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Through the “Act to Strengthen the Non-financial Reporting by Corporations in their Management and Group Management Reports” (Gesetz zur Stärkung der nichtfinanziellen Berichterstattung der Unternehmen in ihren Lage- und Konzernlageberichten) (CSR Directive Transposition Act, „CSR-RUG“) of 11 April 2017[1], the German Bundestag implemented Directive 2014/95/EU (“CSR Directive”)[2] into German law. Following the European impetus, the CSR-RUG enriches the traditional repertoire of forms of action under environmental law by a further instrument. Already the regulatory context gives an idea of its atypical nature: The centrepiece of the CSR-RUG is the amendment of and addition to the Third Book of the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch, “HGB”), which deals with the “trading books” of undertakings, i.e., accounting and reporting requirements. Since the reporting year 2017, large capital market-oriented corporations must report extensively within the framework of their annual management reports on their activities and effects in certain areas of “Corporate Social Responsibility”. This also includes environmental matters. The transparency and publicity this entails is intended to generate positive stimuli for more responsible, sustained and not least of all environmentally friendly entrepreneurial action.
Following a brief presentation of the European legal bases and their implementation in Germany (I.), we will classify the provisions within the underlying concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (II.) and analyse and systemise the governance effects of non-financial reporting (III.). A few remarks on selected aspects of the chosen approach and its implementation (IV.) as well as an outlook summarising our conclusions (V.) will complete this article. By detailing the German approach to transposing the CSR Directive, this paper intends to provide an example of the challenges member state legislators face when complying with modern governance concepts such as Corporate Social Responsibility by way of non-financial reporting obligations.
[1] Federal Law Gazette, Part I 2017, 802 et seq.
[2] Directive 2014/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council 22 October 2014 amending Directive 2013/34/EU as regards disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large undertakings and groups, OJ EU No. L 330, p. 1.
This paper presents the outcomes of an exploratory field study that examined the social impact of an ICT-based suite of exergames for people with dementia and their caregivers. Qualitative data was collected over a period of 8 months, during which time we studied the daily life of 14 people with dementia and their informal and professional caregivers. We focus on the experiential aspects of the system and examine its social impact when integrated into the daily routines of both people with dementia themselves and their professional and family caregivers. Our findings indicate that relatives were able to regain leisure time, whilst people with dementia were able to recapture certain aspects of their social and daily activities that might otherwise have been lost to them. Results suggest that the system enhanced social-interaction, invigorated relationships, and improved the empowerment of people with dementia and their caregivers to face daily challenges.
New approaches in securing more sustainable urban food futures: case from Cologne-Bonn region
(2018)
The main objective of this chapter is to give insights into how H-BRS as a German University of Applied Sciences supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in exploring African markets. The university achieves this objective by engaging its Bachelor and Master level students in applied market research. Students engage in this research as part of their final thesis writing. This chapter lays out a process for successful marketing research projects for German SMEs in nine steps.
Internships and professional experience are becoming more and more important requisites for students and graduates and are almost taken for granted by many HR officials. In opposition to this, many newly created Bachelor and Master programmes make it difficult for students to integrate internships into their studies without having to add another semester and thereby "losing" valuable time. This becomes all the more relevant with private universities or universities generally that charge considerable tuition fees.
Argentina substantially contributes to the global organic agriculture and food sector due to its large areas of organically managed agricultural land. However, most of the organic production is intended for export. Overall, food supply for the domestic organic market is hardly tapped. Based on this, we investigate the current importance of organic agriculture and food production as well as consumption attitudes and behavior within the country. The novelty of the study also lies in the observation, documentation and analysis of latest stakeholder‐driven developments towards organic agriculture and food. Furthermore, the publication allows the Argentinean organic market to be significantly more visible for the international audience.
The curricula of all degree programs at H-BRS have many different practice-oriented activities and focus on hands-on learning. In labs and small classrooms (30–60 persons), students get a personalized learning environment which is complemented with many individual and group projects that foster collaborative work situations. There are several main areas that students learn from working with industry, local organizations or public institutions.
Project Overview
(2018)
The project "German-African University Partnership Platform for the Development of Entrepreneurs and Small/Medium Enterprises" started in 2015 within the framework of the program "University-Business-Partnerships between Higher Education Institutions and Business Partners in Germany and in Developing Countries", funded by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). It is carried out by Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, University of Applied Sciences in Germany (H-BRS), the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana, and the University of Nairobi (UoN) in Kenya.
