SME environmental attitudes and participation in local‐scale voluntary initiatives: some practical applications

This paper briefly assesses the economic efficiency case for voluntary initiatives (VIs), discusses some limitations of this type of policy instrument and goes on to consider the role that local‐scale voluntary initiatives might play in assisting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to embrace the issue of environmental performance improvement. The paper examines SME organizational management in relation to the likely effectiveness of their participation in voluntary environment programmes. An environmental attitudes survey carried out with 62 SMEs in East Anglia found that willingness to become involved in such initiatives does exist, but that a better presentation of opportunities for prospective small firms, together with a more tailored approach, will be necessary if VIs for SMEs are to become a more extensive feature of environmental policy making in the UK.     

Learning from the BP Deepwater Horizon accident: risk analysis of human and organizational factors in negative pressure test

According to several seminal investigation reports on the BP Deepwater Horizon (DWH) accident, misinterpretation of a critical test, called negative pressure test (NPT), was a major contributing cause of that disaster. NPT, according to many credible references, is the primary step to ascertain well integrity during any offshore drilling. This paper introduces a three-layer, conceptual risk analysis framework to assess the critical role of human and organizational factors in conducting and interpreting a negative pressure test. This framework has been developed by generalizing the risk assessment model that was proposed by the authors for the analysis of the conducted NPT by the DWH crew. In addition, the application of the introduced framework in this study is not limited to NPT misinterpretation. In fact, it can be generalized and be potentially useful for the risk analysis of future oil and gas drilling as well as other high-risk operations. Analysis of the developed framework in this paper confirms the results of previous studies by indicating that organizational factors are root causes of accumulated errors and questionable decisions made by personnel or management. Further analysis of this framework identifies procedural issues, economic pressure, and personnel management issues as the organizational factors with the highest influence on misinterpreting a negative pressure test. It is noteworthy that the captured organizational factors in the introduced conceptual framework are not only specific to the scope of the NPT. The three aforementioned organizational factors have been identified as common contributing causes of other offshore drilling accidents as well.     

GIS in planning

This paper outlines some of the potential uses of GIS in planning authorities, and identifies some of the pitfalls to be avoided. It begins with some practical considerations in the area of data sources and system configurations, goes on to envision ways in which GIS might benefit the work of a planning department, and finally considers some of the management issues which surround the introduction and use of GIS in planning.     

Household behaviour and attitudes with respect to recycling food waste--experiences from focus groups

It is a challenge to reduce the ever-increasing flow of waste. In Norway the systems for recycling of organic waste, paper, glass, metals, etc. differ between municipalities, both with regard to organizational and to technological structures. Our hypothesis is that people's attitudes and behaviour may differ with different systems of waste management. People's behaviour and attitudes regarding (organic) waste recycling were investigated in two municipalities with differing technical and organisational systems. Data came from interviews with municipal employees, questionnaires, focus groups and multi-criteria mapping. People seem to be better informed and more positive about organic waste recycling in one of the municipalities (MH, which has recycling of organic waste) than in the other (MS, which has no such recycling). The two municipalities had similar sets of important criteria for waste management (price, environmental friendliness, easy solutions, information). Many participants stated that they had learned from the group process, though only a few reported changed preferences. The institutional context seems to be important for people's behaviour and attitudes towards waste management. This implies that people's recycling behaviour does not only depend on technical and organisational aspects, but also on institutions. These are important messages for policy makers. On an individual basis, the different systems in the two municipalities seem to affect people's stated attitudes. These differences diminish when they are in a common setting where process and dialogue stimulate new thoughts and encourage people to act more altruistically.     

Does Community-Based Conservation Shape Favorable Attitudes Among Locals? An Empirical Study from Nepal

Like many developing countries, Nepal has adopted a community-based conservation (CBC) approach in recent years to manage its protected areas mainly in response to poor park–people relations. Among other things, under this approach the government has created new “people-oriented” conservation areas, formed and devolved legal authority to grassroots-level institutions to manage local resources, fostered infrastructure development, promoted tourism, and provided income-generating trainings to local people. Of interest to policy-makers and resource managers in Nepal and worldwide is whether this approach to conservation leads to improved attitudes on the part of local people. It is also important to know if personal costs and benefits associated with various intervention programs, and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics influence these attitudes. We explore these questions by looking at the experiences in Annapurna and Makalu-Barun Conservation Areas, Nepal, which have largely adopted a CBC approach in policy formulation, planning, and management. The research was conducted during 1996 and 1997; the data collection methods included random household questionnaire surveys, informal interviews, and review of official records and published literature. The results indicated that the majority of local people held favorable attitudes toward these conservation areas. Logistic regression results revealed that participation in training, benefit from tourism, wildlife depredation issue, ethnicity, gender, and education level were the significant predictors of local attitudes in one or the other conservation area. We conclude that the CBC approach has potential to shape favorable local attitudes and that these attitudes will be mediated by some personal attributes.     

