Tracy Van Holt - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Tracy Van Holt

Land Use Policy, Nov 1, 2016

Global programs are calling to increase tree cover, including plantations, which supply global pu... more Global programs are calling to increase tree cover, including plantations, which supply global pulp and wood demand, energy, food, and carbon markets. Tree plantations that replace native forests, cultivated agriculture, or previously cleared land are essentially commodity crops with global market drivers, and do not provide the same ecosystem services as native forests. Nonetheless, they are counted as "forest" by global programs. We test whether 1) the forest transitions framework (FTF), which typically explains reforestation, adequately describes the socioeconomic drivers of plantation establishment and 2) descriptions of the effects of land cover change on ecological processes are obscured when tree plantation and native forest classes are aggregated. We used longitudinal multi-temporal satellite imagery (1985-2001) to map and analyze plantation systems across a 35,853 km 2 area in southern Chile at the plantation frontier. As predicted by the FTF, plantations were established in foothills of predominantly agricultural watersheds rather than in watersheds dominated by native forests or in flat, agriculturally productive areas. Half of the plantations were planted on agricultural or cleared lands that were deforested years ago. Counter to predictions of the FTF, the other half of the plantations replaced native forests. Tree plantations were not associated with rural population loss; instead their establishment was related to the amount of potential usable land. We find that when native forests and tree plantation classes are disaggregated, land in coastal catchments that were converted to tree plantation is related to lower quality nearshore resources; analyses that aggregate plantations with native forests obscure this effect.

Land Use Policy, 2016

Ecosystems, 2005

Deliberate progress towards the goal of long-term sustainability depends on understanding the dyn... more Deliberate progress towards the goal of long-term sustainability depends on understanding the dynamics of linked social and ecological systems.

The Science of the total environment, 2017

We show how land-use change can affect fisher-harvesting behavior. We test whether fisher harvest... more We show how land-use change can affect fisher-harvesting behavior. We test whether fisher harvesting behavior can be predicted by landscape change patterns at local (~200km) and regional (~1200km) levels. Our data suggest that fishers harvesting in areas near tree plantations reduced benthic-invertebrate harvests in favor of demersal and pelagic finfish that are usually located further offshore. Fishers' management areas, which were near tree plantations, had higher chlorophyll-a values, and contained shellfish with more endobionts. Technology (owning a boat) and experience (age, years fishing, and alternative livelihoods) explained little in fisher-harvesting behavior. The flagship Chilean fisheries management program and seafood companies sourcing from these areas will need to respond to these new challenges. Despite complexities in designing cross-scale, social-ecological studies, we can no longer ignore the interconnectedness of commodities in the biosphere.

Journal of International Business Policy, 2021

Multinational enterprises face challenges to integrate the UN's Sustainable Development Goals int... more Multinational enterprises face challenges to integrate the UN's Sustainable Development Goals into their supply chains because it requires cooperation outside of their direct control. In global agrifood value networks, companies struggle to engage their suppliers in sustainability. One reason is that key intermediaries, the offtakers, have not been engaged in sustainability strategies in a way that is economically feasible, and thus fail to act as a cooperating link. We developed and applied a return on sustainability investment (ROSI) model of a more strategic supply-chain approach for food commodities (one that values partnerships over transactional relationships). We modeled the coconut supply network in the Philippines, and compared these findings to another agrifood system, Brazilian beef. Categories of benefits included: a stable and sustainable supply chain, long-term contracts, sustainable products, brand value and innovation, and reduction of corporate risk. In addition to the benefit of working with MNEs as a strategic partner, incremental benefits prioritized by stakeholders included intangibles that could generate value from cost savings, avoided costs, as well as new revenue opportunities to establish a more stable sustainable supply chain. Monetizing benefits to offtakers can help incentivize a new type of global value chain governance to a closed, more stable supply-chain configuration that can better address complex socialenvironmental dynamics, and foster strategic partnerships.

Journal of Sustainability Research

Background: Retailers and brand managers may be reticent to introduce products that are marketed ... more Background: Retailers and brand managers may be reticent to introduce products that are marketed as sustainable because prior research identifies a discrepancy between what consumers say they intend to purchase (via survey) and what they actually do at retail (via purchases). This research shows that despite this gap, products that have sustainable claims on their package are outperforming growth of conventional products in respective categories. Methods: We conducted a large-scale study of U.S. consumer purchases using IRI retail barcode data from 2013 to 2018, analyzing 36 consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories, representing 41% of total CPG dollar volume. We conducted detailed analyses of marketing messages from a subset of categories representing both high and low sustainabilitymarketed share development. Results: We calculated that ~50% of the growth in the in-sample CPG market came from sustainability-marketed products. These products accounted for 17% share of market ($) in 2018, up from 14% in 2013. Our detailed marketing-message analysis in five categories found: • The most commonly found sustainability messages were category specific. Organic was the most dominant. • Legacy (mainstream) brands that adopted sustainability messages contributed more to share increases of sustainability-marketed products than smaller, non-legacy brands. • Higher efficacy products with sustainability claims had lower market share than lower efficacy products. However, in a study of one product category, we found that sustainability-marketed products performed best when accompanied by explicit efficacy claims. • In four of the five categories examined, third-party certified sustainability-marketed products significantly outgrew sustainable products that had sustainable messaging, but no third-party certification.

