Tony Kealy Evaluating Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility Projects An Ethnographic Approach Evaluating Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility Projects Tony Kealy Evaluating Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility Projects An Ethnographic Approach 123 TonyKealy Schoolof Electrical andElectronic Engineering Technological University Dublin, City Campus Dublin, Ireland ISBN978-3-030-38672-6 ISBN978-3-030-38673-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38673-3 ©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2020 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland Dedicated to my wife Olivia, my son Luke, my daughter Emily, and in memory of our son Tom Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 Background to This Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1.1 Sustainable Business Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1.2 Drive Towards a ‘Green Economy’ and CO 2 Emission Reduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.1.3 Irish Energy Benchmarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.2 Aim and Objectives of This Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.3 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.3.1 Philosophical Underpinning of the Research . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.3.2 Methodologies Used in This Research Study. . . . . . . . . . . 10 1.3.3 Research Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 1.4 Step-by-Step Development of the Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2 Corporate Social Responsibility Through a Wind Turbine Lens—A Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.1 Structure of This Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.2 Corporate Social Responsibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.2.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.2.2 Ambiguous/Subjective Nature of CSR/Sustainable Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 2.3 Stakeholder Responsibilities in the CSR Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.3.1 Business Practitioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.3.2 Social Responsibility of the Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.3.3 Individual Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 2.3.4 State Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 2.3.5 Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.3.6 Local Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 2.3.7 Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 vii viii Contents 2.4 Empirical Measurements of CSR Initiatives—Sustainability Reporting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 2.4.1 Financial (Economic) Component. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 2.4.2 Human (Social) Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 2.4.3 Environmental Component. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 2.5 Key Stakeholders in the Wind Industry, Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 2.5.1 Wind Industry—Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.5.2 Wind Turbine Manufacturers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 2.5.3 Wind Turbine Installers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 2.5.4 Other Renewable Energy Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 2.6 Discussion and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 3 An Irish Perspective on Sustainable Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 3.2 Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 3.2.1 Global Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 3.2.2 The Economic Aspect of Sustainability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 3.2.3 The Environmental Aspect of Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . 62 3.2.4 The Human Aspect of Sustainability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 3.2.5 Measuring Sustainable Development Practices. . . . . . . . . . 64 3.3 Research Methods/Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 3.3.1 Ethical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 3.3.2 Validity and Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 3.3.3 Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 3.4 Research Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 3.4.1 Varied Perceptions of the Concept of Sustainability. . . . . . 68 3.4.2 Regulation Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 3.4.3 Organisational Leadership in Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 3.4.4 Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 3.4.5 Human Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 3.5 Research Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 3.5.1 Organisational Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 3.5.2 Interconnection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 3.5.3 Business Sustainability Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 3.6 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 3.7 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 4 Financial Appraisal of a Micro-Generation Wind Turbine with a Case Study in Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 4.2 Chapter Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 4.3 Evaluation Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Contents ix 4.3.1 10-kW Wind Turbine Initial Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 4.3.2 Rated Power Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 4.3.3 10-kW Wind Turbine Energy Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 4.3.4 10-kW Turbine Financial Investment Appraisal. . . . . . . . . 88 4.4 Findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 4.5 Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 4.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 5 Post-connection Financial Performance Analysis of a Four-Turbine, 3.5-MW, Wind Farm in Ireland. . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 5.2 Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 5.3 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 5.3.1 Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 5.3.2 3.5-MW Wind Farm Site and Plant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 5.3.3 38-kV Local Substation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 5.4 Overview of the Associated Plant for 3.5-MW Wind Farm . . . . . . 