Digitisation has brought a major upheaval to the mobility sector, and in the future, self-driving cars will probably be one of the transport modes. This study extends transport and user acceptance research by analysing in greater depth how the new modes of autonomous private cars, autonomous carsharing and autonomous taxis fit into the existing traffic mix from today's perspective. It focuses on accounting for relative added value. For this purpose, user preference theory was used as a base for an online survey (n=172) on the relative added value of the new autonomous traffic modes. Results show that users see advantages in the autonomous modes for driving comfort and time utilization whereas, in comparison to conventional cars, in many other areas – especially in terms of driving pleasure and control – they see no advantages or even relative disadvantages. Compared to public transport, the autonomous modes offer added values in almost all characteristics. This analysis at the partwor th level provides a more detailed explanation for user acceptance of automated driving.
Daryoush Daniel Vaziri illustrates that the use of mixed methods designs may support the induction of more subtle and complete theories about older adults’ use of technologies for the support of active and healthy aging. The results show that older adults’ social contexts and environments considerably affect their perspectives, practices and attitudes with respect to health, quality of life, well-being and technology use for active and healthy aging support. Results were collected with older adults aged 60+ as well as relevant secondary stakeholders like caregivers, policy makers or health insurance companies.
Urban food systems consist of many stakeholders with different perspectives, different interests and different governance tools. This study aimed at developing potential future scenarios for the food system of Cologne by analysing the system with a Delphi approach. In our research-design, the suitability of the Delphi-method was evaluated not only as a tool for future modelling and scenario design, but also as a communication tool among the group of participants on a multi-stakeholder-platform. As a case study, the Food Policy Council of Cologne, Germany was used. Cologne can be seen as a forerunner among German cities in the development of a new urban food policy. Some of the successful steps to re-envisioning food as an urban system include joining the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, the decision of the City Council to become an edible city and the establishment of a Food Policy Council. For the study it was important to capture participants’ visions of a common goal regarding the governance of the urban food system and also to identify mental ‘silos’. It was obvious that the municipality of Cologne together with the Food Policy Council made great efforts towards participatory processes to build a vision for a sustainable and regional food supply. However, many stakeholder-groups in the process still work exclusively among themselves and do not actively practice the confrontation with the viewpoints of other relevant groups. This supports the maintenance of ‘silos’ and leaves little room for face-to-face discussions. Therefore, the primary aim of this study is to explore key components of food provisioning in the future for Cologne while confronting all stakeholders (municipal administration and politicians, farmers and food activists) with the perspectives of all group members. We used a multi-stakeholder Delphi approach with 19 panellists to find out essential components of the municipal regional food provisioning system in Cologne. Unique in this Delphi study is the bringing together of municipal administration, regional urban farmers and food activists. The research is still on-going, but preliminary results show that more communication among all relevant actors, especially horizontally among different city departments, in the urban food system is needed.
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach is the most important tool in the evaluation of environmental (sustainability) impacts of products and processes. We used the method to conduct an impact analysis with regard to raw material inputs (pulp) for the German paper production industry. In our analysis, we compare the environmental effects of primary sulphate pulp, scrap paper pulp and grass-based pulp and estimate their impacts in the impact categories "greenhouse gas emissions", "eutrophication" as well as "energy and water consumption". Furthermore, we discuss the opportunities of the methodical approach and some general problems and limits of the application of a LCA. In conclusion, we found environmental advantages for the use of grass as an alternative resource in the German paper production industry, especially in the fields of transport and water consumption.
Innovations in the mobility industry such as automated and connected cars could significantly reduce congestion and emissions by allowing the traffic to flow more freely and reducing the number of vehicles according to some researchers. However, the effectiveness of these sustainable product and service innovations is often limited by unexpected changes in consumption: some researchers thus hypothesize that the higher comfort and improved quality of time in driverless cars could lead to an increase in demand for driving with autonomous vehicles. So far, there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting either one or other of these hypotheses. To analyze the influence of autonomous driving on mobility behavior and to uncover user preferences, which serve as indicators for future travel mode choices, we conducted an online survey with a paired comparison of current and future travel modes with 302 participants in Germany. The results do not confirm the hypothesis that ownership will become an outdated model in the future. Instead they suggest that private cars, whether conventional or fully automated, will remain the preferred travel mode. At the same time, carsharing will benefit from full automation more than private cars. However, the findings indicate that the growth of carsharing will mainly be at the expense of public transport, showing that more emphasis should be placed in making public transport more attractive if sustainable mobility is to be developed.
