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BARRIERS AND DRIVERS TO ECO-INNOVATION: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GERMANY, POLAND AND UKRAINE

Author(s): Ihor Hrabynskyi,Nataliya Horin,Liliya Ukrayinets / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

The paper attempts to investigate the driving and restricting forces of eco-innovations. We determined the most important barriers to eco-innovation that can be classified mainly in three groups such as: external, internal, and international factors. The major barriers to the development of the firms’ eco-innovative activity have been identified as the lack of funds within the enterprises, lack of external financing, uncertain demand at the market, uncertain return from investment, unhelpful regulations, lack of knowledge and experience. It is determined that in Ukraine the corruption of public officials has one the most restricting impacts on eco-innovative activities of enterprises. The study shows that eco-innovative activities of firms of all sizes are growing but large enterprises are the most eco-innovative ones. The Eco-innovation Index for Ukraine was calculated; it shows that Ukraine has the lowest position of eco-innovative efficiency in comparison with Germany and Poland. But despite the different levels of eco-innovativeness in Ukraine and the EU Members (using the example of Poland and Germany), the main barriers and drivers to eco-innovation are roughly the same in all of these countries. Based on the interview surveys we found that the most important drivers of eco-innovative activity in Ukraine are the following: existing environmental regulations and taxes, improvement of the company’s reputation on the market, as well as the reduction in operating costs on energy, water and materials.

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Ďábel v zeleném. Ekologické a environmentální rysy českých satanistů

Author(s): Jakub Jahl / Language(s): Czech Issue: 3/2022

This article deals with the ecological and environmental tendencies of the two largest Satanic groups in the Czech Republic. It first recapitulates the connection between mainstream religions and ecology. It then describes the absence of Satanism in major scholarly publications and uncovers a strong link between Satanism and ecology/animal rights. The text illustrates this in the words of Anton LaVey, Peter H. Gilmore, and several Satanic organi¬zations including the Church of Satan, Temple of Set, Dragon Rouge, The Satanic Temple, and others. The article concludes by looking for ecological tendencies in the teachings of the two largest Satanic groups in the Czech Republic – the local version of LaVey’s Church of Satan and the Czech-influenced Community of Satan. Finally, the text briefly mentions the main research findings of these groups and concludes by showing them in relation to Bron Taylor’s model of dark green religions.

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Make me dictator and I will save humankind. A rational approach to the emergency of the 21st century

Author(s): Laurenc L. De Vita / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

Aim: This paper is on purpose provocative, in order to trigger off discussion on the future of human society. Humankind finds itself in a dire situation. Solutions have been put forth, but none has made a significant impact on carbon release or resources depletion. I add my proposal, the literary device of the dictator, as a possible scenario for dealing with the current crisis..Design / Research methods: This paper is part of a larger project which uses micro- and macro-sociology and cliodynamics, archaeology, evolutionary biology, and dissipative systems theory to describe both our global system, and its implications for our species. I briefly critique three other approaches regarding their likelihood of success.Conclusions / findings: The self-organized dissipative system drives population, population density, and the exploitation and depletion of natural resources. The system is the interface between humans and the environment. It is unlikely any approach which is not 1. dramatic, 2. inclusive, and 3. determinedly focused on disarming the global system will prevent the complete depletion of the natural world, and the continued mass extinction.Originality / value of the article: The paper challenges commonly held assumptions regarding the system and human participation in it. The paper should be of interest to anyone concerned about humankind, given the breadth of our crisis; that is, the number of systems involved, from the climate, to the ocean, to the very nature of the global complex system itself.Implications of the research: The paper has strong implications for policy. It describes how perpetuating ideas like “sustainable growth” can only ensure the collapse of the global system, and perhaps the collapse of the natural systems as well. The consequence of applying the research would be desperate, frighteningly objective, but will allow, perhaps, Homo to continue.Limitations of the research: Future research could focus on re-interpreting data gathered by previous paradigms. Cliodynamics provides insight into the future by considering complex relationships. The limitations to the implications of the research lie in the fact that it is difficult to distinguish between “humankind” and the system.

