Browsing by Author "Kuzmina, Jekaterina"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    A Comprehensive Review on Construction and Demolition Waste Management Practices and Assessment of This Waste Flow for Future Valorization via Energy Recovery and Industrial Symbiosis
    (2024-10) Cudecka-Purina, Natalija; Kuzmina, Jekaterina; Butkevics, Janis; Olena, Arsirii; Ivanov, Oleksii; Atstāja, Dzintra; Faculty of Social Sciences
    Construction and demolition waste (CDW) is one of the largest contributors to global waste streams, simultaneously posing significant environmental and resource management challenges. The management of CDW, particularly its potential for energy recovery and industrial symbiosis, has garnered increasing attention as part of a circular economy approach. This comprehensive review explores global practices in CDW management, analysing theoretical developments, technological advancements, and emerging resource recovery and reuse trends. Background: CDW accounts for more than a third of all waste generated in the EU. A wide variety of materials, such as concrete, bricks, wood, glass, metals, and plastics, make it a very un-homogenous waste stream with high potential for material recovery through different approaches. Methods: This review draws on an extensive analysis of scientific literature, case studies, and industry reports to assess current practices in the CDW stream and assessment of the feasibility of energy recovery, industrial symbiosis, and object reconstruction. Results: The originality of the current research is based on a Latvian case study on CDW management that provides valuable insights into household-level practices and progress towards relevant UN SDGs. Conclusions: Various CDW streams have an undeniable potential for valorization through various approaches. Currently, the most common approach is recovery and recycling, although CDW has the potential to broaden its application within the circular economy framework. For instance, industrial symbiosis is a solution that can not only boost the valorization of CDW but also significantly increase material circularity.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Does Car Sharing Contribute to Urban Sustainability from User-Motivation Perspectives?
    (2021-10-01) Mavlutova, Inese; Kuzmina, Jekaterina; Uvarova, Inga; Atstāja, Dzintra; Lesinskis, Kristaps; Mikelsone, Elina; Brizga, Janis
    Mobility, its current state and development perspectives in the future creates challenges with respect to sustainability, the first of which is the uncontrolled increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the last few decades, while road transport is one of the “sinners” creating long-term negative impact. The second is the dominance of car travel and car usage in the passenger transportation segment before the latest COVID-19 pandemic accelerated environmental problems. Although recent trends show new, greener patterns in consumption, there is still a relatively low share of consumers acknowledging the importance of sustainable and green preferences. This research study aims to investigate car sharing from users’ perspectives and to determine the most significant factors influencing their choice of sharing services to ensure upscaling of car sharing and, thus, contribute to urban sustainability. This research study contributes to the overall scientific discussion on car sharing and its role within urban sustainability, particularly with the following: (1) deeper investigation of car sharing and its users motivation perspectives in Latvia; (2) analyses of the most significant motivational factors for car-sharing users and aspects of sustainability; and (3) the insight into the generational differences triggering a number of car-sharing users. The existing and potential users of car sharing were surveyed in order to determine the motivational factors for its usage and attitudes towards it. Socio-demographic variables in statistical analysis were used to identify economic and environmental factors that meaningfully influence the choice of car-sharing services. The results of this study can support further development in new car-sharing business models and the value proposition for consumers in Latvia, as well as preparing policy recommendations on the promotion of sustainable transport. These findings are also useful to academics for the investigation of recent trends in car sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Exploring sustainable urban transformation concepts for economic development
    (2021) Latvia, School of Business and Finance; Atstaja, Dzintra; Koval, Viktor; Uvarova, Inga; Mavlutova, Inese; Kuzmina, Jekaterina
    Nowadays cities face numerous challenges amplified to build necessary urban municipal and community capacity to ensure sustainability transformation to respond to the local and global challenges of climate change, inequality, and access to resources. This research combines the study fields of sustainability, economic development, governance of sustainability transformation, providing the multidisciplinary approach as a systemic-oriented view encompassing the social, technological and ecological aspects of urban transformation. The purpose of the paper is to explore how the concept of urban transformation could be operationalized for research of economic development under the economic strain assuming the emergency of Covid-19 grand challenge. The research methods used are a systematic literature review and the content analysis. The paper provides a detailed characterization of the urban transformation exploring this concept from the structure and system perspectives for the economic exit from the crisis.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    In Search of Sustainability and Financial Returns : The Case of ESG Energy Funds