International Political Economy: Investment & Finance eJournal, 2021

Investing in employment quality can be beneficial for employees, corporate performance, and inves... more Investing in employment quality can be beneficial for employees, corporate performance, and investor returns. We use a resilience-based quality jobs framework to assess employment quality for companies included in B Lab’s B Impact Assessment (BIA) database. The SVEF framework includes four dimensions of employment quality: Security, Viability, Equity and Flexibility. Security is the dependability of a continued job. Viability refers to a company’s reputation and how it relates to its community. Equity refers to fairness, diversity and inclusion. Flexibility is freedom of choice, degree of options, and potential mobility. Indices for Security, Viability, Equity and Flexibility were created for 4,847 assessments, which represent 3,934 companies, to provide relative scores along these dimensions of quality jobs for the period 2015-2020. There was significant variation in scores among these companies and also between industries. Regression modeling was used to better understand the rela...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

In this appendix to Atz, Liu, Bruno, and Van Holt (2021), “Does Sustainability Generate Better Fi... more In this appendix to Atz, Liu, Bruno, and Van Holt (2021), “Does Sustainability Generate Better Financial Performance? Review, Meta-analysis, and Propositions” (available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=3708495), we provide additional information on how the studies were selected, coded, and analyzed. The appendix contains four parts: the detailed search and inclusion methodology (part A), the codebook (part B), the link to the sample file of studies (part C), and the second-order meta-analysis (part D) including the full list of 27 meta-analysis or reviews.

Sustainable Consumption and Production, Volume II, 2020

Practitioners and researchers struggle with valuing the return on sustainability investment (ROSI... more Practitioners and researchers struggle with valuing the return on sustainability investment (ROSI). We apply a five-step methodology that systematically monetizes sustainability actions to answer a key question: Do sustainable practices lead to a positive financial return for the business? We demonstrate the versatility of this methodology by monetizing potential and realized financial benefits via mediating factors (i.e., financial drivers) across two types of industries: Brazilian beef supply chains that committed to deforestation-free beef and the automotive industry, where companies were working to make manufacturing operations more sustainable. The companies participating in our cases generated substantial value from implementing sustainability strategies. The beef supply chain yielded a potential net present value (NPV) between 0.01 to 12% of annual revenue, depending on the supply chain segment. For one automotive company, the five-year NPV based on realized benefits was 12% of annual revenue. Our ROSI methodology guides managers to better value sustainability’s financial benefits. Ultimately, monetizing sustainability can lead to a competitive advantage and shared value for multiple stakeholders.

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2020

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2020

Sustainability in business and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) in finance have explod... more Sustainability in business and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) in finance have exploded in popularity among researchers and practitioners. We surveyed 1,141 primary peer- reviewed papers and 27 meta-reviews (based on ~1,400 underlying studies) published between 2015 and 2020. Aggregate conclusions from a sample suggest that the financial performance of ESG investing has on average been indistinguishable from conventional investing (with one in three studies indicating superior performance) – in contrast with research in the wider management literature as well as industry reports. Until recently top finance journals did not publish climate change related studies, yet these studies capture the frontier of corporate risk and ESG investment strategies. We developed three propositions: first, ESG integration as a strategy seems to perform better than screening or divestment; second, ESG investing provides asymmetric benefits, especially during a social or economic crisis; and third, decarbonization strategies can potentially capture a climate risk premium.

Environmental Research Letters, 2020

Distinguishing between natural forests from exotic tree plantations is essential to get an accura... more Distinguishing between natural forests from exotic tree plantations is essential to get an accurate picture of the world’s state of forests. Most exotic tree plantations support lower levels of biodiversity and have less potential for ecosystem services supply than natural forests, and differencing them is still a challenge using standard tools. We use a novel approach in south-central of Chile to differentiate tree cover dynamics among natural forests and exotic tree plantations. Chile has one of the world’s most competitive forestry industry and the region is a global biodiversity hotspot. Our collaborative visual interpretation method combined a global database of tree cover change, remote sensing from high-resolution satellite images and expert knowledge. By distinguishing exotic tree plantation and natural forest loss, we fit spatially explicit models to estimate tree-cover loss across 40 millions of ha between 2000 and 2016. We were able to distinguish natural forests from exo...