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W KIERUNKU GREEN SMART CITY-CASE STUDYTRÓJMIASTA

Author(s): Andrzej Letkiewicz,Krzysztof Szulc / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

The socio-economic development is identified by an increase in entrepreneurship and an increase in GDP, however, the condition for successive development is located on the local level. Entrepreneurs and citizens expect local governments to create favorable conditions for running a business, but also to create comfortable living conditions, considering ecological conditions. Therefore, the local government should comprehensively manage public space considering the green smart city concept. This prompts to descriptive analysis of the actions taken in relation to the implementation of the goals set by the European Green Deal - the Tri-City is an example. The aim of the article is to define the features of the Tri-City agglomeration in line with the concept of green smart city, and an attempt to identify advantages and areas for improvement. To conduct the research, selected descriptive and explanatory methods were used. As a result of the analysis, it can be noticed that the Tri-City agglomeration has all conditions to fit into the green smart city concept and undertakes such actions, what was included in the Development Strategy for the Pomeranian Voivodeship 2030.

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Assessment of effectiveness of selected adaptation actions to climate change. The example of the New Centre of Lodz.

Author(s): Anna Bochenek,Katarzyna Klemm,Magdalena Woźna / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

The increasing average annual temperature value is observed in many cities around the world. More and more often, not only the Southern Europe inhabitants, but also those from the Central and Northern Europe are exposed to thermal stress. Nature Based Solutions (NBS) play a key role in mitigation, i.e. the process of alleviating the negative effects of climate change in highly urbanized areas.The main objective of this study is to answer the question whether the planned spatial activities involving the use of NBS solutions in the New Centre of Lodz contribute to the improvement of the urban spaces’ microclimate and the thermal comfort of people in the external environment. The subject of the work is the microclimate of urban spaces, understood as a climatic conditions set, in particular thermal conditions, in a given, small area. The spatial scope of the work covers a 30-hectare part of the New Centre of Lodz limited by the following streets: Kilińskiego, Narutowicza, Piotrkowska, Tuwima, which is currently undergoing a large-area revitalization process. In order to determine the microclimate conditions and thermal comfort, numerical simulations conducted in the ENVI-met program were used.

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W stronę psychologii i edukacji prośrodowiskowej: osobowościowe i socjodemograficzne korelaty tożsamości środowiskowej i dobrowolnej prostoty

Author(s): Dawid Le Hai,Paweł Larionow / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2022

Introduction: Climate change is one of the greatest threats to humanity today. Environmental identity, referring to the individual definition of self through the prism of human's relationship with nature, and the voluntary simplicity, which refers to the anti-consumer idea of life, are psychological constructs that have been analyzed in terms of personality and sociodemographic correlates in this work.Research Aim: The aim of this exploratory study is to analyze the relationships between environmental identity, voluntary simplicity and personality traits, as well as to search for sociodemographic correlates of the analyzed constructs mainly in the sample of young Poles. Method: In the study, 218 people, including 156 women (71.6% of the entire sample) and 62 men (28.4%), aged 18 to 63 (M = 25.40; SD = 7.43), completed the Environmental Identity Scale, the Voluntary Simplicity Engagement Scale and the HEXACO–60 Personality Inventory.Results: The results showed a high positive correlation between environmental identity and voluntary simplicity (r = 0.73) and their weak positive correlations with openness to experience, honesty-humility, conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion, as well as no relationships with emotionality and age. Women scored significantly higher on environmental identity and voluntary simplicity. The place of residence, education, marital and employment status, religion and subjective assessment of the material situation were not related to the analyzed constructs, whereas attitudes towards belief in God or higher force were positively associated with them.Conclusion: The similarity of the analyzed constructs was demonstrated. Personality traits and socio-demographic variables related to them were investigated. The practical implications of the research in promoting voluntary simplicity are discussed. The Polish translation of the Voluntary Simplicity Engagement Scale is presented. It may be used in pro-environmental education among students. Particular attention should be paid to males as a group that is less interested in pro-environmental issues.

