Emergy diagnosis and reflections towards Brazilian sustainable development

This paper presents an environmental emergy-based diagnosis of Brazil compared with Russia, India, China, South Africa and United States. Reflections on the Brazilian sustainable development are presented and discussed based on the evaluations published since 1979. The variation of the emergy per capita for Brazil from 1979 to 2007 indicates that the country's growth is tied to the exploitation of non renewable natural resources which do not directly reflect in the welfare of the population. The total emergy exported per unit of gross domestic product increased in the period, suggesting that the country exports more emergy than that contained in the money received for the exportation. With the help of the emergy indices, the future development of Brazil is explored and discussed. The comparison among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries and United States indicates that what may be appropriate and usable within one country may not be within another and that to achieve the global sustainability two concomitant actions may occur: (i) the reduction of the total emergy use in developed economies, and (ii) the reduction of indigenous resources exportation in developing economies. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Managing organizations for sustainable development in emerging countries: an introduction

This introduction article is for the special issue Managing organizations for sustainable development in emerging countries: natural resources, biodiversity, and climate change' in the International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology and presents an introduction to the topics and summarizes accepted contributions in the special issue. The accepted works may contribute with organizational management in the search for more sustainable organizations. The works focus on the challenges of managing organizations in a context of degradation of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, and climate change. Accepted papers discuss these issues, based on the reality of emerging economies (e.g. Brazil, India, and China).

Sustainable development in the BRICS countries: an efficiency analysis by data envelopment

There is much concern about the social and environmental impacts caused by the economic growth of nations. Thus, to evaluate the socio-economic performance of nations, economists have increasingly addressed matters related to social welfare and the environment. It is within the scope of this context that this work discusses the performance of countries in the BRICS group regarding sustainable development. The objective of this study regards evaluating the efficiency of these countries in transforming productive resources and technological innovation into sustainable development. The proposed objective was achieved by using econometric tools as well as the data envelopment analysis method to then create economic, environmental, and social efficiency rankings for the BRICS countries, which enabled to carry out comparative analyses on the sustainable development of those countries. The results of such assessments can be of interest for more specific scientific explorations.

Agricultural production and sustainable development in a Brazilian region (Southwest, Sao Paulo State): motivations and barriers to adopting sustainable and ecologically friendly practices

The objective of this study is to identify the adoption level of practices associated with more sustainable agriculture and environmentally friendly practices. Additionally, the motivations for and barriers to the adoption of these practices by farmers are investigated. Data were collected through closed questionnaires taken by a random sample of farmers in the Southwest, Sao Paulo, Brazil, during the second half of 2013. Overall, sustainable agricultural practices recommended in the literature and analysed in this study are being not fully adopted by farmers of the studied area. The results showed that financial motivation is associated with farmers adopting new, more sustainable technology, whereas the lack of information on and lack of technical support for these technologies are significant barriers. Other results, research implications, limitations and suggestions for future research are presented.

Combining ALOS/PALSAR derived vegetation structure and inundation patterns to characterize major vegetation types in the Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve, Central Amazon floodplain, Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Efficiency in Brazil's industrial sectors in terms of energy and sustainable development

This article evaluates the efficiency of Brazil's industrial sectors from 1996 to 2009, taking into account energy consumption and respective contributions to the country's economic and social aspects. This analysis used a mathematical programming method called Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which enabled, from the SBM model and the window analysis, to evaluate the ability of industries to reduce energy consumption and fossil-fuel CO2 emissions (inputs), as well as to increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by sectors, the persons employed and personnel expenses (outputs). The results of this study indicated that the Textile sector is the most efficient industrial sector in Brazil, according to the variables used, followed by these sectors: Foods and Beverages, Chemical, Mining, Paper and Pulp, Nonmetallic and Metallurgical.

Road safety: implications for sustainable development in Latin America

Road accidents cause more deaths than homicides in Latin America, nevertheless it is not highlighted as a major concern by media and society. World Health Organization put this issue in high priority by releasing the Decade of Action in Road Safety that establishes five pillars to guide national road safety plans and activities. This paper addresses the drawbacks in the implementation of these actions in Latin American countries and its implications to achieve a sustainable development. The main concerns are: lack of empowerment of the road safety management organisations; lower vehicular standards; corruption related to the enforcement of traffic safety laws to and to the construction of safer roads; absence of safety vehicular inspections; vehicle fleet increase, decrease of public transportation demand; and the absence of a safety culture. Without facing these problems, sustainable development in Latin America will be impaired, once road safety is a fundamental link to achieve sustainability.

Challenges of teaching corporate environmental management in Brazil

This paper sheds light on the main challenges of teaching Corporate Environmental Management (CEM) in Brazil. Thus, we analysed the main challenges for CEM in Brazil from the viewpoint of teachers. The objective of the research is achieved by means of interviews performed with five renowned professors responsible for teaching CEM in undergraduate courses. Results indicate five types of barriers for teaching CEM: weak integration of other teachers in the teaching of CEM; low level of acceptance of CEM as a subject by the peers teachers; a lack of focus on business while teaching CEM; a scarcity of CEM teaching materials appropriate for the realities of Brazil; and a relative lack of interest among some students in CEM. Teaching CEM is fundamental for the education of more responsible students, but little is known about teaching CEM in Brazil.. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Sustentabilidade ambiental das universidades: avaliação de seis universidades sediadas no Estado de São Paulo à partir da análise das informações em seus websites

Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção - FEB

A UNESCO e a governança ambiental na bacia amazônica

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A educação e a sustentabilidade: o desafio de um paradigma e a década da educação para o desenvolvimento sustentável da UNESCO (2005-2014)

This paper aims at proposing a discussion on the role of education in a pragmatic plot. It intends to offer some contributions to the consolidation in the essence of sustainable development and of a contextualized sustainability as well as its respective dimensions. Therefore, some conceptual evolutions of such expressions and the implications for when they are being used, especially parallel to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, UNESCO (2005-2014) are presented. This paper also intends to promote some reflection on how much environmental and general education are important with regard to the challenge of multidimensional balance proposed, as seen from the perspective of a paradigm that has been constantly shaped since the Stockholm Conference of 1972, going through the given contributions in 1992 by The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro – Eco 92 / Rio 92; and from there to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, of Rio+20, in 2012.

Gestão ambiental em escolas de negócios: mapeando o estado-da-arte

Following the guidelines of the United Nations, which established the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), the pressure on business schools for incorporating environmental management in their core activities (teaching, research, extension and university management) have intensified. In contrast, in Brazil, this discussion is still embryonic, and in some cases, the Business Schools seem to be in latter than the environmental management practiced by the world-class companies in the industrial sector. Therefore, this article prospected and systematized the state of the art on the inclusion of environmental management issues in the activities of Business Schools, by mapping the territory of the main academic works in this subject. The main results indicate that the state of the art is represented by: a vibrant leadership of U.S. researchers and others developed countries, a clear analytical reductionism of research, mainly by focusing on the dimension "teaching" does not addressing a systemic perspective that encompasses environmental management in the range of typical activities of Business Schools, a significant predominance of theoretical studies on the subject and a consequent lack of empirical studies, mainly based on multiple cases.