Shared Autonomous Vehicles: Potentials for a Sustainable Mobility and Risks of Unintended Effects
(2018)
Automated and connected cars could significantly reduce congestion and emissions through a more efficient flow of traffic and a reduction in the number of vehicles. An increase in demand for driving with autonomous vehicles is also conceivable due to higher comfort and improved quality of time using driverless cars. So far, empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis is missing. To analyze the influence of autonomous driving on mobility behavior and to uncover user preferences, which serve as an indicator for future travel mode choices, we conducted an online survey with a paired comparison of current and future travel modes with 302 German participants. The results do not confirm the hypothesis that ownership will become an outdated model in the future. Instead they suggest that private cars, whether traditional or fully automated, will remain the preferred travel mode. At the same time, carsharing will benefit from full automation more than private cars. However, findings indicate that the growth of carsharing will mainly be at the expense of public transport, showing that more effort should be placed in making public transportation more attractive if sustainable mobility is to be developed.
A Method for the Sustainable Documentation of Operations Processes in Parcel Distribution Centers
(2018)
There is often no common understanding on operational processes in logistics companies as they are not properly documented. Hence, people execute the same process differently and training is conducted by experienced operators on an ad-hoc basis. Furthermore, continuous process improvement is hampered as neither the ideal process nor current issues in as-is processes are visible. A major reason for the missing documentation is the complexity of existing business process modelling languages. Modelling experts are required for initially describing the processes and also for updating the models after process changes. Furthermore, operations people are usually not used to read complex process models in EPCs or BPMN diagrams. In order to overcome these limitations, a domain-specific modelling language which facilitates maintaining up-to-date process models has been designed with a large logistics company in Germany. The paper at hand briefly describes this language and illustrates the method on how to apply it in operations environments.
This paper analyzes the complex effects and risks of social protection programmes in Ghana and Kenya on poor people’s human wellbeing, voice and empowerment and interactions with the social protection regulatory framework and policy instruments. For this purpose, it adopts a comprehensive Inclusive Development framework to systematically explore the complex effects of cash transfers and health insurance at the individual, household and community level. The findings highlight the positive provisionary and preventive effects of social protection, but also illustrate that the poorest are still excluded and that promotive effects, in the form of enhanced productivity, manifest themselves mainly for the people who are less resource poor. They can build more effectively upon an existing asset base, capabilities, power and social relations to counter the exclusionary mechanisms of the system, address inequity concerns and offset the transaction costs of accessing and benefitting from social protection. The inclusive development framework enables to lay these complex effects and interactions bear, and points to areas that require more longitudinal and mixed methodology research.
The paper contributes to the debate on the political economy of implementation of propoor social policy. It argues for a broadening of the debate, which is dominated by technocratic arguments, emphasizing the lack of financial resources, technology or skills as the major barriers for effective implementation. Describing the dynamic interplay of ‘formal’ operational programme structures and ‘informal’ traditional institutions in delivering the CT-OVC – the largest and oldest cash transfer programme in Kenya – it argues for the need to look more closely into the local political economy as an important mediating arena for implementing social policies. Implementation is heavily contingent upon the local social, political and institutional context that influences and shapes its outcomes. These processes are highly dynamic and ambivalent evolving between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ structures and institutions. They may change over time and place, challenging the implicit assumption that programmes are evenly implemented across geographic and political entities.
This book is about how computer systems might be designed to serve their users rather better. It deals with how to study the natural behaviour of users to see how computer systems might best help them, and how one might also involve them in the design of computer systems that will assist them in their everyday practices.
As a result of ageing societies, the prevalence of dementia, and accordingly the need of care is increasing rapidly. Here, the use of ICT-based technologies may facilitate and promote a self-sustaining life-style for people with dementia and their caregivers. The presented poster describes early findings from the project MobiAssist and outlines the ICT-based training system. The system aims to increase the physical and cognitive capabilities of people with dementia, relief the caregivers and improve wellbeing of involved parties.
Dementia not only affects the cognitive capabilities, especially memory and orientation, but also physical capabilities, which are associated with a decrease of physical activities. Here, ICT can play a major role to improve health, quality of life and wellbeing in older adults suffering from dementia and related stakeholders, such as relatives, professional and informal caregivers. The aim of the presented system is to increase physical and cognitive capabilities of people with dementia and their caregivers to support them in daily life activities, reduce the strain of the caregivers and improve both their wellbeing.