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This reflection aims to investigate the integrity-related risks for companies engaging with third parties in the construction and civil engineering industry. The business partner compliance process of a multinational construction engineering company is assessed through internal interviews with integrity officers per business sector and per region in a static and dynamic strategy framework. The actual process is the internal evaluation of a ready-made tool bought from a service supplier that assess how the risks related to corruption are covered in order to determine the level of due diligence necessary when This material may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the American Society of Civil Engineers. This material may be found at https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)LA.1943-4170.0000435. engaging with a specific third party. This study finds that companies must involve their own experts to improve integrity tools. Collecting expert opinions on risk is necessary to allow an improved understanding of the scope of the tool. This study reflects on new ways for improving the integrity tool and demonstrates the necessity to cover risks not solely associated with Corruption & Bribery, but also with Human Rights, Conflict of Interest, Antitrust & Competition, as well as Compliance with Regulations to fully protect company's integrity.

Climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges facing our planet in the foreseeable future, yet, despite international environmental agreements, global GHG emissions are still increasing. In this context, adaptation measures can play an important role in reducing climate impacts. These measures involve adjustments to economic or social structures to limit the impact of climate change without limiting climate change itself. To assess the interplay of adaptation and mitigation, we develop AD-MERGE, an integrated assessment model that includes both reactive (‘flow’) and proactive (‘stock’) adaptation strategies as well as a range of mitigation (energy) technologies. We find that applying adaptation optimally delays but does not prevent the transition to clean energy systems (carbon capture and sequestration systems, nuclear, and renewables). Moreover, applying both adaptation and mitigation is more effective than using just one.

Sustainability assessment has emerged as a key decision-support process in development cooperation in response to the growing acknowledgement of the impacts of global change. This paper aims at conceptualizing the effectiveness of sustainability assessment as applied in development cooperation, by focusing on the sustainability assessment practice by actors of the official Belgian Development Cooperation. The conceptualization of the effectiveness of sustainability assessment is synthesized in a set of issues and concerns, based on semi-structured interviews. The paper highlights the specificity of sustainability assessment in the development cooperation sector (e.g., through the cultural and discursive compatibility dimensions of assessment in a North-South context). Effectiveness is inherently linked to the expected functions of sustainability assessment in the decision-making process, which include fostering organizational change, shaping contextually adapted framings of OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 5736 sustainability and operationalizing the sustainability transition. These findings highlight the relevance of a discourse-sensitive approach to sustainability assessment if one is to strengthen its credibility and legitimacy.