The 3rd World Sustainability Forum

Call for Papers

Research concerned with sustainability and sustainable development is progressing fast. Simultaneously, activities within industry, government and academia are becoming more globalized. Successful research requires interaction with multiple partners around the world. We are facing an obvious need for new types of communication within our scientific community. Sciforum.net electronic conferences provide a platform for fast exchange of the latest research findings, as well as a possibility for global meetings with no limitations related to traveling.

The World Sustainability Forum 2013 (WSF-2013) will cover timely research topics concerned with sustainability and sustainable development. The conference will include nine topical sessions focusing on:

1. Environmental Sustainability (Section A).

2. Corporate Sustainability Strategy and Economic Sustainability (Section B).

3. Social Values for a Sustainable Economy (Section C).

4. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources (Section D).

5. Sustainable Urban Development (Section E).

6. Sustainable Development Policy, Practice and Education (Section F).

7. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation (Section G).

8. Sustainable Agriculture and Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity (Section H)

9. Related Topics (Section I)

This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with issues related to recent insights and advances in these topics. In particular, the conference will encourage both theoretical and practical debates surrounding environmental, economical and social contexts for those who want to go beyond the buzzword.

The conference will be completely free of charge, both to attend and for authors to publish and is sponsored by MDPI and the scientific journal Sustainability. Selected papers will be published in the journal Sustainability.

The 3rd World Sustainability Forum Conference will be held at www.sciforum.net, a platform developed by MDPI to organize electronic conferences for scholars.

Please submit your abstract with max 2500 character (in English) by September 16, 2013. Abstracts should be submitted online at https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf3/page/call. All submissions will be reviewed by our scientific committee. For accepted abstracts, a full draft paper should be submitted by October 13, 2013.

Paper Submission Guidelines

For information about the procedure for submission, peer-review, revision and acceptance of conference proceedings papers, please refer to the section "Instruction for authors":

sciforum.net/conference/wsf3/instructions

Conference Chairs

Marc Rosen

[Not defined]

Milos Cuculovic

MDPI AG

Samanta La Russa

MDPI AG

Stefan Schneider

MDPI

Cedric Madoerin

MDPI

Sessions

A. Environmental Sustainability
B. Corporate Sustainability Strategy and Economic Sustainability
C. Social Values for a Sustainable Economy
D. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources
E. Sustainable Urban Development
F. Sustainable Development Policy, Practice and Education
G. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation
H. Sustainable Agriculture and Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity
I. Related Topics

Instructions for Authors

Submission
Submissions should be done by the authors online by registering with www.sciforum.net, and using the "New Submission" function once logged into system.

1. Scholars interested in participating with the conference can submit their abstract (about 200-300 words covering the areas of manuscripts for the proceedings issue) online on this website until 16 September 2013.2. The Conference Committee will pre-evaluate, based on the submitted abstract, whether a contribution from the authors of the abstract will be welcome for 3rd World Sustainability Forum.

All authors will be notified by 27 September 2013 about the acceptance of their abstract.

3. If the abstract is accepted for this conference, the author is asked to submit his manuscript, optionally along with a PowerPoint and/or video presentation of his/her paper, until the submission deadline of 13 October 2013.

4. The manuscripts and presentations will be available on sciforum.net/conference/wsf3/page/call for discussion and rating during the time of the conference 1 – 30 November 2013.

5. The Open Access Journal Sustainability will publish the proceedings of the conference as a Special Issue. After the conference, the Conference Committee will select manuscripts that may be included for publication in this Special Issue.

Proceedings Paper
Manuscripts for the proceedings issue must have the following organization:

First page:
Title
Full author names
Affiliations (including full postal address) and authors' e-mail addresses
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Methods
Results and Discussion
Conclusions
(Acknowledgements)
References

Manuscripts should be prepared in MS Word or any other word processor and should be converted to the PDF format before submission. The publication format will be PDF. The manuscript should count at least 3 pages (incl. figures, tables and references). There is no page limit on the length, although authors are asked to keep their papers as concise as possible.

Presentation Slides
Authors are encouraged to prepare a presentation in PowerPoint or similar software, to be displayed online along with the Manuscript. Slides, if available, will be displayed directly in the website using Sciforum.net's proprietary slides viewer. Slides can be prepared in exactly the same way as for any traditional conference where research results can be presented. Slides should be converted to the PDF format before submission so that our process can easily and automatically convert them for online displaying.

