Improving Voluntary Environmental Management Programs: Facilitating Learning and Adaptation

Environmental planners and managers face unique challenges understanding and documenting the effectiveness of programs that rely on voluntary actions by private landowners. Programs, such as those aimed at reducing nonpoint source pollution or improving habitat, intend to reach those goals by persuading landowners to adopt behaviors and management practices consistent with environmental restoration and protection. Our purpose with this paper is to identify barriers for improving voluntary environmental management programs and ways to overcome them. We first draw upon insights regarding data, learning, and adaptation from the adaptive management and performance management literatures, describing three key issues: overcoming information constraints, structural limitations, and organizational culture. Although these lessons are applicable to a variety of voluntary environmental management programs, we then present the issues in the context of on-going research for nonpoint source water quality pollution. We end the discussion by highlighting important elements for advancing voluntary program efforts.     

Teaching Approaches in Geography and Students’ Environmental Attitudes

In a study which examines the pattern of geography teaching at the Advanced Level in Hong Kong and assesses the relative effectiveness of didactic and enquiry teaching approaches that are used by the teachers concerned for the development of positive values towards the environment, the question was asked as to whether or not enquiry is more effective than didactic approaches for the development of environmental values, in both the short and long terms, for students as a whole and for students from different ability ranges. Questionnaire surveys and interviews were conducted to obtain data from students after they were taught a topic on people and the environment in the curriculum, with the approach chosen by their teachers. Results show that the enquiry approach was effective with the lower to medium ability classes in the short term but students who were taught didactically performed better in more areas in the longer term. The possible causes for this pattern are discussed and suggestions for improving the effectiveness of enquiry approaches in a high-pressure, examination-oriented classroom environment are offered.     

双重环境规制、创新开放度与制造企业创新投入

如何在经济发展的同时实现有效的环境保护成为企业亟待解决的问题。本文以2011—2017年沪深A股制造业上市公司为样本,检验了双重环境规制、开放广度、开放深度与企业创新投入之间的作用关系。研究发现:政府环境规制对企业创新投入具有显著正向作用,有利于企业响应政府规制加大创新投入力度;公众环境规制对企业创新投入的影响不显著,企业倾向采用公关方式应对公众规制需求;开放广度越大,政府与公众环境规制对企业创新投入的正向影响越强;开放深度不会改变环境规制对企业创新投入的影响。本研究为企业有效整合内外部资源开发节能减排技术,响应对政府和公众双重环境规制的要求提供了一定理论支持和决策参考。     

论环境标准的创新

文章针对我国环境标准工作的现状，以与时俱进思想，提出改革创新的八个重点。     

洗涤剂中的磷对环境的影响及对策的探讨

本文介绍了关于洗涤剂中磷对环境影响的两种典型观点和解决的办法,并从经济和环境的角度进行全面的分析,得出合理的结论和建议。     

Skier and Snowboarder Motivations and Knowledge Related to Voluntary Environmental Programs at an Alpine Ski Area

Many alpine ski areas have recently adopted voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) such as using recycling, renewable energy, and biofuels to help reduce their environmental impacts. Studies have addressed the performance of these VEPs in mitigating environmental impacts of this industry, but little is known about visitor awareness and perceptions of these programs. This article addresses this knowledge gap by exploring skier and snowboarder knowledge of VEPs at a ski area and the influence of these programs on their motivations to visit this area currently and behavioral intentions to visit again in the future. Data were obtained from an onsite survey at the Mt. Bachelor ski area in Oregon, USA (n = 429, 89.7% response rate). Few skiers and snowboarders were knowledgeable of VEPs at this area and fewer than 20% were motivated to visit on their current trip because of these programs. Other attributes such as scenery, snow conditions, and access were more important for influencing visitation. Up to 38% of skiers and snowboarders, however, intend to visit this ski area more often if it adopts and promotes more VEPs. Managers can use these results to inform communication and marketing of their environmental programs and performance to visitors. Additional implications for management and future research are discussed.     

在我国实施自愿协议式工业环境管理的可行性探讨

本文扼要综述了自愿协议式环境管理的发展、特点及其成因,并且简要介绍了这种新的环境管理方式在欧盟国家的应用情况。该管理方法在欧盟国家的成功,证明它是一个非常有效的环境管理方法,这种方式对解决政府“命令式”管理失灵起到十分有益的补充作用。在我国实施自愿协议式工业环境管理机遇大于风险,学习、改造并引进自愿协议式工业环境管理方法,可以提高我国工业环境管理水平,为实施可持续发展战略服务。     

An Investigation of Environmental Racism Claims: Testing Environmental Management Approaches with a Geographic Information System

The purpose of this research was to explore the concept of an environmental racism claim through the use of several environmental management tools. The EPAs Toxics Release Inventory, Cumulative Exposure Project, and the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services' Hot Zone Census Tract Assessment were combined with racial and socioeconomic data to test claims that minorities in South Central Los Angeles are disproportionately exposed to environmental lead. Multivariate analysis indicated that race is strongly associated with the number of cases of elevated blood lead levels in South Central, irrespective of poverty status. Proximity to point sources, a common focal point for studies of environmental racism, was not a contributing factor to health outcomes. Proximity to transportation corridors was consistently the strongest indicator of environmental lead exposure, while median home values were significantly and positively related to elevated blood lead levels. Implications for environmental justice advocates and social and environmental scientists are discussed.     

