The activity of Polish non-governmental organisations regarding the implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development

The growing interest of citizens in environmental issues is reflected in the mission statements and actions of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), defined as bodies that are voluntary, non-profit and independent of public authority. The article analyses the activities of Polish NGOs with regard to the environmental dimension of sustainable development. The overarching research question posed in this article refers to the extent to which entities of the third sector adopt, implement and appropriately report the implementation of the principles of sustainable development. The empirical basis for the analysis has been found in the statements made by public benefit organisations, as well as in data concerning the activities of NGOs from publications covering the concept of sustainable development.     

Towards an understanding of the influence of sustainability culture on the accounting profession

While some previous research has critiqued accounting behaviour towards society and the environment, this paper points in a slightly different direction. With the aid of a chronological chart, it uses sustainability initiatives from the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) to demonstrate the accounting profession's positive response to societal sustainability culture. Applying the cultural theories of Gray and Hofstede, it argues that society is responsible for alleged negative behaviour in accounting and that society hampers progress in sustainability accounting through political and corporate manoeuvrings. It asserts that, at least within the Canadian context, the more society embraces deeper green culture, the more accounting will transform towards sustainability values. It provides a future research agenda towards extenuating accounting criticisms. The paper suggests some policy implications for government and highlights that the power to condition and moderate accounting behaviour resides within society, governments and the laws of nations; it follows therefore that attaining any goals in sustainable development depends on the choice and commitment of governments and institutions.     

European Union agricultural policy scenarios' impacts on social sustainability of agricultural holdings

This paper aims to assess the impacts of household behaviour on social sustainability by simulating agricultural policy scenarios of the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). For this purpose a multicriteria model was formulated, at farm household level, in order to study the social impacts of the CAPs using different scenarios. The scenarios were chosen on the basis of the main EU policies affecting farm households, such as the alternative crops scenario, the Water Framework Directive scenario and the agrienvironmental schemes scenario. The data for this analysis resulted from the CAP-IRE project, a European FP7-funded project. The model includes a utility function with several conflicting criteria such as maximization of gross margin and risk and labour minimization. The model is further used to simulate the impacts on social sustainability by estimating main social indicators. The model is applied in two different farm types in Greece. The results show that the CAP scenarios have multiple social impacts on agricultural holdings, and particularly on the farm labour structure. These impacts have negative effect on social sustainability.     

The effect of land clearing on rainfall and fresh water resources in Western Australia: a multi-functional sustainability analysis

It is widely recognised that southwest Western Australia has experienced a decline in rainfall over the last 40 years. It is generally thought that this decline is due to natural periodic variations and changes induced by global warming, but recently evidence has emerged suggesting that a substantial part of the decline may be due to extensive logging close to the coast to make way for housing developments and the clearing of native vegetation for wheat planting on the higher ground. We compare coastal and inland rainfall to show empirically that 55% to 62% of the observed rainfall decline is the result of land clearing alone. Using the index of sustainable functionality, we show that the economic consequences associated with this change of land use on fresh water resource availability have been underestimated to date and disproportionately affect the environment and poorest members of the population.     

Making sense of natural hazard mitigation: Personal,social and cultural influences

Worldwide, recognition of the growing risk faced by communities in many countries from natural hazard events has stimulated interest in promoting people's capacity to co-exist with often beneficial, but occasionally hazardous, natural processes by encouraging the adoption of preparedness measures. Starting from recognition that levels of hazard preparedness are generally low, this paper examines how people's decisions about hazard mitigation derive from how they interpret the hazards, their relationship with the hazards and the sources of information about hazards. It describes how interpretive processes at the person (outcome expectancy), community (community participation and collective efficacy) and societal (empowerment and trust) level interact to predict levels of hazard preparedness. The data support the argument that the effectiveness of public hazard education strategies community preparedness can be increased by integrating risk management activities with community development strategies. The cross-cultural validity of the model is discussed using data from communities in New Zealand, Indonesia and Japan. Testing the model across countries and hazards (e.g. earthquakes, volcanic hazards) supports its all-hazards and cross-cultural applicability. The theoretical (e.g. identifying the degree to which the processes that underpin how people respond to hazard threats are culturally equivalent) and practical (e.g. providing a common basis for collaborative learning and research between countries and providing risk management agencies in different cultures with access to a wider range of risk management options) implications of the cross-cultural equivalence of the model are discussed.     

The self‐built ecovillage in L'Aquila,Italy: community resilience as a grassroots response to environmental shock

The paper applies the community resilience approach to the post‐disaster case of Pescomaggiore, an Italian village affected by the L'Aquila earthquake in 2009. A group of residents refused to accept the housing recovery solutions proposed by the government, opting for autonomous recovery. They developed a housing project in the form of a self‐built ecovillage, characterised by earthquake‐proof buildings made of straw and wood. The project is a paradigmatic example of a community‐based response to an external shock. It illustrates the concept of ‘community resilience’, which is widely explored in the scientific debate but still vaguely defined. Based on qualitative methodologies, the paper seeks to understand how the community resilience process can be enacted in alternative social practices such as ecovillages. The goal is to see under which conditions natural disasters can be considered windows of opportunity for sustainability.     