Video Presentations
Besides their active participation within the forum, authors are also encouraged to submit video presentations. If you are interested in submitting, please contact the conference organizer – [email protected] to get to know more about the procedure. This is an unique way of presenting your paper and discuss it with peers from all over the world. Make a difference and join us for this project!

Submission of Manuscripts
Submission: Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.sciforum.net/login by registering and logging in to this website.

Accepted File Formats:

MS Word: Manuscript prepared in MS Word must be converted into a single file before submission. When preparing manuscripts in MS Word, the World Sustainability Forum Microsoft Word template file must be used. Please do not insert any graphics (schemes, figures, etc.) into a movable frame which can superimpose the text and make the layout very difficult.

LaTeX: ensure to send a copy of your manuscript as a PDF file also, if you decided to use LaTeX. When preparing manuscripts in LaTeX, please use the MDPI LaTeX template files.

Manuscript Preparation

Paper Format: A4 paper format, the printing area is 17.5 cm x 26.2 cm. The margins should be 1.75 cm on each side of the paper (top, bottom, left, and right sides).

Formatting / Style: The paper style of the Journal Sustainability should be followed. You may download a template file to prepare your paper. The full titles and the cited papers must be given. Reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ], and placed before the punctuation; for example [4] or [1-3], and all the references should be listed separately and as the last section at the end of the manuscript.

Authors List and Affiliation Format: Authors' full first and last names must be given. Abbreviated middle name can be added. For papers written by various contributors a corresponding author must be designated. The PubMed/MEDLINE format is used for affiliations: complete street address information including city, zip code, state/province, country, and email address should be added. All authors who contributed significantly to the manuscript (including writing a section) should be listed on the first page of the manuscript, below the title of the article. Other parties, who provided only minor contributions, should be listed under Acknowledgments only. A minor contribution might be a discussion with the author, reading through the draft of the manuscript, or performing English corrections.

Figures, Schemes and Tables: Authors are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color. Full color graphics will be published free of charge. Figure and schemes must be numbered (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, etc.) and a explanatory title must be added. Tables should be inserted into the main text, and numbers and titles for all tables supplied. All table columns should have an explanatory heading. Please supply legends for all figures, schemes and tables. The legends should be prepared as a separate paragraph of the main text and placed in the main text before a table, a figure or a scheme.

Potential Conflicts of Interest

It is the authors' responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state here "The authors declare no conflict of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Financial support for the study must be fully disclosed under "Acknowledgments" section. It is the authors' responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state here "The authors declare no conflict of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Financial support for the study must be fully disclosed under "Acknowledgments" section.

Copyright
MDPI AG, the publisher of the Sciforum.net platform, is an open access publisher. We believe that authors should retain the copyright to their scholarly works. Hence, by submitting a Communication paper to this conference, you retain the copyright of your paper, but you grant MDPI AG the non-exclusive right to publish this paper online on the Sciforum.net platform. This means you can easily submit your paper to any scientific journal at a later stage and transfer the copyright to its publisher (if required by that publisher).

List of accepted submissions (50)