104 5.4.1 Design of the VESTAS V52–850-KW Wind Turbine . . . . 105 5.4.2 Design of the ENERCON 900-KW Wind Turbine. . . . . . . 106 5.4.3 Electricity Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 5.4.4 Renewable Energy Generation Incentives . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 5.4.5 Business Expansion Scheme (BES). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 5.5 Results and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 5.5.1 Cost of 3.5-MW Wind Farm Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 5.5.2 Funding for 3.5-MW Wind Farm Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 5.5.3 Annual Revenue Generated from 3.5-MW Wind Farm. . . . 110 5.5.4 Financial Analysis on 3.5-MW Wind Farm. . . . . . . . . . . . 110 5.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 6 StakeholderOutcomesinaWindTurbineInvestment:IstheIrish Energy Policy Effective in Reducing GHG Emissions and Electricity Costs by Promoting Small-Scale Embedded Turbines in SMEs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 6.1.1 Research Site for 300-kW Wind Turbine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 6.1.2 Plant Overview for 300-KW Wind Turbine. . . . . . . . . . . . 121 6.2 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 6.2.1 Data Collection for the Evaluation of the 300-kW Turbine Investment Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 6.2.2 Data Analysis for the Evaluation of the 300-kW Turbine Investment Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 6.2.3 Validity and Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 x Contents 6.3 Technical Assessment of 300-kW Wind Turbine Project. . . . . . . . 126 6.3.1 Energy Benchmarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 6.3.2 Power Quality of 300-KW DFIG Wind Turbine . . . . . . . . 128 6.3.3 Analogue/Digital Energy Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 6.4 Economic Assessment of 300-kW Wind Turbine Project . . . . . . . 134 6.4.1 Estimated Payback Period (PP) of Turbine Investment. . . . 134 6.4.2 Electricity Utility Energy Costs for SME . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 6.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 6.5.1 GHG Emission Reduction Due to 300-KW Wind Turbine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 6.5.2 Electricity Bill Cost Reduction with 300-kW Wind Turbine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 6.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 6.6.1 Effectiveness of Government Energy Policy . . . . . . . . . . . 141 6.6.2 Stakeholder Outcomes in 300-kW Wind Turbine Investment Decision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 6.6.3 Alternatives to Supply-Side Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 7 Key Enablers/Inhibitors in the Corporate Social Responsibility—Business Strategy Integration Space . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 7.2 Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 7.2.1 Overview/Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 7.2.2 Measurement and Reporting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 7.2.3 Global Sustainability Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 7.2.4 CSR/Sustainable Development Business Initiatives in Academia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 7.3 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 7.3.1 Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 7.3.2 Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 7.3.3 Validity and Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 7.4 Results/Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 7.4.1 Profile of Respondents (Quantitative Data) . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 7.4.2 Open-Ended Questions (Qualitative Data) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 7.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 7.5.1 Respondent Profile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 7.5.2 Main Themes Identified to Enhance CSR/Business Strategy Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 7.6 Management Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 7.7 Limitations and Further Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Contents xi 8 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 8.2 Key Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 8.2.1 Wind Turbines Through an SD/CSR Lens. . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 8.2.2 Wind Turbines: A Technical and Economic Evaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 8.2.3 Wind Turbines: The Key Enabling Factors in Integrating SD/CSR and Business Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 8.2.4 Wind Turbines: The Framework as a Power Tool to Managing Sustainable Development/CSR . . . . . . . . . . . 185 8.3 Findings Summary Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 8.4 Findings Chapter Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 9 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 9.2 Reiteration of Research Aim and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 9.3 Accomplishing Research Aim and Objectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 9.3.1 Identify Weaknesses in the CSR Space from the Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 9.3.2 Technical Evaluation of Wind Turbine Projects. . . . . . . . . 194 9.3.3 Economic Assessment of Wind Turbine Projects. . . . . . . . 194 9.3.4 Key Enablers in Sustainable Development/CSR/Strategy Integration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 9.4 Linking the Contribution to Knowledge of This Work to the Original Research Aims and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 9.5 Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 9.5.1 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 9.5.2 Limitation of This Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 9.5.3 Final Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Conferences at Which Author Presented a Paper.. .... .... ..... .... 203 Appendices for Chapter 3.... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 205 Appendices for Chapter 4.... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 207 Appendices for Chapter 6.... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 213 Appendices for Chapter 7.... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 219 References.... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 239