Search results for "Sustainable development"
showing 10 items of 638 documents
On sustainable management in the local governance of water: a prospective localised study
2006
In the face of the changes in the planet's natural resources and of their unequal distribution, it is becoming more urgent that contemporary societies oversee environmental assets in a global manner. Although international directives, when they are transposed into national laws, may set specific objectives, meeting them at the local level is as yet an uneven enterprise. Nevertheless we hope to demonstrate, using a case-study involving local tensions over water resources, that public management of the crisis may be developed that effectively involves the civic society, by using the incentives and enforcement tools of central government and of local institutions.
Conceptualising State-Controlled Resort Islands for an Environment-Friendly Development of Tourism: The Maldivian Experience
2001
The Maldives host a sophisticated and competitive international tourist industry which has replaced fishing as the dominant economic activity. With their rich tropical reef ecosystems and the abundant biodiversity of their marine environment, a total of 86 uninhabited islands had been converted into Resort Islands by the end of 2000. Resort Islands are equipped with comprehensive facilities for accommodation, food, recreation and leisure. They are also strictly reserved for foreign tourists and guarantee complete privacy. This gives the benefit of averting conflicts of acculturation with local islanders. In the arena of impacts on the physical environment, however, the consumptive leisure l…
Promoting sustainable environmental practices amongst automobile consumers: an evaluation of the impacts of pursuing innovations in tax regulations
2012
The growing importance of environmental sustainability has resulted in governments pursuing innovative regulatory changes in order to achieve this goal. The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically whether pursuing innovative regulations in the realm of environmental taxation have elicited more sustainable practices amongst automobile consumers in Spain. The finding is that the tax innovations of the Spanish government that seek to internalise externalities, namely the registration tax and fuel tax, but not the annual circulation tax, are leading automobile consumers to pursue more environmentally sustainable practices, and are also resulting in the automotive sector itself pursuing inno…
Governance as a barrier to mainstreaming sustainable development in Riga, Latvia
2008
The Aalborg Commitments baseline review of urban sustainability undertaken in Riga, Latvia reveals significant discrepancies between the sustainability criteria of the Aalborg Commitments and municipal statutes and planning documents. An analysis of the European Common Indicators (ECI) and the State of the Environment in Riga indicators indicates that they can only partially fulfil a monitoring function for the implementation of the Aalborg Commitments. To gain insight into the institutional arrangements and governance practices of the municipal government and administration in the context of sustainability City Council deputies and municipal administration structural units and personnel we…
Introduction: Energy, Policy and the Environment: Modeling Sustainable Development for the North
2011
Climate change is unequivocal (IPCC 2007) and it has brought questions of energy and the environment to the forefront. It is unclear to what extent the traditional environmental concern and environmental policy suffice in addressing issues such as climate change while global greenhouse gases continue to increase at a steady rate, as does the depletion of fossil fuels. Ensuring the availability of energy is the key to maintaining current levels of well-being in societies and growth in the global economy. Given that production and utilization of energy and the environment are inherently interlinked, energy policies and changes in economic structures, which focus on alternative modes of energy…
Sustainable development as a challenge for a society and an economy
2017
During the political process leading up to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 it was decided that the concept which will be used to coordinate spontaneous development processes will be the concept of sustainable development. Since that time, efforts are made to implement this concept through inclusion in the legal regulations and by modelling the development objectives of societies. This process should be accompanied by: 1) a reflection over a direction in which we should go and 2) a question whether actions, carried out in the spirit of sustainable development, really bring us closer to the realisation of this concept. The proposed paper will develop these last two questions focusi…
Sustainable Innovation: A Competitive Advantage for Innovation Ecosystems
2015
In this article, we elaborate the emerging concept of sustainable innovation and analyze the relevance of innovation as a means to solve wicked problems and enhancing sustainable well-being. We also examine the changing conditions for innovation creation: building global knowledge hubs and local innovation ecosystems. As a result, the drivers of innovation and opportunities to utilize the untapped innovation potential of people outside traditional innovation contexts are expanded and diversified. Ultimately, the success of sustainable innovation constitutes its impact on the well-being of people and vice versa: sustainable well-being is an important source of innovation and growth. The arti…
A new definition of soil to promote soil awareness, sustainability, security and governance
2022
Abstract In these last decades, the awareness that soil is a very important resource for humans has noticeably increased. Many actions and initiatives to promote soil governance, aiming at sustainable soil management and soil security have been undertaken by several national and international institutions and in many countries. Analysis of the changes of soil perception over the centuries allows highlighting a perfect harmony between the evolution of soil awareness and the level of knowledge and technology achieved by humans during their history and evolution. Notwithstanding these many achievements, soils continue to be scarcely considered in politics and society. We suggest some thoughts …
La Responsabilidad Social de la Educación Superior como Bien Común. Concepto y desafíos
2018
Este artículo atiende al planteamiento de la Unesco de considerar como bien común a la Educación Superior, en un momento en que las Instituciones de Educación Superior están inmersas en procesos caracterizados por una progresiva mercantilización del conocimiento que condiciona el acceso a la financiación por posicionamiento en rankings internacionales, poniendo en riesgo el objeto de contribuir a un desarrollo sostenible en sus contextos. Mediante un particular análisis de aspectos relacionados con la Responsabilidad Social y la relación con los grupos de interés, se realiza una contribución a la reflexión teórica y a los desafíos para conceptualizar la Educación Superior como un bien común.
Sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR): Essential topics for business education
2017
Abstract The current changes and challenges of the economic and financial environments have created a need for further development in the way higher education, organizations and management systems view the sustainable development and business education. The purpose of this paper is to examine different aspects and approaches regarding sustainability, sustainable development, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the context of business education. The research is based on a literature review, on the experience gained as a result of our participation in various projects and international activities regarding the above-mentioned concepts, and on the results of several qualitative and qu…