The role of place identity and place attachment in breaking environmental protection laws

Place identity and place attachment have been related to several environmental variables such as appropriation, residential satisfaction, physical care taken of the neighbourhood, restorativeness, environmental attitudes and, especially, pro-environmental behaviour. However, the role of place identity and place attachment has not been analyzed in relation to anti-ecological behaviours such as transgressions of environmental protection laws. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship of place identity, place attachment and environmental attitudes to the personal and social norms that explain the likelihood of illegal behaviours against the environment. The sample was composed of men and women, aged from 19 to 70 years, who were resident in rural, urban or tourist areas of a territory under high environmental protection. The strongest predictor of environmental transgression is personal norms, whereas place identity and place attachment have no direct relation with future transgression or personal norms. Place identity influences environmental attitudes and social norms, which are both antecedents of personal norms. The results led us to reconsider the efficacy of interventions aimed at encouraging compliance with environmental laws by only emphasizing individuals' bonds with the environment, and the need to extend the study of the role of personal and social norms in environmental protection.     

Community-based Environmental Planning: Operational Dilemmas,Planning Principles and Possible Remedies

The operational dilemmas and challenges associated with the practice of community-based environmental planning (CBEP) are examined. The paper examines the frequently invoked ‘bottom-up’ versus ‘top-down’ dichotomy and argues that environmental governance is more complex, dynamic and multi-scalar than this simple dichotomy implies. The paper identifies six key problems with the CBEP approach: (i) the conceptualization of ‘community’ which poorly accounts for difference; (ii) problems of inequality; (iii) the organizational capacity and efficacy of community groups; (iv) the scale of CBEP; (v) the types of knowledge utilized by communities in environmental management; and (vi) the potential for parochial concerns to dominate the priorities and agenda of community organizations. The paper analyses each of these issues, identifies planning principles that may aid resolution, and suggests possible remedies.     

EFFECTIVE WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN THE URBAN SETTING1

Water resources management in the urban areas of the United States to be effective must include dimensions far beyond water supply and sewerage. This paper concerns itself with those problem areas of water resource management outside of potable water supply and sanitary sewers. These areas include flood plain management, greenways and blueways, storm water, vistas of waterways, and other attributes of living in or near a water-related environment. The perceptions and attitudes of the concerned public and community power structure must be known in order to manage the water environment effectively. Methods of measuring these perceptions and attitudes are described and ways in which the resulting citizen-resource can be tapped and used as a management device are explored.     

Reforms from the Ground Up: A Review of Community-Based Forest Management in Tropical Developing Countries

After an initial burst of enthusiasm in the 1990s, community-based forest management (CBFM) is increasingly being viewed with a critical eye. Evidence suggests that many programs have failed to promote their stated objectives of sustainability, efficiency, equity, democratic participation and poverty reduction. A large volume of academic literature now exists on CBFM, examining both the success and failure of such initiatives in a wide variety of countries. Through analysis of key themes, concepts and issues in CBFM, this article provides a review of CBFM initiatives in tropical developing countries for policymakers, practitioners and planners wishing to gain an understanding of this wide-ranging, interdisciplinary academic literature. The article identifies key institutions and incentives that appear to significantly affect the success or failure of CBFM initiatives. In particular, it reports that consideration of institutional and socioeconomic factors along with personal characteristics of key stakeholders such as beliefs, attitudes, financial resources and skills are important determinants of CBFM outcomes. However, local incentive structures also appear to be important. There is increasing recognition in the literature of the need to consider the conditions under which local politicians entrusted with carrying out CBFM initiatives will deem it worthwhile to invest their scarce time and resources on environmental governance.     

Environmental representatives: whom,what, and how are they representing?

