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Treball guanyador de la XVIII Edició dels premis a Treballs de Recerca de la UdL per a l’estudiantat de batxillerat i cicles formatius de grau superior en l'Àrea Juridicoeconòmica i de Turisme. Tutora: Ma. Luisa Samitier (Col·legi Claver) La presente investigación se refiere al estudio de los principios/códigos éticos i sostenibles que siguen las empresas del sector textil con el objetivo de averiguar si hay malas praxis en las empresas de este mismo sector. Por otra parte, determinar si realmente es posible crear tu propia empresa siendo totalmente ética y sostenible, y al mismo tiempo, obtener unos beneficios económicos considerables, será otra tarea prioritaria. Por lo tanto, se pondrá en duda la compatibilidad entre los principios éticos y sostenibles, y la obtención de un beneficio económico alto, aplicado en el sector textil. Mediante el asesoramiento de diversos expertos en el mundo de la moda, fuentes de información fiables y el cálculo del umbral de rentabilidad, se determina que estos dos conceptos son compatibles, pero dependiendo del tamaño y la magnitud de la empresa y siempre y cuando la empresa no tenga grandes pretensiones económicas. Del mismo modo, este trabajo quiere poner de manifiesto las conductas éticamente poco correctas que llevan a cabo muchas empresas textiles, como la producción desmesurada -causada por la Fast Fashion-, o el amplio abuso de los derechos humanos durante la producción de textil en países tercermundistas. The current research refers to the study refers to the study of the ethical and sustainable codes followed by companies in the textile sector with the aim of finding out if there are any malpractices in the companies in this same sector. On the other hand, determining whether it is possible to create your own company being totally ethical and sustainable, and at the same time obtain great economic benefits, will be another priority task. Therefore, the compatibility between ethical and sustainable principles, and the achievement of a high economic benefit, applied in the textile sector will be questioned. Through the advice of various experts in the world of fashion, reliable sources of information and the calculation of the break-even point, it’s determined that these two concepts are compatible, but depending on the size and the magnitude of the company as long as that the company does not have great economic claims. In the same way, this investigation wants to highlight the ethically incorrect behaviors carried out by many textile companies, such as excessive production -caused by Fast Fashion-, or the extensive abuse of human rights during textile production in third world countries.

Premi UAB de la Fundació Autònoma Solidària (FAS) als millors Treballs de Fi de Grau sobre desenvolupament sostenible i justícia global. 5a Edició, curs 2020/2021 El sector financiero se considera cada vez más esencial para acelerar la transición hacia la sostenibilidad y la neutralidad climática. Una de las principales razones es la necesidad de movilizar grandes cantidades de capital privado con el objetivo de satisfacer las necesidades de inversión para lograr las metas climáticas del Acuerdo de París y los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU). Durante la última década, una de las innovaciones financieras más destacadas en el área de las finanzas sostenibles ha sido el desarrollo y crecimiento de los bonos verdes, además de otros instrumentos similares como los bonos de sostenibilidad o los sociales. El objetivo del presente trabajo consiste en realizar un análisis comparativo entre el rendimiento de los bonos verdes y de los bonos convencionales para determinar si estos instrumentos sostenibles aportan beneficios en variables como: el precio, el rendimiento y la volatilidad. Asimismo, se pretende examinar la evolución del rendimiento de los índices bursátiles más representativos de la economía sostenible durante el año 2020, y el efecto que la pandemia de la COVID-19 ha tenido sobre los mismos. The financial sector is increasingly seen as essential to accelerate the transition towards sustainability and climate neutrality. One of the main reasons is the need to mobilize large amounts of private capital in order to meet the investment needs to achieve the climate goals of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN). During the last decade, one of the most distinguished financial innovations in the area of sustainable finance has been the development and growth of green bonds, as well as other similar instruments such as sustainability or social bonds. The objective of this essay is to carry out a comparative analysis between the performance of green bonds and conventional bonds to determine whether these sustainable instruments provide benefits in variables such as: price, yield and volatility. Additionally, the aim is to examine the evolution of the performance of the most representative stock indices of the sustainable economy during 2020, and the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on them.