纺织印染企业水足迹测算案例

企业水足迹可用于节水减排效果的评价. 企业蓝水足迹指企业对传统水源的消耗,绿水足迹指企业收集处理并用于生产等目的的降水量;灰水足迹指以自然本底浓度和环境水质标准为基准,将企业产生的污染物负荷吸收同化所需的淡水量. 概化了企业用、排水模型,并基于《水足迹评价手册》建立了企业水足迹测算方法,测算了企业蓝水足迹、绿水足迹和灰水足迹,以及节水减排措施对削减水足迹的贡献率. 根据该测算方法对某纺织印染企业开展了案例研究. 结果表明:①经过清洁生产审核,某纺织印染企业的单位产品产量蓝水足迹为171 t/t,削减了26.3%;单位产品产量灰水足迹为146 t/t,削减了31.1%;而由于降水的采用,单位产品产量绿水足迹由0 t/t增至8 t/t;②在节水减排贡献方面,水回用措施显著大于工艺节水措施,节水和水回用措施分别削减蓝水足迹1.77×104和48.60×104 t,二者分别削减灰水足迹1.60×104和57.80×104 t.      

基于能值分析的四川省生态经济系统可持续性评估

运用能值分析方法,对四川省1998～2003年生态经济系统的净能值产出率、能值投入率、能值利用强度、可持续发展指数等指标及其变化趋势进行了定量分析,并与其它国家和地区进行了比较分析。研究表明：①四川省的可持续发展指数曲线呈现先升后降趋势,波动在3.35～1.97之间,曲线的走势与能值/货币比率、人口承载力基本一致。表明四川省经济的发展在人口资源的压力下,仍处于依靠本地资源的欠发达不稳定阶段;②四川省1998～2003年的净能值产出率和能值投入率呈现相异的发展走势,表明资源的利用效率、经济活动的竞争力逐渐降低,而环境资源负载程度、能值使用强度逐渐增强,经济活动加剧;③1998～2003年四川省人均能值使用量总体稳定的上升趋势和电力等高能质能值的缓慢增长趋势,体现了四川省人民生活水准的提高,但相对发达国家和地区还有一定的差距,发展的空间还很大。     

区域水资源可持续利用评价的FAHP-PP模型

正确评价区域水资源可持续利用，对区域社会、经济的可持续发展以及生态环境的良性循环都具有重要意义，而区域水资源可持续利用指标体系及评价方法研究是水资源可持续利用研究的基础。借鉴现有评价指标体系的优点，并充分考虑现有评价指标体系所忽略的某些环境因素对水资源可持续利用的影响，针对区域社会-经济-环境复合系统的特点，提出了由区域水资源条件、水资源开发利用程度、区域水资源与社会协调程度、区域水资源与环境协调程度4个子系统及评价指标组成的区域水资源可持续利用评价指标体系。根据水资源系统的随机性、模糊性等特性以及系统评价的公正、客观要求，为规避评价方法的主观性与客观性影响，分别应用主观性较强的模糊层次分析法（FAHP）与客观性较强的投影寻踪模型（PP）对区域水资源可持续利用水平进行评价，并将两种方法的评价结果进行加权求和以实现优势互补，以此建立了区域水资源评价的一种新模型（FAHP PP），然后通过以上海市1998～2007年水资源可持续利用情况为例对该评价指标体系的合理性及方法的有效性进行了说明.     

Land system architecture for urban sustainability: new directions for land system science illustrated by application to the urban heat island problem

ABSTRACT

Land system science (LSS) has expanded its research focus from the drivers of land-use and -cover change primarily in rural wildlands to include the social-environmental consequences of this change, urban areas, and sustainability practice. Land system architecture, interacting with the landscape mosaic approach in ecology, offers a special niche for the entry of rural areas and wildlands into urban sustainability research through examinations of the composition and configuration of ‘cityscapes’. Given the fine-grain data requirements of heterogeneous cityscapes, emergent land architecture-mosaic approaches have largely explored the urban heat island (UHI) problem, a topic that links LSS with the interests of urban climatology, engineering, and planning in city morphology or geometry. The subtle distinctions in the treatment of land configuration between land architecture-mosaic approaches and urban morphology-geometry approaches are identified. Several examples of the land architecture-mosaic approach illustrate the understanding gained about the UHI problem as well as its complementarity with morphology-geometry approaches. This understanding provides insights about the design of urban areas at the parcel to neighborhood scales to ameliorate extreme temperatures, an issue of increasing concern for urban areas worldwide and consistent with the sustainability problems identified by such international programs as Future Earth.