Literature on environment and representation in politics, management, and deliberation has paid little attention on the people involved: environmental representatives. The aim of this paper is to illuminate how environmental representatives in various organizational and professional contexts understand their role as representatives, and how they are shaped by their contexts. The paper argues that it is crucial to learn about the everyday reality of individual representatives to better understand the limitations and possibilities they face. The study is based on 19 interviews with environmental representatives from five organizational and professional contexts: the state, civil society, business, science, and media in Sweden. The paper concludes that some differences in experiences, for example, in freedom and constraint, can be understood in relation to the representatives’ organizational and professional affiliation. Other experiences are common: (i) all categories stated the importance of being impartial and well read; (ii) complex layers of affiliation imply that representation requires sensitivity and adjustment between different situations; and (iii) the performative aspects of representation include the representatives’ claims-making, others’ attributions, and long-term learning of their role. The article contributes an understanding of organizational conditions and the often paradoxical, layered, multifaceted, and cautious representation these individual actors perform.     

Environmental Attitudes and Behavior of Primary and Secondary Students in Asian Cities: An Overview Strategy for Implementing an Eco-schools Programme

Environmental education is essential to the success of Agenda 21. Yet currently it is without focus and effectively side-lined. This paper presents the results of preliminary investigations on the environmental attitudes and knowledge of Indian and Filipino primary and secondary school students, and their readiness to engage in pro-environmental behavior that could involve some change in their personal lifestyle. For the most part, environmental education efforts are embedded mainly into various science subjects. The relationship between environmental education and environmental awareness is analyzed to examine whether schools' environmental education could contribute to the shaping of environmental attitudes. A strategy and accompanying methodology for establishing environmental education is supplied.     

Climate change risk management: a Mental Modeling application

The potential impacts of climate change are varied and highly uncertain, and pose a significant challenge to agencies charged with managing environmental risks. This paper presents a comprehensive and structured Mental Modeling approach to elicit, organize and present relevant information from experts and stakeholders about the factors influencing environmental risk management in the face of climate change. We present and review an initiative undertaken by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to characterize climate change challenges to USACE environmental risk management activities, and to identify gaps with respect to science, engineering, and organizational processes for addressing these challenges. By employing Mental Modeling, the research has characterized the influences of climate change on USACE environmental risk management, and aggregating recommendations from 28 experts. In addition, the study identifies the most important opportunities to improve organizational response to climate change, ranging from focused research and development of technical capabilities to broad paradigm shifts and systemic organizational improvements within the USACE environmental risk management programs. This study demonstrates that Mental Modeling is a useful tool for understanding complex problems, identifying gaps, and formulating strategies, and can be used by a multitude of organizations and agencies.     

Perceiving the Environment from the Lay Perspective in Desertified Areas,Northern China

Investigating local people’s environmental perceptions can produce useful information that could be incorporated into decision making processes that help resolve environmental problems. Although China is undergoing severe desertification, the perceptions of the local people toward their degraded environment and the related issues have so far not been actively solicited. This article, which is a supplement to Lee and Zhang’s (2004, 2005) studies, seeks to further investigate the lay public’s general environmental attitudes, perceptions of desertification, interpretations of land-degrading activities, and particularly their interrelations in severely desertified areas. Minqin County in Gansu Province, northern China, was chosen to be the study area. Data was collected via a questionnaire survey (n = 1138) administered in December 2002. Major findings were: (1) Most respondents had only weak altruistic environmental attitudes, with educational level to be a significant determinant. (2) Respondents’ perceptions of desertification and interpretations of land-degrading activities were contingent on personal attributes, general environmental attitudes, and other conceptions related to desertification. It is recommended that the interrelations between the various aspects of the public’s environmental perceptions should be thoroughly examined to facilitate their participation in environmental management.     

Use of loglinear models to assess factors influencing concern for the natural environment

Since it is necessary to isolate the most significant factors influencing personal concern for the environment, this paper utilizes loglinear models for identifying the interactions and interrelationships underlying multidimensional environmental survey data. A field study in Guyana conducted face-to-face interviews with 1600 citizens. Acquired categorical data were then subjected to loglinear modeling techniques to determine what significance the factors education, age, residential location, and gender have on personal concern for the environment. The loglinear models obtained from the five-dimensional contingency table suggest that there is a direct relationship between education and personal concern for the environment. Age has an interaction with education, and some influence on environmental concern, with younger respondents expressing higher concern for the environment than older respondents. Other results from the loglinear model demonstrate that residential location and the gender of the respondents do not have any statistically significant association with personal concern for the environment.     