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A puha (soft) és a kemény (hard) készségek munkaerőpiaci szükségessége

Author(s): Gabriella Horvath-Csikos,Tímea Juhász / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2021

The aim of the present study is to examine whether soft or hard skills are seen as the strongest requirement in the current labour market. The results of the research showed that some soft skills (e.g. flexibility, communication, teamwork) are almost more strongly expected than hard skills (e.g. professional knowledge). These results basically indicate that expectations of soft and hard skills are less interrelated and that employees perceive employers as valuing these skills as non-systemic, closely related skills. Our results also show that self-reported levels of soft and hard skills are strongly correlated with gender, age and educational attainment of the respondent.

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Effectiveness of environmental policies on carbon emissions: A panel threshold analysis

Author(s): Hale Akbulut / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

The aim of this study is to test the possible non-linear effect of environmental policy stringency on carbon emissions and thus make policy recommendations for emission reduction. For this purpose data for the period 1995–2015 for selected emerging countries were used. According to the findings obtained from fixed-effects panel threshold regressions environmental policy stringency has no significant effect on the relationship between gross domestic product per capita and carbon dioxide emissions. However, it has statistically significant effect if the share of the service sector and the foreign direct investment are taken as regime-dependent variables. Accordingly, in the high policy stringency regime an increase in the share of the service sector and the foreign direct investment reduce emission levels. In the case of using market-based environmental regulations the threshold effect faced by foreign direct investment is much more pronounced. In order to reduce carbon emissions it is recommended to increase environmental policy stringency, especially in market-based tools.

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Green Purchasing – A Cross-sectoral Analysis of Drivers and Practices

Author(s): Piotr Cezary Sosnowski / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

Objective: This article examines the scope of the implementation of green purchasing (GP), the drivers for its implementation and the use of green purchasing practices (GPP) in selected sectors of Poland’s B2B (Business to Business) economy.Research Design & Methods: A review of the literature and the survey study using CATI (Computer Aided Telephone Interview) were conducted. The literature reviewed concerned green purchasing and green purchasing practices. The main concepts introduced in this paper are green purchasing, green purchasing drivers and green purchasing practices. Green purchasing practices are intended to integrate environmental management into an organisation’s purchasing function.Findings: The results concern the scope of implementation of the green purchasing concept, the drivers of implementing the green purchasing concept and the use of identified green purchasing practices in selected sectors of Poland’s B2B market.Implications/Recommendations: The article provides a basis for further studies related to green purchasing drivers and practices. The results could provide the foundation for a framework for companies seeking to implement green purchasing.Contribution: The article will help readers understand the extent to which green purchasing is being used in selected areas of Poland’s B2B market, the drivers for its implementation and the use of green purchasing practices. Recommendations for future research are also included.

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A komplexitás univerzális modelljeiről: lehetőségek és határok. Interjú Néda Zoltán fizikussal

Author(s): Zoltán Néda,Gábor Győrffy / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 03/2023

With the development of computational research methods and the availability of large electronic databases, interdisciplinary research in physics has boomed in recent decades. By modelling complex systems based on networks, we can study biological, social or even economic systems. Social physics (sociophysics) studies the behaviour of crowds of people, while economic physics (econophysics) tries to model economic phenomena using the methods of statistical physics. At the Hungarian Institute of Physics of Babeș-Bolyai University, under the direction of Zoltán Néda, some interesting research results on collective phenomena and complex systems have been produced in recent years. Zoltán Néda’s research area is interdisciplinary applied statistical physics, including the statistical physics approach to social phenomena. The researcher has spoken about the nature of complex systems and their modelling methods.

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„Nem fenyeget a közeljövőben globális katasztrófa, de valóban nagy a baj az éghajlatváltozás miatt.” Interjú Bartók Blanka éghajlatkutatóval

Author(s): Blanka Bartók,Gábor Győrffy / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 03/2023

There have always been changes in the Earth’s climate, but industrialisation and the human factor have accelerated the pace of change enormously. At present, warming is happening at a rapid pace, and we cannot accurately assess the consequences. In climate research, there is now a large amount of data, climate information, and several physical-mathematical models that can be used to elaborate future climate scenarios. Climate scientist Blanka Bartók talked about what is causing the current rapid change and what we can expect in the coming decades, how our climate might change, how reliable climate models are, and how we can adapt to these changes. The researcher says we need to take a sober approach. We are not on the brink of a climatic catastrophe, but we are in real trouble with our environment.