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2020

Abstract Case studies are particularly relevant in cleaner production research, as industry-speci... more Abstract Case studies are particularly relevant in cleaner production research, as industry-specific product innovations, management practices, and supply--chain arrangements may improve environmental outcomes. Nevertheless, there are theoretical concerns regarding the generalization, external validity and temporal validity of case studies. Methodologically, this study provides an explicit procedure to expand grounded inductive research to incorporate insights from outside the literature (e.g. interviews conducted during fieldwork) through an existence approach. This approach focuses on the most salient items in a set of qualitative interviews. This qualitative evidence then informs precise modelling. The approach is applied to a case study on the Brazilian beef industry. Brazil is the second largest beef exporter in the world, and multinational companies experience difficulties regarding their commitment to zero deforestation in their supply chains. The insights from interviews are related to difficulties experienced by companies in the beef supply chain regarding their commitment to zero deforestation and are distilled into statements on supply-chain coordination failures and consumers’ unwillingness to pay for “greener” beef. The final model links the concept of Shapley value to environmentally-related investments and returns within supply chains. Finally, we analyze how supply chains can overcome coordination failures and improve sustainability and financial performance, thereby generating cleaner production through industry associations, non-governmental organizations, or large companies’ initiatives.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019

Marine Policy, 2018

Fishery improvement projects (FIPs) are multi-stakeholder platforms for engaging retailers, impor... more Fishery improvement projects (FIPs) are multi-stakeholder platforms for engaging retailers, importers, processors, and others in seafood supply chains directly in the policy-making and management of fisheries. FIPs vary in design and aim, making their evaluation complex. Studies to date have highlighted successes but also raised concerns about the performance of FIPs in improving fisheries. Drawing on a comprehensive dataset of attributes on all public FIPs, combined with sustainability performance data on the management of the target fisheries, their fishing levels, and stock status, this paper evaluates the performance of FIPs worldwide on improving fisheries, using exploratory data analysis methods and regression-based statistical approaches. The results showed that FIPs improved critical problems in target fisheries in the range between 60% and 82%, depending on the sustainability criteria considered. Performance did not vary between artisanal and industrial FIPs or according to the economic development status of the country. The probability of achieving improvements in management and overfishing domains is higher for fisheries with FIPs compared to those without. Variability in performance was related to the specific characteristics and history of each FIP, based on which further steps in research were suggested.

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2019

Ambio, 2019

Forest transitions occur when net reforestation replaces net deforestation in places. Because for... more Forest transitions occur when net reforestation replaces net deforestation in places. Because forest transitions can increase biodiversity and augment carbon sequestration, they appeal to policymakers contending with the degrading effects of forest loss and climate change. What then can policymakers do to trigger forest transitions? The historical record over the last two centuries provides insights into the precipitating conditions. The early transitions often occurred passively, through the spontaneous regeneration of trees on abandoned agricultural lands. Later forest transitions occurred more frequently after large-scale crisis narratives emerged and spurred governments to take action, often by planting trees on degraded, sloped lands. To a greater degree than their predecessors, latecomer forest transitions exhibit centralized loci of power, leaders with clearly articulated goals, and rapid changes in forest cover. These historical shifts in forest transitions reflect our growing appreciation of their utility for countering droughts, floods, land degradation, and climate change.

Environmental Research Letters, 2017

Food lies at the heart of both health and sustainability challenges. We use a social-ecological f... more Food lies at the heart of both health and sustainability challenges. We use a social-ecological framework to illustrate how major changes to the volume, nutrition and safety of food systems between 1961 and today impact health and sustainability. These changes have almost halved undernutrition while doubling the proportion who are overweight. They have also resulted in reduced resilience of the biosphere, pushing four out of six analysed planetary boundaries across the safe operating space of the biosphere. Our analysis further illustrates that consumers and producers have become more distant from one another, with substantial power consolidated within a small group of key actors. Solutions include a shift from a volume-focused production system to focus on quality, nutrition, resource use efficiency, and reduced antimicrobial use. To achieve this, we need to rewire food systems in ways that enhance transparency between producers and consumers, mobilize key actors to become biosphere stewards, and reconnect people to the biosphere.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Jan 4, 2018

We examined ∼300 newspaper and business-oriented articles published over a 10-year period to asse... more We examined ∼300 newspaper and business-oriented articles published over a 10-year period to assess trends in how seafood "sustainability" is talked about. We mapped key concepts relating to seafood sustainability as the word was used. We asked if the reports provided evidence that perceptions of problems or solutions for sustainability in seafood have changed over time. What were emergent areas of interest, and what concepts relevant to sustainable fisheries and seafood were absent in the reports? The number of reports concerning sustainability that focused on the middle of the supply chain (e.g., primary processors and importers) increased over time; certification was cited as both part of sustainability problems and a solution. We observed very little change over time in the kinds of fishery and seafood problems reported in the media sampled; themes consistently focused on environmental aspects of fisheries (social wellbeing aspects did not appear in the sample as linke...