Going beyond the rhetoric: system-wide changes in universities for sustainable societies

In October 2008, the 5th Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU) international conference was held in Barcelona, Spain. It dealt with the need to rethink how our higher educational institutions are facing sustainability. This special issue has been primarily derived from contributions to that conference. This issue builds upon related academic international publications, which have analysed how to use the critical position of universities to accelerate their pace of working to help to make the transition to truly SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES! This issue focus is on the ‘softer’ issues, such as changes in values, attitudes, motivations, as well as in curricula, societal interactions and assessments of the impacts of research. Insights derived from the interplay of the ‘softer’ issues with the ‘harder’ issues are empowering academic leaders to effectively use leverage points to make changes in operations, courses, curricula, and research. Those changes are being designed to help their students and faculty build resilient and sustainable societies within the context of climate change, the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), and the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The overall systems approach presented by Stephens and Graham provides a structured framework to systematize change for sustainability in higher education, by stressing on the one hand the need for “learning to learn” and on the other hand by integrating leadership and cultural aspects. The “niche” level they propose for innovative interactions between practitioners such as EMSU is exemplary developed by all of the other documents in this special issue. To highlight some of the key elements of the articles in this issue, there are proposals for new educational methods based in sustainability science, a set of inspirational criteria for SD research activities, new course ranking and assessment methods and results of psychological studies that provide evidence that participatory approaches are the most effective way to change values within university members in order to facilitate the development and sharing of new sustainability norms.

Környezeti innovációk a hazai feldolgozóiparban (Environmental innovations in the Hungarian manufacturing industry)

A cikk a hazai feldolgozóipari vállalatok környezeti innovációs tevékenységét, annak mozgatórugóit vizsgálja. Felvázolja a témakörrel foglalkozó jelentősebb elméleteket, kutatásokat, illetve az ezek által azonosított, a környezeti innovációs tevékenységet befolyásoló tényezőket (pl. hatósági szabályozás, vállalatméret, környezeti stratégia stb.). A bemutatott kutatás egy kérdőíves felmérésen alapul, melyben közel 300 vállalat vett részt az elektronika, az élelmiszeripar, a gépipar, a járműipar és a vegyipar területéről. A vizsgálat célja a környezeti innováció különböző típusainak (csővégi, megelőző, termék; új, adaptált) differenciált elemzése, figyelembe véve mind a vállalat, mind a környezet jellemzőit. A vállalatok innovációs tevékenysége jelentősen különbözhet az egyes ágazatokban, illetve a különböző méretű cégek között – a cikk ezen eltérések vizsgálatára is kitér. ______ The article examines the environmental innovation activity of Hungarian manufacturing companies and its determinants. It provides a brief overview of the most important theories and recent empirical studies addressing the topic. The research presented is based on a questionnaire survey with the participation of nearly 300 firms from the chemicals, electronics, food, machines and vehicles sectors. The goal of the study is to identify differences in the determinants of the various types of environmental innovation (end-of-pipe, cleaner production, product; novel, adopted), with regard to both the characteristics of the environment and the companies themselves. Differences between firms of various sizes and industries are also a part of the analysis.

A Consumption-Based Approach to Carbon Emission Accounting – Sectoral Differences and Environmental Benefits

In recent years there has been growing concern about the emission trade balances of countries. This is due to the fact that countries with an open economy are active players in international trade. Trade is not only a major factor in forging a country’s economic structure, but contributes to the movement of embodied emissions beyond country borders. This issue is especially relevant from the carbon accounting policy and domestic production perspective, as it is known that the production-based principle is employed in the Kyoto agreement. The research described herein was designed to reveal the interdependence of countries on international trade and the corresponding embodied emissions both on national and on sectoral level and to illustrate the significance of the consumption-based emission accounting. It is presented here to what extent a consumption-based accounting would change the present system based on production-based accounting and allocation. The relationship of CO2 emission embodied in exports and embodied in imports is analysed here. International trade can blur the responsibility for the ecological effects of production and consumption and it can lengthen the link between consumption and its consequences. Input-output models are used in the methodology as they provide an appropriate framework for climate change accounting. The analysis comprises an international comparative study of four European countries (Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Hungary) with extended trading activities and carbon emissions. Moving from a production-based approach in climate policy to a consumption-based principle and allocation approach would help to increase the efficiency of emission reductions and would force countries to rethink their trading activities in order to decrease the environmental load of production activities. The results of this study show that it is important to distinguish between the two emission accounting approaches, both on the global and the local level.