Papers by Marta Ormazabal
Do Really Organizations with a Purpose Statement Have Better Sustainability Results?
SSRN Electronic Journal
Do environmental and cleaner production practices lead to circular and sustainability performance? Evidence from Colombian manufacturing firms
Sustainable Production and Consumption
The implementation of activities close to the circular economy (CE), such as environmental manage... more The implementation of activities close to the circular economy (CE), such as environmental management system (EMS) and cleaner production (CP) practices, and their relationships, are expected to have positive effects on the circular and sustainability performance. However, current research has provided results in which the effects are diffuse, contradictory, or even negative in some cases. Given the need for more consensus on the relationship between CE-related practices and sustainability performance, we investigated the effect of EMSs and CP practices, and their interactions on companies' circular and sustainability performance. This longitudinal study used official Colombian government data of 1544 manufacturing companies from 2012 to 2019, considering impact assessment and structural equation modeling. Our results clarify which elements of circular and sustainability performance have and have not been affected by the implementation of these practices and their interactions, highlighting important challenges for theory, practice, and society. In this regard, manufacturing companies that adopt EMSs, CP or both practices obtain benefits related to the sale of certain waste, the reuse of water and the creation of green jobs and improvements in their organizational performance. However, adopting such practices does not necessarily imply waste circularity. Moreover, our findings guide management decision-making on which practices to implement to achieve better performance. We also evidence limited sustainable value creation by industries in social terms. Finally, we recommend the strategic implementation of CE and the development of new business models enabled by systemic eco-innovations and technology for sustainable value creation. © 2023 The Authors
A Review of the Relationship between Corporate Purpose and Corporate Sustainability
SSRN Electronic Journal
Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management
Purpose: The circular economy is a key issue for any company, city, or institution. The linear ec... more Purpose: The circular economy is a key issue for any company, city, or institution. The linear economy model, based on "take, make, use and waste" of products and resources, has discarded potentially valuable resources and caused serious contamination problems. In contrast, the circular economy (CE) model is a strategic paradigm whose purpose is to regenerate and conserve resources through closed material loops and the sustainable use of energy in its processes. Therefore, a growing number of companies are applying different tools and techniques to implement the CE principles to innovate their products, services, and processes, achieving promising results. Thus, the main objective of this study is to suggest an implementation model named “Circular clock” based on a set of tools and techniques which firms may use for implementing CE.Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents an empirical analysis based on the triangulation method that includes three different data sour...
Unraveling the effect of circular economy practices on companies' sustainability performance: Evidence from a literature review
Sustainable Production and Consumption
13th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management, 2019
Economía circular
Memoria Investigaciones en Ingeniería, 2017
La economía circular es un paradigma que tiene como objetivo generar prosperidad económica, prote... more La economía circular es un paradigma que tiene como objetivo generar prosperidad económica, proteger el medio ambiente y prevenir la contaminación, facilitando así el desarrollo sostenible. El creciente interés de gobiernos, industria y sociedad en la implementación de la economía circular, nos ha llevado a indagar sobre su conexión directa con el fin último de este paradigma: la sostenibilidad. Para ello se ha realizado un análisis de los artículos científicos publicados en este último siglo acerca de este tema. Como resultado se concluye que la Economía Circular es un paradigma de actuación que ha evolucionado a partir del concepto de sostenibilidad y su aplicación en la economía, la sociedad, y el cuidado necesario del ambiente que nos rodea. Así, la Economía Circular se ha convertido en un paradigma que busca el desarrollo sostenible, proponiendo diferentes estrategias en toda la cadena de producción y uso de los productos y servicios. Para este propósito el artículo propone cin...
Employee sustainable behaviors and their relationship with Corporate Sustainability: A Delphi study
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021
Special Issue "Circular Economy in Small and Medium Enterprises
International audienceSpecial Issue InformationDear Colleagues,The circular economy is a paradigm... more International audienceSpecial Issue InformationDear Colleagues,The circular economy is a paradigm that aims to generate economic prosperity, protect the environment, and prevent pollution in order to facilitate sustainable development through creating and maintaining value in the economy, encouraging regenerative innovations, and closing the energy and material loops.Considering that linear business models predominate in firms, the transition to a circular system will require guidance and examples of successful cases for the benefits and advantages of the CE to become accepted and for the methods of application for sustainable production and consumption to become well known. This support is especially important in the case of SMEs, which have become highly important because they make up 95% of companies in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries (OECD, 2017). However, such organizations have to deal with technological, financial, and human r...