Per part del QUIT com a corresponsal d'Eurofound, la contribució a l'informe ha estat feta per l'Alejandro Godino. While unemployment is still a huge challenge in Europe, some countries, sectors and occupations are experiencing labour shortages. This report explores various approaches to identifying labour shortages and maps national policy debates around the issue. It documents public and social partner interventions to tackle labour shortages, such as measures fostering geographical or occupational mobility, addressing skills shortages and underinvestment in skills, improving working and employment conditions, and providing better matching procedures.

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. In the last decade, universities worldwide have adopted various measures intended to promote sustainability in higher education and include it in the curriculum. However, although this paradigm shift appears to be contributing to students’ acquisition of the knowledge, skills and values necessary to fight for a more sustainable world, serious global crises such as the present SARS-CoV-2 pandemic oblige us to rethink our behaviour and spur us to accelerate the move towards a deep-seated commitment to the environment and people. Therefore, the aims of this study were (a) to explore consumption habits in students at four Spanish universities by analysing their individual ecological footprint (EF); (b) to develop indices of connection with nature and a proenvironmental attitude and to determine relationships between these indices and students’ consumption. Among other factors, our results showed that private university students have a higher EF than public university students; that food consumption has the greatest impact on individuals’ EF; and that those who consume more sustainably do not show a more proenvironmental attitude or feel a greater connection with nature. Therefore, we conclude that there was no apparent direct relationship between study participants’ convictions and their daily behaviour. There is a pressing need in education to demonstrate the connection between our actions and their environmental impact.

