The study looks at Ghana’s mining industry’s audit culture and green mining practices about their social responsibility to the communities where their mines are located. Results: According to this study, the economic motivations of mines and green mining are inversely related. Even large mining companies incur significant costs associated with their green mining initiatives because they require a different budget each year, which has an impact on their ability to maximize wealth. Conversely, mines with strong green mining initiatives enjoy positive public perception, and vice versa. Ghanaian mines do not have pre- or during-mining strategies; instead, they only have post-social and post-environmental methods. The best method for evaluating mines’ environmental performance in the community in which they operate is, according to this study, social auditing. This is primarily influenced by the mine’s audit culture, but it is also influenced by the auditor’s compliance with audit processes, audit guidelines, and, ultimately, the audit firm’s experience. The analysis confirms that Ghana’s mine environmental performance is appallingly low since local audit firms are not used in favor of foreign auditors who lack experience or empathy for the problems encountered by these mining communities. Last but not least, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is connected to Ghana’s development of green mining, either directly or indirectly. Whether the mine adopts a technocrat, absolutist, or relativist perspective on mining will determine this. The study discovered that, in contrast to the later approach, the first two views generate work in a mechanistic manner with little to no consideration for CSR.
This study investigates the viability and sustainability of proposed landfill sites based on the uncapacitated facility location problem framework utilising the SmartPLS4 Structural Equation Modelling. Investigating the Cape Coast Metropolis, a stratified sampling method selected 400 samples out of which 320 valid respondents were used as the basis for the analysis. Through statistical analysis, significant correlations were identified among community acceptance, environmental impact, facility accessibility, site sustainability, and operational efficiency. However, no significant correlation was found between economic viability and site sustainability. Furthermore, the proposed indirect mediation pathway from operational efficiency to site sustainability via facility accessibility was also statistically insignificant. Employing the use of SmartPLS4 approach in studying the application of uncapacitated facility location problem framework, deepens the understanding of landfill viability and sustainability dynamics. This research contributes to the environmental sciences and sustainability by providing insights into landfill management strategies and emphasising the importance of community engagement and environmental performance in achieving sustainable outcomes. Future research could refine the model by including additional variables like technological advancements and regulatory frameworks, conducting longitudinal studies to track landfill dynamics over time, and undertaking comparative studies across different geographical regions. This could provide insights into management approaches’ applicability. Interdisciplinary collaborations are recommended to address the multifaceted challenges of landfill sustainability.
Graphene, an innovative nanocarbon, has been discovered as a significant technological material. Increasing utilization of graphene has moved research towards the development of sustainable green techniques to synthesize graphene and related nanomaterials. This review article is basically designed to highlight the significant sustainability aspects of graphene. Consequently, the sustainability vision is presented for graphene and graphene nanocomposites. Environmentally sustainable production of graphene and ensuing nanomaterials has been studied. The formation of graphene, graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, and other derivatives has been synthesized using ecological carbon and green sources, green solvents, non-toxic reagents, and green routes. Furthermore, the utilization of graphene for the conversion of industrial polymers to sustainable recycled polymers has been studied. In addition, the recycled polymers have also been used to form graphene as a sustainable method. The implication of graphene in the sustainable energy systems has been investigated. Specifically, high specific capacitance and capacitance retention were observed for graphene-based supercapacitor systems. Subsequently, graphene may act as a multi-functional, high performance, green nanomaterial with low weight, low price, and environmental friendliness for sustainable engineering and green energy storage applications. However, existing challenges regarding advanced material design, processing, recyclability, and commercial scale production need to be overcome to unveil the true sustainability aspects of graphene in the environmental and energy sectors.
This article is devoted to studying the principles of the relationship between democracy and demoethics as tools for transforming the sustainable development of society. The study is based on the assumption that the effective functioning of democracy is associated with such social phenomena as elections and electoral behavior. The study examined electoral behavior and surveyed members of society about the qualities of candidates to which they pay special attention. An analysis of qualitative and quantitative data demonstrating the democratic foundations of elections of members of society was conducted, and an analysis of the choice of voters in the extraordinary elections of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan by region was conducted. In this study, Bayesian network modeling is experimentally applied to formalize the problem of identifying and analyzing the behavior of virtuous personality traits. A sociological survey of public opinion was conducted using the questionnaire method with the participation of 826 people from all regions of Kazakhstan from May to June 2023. A questionnaire was used to collect data, the main purpose of which was to compare attitudes and find out what values are considered important for people, what norms of behavior are considered acceptable, and to understand what values and norms prevail in society. It is concluded that the concept of demoethics promotes a positive transformation of humanity and helps to form a new leader of virtue, a ruler of the city, capable of making ethical rational decisions that can ensure a balance between the economic, social, and environmental needs of humanity.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be viewed as the aftermath of the Millennial Development Goals (MDGs). This is due to the fact that the seventeen (17) SDGs are designed to continue the work expected to have been done by the MDGs. In other words, the failure of the MDGs to eradicate poverty birthed the SDGs. However, the SDGs seem not to be achieving the desired result. This has led to the projection for the need for a decade of action. In the African context, the questions of why the MDGs failed and the SDGs tend to be failing are yet to be asked. By projection, if the questions are not asked and answers are not provided, the projection of the decade of action may also fail. Hence, the reason for this conceptual paper which was targeted at exploring the possibility of considering the Africanization of the SDGs as remedy to ensuring sustainable development in the African continent. Different relevant sources were identified, reviewed and analysed. The findings from the reviewed and analysed sources showed among others that for Africanization of the SDGs to be a reality and practicable, glocalization must be embraced. Meanwhile, there will be need to question the use of Eurocentric curricula in African institutions of learning.
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