Id	Title	Authors	Presentation
sciforum-001469	Competing Visions: The University, Innovation and Engineering after the Space Race Eric Nay Submitted: 20 Sep 2013 Abstract: Show Abstract	Eric Nay		Show Abstract
This paper seeks to address critical elements of science, technology and the environment with a focus on the university as the economic driver of technological innovation. A fundamental knowledge and historical context is needed to place engineering and design innovation on a less speculative path, preserve the academy's integrity and keep capitalist enterprise in check. This paper relies on several key texts and prominent voices to present an argument based on differences of perception and expectations of outcomes within a goal of addressing engineering and design and innovation as an outcome, while viewing engineering's bearing on perceived competitiveness within an emergent and ever more ambiguous multinational global marketplace. Where, how and why ideas will be formed and transformed into innovative new technological solutions presents a major shift in the role of the university in the next century. Visible signs of progress in science, engineering and technology, like the devices we tether to our bodies to communicate with each other, benefit the individual and society at large, but physical evidence of technological transformation can also be destabilizing and blur our grounding in both historical and temporal realities. Innovative art and design practices that rely on technologically shifting frameworks and non-visible realizations of new technologies such as nanotechnology leave product design manufacturing and become new methodologies and products unto themselves. Successfully coping with monumental technological changes requires a giant shift that is not measurable through trending, malleable through branding or even close to being mediated through social networking as we are being led to believe. Design helps realize changes at a pace that humans can digest. Objects and interfaces mediate adaptation, disruptive or not. New design methodologies (research) and practices such visualizing quantitative data that is less than absolute begin to describe potential repercussions of technological change in bits that can be digested and managed, as well as explore the latent relationships between future risks and hopeful potentials through non-traditional means of representation. Fundamental questions about how we even can approach the cultural re-framing of the daunting problems facing society and the environment today are limited to using our limited and outdated tools and means of representation, which Thomas Kuhn would argue is a paradigm that needs to be overcome in itself. If innovation in engineering wrestled with the end of the patronage of the industrial military complex in the 1960's, we are now faced in the post communication age with an abundance of tools, an ease of dematerialization and unusual business models and means of monetizing experiences that we can barely recognize. The online course as the norm is still in limbo, not because of the absence of a face-to-face surrogate experience that will be of equal or better value, but because we still do not have an adequate working business model for monetizing the experience to make it profitable. How did we cope with this level of change last time around? Are we really up to engineering a new and innovative future?
sciforum-000296	Assessing the Top Performers: Mindful Conservatism and ‘Sustainable Development’ Alexander Lautensach , Sabina Lautensach Submitted: 12 Sep 2013 Abstract: Show Abstract	Alexander Lautensach , Sabina Lautensach	N/A	Show Abstract
In the light of the increasing constraints imposed on human affairs and ambitions by the limits of our ecological support systems, the concept of sustainable development has undergone substantial revisions. In fact, many programs and plans that were advocated under the banner of sustainable development hardly qualify as either sustainable or even as development in any rigorous sense (Lautensach & Lautensach 2013). This finding is supported by the observation that the bioproductive areas of many of the world’s least ‘developed’ countries still exceed their ecological footprints (Lautensach & Lautensach 2010). In other words, unlike almost all of the world’s richer countries, they still operate within the realm of sustainability. The widely shared humanistic concern for the well-being of future generations elevates sustainability to a prime goal among our national and global aspirations. Countries that operate sustainably need to ensure that they remain in that realm, and others should endeavour to reach it. In this paper we focus on the former of those propositions and suggest some general policy directions that would help ‘developing’ countries retain their relatively sustainable status while improving the well-being and human security of their citizens. Preventive health care, subsistence agriculture, fertility reduction, and restrictions on foreign investments are discussed as possible means. Policies that are to be avoided include development schemes that increase market dependence and the ratio of footprint over capacity. As prerequisites we suggest counter hegemonic solidarity, democratic consensus, and holistic education. Lautensach, A. & S. Lautensach. 2013. Why ‘Sustainable Development’ is Often Neither: A Constructive Critique. Challenges in Sustainability 1(1): 3-15. http://librelloph.com/challengesinsustainability/article/view/cis-1.1.3 Lautensach, S. & A. Lautensach. 2010. Prioritising the Variables Affecting Human Security in South-East Asia. Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies.Vol. 3 (2): 194-210. http://www.seas.at/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=40
sciforum-003253	Fragmenting a Metropolis: Sustainable Suburban Communities from Resettlement Ghettoes to Gated Utopias Wael Fahmi Submitted: 23 Sep 2013 Abstract: Show Abstract	Wael Fahmi	N/A	Show Abstract