Tesis presentada para obtener el grado de Doctora en Ingeniería Química por la Universidad de Zaragoza. 6 de mayo de 2021. [EN] The challenge of decarbonizing the economy has encountered an added handicap, the Covid-19 pandemic, which will determine an already committed and difficult to manage agenda for governments, institutions, companies and even citizens. However, the economic crisis management resulting from the health alarm could be used as a lever and engine of change to initiate with diligence the so needed transition to the use of clean and sustainable energy to replace fossil fuels in the transport sectors and the electrical power generation. In light of this new situation, hydrogen is a clean and versatile energy vector, so its implementation in fuel cells is a safe bet in the car industry, as it guarantees the zero net emissions goal and presents better output in terms of autonomy and load times. In this context, the main work of this PhD thesis has been based on the study of catalysts used in fuel cells, with the aim of reducing the amount of needed noble metal, and therefore, bringing down its price maintaining a high performance. In particular, the research has focused on modifications with nitrogenous groups of cabonaceous materials that are used as support to improve their characteristics and analyse how they influence the behaviour of catalysts in order to reduce or even eliminate the amount of the required noble metal. To that effect, carbon materials of different nature, as carbon nanofibers, carbon xerogels and ordered mesoporous materials, as well as commercial black carbon Vulcan XC 72R, have been synthesized and characterized. Different nitrogen modification techniques have been applied for each one of these materials noting that with the modification techniques in which nitrogen groups were introduced during the synthesis of these materials, doped carbonaceous materials were obtained with a high amount of nitrogenous gropus than with the treatments of modification after obtaining the material. Likewise, it has been carried out the physicochemical characterization of doped carbonaceous materials with nitrogen and they have been studied as metallness catalysts to analyse the influence of nitrogenous groups on the oxygen reduction reaction in the basic medium. The best activity has been obtained for the ordered mesoporous materials doped with N, which have been the most contained in N. Finally, nitrogen carbonaceous materials have been used as a support of Pt and PtRu for its research into oxygen reduction and methanol oxidation reactions. In this case, the study has included both basic and acidic medium. In this way, it has been analyzed the influence of doping in the synthesis of these catalysts, on the interaction of support-metal, as well as on its electrochemical activity depending on the reaction medium. As for Pt catalysts, the catalysts with the highest activity are those supported on the ordered mesoporous materials doped with nitrogen, because the nitrogenous groups have created defects that improve the interaction of the electrolyte with the catalyst. Whereas, in PtRu catalysts, the catalysts that have performed the highest activity are those supported on carbon nanofibers and Vulcan XC 72R, because these catalysts are poisoned more slowly by the formation of intermediate reaction species. [ES] El reto de la descarbonización de la economía se ha encontrado con un hándicap añadido, como es la pandemia COVID-19, que va a condicionar una agenda ya de por sí comprometida y de difícil gestión para gobiernos, instituciones, empresas e incluso ciudadanos. En cambio, la gestión de esta crisis económica derivada de la alarma sanitaria podría utilizarse como palanca y motor del cambio para introducir con mayor diligencia la tan necesaria transición hacia el empleo de energías limpias y sotenibles en sustitución de los combustibles fósiles en los sectores de transporte y de generación de electricidad. Dentro de este escenario, el hidrógeno es un vector energético limpio y versátil, por lo que su aplicación en pilas de combustible supone una apuesta segura en la industria automovilística, ya que garantiza el objetivo de cero emisiones y presenta mejores prestaciones en términos de autonomía y tiempos de carga. En este contexto, el trabajo principal de esta Tesis Doctoral se ha basado en el estudio de catalizadores para su utilización en pilas de combustible, con el objetivo de reducir la cantidad de metal noble necesaria y, por tanto, la reducción de sus costes, manteniendo un alto rendimiento. Concretamente, la investiación se ha centrado en la modificación con grupos nitrogenados de materiales carbonosos que se utilizan como soporte, para mejorar sus características y analizar cómo influyen en el comportamiento de los catalizadores, buscando así reducir o incluso eliminar la cantidad de metal noble requerida. Para ello, se han sintetizado y caracterizado materiales de carbono de diferente naturaleza como son las nanofibras de carbono, los xerogeles de carbono y los materiales mesoporosos ordenados, y se han comparado con un negro de carbono comercial, Vulcan XC 72R. Se han aplicado diferentes técnicas de modificación con nitrógeno para cada uno de estos materiales, observándose que con aquellas en las que los grupos nitrogenados se introducían durante la síntesis de dichos materiales, se obtenían materiales carbonosos dopados con mayor cantidad de grupos nitrogenados que con los tratamientos de modificación después de la obtención del material. Asímismo, se ha realizado la caracterización fisicoquímica de los materiales carbonosos dopados con nitrógeno y se han estudiado electroquímicamente como catalizadores sin metal para analizar la influencia de los grupos nitrogenados en la reacción de reducción de oxígeno en medio básico. La mejor actividad se ha obtenido para los materiales mesoporosos ordenados dopados con N, que han sido, a su vez, los de mayor contenido en N. Finalmente, los materiales carbonosos con nitrógeno se han utilizado como soporte de catalizadores de Pt y de PtRu para su investigación en las reacciones de reducción de oxígeno y de oxidación de metanol, respectivamente. En este caso, el estudio ha comprendido tanto medio básico como medio ácido. de este modo, se ha analizado la influencia del dopado en la síntesis de dichos catalizadores, en la interacción del soporte-metal, así como en su actividad electroquímica en función del medio de reacción. En cuanto a los catalizadores de Pt, los catalizadores que presentan mayor actividad son los soportados sobre los materiales mesoporosos ordenados dopados con nitrógeno, debido a que los grupos nitrogenados han creado defectos que mejoran la interacción del electrolito con el catalizador. En cambio, en los catalizadores de PtRu, los que han presentado la actividad más elevada son los soportados sobre nanofibras de carbono y Vulcan XC 72R, porque son los que se envenenan más lentamente por la formación de especies intermedias de reacción. Peer reviewed

Editorial de International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, volumen 17, número 16. Global health, conceived as a discipline, aims to train, research and respond to problems of a transboundary nature in order to improve health and health equity at the global level. The current worldwide situation is ruled by globalization, and therefore the concept of global health involves not only health-related issues but also those related to the environment and climate change. Therefore, in this Special Issue, the problems related to global health have been addressed from a bibliometric approach in four main areas: environmental issues, diseases, health, education and society.

© 2020 by the authors. This article aims to analyze the implementation of teleworking as a security practice to face the crisis resulting from the Covid-19 disease. The present paper provides both theoretical and practical results. From a theoretical standpoint, the Baruch and Nicholson approach is extended with environmental, safety, and legal factors that explain telework. From a practical perspective, a database of companies that have introduced telework as a measure to face coronavirus in a crisis context has been obtained. In short, the Covid-19 crisis demonstrates how teleworking has been used by companies to ensure their employees' safety and to provide continuity to economic activity. Consequently, safety factors are relevant in the study of teleworking and should be considered in further research.