企业生态创新的维度构成与量表开发研究

生态创新是促进经济绿色增长、应对气候变化的重要手段与核心工具,但目前关于生态创新的测量量表相对缺乏。通过对国内外生态创新的文献的系统梳理,结合开放式问卷调查和内容分析,本研究初步构建了由16项条款构成的初始测量量表。运用探索性和验证性因子分析,确定了由11项条款构成的生态创新测量量表,包含生态管理创新、生态工艺创新和生态产品创新三维度。本研究识别了生态创新的内部构成与确定了其测量量表,为深入研究生态创新的前置因素、生态创新与企业绩效之间的关系奠定了良好的基础,同时也为评价与比较不同企业的生态创新水平提供了支撑。     

论我国环保产业的技术创新

我国环保产业在技术创新方面面临创新动力不足、研究与发展水平低下、产业创新能力不足、创新智力资源短缺、创造服务体系不完善和风险投资机制不健全等问题。     

生态旅游环境教育功能的实现途径研究

生态旅游是一项具有保护自然生态与文化多样性,提高旅游者环境意识及维护当地居民生活双重责任的旅游活动,具有较强的环境教育功能。但其功能的发挥不是旅游活动的自然结果,而有赖于人的自觉和切实有效的环境教育。本研究基于对生态旅游环境教育功能及其影响因素正确认识基础上,构建生态旅游环境教育功能实现的基本框架,并系统阐述环境解说、产品设计、舆论监督、宣传教育、环境管理等途径。本研究对促进生态旅游健康发展和国民环境教育具有重要意义。     

创新基金推动中小环保企业的快速发展

概述了自1999-2009年以来,我国第一个用于支持科技型中小企业技术创新的政府专项基金—科技型中小企业技术创新基金,对中小环保企业快速发展的支持和促进作用;提出环保企业应充分利用技术创新基金,推动环保产业更快发展。     

崇明岛建设中的生态环境保护科技创新

崇明生态岛建设对科技创新的路径选择提出了很高的要求。崇明岛的生态科技创新,在解决资源、能源、环境等一系列与生态系统密切相关的问题中,发挥了重要的支撑和保障作用。在分析崇明生态岛建设过程中科技发展现状的基础上,提出了崇明生态岛建设中,利用科技创新规划生态建设和环境保护的思路：生态城镇的发展进程必须遵循生态学原则,重点发展低碳经济战略,节能减排,发展生态岛环境保护与资源循环利用技术体系。此外,还提出了崇明生态岛在新农村建设过程及生态文明建设中亟待解决的一些问题,进而使科技创新推动崇明岛生态建设的发展,实现人与自然的和谐。     

科技型中小企业技术创新基金引导了环境技术的创新和提高

分析了科技型中小企业技术创新基金支持环境技术项目的基本情况、支持项目的特点和存在的问题。     

公众投诉、环境规制对工业技术创新的影响研究

在碳达峰碳中和背景下,工业如何实现环保、科技与经济的共同进步已成为中国亟待解决的难题。本文基于中国工业2008—2018年的省级面板数据,建立动态面板模型,采用系统广义矩（GMM）估计方法,对现代环境治理体系中公众投诉、环境规制及工业技术创新三者的关系进行了探讨。结果表明：①公众投诉、环境规制成为直接推动工业技术创新产出的重要因素;②环境规制在公众投诉影响工业技术创新产出的过程中发挥着部分中介作用;③产业集聚强化了公众投诉对工业技术创新的促进作用。因此,完善公众投诉制度、提升公众环保意识、加强环境规制强度、优化政策支持及提升产业集聚程度,对于工业实现经济绩效与环境绩效的双赢具有重要意义。     

大数据时代政府环境治理路径创新

本文针对政府环境治理面临政府失灵、市场失灵和社会低效三个困境,提出运用大数据方法创新治理路径。政府应用大数据提高环境治理过程中的事前、事中和事后监管效能,创新监管模式提升环境治理能力,改善政府失灵困境;依托大数据完善市场化调节机制,激励企业环境行为市场化,构建企业环境信用评价体系,改变企业环境信息披露模式,弥补市场失灵;利用大数据增进公众环境意识,建设公开、透明、平权化的环境信息交互体系,重视环境信息的舆情引导,促进环保价值理念传播,改变公众参与低效现状。进而提出完善大数据治理平台、技术和体系,构建政府、企业、公众共同参与的立体化环境治理模式,提高环境治理的精准化、精细化和智能化水平。     

Upscaling of Environmental Information: Support of Land-Use Management Decisions by Spatio-Temporal Regionalization Approaches

This article presents several case studies in southwest Germany, which aimed to support land use management decisions by a process-oriented statistical upscaling of point-related environmental monitoring data to the landscape scale. When techniques of data subsetting were used in a sensible way and corresponding to the appropriate scale for the evaluation envisaged, multiple linear regression offered a data mining technique which was able to spatially predict relatively complex environmental patterns with parsimonious, interpretable and accurate models, whereby different evaluation scales were best represented by different DTM resolutions. Scenario models based upon the regression formulas were a valuable tool for visualizing management options and evaluating management impacts (tree species selection) on soil functions (carbon storage), which qualifies the presented methodology as a useful aid in decision making. Such upscaling techniques may be used for forecasting long-term effects of ecosystem management, but they provided no information on temporal dynamics. Therefore, time trends of point information on soil solution data were scaled by linking them to soil chemical data which was available in higher spatial resolution, using both statistical and process-oriented methods.     

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.