Browsing by Subject "Waste Market"

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    Operationalizing Environmental Sustainability through Policy-based and Market-based Approaches
    (2015-07) Dhanorkar, Suvrat
    Today, investors have become increasingly interested in corporate environmental practices and federal agencies have become actively involved with monitoring the environmental impact of corporations. As a result, organizations are increasingly recognizing environmental sustainability as an important driver of customer satisfaction and loyalty, quality, operational and financial performance. Such changes highlight the importance of environmental issues in today's business environment. To actually bring about positive environmental change in firms "Source Reduction and Reuse strategies are often considered "the most preferred"� form of corporate environmental management compared to other initiatives such as Recycling, Energy Recovery and Disposal. It is widely acknowledged that Source Reduction and Reuse strategies can conserve energy and resources, curb pollution and maximize resource utilization. Yet, as companies face increasing competition, economic crises and customer expectations, Source Reduction and Reuse strategies are often sidelined in favor of other potentially easier-to-implement but environmentally-degrading options. To this end, my dissertation explores the feasibility of policy-based and market-based approaches, for promoting Source Reduction and Reuse within and across firms. The policy-based approach provides insights into developing policies for externally promoting source reduction practices within firms. Using the context of government agencies promoting environmental change in firms, Essay 1 shows how supportive (e.g. environmental assistance, improvement recommendations) and punitive (e.g. regulatory inspections, sanctions) policies can be implemented in a complementary manner to promote source reduction initiatives. The market-based approach develops insights for developing and operating online channels to promote material reuse across firms. Using transaction-level data, Essay 2 lays the foundation for understanding buyer and seller behaviors on an online industrial reuse marketplace. Essay 3 explores the role of online intermediation and market design in reuse marketplaces. Together, these studies have important implications for developing policies to increase reuse of by-products, materials and wastes.