The paper examines the impact of the Greater Cairo Master Plan and New Towns Policy on urban housing crisis through some case studies focusing especially on New Cairo City, to the east of downtown Cairo. The empirical research attempts to qualitatively examine the complex reasons for the failure of various policies and implementations in meeting housing needs of middle and low-income people. This has resulted in the emergence of nearly empty new towns, and the increasing fortification of the affluent nouveaux riche within exclusive desert condominiums and gated communities, a phenomenon which aggravated social injustice and housing inequality. These communities’ global architectural styles and marketing strategies are linked to neo-liberal economic policies and private entrepreneurial urban governance related to individualised rights of seclusion, privacy and consumption. Influenced by expatriates in the Gulf monarchies, these desert enclaves are located in Greater Cairo's western desert (6th October City: Dream Land, Gardenia and Beverly Hills) and in the eastern suburbs (New Cairo City: Katameya Heights, Golf City, Al Rehab City, Mirage City, Arabella). Surrounded by golf courses, recreational and commercial facilities, these luxurious residential districts tend to be exterritorial with their construction, maintenance and economies, being largely controlled by international property development firms, whilst locally underlining the ever-sharper social disparity between rich and poor. Whilst exclusive lifestyles and security measures are defining features of these desert resort communities, these gated enclaves do not exist in isolation from their geographical and cultural environments, as noted in New Cairo City. Since 2000 New Cairo City was established as a result of merging Greater Cairo Master Plan's eastern new settlements (1, 3 and 5 ), creating a large suburban community. Initially the area was inhabited by 1992 Cairo's earthquake victims officially relocated to public housing units in settlement (3), which were later regarded incompatible with the development of golf gated communities.To a certain extent, New Cairo City encapsulates most of the features and problems of Greater Cairo’s urban situation, in terms of a hybrid mixture of decayed public resettlement housing for the poor and up-market private gated resort communities for wealthy expatriate groups. New Cairo City, regarded as heterotopian spatial layers with diverse fragmented communities and as venue for new claims by global capital investment, ‘juxtaposes in a single real place different spaces and locations that are incompatible’ (Foucault 1997, p.356). The empirical study adopted a qualitative ethnographic analysis of the on-going contestation between resettled urban poor's right to the city, residents of gated communities, real estate and property speculators and official urban policy. A small area survey was administered within New Cairo City, with in-depth interviews recording narratives of both secondary stakeholder agencies (policy makers, urban planners, NGOs activists, real estate agents) and primary stakeholder groups (urban poor households within resettlement housing and affluent residents within gated communities). The study proposed a stakeholder approach to the sustainable development of new suburban communities in the context of real estate investment and urban planning policies,. Such approach would advocate public– private partnership and grass roots co-operation between home owners, relocated urban poor, land developers, housing experts and local authorities, in order to create inclusive and sustainable urban spaces.
sciforum-001414	Rethinking the Social and Solidarity Economy in Light of Community Practice David Barkin , Blanca Lemus Submitted: 23 Aug 2013 Abstract: Show Abstract	David Barkin , Blanca Lemus	N/A	Show Abstract
Building social alternatives is essential to resist the destructive impacts of the capitalist organization on the quality of life, social organization, and the planet. This paper offers an analysis of the ways in which peoples are mobilizing to build organizations and to define social movements to move beyond current crises. The construction of an ecologically sound and social-solidarity economy requires mechanisms for mutual cooperation based on alternative systems of decision making as well as for doing work and assuring well-being to every member of the community; poverty and unemployment are not compatible with a sustainable bio-social system. These depend on forging a process of solidarity among the members of a society as well as building alliances among communities; to assure the satisfaction of basic needs while also attending the most pressing requirements for physical, social and environmental infrastructure and to assure the conservation and rehabilitation of their ecosystems.
sciforum-002997	Economic and CO2 Emissions Comparison of District Energy System Using Geothermal and Solar Energy Resources Behnaz Rezaie , Bale Reddy , Marc Rosen Submitted: 07 Sep 2013 Abstract: Show Abstract	Behnaz Rezaie , Bale Reddy , Marc Rosen	N/A	Show Abstract
District energy (DE) systems provide an important means of mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the significant related concerns associated with global climate change. DE systems can use fossil fuel, renewable energy and waste heat as energy sources, and facilitate intelligent integration of energy systems. In this paper, solar thermal and geothermal energy are compared as energy sources for a district energy system which serves a community including commercial and educational buildings. The DE system is assessed for the considered energy resources in two main ways, by considering CO₂ emissions and economic aspects. The results obtained for the solar and geothermal energy sources are compared to detect trends. The results indicate that solar thermal energy is the most advantageous energy technology for a DE system from an environmental perspective, while geothermal energy is more beneficial from a financial point of view. An examination of the cost distribution for the technologies shows that when solar thermal energy is the main energy supply for a DE system, the system exhibits the highest loan payments and the lowest fuel costs (FCs) and insurance and maintenance (I&M) payments. With geothermal systems, loan payments are lower while the total cost over the life of the technology is higher for the DE system. Using solar thermal and geothermal technologies as the energy supply for a DE system also yields environmental benefits which can lead to financial advantages through such instruments as tax breaks. The research reported here is intended to allow energy technology suppliers to work with communities while accounting appropriately for economic issues and CO₂ emissions associated with these energy technologies.

