrinogen levels are decreasing and D-Dimers are increasing.

ObjectiveWomen living with HIV have an increased risk of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical cancer. Little is known about genotype-specific HPV prevalence, the impact of antiretroviral therapy, immunological status, and additional risk factors in women living with HIV in Germany. The goal of this study was to characterize the risk profile for cervical dysplasia in these women.MethodsPatients with HIV infection presenting at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin from October 2017 to September 2020 were included and underwent gynecological examination, colposcopy, cervical cytology and HPV genotype testing. HPV genotypes were stratified by carcinogenicity. Atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance or higher were considered abnormal cytology. Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 26, 2019). A two-tailed p-value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsA total of 84 women were evaluated. The majority (95.2%) received antiretroviral therapy. Median CD4 cell count was 564 cells/µl (range 20–1969). 95.2% were previously screened for cervical cancer. High-risk HPV prevalence was 44%. High-high-risk HPV subtypes (16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, 58) were significantly associated with abnormal cytology (p<0.001). HPV16 was the most common genotype (23%), was significantly associated with abnormal cytology (p=0.002) and was the main risk factor for abnormal cytology (OR 8.55, 95% CI 2.15 to 34.13, p=0.002), followed by age <35 years (OR 4.96, 95% CI 1.23 to 19.61, p=0.033) and cigarette smoking (OR 3.944, 95% CI 0.98 to 15.88, p=0.053).ConclusionsAntiretroviral therapy and adherence to cervical cancer screening was high. High-high-risk HPV, especially HPV16, coincided with high incidence of cytological abnormalities. Women living with HIV in Germany have adequate immune status and are often pre-screened for cervical cancer, and therefore have a different risk profile for cervical dysplasia than in low-income or medium-income countries. Adapted screening programs should be defined.

We show that any decision maker who \"narrowly brackets\" (evaluates decisions separately) and does not have constant-absolute-risk-averse preferences will make a first-order stochastically dominated combined choice in some simple pair of independent binary decisions. We also characterize the preference-contingent monetary cost from this mistake. Empirically, in a real-stakes laboratory experiment that replicates Tversky and Kahneman's (1981) experiment, 28 percent of participants choose dominated combinations. In a representative survey eliciting hypothetical large-stakes choices, higher proportions do so. Violation rates vary little with personal characteristics. Average preferences are prospect-theoretic, with an estimated 89 percent of people bracketing narrowly.

Die Zeit der »Moderne«, also die Zeit der letzten rund 200 Jahre, erfährt weltweit eine Verlängerung der durchschnittlichen Lebenserwartung auf mehr als das Doppelte. Dieser Fortschritt ist eine der Begleiterscheinungen der zunehmenden Verwissenschaftlichung der menschlichen Gesellschaft. Auch die Interpretation von Grundrechten durch Verfassungsgerichte kommt in Krisenzeiten wie der Corona-Pandemie nicht ohne Orientierung an den wissenschaftlichen Spezialdisziplinen aus. Das Kausaldenken der Wissenschaft und ihrer Anwendungen geht beim Individuum mit einer wachsenden Zukunftsorientierung des eigenen Handelns einher. Dort, wo Geldgrößen involviert sind, kann man das Ausmaß der individuellen Zukunftsorientierung am Verhältnis zwischen dem Privatvermögen (Ersparnisse inklusive die Rentenansprüche der Sozialversicherung) und dem laufenden Konsum festmachen. Diese Größe Z steigt parallel mit der Lebenserwartung als säkularer, weltweiter Prozess. Es ist dies das »Gesetz der mit steigendem Wohlstand zunehmenden Zukunftsorientierung menschlichen Handelns«. Im Gegensatz zur »Warteperiode« Z verursacht derselbe Prozess ständigen wissenschaftlich-technischen Fortschritts eine säkulare Stagnation der »Produktionsperiode« T. Diese aber bestimmt die Kapitalnachfrage des globalen Produktionssystems. Für den Raum aller OECD-Länder plus China und bei einem Zinssatz von Null ist heute Z mit 13 Jahren weitaus größer als T mit 4 ½ Jahren. Der Anlagebedarf des von Z bestimmten privaten Vermögenswunsches kann nur gedeckt werden, wenn ein erheblicher Teil dieses Vermögens aus Staatsschulden besteht. Dies erfordert ein »Neues Denken« über Staatsschulden: diese sind zwar Schulden des »Leviathan« bei seinen Bürgern, zugleich aber Vermögen der Bürger. Faktisch machen heute die expliziten und die im Sozialstaat verankerten »impliziten« Staatsschulden schon beinahe die Hälfte des privaten Gesamtvermögens aus. Es wäre ein fundamentaler Fehler, auf einer raschen Amortisation der durch die Corona-Pandemie verursachten zusätzlichen Staatsschulden zu bestehen. Modernity (i.e. the last 200 years) experienced a worldwide doubling of life expectancy. This achievement goes together with a rise in science and in attitudes governed by a thinking in cause and effect. Individual behavior becomes more and more “future oriented”; scientific evidence of harms from cigarette smoking reduces the frequency of smoking and thereby contributes to a further rise in life expectancy. Where money is involved we have a measure of “future orientation” of individual behavior. It is Z: the ratio between the value of private wealth (including present value of future social security rental income) to current private consumption. I call Z the “waiting period”, because it also indicates the average time distance between income and consumption financed out of that income. There is an empirical law: “future directedness rises with a rising standard of living”. So there is secular rise of Z. On the other hand, steady technical progress implies that the “period of production” T of the worldwide production system stagnates. But T is associated with the capital requirements of the production system. Technical progress causes steady obsolescence of capital goods: thereby, there is a strict limit for the productivity advantages of more roundabout production. This explains the “Kaldor Fact” of a secularly stagnating capital output ratio, which basically is the same as the period of production T. For today we estimate that at an interest rate of zero the weighted average Z of all OECD countries plus China equals 13 years, whereas the period of production T is roughly 4 ½ years. To implement the waiting period Z it is therefore necessary that net public debt is a substantial part of private wealth. Indeed, our estimate is that explicit and “implicit” public debt amounts to almost one half of private wealth. “Implicit” net public debt predominantly consists of future social security (old age) benefits of citizens. It would be a mistake to quickly amortize the additional public debt incurred to cope with the Corona Pandemic.