Using a Serious Game for the Practical Learning of Productive and Environmental Efficiencies
Lecture Notes in Management and Industrial Engineering, 2018
The increase in environmental and social awareness has triggered numerous green initiatives at co... more The increase in environmental and social awareness has triggered numerous green initiatives at companies. Traditionally, companies’ training related to environmental management focuses on technical aspects and theoretical concepts. In addition to these theoretical contents, it is necessary to carry out practical activities to impart the desired behaviors and skills. Serious games have been found to improve employees understanding of practical environmental sustainability challenges, by offering opportunities to obtain first-hand experiences that may otherwise be too costly and difficult to reproduce in reality. This work presents Pizz@green, a serious game which simulates the productive and environmental efficiencies generated by the improvements of processes in a pizza shop. The purpose of the game is the practical learning of the environmental impact caused by the production processes of a company.
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Catedra de Empresa, Volkswagen Navarra ... more The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Catedra de Empresa, Volkswagen Navarra – Universidad de Navarra. The authors also want to give particular thanks to the environmental manager of Volkswagen Navarra, Ana Isabel Moreno, who has been an active participant through the entire project.
Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 2021
Purpose: The circular economy has multiple benefits and opportunities to achieve sustainability a... more Purpose: The circular economy has multiple benefits and opportunities to achieve sustainability and a better future for the next generations. The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology that guides step-by-step any industrial SMEs in the transition from the linear to a circular model. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a crucial role in the sustainable development transition, considering that they represent most of the world's companies.Design/methodology/approach: To develop this methodology, two research techniques were used: a focus group and storyboarding.Findings: The resulting methodology, called Ecopyme, comprises five steps: 1) Firm identity, 2) Diagnosis, 3) Planning, 4) Get the ball rolling, and 5) Assessment and feedback. In addition, two key criteria that must be included in the whole process were identified: value creation in the firm through a circular economy and organization commitment from the top management to the staff.Research limitations/impl...
Environmental Assessment Using a Lean Based Tool
Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing, 2018
The increase on environmental awareness has triggered numerous green initiatives at companies. Th... more The increase on environmental awareness has triggered numerous green initiatives at companies. This paper presents the Overall Greenness Performance (OGP), a metric based on the well-known Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). The OGP is a hierarchy of metrics based in the Lean Manufacturing framework that measure how environmentally efficient a manufacturing operation is executed. The purpose of the metric is to quantify improvements in productive and environmental efficiencies, relative to a company’s initial situation, after implementing a lean-green manufacturing system.
Advancing circular economy performance indicators and their application in Spanish companies
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021
Abstract Current research on the circular economy (CE) reveals that, while the concept and its ap... more Abstract Current research on the circular economy (CE) reveals that, while the concept and its application have been extensively explored as shown in several case studies, the definition of tools and criteria measuring “circularity” of products, companies or regions are not well-defined. Therefore, indicators for measuring the different levels of a CE (micro, meso, and macro) should be a high priority for stakeholders (governments, companies, NGOs, civil society, etc.) in order to track progress on CE initiatives. However, the increasing interest on CE has caused a still open debate on the conceptualization of CE which hampers the creation of indicators based on a common conceptual framework. As a result, the absence of standard indicators to track progress on circularity is leading to contradiction and misunderstanding, which represents a challenge to the implementation of CE strategies. Thus, this study tries to address this gap by advancing a set of indicators adapted from existing indicators that guarantees simplicity and effectiveness, closely based on indicators proposed by government bodies. This research carried out an exploratory study to formulate the indicators requirements based on literature, refined through experts’ opinion and then they were tested in Spanish companies located in the Basque Country region through an empirical work to assess this theory. A mix of research methods (e.g. semi-structured interviews and surveys) were used to seek applicability of CE indicators for organisations. The study showed that the proposed indicators currently used for assessing the CE at the macro level were applicable at the micro level based on companies’ responses. This fact demonstrated that the indicators serve the purpose of being applicable to companies regardless of the type of economic activity they were in. Also, it shows that indicators used to monitor progress on CE at the macro level can be translated to the micro level. Consequently, it is recommended that the set of CE indicators focused on the methodology proposed in this study should be used across different industrial sectors in order to observe performance in companies to facilitate the transition to a CE model.