Full List

List of Authors (92)

Mehri Akbari

Yosef Al Jasem

Mona Al Khazali

Gabriella Arcese

Frederick Armah

Olumide Babarinsa

Mohamed Barkhad

David Barkin

Brad Bass

Lorenzo Benini

Pat Bodger

Peter Braithwaite

Carmen Bulucea

Michael Burrow

Mara D'amico

Mehran Eskandari Torbaghan

Wael Fahmi

Luis Fernández Carril

Jessica Jacques

Sponsors and Partners

Media Partners

Proceedings & Editors

Conference Chair

Marc A. Rosen

Section Chairs

Michael J. Heckenberger

Christopher Koroneos

Jesus Martinez-Frias

Daniele Riccio

Miklas Scholz

Henning Madsen

Vladimir Strezov

Production Editors

Julio A. Seijas

M. Pilar Vázquez Tato

CD-ROM edition

ISBN: 978-3-906980-42-3

Published in 2014 by MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Rates for CD-ROM archive edition

CHF 100 before the conference

CHF 150 after the conference

CHF 250 per year for non-participants and for institutions

Please place the order by e-mail: Billing

Chair of the 3rd World Sustainability Forum

Prof. Dr. Marc A. Rosen

University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Canada

Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Sustainability

Scientific Advisory Committee

Dr. Philip Bay, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia

Prof. Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner, Technical Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Prof. Dr Michael J. Heckenberger, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

Dr. Jorge Herkovits, National Council of Science and Technology, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Dr. Stefan Hirschberger, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen PSI, Switzerland

Dr. Meg Holden, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

Dr. Monzur A. Imteaz, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia

Prof. Christopher Koroneos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

Prof. Dr. Gürkan Kumbaroglu, Department of Industrial Engineering, Boğaziçi University, Bebek-Istanbul, Turkey

Prof. Dr. Rattan Lal, Ohio State University, Columbus, USA

Prof. Dr. Henning Madsen, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Prof. Dr. Robert W. Marans, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

Prof. Dr. Jesús Martínez Frías, CSIC-UCM, Madrid, Spain

Dr. Gonzalo Pajares, University Complutense of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Dr. Pallav Purohit, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria

Prof. Dr. Daniele Riccio, University of Napoli Federico II, Napoli, Italy

Prof. Dr. Marc Rosen, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa ON, Canada

Prof. Dr . Miklas Scholz, University of Salford, England, United Kingdom & Editor-in-Chief of the journal of Water

Dr. Delyse Springett, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Dr. Vladimir Strezov, Macquarie University, Sydney NSW, Australia

Prof. Dr. John Parm Ulhøi, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Organizing Committee

Dr. Shu-Kun Lin, MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
Ms Samanta La Russa, MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland

List of Keynotes & Videos

Energy Research for Sustainability

This video contains a Keynote Presentation for the 3nd World Sustainability Forum, prepared by our Chairman Prof. Dr. Marc Rosen from the Institute of Technology of the University of Ontario, Canada.

Sustainable Food Systems in the 21st Century

This video is an addendum to the paper "Sustainable Food Systems in the 21st Century - Considering the Natural Capital Embodied in Israeli Meat Consumption " submitted to section A: Environmental Sustainability by Shira Z Dickler.

The 3rd World Sustainability Forum

Part of the World Sustainability Forum series

1–30 Nov 2013

Call for Papers

Conference Chairs

Sessions

Instructions for Authors

List of accepted submissions (50)

List of Authors (92)

Sponsors and Partners

Media Partners

Proceedings & Editors

Chair of the 3rd World Sustainability Forum

Scientific Advisory Committee

Organizing Committee

List of Keynotes & Videos

Energy Research for Sustainability

Sustainable Food Systems in the 21st Century

A. Environmental Sustainability

Submissions

B. Corporate Sustainability Strategy and Economic Sustainability

Submissions

C. Social Values for a Sustainable Economy

Submissions

D. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources

Submissions

E. Sustainable Urban Development

Submissions

F. Sustainable Development Policy, Practice and Education

Submissions

G. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation

Submissions

H. Sustainable Agriculture and Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity

Submissions

I. Related Topics

Submissions