Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W199628852> ?p ?o ?g. }
Showing items 1 to 77 of
77
with 100 items per page.
- W199628852 abstract "The aim of this research was to explore an approach aimed at developing water utility attitudes towards adopting sustainability management practices. In doing so a toolkit called SUST, intended to be affordable, practical and user-friendly, was developed for use by water utilities in defining, assessing and improving their sustainability. Multi-disciplinary in nature, SUST was developed from a range of best practice concepts in the literature, and designed to balance the social, environment and economic components of a “triple bottom line” conception of sustainability. The major contributions of this research are: 1. An improved method of sustainability assessment and reporting for water utilities, SUST, which achieved support from the majority of participating regulatory agencies. 2. A complete step by step process whereby utilities and their stakeholders can agree on a vision of sustainability, then measure and make improvements. 3. A definition of a sustainable water utility which has been refined by participating utilities and agencies. 4. An educational tool for improving understanding of sustainability. 5. Recognition that, to be practical, affordable and user-friendly, a sustainability indicator set must also meet regulatory reporting requirements and, at least in the interim, traditional indicators may need to be incorporated, in contrast to Lundin’s (1999) view that they should not be used. 6. Agreement by water utilities and regulatory agencies that the water utility practice of selecting a set of sustainability indicators without first developing an agreed vision of sustainability is not effective. 7. Some evidence that a standardized sustainability indicator set could be developed using SUST and could be used by water utilities, which presents exciting prospects. 8. Evidence that many water utilities have a long way to go before they can address some of the cornerstones of water utility sustainability – total water cycle management, real value pricing and public involvement. 9. The beginnings of a tool for use in achieving culture change in a water utility organisation. Five SUST modules were developed as part of the research: 1. Sustainability management steps for systematic and rigorous decision-making; 2. Definition of a sustainable water utility as a starting point for a sustainability vision; 3. Selection criteria for choosing sustainability indicators; 4. A model sustainability indicator set which could be used to measure progress against the definition; 5. Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) software for systematically and rigorously assessing sustainability and options for improvement. Three research questions were developed and addressed: 1. What is the current status of sustainability reporting by water utilities in the Australian State of Queensland and what are the barriers to its improvement? 2. What is the usefulness of SUST as an approach to developing sustainability management in Queensland? 3. Does the use of SUST by water utilities achieve regulator and public agency support? A water industry survey was conducted with a number of water utilities to address Question 1 and provide initial data in relation to Question 2. Subsequent case study trials with two utilities utilising a refined SUST obtained more in-depth data on Question 2 and also addressed Question 3. Question 1 findings identified the major barrier to improved sustainability management as a lack of understanding of the concept, with current performance reporting bearing little relationship to cornerstone sustainability issues. Initial feedback on Question 2 indicated that SUST may be able to assist in addressing these issues. Survey respondents supported the foundations of SUST and most of its modules. Module 1 decision-making steps were largely supported as was the definition of a sustainable utility in Module 2. Support was also achieved for the use of indicators as sustainability measures in Module 4, consistent with the view that indicators are a practical vehicle for coming to grips with sustainability. However, agreement on a standardized indicator set for common use by utilities was not reached. More detailed feedback established that most utility and agency participants found SUST very useful in making sustainability both meaningful and operational for a water utility, with the definition ranked the most critical of the SUST modules. More than half the participating regulatory agencies thought SUST represented a better approach to managing sustainability than current methods, and would support its use by utilities, while the remainder was unsure. Further, consistent with the literature, participants believed that, to maintain validity, an indicator set needs to be developed following agreement on the definition of sustainability, and cannot be chosen from a set such as the Global Reporting Initiative set without such a framework. SUST may be able to produce a standardized indicator set which improves existing regulator indicators as well as incorporating new contributions, avoiding duplication of reporting effort. Such an outcome could improve affordability of sustainability reporting by water utilities and merits further research. Some evidence indicates that SUST may be useful as a cultural change tool as, via a team learning effort, it caused a redefinition of the core business of a water utility to incorporate sustainability." @default.
- W199628852 created "2016-06-24" @default.
- W199628852 creator A5091227278 @default.
- W199628852 date "2005-01-01" @default.
- W199628852 modified "2023-09-27" @default.
- W199628852 title "An Approach to Sustainability Management for Water Utilities" @default.
- W199628852 hasPublicationYear "2005" @default.
- W199628852 type Work @default.
- W199628852 sameAs 199628852 @default.
- W199628852 citedByCount "0" @default.
- W199628852 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
- W199628852 hasAuthorship W199628852A5091227278 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C107826830 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C111919701 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C112930515 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C134560507 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C144133560 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C162324750 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C166957645 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C177264268 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C18903297 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C195094911 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C199360897 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C2776957806 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C39432304 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C41008148 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C6165555 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C66204764 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C86803240 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C95457728 @default.
- W199628852 hasConcept C98045186 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C107826830 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C111919701 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C112930515 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C134560507 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C144133560 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C162324750 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C166957645 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C177264268 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C18903297 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C195094911 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C199360897 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C2776957806 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C39432304 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C41008148 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C6165555 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C66204764 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C86803240 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C95457728 @default.
- W199628852 hasConceptScore W199628852C98045186 @default.
- W199628852 hasLocation W1996288521 @default.
- W199628852 hasOpenAccess W199628852 @default.
- W199628852 hasPrimaryLocation W1996288521 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W1186598297 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W1643908480 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W1753716914 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W1984585966 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2032603375 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2054034246 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2263894251 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2340683019 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2506264815 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2522345891 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2605324611 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2606028163 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2640328006 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2747257739 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2774913674 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2890310469 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2903912438 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W3030747716 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W3120739477 @default.
- W199628852 hasRelatedWork W2229459660 @default.
- W199628852 isParatext "false" @default.
- W199628852 isRetracted "false" @default.
- W199628852 magId "199628852" @default.
- W199628852 workType "article" @default.