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Drawing on 20 years of leadership experience in high pressure emergency medical and rescue situations, the author describes the consequences of pressure, both positive and negative, and teaches the strategies we need to attain states of peak performance.

This book explores energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs) as a means of overcoming some of the more difficult hurdles in promoting energy efficiency in public facilities. ESPCs represent a very attractive solution to many of the problems that are unique to public agencies, since they involve outsourcing a full project cycle to a service provider. From the detailed audit through implementation and savings verification, ESPCs can relieve public agencies of bureaucratic hassles, while service providers can secure the off-budget project financing and be paid from the actual energy savings, thus internalizing project performance risks. ESPC bidding also allows public agencies to select from a range of technical solutions, maximizing the benefit to the agency. Global experience suggests that ESPCs have been more effective at realizing efficiency gains than many other policy measures and programs, since the service providers have a vested interest in ensuring that a project is actually implemented. Many of the country governments interviewed for the study also saw enormous potential in bundling, financing, and implementing energy efficiency projects on a larger scale in the public sector, a method that increases the rate of efficiency gains and creates further benefits through economies of scale.

Effective performance management systems are essential in any successful organisation. In both commercial sport business and not-for-profit sport organisations, the pressure to follow international best practice in performance management has grown significantly in recent years. This book shows how performance management concepts, tools and principles can be applied in the modern sport environment. Linking theory and practice throughout, it defines fundamental performance parameters impacting on sport organisations, and introduces key issues such as individual performance management through to board-level governance structures, presenting extended real-world case studies and practitioner perspectives.

\"Award-winning strategies to drive game changing meaningful results during the most challenging economy in decades Drawing from executive and thought leader Bob Paladino's research and advisory experiences and collaboration with award-winning and high-performing organizations, this sequel his global best seller Innovative Corporate Performance Management: Five Key Principles to Accelerate Results provides a clear road map for executing enterprise strategy. Reveals a proven implementation model that has accelerated breakthrough results Shares over 40 new, innovative best practices common to Malcolm Baldrige, Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame, Sterling quality, Fortune 100 Best, APQC, and Forbes award winners Provides a CPM Process Blueprint and diagnostic to score your organization and establish a plan for your award winning performance Offers a fresh approach to integrating proven methodologies proven by case companies that have been awarded over 100 awards Includes key process maps, strategic planning frameworks, strategy maps, customer and competitor intelligence methods, balanced scorecards, comparative tables, project plans, testimonials, charts, graphs, and screen shots of CPM, CRM, BSC and KM systems. All-new case studies and best practice research are included from world-renowned enterprises as well as insights from executives who have won the most globally recognized awards in business.\"--

The chapters in this text each present a different case study of performance measurement. They cover a wide range of sectors in the leisure industry including public recreation centres, theme parks, play facilities, sport organisations, hospitality, and the Olympic Games. The evidence from these cases covers examples from three different continents and five different countries. All the chapters report empirical research and all the cases explore managerial implications.

Although the double-layer pavement structure with a top layer of stone mastic asphalt concrete (SMAC) and a bottom layer of epoxy asphalt concrete (EAC) has been confirmed to have excellent overall performance in the laboratory, there is a lack of comparison and verification in practical projects. Hence, the utilization of the SMAC + EAC structure in this steel bridge deck pavement (SBDP) practical project and the clarification of its service performance are of significant importance for facilitating the promotion and application of this novel structure. This study relied on an SBDP reconstruction project in Ningbo, China. Indoor performance tests were used to determine the appropriate material compositions for SMAC and EAC. Subsequently, both ERS and SMAC + EAC pavement structures were paved in the project, and the service conditions of the different pavements after one year of operation were tested and compared. The results indicated that the epoxy SBS asphalt (ESA) binder prepared by substituting SBS-modified asphalt binder for the base binder, exhibited improved mechanical strength and toughness. The variation of modifier content significantly affected the high-temperature stability, low-temperature crack resistance, and moisture damage resistance of epoxy SBS asphalt concrete (ESAC) and high-viscosity SBS asphalt concrete (HSAC), while the gradation mainly influenced the skid resistance. The optimal contents of modifiers in ESA and HAS binders were finalized at 45 wt% and 11 wt%. After one year of operation on the trial road, the pavement performance of the SMAC + EAC structure had significant advantages over the ERS system, with all lanes having an SBDP quality index (SDPQI) above 90 and an excellent service condition. The successful application of the SMAC + EAC structure validated its applicability and feasibility in SBDP, which provided strong evidence for the further promotion of this structure.

This paper presents a performance art piece, Building Strength, as a case study for a relational model in performing arts, especially in performance art. I proposed this model several years ago e already presented some applications as well as some reformulations. Here, it was not used to construct a performance art piece, but it is reformulated as a model used for me to relate with my own artistic practice, as usually done with another artists’ work.

Business improvement best practices and a proven methodology for improving corporate performance management, illustrated through a high performing program including numerous team case studies Corporate performance management consists of a set of processes that help organizations optimize their business performance. It provides a framework for organizing, automating and analyzing business methodologies, metrics, processes and systems that drive business performance. Corporate Performance Management Best Practices will help your organization benchmark itself against the best. Written by the winner of three globally accepted performance management awards Focuses on a single case study chronicling a health care system's corporate performance management journey Explores how the use of corporate performance management methods has created significant and broad based improvements in patient satisfaction scores, medical outcomes, people development, and corporate shared services and clinical processes Revealing practical techniques that can be adopted at all levels of an organization, from facilities manager to HR manager to CFO to CEO, Corporate Performance Management Best Practices provides a proven implementation model that accelerates breakthrough results.

