No abstract

Purpose -The aim of this paper is to present a new methodological approach to help companies improve their decision-taking capacity regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of climate change (CC). Design/methodology/approach -The study was conducted by combining a wide variety of sources including articles and research reports. Taking into account the complexity of adapting in a context of climate change, the paper developed a simplified conceptual model that integrates multi-criteria analysis. A vulnerability matrix was generated as a combination of adaptive capacity, exposure and sensitivity and how to measure the magnitude, persistence, uncertainty, temporality, degree of importance in combination with the impacts. Findings -The first results reveal that activities related to water resources or natural ecosystems are more important than those related to energy or tourism sectors, and that there is a relationship between opportunities and adaptation needs. Practical implications -The paper documents the inverse relationship between adaptation measures and opportunities in a study that may be a starting-point for further research into empirical observations of sector vulnerability and the impact and integration of the factor of resilience. Originality/value -The paper provides a common language to use in the business world for concepts related to climate change. It provides a methodological approach for finding solutions to the problem of resource optimisation in companies and helps to find new business opportunities for sectors.

No abstract

As ecological economic fundamentalists argue, we need a new paradigm for changing current global economic system basics. The real problem is that the limits of ecological economics are based on unrealistic or utopian objectives in the proposed research frameworks. Taking this problem into account, present research demonstrates that the combination of mixed methods creates valid results. In this case, the hydrologic footprint reduction method was created to achieve the main objective: to prove the usefulness of combining environmental science techniques along with economics tools. The most important result of the work is the relationships between export/import product balances in the Basque Country, Spain (among the three most important economic regions along with Cataluña and Madrid) and their implications in maximizing effectiveness in saving water and money thanks to external hydrologic footprint analysis. A comparison was made between global and local consumption patterns using the water footprint method. It demonstrated the importance of making small changes, which imply direct and indirect benefits for the economy and hydrologic resources.

No abstract