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Digitális kirekesztés vs. digitális befogadás Romániában

Author(s): Gyöngyvér Erika Tőkés / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 03/2023

The paper presents the situation of digital poverty in Romania and the opportunities for digital inclusion in the post-Coronavirus era. Romania is characterised by all three levels of digital poverty. Therefore, digital policies in Romania should focus on developing digital skills and providing digital public services, as well as promoting digital business services. Romania needs to formulate a coherent digital strategy that brings together different sectors and aligns them with policies addressing wider social inequalities.

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Towards an ecology of care: Basic Income after the nation-state

Author(s): Julio Linares,Gabriela Cabaña / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

The following paper is about care1. It proposes a political vision to move towards a care-centred society that will allow the flourishing of everyone while keeping the planet inhabitable and thriving. For this utopian horizon that we name an ecology of care, we propose the creation of a Basic Income system that is constituted outside of and beyond the realm of the nation-state, as a means of changing humanity’s relationship to itself and transitioning from capitalism to a commons-based society. It argues for a disembedding of work—and the time allocated to it—from money, through a reformulation of the production of money in the form of an income distributed as an equal share to all those who are part of the planetary commons. Finally, it connects this Basic Income proposal with degrowth as a radical and necessary reformulation of society that considers its ecological roots and replaces the obsession with endless economic growth with the principle of taking care of people.

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Fürkészek, táplálékhálózatok, ökológiai kontextusok. Beszélgetés a rovaréletformák kutatási irányairól

Author(s): Zoltán László,Imre József Balázs / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 04/2023

Two important applied areas of entomology are the ecology of pollinators and natural enemies. These two areas should be deeply implemented into the education because of their importance. Hence the use of the easily available communities in teaching and promoting materials is essential to introduce it to a wider audience. Natural enemies are represented in many of the surrounding communities by hymenopterans, named “Hymenoptera parasitica”, which have a distinct way of feeding during their development: the females mostly oviposit into the bodies of different developmental stages of arthropods, but mainly insects, then their larvae consume the body of their host usually from the inner sides starting with the hemolymph. They provide us with a very important ecosystem service: they regulate the population sizes of various insect herbivores that consume also our crops. Pollinators are providing another essential ecosystem service: they pollinate the vast majority of plants of which many are used by us as crops. Also, a huge part from the pollinating animals is formed by hymenopterans, namely bees. The bees can be divided into honey bee-like species, which form colonies, and those which are not aggregated into highly organized social communities: the solitary bees. Solitary bees form the majority of hymenopteran pollinators, but they are not widely known as pollinators. Thus, increased efforts are needed to promote these species beyond the academic sphere, to have a wider access to the stakeholders and non-entomologists

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A genetika (ős)története a muslicakutatás tükrében

Author(s): Máté Varga / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 04/2023

The rapid development of genetics at the beginning of the 20th century coincided with the introduction of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster into laboratory research. Thomas Hunt Morgan and his students used this humble organism to confirm Mendelian genetics, establish chromosome theory and craft the first ever genetic maps. During this process they created a standardized, ideal genetic model animal that is continued to be used in research to this day. By removing the background genetic variance of the natural populations, this standardization blindsided some researchers, like Herman Joseph Muller to the importance of genetic diversity. In contrast, others, like Theodosius Dobzhansky, used the genetic variance of a related species, Drosophila pseudoobscura to demonstrate the importance of diversity in natural populations. Muller and Dobzhansky both generalized their observations to human populations and their debate about the merits and vices of positive eugenics and the possible dangers or advantages of genetic diversity still resonate today, in an era of genome editing, pre-implantation diagnostics and embryo selection.