Examining the Role of Voluntary Associations in Environmental Management: The Case of the Sam Houston National Forest

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of voluntary associations involved in forest management. The specific areas examined in this study include organizational attributes, membership profile, attitudes toward forest-management priorities, and concerns about forest-management issues. To achieve this purpose, data were collected using a case study approach with mixed-methods (document reviews, personal interviews, and a Web survey) at a national forest in Texas, USA. Overall, the voluntary associations in this study can be described as place-based, small to moderate in scale, activity-oriented, and active groups that are adaptive to sociopolitical and environmental changes. General group members placed high importance on aesthetic, ecological, and recreation management of the national forest. In addition, this study showed five key forest management issues: (1) limited recreation access; (2) financial challenges for forest management; (3) conflict among recreation user groups; (4) inadequate communication by the United States Forest Service to the general public, and (5) sustainability of the forest. Theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed.     

Promotion of renewable energy technologies in Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is currently facing energy problems that have seriously affected its socio-economic development and environment. To solve these problems, the country is striving to exploit its renewable energy potential, among other efforts. This publication highlights the prevailing energy situation in Tanzania and provides a short review of potential energy resources. It then discusses current institutional efforts and capabilities in research, development, diffusion and commercialization of renewable energy technologies. The paper also identifies some barriers to promotion of renewable energy technologies. Finally, it outlines the energy policy of Tanzania and actions taken by the government of Tanzania to promote renewable energy technologies.     

Missing the trees for the forest? Bottom-up policy implementation and adaptive management in the US natural resource bureaucracy

For decades, natural resource agencies in the United States have attempted to restore ecosystems using adaptive management, a process that emphasizes experimental learning to reduce uncertainty. Most studies show that it rarely occurs in practice and explain implementation failures as organizational issues. This study draws on policy implementation theory to suggest that behaviors and attitudes of individuals may better explain implementation gaps. This comparative case study finds differences between experts implementing adaptive management in the Fish and Wildlife Service and the United States Geological Survey. These include differences in attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors aimed at promoting individual autonomy, performance standards, and defending individual interests on the job. Policy implications are twofold: first, that individual behaviors impact adaptive management implementation and intrinsic motivation to perform such functions. Second, regardless of agency, experts view their work as a social good. This suggests that a devolved planning process may remedy implementation obstacles.     

Benefits of systems thinking for a human and organizational factors approach to safety management

This paper highlights the value of systems theory and its application to human and organizational factors (HOF). HOF specialists consider multiple systems characteristics in their analyses but are often unaware of the relevant theory applied in their analysis. We argue that a structured effort to take key systems characteristics into account in HOF practice would increase the depth and breadth of safety management analyses and help HOF specialists to act more effectively on industrial socio-technical systems. First, the paper identifies the following seven system theory characteristics: constitution, multi-axis representation, limit, emergence, variety, coherence, and causal interaction, which are then illustrated with examples from the HOF field. Finally, we discuss the two main benefits of integrating system thinking in a HOF approach to safety management: (1) an improved understanding of the inner workings of an industrial socio-technical system; and (2) a compendium or a reference to guide for decision-making and the implementation of actions within the industrial socio-technical systems.     

Information technology

Summary This paper describes some of today's important information handling products and attempts to predict tomorrows devices in the light of convergence and greater flexibility offered through the use of microchip technology.The main contention of this paper is that Information Technology and its impact on privacy depends, as ever, on the way in which Information Systems are used. It is argued that the privacy issue is more to do with moral and physiological attitudes within society than the technicalities of implementation.As a conclusion, the paper asks that we should define standards and exercise vigilance in the maintenance of those standards. In addition, it recognises that attitudes to privacy will almost certainly change with time and that this should be regarded as a healthy and natural occurrence.Roger Reynolds has worked in the computer industry for 18 years and has experience in both hardware design and systems development. He has been employed in ICL for the last 5 years and has been deeply involved with the development of communications and Information Technology within this company.Previously he worked on a project designed to integrate various activities in the health service. This involved the development of computer based systems connected together by telecommunications.This article represents a personal view by Mr Reynolds and it is hoped that it will stimulate further thought and understanding in the development of future technologies.