crucial

Despite deepening poverty and environmental degradation throughout rural Latin America, Mayan peasant farmers in Chiapas, Mexico, are creating an environmental and economic success by growing organic coffee. Organic Coffee: Sustainable Development by Mayan Farmers provides a unique and vivid insight into how this coffee is grown, harvested, processed, and marketed to consumers in the North. Maria Elena Martinez-Torres explains how Mayan farmers have capitalized on their ethnic networks to make a crucial difference in their approach to agriculture.

• agriculture
• chiapas mexico
• commodity chain
• crucial
• ethnic networks
• maria elena martinez
• martinez torres
• mayan
• organic coffee
• organic farming
• peasant farmers
• poverty and environmental degradation
• sustainable development practices
• vivid insight
• zapatista uprising

If the US continues with its current policies, the next decades will be marked by war, economic collapse, and environmental catastrophe. Resource depletion and population pressures are about to catch up with us, and no one is prepared. The political elites, especially in the US, are incapable of dealing with the situation and have in mind a punishing game of "Last One Standing."

• alternative energy sources
• antiwar
• civil society organizations
• community solidarity
• crucial
• cynicism
• decades
• despair
• economic collapse
• industrial societies
• magic elixir
• mild version
• oil war
• political elites
• population pressures
• power elites
• realistically
• resource depletion
• richard heinberg
• wealthy countries

How much does regulation matter in shaping corporate behavior? This pathbreaking, in-depth study of fourteen pulp manufacturing mills in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand reveals that steadily tightening regulatory standards have been crucial for raising environmental performance. But while all firms have shown improvement, some have improved more than others, many going substantially beyond compliance.

• australia and new zealand
• canada australia
• compliance
• corporate behavior
• corporate environmental management
• crucial
• economic constraints
• empirical study
• environmental activists
• environmental performance
• management style
• pulp
• regulatory standards
• reveals
• shades of green
• shown improvement
• style shades
• variation

The built environment is responsible for an estimated 45% of all green house gas emissions. It is during the design process where decisions are made and which can have the greatest influence on the reduction of the impact of the built environment. The architectural brief is seen by architects as the most crucial part of the entire design process in terms of achieving high quality buildings. Environmental design strategies are often considered as being of lesser importance.

• achieving
• architects
• building design
• built environment
• continual improvement
• crucial
• decisions
• design process
• design strategies
• environmental design
• environmental performance
• gas emissions
• green house
• high quality
• international case studies
• quality buildings
• sustainability
• theoretical issues