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Csendestársaink a túléléshez, a rovarok. Beszélgetés a rovarokkal való foglalkozás közösségi aspektusairól

Author(s): Lujza Keresztes,Imre József Balázs / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 04/2023

As a scholar of entomology, Lujza Keresztes is a coordinator of social media projects concerning insects and a reconnection to nature. In a dialogue with Imre József Balázs, she discusses the role of insects in our new world, the new actors, new solutions and new perspectives of the field.

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Az önértés bogarai

Author(s): Zalán Serestély / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 04/2023

The discovery of the eusocial behavior of ants and bees in the 1960s fundamentally rewrote the decades of entomological research, biology, and ultimately human self-understanding. Understanding that these insect species organize themselves into social constellations similar to ours suggests that the sociability of homo sapiens sapiens will also be seen in a different light. But what made the insect world suitable for becoming a specific form of human self-understanding between the second half of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century? My paper is limited to just a few situations when, in the course of my own literary studies, the early intersections of the insect world and human self-understanding flashed before me, drawing the possible contours of a pattern.

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A méhek kakukkjai: fortélyos bölcsőparaziták

Author(s): Zoltán László / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 04/2023

Brood parasitism is a well-known behavior. It is widely known through the common cuckoo’s example. But this behavior is exerted also in other animal interactions, like in the case of solitary bees. Solitary bees are important pollinators of flowering plants, also being of great interest because of crop pollination. A solitary bee female prepares usually a number of brood cells filling them with pollen, then placing eggs into them. The emerging larva will develop on this amount of pollen. But several bee species exploit this resource in a kleptoparasitic way: cuckoo bee females lurk upon the entrances of solitary bee tunnels or nests until the caring and pollen collecting bee female leaves for another amount of food for its broods, then ambushes into the deserted nest and replaces the host egg with its own. This kind of behavior is a common one among the solitary bees, being observed in the case of every bee family. The aim of the article is to summarize the most common kleptoparasitic interaction found mostly in the continental Europe, but also in a larger area.

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Space Debris as a Threat to Space Sustainability

Author(s): KADIR YOZKALACH / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Aim: The issue of space debris (or space junk) is an important aspect of the sustainability of space. If not properly managed, the accumulation of space debris could make some orbital paths too dangerous to use, potentially limiting our ability to explore and utilize space. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the space debris problem. Design / Research methods: This article is based on a review of official statistics, policy papers, and media coverage related to the topic of space debris. Findings: The data shows that intentional and non-intentional debris-creating events are still occurring. The increasing amount of debris brings higher risks to functional satellites and missions. While there are new projects to mitigate debris, these are challenging to put into action due to their high cost and high level of technology. Originality: This paper presents an overview of the space debris problem in the context of the sustainability of space, by focusing on legal and technological aspects. The paper also touches upon different ways to mitigate space debris.

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Environmental Failure Mode and Effect Analysis and Its Application in a Seafood Company

Author(s): Małgorzata Z. Wiśniewska,Tomasz Grybek,Małgorzata Szymańska-Brałkowska / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

Objective: To present an EFMEA analysis using the example of a seafood organisation, including risk identification, in the context of a potential negative impact on the environment. Research Design & Methods: Methods used include a case study with analysis of secondary data (documents), semi-structured interviews with a representative of the organisation, synthesis and logical reasoning. Findings: EFMEA is a very complex analysis and is extended with additional considerations that are important for the organisation. Process EFMEA and its implementation was facilitated by experience gained from the earlier implementation of the HACCP method and ISO 14001 system. The requirements of customers for conducting analysis in this area played a role. Implications / Recommendations: The greatest environmental risk is associated with servicing refrigeration/cooling equipment, handling operations, maintaining social infrastructure and cargo storage. An obstacle to conducting the analysis was the lack of access to all comparative data. The leading benefit of the study was that it makes it possible to manage environmental consideration and then monitoring them effectively. Contribution: The article is the first in Poland to look at the practical implementation of EFMEA. Thus, the spectrum of scientific knowledge has been expanded on the possible applications of this method in a food company and, more generally, how to control and minimise negative environmental impacts in the seafood industry.

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