Welcome to the final issue of volume 4. With this issue, we have achieved the publisher's requirement to increase the number of pages devoted to papers by the targeted 20%. Furthermore, we have published each issue on time in accordance with the publisher's schedule. Our gratitude is extended to our authors, reviewers and staff without whom we could not have achieved our targets. We cannot rest on our laurels though if we intend to grow the Journal and so we extend our usual invitation to our readers to submit new papers and encourage colleagues to do likewise.
In this issue, we feature seven papers that cover a wide range of topics. We open with a paper by Bolonkin which proposes a novel approach for the wireless transfer of electrical energy over long distances. This is followed by a paper by Hernandez Pardo et al. which proposes a framework to characterise eco-design projects and eco-tools to enable designers to take advantage from previous eco-design projects. Optimising the balance between customer satisfaction and environmental concerns is the focus of the paper by Vinodh and Srikrishna. They used a fuzzy method in conjunction with Eco-quality function deployment (Eco-QFD) to overcome vagueness and uncertainty in decision making for a specific electrical component. Electrical and electronic products are also featured in the paper by Kuo. However, here the focus is on modelling manufacturing/remanufacturing through a series of inventory management policies which considers all supply chain members.
Product recovery and reuse is the theme of the paper by Abdul-Kader and Haque who consider the remanufacture of tyres. They used an agent-based simulation approach that enabled improved decision making for material reuse and profitability. Reuse is also the theme of the paper by Rajendran et al. but here the interest is in waste water purification for reuse. The paper considers how waste water from Cassava processing can be biologically treated to ensure that it can safely be used for the irrigation of crops in adjacent fields. In the final paper, by Baskaran et al. the authors evaluate the use of corporate social responsibility criteria for supplier selection in India's automotive and textile sectors. They consider how the criteria might influence competitive advantage through environmental-oriented business practice.