Urban Climate, 2020
Existing resilience-building plans and strategies for addressing climate change in urban areas ar... more Existing resilience-building plans and strategies for addressing climate change in urban areas are not as effective as they were intended to be due to city stakeholders' fragmented efforts and adopted passive behaviour. Developing awareness about climate change have proven to be key in the climate change resilience-building process, as it encourages partnership and a transformation in behaviour. This paper presents a framework for developing city stakeholders' awareness in urban areas. The conducted triangulation approach composed by a systematic literature review, semi-structured interviews and a case study results with the framework that defines the ideal process for developing awareness in urban areas. The resulting framework encapsulates three main elements: awareness-development mechanisms (experience, attention and knowledge), awareness-development over time graphs and a learning ladder. The three mechanisms explain the behaviour of the awareness-development process, the awareness-development over time graphs illustrate the evolution of the mechanisms and their effect over time, and the learning ladder specifies the gradual process of developing awareness. After presenting the ideal path for developing awareness, we further discuss the contribution of the conducted triangulation approach to the framework. 1. Introduction Most of the world's population now lives in cities, and it is forecasted that 60% of the population will live in urban areas by 2030 (UNISDR, 2015). Urban areas are understood as complex systems defined as the interaction between citizens, infrastructures, businesses, and industry (Zhang and Li, 2018). The risks faced by urban areas are increasing due to the growing number of people living in cities, the complexity of city systems and the uncertainty associated with contemporary hazards. For instance, climate change (CC) is a complex challenge that requires managing uncertainty and preparing not only for known climatic events but also for unknown climatic scenarios (IPCC, 2018). In the last decade, the effects of CC have increased in urban areas, causing a higher frequency of heatwaves, an increase in sea levels, more intense rainstorms and more frequent droughts (UNISDR, 2012). These and other recent effects have made the urban areas more aware of the vulnerabilities created by CC and the necessity of acting and facing the challenge posed by CC, a shift that has been reflected in the increased number of studies, plans and strategies regarding building cities' resilience of CC. City resilience focuses on developing transversal prevention, preparedness, response and recovery capacities of cities to face both predictable and unpredictable CC events (Boin and McConnell, 2007; Abdrabo and Hassaan, 2015). However, even if plans have boosted new synergies and partnerships, they have failed to transform cities' passive behaviour towards CC into proactive behaviour due to providing too abstract information far from daily activity (Scannell and Gifford, 2013;
Environmental Management Evolution Framework
Organization & Environment, 2016
Environmental management has become a fundamental concern for organizations, customers, and citiz... more Environmental management has become a fundamental concern for organizations, customers, and citizens, yet there are few environmental management metrics that guide toward environmental excellence. This research presents a detailed qualitative model of the evolution of environmental management of a firm through the definition of maturity stages and causal influences. The model provides a technique for assessing maturity stages as well as steps that can assist or negate their ecological advancement. The causal-based classification helps companies to understand the need for nontechnical elements in the process, such as top management commitment. This article also contributes to the literature on integrative multimethod research, as it brings together several approaches to environmental management.
Analysis and Comparison of Life Cycle Assessment and Carbon Footprint Software
Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Management Science and Engineering Management, 2014
Environmental management is receiving increased attention by researchers, policy makers and compa... more Environmental management is receiving increased attention by researchers, policy makers and companies as today’s world is facing major environmental problems such as global warming and waste. As a consequence, companies are progressively improving their environmental practices and behaviors with the aim of reaching more advanced stages in their environmental management. Specifically, those companies most committed to environmental issues have started to introduce the concept of life-cycle and footprint thinking in their organizations. Nevertheless, there are currently many different software tools and companies may not know which one is most suitable. Consequently, the main objective of this research is to study the different software applications to help companies choose the most suitable one in each case. To achieve this objective, the paper provides an in depth review of the literature on life-cycle and footprint thinking. As a result, more than 20 software tools have been analysed and compared. It is important to highlight that the appropriateness of one software program relative to another may very much depend on the user’s scope or objective, as the database of each program could be different.
Environmental Management in Industrial Enterprises: A Multiple Case Study
Industrial Engineering: Innovative Networks, 2012
This paper consists of an analysis of environmental management in different enterprises. A classi... more This paper consists of an analysis of environmental management in different enterprises. A classification of the factors that affect the environmental management in a company has been made through a multiple case study of nineteen different companies. Some of the main factors that affect all businesses have been identified, such as customers, the law and competitors. Every company has to comply with the law, although the law affects each sector differently. Depending on the markets in which they operate, customers are more or less aware of environmental aspects. Moreover, it is important to distinguish public from private clients. On the other hand, competitors also need to be taken into account when company decisions are made. All these aspects can be found in different companies with different activities and different characteristics, so enterprises should be aware of them when taking environmental decisions.
Environmental Quality Management, 2012
M+A. Revista Electrónica de Medioambiente, 2012
RESUMEN La gestión ambiental se ha convertido en un aspecto esencial en todas las empresas. Sin e... more RESUMEN La gestión ambiental se ha convertido en un aspecto esencial en todas las empresas. Sin embargo, no todas han alcanzado el mismo nivel de madurez. A través de una serie de workshops con expertos en el campo ambiental, se ha recogido información referente a aquellos aspectos que afectan a la gestión ambiental de todas las empresas para lograr demostrar que la evolución de la gestión ambiental a lo largo del tiempo es similar en todas ellas. Se ha definido una serie de factores, políticas, indicadores y comportamientos que intervienen en la gestión ambiental a lo largo del tiempo. Este estudio permite a las empresas identificar en qué estado de madurez se encuentran y qué pasos tienen que ir dando hacia la excelencia ambiental.
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Papers by Marta Ormazabal