Purpose: This research aims to investigate which are the green purchasing practices that Portuguese manufacturing companies have been using and the relationship with company overall performance. This paper focuses on green-purchasing practices, such as green products, green suppliers, environmental collaboration with suppliers, green packaging, and reverse logistics, to ensure sustainable practices in the supply chain, and the influence of those practices on firm’s performance was investigated from the perspective of managers perception.Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach was adopted, based on eight case studies. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews with procurement managers from Portuguese manufacturing industry and from reports, websites and companies’ internal documentation. To analyze the impact of green purchasing practices on company overall performance a conceptual model was proposed.Findings: The results support three out of five propositions of this research, and evidence reveals that green purchasing practices improves company overall performance. Provides evidence that the implementation of those practices positively influences overall company performance, it also identifies the most frequent green purchasing practices that may help businesses in adopting environmental initiatives.Research limitations/implications: While the sample included organizations from several economic sectors, it was based on just a sample of eight case studies and the findings may not be valid in different sectors. This research focuses on green procurement from a country's perspective, which reduces the ability to generalize the findings to other countries.Practical implications: Managers might utilize the results of this study to develop and implement green purchasing practices and enhance organizations' overall performance via their adoption.Social implications: This research contributes to the current discussion in green supply chain literature.Originality/value: This study contributes to the existing body of research on the effects of implementing green purchasing practices into the procurement function.

Background, aim and scope The evaluation of packaging’s environmental performance usually concentrates on a comparison of different packaging materials or designs. Another important aspect in life cycle assessment (LCA) studies on packaging is the recycling or treatment of packaging wastes. LCA studies of packed food include the packaging with specific focus on the contribution of the packaging to the total results. The consumption behaviour is often assessed only roughly. Packaging is facilitating the distribution of goods to the society. Broader approaches, which focus on the life cycle of packed goods, including the entire supply system and the consumption of goods, are necessary to get an environmental footprint of the system with respect to sustainable production and consumption. Materials and methods A full LCA study has been conducted for two food products: coffee and butter packed in flexible packaging systems. The aim was to investigate the environmental performance of packaging with respect to its function within the life cycle of goods. The study looks at the environmental relevance of stages and interdependencies within the life cycle of goods whilst taking consumers’ behaviour and portion sizes into consideration. The impact assessment is based on the following impact categories: non-renewable cumulative energy demand (CED), climate change, ozone layer depletion (ODP), acidification, and eutrophication. Results The study shows that the most relevant environmental aspects for a cup of coffee are brewing (i.e. the heating of water) and coffee production. Transport and retail packaging are of minor importance. Brewing and coffee production have an impact share between 40% (ODP, white instant coffee) and 99% (eutrophication, black coffee). Milk added for white coffee is relevant for this type of preparation. The instant coffee in the one-portion stick-pack needs more packaging material per cup of coffee and is prepared by a kettle with lower energy demand, such as a coffee machine, thus leading to higher shares of the retail packaging in all indicators. A one-portion stick-pack can prevent wastage and resources related to coffee production can be saved. The most relevant aspect regarding the life cycle of butter is butter production, dominated by the provision of milk. Over 80% of the burdens in butter production stem from the provision of milk for all indicators discussed. Regarding climate change, methane and dinitrogen monoxide, emissions of milk cows and fodder production are most relevant. Fertilisation during livestock husbandry is responsible for most burdens regarding acidification and eutrophication. The distribution and selling stage influences the indicators CED and ODP distinctly. The reasons are, on the one hand, the relatively energy-intensive storage in supermarkets and, on the other hand, the use of refrigerants for chilled storage and transportation. The storage of butter in a refrigerator for 30 days is responsible for about 10% of the CED. Discussion Several aspects have been modelled in a sensitivity analysis. The influence of coffee packaging disposal is very small due to the general low influence of packaging. In contrast, the brewing behaviour is highly relevant for the environmental impact of a cup of coffee. That applies similarly to the type of heating device—i.e. using a kettle or an automatic coffee machine. Wastage leads to a significant increase of all indicators. Under the wastage scenario, the coffee from one-portion stick-packs has a considerable better environmental performance concerning all indicators because, in case of instant coffee wastage of hot water and in case of ground coffee wastage of prepared coffee, has been predicted. Regardless of urban or countryside distances, grocery shopping has a low impact. The storage time of butter is relevant for the results in the indicator non-renewable CED. This is mainly the case when butter is stored as stock in the freezer. The end of life treatment of the packaging system has practically no influence on the results. Grocery shopping is of limited importance no matter which means of transport are used or which distances are regarded. Spoilage or wastage is of great importance: a spoilage/wastage of one third results in about 49% increased impacts compared to the standard case for all indicators calculated. Conclusions The most important factors concerning the environmental impact from the whole supply chain of a cup of coffee are the brewing of coffee, its cultivation and production and the milk production in case of white coffee. The study highlights consumer behaviour- and packaging-related measures to reduce the environmental impact of a cup of coffee. The most relevant measures reducing the environmental impacts of butter consumption are the optimisation of the milk and butter production. Another important factor is the consumers’ behaviour, i.e. the reduction of leftovers. The consumer can influence impacts of domestic storage using efficient and size-adequate appliances. The impacts of packaging in the life cycle of butter are not of primary importance. Recommendations and perspectives This study shows that, in the case of packaging industry, a reduction of relevant environmental impacts can only be achieved if aspects indirectly influenced by the packaging are also taken into account. Thus, the packaging industry should not only aim to improve the production process of their packages, but also provide packages whose functionality helps to reduce other more relevant environmental impacts in the life cycle such as, for example, losses. Depending on the product, tailor-made packaging may also help to increase overall resource efficiency.