    (2023-02) Kuzmina, Jekaterina; Atstaja, Dzintra; Purvins, Maris; Baakashvili, Guram; Chkareuli, Vakhtang; Juridiskā fakultāte
    The world is facing several challenges, and the problem of sustainable development is one of the most important. It is worth considering that European countries are playing a significant role as pioneers in building a sustainable world, such as those promises made by signing the Paris Agreement and European Taxonomy. To achieve ambitious targets within sustainable development, a huge amount of capital is necessary, while financial and capital market participants are expected to demonstrate a high level of engagement in the domain of sustainability. Facing growing interest and demand, a relatively new product—the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investment fund—was introduced. Scientific literature is providing some controversial views regarding the overall evaluation of this product. Therefore, additional research providing different angles would contribute to a better understanding. This study examines European ESG funds in the energy sector, from the perspective of news flows and investors. It is worth noting that the authors use the word “European” to refer to members of the European Union (EU). The paper consists of the following parts. In the introduction, the current state of this issue is discussed. The following section offers a literature review and a news flow analysis that contributes to a deeper understanding of these issues. A description of the methodology applied for the data analysis follows this, and the final section presents the research results and conclusions. The authors apply statistical analysis and the Carhart model to determine the differences in the performance of the ESG and conventional funds and use their own tool for text analysis to examine the relevance of the topic of ESG to attract client interest. The authors claim that the performance of the European ESG equity funds do not show a statistically significant difference from the non-ESG equity funds in the majority of the periods examined. The application of the adjusted Carhart model demonstrates that the factor of sustainability has a non-significant and negative effect on the fund performance. Finally, the authors highlight the urgent necessity for the unified usage of keywords and terminology, such as “ESG”, “sustainability”, etc., to ensure comparison and attribution possibilities.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Urban Transportation Concept and Sustainable Urban Mobility in Smart Cities : A Review
    (2023-04-21) Mavlutova, Inese; Atstaja, Dzintra; Grasis, Janis; Kuzmina, Jekaterina; Uvarova, Inga; Roga, Dagnija; Juridiskā fakultāte
    In order to create a sustainable future for the urban environment in s=Smart cities, it is necessary to develop a concept of urban transport, partially reduce the use of traditional transport, primarily cars, as well as the environmental pressure on society, which is essential to move to a sustainable urban future. In the latest discussions on the future of the urban transport system, the quality of the environment, and the possibility of its improvement are discussed, this issue became especially relevant with the onset of the pandemic, when the lockdowns were introduced. The problem of sustainable transport in urban areas has been recognized in academic studies, searching for appropriate models and solutions. The article presents the latest literature review and illustrates the newest trends with several examples. VOS Viewer software has been used to classify the different keywords, according to their co-citation, following clustering techniques. By analyzing the research conducted by other researchers, it has been possible to structure the ecosystem and trends in the Urban Transportation Concept, also mentioning likely future trends. Based on the literature analysis of the Sustainable Urban Transport, the authors of the study found that a large group of researchers deal with technical solutions and innovative business models, while the essential behavioral aspects are examined in less detail. Extensive literature analysis allowed the authors to select several solutions to achieve the transformation towards sustainable transportation in urban areas: new vehicle technologies and their environmental factors’ analysis, geographic information systems, the analytic hierarchy process method, the time series analysis of road traffic accidents using multiplicative models, electrification and use of Friedman Analysis of Variance by Ranks, as well as innovations in sharing mobility.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Well-being in the work environment as foundation to achieve sustainable development goal
    (EDP Sciences, 2021-05-03) Kuzmina, Jekaterina; Atstaja, Dzintra; Dambe, Gundega; Kichuk, Yaroslav; Bykhovchenko, Valentyna
    Sustainable development of the world is one of the most discussed topics, while well-being and risk-awareness of the employees are important elements to achieve it. The aim of the study is to analyse the work environment factors that are considered important by prospective and new employees and compare them with the opinions of experienced professional HR and company managers. The second goal of the research paper is to measure the risk-awareness of young adults due to its relevance for the current discussion. The results of the study show that students consider safe and ergonomic working conditions, green thinking, flexible working hours and good pay as the most important factors in the workplace. HR professionals, on the other hand, consider the psychological climate, safety, engagement, and work-life balance as the most important factors. Young adults in Latvia show some level of risk-awareness, while a deeper understanding of the issues is necessary.